Claustrophobia

April 2nd, 2034

A-Rank Wormhole, Unknown Subspace

The moment I stepped into the wormhole, I felt the surreal sense that something wasn't quite right. A bit on-edge, I took a look around, checking for possible traps or enemies. Maddy's prediction had been right. We were in a cave of some sort, this one being much more mundane than the last subspace I had entered.

The space was a bit cramped with all 20 of us shoulder-to-shoulder, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong. I thought back to earlier, trying to visualize something I could have forgotten.

And then, the horrible realization overcame me: Christina hadn't packed any form of caffeine.

This was disastrous. It could possibly be lethal, and at the very least warranted a massive headache. I consumed grams of it daily—what in the world were the withdrawal symptoms going to be like?

Christina had tricked my sense of caffeine by giving me an energy drink before listing off the items in the bag. Giving me a sense of complacency had allowed the dearth of caffeine to completely go over my head. Truly, she was a diabolical genius.

Trying to keep my cool, I maintained formation and slowly crept through the cave with the rest of the soldiers.

It appeared to be a natural limestone cave without any particularly jagged edges. The current passage we were marching through had opened up to roughly 3 meters apart and any signs of hostile contact were yet to be seen.

After a few minutes of moving forward, the walls started to narrow. Our formation was effectively ruined, and thus Maddy let our 2 scouts move on ahead, roughly 100 meters ahead of the rest of us.

Meanwhile, I was following along in the single-file line that ended up being formed. The ideal strategy for the moment was allowing the magicians and the other ranged fighters to be placed between melee fighters for maximum protection. The threat that had to be constantly mitigated was a surprise attack from behind, below, or even above.

We were able to maintain a reasonable pace for a few hours. The watch that Christina had provided for me informed me that we had been in the subspace for just over 3 hours before the cave system finally became untraversable via normal means.

What had once been a walkable path now declined almost entirely vertically, leading to the abyss below. We didn't dare throw any glow sticks or flares down, fearing the retaliation of a bit more than we could chew.

Instead, the scouts set up an incredibly advanced rappel system and descended down with a few hundred meters' worth of rope. After a few dozen minutes, they returned and informed us of the natural hazards to look out for.

Effectively, the chute down that we stood atop was the "highway" of the cave system. The scouts were able to count 11 traversable offshoots, of which they reported hearing noises coming from deep within 9 of them. They also informed us that the chute descended even farther than the rope they had brought.

After a few minutes of organizing, Maddy ended up sending me off with a group of 3 others to explore one of the offshoots, with orders to return to the top in 2 hours. Our group was made up of a well-balanced team: a healer, a fighter, a scout, and me, the mage.

I felt suffocated as I squeezed down the chute, having to constantly tuck my arms in to avoid bashing them on an outcrop. As I descended, I kept count of the tunnels I passed, stopping at the fourth one down. Sighing quietly, I detached my belay and slipped into the tunnel headfirst, performing a horribly tight squeeze. I even had to take off my backpack and attach it to my foot.

As it opened up, I saw my 3 companions waiting for me. I squirmed through the last bit of the squeeze, feeling a strangely spiritual connection to worms around the world.

Due to this being one of the offshoots with reported noises within, we communicated with hand signals. I expressed my readiness to continue and the others mirrored my signal. With the scout in the lead, we made our way into the tunnel.

Thankfully, this one ended up being bearably large. It allowed for walking with 2 people side-by-side, allowing us to at least assist each other in the case of an emergency. Our scout led us along for roughly half an hour before he abruptly put his fist up.

I stopped immediately, listening for any noises.

Before I knew it, I was flipped upside down in the air.

"What the f—" I tried to yell, but a strong force smashed me into the ground. Trying my best to ignore the pain of having the wind knocked out of me, I scrambled to my feet. As I rose, I noticed what had attacked me.

Floating just a few feet away was a group of basketball-sized rocks. Before I could make a move, one of the rocks flew away from the rest and hurled itself directly at me.

By sheer luck, I was able to twist myself out of its way. However, it didn't stop. It kept flying forward before eventually colliding with our fighter, who seemed to have been preoccupied with another group of rocks. As it smashed into him, I heard the sickeningly clear crunch of his spine snapping.

I looked around for the other 2 members of my squad. They seemed to be working together to combat a 3rd rock formation a few strides down the tunnel, leaving me with 2 angry rock formations to deal with on my lonesome.

I decided that the best course of action to take was to cast Flame Lance in an attempt to pierce through the individual rocks. In just a second I had cast the homing, splintering variation of it. Each little lance flew at its targets, some going to my right and others to my left.

The rocks took evasive maneuvers, incredibly agile and seemingly defying physics to do so. However, my spell had the tracking potential of over a hundred g-forces. In this cramped space, the rocks had nowhere to go and all met their demise by my magic.

Each rock was pierced through, leaving a smoldering hole in the middle of them. After a moment, they all crumbled to dust.

I was going to spend a moment casting another spell to assist the other 2, but they seemed to be doing quite well. Instead, I spun around and ran to the fallen fighter. I didn't have any way of inspecting his condition, nor was I medically trained. However, a good healing potion never hurt anyone. I pulled one out of my bag and force-fed it to his unconscious form.

"Hey, healer! Come over and help this guy," I tried to get his attention before simply firing off another Flame Lance to finish their fight for them.

+779 XP

The healer rushed over to us and inspected the fighter's body.

"I… I can't help him," he murmured after a moment. Despite his words, he cast some sort of spell onto the fighter, illuminating him with warm light that slowly descended into his wounds. "We have to get him back to the others."

"What do you mean?" I hissed. "Isn't this your job?"

"I'm a magical healer, not a doctor. There's a difference. And right now, this guy can hardly breathe. We need to go!" The healer spat back at me before grabbing the unconscious man by the feet. "I wish we had a stretcher. Grab his shoulders, and be gentle."

I gritted my teeth, but listened. The scout led us back, keeping a very brisk pace. As we got to the squeeze, I started to dread getting the fighter through it.

The healer, however, suddenly stopped. He looked down at the fighter and checked his pulse.

"He's… he's dead." He looked as if he was about to cry.

"What?" I reflexively asked. "How? What'd we do?"

Before the healer had a chance to respond, the scout spoke. "It doesn't matter. We still need to get his body back to the others. Come on."

Practically in shock, I dumbly nodded my head and helped pull the body through the tight gap.

Never before had someone died in my arms. I felt like I was about to throw up. This man was dead, and it was no one's fault but my own.

I absent-mindedly gave the body to the scout, who started the ascent up the rope. As he gave way, I attached my belay and started my own ascent.

With the healer joining us moments after, all three of us silently climbed up into the darkness.

"Wait." The scout stopped his rappel. "Do you guys hear that?" He seemed to gesture at me. In my headlamp's light, he seemed panicked.

"No…" I muttered. "No, no there's no way. It's limestone!"

I heard exactly what the scout was talking about. Above us, in the darkness, the all-too-clear sounds of rocks creaking and shifting haunted my ears.

Despite my protests, the creaking noises shifted. Abruptly, I was deafened by the crashing of rocks.

I froze, anticipating a sudden, horrible death by being smashed into a million bits.

Instead, I started falling.