I sprinted through the dark cavern, away from all the creepy crawlies of all shapes and sizes.
Unfortunately, they weren’t just behind me, they were everywhere. Especially right where I was running.
I had already incinerated a bunch of them with my Dragon Blaster and Flameguard, but they just kept appearing.
And… okay, they weren’t teleporting and apparently weren’t even trying to kill me that much, but still! They were gross and disgusting and gross and goddammit George, why?!
A massive slimy worm suddenly appeared in my path as I rounded the corner and I almost tripped trying to stop myself from crashing into it.
In fact, I even used my shoes’ sticking ability to forcefully halt my momentum. And of course, as soon as I stopped, I automatically began tensing up in anticipation of a horde of insects swarming me.
For some reason, that hadn’t happened though. When I looked around, using my flaming finger as a torch, I saw insects all over the place, but instead of beelining toward me, they all just seemed to be minding their own business.
I also saw a red door, right next to where I stopped, inviting me to escape this hell.
But somehow, seeing that red door didn’t make me feel relieved or even surprised. Instead, it transformed my disgust and anxiety into anger and indignance.
“What, you think I’m just gonna give up straight away?! Fuck you, Fate Weaver!”
Once again, my yelling seemed to have attracted the attention of some of the bugs.
Like the giant worm in front of me.
Before it could slither its way toward me, I jumped at the wall, latched onto it with my shoes, and then ran forward, avoiding the worm by running on the ceiling.
Which was not to say that there were no bugs on the ceiling. Oh no, I almost immediately ran across a huge spider web with a giant spider and thousands of tiny spiders skittering around it.
My reaction was to predictably scream and drop down from the ceiling.
Straight on top of another group of insects that I promptly squashed with my boots.
“Why?!” I yelled as an uncomfortable chill went down my spine but continued running regardless.
It took me a couple of minutes of running and avoiding bugs until I reached an opening that led to… probably a big room. It was hard to tell with how dark everything was though and I didn’t want to waste Ether on lighting it all up.
“There’s gotta be the staircase here somewhere, right…? Please tell me it’s gonna be over soon…” I mumbled as I carefully walked inside, pointedly not thinking about how this room had to be full of more insects.
The trick was to just distract myself to stop myself from wanting to scream all the time.
SunOfABeach:at least they seem to be normal bugs
SunOfABeach:no attacking on sight
“Yeah… just normal creepy crawlies that want to march into my nostrils and lay eggs in my brain,” I murmured, automatically imagining the worst-case scenario.
JamieWasTaken3:wtf gross
JamieWasTaken3:where is my famiy friendly stream
KaiEbikoOfficial:Nana…
“...Okay, sorry. But seriously, you guys aren’t in a dark cave full of bugs…!” I gritted out as I set about carefully exploring the cave without stepping on – or bumping into – any bugs.
SunOfABeach:calm down
SunOfABeach:I think this is the point of this trial
SunOfABeach:to unnerve you
SunOfABeach:force you to make mistakes
I pursed my lips and took a deep breath.
“...It probably is, but… I just… I can’t help it. This place is horrible and I–” A red door suddenly emerged from the darkness as I walked, forcing me to stop and glare at it.
JamieWasTaken3:le gasp
JamieWasTaken3:shesaid the bad word
I kept walking, ignoring Jamie’s comment. After all, I already said the bad word a little while ago and I expected to say it a lot more in the near future, from how things were going.
Still, this was the real reason for the red doors, wasn’t it? They weren’t a mercy. No, they were another layer of psychological warfare in this accursed place.
And yet… Why did I feel was all just a beginning?
After all, this was meant to break me, wasn’t it? Or at least severely traumatize me. And as much as I hated dark caves filled with bugs… I could just grit my teeth and bear with it.
This was going to get worse, I just knew it.
Although weirdly enough, there were a lot less bugs than before now that I’d entered the big room. I was still creeping along the walls just to limit how many directions I had to defend from in the worst case scenario, so there might be more in the middle, but… there wasn’t even that much noise. Barely any skittering or slithering.
Then, of course, the silence was broken by a sound of kerplunk.
I stopped and glanced toward the middle of the room from where I heard that noise.
I waited for a moment, on guard for any skittering nightmares to ambush me, but instead there was another kerplunk.
“...Chat? This is very suspicious.”
JamieWasTaken3:too sus
JamieWasTaken3:dont take the bait
SunOfABeach:at least figure out what it is though
SunOfABeach:it could lead to the exit
Eclipsoon:no dont get close
Eclipsoon:shine light in that direction
I pursed my lips and ultimately decided to go with Eclipse’s suggestion.
I pointed my finger in the direction of where I heard the noise, poured more Ether into it, and then focused to shape the fire in a specific way to shine the light in that specific direction – one of the things I’d practiced doing over the last few days.
My little flashlight mode trick revealed a… lake?
It looked like a normal lake at first glance, but my gut told me that it was filled with water-dwelling bugs or something. Those existed, right? Probably.
I weighed my options for a bit while consulting with chat, before ultimately deciding that I needed to check it out. After all, it was possible that the staircase was underwater, even if I didn’t think it likely.
I slowly approached, on the lookout for any ambushes, but at most, I came across a few small bugs that skittered away when I shined my light on them.
Finally, I got close enough for the lake to be in the range of both my Hydrokinesis and my Abyssal Domain.
I tried to nudge the water just to check it out, but it was much harder than pure water should be. Next, I checked it out a bit closer with my Abyssal Domain and–
“...Chat,” I whispered as a chill went down my spine. “Chat, this is not water…”
A huge drop of something then came from the ceiling and landed in the lake, making another kerplunk sound.
I hesitated, but eventually looked up while shining my flashlight-at-home in the same direction.
There was something massive sticking to the ceiling. It looked like a cross between a giant centipede, a spider, and a T-rex. A long winding body with dozens of spider-like legs jutting out of it, clinging to the ceiling, all ending with a grotesque head with way too many teeth. Its eyes seemed to be closed.
I stared for a moment, too afraid to make any sounds.
Then, just to confirm it for me, a large glob of saliva slipped out of the thing’s mouth, between its dagger-like teeth, fell down, and kerplunk’d into the lake… no, into the pool of the abomination’s saliva.
I began slowly backing out, while keeping my eyes on the thing, my flashlight-finger shaking.
That, of course, was a mistake, because as I backed off, my control got a bit too sloppy on my flashlight, and I focused the light a bit too much into the thing’s closed eye.
As soon as I did, it snapped open.
I didn’t even wait for it to get its bearings and immediately turned around and sprinted out of the big room, back into the tunnel where I’d come from.
It didn’t take long for me to hear the terrifying chitinous roar – how the hell did that even work?! – and a flurry of movement behind me.
I didn’t even look. I just aimed my Dragon Blaster behind me and fired off a shot of absolutely everything I could, causing an explosion of steam, plasma, and a barrage of crystalline needles to be shot toward my pursuer.
It did nothing, as evidenced by a mouth full of teeth soon appearing behind me in my Abyssal Domain.
Panicking, I used one of the moves I had practiced the past few days, and whipped out with my superfast tentacle at the ground behind me to propel myself forward even faster. and out of the range of the abomination behind me.
Right after I retracted my tentacle, I then sped myself up even more by igniting the soles of my feet with Flameguard to act as pseudo-rocket boots.
Unfortunately, going this fast inside a winding cave was not my brightest of ideas.
I clipped a jutting rock as I flew, causing me to flip over and spin out of control before crashing into a wall and sliding along it.
Despite being dazed by the crash and the pain swelling around my body, I scrambled to get up to keep running.
I immediately noticed the red door that just happened to be right by where I’d crashed. I completely ignored it and instead turned to the little cubby that was just big enough to fit me.
I wasted no time in jumping for it and squeezing myself inside, hoping it was enough to avoid the abomination’s notice.
There were spiders inside.
I grit my teeth so hard that part of me thought they would start breaking, but didn’t move even as they began crawling over my bare legs.
I waited there for a few breathless beats as the loud skittering noise of the big monster got closer and closer–
And then, out of nowhere, thousands of spider-like legs scurried inside the corridor I’d been in a minute ago, washing over it like a wave of chitinous terror.
It felt like an eternity, sitting there completely frozen with my teeth clenched, as the long body of the beast dragged itself through the corridor.
Even after it was long gone and the sound of its movement receded in the distance, I couldn’t help but sit still, afraid that it would somehow hear me breathe or something if I made the tinies of–
“Gah!” I yelled out as a spider suddenly crawled over my face.
I automatically lit my whole body on fire and exterminated all the spiders that had been crawling over me.
Then I immediately tensed up, expecting the giant spiderpede to return.
It did not return and I couldn’t hear it anymore.
I very slowly relaxed as I let out a breath.
A tiny cramped rocky space had never been more comfortable.
Once again, I remembered that the red door I’d spotted earlier was just around the corner and peeked out to see it still just standing there, invitingly.
I genuinely considered just walking through it rather than dealing with that thing.