The beetle-like beast stared down at Lauri, swallowing Lauri blinked. The moment Lauri's eyes closed the beast let go of its purchase, the stalks holding its eyes pulled inside its head and using its four legs the beetle pushed off of the ceiling. Moving with surprising speed the beetle shot towards Lauri's head, in the fraction of a second it took Lauri to blink the beetle closed the distance.
As his eyes opened Lauri acted on instinct, swinging his blade up to block the attack. Sparks flew as the beetle and blade clashed, although it could have been the glowing fluid on Lauri's blade. Lauri couldn't help but grit his teeth as pain ran down his wrist, taking a step forward he pushed against the beetle sending it flying away.
Taking a step back, Lauri rubbed his wrist. 'The hell, it can move so fast.'
Landing on the floor the beetle bounced one time before landing on its legs. Its beady eyes returned from inside its protected head, the eye stalks rapidly looking around before coming to rest on Lauri.
Forgetting the dangers, Lauri called out to his opponent. "Come on then, I'm ready for ya!"
As if answering his challenge the beetle's eyes again returned inside its head.
'I know what that means.' Lauri's lip curled into a smirk.
The beetle shot to the side propelled by its incredible speed, landing on the wall it jumped again slamming into Lauri's side. Lauri winced from the pain, before he could react the beetle used Lauri as its launchpad jumping away. The force of its jump caused Lauri to stumble slightly before he could regain his balance the beetle slammed into Lauri's back pushing him to the ground.
"Dammit," Rolling to the side the beetle slammed into the space where Lauri's chest had been. Reaching out Lauri tried to grab the beetle but his hands slammed against the cold stone as the beetle continued to move. Lauri's eye twitched as he rolled again, giving him enough time to get back onto his feet. "Do you never stop moving!"
Landing in front of Lauri, the beetle launched forwards. Ready this time Lauri twisted his body causing the beetle to miss. Attempting to stab down, Lauri's blade scratched against the beetle's armoured exoskeleton. Lauri's attack resulted in a minor inconvenience as the beetle swiftly regained its momentum.
Lauri sighed, 'Right right, of course, I'm not going to hurt the damn thing if I keep hitting its shell.'
Bouncing around from wall to wall the beetle went in for another attack. Lauri met it with the flat of his blade, unlike before he deflected the beetle's attack to minimise the amount of force his wrists would have to deal with. Pushing, Lauri flicked the beetle towards the wall. Spinning in the air the beetle hit the wall bouncing off. Unlike last time, this bounce wasn't planned.
The beetle's shell smacked off of the wall, its legs flailing around as it tried to control the trajectory of its fall. Landing on the floor the beetle's legs started kicking as it tried to flip itself over, moments from correcting its orientation. Lauri practically lept onto the beetle. Holding it down with one arm, Lauri positioned his knife above it.
As he was about to pierce the beetle's soft underbelly, one of the beetles claws pierced Lauri's skin leaving a cut across his forearm. Driving his blade into the beetle's belly, Lauri fell on his butt as the beetle's eye stalks and legs writhed in pain.
[You have slain a Husk-born beast, Bouncing Bother.]
Panting, Lauri gently laid himself on the ground. "You can say that again." Touching his side, Lauri winced.
'Did that thing break one of my ribs?'
Upon closer inspection, the Bouncing Bother hadn't broken any of Lauri's ribs, but he'd certainly be bruising later.
"That's what, two Husk-born I've killed… If you can even count the Lucent Drone Swarm." Taking a breath, Lauri rested his head against the cold stone floor. "As Master Laurance said, the higher quality of the core I offer to the Goddess' altar, the better the reward will be." Lauri chewed on this thought for a moment. "Core… core core core." Bolting upright, Lauri stared at the corpse of the Bouncing Bother for a moment. "I need to get cores, but the Lucent Drone Swarm didn't have a core. Unless it was so small I didn't see it as I squashed them." Shaking his head, Lauri crawled closer to the corpse.
Kneeling over it he grabbed his blade, retrieving his knife, Lauri watched with morbid interest as green blood ran down the length of his blade falling onto the Bouncing Bother.
Lauri poked around in the Bouncing Bother's body for a few minutes practically ripping the beast's insides to shreds before giving up. The Bouncing Bother's corpse did not contain a core, not even the remnants of one. As if there wasn't one in the first place.
'In the first place…' Rubbing his forehead, Lauri hit the floor. 'Of course, Husk-born, it's in the name, right. How could I forget my lessons, creatures don't start life with a core. Neither human nor Beast of Magicka. It's only when their soul is awoken does a core manifests inside their body.'
Lauri shivered remembering the night his soul awoke and he became a Postulant. He was woken up during the middle of the night in horrible pain that lasted the rest of the night. Merry and Rich thought he was going to die, Lauri sighed a slight smile forming on his lips, to be fair it sure felt like it.
Not until Laurance arrived back from a late-night outing would they calm down and little did Lauri know how his life would change overnight, becoming a Postulant, becoming Laurance's apprentice.
Lauri flexed his fingers. 'Laurance told me that my body would go through some changes, that I would feel stronger, but to be honest,' Lying down on the stones again, Lauri bit his lip. 'I don't feel different, well. Maybe my endurance has improved a little, but I'd rather chalk that up to Laurance putting me through the ringer this past year.'
Huffing once more, Lauri felt something coming from the ground.
A shaking was coming through the ground. Sitting up Lauri spread his fingers pressing his palm onto the ground.
The ground was shaking, but not just the ground, a sound accompanied it.
The sound of cracking, the sound of smashing stone.
'Wait- I know that noise- '
And it was coming from the direction Lauri had just been walking down.
Swiping his blade off the floor, Lauri began sprinting down the tunnel. Attempting to put as much distance between himself and the noise he could.
Sheathing his knife, Lauri was dropped into the darkness for a moment. Strings of light burst from his chest forming into the space in front of him. Luminescent Helper burst into being a few steps from Lauri, its wings already in motion.
Lauri's momentum had slowed as he was surrounded by darkness, as the dim light returned Lauri was able to regain his speed. But, did it matter?
As fast as Lauri's feet could carry him, the sound of breaking stone never grew any quieter, if anything. The sound grew louder and louder.
Stumbling on a patch of loose rocks, Lauri collided with the floor — his body already aching from his brief encounter with the Bouncing Bother — acked some more. Pausing for a moment to gather himself, [Luminescent Helper] fluttered down, level with Lauri's eyes.
Looking over his shoulder, Lauri bit his lip. 'So far I've only met one thing that makes that kind of noise.' Wincing, Lauri picked himself up. Clutching his side, Lauri dragged his feet for a second as Lauri's exhaustion was getting to him.
Taking a few heavy breaths, Lauri scowled. 'Like hell, I'm dying down here at the first- mm is this the third obstacle? Ugh.' Shaking his head Lauri's feet began speeding up as his determination returned. 'Even if that damn 'rhino' catches up to me, I'm taking its eye out before it gets the chance to kill me… I hope.'
As Lauri raced down the tunnel after the sound of breaking stone was no longer the only sound competing for Lauri's attention. The wind blowing through the cave grew stronger with every passing second, and the sound of water?
Yes, the sound of running water grew louder and louder as Lauri pushed his legs to their limit.
'What, what is that? Where is it coming from?'
Had his life not been in danger, what happened next could have made Lauri freeze. The dim glow of Luminescent Helper was overpowered by a light of the same colour, but much, much brighter. A light Lauri had seen not too long ago.
The 'rhino' was closing in on Lauri. Not willing to risk his footing to look over his shoulder and know for certain how far off the 'rhino' was. Lauri could tell from the sound of stone being pulverised that the speed at which it was moving the 'rhino' would be upon him in minutes.
"Ahhhh!" Screaming, Lauri could feel his heart beating in his chest. Beating faster and faster- The cave suddenly dropped.
At the speed he was moving, Lauri flew through the air for a moment before he began to fall. Smashing into the deep slope, Lauri began to fall. For a minute Lauri's entire world was only pain as his already bruised body grew more and more bruised with every passing second. A dozen cuts appeared on his body as he crashed into stone after stone.
Coming to a final rolling thud at the end of the sharp decline. Lauri's body kept rolling for a short time, the path ahead of him disappeared into a sheer drop.
'Wh…' Lauri lay on the ground in a daze, 'What happened? I was, I was running and then…'
Flexing his fingers, Lauri tried to find the floor, something to ground himself. But there was nothing, Lauri's left hand closed around nothing, nothing but empty air. Opening his eyes, a shock ran through Lauri's body as he slowly came to a realisation.
The path Lauri had been following for the past hour? Multiple? How long had he even been running? The path, it came to an abrupt end. The stone lead to empty space. Nothing but darkness and air, straining his head to look up it seemed the path did continue.
Only if Lauri could jump across a ten-metre gap.
Exhausted, his head dropped back onto the edge of the stone, looking down. Lauri realised half of his body was hanging off the edge of what remained of the path, down below him illuminated by Luminescent Helper a raging river cut through the stone far below.