NOVEL SIMPLE 17. Deep dive
Abigail ducked. A leg, twice as long as she was tall, scythed over head. When it landed she heard someone scream. Another bandit cut down, voice crying out in demand of vengeance.
She tried to appease it. Sliding closer, under the stone spider, and striking up. Fist reaching out towards a blue vein.
Only to come up short. Missing her mark by the smallest of margins when the spider tilted. Striking out with another of it's legs, aimed at someone that wasn't her. Then it twisted, spinning instead of walking, putting itself on the other side of the bandits.
Abigail chased after it, her footing a little clumsy as she closed in. Weaving past the bandits who struggled to keep up. Their heads turning seconds too late. The golem's legs already reared for an attack.
But when it came, it hit her. Jerking around the nearest bandit and straight at her chest. The speed of the attack too fast for her to react to. Sending her flying back, into the dirt, rolling.
Then it leaped. Up high, above and over the bandits. It's legs aimed at her head, impact inevitable.
She rolled at the last second, barely dodging it. Then, as she scrambled to her feet, the spider hissed. A sound too natural to come from a beast made of stone. Too hateful. Like there was something more to it than the flow of Ardin that gave it life. A twisted design that took sick pleasure in what it did.
Abigail would never find out. She wasn't sure she wanted to.
Instead, she braced herself. Ardin calcifying in her back making it hard, like stone. Prepared for an attack that never came.
It was stopped, replaced by a shrill cry of pain. Then the dripping wrong of liquid Ardin falling from a fresh wound.
Both Abigail and the spider looked at its maker. A bandit with a rusted hammer, face red with rage under the false light of the cavern. An orange-ish shade of something bright that made feral look in his eyes all the more intimidating. Like he stood at the world's end, defiantly.
Then he roared and the eight limbed monstrosity hissed back. Swinging it's hammer of an arm down towards him.
Before it could collide with his face and turn him to a paste, Abigail kicked the spider as hard as she could. Hard enough to knock it off balance. Hammer blow slightly missing it's mark and sending the bandit soaring, rather than utterly destroying his everything.
It also got her the Golem's undivided attention, again. But this time, she was more than ready. So when the first strike came, a spear tipped leg coming for her throat, she weaved around it. In that same motion, she hit one of its veins near the joint. But the spider didn't recoil at the damage. It didn't even hiss.
Instead, it looked up. Just in time to see the third and final golem fall on top of it.
Unfortunately, Abigail was still underneath it. Legs frozen for a moment as she watched. Then, she got the good sense to move, to run out of the way a scant fee seconds before the two collided.
After that, stone shattered, scattering in every direction like a thousand stray arrows. They hit the ground around her, leaving dents in dirt and rock. With them came tiny smatterings of liquid Ardin, searing into the ground and her back.
Then, once it was all over, Abigail stood.
Behind her, the last two golems lay as clumps of stone, and not too far from them was the first. In between the blue, the bandits rose. Six of the seven still breathing. Only five uninjured.
Baric was the last to join them. Spear coated in the azure blood of a ceiling bound giant. But he wasn't unharmed.
His right arm bore a nasty mark of combat. A bruise that covered the whole of his forearm. His armor had a few dents more than it had before. Silver chest plate caved in right beneath his ribs. Left pauldron scratched. Still, he was better off than some of the others.
Abigail would even argue that he was better off than she was. From a certain viewpoint, that is. Namely, he wasn't going to need to adjust to a sudden shift in his center of gravity.
Again.
But they were alive, at least, and in good enough condition to continue. With Baric taking the lead this time. His pace measured as he walked up to the vault.
Which gave Abigail a much better chance to look at it. The three little steps that led up to the door, and of course, the door itself. A massive circle made of some unknown material that seemed to rob the air around it of light. At its center, though, was a glowing blue triangle.
Somehow it turned when they got close. Angling itself so that it was looking at them. As much as a triangle emblazoned onto a door could.
Then, as if that wasn't strange enough, it spoke.
"Hello. What brings y... to the vau... of Hiir... third?" It said, and Abigail opened her mouth wide.
Not because it could speak. But because it was a golem that could speak. Which should have been near impossible to create. The components required, and the amount of enchanting skill needed...
Esbern had tried and forced her to help once. An experience that had taught her just how hard it was to make the most basic of golems.
Which in comparison to, this door was a masterpiece...
To anyone who understood the complexity of the art.
"I am Baric, door, and if you don't let us in-"
Abigail grabbed him. "Are you sure you wanna threaten the door? Cause, I don't think it's gonna let us in if you do."
"I've dealt with it before. Trust me, it will let us in."
"After you threaten it?"
He nodded. "It is the only way."
Abigail released her grip. Watching close as Baric turned back around to the door.
"Hello. What brings y-"
"I am Baric, and you will let me and my allies inside unless you wish to be torn apart, Door." He said, and the door opened.
Triangle splitting into two as it granted them entrance. Revealing a grand hall with its walls, ceiling, and floor made of black stone. At its far end was another triangle marked door. Which, after a moment, Baric walked towards. First to step inside the vault, with the bandits not far behind him.
But as he took a third step into the hall, the floor vanished. Black stone suddenly replaced with empty space. A gaping maw that he fell into, threatening to swallow him up. Which it would have if he couldn't fly. An ability he used to rise back up to safety, and watch as the floor closed back up.
Then, he placed his feet down and took a few experimental steps back and forth. Nothing happened, and he gestured for them to follow.
Abigail was first amongst them to start moving over towards him. Her steps delicate as she crossed the distance between. Then they slowed at the edge of where the floor became a trap. Almost frozen as she placed one foot down and then the other.
Seconds passed. One, two, and nothing. It was safe, and she celebrate with a sigh of relief. A deep breath of calm. Then froze once again, when she heard the walls make a click.
The floor fell. Baric shot a hand out for her, and she grabbed it. Held tight as he struggled to hold her up for even a moment. But gravity's grip was stronger than his, and he slowly let go. Fingers slipping from her grasp one by one until there was nothing in her hand but the air between, and she fell.
Down. The floor closing above her, a lid to what she expected to be her coffin.
But when she landed, butt first, cushioning her fall, she didn't die. She was barely even hurt.
She was just lost.