The Grand Weave

The shock of finding myself in a dungeon stung a lot less after having survived the rift. I doubted my experiences with the world of Inoria so far were considered normal. Still, it helped kill the fear I should have felt in finding myself stuck in an unknown dungeon without even being a tier one. It was almost relaxing to think that I was in a normal place filled with magical monsters, the kind of monsters that didn't magically appear because of some crazy story-driven scenario.

With the girls on my shoulders again, we proceeded down the maze of tunnels. Outside of the one encounter with the spider, it was a peaceful walk. It was such an uneventful time that I would have preferred a tunnel filled with monsters instead. That was until I'd look at the single dagger in my hand and decided I was better off not having giant monsters attack me at every turn.

Eventually, the walk ended when the tunnel turned into something new. Instead of branching options of going left or right, the new options were going up and down. Somehow, I ended up finding the dungeon's stairs. From the primer that Brelten gave me, dungeons with multiple floors always contained a safe zone. The safe zone was usually a small expanse or area between floors. Nobody was sure why dungeons had this feature, but they did. My only problem now was that I didn't know if the correct option was to go up or down.

I had no clue what dungeon I was in, not that I even knew any dungeons outside of the one near Edolus. Zharia and Áine gave no opinions and left it up to me. Usually, if this were a story or a videogame, there'd be some mysterious clue or gut feeling telling me which direction to go. Sadly, that wasn't something I could rely on. So, in the end, I chose the tried and true method of letting fate decide.

Pulling a silver coin out of my pocket, I flipped it as high as the ceiling allowed and caught it in my other hand. Zharia turned her head in a charming motion that made me chuckle.

"Master? What are you doing?" Zharia asked.

"Leaving our lives up to the nebulous concept of chance and luck. Pick a side, heads, or tails. Whatever you pick will be up, and the opposite will be down," I replied.

"Tails"

I dramatically smacked the coin down on the top of my other hand and revealed our fate. It was tails. "Looks like we're going upwards, girls. Let's hope this doesn't bite us in the arse later."

It didn't take long to find the safe area. It was no bigger than a small room. There was enough space to make a fire and still have room for sleeping bags. I read that not all safe spaces were this small or even this big. It varied on the dungeon. We were even lucky to find a dungeon stairway that went both directions. Usually, a dungeon would put the stairways on the opposite ends of each floor. It gave me hope that we could exit the dungeon faster.

I only rested briefly in the safe area due to not being that tired. I did wait long enough for the cooldown on Spirit Lord's Invocation to reset. Thankfully, Áine understood why I didn't want to risk using the skill again in case I needed it for a fight. I was curious as to how the skill would augment Áine's healing touch.

When I reached the end of the staircase, I cursed softly. The dungeon wasn't so nice as to connect the stairwells throughout every floor. Reaching the last step, I was greeted with a completely different sight than the expected tunnels. Before my eyes stretching out into a massive cavern, was an underground lake.

The water was aglow with what, at first, I thought was lava, but upon closer inspection, was glowing crystals. The dark walls with the glowing crystals bathed everything in a pretty orange colour. Thanks to my perks, I couldn't feel the heat so much, but when I dipped my hand in the water, it was very warm. If I didn't know monsters were probably lurking deep in the lake, I would have wanted to take a swim and take in the sight.

I couldn't see the next stairwell, but I assumed it was on the other side of the lake. Since I didn't want to risk going into the water, I stuck to the edge and walked. At times, when the water extended over the path, I was forced to play hopscotch and leapfrog rock to rock. Slowly but surely, I made my way deeper into the cavern. Near the middle, I reached one of the giant glowing crystals and approached carefully.

The crystal was warmer than the lake and seemed to generate its own heat. Now that I was closer, I could see bundles of orange-red energy inside the crystal spread out like neurons. The thing reminded me of one of those Himalayan salt lamps you could buy at the store. When I tried to scratch the crystal with my claws, I was unable to damage it. Zharia, who was waiting for me to confirm if the thing was safe, jumped off my shoulder and landed on my hand. She took a few inquisitive pecks and then rubbed her head against the crystal.

Surprised at the behavior, I watched her for a dozen seconds before lightly bopping her on the head. "Enjoying yourself there?"I asked.

"Mmmmmm, yes, I am. These are filled with fire mana. They don't generate flames, but the energy feels good. Can we take this, Master?" she replied in a dreamy voice.

I bopped her on the head again and shook my head. "There's no way I can mine out this giant crystal. I understand Chomperz has a huge stomach, but this is too big for even him," I replied. After looking around, I spotted smaller growths of crystals. With a few aimed stomps, I was able to break them free. "Here you go. I'll grab a few more of these. Maybe we can sell them later if they're valuable."

I chuckled at the flood of refusal and betrayal sent through our connection. I was okay with putting aside monetary gain if she really wanted the crystals. I managed to break off two more hand-sized crystals and another one about the length of my forearm. After Chomperz swallowed them all, I continued my journey across the cavern.

As I made it past a small bridge of patchy stone, I nearly slipped when the whole cavern shook. I managed to stop myself from falling into the lake when a wave of water smashed into my back and threw me forward. Before I could land in the water, I threw my familiars into the air and trusted their ability to fly. Zharia's squawks rang in my ears before I plunged into the lake.

Like the outside, I could not see past my hand, and another quake worsened the turbulent waters. I flailed frantically as I tried to keep my head pointed to the surface but failed when a large piece of stone smashed into my shoulder. The hit caused me to gasp in shock, and I involuntarily sucked into a mouthful of water. Vaguely I could see blood starting to dye the water around me red.

After sputtering out as much water as possible, I looked to where the light was coming from and orientated myself in that direction. When my head broke the surface, I saw that I had appeared several meters away from where I had fallen.

Áine was the first to see me, and I watched her use her glowing hands to signal Zharia's attention. While they flew over to me, I swam to the nearest dry ground and pulled myself up and out of the water. After dragging myself further ashore, I coughed up as much water as possible. Áine landed beside my arm and started to heal me. I felt the gash on my shoulder heal up.

"Thank you, Áine,"

She gave me a gentle boop on the nose before flying back into the air to where Zharia was hovering.

"Master?! Are you okay? I wanted to save you, but I can't enter the water," Zharia chirped sadly.

Brushing myself off, I stood up and tried to wring out my clothes, but my armour was in the way, and I didn't want to risk taking it off. "I'm fine now, Zharia. Did you guys see what happened?" I asked as I looked around the cavern.

"Not really, Master. But! I did see a bright flash of light coming from over there," she replied while motioning with her head.

Where she motioned was to the west of where I was standing. The pathway led to a mound of stone with several long stalactites blocking vision beyond it. I wasn't sure how I missed the flash of light she saw, but the large obstacles in the way seemed the most likely suspect. I decided to have the two scout ahead for me and see if they could spot what caused the cavern to shake.

As I dumped out the water stuck in my boots, my familiars came back in a rush and landed on my shoulders. "What did you find?"

"Fire..."

"Big, nasty, snake people! And four humans! One was on fire!"

Along with their words were a rush of thoughts and vague descriptions of what they saw. From the information I received, things were not looking good for the group of adventurers. I shoved my boots back on and took off.

When we reached the top of the hill, I was able to see what the girls saw. In a semicircle around the humans were six monsters that looked like nagas. They had the upper body of a human, and below the waist, where you would expect legs, was the long tail of a serpent. Crimson-coloured scales adorned their body converging heavily on their arms and face. Two had what looked like tridents made from crystals and stone, while the other four had basic-looking spears made of the same material. With the raging flames in the background, the monsters made for an imposing sight.

The four humans were not looking too good themselves. I quickly spotted the one that Zharia said was on fire. The fire had been put out, but more than half of the woman's face was charred and bleeding. You could still see smoke rising off her body as she lay against the wall with a staff braced in her arms. The other three stood over her with their weapons out, huddled together as they stared at the surrounding monsters.

"What are we going to do, Master?" Zharia chirped.

I could pull out a dozen excuses as to why helping them would be beneficial in some way, yet I wouldn't. There was no point to it. Besides, Sam would have called me all kinds of names if she saw me hesitate. And thinking of Sam brought back thoughts I did not want in my head at the moment. They were, however, a good source of fuel for a simmering rage to build up inside me. And with that rage came an increasing desire to burn something to ash.

"Áine, Do me a favour and fly up high above the group. If something happens to me, be prepared to dive in and heal. I'd love for you to rush over to the burned one, but we don't know how they'll react to you." I spoke quickly. Áine gave me a nod in confirmation, and then I turned to Zharia. "I'm going to use the skill again. Are you ready?"

Her feathers puffed up, and a wave of excitement and anticipation was sent through the connection. And underneath all that was a simple desire. It was a desire to make things burn.

I made sure to lower myself behind the hill so the skill's activation wouldn't give me away before I attacked. Zharia dissolved into motes of golden light and settled over my skin. I tried to will the flames so that they didn't shoot up into the air, but I wasn't able to completely smother the pillar of fire that erupted from my body. After the transformation settled, I felt a bubbling energy roil through me in waves. It made me even more excited to begin.

Despite my body singing for battle, I tamped it down and planned my entrance. With the inability to fly or walk on water, I could only do one thing. I silently lowered myself from the hill and began sprinting as quietly as possible. With the amount of noise produced by the crackling fire and the plethora of angry hissing from the dungeon monsters, I hoped my approach would go unnoticed.

I made it about halfway to my desired distance to start roasting them, but one of the spear-wielding nagas turned toward me and saw me coming. When it began loudly hissing and drew the attention of the others, I ditched all restraint and ran full tilt. The closest naga reared up its body, raising its already tall figure to tower over me with the spear poised to impale me to the ground.

Before it could strike, I held out both of my hands and channeled as much mana as possible into a cone of fire. The golden flames shot out with a roar and engulfed the monster. I didn't spare the time to watch it flail about like an enraged wrecking ball. The sudden appearance of the gold fire caused the other three spear-wielders to spread out. I channeled more mana and blasted out fire from each hand, creating a one hundred and eighty-degrees blast zone. The flames mixed with the fire that was already there and caused them to grow until they were over six feet tall.

I couldn't help but grin with the adrenaline running through me. It felt good to unleash burning mayhem. I was forced to choke back on my excitement when one of the nagas coiled itself like a spring and shot at me like a bullet. Hastily raising my left arm to block the spear aiming for my heart, I felt the crystal spear tip slice through my vambraces like butter. The blade managed to cut a burning line up to my elbow.

In response, I shot a ball of fire at the monster. It tried to dodge out of the way, but it was only partially successful. The golden flames engulfed the lower half of its body, causing it to falter mid-slither and crash into the ground. With two down, I was faced with the last two spearmen. The two trident wielders were stuck facing the adventurers, having used my battle as a distraction.

I could feel Zharia's thoughts when I saw the two monsters surrounding me on both sides. Wary of their ability to launch themselves at me faster than I could physically react, I backed up until my back hit one of the cavern walls. I had a wall of fire to my right, and I could vaguely feel the empowered flames burning next to me. When the monsters kept approaching, I started channeling my mana. I let it build until the feathers on my body started lighting up the way Zharia does when she's excited. The coil of flames spiraled around my arms and reached my chest. The two nagas coiled themselves, and before they could launch at me, I unleashed a torrent of fire. The rush of flames blasted out, and I saw the monsters' eyes widen as the wave of death approached. I fully expected the two monsters to become charred corpses in the next few seconds, but the tallest of the bunch held out its spear.

Around the monster's neck was a necklace made of crystals and colorful stones. I had a bad feeling when I watched the crystals glow brightly before the wave of fire hit. I felt a weird resistance and then a tugging sensation as I watched my flames start to curve out of my control. The fire made a vortex in front of the naga wearing the necklace and began to disappear. After seeing the fire act weirdly, I tried to cut off my channeling but found myself unable to. The tugging sensation increased, and the drain on my mana started to become uncomfortable.

Seconds passed, and the drain increased. By the tenth second, a large chunk of my mana pool had been drained. By now, the vortex of golden fire between me and the monsters had started to spread. When my mana pool decreased by over half, the connection suddenly cut off, and I felt my body give out on the spot. As I hit the ground, I heard the tinkling sound of shattered glass. Alarm bells were going off in my head, but the sudden spike of mana loss made my head swim. When I looked up, I saw the vortex pulse once before rushing into a singular point before the monster's neck.

The orb exploded with an ear-shattering roar and set the world on fire.