Water and blood mixed as the two sides cshed.

  The charge did not st long, despite the power of the bears they were outnumbered nearly 20 to 1. That was fine though, the charge was meant to do two things. First get the enemies attention and make them believe this was a desperate attempt to destroy them.

  That was incredibly effective, the darkling leader issued a charge immediately urging his men into the fight. So the bears began to 'lose' ground back to the entrance where Timbear created a funnel. There the darklings numbers meant much less, though still not nothing.

  At such a vast difference in number the darklings were bound to overrun them soon. However even by the time the bears had pulled back to the tunnel the water was already up to the darklings knees.

  The second thing the charge was meant for was to cover the strike force. Craobh, Toni, Surrender, Malkus and two other goblins still yet Nameless slipped behind the enemies lines. [Enshadow]ed by Surrender and clinging to the fast and small Craobh they slipped through enemy lines.

  Their goal? Cut off their opponents second option for retreat, the worms. This was a risky maneuver, having no knowledge of how many of the vast purple worms the darklings worked with. An interesting distinction Surrender had overheard during scoutings.

  Apparently, the great purple worms were intelligent. Unspeaking, but they were not beasts of burden like the great bck beetles several of the darklings were now riding into battle. No, they were more like allies of opportunity. How the darklings had met the 'Grick', as they called them, and many other questions she had remained unanswered.

  That was fine, all they had to do was kill or scare the grick away quickly, before the darklings realized their need. Thankfully, there appeared to be only a half dozen or so, all turned to monitor the chaos at the entrance. The roar of bears and screech of darklings drowning out the distant rumbles of goblins colpsing the other tunnels out.

  Surrender grimaced as she watched one of the great Mayuk get buried beneath the mass of darklings.

  The air crackled as thorns flew from the extra limbed darklings into the mass of bears.

  The ground shattered and crushed darklings as Timbears paws beat on it as if drumming their deaths.

  A bloodbath, and soon to be much worse. Surrender turned her attention back to the grick who seemed aware of their approach now a mere 100 feet away. At first that surprised her, but then she realized they could probably feel through the ground as she could. It expins how they hunt while tunneling.

  Now the pn here was simple, Craobh turned as they approached approximately 50 feet away. A very calcuted distance. The grick were rearing up, preparing to defend themselves or flee. Hopefully the tter.

  Surrender looked at Toni who hefted a gss bottle, the strange green-gray substance within shifting slowly. They had one shot at this, Pip had made only been able to make one extra bottle on such short notice. The first had been used to heavily dose a rge sb of meat now digesting in a giant warden.

  Toni lobbed the bottle in an arc. As it flew the world slowed for Surrender as she tracked the trajectory.

  Violent roaring as bear carved darkling, and darkling swarmed bear.

  The screech of panic as some of the smarter darklings realized the water was now above their waists, and not slowing at all.

  The chief shouting, "It's a trap, Tr'ki, Ti'te all of you! Grab your squads! Out the other tunnels! Grick fri-"

  KRSH

  The echoing sound of breaking gss against a gricks sturdy side. Toni lowered her aimed pistol, unneeded. From the gss spilled a thin gaseous vapor which spread through the air. Instantly the grick panicked, the 'fear fog' adding it's magical fear onto the natural. Before the chief could finish calling the screeching grick tunneled away.

  Down through water and dirt, they sealed their tunnels behind them as they made their escape.

  "Craobh, to the chief!" Toni ordered.

  "The pn-" Craobh started to reply.

  "Screw the pn! That thing has Daddy's armor, we need that!" Toni snapped.

  "We can get it af-"

  "NOW Craobh or I get off and go myself!" Toni began moving to make good on the threat but Craobh stopped her.

  "No, I'll take you, Surrender cover u-"

  [Primal Instinct], her newest and strongest [Power] screamed at her to leap. She threw herself away from the others, shouting a warning.

  With a thud the chief smmed into the side of Craobh . Surrender's hair stood on end as even several feet away she felt it.\

  Power.

  Dark, deep blue energy screamed through the air filling the space. It almost seemed as though the chief had dragged tendrils of the deep night sky into the caverns.

  Instantly one of the two goblins crumpled to the ground as nothing but charred flesh.

  Malkus and the other goblin were cast some distance away, disappearing beneath the water. Toni fell at the chiefs impact, rolling up and staggering as the energy stormed through her. Craobh seemed to take the brunt of the Power as she tumbled and colpsed.

  And there in the center of it all was the Chief. White chitinous melr gleaming as his Power surged over it. Thick spiked gauntlets on either hand. He snarled at them as each staggered to their feet.

  Surrender took this all in and pnned, [Primal Instinct] highlighting a vulnerability. She [Skitter]ed in behind the Chief as it barked, surprisingly in broken common.

  "You fool come to die. Kz'mk will be death!"

  As he reared back, energy coursing across his body for another strike Surrender pounced! Her cw's tore through Kz'mk's underarm with [Disrupt Thought]s. She felt the power of the strike gnce through his body.

  She also felt it not tear into the flesh as deep as it should have. She cked her [Shadow's Strength] from Master, and worse the water.

  It was above the waists of most other creatures, but that meant it was nearly to her own head. It was slowing her, and making things far more difficult then they needed to be.

  Kz'mk snarled and turned toward her. One fist balled and the spiked gauntlet erupted toward her head.

  The iron pummeling was deflected as Craobh dragged herself up and clumsily cwed at the darkling chief. He seemed to ugh loudly at her as her teeth cmped slowly in a space he'd long since left.

  "You weak, patheti-"

  BOOM, THOOM, CRACK

  "BURN TO ASH, BITCH!" Toni screamed as her gun roared to life.

  Surrender's eyes widened as Toni's whole body began to roil with fme. Her hair shed up into the air and seemed to alight. Like the top of a violently burning candle. The thin brown green dress she wore shifted to an autumn coat. The dress began to curl and crumple as if dried and withered.

  She was so... So...

  Hot.

  Fire.

  Fury.

  Burn them to ash.

  Burn them to Ash.

  "BURN! BURN!" Toni felt the Fme.

  Water around her began to boil as she ignite something within herself. She could feel it. Not the [Eternal Fme] of yore, nor her [Burning Body].

  No.

  This fme was something darker. Something more violent.

  Steam began to fill the air as her [Inner Confgration] roiled outward. Her [Hunter's Instinct] seemed to hone in on Kz'mk without effort as she fired [Ringing Blow] after [Ringing Blow]. Each bullet [Fshforged] and [Firebranded] faster then she could process it.

  It just felt... Natural. Like her body was in tune with itself. Like a rusted gun which had been cleaned and oiled properly firing for the first time.

  It felt good.

  Real good.

  Two rounds blew through the darklings arms, tearing at tendons and shattering bone. His reaction was one of shock, then anger. He ignored Ren, already treading water as she slipped away into her shadows.

  He began lunging at her before she'd fired the third shot which went wide at the sudden motion.

  "STOP MOVING YOU-"

  Two goblins came screeching up from the water aiming for Kz'mk's neck. He ducked them easily and came onward.

  He reached a hand out toward her. Lightning crackled into a dense sphere in his palm which seemed to leap with sudden energy toward Toni.

  "NO!"

  The thundering crack of lightning making impact filled the air as Craobh leapt into the path of the dense, small ball.

  She fell into the water, now above even Toni's chest. Her body was submerged.

  And it did not rise.

  "RAAAAAAGH BURN FUCKER, BURN AND DIE! THAT ARMOR IS OURS!"

  Toni hefted her gun back up and let loose as quick as she could. Kz'mk pulled a crackling barrier of storms which knocked aside most of the rides but one got through tearing into his neck.

  With a roar he leapt once more and came hurtling towards her. She moved instinctively to roll and threw herself into the water! Kz'mk's hand plunged after her and smmed her into the ground beneath the water.

  Pain.

  Searing electric pain filled her the likes of which she'd never felt before. She aimed with instinctive panic as her breath escaped her. Once again fighting for her life as something bigger and stronger pinned her.

  Water.

  There was water then too.

  But she was stronger now, Temate had pushed her. She clung to consciousness with a violent need. She breathed before she could stop herself, shocked to feel air enter her lungs. The potion! She'd forgotten about that. Stupid stupid stu- No.

  Focus.

  Surrender struggled, she cwed as the darkling leapt toward Toni. When it smmed her into the water she screamed. One cw dug into Malkus as the goblin hissed and she unched herself up into the air.

  Kz'mk drew his hand back for another strike, that sinister deep blue energy surging along the cruel gauntlets. Surrender let out a sound which she did not know she could make. A deep, guttural cry of fear and anger.

  A refusal.

  She nded on his back and wrapped her arms around his body. She screamed in his ear.

  "[Disrupt Thought]!" It did not feel silly like she thought it would.

  Her cws dug into armor that they could not pierce, but his long ear was not so well guarded.

  She bit.

  He screamed in pain and anger.

  He lifted Toni as his other hand tried to grab at Surrender. Tried to wrench her off.

  "I am Kz'mk! I am-"

  As he wrenched her away and snarled his procmation Toni smmed her gun into his mouth.

  There was no word to describe the grotesque mix of shattering flesh and thundering fire as Toni pulled the trigger. The grim, violent face of their would be death vanished in a mist of blood and smoke.

  The two spshed into the water as the bodies grip loosened, water sloshing up to his chest. The body did not fall with them. It stood there still, two feet pnted, hands outstretched to where it's living mind had held them not seconds ago.

  "Q-quickly Ren h-help me." Toni coughed, her body covered in bck scorched spots where Kz'mk's magic had run rampant across her chest and neck.

  The center of her armor was bckened but seemed to be rapidly repairing itself in the water. Toni's hair had also dropped and seemed almost dull now without the glow whatever [Power] she used had given it. She was currently trying to strip the heavy armor from the standing corpse.

  Surrender sighed and ducked under the water, swimming low to undo the bindings in the water. Thank god for Pipuck's special breathing potion! Hopefully they were alright.

  Pipuck was not alright. They were standing at the edge of the water watching it rapidly rise beneath them. They had just seen Toni get plunged under the water by the towering darkling. That was terrifying enough, but Nasai stopping them from going to help was worse.

  The sound of gunfire a second ter, and the telltale sound of Toni shouting something, was all that kept Pipuck from creating a wall of [Living Earth] themself. They paced back and forth until they saw Nasai pop up from the water.

  "Well?!" Pipuck snapped at the bear.

  "Well what? They won, the chief is dead and the darklings are all panicking and trying to flee us now. Save those in direct combat." Nasai grimaced.

  "Though many are dead this is a victory."

  "Well then go ge' them!" Pipuck snapped. "Don't jus' leave them to fen' for themselves with all the fleein'-"

  "I can't just send everyone in! For starters, these potions of yours don't seem to be very effective, many of the bears are going to need to pull back early, and then-"

  "I don't care you ignoramous! The potions work, now go ge' my companions!" Pipuck snapped, "our entire pn depends on them buryin' these things an' I swear to unholy lights if you le' them die I'll-"

  "You'll what?" Nasai barked. "You'll do nothing, you are a healer. your companions broke the pn to go after the chief directly."

  "An' it helpe' didn't it?" Pipuck said fully knowing it had.

  "That's beside the point, we have other means to close the cavern." Nasai grunted as a few more bears came up out of the water after him.

  "Nasai, somethings wrong with Timbear." One of the bears said.

  "He's gone mad, he's shing out at everything, us included." The other bear huffed.

  "What?!" Nasai blinked in confusion.

  "On top of that, no one can get near him he's exuding fear, some Warden magics I assume." The first bear commented.

  Nasai growled and looked back toward Pipuck.

  "Well sounds like you go' a problem, if only you ha' a 'ealer who wante' to 'elp." Pipuck smirked and crossed their arms.

  Nasai growled again. "You can help?"

  "Probably. I go' magic tha' can soothe. If 'e's gone ma' or some like..." Pipuck began mumbling.

  "Fine. We'll get your friends. You go help Timbear." Nasai growled.

  Nasai snarled at the other two bears and together they began cmbering back down into the tunnel. It was already so full you couldn't see directly into the cavern and had to submerge yourself in order to get in. Right about now the upper teams should be cutting the final passages to allow the water to pour in from above.

  It was a very impressive pn in Pipuck's opinion. Now to go pretend to fail to fix Timbear so they can bury these annoying fucking bears alive and let them drown with their enemies. Pipuck was gd the fear meat had worked out, it had taken longer to trigger than they'd expected.

  They plunged into the water and headed towards where they knew Timbear to be.

  With some great effort Toni and Ren finally wrenched the armor off the darklings body. Thanks in no small part to the body completely submerging. Honestly Toni wasn't sure they could have done it amidst everything if the water wasn't there.

  It was strange to be breathing so normally here beneath the water. It felt no different to breathing on a very muggy day. Except that instead of hot and damp, she was wet and cold. Toni hefted the armor up and began to swim away.

  Two goblins grabbed the bottoms to push with her. Like her these two were heavily wounded, bck marks where the darklings lightning had marked them, visible even here in the dark water. Dark water lit by her magical fire which it couldn't extinguish.

  Toni smiled her thanks at the two who smiled back. Then only one was smiling. Boney jaws dragged the nameless goblin away into the murky depths. The dark waters not lit by her magical fire.

  She had only caught a glimpse but that had been enough.

  Bone. White, glistening, clean picked bone.

  It couldn't be.

  She swam faster, Ren coming toward her leading a heavyset bear. Nasai swam behind Ren, clearly non-plussed as he entered the light. Toni gestured behind her towards where the bone figure came from. Nasai completely ignored her and grabbed both her and the armor.

  With little effort the massive bear lifted her upwards. When Toni looked back she no longer saw Malkus either. Then her head broke the surface.

  "Nasai! There's something in the water!" Toni gasped as they reached air.

  Then she gasped at how small the amount of air was. The chamber had been rather rge she thought, yet maybe only ten minutes since they'd started it was nearly full.

  "What?" Nasai replied with heavy breaths. "I can't qu-"

  Then he too was gone, dragged under the waters. Toni turned to Ren who's eyes were wide with shock.

  "W-what"

  "Ren, take the armor, go!" Toni shoved the armor into Ren's grasp and the gremlin didn't hesitate.

  It was slow going with the heavy armor but her [Enshadow] would allow her safer passage than any other. Toni slipped back beneath the water with a deep breath taken from a habit left after years of swimming. Quickly she made a [Complex Fshforge] sphere packed with shrapnel.

  Inside a small spark burned. A bright fme which helped her focus in the dark.

  She focused with her [Keen Eye] and saw it. A white, boney figure. A skeletal bear shifting in the murk beneath. It stared at her with empty, sunken eyes as it was pinned beneath Nasai's massive form. Toni watched him struggle to hold his breath.

  "Hello again dear. I must thank you."

  The sudden intrusion of a smug, haughty voice crept into her mind. Immediately she saw a sinister smile and a rotten visage. As she imagined it stripped flesh floated through the water to yer atop the bears face.

  She recognized the bear as it's face formed. A familiar scarred muzzle forming an unnatural grin.

  "Craobh." She thought the name with a weight thudding on her chest.

  "Is that this vessels name? Well, she is a fine vessel. Fast, filled with untapped Power."

  "You can't be here, you're west, beyond the Grand Ceil!" She thrust the thought at the figure as if the very thought could wound it.

  "I was. Then all these things died here, so much death..." The lich replied and Toni could swear the bears bones shivered with pleasure.

  "You are the one I must thank aren't you? Or is that other one around?" The lich asked.

  "You came here because of the death? Why now?" Toni couldn't help the question.

  So many had died already, why now?

  "The way they died. Hopeless, filled with fury and a desire for vengeance. It drew my attention, and gave me just enough strength to spark a fire." The bears visage shifted and nearly broke.

  "You can't be here." Toni replied dumbly.

  "Too te. Now run little human. I do enjoy a chase." The lich ughed with cruel delight in her head.

  Toni threw the sphere towards the creature, hoping Nasai would see it and swim away. He didn't. He simply looked at Toni and nodded. She detonated the sphere and the taunting ughter in her head vanished.

  A few minutes ter she dragged herself out of the water and looked at those waiting in the tunnel. Few remained, mostly those who received the proper potions. A few Mayuk who pulled back early from wounds or panic.

  No Nasai.

  No Timbear.

  No Craobh.

  No Malkus.

  It had nearly been no her.

  Toni took a deep breath and stood straight and looked again, this time for the successes. Two thousand odd dead darklings. A retrieved armor for daddy, and Surrender and Pipuck looked mostly unharmed.

  As Toni opened her mouth to speak another voice came from behind her.

  "[Dance Macabre]"

  And following the voice white bone lurched forward from the waters. Waves of gleaming white darkling marchers and behind them. The towering skeleton of Timbear the Warden, thick soupy rotten flesh clinging to it's body. A cruel grin on its face.

  "Well little human?" The grinning bear said. "Run."