Chapter 13: It Burns

Chapter 13: It Burns

Before even looking up, Paike threw himself backward, narrowly avoiding a spray of sharpened spikes made of rock as they flashed through the space where his head had just been.

“Treachery!” The ancient spirit screeched. This time, though, its voice didn’t come from the gaping, analogous mouth it had fashioned for itself but echoed from every part of the cave’s walls. “You tricked me— You’ve poisoned me!”

Paike looked around frantically, trying to catch any incoming attacks in time to dodge, even as he crawled behind a particularly large boulder where coral had grown. Peeking his head up, he ducked back quickly, but not before catching a glimpse of the roiling mass of qi and earth that made up the ancient spirit. It was not holding its form properly anymore. Parts of it weren’t moving as they should, as if a section of a water elemental had frozen in place. This being of pure qi was somehow not able to control its body. The condensed qi it took from Paike wasn’t behaving like it was supposed to.

“It burns!” the ancient spirit screamed. Even as rocks flung around, Paike could see the thing writhing as bits of random, unrelated chunks of qi and earth fell from the beast. Its power was certainly diminished from what it had been before. Otherwise, he would have been dead already, but it was still far beyond his ability to handle.

Paike looked around frantically, trying to find some method of escape, some way to avoid the barrage of earthen projectiles or the crushing force that would surely follow if he poked his head out. For now, the spirit had forgotten him, but it was just too distracted by its own suffering to search for him.

The cave screeched unintelligibly. Paike clapped his hands over his ears, feeling his eardrums pop as if he had just sprinted up a mountain in a single breath. He winced, the ringing in his ears returning, and the deep ache in his soul sharpened his focus. What could he do? He didn’t have any techniques yet and hadn’t learned any proper arts. There wasn’t much he could do to harm the creature. But it seemed like his qi was poisoning it. What if he injected more?

But even as he watched the creature, he wasn’t sure how he could get close enough to try. That was when he heard the sound of light footfalls slapping on the stone coming from the tunnel.

Paike screamed in his mind, but kept his mouth shut, not wanting to draw attention to himself. The ancient spirit flailed in pain, shedding pieces of itself in its agony. His sister was coming. Of course. Liming would have heard the commotion and come to check on him. He hadn’t left her behind when danger lurked, so why should he assume she would? But there was nothing she could do here. This was far beyond either of their abilities, and they would be lucky to make it out alive.

The spirit was starting to calm down. It was still clearly in pain, but Paike could tell that whatever contamination it had received from him wasn’t going to kill it. A piece of it sloughed off, this time seemingly intentionally—a large blob of qi and earth, the size of Paike’s head, pinched off like icing being deposited from a piping bag. It plopped to the ground, and the spirit shrunk down, its form roiling but now more coherent.

“Paike!” a voice screamed, echoing through the cave.

Paike’s heart dropped. His sister burst into the cave, yelling his name at the top of her lungs. The ancient spirit turned to her, screeching unintelligibly, all sense of consciousness or sapience seemingly long gone.

Paike did the only thing he could think of to divert its attention away from her. He grabbed one of the Grim Veil Coral fragments and lobbed it at the spirit. The qi-dense object hit the half-ephemeral monster, half-bouncing off, half-sinking through it. The strange interaction got its attention, and it turned toward Paike.

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“Liming!” he shouted, grabbing another piece of coral as he sprinted perpendicular to her, drawing the monster’s gaze. He dove to the ground, barely avoiding another volley of large rocks. One caught his leg while he was in the air. Luckily, he spun and absorbed most of the momentum. However, it still sent him tumbling across the stone floor until he crashed into a huge stalagmite.