u/GorMartsen

[First: Prologue] [Previous: Chapter 29] [Patreon: EPUB] [Wiki]

Location: Hope, A-class planet, E-zone (blue)
Date: April 9 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

Pushing the bundle by the spear, I followed the dark and twisted path to another cave, relying on my senses.

The tunnel was the same one I had gone through just a day before, but I was not. I also hadn’t been the one who was chased.

How quickly roles could flip at the whim of fate.

Breaking out of the tunnel, I looked up through the water, lit by the dawn. There was something floating above me, unalive and motionless.

It was my vest, slightly tarnished and with a broken stick peeking out from within.

Pushing towards the surface, I caught the vest with my free hand, weaving between the closing-in walls. The vertigo hit me, shifting something in my head as soon as I broke the water’s surface, and I breathed out through my nose, fighting it.

What’s now?

Looking up, I saw steep walls standing barely a few feet apart and narrowing near the top. The air was weirdly echoing here, reflecting off the walls perhaps a dozen times, but it was the scent of excrement hanging in the air that made me pause and the cat inside me to stir.

I knew this scent even before I merged with the cat. Bats, it was those bats that I had in the aetherium cave.

The hate stirred in my heart, and it took me a moment to realise—it wasn’t mine. The cat in me was hating them. Vehemently.

Pushing aside the unprompted feelings, I found purchase on the walls with my feet and, rising above the water, flipped the vest over my shoulder before pulling the spear out. Its weight doubled in my hands as the bundle came free, dripping wet.

Bats. Bats were bad news, almost as bad as the guy on my tail.

Mark, was it?

L: [ Detecting multiple sources of sound. 71% probability of aerial lifeforms, at least two hundred individuals ]

Glancing up at the flickering of the light from above, I rested the spear’s heel against the wall by my right foot and leaned the spearhead against the other side, freeing my hands from its weight. To untie the ice-tipped claw from my tail.

K: [ Remember those bats in the cave? ]

L: [ Of course ]

K: [ The ones here are the same. And they could see through the invisibility. The cat hated them ]

L: [ I see. Is that where its air-senses originally come from? ]

That made me pause in untying the laces on my tail. Pause and cast my senses upward, trying to breach the vibrating air around me and sense the space above. In vain.

K: [ Most likely. We are in a dead zone for my senses. If they have the same ability, it would explain why they haven’t attacked me yet ]

L: [ Makes sense. What do you plan now? ]

Finally freeing the ice-tipped claw, I put it over the bundle and rubbed the end of my tail, feeling thousands of needles poking it.

I needed a better tail harness. One that would withstand pushback from a jab without jamming the laces and blocking the blood flow.

K: [ Do the opposite. A loud noble, clearly without the Horned Moose powers, doing stupid shit in a bat’s cave. Pretending to be nobody ]

L: [ They killed that snake too fast for its size ]

Sighing, I looked closely at the end of my tail, contemplating the idea of putting the ice-tipped claw back. Or not. Somehow, I was already missing its weight on my tail.

K: [ That was a different guy, John, was it? ]

L: [ We don’t know the abilities of the person they left behind to go after you. He was left alone to pursue an unknown Expert, after all ]

Deciding, I began to tie the ice-tipped claw back to my tail. If it came to a confrontation, I would need any ace I could muster. Or hide on my tail.

K: [ What is your analysis of the ranking titles they have used? ]

L: [ That at least two more ranks exist before Specialist and Expert. If they directly mapped to the core energy density, then your first kill, the C-level bobcat, was either Specialist or Expert level ]

L: [ That’s two ranks above your current E-rank core ]

Slightly moving my tail left and right, I tested the new fastening. It felt okay-ish.

K: [ I don’t plan to fight. We also need to test my legend. If it crumbles, it is better to know now ]

L: [ Acknowledged. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough data to build a proper legend. I suggest avoiding naming places, beasts and family names. Project a young man, named Cat, with unstable control over his powers ]

K: [ Man? ]

L: [ It worked with Sir Ivor ]

Mulling over her words, I took the belt with the sheathed knife off my shoulder, set it onto the bundle, and began pulling on my wet vest. She was right. It did work out. At first.

There was only one problem, though. My clothes. The fancy clothes I had taken from the young noble were too distinctive. Which meant I had to get rid of them before they brought me trouble. Especially the one named Mark.

K: [ What else? ]

L: [ I know I would regret it, but just be yourself ]

Swallowing my snort, I put the belt with the sheathed knife back on my shoulder and began to untie the belt securing the cloak—the one tying the bundle to the spear.

I surely could deal with bats without clothing myself, but I doubted our plan would work if my ass were exposed for all to see. And as sure as hell, I would get visitors in no time, given what I had planned.

It was good that I had picked up the cloak.

The belt finally came loose, freeing the bundle, and I put it onto the spear, slightly pushing it with my knee against the wall. It seemed stable enough to shuffle through it.

Reaching inside the bundle, I searched for the subspace claw’s handle, but it was the map that my fingers touched first. Pulling it out, I smoothed it against my chest as best I could, smearing the bloodstain covering the paper.

Fucking morons.

Carefully folding it, I hid it in my chest pocket and reached into the bundle again, finally finding the subspace claw this time. Its weight naturally settled in my palm, and, reflexively spinning it between my fingers a few times, I stuck it into the wall. Just for now.

The needler was found next and, checking the ammo—only half the clip left—I put it into my vest right pocket. Another ace with limited supplies.

Shaking off the sad thoughts, I pulled the noble pouch out of the bundle and, feeling the soft suede leather in my palm, doubted my next move only for a moment. Surely I would find something useful, even helpful, inside it, but…

I let it go and, ignoring the splash of water under me, reached inside the bundle once more. Sometimes, not knowing was for the better. Plausible deniability and all of that.

Finding another pouch by touch, I pulled it free from the bundle. It was the one I took from the leader. Nothing was distinctive about it, and only the plate made of bone was a questionable item inside it. Something to deal with later.

I looped its leather strap over my head and hid it under the vest before returning to the bundle. My fingers found the chain inside it and, pulling it out, I looked more closely at the medallion this time, flipping it this way and that. The last of the core’s shards spilt between my fingers, while I contemplated what to do with it. It didn’t look all that distinctive in its making. If anything, it looked like something of low quality to me.

Glancing at the spear, I finally saw what bugged me—the similarities between the medallion and the spear’s craftsmanship. The raw edges, the slightly uneven lines. They both were not of high quality.

Safe to use.

Hauling the medallion over my head, too, I pulled the last pouch out. It was the one with a single unknown spark. Hardly traceable.

I hid it in my left vest pocket before getting back to the bundle and finding my coin. It had almost slipped out of the bundle on its own. Hiding it in my chest pocket, next to the map, I shuffled through the bundle for the last time to find one missing item—the leader’s ring.

It was between the fancy clothes and the cloak, at the bottom.

On a whim, I put it on my right thumb and grabbed the fancy clothes bundle. The fabric under my fingers was cold and nice to the touch, and I caught myself in doubt.

Was I really going to throw away a good pair of pants and boots?

I wasn’t back on Mastodon, with its automatic uniform reissue system, nor was I on some random station in space or planet-side in a civilised city with its click-to-buy stores and a five-minute delivery.

I was fucking nowhere, approaching an unknown settlement with my ass bare.

But if bare ass I could survive, the fight I might just not.

The water splashed with a deep gulp, accepting the tightly wrapped bundle, and I shook out the cloak, finding that it had already dried.

At least something positive.

Slipping my arms into the wide sleeves, I caught a hidden pocket between my fingers. An empty one. Freeing my hand, I put it properly and rolled my shoulders, trying to ease the cloak onto my frame. It felt strange, almost rough against my skin, and its back was weirdly sticking out by my tail.

It was also twisted on my left shoulder with the belt still hanging there.

Pulling the subspace claw out of the wall, I grabbed the cloak at my tail and made a hole. It took some wiggling before I fit my tail through, but I felt better when I did.

Sticking the subspace claw back into the wall, I unfastened the belt on my shoulder and, taking the sheathed knife off the belt, put it around my waist, this time finding its huge buckle to be distinctive.

Attaching the sheathed knife to one of the straps on my vest on the left, I unbuckled the belt again and, bringing it to my face, looked at the huge buckle more closely.

It didn’t take me long to realise why it was so huge. It was part of the pointy head’s armour. I had no doubt about that, looking at the distinct trace left on it by the needle I shot at him.

How strong is it?

Curious, I took the subspace claw out of the wall and tried to scratch its surface. It was a touch easier than scratching Ateeve’s armour.

Incredible.

With a bit of struggle, I shaved off the rising sun on the buckle, leaving scratches all over its surface. It was good enough.

Buckling the belt on my waist again, I adjusted the cloak. It sat right this time.

Which left only one problem to tackle before showtime.

Lola’s necklace.

K: [ How do you generate the sound? ]

L: [ I send analogue data into the memory address I have located. I don’t yet understand how it produces the actual sound waves, but I am working on it ]

Remembering the painful echo, I reflexively squinted. It wasn’t the answer I had looked for, but it was still enough. I was the source of the sound, not the necklace.

K: [ I am going to take you out of the mouth. Keep pinging me ]

L: [ Finally. The further away I am from your stomach, the better I feel ]

Smiling, I took the necklace out of my mouth. It was all covered in my saliva.

L: [ Ping ]

Leaning over, I washed it away in the water, pausing long enough to confirm the absence of the ping.

Too far.

With short pauses, I began to bring it closer to my head, patiently counting to ten each time, until the necklace touched my skin under my throat.

L: [ Ping ]

K: [ It seems we are limited by skin contact and proximity to the head ]

L: [ Most likely limited range of the knot that replaced the ARC ]

That gave me an idea. Pulling out the pouch with coins and the bone plate, I adjusted the strap and put the necklace on it, too.

K: [ Do you copy? ]

Too far.

Adjusting once more, I tried again.

K: [ Do you copy? ]

L: [ Loud and clear ]

K: [ Great. I will keep you in the pouch for now, at the edge of the range. Hopefully it will force a range increase ]

L: [ Good thinking. Given what we know about anomaly organs, it might work ]

K: [ We’ll see. Okay, it’s showtime ]

L: [ Roger ]

—

Reaching the top, I carefully looked over the edge, feeling how the air stopped vibrating here.

Unfortunately, that was enough for the bats to notice me, too. They dropped from the walls and ceilings, forming a swarm, and I hurried to activate the hex-field, jumping out.

Balancing myself with the spear and my tail on the slippery floor covered in a thick layer of excrement, I felt blind. The hex-field once again cut my senses off, but that had been expected. I still had my eyes.

The shit and stones around me exploded, cut and blown by a few hundred simultaneous attacks, and I felt the tingling in my fingers.

That was fast.

Extending my arm, I pushed it all out, blinding the cave with blue lightning and deafening thunder.

Blinking bright spots away, I looked around in the no less deafening silence that settled in the cave. Surrounded by scorched and somewhat melted stone, I was left standing alone, with ash whirling around me. There were no more bats left. And the heavy smell of burnt fur and flesh hit me like a reentry of a shuttle, making my heart race.

Oh fuck.

Dizzy, I brought the cloak to my nose and began to stumble towards the faraway light on the other side of the cave, knee-deep in ash.

Oh fucking fuck.

I was planning to announce my presence, but not like that.

Walking out of the cave, I stopped briefly, noticing burnt plants and trees a good few dozen steps around the entrance. My attack had reached even here.

Fucking hell.

Setting off toward the first intact tree, feeling the ugly smell through the cloak’s sleeve, I couldn’t help but stare at the damage.

How much energy did those bats pack into me?

Leaning against the tree, I exhaled and tentatively tested the air. It was finally fresh, yet still carrying an ugly note from the cave.

K: [ I burnt them all in one attack ]

L: [ I gathered as much. You good? ]

K: [ Yeah. Fine ]

L: [ Incoming. Nine o’clock ]

Her warning came a moment earlier than I recognised the steps myself. Whoever it was, they didn’t try to mask them, reminding me of my early days on this planet.

Moving the spear into my left hand, I turned left in time to see a figure emerging from under the trees. It was a surprisingly short person, dressed in what I could only assume was a proper military uniform, with forest camo.

It was hard to mistake them for anything, but someone had already served or was in the service, with their straight posture, open shoulders and evenly distributed weight. Their body was so used to being straight for so long that they forgot how to be anything else.

I instinctively straightened my posture, catching it a moment too late, and only after seeing a slightly raised brow.

Pot meets the kettle.

“It’s a good day for a walk, isn’t it?” I asked, forcefully leaning on the spear and relaxing my shoulders.

“Indeed,” he replied, glancing sharply to my right, at the burned patch and charred entrance into the cave.

L: [ 100% match. It’s the voice of the person addressed as Mark in the cave ]

Catching another twitch of his brow, I smiled on the inside. Years of serving taught me how to read superior officers, and this one was no exception. He was surprised.

Good.

“Mark Eisen of Eisenstone House at your service,” he caught himself, fully turning to face me.

“Charming, I would say,” I replied, slightly wrinkling my nose. “Call me Cat.”

This time, I let my body react to long-practised customs, still catching myself at the beginning of a knicksen with another wrinkling of my nose and purposeful flick of my tail.

As if by accident, the ice-tipped claw chipped the tree trunk behind me, and I pretended to ignore it, looking back at the charred cave.

Those eyes caught it all, and his eyes stayed on my tail for a moment too long, again with a twitch in his brows.

“Say, Mark Eisen of Eisenstone, what would those bats’ sparks yield these days?” I asked.

“Ability sparks are worthless, young master, but their core is ten crowns each,” he replied in a measured voice, once again glancing at the cave.

“How unfortunate,” I replied, pursing my lips together. I had just burned up to two thousand crowns. Whatever the worth.

“Ah, and call me Cat. None of those ‘young master this, young master that’, if you please,” I added, turning back to face him.

“As you wish,” he replied, bowing properly.

Stretching the silence slightly, enough to make it uncomfortable, I finally said with a sigh, “Ask away.”

“Have you seen anyone recently?” he asked, raising his head and looking at my chin.

Nothing had changed, not even a single muscle twitched on his face, but I felt as if a step away from death itself.

Glancing towards the morning sun peeking over the cave to my right, I pointed behind his back, focusing on the memory of my meeting with the hunters. When I was the cat.

“That way, yesterday morning. A group of hunters, five people,” I said, furrowing my brows and looking sharply back at Mark.

“Say, Mark. What should I tell Sir Ivor if I so happen to stumble upon his camp again?” I added, leaning slightly forward and resting my right palm on the needler handle right through the cloak.

His eyes caught all of that, and the breath of death vanished as he slowly blinked.

“That young master met Mark Eisen of Eisenstone House, carrying a mission concerning internal affairs of the Eisenstone House,” he said, measuring each word.

“Well, carry on then, Mark Eisen of Eisenstone House. The young master dares not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Eisenstone House,” I drawled, not taking my hand off the needler.

“By your leave,” he replied and, taking a few steps back, turned and began to walk back into the woods, his back almost begging to be attacked.

I watched him go, and then I listened to the air, sensing him jogging in an arc around me.

L: [ He suspects your involvement ] 

K: [ Yes. Yes, he does ]

—

It was stupid.

“Gra-khhhh,” choked a wolf on its own voice, as I split its body in two, diagonally. 

Totally unacceptable.

“Yeeeeee,” whined another one, when I spun around and caught its leg by the spearhead extended for two metres out by the hex-field.

But I had no options left.

Heavily jumping, I swung the spear in a high arc and brought it down on the last wolf, hidden under its own shield.

It finally cracked, and the spearhead burrowed itself deep in its body, splashing blood into the air.

For hours, I had been walking towards Outpost Eleven on the forest floor, pretending to be anything but mobile. With that blasted Mark of Eisenstone House watching my every step.

I always felt him nearby, hiding above, between the branches. Waiting for me to slip.

I paid him tenfold, choosing the most inconvenient path for him to travel between the trees without revealing himself.

It was stupid, but I couldn’t help myself.

Pulling the spear free, I wiped sweat from my forehead and leaned on it, holding my weight.

K: [ I hate this ]

L: [ A bit longer, you’re almost there ]

K: [ I feel like a botcher ]

I also looked like one, covered in blood to the brim of my brows. If I had any pants on me, they would already be dragging me to the ground, heavy with the blood.

And only the cloak stayed dry, pristine, and clean. The blood just didn’t stay on it. Or it was just sucked in. I wasn’t sure.

L: [ Just cut the cores out and keep moving ] 

Sighing, I reached for the subspace claw and gutted the first wolf, a younger one. Its core was still fresh, not wrinkled, and I knew I would have to carry them around for some time before they crystallised.

It didn’t help to lose beasts off my trail. Especially not with my own bloody footprints.

K: [ Of course, darling ]

—

Slowly heading south, with the sun already leaning towards the evening, I felt exhausted. And haunted.

Fucking Mark was still on my tail, still watching me.

It forced me to fight my way through the forest, and moments when I had breath to spare were close to zero.

This moment was one of those, probably because I was slowly going up the hundred-meter-tall cliff, with only a few trees here and there, clinging between the rocks and slopes.

It forced Mark to use his invisibility, which somehow concealed his body from my air-senses. Like V-1 did. I tracked him, too, by his shallow, sparse breathing behind my back.

Bastard.

K: [ If he does not leave after I reach the top of the range, I am gonna shoot him ]

L: [ No, you are not ]

She was right. Probably. I wasn’t sure anymore.

Sighing, I flexed my shoulders, adjusting the makeshift bloody bag with drying cores and knots. My belt was already heavy on one side, with cores wrapped in fur attached to it. I didn’t have enough sparks on the other side to balance it—I didn’t waste my time, cutting out only one I knew the location of.

Butcher indeed.

The cliff edge appeared before me abruptly. One moment, I was looking at the stones before me, choosing spots to step on with my bare feet, and in another, I was looking at the fresh grass on a gradual hill that fell away for miles.

But that was not what made me stop.

At the bottom of the hill, a good few clicks away, I saw… a settlement wrapped in tall and thick walls.

My gaze jumped from one building to another, and I wasn’t sure I wasn’t dreaming. Even this far away, I saw details on the tall or wide buildings. I was even able to make out the streets with some transport moving across the city.

The Outpost Eleven wasn’t, well, an outpost. No, it was a city. Brash, harsh and walled, and yet—a beautiful city that one could find on a remote planet.

But it was all just background for the main feature I landed my gaze upon—aircraft suspended in the air at the far edge of the city.

K: [ We made it ]

[First: Prologue] [Previous: Chapter 29] [Patreon: EPUB] [Wiki]

Afterword

Yes, this is the end.

Katee and Lola’s journey through the wilderness ends here. Not everything is perfect, and many mysteries are left unsolved, but it is the end… of Survivor: Directive Zero.

Subscribe, follow my Patreon, stay tuned.

Survivor: Hunter — it’s coming soon.

[First: Prologue] [Previous: Chapter 28] [Next] [Patreon: EPUB] [Wiki]

AN: Small but meaningful changes to the final scene of the previous chapter. Please read it first.

Location: Hope, A-class planet, E-zone (blue)
Date: April 9 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

Pulling my gaze away from the cenote’s entrance, bright in the morning light, I looked around.

The broken stone and ice chips were scattered around me, across the frozen water. The dust, yet to settle, was hanging in the air, whirling with the slightest breeze. The pool of blood under my feet, slowly growing, was adding a heavy metallic scent to the air.

And the bodies. Bloody bodies.

Averting my eyes, I looked back at the ledge. It was frozen too, covered in a thick layer of water frozen in mid-rise. There was nothing left of my camp that I had there.

Bastards.

L: [ Detecting no hostilities. Confirm V-1 status ]

K: [ He is gone ]

L: [ Roger. Objectives? ]

K: [ We have to move. Position is compromised ]

L: [ Affirmative ]

L: [ You did well ]

A chuckle escaped my lips, making Lola’s necklace clatter against my teeth.

“Are you harmed?” she asked aloud, her voice gentle in my ears, and I looked down at my body.

I was covered in blood and dust, but that wasn’t mine. Wash, I needed to wash it off.

K: [ I am fine ]

Avoiding looking at the centre of the cenote, I walked to the far edge that was almost intact, somehow. Just frozen.

Placing the crumbled and bloodied map and the coin on the ice, I set my needler on top of it and reflexively spun the subspace claw in my right hand.

Wash, I needed to wash.

Stepping aside, I switched to the hex-field and, adding a few more steps just in case, forcefully stuck the subspace claw into the ice surface, crouching over.

I had no spare charge in my hex-field to feed the claw, but I didn’t care. I pushed all I had in my core instead.

And it worked.

The ice hole formed around the claw instantly, cutting through the thick layer of ice, and I felt its weight in my hand, weighted by the claw.

I let gravity pull me down, falling into the ice hole with my eyes closed.

Wash, I needed to wash.

The water accepted me with a splash and pulled me deeper, dragging me by the subspace claw. I didn’t fight it.

Weightless, drifting down, I ignored my intrusive thoughts.

It wasn’t my first kill.

It wasn’t.

But it was the first time I had seen—I had caused—death within arm’s reach.

So much blood.

It was so different back there, in space. Impersonal. Cold. Just a number on your mission report.

L: [ I had been thinking ]

Shaking my head, trying to push my thoughts away, I opened my eyes and looked up at the bright spot of the hole in the ice above me. Small but bright.

K: [ About? ]

Averting my eyes, I looked into the darkness under me and focused on my senses, reaching deeper. There was commotion at the cenote’s bottom.

Fish beasts.

L: [ V-1. I was analysing their speech for deviations from the Standard English and found an anomaly ]

Turning away from the bottom and the beasts that were fighting there, most likely over the crystal cores washed off the ledge, I dropped the hex-field.

K: [ And what did you find? ]

The cut-out piece of ice manifested itself at my side and began to rise to the surface. I watched it for a moment before starting off to the surface myself, racing against it.

L: [ 94% probability they are female, pretending to be male ]

Passing the piece of ice, I pushed through the hole and flew out of the water into the cenote. Helping myself with the tail, I arced for a moment through the air and landed on the ice in a three-point stance. The ice-tipped claw, still attached to my tail, struck the ice by my side, carried by its weight.

K: [ Perhaps she was just cautious ]

L: [ Perhaps ]

Straightening up, I pulled my tail free and began to wipe the water off my body. There was no more blood or dust on my skin.

K: [ Anything else? ]

L: [ I have positive progress with speech recognition, but the reliability is still low to my liking ]

Of course.

Somewhat dry, I turned back to the place where I had left the map with the coin and my needler.

It was all I had left.

“You need to loot them,“ Lola said gently in my ears.

“I know,” I replied, pushing the necklace under my cheek again. “I know.”

—

Pulling on the cloak, I flipped the nasty-voice body over. It rolled over with a wet sound, and I saw the back of the blond head.

Or whatever was left of it. The exit wound was messy.

The cloak came free, and I dropped it by my side, next to the curved swords. Leaning over, avoiding touching the soaked in blood back, I checked for the pockets—finding none—and reached for the heavy metal chain I saw peeking from under the leather jacket.

It was a silver-looking chain, thick as my index finger, with a strange lock holding it together.

Unfastening, I pulled it free, and a heavy medallion appeared from under the jacket, leaving a trail of quite familiar shining grains.

The broken core.

Its remains were sitting in the slot at the centre of the silver medallion, slowly crumbling down on the ice.

Gently setting it aside on the cloak, I turned back to the body and began to search blindly for the buckle release at its waist. A few moments of struggle, and it came free.

Leaving it loose, I stepped to the feet and looked at the boots. They didn’t look like they were in my size—a bit on the larger side than I had—but just in case, I still checked, pressing my right foot against the left boot.

Nope.

Still, I bent over to pull them off. The boots’ laces were dirty and quite messy, and I cut them before pulling the boots off, releasing a few days-old aroma of unwashed feet.

Ew.

To my surprise, the feet were covered in some sort of dark fabric—a poor imitation of my underlayer. Or so I thought, until I pulled the leather pants off the legs. There was no one-piece fabric underlayer, just separate pieces covering the feet and the body’s butt.

I left it on, returning to the bloodied leather jacket.

To my annoyance, it didn’t want to come free either, almost daring me to roll the body over. I cut it along the sides instead.

There was nothing hidden beneath it, just another piece of fabric, tightly covering the torso.

And a pouch hidden at their waist, with a single spark, unfamiliar to me. It looked like a short tube, made of a mushroom-like matter.

Leaving the now stripped body alone, I threw the boots and pants on the cloak and dragged it to the next body. The leader.

Stopping at his side, briefly glancing at his face, frozen in surprise, I bent over to pick up his spear. It was heavy.

The spearhead was massive, at least one fourth of the spear’s length, and covered in strange dark lines standing out on its metal surface. They reminded me of what I saw on the formation banners in Sir Ivor’s camp.

Tracing lines along the spear shaft, feeling a tingling in my fingers, I found a sealed compartment at the heel. At least it looked like the one. It failed to open when I tried.

Later.

Putting the spear down on the ice by the cloak, I began to repeat the process. The boots, pants and the jacket.

It was easier this time.

The boots were in better shape and had buckles instead of laces. The leather pants were robust and quite unyielding, secured with ties rather than a belt. And his jacket was one and a half sizes larger than my frame.

He had fabric on his feet too, and some covering his modesty and most of his torso, leaving his arms free.

Why not use a one-piece?

The pouch he had around his neck was heavy, and I found a few more golden coins, together with a strange bone plate, and a familiar river-rock spark—the icicles’ ability.

Dropping the pouch on the cloak, I almost stepped on his right hand and noticed a silver glint coming from his finger.

Bending over, I pulled on the hand, looking closer. There was a ring on his index finger. But most importantly, I spotted the same lines running along its wide band. The same dark lines I just saw on the spear.

Artefact. It was another artefact. I had no doubt.

It didn’t come free as easily as I had hoped, and, wrinkling my nose, I cut the finger off, not wasting time. The ring came free after that, and I looked at it more closely, finding even more dark lines on its inner side.

But it was impossible to tell what it was for.

Dropping it on the cloak, next to the medallion and pouches, I moved to the next body.

The pointy helmet guy’s body, now without the helmet and its head.

Ignoring the bloody cape, I searched for the pouch and patted for any hidden pockets, but found only a wide belt with a huge buckle and a sheath with a knife.

It was almost a normal-looking knife, yet still covered in dark lines along its blade and on the handle. And this time, the core wasn’t hidden. It glowed orange at the end of the handle, tightly secured by an intricate lock, made of orange-brown metal. 

Copper?

Dropping the belt with the sheathed knife on the cloak, I looked towards the last body. The younger one, smiling at me with its ugly double smile.

Coming to its resting place, I looked closely at its face. It looked as if it were alive, just a bit out of colour. And sleeping.

Shaking off the eerie feeling, I bent over and checked his clothes. They were not made of leather, but of a fabric with a few leather pieces attached at the knees and elbows.

It also looked quite expensive, with its intricate seamwork and subtle silver adornment along its edges.

It left me guessing who it was all the time I was carefully pulling them off the body. I doubted I would ever know. But what really mattered to me was the owner’s size. My size.

Pulling off the pouch at last, I dropped it on the cloak without even checking what was inside.

I had already wasted enough time.

Instead, I began to bundle my new clothes, securing them with an intricate leather belt. I wasn’t going to put them on without washing them first, but this was no longer a safe place to do that.

L: [ Detecting activity on the surface ]

My guts twisted, and I heard the same sound that alerted Lola. Slithering.

Shit.

L: [ with 91% certainty, it’s a snake-type beast, at least thirty metres long ]

Glancing towards the cloak—and at all the things I had picked up—I weighed my options. But only for a moment.

It was too much to carry on my back at such short notice. And I had no time to pack it properly.

K: [ Roger ]

Grabbing the pouches, the medallion and the ring in a rush, I pushed them deep into the bundle of fancy clothes and hauled it on my back. My gaze landed on the belt with the knife and, barely thinking it through, I fastened it over my shoulder before picking up the spear.

Hurry.

Pushing with the moose’s powers, I negated the spear’s weight and soared towards my things, left on the ice. The map and the coin with my needler and the subspace claw next to it.

Faster.

Dropping the bundle and the spear on the ice, I stuffed everything inside it too, feeling the approaching danger in my guts.

Glancing around for the last time, making sure nothing was left behind, I picked up the spear and, straightening up, hauled the bundle onto my back.

The slithering didn’t get above us yet, but it was closer than I hoped.

K: [ Leaving now ]

Wrapping myself in invisibility, I jumped up towards the exit, pushing with the moose’s powers to go faster.

The danger twisted in my guts when I had almost reached the exit, and I abruptly pulled myself sideways, harshly hitting the ceiling by the entrance.

There was no incoming attack, no one jumped in, and nothing else had changed. And the snake—it was still good fifty metres away.

Holding onto the bundle, I began to drop, not taking my eyes off the cenote’s entrance.

There is something else. Or someone.

K: [ Unknown incoming. Possibly cloaked. Leaving the cenote from the entrance is a no-go. Options? ]

L: [ Use the underwater passage ]

Right.

Touching down on ice by the cloak, I dropped the spear and pulled the cloak free from the clothes I had collected.

It fluttered in the air before landing by my side, slightly tangled. I dropped the bundle from my back in the middle of it and began wrapping it, sealing it with one of the belts.

Hopefully, it will hold against the water.

Finishing it, I grabbed the spear again and rushed to the hole in the ice I had made before, only to find that it wasn’t wide enough to pass through with the bundle.

Shit.

Switching to the hex-field, I pointed the spear at the hole, ready to push the energy into it the way I did with the claws, but stopped, noticing how the blade extended, wrapped by my hex-field.

Now, out of all the times?

Dropping the bundle, I traced a wider circle around the hole and made sure the ice got loose. It did, and I pulled the ice block onto the ice, using the spear as the lever.

The hole was wide enough now to go through, but it was also a trail to follow.

Pushing the heel of the spear under the belt holding the bundle together, I lowered it into the water without a splash, and it began to slowly sink under the spear’s weight.

Good.

Turning around, I picked up the ice block and, holding it with the moose’s powers, began setting it back, hiding my trail as best as I could.

And as soon as it did, I took a breath in and, with a last glance towards the light above me, slid into the original hole myself, catching a glimpse of the movement from above at the last moment.

Something hit the ice above me, and the cracking of ice echoed through the water. I looked up, expecting the chase.

And another fight.

Neither came.

Instead, I heard voices.

“It’s young master!” said a male voice, muffled by the water. “Someone killed him!”

“Step aside,” another, older voice said, “Let me check.”

I didn’t dare to move, slowly sinking down. If I were able to hear them, then…

“No, they didn’t,” said the older voice, adding, “but they clearly tried. A few more minutes and it would have been too late.”

“John, I need stretchers, a blanket and someone to kill that snake,” the voice continued, making my brows rise.

How?

“One moment, Sir,” replied another calm and deep voice, and the ice above me cracked again.

There was some shuffling on the ice and a faraway rumbling of thunder after that, although it quickly died.

“Mark, look around. I need to know what had happened here,” the old voice broke the silence again, but this time it was more muffled by the water.

I was deep enough to begin to move. Or so I hoped.

Twisting around with the help of my tail, I slowly began to row through the water, not really risking using my moose’s powers.

“It was one human, Sir. Most likely Expert, or seasoned Specialist with high-ranking mobility, Sir,” said a new, measured voice.

The ranking didn’t make sense to me, but the mobility? The leader was clearly as fast as I was, or just a touch slower. Something wasn’t right here.

“There are signs of the Horned Moose’s powers, Sir,” he added, interrupting my thoughts.

“The House of Alzar?” asked the old voice as I reached the bottom and saw the spear.

Grabbing it slowly, I turned towards the underwater tunnel I had visited before. The one that led to the other cave.

“Mark, I have to go with Sebastian, but you will stay behind and will find this horned Expert. You hear me? I need to know if it was the doing of Alzar House,” I heard when I was almost at the tunnel, and my guts twisted.

It wasn’t good. Not good at all.

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