They worked their way back, past the dead giant and into the room where a mussel-covered corpse was still sitting beside a pool of water. The mussels had fallen off, leaving pocked white skin below.
The next room was different from what came before, open at the top to let in moonlight that didn’t match the daylight of the other room and trees that seemed to grow straight up from the shiny black stone, their roots weaving in and out of it as though it were dirt. Isra could feel the trees, thick pines that shared something in common with those on the outside, but with a warp to them, an internal wobbling rather than a solid cylinder of the trunk.
In the center of the clearing was a bear, and Alfric stayed well back from it because it was as big as a house. It was resting but not quite sleeping, its back turned toward them. From time to time, it would huff and sigh.
<I don’t know that we can kill this thing,> said Alfric. <We’re not equipped to punch through its vitals.>
<It’s too large to get through the door,> said Mizuki.
<Which is why we’re staying back,> replied Alfric. <We can skip this room. I don’t think fighting that thing is worth an entad, if there’s one in there.>
<Trees are magic,> said Mizuki. <Ectad material.>
<Which we have no way of chopping or carting,> said Alfric. <Not worth it.>
<You’re the one that said a full clear was best,> said Hannah. <And there might be a room beyond still, or two. Otherwise we’re done.>
<I don’t want a level of risk we’re not going to find acceptable,> said Alfric, his voice firm. <Mizuki can hit it once, maybe twice, but Isra’s arm is close to giving out, Verity has been holding songs, and we’re already getting at least six entads from this dungeon.> This was a mild surprise to Isra, who hadn’t been tracking the things left behind. <There might be no upside to this fight, not when it’s incapable of getting through the entrance. We don’t kill for sport.>
<Vote?> asked Hannah.
<On what?> asked Alfric. <If we try this, it’ll be with Mizuki lobbing shots, us trying to get the creature stuck in the doorway, hitting its face, and maybe trying to wedge my sword in its mouth.>
<Sounds like a vote,> said Hannah, nodding. <Aye.>
<Aye,> said Alfric, sounding reluctant.
<Aye,> said Mizuki, squaring her shoulders.
Isra looked at Verity, who was still playing, and saw the bard give a slow, circumspect nod of her head.
<Aye,> said Isra.
Mizuki came to the front, at the mouth of the cave. She breathed a shaky breath.
<Is it too late to change to a nay?> she asked.
<I’m going to yell for it,> said Alfric. <Aim for the head with everything you’ve got. We’re trying to get a killing blow.>
<Okay,> replied Mizuki. There was a disturbance in the air, around her fingers, and Isra felt the song shift. Something changed in Mizuki, and the air began to crackle around her. Isra could feel it in her skin, and the air warmed around them.
“Aaaah!” Alfric screamed at the bear. “Aaahah!”
<Get ready to cover your ears,> said Mizuki.
The house-size bear rose, slowly, and turned to face them. ‘Face’ was likely the wrong word, because it was simply a collection of eyes that seemed to have been placed on the head at random, along with black things like leeches that hung from where its mouth should have been, each of them as large as a human arm. It warbled at them, and as it began to move, Mizuki struck. For a moment, it was like the air had been sucked out of the room, but it wasn’t just air, it was something else as well, a void in the aether that Isra could feel, even without being a mage.
The spell had been directed, focused, and still the blowback from it hit them all hard enough that they staggered. Mizuki hadn’t used a fireball, or a fireburst, or the one with lightning; it had been different, almost a beam, energy in a more pure form, cleanly directed.
Half of the bear’s face was missing, and there was a hole of charred flesh in it so large that Isra thought she probably could have crawled inside.
Still, it lumbered forward, as though not aware that it should be dead.
Isra fired her bow, aiming for the eyes, hoping to blind, and stepped after her arrow, firing more. She was feeling it in her arm, too many firings too close together, but she pressed on. Looking at the ruins of its face, trying to remain calm, she aimed arrows not just at the remaining eight eyes, but at the side of its head as well. There was a spot where its head had been which was now charred meat, and on the other side of that was something, which wasn’t protected by the same thick hide.
<Hannah, go,> said Alfric, but it was said while Isra was in the bubble of warped time, so the sounds were stretched out.
When the first arrow she’d shot hit home, Isra backed up. A glance behind her showed something unsettling though: Verity and Mizuki were both on the ground, with Mizuki trying to rouse Verity. The song had ended.
When Isra looked back to the bear, she saw Hannah and Alfric there. Hannah was on the thing’s ruined right side, and Alfric was on its left. That Hannah was going to touch the creature was both obvious and insane because it had sharp shovel-claws that were each the size of a person’s head. Isra fired another arrow, her arm stinging, and watched the creature’s paw go toward Hannah in slow motion as the arrow crept forward. Isra had thoughts of attempting to move Hannah, but it was too hard to affect the world when time was slowed, and she had too little time to do anything about it. She watched in horror as Hannah was hit, lifted up off her feet and sent careening into one of the trees. She struggled to her feet, but the creature had turned its attention to Alfric, and he was without backup.
The bear hit him with its claw, a slow, lumbering hit, and his shield was ripped from his hand, leaving only his sword, which he gripped with two hands as he backed up. Isra fired another arrow, this time at the leech-like appendage dangling from its face, which was swinging up to Alfric. She struck it, twice in quick succession, but the beast still had its claws. Slowed-down time was giving Isra time to think, and that was giving rise to fear, which Verity wasn’t there to tamp down.
“Stop!” shouted Isra at the top of her lungs, as the bear raised a paw to bring down on Alfric.
To her surprise, the bear stopped what it was doing and looked at Isra. It had arrows sticking into its face and a giant cavity on the right side of its body, but there was still, somehow, a dull curiosity, all of it directed at her. It wasn’t going to listen, that was clear, but it had felt the words. She, in return, had felt a wave of sickness.
The left half of its head vanished, replaced by a mirror of the same charred damage. For a moment, Isra thought even that might not be enough, but the monster collapsed to the ground after a moment of swaying.
<Retreat,> commanded Alfric. <To the tunnel.>
They all moved back, with Alfric and Hannah both limping, until they got to where Mizuki had, somehow, dragged Verity out of harm’s way.
“She sucked the magic out of me,” said Verity, lolling her head. “I didn’t know a sorc could do that.”
“Well I didn’t either!” said Mizuki. “One minute it felt like I was the most powerful sorcerer in the world, the next you were collapsing and somehow that stupid bear wasn’t dead.”
<It’s dead now,> said Alfric, looking at the giant corpse. There was enough meat there to feed a village for an entire winter, a body so big that it would take a week just to dress it, if not more. It was good meat too, Isra could tell. She’d eaten bear only once before, hunted by someone else, and it had taken some effort to get rid of the gamy taste, but it had been fatty and delicious. <Are you okay, Verity? Do we need to get you out of here?>