Icky slime coated Yuki’s hands and legs, mixing with the red of her blood. When stabbed, the worms bled a blue and viscous liquid. The almost see-through creatures kept coming, no matter how many she killed. They died easily enough, thanks to Jenny’s dagger. With each stab, the pommel jewel flashed, and the scent of magic flared, mixing with the cloying earthy smell of their blood.

Yuki brandished the dagger again, the edge slicing yet another of the snake-sized worms.

Pain flared on Yuki’s calf. She gasped, agony jolting through her leg. Yuki turned and brought the dagger down, slicing another worm.

The metal spikes blocking the path were halfway retracted, but there still wasn’t room enough for them to leave. Another batch of worms slithered past Jenny and toward Yuki.

The blonde was on her last legs, fighting both the black-eyed monstrosity as well as the other burrowers spilling from the walls. She’d already done enough by tossing Yuki the magic dagger.

Yuki couldn’t kill the worms fast enough to prevent them from reaching her. Worse, the damned things tried to climb her legs. It was disgusting and their bite was painful.

“Die, gross!”

Yuki regretted not shape-changing earlier, if only for the ability to communicate. It was refreshing to be able to speak again correctly, but she didn’t miss her old body. Perhaps the human form felt strange to her now because she was born a rabbit here. Even wielding the dagger was strange; her movements uncoordinated.

Yuki stabbed another worm, then turned around and cut two more. A fourth and fifth lunged, and she couldn’t dodge. One bit down on her sides, while the other bit down on her arm. She raised her arm with the offending worm dangling there. With a swift cut, she sliced the thing. Before the severed part hit the ground, she grabbed the other slimy and disgusting monster at her sides and cut it too.

The chains screeched to a halt. Yuki looked at the passage. The spikes hadn’t retreated fully, but it was more than enough.

“Jenny,” Yuki yelled, already moving toward the discarded torch. “Path free!” She called out, trying to remember the right words. Yuki grabbed the torch and Jenny’s bag before running toward the passage. She heaved the heavy bag and threw it into the opening soon before she jumped across herself. Yuki miscalculated the distance, and her hand hit one of the spikes where it cut a gash. She cried out in pain and dropped the torch. She hit the other side with a thud.

Jenny couldn’t fight anymore. Every ragged breath hurt more than the last. Her vision swam, and each thrust felt as if someone stabbed her arms and legs instead of the other way around. Far behind, the black-eyed worm vomited even more melon-sized worm-bearing globules. Suddenly, both the walls to her left and right and the floor below rippled and burst open, even more worms spilling through. 

The shrieking sound of the chains stopped.

“Jenny, path free!” A young girl’s voice called out from behind.

A jolt of adrenaline and hope shot through Jenny. She didn’t look back; instead, she retreated, thrusting with each step to keep the worms at bay. The attacks didn’t do much damage to the burrowers, but they were enough to keep the monsters from getting too close. The things had learned that getting close meant getting stabbed. Her enemies had switched to whittling her down from afar.

Sweat dripped into Jenny’s eyes, the sting blurring her vision. She heard the retching from a worm spitting and blindly threw herself back and out of the way.

Acid splashed the wall above, a shower of burning droplets falling on her.

Jenny scrambled up and ran toward the other end of the tunnel. She saw the small opening in the spikes, large enough to jump through. Without pausing, she threw herself forward and through the gap.

Pain laced her shoulder, and for a moment, Jenny thought she had hit the metal blocking the passage. She crashed on the other side, and the movement jostled the worm spike impaling her shoulder. She cried out from the pain.

Jenny got up and didn’t look back. She hobbled down the path and turned a corner. Biscuit was already a few meters ahead, holding the torch. The girl had stopped and looked back at Jenny. The naked girl was covered in bite marks, with some of the dead worms dangling from her arms and legs like oversized leeches.

“Run!” Jenny yelled to the girl. She knew the worms wouldn’t stop because of metal spikes. They could dig through the stone. They had only bought a few minutes of respite. Jenny hobbled onward.

Biscuit nodded, but instead of running away, she ran toward Jenny. The small girl grabbed onto Jenny’s arm and started pulling. The bag strap around the girl’s shoulder was stained with blood. The girl heaved with each step, pulling Jenny and the bag along.

“Damn, this is heavy. How do you fight carrying this all the time?” Biscuit asked in that same strange language.

Jenny stumbled and used the spear as a walking stick to avoid falling. Biscuit pulling on her arm made things worse instead of helping, but Jenny had no energy to tell the girl off. Jenny’s breath still came fast, but it was manageable. She couldn’t believe they had survived.

The duo walked in silence, except for groans each time they stepped. The path climbed ever upward. Jenny didn’t pay attention to where they were going, concentrating on putting one step in front of the other.

“Huh?” She heard Biscuit speaking. “Why is the magic torch dying?”

Jenny focused on the girl. She remembered hearing something similar. Like a bell resounding on her head, the memories flooded back. She had watched them recently, that night, when Ferdinand attacked her in the foyer. He spoke in the same language.

“Biscuit?” Jenny called out, not sure what she wanted to ask.

“Yuki!” The girl huffed, then hit her chest two times with the hand still holding the dagger. “Yuki, no biscuit.”

In the dim and dying light of the torch, Jenny noticed the girl pouting. She had raised her head and looked away like a kid pretending to be angry. A smile broke on Jenny’s face. Her hand moved forward and tousled the girl’s hair.

“Thank you.”

Biscuit, or perhaps Yuki, huffed again, then looked forward. “But Jenny can call me Biscuit.”

Jenny laughed even with all the stinging pain in her leg, shoulder, and ribs. She still laughed when they climbed stairs into the open forest air. The torch died at the same time they stepped outside the dungeon, leaving both in the dim light of the setting sun.

FatElf

Thank you all for reading. Next chapter on Monday.

After this next week, I'll take a short break from releasing chapters. I'll be traveling the first two weeks on April, and not sure yet how my schedule will be.