Disclaimer: I do not own Ragnarok Online or anything associated with it.
Chapter 8: Golden Bug
Aya and Jela descended the ramp into yet another series of pipes. These pipes had been blocked off at both ends, but maintenance doors on the sides of the pipes had been opened, providing access between the pipes. Unlike the previous levels, there did not seem to be any dead bugs at all.
"I guess no one's been down here yet," said Aya. "Look, all of the bugs on this level are the really big kind we saw on the last level. There are no more of the smaller kind."
"Yeah. Maybe that means we're getting closer to the bottom," replied Jela. "Let's go, and be careful. These things hit much harder than the smaller ones." Jela rubbed a bruise on the back of his neck as he said this.
The two made their way cautiously through the tunnels, dispatching bugs and bats as they went. By fighting the large bugs one at a time, the thief and mage were able to proceed slowly but without sustaining too many injuries. After passing through several blocked-off pipes, the two found a maintenance door that lead to a staircase downward, rather than to another pipe. These new stairs spiraled down into darkness; neither the thief nor the mage could see where the stairs ended. Every once in a while a thief bug would scamper up the stairs or up the wall and out the door into the pipes.
"Let's go down there. We might find the source of all these bugs," said Jela. Aya nodded and the two began to climb down the dusty stairs.
On the floor above, Kihake, Sigma, Elohim, Lucretia, and Tsuzumi had all caught up with one another in front of the four-way fork. Kihake knelt down and examined faint tracks in the dust leading into each path.
"Only two of these paths have had two people pass through them any time recently," he reported to the group. "The tracks at this path look like they were made by people in heavy armor," he said, gesturing at the second tunnel.
"Not my apprentice then," the wizard spoke up. "Neither Aya nor her friend Jela, a thief, were wearing any kind of heavy armor."
"Then they must have gone down this path," said Kihake as he gestured to the third tunnel. "Let's go." Scattering thief bugs as they went, the four hurried through the maze of pipes that lay before them.
After battling their way through separate tunnels and sections of pipe Hero and Davon, Tsunami, and the assassin all ended up in converging tunnels that lead to a huge junction room.
"What are you all doing here? We were counting on stronger adventurers like you to head to the lower tunnels and find out the source of the problems!" raged Hero as the four entered the junction room and spied each other.
"We thought that was where we were going. Guess we must have all thought wrong," said the assassin with a shrug.
"I know at least one of those tunnels at the fork leads deeper into the Culverts," Davon said calmly. "It must have been the one none of us took. Come on, the four of us can easily take care of whatever is causing this." With that, the four ran back through one of the tunnels to the four-way junction. At the junction they met the sage Revaine and the group of younger adventurers who had come to the Culverts with the latest group.
"Oh, good. I thought I'd never run into any Crusaders," said Revaine as she saw the two Crusaders emerge from one of the pipes. "Listen, we need your help. My friends are on their way to the bottom of this place to fight against this creature, the source of all of the thief bugs here." Hardly pausing, Revaine flipped open the book and showed the four the picture of the Golden Thief Bug. "Come on, I can lead you to them."
"That thing is the source of the bugs?" asked a bewildered Hero.
"I guess so, Captain," replied Davon.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" said Tsunami enthusiastically as Revaine and her group hurried off into the pipe.
Much deeper in the Culverts, Jela and Aya emerged from the staircase into a large room much like the one they had started in. Aya looked around and noticed that there were more bugs in this room than anywhere they had been before.
"Look at them all," she said. "They're everywhere."
"We'd better be careful. Thief bugs are usually passive until provoked, but once we do attack them they have that nasty tendency to band up against us," said Jela.
"Yeah… Let's not take any chances here," replied Aya. The two of them began to explore the room, careful not to antagonize any of the bugs. As they crept around, they noticed something glowing in the faint light of the magical torches throughout the room. The glow also seemed to move periodically.
"Regular thief bugs don't shine like that…" muttered Jela. "Let's go see what that is."
As the two moved closer, the glow suddenly moved into the pool of light at the base of a torch, and the thief and the mage stared in shock. The glow was being caused by an enormous golden thief bug. The torchlight reflected off of its shining gold carapace and large, pincer-like antennae.
"That must be the source of all of the thief bugs. If we kill it, think of how famous we'll become…" mused Jela.
"I dunno… That thing looks awfully strong," said Aya, warily glancing at the golden bug.
"Come on, it's just a big, shiny thief bug. How tough can it be?" said Jela. "Let's get it!" With that, he drew the knife at his belt and ran at the huge bug. Aya, shaking her head, followed more slowly, staff in hand. With a war cry, Jela leapt at the bug and drove his dagger down to stab the bug… only to have the dagger glance off the bug's shining armor.
"What!" shouted Jela. But he had no time to wonder. Angered, the golden bug turned toward him and lunged with a frightful speed that should not have been possible from something its size. It jumped at Jela to bite him, and only Jela's thief-trained reflexes, and the fact that he had miraculously not overbalanced himself in his attack, saved him from having his head bitten off. He jumped backwards and landed next to Aya.
"We've got to run! This thing is too strong for us!" he said. Jela was about to grab her arm when he noticed the chill in the air and the blue energy rising around her. Aya finished her spell with a flourish, and daggers of ice formed in the air over their heads and pelted toward the bug. The ice spikes struck… and they too glanced off the bug's armor. The attack, however, caused the bug to orient on the mage that had attempted to hurt it. It lunged toward her, and Aya, without thinking, cast the first spell that came to her mind: Frost Driver. She rapidly spoke the short incantation, and ice spikes shot out of the ground in a line from the mage to the bug. This spell succeeded where the first had failed. The spikes struck the bug and encased it in a large ice block. Not waiting to marvel at their good fortune, Jela grabbed his friend's arm and pulled her toward the stairs.
"We've got to get out of here. We need to find those Crusaders we came with," he said, and Aya nodded her agreement. As they ran across the rusted metal bridges, they heard a roar and the sound of breaking ice behind them. The bug had freed itself from Aya's spell and it bore down on them with incredible speed. It charged at the two and, as it got close, reared back. Jela and Aya thought they could see fire warming in its throat, but pushed this aside as they ran for the platform with the stairs. Behind them, the bug breathed a huge plume of fire, leaving a stretch of the bridge it was on burning. The mage and the thief, however, had been out of range. Frustrated, the bug charged once more and this time, as it closed the distance, leapt through the air to strike…
… and found its momentum halted by a pair of streaking silver arrows from the bottom of the stairs. Kihake, already reaching into his quiver for more arrows, leapt from the stairs and took up a firing position near Aya and Jela. On his heels came Hero, Davon, and Tsuzumi, all brandishing their weapons. The two crusaders held gleaming swords while the knight held a short spear, and all three held gleaming shields. They charged at the bug to halt its advance. Close behind them came the assassin, katars drawn. Following her were the priestess Lucretia, the two wizards, and Elohim the hunter. Last came Revaine and a large group of younger adventurers, who gasped in shock the moment they saw the bug. Revaine had already instructed them, however, and they quickly moved into action. Two acolytes from the group moved to stand with Lucretia, while the group's mage went with Sigma and Tsunami. The rest stood on guard near the spell casters in case any other thief bugs decided to attack. Aya and Jela huddled in the corner by the door, still in shock over their near-death experience. Tsunami flashed them a quick smile.
"Don't worry, we'll take it from here. You two just keep yourselves safe," she said before launching into her first spell.
The two crusaders, the knight, and the assassin all stood around the golden thief bug hacking away, while a barrage of arrows from the two hunters, and an archer who had joined them, flew over their shoulders to strike the bug. The bug retaliated, lashing out at Hero, Davon, and Tsuzumi, who all kept provoking it and taunting it. Fortunately, a combination of the trio's heavy plate armor and frantic heals from Lucretia and the acolytes kept the three alive and the assassin out of trouble. Occasionally the bug would turn and lash at the assassin, but she was always capable of dodging out of harm's way until Hero, Davon, and Tsuzumi could taunt the bug away from her. As Sigma and Tsunami finished their spells, lightning and ice rained down from the air above the bug. Unlike Aya's first spell these two struck home, causing the bug to screech in pain. Seeing each other's spell choices, the two wizards turned to each other.
"Frost Driver?" asked Tsunami simply.
"Way ahead of you," said Sigma, launching into another spell that caused lightning to crackle around him. Tsunami gave Sigma a few seconds head start and then shouted to the four attacking the bug:
"Don't attack it while it's frozen!" she shouted and then cast a quick spell. Lines of icicle spikes shot across the ground to slam into the golden bug. As before, the bug was instantly encased in a large block of ice. As Hero, Davon, Tsuzumi, and the assassin stood by waiting, Sigma finished his spell. A ball of lightning shot from Sigma to impact the frozen bug. It slammed into the bug and coursed through the ice encasing it. The bug was bowled over backwards by the sheer electrical force of the ball, magnified by the ice surrounding it. The ice shattered, and the fighters were allowed to once more attack the bug.
The battle continued to rage. Tsunami and Sigma repeated their spell combo many more times, with periods in between to allow the fighters and archers to cause tremendous amounts of damage and keep the bug from orienting on the wizards. Aya eventually stood up and joined Tsunami and Sigma in throwing spells at the bug. Revaine and the younger adventurers saw their fair share of fighting, as many regular thief bugs came to the aid of the golden one. Slowly but surely, the combined attacks of the crusaders, knight, assassin, archers, and wizards began to wear down the bug. Its golden shell was marred from all of the attacks and it began to screech in pain after almost every hit.
Enraged and in pain, the golden bug sought desperately to escape from its antagonists. Gathering all of its failing strength, it leapt blindly at Davon. The crusader did not manage to get his shield up in time, and the bug knocked him over and dashed across his prone body. Now free of the imprisoning ring of fighters, the bug oriented on the first thing it saw and charged.
Aya screamed as she watched the bug bear down on her. She hurled a Frost Driver at it, but the bug shrugged off the ice and continued to charge.
"Someone help!" she shrieked. She turned to run, but slipped and fell.
Jela, who had been finishing off a wayward thief bug, turned instantly at the sound of Aya's scream. He took in the fallen mage and the thief bug charging her all in a second. Without thinking, he sprinted toward the bug and leapt at it. The thief landed on the bug's back, stalling its movement and causing it to slide on the ground. Jela jabbed his knife downward, not thinking about or caring that his knife had glanced off last time. This time, however, the knife found a vulnerable spot in the bug's armor right behind its head.
The bug shrieked in terrible pain and convulsed. The movement threw Jela off its back and nearly snapped the knife into pieces. Though he knew the bug was finished, Kihake put another arrow between the plates of its shell for good measure. The bug continued to jerk around in pain until it finally came to a shuddering stop and lay still.
No one moved. Everyone stood staring at the dead bug. Finally, Revaine broke the silence.
"So, that's it," she said.
"Good work everyone. Now let's get out of here," said Hero. As Lucretia finished healing everyone's wounds, the group slowly filed up the stairs and through the myriad pipes they had descended. They noticed that as they drew closer and closer to the surface, the number of thief bugs they saw dramatically decreased. In the first room they had entered, they noticed that there were now no thief bugs left. Finally, the group climbed the ramp out of the Culverts and ascended into the bright sunlight of day once more.