[Experience Threshold Reached]

  [Activating Nanite Swarm...]

  [Activation Successful]

  [Initiating Regeneration Protocols]

  “What the hell?” I tried to blink away the text that appeared in my vision, but it was still there even when my eyes were closed. I blinked in confusion once more before realizing that I had far more pressing matters to attend to.

  Namely, stopping Valerie from bleeding out.

  The still body of the creature was suspended above me on the same rebar that had jammed through my arm, preventing me from removing it. I struggled to worm my atrophied legs underneath the creature and pushed against it with all my might, but in the end it didn’t even budge. I was still too weak.

  “NYXIA!? A-are you o-okay?” Valerie’s pain filled voice reached my ears. She must have just realized that the creature had charged me.

  “Yeah, I-I’m fine, Valerie.” I managed to call out from underneath the monster, unable to keep a tremble from my voice. “I’m more worried about you. Your arm… you need to stop the bleeding. Fast.”

  She didn’t answer at first, her mind slowly catching up to the damage her body had sustained. She glanced down at her missing arm, blood still flowing freely through her fingers. Her eyes suddenly widening in shock as she finally understood that she was bleeding out.

  “Shit,” she muttered and started pulling off her bloodied hoodie and tying it around the wound, wincing as she tightened it. It slowed the bleeding somewhat, but I could see in her eyes that she knew as well as I did, that it wouldn’t be enough. We needed to get her to a doctor, and soon.

  I refocused to the leaking body of the monster. How was I going to get it off me?

  I attempted to push it off with my legs once more, but after a moment of futile struggling, I was forced to accept that it was pointless. I let my legs fall to the ground, breathing deeply as I closed my eyes in thought.

  Throughout human history, humanity often used leverage to lift heavy objects, maybe I could use the same principle here? I opened my eyes again, fighting against the lack of light.

  There was plenty of junk laying around, but from my current position I either couldn’t reach it, or use it effectively.

  Suddenly, I felt that strange tugging sensation near my heart that I had experienced with the crystal back at the mansion and looked around, trying to find it’s source.

  It was coming from Valerie.

  She was muttering something under her breath, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

  Wait, was that light coming from her hand? It wasn’t producing a glow you’d find emitting from a normal light source. Instead it seemed like it was some form of energy.

  She was still muttering under her breath, the light in her hand flowing slowly into her severed stump.

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  Magic?

  I stared in fascination, briefly forgetting our circumstances as I watched Valerie, quite literally, working her magic.

  I had been worried about the massive blood loss she was experiencing, but she was doing surprisingly well, all things considered. Whatever she did seemed to reduce the bleeding somewhat, though by the way Valerie was sweating and gasping, I could tell it was only a temporary fix. Maybe there was a limit to how much magic she could use at any given time or something.

  Valerie let out a ragged breath and the tugging sensation near my heart died down as she lowered her shaking hand.

  “That will have to do for now.” She panted, glancing over to me and the creature preventing me from moving. “Let’s see if we can get that… thing, off you.”

  “Okay, I can help a bit if you can find some leverage.”

  She nodded tiredly and began looking around. It didn’t take long for her to find a long wooden board that we could wedge between me and the monster. After a brief struggle, we managed to pry it off the rebar and push it to the side.

  We were both breathing heavily and took a moment to catch our breath before Valerie bent down to look at my wound.

  “It will hurt like hell, but we should be able to pull you off it without injuring you further. You’re lucky it missed the bone.” She huffed in relief and leaned away from the wound, looking towards the artificial light in the distance, likely dreading the long walk ahead. “If they have glow-stone lamps here, we shouldn’t be too far from the Undercity. We should still hurry though, are you ready to remove the…uh…rod?”

  I nodded along as I adjusted myself, preparing myself mentally for the pain that would follow. She brought her good arm down to support me, and we both pulled.

  “GAHHH!” I couldn’t hold back my grunt of pain as the rebar slowly inched out of my arm. But soon it was over, leaving me feeling faint as I leaned on one of the trash heaps for support. I didn’t know why, but I think I felt a little stronger now. Was it related to that strange text I saw earlier? Either way, the increased strength, however minuscule, was a welcome addition.

  I took another breath and steadied myself. Before glancing at Valerie again.

  Valerie was looking at me with concern, but didn’t say anything as she waited for me to recover. I felt guilt run through my system as I looked at her missing arm again, but I took a breath and shook it away.

  I shouldn’t blame myself. It wasn’t me who threw us down here to begin with. I would save my hate for the perpetrators of our current situation not on us, the victims.

  “Come on, let’s get going.” Valerie said as she approached and firmly gripped my right arm with her left. “I won’t be able to carry you anymore, so we’ll have to make do with you leaning on me for support. You got this, Nyxia.”

  I smiled at that as we slowly made our way around the trash heaps and to the light. Her positivity gave me a newfound strength as we trudged along, fighting through the pain we both felt.

  My arm ached with the new hole punched through it, but it was bearable. I could only imagine the pain Valerie was in from losing her entire arm. The metallic tang of blood hung in the air even after the bleeding had subsided.

  We did our best not to trip on all the small rocks and random trash that littered the tunnel as we kept our hearing sharp. Every time a rock made a clicking sound underneath our feet I almost panicked, thinking that another one of those monsters had found us.

  But, we eventually made it.

  The light stone — or “glow stone” I think Valerie called it — was embedded into the rock next to a solid metal gate set securely into what looked like a concrete wall. It was a simple design with a large round wheel in the center.

  We both grasped the handle and pulled.

  The wheel gave way with a grinding screech of metal on metal as it slowly creaked open.

  My breath caught in my throat as I was greeted by a bright sea of neon lights that flooded my vision.

  I now completely understood how this place had gotten it’s name. It was a literal underground metropolis, easily as large as the one above ground, maybe even bigger. It nearly filled the entirety of a massive cavern that spanned for miles in every direction. Eight steel pillars the size of skyscrapers spanned from ground to ceiling, likely supporting the entire upper city so it didn’t collapse on itself.

  We’d made it to the Undercity.