Chapter 81: Separated II

The Yeti entered first.

Beyond the pocket, the ground rose into a short passage that was wide enough for two people to walk beside each other. Linda remained behind her summon, watching where it placed its feet. Its weight caused some of the loose fragments to shift, but the larger stones beneath them remained firm.

Fixed there was a white survey plate just after the first bend, which she wiped away with her sleeve.

She remembered an upper connection on the map they had been shown. Its line curved away from the gallery before heading back towards an earlier part of the route, but she hadn’t studied every branch closely enough to be completely sure.

The white plate only told her that the passage had been surveyed, it didn’t tell her what the earthquake had done farther ahead.

Bren came around the bend with the girl leaning against his right shoulder. The boy followed behind them, carrying both bags, while his fox remained at the rear.

"You remember this one?" Linda asked.

Bren studied the plate for a moment before answering. "The connection above the long gallery?"

"That’s what I thought."

"It should lead towards the entrance side, if we’re where I think we are."

Neither of them sounded certain, and Linda wasn’t going to treat a guess like a promise.

"We’ll check it a little at a time. If it’s blocked, we come back before trying another route."

"Agreed."

The passage soon opened onto a wider shelf, where a shallow recess along the left wall had enough space to hold all four of them, while the floor ahead narrowed around a stone pillar before becoming wider again.

The Yeti suddenly stopped just ahead, alerting Linda who guessed right.

A low creature came out from behind the pillar, its six legs spread beneath a flat, dark body. Its head split into two heavy jaws that opened sideways as it faced them... an alien of a monster.

Following the first, a second one climbed over the rocks behind it, while another crawled along the wall above.

"Splitjaws," Bren said as he steadied the injured girl against his shoulder.

Linda looked up and saw a third creature clinging to the stone above the others. Its hooked feet moved easily between the cracks as it crawled forward.

She also recognised them as soon as she saw them, these were all Early Grade Three, and unlike the Ridgebacks, they didn’t have thick armour protecting most of their bodies.

"Into the recess. Keep your summon at the back." She spoke to the other boy.

The boy moved immediately. Bren helped the girl sit down before crouching beside her, making sure to leave the entrance open. He tried to see if he could call out his summon, but it was still impossible, it had barely healed from the damage it sustained.

Linda remained just outside it.

"Hold here."

The Yeti planted itself between the students and the approaching creatures.

The first Splitjaw rushed around the pillar, and before it could get far, a thick spike of ice burst from the ground beneath its chest, passing straight through its body and lifting all six legs away from the floor. It had barely started struggling when another spike shot up beneath the creature following it, piercing through its body just as easily.

The Splitjaw on the wall immediately tried to turn around, but it didn’t get the chance. Ice burst from the stone beneath it and drove through its body from below, pinning it against the wall.

Within only a few seconds, all three creatures were hanging from the ice that had pierced them, thick blood flowing down only so far before freezing also.

The Yeti hadn’t even made a move physically apart from moving its hands a few times.

The second-year boy stared past its white fur, while his fox remained standing near his feet.

"That’s it?"

Linda watched the Splitjaw on the wall twitch once before going still.

"Check beyond the pillar," she instructed.

The Yeti walked forward while Linda turned towards the others.

"Can she keep going?"

Bren didn’t answer immediately. He was still looking at the three bodies.

During their earlier fight, he had watched the Yeti block attacks and cover their withdrawal. He already knew that it was strong, but most of its ice had been limited to whatever space the other summons left open for it.

This time, the monsters had died before any of them could even move close.

"You could have done that in the chamber earlier?" he asked.

"If the others were clear of it."

Bren looked at the ice spikes covering the approach before understanding what she meant.

"Right..."

When the instructor gave the order to withdraw, Bren hadn’t thought much about it beyond getting the students away from the unstable ground. Now that he had seen the Yeti fight without anyone restricting its movement or getting in the way of its ice, he understood just how little room Linda had been given earlier.

"We were all trying to stay out of each other’s way," the boy said. "At least, I thought we were."

"Some people had more to work around than others," Bren replied.

Linda adjusted the strap of her bag.

She had spent much of the earlier fight waiting for an opening she could use without catching one of her teammates’ summons in the attack or stealing the spotlight. With everyone standing safely behind her, there was no longer any need to wait.

The Yeti returned from beyond the pillar shortly afterwards, confirming that nothing else was moving ahead.

"All right, we’re moving."

Bren helped the girl back onto her feet. She tried to place weight on her injured leg, hissed in pain, and leaned more heavily against him.

"Smaller steps," Bren told her. "We have time."

Linda looked at him.

"We’ll stop at the next place with cover."

He nodded.

There was no point in rushing if the girl ended up falling and making the injury worse. Linda moved ahead with the Yeti, while the boy remained at the rear with his fox watching the route behind them.

Once they left the area, she melted the ice such that it disappeared as though it was never there, leaving the monster corpses behind with huge holes through their bodies. They hadn’t even bothered trying to harvest cores, as their focus was on surviving.

Past the pillar, another white plate marked the upper connection. The floor continued rising gently before turning out of sight, but at least, it was still leading in the direction Linda remembered.

She stopped before the bend and sent the Yeti ahead to check around it.

They would make sure the next section was safe before allowing the injured students to follow.