Tread Lightly

The four of us surround the hole seemingly built by the Amikuk that leads underneath the Bonedunes. It's unlike most caves made of rock or granite, but instead of hardened sand and bits of roots entwined with mud. The signs of an Amikuk, as Virgil described.

I'm thrilled we don't have to fight that young Urayuli, as Virgil thought might be nearby. Something able to kill a dozen third Sigiled as an adolescent is not something I want to meet.

Once in front of the cave, We discuss our plans a bit before we enter the beast's den. Virgil opens up the planning with some knowledge and then asks for any ideas.

"Normally, dens have between five to six Amikuk, with the largest or eldest being the highest Sigiled. Seeing as we likely have an abnormal Amikuk, we can expect a bit more, but as they normally hunt during the day, all of them should be in here. Based on that, I can speculate we'll have about three or four 1st Sigiled, maybe one or two 2nd Sigiled, and a third Sigiled within here. Any ideas on how to do this?"

We all ponder any possible strategies. We will be outnumbered when we go in and likely outgunned as well. Knowing this, I look around for anything that might give me an idea of how we go in and kill these things to prevent a future threat.

Nothing comes to me at first, and neither does an idea come to Virgil or Vernon. But as we stand there, Dakota, the orange still-growing fox, sniffs the hole's edge into the earth dug by Amikuk. And his bright, fiery fur gives me an idea.

"Are the Amikuk flammable?"

Virgil turns to me and gives me an affirmative nod.

"Yeah, most things are. Fire is a powerful tool."

My plan comes a bit more together in his words.

"And a weapon. Vernon, can you use Kindling and coat the inside of the cave? Then, we can go in and lure them out, and when they follow us out, you can light the fire and burn them."

Vernon nods at this idea, and so does Virgil, but the older man has something else to add to the picture.

"That's a good idea. I hadn't thought of fire, I thought we just go in and fight them, but that's not ideal because it's their home turf. But how about instead of luring them out, we light the fire first? Vernon, you can create a Bubble and keep the smoke in, right? If we do that, the smoke with suffocate them, and they'll rush out at us."

The addition from Virgil is genius! Even if they don't rush out to escape the smoke and dig out, they will likely still be weak from suffocation. These lizards breathe air, not smoke, after all.

And using the skill Bubble, something Vernon learned when he was a 1st Sigil that can seal off air, smell, or sound to keep the smoke inside the cave, should work perfectly. Virgil told me about nearly every skill he and Vernon know while I was practicing Braided Strand Ether.

Virgil only knows six skills, Dark Sphere, Nightwhip, Whetting, Physical Enhancement, Farsight, Flicker, and Vigilance. Or at least the ones he's willing to share. Some he refuses to talk about, but I don't press the issue. All but Whetting Farsight and Physical enhancement are Sigil skills. Virgil wasn't lying when he said he was terrible at learning new Sigil skills. Most of the skills are self-explanatory as well, and I want to learn Farsight, but Whetting is more pressing. Another advantage in combat would be huge. He also has many passive bonuses from his Sigil, like night vision, speed, dexterity, short naps, and many other amazing things.

Vernon knows nearly a dozen skills from his training with the Hunters and two that Virgil taught him. Lightray, Kindling, Physical Enhancement, Farsight, Bubble, Alarm, Ignition, Radiance, Mirror, Spark, Puddle, Purity, Sink, and Beartrap. His skills are much more expansive and with less direct combat applications. Vernon also has fewer passive bonuses than Virgil, but his primarily include good memory, pattern recognition, navigation, and the ability to pick up skills easily, both Ether and not.

While I think about the Bubble skill being used among the other types, Vernon, however, has a warning about the skill.

"It's a decent idea, but doing both will drain me heavily. To do both at such a scale to be useful is taxing. Bubble is meant to close off the gaps in doors, not entire caves, and again, Kindling is for a small fire. I would also have to stand very close to use Bubble. Making skills happen from far away is a 6th Sigiled thing. Not a me thing."

Vernon, while admitting his limits, does have another idea.

"However, instead of using Bubble and draining myself, how about we cover the entrance with our sleeping bags and blankets? If we go deep enough, the fire shouldn't reach the clothes, only the smoke. I can make a few bear traps on the inside with Ether or some other kind of trap to catch them on their way out."

Virgil agrees, and so do I. This sounds solid.

"That'll work. I'll start setting up the wall of cloth. Wyatt, go in with Vernon to ensure he's safe while using Kindling."

"No problem."

The plan begins to develop. Fighting living, breathing, and corporeal things is much easier than ghosts, for they are incredibly hard to prepare for. Too many unknowns and resistances. Especially the Bakwas. Usually, you can try and keep the spirits out during sunrise and weaken them, but Bakwas disappear back into their realm before that.

With input from each person, we start our plan.

Virgil starts nailing sleeping bags, blankets, and other large pieces of cloth to connect them and cover the front of the cave, sealing it off. At the same time that he does his job, Vernon and I work our way into the den of Amikuks.

We're both dead silent, well as quiet as you can be when the sound of dripping liquid constantly rings and echoes against the walls of the burrow. Hopefully, the Amikuk just interpret what we're doing as rain. Virgil said they're relatively bright, but intelligent lizards are still really dumb.

Shallow and light steps are taken through the dark cave; we both have to crouch down as well because of the low ceiling of the cave made for the Amikuk. The lightest feet that touch the ground are Dakota's fox paws. I brought the little guy in to be a threat detector.

It's far too dark for either Vernon or me to see anything, but Dakota's nose doesn't have that issue. And the little guy has proven to be quite valuable in sensing danger. He was the first to notice the Bakwa when they appeared. I'm sure he would've also perceived the Short Horned Serpents had they not been sealed underground.

So, slowly we make our way deeper as Vernon releases highly flammable liquid into the cave. I'm the defender in case of us running into an Amikuk, Dakota is the spotter, and Vernon is our charge.

The dribbles of Kindling continue for a minute or so until Dakota begins to growl lowly at the bend of a corner. At the sign of danger, Vernon stops using his noise-making skill of Ether. I quickly reach to Dakota and pat his head, trying to get him to understand to be quiet.

Dakota does understand, thankfully, and stops growly, but I can feel all the hair on his head where I patted him stand up. The boy senses danger. A lot of it, too.

Vernon and I are so close that even in the almost pitch-black darkness, we can see each other. I mouth to him, utterly silent.

"Let's go back."

The man, only a few years older than me, shakes his head. Then, he mouths back to me using only his lips.

"Not enough. We need to go deeper. The smoke won't be enough."

Fuck. Fuck. Whatever Dakota growled at is nearby. Probably just in front of us around this corner. Damnit. Okay. I got this.

Nodding to Vernon so that he can see, I slowly move past him, careful not to make any noise. Once in front of him, I begin moving forward around the corner and peek around, looking for a sign of anything in this darkness.

But I can't see anything within my small range. Where is it? Slowly, I continue onward, looking at every nook and cranny of the cave with paranoia. Several steps later, though, I see and hear nothing. Dakota, however, moves up close to me and starts sniffing around in search of whatever he sensed earlier.

Quietly, I whisper to him.

"Where, boy? Is it up ahead?"

I stay close to him as he smells around the cave and its sides. Eventually, he stops at a patch of mud about waist-high. Then he backs up behind me and growls.

Is the Amikuk in the mud? They can move through mud and earth, right? That was a 2nd Sigil, too, I believe. Hopefully, the growl doesn't wake it up like last time.

Unfortunately, though, the growl is much closer to the monster in question this time. Just as I go to draw my daggers, the perfect weapons for these close quarters, I hear a deep scratching followed by gurgling. Right when my hands touch the hilts of my serpentine knives, the hidden Amikuk bursts out of the mud in a shower of dirt and sand.

The lizard slams me against the other side of the cave, kicking all the air out of me with a horn to the chest. I feel warm tangs of pain flow throughout me. I worry more for the fox, though, but thankfully, Dakota, the sensitive and reactive fox he is, dodges out of the way before I slam into him with the lizard.

Breathlessly, I push the Amikuk off of me with one hand and try to draw a dagger with the other. However, the Amikuk, a sizeable sandy lizard, disapproves of my actions as it bites the forearm I was trying to push it off with. As I wrestle with the giant lizard, more blood drips from me onto the dry sand.

But its powerful jaw is not all I have to deal with; the beast possesses Sigils. Thorny tendrils of roots that should not exist in the middle of the Bonedunes wrap around my limbs and fight against my strength just as I draw my knife. Not just that either, but the damned lizard begins excreting slippery mud from its scales that make it hard for me to hold onto it or push it off.

Frantically, I push a large amount of Ether into Adrenaline Surge to block out the bouts of pain and give me strength, using what I now know as Many Thread Ether to activate it quickly and beyond would it usually would do.

With this enhanced strength and no more distractions, I begin to truly fight back against the ambusher. Finally finding hard ground beneath me just from the effort, I push the lizard up and slam it against the opposite wall, near where it bursts out.

A cough comes from the Amikuk as I do so, and a ball of mud phlegm flies out of the lizard and into my eyes. Screaming with fire in my pupils, I loosen my hold for just a moment, and it takes advantage. The Amikuk bites my right hand with the serpentine knife and severs the spot between my thumb and index finger, making me drop the weapon.

Then, it assaults me once more as I am blinded and wounded already. But I am not alone. The fight might have only been a second or two so far, and Vernon has been given long enough to react at this point. The only bad part is that he can't use fire or his light-based Ether skills because it might light the Kindling. Which would obviously kill us as we're inside the den of monsters with an enormous amount of ignition.

Instead, he does the most un-Vernon-like thing I've ever seen, or more so heard and felt because I'm blind now from mud. He tackles the Amikuk off me and slams into it with his fists. After a single second of him fighting the Amikuk, Dakota joins in with the occasional grunts and bites that are audible.

I wipe my eyes to help, but the mud is sticky and won't come off quickly. So instead of wasting time trying to get it off, I also join the moshpit in the cave. Going purely by touch and sound, I find the lizard and wrap my arms around the slimy and muddy thing.

Yelling to Vernon, I hold onto the creature as tightly as possible in a bear hug.

"Get my knife and stab the fucker!"

I can hear Vernon's scrambling feet, and a brief blast of light pierces through the mud, letting me know he's using his light to search. The whole time, though, the lizard is going to town on me. Scratching with its claws, biting with its jaw, cutting with sandstone shards, and choking me with thorny roots.

Blinded but still full of fight, I struggle against the lizard for several moments until I hear it yowl in pain and turn away from me. I take this moment of peace to draw my dagger on my left, it's hard to do with my fucked up forearm, but with both hands together, I can hold it steady. Then, purely off of sound and the vibration of the lizard, I jump onto it once more and stab it blindly.

From there, Vernon and I skirmish with this Amikuk in the dark for a few more minutes, slowly draining it of blood and making it fall still. Dakota helps here and there by distracting the lizard with a bite or scratch here or there, but the fox is still too small to help much.

I hope he either grows oversized like these lizards or keeps his small size but grows incredibly deadly like a bullet.

Either way, it doesn't matter for right now. A minute or two after the initial growl from Dakota, we all three kneel, or lay in Dakota's case, in the cave and pant for air. I release Adrenaline Surge once it sounds like we're safe and that no more Amikuks are coming.

The air is stale but welcoming, especially after the suffocation the Amikuk tried to perform on me. It will be sweet to return the favor to its monstrous kind. Damn thing attacked me out of nowhere from within the wall.

Despite killing the first one, Vernon and I elect to keep quiet and continue to whisper. There is always a chance that the Amikuks just assumed their brethren won their bout.

"Phew. That was close. You good? It got you out of nowhere."

"Yeah, just a bit banged up. Hurry and finish your shit so we can get out."

"Okay, okay, I'll get on it."

Vernon follows my annoyed whisper as I attempt to wipe this mud off my face. It doesn't work. So instead, I take one of my knives and wait a few minutes for my hand to heal enough to hold the dagger and begin scraping away at the mud.

It's risky and definitely something I wouldn't do if I didn't have an artifact that can heal from just about anything.

If it can heal a broken spine, it can heal a stabbed eyeball.

I get my right eye clear with some effort, but my left eye is much more challenging, like the side was more sticky or something; I'm not sure, though. While I'm scraping away pieces of hardened mud that are more similar to clay, Vernon returns from his short trip around me to place more Kindling and knocks into me because of the dark.

I barely save my eye from being gored with the knife, precisely what I was being careful of. Thankfully, instead of losing the eye, it is only scratched and bleeding. I don't forget to go off on him about it, though I keep it to a whisper.

"Fuck! Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry. We're ready to go. I placed all that I think is needed."

"Okay, good. Give me a second to wipe the blood from my eyes."

"What were you doing?"

"Breaking the clay away from my eyes that it blinded me with, you almost made me lose an eye when you bumped into me."

"Shit, sorry, man."

"It's fine. Let's just get out of here before another one appears. C'mon, Dakota."

Quietly, trying to not shift as much dirt or make as few vibrations as possible to not alert the Amikuk, we make our way out of the upper part of the den full of Kindling.

Eventually, we return to the entrance, where light peeks out from an opening left in the block Virgil made while we were down there. I open the flap first and see Virgil standing, looking around the Bonedunes as if he's searching for something.

"What's up, Virgil? What are you looking for?"

He turns back, and he recoils upon seeing me.

"Holy shit, Wyatt, you're covered in blood, and your eyes! Are you guys alright?"

Virgil's freakout makes me look down, and I see my torn-up clothes covered in already dry blood. The Amikuk did a number on me, but the Bloody Palm has yet to meet its match, both dead or alive.

A dozen long gashes sew up before my eyes, tendrils of flesh knitting them together. The bite on my forearm is no longer see-through and is mostly recovered. The lashes on my neck and hands are mostly gone as well. I pull out some meat to eat to aid my left hand in recovering me as I push more Ether into Daydream, careful of the whispers that occur when I'm most hurt.

"I'm fine, just need a few moments to heal and eat real quick. Vernon, you ready to light the Kindling?"

Vernon nods as he hikes up the flap before breathing in sharply at seeing me.

"Damn, yeah, I'm really sorry 'bout walking into you; it was just really dark. Give me one sec to light it up."

The Lighteye holds up one hand as radiance begins to form within it, then he throws a ball of fiery light deep into the cave's darkness beyond the flap of cloth.

A single second passes without fanfare before a bright light emerges within the depths and briefly blinds our eyes that are used to the dark.

Alongside the spark of fire, piercing shrieks and hisses of reptiles from within the bottom of the cave. Rumbling begins to approach our position from inside the now lit-up cave.

Hearing these sounds, Vernon runs his hands over the edges of the cloth, using Bubble to seal the gaps.

Once he does, no more sound passes through the air and into our ears from inside the cave.

Without the shrieks and hisses, the only thing we now feel is the approaching rumble.