stjorthotic Chapter 29 Crisis
Chapter 29 Crisis
The hissing sound of the energy pipes rupturing echoed through the cave, like the panting of a dying beast.
The warning from the shadows instantly put everyone on edge. From the shadows surrounding the cave, the crawling sounds were rapidly approaching—not the previous tentative rustling, but a clear, purposeful encirclement. Twenty? Perhaps more. Karen's spiritual vision was blurred due to injury and energy imbalance, but he could "sense" the presence writhing in the darkness: cold, hungry, and driven by the will of the meteorite.
"No time to hesitate!" Grom spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, gripping his warhammer again with his still-functioning left hand. "Either deal with that damned stone now, or wait to be torn to shreds by these bastards!"
Leah had helped Karen to her feet. A makeshift bandage, crafted by the dwarves, was tightly wrapped around Karen's chest, temporarily stabbing her potentially broken ribs, but each breath still brought a sharp, stabbing pain. The stinging pain in her right leg was also intensifying—the old wound from when the giant insect's forelimb had struck her might have reopened.
"Can you walk?" Leah asked in a low voice, her eyes fixed on the increasing number of red dots in the surrounding darkness—the dark red energy reflected from the compound eyes of the Crystal Devourer.
"We absolutely have to." Karen gritted her teeth and stood firm, taking her backpack from Leah's hands. Dawn was held in Leah's arms; the cub was completely unconscious, its golden fur so dull it was almost invisible, with only its slightly rising and falling chest proving it was still alive.
The shadows cleared a path ahead. "Follow me. Charge straight to the platform. Don't stop, don't look back."
There was no better option.
Five people—including Shadow and the unconscious Dawn—began their sprint toward the platform in the center of the cave. The distance was about eighty meters, a distance that should have taken only a dozen seconds on flat ground. But now the ground was littered with crystal fragments, the slime splattered from the giant worm's corpse, and a slowly flowing stream of polluted energy; every step had to be taken with extreme caution.
Moreover, the hunters in the darkness couldn't wait any longer.
The first wave of attacks came from the left.
Three small crystal devourers emerged from behind an inverted cluster of crystals. They were only a third the size of the previous ones, but faster, and their carapaces were a darker color, almost blending into the shadows of the cave. Instead of attacking the group directly, they fanned out, spewing out viscous black threads—not acid, but some kind of sticky and corrosive energy web.
"Dive!" Shadow shouted, his body twisting eerily in mid-air, his claws unleashing three arc-shaped shadow blades that tore and vaporized most of the spiderweb in mid-air. But a few strands still managed to slip through, heading towards Leah and Karen.
Lia formed a hand seal—she was holding Dawn and could only cast spells with one hand—and a swirling wall of wind unfolded in front of her, blowing the remaining spiderwebs aside. But the wind wall was clearly not strong enough, and her face paled even more, with more blood seeping from the bandages on her injured leg.
Grom didn't stop. The dwarf charged straight at the devourer on the far left, and before it could unleash its second wave of webs, he slammed his warhammer down from below! The hammerhead struck precisely at the devourer's relatively vulnerable abdominal joint, and the dwarf's dark red psionic energy erupted, sending the small monster flying and crashing into the cave wall, exploding into a viscous mass.
"Twenty-two seconds left!" Shadow's voice came as they ran, already ten meters ahead of the group. "The next wave will come from the right, and there will be even more of them!"
"How did you know?" Karen asked breathlessly, the pain in her right leg almost causing her to stumble.
"Energy fluctuations," Shadow replied briefly. "The meteorites are directing them. They're afraid—afraid of our approach. So they'll stop us at all costs."
Sure enough, at least six Devourers appeared simultaneously from the shadows on the right. This time they were smarter; instead of spitting out ranged attacks, they charged directly, using their numerical advantage to try and break up and divide the group.
"Don't let them separate us!" Leah cried, tucking Dawn back into Karen's arms—the cub's weight was a burden for the injured Karen, but Leah needed both hands to cast the spell. She took a deep breath, quickly crossed her hands in front of her chest, forming a hand seal, and then forcefully pushed them apart!
"Wind Ring - Expand!"
Centered on her, a circular shockwave spread outwards. It wasn't sharp wind blades, but pure, powerful air thrust. The six charging Devourers seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, their forward momentum abruptly halted, and they were even pushed backwards several meters.
But Leah paid the price. She groaned, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, her knees buckling as she nearly collapsed. The continuous use of high-level Wind Whisper spells, coupled with blood loss from her leg injury, had pushed her spiritual energy and physical strength to their limits.
"Keep running!" Grom grabbed Lydia's arm and practically dragged her forward. The dwarf himself was also nearing his limit; his burned arm was trembling, and each swing of the hammer was a testament to his willpower.
Fifty meters remain.
The black meteorite on the platform seemed to sense their approach, its rotation speed increasing. The dark red light emanating from its surface cracks pulsed more frequently, like a rapidly beating heart. The remaining five energy pipes connecting the platform simultaneously began to pulsate violently, pumping more polluted energy into the meteorite and then distributing it throughout the cave via some invisible network—towards the guards still gathering in the darkness.
"It's strengthening them!" Karen's spiritual vision detected the change in energy flow. "Be careful! The next wave might be—"
He didn't finish his sentence.
The ground began to shake.
It wasn't an aftershock from the previous battle, but some deeper, more regular tremor. It was as if something enormous was moving deep underground, digging towards the surface. The vibrations came from the platform, propagating along the ground, causing the scattered crystal fragments to jump and tumble.
"There aren't just small guards..." Shadow suddenly stopped, his silver eyes fixed on the ground below the platform. "There's something much bigger... waiting..."
The voice just fell.
Thirty meters in front of the platform, the ground suddenly exploded!
It wasn't a collapse, but rather a violent rupture from below. Rocks and crystals flew upwards like a volcanic eruption, and a massive, suffocating shadow burst forth from the earth.
That was another crystal devourer.
But this one is completely different from the giant insect from before.
Its size was even larger than the dead giant worm, but its body structure was even more... twisted. There was no clear distinction between head and thorax/abdomen; the entire body resembled a worm magnified a thousand times, its surface covered with layers of black crystalline armor arranged like tiles. Instead of a mouth disc at the front, there were three pairs of enormous, rotating crystalline drills, each as thick as an adult's waist, their edges densely covered with barbs. The sides of its body lacked segmented limbs, instead possessing dozens of wriggling, hooked tentacles.
The most bizarre part was its midsection—where at least seven or eight white crystal fragments of varying sizes were embedded. These were all fragments of the Soul of the Mineral Vein, all entangled and corrupted by dark red energy veins, like butterflies pinned to a specimen board. The fragments emitted painful, intermittent pulses of white light, creating a teeth-grinding frequency of conflict with the corrupted energy within the giant worm's body.
This giant insect… no, this “burrower,” it didn’t appear on the upper level, nor did it participate in the previous siege. It had been lurking deep underground, waiting for the most crucial moment—waiting for its prey to approach the meteorite, waiting for its prey to lower its guard, waiting for its prey to focus all its attention on the small guards and its dead brethren.
And now, it has broken through the ground right in front of Karen and the others' sprint path.
Distance: 20 meters.
"Scatter!" Shadow shouted sharply, but it was too late.
The driller's three pairs of drill bits simultaneously began spinning at high speed, emitting a piercing noise like hundreds of grinding wheels working at once. Instead of charging, it slammed its front end heavily into the ground—
It's not about attacking them, it's about attacking the ground itself.
boom!!!!
The moment the drill bit pierced the ground, a visible shockwave spread along the surface. Wherever it passed, the crystalline ground cracked and shattered like fragile glass. The cracks radiated outwards from the driller, spreading wildly faster than a runner could do.
"Jump!" Grom roared, dragging Lydia to the side and leaping onto a relatively intact raised area of ground.
The shadows had merged into the gloom, flickering continuously along the path of the spreading cracks.
Karen wanted to jump too, but the sharp pain in his right leg slowed him down. Holding Xiguang, he used all his strength to lunge to the side—
The ground beneath his feet collapsed completely the moment he leaped into the air.
It wasn't a small-scale shattering; an entire section of ground, over five meters in diameter, collapsed downwards! Karen, suspended in mid-air with nowhere to grab onto, could only watch helplessly as she, along with countless fragments of rock and crystal, plummeted into the dark abyss below.
"Karen!!!" Lydia's scream came from above and quickly faded away.
come down.
Another fall.
But this time was different. Below him was not a slope, but a straight, bottomless shaft. The collapsed ground closed over his head like a gate, and the last glimmer of dark red light rapidly shrank, becoming a distant, pinpoint-sized point of light, before disappearing completely.
Absolute darkness.
The only sounds were the whistling wind and the crashing of rubble against the well walls as it fell.
Karen instinctively hugged Xiguang tighter in his arms, feeling a faint warmth from the cub's body. He tried to adjust his position in the darkness, but the shaft was only about three meters in diameter, and falling rocks kept hitting him and his back. He could only curl up, using his backpack and arms to protect Xiguang.
The fall lasted an eerie long time.
Ten seconds? Twenty seconds?
His brain was calculating—at the speed of free fall, he had already plummeted at least two hundred meters, and was still falling. What was down there? The Earth's core? Or some completely different space?
Just when he thought he would continue to fall until he was smashed to pieces, a faint light appeared below.
It wasn't a dark, polluted red light, but a soft, milky-white glow, like moonlight filtering through clouds. The light rapidly expanded, and Karen finally saw clearly—below was a vast underground lake, its surface as still as a mirror, reflecting the faint glow of some kind of luminous moss from the cave ceiling. Around the lake were damp, rocky banks, where some luminescent fungi grew.
The height is still about fifty meters.
Karen gritted his teeth and, with his last ounce of strength, turned the light to his chest, facing away from the water. He didn't know if it would work, but it was the only thing he could do.
Thirty meters.
He could see fish-shaped creatures that shimmered and moved slowly beneath the surface of the water.
ten meters.
He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact—
boom! ! !
The moment Karen entered the water, she felt as if she had been slammed into a concrete wall. All the air was forced out of her lungs, a tearing pain shot through her broken ribs, and her vision went black as she nearly fainted.
He was submerged in icy water.
He sank into the water, his consciousness fading, only the light in his arms still held tightly to him instinctively. The water pressure squeezed his eardrums, bringing sharp pain. He struggled to float to the surface, but his injured body wouldn't obey him, and the water filling his nostrils made him feel suffocated.
Am I going to die...?
Here... in a place like this...
My consciousness gradually faded. In the darkness, it seemed as if light was approaching.
No, it's not a hallucination.
It is real light.
Xi Guang's body, nestled in his arms, suddenly emitted a faint but resolute golden light.
The light, like a thin film, enveloped Karen and Xiguang herself. Wherever the light touched, the icy water warmed, the sharp pain in her chest eased slightly, and the feeling of oxygen deprivation lessened.
Even in his unconscious state, the cub instinctively protected him.
Karen felt his eyes burning. With his last bit of strength, he pushed off with his legs and swam toward the faint light above.
One meter. Two meters.
The burning sensation in my lungs became increasingly intense.
Three meters. Four meters.
The light overhead became clearer and clearer.
wow-
He broke through the water's surface, gasping for the damp but fresh air, coughing violently to expel the water he had swallowed. The radiance in his arms still emitted a faint golden glow, but the light was rapidly dimming—its last bit of energy was gone.
Karen looked around.
This is a vast underground cavern, its ceiling about fifty meters high, covered with luminescent moss and crystal clusters, providing a soft, milky-white illumination. The lake it occupies two-thirds of the cavern's area; its water is so clear that the white sand at the bottom and schools of bioluminescent fish are visible. The lakeshore is a flat, rocky mudflat, teeming with various bioluminescent fungi and ferns.
It was eerily quiet.
There were no crawling sounds, no hissing sounds, and no pulsating sounds from the energy channels.
The only sounds were the dripping of water droplets falling from the cave ceiling and the gentle ripples of the lake.
This place... seems completely isolated from the pollution and battles of the upper levels.
But Karen did not feel fortunate.
He swam with difficulty to the nearest lake shore, and with his last bit of strength climbed ashore, collapsing onto the damp rocks, gasping for breath. Pain surged through his chest and right leg like a tidal wave, each breath feeling like swallowing shards of glass.
Xiguang lay motionless beside him, its faint breathing the only proof that it was still alive.
Lydia and Grom were still up there, facing the burrower and countless small guards. Shadow... Shadow might be able to help them, but what could a cat do?
He himself was trapped in this underground cavern of unknown depth, severely injured, with a comatose cub, without any supplies or way out.
He looked up at the top of the cave—the opening of the shaft from which he had fallen, at the very center of the cave ceiling, at least forty meters above the water. The opening was small, less than two meters in diameter, and its edges were smooth, offering no footholds for climbing.
It is impossible to return the way we came.
He checked his backpack: it was waterlogged, but the waterproof layer made by the dwarves had worked; the contents were only damp, not completely ruined. There were a few pieces of compressed dry rations left, and the water bottle contained only a small amount of fresh water. The medicine… the medicine was with Leah. He only had some basic hemostatic herbs, given to him by an ancient tree in the Emerald Forest.
Tools: a dagger, a bundle of rope, and several spare crossbow bolts, but no crossbow—it was lost during the battle on the upper levels. Also, the second shockwave mine given by Grom is soaked in water; I don't know if it's still usable.
Despair, like cold vines, coiled around his heart.
But at that moment, Xiguang let out a weak sob.
Karen immediately bent down to check on the cub. Xiguang was still unconscious, but its right front paw twitched slightly, as if it were having a dream. Karen gently stroked its forehead and felt that the cub's body temperature was still relatively normal, only extremely weak.
"Hang in there..." Karen whispered. "I'll find a way... We'll all survive..."
He didn't know if he was comforting Xiguang or comforting himself.
After resting for a few minutes, Karen forced himself to stand up. He had to explore the cave, find food and water, and most importantly—find another way out.
He used his dagger to cut off a luminous fungal stem to make a makeshift torch; though the light was dim, it was enough to illuminate a few meters ahead. Carefully cradling Dawn in her arms—the cub was much lighter than before, its golden fur clinging damply to its body like a pitiful little ball of fluff—Karen began to walk slowly along the lakeshore.
The cave was larger than he had imagined. After walking for about ten minutes, he finally saw the other end of the lake. There, instead of a rock wall, was the outlet of an underground river. Water gushed out from a crack on one side of the cave, flowing into the lake, and then flowed out from another crack at the other end, forming a cycle.
Where there is flowing water, there is a possibility of an outlet.
Karen perked up and headed towards the exit of the underground river.
But just as he approached the riverbank, Xiguang in his arms suddenly began to tremble violently.
It wasn't the cold, but... fear.
The cub, in its unconscious state, conveyed a strong, instinctive sense of fear, pointing towards the depths of the fissure from which the underground river flowed.
Karen stopped and looked warily into the darkness.
His spiritual vision was difficult to activate due to his injuries and energy depletion, but he could still "sense" that a very ancient, very vast, very... hungry aura was emanating from the depths of the crack.
That's not polluting energy.
That's something else.
More primitive, more dangerous.
He slowly retreated, leaving the riverbank and returning to the relatively safe center of the lake.
The light in her arms gradually calmed down, but the lingering fear still permeated the cub's trembling.
Karen looked up and gazed once more at the distant shaft opening at the top of the cave.
I can't get up there.
Ahead lies an unknown danger.
He himself was severely injured, exhausted, and accompanied by a weakened companion.
He slowly sat down, leaning against a rock, and held Xiguang in his arms, warming the cub with his remaining body heat.
In the dark cave, only the glowing moss provided faint illumination.
There are still many nights to endure.
There are still endless crises to face.
But at least at this moment, he is still alive.
Xiguang is still alive.
This is enough.
That's enough for him to accumulate strength and wait for the next dawn.
Or, wait for the next fall.