"What if I say I'm not like the others?"
Chance was beginning to doubt Tusk's judgement for leading them here.
After their descent back down to the same level with the menacing knight symbol on their map, the pathway they had to go down was already creepy enough. The rest of the Crossroads was a far cry from sunshine and rainbows, sure, but they were in underground caves. They weren't exactly meant to be inviting, with only some stone pathways and lamp posts showing that anyone had been there at all.
But this was different. This place was too sophisticated, with expert masonry evident on every surface despite the mask of what must've been years of erosion. Rough and unpredictable rocky confines had transformed into stone-cut brick walls. The bumpy path had become a smooth cobble road. The occasional lamp post had evolved into intricately woven metal fences and structures.
This place had life, had society. And it was all gone now, only whispering ghosts in the howling wind. Chance shuddered again. All that was left to do was hope that the deceased were at peace now. He wished the same could be said about their bodies, though.
While the lower life forms such as the flies and worms ruled the untamed wilds below, the Infection's puppets roamed the ruins. Any higher cognitive function had been dashed from them, reducing them to staggering about and leaking orange pus. Some of them resembled Myla, mad orange eyes and in some cases a singular horn replacing mining equipment, while others were taller, leaner, multi-horned, and jumped about. Aside from the three "types", so to speak, they were almost identical.
At the very least, they were relatively easy to cut down; let them rush mindlessly at you, sidestep, then stab and slice until they stop moving. The sensation of his blade cutting and crushing through their shells was a feeling he was quickly getting used to. What was harder to get used to was their response to it. They didn't cry out in pain, instead releasing mad gurgles and animalistic shrieks.
Would he be like that, too?
Despite the attempts of the deceased denizens, the two probed deeper and deeper into the old tunnel. Chance stalked behind cautiously, the haunting atmosphere giving him goosebumps, while Tusk simply trotted on ahead unfazed. A few cobwebs were brushed aside with his nail as they stepped from the tunnel into one of the largest areas they had encountered yet. Aside from the rubble, collapsed platforms and messed up metal, the space was seemingly empty.
The only real interesting side from an unusually large, uncut boulder and a stalagmite sat square in the center of the area, dwarfing the rest of the debris. Glancing around nervously, Chance allowed himself to relax when he didn't spy any signs of the orange infection lurking anywhere. He moved forward and sat down next to the boulder, his feet sore from all the walking they'd been doing. A sigh escaped him as he rubbed his toes through his shoes. His nail was propped up against the rock as he rested, content to just sit here for a minute with Tusk.
His heart damn near stopped when he felt the boulder shift from behind him.
Chance tensed up as he tried to move, but his reflexes were far too slow as something shoved him away, sending him and Tusk flying to the other end of the room. Chance came to a rolling stop as his eyes frantically shot up towards the "boulder", which had grown arms, legs, and a very heavy-looking club.
That's no boulder.
While not a boulder, it had the smooth shape of one, and if Chance had to guess, the endurance of one as well. Now that he had a better look, its chitin was obvious, and seemed to split between a lighter grey for the body and a darker grey for the "head". Though a more apt description may have been "eyes superimposed upon a ball". They carried a half-sleepy look, despite its intensity. Humorously enough, the darker chitin almost looked like a beard of sorts. It easily towered over him.
So in his not-so-expert opinion, they were dead.
He reached for his nail, but found that it had been flung a good few feet away. Chance tried to crawl over to it, but the massive creature slammed its club down in his path. A frightening shockwave rippled out from the sheer power of the strike, shooting him back into a half collapsed arch.
Tusk, for their part, had darted around the enemy and leapt up, slashing it on the back of the head. The creature doubled over in pain, staggering as its grip on the club weakened. Chance was dazed, but took advantage of this to stumble up and run over to his nail, grasping it just as the creature swung their club again, barely missing Chance as he tripped and fell to the ground.
Not one to waste such an opening, the Knight dashed in, nail already a flurry of swipes and blows. The effort left plenty of cuts and scrapes on its shell, but the creature seemingly ignored the wounds, turning to face the Knight instead without as much as a falter in its step. Raising the club above its head, it prepared for another devastating blow. Tusk quickly moved in, stabbing at its stomach. Unfortunately for the bug, the enemy shrugged off the normally fatal wound and brought its weapon down, catching Tusk with a sickening "crack!" from their mask.
With a battlecry bursting from within him, Chance brought down his own nail on the thing's back with a two handed stroke. It had the intended effect of taking the beast's attention away from Tusk, but his nail was now firmly embedded in its back. Before he could pry it out, the giant husk quickly turned back to him, club already raised for another strike. Before it could come down on him and crack his skull open, he flung himself to the side, avoiding the blow. The shockwave did catch him, causing him to roll a foot or two. He'd be feeling that in a few hours. If they were still alive.
Chance tried to roll back onto his feet, but his battered body refused to respond properly, instead sprawling him out on the ground, covered in black and blue. Already, the husk had raised its club for another blow, one that he couldn't avoid. One hand was raised pathetically over his face, himself cowering in fear. Was this how it was going to end, crushed by a giant bug?
Before the blow could come down, however, Chance saw a blur of movement near the husk's head. It was Tusk, nail in hand, grappling for a foothold on the thing's shoulder. Their mask was cracked, bits of black… something forming and evaporating from them. The giant let its oversized club drop in favor of trying to pry the Knight off with its hand. Said plan was quickly ruined by the Knight stabbing it through the brain several times, causing a tide of orange to leak from it. Its arms went limp, then the rest of the body, falling forward with an almighty thud. Almost on top of Chance.
He yelped, quickly crawling back to avoid being crushed. Tusk, meanwhile, had gracefully leaped off, still leaking that substance.
A heavy silence fell across the room as the dust settled around the creature's corpse. Chance could hear his heartbeat pounding in his head, his breath shaking. Slowly, using his nail for support, he managed to pull himself off the ground, his legs still quaking violently. He felt like he could collapse at any moment.
But instead he jumped.
"YES!" he screamed, shattering the silence like a thin pane of glass. "HAHAHAHA! GOD DAMN!" Chance laughed maniacally for a good minute, with Tusk still on the other side of the room, watching him curiously. Chance skipped up to the corpse and gave it a kick, still laughing like a madman. He'd never felt a rush like that before; the sheer thrill of combat, the surge of adrenaline through his veins, leaving him an ecstatic mess at the end of it all. All that was left was the corpse of his enemy and the echoes of his laughter off the tunnel walls.
Oh, and Tusk was there, too.
It took several minutes for him to calm down enough from his adrenaline high where the two could continue their journey. Chance stumbled along, still laughing himself to tears, while Tusk had to tug on his pants to keep him moving.
Chance sighed as his laughter finally died down. "Haaaa… Jesus. S-So what's next?"
Tusk stopped, and turned to look up at him. Their mask's various cracks had vanished.
"I mean, that guy back there was the giant knight we were gonna fight, right? We fought him, so what're we doing now?"
Tusk looked at the ground for a moment, before pulling out Cornifer's map. They did get to the same level as their enemy, and the map's shape suggested they would go down a narrow tunnel before arriving at a larger room with the giant knight, which matched up with what happened. Afterwards, they'd go down a pretty short path, eventually arriving back in the tall chasm with all the suspended platforms.
...Well, if they really did just defeat that knight, guess all they could do was go ahead and finish this loop. Maybe afterwards they'd meet Cornifer again, if he was still hanging around.
...
...Say, that "short path" looked more like just a doorway than anything. This walk was awfully long for something like that.
…
...Oh, hey, the room was opening up again.
Tusk and Chance entered a massive room, with a ceiling that stretched up high into the air. Their footsteps echoed off the brick walls, but aside from that, it was silent. Chance was not a very perceptive person, but he found himself tightening his grip on his nail as he noticed three things about the room immediately:
One, it was almost empty; little bits of rubble, debris, and not even a false boulder in the middle. The place was near impeccable.
Two, they should've been back at the chasm with the platforms now, yet they clearly weren't.
Three, the gateway at the end of the room was sealed with metal bars. They'd hit a dead end.
"What's going on?" Chance asked. "Where are we, really?" He took a few strides out to the center of the room, glancing around as though something would jump out at any moment and attack them. He heard the patter of footsteps behind him, and spun around to find Tusk climbing above the doorway they came in from. Just above them, he could see an opening in the ceiling; odd design, but Chance didn't question it as he ran to follow the small bug up.
As they climbed the shaft, it twisted around until they both popped out on the next floor. Chance felt his chest clench; there were definitely enemies here. Just ahead, about half a dozen Infected husks wandered around aimlessly. He brandished his nail, but felt a wave of nervousness fall over him. He could deal with one of these guys easily enough now, but six? And on top of that, there was some other nervous feeling, nagging him at the back of his mind, as though there was something important he was forgetting…
Eh. they'd probably be fine.
Chance lagged behind Tusk as they strode into the room, the Knight casually slicing down the nearest enemy. The bug didn't even look concerned when its companions noticed the loss of their comrade, their infection laden eyes turning to stare at them. Inaction quickly turned to action as the walking corpses stumbled at them with the precision of a drunk long jumper. Quite quickly however, despite their shamblings.
Despite the swarm, Tusk kept their cool. The Knight didn't even attempt to gain any distance from them, preferring to patiently wait for them. Just before the group could encircle them, Tusk quite literally leapt into action, performing a high vault into the open air. Nail drawn, they landed on one of the horde, impaling it through the head with the nail. That one down, it jumped to the next one, swinging a downward strike upon it, nearly splitting its head in half. While it gurgled its final death throes, the Knight had already moved onto the next member. And so on and so forth, until all that surrounded them was the vast space and half a dozen mutilated corpses.
"Um…" Chance felt he had to say something, anything to such an impressive display, but no words came to mind. "That was… pretty impressive." He tentatively held out an open palm for a high five to Tusk. The bug gave an odd look to display, before pressing their own palm into his. It was a start.
Foes dispatched, they continued to the other side of the room, where an exit alternate to their entrance laid.. All was going smoothly until the shrieking of metal against metal assaulted their ears, bringing them to a screeching halt.
"What the… oh no…" A heavy-looking gate had fallen over the exit. A quick glance to the entrance confirmed that the same fate had befallen it, trapping the two in. Being trapped in the room itself may not have been much of a source of concern. Chance had his bag full of minor goodies while the Knight had his nail; they could have figured a way out to escape the situation. That they could have dealt with. What they were much less ready to deal with came quickly materialized from the ceiling. Gravity quickly forced it to the ground. It was impossibly large, easily two, maybe three times as tall as Chance. It was large, bulky, and covered in formidable metal armor. What really caught the eye was the gargantuan mace it held in one hand, and the 4 horned helmet that adorned the head. The true knight of this domain.
"Oh ffffffuck." Chance whispered.
The monster heaved its mace high above its head, reared its head back, and roared.
In summary, things had gone very downhill very fast.
The massive knight leapt impossibly high over them, and Chance had to run away to avoid getting crushed, tripping and hitting the floor in the process. The knight stood behind them, and raised his mace high in the air before crashing it into the ground with a deafening smash! Tusk weaved in and out between the knight's legs and gave it a rough gash on its back. The knight hollered again, its voice muffled from underneath the visor of its helmet. Chance staggered to his feet and took off running again as the enemy jumped again and smashed into the ground near the center of the room.
And it went fucking berserk.
It slammed its mace into the stone floor again and again, the poor bricks cracking under the sheer force as it screamed like a muffled madman. It swung its mace wildly and in all directions as the room around them quaked chaotically.
The unsteady floor caused Chance's knees to buckle as he hit the floor for the umpteenth time, the back of his head banging roughly against the stone. He winced, slamming his eyes shut. But in the small moment when he was blinded, rocks began to tumble from the ceiling, and had he opened his eyes just a moment sooner, he may have been able to roll out of the way to safety.
But it was all for naught, as a small boulder came falling down and crushed his leg.
Chance screamed as he felt his bones break and his leg bend in unnatural ways. His leg was suddenly burning, burning from the scalding-hot blood that seeped out from all sides. Fueled only by sheer adrenaline, Chance grasped onto the boulder and wailed as he rolled the rock off of his leg. The lights in the room were dim, but he could still see his leg in shambles, his torn flesh oozing crimson blood.
The knight slammed its mace down again. Chance had to get out of here. He had to get out of here.
Tusk, still weaving around the knight in a blur, noticed his distress and rushed over to him. The small bug skidded to a halt next to him, and held their hands over his wounded leg. A cold, pale light suddenly filled the room, emanating from Tusk's hands. Chance recognized it as the same… was it magic? The same magic that they had tried to use to heal him two or three days earlier on the way to Dirtmouth.
But they'd had a problem using this magic then, so it only made sense they'd have the same problems now.
His leg was unchanged. The cool wisps around Tusk's hands were quickly thawed by the unbearable heat of his blood, and the pale light faded. Chance choked back a sob; How did things go downhill so quickly? Fighting through the tears that were welling up in his eyes, he saw that without Tusk dashing around to distract it, the knight's full attention was now focused on him.
They had to get out of here.
The knight slammed down its mace threateningly, and the floor cracked heavily beneath it. But Chance also heard a second crack, looking back to see the wall behind them looking heavily damaged, even more so than the floor was. The masonry had been reduced to more cracks than stone. Even now, this false knight's attacks were shaking small bits of dust and pebbles from it. Tusk's nail was strong enough to break through stone, wasn't it? They had demonstrated as much back before Dirtmouth.
"T-Tuhsk…" Chance groaned. He didn't think he could move with the overwhelming pain and the crippling injury, but with his life on the line, he had no other choice. "D-Duh… T-That wall, it…"
Miraculously, Tusk seemed to catch on, and quickly leapt up, striking the wall with their nail. The monstrous form of their enemy was fast approaching, but with a few more desperate swings, the wall gave, and the bricks crumbled into the dark hole that was left behind.
Chance had no way of knowing where that hole led, but didn't even bother to think about it as he tried to stagger upright, sobbing with agony as he used his nail as a cane. He could hear the monster's heavy footsteps behind him. With a last-second burst of adrenaline, he clambered out through the hole, just barely escaping the knight's mace as it swung behind him.
And with that, Chance and Tusk tumbled down into the darkness with a scream.
Chapter name and summary are a reference to The Pretender by Foo Fighters.
We actually had this chapter pretty much completed a few days ago, but things have been hectic lately and we haven't gotten around to finishing up and uploading until now. We're sorry about that, and we'll try to get the next chapter out without any further complications.
Also, fun fact, that escape route in the wall actually exists in the game. We didn't just pull some bullshit there.
Anyways, thank you for your support and we'll see you in the next chapter.
