Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 238: Infested Tunnels
The tunnels beneath the castle weren't as dangerous or cursed as Kai had feared, at least not like the last descent he and Vepice had taken into shadow-drenched stairwells that held the dangers Ebonbrand had concocted.
No tricks, traps, or games.
Instead, the path was more…
Infested.
The first signs came from the bones hiding at the bottom corners of the corridor walls. As the corridors turned into a man-made cavern system, there were bodies of creatures and demons wrapped in webbing.
Then, only as Kai's light magic lit up part of the path ahead, did they notice it.
A thick strand of glistening web stretched across the corridor like a silvery chain.
Seyren, striding confidently at the front while observing the hanging corpses, walked right into it.
The sound it made when it clung to his armor was like wire winding tight.
Before anyone could react, a spider the size of a horse skittered from the ceiling, its chitin plates shifting like shards of black glass. Venom dripped steadily from its curved fangs, sizzling on the stone with faint wisps of smoke. In moments, Seyren was wrapped halfway in the spider's iron-like webbing, strands crisscrossing around him like a cocoon.
It completely ignored Kai, Vepice, and Orlin, as it probably saw them as nothing more than light snacks.
That was where it was wrong.
Kai donned Shade and used it as a weapon to charge forward. As he reached the spider, he lengthened one of his arms and shaped it into a razor-sharp blade.
With one single strike, Kai cleaved into the head of the spider.
"I had this under control!" Seyren growled as Kai releases Shade and it crept back into his shadow.
The corpse collapsed with a wet crunch, twitching legs folding against its body.
"You walked into its dinner plate like you were asking to be eaten," Vepice muttered, helping tear the sticky strands off him.
The fibers clung stubbornly, stronger than steel cords. Seyren was still muttering curses long after the last strand snapped free.
Deeper in, the stench hit them before the next creature did.
Acrid, eye-watering, like burnt hair and acid rain.
A centipede longer than a carriage wound its way from a crack in the stone.
To the centipede, it was a crack at least.
Hundreds of legs tapped against the walls in a skittering rhythm. Its maw opened wide, and a stream of green fluid hissed against the stone, eating it away in bubbling chunks.
"Back! back!" Orlin barked, skeletal hands weaving a barrier of bone. Acid splashed against the wall just inches away from Vepice's face. She yelped and ducked out of the way.
The bone melted easily, and the centipede reared its body, ready for a lunge.
Kai darted forward, a blade of shadow taking in the light, and with one vicious stroke severed half the thing's body. The centipede writhed, ichor splattering the floor. The smell was worse now, thick and cloying.
But it didn't give up. Even with only half its body, it lunged, its frontal claws aiming for Orlin's head.
With a deadly smile, Orlin raised a giant hand from the cavern floor that grabbed the centipede in a closed fist.
It squeezed.
The crunches of the exoskeleton shattering vibrated through the cavern.
Kai scraped the last of the acid-burnt stone from his boot, his nose wrinkling at the stench. The centipede's corpse still twitched a few paces behind them.
He exhaled sharply and turned to Seyren.
"Why would you demons even let things like this infest your tunnels? Seems like a liability."
Seyren didn't answer immediately. He was too busy pulling a gob of half-dissolved ichor from the folds of his armor. Only after he flicked it aside did he glance at Kai.
"You think we let them? Bugs like these don't ask permission before crawling in. They follow magic the way flies follow rot."
"So you just… ignore them?"
Seyren's eyes narrowed. "Ignore? No. We use them. Spiders make webs that catch trespassers. Centipedes spit acid that discourages the foolish. Even ants-" he smirked, "-they serve as numbers in a war of attrition. And if they kill a few weaklings down here? Less mouths to feed."
Kai frowned. "That's sloppy defense."
"Or efficient," Seyren countered, his tone sharp. "Why waste soldiers guarding every dark hole when vermin will gladly do the work? They're not our allies, but they're a useful problem to have."
Kai grunted, glancing down the tunnel ahead, where a faint clicking echoed in the dark. His stomach sank.
"Some problem…"
And of course the ants came, as if on cue.
At first, only one, its mandibles clicking, larger than a hound. Then another. Then another. Soon, the tunnel seemed to crawl, dozens of gleaming carapaces filling every crevice, their movement creating a sound like rain rattling over stone.
"They're everywhere," Vepice hissed, her voice sharp with rising panic.
"Then cut them down," Kai said grimly, shadows coiling around him as he dove into the swarm.
Steel clashed against chitin. Fire flared. Exoskeletons shattered as
Orlin gestured and a spike of bones shot through three at once.
Seyren roared, his blade sweeping wide arcs while blasting others away with his chaotic magic, his annoyance from the spider's web now finding plenty of outlet.
Vepice, having gotten more of a hang of her magic, slowed down the enemies that approached her allies.
When the last ant finally split open under Kai's shadow blade, silence returned.
The floor was slick with bug guts, green and black fluids pooling in uneven thicknesses.
Their breathing echoed loud in the tunnel, punctuated only by the distant drip of water.
Kai wiped his blade on a fallen ant's shell, grimacing. "Fucking bugs…"
Seyren, still picking strands of sticky webbing from the joints of his armor, raised an eyebrow. "You're afraid of bugs?"
Kai shook his head. "Not necessarily afraid. They're just… gross."
Vepice chuckled, half-relieved, half-teasing. "The necromancer who rips souls out of living bodies and commands armies of skeletons is squeamish about insects?"
"They crunch," Kai muttered. "And they smell. And they bite. And swarm. Give me blood and rot and death over insect guts any day."
Orlin's hollow jaw rattled as if in amusement. "Everyone has their limits."
The group pressed on, deeper into the quiet dark, though Kai couldn't shake the crawling sensation lingering on his skin, as though a hundred tiny legs still scuttled across him.
'I can't wait to be out of here.'
