World Sphere - 199 - The Hunt

Chapter 199: The Hunt

The Prancing Eagle landing brought a number of city guards to the Dungeon Academy. While the Maelstrom had been essentially ignored for violating the skyship rules, the Prancing Eagle was not. Hyperion held up his hands like he was under arrest as the irate port guards issued him a fine of twenty gold and ordered the Prancing Eagle to the docks.

I eventually intervened, handing two large golds to cover the fine, “He is with me today. If he breaks the traffic pattern again in the future, feel free to impound his skyship.” In a way, I felt sorry for the port guards. Traffic had increased so much, and dozens of unfamiliar ships came and went every day.

Hyperion looked hurt at losing my support but grinned, showing the fakeness of his despair. After the guards left, Hyperion asked, “So, did the dark elf agree?”

“Relik is on board and waiting at his guild residence,” A brief unhappiness passed across his face before it disappeared into a smile.

“Fantastic! When do we start?” Hyperion rubbed his hands together in false eagerness. He was a good showman but I had known him too long. He would follow through and not complain but the body language was evident.

“We can go now. You can board the Maelstrom and send the Prancing Eagle to the docks.” I turned my back on him.

“Now? Like right now? Perhaps we can stop by the Shiny Platinum for a quick bite first?” Hyperion said as he followed me on board. Glint, his minotaur companion, took command of the Prancing Eagle, ordering it back into the air.

Kiara’s voice rang in my head, “Hunt. Now?”

“You and your sister are staying at the Shiny Platinum,” I responded to the cat in my head.

“We. Better. Hunters. Protect. Father.” She responded as Adrial went to the window.

“You are better hunters than me, but not this time,” I replied. As a compromise, I told her, “You can keep the mind link open.”

“Will. Watch. If. Die. Upset. I. Will. Be.” Her usually flat tone had some emotion in it. It was the first time I had sensed such strong emotion for Kiara. Her concern was palpable, and she understood the danger I was going into.

I suddenly got chills, “Watch?”

“Yes. Use. Your. Eyes.” As she said the words, I suddenly realized who was in complete control of the link. She could see what I was seeing. That had not been in the description of the beast essence.

“Can you make it so I can see with your eyes?” I asked after getting over my shock.

Kiara was seated at the forward window of the bridge, her tail twitching. She didn’t respond for a long time, and then I got some vertigo as my vision shifted, and I saw two things at once. I closed my eyes, and it was much easier to see through her sight. Kiara looked down at the city as we slowly flew to the Shiny Platinum. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but it could be useful. Except she controlled the vision feed and had to stop it. I needed to improve my own defenses against the tier-four ability. Maybe I made her too strong, too fast.

“Strong. Good.” Her voice echoed in my head. Yep, definitely too strong. Nothing to do about now but to only think happy thoughts about Kiara.

I guided the Maelstrom through her eyes and landed on the Shiny Platinum. Hyperion was gleeful as he descended the ramp to raced down into the restaurant before I could change my mind. I found Remy and left the cats with him. Kiara thought he smelled tasty, not that I needed to know that. Hyperion had two plates of food and boarded with me as I directed the Maelstrom back into the air and off to the Duskhunters residence.

This time, I landed in their small bailey. Relik was waiting at the bottom of the ramp, his favored oversized sword strapped to his back but numerous other weapons strapped on his person. None of his delve team were in sight. “Ready to go?” He asked in a deep, grinding, serious voice that emitted dangerous intent.

“Yes. I sabotaged the Maelstrom and took the aether crystals since it would be left unattended. Where is the best place to access the tunnels under the island?” I asked.

Relik laughed, “About nine miles south of here. Are we going to walk?” I looked back at the Maelstrom, feeling a little silly. I had assumed the access point was close to the Black Spire since the creature escaped them in the area.

“Is there no access point near the Black Spire?” I asked, trying to conceal my error.

“There is, but the last Maven Seeker killed was nine miles south of here. It is best if we use that access point. I have a few tricks that may help us locate it, but it is a slippery devil.” Relik announced.

“I was planning to use my lightning elementals,” I said, summoning one of the lightning drakes. Relik looked impressed, and I don’t think he had ever seen me use the spell before.

“That could be useful,” he slowly said.

“Would two be twice as useful?” A twin of the drake soon appeared next to the first. He clapped me on the back as we walked up the Maelstrom’s ramp. Hyperion had seen my cast the lightning elemental in Progenitor Dungeon and was not as impressed. Still having a spell construct do the fighting for us was much preferred.

It took me half an hour to repair and replace the aether crystals. Relik guided us to a small stone hill far to the south. We landed in a woodland, scaring a few deer. The families of the Triumvirate had controlled much of the undeveloped land on the islands, and hunting in the woods was restricted to just them. I wasn’t sure how that had changed since Loriel had ascended, but without wardens, the wildlife would be quickly hunted to extinction on the islands. I once again cut runes and stored the aether crystals from the Maelstrom.

The cave Relik led us to was freshly excavated. “The Maven Seekers traced seven access points to the tunnels and opened them up,” he explained while drawing two shorter swords. Both swords emitted a strong blue light as he stepped into the entrance. We followed as he descended deep down a rocky incline to open into a smooth, circular, bored passage. The walls were solid stone and slightly rubbed. The passage was roughly ten feet across. “They think some burrowing worm made most of the tunnels. Probably controlled by a mage. The walls are transmuted earth and ancient.”

“How ancient?” Hyperion asked, running his hand along them.

“Millennia. One of the Maven Seeker’s mages thought they were over fifty thousand years old,” Relik stated as he started moving to the left.

“I would like to talk with him if you have his name. I was always fascinated with the history of the Sphere and its creatures.” Hyperion said, his focus waning. I couldn’t tell if he was truly interested or just talking to hear himself.

“She is dead,” Relik said flatly. Relik stopped at the entrance to a larger room and knelt as he scanned the dancing shadows. “The creature trapped this room the first time the Seekers entered. I wear a device that helps me sense powerful creatures.”

“Really? How powerful am I?” Hyperion asked, grinning.

“You read like a tier four creature. Storme is closer to tier five,” Relik said, shutting up Hyperion for a moment. “We will hold here. Send your elementals to explore and see if they can stir up the shifter. He may be miles from here by now, but we can always try a different shaft if nothing comes up. Hyperion, watch our backs.”

I sent both lightning elementals away into the maze of tunnels with instructions to explore. I invested enough aether for them to remain for ten minutes. They both raced away to Relik’s approving nod.

There were two exits from the room, and the elementals split, and the flashing lights of their movement in the tunnels quickly vanished. As we waited, Relik asked, “Do you have any dark or low-light vision?”

“No. Just numerous sources of light.” I said, producing a half dozen artificed light stones. Both elves had low-light vision, which means they only needed a small amount of light to see.

“One of the creature’s defenses was a dense magic fog that filled the tunnels rapidly; it obscured everyone’s vision but his own. I have two counters to it. Explosive pellets and aetheric stone dust. The dust should pull the aether out of the spell cloud and dissipate it.”

Relik had obviously come well-prepared to deal with the threat, and I had just jumped into this like I was hunting a predictable dungeon creature, thinking we would find it, restrain it, and kill it. My two lightning drakes expired as they ran out of aether. I sent two more down the other tunnel, exiting the room, and looked back to find Hyperion cleaning his nails. I used the cleanliness spell on him, and he mumbled thanks. He was showing bordem, but I knew he was watching our backs.

The lightning drakes expired again, not finding anything. “It is like finding a copper in a dragon horde. It might not even be there,” Relik said after I informed him. “We will search in the other direction and direction.”

I nodded, and so far, the only good thing from this was that my lightning elemental spell had leveled up to sixteen. One more level, and I could select a new evolution. We walked back to the shaft we had come down, and I sent the drakes away. They wove back and forth as they disappeared around the bend.

About five minutes later, I lost connection to one of the lightning drakes. “Relik, one of the elementals expired early.”

Relik grunted in thought, “Hmmm, could’ve encountered a trap or some dead zone. The Seekers did find two rooms with anti-aether circles. That would have drained your elemental quickly.”

“They are intelligent. As long as it wasn’t restrained, it would have moved out of any aether-draining zone,” I replied.

Relik started preparing. Moving equipment on his body for ease of access. “Let’s go check it out then. I will lead. Keep sending elementals when they expire. How far do you think it got?”

I estimated the distance, “Maybe two miles.”

At every intersection, the elementals had left some scorch marks indicating the direction they had traveled. The problem was I could only feel the lightning elemental’s presence and did not know exactly where it was. We moved very cautiously and eventually ended up on a ledge in a sizable chasm. The chasm was lit with a blue-green glowing moss. One of the lightning drakes flashed below as it searched.

I set a privacy spell so our voices would not give away our presence. “Did the Maven Seekers find this chasm?” I looked up and down, and there had to be dozens of exits.

Relik surveyed the dimly lit shaft. “This and a half-dozen more like it. They used to open to the surface and were home to some subterranean race a long, long time ago. I suspect they found some loot in their exploration as well but didn’t tell anyone.”

The mention of loot perked up Hyperion, “Where did they find the treasures?”

“Probably deeper in the island. The island is over ten miles deep. I was only backup and called in when they encountered the shifter, but it used hit-and-run tactics, picking off the weakest members of the Maven Seekers. I think it was treating it like a game especially how some of the Seekers had been killed.” Relik replied indifferently. His career was life and death fights but still his coldness was chilling.

We stayed on the ledge and I kept sending elementals down. The aether belt was a huge help as it allowed me to recover aether rapidly and keep up the castings. I slowed down the casting after an hour and twelve elementals. Relik asked, “Is there a problem?”

“My aether dropped under half,” I replied. He probably didn’t realize it was a tier-five spell. If he knew how much aether I had been burning, he would have been shocked. For the next four hours, I staggered the elementals as they searched each of the exits.

“Where did the last one go?” I asked abruptly. Relik looked at me for confirmation. “Something destroyed it prematurely.”

Relik nodded and pointed deep down the chasm, “About two hundred yards down, on the far side.”

“Can you both fly?” I asked, casting my flight spell. Relik nodded, took out a potion, and drank it. Hyperion had a ring of glide, an advanced feather fall ring that let you move according to your will as you fell.

I sent an elemental ahead and followed it down, landing on the ledge Relik indicated. His potion was annoying since it was a faster form of the flight spell. I should really work on getting my flight spell a few evolutions. The burn marks from the elemental were evident and I sent the lightning elemental ahead and created another to follow. We all started making out way down then tunnel.

This tunnel was circular and coated in a glossy black resin. As we moved away from the light of the shaft, Relik produced his glowing swords once again. The first elemental suddenly ceased to be and my spell leveled. I halted the others as only a fight with a creature could have sped the leveling process. “It found something.”

Hyperion looked interested finally as he cracked his neck, “You know if there is more than one, we are probably going to die.”

Relik huffed a laugh, “No ring of recall, sun elf?”

“Shit, Darky, you have an instant teleport ring? Do you have more than one?” Hyperion turned to face the dark elf. He was saying it in good humor, and Relik grinned back at him.

“Just the one. I assumed you two came prepared. We can return to the surface if you want to end the hunt.” Relik said patiently. A recall ring was an expensive single-use artifact. It was actually two paired rings, and you left one behind where you wanted to be teleported to. When you used it, both rings and their aether crystals were consumed. The problem was the runic workings limited the distance teleported. An expensive set would only be good for a few miles.

“Where is your terminus?” Hyperion asked, getting fidgety. If Relik abandoned us mid-fight we didn’t stand a chance. I could always drag us both into my dimensional closet and not anchor it. The islands would float away and we would exit in the sky after clearing the orbit.

“I left it on the Maelstrom,” he said as I felt my second elemental perish. I immediately sent a fresh elemental down the tunnel as we continued slowly. The good thing about the elemental is they should be triggering the traps, and if they managed to attack the shifter, they could drain 1% of its aether.

My lightning elemental spell pushed to level seventeen, giving me a chance to evolve the spell. We were approaching combat, so I had a decision to make. I quickly sorted my top three choices to aid us. The first was to give me something like Kiara’s mental link to the elemental, letting me see and experience what they did. The second was to add flexibility to add a third elemental. And the last choice that might help us in this fight was to increase the aether drain from 1% to 3%.

I didn’t like being under the pressure of these circumstances to choose an evolution like this. I could feel the spell wanting to shift and develop like a living thing, waiting for my direction. If I had more information on how the elementals were doing against whatever they were fighting, it would help, but the fight was still a distance away.

I made my choice, and when the next elemental died, I created three elementals and sent them off together. Relik arched his eyebrow at me, so I felt the need to reply, “Just evolved the spell.”

We increased our pace a little as we followed the electric scorch marks on the floor. I lost contact with an elemental; it took almost a minute before the second one fell. The third fell shortly after the second. “Wait! The three elementals are dead.” Relik didn’t seem concerned, but he didn’t know they were tier-five elementals, either.

Constantly casting three elementals was going to deplete my aether reserves rapidly, so I shortened the duration from ten minutes to five minutes. I sent off the three with the command to use their breath weapon as much as possible. The breath weapon would carry the aether-depleting effect.

We arrived in a large chamber with a vast mural of faded images on the ceiling. Fresh scorch marks dotted the ancient artwork. I scanned the ceiling depicting some type of ritual with stout furry bipeds. Relik was already heading for an exit marked by lightning drakes. As we entered this new corridor, distant booms could be heard—the discharges of the breath weapon.

“It is retreating this way. Keep casting your elementals, and we might be able to surprise it.” Relik said, eagerness now in his voice. One of my elementals fell, and as soon as I could, I created another and sent it. It was clear the shifter was running now. The smell of ozone in the air was intense as we moved down this new corridor.

As we closed, a sinking feeling suddenly happened. My aether was already low, but I felt my aether drawn in and then sent back—no, it was a wave of aether. Was it on the surface, or was it the shifter? “Did you feel that?” A nervous Hyperion asked.

Relik nodded, “I am familiar with that pulse. Your dungeon just reopened, Storme.”

To confirm Relik’s information, my adamantine ring forced its presence into my mind, but Kiara was still present, and it was hard to connect to Sana. Kiara refused to break the link, “Not. Find. You. If. Leave.” She said tersely.

I did my best to communicate with Sana through the interference of Kiara, “We are fighting the shifter. Not now. I know about the dungeon.” I removed the ring and sent it to my dimensional space.

A hundred yards later, we approached a different shaft. The lightning elementals were high above us, harassing a hulking form, climbing rapidly along the walls. “Damn, it’s ugly,” Hyperion said.

Relik was concerned, “It’s going to the surface, Storme.”

“Did it feel the dungeon opening as well?” Hyperion asked innocently.

Relik and I looked at each other as if we were thinking the same thing. The shifter was going to try and hide in the Progenitor Dungeon.

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