Chapter 19 - Work reward
The Crimson Splitjaw roared deafeningly in the enclosed space. Its terrifying maw split open wide enough to swallow a group of ten men whole without even chewing down. Even from metres above Tanya could feel the foul air streaming out of a mouth with far too many uncleaned teeth.
Targeting the vestigial eyes at its underbelly had been a strategically decision to impede its awareness. Although members of its species orientated themselves mostly through their sense of smell they had not completely abandoned their eyesight. Not to mention that the area around the eyes was a heavily supplied with blood and completely unprotected compared to the rest of its warty body.
Byolo and Timeno had both managed to avoid the gigantic beast which was thrashing around by a hair´s breadth. No easy feat considering the cramped space they had to move in and the erratic giant smashing its head against the cave walls violently. Their first strike had successfully disoriented the monster and opened it up for the second attack from Kert.
Like most serpents a Crimson Splitjaw smelled through the use of its tongue, but it had furthermore developed some sort of external feeler above its upper lip. Those were speculated to be sensory organs as well which made them priority targets in the next stage of the fight.
While before those feelers had been hidden behind the hardened upper lip of the beast they were now on full display to search for intruders. It was up to Kert to hit them with his personal artefact "Cloudy Fragrance". His weapon of choice may have lacked the offensive power of something like "Midnight Bloodfall" or the defensive capabilities of "Torrents End", but it combined aspects of the two in an unconventional fashion.
The artefact was shaped like a flattened egg with a proboscis at its rear end. If Kert pressed down on its squishy surface with enough force a slowly expanding cloud of mist would be expelled from its trunk. This cloud grew in size until it came into contact with something solid and hardened instantly. It was by no means unbreakable and got weaker the bigger the cloud became, but it was mostly enough to immobilize prey for long enough to close in and deal a finishing blow.
That was exactly what should have happened if he had hit his shot. However, due to the jerky movements of the animal´s head he was unable to land the shot and the orange cloud from his artefact floated harmlessly through the space next to its head until it solidified at the cave ceiling. Tanya didn´t need to see his face to know that he was panicking badly, because he immediately gave off another shot despite his artefact needing time to recharge.
As a consequence the next cloud was far smaller and looked less dense than the first one. Through sheer dumb luck it was able to hit its intended target... or at least part of it. Kert had been instructed to take aim at both feelers above the Crimson Splitjaw´s lip to further blind it. In reality he had only been capable of coating one the appendages in foam.
Still, with a lack of arms (or limbs for that matter) the beast was unable to clean its sensory organ from the sticky substance. Now that it was nearly blind the creature reached a new level of ferocity. If possible its wild flailing around became even more intense and Tanya could feel the wall she was anxiously clinging to tremble.
The fact that both Timeno and Byolo were waiting patiently at the edge of the bottomless Abyss while the titanic monster raged only a few metres from them raised her respect for her co-workers even further. To stare death in the face like that spoke of incredible experience and strength of will. She would need to work hard to match up to them.
Not everything had gone smooth, but their plan had overall succeeded. Because of its sensory impairment the Crimson Splitjaw was forced to solely rely on its sense of smell through the use of its tongue. To do that it needed to needed to open its mouth...
Wide...
Open...
"Hroomp" made the momentarily confused creature when it reflexively swallowed a tiny object that Tanya had thrown from her position above. As soon as the beast had opened its jaws for more than a second the throw had become extremely easy for her due to the enormous size of her target.
From within its body a muffled "pop" could be heard and the Crimson Splitjaw opened its stinking maw again. However this time its roar was not one of rage, but of pain. Its inner flesh was visibly scorched black and even smoked a little. She grinned under her mask.
Those improvised hand grenades had been another invention from her wonderful father. She had suggested a device to crack rock to help with mining operations and he had constructed a prototype from her ideas within a week. Bondrewd´s efficiency truly was admirable. Now the small explosive had served a different purpose and done a splendid job at further disorienting the monster.
Byolo charged forward and threw a second one before quickly backing up.
They let their prey tire itself out more a bit before Kert gave the sign that his artefact had recharged and was once again ready for use.
He aimed more carefully this time and hit the inside of its throat at the first try. Thanks to the two grenades that had torn open the normally slippery flesh the sticky cloud had no problem to find hold and instantly hardened like before.
From that point on the creature´s fate had been sealed and the fight turned into a waiting game for Tanya´s team. Five minutes of choking and desperately struggling on the ground later and the scaly giant laid dead. Night time had come while they fought and so they opted to set up camp directly behind the behemoth´s corpse.
The whole next day was spent with taking apart the corpse for any valuable parts and sorting through the piles of slime and junk in its belly. Tanya´s prediction of rich loot inside the beast had indeed come true and they now possessed so many valuables that they would be unable to carry even half of them.
So they only took the best of the best or what they thought looked the most intriguing. Tanya was sure that she couldn´t keep any of the artefacts as their procurement had been a group effort. In the best case it would be considered rude and in the worst as theft.
Nonetheless did she pick up three objects which she hoped to get evaluated by an expert and then buy them from Bondrewd with her own money. Would her father accept instalments? If she played her cards right he might even give her a family discount...
All the rare stones and smaller artefacts that they couldn't take with them were hidden inside the neighbouring tunnels to retrieve at a later date. It would be a shame to let the fruits of their labour go to waste after all.
The rest of the trip inside the caverns was less eventful. Constant darkness made it impossible to tell the time, but Tanya estimated that they spend at least a week or two inside the tunnels. More than once did she compare the twisted, in parts slimy cave system to the insides of a gigantic animal. Not a totally unfounded comparison considering that they stumbled upon more than one Amakagame during their travels.
They were plant-like creatures that imitated the scent of Baracocha fruits to lure in the much smaller Neritantans and swallow them in their gigantic open stomachs. It reminded Tanya of Venus flytraps from her first life only way more massive and dangerous.
Well, she couldn't deny that Nertantans were absolutely delicious. Their soft flesh was a welcome change from her tasteless rations and hard bread. As a bonus the pelts of these rabbit-like creatures were extraordinarily fluffy and served well as pillows. Maybe she could sell them at the surface or make a nice scarf out of them.
Finally though they reached a stone plateau out in the open which was marked with a ring of coloured stones and a small, withered sign that read: "Elevator above. Take care."
They had reached the transition to the second layer.
