Chương 73: 65. Dead Silence

"Every silence has an edge. Every edge has a hunter waiting at it." — Codex of the Long Watch, On Selection by Stillness Dead Silence Chamber C was wider, and the corbelled ceiling rose another metre. Twelve of them were spread across the room, standing very still on the limestone, prongs idling. Listening for something to make a sound. Arthur picked his anchor spot in the chamber's western quadrant, where a stub of partition wall would cover the angle behind him. He set himself and waited for the bait.

Donna tossed a stone past him at the far wall. It pinged off the limestone, and three creatures locked in. As they loped forward, Arthur triggered Contact Reinforcement, and the blue ran out of him into the floor. As they crossed the boundary of his bubble, Arthur hooked his hammer on the lead creature's antlers and dragged it toward him. The scuffle alerted the other two, and they came at him as well, but he was already back in position with his shield up.

Two sets of antlers rammed his shield while Steve and Donna fell upon the one tangled in his hammer. Donna's axe slashed across the back of its head just as a lance of Ether entered its open mouth. One of the two on Arthur's shield disengaged and lunged at Donna, who pivoted sharply and brought her axe down. The blade met a bone plate and bounced off.

"Damn," Donna said. Meanwhile, Arthur had disentangled his hammer and swung it sideways into the face of the third creature, still trying to bore a hole in his shield. The blow broke the plating but not much else. The creature staggered back. As it staggered, the Reacher came through from between Arthur's legs to poke it in the belly. The attack did nothing except confuse Arthur.

"Sarah, what are you doing?"

"Well, you can't move, and I wanted to help." Sarah's voice came from behind him.

"Right. Be careful with the Reacher when it's between my legs. In fact, I'd prefer if you don't try that again." As the Reacher pulled back, the last creature lunged again. This time Arthur swung his shield at an angle, aiming for the side of the head his hammer had weakened earlier. The shield met the creature mid-lunge and drove it against the wall. Its neck snapped. Steve had killed the second one and stood smirking at Sarah, who was glaring at him.

"All done? Can I release it now?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, go ahead. This went better than I expected," Donna said. * The next pull went like clockwork. Arthur set himself about three metres from his previous position, and Donna threw the stone as planned. Two creatures heard the noise and peeled off. As they entered the radius of Contact Reinforcement, the five-metre bubble turned into a charnel house. Metal on bone plate and antler on shield rang inside the silence while the seven creatures still in the chamber stood motionless.

The two dropped in short order, and Arthur allowed himself a small breath. The third pull was where it went wrong. As the party repeated the now-familiar tactic, three creatures peeled off and came to them. The fight started like the others. All three came in, and Arthur engaged Contact Reinforcement while tapping his shield against the limestone to pull them close. The first hit his shield and stumbled, knocking the one behind it to the ground.

Donna was crouched on his right, and she dove in swinging, catching the downed creature across the throat in a vicious chop that opened it to the spine. Arthur and Steve had ganged up on the second, and it was almost down. Donna saw the opening. She was behind the last creature that was on Arthur's shield, and she moved in for the kill. And the thing kicked backward like a mule. Donna was faster. She lunged back, avoiding the kick, her feet scraping against the limestone.

She froze as she realised that she was now outside the soundless bubble of Arthur's technique. The party saw it too, but they had a creature still trying to gouge them. The four creatures still standing in the chamber stiffened and rushed forward. They closed on Donna in two strides, and she was suddenly the centre of a tightening circle. Arthur felt Sarah clutching the back of his vest. Steve's lance fizzled as he lost concentration. Arthur met Donna's eyes and saw them go blank.

His hammer came down on the last creature in the bubble. Donna stiffened and went motionless. The four creatures were around her, prongs testing for vibration. Looking for prey. He could drop the technique and bait them toward him, but Donna was surrounded. The creatures could very well knock into her in their rush to get to him. The seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly as the creatures surrounding Donna moved their heads back and forth to catch vibrations. Donna held perfectly still, mid-stride.

Arthur was counting in his head. He was already close to the technique failing, and Donna was still not clear. He needed to control the engagement, and he needed to do it in the next few seconds. Just as a sliver of a corridor opened around Donna, Arthur made the call. He dropped Contact Reinforcement. The blue along his contact line collapsed. The chamber that had been silent to the creatures was no longer silent.

"Donna, jump!" he shouted, at full volume.

"Position left, move under my shield. Steve, Sarah, get behind us." He finished by stomping his foot. Every prong in the cluster around Donna turned toward him. Donna lunged through the opening before the creatures had finished registering the redirect. The scrape of her boots on the floor gave them a second vibration to chase, and the cluster surged after her, two antlers piercing the air where she had been a moment before.

She slid across the limestone and passed under Arthur's raised shield, coming up behind him on the left. The creatures responded with their own surge, moving in unison toward Arthur's position. This would have been a death sentence if there were other creatures in the chamber. This was the last pack, and Arthur met the rush of antlers with his own rush of metal and muscle. The shield impacted two sets of antlers. The charge broke, and Arthur pushed back.

The longer he could keep them occupied, the longer Donna and Steve would have to make an impact. Two rapid thermal lances hit one of the creatures trying to flank Arthur, and a moment later an axe ended it. There were now three. The rest of the fight turned into a game of manoeuvres as Arthur kept the creatures occupied and Donna and Steve took pot shots at them. An antler finally found the edge of the shield and pierced Arthur's upper bicep. He shrugged it off. It was a miracle they were all still standing.

As another of the creatures fell, one of the last two decided it was done ramming the shield. Just as Arthur took another blow, his shoulder protesting at the constant abuse, one of the creatures jumped. Its powerful legs took it over Arthur. Arthur watched in horror as the creature surged over him and fell toward Steve and Sarah. He couldn't turn and reposition. Not with the last one still trying to blast through his shield. There was a wet squelching sound behind him.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. As the final creature surged again, Arthur took a step to the left, giving himself some swinging room. If there were more than one creature in front of him, this would open the party up, but with just one he had options. His hammer met the creature mid-charge and caved its skull in. He turned around frantically, hoping Donna had had enough time to intercept the creature that had jumped past him.

What he found was the creature impaled on the Reacher, the blade emerging cleanly through the other side.

"Mass and velocity falling on a sharp point," Steve said, wiping his face. Sarah had had the presence of mind to point the Reacher up when the creature jumped. Its own momentum had impaled it. She moved to Arthur.

"Sit down. Your bicep is bleeding," she said, placing her hands on him. ETHER ABSORBED: +840 (12 KILLS) INTEGRATION: 1, 652 / 2, 200 Sarah's display was longer. ETHER ABSORBED: +249 (3 KILLS) INTEGRATION: 1, 585 / 1, 533 LEVEL UP: LEVEL 11 ETHER ABSORBED: +702 (9 KILLS) INTEGRATION: 754 / 1, 746"Level 11," Sarah whispered. While she worked, Donna moved around, prodding the bodies for cores. She found three.

"We should figure out what to use these cores on. There's no point in them sitting in our backpack."

"We should trade for some more food. We're almost out," Steve replied. Then he looked at her and added, "What you did, surrounded by four of those things, was amazing. To not twitch a muscle."

"I once stayed still for forty-three minutes in a Parisian alley," she said with a smirk, "waiting for a target to step into a doorway."

"We should all take some rest. Arthur definitely needs it. His left arm is going to be stiff for a while," Sarah said, finally getting up. * The next chamber surprised them. They couldn't see a single creature when they emerged. Arthur looked at the niches and found them empty as well. Donna moved past him and picked her way ahead carefully. After about twenty paces, she stopped and signalled for quiet. Arthur came up to her shoulder and looked ahead.

There were seven of them packed tight in a half-circle around a descending staircase at the far end of the chamber. Standing still in formation, as if they were manning the exit.

"Just one more chamber for this level," Donna said behind him.

"Yeah."

"We're not pulling those out piecemeal."

"No."

"I have maybe one more activation in me," Arthur said.

"We need to break that group."

"Here's what we'll do. I'll rush them—" Arthur started.

"That's not a plan, Arthur," Donna cut in.

"- it's the start of one. I'm not suicidal."

"Could have fooled me," Sarah murmured from the back.

"So I rush them. The vibrations from my movement will draw them toward me. Now, the timing here is important. The moment I trigger Contact Reinforcement, Steve will fire a concussive blast at the wall behind them."

"So you're hoping that part of the group splits?" Donna asked.

"Yes. Even if three go, four is better than seven."

"It's not the worst plan," Donna said. * Arthur yelled and rushed the creatures, his boots pounding on the floor. The seven reacted immediately, surging toward him. As they covered half the distance, Arthur skidded to a stop and triggered the technique.

"Steve, now!" Before Arthur finished shouting, a boom rang against the wall behind the creatures. Three of them stopped, prongs testing the air, and moved toward the wall. The other four did not. They had locked on Arthur and closed the remaining distance at a sprint. The first reached him a body-length ahead of the rest and hit the shield at full velocity. He took the impact on the boss, and the antler scraped a long furrow across the metal. Then Donna burned Reflex Acceleration.

Her shoulders dropped half an inch; her eyes went still. Her brain was reading the trajectory of the combat around her. She stepped sideways once, and the axe took the second creature across the throat in a stroke. The blade was through the spine before the creature had registered the wound. She was already past it, sliding under an antler thrust from the third, the axe coming up from below with the full weight of her body behind it. The creature's lower jaw came off in a single piece.

Steve's lance dropped the fourth across the shoulder, the bone exploding outward. Three down inside the bubble. The first one was still pinned against Arthur's shield when the blue along Arthur's contact line wavered and collapsed.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath. His reserve was empty; the technique was gone.

"Stay still," he hissed at Sarah and Steve behind him.

"Both of you. No movement." He let the shield take the creature's next thrust and brought the hammer down on its skull in a single straight stroke. The skull caved. The body dropped onto the limestone with a wet, ringing impact. The three at the far wall turned in unison.

"They're coming back," Donna said quietly.

"I know. Reposition." She did not wait for instructions. She burned Reflex Acceleration again. Arthur did not have the bandwidth to think about what that was going to cost her. The three returners crossed the chamber at a sprint. He rushed forward, making as much sound as he could. The first one reached Arthur, and he caught its antlers on the boss of his shield without the technique behind him. The impact drove him back a step. His left bicep, already torn, protested under the weight.

He braced and swung the hammer in a low arc that caught the creature's forelegs and broke them both. It went down. He came down on the skull with the hammer's return stroke. Donna was past him on the right, her axe moving in small, economical actions. The second creature lunged at her, and she stepped through the lunge rather than around it, the axe taking it across the back of the neck. Arthur's shield bash to its face dropped it dead.

The third creature got a thermal lance in the chest the moment Steve had a clear line of fire. But this time the lance was visibly thinner and paler. He stumbled half a step backward as he released the shot.

"Steve," Sarah said sharply.

"I'm fine. Two more in me. Maybe." Donna had closed the distance and dropped the creature with a vicious overhead chop. Arthur turned, hammer up, looking for the next target. There was no next target. The chamber was quiet. Seven bodies on the limestone, prongs still vibrating on the closest ones. Arthur let the hammer drop to his side. His bicep was bleeding through the wrapping Sarah had put on it earlier. Donna was breathing hard, a glazed look in her eyes. Reflex Acceleration aftereffect.

She would be feeling it for the next few hours, maybe longer after two activations in close sequence. Steve sat down where he stood with a groan. Sarah was quick to get to Donna. The warmth ran through, and Donna's posture eased by a fraction, the glaze in her eyes softening. Sarah squeezed her forearm and moved to Steve.

"Your Reserves are dangerously low," she said.

"You can't keep firing like that. You'll need to recover."

"Looks like we all do," Steve said, lying down on the floor.

"Too many fights, too little time." She moved to Arthur last. She unfastened his vest and looked at the antler wound. The wrapping was soaked through.

"It's clean. Deeper than I'd like. Hold still." Arthur held still while she worked, the warmth running down his arm. When she pulled back, the bicep no longer pulsed. The wound was a thin pink line under the new wrapping. Sarah's hands were unsteady. ETHER ABSORBED: +490 (7 KILLS) INTEGRATION: 2, 142 / 2, 200 Sarah was reading her own display. ETHER ABSORBED: +546 (7 KILLS) INTEGRATION: 1, 300 / 1, 746"My bonus is shrinking," she said. Steve, one eye open, said, "Yeah?"

"I got eighteen percent over the rest of you for the first part of the dungeon. After I levelled, it dropped to twelve. Now it's about eleven."

"The mechanism is called Integration Differential Compensation," Archie said, showing up again.

"When a Matrix at a lower integration level operates within a party at higher levels, ambient absorption is weighted to reduce the differential. The weighting is calculated per absorption event as a function of the gap between the affected Matrix and the party median. The weighting decreases as the gap closes. At parity, the weighting is zero."

"So I'm getting less because I'm catching up," Sarah said.

"Correct. You are absorbing at a multiplier of approximately one point one one. At the start of the dungeon the multiplier was one point one eight. At parity it will be one point zero."

"Where were you all this time?" Arthur asked without opening his eyes.

"Monitoring the lower levels."

"And?"

"And nothing. I'm neither authorised nor inclined to share information before you face the mechanics yourself."

"Still the ray of sunshine, I see," Donna said, and turned to Sarah.

"How much do you have left?"

"Enough for two more major injuries. Three if they're light. Not a fourth." Donna looked at the staircase and the descent into the unknown.

"We rest first," she said.

"Three hours minimum. We've burned everything we have." Nobody argued. Arthur yawned and settled against a wall. His shoulder ached where the antler had gone in. He could feel the new tissue holding, but the muscle underneath remembered. Sarah settled cross-legged against the wall opposite him.

"What do you think is down there?" she said, motioning at the stairs.

"The next level has a documented acoustic anomaly. The chamber called the Oracle resonates at a hundred and ten hertz. The frequency is high enough to be unusual and low enough to do things to a human brain."

"It will be what it will be," Arthur sighed, and closed his eyes. The sound from below was a low, constant murmur.