Witch of Fear [Mild horror, Isekai High Fantasy]

A rare rainless day bloomed over the mire. Bright sunlight broke through the once perpetual sky of rain clouds to shimmer across the muddy waters filled with the buzz of insects. They danced and weaved in their search of food or simply a place to lay eggs in the murk. Spiders spun their nets to catch what they could, buoyed by the brief respite from pounding rain.

The song of the swamp rang loud in the early morning dew.

A pair of eyes emerged from the muddy water. Slowly, a small green frog, barely a hand-and-a-half large, crept from the murk to perch upon a small rock that broke the surface. It stared hungrily over the secluded pond bordered by tall fronds and teeming with a mass of water-bugs and other insects. The little frog licked its lips before its tongue lashed out quick like lightning, catching a lonesome dragonfly that’d drawn too close to the mighty amphibian.

The little frog croaked contentedly as it chewed.

However, all was not well in its newfound kingdom as, from the water, emerged another small frog. A rival.

The little frog glared as the rival perched itself upon another rock and ate up the little frog’s royal game. With rising anger, the little frog puffed up as they prepared to challenge this unscrupulous invader. And as the little frog let out their resonant, bellowing croak…

…the ground below the rival frog bowed upwards before the little frog’s world exploded.

A city’s worth of mud and rock roared into the sky in an enormous, towering column, displaced by a thunderous explosion. Boulders the size of castles soared unfettered through the clouds before coming crashing back down like meteors. Their impact caused tidal waves of brackish water to sweep away the panicking wildlife and rip the mire trees from their roots. The resounding tremors of fury caused by the cataclysmic explosion rippled out through the mire all the way to the unaware town of Bogward.

The imperial citizens of the sleepy town quaked in terror as the sight of the calamitous pillar piercing the heavens greeted them. A swift deafening roar reinforced their terror as it ripped through the town, bringing with it a great earthquake. Cries of panic rocked the air as the surrounding buildings splintered and cracked while the docks below twisted in a storm of lashing waves. Early morning fishermen and fisherwomen hastily abandoned their nets and catches to scramble for the crumbling docks as their boats snapped and broke beneath them.

The devastating tremors sent loose pottery and other breakables smashing to the ground with equal disdain. However, the citizens hardly had time to care as far-flung rocks came crashing down around them. Further panicked cries filled the air as the heavy rocks broke straight through roofs and bridges around the mostly floating town with thunderous might.

And in the center of the disaster-struck town stood a party of adventurers helping fraught parents to usher the crying children to safety. Sent to investigate the disappearance of the convoy, they now watched in awe and fear as a new crater was born in the mire.

In the depths of the earth, the tunnels closest to the explosion collapsed in a torrent of fractured rock. It cascaded down in fury, burying all beneath its ponderous weight. And after the tremors finally passed, everything was motionless except for the slight shifts of dust in the air and the settling of rocks and pebbles.

But while naught moved, purple light shone through the cracks.

Autumn gritted her teeth as she kept the rocks at bay with a fluctuating spell-shield. She’d cast it at the last moment as the party cowered atop the floating bone sleigh. Hot sweat dripped down her spine as she pushed her spell beyond its limits.

“If we die here, I’m going to kill you, Edwyn,” Liddie grumbled as she eyed the shifting rocks above her. 

Edwyn ignored her as they started carving runes into the floor below the sleigh. “It’s not the first cave-in I’ve bin in.” They grunted before addressing Autumn. “Lassie, Imma needin’ ye tae hold on for a spot. I’ll have us settled in a mo.”

“Hurry! I don’t know how long I can hold on,” Autumn said as her mind burned and blood dribbled from her nose. 

The runecaster just nodded and picked up their pace. When they’d carved the last rune into the stone beneath them, all the runes lit up and sent magic snaking out into the rocks, sealing them together. And as the now solid dome settled into place, Edwyn called out to Autumn. “We’re safe for now. Ye can let go of yer spell.”

Autumn tentatively relaxed and, upon seeing the roof hold, she let go of her magic fully. The spell’s backlash hit her hard, and she slumped into Nelva and Eme’s hold. A faint ringing resounded in her ears. 

Liddie coughed away the dust in her lungs as she stood up at the head of the sleigh, bathed in the light of Autumn’s ring. She took in the dusty but still alive party seated before her. 

“Well, that was sure a blast~ Now, how are we getting out of this one? Ideas?”

Edwyn spoke up as they dusted off their hands. “Aye, like I said, this ain’t mah first cave-in. I’ve spent some years minin’ in the undermountain, so I can get us thro’ the rubble no problem, but it’ll take a while.”

“I can help.” Autumn spoke up, even as her head spun.

“Nah, ye done enough for now.” Edwyn waved her off. “Juist lay back ’n’ rest.”

Autumn slumped back dizzily, only for Nelva to chuckle lightly at her. Staring up, she met the Lepus’ gaze. “What?” the witch asked.

“Nothing, just welcoming you to the invalid cart, I guess.” Nelva smiled, to which Autumn huffed.

For the next several hours, the group painstakingly dug their way through the collapsed tunnel using a mixture of Edwyn’s runes and physical labor. First, they’d solidify the tunnel like they’d done to save them all, before softening the rocks to an almost clay-like consistency for the others to dig out of the way. 

And while Autumn wanted to help, she grew increasingly dizzy every time she tried to sit up. Thankfully, her fit of magical fatigue only lasted a few hours, and when she finally came round, it was just when they started hearing voices beyond their tunnel.

“Shh,” Liddie whispered, putting her ear to the wall.

Autumn’s fingers tensed around her freshly drawn wand. Was it more lion-headed monsters? She wondered. Or something more sinister that’d lurked in the far depths of the underworld, broken free with their quaking? Had they dug too deep?

A loud, familiar voice boomed through the rock, undeterred by their presence. “Hey! Anyone alive down there? We heard you digging! Are you from the convoy?” 

It was Nethlia. 

Liddie let out a laugh. “Yeah?! Is that you, Captain?! Boy, am I glad to hear your voice and not another horrible monster clawing its way to eat me!”

“Liddie?” Nethlia called back, “And here I thought you were another cat-headed cannibal! Anyone else in there with you? Do you know where the others are?”

“Everyone else is with me! And while we do have a cat with us, the only person she ate was—” 

The pirate was cut off as Autumn tumbled down from the sleigh and rushed over to the rock wall. Pressing herself up against it, she yelled to be heard through the layers. “Nethlia!! I’m alive! Are you ok?! Is Pyre with you?! Is she…”

There was a slight pause before Nethlia’s voice came back through. “...Autumn? Thank Nusraura that you’re ok. I’m fine and Pyre’s fine too. She’s recovering back at camp. In fact, she woke up a few days ago.”

Autumn breathed a sigh of relief. 

The last time she’d seen the alchemist, the flame-haired girl had a large piece of shrapnel embedded into her skull. While she’d tried not to think the worst, Autumn had privately harbored the belief that it’d ended the poor girl. 

“Alright!” Nethlia yelled from beyond the wall. “Stand back! You guys do what you can from your end and we’ll dig you out from this side!”

With her long-lost friend only a rocky wall away, Autumn was far too impatient to sit still. Instead, she dived into helping the excavation by turning the shadows beneath it into black water. When Edwyn next softened the wall, the rest of the group just dumped what they could of it into the fathomless depths. And within moments, the last of the wall cracked and Autumn got a look at a face she’d not see for about fifteen days.

Nethlia smiled as she looked through the gap at the party, brushing her roughly trimmed locks out of her face as she spoke. “Hey, hey. Fancy meeting you all here.”

Unable to contain her tears any longer, Autumn launched herself at the tall berserker, squeezing through the hole to cling onto Nethlia’s neck like her life depended on it. While initially surprised, Nethlia soon comforted the sobbing witch by holding her tight. “There, there,” She said as she stroked her back, “you’re alright now.”

From beside the bone sleigh, Eme watched on sullenly.

“Hey, did you get skinnier?” Nethlia asked as she set Autumn back down on her feet. 

“Yeah,” Autumn sniffled, wiping at her teary eyes with her sleeve. “I ran out of food for a bit. What about you? How come you’re still so fit—er, I mean, not skinny?”

And indeed, she wasn’t skinny at all. Nethlia stood as tall, proud, and muscular as she had the day they’d parted. However, fresh scars now adorned her body, adding to the already imposing collection all across her rippling abdomen and bulging biceps and thighs. And while her barbarian-style hide armor had been purposefully rugged before, it was now far more shredded and torn, barely providing the towering berserker any semblance of decency.

With great effort, Autumn tore her eyes back up to meet Nethlia's mirthful ones.

“Good food and wonderful exercise.” Nethlia winked. “The Swamp Tyrant came down with us, so we’ve been eating that for the past couple of days and we got pressured a lot by those cat-headed under-dwellers. What about you guys?” she asked, looking over the skinnier group with concern. “You said you ran out of food at one point?”

Autumn shared an awkward look with the others. “Well, that’s a long story. But, to cut it short, we didn’t all wash up together and it took a few days before we found each other. Where we did, there was some—a lot of…meat lying around.” An idea perked the witch up. “Hey, tell you what; how about I trade with you? I’m sick of eating the same thing for days.”

“While I don’t like how you paused there,” Nethlia nervously chuckled, “I’m kinda getting sick of the tyrant meat myself. It’s very gamey.” 

Liddie laughed as she stuck her head through the hole Autumn’d leapt through. “Captain, you’ve no idea. Anyway, we can catch up later. For now, could we get a move on? I don’t want this tunnel to come down upon us again.”

“Right.” Nethlia nodded. “Do you guys know what happened? What caused that explosion?”

“Well, about that…” Autumn nervously laughed while none of the others would meet their captain’s eye. 

A deep sigh escaped Nethlia as she rubbed her eyes. “Don’t tell me you lot?…No, it can wait. First, let's get you all out of there.”

Over the next few minutes, they steadily widened the hole enough so that even their levitating bone sleigh could fit through it. And while Nethlia looked in askance as it passed her by, she said nothing. Now that she’d calmed down, Autumn saw that her friend hadn’t been alone. Behind her lingered a small scouting party of adventurers and guardsmen. The sight of them reminded her of the fallen still on the sleigh. 

“Um Nethlia,” Autumn whispered as she drew the berserker aside. 

Nethlia looked at her questioningly. “What is it?”

“We weren’t exactly alone, but…well…” Autumn nodded to the sleigh. “We could only recover some of the bodies, the others…I don’t even know if their bodies would still be there.” she ran her sleeve over her watering eyes. “We did recover a lot of loot so we set aside some gold and silver for their share, but…I don’t…know what to do past this point.”

“Hey, hey. I’ve got it.” Nethlia reassured the witch, “Just leave it to me. As the team captain, this falls under my responsibility.”

However, Autumn shook her head resolutely. “No, I think I need to do this. To tell their group what happened, but…I’m scared.”

Nethlia took in the witch that’d grown in her absence, took in the steel in her eyes and in her spine. “Alright, but if you need help, just ask. Okay?”

“Okay.” Autumn sniffled. 

“Now, how about you tell me what this explosion was about, and how much trouble you guys got into.” Nethlia promoted her as they walked along. 

“Hey now~,” Liddie interrupted. “We were on our best behavior. Wasn’t that right, Nelva? Edwyn?”

“The best,” Nelva said in a deadpan, who was swiftly followed up by Edwyn. “We didnae do nothin’”

“Sure, sure.” Nethlia looked at the three of them disbelievingly. “How about you really tell me what happened, Autumn?”

“Alright.” Autumn cleared her throat. “For starters, we didn’t just blow a random cavern up for fun. It was a necromancer’s lair full, and I mean full, of corpses. We even fought an undead angel inside!” Looking around for Eme, Autumn saw her listlessly following behind. She swiftly pulled the catgirl to parade her proudly in front of Nethlia. “And Eme here saved my life! She tore out the angel’s throat and everything! Without her I’d be a goner.”

Not expecting to be placed before the towering, muscular berserker, Eme froze in fright, her ears and tail shooting straight up as Nethlia took her in.

“You did, did you?” Nethlia smiled gratefully at Eme, causing the catgirl to blush. “You have my thanks.”

“hehee~,” Eme giggled at the praise, her tail falling into a lazy curl, “well, she made me this arm, so I couldn’t just let her get killed.” Saying so, she showed off the dragon bone prosthetic.

“Yeah? I know she’s a handful, so thank you once more.” Nethlia patted the catgirl on the head, causing her to melt under the touch. Autumn looked on incredulously. However, Nethlia just continued. “I know Captain Gilralei was worried about you. She’ll be happy to see that you’re alive.”

Hearing the name of her captain sobered up Eme, and she took Nethlia's hand away to look up at her. “She’s alive? And was worried about me?” Eme bit her lip. “I don’t know how to tell her the others are gone.”

“I can come with you.” Autumn offered. “After all, I was there when Leshana and Vuriac…”

“No. I have to do it myself. I want to do it myself.” Eme said as she stared off into the distance with watering eyes.

Autumn nodded sadly. “I understand.”

“I’m proud of you two!” Nethlia beamed as she clapped them on the shoulders. 

Eme stared up at her, bewildered. She pointed a finger at herself. “Me?” 

“Sure! I got enough pride to go around.” Nethlia laughed heartily, but even as she did, her grip turned to iron on their shoulders. “Now, tell me; who’s dumb idea was it to set an explosion off while you were still in blast radius?”

The pair shared a look as Nethlia marched them along and unanimously decided to sell the runecaster out.

““It was Edwyn!””

“Ach! Come on! I said ‘two-ish hours’! ‘Two-ish’!”

Nethlia shook her head at Edwyn. “It’ll get to you later.” Turning to the whole group she said, “while I don’t necessarily agree with how you went about it, I understand why you did it. Still, try not to blow things up without consulting me in the future, please?” 

“We didn’t trust anyone else with the stuff we left behind,” Autumn said resolutely. “Hell, I don’t trust anyone else with the stuff that we took! And we took a lot! Anything that wasn’t cursed, we are using for now. There’s even some stuff you might like!”

While out of view from the others not in their group, Autumn pulled out the enchanted gloves and boots while explaining what they did to Nethlia. However, to the witch’s surprise, Nethlia didn’t want them and when asked why, she explained it simply. 

“Because I’m not trained in it. Sure, the movement buff would be nice, but if I’m not used to it, it’ll throw me off in a crucial moment. Also, this sort of enchantment can become a crutch, and if you lose it or change items, you’ll have to retrain yourself.”

“What about the gloves?” Autumn offered the spiked gloves to her. 

Nethlia shrugged. “That one’s simpler. There’s nothing to say that I’ll be protected from the bleed effects, so if I accidentally cut myself while swinging my hammer, I’ll be in trouble. While it isn’t cursed, the effects are dangerous enough by themselves.”

“Oh, makes sense,” Autumn said, putting away the items quietly. “What about Pyre? You said she was awake?”

Nethlia nodded. “I fished her out of the lake when we fell in before she could drown, but being an Ignis, she suffered for it. Not only was she recovering from the head wound, but she fell ill from the cold as well. Thankfully, she pulled through. She’s…a little lost at the moment—mentally, not physically.”

“I hope she gets better,” Autumn said. “You said something about the ‘cat-headed cannibals’ before. We’ve met them,” she gestured to herself and Eme, the catgirl clutching at her dragon bone arm as she remembered. “Have you had much trouble with them, too?”

“A little, but nothing I can’t handle.” Nethlia grinned as she flexed her biceps. Both girls couldn’t help but drool slightly. “They keep trying to raid our encampment no matter how many we kill. We’ve tried looking for their settlement, but we’ve had no such luck.”

“I doubt they have one,” Autumn said with a grimace. “They’re not people, not like you or I. They’re thieves of the highest order, only looking to take and eat.”

“Right? Anyway, it’s fine. Just trying to find our way around this hells-damned place is a right pain. No need to add any more trouble to our plates, or so Captain Arsit says.” Nethlia sighed.

“Oh? I think I can help with that!” Autumn rummaged through her pouch and pulled free the map, holding it above her like a trophy. “Da da da daaaa dun dun daaaadun! Here’s one map of the underground!”

Nethlia blinked, amused at Autumn’s antics. “You’ve gotten more lively, huh?”

Autumn lowered her hand as she stared hollowly at the surrounding walls. “I’m coping. Just…trying to find the fun in things.” She turned to look at both Nethlia and Eme, looking at her with concern. Quickly, she rubbed her eyes free of tears and laughed. “Don’t mind me. I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve got more important issues to deal with soon than losing my sanity.”

“Like what?” Eme asked. 

‘Like which one of you do I sleep next to? ….both? Is that too greedy?’ She thought to herself.

“Yes.” 

Autumn huffed in her mind at the banshee. ‘I wasn’t asking you!!!”