John kept running, his breath misting as he struggled to maintain the strenuous pace he set. Pumping his legs and running for all he got, he agilely navigated the rough subterranean terrain.
The run was not all that smooth. Sometimes he had to redirect himself when a passageway was too narrow to fit him, but he made sure not to stop, constantly moving and correcting his course with directions from the [hominus] spell.
Even though his mind was strained from having to focus on both running, the [hominus] spell and the lightning spell, he couldn't help but marvel at the labyrinthine and interconnected nature of the caverns. Sometimes he ran into narrow tunnels that could barely fit his body, forcing him to crouch and at other times the passageway would be so large that he couldn't see the ceiling even if he strained his eyes.
Even running, he made sure to keep channeling the lightning spell on his staff, just in case he ran into trouble.
However, placing successive charges of lightning on the staff was starting to put a heavy strain on his arms. The staff was humming with barely restrained power as the pressure on his arms kept increasing. Plus, his hands were getting numb, the volatile magical energies of the spell writhing around the staff and occasionally zapping his gauntleted hands, worsening the numbness.
Pushing on even with numb fingers, he still kept channeling and running, layering lightning spells over each other on the staff. It was better to be prepared than sorry.
Nevertheless, hoped he wouldn't run into something the lightning couldn't handle.
He ran ceaselessly, entering a new tunnel that had gemstones embedded on various parts of the tunnel wall and ceiling.
"No time to admire anything, just keep running," he muttered.
He was running, attempting to vault over a particularly large gemstone when a claw, seemingly from nowhere, took a swipe at his head. Surprised, he barely managed to dodge the fast approaching claw by jerking to the side.
'That was close.'
It wasn't his sharp senses that helped him sense the approaching claw, instead, the change in the ambient electrical charges on his armor had alerted him.
The incoming claw missed his head by inches, scraping his pauldrons instead. The sparks from the impact nearly blinded him with its brightness. Darien's eyes were effective for seeing in darkness not in sudden flashes of light.
He staggered backwards from the force of the blow, his left shoulder throbbing in pain from the blunt force.
'Hope I didn't dislocate anything.'
Snarling, he raised the staff in his right hand and brought it to bear against the retreating claw. The creature, as if sensing his intent for violence, withdrew its long limbs back into the shadows of the tunnel ceiling but It was too late. John had seen where the claw had descended from.
Raising the heavily charged and thrumming staff, his hands trembling from the potent vibrations of the charged staff, John let fly. Lightning was released from the staff in a vast net, blasting the ceiling or whatever was there with so much force that gemstones on the ceiling cracked and broke.
Lightning was fast, so the impact was almost immediate. Since the lightning released was so powerful, he was flung backwards from the recoil alone. Luckily, the armor prevented him from suffering any scrapes and bruises.
The same could not be said for whatever creature the claw belonged to. In fact, John heard a terrifying screech of pain as the creature got the full dose of lightning.
John would have celebrated the hit if not for the fact that the ceiling began trembling. Gemstones and sharp stalactites began falling from the ceiling, dislodged by the lightning blast.
He rolled, using the momentum to get back on his feet and began running, a wicked looking stalactite landing where he previously lay and shattering on the tunnel floor.
John ran with all his might, pushing his body to the extreme. Either that or be buried under falling debris. In his bid to escape, he barely noticed the creature that had attacked him, falling from the ceiling. It looked like an unholy cross between an orangutan and a scorpion, with eight impossibly long limbs ending in sharp pentadactyl claws.
It was one of those evil claws that had nearly taken off his head.
John was lucky again, as the extremely long limbs of the falling creature missed his head again by inches.
Even charred from the lightning strike, the creature still looked fearsome.
If he hadn't gotten out of the way of the falling debris, then the creature would have landed on his head, possibly killing him or injuring him in the process. Seems he had narrowly escaped death again.
John did not have the time to contemplate his luck as new parts of the ceiling began crumbling, threatening to bash his head in.
He didn't want to find out what happened to a transmigrated soul who dies a second time.
Barely sparing the creature a second glance, John ran as fast as his legs could carry him out of the unstable tunnel, afraid of being crushed and buried under gemstones and rocks. Death by falling boulders was not a good way to go.
'Besides, who was the foolish person that designed a full-plate armor without making provision for a helmet?'
'Oh yes! He was that foolish person.'
When he had been creating the character who owned this armor, he had designed the armor without a helmet, because a hood was far more cooler and mysterious or so he thought at that time. Now that he really thought about it, video game characters are mostly designed for aesthetics rather than functionality. He looked cooler with the hood, but was the sacrifice worth it?
Furthermore, forgoing a helmet was not the worst design decision he had made when designing the character. No no no. The worst design error is the cape fluttering behind him. He was so lucky the cape hadn't snagged on anything.
As if to mock the impracticality of his armor, his momentum was suddenly arrested by a force pulling on the cape. He initially thought it had snagged on something but was banished of that thought as he was suddenly pulled backwards.
'A nail can't have pulling power, can it?'
He would have laughed at his joke, if not for the precarious situation he found himself in. Making a mental note to make the cape easily detachable, he reversed his grip on the staff and released the stored lightning.
Since he hadn't been channeling the lightning for that long, the blast wasn't as powerful as the previous one that took out the orangu-scorpion. However, the lightning must have been enough, because whatever was gripping the cape suddenly let go.
On noticing the freedom, John surged forward, not even curious to see what or who had pulled the cape.
'Forward ever, backward never.'
Besides, he wasn't feeling that vengeful, mostly scared and desperate.
Ducking a low hanging stalactite, he entered another natural tunnel. Of course he wasn't running blindly, he was following the direction the [hominus] spell was indicating.
'Wait, did that stalactite look too straight and thin to be a normal stalactite?'
Something was not right with it.
Suspecting foul play, he immediately pivoted on his heels only to see the seemingly innocent looking stalactite attempting to spear him.
'You are now a flexible living object, are you?'
He was angry now. He couldn't only tolerate being prey for so much.
Instead of dodging, he stretched his left hand and caught the stalactite looking thing, arresting its momentum. The thing was strong but he held on.
'Got you now'
A wicked grin began appearing on his angry face, wrath giving way to savage glee. The tentacle attempted to wriggle out of his grip but he held firmly.
'Going somewhere?'
Still gripping the offending tentacle, John placed the tip of the staff on the tentacle and blasted as much lightning as possible into the creature.
The tentacle trembled violently but he still held it firmly in his grip, even as his gauntlets began sizzling from the force of the lightning coursing through the creature.
'Where is your main body?'
As if to reply his thoughts, another tentacle came out of nowhere and smacked him in the chest, forcing him to release his grip.
In anger, he wanted to charge the creature and make it pay for its surprise attack but common sense prevailed.
Also, the pull of the [hominus] spell became stronger, showing he may be getting closer to Amradur.
Besides, if the creature's tentacles were that long then its main body may be far bigger than John could handle. He of course, did not want to turn his back to the treacherous creature, but what choice did he have? If he stayed too long here, he may attract the attention of other more nastier creatures.
He turned tail and ran, resuming his perilous journey to Amradur. Challenging the tentacle creature had made his adrenaline spike up, helping him increase his pace. Besides, he was on a runner's high. His body was performing beyond its capacity. Stopping now to rest would mean he may be unable to force his body to continue the journey. Fatigue was at the door if not in the room already.
Leaving the passageway where the tentacled monster was, he entered into a narrower tunnel. He would have preferred a wider tunnel, but this was the only tunnel in the direction the [hominus] spell was indicating.
Gritting his teeth, he crouched down and began crawling through the tunnel, staff on one hand. Even though he had to move at a slower pace, he did not stop channeling lightning into the staff. Having lightning on hand had saved him many times. The more power, the better.
As if he wasn't having a bad day already, insects the size of his head that looked vaguely like roaches began attacking him. He plowed into them with his lightning-charged staff, knocking any who got too close. Contact with the staff stunned the little critters.
Frontal attacks were not the problem, he also had to make sure that none of them surprised him by dropping from above. As he had previously observed, most creatures in Suterra loved ambushing from above.
Praying that no large predator met him in such a cramped space, he spun his staff and struck the ground, releasing some of the charges and allowing arcs of lightning to fly freely.
The critters were of course wary of attacking an electrical metal man, which gave him enough time to escape their center.
Taking advantage of their momentary stupefaction, he crawled faster, chanting and channeling lightning into his staff. He kept gathering lightning to his staff with some stray arcs striking his armor.
While he did feel his own magic shouldn't harm him, that did not seem to be the case, as his armor sizzled wherever lightning struck it. Rather than stop, he increased the intensity of the spell. The spell had protected him during his mad dash, while will he stop now? Until he got to Amradur, he would keep channeling lightning.
However, his arm began to feel numb and heavy as lightning energy gathering around the staff became too much.
The lightning became so condensed that it began damaging his gauntlets. He had fired lightning from his fingertips before without any harm. Maybe, his magic was not as friendly with his armor as it was with his flesh.
Even with the intense pressure on his hands and the staff, he did not stop channeling, expecting another threat in the cramped tunnels.
However, the tunnels suddenly ended, and he found himself in a cavern so large he couldn't see the ceiling. A spring gurgled nearby but he didn't dare to go have a drink. What drew his attention was the large giant in the center of the cavern. Six shadowy figures surrounded the giant, seeming to fire projectiles at it which it swatted away like flies.
Something was familiar about those shadowy figures, he just had to take a closer look.