C20 hiding

I swing my sheathe and bash another skull, there's not enough beasts to force me to use the bloodlust yet, so I'm taking it easy while I can. I have others waiting for me so I travel quickly, ignoring most of the weaker beasts, they'll follow me out after I kill the hive mind. It strikes me as odd though, that the beasts in here aren't just scorpions, there are animals and other insects as well.

Soon I make it to a bisecting group f tunnels, the area in between them had been worn out from the movements and digging of other beasts, and there are the vestiges of a few bodies left, Most are beasts but I see two skeletons that look human. That makes me wonder if there have been others that came to these ruins. not many would know what the mound means, the hive minds tend to stay in the deeper parts of the desert, we'll, the ones I've seen have been deeper in the desert "then why is one here?" I look around, tentative to go further in the hive, there could be hundreds of beasts waiting for me down any of these tunnels, and if there aren't they could easily come around behind me. I hear something sizzle from behind me and turn, there's a little doll made of light tumbling towards me, she tripped over one of the bones and that's what made the sizzling noise. As she gets closer I feel the heat radiating off her, but when she touches me, and then climbs up my clothes, she doesn't burn me or them. This must be something of Celestes making, I know of no one else that has such control of such heat.

With the little doll on my shoulder I flip a coin, if it's heads I choose one of the three on the left, tails are the three on the right, if it lands in the middle I'll take the middle route. Finally choosing the middle path of the right section I continue further down. it's surprisingly light, but I don't see anything aside from my companion that glows here so I can't figure out why. "Celeste, if you can hear me nod the dolls head." Soon it moves back and forth, and I laugh "I have to ask, how did you manage that? Is it a byproduct of controlling the light or is it something you created yourself? You can't answer so I'll just ask later." I don't see any beasts the entire way down the tunnel, but there are marks of heavy travel, it seems I chose the right path.

"Damn, they've barricaded themselves in with the hive mind, that was why I didn't want to bring a large group in here." I sigh and wonder about my coming plans, since it's already gone to hell I might as well improvise "Celeste, tell Ciora to get the others together and come in after me, you take the middle path, alvana takes half the numbers and takes the middle left path, Ciora takes their other half and follows behind me." The doll nods and I walk around the walls of dirt that have been carved out, the hive mind is extremely smart. "I'm using the sword, Celeste, if the kids get here too fast make sure they stay away from me, i can't trust myself when I'm under the effect of bloodlust."

I use the sword and slice a door out, it doesn't fall when I kick it so they must have gotten a large amount of dirt. Two more slashes cuts the area of dirt I've cut in half and I focus on digging it out, the bloodlust is making me violent, but I'm still able to control it for now. I struggle to get through quickly and finally see light on the other side, the wall is about five feet thick, much thicker than I though it would be. Now I'm starting to worry "Celeste, tell everyone to keep their guard up, I'm not sure the hive is Alone here." This wall is too thick, and now that I've paid enough attention to look further up there are claw marks close to the top, I don't think any flying beasts would be underground aside from bats, but they don't have that type of claw. I hesitate again, but as the bloodlust rises I sigh and move in, this could go wrong but i shouldn't die. I can't afford to leave this hive here, if it decides to attack one of the cities then there will be unnecessary casualties, I struggle to rid myself of my own sin of killing humans, adding that wouldn't help me at all. There are flowers growing here, most of them can survive without sunlight but there are a few that I see that shouldn't be underground, I'm curious as to how they're growing. I hear a shriek in the distance and two beasts rush from the darkness, I back up and let them string out, then take one after the other quickly, it's been twenty minutes since I came down here, my head is starting to hurt from the traps earlier. Using my sixth sense like that always leaves me with a bad headache, that's why I gave them a thirty minutes warning. I rush in the direction they came from and soon pass the flowers, there are hills around here that turn into heaps of dead bodies when I get close, not human, thankfully, but there are far more animal type beasts then there should be, the hive has definitely been hunting, "Celeste, go back to the city, tell the city lord we've found a hive that is getting ready for war, I'm trying to destroy it but if anything goes wrong he needs to be ready. I really do t like the look of these kills, there is something extremely strong here." They've all been assassinated, something managed to kill them without giving the any chance to fight back. The arbiter from this morning flashes through my mind but I toss the idea. Most arbiters have been pushed out of their clans and travel alone, they don't follow other well. I continue on without wasting time and run head on into a clearing, there aren't any florets, no dead bodies surrounded me, and as soon as I come out I feel something g rush at me, since I'm running I hit the grin d and slide, barely dodging an attack. It came from behind which means that whatever this is has been stalking me. I roll and come up with my sword between us and notice that there isn't anything there, the beasts is gone. I look around and realize that the beasts wasn't aiming for me, I can't see anything anymore, the sunlight doll is gone. A scream echoes out soon and light flares up, a fire starts and I see a beasts rolling on the ground d, the doll crawls out of the fire and tumbled back over to me, when I pick it up the heat has gone down a lot. She might have killed the beast but it cost some of the light she had gathered to do so. I thank Celeste and look into the darkness, I can feel multiple eyes on me so this is where I'm meant to fight. With my sword in hand I shrug off my jacket, it helps block attacks but in this large of an area I need the movement speed that fifteen pounds less gives me.