A Little Bit of Trust (2)
The barnacle monster spoke. And it spoke in Whieon.
"What did you just say?"
"For the la—lady's e-eternal beauty."
I hadn't misheard.
"What the hell are you babbling about?"
"Humans. Fresh humans. Must be offered."
The barnacle monster lifted the lifeboat. I braced to dodge, certain it was about to hurl the thing at us — but I'd read it wrong. The creature set the boat atop its own head and started backing away.
"Hey — it's running!"
"Don't let it get away!"
The Valkyrie shot forward a step ahead of me. I dropped the last of the walkers and tore after her.
"Without that lifeboat, we're finished!"
"You think I don't know that, you idiot?!"
The Valkyrie and I gave chase with everything we had. The barnacle monster was far more agile than its bulk suggested. Ease off even a fraction and we'd lose it. That size, that speed — it didn't make sense.
Whoosh!
The monster plunged down a slope into a stretch of gravel. The footing made pursuit that much harder. Didn't matter. We had to keep after it.
Fleeing along the coastal cliffs, the creature rounded a bend. David offered advice.
"Use a Resonance Stone."
"Hey!"
The Valkyrie, still sprinting, twisted only her head back toward me. I waved her off.
"Move!"
She veered aside. I pulled a dark, ink-tinged stone from my pocket and muttered under my breath.
"Bind."
⟨ Resonance Stone ⟩
The magic stone answered the Whieon, bleeding an ominous light as it crumbled away. And then—
Rrrrumble—!
Every piece of gravel on the ground resonated as one.
Crack!
Stones leapt up and slammed into the monster racing ahead. A dull impact, and the creature went sprawling.
The instant it fell, the surrounding gravel swarmed in like a plague of rats. Those stones weren't magic stones themselves — they were merely obeying the Resonance Stone's command, behaving as if they were. A phenomenon known as sympathetic animation.
"Aaaagh!"
The monster, buried under the stones, screamed.
"Pierce."
⟨ Chamcheongseok ⟩
With its legs bound, I fired a Chamcheongseok. Crack! The stone punched clean through the monster's shell without incident. No matter how hard its armor, a barnacle was still a barnacle.
But in the next instant, something I hadn't expected happened.
"For the la—lady."
In a final thrash of defiance, the monster hurled the lifeboat.
"Ah—!"
The Valkyrie gasped. I looked the same direction the boat had gone, and my face went rigid.
The lifeboat had been thrown toward a cave. A nearly vertical one.
"Aaaargh."
The Valkyrie and I finished off the Whieon-speaking monster for good, then peered into the cave. No sunlight reached that far; it was pitch dark. I pulled out a Glow Stone I'd brought and fed it mana.
"Ah, damn it."
"Ah, damn it."
The lifeboat lay smashed on the floor far below.
"How the hell do we get that?"
"Hold on. I'll make a Float Stone."
Things had gotten complicated, but not unsolvable. I signaled the Valkyrie and started combing through the gravel. Let's see. Something I could use as material for a Float Stone…
"Mage!"
"Huh?"
"Something's wrong! Get over here! Now!!"
The Valkyrie waved frantically — come here, immediately. I felt it in my gut and sprinted over.
Whoooosh—!
The sound of rushing water. Echoing up from deep inside the cave.
Don't tell me. No way.
"…Ah, for fuck's sake."
The water was rising. And rising fast.
"We're out of time. If we're getting it, we move now."
The drop to the cave floor wasn't that deep. If the Valkyrie and I coordinated well, we could haul the lifeboat out before the water swallowed it. The moment our eyes met, we moved.
The Valkyrie descended fast. I kept the Glow Stone bright so she could see what she was doing. Before long, her feet found solid ground.
"Got it! Pull it up!"
I took the lifeboat from her and hauled it out of the cave. The whole thing had taken less than three minutes. First crisis, cleared.
All that remained was helping her climb back up.
The water was growing louder, more violent. The Valkyrie's eyes trembled — but she kept her composure, planting her feet on the jutting holds of the slope as she climbed.
When she finally reached the midpoint, I dropped flat against the ground and stretched out my hand.
"Grab on!"
I caught the flailing tips of the Valkyrie's fingers. Her relief lasted only a heartbeat before a torrent burst free like a ruptured dam, slamming into her legs and waist.
"Ghk—!"
A tremendous resistance surged through her fingertips. The water was dragging her under. The color drained from her face until it was bone-white.
"Hurry! Pull me up!"
"I'm— I'm doing everything I can!"
"You're a man, aren't you?! Put some muscle into it!"
I threw every ounce of strength I had into it, and it still wasn't enough. The current was insatiable, climbing past her chest. My arm felt ready to tear from its socket.
In that instant, I knew.
Ah. This isn't going to work. Not a chance.
But I didn't let go. Abandoning her was never part of the plan. Enemy or not — if I left this woman to die here, I'd spend the rest of my life regretting it.
That stubborn little scrap of pride produced a miserable result. In the end the current overpowered me too, and my body was yanked forward. My weight lifted free, then fell — helplessly, into the dark.
"Aagh!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
And so the two of us were sucked deeper into the cave on the raging flood.
The Valkyrie and I locked onto each other and surrendered to the current. It was the best we could do.
How many minutes passed like that? Battered and spun along the long passage, we were finally swept down into a lake nestled deep inside the cave.
"Hah… hah…"
I swam for the edge and hauled myself out. The Valkyrie followed close behind. I offered her my hand.
"…Here."
She flinched as she reached for it. After a moment's hesitation, she climbed out on her own. Feeling suddenly awkward, I scratched the back of my head.
"Hoo. What a goddamn life."
The clothes I'd just finished drying were soaked through all over again. Great. Another round of fever waiting for me, no doubt.
The Valkyrie blinked the water from her lashes and wrung out the hair at her temple. She glanced at me sidelong and spoke in a voice that barely made it out of her throat.
"Sorry. Because of me."
"Forget it. Let's just find a way out."
I surveyed our surroundings.
The cave was vast, tunnels branching off in every direction.
"We're not getting back the way we came."
I understood at once that the current which had dragged us here was no ordinary natural phenomenon. Physically, a wave like that simply couldn't have formed.
"Well. Looks like something's running this place."
The boss of those fishfolk monsters. Judging by what the barnacle creature had said, some being it called "the lady" might be ruling this island and its caves.
Which would be a problem.
Weapons first. We'd gone bare-handed hauling up the lifeboat, so neither the Valkyrie nor I had anything useful on us. The magic stones in my pocket were our only real means of attack.
"O fruit, ripen."
I cut a stalagmite growing nearby, shaped it carefully, and handed it to the Valkyrie. Then I gathered loose stones from around us and turned them into magic stones.
I glanced once at the landscape, once at the Valkyrie, and gestured.
"Let's go. We're finding an exit."
Rachel turned over everything the man had done just moments before.
Even when his own life was on the line, he hadn't let go of her wrist. Even after her predicament had dragged him down here with her, he hadn't blamed her once.
It wasn't what she'd expected.
All this time, Rachel had assumed he would abandon her the moment it suited him. Especially in a situation like the one just now — when his own life was directly at risk — she'd been certain his true nature would surface without hesitation.
The reality had been the opposite. He hadn't acted selfishly. Instead of securing his own safety, he'd chosen the hard path of being swept into the current alongside her. He must have known what he was doing. That was the whole of it.
What kind of person is he, really?
She'd always believed mages were wicked and twisted to a one. Was this man different?
No. Even if he is — he killed my comrades right in front of me. That isn't something I can forgive.
Still… at his core, he might actually be a decent human being…
The tangle of thoughts spun through her head until she shook it clear. Brooding here would only give her a headache.
Survival.
Focus on survival. Making it back to the Holy Kingdom in one piece — that was her only goal right now.
"If you're not coming, I'm going ahead."
"Hey, wait! Hold on!"
Rachel's stride quickened to match.
The cave the Valkyrie and I had dropped into was far larger than I'd imagined. The tunnels were a maze, and fishfolk monsters turned up often enough to keep things interesting.
They tended to burst out of the lakes scattered throughout the cave. The first ambushes caught us off guard, but once I started reading the pattern of their movements, we could handle them.
"We've already been this way."
No need to check it again. I scratched an X into the wall with a Marking Stone.
We wandered for hours hunting an exit, and eventually came face to face with a massive stone door — fully five times the height of a person.
"Well, now."
The first trace of civilization I'd seen since washing up on this island.