Beneath the town, inside the sewers was somewhere Shane had never figured he'd go. Even in a drunken stupor, it had never crossed his mind, but even more so when Jas told him about her adventure to the grates near the beach with Vincent. He'd scolded her, and shuddered at how creepy it was, but then just moved on from it. But now, he was sure the thing she'd seen moving and moaning through the sewers was none other than the very creepy Krobus. Going down the hatch he half expected to see bodies strung up and Laura dead on the floor, having been taken out quickly and quietly. But- it was just an empty sewer, exactly as he'd expected it to look. A green haze leaking out from the walls that he had no interest in further thinking about. He looked at the very much alive Laura with new emotions lately. There was no denying... he still knew he had feelings for her. But they were muddled with the hurt, betrayal, and anger he felt towards her, but even those emotions he wasn't sure how justified they were...
"The wizard has already unsealed the entrance." Krobus told them, his large and empty white eyes never seeming to give away any emotion.
"What is it? Under the last level?" Laura piped up, asking what was so heavy on Shane's mind.
"My friends, my people... they wall themselves off, after humans had begun to explore into the mines again, they dug underneath the shafts where humans could not reach them. Until you had come back, they'd slowly started to climb back up and inhabit the mines but..." he stopped, looking over at Shane and then back at Laura, and Shane noticed Laura lowered her head a little bit. The shame evident, but he could barely bring himself to care as it related to his God daughter. Still though, it tugged unconsciously at his heart strings, and his hand very lightly brushed against hers, but almost in a way where it could easily be taken as a mistake. And he wanted it that way. It still elicited a response from her, as her head jolted back up again with a slightly scrunched face.
"It is very dangerous, but not anything you have not seen before, Laura. Are you willing and able?" Shane now looked hard at her, Yoba fucking help her if she said no. But she nodded solemnly, and seemed as though she was staring straight into Krobus's soul... if he had one. Krobus then nodded, and motioned once again for them to follow.
They walked over to a section of the wall, a dim light flanked by two grates. Krobus then put a shadowy hand over the light and pressed into it until there was no light at all. Slowly though, fissures began to arch downwards from his pressed hand, and it began to glow red. Then, the fissures started to brighten as his hand grew more firey, and he began to make noises... like something of pain. The color crept up his arm, and he saw Laura make a move forward but he grabbed her before she could reach out to the monster. There was no way in hell she was going to be messing with what could be getting them to his niece. And this thing was one of them, so what did he care if it died? Helping them or not.
Slowly though, the light began to die back down, and soon, Krobus gave one great heave forward, and the rocks came falling away, opening up a view of what he feared. That pit of darkness, like he'd seen the one time he looked down the ladder that shot down through the mine. He shuddered, and he felt Laura tense up next to him, only Krobus seemed just as relaxed as before. But who knew if he'd ever know if the thing was feeling anything at all much less fear.
"Laura." they almost both said at once, and she jumped a tiny bit in her shoulders, before nodding and pulling the gloves from both hands. The ring on her right hand emitted a great luminescence and the one on her left shot out that beam of blue light.
Suddenly, Shane felt unsure, he'd go searching for her no matter what but what could he possibly find? Would it take hours? Days? Weeks? Would she have starved to death, somewhere in a corner desperate and scared? The thoughts wracked through him with intensity and he clenched and unclenched his hands attempting to calm down even a tiny bit.
"I'll seal up the entrance behind you. When you have her, speak my and the wizard's name into the ring and everyone must- MUST join hands. We will come to get you."
"Wait..." Laura suddenly said, and it caused a flare of anger to run through Shane. What could she possibly be delaying this for?
"Shane... I... before we go in. I just want to say. I've done this before and had close calls so... please follow my lead. But..." she seemed pained, he thought. "If something happens, and it is even slightly questionable that you couldn't save us both just leave me, and promise you won't come back." she stared deeply at him now.
This was surprising to him, and also caused him worry. How bad did this mean it was? But, he eventually nodded, returning her intensity in his own gaze, and with that, they stepped over the mess of broken brick and continued on into what seemed would most definitely be the new cause for nightmares.
As soon as they were past the jumble of stone, it began to crack and break further into dust, and with a sudden whoosh, it snapped itself back up right, and melded into the wall again, the shadow brute disappearing behind it. She took a deep breath.
Laura was ready, she knew she was, it had been years of venturing deep into the mines, fighting through monster after slime after ghost after lava bat. And with her sword on, she felt much more secure. She startled herself, not realizing that she hadn't given him a weapon, but felt relief course through her as she remembered it safely tucked in her bag.
"Shane." she said, getting his attention as she crouched down to pull out a dagger from her bag. "If I'm being honest... I had gotten these for you but... never thought you'd need to use them."
"What the fuck? That little thing? And when the hell did you get a katana?" he asked, his voice giving way to genuine surprise.
"I've had it. I prefer the range. That's a galaxy dagger but my hope is you won't use it." she said, her voice a little strained, and worried.
"You're gonna have to get over that. I'm getting to Jas as fast as possible and no way in hell I won't be doing what I need to do that." she nodded, a sadness in her eyes and passed him the dark purple blade. As it left her hand, she could tell the weight caught him a little off guard by the way his eyes widened.
Slowly, she stood again, as she watched him examine the blade and take a few quick practice swings. Having seen him slicing away on the farm, and making gentle suggestions then to improve his form, she wasn't too worried about his ability. But just... him in general.
He began to walk before she did, and she followed behind him, knowing that the slight control and charge over the situation might ease his flurried mind. The walls were a dark vermillion, and the air was thick and hot, and it wasn't long before she could feel the beads of sweat trickle down her face and back, and felt bad for Shane and his now thick beard. She'd actually assumed it would be a cooler temperature underneath the mines but how wrong she was. The katana on her back luckily stayed cool against her, and she wondered idly if it felt cool in its own sort of element.
"The walls feel like they're closing in..." Shane suddenly observed. And with a start she realized how true his statement was. With her thoughts so wrapped up and the gradual tightening she hadn't even noticed, but Shane's shoulders were coming closer and closer to the hot walls.
He turned and looked at her, with a slight question on his face. Asking, she knew, if Krobus had betrayed them. No, she reasoned, there was no way that the wizard would, and he seemed to not only watch- but know Krobus.
She was shaken violently from her ponderings when from just beyond Shane's frame she caught site of it, a red sludge. It's body roiling forward, oozing and leaking bits before careening short distances in the air. Her wide eyes alerted Shane, but before he turned she grabbed his arm and yanked him back and behind her in a quick motion, side stepping to get in front of him with a noise of protest from him that she ignored. It was too late, and it's last surge forward had it crash into her, knocking herself and the sludge back a few paces. And she felt it set in, that poison that shocked her system into a slowness, no matter how hard she stressed herself to keep moving forward. Her body pulsed with the color a few beats, and she could hear Shane's garbled shout, and now he had pushed his way back in front of her, charging at the thing. Fear shot her stomach to her knees and she tried to call out to him, but even her voice came out slower than normal, something she'd never even tried so had never experienced.
It was as though time slowed a bit too, as Shane got closer to the thing, but it wasn't long before he took his first deep slice, a goo splashing out from the monster's body and coating the wall with large chunks of the stuff. The sludge made a hissing noise, like quickly deflating a balloon, but kept charging forward at him, the jumps causing more of itself to leak out and trail behind it. Shane seemed unaffected by the sight, and stood his ground, and when it got close enough he rushed the short distance and slashed again, now the other way, and the creature screeched a high pitched noise, and burst- the light from it's eyes hovering in the dark for only a moment longer before dissipating like the rest of its body had.
He waited a moment, and then grabbed the side of the wall for support, his body clearly trembling, and he rolled a bit to let his back hit the side now, taking deep gulps of air which he must have been holding in out of fear.
"What... the... fuck..." he said, through deep breaths, and looked only briefly at Laura before staring back out where the sludge had charged with a new tension.
Laura had to keep herself from rushing forward and grabbing him. She remembered her own first experience finding a green slime, and that had been terrifying and difficult for her then- she was glad to have given him such a strong weapon now- because the slashing, although impressive, would have been nothing on a monster like this with a lesser dagger.
"I'm sorry, Shane I-"
"It doesn't matter, really. We just need to keep going... and hopefully this will widen back out... I still don't trust that... thing." and then he kept going. His grit, she knew, came from his passion for finding Jas, and getting her home to tuck in and read a book good night. This all seemed like a bad dream, it was so hard to believe that little girl had been scooped up and taken away only the night before. She'd been so sweetly jumping, catching fireflies, rolling in the grass, only a few yards from them too. It had felt so safe and serene. She felt a lot of guilt for even edging towards Shane that evening. Her attention should have been more closely focused on Jas, or she should have called her as well to come closer to the fire.
"It's widening again."
Once again, her mind had wandered and indeed- the walls had given them more room to breath. Was her absent mindedness because she was following? Because she kicked herself with the thought that she might miss another creature bounding towards them. Although she doubted Shane would after the run in with the first one. The widening gave her a sense of brief relief, it would have just been one more thing onto an already terrible situation, had Krobus betrayed them. But she'd known the... person...thing... for a while. It was so odd to her, that one could be so... human, while the other's seemed like nothing even close. Even more savage and wild than animals it seemed.
She glanced down at her watch, it was getting very late, and she felt it eat at her, and noticing Shane's pace- it was getting to him too. She began searching then, for something that they could take shelter in. Typically, the creatures did not get through rocks, and sometimes didn't even notice her when she hid in little alcoves. So the first one she saw, with rocks bordering it's outside she stopped and called to him.
"Shane... I know it may not seem like a plan but... we need to sleep and rest. Neither of us knows what will be ahead, and we need to be ready for what happens."
"We can make it." he said shortly. But she knew she needed to be firm.
"No, Shane. We won't- there are things much worse than that sludge you met." and that stopped him.
"Come one, we'll climb over these, and sleep over here, and as soon as one wakes up, we'll keep going." she promised, and Shane looked at her, the anger still burning, but it was smoldering and not as enraged. She held her breathe for a moment, but finally- he gave in.
"I just want to find her... as soon as possible." and she nodded. All too in agreement with that.