Clearing the Floor

The next morning, the camp was left to the soldiers dispatched by Bolk. They were in charge of guarding the camp and all of the supplies. It was pretty easy to guard a camp on an empty floor.

The fighters took their positions just like when they came down the day before. Bragg Shield and Kyle took up the front and kept their senses at their peak.

Kyle's senses were much stronger than Bragg's.

A long thin claw-hand came from around an almost invisible turn. The hand was huge! Each of the finger sections was three feet long.

The arms, hands, and fingers almost looked delicate like a Daddy Long Legs' legs. The creeping creature that followed the arms was bipedal. with very thin and long legs.

It had to slouch down because it was too tall to fit in the tunnel standing straight. Instead of inhibiting it's fighting ability; it was able to use its size to almost "stick" to the walls.

Its speed was insane and its long skinny limbs made it hard to see in the dark.

"A Hairthin," Kyle commented.

"It's a non-sentient bipedal nocturnal beast belonging to the Ungling family. It has poor eyesight but excellent hearing, feeling, and hearing. Be careful Bragg," Kyle said.

Bragg ran forward and used his shields to block the claws. He was slow but steady. Kyle dodged quickly and used the least movements possible to dodge attacks.

"Bragg, be careful, Hairthins are usually accompanied by..." just before he could finish a tongue shot in front of him. The tongue had a venomous barb at the end and tried to pierce Kyle.

Barely dodging the tongue, he grabbed the part of the tongue without a barb and pulled. A large four-legged creature looking one part frog and one part pig came flying from the shadows.

The creature slammed into a wall and died; as Kyle still held onto the tongue he stabbed the barb into the Hairthin.

The creature slumped and Bragg ran in and smashed its strange tubular head with his shields.

He flattened its head and it died. Kyle looked at the creature but didn't care much about it. He was more worried about other lurking creatures that he sensed in the tunnel ahead.

He walked past the Hairthin and searched for the hiding creatures. Bragg followed him.

Gilbrew used a red gem which he filled with spirit energy and tossed it onto the creature.

A fire erupted and turned it to ash. Riley already removed the parts of the creature considered valuable.

He did the same with the Licker (pig-frog). After the Hairthin was turned to ash the Licker was too.

There weren't any hordes of monsters like they experienced in the training pit. Here, the creatures attacked like assassins.

They were always hiding in the shadows and patiently waited for their chance to strike. Fortunately, Kyle was able to pick them up using his senses.

He also started shining a light in all of the shadows before moving past them. So far, all of the creatures were discovered and dealt with before they could attack anyone behind them.

It looked like the 20th floor would be an easy sweep. This is what everyone was thinking when the tunnel started rumbling.

Dust fell from the roof as a round segmented mouth opened.

"Tunnelworm!" Kyle yelled. He grabbed Bragg and fled back. Everyone went back for about five meters. Kyle activated one of his formations. The Tunnelworm slammed into the barrier.

It couldn't get through the barrier, but his team couldn't move past the Tunnelworm which completely filled the tunnel.

"Let's take a break, Kyle come back," Major said. Kyle walked back to where Major and Kim were standing.

"Do you have a plan, sir?" Major asked Kyle. Looking back at the creature Kyle was stuck. This was a new problem. They weren't in a dangerous situation, but they couldn't make any progress.

"From what I know about Tunnelworms, their interior is as powerful as their exterior. If our attacks can't harm the shell; it won't harm the interior.

Have either of you ever dealt with a creature like this?" Kyle asked Major and Kim.

"No, sir the only thing I can think to do is use some kind of explosive. Even though the interior is as strong as the exterior; the enclosed space in the body will increase the power of the bomb," Major said.

"Does it have eyes? Can we get to its brain?" Kyle asked.

"No sir, like most worms, it's blind it just opens its mouth and eats whatever's in its way.," Kim responded.

"I wonder how resistant it is to poison," Kyle said.

"It's pretty resistant, sir. It just passes dangerous or inedible materials out its anus," Major said.

"Maybe, let me think," Kyle became lost in his thoughts but then brought out a suitcase. He opened the large case and took pieces of machinery out.

He asked Major for the venom sacks of the Licker, and other poison creatures they fought along with numerous other materials.

After he finished making a strange pill; he cleaned and put away his pill making equipment. Then he brought out some new cases with new types of equipment.

These machines were for forging objects. He created several spheres and covered them with formations and placed a blue gem inside each sphere and then closed them.

"Get everyone ready to move out," Kyle commanded Major. Kim and Major were both curious about what Kyle was planning, but they would never question their master.

"Ok, pack up and prepare to continue to move out, everyone form up on Kane!" Kim shouted Kyle's order.

"This thing never shuts its mouth does it?" Kyle said. He took out the pill and tossed it into the creature's mouth. The pill lit up for a moment as it passed threw the barrier and into the mouth.

After a few minutes, the creature became strange. No one could figure out what was different about it.

Kyle took out the metal spheres and gave one to Riley, another to Major, and the last one to Gilbrew.

"If you don't have a sphere then walk between two people who do have a sphere. Those with spheres please put some spirit energy into your sphere and follow me.

Kyle walked forward into the creature's mouth holding his sphere. At first, they were shocked, Bragg even tried to grab Kyle and keep him from going forward.

As soon as Kyle walked into the mouth they saw the interior retreated in all directions from Kyle until the insides of the Tunnelworm were compressed against the floor, ceiling, and walls.

Bragg followed him and so did Riley and the others. As Kyle walked forward, the insides were widened like Kyle was holding a door opener that was creating a new tunnel.

When Kyle reached the anus of the creature, he placed the sphere down and had Riley, and Major put their sphere's down according to their position. Gilbrew put his sphere down at the mouth of the creature.

Now, you could see from one end of the creature to the other.

"When we come back this way, the creature should be dead and this compression should be finished. We'll be able to harvest the creature's remains and sell them as forging materials.

We'll probably get a lot more for this material since it will be much denser than other Tunnelworm materials," Kyle said as he moved forward.

All four spheres were sitting on the ground and the dungeon team continued forward.

*****************************************************

We've started with 75 power stones and only need 25 more power stones to reach our first bonus chapter goal. We're already two-thirds of the way there!

Today's power stone heroes are: Undying_Seeker and adityajadeja

Thank you all for your support! This book wouldn't be possible without you.

--Straythought