Bang! Bang! Bang! The shoots painfully echoed through the tunnel. Bang! Bang! Bang! The bullets do very little to stop the oncoming onslaught. Any of the creatures who were hitare simply trampled over by their brethren. Azrael reloads as Isaac quickly spies an entryway on the side of the tunnel. Quickly, the two run inside. Unfortunately, the mass of red caps follows. Before the two adventurers is a great doorway, fifty feet ahead. The two hope that it can lead them outside. Running is becoming harder. Oxygen was already low this deep. Exercise isn't helping. Isaac feels himself slipping away. He keeps going. Thirty feet. Losing feeling in his legs. Twenty feet. Things are getting even darker. Ten feet. Almost there. The two quickly swing the massive door open before closing it on the horde with just a moment to spare.
The two adventurers could breathe again, now that there was a barrier between them and the mass of red caps. Azrael quickly closed the heavy metal crossbar, a heavy scraping sound showing the age of the structure. Isaac surveyed the room. It seemed to be older than most of the tunnels. More polished and refined. The architecture seemed to lend the room a level of significance. There were adornments everywhere. Gems and precious metals seemed to be everywhere Isaac could see. There was very little light. Only some light-producing mushrooms growing on a chandelier. He would see some form on the other side of the room. It was enormous, which fortunately meant it couldn't be a red cap. After a few minutes of catching their breath, Azrael and Isaac attempted to assess their situation. As they did so, a continuous pounding and scratching at the door reminded them of the danger behind it.
"Where are we?" Azael asked. "Any idea?"
"No. I don't remember coming anywhere near here on the tour."
"Well, let's hope there's an exit."
"There isn't," a voice in the dark responded. It was the first female voice that Isaac had heard all day. As he and Azrael looked to hear where the sound had come from, Isaac watched as the gigantic form he had seen moved. The figure lumbered towards them. As it came closer, the soft glow of the mushrooms could illuminate the hulking figure. It was unmistakably a gnome, or red cap, or whatever, only multiple times larger. It was even larger than a human, though still holding the same proportions as its brethren. The other major difference between this red cap and the others was that this one appeared to be a female. The only female they had seen this entire time. Isaac wondered if she was the queen of this red cap hive.
"How have you come here?" the Queen's voice croaked.
"We were being chased by your fellow red caps, m'am. That's when we ended up here," Isaac explained.
The Queen gave out a sigh of contempt. "My progeny seem to be rather disappointing as of late. No doubt because of the lack of suitable food sources. Some have even taken to eating one another. I remember a time when things were far more plentiful. Sadly, it hasn't been that way for quite some time."
"What?" Isaac spat out. "What do you mean? I thought this place had always been a desert. Least, that's what I've always been told."
"If I wished to hear you speak, I would have demanded it," the Queen replied. "Now, I suggest that the two of you open the door there and let my sons kill you quickly. The longer you hold them off, the angrier they will become. You do not wish to find out what they do to the food that makes them angry."
"Yeah, I feel they're the type that plays with their food," Azrael responded dryly. "Still, I reckon that you might just be our ticket out of here. What sons would be okay with watching their mother get shot to death?"
The queen laughed. "Foolish skeleton. They would kill you as soon as you are no longer a threat to me. As soon as you get far enough away from me, they would start hunting you down. I'm guessing that you both don't know your way around here and my sons do. It would be a matter of minutes for them to reach you and destroy you. You really are better off surrendering."
"Damn it!" Azrael cursed. "She's right, kid. As soon as we leave, we'd be back where we started. We'd be getting chased down by those bastards and we aren't conditioned to live down here like they are."
"There's nothing you can do? Don't you have magic death powers or something? Hell, why are you even worried? It's not like you can die!"
Azrael rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, that ain't exactly true. I can be killed by magic and other supernatural things like fairy tale creatures and such. Not that I'm some kind of push over or anything, but I am guessing a horde of red caps tearing me apart would be enough to kill me."
"Unbelievable," Isaac vented. "So you can die? Death, can die? How does that even work?"
"Well, I never said I was Death itself. I'm just an angel of his. Well, was. It's a long story. I used to have the job or keeping all you humans separated from all the magic surrounding you. By force. Lethal force."
"Okay. and you're telling me that you did all that and you don't even have any powers or anything? Come on!" Isaac vexed.
"Didn't need 'em," Azrael boasted.
"Well, you kind of need them now!" Isaac shouted.
"It's okay, kid. Just let me think. We can get out of this. What do you got on you? Anything useful?"
Isaac thought about all the items he had. Nothing stood out as being effective, except maybe the gunpowder. He didn't have much though, but it might help to have some light.
"I have some gunpowder," Isaac answered. "It might help us have some light. Don't have much though. What about you?"
"Hmm, I have little. Some dynamite, but that would just kill us too. Some rope. Nothing too useful," Azrael responded as he fidgeted with some hunk of rock he had pulled out of his pocket.
Isaac was curious. "What's that? What's with the rock?"
"Oh, this? Just some hunk of metal I stole on the tour. It's not gold or anything valuable. Kind of soft though. I think it was called Magnum or Magnus or something."
Isaac perked up, "Magnesium?"
Azrael snapped his fingers. "That's it."
Isaac smiled, "I have an idea."
The Queen of the red caps laughed from behind them. "Oh, this has been too much fun. I cannot wait to see how my sons destroy you."
Azrael drew his revolver, pointing it right between the Queen's eyes. His finger pulled the trigger as Isaac told him, "Stop!" He did, though, with only a small twitch of the finger left to go. "Let her be," Isaac commanded. "She doesn't seem interested in hurting us herself and killing her won't get us out of here. Now, give me the magnesium and your knife. Also, do you have a lighter?"
Azrael gave Isaac the requested items after holstering his revolver. Isaac told him to go to the door, and on his signal, open it. Azrael called him crazy, but there was a fierce determination in Isaac's eyes that told him to let it be. As he stood next to the door, ready to open it. He watched as Isaac looked to be cutting the rock into strips. He worked quickly before igniting the lighter. "Now!" he shouted. Azrael pushed on the door, allowing it to be pulled open by the horde. He quickly dove aside as the red caps flooded inside. He hoped Isaac was ready to do whatever it was to get them out of here. A burst of bright white light then flooded Azrael's eyes. For a moment the light blinded him, and he was not alone. Suddenly the thick air of the cave was filled with the screams of the horde and their queen. Their eyes had never seen something so harshly bright. Their poor retinas were probably fried crispy like a piece of chicken in lard.
Isaac made his way to Azrael, careful not to look anywhere near the burning magnesium lest he end up like the red caps. Quickly, he pulled him up to his feet before the two of them ran away, back to the main cavern. It soon became clear that there was no longer any chasing of them to be done. They slowed down, still being careful to listen for any sounds coming from behind them. Within an hour they made it back to the cave entranced they had entered what felt like ages ago. Their horses stood waiting next to two trampled red caps.
"Oh my god, girl. I'm so sorry about you being left up here for so long. Let's get you some food and water before we head on out of here," Azrael said tenderly. "Someone felt like wasting the whole day down there," Azrael said as he shot Isaac a look. Isaac felt guilty, knowing that Azrael was right. People were depending on him and he wasted a whole day on almost being killed. Isaac felt a hard pat on his arm.
"Listen, Isaac, lighten up. I know you got people you are trying to save, but just remember you're just a kid. You will make mistakes or do foolish things sometimes. There's no point in trying to make yourself miserable being the savior of the world. We'll save your town, all right, but we're doing it with our chins held high." Azrael lifted Isaac's chin with his finger, causing Isaac to smile. Azrael pulled a bottle of whiskey from a pack on his horse. Taking a fiery gulp, he grinned. "And I think after today's mess, we will not be doing it alone!"
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