Chapter 18 - Poking the dragon
The third layer was also often called "The great Fault" for it resembled a multiple kilometre long shaft that led straight down into the depths. Its walls had been unnaturally smooth and perfectly rounded at some point in the distant past, but natural erosion and generations of nesting animals had pockmarked the surface. That didn't detract from the tubes enormous grandeur though.
When Tanya looked up it seemed as if the white, circular hole above her stretched on and on until it reached the very clouds of the sky. Not that she really knew anymore how the sky looked like after years underground, but her observation was not unfounded. The water that rained from the layers on top evaporated into mist which created the illusion of clouds.
Scholars heatedly debated if the Great Fault could have developed naturally or if it had been manmade. If the latter was true then any civilization capable of such feats must have been hundred times more advanced than their current one. Not surprising if one believed the theories that claimed that artefacts were also the remnants of an ancient society that had dwelled deep inside the earth. Or, as some of the more sensationalistic stories whispered, still lived. Who knew after all what came after the sixth layer?
As interesting as speculating about the Great Fault´s origin was Tanya had better things to do. For example, keeping her eyes open for any patrolling Crimson Splitjaws or Madokajacks.
Those were the two most common and most fearsome aerial predators of this biome. Especially while climbing a treacherous four kilometre wall they could become an extraordinary threat to unsuspecting delvers. The strains of ascend of this layer further confused and disoriented those who tried to make their way up to the surface. No wonder that this place was considered one of the most hostile locations in the whole Abyss.
Fortunately they would not have to scale the entire cliff face, but would instead mostly travel through the vast tunnel system surrounding the main shaft. Those had been originally built by the Neritantans, small, white, fluffy rabbit-like creatures, and then painstakingly expanded by thousands of delvers.
This labyrinth of small passageways deep inside the rock was home to other dangerous creatures of course and could at times be relatively unstable, but it was far preferable to the unprotected outside.
Finding the right entrance proved to be an arduous task that ultimately ended in disappointment. The cave that Tanya´s team members would normally use was blocked off by debris so they would need to take a different route. Multiple entry holes were nearby, but her superiors assured her that these were either dead ends or too dangerous. She trusted the experience of her seniors to know what was best, but she couldn't say that she was happy with the proposed solution:
Climbing two hundred metres upwards to reach a shortcut to the original way.
Not fun.
Eighteen hours later and she now found herself high above the ground, with shaky fingers clinging to the damp stone wall and her eyes nervously searching the air space behind her. The hallucinations were getting to her and it required every bit of self-control on her part to remember that she was currently climbing for her life.
Visions of her past life assaulted her with her former co-workers often requesting her presence in the staff room or in a meeting with the boss. Constantly she had to remind herself that her life in the Abyss, as unbelievable as it may seem, was in fact real and that those apparitions of her normal office life were fake. Then the illusions transformed into images of Bondrewd beckoning her or being uncharacteristically angry with her or, the absolute worst, being disappointed of her.
Frequent stops helped to alleviate the effects of the curse in this layer, but they could never rest and recover for long or else they would risk not finishing their ascend before night time brought out even more predators.
A Madokajack had already tried to rip her from the wall once and she had been too out of it to notice. Had it not been for the timely intervention of her teammates who scared it away, she would have been either shattered on the floor below or torn apart by its deadly mandibles. Only later when the visions had cleared away did she understand the horrible implications of what could have happened to her.
At the end they nevertheless reached the right destination. Sweaty, exhausted and shaking Tanya craved for sleep. This had definitely been the most brutal feat of strength in her entire two lives so far.
She was just about to congratulate her co-workers for the successful ascent to boost morale when the man at the safety line above her signalled her to be quiet. First she couldn't fathom why, but then her mood promptly plummeted.
There, inside the hole slept a loudly snoring Crimson Splitjaw. Its massive serpentine body nearly blocked the whole cavern so that they would have to be exceedingly careful to sneak around the beast. Going back and further scaling the main shaft at night would be suicide so they needed to either drive out the monster or pass by it undetected. Both of these options had the potential to go horribly wrong.
A difficult dilemma indeed.
That was when Tanya remembered something she had read in her father´s notebooks.
A rather peculiar quirk of the Crimson Splitjaw´s was that they liked to swallow rare minerals and artefacts that they found for unknown reasons. All this treasure collected in their bellies, never to see daylight again as long as they lived. So despite their classification as level four dangers of the "deadly" class they were popular targets for particularly brave or experienced delvers.
Bondrewd´s mission that he had entrusted to her had not been to hunt for artefacts, but this was nonetheless a golden opportunity for her to potentially make a huge win and impress him with her ingenuity. What better way to show him that his investment in her had been profitable than if she achieved more than he expected? Tanya had no doubts that he would keep her around for a good while longer, but it couldn´t hurt to keep reminding him why he even bothered with her in the first place.
Furthermore it was theoretically safer to engage the enemy on their own terms and with their full force than the opposite. So, should the Crimson Splitjaw wake up while they were trying to sneak by it then that would prove definitely more disastrous than if they attacked it outright, because they would find themselves in a precarious position between its body and the cave wall.
Resolve set, she mentally went to work on the third option:
Killing the beast.
It would be no easy task, but they had the element of surprise and numerical superiority on their side.
Half an hour and surprisingly few objections from her seniors later and their plan was ready to be enacted. Now that she thought about it she felt quite silly to have pointed her idea out to them as if it hadn't been obvious. It was the most logical conclusion after all and these veteran delvers had certainly found that out long before her. They had just waited for her to finally catch up and demonstrate the necessary quick thinking for this kind of job and she had miserably failed at that. Hopefully they would forgive that she had not instantly come to the conclusion, because she was a newbie after all.
Tanya distracted herself from those depressive thoughts by vowing to strife harder to avoid such disgraceful blunders in the future.
Time was now of essence since there was no telling when the colossal beast might awaken from its slumber. Byolo and Timeno positioned themselves left and right of the entrance. Kert climbed under it and she above as lookout. (Pure coindince that it was also the safest position in her opinion, really.) Finally on her hand signal the men on the sides moved in as quietly as possible and positioned their weapons above the Crimson Splitjaw´s closed eyes as it peacefully rested.
Then on the count of three, they thrust downwards.
And all hell broke lose.
