Chapter Three Hundred and Fourteen - Unbearable Arms

“Something’s coming,” Bron said. “Somethin’ big.” He spun his mace around in a little circle, loosening his arm to strike.

The rest of us huddled in a bit closer. It was probably not ideal for a fight. Swords needed room to swing, and magic needed clearlines of fire. But the other option was being further from the others and closer to the dark. Had our little pool of light gotten smaller? It might've been my mind playing tricks on me, but it seemed like our glow wasn't reaching as far.

I tried to brighten my lightball, but I don't think it helped.

My eyes darted around, and my bun ears swivelled this way and that, searching for the source of the noise. I couldn’t pin-point it at first except to say that it came from my right. Then I heard a faint snap, like someone cracking the joint of their finger. But that was from above.

“Above us!” I said. My little lightball shot up into the dark and zipped past something white and skeletal lurking in the abyss.

Amaryllis and Lucille fired two spells in the same breath. A fork of lightning followed by a spray of glimmering icicles that chilled the air in their wake.

The arm flinched back, a hand big enough to grab me around the waist twisted and writhed as Amaryllis’ magic worked into it, and then the icicles thumped into what little flesh it had.

Something screeched, far, far away, and the hand disappeared faster than something that big should have been able to.

“Was that the thing in the dark?” I asked.

“Looks like it,” Bron said.

“Guard up, ladies and gents,” Erin said gruffly. “I’d rather not get caught by that thing.”

Aria hummed. “Anyone else notice the roots on it?” she asked.

I shook my head. I didn’t see anything like that. Then again, it was only visible for a moment, and then my vision was ruined by Amaryllis’ lightning. I was still blinking back my night vision. Idly, I reformed my lightball in my free hand and held it up.

Ahead of us, Lieutenant Petalwrought was finishing up with the big teddy bear knight. The big monster was missing some stuffing already, and looked worse for wear. The knights harried it, one taking to the air, another lunging for the bear’s waist while Petalwrought slashed forwards, meeting the bear’s sword with his own.

I winced as the bear was chopped apart. It fell to the ground with a soft thump, and the knights regrouped and eyed the dark around them.

The night light chose that moment to flicker.

“Reform,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. “We need to move out. We don’t have a lot of time to lose.”

We caught up with the group, and our formation returned, the knights on the edges and rear, the rest of us in the centre providing what light and help we could. Lieutenant Petalwrought pointed out ahead to another distant light.

“We need to move a little faster, make up for lost time,” he said.

“What happens if we’re slow?” I asked.

“Then the night lights wink out, and you need to find your way out of the maze without them.” He glanced back, and his eyes were hard within his helmet. “We do not want to do that,” he said.

“That would have been good to know earlier, sir knight,” Amaryllis muttered.

I swallowed and nodded.

“Are there any other things we should know?” Amaryllis asked.

“There’s a way to avoid fighting the bears. You need to sing a lullaby; it'll put them to sleep,” he said.

“Then why didn’t we do that?” I asked.

“They’re not a great challenge, and we all need to sing. I don’t know if all of you know lullabies, and singing as a group isn’t an easy task,” he said.

We started moving, so I set aside my arguments for the moment. The corridors narrowed again, but we weren’t as far from this night light as we were the last.

This one was unguarded, but Lieutenant Petalwrougt didn’t seem amused when we arrived. The light flickered. “We’re still not moving fast enough,” he said. “Let’s work up to a light jog until we reach the next one. We can alternate walking and jogging.”

“I see the next one,” Bron said. “Off that’a way.” He pointed to the side, and following his finger I noticed a faint glow in the distance.

“Good eye,” the lieutenant said. “Let’s not dilly-dally. If you find yourself unable to keep up, speak up. We won’t go faster than our slowest. We can redistribute packs.”

Again, we took off. The distant light wasn’t the night light, not directly. As we jogged closer it became clear that the light was around a corner. There was a small staircase, tight enough that we had to step up two-by-two, then the floor widened, and kept widening until I couldn't see any walls except for one way out in the distance, with the nightlight on it.

We started jogging over to the light, but of course we didn’t all jog at the same speed. Our formation thinned out a little in the centre, though we were still well within each other’s lights, and the knights kept their circle around us the entire time.

I was glad that I’d spent the last month and a bit being so active. Before coming to Dirt, if I'd tried to run this much, I think I would've collapsed.

Still, I was looking forward to the next night light, for the small pause it would bring. I was more looking forward to being off this floor. The maze was scary in the same way that the long shadows lurking under your bed were scary. Worse, even. These shadows had actual hands that wanted to reach out and--

Aria screamed. Just a short wail that was cut off with an omph.

Spinning, I looked for the scientist, but she wasn’t where she had been before.

The formation stopped, but at different speeds, so for a moment we ended up being spread even further apart.

“That way!” one of the knights said.

He rushed out into the dark, sword bursting to light with a brilliant glow.

I bounded after him. “Amy, keep everyone safe!” I called over my shoulder. Not including Awen was probably rude, but I was already a dozen bun hops away and had to focus on moving.

More mana went into my lightball, creating a greater circle around me.

There was shouting from behind, but I focused my hearing forwards, towards the knight, and towards the sound of bone scraping on floor.

The knight grew closer to Aria, and I saw the glow of his sword illuminate the struggling woman. One of the hands had grabbed her, a thick finger grasping around her neck, the others around her middle. Sylph were smaller than humans, likely lighter too. They’d be easier to drag away.

The knight grabbed Aria by the hand, and his added weight slowed them down. Then he started to hack at the hand with his glowing sword.

I rushed past them.

Weedbane opened with a dangerous snick and I pushed mana into it until the scythe glowed an eerie white.

My slash passed through the boney arm holding Aria with the same difficulty it would have cutting through a single blade of autumn grass.

Another distant screech, from far, far away in the dark.

"Oh, oh," Area gasped, eyes wild and movements frantic, "oh, that - that was - that was awful." She flung the hand off of her, though it looked like a few fingers had been hacked off already.

“We need to get back, now,” the knight said. “They might try to grab all three of us next.”

“Okay,” I said. I tossed Weedbane to the knight, who caught it mid-shaft out of reflex, then I scooped Aria up, careful not to squish her wings. “Come on! We can still see the night light!”

We shot off, the knight easily keeping up with my sprint, despite his armour and the added weight of my scythe.

“Y-you can put me down,” Aria said between bounces.

“I will,” I promised. “Just as soon as we’re back with all the others.” It wouldn’t do to put her on the ground now when we were still in the open and one of those creepy hands could swoop back in to grab her. “How did it grab you?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I was keeping up with the others, but I’m not used to running quite so much. I wasn’t looking up, actually. Then it was around me and... and pulling me away.”

I tsked. “How rude! I’m glad you’re safe.”

We met up with our friends before reaching the night light. They must have seen us heading to the night light. Somehow, it was hard to see them until we were almost upon them, even with all the lights hovering above and around the group. A quick headcount showed that everyone was there.

“How is she?” Lieutenant Petalwrought asked.

“I’m fine,” Aria said, voice only wavering a bit.

“Good. Captain Bunch, can you carry her to the next light? We’ll regroup there. Come on, everyone, double time it. No spreading out!”

We ran to the next light and arrived just as it started to flicker a little. Only twice, but the second time it turned off it stayed off for a full second. It felt like a very long second.

I set Aria down on her feet, then brushed off her clothes, putting a bit of Cleaning magic into it to remove the dust and scuffs she got from being dragged. “There, nice and safe,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said. Then she fetched her notebook out with a huff and started to scribble something in the quick sloppy handwriting so common to doctors and scientists.

“Let’s tighten our formation,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. “We don’t want to lose anyone else who happens to be on the edge. Knights, I expect you to pay more attention, please. Though this failing is my own.”

That was nice of him to say, taking the worry off his subordinates’ shoulders like that. We spotted the next night light a bit further out. It was much closer than the last had been, but it was flickering already.

“I know I said we would walk to the next, but I can’t help but feel as though the lights are deteriorating faster than usual,” the lieutenant said.

“Then we’ll move faster than usual too,” Lucille replied.

We set off at a fast jog for a minute, then the lieutenant raised a fist and we slowed to a brisk walk. It allowed those of us in worse shape to catch their breaths. As soon as the next minute was over, the lieutenant waved ahead, and we started jogging once more.

The on-off cycle continued until we were close enough to the next light to see that it wasn’t unguarded. Two bears, both of them a bit to the right of the light itself. One looked like it was covered in roots, the big vines wrapped around its arms and armour, making it hard for it to move at all.

“I see the next light already,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. He pointed to two of the knights. “You, and you, peel off, distract. The rest of us will run straight by. Rejoin the tail and send the rear-guard forward.”

The plan went off without a hitch. The two knights waylaid the bears while we ran by, directly toward the next night light. Then the knights disengaged from the bears and caught up with us in a matter of seconds. Our formation reformed with two fresh knights at the front, and the two unharmed bears gave up on their chase as soon as we were out of the range of the lights.

“There it is!” Bron said. “I see it, there’s a door thataway!”

Next to the night light was, indeed, a doorway. Our pace quickened without anyone having to say anything, and even those of us struggling from the run found a second wind.

I kept expecting an ambush, arms reaching out to grab us at the very end, but nothing of the sort happened.

“Well done, everyone,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said as we reached the last light and the door. “Now let’s get off the World-forsaken floor.”

***