Charging Blindly Is The Best Policy

John had been expecting a source of water but what he saw in front of him was astonishing.

A creature that looked like a centipede, if a centipede was the size of a small armored train, was crawling into the cavern on its many legs. The wavy motion of its multiple legs moving in synchrony was nearly mesmerizing. Each leg was a different color, so its movement gave the illusion of a disco light moving in spiraling patterns.

He peeled his eyes from the enchanting legs of the creature to look at its flat armored head. Luckily, he saw no eyes on the creature approaching him. Instead of eyes, it sported two long antennae the size of vaulting poles, which were actively swaying from side to side, scanning for anything nearby.

He froze, hoping the creature wouldn't notice him but its antenna must have been highly sensitive and capable of smell because one of the antennae was pointing in his direction while the other was pointing towards the corpse of the recently dead crab-like monster.

The monstrous centipede seemed to contemplate, before turning and moving to the corpse of the crab-like monster to feed on it. 

John nearly gasped in relief but held himself from making any movements that would attract the monstrous centipede. Now he was calmer, he noticed that the dripping sound of water was actually liquid that was leaking from the leg joints of the centipede.

Darien's memories blasted him with the relevant information. The centipede monster was a creature familiar to Darien. A predator that roamed the wilds of Suterra. The liquid from its legs was a deadly venom that was capable of paralyzing any creature it came in contact with. This made the centipede one of the deadliest non-magical creatures of Suterra.

The monstrous centipede reached the body of the crab-creature and began ripping out chunks of flesh with its mandible. Crushing and gulping both flesh and carapace in equal measure. 

John turned away from the ghastly sight to look at the tunnel exit, which was now free as the centipede had crawled all the way in, its long sinuous body encircling the corpse of the crab creature. 

He wouldn't lie, he was scared shitless but knew he had to escape now or he would be the centipede's next meal. Why would he stay petrified to the spot when his escape was just some distance away.

A fierce grin came to his lips as he remembered how the soldiers from a popular game franchise challenged horrors that were far stronger than them. All they did was scream about their god emperor to gain the morale to face untold terrors.

He would need that kind of morale boost now. Afterall, what he was planning on doing required bravery as the ends of the centipede was quite close to the exit tunnel. Any sudden movement and the centipede could easily react, making him its next snack. He hoped the creature wouldn't suddenly abandon the corpse of the crab creature and come for him.

No time to contemplate, it was now or never.

"For the EMPEROR!" he roared, gripping the staff tightly and sprinting towards the exit tunnel.

Gritting his teeth, he ignored everything and ran towards the exit tunnel. Even the grisly sounds of the centipede crunching the crab creature was ignored as he dived for the tunnel. 

The tunnel was brighter than the cavern he left, and leading to god knows where. The throbbing lights of the bioluminescent fungi created shadows on the cavern walls. He kept running, not bothering to check if the centipede left the carcass to come after him. As a result, he barely noticed when he left the bright tunnels with bioluminescent lichen and entered into another cavern that had multiple tunnels of different sizes leading out of it.

This new cavern was almost the same size as the previous one he left in terms of breadth but it had a lower ceiling. On the rough ceiling of the cavern, numerous stalactites jutted out from the ceiling with a fungus-like plant intersped between the stalactites. The largest of this fungus was almost half his size.

Noticing the different environment, he slowed to check his back and see if the centipede followed. Luckily, It didn't. He took gulps of air in relief to calm his beating heart. 

Now that he had escaped that horrible cavern, he needed to make sure that he was heading in the right direction. It wouldn't do to escape from one danger and enter into a worse one. Though John couldn't think about a situation right now that would be worse than a huge centipede with paralysis venom on all its sharp legs. 

He tried dredging up the memories that would help him, filtering through Darien's vast memories. What he found was promising.

Darien, the previous occupant of this body, was an exile from Amradur, a large ashae city. From Darien memories, John knew he wasn't too far from Amradur as Darien, who had finished serving his exile term, was returning to Amradur before unfortunately meeting his end at the claws of the crab-like creature. 

John needed to get to Amradur as quickly as possible if he wanted to survive. The wilds of Suterra are not a safe place, especially for a lone ashae or a lone human in the body of an ashae.

From Darien's memory, he knew something that would help him get to Amradur. It was a spell of direction known as the [hominus] spell and could help you locate a landmark if you were not unreasonable far from that landmark. The only problem is that the landmark you use, had to be made into an anchor for the [hominus] spell to work. He didn't know if Darien had marked any spot in Amradur to be used for the direction spell.

Plus he didn't know how far off Amradur was from his current location. If it is too far, then the spell won't work, at least according to Darien's memories. 

Allowing Darien's memory to guide him, he casted [hominus] spell but felt no effect. 

What? Why didn't I feel any reaction to the spell?

The spell did not work out. Either there was no marked landmark or Amradur was too far away for the spell to work.

Digging into Darien's memories for the second time provided the answer he needed, even though he had to dig through other unpleasant memories to get to the information he needed. Now, he understood why the spell did not succeed. It failed because he did not cast the spell to a marked landmark or anchor in Amradur. Darien's memory showed that the anchor needed to be visualized clearly. If he didn't know what the anchor was, then the [hominus] spell wouldn't work. The problem was, he didn't know about any specific anchors Darien had marked.

However, he was in luck as all citizens of Amradur had a landmark that they all used for their [hominus] spell and it was pre-marked, allowing any ashae to find their way back to their city. That landmark was Inatel, the floating time rock of Amradur. 

John, getting excited, tried the spell again but like before, felt no feedback from the spell. It almost felt like magic was leaving him but nothing was taking hold. Clearly, there was a problem. Thinking about it, he intuitively knew the problem. It was simple. He wasn't visualizing Inatel when casting the spell. And that was because, John did not know how Inatel looked.

Darien may have been familiar with the time rock but John wasn't and was having problems imagining the landmark for the [hominus] spell, even after using Darien's memory as a crutch. Maybe it was because John could find no memory of Darien ever looking upon the time rock with his eyes. From the memories he dredged up, he could see that Darien knew about Inatel but there wasn't a scenario where he was chanced to look upon the rock. So, because of this, John had problems visualizing the time rock for his [hominus] spell because the original Darien had never laid eyes on the landmark, only heard about it. 

John was getting desperate. If Inatel could not work then there should be other landmarks that Darien had seen that he could use. 

He searched through Darien's convoluted memories trying to find another landmark he could use for the [hominus] spell. He needed to locate Amradur, there was no other marginally safer place for an ashae. 

Darien's memory was really good at bringing up spells but shitty at remembering other things. Maybe it was due to Darien's complex relationships with others. However, John was in luck as there was a marked building in Amradur that Darien was familiar with. 

John could only hope the building would work as anchor as he casted the [hominus] spell again. 

｢Darien activates [Hominus] ｣

It worked.

The [hominus] spell was really weird. On successful casting, John began to feel a light pull in his mind towards a certain direction. The spell acted less like a map and more like a compass, but that was okay. At least, he had a direction to go and knew no matter what, he would arrive at his destination as long as he followed the pull. With the [hominus] active, he could navigate the tunnels with a general sense of direction and avoid running around in circles like a headless chicken. 

He would have started rejoicing at the success of the [hominus] spell but something sinister but familiar stopped him in his tracks. It was the faint sound of liquid hitting the cavern floor. The steady dripping sound was getting closer. 

John was familiar with that sound as he heard it before he saw the scary centipede monster. It seemed the centipede must have completely devoured the crab creature and was on the hunt again. 

John had dallied in this cavern too long, in his attempt to cast the spell of direction. 

At least, he knew which direction to go and chose an exit tunnel that would get him closer to his goal. However, something weird began happening. 

The fungus looking plants on the cavern ceiling began detaching and dropping in front of him. They looked like enoki mushrooms, if enoki mushrooms had multiple stalks attached to a wooden torso, and that wooden torso had root-like extensions for legs with suction cups at the ends of them. 

Those suction cups look nasty.

He couldn't believe he initially thought of the fungi-like creatures as cool subterranean plants. Looks like they are more than just plants. 

When did fungi get that mobile?

He had two choices, turn back and face the centipede monster or take his chances with the creepy fungi in front of him. 

To John the answer was simple. He wasn't going back to face the horror that was the centipede monster, when the slightest touch from its sharp legs could mean paralysis. Plus the [hominus] spell showed Amradur was ahead and not behind, and the Fungi creatures were in his path, not the centipede monster. He just had to find a way to get through the strange fungi creatures.

Darien's memories, always quick to supply him spells, gave him another lightning spell. 

Cool.

Shouting another 'for the emperor' to gain the morale for another daring charge, he began channeling the spell.

Something felt off. The spell did not seem to be working and kept fizzling off. 

Oops! no wonder mages don't like wearing armor. 

The metal gauntlets on his arms were interfering with his spell casting. Seems armor did interfere with spell casting, especially when your hands, the medium for your spell work, was encased in metal gauntlets. Worst part, the stupid gauntlets were adorned with silver filigree.

Instead of pulling off the gauntlets, he began channeling the spell through the staff. The gauntlet had not been easy to wear, why pull it off in a stressful situation. 

He could feel that the staff itself was not really a better medium for spell casting when compared to his hands. However, the staff seemed to trade the fine control his hands offered for higher focused power, which if he was truthful, was what he needed right now. Afterall, he needed all the power he could get. 

Nearing the completion of his channeling and incantation, he leveled the staff at the fungi, almost like wielding a spear and charged. 

｢Darien casts [Darlan's Kiss] ｣

The fungi-like creatures were surprised that the person they were stalking as prey began running at them. In panic, they began to scatter in different directions. 

John did not know if the fungi creatures had any emotions but he knew it would have been scary for him too, if he saw an armored man charging at him, holding in a lightning suffused staff.

The lightning on the staff cackled with barely restrained power, stray arcs of lightning danced from the tips of the staff, striking at whatever was nearby, including John's armor.

For those fungi creatures directly in his path, John released lightning from his staff, blasting them with the full bolt of lightning. 

The fungi that were not convinced about clearing the path did so when they saw their fellow brethren being blasted to pieces. Those that managed to dodge only got hit by stray arcs but the ones who stood in his path got blasted to pieces.

Not stopping, he ran using the path he had created to get out of the encirclement of fungi. 

Even after releasing the lightning from his staff, John did not stop running, trodding upon pieces of charred fungi. Running, he cast a quick glance at the remaining fungi monsters to see if they would give chase. 

They did not but it wasn't because they had no thirst for revenge. No, it was because a bigger and badder monster had entered the cavern. One that they had a primordial fear of. The paralyzing centipede.

The big bad centipede began to descend into the cavern in all its monstrous glory. Some of the fungi creatures began attempting to pretend to be immobile fixtures of the cavern. But it was already too late. The centipede monster had noticed their movement and was homing in on them to continue its gory feast.

John did not bother to wait and see the fate of the damnable fungi creatures. He pumped his legs and kept running out of the cavern through one of the numerous tunnels. 

Casting spells took a lot of concentration and there were only two things he wanted to be doing now. Staying to observe how a fearsome predator hunts its prey was not on the list.