Mudhoof grasped the rope and wrapped his hooves around it. Then he pulled himself hand over hand down the length with great speed.
I kept up a perpetual volley of arrows but since it had almost no effect on the approaching enemy, it was mostly to make myself feel better.
Once Mudhoof was past the half-way mark, the creatures had gotten even closer. I fired one last shot, dispelled my bow and jumped onto the rope.
Quickly, I pulled myself hand over hand, but I had a sense of impending dread.
I’d barely made it a quarter down the rope length when one of the Golems reached the ledge.
“Hurry!” I heard Mudhoof shout. I glanced to see he had just stepped onto the ledge and he and Feign watched me anxiously.
But then the rope shook violently, and I nearly lost my grip.
Looking back I saw the Golem striking at the rope, and another walked up to do the same.
Uh-oh, I thought.
Regaining my hand hold I pulled myself along as fast as I could.
But it wasn’t fast enough.
The rope snapped under the attack of the Golems and I swung downward toward the lava.
I heard Mudhoof shout, and the rope swung me at full speed into the rock wall. For a moment my view screen went completely black. When I could see again, I was tumbling downwards.
The last thing I saw was a large floating rock pass beneath me. Then all went dark again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I waited impatiently for my view screen to respond, but the blackness persisted.
My health indicated was dropping. Bit by bit my avatar was steadily taking damage. If I didn’t regain consciousness soon, I would die.
If that happened, it would be up to Mudhoof and Feign try to finish the quest. But despite all we had been through, the odds would not be in their favor.
Mudhoof sent me a chat request. “Vee!” He said, once I pulled up the screen. “Are you dead?”
“No,” I said, frustrated. “Not, yet. I got a black screen at the moment. Did you see what happened to me?”
“Yeah, you landed on a big floating rock thing and vanished from sight. I couldn’t do anything to help. Sorry, Vee.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll wake up next to the Legendary Item and we can forget about this quest.”
Mudhoof laughed. “Okay, we’re going to continue on,” he said, looking off screen. “Looks like the tunnel leads further down. Maybe with these lucky charms we’ll be able to hook up later.”
“Do that,” I said, “Oh, and you were right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“This quest sucks!”
Mudhoof laughed and canceled the chat.
At that moment my screen brightened as my avatar opened her eyes.
I was still on the floating rock, bobbing along with the river current. Lava was lapping over the edge and splashed my leg causing the damage.
Pulling my leg back I moved to the center of the rock. My health indicator stopped dropping.
The lava river cut its way through the bottom of a high gorge, the rocky ceiling far overhead. There didn’t seem to be anywhere I could go.
I heard a loud rumbling and looked ahead. In the distance the lava vaulted up a little and flowed downward. A sense of dread clutched at my chest.
A lava fall.
I had little time as I’d soon be pitched over the edge of the fall and to my final re-roll doom. The rocky walls of the gorge moved past at a rapid speed, but with little choice in the direction I had to take.
Standing up, I tried to maintain my balance as the floating rock bobbed and tipped with the movement. Lava splashed close to me.
The moment my rocky boat hit the lava surge of the fall’s edge, I jumped away. I cursed the lack of points in my leap ability as I vaulted through the air, the lava roiling below me.
But it was enough. As I hit the wall of the gorge I activated my sure-footed ability. My feet locked into place on rocky perches. For a few moments I hung on for dear life. The sound of the lava falls roaring down into the abyss was deafening.
An indicator on my view screen told me that my avatar was close to passing out from the heat exposure. I needed to move, and fast.
Upwards I climbed, taking care to have good hand grips as my feet would be doing most of the work. As I pulled my way up my avatar’s health status improved a little. Soon, I reached a ledge. But before I hoisted myself over I switched on my Shadow ability. Now would be a bad time to be spotted.
I peeked over. The ledge extended back several paces exposing a path that followed the edge of the gorge. A wide tunnel entrance opened wide to my right.
My avatar started to shake. The strain of the fall, the heat, and subsequent climb had finally gotten to her.
I pulled myself over and lay flat on my back for a few moments. It was enough for my avatar to recover and for me to stand.
Suddenly, a pair of Rock Golems emerged from the tunnel. I froze and double checked to see that my Shadow was still active.
The two large creatures sauntered by and followed the path up the ledge. They hadn’t seen me.
After a few minutes they followed the path around a turn and vanished from sight. I sighed in relief.
They were heading upwards whereas I needed to keep going down. Or so I hoped. I moved to the other side of the ledge and sat up against the wall, blending more into the shadows there. While I had a quick rest, I called up my quest log.
’The source for the Demon King’s ability to enter this realm is near. Find and destroy it.’
Okay, I thought. Had to be a door, or rift? And if I found it, how the heck was I expected to destroy it? And wouldn’t the Demon King have something to say on the subject?
I shrugged. Got to do as the quest log says, even if I’m still clueless.
Another Rock Golem appeared from the tunnel. I went still, but felt confident the shadows I crouched in added to my invisibility.
The Rock Golem walked by, but when it reached the spot in front of me it paused. My heart froze in my chest.
The Golem turned its head, and I found smoldering yellow eyes looking at me.
Uh-oh. I can’t fight one of these things on my own.
I glanced to my left and right. No room to escape. When this thing attacked I would be in deep trouble.
For a few moments it stared at me. Or so I thought that was what it was doing. Then, it reached forward.
Fight time! I thought, tensing up. My sword was now in my grip. The moment I raised to swing it I would be visible, but I’d wait until the last moment to strike.
The Golem reached toward me, then over my shoulder. I froze. From the rock wall behind me it grabbed at something. It wrenched away a piece of blue ore and held it up to its face, staring at it.
Then its lower face cracked open to form a mouth, and it stuffed the ore into it. It bit down, and the ore cracked.
The Golem then continued walking, chewing on its snack.
I sagged with relief. Once the creature had turned out of view I darted into the tunnel it had emerged from.
I was really tired. Logging off and getting some sleep felt like a wonderful idea, but real world priorities needed to wait.
Keeping to the walls I edged my way down the tunnel. I did not encounter any more Rock Golems or anything else, but I kept up my guard.
The tunnel ended at a huge opening, and beyond I could see a massive cavern of some kind.
Cautiously, I entered.
The place was gigantic. Easily larger than any chamber or cavern I’d ever seen before.
It was circular in shape with a high vaulted space above that vanished from view. Although it was brightly lit, I saw no torches or glowing stones. It had to be magically powered.