142: The Descent, Part Five

The Descent, Part Five

1[Shit,] Neve thought. [Shit, shit, shit!] 

Staring back at a rather large group of orcs, Neve's instincts communicated a few different things to her body. It was like two different sides of her began tugging at her arms, hoping that her body would react the way they wanted. 

At the moment, she was caught between the desire to run back the exact same way she came, and...

Her eyes went from the pack of angry orcs to an opening on her left. 

The side that whispered this later suggestion won out quickly. 

And so, Neve grabbed the girl, lifted her up onto her shoulders, and began to run deeper into the dungeon. 

"WHA- YOU- PUT- AGH!?" 

The girl tried to squeeze out multiple words at once before an arrow hit the rock wall next to Neve and she settled for simply screaming. 

On second thought, it dawned on Neve that running deeper into the dungeon like this was probably not a very good idea, but she was already running down the halls. She was committed.

Her eyes darted from one place to another, hyper-aware of everything around her. She feared running into a trap, getting her head lopped off by a sudden ax swing, or simply tripping and falling. 

Right now, though, the most likely negative outcome was running into a group of enemies that she couldn't take on. And so, as the cave curved and twisted, Neve kept her eyes peeled. 

She came out to an oasis equipped with a natural pond where the cave's ceiling seemed like it had been lifted off via helicopter. She could see the sky from here, along with multiple orcs and spiders stationed nearby, ready for a fight. 

There were two pathways on the other side. Exits that Neve immediately began moving toward. 

"MEURGH!?" One orc cried out, lifting up a crossbow. 

Two spiders charged at her. A few orcs followed as crossbow bolts flew through the air. 

Keeping her head low, Neve tried not to think too hard about the enemies collapsing in on her. Or, the dozens of enemies biting at her heels. 

It became incredibly hard to do that, though, as a crossbow bolt found her right arm. 

"AGH!" Neve cried out, taking the damage and trying to keep moving as best as she could. 

The spiders and orcs followed behind her, so closely that Neve felt like if she stopped for even a second, she would be decapitated. 

She was forced to test that theory, however, as she went through the lefthand pathway and came back out to where the cave coiled, winding around that chasm from before. 

"H-Holy shit!" Neve stopped just before she would have fallen into the endless abyss. 

As she halted her progress, she knew that she needed to get moving again, quickly. She tried to do just that but found that, actually, there was no path to take from here. 

The cavernous hall she'd gone through had led her to a natural balcony overlooking the abyss. As she looked to the right, Neve found a second balcony overlooking this same chasm as well. It was likely that the other path would have just taken her to that spot, placing her in a similar position.

But that was all there was. 

No other paths to follow, no lights signaling the way to the next location. This may as well have been the end of the dungeon. 

[Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!] 

Neve turned around and found orcs and spiders running at her. 

All she had were a few seconds. A few seconds to figure something out. A few seconds to make a decision. 

Everything seemed to slow down for a moment. 

The orcs were running at her. The little girl Neve had all but kidnapped was crying. Neve's heart pounded against her ears. 

Neve turned away from the monsters. 

Not because she wanted to act as though they weren't there, but rather, because a thought came to her regarding this chasm. 

[... Why would that path lead here too?] Neve asked herself. [Maybe... The Forces That Be put both these halls here, leading to the same place, to make something clear. And that would be...] 

She didn't have time to consider whether her idea made sense or not. The only thing she could do was weigh one option against another.

Die by being beaten, maimed, and broken by a group of furious orcs, or die at the hands of gravity? 

She chose the latter. 

[Fuck it.] 

Just before an ax would have landed in her back, Neve jumped forward. 

She turned in the air, just in case this fall ended up fatal. Maybe the girl in her arms could live through it. 

Sure, with her being an NPC it didn't really matter, but Neve's instincts made her do that all the same. 

Surprisingly, though, this was not a bottomless abyss. It was also not the entrance to some other dungeon like the fall that led Neve into the Hall of the Luminous. 

No, it was just a dark hole. Which meant that Neve fell a few stories and hit the ground, landing on a bed of rocks. 

"....!" 

The wind left her lungs. The crossbow embedded in Neve's arm broke. Neve couldn't move.

[I... Okay, the hole wasn't endless... I think I broke some bones... A lot of them, actually. Still, I didn't die. Thank you, 50 Endurance.] 

The orc girl scurried out of Neve's arms. The healer ignored that and went into her Inventory, pulling out another Minor Healing Potion. 

As she drank it, her body was repaired and air re-entered her lungs. 

Neve slowly got up, looking around. She found the orc girl doing the same thing, hesitant to walk too far away from her. 

And Neve understood why. 

Maybe this hole hadn't sent her to a different dungeon, but the ambiance changed so much that it may as well have. 

Chirping reached Neve's ears from her right, in the distance. She heard the familiar clicking of spider legs moving across a rocky floor. Some guttural, unnatural noises joined the other sounds as well. 

[Insects? More spiders, too. Fuck.] 

That was bad news, given that speedy, quick enemies were the last thing Neve wanted to fight right now. 

[... One problem at a time though, I guess.] 

The healer stood up and walked over to the girl. 

She heard her coming, yelped, and pulled away. 

"W-What do you want!?" 

Given that Neve had just manifested in front of this girl out of thin air, picked her up, and carried her away only to jump into what may have been a bottomless hole, Neve understood that she had good reason to be concerned. 

So, she tried to soften her tone as much as possible as she walked up and said: 

"I'm sorry, but I thought you needed help," the healer told her. "I saw you standing behind all those... people, and I thought you were in danger. Weren't you?" 

"I..." The face the little girl made seemed like she wanted to reject that notion, but couldn't quite do that. "I-I dunno. Maybe..."  <ins id="1067137" data-width="308" data-height="298"

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[Hm. Maybe she doesn't want to accept that everyone around her has gone crazy. Right. I need to keep in mind that this place, as weird as it looks, was its own proper civilization before the Unity Trials came in. This girl might be its sole survivor.]

"W-Who are you?" The girl asked. "You're not from my world." 

Neve paused. 

[She's scared, obviously, but she's not freaking out too hard... I mean, back in that room, she was crying for some reason. Maybe I did "rescue" her from something.] 

"I'm not," Neve replied. "My name's Neve. What's yours?"

"... Lamrosh," she murmured.

"That's a pretty name! Nice to meet you, Lam. Uh, look, I arrived here a little while ago and everyone I've run into has wanted to kill me," Neve told her. "And, um, again, I was worried you were in a similar position. That's why I grabbed you like that. I'm sorry." 

Remaining silent, the girl turned away. 

Neve conceded some space, letting her breathe a bit as she scanned their surroundings. 

"Well... We're stuck down here," Neve noted. "Can you tell me a little about this place? Where we're at, I mean." 

"... This is the kerosh den." 

[I don't know what a "kerosh" is, but hearing that this is a den of some sort sounds... offputting.] 

"Kerosh den... What's a kerosh?"

"They're, ehm... critters. They have mandibles and they can shoot sticky stuff out of their mouths." 

[The spiders I saw back up there?] 

"Oh... Uh, I take it they aren't too friendly?" 

The girl shook her head. 

[Of course. You know, it's hard to believe that this girl is a merchant of some kind. But, if she's gonna turn into a vendor somehow, then it is what it is. The quest is still worth it to do.] 

"Any idea on how we can get outta here?" Neve asked. 

Again, the girl shook her head. 

"T-This is where we used to send... bad folk," she stated. "They never came back up." 

Neve blinked. 

[That's just lovely.] 

Sighing, she nodded to herself and looked around. Spotting a pathway fairly quickly, Neve pointed to it and asked: 

"I know it's messed up to hear this from the person who got you into this place, but I'd like to get you out of it. You're welcome to follow me if you want." 

She considered it briefly, before eventually giving a very unconfident:

"Um... Sure." 

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