Chapter 123

[Quick note, in case you didn't see the update on last chapter, power has been restored and all is well with the world! I do still have some irl obligations over the remainder of the week, and losing two days to the power outage doesn't help, but I'm fully confident in my ability to resume standard scheduled posting next week and have high hopes for getting the remaining two chapters out sometime this week for the usual five.
On with the story!]

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Maggie hissed and spat magma into the kalvex’s eyes, even as Levi stepped into its attack and slashed upward with his blades. Destructive Slash sliced deep, but not deep enough to slow its charge. It drove itself onto the blade up to the hilt and kept going, bowling Levi over and trampling him almost incidentally as it gathered itself and jumped for the helpless Gordon.

Levi’s stamina bottomed out and his health dropped rapidly as it struggled to keep up with the rapidly inflicted impacts. He didn’t have enough to survive another hit like that.

Unfortunately for the kalvex, Gordon wasn’t hanging from a rope, but a very powerful and flexible magma serpent. Maggie flexed and swayed, shifting her body out of the way and the kalvex slammed headfirst into the wall at the dead end of the tunnel.

Levi picked himself up out of the ankle-deep corrosive and took quick stock of the situation before the kalvex had time to reorient.

Level 1++
(Spined Kalvex)
Health 47%

Shadevine still valiantly clung to the kalvex’s back, but there wasn’t much they could do at this point. If even a full power Destructive Slash delivered to its chest with the full force of its charge could only do so small a damage amount, they had no hope of bringing it down to taming range. Even just killing it seemed impossible at this point. He’d be happy to escape without further casualties.

A dozen retorts rang out in quick succession as Gordon, though still swaying unsteadily in Maggie’s coils, tried his best to prove Levi’s predictions wrong. Three of his shots went wide, pinging off the walls and sending shards of stone flying, but the rest hit the kalvex. They didn’t do as much damage as the direct shots from before, many barely grazing it, but Levi was proud to see how much effort Gordon was willing to put in.

It was easy to think of him as a background support, someone there to fire off an occasional dismay, but who otherwise avoided the action and stood around watching instead of participating. As it turned out, he just needed to find the right way of participating. He could see why Gordon’s initial preference had been Ranger, and might have suited him well after all, if Levi hadn’t been there to make it clear that Tamer was the objectively superior class for everyone to choose.

Level 1++
(Spined Kalvex)
Health 42%

Still, without mana in the bullets, they only did so much. Weaker mana beings were somewhat susceptible to physical attacks, their structure insufficiently flexible or stable to shrug them off the way more powerful creatures could, but while his gun might be enough to clear a dungeon full of gremlins without difficulty, the kalvex was something else entirely.

The number of shots Gordon had pumped into it were enough to stop any earth predator, yet the kalvex kept coming. It had no sense of self preservation, no fear, no weakness. It would keep coming until they were dead, or it was.

And Levi had no doubts about that outcome. If he could get the rest of the team down here, it would be a different story, but as they were they had no chance.

As soon as he’d verified that Maggie and Drok had Gordon’s safety well in hand - or in coil, as it may be with Maggie - he took off running down the hall. “I’ll meet you outside. Don’t wait for me! Close the trapdoor and go.”

The kalvex made another swipe at Gordon, but they’d almost gotten him to the top by now and it missed completely. Then it charged after Levi, its paws splashing and thudding as it closed in at a horrifyingly fast pace.

Levi pushed his stamina even harder, sprinting for the branching of the tunnel. The sharp curve was his only defence right now. He knew full well how hard that thing could hit. While he might survive a glancing blow, another full charge like that would be the end.

He stabbed his sword into the wall, using Beast Bite to anchor himself and swing around the curve at top speed, disengaging the sword and continuing on down toward the deeper pool without slowing. The kalvex slammed into the wall at the end of the tunnel, then came splashing after him a second later.

He passed another alcove going off down to the left, a low cave that he’d have to crouch over to enter, which he felt sure was the kalvex’s actual lair and where its treasure hid. Beyond another curve in the tunnel lay what he’d been after: the exit portal. A narrow doorway blocked access immediately before the portal, just enough that the kalvex itself couldn’t reach the exit, but not far enough to provide any escape. Its head and paws could fit through to maul anyone who tried standing in the narrow spot, just not its shoulders or bulky body.

Not that Levi had any thought of staying to continue fighting. He would come back for this guy once he had a stronger team capable of capturing him properly, and not a minute before.

He emerged back into the treasure room at the end, as though he’d stepped back out through the one-way final exit portal. Which raised all kinds of questions of its own about how portals worked, but he was alive.

Levi glanced back at the boss room, which was empty, then stepped through the portal into the outside world.

Irene was fussing over Gordon, Drok assisting her in preventing him from causing trouble. Only when he saw Levi emerge did he relax. “I thought you got yourself killed.” He laughed unsteadily. “I guess I underestimated it a little.”

“You overestimated yourself. By a lot.” Levi had to forcibly restrain himself from shouting. “You may think it’s fun to keep secrets and act tough, but unless it’s actually important to keep something to yourself, you shouldn’t be hiding your plans from your teammates. Saying ‘I’ve got this’ sounds great, but when your ‘secret weapon’ is as ineffective as that little thing, you have no call for arrogance.”

“You saw how much damage it did! If you, me, and Rene all had guns, we could have taken that thing down in thirty seconds flat. You’re ignoring a very valuable current resource because it’s ‘going’ to be obsolete later. I say no! Do you actually want to save the world, or do you want to prove you’re right about something? Do you want to use available resources to their actual fullest potential, or do you want to keep throwing away opportunities because you’re only willing to do it ‘your way’? You may know the future, but you don’t know everything.”

“I know! Alright? I know I don’t know everything. I’m trying my best here to avoid making the same mistakes, but if everyone around me thinks they know better, someone is going to end up dead! Do you want to die? Do you want Cassandra to die? Or Irene? Or Laurence? I can’t protect you if you lie to me about your abilities and try to sneak around being cool instead of being part of the team. If you have a proposal like this, the right thing to do is plan it out ahead of time, not wait until we’re facing deadly danger and pull it out like you’re in a movie!”

“I’ve tried to talk to you about it! Multiple times. You always shoot it down without even pretending to listen. You’re so hung up on the future you’re sabotaging the present.”

“Because the future is what really matters here! None of what we’re doing now is going to matter in the end. All of this is just a stepping stone to get us to the very bottom of what we need to be. And you playing around with guns isn’t going to—“

“Levi.” Irene said it gently, but the look she gave him snapped his mouth shut mid-sentence. “Gordon.” More sternly.

“We lost half our team down there, and if we hadn’t retreated when we did we would have lost more,” Levi hissed. “This isn’t about who’s right, it’s about communicating properly!”

“And we can discuss it later.” Irene put a hand on Gordon’s mouth to stop him from retorting, and he reluctantly stayed quiet. “Now is not the time. You both need to calm down.”

“Fine.” Levi tossed Three’s body to the ground. “You can take the bodies in the car. I'll meet you back at base.”

Becca gently laid Frosty and Flomper’s remains beside him, fluffy white snowball of a spider with her crystal legs, and the dead cynomis looking even smaller and more rodent like than ever in death, both their fur damp from being in the rift cat’s mouth for so long. Levi didn’t even know how or when Flomper had died. She must have been doing something under the kalvex’s feet and been drowned or trampled.

Becca gave Levi a reproving look, then bounded off to lead the way.

“I’ll take the ogres, they won’t fit.”

“Greg, Drok, yes!” Drok clapped his hands in a painfully naive attempt to lighten the mood. “Yes,” he repeated more sadly, then sighed, picked up Maggie, and trotted after Levi, the centipedes falling in on either side.

This time, Levi didn’t mind making the long trip alone.