CHAPTER 34: THE HUNT BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN

The tunnels beneath the Jagged Tooth Mountains were nothing like Caius had expected.

When he and Sereth first entered the mountain, Caius had imagined that their journey would take them through endless passages of black stone, narrow corridors where darkness swallowed everything beyond a few steps. Instead, the deeper they traveled, the more the underground world seemed to expand.

The tunnels opened into enormous caverns, some so vast that Caius could not see the opposite walls. Underground rivers flowed through deep channels in the stone, while clusters of glowing crystals provided enough light to reveal the paths ahead. In some places, the stone itself seemed to breathe warmth into the air.

The cold that had followed them through the mountains gradually disappeared. Caius noticed it after several hours of travel.

He pulled his cloak closer around himself out of habit, then realized he no longer needed to.

"It's getting warmer," Caius noted.

Without slowing down, Sereth replied, "Deeper caverns. Underground rivers, geothermal vents, and heat-radiating crystals." He glanced sideways. "Freezing up top doesn't mean the mountain's dead underneath."

Caius soon discovered what he meant.

They entered a cavern so large that it seemed impossible for it to exist beneath the mountains. A forest grew there.

Pale trees rose from the dark earth, their trunks twisting toward a ceiling hidden beyond the reach of ordinary sight. Their leaves gave off a faint blue-green glow, illuminating the moss that covered the ground. Small plants grew between the roots, and a narrow stream wound through the forest before disappearing beneath the rocks.

Caius slowed as he stared at it. "An entire forest down here?"

"There are many," Sereth said, keeping his steady pace. "Life finds a way to survive beneath the surface."

Caius looked back as they continued, wondering how many things existed beneath the mountains that people living on the surface had never seen.

The journey was not without danger. The arachne ferals were common in the outer tunnels, and they encountered several smaller creatures during their travels. Most were not powerful enough to threaten Sereth, but the older warrior deliberately allowed Caius to deal with them whenever possible.

It gave Caius time to practice.

His dual-wielding had already reached the first stage of mastery. Holding two curved shortswords no longer felt unnatural, and the two weapons no longer interfered with one another. His off-hand sword, the Warden, was becoming an extension of his defensive movements, while the Executioner remained ready to deliver the decisive strike.

His current difficulty was the second technique of the art: Shadow Bind.

Sereth had explained that the technique wasn't simply a method of blocking an attack. Caius had to receive the enemy's force along the flat of the Warden, redirect it outward, and use the movement to carry himself past the opponent's lead shoulder. Once he reached the blind angle, the Executioner would be positioned for the killing stroke.

Against a predictable opponent, Caius could already perform it. Against a creature that moved unpredictably, it was much harder.

One of the smaller arachne ferals rushed him from the darkness.

Caius waited until the creature was close before raising the Warden. The feral's hooked limb struck the flat of the blade. Instead of resisting it directly, Caius turned his wrist and allowed the attack to slide outward. At the same moment, he pivoted around his lead foot and stepped past the creature's shoulder.

His body followed the motion naturally. The Executioner swept across the exposed joint. The creature collapsed.

Caius looked down at it. Sereth watched from several paces away.

"Again."

Caius wiped his brow, looking at him. "It's already dead."

"That wasn't the point of the drill."

Caius understood.

Another arachne feral emerged from a crack in the stone. This time, Caius waited. The creature attacked. He caught the limb with the Warden, redirected the force, and pivoted. The movement was smoother. He entered the creature's blind angle and brought the Executioner across its body. The feral fell.

Sereth nodded. "Better."

Caius lowered his swords. Shadow Bind was beginning to make sense. The movement wasn't supposed to be a series of separate actions; the deflection had to flow right into the pivot, carrying him into the blind angle where the Executioner could strike. He just needed to stop overthinking each piece.

They continued deeper into the tunnels, and whenever they encountered another small feral, Caius practiced the movement again.

The underground world gradually became less unfamiliar. He learned to recognize the sounds of water beneath the stone, the faint movement of creatures in distant passages, and the subtle changes in the air that marked the approach of larger chambers.

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Then, while they were moving through a wide corridor, Sereth suddenly stopped.

Caius halted behind him. Voices echoed from somewhere ahead, followed by the sharp ring of steel against stone and a harsh hiss.

"Watch your left!" someone shouted.

Sereth raised one hand, and Caius immediately went silent.

They approached the mouth of the next cavern without making a sound. Sereth stopped at the edge of the passage and looked inside. Caius leaned slightly around him.

A fierce battle was taking place below.

Five dark elves were fighting a massive arachne feral. Two front-line warriors slashed at the creature's legs with curved blades, while a pair of archers darted between the rocks, firing whenever they found an opening. Backing them up was Isilra, a female mage with striking violet hair, her hands crackling with cold blue light as she readied a spell.

The warriors looked young—much younger than Sereth. The two males had hair streaked with silver and blue, but Isilra's violet hair made her stand out immediately.

The arachne was enormous, its body coated in thick black chitin. Its eight long legs hammered at the ground with enough force to crack stone. The swordsmen did their best to cover each other, keeping the pressure on its limbs, but Isilra's cluster of ice shards shattered harmlessly against its armored hide.

The beast recoiled, then lunged viciously at one of the swordsmen. He side-stepped and slashed at its leg, but the blade only scraped the chitin without biting deep.

Caius watched closely. Something was wrong with their approach. They were targeting the parts of the creature that were easiest to reach—the armored legs and back—completely ignoring where it actually mattered.

Caius activated Far Sight. His vision sharpened, letting him study the arachne's movements. Whenever it shifted its weight to strike, a narrow, unshielded gap opened up beneath its upper plates. It was a tiny target, incredibly difficult to hit, but it was a fatal weakness.

The dark elves pressed their attack again, but none of their strikes came close to the gap.

"They're missing its weak point," Caius muttered.

The words slipped out, carrying clearly across the cavern. One of the swordsmen whipped his head around. "Who's there?"

The distraction nearly cost him. The arachne lashed out with a sharp foreleg. The warrior barely raised his block in time, the sheer force of the blow knocking him sliding across the stone.

"Keep your eyes on the beast!" Isilra barked, her hands flaring with mana.

The warrior scrambled back to his feet, gritting his teeth as he re-engaged.

Caius bit his lip, realizing his mistake, but Sereth didn't say a word, just giving him a brief, warning glance.

Caius turned his attention back to the cavern walls. Movement caught his eye—two smaller arachne ferals were creeping through the deep shadows, circling around the flank of the fight. Their destination was Isilra, who was entirely focused on the massive beast and hadn't noticed them.

Without a second thought, Caius pulled his warbow from behind his shoulder. Sereth glanced at him, offering no objections.

Caius nocked an arrow, drew the string, and let his breathing steady. He tracked the first creature, released, and watched the shaft fly straight through its head. Before it even hit the ground, he had the second arrow notched and loosed. The second feral dropped mid-climb from the wall. Both dead before they could make a sound.

Isilra whipped around at the faint thud, her violet eyes locking onto Caius. For a second, she stared at the two fallen creatures, her expression shifting in surprise.

Then she snapped her attention back to the large arachne. Mana surged around her, the cavern temperature plummeting as frost shot across the stone beneath her boots.

The spider lunged again, but the swordsmen intercepted it. Isilra thrust both hands forward. A violent barrage of ice shards tore through the air, shredding the legs and hammering the armored body before the final wave drove straight into the narrow opening beneath the upper plates.

The ice pierced the exposed weakness. The arachne shrieked, its massive body convulsing before its legs buckled. It crashed heavily onto the cavern floor, motionless.

Silence settled over the chamber. The five dark elves stood panting around the carcass.

The older swordsman lowered his blade, glanced toward the tunnel entrance, and froze. He instantly straightened up. "Senior Sereth."

The younger swordsman blinked, looking confused. "You know him?"

"Of course I do," the older warrior muttered, his posture rigid. "He was leading the vanguard before you even picked up a sword."

Recognition dawned on the younger warrior's face. "Sereth? Sereth of House Vel'drin?"

Sereth stepped fully into the light of the cavern. The swordsmen immediately dropped into respectful bows, followed by the archers. Isilra inclined her head as well. "Senior."

Sereth gave them a curt nod. "Out hunting in the outer rings?"

"We were assigned to clear the western drift," the older swordsman answered, eyeing the dead arachne nervously. "Didn't expect a brute this size to ambush us."

"It nearly took your head off," Sereth noted dryly.

The warrior lowered his gaze. "Yes, Senior."

Sereth's eyes shifted to Caius. The young dark elves followed his gaze, staring at the human boy. Isilra studied the warbow in Caius's hands, then looked back at the two dead ferals pinned near the wall.

Unable to contain his curiosity, the younger swordsman asked, "Is he with you, Senior?"

"He's under my protection," Sereth replied simply.

"Understood."

Isilra crossed her arms, breaking the silence. "He's the one who called out the beast's weak point."

"He did," the older warrior murmured.

She glanced toward the wall. "And those two? He picked them off before they could blindside me."

The younger warrior stared at the fallen ferals, then back at Caius. "Both of them? From all the way up there?"

Caius stayed quiet, keeping his expression neutral. He had learned quickly that revealing too much was a bad idea.

The older swordsman turned back to Sereth. "Are you heading back to the inner settlement, Senior?"

"Yes."

"We'll report your return to the captain."

Sereth gave another brief nod. "Do so."

The warriors stepped aside to clear their path. As Caius walked past, the younger swordsman gave him a long, wary look—clearly unaccustomed to seeing a human traveling alongside one of their veterans. Isilra watched him until he vanished into the dim shadows of the tunnel, before finally turning back to help harvest the beast's core.

Further down the passage, Caius walked beside Sereth in silence for a while.

"You were told not to speak," Sereth finally said.

Caius stared straight ahead. "I forgot."

Sereth glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Try to remember next time."

"Understood."

They continued deeper into the mountain, leaving the young dark elves behind. Caius's mind returned to the path ahead, completely unaware that the group behind them was already buzzing with questions about him, or that his quick eye had left a lasting impression. To them, he was just an unusually sharp human with a good bow.

And Caius intended to keep it that way.

The tunnels grew darker as they pressed further toward the inner territories. Neither of them noticed the faint, rhythmic clicking echoing through the distant stone.

Click.Click.

Far beneath their feet, something shifted in the deep dark, passing a silent message through the network of tunnels. The arachne ferals weren't just random beasts wandering the mountain; they were communicating.

And deep beneath the frozen peaks, something was listening back.