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Chapter 56: Root-portal
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 12:01:06 +0000 UTCThey did need to kill several waves of ants on their way to the specific tunnel that Major Hulte had in mind. The reason for this was obvious: they had light sources accompanying them. If anything, that should have been the first giveaway to Caen that this was no typical Delver team. In fact, Ladia appeared to be the only person here with enchanted goggles. Caen’s, of course, were not truly enchanted.
His improved strength and agility allowed him to cleave through ants with more ease than he'd been able to on his first day here. He flickered Soul-sense to assist others, but the soldiers and combatants seemed competent enough.
Hulte halted them at a hole beside the stump of an awakened tree. They were far from most Cutter and Attacker teams. And the surrounding trees hadn't even been chopped down. All the surrounding holes had been covered with grates, which implied that they'd been cleared. Caen had seen the Delver team with Sh'kteiro place this over their tunnel after they'd all exited.
Hulte asked one of the soldiers to remove the grate, which seemed to be something of an involved process. Once he was done, she bid the soldiers to slide in first. After whom, the combatants went in. It felt like a sixty-foot-long drop.
Within the cavernous tunnel, Caen looked around. Roots covered the walls and ceiling, but he couldn't make out any ant corpses or body parts.
Zeris landed in the tunnel with a grunt. She moved out of the way, and Ladia and the major came in last.
The major issued command codes that had the soldiers taking up defensive positions, though the other combatants, Ladia and Zeris, hadn't the slightest clue what any of that meant. They moved into the tunnel system as one, Hulte leading the way and consulting a map she held in her hand. The burly soldier beside her held up a lamp, as did others in the group.
They came to a small chamber with a much lower ceiling and two other exits. Ladia joined Hulte at the front as they both inspected a portion of the wall with a curiously symmetrical cluster of roots that were of a darker shade than the surrounding roots.
Caen stood at the back of the group with Zeris and connected to a tree through its roots, one of which happened to be on a wall within easy reach of his hand. Even as he isolated the tree’s Blood-healing affinity cluster, he could still see everyone in the chamber, though he wasn't paying all that much attention.
He noticed a couple of soldiers exchange a look and hand signs, which wasn't anything by itself. Then one of them, who had been casually making his way towards the major, shouted something in base-Ortrilian and jumped at her.
Ladia flinched and vanished, teleporting away with the shouting, airborne soldier. A second of stunned silence was interrupted by the distant and muffled sound of an explosion from somewhere far above them.
Several things happened very quickly. A soldier, some paces away, standing with their back to Caen, pulled out a spell rod and a firearm. Caen was already reaching for his own gun, but the soldier beside him took out a firearm as well, turning to Caen.
He and Caen shot each other at the same time. The man's forehead. Caen's abdomen. Pain.
Caen fell to the ground, wheezing and gurgling blood as several other shots rang around the chamber. Zeris rushed to him and was saying something he could barely hear as she put pressure on his wound. Caen struggled to hold on to a breathing sequence as he weakly scrabbled for some items in his belt bag. Zeris pushed his hands aside and retrieved numb-root for the pain and a few herbs to thin his blood flow.
<Fine. Mimic. Healing,> he sent to her in a tap code, using just his spirit tendrils.
All this while, he’d split off a portion of his mind to resume his work of Mimicking the tree’s Blood-healing cluster. But now he gave it his full attention. Zeris had begun stripping off his breastplate. The breathing sequence was helping, numb-root and the other herbs too.
As soon as his affinity was boosted, his trembling fingers aided his diagnostic spell. Nothing vital had been ruptured. He mended the wound with the bullet inside, knowing he'd have to cut it out later. He cast a soothing spell on himself. It neither made one sleepy nor numbed pain entirely, but it made the sealed-up wound more bearable.
“I'm okay,” he told Zeris as he sat up, wincing. The chamber was much dimmer; only one lamp remained. He looked around at the dead bodies with some trepidation. The soldier he'd shot in the head lay staring lifelessly at Caen with his eyes open. All the other soldiers here had been killed save for one, who had sustained bullet wounds while protecting Major Hulte. Caen had briefly noticed that several of the soldiers had started shooting at Hulte.
We've been caught in the middle of an assassination plot.
He glanced up at the walls and ceiling. Already the roots had begun writhing. “We can’t stay here,” he said out loud, and this caused pain to radiate through his stomach and chest. “The roots feed on corpses.”
A man with a fireball hovering over his hand looked at Caen. “What are you talking abou—AAAAAAHHHH!”
Out of nowhere, a giant ant jumped on the man, immediately mauling him. Two other ants grabbed onto the remaining soldier who'd protected Hulte. His lamp clattered to the floor. Combatants rushed to his aid, while Guinevere engaged the giant ant. It was broader and much larger than the others, and resembled the ones he'd seen when he'd escorted Sh'kteiro and the Delver team.
Caen flickered Soul-sense at it repeatedly, and Guinevere chopped off a leg with her sword. Zeris peppered the creature with her rifle. Another combatant hacked at it from behind. The broad ant suddenly moved so quickly that Caen couldn’t track its movements. Guinevere slipped out of the way in time, but only barely. Caen was shocked. For the briefest moment, he'd seen something flare up in its soul structure. Caen held back on flickering Soul-sense, and this time, when the broad ant moved, he got a good sense of what affinity this was. A spatial affinity. It wasn't moving at preternatural speed; it was tunneling through space somehow, teleporting quickly.
Caen joined in with his gun. Each time he flickered Soul-sense, several bullets pierced the broad ant's carapace. He kept glancing up at the ceiling and the surrounding walls.
As Guinevere hacked halfway into the broad ant's front leg, it let out a soul-piercing chitter. And something lit up in its soul structure that Caen had seen before. When he'd first used the light sedation spell on the awakened trees, they'd sent out a signal of some kind.
The sound of distant chitters could be heard. The other combatant disengaged and started running away.
A bunch of roots shot down for the corpses on the ground. Everyone else scattered but one injured combatant, Guinevere, Zeris, and Caen.
Guinevere chopped off the broad ant's head, but it was obvious that more ants were coming from somewhere. Roots began shooting down from the walls, forcing them backwards.
They'd moved away from the corpses as they fought the broad ant, but now, even roots that were farther away from it were stretching in that direction, completing boxing them in. Up ahead, he could hear rapid scuttling and chittering.
Caen backed into Zeris, who stood staring at a portion of the wall with a symmetrical cluster of roots. These were not moving.
“There's something here,” Zeris said.
“What?” Caen asked, distracted. A root grabbed for his head from above, but he stepped to the side, wincing in pain.
Guinevere brandished her weapon in anticipation of the approaching horde. A root snapped towards her from above. She ducked out of the way, swearing loudly. The injured combatant crouched low beside her, eyeing the roots with a panicked expression.
“It's a portal,” Zeris said, placing her hands to either side of the cluster of roots.
“Where does it lead?” Caen asked, batting aside a root with his glaive and causing the pain in his abdomen to flare.
“I don't know, but we can't stay here. Hold onto my hand so we don't get separated in the teleportation.”
“Hey, you two! Guinevere!” Caen called, holding his hand out to them. “Portal. We're leaving.”
Guinevere looked back and made her way over to them quickly, the injured combatant scrambling after her. Zeris went through, melting into the roots. Caen was right behind her, hoping that whatever awaited them on the other side was better than this.
