Part 38: Cave Monsters

Suma's POV"Hello?!" I called out."Hello?""Hello?""Hello?"With each new voice replying my anxiety grew. "How are they doing that? How are they using our voices?" Vindicta asked afraid."Paxus!" Von-Pac said quickly summoning his familiar. He had a good idea, one Vindicta and I quickly did as well."Argosa!" Vindicta yelled."Sentinel!" I shouted. Normally I would ask Jake first, but this was an emergency. "Jake, get ready for a fight! We are surrounded!" I said to him just as he fully appeared."What?" He started looking around carefully and quickly. "It's too dark I can't see!""Who is out there?!" Von-Pac called out. "Show yourself!" Once again, the creatures repeated our words. Jake looked around concerned while Vindicta panicked."Why are they doing that?" She asked scared."What are they doing?" Jake asked confused."Can you not hear them? They are repeating our words!" Von-Pac said still focusing on the surrounding darkness. Jake looked confused for a moment, then glared stunned into the darkness, then he started… laughing."HAHAHAHA… *gasp*… HAHAHAHA!" He then lowered the weapon that he had summoned after arriving."Are... are you laughing?" I asked dumbfounded."I'm... I'm... ahahahah… I'm sorry, I just… I can't believe… ahahahhaha!" Jake gasped and giggled."This is serious! Stop your laughing and get ready! Who knows what they want!" Von-Pac snapped. Jake laughed a bit more, but slowly regained his composure and started to explain."I'm sorry, it's just that there is no one out there. Those are just echoes." Jake told us."What are… echoes?" I asked.------------------------------------------------------------------------Jake's POV"Echoes are just sound waves bouncing off the hard rock walls, then coming back to us." I explained. "Things like this happen all the time on my world. My people live in places similar to this, so we hear echoes all the time. I guess since your people live in vine buildings, trees, or just tunnels too small for echoes to be of any substance, you haven't had to deal with them too much.""How can you be sure?" Von-Pac asked still unsure of my explanation."Let me show you," I said. I had an idea, I would use this opportunity to practice my fire magic, and create enough light to illuminate the huge cave I had been summoned into. I wasn't happy about being here again, but at least this place was open enough for me to stand up in. I sent away Destiny and Aegis, then focused on my spell. Fire is a strange thing; it is a byproduct of the high-energy converting chemical reaction that bonds oxygen and carbon into carbon-dioxide. It is technically a high-energy gas, so to make it all I need to do it burn some fuel. I first imagined gathering oxygen and a fuel to burn, in this case I decided to use hydrogen since it burns hotter and is already in the air, then I imagined heating them like I did the metal in the blacksmiths shop. Before I knew it, I had a seven-foot-wide ball of fire a few meters above our heads."Incredible…," Von-Pac said, "I have never seen such a pale blue flame.""It's so big," Vindicta said."Okay, now I will throw it over into the darkness and let it brighten up this dingy place." I joked. I then manipulated the spell and flung it into the darkness. I wish I hadn't done that… because we were not alone."What was that about waves of sound?" Von-Pac asked as he slowly made his way to a large opening in the wall."What... what are those things?" Vindicta asked. Along the walls of the cave were monsters of some kind, dog sized reptilian beasts I think, but I didn't get a good enough look before the light from my fireball faded away."I don't know, just get back into that tunnel." I told them as I summoned Aegis and Mori."Tunnel.""Tunnel.""Tunnel." The monsters echoed one after the other from the darkness, with what little light remained I was able to see that it was in fact these… things... that were echoing the sounds. Their mandibles clicked and twitched as they did. As quickly as I could manage, I created another fireball and moved it to the shadowed area in order to see those things again. This time I got a better look, they were covered from one end to the other in greenish scales, has long mandibles and tentacle-like feelers on their head. They had a lizard-like body, but their head seemed more like a cross between an insect and a fish. Their ears, or what I assumed were their ears, looked more like protruding fins from a fish's side."Everyone get into the tunnel; I will close the entrance again." Von-Pac said."Suma, as soon as Von-Pac does that, unsummon me." I told her, keeping an eye on the creatures. They were each beginning to turn and crawl towards us, so I really didn't want to stay any longer. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, like it was going to explode, my ears were ringing, and there was an unswallowable lump in my throat… I really didn't want to be eaten by a lizard ant thing."I am not going to simply leave you with those things!" Suma yelled. When she raised her voice, some of the creatures twitched and slithered closer."Yes… yes you are, just for a few seconds." I told her urgently. I turned away from the monsters for just a moment and picked Suma up to place her into the tunnel, where Von-Pac and Vindicta had already gone into. Kneeling down and tossing her inside, I turned to Von-Pac and said, "Close it." I was trying to be careful not to raise my voice. He collapsed the tunnel as soon as everyone was inside. I turned around and realized I was now face to disgusting scaley face with one of those beasts.------------------------------------------------------------------------Suma's POVJake roughly and quickly tossed me back into the tunnel we had come from, then Von-Pac closed the entrance he made. I scrabbled back straight and unsummoned Jake as soon as I could. "JAKE… JAKE!" I cried out desperately."I'm fine, I'm back home now, get out of that tunnel!" He shouted; we did not argue. We flew away as fast as we could manage, each of us took turns collapsing sections of the tunnel as we went just in case they were following us. Von-Pac used Nature magic as best he could to seal the collapsed areas, but he was now completely out of mana, so Vindicta and I simply had to do our best, but neither of us specialized in that type so it was not perfect. If the trip to that opening felt long, then the trip away from it was an eternity, but we went as fast as we could manage. There was no care about safety while flying, several times I clipped a wing in the narrow tunnel, but I forced myself to power through and not slow the others down."I see a light; we are almost there!" Vindicta shouted."I do not think they are following us, but do not slow down. As soon as we exit the tunnel fly up and towards the peak. We need to be sure we are safe, so I will seal the exit as best as I can." Von-Pac stated."But you're almost out of mana." Vindicta pointed out."I will summon Paxus, I can use his mana." He said."Great plan, but you need mana for a summoning, and you are out." I reminded him. "Jake has enough mana, we can use him." I suggested. Normally, I would want to ask Jake before doing something like this, but I feel like he would agree."Fine," Von-Pac agreed. We shot out of the cave, and I summoned Jake."SENTINEL!" I shouted. Jake began to appear before me, but something was wrong, he was laying on the ground, and had blood running down his arm! "Jake!"------------------------------------------------------------------------Vindicta's POV"Jake!" Suma yelled and fluttered over to stand by his head."Is he okay?" I asked concerned."The summoning is already healing him, but…" She stopped and seemed rattled. "He says he cannot move.""I did not hear him say anything." Von-Pac said tiredly walking closer."It was over our private connection," She explained. I was stunned, I had no idea a familiar and a master could communicate both ways via private connection. I had only ever used mine to give Argosa commands, and I know she has never used it to talk to me. Of course, she can't actually talk."Did he say what happened?" I asked."He says that after we closed the tunnel, one of those creatures bit his arm. He knocked it off easily, but once I unsummoned him, he lost the ability to move." She explained."That creature must have had some kind of paralytic venom." Von-Pac suggested. While we were talking, Suma was already casting healing spells and Jake was slowly regaining his movement."Jake, Von-Pac needs mana in order to seal the cave, can he borrow some of yours?" Suma asked."F-fi…," Jake tried to say."Do it," Suma confirmed after Jake gave up and laid back down. Von-Pac came closer and placed both of the tips of his wings on Jake's body. Jake, in turn, closed his eyes, and in a few moments, Von-Pac was surrounded in a brilliant dark blue and purple display. Light shined from his body as if he were ablaze. "Von-Pac, Jake has Inversion Magic, so do not try to heal anyone until his mana has left your body completely." Von-Pac said nothing, but nodded that he understood; each and every one of his feathers were puffed up. He slowly turned to the cave and cast a single spell, it appeared to be small, but the effect was extreme. I watched as the cave collapsed in on itself from as far into it as I could see, and based on the sound I imagine it went even deeper than that. With a thunderous cacophony, the last of the cave was sealed, but Von-Pac wasn't done yet. He cast another spell that hardened and changed the color of the dirt, turning it into stone."Incredible." I whispered.------------------------------------------------------------------------Von-Pac's POVThe power I felt was incredible, like the unstoppable surge of an overflowing river, and I was nearly swept away by it. "Von-Pac, Jake has Inversion Magic, so do not try to heal anyone until his mana has left your body completely." Suma said, but I could barely hear her. I was so overwhelmed that I could not even bring myself to speak, but I could act. I turned and cast a spell, I used as much control and power as I could muster, and the effect was far greater than I imagined. I cannot be sure, but I think I collapsed the cave for several minutes of flight time."Incredible." I heard someone say softly. After I cast the spell, I could still feel some of that power lingering. I examined myself, it seems I was surrounded in a display, but it was not my normal color. This one was a dark blue, with hints of purple, whereas mine is normally a light green; not that I make a habit of showing off with displays like some haughty buffoon."When will this display fade?" I asked."In a few minutes, but you need to use up the mana Jake gave you first." Suma explained."I could try to heal-" I offered, but was cut off."NO!" Suma yelled. "I told you, you cannot heal anyone with Jake's mana.""But this power, I am sure-""NO! Your healing spell would only be inverted, right now you do not have access to any order magic." She said."But the nature spell worked." I pointed out."Nature magic cannot be inverted, there is no opposite to nature. But if you tried casting a healing spell, it would be inverted." She told me."To what?" Vindicta asked."Death Magic." Suma said.------------------------------------------------------------------------Lauric Isbala's POVMy group and I finally arrived after our long travel, with our prize in tow. Our familiars were tired, so we sent them off to rest as we located the drill instructor. He seemed surprised when he saw us. "Back already?" He asked. "I hope the beasts of the mountainside didn't prove too much to you.""No sir," I said, "We have the bands." One of the Neame I was traveling with raised the leg that we had tied it around."Well then," he said sounding impressed, but did not let it show much, "that makes your group the winner. No one else has arrived yet. Go get some food and sleep… dismissed." With that, we left and went to eat."I'm going to enjoy that extra hour of sleep tomorrow." One of the other Neame said stretching out his wings."Me too," the other agreed."As will I," I stated. "I must say, you two did well.""We made a good team," the first one said. The other nodded in agreement. They were not wrong, our three skills and the individual natures of our familiars worked well together."Perhaps we can work together again in our next training session." I suggested. They seemed appreciable to the suggestion and agreed.