Chapter Twenty-Five - Nearing Nest

Orbital and Belt somehow found themselves at the rear of our little group. Oh, they were still doing their job, of course. They called out and mentioned any traps along the route we were taking, and when we came onto an intersection they were quick to point out which direction was the correct one and which would lead down a maze of dead-ends and ancient traps.

Still, they were quite insistent on doing their jobs from the rear.

I wasn't sure if this was cowardice or just a practical way of doing things. In any case, I didn't mind. The trip had certainly picked up some speed thanks to the dwarves not wanting to linger any more than they had to.

"Wait," Rem said.

It was the first time she'd spoken up in a while, and it caused the entire group to slow to a halt. The mantis was looking left and right, inspecting the walls, the ceiling, everything.

This part of the tunnel system was far more cave-like than the previous areas. The floor and walls were smoothed out, but gone were the carefully laid and carved stones. Every three or so necrometres was an arch keeping the ceiling up, but they were becoming less frequent and more utilitarian.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

Rem hissed. "I recognize this place," she said. "These are the deep tunnels."

"The deep tunnels?" I asked.

"Well, she's entirely wrong," Belt said. He flinched back as Rem hissed at him and swiped a scythe in his direction. "What? You are. These are the tunnels nearest to the surface. Just look at them. Unfinished, lazy work."

"I suspect that depth is relative, in this case," I said. "Rem, what did you mean?"

"These are as far as I've ever been under our home," Rem said. "I'd come down here if I wanted to hunt dwarves."

"Mem thought that the deep tunnels are where her sisters went to hide if they were hurt?" Mem said before getting swat in the side by her sister.

"Shut up, idiot, you don't know anything. I've never been hurt or lost a fight," Rem said. "But it's true that some stupider, weaker sisters will come down here when they're hurt, to hide. The dark is good for it. There are many places for ambushes."

"How close is this to your home, then?" I asked.

Rem hesitated before answering. "The last time I came down here was a long time ago, when I was smaller and weaker, after I was... given pointers by big sister Pow. I think it took me at least a day to get down here. But only half as long to get out."

"Half as long because you'd healed while down here?" I asked.

"No, shut up."

I'd take that as a yes for the moment. "Well, it seems as though we're close, at least. Are the tunnels as maze-like here? They certainly don't seem as developed."

"They should be a lot more straightforward from here on out," Belt said.

"Mem gets lost here a lot," Mem said. "But Mem also got lost in a straight corridor once."

I decided to take that under advisement. "Let's be ready for some amount of trouble, then," I suggested. "Miss Cinder, Alex, be ready to engage an ambushing enemy. Miss Cinder, try not to lose your head, whilst we are companions I would still find the act of resurrecting you a chore. Alex... if you lose yours, do fetch it for me."

"Yes papa."

"Agreed agreed," Cinder said. She loosened the long sleeves of her dress and I saw a glint of metal beneath the folds. Throwing knives? Yes, I supposed that would suit her fighting style very well.

I hummed to myself as I considered what spell to use next. This was a frequent issue of mine, and in fact many a wizard of greater talent and level. Once you had a decently large arsenal of spells, one might think that you would have an answer to every problem, and one would be entirely correct.

The real issue was when a problem was so simple that any answer would work. A vast majority of the spells that wizards created and traded are of the offensive variety. A spell should be fit to take care of an issue, but when the issue's solution was 'basic violence' then it was all too easy to have too many solutions and not enough problems.

Now, we were most likely going to be handling mantis people, similar in nature and stature to Rem and Mem. They'd be relatively slippery, likely to attack from ambush, but if what Alex experienced with Rem was common, they'd also be relatively fragile. More along the lines of Rogues than Fighters.

The obvious solution to a weaker Rogue being a pest would be Magic Missile. The spell didn't miss, so no amount of high-dexterity shenanigans was going to stop it from hitting, and while the damage wasn't spectacular, it was consistent.

It was a very basic spell, however. No flair, no challenge. I could cast a thousand of them in a blink because I'd cast it a million times before.

No, I wanted something with a bit more kick to it. We were approaching this Mantis Queen, and I wanted a proper audience before I decided what to do with her. I had the impression that she'd respect power, and silently taking out her children and guards from afar might be mistakenly construed as us 'sneaking' up on her, which was entirely incorrect.

I had barely settled on which spell to use as we slipped out of a narrow corridor and into a slightly larger cave. The walls here were entirely unworked, and the space opened up to one side. It was quite pretty, for a naturally forming cave. There were large formations of dull, unpolished crystals on the walls, and a small pond of faintly gurgling water. A natural spring?

"Spaces like these are common," Belt said before I could ask.

"Oh? You mean underground access to water?"

"Yeah. When we run into one that's this calm, we sometimes excavate a route over to it. It's a nice way of getting some water to fill your gourd up along the way," the dwarf said. He tapped a small waterskin on his hip, which I decided not to point out wasn't a gourd.

"So what you're saying is that these... spring up on occasion? Oh hoh!"

Belt made the kind of face that I'd expect to see on someone who just discovered they'd stepped on some fresh excrement. It was glorious. "You've got something wrong with you, undead ma--"

Something large, green, and hungry leapt out from behind a rocky outgrowth. It was entirely silent even as it raised a pair of scythe-arms high and then swung them down towards Belt's neck.

I pointed at it. "Thunderwave."

I had still been thinking about what spell to use while walking about. Thunderwave was a fantastic choice, if I did say so myself. It was a spell that hit in an irregular cone, a rush of sonourous energy that could pop eardrums and shatter stone.

I, of course, aimed a little high, and the cone smashed into the ambushing mantis with a hard wallop that I could only-just hear over the thunderous noise now echoing through the cavern and the tunnel system around us. I had no doubt that the dwarves we'd left behind would hear it too.

Belt, of course, screamed while slamming his gloved hands over his ears. "What is wrong with y--" he began before bits of mantis rained down around him.

He turned and finally noticed the monster that had been about to turn him into lunch.

It was crushed against the far wall, very much dead. Unfortunately it had cracked a few crystals along the wall, and probably stained that nice little pond in the room's centre. But that would pass with time.

"Mem thinks she recognizes her," Mem said with a gesture to the corpse. "It's one of Mem's sisters."

"All mantises are your sisters, idiot," Rem snapped.

"Mem recognizes who this is," Mem corrected herself. "It's Oof."

"Oh, her," Rem said. She tilted her head left and right, inspecting the body. "Yes, that's that stupid moron Oof," she agreed.

"Was she special in any way?" Alex asked. "A friend, perhaps?"

"Oof was very clumsy," Mem said. Coming from Mem, that likely meant something. "She was also kind of mean."

Belt worked his jaw, then snapped his fingers next to his ears with a frown. "I've gone deaf. Entirely deaf. Orbital, say something, I can't hear."

"Then why would I bother saying something if you know you won't hear it?" Orbital asked.

"I'm not that deaf," Belt snapped. "There's a ringing in my ears."

"That'll likely pass, probably," I said. "I suspect that the Mantis Queen and her dear daughters will have heard that attack. We should consider being ready for a nice reception as we continue."

***