(c) 2007 - 2008 by LFox
A World Apart
Chapter 14: The Crystal Caverns
The gang with the addition of Athel are busy walking around the streets of Shalielaith. Since Athel isn’t at a place like the beach he’s wearing his usual armor which is a brilliant heavy suit of full body black plate armor.
Suddenly Jessica grins and grabs Athel’s hand. “Well we’ll see you guys later”
“Huh? You’re leaving?” asks Nathan.
As the two of them run off Elisha smiles to herself. “A date huh?”
Nathan and Elwyn look at each other in surprise and both say. “A date?”
A good distance from them Athel and Jessica walk off slowly through the street.
“How come we’re going off just the two of us?” asks Athel.
Jessica smiles. “Well we can’t exactly go on a date with them around can we?”
Athel stares at her in surprise. “A date?”. After a moment he smiles. “Well in that case I know a place we can go. We’d have to fight our way in though, that is if you’re up to it”
Jessica smiles. “Sounds like a fun date”
The two of them stop and Athel puts an arm around Jessica pulling her close to him. With his other hand he makes several gestures causing them to disappear as they teleport away. Several moments later the two of them appear outside a massive cave entrance with heavy snow covering everything and a heavy blizzard cutting off all sight except for the cave entrance.
Jessica shudders and rubs her arms. “It’s cold here”
Athel takes her hand and leads her into the cave. “It gets warm inside”
Inside the cave walls are all heavy black rock and as they continue walking they start coming across massive formations of crystals of all different sizes and colors jutting out from the walls, floor and ceiling.
“What is this place?” asks Jessica.
“The Crystal Caverns” says Athel.
“I can see how it got that name. So, what level zone are we in now anyway?”
“It’s an S grade zone”
Jessica turns a little pale remembering their trek through the desert. “Isn’t this a bit dangerous?”
Athel smiles. “Don’t worry. I’m a pretty good fighter and I’ve been here before”
“Oh okay”
The two of them continue along the cave coming into a larger cavern area. As they do a massive black bat that’s over half their size detaches from the ceiling and flies towards them. Athel steps ahead and waits for it to come closer then swipes his sword through the air cleaving the bat in two cleanly cut pieces.
As they run through the tunnel they pass by a short opening on the side. Laying in the opening sleeping are half a dozen large cat like creatures about the size of a large dog. Their bodies are made entirely out of blue crystal and a set of large saber fangs hang out the side of their mouths.
As they come to a T junction Athel leads them down the left hand side and after a short run they come to a stop. In front of them scurrying about the floor is a small black creature about the size of a cat that resembles a platypus. On its back however it has masses of sharp black spikes much like a hedgehog.
“What’s that?” asks Jessica.
“That’s a Malner their pretty harmless little things providing you don’t step on them” says Athel.
The Malner scurries over to the side of the tunnel and begins chewing on a jade crystal pointing out of the ground.
“They eat the crystals?” asks Jessica.
Athel nods. “Yeah, most of the creatures in here do. Probably the reason they live here”
Athel takes Jessica’s hand and leads on. After several minutes of walking he suddenly stops and Jessica bumps into him.
“Why did you stop?” asks Jessica.
Athel holds a finger to his mouth. “Shhh, look”
Athel points ahead of them to a clump of crystals. Jessica looks at them and is about to turn back to Athel when something catches her eye. Looking closer she quickly makes out the outline of a sliver curled up around one of the large crystals but because of its body which is made entirely of light blue crystal it blends in so perfectly that it’s hardly noticeable.
“A sliver? Man those things are everywhere” says Jessica.
“I take it you don’t like them?” asks Athel.
Jessica shakes her head. “I hate them”
“Well let’s try to sneak past with any luck it won’t wake up”
Jessica nods and together they carefully creep towards it. As they come up to it Jessica stupidly doesn’t watch her footing and she steps on what she believes to be a crystal. Instead of a crystal though it’s part of the sliver’s tail which causes its eyes to shoot wide awake. Not even waiting a second the sliver lunges at her with its mouth open and its scythe claws spread.
Athel seeing what happened quickly steps between them and raises his sword. The sliver comes to a stop with Athel’s sword in its mouth and chews on the blade several moments before pulling away and coming to a stop in front of them. Jessica backs up behind Athel and looks over his sword as he holds it with both hands realizing there isn’t so much as a scratch on it.
In an instant Athel and the sliver charge each other. The two stand toe to toe exchanging heavy blows toward each other. After several moments they come to a stop with Athel holding his sword across in front of him and the sliver’s scythe claws held back by it on either side. The sliver moves its head forward and growls at him angrily.
Seeing it’s growing restless he suddenly pulls away and the two stand facing each other. The sliver draws back one of its scythe arms as it prepares to strike. Using this time Athel draws his sword back and gold energy quickly flows around it. He steps forward and thrusts the sword forward. The sliver seeing what’s happening stops its attack and shields itself with its scythe claws and its body quickly shines across with a ray of light as its crystal body hardens.
Despite the hard crystal exterior Athel’s sword sinks into the sliver’s belly right through until the hilt is pressed against it. The sliver lets out a loud shriek and collapses to the ground as Athel wrenches his sword out. Jessica walks over to Athel and stares over the dead sliver in surprise.
“What was that attack?” asks Jessica.
“A type of armor break magic. These slivers can harden their bodies so hard your attacks will just bounce right off”
Jessica smiles. “I guess I’m pretty safe with you around if you can kill slivers so easily”
Athel smiles back at her. “Let’s keep going”
Together they continue ahead to a larger cavern area where they find a sliver busy ripping apart a dead bat on the ground. They watch for a moment as the sliver rips into the bats body wildly stripping chunks of meat off its body.
Athel turns to Jessica with a smile. “Come on, it’s busy so it won’t bother us”
With her hand in Athel’s the two of them slowly creep around the sliver. It sits up and glares at them with teeth barred momentarily but as they continue to creep away it ignores them and goes back to eating. Together the two of them continue through the crystal caverns killing any of the beasts that get in their way.
Eventually they come out of a tunnel and come to a stop on a ledge overlooking a large open cavern area with crystals adorning the walls. Overhead small slits of sunlight sparkle in and over the crystals causing a glittery mystical scene and despite all the creatures in the earlier parts of the cave the large cavern has none what so ever.
“Wow, it’s so beautiful” says Jessica.
“I like to come here from time to time. Unfortunately the crystals create somewhat of a barrier so you can’t use teleportation magic. That’s why we had to fight our way in” says Athel.
Jessica turns to Athel with a smile. “I think it was worth it”
They stare at each other’s eyes for a moment then lean forward and kiss. Later on Jessica is busy pushing her breast plate back in place and latching it on.
“You ready to go?” asks Athel.
Jessica turns to him with a smile. “Yeah”
Athel takes Jessica’s hand and together they run off down the tunnel they came through.
To be Continued
To be Continued (Adult Version)
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