Riftside 3 - Chapter 24

The world became a churning, muddy, watery hell.

I was thrown end over end, the thick, soupy brown water a suffocating blanket. The gritty taste of mud and the foul stench of crushed eggs and rot filled my senses anytime my head made it up out of the water. All the while, my ill-fitting armor felt like a cage designed to drown me.

I slammed into something hard.

A wall.

I used the momentary purchase to kick away, fighting for a sense of direction in the chaos, and my head broke up. I drew in a breath as the water drained from my helmet.

“Now this is a spell!” Lan said, laughing maniacally.

“You foolish child!” Roq roared, his fury a match for the raging water. “You’ll drown us all!”

A part of me was warmed by his care, but only a very small part, as the rest of me was fighting for my life.

Another lurch of the water threw me against the wall.

And this time I rammed Roq’s haft into the slick surface, spike first. It sank deep and the grip held, anchoring me against the current, my head barely able to break up beyond the surface.

The scene was pure chaos as filth churned and huge chunks of the ceiling were collapsing into the water, sending up geysers of mud. Eryn was fifty feet away, a shimmering cocoon of Warden’s Embrace flickering around her as she fought to stay afloat in the current, Arclight grasped tightly in her grip. 

Lan slammed against the wall, her hair plastered to her face, a wild, ecstatic grin on her lips.

Of Knut, there was no sign, as his plate mail had surely dragged him to the bottom.

“Nabeeh!” I yelled, spotting her struggling to stay afloat not far from Eryn. “Get to the wall!”

“Help!” she shrieked, her voice thin and panicked. “I can’t—”

Her scream was cut short as a slab of rock the size of a tavern table tore free from the ceiling above us.

I held my breath, unable to help, but it hit the water right next to Eryn. A bit clipped her, but Warden’s Embrace flared with a crack, blasting the rock into tiny pieces.

Nabeeh was less lucky, and a piece of stone caught her squarely on the side of the head. Her eyes rolled back and she vanished beneath the churning surface.

“Nabeeh!” Eryn screamed, but she didn’t hesitate. With a glance my way, she took a deep breath and plunged into the water and after our friend.

Arclight immediately started talking, guiding Eryn in her attempted dive against the insane current.

“Lan! Stop this! Now!” I roared, my voice raw with fury and fear.

She looked at me, her grin finally faltering, replaced by a flicker of confusion. 

“I can’t! The spell is cast!”

“Then un-cast it!”

“It doesn’t work like that!” she yelled back, her voice defensive. “It’s supposed to dissipate! I’ve never… I’ve never cast it inside a container before!”

“The water is magically dissipating through the ground,” Roq said, his tone a grim lecture. “But the earth can only drink so much at once! This was not a wave, it was a damned flood. She’d filled a cavern with a lake! It will take minutes, not seconds, to drain!”

Just as the water was settling, if barely, Knut burst through, spitting muddy water, his torso bare. He’d had the presence of mind to swipe his armor into his spatial storage. He gasped for air and his wild eyes found mine.

“Eryn is under! After Nabeeh!” I called from the wall, pointing to where they’d gone down.

Knut nodded, took a breath to dive, but stopped as Eryn broke through the surface.

She dragged an unconscious Nabeeh up by her hair. Eryn coughed, sputtering, and hauled the fire mage’s head above the water, her face a mask of desperate determination.

The nature of the water’s movement shifted. The chaotic sloshing stilled, replaced by a powerful, spiraling motion. It was draining, but not gently. A vortex formed in the center of the chamber as the water disappeared into the ground and out the three tunnels.

“Catch my arm!” I yelled.

As the current dragged Eryn past, I reached out, straining against the water. My fingers closed around Eryn’s forearm, and hauled both her and Nabeeh towards me, swinging them against the wall, out of the main pull of the vortex.

“I’ve got you,” I gasped, lifting Eryn’s head well out of the water on one arm, Roq’s haft underneath my other armpit.

The water level dropped rapidly, the vortex roaring.

Once Knut’s feet found the muddy, debris-strewn ground, he rushed over, and I let go.

Knut caught Nabeeh, lifting her limp form like a child, while Eryn stumbled, barely catching herself from being bowled over by the water. I ripped Roq free from the wall and dropped.

“What,” I said, my voice dangerously low as I stalked towards Lan, the water around my hip, but dropping fast, “In the rotten rift were you thinking?”

She had the gall to look triumphant. 

“I hit level twenty-three!” she announced, as if that explained everything. “I jumped nearly two full levels from crushing all the eggs! Did you see them all splatter?”

“I saw you nearly kill our entire party!” Eryn snapped, her voice cracking with fury as she kneeled by Nabeeh’s side, the remaining water disappearing. “She’s not breathing, Ash!”

Lan’s triumphant expression finally crumbled, a flicker of horror crossing her face. 

“She… she should be fine. It’s just water.”

“Little sister,” Knut growled. “Water drowns. Fire burns. Both kill. You are more powerful than you think. But a whelp full of greed. You do not think.”

Eryn frantically began pressing on Nabeeh’s chest, trying to force the water from her lungs.

I pointed Roq at Lan.

“If she dies because of what you did, you are out of this party,” I said, my voice cold as Benedict’s love life. “I will drag you back to Dawnwatch, throw you at Mara’s feet, and you should count yourself lucky she’s your protector! You’ll live, but you will be on your own.”

Eryn pushed on Nabeeh’s chest again. Water gushed from the mage’s mouth, but she remained still, her face a waxy pale. Eryn pinched her nose, lowered her mouth to Nabeeh’s, and began to breathe for her.

Knut, his face a grim mask, equipped his armor just in case he needed it.

Ignoring Lan, I turned and strode towards the nearest tunnel, my boots squelching in the muck. 

“Whatever was in those tunnels,” I said, my voice tight with rage, “It sure as hell knows we’re here now.”

I looked up. Or rather, I looked out. Most of the cavern’s ceiling was gone, collapsed into the churning water we’d just survived. We stood at the bottom of a massive, muddy bowl of shattered rock, the sky a distant, uncaring circle of blue.

“Knut, can we climb out of this mess?” I asked, my voice echoing slightly in the sudden quiet.

He surveyed the slick, near-vertical walls, his brow furrowed as he fastened a strap on his greaves. “Maybe. Roq make handholds. But take time. Long time to get all out. Especially with Nabeeh.” He gestured with his chin to where Eryn was still kneeling beside our unconscious friend. “And no rope.”

Of course. The rope was gone, lost in the chaos of Lan’s spell. I cursed under my breath.

A high-pitched, chittering screech echoed from the three dark tunnels that ringed the chamber, the sound of scraping claws on stone. The sound of very angry things coming our way filled my ears.

“I defend this,” Knut said, walking to stand just inside one tunnel. 

“So much for a quiet exit,” I muttered, turning to Lan. I pointed Roq at the tunnel nearest her. “Hold that one. Don’t let anything out. Your staff,” I demanded, “Does it have anything useful to help us with this mess?”

Then, turning my attention to my own weapon, I twisted Roq’s haft. With a solid click, the warhammer separated at the metal ring in its center. I swiped the bottom half into my spatial storage, leaving me with a one-handed version, and pulled my shield from the same space, its familiar weight a comfort on my arm. If I was fighting in a tunnel, a longer reach was a liability, but the shield was life. Especially when they could spit toxins.

Lan hesitated, looking from her staff to me, a flicker of something unreadable in her eyes. 

“No. Or… maybe.” She finally rattled off a list, her tone defensive. “Osmosis slows all targets in a small area. Parasite saps the stats of anything in a target area. Torment strips their physical resistances. Makes it like hitting stuff without armor. Overcharge, well, you saw that one.” She shifted her weight. “I’ve also got two passives, with Poisonous Thorns being the one that hurts anything touching me, and Depth of the User triples my mana pool.”

I cursed again, this time with feeling. A list of debuffs and a self-buff. Powerful, yes, but not the kind of raw, destructive power we needed to hold off a swarm in three tunnels.

At least one piece suddenly clicked into place.

So that’s how we beat the Steel Scrambler so easily. She must have hit it with Torment and Parasite. No wonder we suddenly did more damage.

But all those debuffs would be useless against a tide of bodies.

“You better find a way to hold,” I said to her as the first Glowcrest Emmets scuttled up the tunnel I stood by, “Or we’ll buy time with your corpse.”

“But I--”

“Eryn! Let me know the moment Nabeeh is good to move,” I said, raising my shield and stepping into the tunnel.

The oversized ant with a very wet plume scuttled at me, fast. I kept my shield raised and at arms length, crouching to have it cover as much of my body as possible. When it was a few feet away, it opened the mandibles and spit. 

I ducked and held my breath, letting the liquid splash against my shield, trusting my helmet and cloak not to let anything drip inside.

The Emmet slammed into my shield and I skidded back a good step.

It must have expected to push me off balance. Instead, it was as if it had run into a wall, one that could fight back. I swung Roq and pierced its skull with his spike.

“Yummy,” Roq said. He seemed to still be in a poor mood after we’d let Lan destroy the eggs, which in hindsight I was too. 

“Also, we cannot stay here.”

“Why not?”

Another Emmet crawled over the first and spit. Once more I blocked it all and simply smashed its head in. A few more and they’d struggle to get through.

“Colony is coming,” Roq said. “Thousands.”

I killed another bug, but not before it managed to get some toxin onto my shoulder, and I felt my shield arm weakening as it seeped through. 

Lan was cursing up a storm from her tunnel, while Knut simply grunted as he chopped, again and again.

After the fifth kill, the tunnel was filled, but instead of trying to push through, getting stuck, the bugs pulled away the dead carcasses so they could get to me.

“We can’t plug the tunnels with their dead,” I said, calling over my shoulder. “They are too smart.”

I smashed the skull of another Emmet, Roq cracking through easily. The bug collapsed, but another was already scrambling over its twitching corpse.

“Help! Ash, help me!” Lan shrieked. Her voice was high and thin with genuine pain.

“Behind you!” Roq said, and I heard the skittering sound. 

I spun, backing out of my tunnel as a monster from Lan’s corridor attacked me, opening its mandibles, and a stream of milky toxin shot out. I twisted, but not fast enough. The spray caught my leg, and a cold numbness instantly bloomed, spreading like frostbite. My leg gave out from under me, and I crashed to the muddy floor, the limb suddenly a useless weight of flesh and armor.

Lan was crawling backwards, one of her arms and legs hanging useless, a water globule covering them both. Three defensive Water Spheres orbited around her.

Another bug scuttled from Lan’s tunnel. Two more were crawling over the dead in mine. We were being overrun by their sheer numbers.

Time to reset.

“Ironburst!” I called, slamming Roq on the ground.

Mana surged from my core. From the muck around the cavern, fifteen spears of raw steelhusk erupted, lancing through the air. Three spears each for five of the closest Emmets, punching through their carapaces, spraying goo across the muddy soil.

They dropped dead.

“Lan! Do you know how to save someone from drowning?” Eryn screamed from across the chamber, her voice frantic as she continued her work on Nabeeh. “I can cover the corridor!”

“No! I don’t know!” Lan wailed back.

“Useless!” Eryn cursed, her voice cracking with fury and despair. “How can you not pull water out of someone you helped drown!”

I couldn’t worry about them. Not now.

“Roq! Heal me! Fast!”

I swiped the warhammer into my spatial storage, the familiar warmth of Blood Forge pushing away the spreading numbness.

Then I swiped out Blisterbrand while two more Emmets skittered from the tunnels.

But before they could spit, Lan finally acted.

“Torment!” she shrieked from where she lay, and a purple aura flared around the two bugs. Then she thrust her staff forward. “Spray!”

A focused, high-pressure jet of water hit the first creature, and like a sword, carved through its shell and shredded its insides. She didn’t stop, tracking the beam onto the second bug, slicing it in two.

Feeling returned to my leg and I stood, dashing over to my corridor and bashing an ants head in.

“This isn’t working!” I yelled and stored Blisterbrand, taking out Roq once more. “We need a way out!”

“Knut’s tunnel,” Roq said. “I think it is the one they fear us to enter. It should lead out.”

“Eryn! Is Nabeeh breathing?” I called, my eyes darting between the three dark tunnels.

“Yes! On her own, but she’s still out cold!” she said.

Two more Emmets scuttled into the chamber from the tunnel I’d been guarding. I met them head-on.

“Shockwave Slam!”

I brought Roq down hard and a shockwave blasted outwards, making mince meat out of both bugs.

“New plan!” I said, my voice now the unquestionable command of a raid leader. “Knut, you carry Nabeeh! Eryn, you keep our rear clear. Lan, you help where you can! We’re fighting our way out through Knut’s tunnel!”

“The Glowcap!” Eryn shouted back. “Can we use it to collapse the tunnel behind us?”

“Too risky!” I said, already moving, exchanging positions with Knut. His axe had made good work of the ants, and his tower shield had kept him safe. “We might need to backtrack, and if we can’t find an exit, that thing might be our only way out. Now, go!”