Their steps echoed with the dripping of small rock, such very little light actually visible except for that of their auras. At the head marched Torunei, his comrades and the man walking behind. Torunei’s body had a glow dancing around, a brilliant red glow with a mix of blue and green in it. Tari moved at the middle, her hands clasped together with palms pressed flat, her eyes shut. Silver moved at the rear with twin swords in hand, electricity surging around the tips sparsely.
“-and so we came to this world with the intent to harvest the precious Qualcominum, thinking we could sell it at a high price to the Valumites a Galaxy over. The deal was good until Valum got driven off. So, we thought it’d be nifty to just collect and do a mass selling, maybe buy up a planet. We were on track until a few months ago when these damn vines started doing their crap.”
“Typical scum,” Silver mumbled from behind.
“You try living on a world near death! Our star is about to expand enough to kill us. To save our people, we need that money, we need ships and a new world. Your Gods sure as shit don’t help us so we do what we can.”
“At times I wish we could help more, so much more.”
“You know it isn’t our place Silver. Time and time again we’ve been told that the mortals need to face their self-caused or natural problems themselves. Guess I can’t say I blame Thad here for thinking the way he does.”
“You mentioned you knew where they came from Thad, where and how?” Soren chimed in.
“Oh uh yeah yeah, of course. While mining we stumbled upon a cavern a year back, one with a downed freighter called The Shooting Star Observatory. We thought we could salvage it and add it to our fleet. We looked into it, come to find it belonged to the guys we had been selling Qualcominum to. Guess it crashed there a good decade earlier or something like that. We phoned home about it for feedback and, well, we were given the green light.”
“So odds are that those guys we saw were looking for it,” Torunei mumbled back.
“Very likely,” Tari replied, “So what happened?”
“There was a quake. It rained the cavern’s ceiling down on us. Big ol’ chunk of rock breached one of the pods on the side of the freighter, one probably the size of ten of our moles. Next thing we knew, vines were flying out and snaring us one by one. Some of us got ourselves out of there, most perished.”
“And you didn’t think to report it?”
“No Miss Tari, no. That would have exposed our operation and we needed the money. Whatever it was left and we resumed business as usual, even as we began using Mole Units one at a time. We went from several dozen down to about ten, with only a handful of us left. Still though, we are in full need. We carry on through it all.”
“Commendable,” Silver replied, “Though still kind of unwise.”
“How did you people, oh sorry, how did your Cardinal Program learn about what was going on?”
“Bishops, as we explained, are assigned to different quadrants, typically no more than twenty percent of inhabited planets in a galaxy if they are near enough to each other. A disturbance was felt and they assigned it to us,” Torunei spoke, “Our squad was first on scene until we got called back right away. Two squads of our knights were sent in to follow up and, well, considering why we jumped you-”
“Heard nuffin from ‘em eh? Sorry but the dead are even more dead.”
“We gathered that, clearly,” Tari muttered.
“The Bishop sent me here to take samples from the planet actually,” Soren continued, “I sensed the commotion and came running just in case. I’m not much of a fighter, not yet but I can still help”
“I thought you said Priests were good fighters?” the man, Thad, questioned.
“Oh they are but I’m just a Priest-in-training. I’m probably a little below these guys in terms of actual combat ability.”
“So let me get this straight, alright? You guys are all less than a knight. And it was not one, but two knight squads that got obliterated? Where’s that logic!”
“I can’t speak for Soren but we’re sort of the top of our class. Actually the exams to become a knight are coming up. Knight is just a rank and an estimate, not all knights are the same.”
“Truth be told Mister Thad, these three are closer to being Priests than they are simply knights in my opinion, heh heh,” Soren giggled.
“Oh gosh Soren, we’re not that good,” Torunei laughed.
“I wouldn’t be so sure Torunei. I know what some of the other classmates are like. Some like you have potential to be Priests, others could become knights, and then there are some that uh… well-”
“Don’t even get me started,” Tari mumbled, “I know exactly who and what you’re going to say.”
“Haha!”
Gravel crumbled from the ceiling off to the left side behind them, a steady stream dripping down. Silver’s expression at once changed, from open and soft to closed and hard. His head cocked slightly, eyes angling towards the gravel as it streamed down. Shifting, they moved back towards the front of the group. Tari’s smile faded, her eyes remaining shut as Silver spoke, “Tari.”
“I know.”
Tari shifted her heels, body flipping around. Silver turned in accordance with swords raised and electricity surging. Soren stopped in place, a hand quickly moving up to the shoulder of Thad and latching on. Torunei’s arms threw themselves out, his aura swelling out lighting up much of the tunnel just as it began to shake.
Rocks burst from the walls, vines launching themselves out with deafening roar. Swirling, twisting, wrapping, striking. The vines shot forth at the five in rapid succession with an already impressive four dozen on scene and more constantly blasting out. Many slammed down, splitting the ground with their strikes and others launching clear through ripping up the ground on the quick approach towards the group.
“Holy-” Tari began.
“-crap,” Torunei concluded.
SLICE!!!
SLASH!!!
CRASH!!!
Silver landed upon one knee and one foot, his swords raised high. In mere blinks of the eye he had gone from his position fourteen meters up passed the vines. Many split, purple liquid splattering the walls and all around Silver. Many a vine dropped with a loud thud.
Some the thickness of an old oak, others as thin as a typical tree branch. Shrieks filled the tunnel audible through the rock walls. Slowly they slopped, that which was still attached slowly pulling out back through the walls leaving just the holes. Silver’s legs stretched as he stood back up with eyes locked to the fleeing vines. In no time at all they had gone.
“Nice job Silver,” Tari called out.
“I… I felt its power when I cut into it, and after. Not a single dip even without all those, just what-. We’re leaving,” Silver mumbled.
“I’m sorry, I’m a little far back here but what did you say Silver?!” Torunei called out.
“I said we’re pulling out!” he yelled back.
“Why?!”
“My ability, remember? I know as four fighters we’re perhaps better than those knights that came before but when I cut into that thing, I could sense its power. I don’t know what it was but its power was massive.”
As he concluded speaking his swords could be heard being sheathed at his sides, “That thing. Once I cut into it, it felt like… like it had enough power to wipe out perhaps over a hundred knights. We were right on the first observation, we need to pull back.”
“Are you kidding me?! Ya’ll just got us to come down here and now after ya go and lop off a bunch of vines ya wanna turn back? Lame!” Thad yelled out.
“You’re not exactly wrong Thad but I got a horrible feeling once I cut into it that I can’t shake.”
“Silver’s right,” Tari murmured, “It was faint but I could feel its spirit and its power. It’s massive. To top it off I don’t even think the main body was around us just then. Whatever it was was far off.”
“You’re serious now?” Soren questioned, “Whatever it is is seriously that bad?”
“I believe so, yes,” Silver replied now approaching the group.
“Alright. I’ll report in to Bishop Maxwell when on the surface. Maybe we can round up some Priests to investigate.”
“Warn them of the danger if you do,” Silver mumbled stepping into the full light of Torunei’s aura, “Because whatever that thing is, it isn’t natural in the slightest.”
“Still to just abandon so suddenly-”
“I wouldn’t quite call it an abandonment, more of a chance to regroup and fire back at full force.”385Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuA4J04Gpsl
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