Back under the oppressive heat of the artificial sun, they followed the trail Besson and Nutmeg forged, descending down from the shadow of the pinnacle before starting the climb back up toward the column of light above the top of the caldera to the east.
Steam from vents and springs climbed all around them, making what should have been long, clear sight-lines over the entire floor feel more like a closed off world of mist. They passed bubbling pools and geysers, like in videos Cole had seen of Yellowstone National Park. Which probably meant there was some sort of semi-active volcano under their feet—not something Cole wanted to think too much about. It was a good thing they were going up and not down.
Roxy walked with Artian, occasionally boosting him with a Malleable Mender charge. After a few hours, the man was strong enough to be able to draw his bow, a strange, twisted black thing that seemed to change length at will. The scoundrel used it to shoot down a flying monster on the wing—one of several onesie-twosie monsters they attracted during the ruck. Occasionally, they passed the remains of a lone climber, or pairs or trios, killed in savage attacks and partially eaten. None of them matched Beth’s photo.
As they stopped for a ten-minute break, Cole felt the pop of an ability near him and turned to see Nona phasing into existence.
“Jesus, fuck!” shouted Roxy, jumping as the woman appeared next to her. Nutmeg barked and ran over to Nona, who ran her hands through the dog’s fur.
Cole sat back on a rock and took a sip from his hydration pack before addressing Nona. “How’s our trail look?”
“Crowded,” she said. “The apes got their buddies, and they’re tracking us. Or him, maybe,” she said, glancing at Artian. The man blanched as Cole looked his way.
“Your group do something to piss them off?” asked Cole.
“Existing is enough to piss monsters off, as you put it,” he said, leaning on his bow and stroking his chin. “Curious phrase. But no. I daresay they’re more interested in you than I. Perhaps those pools were special to them, or sacred.” He shrugged. “Who can say?”
Cole turned back to Nona. “How many?”
“Hard to count. Thirty, maybe. More are coming up from the crevices.”
Cole almost spit out the water from his hydration pack. “Thirty?!” he sputtered. “How close?”
“Hours. Maybe less. I don’t think they have our trail, exactly. I think they’re just moving in the direction of the next floor.”
He looked over at Roxy. “Rox, are we above the LF swarm threshold for Babel?”
The shield maiden shook her head. “It changes floor-to-floor here. The big guy likes his epic battles on the upper levels. But it should be around twelve for this floor.”
They’d barely beaten back a dozen of the creatures in the valley. Close to three times that many, and it wouldn’t much matter what kind of high ground or defensive position they could take. The apes were simply too fast and too good at climbing to be stymied for long. And they had magic users. The apes would surround the group and eventually overwhelm them with strength in numbers and just sheer strength in general.
Nona continued. “There’s more. The Beast Cult followed us after we left town. They’re back that way, too. But I couldn’t get too close. Two of their mages have soul-sight and that wolf-masked one is some sort of tracking class.”
Cole rubbed his face.
“Fuuuuck,” said Howie. “I almost wonder if we should have tried to take them out in town. While we had the advantage, you know?”
“Yeah, you could have shot five of them at once with your new toy,” said Cole. He shook his head. “We raised enough hell shooting our way out of that dungeon. Any more trouble, we’d have definitely been pinched.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“You took out that mage on Curahee,” Howie pointed out.
“I got lucky,” said Cole. He rubbed the back of his neck. “And I think I might have had a god goading me on.”
“Remember what Bricker said after Curahee?” asked Roxy. “These guys are DOR hunters looking to scrub us. They’ll be higher level than us, and they didn’t just send two this time. Avoid, don’t engage.”
“She’s right,” said Cole. “We’re stronger, now. But if even one or two of them are as tough as Ram-head was, they’ll mop the floor with us.” He glanced at Nona. “Maybe they’ll bump into the monkeys and both our problems will take care of each other.”
Nona looked skeptical of that but said nothing.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re that lucky either,” said Cole. They’d probably keyed in on the commotion at the gate when they’d left. But that couldn’t be helped. “How far behind us?”
“A few hours, at least. If we’re quick, we can keep ahead of them all the way to the stairs. Monsters can’t move between floors.” She shrugged. “So I’ve heard.”
That at least gave them a little breathing room.
Cole caught Nona’s eyes shifting to his pack and followed her gaze to the rifle.
“What’s that?” she asked.
Cole stuffed half a meal bar in his mouth and pulled the rifle out of the sling loops.
“Mmrnot sure,” he said around a mouthful of tasteless calories. “Howie pulled it out of one of the apes.” Cole pulled out his analyzer and tapped it against the otherworld armament.
Once per day: All operations and projectiles fired from this rifle are silent for 12 seconds. Enemies hit with both shots in this period are afflicted with a powerful paralytic toxin.
Damage to beast-type enemies is increased by 50%.
Accuracy, damage, and recoil increased by 9%-12%>
“God damn,” murmured Cole. He’d been looking for something to take out human-type enemies at long range. But the Beast Cult were possibly some sort of human-animal hybrids. Would the beast-culling affix work on them? Or even partly on them?
“This will be useful against the apes, at least,” he said, handing the analyzer up to Nona.
He worked the action and looked at the internal magazine. The parts moved smoothly and silently, as though freshly oiled. The barrel had a faint diamond scale etching, while the wooden furniture had a soft, velvety feel like his new cloak. A skilled marksman could get off several shots with a bolt-action in 9-12 seconds—especially one with supernatural Speed and Acuity. But it wouldn’t be super useful until he got it back to Norn and Bjorn to put a scope on it, since the rifle had only a fixed aperture sight. He peered through it, sighting up the slope to the distant plateau where they were headed, where he could make out the forms of other climbers ascending toward the stairs. He felt the muscles around his eyes tighten in a strange way as he squinted. Through the pinhole of the aperture, the slope seemed to draw close enough for him to make out subtle details, faces, expressions.
He lowered the rifle and blinked. Those figures were barely dots to him, several kilometers away.
“Cole, your eyes,” said Roxy.
“Wow, someone just dropped acid,” said Howie. “Pupils dilated much?”
Hell, maybe he wouldn’t even need the scope. Debating for a moment, he took one of the steam-bullet magazines and pushed the rounds out. Then, he fished in his bag for one of the parts Jefferson had let him take from the lab. All of them had been catalogued and tagged by Jefferson, and one of them, if he could just find… there it was.
Cole melted the bolt into the gun and checked again with the analyzer.
Was it only fifty percent because it fired two bullets per cycling of the bolt? Strange. Still, a gun that could shoot silently, paralyze enemies, and did extra damage from behind would almost certainly be useful. He wasn’t about to melt down his other gun hoping to add the patient hunter affix, but it was certainly a gun worth carrying. He loaded the spare steam rounds into the gun, the magazine and chamber shifting slightly to accommodate the rounds.
Artian watched the process carefully, as well as scrutinized the LF Analyzer Cole used to check the firearm.
“I dare say, your shooting irons and magic detectors are far more advanced than any I’ve seen. Are such devices typical of your world?”
Cole wasn’t sure how much he should say to answer that. Luckily, Besson called for his attention before he could think up a convincing lie. He pushed up and joined the man, who had a pair of binoculars angled down the northern slope. He lowered them as Cole approached and offered to hand them over.
Instead, Cole held the rifle with the aperture sight up to his shoulder. “What am I looking for?” he asked.
“Five klicks down, north of the U-shaped crevice.”
Cole scanned down, finding the crevice Besson mentioned, and then saw what looked like several large reptiles working their way up the slope. Not directly towards them, but still. He did a quick count, which was difficult as they wove around each other like water but came up with something around twenty or so of the beasts.
“Why are there so many?” he muttered, lowering the rifle. The briefing said settlements like Tallorax faced large monster attacks on account of the masses of people clustered together. That’s why it was built with twenty-foot walls with downward-facing spikes. But they were nowhere near the walled town.
What was causing the creatures to swarm like this? Or was it natural for Babel?
“Break’s over,” said Cole. “Let’s move.”