NOVEL NEXT Chapter 114: Collapse
The exit could appear any minute? What, by the gods, did Gareth mean by that? And what did he mean by saying this mysterious exit would close again? It sounded ominous.
I glanced around myself. The so-called exit still hadn't even appeared. I wondered how Gareth had discovered the behaviors of these "magical rift exits." Had a party of Scouts taken too long gathering the spoils of their battle, then missed the opportunity to take their exit and got trapped in a rift at one point?
I shook my head and decided to heed Gareth's command and harvest monster parts as quickly as possible. I fell to my knees next to the snake I'd just killed and pulled my new knife out from its sheath at my side. The always unappealing squelching sound of blade slicing through scales and flesh met my ears as I widened the snake's gaping wound that I'd made with my spear.
The rest of the party also began to hack away at the other fallen monsters. Though we were all tired, we worked with vigor and excitement. The sheer amount of monster parts and monster cores we could retrieve from the two dozen fallen enemies was enough to fill all seven of our sacks to the brim. I looked forward to discovering the amount of credits I could claim in exchange for all of the goods I shoved into my own bag. I also couldn't help but wonder what sort of pay the party members of Elite Group #1, including myself, would receive for each successful clearing of a rift.
I smiled, almost inclined to whistle jovially as I continued to work. I could end up very well off financially. That'd be a welcome change of circumstance.
"Pack away what you can within the next five or so seconds!" Gareth hollered ten feet to my left. "The wall is opening. Once the exit is completely open, we have exactly 30 seconds to get through."
So specific, I thought. Why only 30 seconds?
Once again, I began picturing a poor Scout group stuck in one of these deep, dark rifts, indefinitely awaiting some sort of rescue. But surely the first Scout groups had had a plan to climb out of the chasms before they knew about alternative exit options.
Regardless of how the facts of the rifts were discovered, I couldn't help but feel grateful that I hadn't unluckily belonged to one of the first groups of rift delvers. It seemed enough information had been garnered to protect us from becoming cruelly trapped by disappearing exits.
The wall in front of me scraped open, making a screeching sound that bounced off the other high walls and creating a loud, continuous echo. I gritted my teeth against the abhorrent noise of stone against stone, the sensation intensified by the enhancement of my body, including my hearing, as I continued pumping a steady flow of essence within me.
A wide, jagged crack in the wall loomed above us, stretching as high as fifty or so feet. The hole offered no hints as to what lay in store for us beyond it. Even with my eyes squinted in an attempt to notice anything, all I could see was darkness.
"Go, go, go!" Gareth cried, waving a commanding arm toward the new opening.
I fell in line with my comrades as we ran toward the exit in a scattered line. Gareth took the rear after first making sure everyone else in the group had already crossed through and into the gaping hole in the wall.
I called as many stray essence streams flying over the monster corpses to me as I could, not knowing how much time had already elapsed since the exit had appeared. I wanted to absorb as much of the essence as I could before the wall closed behind us.
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It felt as if I barely had a chance to blink before the wall slammed shut. Darkness engulfed us like an intense wave swallowing the sandy shore on the surface. I took two more steps forward, but the metal toe of my armored boots caught on a slice of uneven ground. I stumbled and blindly waved my hands in front of myself, trying to find a wall or even a person from my group to hold onto and regain some semblance of balance.
The tips of my fingers (still covered by gauntlets to protect the essence-filled cores I harvested from the monsters, as my abilities to attract essence would drain cores just from skin contact) met with narrow shoulders.
"Hey!" Cinthara muttered under her breath as the rest of my body bumped into her, nearly toppling the two of us over.
"Sorry," I whispered, also feeling the urge to keep my voice down. Something about the inability to see anything around us made me feel like speaking at a normal volume would disturb a frightening unknown.
A dim, white glow flickered on behind us. I whirled around to find its source. Gareth slammed a metal staff into the ground. The motion seemed to activate a fist-sized orb attached to the top of the staff. The device continued to glow brighter until it shot half a dozen bright beams in every direction.
Gareth pointed the staff ahead of us, drawing the group's attention to a steep incline that I could only guess would lead us to the surface.
"Let's get home," he said.
No one argued with that.
The climb was arduous. Though I still commanded essence to enhance my armor and body, my calves groaned underneath my weight and burned more intensely with every step. Even Gareth began to wheeze and groan as the path grew steeper and steeper. No one spoke–we all kept our full attention on our own steps and breaths. That is, until Cinthara collapsed.
I watched as her legs crumpled underneath her as if she'd lost complete feeling in her extremities. Even Cinthara's arms flailed at her sides as she fell. She fell so violently that her blond-white hair unraveled from her braids and cascaded over her entire torso and face, hiding the top half of her body from us underneath a blanket of white.
"Cinthara!" I cried.
I rushed to her side, sliding on my knees until I stopped right next to her head. Hurried footsteps approached her, as well, and panicked whispers and confused outbursts resounded all around me. I gently wrapped my hands around her cheeks and twisted her neck just slightly to the side to get a good look at her pale face.
Cinthara's eyelids were squeezed shut, and the eyeballs underneath jerked around in quick motions as if she were having a nightmare. Her pink lips trembled as she whimpered, and the color in her cheeks seemed to drain away with every passing second.
"What happened?" Gareth said. He dropped in beside me and took her face away from my hands to study Cinthara himself.
My mouth had gone dry, and I found it difficult to respond in any way other than a shake of my head. I had no idea what had happened. With no warning and not even a pained cry, Cinthara had just… fallen–collapsed as if all her faculties had escaped her.
Gareth's hands looked massive compared to Cinthara's head as he held her face. He shook her gently, trying to wake her up from whatever had taken her. He moved his grip to her shoulders, allowing her long neck to fall back at an awkward angle as he shook her even harder.
"Come on, Cinthara! Do you need water? Food? Are you injured?"
Everyone had gone uncomfortably quiet. Only Gareth's unanswered questions echoed in our ears.
"We need to get her to the infirmary," he said, flashing concerned eyes in my direction. "I'll carry her. Rayden, you grab my things."
A pang of annoyance crashed through my chest. I wanted to carry her. For a second or two, my own worry for Cinthara's well-being overwhelmed any sense of logic. But I quickly shrugged the feeling away and did as he said, shouldering Gareth's heavy, loot-filled sack along with my own as he lifted Cinthara's small frame into his arms. Then, somehow unlocking a secret stash of strength, Gareth broke into a steady jog along the steep path toward the surface.
I forced my tired body to fall in close behind, even risking a little extra boost of essence to push myself forward. At the moment, I wasn't worried about whatever crash might befall me once I stopped the flow of essence enhancement. All I could think about now was not letting Gareth or Cinthara out of my sight.