Chapter 4: You Only Live Once
Noah cursed at himself for not having worn a watch. Unfortunately, Sophie had her phone out at the time of the crash as well, leaving them both in the same situation. It seemed only the items they physically had on them during the crash had survived the transportation. How long had they been wandering for? Minutes? Hours?
“Noah?” Sophie broke the silence.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think that was the same… what was it again… Diamantis? That killed everyone else?”
“I doubt it.”
“Really? Why?”
“The one that just attacked us didn’t have blood on it.” Noah wasn’t sure why he recalled such a detail. Fortunately, it seemed to put Sophie at ease. At least temporarily.
They trudged on. It was Sophie’s turn to activate echolocation again. The pair had realised that they were draining their MP faster than it regenerated, so to conserve it, they took turns triggering the skill at intervals, using it to scout for enemies.
“What was that?” Sophie whispered.
“What did you hear?”
“Sounds like something chittering up in front.”
“Is it getting closer?”
Sophie’s expression turned grim. “I think so. Let’s backtrack.”
They retraced their steps back to a fork in the road.
“Let’s take the left side this time.”
“Good idea.”
Suddenly, Sophie doubled over, clutching her side.
Noah rushed to support her. “Hey, you okay?”
“Uh, I must’ve sustained some sort of injury from earlier,” she winced. She lifted the hem of her shirt, revealing a dark, angry bruise spreading across her hip.
Noah grimaced. “We need to get that checked out.”
“Gotta escape first though.”
“Anna said there’s an exit, yeah? Surely this place can’t be that big?”
“How do we even know if she’s telling the truth?”
“We don’t. But we’ll both be dead otherwise.” Perhaps he was being overly blunt, but the cold grip of hopelessness was starting to encroach on him. “Can you still walk?”
“Yeah, I could really use some water though…”
This wasn’t looking good. With Sophie’s current state, they probably only had a few hours at the max before it’d be too late. Perhaps even less.
They headed down the opposite path. Noah activated echolocation again. Please don’t let there be—
Tchtchtch!
What was that?! Noah whirled around. The sound was coming from behind them.
“What is it?” Sophie whispered.
“The chittering you mentioned? It’s behind us.” He paused. “Sounds like there’s quite a few of them.”
They soon didn’t even need the skill to hear it. The sound was closing in fast. They broke into a run.
“I hear something else in front of us!” Sophie cried out.
That something was rushing water. They skidded to a stop at the edge of a fast-moving river. It was running perpendicular to them, cutting off their path.
The sources of the noises revealed themselves soon enough.
A swarm of giant scorpions, each the size of a wolf, burst into view.
—
Meskorpio/ Lvl 45
HP: 13,345
—
At first glance, they seemed to be of a lower level than the Diamantis Noah had defeated. But with this many of them? There was no way he was winning.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The scorpions fanned out, cornering them. Their backs were pressed against the riverbank.
“We have to jump in,” Noah said.
Sophie peeked over her shoulder. The river churned angrily.
“Gotta jump in!” Noah called again. “Can you swim?”
Sophie gulped, nodding in a panic.
The scorpions pounced.
“Go, now!” Noah plunged into the water, dragging Sophie in with him.
The current seized him the moment he hit the water, yanking him under before he could take a full breath. He didn’t even have time to register how shockingly cold the water was.
Which way was up? Noah flailed helplessly. The river was tossing him like a ragdoll, smashing him against the submerged rocks and knocking the air from his lungs.
Go…Up! Noah kicked with all his might. Finally, his head broke the surface. The deafening thunder of the rapids echoed in the tunnel around him.
Sophie… where was Sophie?! He tried to call for her, but he just didn’t have the energy to. The river surged downhill until it finally calmed, spreading into an underground pool. Noticing a gentle slope on the side, he paddled his way over and crawled his way out of the water.
A few moments later, a drenched figure staggered ashore, coughing and sputtering.
“That…sucked…” Sophie croaked.
“Glad you made it out,” Noah breathed a sigh of relief.
The two lay on the riverbank in silence, shivering as they caught their breaths.
Once they recovered, Noah pushed himself up, scanning the chamber they had landed in. The cave walls stretched high around the pool, offering no obvious way out. He scoured the perimeter, but as expected, there were no tunnels or openings. So much for wishful thinking.
Something about this place struck him as odd though. What had he seen that—wait! That was it! The fact that he could see at all. The place was barely illuminated, but the light seemed to come from somewhere high up. He strained his eyes and spotted a tiny opening in the ceiling. A faint glow filtered through it. Was that natural light?
Sophie followed his gaze, also peering up at the ceiling.
“Is that our exit?” Her voice was soft, though Noah didn’t know whether to attribute it to the cold or her injury. More than likely, it was both. He didn’t have to check her health bar to know that she was fading fast.
“I think it might be sunlight,” Noah said, trying to keep the hope out of his voice. He was squinting to the best of his ability, but the hole was just too high up.
“Oh, I got a notification on my Vitra,” Sophie said. “TS1… Eagle Eye?”
“Sounds like a skill that enhances your vision,” Noah noted.
“Mhm. Lemme try it.” Sophie narrowed her eyes against the light. “Yeah! I can make out bits of blue in the white. That really looks like the sky!” she exclaimed.
“The sky, huh? I wish there was a way we could reach that opening… though I doubt we can even fit through it,” he murmured.
“You think there’s a flying skill we could unlock?” Sophie asked.
“Maybe if I jump high enough?”
“You could try!”
Noah tensed his legs, feeling his muscles coil before jumping with all his might. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing.
“Well that didn’t work,” he remarked awkwardly.
“Sure didn’t,” Sophie giggled softly.
“Actually, why did you get the Eagle Eye skill, but I didn’t?” The thought just occurred to him.
Sophie stopped. “Erm, I’m not sure. I just strained my eyes for a bit and somehow got it.”
Noah mulled it over. Echolocation was a GS1 skill, while Eagle Eye was a TS1 skill. Was that the difference between a Global Skill and Talent Skill? It certainly seemed to be the case.
Whatever, he wasn’t in the right mind to think it through now. What they needed was to escape, but…
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s possible to reach that opening,” Noah concluded.
Sophie fidgeted. “I don’t see another way out though… It’s not like we can go back the way we came.”
“Actually…” Noah paused. “With all this water coming in, there has to be an exit, right?”
“We didn’t see any though.”
“It has to be underwater.” Noah slowly walked to the edge of the pool. “The current over here doesn’t seem too strong. I’ll go take a look.”
“Okay, be careful.”
After taking a couple of deep breaths, Noah steadied himself and waded into the pool. The cold water gripped him instantly, but fortunately, the pool didn’t seem too deep. He could keep his head above the surface if he tiptoed.
He submerged his head and glanced around. The darkness was hard to see through, so he called his Vitra, just to add a little bit of visibility.
He cautiously approached the far wall. So far, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Then, in the distance, he spotted a darker patch against the stone. A small crevice? Noah held back, wary of getting too close. The current was already tugging at him, and he didn’t want to be dragged in. But it seemed to be their only potential way out.
Noah resurfaced and swam back to Sophie.
“See anything?” she asked.
Noah nodded grimly. “There’s a hole in the wall over there.”
“Are we gonna go through it?”
“Don’t think we have a choice.”
Sophie asked the obvious,” What if the passage ends up narrowing, and we get trapped? We’ll drown, right?”
Her worry was evident in her voice, and Noah shared the same thought. Should they just wait it out? No, Sophie’s condition was serious. Anyway, the chances of being rescued were essentially non-existent.
“I don’t wanna do this,” Sophie muttered.
“It might be our only lifeline,” Noah reasoned.
“It may also lead us to our deaths.”
“We’ll die here eventually if we don’t do anything.”
“What if someone bails us out? Maybe Anna checks in on us and decides to let us go for making it this far? Surely there are better options than that!”
“How much HP do you have left?”
Sophie trembled. “I don’t wanna check.”
Noah snapped, grasping her shoulders. “Listen! We’re not dead yet, so don’t give up now! If we go out, we go fighting, okay?”
When he realised that Sophie was tearing up, he immediately let go. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“No, I’m sorry. Y-you’re totally right,” she sniffed. “I’ll activate my Vitra for you, but I’m not looking.”
She closed her eyes and her Vitra popped up. 102/1000. Her HP had been steadily going down, so there must’ve been some sort of bleeding still going on inside her.
“You can close it now,” Noah said, keeping his voice as calm as he could for Sophie’s sake. “Don’t freak out, but… you probably have about an hour or so.” He probably could’ve said something more ambiguous like “it’s really low”, but giving her a time limit would help her grasp the reality of the situation more clearly.
Upon hearing the news, Sophie started hyperventilating. “Please Noah, I don’t want to die…” she whispered, her hand gripping his wrist. Noah noted how weak and cold it was.
“Then let’s go. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather die trying to escape a death maze than just lamely bleed out.” A part of him considered leaving himself, finding some help and then getting back here, but he doubted that they would reach her in time. If they could even get back here in the first place.
Sophie nodded silently, forcing herself to her feet. Together, they approached the water, its surface rippling innocently. “Okay, let’s do this,” her breath quivered. “You only live once, right?”