Twang!

Anda bent over and wound the winch to pull the crossbow’s string without bothering to check where his bolt went. The most important thing right now was to fill the air with bolts and prevent the Femorants from swarming them.

“Bad luck to stumble on a nest!” Dai grunted. He slammed his shield against one of the humanoid ants and forced it back. Cheaci ran it through with his longsword.

Masa and Hixe were pelting the Femorants, Masa with her slingshot, and Hixe with her throwing knives. The stones were far more effective since Hixe’s knives didn’t hit hard enough to penetrate the carapace.

“I don’t think it’s a nest,” Anda replied, “there’s not enough of them.”

“Huh, really? They seem endless to me.”

“No, no, if there was a nest nearby, the tunnel would be filled to the brim.”

“Stop playing with that toy and help me fend them off!” Cheaci growled at Anda.

Twunk!

A crossbow bolt stuck out of the Femorant’s eye, knocking it to the ground, the same one that was about to slam a club at the other Tigris clanner.

“You’re welcome,” Anda said evenly. He winched the crossbow string and placed another bolt. He had only had a dozen left, then it would be time to lay out with sword and claw.

Except after he used all of his bolts, there were no Femorants left to fight. The ants were that big. They were about the size of Masa, though their abdomens and extra legs made them wider. Anda pulled out his crossbow bolts from the corpses. The projectiles were made completely of a metal alloy. It limited the effective range to only a few dozen paces, but it was tough enough to survive being used multiple times.

A proper delve took weeks, and Delvers needed to conserve the amount of weight they had on them. Twenty bolts was Anda’s allocation, and usually, as long as he didn’t shoot the things into a wall, he could use them again.

“These things are trash,” Cheaci cursed. “We can’t harvest anything useful from them.”

“Can’t we harvest some of their venom glands?” Masa asked curiously while she pointed at the tip of the abdomen, where a little stinger protruded.

“Not worth it unless we’re on our way back,” Anda said. “They degrade too quickly.”

A week ago, they finally moved away from the central shaft. The tunnel they followed headed off into a different direction after they reached the shaft’s floor. The first shaft had a depth of three thousand paces, though with the tunnels spiralling around it, it took several more longstrides of walking to get to the bottom. Some people, idiots, all of them, tried using ropes to scale down. Their corpses were still at the bottom. If there was something hostile in the tunnels, all it would take was a little snip and the fools would fall.

Besides, without walking the tunnels, it was confusing to pick the right one to head back up. Good luck trying to use the ropes to climb back up.

“Let’s just move on,” Dai said.

“Yes, I’m done recovering my bolts.” Anda nodded.

At this level in the Labyrinth, the tunnels often led to wider caverns. There could be remnant devilbeasts there. Femorants, Hookbeaks, and Shadow Stalkers were also a problem in the depths.

Those other creatures didn’t have Ivory, hence fighting them didn’t yield anything of value. Easily extracted value, anyway.

The cavern they were in wasn’t a particularly large one and Anda quickly saw the marked tunnel in front. Anda and the others continued on their delve. They’ve only chanced upon a single devilbeast, a river dragon that was several paces long. The Ivory they harvested was enough for each of them to live easily for weeks should they sell it.

Anda wasn’t satisfied with such a meagre harvest, and neither was the rest of the team. They needed to find at least a couple more. That way, they could carouse, drink, and be merry until the next Beast Tide comes. The next one will likely be at the end of the Season of Fire. It could also be in the Season of Air. It varied, sometimes, but never more than three seasons in between.

The tunnel twisted and turned as they travelled deeper. The tunnels here had fewer lights. Masa held out a lantern with a glowing crystal inside. She hung it off a pole strapped on her backpack such that it hung just above and behind her head.

Anda and the others did the same. The People had excellent night vision, but it was still easier to have a light source. Femorants didn’t really mind the light, but Hookbeaks and Shadow Stalkers hated it. Travelling the tunnels lit only by bioluminescent moss meant they could encounter those dread beasts at any time. Femorants were easy to kill, at least.

They arrived at another cavern, this one was larger than the previous, with strange rock formations, dripping water, and large mushroom growths.

“Mudcaps!” Hixe exclaimed. “Lucky!’

Anda looked at where she pointed at. Amidst larger shrooms, there was a small cluster that was barely the size of Anda’s paw. He grinned and rushed with the others. Mudcaps were a reagent to concoct Geist strengthening elixirs. Much better results than consuming the Ivory as is.

Masa flicked out a sharp claw and sawed at the base of the mudcap cluster. They left the inedible roots, which would allow this particular patch to recover after some time. Then she distributed a piece to each of them. Anda put it in his pack.

They found several tunnel exits. Only one had the bronze plate that indicated the route. It was slightly crooked so Anda adjusted it before they entered. The tunnel spiralled down dozens of times before it levelled off. The tunnel split into two and neither had a plate.

“What now?” Dai asked.

Anda rubbed his chin then shook his head. “I don’t like this. Let’s go back.”

“What, we’re nowhere near our limit,” Cheaci complained.

“Still, we don’t want to get lost now, do we?” Anda insisted.

“So draw a map!”

“What about the rest of you?” Anda asked.

“Back is fine!” Masa chirped.

“I think we can move on,” Dai said.

They all looked at Hixe who looked at Cheaci then shrugged. “Let’s continue.”

Anda held in a sigh. This may be a mistake but he didn’t want to split the group. “Fine.”

“Right!” Cheaci grinned.

“Right fork it is,” Anda said.

“Uh, sure.”

This tunnel didn’t have light panels either and looked more like a natural passage. The ceiling dipped until Anda and Dai had to bend slightly or their ears would scrape against the ceiling. After an hour, they arrived at an even larger cavern. Several devilbeast corpses were scattered in the middle, but that wasn’t the problem.

There were a dozen delvers already inside, and they weren’t from Vizugmon. Lizard and snake-like faces turned at them, narrowing in hostility. The next moment, a crossbow bolt stabbed into Cheaci’s arm, and the Tigris clanner staggered and yelled in pain.

“Ahas clanners!” Anda yelled as he levelled his crossbow and shot at the nearest snakeman. Loud curses and more crossbow bolts flew in the air.

_____

Swish!

The Golden Silhouette performed as she usually did. Yuriko stared at the shadow, hoping to see a demonstration of that perfect stroke. But nothing. It was the same old three sword dances in a row. Then the combined dances and the quick shifts in between.

Yuriko had watched the demonstration dozens of times already. She’d long mastered the three sword dances and their combined form. Well, as close to mastery as a teenager could manage. The movements weren’t that important, Yuriko thought, but the clear Intents were. Of course, the basics of swordplay needed to be there.

She watched as the silhouette demonstrated the Sweeping Gale style with a greatsword. The demonstration was markedly different from Senior Kale, mainly because the silhouette, and Yuriko, were much more flexible and agile. Yuriko’s initial Flowing Water had long been subsumed in the second dance.

Technical skill aside, Yuriko had the feeling that she needed to witness other people perform their preferred styles before the silhouette would demonstrate and change it to suit her better. There were two other swordplay styles in Rumiga, Roaring Volcano and Jade Mountain.

Kale used the former along with Sweeping Gale, but not enough for Yuriko to distinguish. Besides, the heavy strikes that Roaring Volcano subscribed to were especially weak to her style. As for Jade Mountain, she didn’t use a shield.

She had fed Animus to her Facet that evening mainly to have a break from her usual routines. Besides, doing so allowed her to see if she’d developed flaws in her practice. It didn’t look like it though.

With a sigh, Yuriko just waited until the Animus ran out. She needed real rest.

The Golden Silhouette stood in a neutral stance for a long moment, waiting. When Yuriko directed her attention back, the shadow started another dance.

“Wha-?”

It wasn’t the first, second, or third! A fourth sword dance? Yuriko felt her pulse race.

The Animus circulation pattern practically raced inside the silhouette and the Intent could not be clearer. Speed.

The silhouette had even changed from side-blades to Animus blades! Each movement was accompanied by an afterimage floating a couple of inches behind the actual weapon, but Yuriko had the impression that the afterimage would cut just as deeply as the real thing. One blade, two strikes?

At certain points in the dance, the afterimage changed directions from the real blade. At other times, it actually slashed first before the real blade followed. Or was it the real blade instead? What was fake and what was real?

A minute later, the Golden Silhouette finished the demonstration just as the Animus powering the Facet ran out. Yuriko jolted awake with a manic look in her eyes and a wide grin. She jumped up, took a quick glance around then flared her Anima and formed the Animus blades.

“How did that go again?”

She formed the strands. Unlike the first three dances, the fourth dance needed a much thicker strand to function, about three times as much. The pattern wasn’t that much different than the other three, or rather, it was actually identical.

No, no, it was only the Intent that was different! If she used the first dance’s pattern but substituted the Intent, then it worked. One for feints. Two for defence. Three for an overwhelming assault!

“Maybe it would be as easy to meld the fourth dance with the other three?”

But she didn’t attempt it. She danced the fourth sword dance for what felt like hours until she got used to it. There was something missing, though, when she used it by itself. Still, she needed to get a good feel for it before she mucked around with combining Intents. The fourth dance sped up her strikes, and footwork by half a beat, but it also drained her Animus faster than the other three dances.

Afterwards, she was exhausted and fell back to sleep. The next day, other than making her food, she practised the fourth dance for the entire day.

The next day she did the same. On that day, a troop of antmen found her. She practised the fourth dance on them, gaining a much better idea of how to use it in actual combat. But the ants proved too miserable an opponent. She needed more.

She gathered her gear and moved down the tunnels, this time, keeping her Anima flared. Within the next ten minutes, she heard the clicking footsteps of the antmen. She continued on the tunnel, though there really wasn’t anywhere else to go. She’d been lost in here for a couple of days now. The redbones kept her satiated for the entire day, but she tried to stretch her supplies by waiting until she got really hungry before eating.

She rounded a corner and came face to face with the ants. There was no hesitation on their part. They charged her immediately and she reciprocated in kind. The fourth dance. Her slashes and thrusts were faster than what she’d been able to do before. She kept to the third pattern, a furious assault while she let their bare weapons bounce from her Anima.

She wasn’t able to form afterimages, but maybe it would require greater mastery? Anyway, slash, slash, slash! In less than a minute, the antmen were all dead. None of their ichor stained her blades or her body. Her Anima apparently repulsed it. As she was about to continue, she glanced back and saw a curious thing. One of the antmen had a cloth satchel across its shoulder.

Curious, she worked it off the creature and inspected it. Inside were green and brown…moss? It smelled slightly sweet, actually. Did she dare? Each of the balls was about the size of her fist. She poked a finger inside one, finding it remarkably squishy. Whatever it was, it had a uniform composition inside when she broke on in half, a kind of brownish mush. Well, she wasn’t hungry at the moment, but maybe this would answer her food issue. She pried off a pierce and tasted it, ready to expel it and scrub her tongue with a scraper made of Animus.

Well, it didn’t taste of anything in particular. Yes, mildly sweet. It’s made of potatoes. Yeah. That’s what she told herself knowing that it could very well be made of grubs…nope. Potatoes.

Absently, she returned the ball into the satchel and checked how many were inside. Huh? Was that?

There was stitching just underneath the flap and it spelled “Property of Taiko” in the Wojan language. The trade tongue between planes.