The ground rumbled again. This time, as I turned my head, I caught the source of the quakes. The far wall, a ribbed monstrosity covered in webbing, was shifting. The insectoid monsters arrayed in front of us looked worried, as though we’d disturbed something far worse than them.

  Beetles bounced against each other, their small, taloned legs struggling to grip the shaking floor. The [Corrupt] director backed up, its butt bumping into a subordinate. The wall kept rippling until an oddly familiar visage appeared.

  You’ve got to be kidding me! Raif?

  The largest slug possible stood in front of us. Its huge tentacles filled up the cavern as it peered down. Spindly spiders danced out of the way as the uncaring tentacles swept across the ceiling.

  The ground shifted as the creature opened its unfanged mouth.

  “Little Richard?” A deep, ponderous voice boomed. Rock fell in resonance from the ceiling. Some of the food caches fell as well. The smell in the hall was of decay and rot. A leg hit the ground in front of us, the flesh juicily splattering across the floor.

  I knew something was wrong when Richard didn’t object to the ‘little’ moniker.

  What are you doing in Cersapil, old friend? Was there a creature of legend that my little fanged banana slug wasn’t familiar with?

  The giant mollusk looked down at our party, contemplating Tandy as Richard clung to her shoulders. The banana slug was looking up at his friend as though this could all be a simple misunderstanding.

  “I am hungry,” the mollusk explained. It opened its mouth to show a ridge of circular nodules. This was the rock-eating mollusk the entire town feared. The one they claimed had been banished.

  The creature’s eyes were almost milky, and its skin was the same chalky off-white as the surrounding stone. It’d been here a long time.

  But you’re damaging the city. You’re capturing sentients.

  I didn’t know what Richard was trying to get at, but this friend of his wasn’t too concerned about eating sentients.

  One of the larger armored beetles scuttled forward, grabbing the leg that’d fallen from the ceiling. It held it up to the mollusk like an offering to its god.

  The giant slug reached down daintily with its lips and slurped the rotten treat into its mouth.

  “That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” said the [Death Knight]. I glanced at her, trying to verify whether she was joking. She was a hair’s breadth away from being a [Necromancer].

  I guess that was a good sign she wasn’t completely falling into the abyss.

  Briyain is jealous of snack.

  I wasn’t going to think too hard about this one. With my head regenerated, I backed away, joining my party.

  “We were just about to leave.” I took another step.

  “DO NOT LEAVE!” Raif thundered. More debris fell from the cavern walls. I could only imagine what the quakes were doing to Cersapil. The clack of feet behind us announced the barring of our exit.

  With the threat clear, the party readied for an attack. Tandy crouched with her [Mercurial Scissors] split into two daggers. Meredeath glowed green and purple, with Briyain inanely thrashing in his bowl. Ash grinned as he pulled a dynammonite out of his dimensional storage.

  What’s going on, Raif? You’ve changed.

  The gigantic rock slug looked down, the pink glow of [Corruption] bright around the edges of his eyes.

  “You left me here, little Richard.” The statement held a realm of hurt.

  You volunteered to guard him. To keep the world safe.

  “Five-hundred years, you left me.” The mollusk’s lips curled giving us a grotesque attempt at a smile. “It’s a long time to live in the abyss. The world is changing. Ruin is inevitable.”

  The creature opened its mouth and let out a low burp that smelled sickly sweet.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “I’m so tired of fighting digestive rejects. Can we kick its ass yet?” Sparks fell off Meredeath’s daggers, emphasizing her words. The SCMMOO had crackled with its own energy.

  Unarmed, I balled my fists, wishing I had [Guardian’s Promise].

  I would defend my friends until my last breath.

  A shimmering green beetle reared up on its hind legs, exposing its pink, fuzzy underbelly. I tagged the creature with [Analyze].

  [Corrupt Emerald Born - This is a male variety of the species, shown by the furry underbelly. Males will try to mesmerize victims, distracting them with a flash of underbelly while they prepare an attack. Females of the species use pheromones to lull victims into a dreamlike sleep.]

  I realized, as [Detect Trap] blared in my mind, that the creature was purposefully trying to distract me. Looking up, I saw a rotating drill appendage coming straight at us.

  Diving to the side, I was painfully cognizant that it’d be a day before I could trigger [Cheat Death] again. Grabbing a rock as I fell, I threw it, leveraging my [Improvised Damage] skill to maximum effect. The rock landed with a direct hit right in the creature’s eye.

  Tandy let loose. She’d woven a web of pure magic, her daggers turning into knitting needles as she knit the threads of magic. A glowing slingshot, much like the ones of our youth, appeared. She began generating deadly iridescent missiles and shot them at the [Corrupt] bugs.

  Her power had grown way more useful than the fizzled attempts back in Woodsten. This was more controlled and dynamic than my lung replacement. Tandy had leveled up.

  Ash dashed forward, aimed at the genuine threat, the thirty-foot-tall mollusk. The beast could likely crush us with a twitch.

  Briyain even got in on the action as he whipped a lash of water at foes like a [Water Mage]. The water spun around the group, blocking mandibles and gnashing teeth.

  Richard stood resolute, as though in a match of wills with the oversized Raif. His tentacles stood rigidly erect, as though every bit of psionic energy he possessed was directed at the monster in front of us.

  I grabbed another rock and threw it at a bear-sized ant bearing down on Tandy.

  Yellow rockets shot out of Tandy’s sling. She seemed to pull from magic threads embedded in the ground. Replenishing each bolt as soon as it left the pouch of her sling. Each bolt that hit held incredible power, bashing through carapace and shattering mandibles.

  It wasn’t enough. Ants poured out of side tunnels, led by pink glowing captains. For every oversized insect we took down, three more replaced it.

  We weren’t overrun only because they couldn’t all attack at once.

  A three-tailed scorpion shot forward, and I rolled to the right, narrowly dodging its spearing attack. We pulled back into the tunnel, trying to limit the vectors of attack.

  “Richard, we could really use one of your escape plans.” I shouted as Briyain’s water lash blocked another scorpion thrust.

  Ash’s attempts to get his dynammonite closer to the rock slug failed. He dropped a few of his bombs in a hasty retreat to the tunnel.

  “Watch the air!” Tandy yelled as a new hum joined the fight. Flying ants with dripping pink mandibles appeared in the air. They jockeyed for position, bumping into each other with thick armored legs.

  As soon as they attacked, we were dead.

  Ash was the first to get hit. A splash of blood and a scream. I looked over to see a wide gash across his chest. An ant ran forward to finish him. I was engaged with another Emerald Born, dancing around my potential decapitating attack. There was nothing I could do.

  Then Meredeath was there. Blades flashing in a whirlwind, she let loose with a skill. Green ichor splashed against the walls as the ant lost a leg, then both its mandibles.

  The sickening [Corruption] drained from its eyes as its life drained out of its body. The tendrils of [Corrupt] magic dissipated into the air.

  Meredeath moved on, attacking the next ant. Her magic, though, lingered on the dying. Green fire smoked on the joints of the ant, as it took one last shuddering breath, the joints of the creature flared.

  It stood rigid for a moment.

  Meredeath turned her eyes back, and with a low growl ordered her minion to obey.

  “Defend us.” The magic turned the ant against its family, as it threw itself into the melee.

  Ash was on the floor, with a gaping tear in his chest.

  [First Aid] triggered, offering advice from cauterization to sutures to poultices.

  Put me on him. Richard commanded. He was still in psychic combat with the rock slug, but his slime was oozing blue. Pull his skin together and put my slime on it.

  I grabbed Richard and ran to the unconscious Ash. Richard’s normal fleshy body might have been a statue. I placed him next to us. I roughly pulled at the two sides of Ash’s skin, trying to ignore the flesh underneath, and slathered it with Richard’s blue slime.

  I kept going, sealing Ash’s body together.

  Using [First Aid] to triage and target the most dangerous wounds, I did my best to stabilize him. Briyain kept the attackers off us.

  With Meredeath’s growing undead ant army holding in front of us, Tandy shifted to focus on the flying ants above. Her missiles tore through thin wings just as well as carapace.

  For a second, I thought we might have a fight. That we could hold out against the insectoid horde.

  Raif shifted, causing everyone to stumble. The giant rock slug opened its mouth, edged rows of teeth almost spinning as its lips came together. The cavern shook.

  “Why do you fight? You cannot win against us,” he boomed. The cavern had grown quiet. The fighting had stopped, except for the slow leak of ichor from Meredeath’s undead.

  I waited for Richard to respond. To throw a sarcastic comeback in the molluskan leviathan’s face.

  Looking down, I realized two things.

  Above us, clinging to the ceiling, was a bunch of webworms. They writhed together, clinging to fiber, as they created net traps for us.

  Richard was their first victim, and he’d lost his psychic battle with the rock slug. He was pinned to the ground, tentacles flailing wildly. The sticky net pinned him to the floor.

  We were about to lose.

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