Soul of the Warrior

Chapter 99: Escaping the Lair

The new army of lizardmen charged into the horde of spiders. The tunnel wasn't very large, but there were many combatants suddenly filling the entire space. Reivyn found himself surrounded on both sides by hostile enemies.

The lizard people in the front ignored Reivyn, just giving him a glare as they squeaked and shrieked, as they engaged the spiders. Reivyn could Sense that they were the more experienced, higher Level combatants of the lizards. They set about killing the spiders who were mindlessly charging forth to hunt for a meal.

Reivyn continued to parry and strike at the spiders closest to him, but the pressure on him immediately lessened due to the intervention of the other lizards. It didn't last long, though, as Reivyn's Battlefield Awareness, Sense Danger, and Spatial Awareness Skills all kicked in to warn him of a spear strike coming from the rear.

The lizards weren't going to take the time to understand the situation, and they wouldn't care either way. Reivyn was an outsider. A human who didn't belong to their society. It didn't matter to them the truth of what was going on. They just knew that their two sentries were gone, taken by the spiders, and an intruder was found in their place.

They didn't have the concept of an enemy of my enemy is my friend. They only had the concept of "us and them." Reivyn was one of "them."

Reivyn utilized his Weapons Master, Evade, and Dancing Skills in conjunction with his combat experience to dance around the battlefield, dodging attacks from lizard people and spiders alike. He kept his hand against the lizard people, for now, and simply parried or dodged their strikes. He wasn't necessarily against defending himself with lethal force, but he felt a little guilty about the situation they all found themselves in.

He understood he wasn't entirely responsible. He didn't make that sentry shout in exclamation, alerting the horde of spiders to action, but at the same time, if he hadn't been there, it wouldn't have happened.

He noticed that the front-line lizard folk seemed to be quite experienced with fending off the spiders, though, so he recognized that this was most likely a semi-common occurrence. The spiders needed something to eat, and there were a lot of them. I suppose they also need a way to keep their numbers in check, which is probably how they adapted to not using their spider silk while hunting. If they were too efficient, they would run out of prey, and the successful hunters wouldn't be able to survive and reproduce.

Reivyn threw the impromptu life lesson to the back of his head as he focused on the combat. There were hundreds of spiders, and they kept coming. Likewise, there were now hundreds of lizard people filling the tunnel.

This isn't going to work for me, Reivyn thought. I have enough Health, Stamina, and Mana to keep up combat for a long time, but not forever. I need to figure something out so that when they stop fighting each other, I won't have to keep fighting the lizards. They don't seem like they want to talk, and even if they did, we don't understand each other.

Reivyn kept his eyes open for anything he could use to his advantage. He needed a way to disengage and hide. He scanned the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. It was mostly smooth, and the ceiling was low enough that a spear would be able to reach easily. There was no easy solution just waiting for him to exploit. He would have to make an opportunity to escape.

While Reivyn dodged and weaved the assault on two fronts, he gathered his Mana. He drew upon his general and Class Skills, and he brought forth the lessons he had learned from his mother and at the Academy.

Reivyn infused his body with the Light Affinity through the Elemental Weapons Skill. He went further and used his often neglected True Light Class Skill and infused that into his magical combination as well. He focused his will, drawing 2,500 Mana from his Mana Pool. He concentrated the Mana into the center of his being through the combination of Skills and split a perfect copy of himself off.

He used the True Light Skill to infuse his will into the doppelganger, and he ordered it to charge through the lizard people towards the exit. He anchored the Mana into itself, giving it a life of approximately ten minutes, and then he canceled all of the other Skills except Elemental Weapon, and he changed that one to infuse his entire body with the Darkness Affinity.

One moment he was dodging and parrying, dancing through the horde of combatants, and then the next moment, his body merged with the shadows, smoothly disengaging from the fight as his copy ran through the lizard people.

He watched as his clone acted exactly like him, twirling and dancing through the thrusts and slashes of spears directed at it, and he was astonished to see it successfully block and parry with its own shield and sword.

It's a clone made out of pure Light, but it somehow has substance, Reivyn thought. It must be because of the nature of the other Skills I used to form the Spell. It sure took a lot of Mana to do so, so it better work well. Reivyn mentally chuckled.

The doppelganger served its purpose exactly as intended, and the attention of all of the lizard people focused on the distraction. Reivyn followed in the wake of the path the clone cleared for him, careful to not bump into any of the lizards or to step into too much light from the scattered torches. Not all of the lizard folk were equipped with torches, so there were pockets of shadow from where the light was blocked by the mass of bodies.

The beginning of the mad dash by the Light clone was actually the most difficult part. Reivyn was worried that it might get bogged down and give something away for the lizard men to notice something wasn't right. His disguise in the shadows wasn't perfect, and if enough of them suspected something was up, they may turn their attention toward seeking him out.

Luckily, the doppelganger made it past the thickest obstruction of lizard warriors. The following rows of warriors, to Reivyn's inexpert eye, appeared to be younger and less organized, and he could clearly Sense that they were of a lower Level. Though the lowest Level creature I can Sense is still low Tier 3. There was surprise and confusion, or at least what Reivyn thought was surprise and confusion, of the younger lizard people who hadn't gotten a good look at what was going on in the front.

Reivyn used that to his advantage as their indecisiveness jumbled the ones chasing the clone up, and he was able to slip through the gaps into the less dense ranks. The tunnel went on for about a hundred yards before it opened up into a broader room defended by the last palisade as the last line of defense against the spiders.

The ceiling remained low - probably artificially in order to defend against the wall crawlers - but it expanded enough for Reivyn to be able to leap up as high as he could, infuse Gravity into his lower body and hands as he flipped over, driving it into the ceiling when he made contact, and stick to the ceiling. He took a page out of the spider's book, and he crawled over the palisade where his clone was trying to force its way through.

He wasn't used to such climbing action, though, and it was a struggle even with the Gravity Mana. He had to squeeze his abdominal muscles as hard as he could to keep his body in the right position as he leveraged himself forward. He only maintained the Gravity in his lower body and hands in order to keep his upper body shrouded in Darkness in case one of the distracted defenders happened to look up. The Darkness wasn't just his body shape, as that would make him stand out just as much, and it oozed around him to obscure his entire body even with just a portion infused.

Reivyn made it past the last defense, but he wasn't home free just yet. He continued to crawl along the ceiling until he got a bit further away so that any noise from him dropping down wouldn't carry to the lizards defending the palisade. Once he did drop down, he dismissed his Gravity and just maintained the Darkness as he picked up the pace to get some distance from the battle.

The tunnel continued in its cramped structure for another twenty or so yards after the palisade, and then it opened up into a large, lit cavern. The ceiling finally stretched much further above once again, and Reivyn felt a little less claustrophobic. He was used to having an entire open sky over his head.

Reivyn maneuvered himself to the side so he could marvel at the sight before him. There was an entire underground society of lizard people. There was a town of mud and stone houses, clear roadways, and he could even see a market district. Lizard folk in colorful attire walked along the streets, and Reivyn could tell that most of them were either feminine or children.

Reivyn didn't think that there weren't any female warrior lizards, there had been plenty of female human warriors with the help of the System, and he didn't see that it would be any different for this species. It was most likely more of a societal thing, and they may even be the last, hidden defense for the young ones of the town.

He spotted the occasional warrior lizards still walking about, just like any human city he had been to, clearly keeping order as a unit that wasn't called to the front lines.

Reivyn casually threw an Inspect at the clothing of one civilian lizard on a whim. He wasn't too surprised by the information he received.

Spider Silk Dress

Quality: Fine

There wasn't much more information on the item. He would need to have a greater personal understanding of the System to get more. The System only provided so much assistance on its own.

Reivyn had no interest in trying to navigate the town, small though it appeared, as his only goal was to reach the surface and meet up with someone he could actually talk to. He didn't know what kind of reaction they would have to him appearing out of nowhere. So far his experiences hadn't been great.

He kept to the edge of the town and snuck his way around, searching for another path that would lead up and away. He passed by many lizard people just living their normal lives. He passed by mushroom farms and other herbs that could be cultivated without much light. There were pens of some unknown animals being reared that he could hear and smell.

There were torches all around on the ground level of the small town, and there were glowing gems of some sort embedded in the ceiling or the wall. He hadn't seen them anywhere else in the cave, so he didn't know if they were naturally occurring, magically enhanced, or if they had been transplanted by the residents. It didn't really matter to him, and he simply bypassed the entire town.

Reivyn felt his doppelganger Spell dissipate as he made his circuitous route around the settlement, and he knew he had a time limit before some of the warriors grew suspicious and spread word to search for an intruder.

He made it almost to the entire opposite side before he finally spotted an exit leading away from the town. It was also guarded by a troupe of lizard people in armor with spears, but they were much laxer in their attention than the two who had been guarding the way to the spiders. Even so, Reivyn needed a distraction in order to slip by them.

Reivyn quickly came up with a plan. What better distraction than an apparent historic enemy?

Reivyn conjured an illusion of one of the spiders running across the line of sight of the defending lizard warriors. It didn't cost nearly as much Mana as his doppelganger, though. He didn't infuse it with his will, nor did it have any of his other major Skills empowering it. He highly doubted that it would have the same ability as his clone to actually affect the material world.

The conjured spider dashed out of the shadows where Reivyn projected it, and the lizards immediately spotted it, squeaking loudly in panic while pointing. The spider shot across their sight into more shadows where Reivyn dismissed the Mana being supplied to it and quickly used the distraction to get beyond the wall.

Reivyn breathed a sigh of relief as he finally made it past all of the potential enemies and obstructions. Beyond the wall led to another tunnel that followed a winding path up for close to a hundred yards before opening back up into a large cavern. Reivyn's Night Vision reactivated within the tunnel, as there was no longer a convenient light source, but the large cavern, once more filled with stalactites and stalagmites, was peppered by the glowing gems he saw above the town.

I guess that answers that question, Reivyn thought to himself.

The new cavern he found himself in was huge. It was much larger even than the hole that the giant, ancient spider was hibernating - or whatever it was doing - in. Reivyn didn't know where to go from here, so he simply chose a direction and walked. He kept a mental map running in his head so that he wouldn't get turned around in the unfamiliar environment.

The sense of foreboding and dread that had been accompanying him in and near the presence of the spiders and their ancient matriarch finally dispersed. Reivyn was finally able to move about in a more relaxed manner, though he still kept his awareness and Senses out to keep from being surprised by anything else that might jump out at him.

Reivyn walked around one of the stalagmites, and a large shadow pounced toward him. Reivyn had been prepared, though, and he easily avoided the surprise attack, drawing his sword in reprisal. He didn't activate his Elemental Weapon Skill right away, but his sword still easily bit into the flesh of the neck of the creature that ambushed him.

The head went flying as the body collapsed, but two more shadows pounced at him from the same direction. Reivyn blocked one with a shield bash to the face as he sidestepped the other attack. Reivyn was able to get a good look at the creatures that assaulted him.

Two monsters that looked extremely similar to the civilized lizard people bared their fangs and claws at him. They were completely feral, though, and Reivyn didn't recognize any self-awareness in their eyes.

They came at Reivyn in an uncoordinated manner, and he easily defeated them after just a few exchanges. Reivyn looked down upon their bodies as he cleaned his sword of their blood. They didn't have a stitch of clothing on them, and it was impossible to tell whether they were male or female from their obvious displayed characteristics.

They're similar to the civilized ones down below, Reivyn mused as he sheathed his weapon, but there are obvious differences as long as you know where to look. If I had encountered these mindless ones first, and I didn't pay that much attention, it would be easy to assume they're all monsters. That might be one of the reasons why those civilized lizard people are living deep in a cave near an ancient spider nest. Might have had problems with Adventurers or local governments thinking they were wiping out a monster nuisance.

That's all just speculation, though. I don't know if that's the reality.

Reivyn continued moving through the cavern system. He hadn't been keeping a mental map of the entire way, as he had been far too focused on not dying when he initially left the Dungeon, so he had no idea of the exact distances he had moved since being down here. He was beginning to get tired, though, so he knew it had been a long time.

The corpses of the lizard people he slew didn't dissipate, and they were much more appetizing looking than the spiders had been. That wasn't saying much, though, as they still reminded him of the sapient lizards he had encountered. He felt weird considering eating something that had a working mind of its own. He knew it wasn't, but it felt a bit like he was considering cannibalism.

If push comes to shove... Reivyn grimaced. Hopefully, I won't be down here much longer. If I'm unlucky, this could be a nation of scattered lizard people living in cave towns. I sure hope not.

Reivyn didn't have any rations, and the type of tired he was wasn't the physical kind. He was getting mentally drained from the entire situation he had found himself in. As such, he didn't take many breaks and just kept pushing through to try and get out of the underground.

After what felt like weeks, but couldn't have been more than a day or two since leaving the Dungeon, Reivyn finally succumbed to butchering one of the feral lizards for its meat. He had simply roasted a thigh with his magical fire. Eating the meat without any spices wasn't that great, and it was a bit gamey. He had been hungry enough, though, that it wasn't too terrible. He wouldn't be writing home about it any time soon - if I can write home - and it didn't make his Poison Resistance tick up.

Eventually, after fighting dozens of battles with small groups of the feral lizards, a sound of metal clanging in the distance reached Reivyn's ears. He looked off in the direction of the sound, hope sprouting in his heart. He hurried over, using Silent Step and his other Stealth Skills to avoid being seen in case it wasn't a group of humans, Adventurers or otherwise.

---

"Man, this had better be worth it," Sten said for the thousandth time. "I can't believe I allowed you to convince us to come down here for some silk of all things. What use do we have for silk?"

Kefira glanced over at the tall youth swinging a mace to brain a feral lizard. She rolled her eyes at his constant complaints before turning back to her task. She kept her Mana channeling through her meridians, ready to go at any time in case of an emergency. Serilla, her constant companion, was expertly dispatching another group of three lizards on the other side with a sword and shield combination.

Kefira wore a breastplate over her robes to protect herself, and she had metal greaves and vambraces underneath. Most mages chose to wear at least a little bit of armor on or under their robes, as it was complete folly to think the robes would be adequate. Not wearing armor as a magic caster was more of a thing in the safety of a city, and it was more aesthetic than anything else.

Her companion was kitted out in full heavy armor, and she moved about in it as easily as Kefira did with no armor at all. That was just another reason why it was foolish of the few mages who abstained from wearing armor. It didn't actually hinder them in any way.

"I have use of silk, and I'm the one covering the costs," Kefira retorted. "Just because you don't understand the intricacies of being presentable doesn't mean there isn't any value in the items, either. We can sell these silks for far more than the market price of the ones in circulation. The Lizaldons only ever sell their inferior silks, and then only during certain seasons. If we can get to the source, we can get the good stuff, and make a lot of money at the same time."

Serilla gave her a sideways glance, and Kefira responded with a shrug.

"Be that as it may," Sten continued, "I'm not sure it's worth having to come all the way down here to get it. It took us a week to travel to the entrance of these blasted caves, and we've been down here for days." He smashed the head of the last lizard that had been attacking them before placing his mace head on the ground, using the weapon as a crutch to lean against as he faced Kefira and her friend.

"Money and looking good aren't the only important things in life, you know," he said. "We could be running Dungeons or doing quests and eventually get the same amount of coin, but with far more Levels, Skills, and Life Experience to show for it."

"Hmph, what do you know?" Kefira snapped back. "Do you think traversing a desert before descending into an ancient, giant cave network counts for nothing? Most people don't choose to make this trip, and, I'll have you know, the System grants better Life Experience rewards to those who do novel things. Now stop complaining, and let's keep going. I think it's this way."

Kefira walked off in a random direction, not really knowing where she was going, but she wasn't concerned about getting lost. Her companion would warn her if she made too much of a deviation, but she let her lead the way in order to hone her Skills.

Sten shared a look with the last two members of the outfit, Dowell and Cinna, two young men wielding spears in medium armor. Sten was the most well-equipped of the three of them, and his gear paled in comparison to either of the getups of Kefira or Serilla. Sten shrugged his shoulders as he slung his mace over his shoulder and swaggered after the two girls.

Kefira marched forward with determined steps when a shadow suddenly stepped in front of her. Her Mana was channeled and ready to go, Serilla stepping forward with sword and shield held at the ready, but nothing else came from the abrupt appearance of the shadow. Usually, the lizards wouldn't waste any time in attacking them, but this new creature had simply made itself known and stopped.

Kefira recovered from her confusion almost immediately, and she channeled some Mana into an object on her waist, causing the gentle glow of light surrounding her Party to expand to encompass the man who had suddenly appeared. She gawked at the appearance of the youth who had shown himself to them.

He stood there with an impassive face, gauging everyone with his piercing look. He was wearing heavy armor that had seen better days. Kefira could barely make out what was underneath the grime and dried blood that practically covered the entire surface of his armor except for a few clean spots that were white and others that clearly had some filigree added to it.

His face was that of a youth, and she could see that not all of the spots on it were dirt. He had a decent amount of stubble growing in, adding a bit of age to his otherwise young-looking face.

Serilla didn't relax as Kefira had once the youth made himself known as a fellow human. She had instead tensed up even further. She inched closer to Kefira before leaning over a little and whispering to her.

"This man is extremely dangerous." Serilla never took her eyes off of the youth. Kefira snorted and rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics.

"That's what you say about every young boy I encounter," she teased.

"Yes, but I'm actually serious this time."

As if to punctuate the point, a lizard chose this time to leap from the darkness at the young man's back. Without ever taking his eyes off of Kefira and her companions, the young man casually swung his sword in an arc behind himself, easily beheading the monster with one, fluid strike. After his arm came back down to his side, his face finally split into a wide grin.

"Finally!" he exclaimed. "People!"