And it wasn’t alone.
In that frozen heartbeat, where everything was alight, the camera drone revealed the entire ceiling to be covered in the creatures. They turned toward the light and screeched as one, fangs as long as one of Zelda’s fingers arcing outward. The moment passed and darkness returned.
The brief flash of light had been enough for Kaiden’s visor, though. It’d captured a good look at the creatures and was reading out their details.
Abyssal Weevile
Level: 15
“Visor just spotted them,” Kaiden reported, reading the data as fast as he could. “Says they’re called ‘abyssal weeviles.’ All around level fifteen.”
“That’s not so bad,” Titus said.
“Except there’s a couple hundred of them up there.” Zelda raised her shield.
“Quick facts,” Kaiden said, continuing to read from his visor. “Abyssal weeviles live only in the darkest caves in the universe and are fiercely photophobic.”
“Well, they’re on camera already…” Titus looked perplexed.
“Photo as in light,” Zelda said, then held her shield higher above her head.
“Like photosynthesis,” Kaiden added.
“This’ll do it, right?” Zelda looked at her shield as she backed further into the cave. She was breathing hard and it was easy to see she was a bit shaken.
“I think so,” Kaiden confirmed.
“Okay. Then let’s figure out where I’m headed next—”
A screech tore through the cave. Hundreds of others followed, and all at once the darkness came alive with flapping wings, slashing claws and darting shapes. Zelda covered her head, ducking and running forward as hundreds of weeviles swarmed her. Her health dropped under a constant barrage of slicing blows and she made it several paces before running smack into a wall. Her health took another blow from that and she stumbled to one side, then fell.
“I’m afraid the caves around here are, well, a bit infested,” Odditor said with an all too happy-sounding laugh.
Zelda held her shield above her, but she was a blast warden and not meant to tank attacks. The weeviles swarmed her all the more, several landing on her and sinking teeth into her armor.
“Gah!” she shouted, swatting at them to no avail. Her health was dropping worryingly quickly now. Down to seventy-six percent, then seventy-five, seventy-four.
“Enough! How’s this for light?” Zelda screamed, then raised her hammer-gun and fired an Improved Warden’s Bolt.
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
The cave lit up with Improved Warden Bolt’s crackling electricity and the weeviles died en masse as the attack tore through their swarm, shocking one after the other as it jumped from target to target.
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
Abyssal Weevile assisted kill – 300 EXP gained!
There were still too many weeviles, though. As soon as the light faded from the attack they were back, swarming and biting.
Zelda fired an Improved Burst Arrow, then another. With each blast of light, the weeviles screeched and died, but the light from the attacks never lasted long. As soon as it was gone the swarm returned, seemingly endless in number.
“They are terribly determined little creatures. They just... love biting so much.” Odditor seemed positively gleeful watching the chaos unfold. Zelda, on the other hand, looked to have had enough. She’d been sprinting along the cave wall, following it away from the weeviles, though they pursued her every step.
“Toward the light, maybe?” Kaiden said, trying to figure out what to do next.
“That’s the trap,” Zelda grunted through the screeching weeviles. “The labyrinth wants me to run into whatever it is.” And sure enough, as Kaiden looked back to the pulsating light he saw the stalagmites and stalactites around it move ever so slightly.
Those aren’t rocks. Those are teeth! he realized with no lack of horror.
Meanwhile, Zelda curled up in a corner, her miniscule shield held in front of her. Weeviles swarmed around its edges, biting and clawing. Her health was down to sixty-six percent now.
“We need a plan!” Kaiden shouted. Shit. Think, think!
“I… I…” Titus cursed. “I don’t know.”
“I need a constant source of light,” Zelda grunted.
“Flame?” Thorne said. “Improved Kinetic Grenade could make some, but it’d need to catch on something to burn.”
“It’s worth a try. Go for it!” Kaiden said and Zelda did.
She lobbed the grenade up into the swarm of weeviles. They dodged around it – right up until it detonated against the ceiling. The cave blossomed in an explosion of flame as the grenade went off. The weeviles fled again, but this time hesitated in returning.
Zelda peeked out from beneath her shield to find the weeviles were no longer swarming her. And then Kaiden realized why.
A pure, bright beam of light was shining down from above. Sunlight! The grenade had damaged the ceiling! Zelda saw it too and hurried into the beacon of safety. The weeviles swarmed just outside of its reach, but hissed and fled whenever their wings brushed the light.
“That’s my way out of here,” Zelda said, then wasted no time in firing into the ceiling again, then again. With each attack, dirt and debris rained down, and with it, more daylight. The hissing of the weeviles reached a fever pitch as Zelda fired a final shot and an entire section of the ceiling came down.
Zelda threw herself to the side at the last moment, narrowly avoiding the falling debris. Many of the weeviles did not and were crushed. Those that avoided the debris were left smoking and sizzling as pure sunlight beamed into the cave. What remained of the swarm dissipated, screeching as they frantically flapped into whatever remaining shadows they could find in the cave.
“Well. Well, now, that’s just...” Odditor seemed at a loss. “Boo,” he finally pouted.
“Get out of there,” Kaiden said, all too relieved to see Zelda by the light of day once again.
“Working on it,” she said, then began to climb the piled up debris from the cave-in. In no time she
