Chapter 26 – Into the mine

I hit the ground running and kept right on moving.  Something big was chasing after the war badgers, and I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

“I’m not seeing a behir,” said Shart as he worked the console.  “If one was nearby, it is not here now.”

“I think it went west,” I offered as we reached the shadowy copy of Ironpass mine.

“Why do you think that?” asked Shart.

I glanced down the trampled path to the west. The path stretched on beyond Shadow Windfall. Uprooted shadow trees were just the start of the devastation some creature had wrought.  “Call it a hunch.”

“Damn,” said Shart looking through my eyes, “That one must have been huge. If one of those behir get into Ordinal, we are looking at a world ending scenario.”

“Maybe, but we don’t’ have time for that now,” I replied.  The tracks were wrong somehow, but I couldn't quite place it.  I needed more time to examine them, but there was too much blood in the direction the war badger took.  There was no time for careful analysis.

I strode up Ironpass ‘mountain’ with undue haste. The mine wasn’t really here, the entrance into the underground complex was little more than a wound on the side of the hill. I wasn’t tracking behind the war badger; she was nearly as stealthy as Badgelor. I was following my gut, and a tinier set of tracks. If I was very fortunate, I’d intercept her, and we could power our way back to the exit.  As I reached the entrance, I glanced over at the direction Badgelor was in.

There was a massive blast of purple light, followed by several smaller bolts.  There were at least ten war badgers over there, with the largest being Badgelor.  If I stood here for enough time, I could have probably started picking them out despite the range due to my Perception skill being at rank Master.

It would take a horde of drop pumas to move them, then again, I could see the forest undulating like it was some sort of living creature.  Even now I could see more drop pumas falling from the trees.  It was a sick joke.

“This is hell,” said Shart.

I had no arguments for that.  This place flat sucked. The behir was missing through, as long as it was missing, I assumed Badgelor could handle it. He had to, I needed more time, and I couldn’t return empty handed.

Searching for the remaining war badgers, I finally spotted the large one’s trail leading into the mine.  She was a quick one, I just hoped that the iron pass mine was safer here than I expected it to be. I started into the entrance when two shafts of deep purple light flashed out of the side of the hill.

“I don’t think Badgelor’s are that big,” said Shart casually.  The thought of a war badger nastier than Badgelor who didn’t know me was troubling.

“Hopefully she knows I'm friendly,” I said.  I was tracking a single cub, but obviously more were down there.

We ground to a stop at the first chamber of Ironpass mine.  In my capacity as mayor, I’d been into the mine repeatedly but in my heart, it was always the first time.  Where it had been nothing but traps and Shart took a long hard one to his mouth.

I missed my wife.

Snorting at the insanity of that, I barely remembered her, I walked into the mine, and almost instantly got my head taken off.

· You have dodged a spike trap.

I rolled forward, avoiding the spiked log that I knew didn’t exist in the mine back home.  “Why is that there?”

“Probably because you are so fixated on it,” grumbled Shart.  “There is a museum called ‘Shit that nearly killed me’ here in your mindspace.  There is a large statue of Bashara in front of it.”

“Makes sense,” I said, standing up as I heard something fall.  “Aw crap.”

“Trap door,” said Shart.

“I hate this place,” I said as I plunged down into the darkness.

Last time I’d done this, the rocks that made up the trap door followed me down and pinned me here.  This time I landed and rolled out of the way before the first scraps of stone hit.  A dark tentacle shot out of the blackness at me.  It was so dark that it actually was somewhat visible from the other dark part of the cavern. It was trying to ambush me, but I had more tricks.

I pushed my mana through a different channel on my body and my eyes lit up like a torch.  I should have been blinded, but somehow my own mana couldn’t achieve that effect.  Instead, I could clearly see the entire room from the magical brightness.

The tentacle was flailing, not attacking.

“I think it's dead,” said Shart as I activated my Puma zapper.  Charged shots of Biolightning lanced into the creature… and then it found me and wrapped around me in an eyeblink.

The effect could basically be described as grabbing a lit sparkler.  Within moments bursts of lightning were firing through the burning remains of the tentacle and I was able to break free of the charred stump.

“The stupid furball could be anywhere,” said Shart.

“If the monster died, the badger that killed it should be at the other end of that tentacle,” I said.

There was nothing else to debate, I began pushing deeper into the blackness.  Occasionally another tentacle would reach out, but even they were becoming more sporadic. Most just lay on the ground inert. Finally, I crossed into a central chamber I recognized from the last mining expansion and spotted the beast.

The tentacled monster was really little more than a glob of congealed shadow that lived in this compartment.  The tentacles were both the creature's arms as well as body.  Most had been sheared off, including the one I’d been following which had been jerking around from spinal reflex more than any conscious thought.

The war badger had blasted the creature straight through the center, bisecting it.  Unfortunately, the tentacles still seemed to work and the poor war badger had been badly wounded at the start of the fight.  She had managed to tear out a few dozen tentacles before the remainder had overcome her, but the detached tentacles couldn’t do anything with her body.

She looked old, like some sort of ancient statue brought to life just for this moment.

“The last one?” asked Shart.  “I can’t see cubs surviving down here.”

“That must be the general.  There are no survivors,” I began, then stopped. That was going to break my friend.  I could face Charles, but I didn’t know if I had the metal to tell Badgelor the news.

I did know that, for damn sure, I couldn’t let Shart do it.

“Why did she come in this chamber,” asked Shart.

That was a good question.  At full strength a war badger of that size should have been able to deal with this creature reasonably easily.  There was no reason to charge into this chamber if it was just her.

I looked around, no reason at all.