Chapter 8 - Taming the Tunnels (5th E)

Hope for salvation had got Ren distracted.

For one terrible moment, he floated in darkness, his stomach lurching as gravity claimed its prey.

His back bashed against a sharp slope. Some items flew from its bag as he slipped.

The boy twisted in his own axis, clawing at the earth, but to no avail.

As panic mounted and his fingers managed to sink a bit deeper into the ground, although doing an insignificant contribution to slow his fall, he saw it…

His father's small kitchen knife and the flint trailed in front of him. In an act of pure instinct, Ren grabbed the knife. The blade plunged into the tunnel wall, finally decelerating his fall with strength he didn't know he had.

Earth and stones rained around him, striking his face, getting in his eyes… but he stopped at last.

Above, the Mirror Mantis stopped at the hole's edge. Its broken plates created a sickly kaleidoscope of fragmented moons.

The creature tilted its triangular head, evaluating… slightly confused, but mostly hungry.

"No, no, no..." Ren kicked at the wall, searching for a foothold.

The knife was slipping.

Luck was yet to be on his side… The earth crumbled and Ren fell again.

The Mantis jumped just seconds behind him.

Its scythes gleamed in the darkness as it fell. Ren saw his life flash before his eyes, ten short years that would end in darkness, far from his parents, without even the chance to…

A deafening roar shook the tunnel.

The image of the excavator catching him made him drive the knife back in, and in his desperation, he saw a small tunnel beside him.

The parallel tunnel was narrow, barely wide enough for Ren to crawl through. Without thinking, Ren pushed himself toward the tunnel.

But the mantis caught up.

However, just before it could grab Ren as he entered the tunnel…

The wall beneath the mantis opened, revealing the monstrous head of a Night Excavator.

The beast had been hibernating, storing what little mana was available, when the collapse had awakened it.

And now it was hungry.

The weakened Mirror Mantis twisted in the air, its scythes finding excavator flesh instead of its original prey. The Excavator roared in pain, then used its huge claws to catch its attacker.

Ren was paralyzed with terror. 

Less than two meters away, two nightmarish beasts fought in a deadly dance. The Mantis's broken plates created chaotic flashes in the darkness while the Excavator tried to drag its prey into the depths.

He crawled, but the tunnel was too short. It led to a bigger chamber with multiple beast entrances.

To his right, almost invisible in the darkness, Ren distinguished an opening. A different tunnel, its walls weirdly smoothed. As if man made.

He had no choice. It seemed like the better option, and… The winner would be decided soon.

He crawled out the small tunnel while 3 m behind him the battle reached its climax.

The Mantis's metallic shriek mixed with the Excavator's roar. There was a horrible crunch, and then...

Silence.

Ren crawled away from the edge, his breathing was so loud he feared the winning beast might hear him.

'I'm alive,' he thought, incredulous.

The mushrooms in his hair provided the only light in the tunnel's absolute darkness, their weak glow barely sufficient to see his own trembling hands.

"Please let the excavator have won, please let the excavator have won," Ren muttered while crawling as fast as he could.

Night Excavators were territorial and slow, if it won the battle, it would take its time devouring its prey before considering pursuing him.

But if the Mantis won...

A victorious shriek made his blood freeze. It wasn't the deep roar he'd hoped to hear.

"No, no, no..."

The mushrooms in his hair barely illuminated the path when a fork appeared before him. The right tunnel was irregular, clearly the work of some beast. But the left one...

Ren stopped, panting. 

The walls were too smooth, too perfect again. Exactly as his father had described in his stories:

"As if someone had melted the stone itself, son. A tunnel of the ancients, from when humans lived here and shaped rock with beautiful geometrical magic."

Behind him, the wet sound of flesh being torn made him nauseous. The Mantis was feeding. But one meal was all it needed to regain strength and keep hunting.

Ren entered the new ancient tunnel.

Now in a much more spacious place... The mushrooms in his hair revealed marks on the walls, symbols he couldn't understand but that were definitely not natural.

This had to be his father's tunnel. It seemed to stretch eternally into darkness as he advanced deeper.

♢♢♢♢

Ren had maintained a quick pace for what felt like hours, driven by fear and adrenaline.

Now his legs trembled from the effort, and his breathing was heavy.

He stopped, leaning against the wall of the tunnel.

Exhausted.

Remembering what his father said about berries helping recover energy and sharpening the mind...

He took a handful from his bag and chewed them slowly.

 As Ren savored the berries, he realized there was no need for wood, the flint or even try to light a torch. Ren had been cursing them since he'd invoked them, but now…

They had saved him, given him a weak but decent light, and he didn't even need to worry about 'fire in a cave' as his father said.

"At least you're good for something," he murmured to the spore, still fused with him. "Even if just as a lamp."

Now, with a clearer mind, he began to examine his situation.

According to his father's map, he should have found the exit by now. Had he taken a wrong turn? Chosen the wrong tunnel?

He let himself drop to the ground, his legs grateful for the rest. The water from his canteen was lukewarm, but had never tasted better.

While catching his breath, he studied the mysterious symbols on the walls. Some seemed to respond weakly to his mushrooms' light, as if they recognized something in their faint glow.

"I suppose I should thank you for the thing with the toads too," he continued, surprising himself by talking to the world's weakest creature. "Though it was pure luck. You probably didn't even know what you were doi…"

A distant echo interrupted his words. The unmistakable sound of metal against stone, followed by that blood-freezing hungry shrill.

The Mantis had finished feeding.

And this time there would be no more Excavators to distract it.

This time he would be alone.

And now it was coming for him.