The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4) (8 page)

That was, of course, right when the tentacle grabbed him. 

CHAPTER 5
 

Richter was yanked up through the hole.  The tentacle had looped under one arm and back around his neck, giving whatever had him a firm grasp.  It whipped his body back and forth in the air before throwing him across the pitch-black cavern.  He gave a startled shout as he flew through the air.  He landed heavily but quickly got to his feet.  He anxiously looked in all directions but didn’t see anything. 

A loud crash echoed through the cavern.  He dismissed
Dark Vision I
and then with both hands started casting
Far Light I
.  Every second, two balls of light would shoot into the darkness and affix to whatever they struck.  Richter aimed at the ceiling, the far walls, and the floor.  He turned in all directions, his hands glowing gold in a vain attempt to see what had attacked him, but still, he saw nothing.  He didn’t stop.

Each ball of light cost him five mana, but that wasn’t a problem as he could draw on the village’s mana pool.  Richter kept turning.  He wished that he knew which direction the entrance to the cavern was, but between being shaken in the air and then spinning after he had been thrown, he was completely turned around.  He accessed his map, but all it showed was a black space surrounding him.  The cave entrance was roughly to his right, but that was all that he could tell.  So he did the only thing he could.  He kept casting. 

Ten balls of light shot out.  Then there were thirty and then one hundred.  Richter kept turning, trying to look in all directions at once.  Despite his preparations, something struck him, and he didn’t see it coming.  He took a heavy blow across his shoulders that knocked him off his feet.  His armor absorbed most of the damage, but he still lost twelve health.  He fell on his face and before he could turn over, something wrapped around his left leg.  It began pulling him across the floor to a patch of darkness that lacked a ball of
Far Light I.

Richter cried out in panic and anger.  Flopping over, he put both hands together and dual cast
Flame I. 
He forced a word of Power from his throat and his wrists locked together.  A gout of orange fire flew ahead of him and began to cook the tentacle that held him.  It was dark black in color and thick like an octopus’s arm.  When the fire touched it, he heard a scream that sounded like the whistling of wind through a canyon.  The tentacle loosed its grip.  As it retreated, Richter was horrified to see that the wiry limb was lined with suckers.  That was not noteworthy, but each sucker had a small mouth in its center that was full of needlelike teeth.  The mouths snapped and gnashed at him in no observable sequence.  He kept up his fire attack and traced the lance of flame in the direction of the retreating tentacle.  The scream grew louder, and Richter got his first look at what was attacking him.  He used
Analyze
.

Dark Aberration.
 
Level 18.  Health 630.  Mana 350.  Stamina 410.  Disposition: Hatred.
 
A dark aberration can arise from the remains of sacrificial victims used in Dark magic.  The rotting flesh of those poor souls will sometimes flow together to create this horrid creature.  An amalgam of agony, fury, and Dark magic, an aberration is filled with hatred and will attack any creature that comes near it.  Rather than being seen as an unfortunate consequence of magic experimentation, some evil wizards have sacrificed hundreds, if not thousands, of men, women, and children for the express purpose of creating these hateful things.  A dark aberration can lie dormant for years and can survive by feeding off of the residual Dark magic that created it.  If it is supplied with fresh flesh or Dark energy, this monster could theoretically be an immortal watchdog. 

The thing was huge.  It was at least the size of a Humvee.  The entire body of the aberration just looked like a tarry black mass that had a forest of tentacles extending out from it.  Eyes of various colors and types were randomly placed on the body and several large mouths were screaming in concert.  Some of the mouths were as long as Richter’s arm and filled with jagged shark-like teeth, but one mouth was human sized and was lined with full red pouting lips.  Somehow the normal mouth was what really filled Richter with revulsion. 

He only got a look at it for second because it quickly scooted farther back into the cave and beyond the range of his
Flame I
spell.  Richter immediately lost sight of it, and the screams quieted after a few seconds.  Except for the
whoosh
of his Fire spell and his own harsh breathing, there wasn’t another sound to be heard once it disappeared into the dark.  Just great, Richter thought, this thing is a fucking ninja!  He screamed defiance at it for a second and maintained his fire attack, but then cut it off and sprinted in the opposite direction. 

As Richter ran, he started casting buffs. 
Minor Life Armor I, Minor Life Aura, Haste I,
and
Barkskin I. 
He even cast
Courage I,
though he couldn’t tell if it had an effect.  He was still scared shitless by what he had just seen.  That thing had been huge, and he was pretty sure one of those eyes had winked at him! 

As he sprinted away, he aimed his run towards an area that seemed to have a greater concentration of his
Far Light I
balls clustered together, reasoning that had to be the direction he had been thrown from.  It also coincided with the section of the map where the cave entrance was.  Luckily, it was roughly opposite of the direction that the aberration had skittered off in.  Richter intellectually understood that didn’t mean it wasn’t still following him in the dark or even that it hadn’t managed to get ahead of him, but seeing as how he was running for his life from a giant tentacle monster, it really didn’t seem like the time for deep thoughts! 

It didn’t take more than a few seconds to cast his buffs and after that he just cast
Far Light I
in all directions again until he reached the portion of wall that was already festooned with his balls of light.  His breath was still coming fast and short and his heart thudded forcefully in his chest.  He quickly turned around, placing his back to the wall, and drew his new sword.  It gleamed green in the light of Richter’s balls of light.  He looked out over the cavern, searching for the aberration.

The first thing that struck Richter was the strangeness of the cavern he was in.  The ceiling was only twenty feet directly above his head, but in front of him, the cave became a warren of holes and short tunnels.  To Richter, it looked like staring into a block of Swiss cheese.  There was even a four-foot hole leading directly up into the ceiling only a few feet from where he was standing.  Richter quailed internally when he realized he was standing in a three-dimensional maze.  He could only hope that he had run in the right direction and that he could find the way out.  It was now abundantly clear why the position of the
Far Light I
balls was so confusing. 

Richter looked around, searching for the midnight black body of his attacker, but he didn’t see anything.  He shot out a few more balls of
Far Light I,
but each ball of light only illuminated the space around it for a few feet.  The oil-colored body of his enemy could be in any of the seemingly endless shadows that were in front of him.  Richter looked to either side, trying to find the entrance to the chamber.  He sidled a bit to the left, but then whipped his head back to the right, fearing to be attacked from the darkness again. 

Richter took stock of his situation.  Just like when he had been confronted with a difficult situation on Earth, he remembered the wisdom of Frank Herbert, “Fear is the mind killer, I will face my fear.  I will let it pass through me.”  Richter took a deep breath and steadied himself.  With his short sword held before him, he faced the facts.

Fact, a monster wanted his life.

Fact, if he didn’t escape, he would have to fight for his life.

Fact, it was bigger than him.

Richter’s fear faded as he forced his mind to confront his situation.  In its absence, anger became his primary emotion. 

Fact, he had already hurt it.

Fact, this was his damn house.

Fact, he was going to kill this fucking thing!

Richter stopped looking for an escape and started planning for his victory.  Both hands flew out, and he cast
Far Light I
fifty more times in quick succession.  The village’s mana dropped by two hundred and fifty, but there was still more than enough available.  The village mana pool would recover at more than forty points per hour, and the light should last at least another ten minutes.  He also cast
Simple Light. 
Between that and the glow that
Minor Life Aura
caused, he could easily see the area around him. 

Richter drank a Potion of Clarity and then cast one of his new spells,
Summon Weak Saproling
, for the very first time
. 
The fingers of his left hand contorted in a particular series of movements.  The cast time was three seconds, but the aberration left him unmolested as he completed his spell.  Richter felt his will push against the fabric of the world as he made a hole in space between “here” and “somewhere else.”  With a final word of Power, he clenched his hand into a fist.  The spell was completed.  A green disc four feet in diameter phased into view.  Richter heard the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, and the crisp scent of pine filled the cavern.  A creature stepped through the disc. 

The saproling was three feet tall and seemed to be composed of thick sticks and leaves.  The pale wooden branches were bent and intertwined like wicker.  It was bent forward on all fours, but its stance was more akin to an ape’s than a dog’s.  The saproling didn’t have any feet.  Instead, each limb ended in a small mire of sprawling roots.  The head was a solid piece of wood.  Two green balls of glowing light served for its eyes, and it looked out from holes in the front of its wooden skull.  Three more holes ran down either side of its jaw, but Richter didn’t see any discernable mouth.   

The summoned creature looked around and then locked eyes on Richter.  No sounds came from it, but Richter understood the silent communication.  It was waiting for orders.  It was waiting to discover why it had been summoned from whatever world it called home.  He really didn’t know too much about its capabilities, so he
Analyzed
it.

Saproling
. 
Level 5.  Health 180.  Mana 200.  Stamina 220.  Disposition: Neutral.  A low-level forest elemental, a saproling can take many forms.  They are often summoned by Novice Earth mages for a variety of tasks.  Though helpful, they can also attack with deadly force when needed. 

“Protect me!” Richter shouted.  He started casting more
Far Light I
balls into the dark recesses.  While he did, he kept searching for the entrance in case the fight went badly.  He still fully intended to kill whatever was in here with him, but he didn’t see any shame in… strategically retreating if the fight turned south.  The hair on the back of his neck was up as he tried to look everywhere at once.  He kept imagining that he could detect the pitch-black skin of the aberration.  Each time he created a ball of light, it stuck to whatever surface it met, but he saw no sign of the monster.  Richter just couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that even though the aberration could be hiding ten feet away, he still might not see it.

As it turned out, the monster was only hiding eight feet away, hanging from the wall above and behind him.  A tentacle snaked out of the darkness and wrapped around Richter’s neck.  It yanked him off his feet and cut off his oxygen like a noose.  Richter felt the small mouths on the inside tentacles bite him.  What was worse was the nauseating pulling sensation.  With budding horror, he realized that this thing was drinking his blood even as it choked him!

The saproling immediately rushed to the wall to attack the monster, but that did nothing to help Richter directly.  More tentacles reached out to combat his summoned creature.  The saproling was stopped a good five feet away from the mouths Richter could now see yawning open.  He reached up instinctively and tried to dig his fingers into the space between his neck and the tentacle holding him.  There was no gap to be found, however.  As soon as he touched the tentacle, it tightened like a garrote.  The pressure increased behind his eyes as the flow of blood was constricted further.  The muscles in his abdomen constricted, and Richter had to fight a sudden urge to urinate on himself.  He probably wouldn’t have been able to resist that primal defense mechanism, but the panic that rose within him as soon as his feet left the ground suddenly abated slightly.  An unseen notation on his combat log detailed that
Courage I
had just taken effect.  His conscious mind took over, and he realized that he wasn’t using the best weapon at his disposal.  That actual weapon in his fucking hand!