Cultivating Heroism Read online

  Vekku proved his worth almost immediately, showing them a shortcut that would avoid a group of his race, which he said are known as gruks, that had been rapidly making their way towards the trio.

  It took them into a cave full of flying creatures like bats which rushed at them so suddenly Kaarina screeched, and they were both forced to duck down and shield their heads. It was only when the bats were gone and they could stand up again, that he realized Vekku was clinging to the side of the cave and had easily avoided the swarm. There must have been something sticky on his hands and feet that let him scale things. Or maybe he just had amazing grip.

  They made quick work of the top layer of the cave, finding nothing but cave plants Vekku liked to munch on, and mined walls with thousands of holes pocked all along them. There wasn’t so much as a shard there for them to salvage though.

  “There might be something further down,” Mack suggested. “Can you show us where there might be some crystal shards?”

  “Or maybe an entire crystal? That would sure be handy,” added Kaarina.

  “I show you how to get there.”

  This time they did get a small mine shaft to scale down, but they made easy work of it with the rope that Jakke had given them. Vekku could walk down the walls as if they weren’t vertical at all.

  The next level didn’t glean them any shards either.

  “Is this it?” Mack asked, when he was sure they’d worked in a big circle. “Is there nowhere else we can look?”

  Vekku picked at some dirt on the wall. “There is more. No want to take you. Too dangerous.”

  “And what is the reason?” asked Mack.

  “Worms.”

  “Worms?” Admittedly he wasn’t a fan of them, but he wasn’t sure they were enough to stop him investigating the one place in the mine that might have some shards.

  “Big worms. Cavern walls softer, so worms come through whenever they like. Not like here, hard rock.” The little gruk gently wrapped his knuckle on a section of rock that jutted out from the mine wall.

  Mack and Kaarina shared a look, which was half incredulity and half worry.

  “And you think there might be some shards in there?”

  “If there are any left, they’ll be there.”

  “We have to go,” Kaarina said to Mack.

  And for once, he agreed with her. “Yeah. You’re right. Show us the way, Vekku.”

  They made quick work through the passages toward an area they’d already been at. Vekku scrabbled along the wall to a small hole that Mack hadn’t noticed before.

  Vekku started pulling away at the dirt edges of the hole and it rapidly grew bigger.

  “Little guy’s not a bad digger,” Mack mused. “Watch out,” he quickly said, shooing the gruk out of the way and then punching the edges of the hole multiple times. It crumbled easily, revealing a gaping cavern. It was much bigger than he’d pictured, extending so far that he couldn’t see the end of it. Something about it looked like a terrible maw of some creature. Hopefully these worms really weren’t all that big.

  What he could see was gorgeous though. The cave plants that Vekku had been munching on grew in abundance here, and they didn’t look wrinkled and old. They grew thickest at the banks of small pools which were both turquoise but completely transparent all at once.

  Kaarina immediately pushed her way into the cave to crouch by the pool closest to her. “This is incredible!” she gushed. “There are tiny fish in here! They’re adorable! Wow, look at all this—it’s gorgeous!” She could barely contain herself.

  Vekku hopped from the wall onto her back and then down into the foliage, where he began scoffing down the leaves.

  Mack moved more tentatively into the space, looking at the walls to see if he could see the glimmer of something that looked like it might be shards of power crystal. Jakke had described the things to him, but he still wasn’t entirely sure what he was even looking for. He also took his time to scan the cavern for anything that might resemble a giant worm, or any other nasty that might be waiting down there to attack them.

  Kaarina spoke to Vekku like he was a baby as she remarked on all the things she saw, and he was sure Vekku practically purred as he listened.

  Mack rolled his eyes and pressed a hand against the wall. Soft sand crumbled away at his touch. Nothing sparkled.

  He moved his hand along the wall and then froze. It wasn’t just crumbling under his fingertips, it was rumbling.

  The worm burst without warning through the wall right where his face was—he didn’t have time to properly react, and he only just flung himself to the side to avoid his face being mauled by the thing. It was only a few feet long, but that worm’s head was practically all teeth. It had no noticeable eyes, just a rounded head that gave way as the massive mouth opened wide to show rows of dozens of long, thin teeth. Each one of them looked sharper than the next, and Mack was damn lucky to miss being torn up by any of them.

  He punched at it sideways as it flew from the wall, narrowly missing his face. The force sent it flying across the room, where it landed on a sharp rock and stopped moving. There was an impressive dent in the side of what might have been a neck on a different creature. The area had already turned dark like a bad day-old bruise. It was no wonder the worm had died so suddenly.

  “Jesus Christ,” Mack muttered. “Well, that wasn’t too much trouble anyway. It wasn’t that big.”

  Vekku hid behind Kaarina’s hair. “That just baby.”

  Kaarina’s ears twitched, and soon Mack didn’t need enhanced hearing to know that something much bigger was coming toward them. The whole cavern was shaking!

  “Let’s get out of here,” he hissed, but it was too late. A section of wall as big as the one they’d created to get into the cavern suddenly broke away before them. The mother worm came bursting into the cavern from below. Mack had been so close that he was given zero time to react, stumbling and falling forward with no way to slow himself. He felt slim hands grab him by either side of his torso and hoist him backward rapidly.

  Kaarina had taken hold of him—only just barely in time to rescue him from falling down into to gaping hole—and dragged him back to safety.

  “Fuck!” Mack shouted, realizing how close he’d just come from dying. “Thank you, thank you,” he then repeated, as he took up position beside Kaarina who had the little gruk tightly stuck to the back of her left shoulder like some kind of over-shoulder backpack.

  They faced the giant worm as it thrust through the hole and brought its entire body into the shadowy cavern. It must have been ten feet long, with teeth the size of Mack’s arm, only much thinner, razor sharp. He promised himself that he would not let one of those hellish fangs touch any of them.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered, looking up at the beast as it moved its eyeless head around like it was looking around the cavern, seemingly searching for something. When it spotted the worm Mack had just killed, it released a high-pitched roar that made them bend down with pain.

  “That sure is a big worm,” Kaarina murmured, covering her super-sensitive ears.

  “Definitely a big worm,” Mack agreed, curling his hands into fists. This thing was too big for him to fight the way he’d dealt with everyone else. It wasn’t even slightly like a spar. He was going against a real monster, something that could just swallow any of them up with one fell movement. “We’re going to have to work really well together to kill this one.”

  His mind was racing with some kind of strategy, to figure out how he was going to get close enough to let his fists deal damage without leaving himself open to a fatal attack.

  “We need to find a weak spot,” he called. At least this thing probably wouldn’t be able to understand what he was shouting. “There’s got to be something we can do to slow it down at least.”

  Without waiting to let the monstrous worm make another move, Kaarina rushed forward with her katana and pierced the thick white skin of the worm with it, but the magic didn’t have the same effect it had
had on the guks, or even the bandits. For half a second the worm seemed to hesitate, but then it was moving as fast as ever as it twisted toward Kaarina and flung itself at her with all its terrible teeth bared in a chomping mouth.

  It caught her arm as she dodged to the side, shredding her skin with the tips of several of them and making her cry out in pain. That could have been so much worse, given the magnitude of the enemy they were facing. From the looks of it, she was still seriously injured already.

  But as the worm rushed by here and began to rear its lengthy body around, it revealed the possible weakness Mack had been looking for. When it twisted its body, there was a gap in its flesh that had to be vulnerable. It was red and angry as opposed to the hard-white case on the rest of its body. The area might have been an old scar that had never probably healed and grown back the thick natural hide that covered the rest of the giant worm.

  He forced himself to ignore Kaarina’s danger for now, as he dashed forward and delivered as many quick punches as he could to the red spot while it was in front of him.

  He’d definitely been right about it being a weakness. The beast immediately stopped and roared again, this time a higher pitch that was hopefully indicative of pain. Then it turned its head with devastating speed and put all its focus on Mack.

  Mack’s quick footwork wasn’t enough to get him out of the way of the worm’s bite, and it chomped it teeth across his stomach as it flung itself round. It wasn’t a graceful or accurate attempt at biting its foe, but the worm was big enough that it didn’t matter. Mack thought for a second that he was going to die then and there, until he stumbled back, tripping on a cave plant. That was the saving grace that stopped him from being killed, and he had never been happier to fall on his ass.

  “Stab it in the red weak points,” he called to Kaarina, pressing his hand to his bleeding stomach. “We have to take it in turns to attack it there.”

  It was a ridiculously dangerous strategy, but it was the only one he could think of. They had to just rush it down, do everything they could before its attacks did too much damage and they couldn’t fight anymore.

  They repeated the strategy of waiting for the monster worm to come around and attack one of them, and then Mack would fling himself forward and punch the weak point as many times as he could. With each successful hit landed, his wounds got worse and his stamina started to fail him. He knew he was doing less damage each time rather than more. The worm swung around so hard that it slammed Mack into the cave wall, so hard he was sure it broke his arm, and he couldn’t lift it to deliver anymore punches. But he still had one good arm, and that was all he needed.

  He couldn’t see Kaarina past the thing’s huge body to know what state she was in, but he knew it couldn’t be much better. The worm suddenly froze like it was stuck on something. He didn’t try to figure out what was happening, but ran around to the weak spot to land as many punches as he could before this stroke of luck went away. The worm wasn’t writhing around to attack him at all.

  Finally, Mack was able to see what had happened. There was Kaarina with a sincere rage in her eyes. She’d managed to stick her katana right into the weak spot. There was a red glow around the metal at the hilt, and the magical energy surged into to worm continuously, preventing it from moving at all.

  “May I borrow your katana for a moment?” he asked Kaarina with a sly smirk on his face, making a little bow to further add to the cheesy impression he gave.

  “Sure, but you’d better be quick.”

  “Oh, I will be.” With both hands, he grabbed the handle of the katana from where it stuck out from the giant worm and pushed it in even farther until he own fists were practically entirely inside the monstrous cave creature. He ducked down and then launched himself up pushing the sword with him until it slices through and came out the top of the worm, practically severing the whole head section off.

  “Unreal!” shouted Vekku with glee. He looked like he was about to jump onto Mack’s shoulder to hug him but must have thought better of it.

  “You did it,” Kaarina said, but her words were slurred. Mack turned to Kaarina with wide eyes and a panicked twist overtook his mouth. Something was very wrong. He dashed forward and stood at her feet, putting his arm around her to support for slim frame.

  “Oh shit,” Mack uttered. “You’re a mess. Are you okay?” Blood was streaming from a wound in her forehead and multiple on her arms and torso. “I can’t believe I let this happen to you. I was so focused on fighting that thing that I didn’t keep an eye on you.”

  With a little laugh that seemed forced, Kaarina shrugged him away carefully and said, “I’ll be fine. Nothing serious.”

  “Nothing serious?” He double-checked. There really didn’t seem to be even one serious cut or wound. The throb of his broken arm made it harder and harder to concentrate now that the adrenaline had stopped being pumped throughout his body.

  “You’re forgetting that I’m a healer,” she said with a wink. And it’s certainly nothing as serious as that arm!” She rushed forward, almost falling over on what must have been a sore ankle. “Come here.” She rested her hands on his shoulder and whispered incantations.

  He moaned with relief as the pain disappeared from his arm. It made the rest of his wounds feel more acute, but he wasn’t worried about grinding his teeth to dust from gritting them so hard against the pain anymore.

  “Thank you.”

  “That’s what I’m here for.” She squeezed his hand. “I can’t believe we just killed that thing. You really were incredible.”

  “What about your wounds?” he asked.

  “Oh, I’ll be fine.”

  “Aren’t you going to heal yourself?”

  “It doesn’t really work like that. I can heal other people, but not myself. I heal quicker than you, but I can’t instantly make myself better. Everything I got will be fine by tomorrow, I promise.”

  “You can’t heal yourself the way you do me?” Mack struggled to hide his worry at that. She was in just as much danger as he was, but if she couldn’t heal herself if something potentially fatal happened then that was it. She’d just die.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” she scolded. “I’ll be absolutely fine. My ankle is already feeling better.”

  He’d been irresponsible taking her out of Avalu before properly finding out what her powers could do. He’d just taken it for granted that she’d be able to save herself when he’d formed his strategy to kill the worm.

  “I’m fine,” she repeated, this time coupling it with a brief kiss on the lips. Only she stood on her tiptoes, which strained her ankle, and made her swear. “Really fine,” she repeated. “Let’s just get out of here before another one comes.”

  “Forget something?” Vekku said. In the commotion he’d slipped away from Kaarina without Mack noticing, and was now perched on the back of the worm again and pointing at something. “This what you looking for?”

  They hurried forward, Mack getting there much quicker than Kaarina now his injuries were healed. Embedded inside the severed body the worm was a small shard of something. It held the same appearance as the water in the cavern—it was partially transparent depending how the light came off it, while also definitely being a vivid turquoise.

  “That’s a crystal shard?” Mack was taken aback. “How the hell did it end up inside the worm?”

  Getting close enough to take a proper look, Kaarina chuckled dryly. “Looks like that was the cause of the scar tissue that gave us our weak spot. That really is amazing luck on our part, isn’t it? Hmm … I can get it out.” Having a task like this was taking her mind off her injuries.

  “That looks so fragile,” said Mack. “Like it could just shatter into dust from a slight bump.”

  Kaarina seemed annoyed. “It’s not just magical healing that I know about. A good healer is taught all the ways of living creatures and how they tick. This doesn’t look so different from a regular worm on the inside really, apart from the dozens of deadly teeth th
at are twice as long as you, Vekku.”

  He bit his tongue on arguing. She seemed so vulnerable suddenly that it was terrifying. “Okay. Did you need anything from the backpack?”

  “Can I have the knife?”

  Mack got it out and handed it to her, then he watched her with rapt attention as she first made delicate cuts to remove the piece of crystal from the dense flesh of the worm without so much as nicking it with the blade.

  “There you go.” She handed it to him, and he was suddenly wary to put his hands on it and do something to break it himself.

  “Here, I’ll get something to wrap it in.” He fished in his backpack for the spare set of clothes he’d been given. She put it carefully in them and he wrapped it up, then secured the bundle in the bag. “Hopefully that will keep it safe.”

  “Shard stab through worm. How weak can shard be?” interjected Vekku, and he had a good point. Still, there was no sense in taking chances with something they needed so badly.

  Mack nodded in agreement and actually smiled at the little creature. It was starting to grow on him. “Alright then. Lead the way out of here.”

  Chapter Eleven

  They made it back to the temple in good time, refusing to be distracted by anything slightly curious they went past. Mack was sure they hadn’t been gone for more than a couple of hours. They only made one small pitstop to eat some of the food Minna had given them. Vekku had gorged on so many plants in the mine that they didn’t have to share with him.

  “We’re back!” Mack called to Jakke as he slipped into the temple. “And we’ve got the crystal shard. Oh, by the way, the gruk is with us.”

  Jakke was immediately in front of him, the hologram so close to his face that it was blurred. Mack jumped so violently at the sudden appearance of his mentor that he almost dropped the shard he’d been bragging about.

  Eyeing the creature suspiciously through the door, Jakke finally said, “Very well. I’ll add it to the temporary guest list. But it had better not break anything or defecate on the floor.”