Chương 81: Riphiel's Hidden Talent

The first creature resembled an insect, but nothing like an ordinary one. A hard stone shell covered its body. White frost bloomed from the left side, while the right released steam like the wet wall of an oven. Every turn of its body mixed the heat and cold of the storage cave into a mess. Kichan cursed the moment he saw it.

"So that's what's ruining all the partitions." A second creature clung halfway up a transparent pillar. Its forelegs made dry crunching sounds as they gnawed the surface. A third crawled from a black pool with half its body submerged. It had grown by consuming something that was neither water nor fire alone. Its underside was wet, and each passage left one line of thin ice beside another of lukewarm slime. The craftspeople at the entrance made frightened sounds.

The traces seemed to terrify them more than the monsters themselves. One clutched a bundle of damp medicinal herbs. The warm compartment must have cooled, the cold compartment thawed, and the drying herbs turned wet. Kichan surveyed the cave. They could force their way through, but the storage structure was the problem. The pillars and floor were already half destroyed. Fighting with raw strength would break the rest. He clicked his tongue.

"Any way to lure them out?" Argaon looked at Riphiel with perfect ease.

"You do it." Riphiel stared back in disbelief.

"Do what?"

"Draw aggro." Kichan turned his head.

"You say that way too naturally." Argaon shrugged.

"Whether or not they understand words, some creatures move when they hear something they dislike." Riphiel fell silent. The things ahead looked like rocks shaped into insects. She did not know whether they even had ears, much less understood language. Yet Argaon was already gesturing toward them with his chin. Kichan gave Riphiel a small push in the back.

"Go try. If it doesn't work, just run."

"That is not reassuring in the slightest." Even so, Riphiel stepped forward. She held her bow but did not fire, since an arrow might damage the pillars further. Facing the stone-shell insects, she delivered one icy sentence in Elvish. Kichan could not understand it, but the tone alone told him it was not kind. Nothing happened. Riphiel took a breath. Then she unleashed something much longer and far worse. Even by Elven standards, it was vicious, and the insults carried the weight of everyday experience.

She said the shine on their shells was worse than rotten mushrooms, that their leg joints were less developed than an unripe grub's, and finally that even a sewer would be choosy about the way they ate. Kichan's eyes widened slightly.

"You know how to say things like that?" The tips of Riphiel's ears turned red.

"It is a tactical necessity." The first creature snapped its head up. The others stopped at the same time. Steam blasted once from their hot shells, and frost cracked across the cold sides. Every one of them looked toward Riphiel. As if they had truly understood her. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Riphiel's face slowly stiffened.

"…They understood." Three dropped away first. The one on the pillar fell with a crash, scattering stone. The one in the black pool crawled out, flinging slime. Two or three more shapes moved in the deeper darkness. Riphiel had succeeded far too well.

"You caused trouble with your mouth again."

"You ordered me to do it this time."

"I knew you had talent from childhood," Argaon said. The saber-toothed tiger stepped in front of Riphiel. Valkyrie spread a thin water screen close to the floor. Kichan watched the monsters move. With them away from the pillars, the storage structure had a moment to breathe. This was the chance. He pulled the dragon-horn fragment from the magic bag and scraped off the tiniest amount of powder. Dust thrashed its legs in horror, but Kichan ignored it.

"I'm only using a little." Dust stared at the powder with profound distrust. Kichan also took out a piece of the giant monster's shell. He turned the heat-retaining side outward and wedged it diagonally over a crack in the cold floor. When he dusted dragon-horn powder across it, the black grain came alive with a brief water-blue light. Valkyrie drew in a thread of water and sealed the gap.

"Valkyrie. Here. Thinner." Valkyrie chirped and added another film of water. Argaon muttered from behind them,"Good for an improvised repair."

"Stop talking and hold one side."

"For another half bowl?"

"Do it before I hit you." The first monster chasing Riphiel changed direction to avoid the tiger. Kichan slammed the wake-up rod into the floor. The remaining heat paths drew toward the shell fragment, while the cold paths slid beneath the water screen. The two tangled currents separated for an instant. The insect monster stumbled at the change. Its hot right legs slipped while the cold left legs caught in the floor crack. As it struggled, the second monster crashed into it from behind.

All three were driven toward the temporary partition.

"Now!" At Kichan's shout, the saber-toothed tiger rammed the first monster with its shoulder. Instead of firing, Riphiel struck the second creature's leg with the end of her bow. Valkyrie's water screen froze in an instant and caught the third by its feet. The weight shifted to one side. All three monsters slid through a break in the floor. With a shriek like tearing stone, they fell below. They were not dead. Scraping rose again from deeper down. At least they were gone from this level.

There was little time to rest. Two more remained inside. Even after seeing the others fall, they did not retreat. Instead, they circled behind the pillars and gnawed harder at the hot and cold sides.

"These things have awful personalities." Riphiel caught her breath.

"It may be because of what I said."

"Good. Keep making them hate you."

"I dislike that plan." Kichan charged directly this time. Striking the monster while it clung to the pillar would break the pillar too, so he aimed at the black pool beneath it. The tip of the wake-up rod struck the liquid that was not water. Hot fluid scattered, and Valkyrie immediately covered it with water. The sudden temperature shift made the creature's cold-side legs tremble.

"Get off the pillar." Kichan struck the floor on the opposite side. The cold remaining underground surged up at once. Instinctively, the monster twisted to put its hot side down. The saber-toothed tiger leaped and struck the body as it passed. The creature fell from the pillar. Kichan did not miss the opening. The wake-up rod hit the uncertain joint exactly between the hot right shell and the cold left shell. Crack.

"Oh. That's the weak point." The last monster backed away at the sight. Only then did Argaon flick one finger. Air flowing from the entrance pressed inward and settled over its body. It was not overwhelming force, only enough weight to make the creature crouch. While it paused, Kichan approached and struck the same joint. This time, the shell split in half, flipping the monster onto its back. The craftspeople at the entrance finally breathed. The mole craftsman felt around the base of a pillar.

The old fox touched the edge of a black pool, then snatched his hand away. The bear man still looked between the entrance and the depths. Kichan checked the fallen monsters with his foot. Some had stopped completely, while others had escaped through the lower break. Either way, nothing remained to gnaw this level of the storage cave. Near the base of the transparent pillar where the first creature had fallen, a strange stone lay exposed. Black grain and transparent grain occupied separate halves of the same stone.

One side resembled ice, while heat rose from the other when Kichan brought his hand close. Hot and cold remained trapped inside one piece without fighting. The mole craftsman shouted in a trembling voice. Riphiel narrowed her eyes and translated.

"He says that stone was mined only in tiny amounts far deeper inside. He has never seen one come this close to the entrance." Kichan picked it up. Cold touched one side of his palm, lukewarm heat the other. They held without mixing.

"This can make the partitions." Argaon laughed.

"I thought you hated dungeons." Kichan tucked the stone inside his coat instead of putting it in the magic bag.

"I hate dungeons. I like this." A heavier scraping sound rose once from the broken floor. Something larger than the fallen creatures waited below. All three craftspeople went pale at the same time. Kichan stared into the crack and clicked his tongue.

"Still not finished."