Below Cara was not the crushing impact of stone. Instead water enveloped her. Ice cold water that froze her heart and locked her body in shock. Above her, the large chunks of debris splashed through and nearly crushed her. Around her, chaos ensued as bodies flailed and fought and grappled. She didn’t have enough cognizance of her surroundings to tell who was who in the darkness. Her mind still reeled from panic to cast Blue.

  Eventually someone more steady minded grabbed her and hauled her to he surface. She coughed up water and gasped for air. A fire ball streaked over her head and she flinched, casting a Barrier instinctively. It dashed an island behind her. More blasts lit the wet caverns. Above them a hole shone with pale moonlight.

  Even if they died here, the rogue mages had been caught.

  “I’ve got you, my lady,” said Hal’s reassuring voice as he waded through the water with her in tow. “I’m afraid it’s just that stranger left now. Just a boy by the looks of it.”

  Cara couldn’t speak through her chattering teeth. She wanted to be home and envied Oscall. She actually wanted to meet the Ugviri!

  He placed her on a rocky shore in the cave. All sharp edges and poking rocks so even here she couldn’t rest. A shard of ice slammed beside her, the shattered shards scraping her face. She took cover with Hal and behind them, Ayden continued to fire off power blasts against the rogue mages. This made most of them passive and scared.

  However, someone had tried to attack her meaning she also had line of sight.

  “Visual, Hal?” Cara managed to stutter out.

  “Yes, my lady,” said Hal. “I spotted three in cover that we can see. They think we’re wounded and will be making their way to us.”

  “Prepare to engage as soon as they start moving.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  Seconds passed before Hal made the call. Cara and Hal fired off streaks of fire and raw, solidified light. The three rogue mages fell with burning chests and skewkered limbs, smoking from raw power.

  Cara and Hal took cover again.

  “Now what?” asked Hal. He grunted from pain.

  Cara looked over to see a severe wound on his side, likely from the fall. She started to heal him, but he stopped her. “Save your Soul Source, my lady,” he said. “I”ve been staunching the blood flow myself. You will need it for the fight to come. I”m spent unless you need Red support. Get that boy and get him here.”

  Cara respected Hal’s judgement. She’d have burned through her Soul Source trying to heal that. Unfortunately Hal’s judgement was only the kind an experienced and loyal soldier would make. She wanted to save him. She wanted to save Ayden. He was trapped behind his own cluster of rubble and rock. The rogue mages were closing in on him now, flanking from precarious angles, and she had no way of knowing whether he had visual on them or not.

  “Go, Lady Cara,” said Hal, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Just make sure my family is-”

  “Of course,” said Cara. “They won’t have to worry about a thing.”

  “Go save him… I’ll provide covering firepower.”

  “Don’t overdo it,” warned Cara.

  “I’ll see the job done. That’s all.”

  Cara knew she would never see him again. She checked her body for wounds, and decided she was ready for the fight.

  ****

  Ayden winced as he stymied the blood flow from the gash in his leg. The broken arm will have to remain. He needed only one hand to direct his Red Magic. He’d kept them at bay for so long and even he was starting to watch his Body Source. The wounds didn’t. Every time he casted, he risked opening he wound again.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He heard scampering of the rogue mages and some armored footmen heading his way. They had Green Barriers placed up and with how low Ayden was running, he wasn’t sure about his chances of breaking through it.

  A blaze of yellow light shone behind him and he detected immense Red Magic pulsating through the caverns. When he peaked he saw an entire cluster of the rogue mages and armored footmen scream and die. The light ended abruptly. Below, he spotted Cara swimming from island to island using the cover fire to get closer to him.

  He fired off some of his own spells to distract the other rogue mages that were flanking him.

  Eventually, she crawled her way to him, lips blue, face paler, and her leg bore a gash across it. She shivered as she said the next words.

  “There’s a monster in the water…”

  If Ayden hadn’t been shivering before, he’d be doing it now.

  On cue, a tendril shot out of the water and slammed on the rocks where the rogue mages were. They shouted and started to flee. A few found the tendrils wrap around them like rope and yank them back. Ayden saw the bodies dash against rock and rubble, turning into red paste before dissipating in the water.

  Bile rose in his throat.

  Cara had been healing him and he didn’t even realize with how enamored he’d been with the bloodshed.

  “How did you survive?” asked Ayden.

  “Barely,” she said, trying to stand on her partially healed leg. “You like to enhance yourself,” she said.

  “Yes,” said Ayden, irked that she knew his tactics.

  “Carry me,” she said. “I’m saving my Soul Source.”

  Ayden blushed as he wrapped his hands around a literal noblewoman in distress. He worried his hands weren’t in the right spot. Or in the wrong spot.

  “Ayden,” she snapped. “I’m not going to give a damn how you hold me. Keep us alive!”

  Ayden darted with Cara in his arms, her arms laced around his neck. She’d healed him completely so he felt refreshed despite his depleted Sources. He had enough for a scrap against some rogue mages, but not a damn underground lake monster.

  That flute player is to blame. She brought me here. I hate her. Damn her!

  Behind him, the monster had made minced meat of the rogue mages. So it wasn’t theirs.

  “Over there,” said Cara, pointing at a cavern wall. “Looks like the opening of a tunnel.

  Ayden saw it too and continued that way. He didn’t hear any more violence and they’d made some good distance from the lake. Around them was a vast cavern system that seemed to have gotten bigger with the collapse. Completely his fault, but what was a man supposed to do in that situation?

  They entered the tunnel and found themselves surrounded by uncharacteristic quiet.

  “It’s over,” said Cara. “Set me down there and we can discuss what to do.”

  Ayden obeyed and sat next to her. Her leg looked blackened from the monster attack. Perhaps some kind of poison.

  “I’m dying,” she said. “I’m out of Soul Source. I’ve had to burn through it to keep the poison from spreading.” She gulped and shuddered. “Whatever it was, it had been asleep for a long time. Or else we’d have known.”

  Ayden hoped so. What else was lurking below the city?

  “Ayden,” she said, struggling to get the words out now. “You have Soul Source?”

  Ayden panicked and struggled for a response.

  Cara waved her hand dismissively as soon as she saw his face. “You’re got to get better. For situations like this. There’s a reason we emphasize healing, Ayden…”

  “How do you know?” asked Ayden. “That I struggle with Healing?”

  “Forget it,” she said. “You need to find a fix for this. I’ve got maybe a few hours at most. Then use whatever means necessary to get back to the surface. Tell them what’s down here and what to look out for if they try and delve.”

  Ayden held his head in his hands and suppressed the urge to panic. “I… I…”

  “You got this,” she said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Go! Now!”

  “Where? How do I find a fix?”

  Cara leaned back and laid down. “I can’t exhaust myself anymore, Ayden. Go… Please…”

  “What if someone attacks?”

  “Go…” she muttered, lowering herself to lay down and sink into a coma.

  Ayden gulped and searched down the two ways he could go. One direction led back to the cavern lake with the monster. The other led down who knew where. He looked at the note the flute player had given him. He searched and searched the note for some more advice, but there was nothing.

  “Damn it!” he cried. “Damn it!” He heard a sound from the direction headed away from the lake. Ayden channeled Blue. Nothing… Just his own foot stomps causing some pebbles to clatter away. However, when he looked at the note again, he saw something.

  A secret text meant for anyone scanning it with Blue.

  You are looking for a book.