Regrets of The Fallen (Victis Honor Book 1) (47 page)

Isabella put her hands on her hips. “You might be able to purge that poison, but how much? And you aren’t immune to the actual slashes and stabs. There’s no room to dodge in these tunnels.”

“Then we need another idea.”

“Well…” Bella bit her lip. “I could transform-“

“
No
. Next idea?”

The knight sighed and looked at the open doorway, her eyes sad. “I have to be able to do
something
. I can’t just keep being… useless.”

“Is there something you can do that
won’t
hurt you?”

“Well what am I supposed to do?!” Isabella whirled on her with a harsh glare.  “Should I wait here while you take care of things? Should I follow behind you and hope that protecting me doesn’t get you killed? We’re a little short on options!”

“Okay,” Haruka said quietly, attempting to calm her down as she set a hand on her arm. “Okay. Just… Look, we just need a plan, that’s all. We can’t keep pulling that out at every sign of trouble or you won’t make it another month.”

“I don’t
have
anything else anymore, Haruka,” Bella stated firmly as she folded her arms and looked away with narrowed eyes. “
Everything
puts a stress on my body. At this point I’m so weak I can’t do
anything
without relying on that. I tried working hard while we were at the mercenary camp; while you were sparring or scouting with them, I pushed myself to my limits to see just how well I can fight these days. Do you know what I found out?” Haruka shook her head silently as Isabella held up a number of fingers. “Eight minutes. I can fight at full ability for
eight minutes
without transforming. After that, my ability degrades rapidly until I’m unable to lift my sword.” She let her arms drop and curled her hands into tight fists. “You have to accept that if I don’t transform, I’m going to be useless for the rest of this journey.”

“I…” Haruka paused. “…What if you don’t have to swing a heavy sword like that? What if you just move and dodge?”

Isabella frowned in confusion. “You mean if I just avoid getting hit during fighting and let you do everything?”

“No, I had Ophelia procure me some weapons in case we were injured, but they’ll be perfect for this situation.” She pulled her pack off her shoulder and set it on the ground, kneeling down and ruffling through it with one hand. “Okay, I don’t have time to really train you with this,” she said as she drew out a sleek black pistol. “Can we get some more light in here?” Isabella nodded and withdrew a piece of chalk, drawing a
rune on the wall; it flared to life and created a light that filled their small room, causing them to blink for a bit. Haruka nodded and moved towards her. “Remember the guns those pirates used? This is a lot like those, except way more advanced.”

“The miniature cannons?” Isabella moved beside her and looked down at the object. “It looks so… odd.”

“Like I said, it’s advanced. Imperial make.” She held it up for Bella to examine, pointing out various aspects. “You hold it here. This trigger fires it every time you press it; be careful with that, the projectile’s speed is almost instant, unlike an arrow. You pull this back once to load it, and this little switch is the safety – when it’s to the left, the gun won’t fire, so keep it like that when it’s on you, but make sure to move the switch to the right when you want to fire.”

Isabella nodded. “It’s a bit like a crossbow, only more compact and a lot easier.” She took it carefully, turning it in her hand. “So what you’re saying is, I should use this instead of my sword?”

“I think you should hold that iron sword in your right hand, and use that mainly for defense. Hold this in your left hand.” She went back to the bag and pulled out a few magazines. “Put these in your belt. When the gun is empty, you just hit – this switch, yes, that one right there, and the magazine inside will pop out. Then you put in a new one, pull the top back again, and that’s how you reload.”

“This seems… really easy to kill someone with,” Bella said as she found spots in her belt for the magazines.

“That’s the point,” Haruka explained as she closed and lifted her pack. “They’re perfect for a normal person to defend themselves with, though; or someone extraordinary like you, who has reason not to fight normally.”

Isabella smiled at her. “So… I can actually fight? I’ll be fighting just like Freya!”

Haruka blinked. “That’s right, she
does
use a pistol and sword, doesn’t she? Yes, you’ll be fighting like her, only, I hope, less crazy.”

“No promises,” Isabella said with a grin, cocking the pistol before drawing her iron sword.

Haruka stared at her grin for a moment. “…I’m beginning to regret giving you a firearm. Try to remember not to point it at me; if you accidentally shoot me, the things you’ll have to do to be forgiven will be
obscene.
”

IXH

“I would think you would want to
discourage
me from shooting you.”

Haruka pulled out a glow rod she had found in her pack thanks to Bella’s light, striking it against the wall as she moved past her into the tunnel and let the orange glow light her path. “Sometimes I forget you’re as attracted to me as I am you.”

“Mmm, maybe more so,” Isabella said as she followed behind her, tilting her head. “I
really
like those pants, by the way.”

Haruka glanced back over her shoulder. “Try not to get
too
distracted, I don’t want you accidentally shooting
yourself,
either.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be walking behind you, then.”

“You’d think you’d be bored with my body by now.”

“Haruka, dear,” Isabella said with a wicked grin, “I will
never
get bored with your body.”

“I can tell by the way you’re flirting in an extremely dangerous situation.”

“I can’t help it, my priorities are clear.”

“I can see-
“ Haruka’s reaction time was, fortunately, just as fast as it always was; a poisoned spear shot out of the darkness ahead at her and her reaction – as she would forever be thankful for – was to lash her hand out and catch it rather than dodging it, which would have left it heading straight for Bella who would have no time to dodge. Haruka flipped the spear around and hurled it back in the direction it came from and heard a gurgle, which was followed by another of the creatures leaping out of the darkness with a poisoned sword.

“Left!” Haruka followed Bella’s direction without hesitation, shifting to the left wall. The creature came down on the point of Bella’s sword, which pierced its chest and jutted out from its back.

Haruka caught the thing’s wrist before it could swing and yanked the sword from its grip. “I’ll take that; these surprise attacks are tough to defend against.”

Isabella kicked it off her sword. “This is a little frightening, I admit – only being able to see a few feet around you, not knowing when something will jump out?”

“It’s a bit like a horror story, yes.” She looked back at Bella. “I’m glad you didn’t choose to fire your pistol; that’s going to be
really
loud down here.”

“I figured. I won’t use it while down here unless I have to, no point in alerting everything around where we are.”

“Not unless you really want a big fight.”

“…I kinda do.”

“…You want to test out your new weapon, don’t you?”

“I really do! It’s so shiny and it drives me crazy that there’s a weapon I haven’t mastered yet!”

“You’ve mastered a lot of weapons?”

“For two centuries I didn’t care about anything but fighting. What else was I going to do?”

“Huh. I’ve only ever seen you use swords.”

“Well that’s obviously my best. I’m better at nothing else than I am at wielding two swords, actually. Except maybe complaining.”

“Yeah, you’re pretty good at complaining.”

“But hey, there’s no mud down here!” She was about to add something else when the tunnel suddenly vibrated; she braced her arm on the wall and looked behind her. “Um… What is that? Is the tunnel collapsing?”

“No.” Haruka stepped up beside her and peered down the tunnel. “Something big is down here.”

“Then… we should, hurry.” Bella blinked as the sound of dozens of running steps reached them. “Now.”

“Shit. Let’s go!” Haruka took off and Bella was right behind her, looking over her shoulder as the grey-skinned creatures came into view, screeching and howling.

“It looks like they’re running, too!”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think they’re going to help us escape!”

“Good point,” Bella said as she continued running but raised her pistol, firing it into the approaching group. She managed to bring down a few, which tripped up others, but they were still gaining, and the rumbling was getting stronger. They ran into more of the things ahead of them, but Haruka charged forward and slammed her way through them, putting them down or just disorienting or injuring them enough to prevent them from reacting as she and Bella ran past. While this cleared them a path, it had the unfortunate side effect of increasing the size of the group chasing them.

That didn’t remain their problem for long, though; a low roar echoed around them, followed by the sound of something dragging across the stone of the tunnels. Everything was shaking far more now and they glanced back to see the head of some sort of ancient, worm-like beast, split directly in half horizontally and opening into a gaping maw filled with teeth. The beast was the same size as the tunnel and wasn’t even able to open its jaws fully, and it swallowed any of the creatures it caught up to without slowing. Bella nearly stumbled and decided to sheath her sword, yelling over the noise, “Okay, so what is
that
thing?!”

“I have no idea!” Haruka responded as she skidded around a curve, wishing they at least had light enough to see where they were going. She looked at Bella worriedly, wondering just how long she could keep running at this pace – and the
beast was gaining on them. Something would have to be done about it. But before she could come up with what that would be, she spotted a doorway to the side. She grabbed Bella’s arm and threw herself into the door, smashing it open and pulling Bella in after her. She landed on her back with the knight on top of her and they both looked back to see the monster rush past the door. The tunnel caved in behind it as it passed, but the rubble that blocked off the door didn’t reach them.

Bella put her hands on either side of Haruka and pushed herself up, smiling at her as she caught her breath. “I am so glad you’re so fast,” she said as she leaned down to kiss her before rolling off of her.

Haruka grinned and hopped up. “It was going to be that or carry you, and I only enjoy carrying you when walking, not sprinting.” She dusted herself off and turned to Bella. “What is it?”

“Um…” Isabella set a hand on her shoulder and turned her. “Ruki… Where are we?”

It was only then that Haruka realized she could see clearly despite having been going through total darkness, and then she saw why; they were standing on a ledge atop a ramp that angled down, and before them stretched a massive cavern that stretched further than either of them could see. The cavern was hundreds of feet tall and filled with pillars of stone, massive stalagmites and stalactites, and ancient buildings that seemed in various states of decay. Some of the ancient buildings were of magnificent and ostentatious design, while others were built right into the stalagmites; it was certainly a city of some kind. Giant fungi (mainly mushrooms with the floors, walls and ceilings covered in other growth) filled the cavern and glowed various colors, mostly blue or orange, emitting enough light to see everything as clearly as if it were daylight.

Haruka stepped forward to the edge of the platform they were on, looking over everything in sight. “We’re… in a section of the Undercity.”

“We’re what?”

“The dwarven nations lived almost exclusively underground. They built vast cities underneath the continent and connected them via tunnels; their technology was advanced to the point where they had no need for the surface world. They used rail cars to travel from city to city, so they spread all over. I had no idea a section of the Undercity was here.”

“There will probably be a lot of those things in here, won’t there?”

“Din’leth? Yeah… We have our work cut out for us.”

Isabella switched the safety on her gun and slid it into her belt, looking out over the eerie underground expanse. “We don’t have a lot of time before Aranea realizes that Sayuri isn’t coming. We have to get there quickly.”

Haruka looked at her. “You’re right. Alright… Let’s get going.”

They set off down the ramp and into the forgotten city with the oppressive stone overhead already affecting their mood. However, Bella was
done
with being depressed and morose; she refused to let their situation ruin her time with Haruka, and was determined to keep the monk’s spirits up. “At least we’re not on the plains anymore. I was starting to really hate plains.”