On pure reflex, I raised my hand to meet Daila’s, but she was still a good ten feet above, but that didn’t stop me. My Apis addled brain was simply overjoyed at seeing a friend, along with seeing the flames of the sky above. It was wild how normal it looked now. Just how long had Len kept those flames burning?

  I also realized just how far into the ground we were, probably twenty or so feet.

  Dark brown roots swirled around the walls of the hole, twisting and twirling together holding back the dirt, making sure no more fell and buried me. But as the roots grew more and more, the small platform that Daila stood on stopped halfway.

  “Sorry ma’am. Can’t get any lower—” She grunted, “without, ugh, the whole thing coming down.”

  “Elea, can you make one long root? Something he can climb up.”

  “As delightful as having that handsome young man, huff, climbing up my body sounds, not at the moment. Need, hah, all the roots I can muster,” the elven wood mage replied through labored breaths.

  “Damn. Liam, can you get up here?” Daila called back to me.

  I nodded and looked around, searching for something to hop up to her, or at least get to the roots on the side walls. But an underground tunnel in the middle of caving in didn't have much in the way of footholds. The roar of the battle going on topside echoed throughout the tunnel as I searched.

  The ferals rushed around in a panic, or at least one of them did. The mole girl was gone, probably dug her way out of the collapsing tunnel already. She was probably the only one perfectly fine with the situation. The leader was scraping through some of the rubble with his bare hands. An uphill battle with all the dirt churning from the sudden opening. Looking a little closer, I saw a small arm wiggling right around where he dug.

  Damn, and I thought I had it rough. Little guy got choked by me and then got buried. A part of me wanted to help the poor guy. But he was probably gonna be fine, at least two of the ferals seemed to have earth related powers. Heck, the mole girl might already be working on it.

  Gravels was missing, but something told me the dwarf would be fine. Not sure why I cared. I shouldn’t worry about the wellbeing of my kidnappers, right?

  Before I traveled down that rabbit hole any further, my eyes caught sight of a rock protruding from the side of the wall. It looked like it might be the tip of a larger rock formation. Or it very well could just be a small rock that will drop as soon as my weight hits it. Only thing I did know was that Apis form could easily make that jump. And I didn't have a ton of options.

  I squatted down and hopped. I stretched my foot, getting ready to hop off the rock once I landed, but halfway through the hop my body stopped suddenly, and I was falling back into the tunnel. Something latched onto my tail and pulled me back down.

  I twisted in the air, trying to get a look before I landed. Some of the dirt and rocks piled up on my tail. I landed next to it, pulling on it. It wouldn’t budge even an inch, trapped in some rocks underneath a dirt pile. I couldn’t afford to get out of the form—no way base form was making that jump.

  After the failed attempts at pulling, I switched to digging, trying to find what was snaring it. (The yanking hurt like a sonuvabitch too.) It shouldn’t be too far down, only a small portion of my tail was stuck. It didn’t take long to find the snag, yet it came with a different problem. My tail wasn’t quite stuck in between two rocks, but rather stuck in a rock. Like straight up King Arthur sword-in-the-stone stuck. I could only blink at the absurdity of the conundrum. How the hell does that even happen?

  I looked around for a moment before finding the answer staring me in the face. Quite literally. A pair of eyes peeked through the massive dirt pile (totally not giving me a mild to severe heart attack).

  After a small yelp, a whole-ass face pulled through the dirt, revealing the Gravels the dwarf, yet he looked odd. While the shape of his face and beard were correct, its composition wasn’t; his skin had completely turned to stone. He pulled the rest of his body out from the rubble, showing that he’d grabbed on to my tail with one of his hands. The hand had fused together, creating a perfectly smooth ball around my tail.

  “No, lad, you’re not getting away that easily. Not after all, we gave up.” He growled, his voice somehow even more coarse than before as he brought his face close to mine. His breath stunk of dirt and peat.

  Without thinking, I punched his face, a terrible mistake. I held my throbbing hand and tried to back away from him, but every attempt was thwarted with another yank on my tail.

  Damn, don’t have a choice here. I’ll have to shift into Ursa. Escape plan will have to come later. But right before I did, a vial of glass shattered right on top of the dwarf’s shoulder.

  Shining green liquid splashed all over the dwarf’s shoulder and arm, only a small portion got on my tail. Yet after a second or two, the liquid burned like crazy. Like someone was putting a cigarette and my tail was the ashtray.

  I wasn’t alone in my pain; the dwarf’s face twisted in pain as he used his free hand to try and wipe the liquid off.

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  “Liam, Catch!”

  I twisted toward Daila just in time to find another vial hurtling at me. I caught the small glass vial and looked at it. The liquid inside was clear, no color whatsoever.

  “Antacid. Apply it wherever acid gets on you. But you're better off dodging.”

  “Dodging wha—oh shit!” I’d stopped examining the small bottle only to find three other green vials heading right for me and the dwarf.

  Each vial exploded as they landed on the dwarf. Daila’s aim was impeccable, not a single vial had missed the dwarf’s shoulder and arm. More of the liquid splashed and landed on my chest, but I poured the clear liquid on my hand and rubbed it on the luminescent acid. The green liquid lost all color as the antacid neutralized it. It still burned a bit, but nowhere near as bad.

  Large cracks grew and spider webbed all down the dwarf’s acid covered arm and, most notably, the hand trapping my tail. I chopped down on the rocky dwarf’s wrist, hoping that it would be enough to release his hold.

  It was enough. Too much, actually.

  His stone hand crumbled under the blow, releasing my tail and powdering the ground in the remnants of the man’s hand. I jumped back as soon as I was free, twisting my face a bit as I looked at the damage I’d done. Never thought Apis form would be the limb cutting form type but anything’s possible.

  “NO!” The yelled out as his entire arm crumbled away from the acid chewing through it. I made a mental note to ask what in god’s name kind of acid could chew through straight stone like that. And to never, ever get in a fight with her. Ever. Like, avoid any and all altercations whatsoever. I quite enjoyed my limbs right where they were.

  But it looked like the dwarf still had some tricks left up his missing sleeve. He groaned and knelt down, holding the barren shoulder with his other hand. “If I must. One shouldn’t kill me.”

  He muttered something to himself that I didn’t quite catch as he grabbed something out of a pocket in his shirt. Something glowing blue. A glow I instantly recognized. It was the only thing I’d seen on Kniyas glow so beautifully. A blue gardenia.

  Gravels shoved the flower into his mouth, then slumped over into the pile of dirt and stone. After some trembling and shaking, he pulled his body back out. He grunted and grumbled as he pulled a fresh new stony arm from the pile. It wasn’t smooth like the last one, but made up of hundreds of small stones and rocks tightly packed together. I don’t remember those flowers being able to do something like that.

  The dwarf clapped his newly minted hands together before shoving them into the ground at his feet. I however, had gained some distance now, I wrapped my tail around my torso, making sure to not avoid another mishap with it and jumped toward the protruding rock. Whatever power up he got didn’t matter, I only needed to escape.

  The ground rumbled again and right in the middle of my flight, a massive spike of earth shot up from beneath me. I twisted in the air just enough to dodge an impalement, but the spike had effectively blocked my jump. The earth rumbled again, the dwarf was about to send another one. I landed on the ground, then felt the earth shift and grow under foot. I tried to kick away, but it was too fast, another spike launched at me.

  But just before it pierced my body, something wrapped around my torso, yanking me away from the attack. I looked down and saw dark furry arms wrapped around me. The two of us tumbled back for a bit.

  “Rodis! Watch your attack! Just stop him, don’t kill him!” The leader kept his arms clasped around me as he yelled to his companion. I struggled as I tried to pry his arms off. But damn he was strong. The ground shook again under us.

  “Blast it all, Rodis!” The leader released his grip and kicked me away. We went flying in opposite directions just as another spike shot out of the ground. Other spikes grew from the ground, filling up the center of the cavern.

  I caught myself before hitting the ground thanks to Apis form’s enhanced sense of aerial motion. I landed light, ready to jump at a moment’s notice if the earth shook under my feet. I looked around for my protruding rock again, but I smirked when I realized something. These spikes looked pretty easy to climb, especially in this form.

  The earth trembled under me again, but I was ready this time. I shot out for the tallest spike, the very first one, rushing to it as fast as I could, weaving between the spikes. My hope was that the Gravels would lose track of me, then I’d climb up.

  I bobbed between the spikes as randomly as I could, never taking the same turn as the last. It was seemingly working too. More spikes grew around our little arena, but not close to where I was. The dwarf was just guessing. I can make it, no, I will make it.

  The tall center spike entered my vision. It was so close. But as I made the final turn, a furry arm shot out, clothes lining me right in the chest. I flipped backwards and hit the ground. My lungs coughed up any wind left in them. I retched as I tried to refill them.

  The feral leader stood above me. “Nice hustle,” he remarked with a tired grin. He knelt down and grabbed me. “Shirles now!”

  The small hole opened up to our side. The mole girl poked her up. “O’er here boss. But what about Rodis?”

  “Leave him. He’ll be alright. He shouldn’t morph off just one. Go a little crazy sure, but full on morph. Nah. He’ll get back alright, if not a little slow. Lock, grab his legs.” The gnome shot up beside her, ready to help with my capture, though not looking all too thrilled to get leg duty again.

  I tried to get up, and fight, but my chest was on fire. I punched and kicked, but it didn’t amount to much. The girl even grabbed onto my tail, stopping it from being able to make a move.

  But before they had fully stopped me, thunder cracked in the air. Yellow bolts of lightning wracked the leader’s body. He shot up as his body quivered under the force of the electricity coursing through.

  Without the leader’s added muscle, I shoved the other two off with relative ease. I got up and jumped to the center spike. I climbed as fat as I could. Then I reached the top, squatted down and launched myself at the root wall. I flew towards it.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  I hadn’t jumped high enough, probably on account of the missing oxygen in my lungs. I fell just short of the target. But it was ok, I just had to do it again. I scoffed to myself. Because it was so easy last time.

  But just as I was getting ready to land, water rocketed past my head and under my feet. It stopped just below me, making a small cube. Realizing what it was, I landed on the water cube and jumped again.

  My hands gripped down on the wall of roots once they met. I scurried up the side of the hole without looking back even once. I passed right by the platform Daila and the wood mage sat on. I was only concerned with getting out of that stupid tunnel.

  Once I was at the top, I scrambled over the edge. I rolled onto my back. I was safe.

  A monster growled above my head, reminding me that I was not.

  “Come on!”