A Subterranean Scuffle

After a bit more rumbling, the excamole emerged, holding a

large boulder in one of its hands. After winding up, the animal hurled the rock

at the party, aiming to flatten them in one blow. Fortunately, Yuchauzh was quick to act, using his weight to roll

forward before holding his log up like a shield to deflect the incoming

projectile. Though he was pushed back quite a bit, he was still able to prevent

the rock from doing any real harm.

"Hah!" he laughed, "Nice try, fool!"

Growling in frustration, the mole jumped up and dove back

into its hole, causing more quakes to shake through the cave as it burrowed a

new tunnel. When it emerged, instead of positioning itself away from the group,

it appeared right in front of Kantuta and Siquioce, holding its razor-sharp

claws up in preparation to strike.

"Ah!" Kantuta cried, "Watch out!"

Heeding his teammate's warning, Siquioce swayed his body out

of the way with Kantuta, allowing the two of them to narrowly avoid being

cleaved in two. Seeing that the excamole's claw was stuck in the rock, Yuchauzh

smiled and raised his log in the air before jumping towards the burrower.

"Haha! Way to leave yourself open, bozo! Here I—HUH?!"

To Yuchauzh's absolute shock,

the excamole ducked into its hole just in time to evade Yuchauzh's rolling

attack, leaving the orc to crash onto the ground.

"Agh...what the heck, man?! How

can such a big lug move so fast?!"

Before Yuchauzh could recover,

the mole reemerged and grabbed the orc by his legs, slamming him against the

ground multiple times before hurling him against the wall with a mighty thud.

"Yuchauzh!" Siquioce cried,

looking back at his friend, "Are you okay?"

"...Yeah..."

Despite Yuchauzh's words, Siquioce

could tell by his quieter-than-usual voice that he was not, in fact, okay.

Clenching his webbed hand into a fist, the Samanian looked up at the excamole, letting

out a huff of anger.

"If only I had some water. If I

did, I could probably nourish Yuchauzh's log with an Aqua Shot..."

With its attack finished, the

subterranean creature once again returned to its hidey-hole and dug some more,

this time, however, instead of emerging a few seconds later, the mole burrowed

for quite a while, eventually causing rocks to fall from the ceiling like rain.

Fearing for her life, Kantuta dodged

back and forth frantically, keeping her eyes on the air as she avoided the

falling stones. On the other hand, the less agile Siquioce was relegated to dropping

to the ground and flopping away from the descending rocks, which only allowed

him to narrowly avoid getting crushed.

"My word!" Kantuta exclaimed,

looking around at all of the crumbled stones, "This is some serious power!"

"Hnngh...yeah." Siquioce groaned

as he got up, "Me and my bird were almost done for! If we don't hurry up and

take care of this foe, we could end up flatter than smoothfish..."

At that moment, Yuchauzch came

limping into the scene, holding his arm as he looked up at Siquioce and

Kantuta.

"Just wait till I land one good

hit on that mangy maroon. He won't know what hit him."

Kantuta shook her head, "As if

you could ever land a blow on that animal. Excamoles are already very aware of

their surroundings, but this one appears to have especially heightened senses.

The only one of its senses that may be deficient is its..."

Kantuta suddenly gasped, her

eyes wide with realization. Chuckling to herself, she turned to face Yuchauzch

with a knowing smile.

"I have an idea. Yuchauzch,

prepare to attack!"

"Huh?" He tilted his head, 'I

thought you just said there's no point."

"Forget that. Just do as I say,

orc."

Siquioce then spoke up, "But

first..."

As the excamole stayed in the

ground, Siquioce raised his arms up in a Y position before waving them towards

his chest. While he was still not very used to using this technique, he

nonetheless managed to gather enough mana to release in a magical burst,

shouting "Well!" as he drew an arc with his hands and released green liquid

from his head.

Being covered in the healing

fluid, Yuchauzch scrunched his face up in disgust, staring with disdain at the

substance on his skin. Despite his aversive feelings, the orc soon found

himself full of energy as his wounds miraculously healed.

"There." Siquioce said, "You

should be good to go now."

"Ugh...yeah, I can see that."

Yuchauzh held his log at the ready, "Let's just hurry up and beat this clown

before I can think about what you just did."

Thankfully for Yuchauzh, it was

not long before the excamole rose up near the trio and wound up its right paw

in preparation to strike. Seeing this, Yuchauzch rose his log up and ran

towards the mole, ready to lay a beatdown on it. Predictably, the animal sought

refuge in its pit, diving down before rising back up and preparing a

counterattack. Kantuta, however, was quick to act, holding her staff in front

of her as she gathered magical energy into its tip.

"I've got you now! Have a taste

of my Flash spell!"

Once enough light energy was

accumulated into her stick, Kantuta slammed it forward in a striking motion,

causing a ball of light to fly into the excamole's small eyes. Covering its

face with its paws, the fuzzy fiend let out a loud screech as it writhed around

in pain.

"Ha!" Kantuta laughed, "That's

how it's done! Aren't I just the smartest?"

"Yeah, you sure are." Yuchauzch

remarked as he got up, "I only had to go through another crash landing to get

your stupid plan to work."

"Oh hush." Kantuta pointed

forward, "Just focus on attacking the excamole! Don't waste any time!"

Yuchauzh rolled his eyes, "Geez,

bossy much? Anyway, Siquioce, let's get to work."

Nodding, Siquioce hopped as fast

as he could over to the enemy and began assaulting it, biting the digger with

his sharp teeth while Yuchauzh smashed its face in with his tree trunk. With

the coordinated efforts of the duo, it was not long before the excamole let out

another cry of despair and fell forward in defeat.

Seeing that their opponent was

down, Siquioce and Yuchauzh stepped away from the mole, taking a moment to

catch their breath. After a few seconds, the orc let out a sigh of relief and

held his hand out for a high-five.

"Up high, Siquioce! We trounced

that chump!"

Smiling widely in excitement,

Siquioce began to raise his hand to meet Yuchauzh's before a shocking

development stopped him in his tracks. Feeling the color drain from his face,

the Samanian slowly turned to face the excamole, who was starting to stir. After

a moment, the mammal gradually cracked its eyes open, revealing a pair of

eerie, glowing, purple eyes.

"Uh...guys?"

Staring directly at the

adventurers, the mole made a low growling sound that soon escalated into a

full-on roar as it spread its paws out. Overwhelmed by a primal anger, the

miner jumped up once more, held its stubby arms together, and began rotating at

an ever-increasing speed, staying airborne with a supernatural power as it

became more and more like a drill.

"Oh, Peron," Kantuta took a step

back, staring up at the floating mole with wide eyes, "What...what is this?!"

After a second longer of

spinning, the excamole finally released its potential energy and boosted

forward like a rocket towards Yuchauzh and Siquioce, prompting them both to jump/lurch

out of the way. After missing its initial targets, the spelunker dove straight

into the hard stone below them, swimming through it like a professional

athlete.

Although everything seemed to be

relatively okay, what happened next was far from pleasant. Feeling the ground

rumbling from beneath her, Kantuta, who was standing a good distance away, found

herself struck by an attack from below courtesy of the reemerging excamole.

"KANTUTA!" Siquioce cried,

"No!!"

Though the elf was only grazed,

she was still very much hurt, tumbling to the side and rolling for a bit before

coming to a stop many feet away. Looking out at her, Siquioce's heart sank;

Kantuta wasn't moving.

"No...Kantuta,

I—"

His words were cut off by the

sight of the enemy focusing its sights on him, pointing its dangerous claws

straight at the fish person. Shaking his head, Siquioce trusted his instincts

and hopped away, barely avoiding facing the same fate as his friend.

"Darn it." Siquioce grumbled as

he felt the ground shake some more, "He can't get away with this! I've gotta

avenge my friend...but how?"

As the leader went over his

options, his eyes drifted to the hole that the excamole had just leapt out of,

noticing that there was a small pool of water in it. Feeling his heart leap in

his chest, he quickly made his way towards the liquid before cupping his hand

to his mouth and calling out to his ally.

"Yuchauzh! Come over here!"

The orc, who was busy trying to

figure out where his opponent was, turned to face his friend and frowned.

"I'm kinda in the middle of

something, here."

"Just come on!"

Realizing that there was no

point in arguing, Yuchauzh gave the ground one last wary look before running as

fast as his short legs could manage and stopping next to his superior. Sensing

the orc's presence, Siquioce jumped into the pool and began drawing in water.

"Here's the plan: first, I'm

going to use Aqua Shot on your trunk to strengthen it. Once it's all healthy, I

want you to use it to block the excamole's next attack. Hopefully, the thick

vines will be enough to stop it."

"...Wait, what?" Yuchauzh held

his prized possession close to his chest, "Hold on, that's crazy talk. What if

it gets destroyed? What if I die?"

Siquioce froze up. His mate had

a point. What if the vines weren't enough to stop the mole's onslaught? What if

Yuchauzh ended up getting impaled? These worrying thoughts swirled through

Siquioce's head, causing him to almost reconsider his plan. However, despite

his fears, he knew that there were hardly any better options.

"...You'll just have to trust

me. If you happen to fall...I'll gladly go down with you."

Hearing this, Yuchauzh took a

step back in utter shock, his expression of disbelief hidden behind his mop of

hair.

"Siquioce, you..."

Their conversation was

interrupted by another quake, signaling the return of the manic miner. Sensing

this, Siquioce knelt down and sucked in water through his mouth before facing

his ally.

"No dime for dalk! Ged ready!"

Yuchauzch stared at Siquioce for

a second before nodding and placing his log in front of him, waiting to receive

the shot. Wasting no time, Siquioce gave him exactly what he desired, emptying

his cheeks as he sprayed nourishing water all over Yuchauzh's floral weapon.

Just as the log's vines began to grow, the excamole flew out of the ground,

heading straight towards the orc.

"Yuchauzh, now!"

Making the most of his reflexes,

Yuchauzh spun around to face the titanic talpid and held his tree trunk up like

a tree trunk, letting out a powerful "HAAH!" as he fought against the mole's

pushing and spinning force. To his pleasant surprise, Yuchauzh found that the

thick vines on his log quickly halted the animal's rotating movement with their

tangling composition. The mole was stuck!

"Yes!" Siquioce cheered, "We did

it! We...wait, what do we do now?!"

Yuchauzh chuckled, "Oh, I'll

tell you exactly what."

Gripping his trunk with both

hands, the orc spun the excamole around like a professional hammer thrower,

rotating it faster and faster before slamming it down multiple times on the

ground, wearing a triumphant smile all the while.

"Hahaha! Boot's on the other

foot now, you furry freak! It's payback time!"

Relishing in the feeling of

revenge, Yuchauzh did another 180 with the excamole before finally putting it

out of its misery and making his trunk's vines unlatch, causing the creature to

fly into another wall. After making an impact on the rocky wall, the burrower

wobbled in place for a good few seconds before making a pitiful whine and

falling flat on its pale belly.