The Deep Mines

Room 3

Time Elapsed: 1:32:08

Severance thought things were going well despite yesterday's event. His team had more or less accepted his 'condition' and were back to normal. Well, mostly. Both Snow and Kiah seemed to be keeping an eye on him. They were quick to interfere whenever he got boxed in by the freaky erfreschik worms or the wombat rat-like creatures. He barely had to lift a finger to defend himself.

It was... irritating, because he was neither incapable nor fragile. He could fight his own battles.

"Ah, shoot!" Snow kicked fiercely at a wriggly black worm, sending it flying through the air. It smacked against the rock wall with an audible thunk and dropped to the floor. "Sev, help! It got me."

The flashing health bar in the party list was all Severance needed to see. The icon sitting next to Snow's name indicated the cryomancer had a debuff. Severance thought of it as the Afflicted debuff, because it came from the worm spit and turned everything to stone. It was also very difficult to heal.

It was a good thing he'd learned how to deal with it this morning.

He ran to Snow, evading two wombats along the way. Behind him, Jack stepped in to finish them off, his sword striking once, then twice, with deadly accuracy.

"Where did you get hit?" Severance asked.
He sidestepped to avoid a flying glob of spit. One of Kiah's transparent swords struck the culprit not even a second later. She Rushed to it in a follow-up strike, cleaving it in two.

"Hand." Snow waved his right hand, gray stone already growing on his fingers.

Valentin flew overhead, his red armored-figure flipping gracefully before he plummeted down onto a cluster of three wombats. They exploded upon impact.

It was chaos, but Severance was pretty good at tuning out the distractions. His teammates were watching his and Snow's backs, giving them a safe bubble. He flourished one of his fans, electricity flaring to life all along its toothed edge.

Snow's eyes widened. "Um, Sev? Isn't that the wrong-?"

Severance slashed at the cryomancer's wrist. The affected hand fell free and instantly disintegrated into a flurry of violet sparks. Snow gave a startled shout, his face frozen comically in shock.

Earth Dance. The lightning faded into healing wind. It swirled around the entire room as Severance set up a Radiant Dome. Then he tossed a couple of Mends on Snow, which was enough to completely regenerate the cryomancer a new hand. The Dome would cover the rest.

"The hell, Sev!"

Severance switched back to Sky Dance. It lit up the area around him in crackling blue. "What? That debuff is hard to heal. Easier to cut it off and start fresh."

"You freaking chopped my hand off!"

"You can't even feel it," Severance threw back. "You're fine."

For a second, the cryomancer looked like he wanted to snap back, but then he gave Severance a deep frown. The resulting silence was uncomfortable. A few stones falling from overhead drew Snow's attention, and he turned abruptly, gaze flicking upwards.

"Heads up," he shouted. "Big one's on the way!"

"Positions!" Jack called.

Valentin and Kiah had mostly cleaned up the room of any stray critters, and now they did a quick sweep of the room, making sure none were missed. Meanwhile, Severance backed against a wall next to Jack.

Between Jack's research and the information Severance had gotten from his clan, they had a rough plan in place on how to deal with the big erfreschik. Now they were about to find out if it would work.

The ceiling continued to crack further, more rocks breaking off and tumbling free.

Snow and Kiah pressed against the opposite wall, while Valentin settled against the far side. It took only moments for the big worm to break through, its great head descending in a rain of fine rocks. It protruded a half-dozen feet, swaying slightly.

It looked very similar to the small worms except it was even more intensely scaled on the outside. Its black, shiny scales were big enough that Severance could see each individual one even in the dim torchlight. The head of the worm was smooth and round with a wide slit for a mouth. There were no eyes, no telltale lumps or divots.

The slit widened, revealing a gaping, toothless mouth glistening in viscous fluid. A thin, snake-like tongue poked out, flickering as it probed the air.

"Eww, this thing is gross." Snow wore a disgusted look. "How are we supposed to get in its mouth? Which, by the way, sounds like a horrible idea."

"Just stay where you are. It'll come down." Jack crouched, picked up a handful of rocks, and tossed them towards the only unoccupied wall in the room. The rocks bounced off the wall and scattered to the ground.

The giant worm's head instantly snapped towards that direction. The long, freaky tongue slithered out before vanishing back into the erfreschik's mouth. With an unsettling scraping sound, the creature slid out of the hole and flopped heavily onto the ground.

It was, to Severance's relief, not as long as he first thought. It was like an extra long school bus, big enough to fill up almost a third of the room. Short fleshy wings ran alongside its body, much like the baby versions of itself.

"I'll bait it," Jack said, keeping his voice low. He didn't have to; the erfreschik didn't have the capacity to hear, so there was no worry of it reacting to sound. "Valentin, you go for its saliva glands."

Snow made a face. "Yuck. Why does that have to be the only way to kill it?"

"Who knows?" Severance was just as disturbed now as he'd been when Maun gleefully described the process.

Apparently, the larger an erfreschik got, the more impenetrable its body became. But one thing never changed: if you could pull out the two saliva glands in the back of its mouth, it was possible to leave a fleshy wound. By attacking that one weak spot, you could deal some serious damage and have the worm bleed to death.

Valentin began to walk closer to the worm, his long glaive held easily at his side. He looked relaxed, even casual, but only an idiot would believe that for a minute. As a knightglaive, Valentin had incredible explosive power.

"Get ready to freeze it," Jack told Snow, before scooping up another handful of rocks. He tossed it so it landed about ten feet in front of Valentin.

The second the rocks hit, the erfreschik whipped around so incredibly fast that Severance barely caught the motion. Its back end curled next to him, a few feet away from touching him. But that wasn't the worst part. Its mouth was split open wide into a yawning cavern that faced Valentin directly.

It was easy to see how effortlessly it had swallowed him up last time.

Valentin spun his glaive once before taking a quick, lunging step forward. He thrust the tip of his glaive into the worm's gullet. The creature hissed, but instead of drawing back, it dove forward. Reacting quickly, Valentin yanked his glaive back and twisted it sideways, jamming it into the edges of the worm's mouth. He was shoved back a few steps, but managed to keep himself from being devoured on the spot.

Ward! Severance threw the transparent shield over the knightglaive. It wouldn't stop much, but perhaps it would spare him some of the spit.

"Snow!" Jack commanded.

A circular pattern in frost formed in the rock just below the erfreschik's head. The second it appeared, it burst, and white lines of frost ran up the sides of the worm's black scales. Instantly, the creature's movements became sluggish, as if caught in slow motion.

That still didn't stop its horrid fleshy tongue from slapping against Valentin and curling around his waist like a snake. The Ward popped instantly. The tongue tugged, jerking him closer to its waiting gullet. But Valentin didn't fight it. He kept one grip on his glaive's shaft, and let the tongue pull him into the erfreschik's mouth. He needed to get close in order to reach the saliva glands.

As soon as he was out of sight, Snow thrust both hands forward. "Snow Drift!"

Snowflakes spun into existence and piled up against the worm's head, creating banks of fine white snow beneath it. The frost deepened upon the black scales.

While this was happening, Severance kept an eye on the party list. Valentin's name was flashing, the Afflicted debuff already in place. From his angle, Severance couldn't see what was happening within the worm's mouth. But he heard it hiss and saw its tail end begin to thrash.

Cautiously, Severance shifted further up the wall, closer to the worm's head. Jack followed, no doubt having seen the potential threat as well. That tail could easily crush them against the wall.

"He's out!" Snow shouted, just as Valentin stumbled out of the worm's mouth.

The knightglaive was drenched in spit and a dark, syrupy liquid. Stone was already forming all over his armor, but he held out one gloved fist, from which dangled two gray blobs. They were already covered in violet death sparkles, meaning they'd disappear in a moment.

"I got him," Severance called. "But turn it away."

No way he was going near Valentin when the worm was ready to eat him. He really didn't want to see if Veiled surgery could help him recover from being swallowed whole by a giant worm.

"On it!" Kiah kicked some rocks at the worm, then jumped up and down, her boots thudding heavily against the ground. She made far more vibrations than Valentin did, and slowly, the worm began to turn its great head laboriously towards her.

Snow scampered alongside it, preparing to freeze it again once it was in place.

Now that the coast was clear, Severance could fix Valentin. The knightglaive was almost entirely encrusted in rock now, and he resembled a heroic stone statue more than he did a player.

Still in Sky Dance, Severance walked around his teammate once. Valentin's armor did its job; it left no weak spots. Even the neck was well-protected. He grimaced, as that left him with only one option. He stopped in front of Valentin, and briefly met those eerie blood-red eyes.

"Sorry."

He closed one of his fans, so that it formed a narrow, pointed weapon much like a knife. Thin arcs of blue energy wreathed over it, enhancing its destructive power. Severance hesitated for a split second, reminding himself that his teammate wouldn't feel this. Then he rammed the tip of the fan right into Valentin's eye.

The knightglaive's head snapped back, but his rock encased body kept him upright. His health bar plummeted, but incredibly, it wasn't enough. With the palm of his other hand, Severance drove the fan deeper. The electricity continued to radiate from the fan, leeching away the rest of Valentin's health within moments.

The knightglaive's name went dark.

"I'll cover you." Jack's voice came from right behind him.

Severance looked up. The tank had a grim line to his mouth, and an even darker look in his eyes. But that wasn't new–Jack always looked like someone had shot his dog.

"Thanks." For the tank's benefit, Severance murmured, "Revive."

For the next ten seconds or so, he'd be locked into the skill. Jack hovered close, his shield at the ready. His gaze panned over the room, taking in all the holes left in the rock. Yet since the big erfreschik's arrival, no new creatures appeared.

That was a small mercy.

"Snow Drift!" On the opposite side of the room, Snow generated another flurry of snowflakes. It piled against the worm's head, once again holding it in place.

Kiah's teeth flashed white, a fierce grin widening across her noble features. In this moment, she looked every inch a Valkyrie. "Flicker!"

She threw one of her swords straight into the worm's mouth, then vanished right after it. In the next instant, she reappeared next to the sword, her hand gripping its hilt. The worm hissed warningly, but she was not to be deterred.

"Blade Summon!" Five semi-translucent blades appeared, spinning slowly around her. She didn't waste a second, yanking out her short sword from the worm's wound, while shouting, "Descent!"

The summon blades drove into the wound, one after another, each disappearing the moment it struck. The attack tore the wound open, and blood flowed thick and heavy. Kiah hurriedly backtracked now that she no longer had the defense of her summons.

Once she was out of the creature's mouth, she gestured towards Severance and Jack. "Your turn!"

Jack turned to go, but Severance had already just released the Revive. He didn't bother waiting to see it land. Instead, he turned and ran for the mouth. A cold voice snapped at him to stop, but Severance wasn't about to listen.

He was part of the team, and he would pull his weight. Electricity flared along his arms and gathered around his war fans. Before anyone could stop him—not that they could when he was faster than all of them—he leaped into the erfreschik's mouth.

The base of the worm's mouth was slippery with blood, but that was fine. As long as he didn't swallow it, its blood was harmless, and had the added benefit of neutralizing its stupid spit. Severance focused on the bloody hole torn into the worm's throat.

"Final Dance," he whispered, feeling a savage sort of glee.

Lightning filled the creature's mouth. It completely blinded Severance. Yet his body moved on its own, directing the slashing attacks with unerring accuracy. The air itself cracked like it was being snapped apart, and in the enclosed space he was, it was absolutely deafening.

He didn't care. He let the skill carry him, brilliant blue pulses piercing through the darkness of his overwhelmed vision. All too quickly, the skill was over and he staggered backwards. His foot slipped and he lost his balance, falling back in a flail of limbs.

Hands caught him, steadied him.

"Whoa, easy there," Kiah's voice reached him through his ringing ears.

He blinked, his vision clearing somewhat, though spots still danced before him. The dark mass that made up the worm had gone still, even though a faint hiss still emanated from it.

"It's not quite dead yet," Snow announced, then added, "Nice moves, Sev."

"Hn." Jack Coyote strode forward. He stepped into the worm's mouth and gave it an irritated stab.

The worm shuddered and it quit hissing. Everyone stared at it, waiting, but it simply laid there like a limp rag. Then the first glint of violet sparked alongside its scales.

Snow burst out laughing. "Jack, you killed it in one strike! You should have done that right at the start!"

Room 3 cleared.

"Yes, let's have Jack hit it first next time. Maybe he can one-shot all the ugly worms." Kiah looked quite amused at the idea.

"Don't be silly." The deepening scowl on Jack's face made the whole thing even more hilarious.

That made Severance grin. "I guess Jack's our main DPS now."

"You too," Snow retorted. He jabbed a finger at him. "Don't think I missed how you killed Valentin. That's creepy, man! Healers are supposed to be nice and helpful, not lethal!"

Severance rolled his eyes. "It's quicker than trying to heal that debuff. I told you that."

"Yeah, but that's-"

"Incoming." Valentin's low baritone cut them off. He was calmly watching the far wall, ignorant of the blood that absolutely drenched half of his face. It didn't help that his crimson eyes seemed to glow with an unsettling light.

As they all paused, the sound of soft scraping began to come from the holes left in the rock.

Room 4 was about to begin.