46. Critical

Standing tall after its meal the monstrous mass of weaponized limbs turned its many eyes at the group. It took slow measured paces towards the group. Each step reverberated the ground. Zed spoke up in a shaking tone. "This is the end fellas, best of luck to you all!" Zed then lit up with lightning like he normally did before he took off as incredible speed and vanished from the spot he was standing in.

Contrary to what the whole group believed would happen, Zed did not engage the monster but left, completely. He was now no where to be found, leaving the four of them with the beast. Wyden quickly saw what had happened and attempted to follow suit. "You wouldn't dare!" Cerone yelled at Wyden as a portal opened in front of him. "You know you can't leave the umbral yet Wyden!" Wyden gave a pitted look, "Yeah, but I can get away from here. Can't risk it getting through. You get it." Cerone rushed forward as Wyden disappeared into the portal, it closed behind him with a snap, severing the connection.

"YOU FUCKING COWARD!" Cerone shouted at the air. The monster was now standing just before them. It leaned down slowly. Tentacles filled with fangs reached out. Cerone began readying fire magic and Alyssa took a deep breath, but Castus shouted before either could do anything. "SHI YOUR ALIVE!"

Castus' now remaining two comrades looked bewildered. That thing wasn't the shy and kind Shi, what did he mean. Castus looked over. "Look at the chest, past the tentacles. Thats Rys!" Both of them backed away from the approaching tentacles, but indeed, under the swarms of appendages was Rys, out like a light and clearly injured, but it was him. Alyssa and Cerone stood down for a second looking at the beast. "Shi, it's us! Remember the promise!" Castus shouted out again as the tentacles refused to stop approaching.

Cerone and Alyssa joined in, collectively shouting at what they were sure was Shi. The noise had begun to attract other beast towards them. A rocky covered animal lashed out at Shi. The tentacles halted and Shi turned slamming the creature hard and began a match of physical prowess against it. Castus turned to the others. I think Shi is effected by the umbral, like all these other beasts. We need to get Shi away from here. They were still near the entrance they had used earlier. Looking back at Shi's clawed arms rip the poor animal to shred they moved slowly to the entrance. Monsters had stopped pouring in and the massive battle was in full swing right now. Shi finished the animal off and turned to look at the group again. Slowly lumbering over, Shi followed.

Slowly they lured Shi away from the massive bloodbath. After a few minutes the beastly nature of Shi started to recede ever so slowly. By the time the massive battle was out of earshot, Shi had returned to the much more human form Shi normally took. Shi was holding Rys and stumbled forward, falling on the ground. Cerone and Castus locked eyes and they picked up both of them. Cerone picked up Rys and Castus took Shi. They then began to quickly run towards the outer edges of the umbral.

The journey was smooth, it was like nothing was left in the caverns besides them. They had gotten a good distance away and had laid both Shi and Rys on the ground. Shi seemed to only be tired, but Rys was constantly sweating and seemed to be seriously hurt. His right leg had a nasty wound that had been quickly packed with medicinal herbs. It seemed to be infected. They all caught their breath and stared at their two recovered comrades.

"Fuck Wyden and Zed, they left us to die. I mean Wyden could have opened a portal for all of us. He left us as bait so it wouldn't follow." Cerone cursed the two traitors. Castus felt the same but remained quiet. He was thinking about the free for all battle in the depths that was still happening. "Cerone, Alyssa, I think the umbral is going critical soon. Why else would everything rush to the center all at once." We need to be prepared for a super powerful creature to come rushing out at us."

They all agreed and the made sure to move at a moment's notice. There they rested, for two hours nothing occurred. The third hour the cavern began to rumble. The annoying pressure that Castus had felt all this time receded completely. Rather than relief Castus felt angry, like something was stolen from him. He shook it off as just being tired. They had been running on minimal sleep all this time anyway. The shaking increased steadily as they sat. The three of them stood up. Castus carrying Shi and Cerone carrying Rys, leaving Alyssa to scout. It reached a peak and a chorus of snapping sounds occurred. Not from the cavern collapsing though. It sounded like claws opening and snapping shut continuously. They waited for another half hour, but the shaking stopped, and nothing came after them. Slowly they left the cavern.

As they walked Castus asked a seemingly simple question that he had never thought of before. "Hey why can't we just leave the umbral whenever we want?" Cerone looked at Castus with a surprised expression. "An umbral is formed of a twisted mana. Once you enter you absorb some of it. At first its not much, so if you walk into one and leave within a second or two you will be fine, but once you take that first breath you have too much in your body. If you leave with that mana in you, it reacts negatively with the regular mana, causing a chain reaction that will tear most anything to pieces." Castus nodded in understanding.

"So why can we leave now?" He probed further. "I think its because when the umbral is claimed all that remaining mana is taken back, allowing anything left alive to carry on as normal." It made sense to Castus, but why did this form, were they made? He shook his head and they left the cavern behind.

They exited out of a different entrance than the one they entered through. It was a small hole in a rather flat plain. Stepping out into the darkness of the night the three of them looked back in the direction they came from. Far in the distance they could see flashes of light and fires. No doubt that creature that awakened was on a rampage now. They set off in a different direction. The cover of night would allow them to get some distance from the umbral. They were free at last. They only counted five now, but they were free at least. Castus wanted to do so many things, but he had to set his priorities straight. The first issue was Rys. He wasn't doing well and needed medical treatment soon. They marched on during the night as the sun slowly ate the darkness of the night until light covered the landscape.

Once the light had covered the land they set Rys and Shi down and took to setting up a makeshift camp for them. Castus showed them he could make food and water eliminating the issue of supplies for the meantime, but they would need to find a healer and fast. Before everyone took some time to sleep, they looked around, seeing no civilization as far as they could see.

"I guess we will just head away from the battle for now." Alyssa sarcastically spoke trying in her usual way to lighten the mood. Castus huffed a half chuckle in response. "We should get some rest for now. I think moving as soon as we can would be best." Castus had serious concerns about if Rys could make it. His normally charcoal color had faded, turning an extremely light grey.

The three of them slept for a few hours then picked up moving. For hours they would slog through that vast plain when Cerone called out, spotting a few buildings. Though the group was in need of another rest the thought of a good bed reinvigorated them as they marched on. Just as the sun had begun to set again they made it to the town entrance.

Town was an overstatement for this place. It was more of a farming village. There wasn't more than fifty houses and most of the area around the town was planted with a crop. It was late spring so some saplings had started to sprout.

They entered the town with the sun to their back. A scant amount of people spotted them and a few rushed off. Not a minute later and older gentleman with an arched back and grey hair arrived. He spoke, but no one understood him. Castus stepped forward trying to speak slowly. "This is my friend. He needs help. Healing. Please." Castus repeated this a few times and an old woman came up next to the old man.

"You speak Ryden and not Morden. Why is that?"She hissed as she spoke, displeased by their lack of local language. Cerone took the initiative to respond. "We were slaves during the war, but after our master died we were able to escape. We came to Morden to escape any pursuit." She spoke eloquently, the half lie and carefully omitted details weaved a wonderful story of desperate children. Cerone was certainly good with words.

The lie worked like a charm too. The woman's original scowl softened into worry and heartache. "Oh dear. You poor children." She then turned to the old man next to her and spoke in what Castus now knew was Morden. The man nodded his head slowly. Then spoke back. The woman smiled happily. "Come with us. We have room for you all since our children left this town for a greater life in a big city. We don't have much in the way of money or material goods, but we always eat well out here."

The woman shuffled away, leading the group to a rustic looking house. The inside was plain, giving truth to the woman's words. A small living area with a dining table and three adjacent rooms with beds made up most of the houses available space. The remaining area was for the kitchen. Castus and Cerone carried Rys and Shi into one of the rooms and laid them down on a bed. Returning to the living area Castus could hear Alyssa talking with the woman.