The glow of Brett’s spell bathed the tunnels in warm golden light, but even with its reach, shadows pooled in the cracks between jagged rock formations. The air was damp, carrying the faint mineral tang of deep stone, and the faint drip-drip-drip of water echoed somewhere far ahead.

  “Alright,” Brett said, holding his staff aloft as the light flared brighter, “if I forget to refresh this again, someone hit me. Preferably not with a sword though, Josh.”

  Josh smirked. “No promises.”

  Carcan shook her head but a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “If you’d all stop talking and keep your eyes open, we might avoid walking straight into another drake’s nest.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Perb said, crouching low to inspect a clump of faintly glowing fungi growing in the crack between two boulders. “Ah, jackpot.” He carefully cutting a mature one free and tucked it into his satchel. “More glowcaps. We’re nearly finished with that collection quest already. .”

  “Are they poisonous?” Carcan asked, stepping past him to keep watch down the tunnel.

  “They’re not poisonous,” Perb said with a wave. “They’re… mostly edible.”

  Brett raised a brow. “Mostly?”

  Before Perb could answer, the crunch of talons on stone came from ahead. A shadow shifted in the gloom, just out of the light’s reach.

  “Company,” Josh murmured, gripping his sword.

  A Rock Drake slid into view, scales mottled grey and brown to match the walls. Its long, low body hugged the ground as it hissed, forked tongue tasting the air. It didn’t lunge immediately, instead pacing in a half-circle, tail scraping the floor.

  “Looks like it’s sizing us up,” Josh said, raising his shield and moving in front of his group.

  It struck without warning. The drake darted forward with a sudden burst of speed, aiming low for Josh’s legs. His shield met the blow with a jarring clang, but the impact still drove him back half a step. Josh pushed his shield forward, creating space between his sword arm and the beast. His blade met tough hide, and although it cut through, the drake twisted away with surprising agility.

  Brett’s voice rang out, firm and clear. “Hold still!” A flare of magic shot from his staff, striking the drake with a stunning burst of light. The creature staggered, giving Perb an opening to launch a rapid volley of arrows. The monster reared, attempting to drive towards Josh but it’s jaw smashed into a hastily cast shield that Carcan had created to hinder the beast.

  It took longer than expected to bring it down. The creature’s hide was thick, and its movements unpredictable, forcing the group to adjust their strikes. When Josh finally drove his sword into its neck, the drake hissed weakly before collapsing.

  Perb let out a low whistle. “Stubborn thing.”

  “Good teamwork,” Caistina said, glancing at each of them in turn. “No one overextended, and Carcan, your shield placement kept its focus exactly where we needed it.”

  Carcan gave a small smile. “We’re learning.”

  They pressed on, weaving between narrow walls and over jagged stone shelves. The tunnels widened in places, revealing small caverns where pale clusters of glowcaps clung to the walls like stars against a night sky. Perb and Brett collected what they could, stuffing the caps into sacks until the scent of earthy, damp fungi clung to all of them, along with finding another drake egg in a nest.

  Two more drakes found them before long. The first came without warning, bursting from a narrow side tunnel in a blur of stone-coloured scales and snapping jaws. Perb’s reflexes were lightning-fast, his arrow darting forward to drive the creature back while Carcan’s shield magic flared into being, blocking a rake of claws that might have shredded armour. Josh darted in low, his blade flashing as he carved a shallow gash along its underbelly, the sound like tearing leather. It took all of them to finally bring it down, the last blow a precise firebolt from Brett’s magically-imbued staff that sent cracks of light spiderwebbing over the drake’s hide before it collapsed.

  They barely had time to regroup before the second made its move, stalking them in silence until Josh caught the shifting shadow on the wall. “Behind!” he barked, spinning to meet the lunging beast. Perberos’ arrow flew first, striking the drake, making it rear back with a shriek. Josh swept in from the side, slamming his shield forward to pin it against the cavern wall, allowing the others to hammer it with their magic and arrows. The beast thrashed, claws scraping sparks from the cavern floor, but Josh held firm behind his shield. When it finally fell, its tail twitching in the faint blue glow of the mushrooms before dissolving into shards of fading magic, Brett leaned heavily on his staff, breathing hard. “I swear these things are made of stone.”

  “They live in stone,” Caistina replied. “Over time they have evolved, absorbing magic from the environment. It makes them harder to kill, yes. But you’re doing well.” She gave an approving nod before adding, “Just… try not to get cocky. The ridge’s deeper tunnels will have more than just drakes.”

  Perb cursed under his breath. “That’s encouraging.”

  Josh tightened his grip on his sword. “Then let’s keep moving. The sooner we find what we came for, the sooner we’re out of here.”

  With that, they stepped deeper into the glowcap-lit dark, down the side tunnel that the first drake had come from.

  The cavern quieted again, the only sounds their own breathing and the faint drip of water somewhere deeper in the stone. The soft, ghostly light of the glowcaps scattered along the walls seemed almost comforting now compared to the chaos of battle. Josh crouched beside a cluster sprouting from a crack in the rock, carefully cutting the caps free and tucking them into the satchel. “That’s… what, fourteen now?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “Sixteen,” Brett corrected, peering into his own pouch. “And they’re still weirdly warm. Not sure how I feel about that. We only needed twelve so we can stop collecting them now. Unless we earn more for bringing extras back?” He asked, looking to Caistina, who simply shook her head.

  Perberos stepped ahead, his bow loosely in hand, eyes scanning the uneven floor. “You’ll feel better when we’re out of here and not surrounded by the things that eat these mushrooms.” He tilted his head toward a low shelf of rock ahead, eyes latching onto something. “There’s something up there.”

  Perb scrambled up to retrieve whatever it was. “Oh it’s another drake nest!” and after a moment he held something round and mottled in his palm, another drake egg, the shell patterned in swirls of grey and green.

  Josh joined him and spotted another tucked against the wall. “One more to,” he said, lifting it gently. “That makes five.”

  Carcan was looking around, concern showing on her face “Either we’re getting close to a nesting ground or these things lay them everywhere and we’ve been very unlucky.” Carcan said

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Brett snorted, shouldering his staff. “Unlucky would be finding out they’d hatched in our bags halfway back to town.”

  “Thanks for that image,” Josh muttered, carefully stowing the egg that Perberos had passed to him.

  They moved on in relative silence, each step crunching softly on grit, the glowcaps’ dim light pooling on the damp stone like captured moonlight.

  After a while the tunnel opened into a wide cavern, a bowl of stone cupped by jagged stalactites and slick, wet walls. Glowcap light painted everything in a sickly blue-green; the air was damp and tasted faintly of metal. In the middle of the chamber, piled into a rough, steaming mound, lay a nest of scraped earth, shed scales and broken bones. The thing guarding it was enormous: a low-slung drake the size of a warhorse, all corded muscle and stone-hard scales, its belly mottled with paler, softer plates. It rested with one heavy foreleg draped across two leathery eggs, lidless eyes watching the tunnel with a slow, animal patience.

  It wasn’t a flyer, just like the ones they’d seen earlier. It was low and long, every inch of it a slab of mottled stone-grey hide. Muscles rolled under thick plates as it shifted, claws scraping the earth. Its head lifted, flat and clever, tongue flicking, nostrils flaring. When it turned towards them, the party could see how fast it could move despite that bulk, a predator built to surge and strike at ground level.

  They’d hoped to catch it unready, but they hadn’t been that lucky - though it appeared unwilling to leave its nest. They dropped back, and quickly formed a plan - it was blunt and ugly: Brett would open with a restraining weave to slow the beast’s legs, Perberos would rain arrows into exposed joints, Josh would close to pin and punish the drake while the ranged assaults dug in and Carcan would use her magic to shield and heal Josh as needed. Caistina would stay at the lip of the cavern, eyes sharp but hands folded, watching quietly as always, only stepping in if she needed to.

  They moved like a machine. Perberos crept to the left, arrow nocked and drawn, breathing slow and even. Brett moved to the right and whispered a count, quietly chanting to himself, and visualised his magic - chains growing from the ground to bind the beast. Josh started to move into the cave, leaning into his shield and flexed the leather straps, every muscle coiled for the first slam, his feet moving faster and faster with each stride.

  Perberos didn’t wait for Josh to slam into the monster, and let his arrow fly, not to kill, but to force the drake’s reaction. It struck high on the flank with a thunk; the beast’s head snapped around, an ugly sound like stone grinding. That was the signal. Brett released his binding spell: pale ropes of light shot out of the ground, twining around the drake’s haunches. For a heartbeat nothing happened, and then the cords tightened with a snap, tethering the rear legs like a hunter’s noose. The drake reared, furious, but the bindings bit deep into the earth and the beast found its range of motion suddenly gone.

  Josh exploded forward. Shield high, he ran straight for the drake’s head, attempting to draw all of its attention to him. He slammed the boss of his shield into the creature’s snout with a wet, stony impact, scaled teeth clacked; a hot, rancid breath washed over him. Pain sang up his arm from the blow - it had been like hitting a wall. The hit rocked the drake sideways and sent a spray of slobbered dust into the air. Josh didn’t give it time to recover, he twisted, used the shield’s momentum to shove the creature off balance, then stabbed up under the edge of a flank with a short, practiced strike. His blade found soft tissue between plates, and yellow drake-blood hissed where it met the air.

  The monster retaliated with a raw, animal fury. Its head snapped sideways, jaws trying to clamp down on shield and forearm. Metal rang as steel met chitin, and the drake’s remaining teeth bit into the metal rim and leather strap. Josh felt his forearm jar with the force; pain flared, a hot white line that rattled his teeth. An arrow thudded into the drake’s cheek, piercing through the beasts muscle, it let out a screech of pain, letting go of it’s hold on Josh’s shield.

  Brett tried to be a conductor in the chaos. When the drake tried to twist for a flank, he poured another folded loop of mana outward, a sticky, dark chain that wrapped around the beast’s haunches and yanked them taut. The drake staggered, its tail whipping free but slowed as the magic knotted.

  The drake lashed with its tail, a heavy, clubbing sweep that smashed into Josh’s shield and rocked him, boots skidding in the chitin-strewn mud. He let the shield take it, feet digging, then shoved forward, using the momentum to ram his sword in under the shoulder plates. The blade didn’t slide clean; it bit, sank with an ugly resistance, then found something that snapped, Josh feeling a ping vibrate up the blade. Josh twisted hard, feeling the blade catch and tear, and the drake lunged forward with a snarl that shook the cavern, but it had to drag one of its front legs forward.

  Brett loosed a firebolt but it didn’t follow a straight line: he bent it with the new trick he’d practiced, curving flame around Josh’s shielding bulk and hammering the drake’s exposed underbelly. Flesh steamed and cracked where the fire bit, beginning to look like dried riverbed after a drought.

  Perberos danced on the edge of the fight, pinning shots towards joints and softer parts. He was doing his best to slow the beast down and to distract it: an arrow into the flesh under it’s left eye sent the creature rearing, it’s injured one leg nearly collapsing beneath it. Letting another arrow fly, finding a home between ribs. Each impact slowed the drake’s coordination; the great lizard’s movements grew more jagged and less precise.

  Carcan didn’t strike, but without her their battle would have been different. She kept a low murmur on her lips and created shimmering shields at critical points, protecting Josh’s exposed flanks - a dome that flickered and reformed as blows landed. Twice the drake’s claws smashed into that ward; the magic cracked like a bell but held, eating the blow and splintering into hot motes of light. When a rear leg clawed at Josh’s knee, her hands flared and a shield snapped around Josh’s hips, steadying him enough to stay on his feet. She moved with a quiet focus, sealing seams in their defences and letting Josh take risks.

  This unfortunately meant that Josh could become over confident, leading him to take a blow that knocked him sideways, slamming into the cave wall. The beast lunged for Josh’s exposed flank, jaws opening to crush muscle. Josh pivoted, planting his boot, and with a heave drove the hilt of his sword forward under his shield, into the creature’s throat between scaled segments. At the same time the drake’s jaws closed around Josh’s shield. The blade bit home with a wrestling grunt; the drake choked out a terrible, splintering sound and clamped down, jaws closing around the shield. For a second Josh’s world narrowed to the small space in front of him, his shoulder muscles burning, his arms trembling from the strain of holding the beast’s head as it snapped and floundered, teeth grinding against his shields rim. The beasts breath washed over him, as Josh looked around his shield and could see clearly down the drakes threat, the glint of his steel catching the light.

  It was close and terrible. Teeth grinding against metal, and the monster started to wrench. Josh felt his arm pulled sideways, the straps biting into his palms, his ribs jarred. He planted his feet and drove his weight down, using his hip as an anchor to keep from being dragged. He twisted his sword inside the wound, cutting through meat and drawing more blood. The drakes claws lashed forward, cutting into his exposed leg. Carcan’s voice cut through the chaos as she chanted a heal over Josh, warmth knitting deeply into his legs where the claw had grazed flesh and repaired torn muscles in his arms and shoulders. The pain eased enough for him to push again.

  Brett saw the opening. He forced his voice, barking a cadence he did not understand; Perberos answered with a tight volley that hammered the drake’s cheek and shoulder. Brett gathered the last of his control and poured a knot of binding into the stone at the drake’s rear, not to trap but to root. The ground around its hind legs flared, clinging like wet clay. The beast threw its weight, trying to fling Josh off; its tail swung in a savage arc that gouged the dirt where they had just stood. Carcan’s shield took the blow, blue magic sparking into the air, but it held.

  Josh twisted the sword, not to pull it free, but to work the blade into a rending angle between the drake’s plates. He felt something give: a tendon, perhaps, or a seam between scales. The drake bucked, and Josh used the motion; he stepped hard, and shoved the entire length of his body into a final, punishing strike. The sword sank in up to the hilt at the base of the skull. The tip pushed through brittle tissue; he twisted with everything left in him. The drake gave one almighty, choking roar, more animal than beast, a sound of complete, furious refusal and then its limbs collapsed out from under it. The great body convulsed twice, shuddering, and lay still.

  For a moment there was only ragged breathing. Dust settled. The drake’s body twitched, then went still, scales grinding softly against rock. When the dust settled, the cavern felt enormous and sudden in its quiet. Breathing was heavy and loud. Josh slid off the drake’s flank and sank to one knee, sword left abandoned in the beasts throat. He tasted salt and iron. Around him, the others staggered in, smiles on their faces, glad that they had overcome this enemy.

  They stood there together for a long minute, panting, hands trembling, the air cooling on their skin. The drake’s body lay humbly defeated, its ragged breath gone. The fight had been raw and close but they’d truly become an improvised team.

  Josh felt a prompt at the back of his brain, seeing a message flash up.

  [Congratulations, your party has slain Level 6 Rock Drake!]

  Etched upon the stone you read:

  “To continue the tale, the Reader must speak —

  a review, a follow, a word of praise.

  Only then will the ink flow once more.”