Chapter 90 - The Mycelial Net

  Alex hovered there in the middle of the room, unable to continue. He had three strands of the green goop wrapped around his right leg. Below him, more rose slowly from the mesh of green that covered most of the floor.

  We’d hoped flying over the mess would avoid trouble. It worked for me. Why hadn’t Alex been able to get over safely, too? My best guess was a combination of factors. He couldn’t fly as fast as me, yet, for starters. His Flight spell wasn’t as high tier as mine. But more than that, I got the feeling the creature that made up the net was healing itself, recovering from my Drain Life spells almost as quick as I could cast them.

  “Little help?” Alex called out again. “It’s pulling. Hard. I’m burning mana fast just staying in the air.”

  “Hang on, I’ve got you,” I replied. I reached out a hand toward the thing, taking careful aim, and fired off another Drain.

  The ray of black energy smacked into the green tendrils just below where they’d wrapped themselves around his leg. Instantly, they withered and died, dropping back to the floor. There was no time to celebrate, though. As soon as those three dropped away, two more rose to replace them, whipping themselves around Alex’s left leg this time, dragging him down again.

  “Damn it! Thought we had it there,” Alex swore. “Can you try again?”

  “Soon as the timer is up, I will,” I said.

  “Not sure we’ve got that long. Johnson, hold on to me tight, okay? I’m going to try something,” Alex said.

  “Holding on tight, Roger,” Johnson replied. His face was tight and pale. The guy was clearly not loving the situation he was in, but he had a good, solid death-grip on Alex’s back and shoulder.

  Alex drew his sword, then leaned way over, trying to bend at the waist in a way that would allow him to cut through the green shoots with his blade. It was a good idea, and I had my fingers crossed, hoping it would work. He swung the blade at a downward angle toward the strands, but before it could connect, another tendril rose and snared the blade, stopping it cold.

  He tried to withdraw the weapon, but those things must have been frighteningly strong, because it stopped him cold. A second tendril joined the first, then a third, and they wound their way up the blade rapidly, moving toward his hand. Rather than let them grab his arm, Alex released his hold on the weapon. The strands of green dragged his blade down to the floor where they completely engulfed it.

  “I liked that sword,” Alex said. He looked back up at me. “Cameron, another Drain Life would be awesome right now.”

  Two more tendrils shot up, wrapping Alex’s right leg and Johnson’s left leg. They tugged, and both men sank a couple of inches closer to the floor. The shoots that had first grabbed Alex were growing, too, rising up to his knee and continuing their slow climb from there.

  “There’s too many of them, Alex,” I said, shaking my head. “See the others, down there? As soon as I kill the ones holding you, the others will shoot up and snare you again. I’ve got another idea, though.”

  “Make it snappy, then. Please.” Alex’s voice was strained now.

  The goop holding him pinned was reeling him in, an inch every few seconds. He and Johnson didn’t have long before they’d be dragged to the floor, and we’d all seen what these fungus creatures did once they had someone pinned down. I had a hunch this one would treat anyone it captured about the same as the chest-fungus.

  “Get ready, guys. I’m going to knock you away from the thing,” I said. I turned to Clark. “Stay put. Whatever you do, don’t go back into that room, okay?”

  “No risk of that!” Carter replied.

  My Drain came back online and I prepared the cast. At the same time, I activated Flight, hovering a handful of inches over the floor. That done, I shot forward like a streak, flying as fast as I could directly toward Alex. Right before I crashed into him, I cast Drain Life. The spell nailed the strands wrapped around both their legs, withering the green goo holding them captive.

  Before new shoots could reach up and attack them again, I reached the duo. I smashed into Alex’s chest, knocking out all his wind with a whoosh. The force of my impact sent all of us speeding toward the entrance we’d started from. As I flew us on, I watched the tendrils below rising, trying vainly to catch us before we could escape, but I was much too quick for them. We were out of the room, back in the safety of the waterlogged passage we’d come from, before they could grab anyone.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  My speed wasn’t designed for finesse, though. The others saw us coming and got out of our way, so we crashed into the passage wall instead of a person. I did what I could to slow us before the impact, but there wasn’t much time.

  Johnson took the brunt of the impact, rising with a dazed look on his face. “I think I may never eat another mushroom again…”

  Marion was there in an instant, laying a hand on Johnson’s arm. White healing energy flowed over him, and you could literally see the change in his face as his injuries were washed away.

  She turned to Alex. “You need a touch up, too?”

  “No, thanks though. We need to save your mana for when it’s critical. I can still cast a Heal on myself,” Alex said, doing just that. After he finished the cast, he continued speaking. “That was quick thinking, Cameron. Thanks.”

  “Always going to have your back,” I said, grinning.

  “And I’m glad of it. But we’re back on the wrong side of that room again, and Clark’s over there solo,” Alex replied. “We need to change that up, quick. Ideally before something comes along and decides he looks tasty.”

  I glanced across the room. Clark stood there in the opposite doorway, an alarmed look on his face. “Yes, please. I really don’t want to become something’s dinner, eh?”

  Alex stared at the floor, then at the far entrance where Clark stood, then back at the floor. He reached a hand out over the green stuff. Almost instantly, a shoot rose and shot upward toward his palm. He yanked his hand back, and the tendril slowly dropped back toward the floor again. The ones that had been reaching toward him out in the middle had likewise returned to a more dormant state.

  Those areas I’d hit with Drain Life were already mostly restored, though. Somehow, this thing was healing itself at super speed.

  “We can’t zap it with Lightning Bolts or we’ll fry ourselves. We can’t burn it because of the amount of water running over it,” I said, ticking off fingers. “It’s pretty quick to rise up and attack.”

  “It’s quick,” Alex added. “But there’s a delay.”

  “Huh?” I wasn’t sure what he meant. There hadn’t seemed to be much delay to me.

  “Watch,” Alex said. He reached out a hand over the stuff again, about two feet above the surface. There was a pause, about the time of a single heartbeat, then two tendrils rose toward him, speeding up as they grew.

  Alex yanked his hand back again. “See?”

  “What am I supposed to see? Yeah, it took a second or so to lock on to you, but then it rose fast,” I said.

  Alex flashed me a grin. “It’s that second of delay I’m counting on. I can’t fly that fast. But you can.”

  I blinked. He was probably right. I was fast in the air, much faster than him. If I poured on the steam the way I had to free him from the trap, I could maybe get across before the goop reacted and trapped me. Plus, I had my Drain Life spell. If I did get caught, I could zap the thing with a Drain to quickly free myself and continue.

  “It’s worth a shot. I want to add something to the mix, though. When I went across the first time, I cast Drain right before. I think that made it slower still. The wound from the Drain Life hurt it enough that it had to focus on healing before it could reach out and grab someone,” I said.

  “That tracks. It explains why it grabbed me so easily, and why it grabbed me again so easily when you freed me. It had already healed that damage,” Alex replied. “You’re right, it will slow us down if you need to cast Drain Life each time you carry someone across. But it’s probably worth it for safety. How’s your mana now?”

  “Low,” I admitted. “I can manage one more Drain and then some short, fast Flight. I think I can get two of you across in one go, though.”

  “Good. Take Dara and Ruiz, then. That will give us Clark for melee, Dara for ranged fire, and Ruiz for healing on the other side. Once you rest enough to cast a few more Drains, come back for the next pair.”

  It ended up taking us about an hour to execute the plan, far longer than I would have liked. Sitting still in a dungeon felt like asking for trouble. Anything could come stalking along. I remembered making ‘wandering monster’ rolls when playing tabletop RPGs as a teen, and if this dungeon was pulling from modern myths and games to help shape its magic, it wasn’t impossible to imagine that happening here.

  Whether we were lucky or good, nothing attacked us while we slowly hauled everyone across. I brought Ruiz and Dara first. The next run was Alex and Marion. Then it was time for Johnson and Rodriguez. Finally, I went back one final time for Anderson, who was starting to get nervous over there all by himself.

  I couldn’t blame him. This whole place gave me the creeps.

  Once I finally had him across, we were stuck resting again, which was getting tiresome, which was really weird.

  While we were sitting there, waiting for my mana to come back, I turned to Alex. “You wouldn’t think taking regular breaks would get old, but…”

  Marion laughed. “I hear you on that. I’d rather get going, so we can be done with this place.”

  “Me too,” Alex replied. “But it’s folly to move on until we’re all at full strength. Odds are, something bigger and nastier than the previous monsters will be up ahead. That green glop was tier seven, so it’s not going to shock me if whatever we fight next is tier eight. We need to be ready.”

  “Oh, I know,” I replied. “I one hundred percent get it. I just wish I could recover mana faster, is all.”

  “Well, maybe we’ll find a spell for that, too,” Alex replied.

  We waited out the timer and continued on. The corridor went straight ahead, neither up or down, so far as I could tell. We kept moving, passing through plenty of twists and bends, with no end in sight.

  Of course, it was right when we started feeling bored and safe that everything changed again.

  I rounded the corner and realized I wasn’t in the passage anymore. It hadn’t been apparent before I went around the bend, but the tunnel just ended there, widening into another massive cavern. It was similar to the first, with a few stalagmites scattered across the cave floor. There were clumps of fungus here and there. Nowhere near the concentration we saw in that first chamber, but the ones that were here glowed, and they cast enough light to illuminate the space.

  Including the massive plate-armored monster that stood in the center of the room.

  As soon as I rounded the corner, it shifted in place, like it was turning toward me. Without warning, it shot forward, rushing straight at me like a speeding train!