Chapter 3: Detour Through Altin
The sounds of combat echoed loudly through the cavernous rooms of the Altin Mine as Isaac, Mia, Garet, and Ivan fought off the various monsters that called the caves home. Upon arriving in the town of Altin, the adepts found that Feizhi's prediction was in fact correct and that most of the lower levels of town had been flooded, including a large part of the mine itself. What was unexpected was the cause of the flooding. Ancient animated statues had triggered the flood and were continuing to spew water into their artificially created lake.
Trying to find a way to stop the statues from adding even more water, the adepts had inspected them, only to find that they were aggressive upon approach. They did make one important discovery in the process and found out that for each statue they destroyed, the water level receded slightly. Seizing this hope, the adepts had been slowly making their way to the lower levels of the mine as the water levels lowered after each statue was defeated.
The sharp ring of a sword hitting stone bounced off the walls of the cavern as Mia saw Isaac block an attack from one of the large statues. The hulking animated rocks were quite difficult to damage with physical attacks and so the use of psynergy was an important factor in these fights. It wasn't often that Mia would be called upon to user her offensive psynergy so frequently, yet she was glad to see her ability to command it had remained intact.
As the statue readied another heavy blow headed Isaac's way, Mia took aim and released a bolt of ice that struck the arm of the statue, knocking it off course and into the floor. Isaac took the moment to step back and recover as Garet blasted the thing with a ball of fire, causing the outer rock to crack. Seeing the weak point, Ivan conjured a bolt of lightning and landed a direct hit on the cracked stone, causing the entire body of the statue to crumble apart.
As the shattered pieces of rock settled to the floor, the water line once again receded and allowed the adepts access to a passageway with a ladder at the end. Proceeding forward with the rest of the group, Mia climbed the ladder and looked ahead to see where the ladder lead. All she could see was a long hallway lined with little pieces of rocks that seemed to extend into a dimmer light section. This looks like the only other path forward, Mia thought as the others joined her after they also climbed into the hallway. I hope it leads us to a possible exit.
Continuing up the hallway, the group eventually came to a patch of the path blocked by an upright wooden tree trunk. "Step back, I've got this," Garet said as he rolled up his sleeves and motioned everyone away from the trunk.
"Garet, I'm not sure that's such a good id-" Feizhi began to say as Garet used his Force psynergy to knock the piece of wood out of the way. Garet turned back to the group, smiling at his success, when suddenly they all heard a loud crashing noise and the ground started rumbling.
"I'm not sure I like that sound of that," Mia said, turning around to face the group who all echoed the same worried expression back at her.
"I suggest we run," Ivan offered as Feizhi nodded in agreement and began to back down the path they had come.
Suddenly a louder crash was heard and the eyes of the adepts facing Mia grew wide at the sight behind her. "RUN!" she heard Garet yell as they all sprung into action and Mia instinctively turned back around to see what it was they were reacting to.
For a split second all she saw was a massive boulder the width of the hallway rolling toward the group before she felt someone's arms around her waist and she was pulled into a small alcove as the humungous rock rolled right through where they were just standing seconds ago. A few moments later there was another huge crashing sound and some more rumbling before silence finally kicked in.
The boulder had stirred up quite a bit of dust when it passed by and when Mia looked at Isaac, who had pulled her out of the way, she had to stifle a giggle. Bringing her hand up, she brushed some of the dust off Isaac's clothes and hair before doing the same with her robes. Isaac poked his head out to check the coast was clear before looking back at Mia and realizing he was still holding onto her.
Quickly releasing his arms and turning slightly pink he played it off by stepping out into the corridor and checking both directions. "Hey, is everyone else okay?" He called out as Mia stepped into the hall next to him.
Feizhi's distinctive purple hair popped out from an alcove she had ducked into and she was brushing the dust off of her clothes as well. "I'm all right," she said in response.
"All good down here too," Garet yelled up to Isaac, flashing him a thumbs up and a grin from farther down the tunnel.
"You might want to come take a look at this though..." Ivan added, catching everyone's attention.
"Woah..." Garet added to that as he looked over to see whatever Ivan was looking at. Curious at what they had found, Isaac, Mia, and Feizhi made their way down the tunnel toward the pair and were surprised to find a gaping hole in the floor of the room where the boulder has smashed down.
By the time they arrived, Garet was already using a piece of mine track that had been bent into the hole by the boulder's impact as a ladder and was climbing down into the chamber below. As he touched down and looked around, he froze. "Oh boy, it's a big one..." he whispered back up to the group above, motioning for them to come down as well. "I think I found the main cause behind the floods," he added quietly.
Shrugging, Ivan followed him down next, then Mia, Isaac, and Feizhi followed afterward. The short hallway they had climbed into was decorated with different color stones and tiles on the wall and looked to be very, very old. At the end was a massive statue standing on a small flight of steps. "You think the flooding will stop if we take this one out?" Ivan whispered, drawing his weapon in preparation for the impending fight.
"It's worth a shot," Garet replied and Feizhi added, "It may give us another route through the mines too if the flooding completely disappears."
With a nod from Isaac and Mia, the four adepts crept slowly forward in the direction of the statue and Isaac said, "Feizhi, just watch our backs and make sure nothing else shows up from behind."
The purple haired girl gave him a quick acknowledgement and stepped back to give the 4 more room to fight. The giant animated statue finally noticed the approaching group and wasted no time in going aggressive, conjuring shards of ice that it sent flying at the adepts. Everyone quickly dodged out of the way and took up battle positions as they moved in closer to the monstrous construct.
A swing from the statue's arm created a gouge in the floor, showing the power of a blow from this creature as Isaac nimbly jumped out of the way. Mia kicked things off with a Glacier spell, attempting to slow the statue down or freeze it in place to make the fight easier on the others, but it only did minor damage due to the statue's high resistance to Mercury spells. Garet and Ivan followed up with psynergy based attacks of their own and Isaac got in close to hold the creature's attention.
The being took another quick swipe at Isaac, who was forced to deflect it with his sword, and then it released large orbs of watery energy in all directions. Isaac was too close to dodge and was knocked to the floor when some near him exploded, while Garet, Ivan, and Mia dodged out of the way as the orbs neared them.
Seeing an opening while Isaac was still on the floor, the statue took another swing at him while he was still on the ground. A wall of ice, conjured by Mia prevented the blow from landing and gave Isaac time to back off as Garet moved in to take his place.
Mia began casting a healing spell to mend Isaac's wounds from the water orbs even while Isaac used his Stone Spire psynergy to drop sharp rocks from the ceiling of the cavern on their foe.
Moving with surprising speed for such a large enemy, the statue changed direction and came charging at Mia, forcing her to dive out of the way. Garet took the chance and unleashed two of his Djinn in a row to set the monster back and inflict heavy damage on the Mercury aligned creation.
If it was possible for a stature to look mad, this one certainly did and retaliated by shooting a dense watery cloud at Garet and Ivan who scrambled to get out of the way. Garet managed to avoid most of it, but Ivan was hit and began coughing as the side effects of the spell became clear. Ivan stumbled as he entered a delirious state and almost fell, but before he could, Mia had cleansed the heavy fog from his head and brought him back to his senses.
With a nod of thanks at the cerulean haired girl, Ivan backed off to prepare a spell. Isaac summoned an earthquake underneath the statue to throw it off balance as it tried to defend itself. The crash of thunder sounded and pushed their foe back several meters when Ivan's Plasma attack scored a direct hit. Garet unleashed the power of his final Djinni Fever and struck the construct with a mighty blow.
Enraged once more, the living statue lashed out at the only person in range, Isaac. Mia saw the blonde boy parry one of the attacks at full force and unable to deflect it, get knocked across the room and slam into the cavern wall. "No!" she yelled out quickly, rushing to his side to determine the extent of the damage. She could see he was bleeding from multiple wounds as he picked himself off the floor and she began to panic, You have to be okay Isaac! Please don't be bad...
Mia heard Isaac call out her name and watched as his face changed from fear to horror. She suddenly felt a sharp impact from behind her and was knocked off course as she fell to the ground. She watched in slow motion as Isaac stood up and stumbled before running to where she was and sliding to the ground next to her in a panic.
What...What happened? She wondered, looking up at the blonde boy above her, when she felt the healing psynergy of the earth begin to flow through her body. Ah...I must have been hit...she realized, blinking slowly and trying to make sense of the world around her. As Isaac's healing continued, the world returned to normal speed and all the pain finally hit her.
From somewhere behind Isaac, Garet yelled out. "Tiamat! I call you!"
There was a burst of reddish light and Mia closed her eyes to block it out. When she opened them, Isaac was still over her, continuing to heal her injuries. Noticing that she was completely coherent again, the blond hair boy let out a sigh of relief. "Ice shards," he explained. "Thankfully you're aligned with the Mercury element and were somewhat resistant to that particular attack," he added.
To her surprise, Mia noticed that the pain was mostly gone and she sat up slowly to take in her surroundings. Isaac turned his attention to his own wounds and began to heal himself as well and when Mia noticed he was still injured, she called upon her psynergy to help. "It looked a lot worse than it was," Isaac said in relief with a hint of a smile, referencing Mia's injuries.
"So did yours," the Mercury adept replied as she realized that despite the amount of blood she saw, Isaac had only sustained superficial injuries.
Garet walked over and offered both of them a hand to help them up which they gladly accepted. "I know you can handle the minor injuries," Garet said with a grin.
Feizhi walked up behind Garet. "Are you both okay?" she asked, looking over each adept with concern.
Both adepts were still a bit shaken up, but they were no longer injured after healing. Isaac gave her a smile to indicate they were going to be fine and Garet spoke up with confidence. "It would take a lot more than that to bring those two down!" he stated.
Feizhi accepted the answer as a recovered Isaac moved toward the crumbling remains of the statue that Garet had finished off by summoning a powerful fire spirit, and examined the room. Other than the decorative and ancient walls, the only thing of interest was the small chest on the stairs behind where the large statue stood.
Opening it revealed a single small gem pulsing with psynergetic power. Isaac slowly picked it up and as he held it in his hand he could feel the knowledge of a new type of psynergy forming in his mind. Lift. Then it clicked and everything made sense to him.
"Remember that rock that was blocking our path to Lama Temple earlier in the mine?" he asked everyone else with a big smile.
They all looked at him for a moment before remembering the place he was talking about. When they recalled the spot he mentioned, Isaac continued, "Well I know how we can get past it now."
This news met with an overwhelming sense of excitement as everyone realized they had actually found a way through the mines to the other side. It didn't take long for the group to backtrack the way they came and find the path that was previously blocked to them. Isaac demonstrated the power of the new psynergy he had learned and lifted the rock out of the way so that they could pass through.
From that point it was only a short walk through the mountain until they emerged into the daylight on the other side. With renewed purpose, the group made their way toward the Lama Temple visible on the horizon.
As they walked under the midday sun, Mia took the time to assess the condition of the group in case Hsu was not at the temple and it became necessary to conduct a search. Fortunately each member of the group seemed to be fine, even after the tough battle with the final statue in the mines.
Ivan and Garet were laughing and joking together as usual and it made Mia smile. Nothing seems to ever dampen their spirits, she thought. No matter what the situation, Garet and Ivan will always have some joke or trick to lighten the mood and help us move forward.
Changing her focus to Isaac, Mia was pleased to see he wasn't even fazed from the fight anymore. It seems I sometimes get worried for nothing when it comes to him...I don't know wh,y but all of his injuries always seem to look worse than they are...
At that moment, Isaac turned around to look behind him and caught Mia looking in his direction. The blonde haired boy gave her a smile when he saw she was looking his way. Mia felt a flash of embarrassment that he had seen her checking up on him and then it dissipated as quickly as it came.
There's nothing wrong with checking to make sure he's fine! Mia told herself as she felt the embarrassment slip away. What's with that reaction anyway...? She asked herself. After all, Isaac was just doing the same thing that I was. Mia sighed and tilted her head back to look up at the clouds as she walked, trying to make senseof that random moment.
Isaac's been on my thoughts a lot recently, she realized. I often find myself overreacting to situations involving him too...She sighed softly. I guess that's just because we became close friends so quickly...? Spending every hour of the day with someone is bound to keep them on your mind, she decided.
Unable to reach the conclusion she was looking for, the cerulean haired girl gave up and looked back over at where Isaac was talking with Feizhi. The purple haired girl seemed to be in a cheerful mood, despite the circumstances involving her presence with them, though she was a bit of an enigma to Mia. The cerulean haired girl wasn't quite sure what to think about this temporary addition to their group.
She is really pretty, Mia admitted, looking at Feizhi. If I had to guess, I'd say some of the other dojo students might be interested in her, though I wonder what he father would have to say about that. Mia smiled, stifling a laugh at the thought of Master Feh's reaction in that sort of situation.
A moment later she overheard Feizhi ask Isaac about the flowers they had seen in Xian and what he thought of them. "They were very beautiful," came Isaac's response. "I think we were all surprised to see so many different colors when we walked through town," he added.
This answer brought a bright smile to Feizhi's face and she walked ahead slightly so she could turn and face Isaac directly, walking backward to maintain pace with him.
"Since you enjoyed those, you should really see the gardens at the Lama Temple," the purple haired girl said. "I'd be happy to show you after we find Hsu if you wish," she offered with a smile.
Isaac smiled back at her. "Sure. I'd love to see the gardens before we leave," Isaac said simply. His reply made Feizhi 's smile widen and she turned around to continue walking forward again.
Mia saw the short little scene play out in front of her, yet assigned it a high significance. Is Feizhi... Mia's heart began to beat a little bit faster. I wonder if she has a thing for Isaac? Maybe it's just my imagination...but she has spent most of her time with us talking to Isaac though...
Mia frowned, not sure if she was completely misreading the situation and really not sure what to make of it if she was actually right. Something about the exchange just didn't sit right with her and she felt odd thinking about it at all so Mia just tried to brush it off. Why does it matter to me either way? She wondered. It has nothing at all to do with me so why do I care...?
Mia gave a sigh of frustration. All my thoughts today are just a jumbled mess I can't make sense of. It's really bugging me because I feel like I'm missing something obvious, but I don't know what it is...
Fortunately she didn't have to dwell on her frustration because the adepts had reached the Lama Temple. Feizhi adopted a more serious demeanor once again and told the adepts to follow her as she hurried up to the door of the temple and stepped inside.
The first thing Feizhi did was call out, "Master Hama! Where is Hsu?"
As Isaac, Mia, Garet, and Ivan stepped inside as well they saw another purple haired woman who could only be Hama sitting cross legged on the floor in front of Feizhi with an expression of mild surprise on her face.
"Hsu?" she asked.
"He left to return home early this morning," Hama said.
