[center][h2]Kubo and Shor, Mines[/h2][/center]

Shor stared at Kubo in annoyance, ‘Did this idiot really just say his artifact created glitter? And even more so, did he really just throw it all on her? And what was that goofy smile for, was he expecting praise?’ He was lucky to be the only one with her, because this meant he was all the support she had. Any other time she would have picked him up and flung him across the street.
‘On the other hand, at least he wasn't some sniveling wimp’ -most people just ran away when Shor approached them- but he even seemed a little confident.

Deciding that explaining would be a pain, Shor started walking and grabbed his wrist in passing,dragging him off by the left arm. “We’re going to get something.” She said. Communication was important as a team, after all.

For his part, Kubo merely sighed as he was dragged off yet again. It seemed that working with this erratic maniac came with it’s own downsides. He was forced to momentarily entertain the idea of somehow mounting a carriage to her so he could travel in comfort, but swiftly abandoned such notions just in case she guessed the reason for his smile. He liked his spine in place, after all. Regardless, he was off on his adventure.


[hr]

Having stopped by some shops before taking the air-bus, the two of them now arrived at a mine, ready to go. Even as Shor hurried off to purchase a variety of items, Kubo went for a more focused approach. He already knew what he wanted to build, and exactly what materials he would need to build it. He stopped by a smith and started purchasing other elements of the plate armguard he had started on with his vambrace. Each individual part would serve as it’s own artifact, until he had a full set. Of course, it would always help to have some trinkets along to turn into artifacts in case they found something unexpected, like a Darkness or Water manabeast, and were forced to improvise.

The mine itself had been abandoned quite some years before. While it hadn’t run empty, the miners had managed to break into a naturally occurring cave system deep below the surface. This had released a large number of naturally occurring manabeasts, and thereby made mining more effort than it was worth. In addition, the poisonous gasses that were common deep under the earth made exploring the cave system itself risky at best. The heavy gasses stuck to the floor of the caves, but could quite easily become lethal if one went too deep.

Heading in, Shor almost immediately tripped over a large rock. The rock -a manabeast- unburied itself, revealing a humanoid figure underneath (though only about waist-height). Agitated, the creature jumped her, only for Shor to block it with her feet and launch it against the ceiling. The creature hit the ceiling and dropped to the ground, cracks appearing all over and parts breaking off, this one was done for. “Stupid golems.” Shor muttered to herself.

Quickly drawing a circle and creating the reagent, Shor prepared a new artifact, a leather glove, Done preparing she looked at Kubo “Sorry, Koobs, next one’s yours, but I need something to hit these rats without breaking my fists. This should let me create a weapon, so I’ll manage for a bit, now. Let's keep looking.”


Shrugging, Kubo just let her do her own thing. Not much sense in bickering over an Earth reagent, considering how common they were. Besides, he had set his sights on crystal for today’s excursion, and metal, too. With a biome this specialised there was no doubt they’d run into one sooner or later, as this would be exactly where he’d expect to find such creatures. Of course whether they’d be able to take it down was another matter entirely. And perhaps more importantly the labyrinthine structure of such places made it quite possible for them to lose their way down here. If they didn’t keep track of where they’d come from they could find themselves wandering for months on end, if not years.

Reaching into his backpack, Kubo recovered his Sparkle Stick. With a gesture he created a small line of bright purple topaz on the wall, which he quickly traced to the entrance they’d used. The exit could be seen from the point where he aborted the line, and with a gesture he sent the line dancing ahead of them, along the route they would choose to take. Smiling he looked over to Shor, pointing at the Sparkle Stick. “Like I said, useful, right? This way we won’t get lost, no matter how deep we go.” 

Shrugging at Kubo, Shor responded dryly “It’s okay, still can’t beat super strength though,” This idiot should really stop fishing for compliments, he might’ve gotten one if he just hadn’t asked for it. “Here, let me show you how it’s done” Shor goes on, one-upping him by lighting a torch. “Now we can actually see your sparkles.”

Following a downward path, Kubo and Shor would continue ever deeper into the mines. Along the way they came across what appeared to be a small colony of large, mole-rat creatures. Despite their lack of eyes they seemed to sense the presence of intruders and swarmed forwards, large mole-like claws at the ready.

Quickly, Kubo summoned forth his stone arm. Granite wrapped around the vambrace and then extended forwards, completely encasing his right arm. With a thick layer of stone around his arm he punched the first of the creatures to reach him, the added heft allowing him to smash it into the packed earth floor. By leaning both the weight of his body and his arm into it he sank the stone through it’s ribcage, the pressure forcing it’s internal organs out of the sides. Convinced it had been dealt with he then moved to swat another out of the air, which landed a few meters away and then turned around to resume it’s attack.

A few mole weren’t completely retarded and moved around Kubo to strike him from behind, but these would receive a solid hit from Shor’s superpowered warhammer and either be sent flying or squished. “Watch your back, Koobs.” Shor said, followed by a grunt of effort as she squished another one of the buggers. These moles made for a bloody mess, the smell...less than pleasant.

Raising both of his arms, Kubo reached out the the earth beneath his feet. Even as his now slightly erratic breaths slowed, he focused on the connection between himself and the Earth around him. The slow but inexorable movement of landmasses, brought into motion by lines of tension invisible to the human eye. Kubo took a hold of those forces, the earth-shattering hidden potential of billions of tons of mass, and manipulated its might. Even if he could bring but the tiniest fraction of that force to bear, it was certainly a humbling sensation. Then, by first pulling back and then rapidly pushing forward with his arm, he sent a wave rippling through the ground. A roiling bump, covering and crushing the small creatures, the rough uneven surfaces brought into sudden motion shattering legs and trapping limbs. The room briefly shook, motes of dust gently dropping down from the roof, and a stone could be heard clattering to the floor nearby. But when Kubo opened his eyes, most of the creatures had been dealt with, those that had escaped his attack swiftly dealt with by his enthusiastic companion.

Breathing deep, Kubo took a moment to recapture his breath. That one had tired him. Good thing he hadn’t quite overdone it, though. Retrieving the magical chalk from his backpack he went through the arduous process of drawing circles around the various corpses, deciding to use hairs from their whiskers as reagents. That would make them easy to work into various different artifacts. He already had some ideas for how he’d use his share of the creatures, although he wasn’t sure what Shor would do with them. Shrugging he looked over. “Should be a solid six or so reagents here, maybe a little more. Having a hard time differentiating some of these bodies.”

A loud screech erupted from little down the corridor, swiftly followed by the creature it belonged to, a large metal armadillo-looking creature. “I don’t think he cares for differentiating these bodies.” Shor managed to get in, before having to catch the creature, immediately causing it to start scratching at her. She dropped the thing and punted it back with a kick in its exposed stomach. “You know, I think it’s best if you stay back a little, I don’t know what you just did, but you look tired. Just focus on the reagents for now.”

Shor concluded, quickly rushing after it. It hissed at her as she tried to hit it with a quickly summoned warhammer. Its metallic shell didn’t even dent as she broke her crude warhammer on it. It seemed as though she would have to get to the underside to hurt this creature. The creature curled into a ball and charged at Shor. Shor managed to barely avoid the creature by jumping over it and grabbed it from behind. She couldn’t get a proper grip because of the centrifugal force, so the creature broke free and turned back at her. After Shor once more jumped over the beast it uncurled and jumped her. She barely managed to turn in time to intercept it, catching it once more. Shor tossed the creature up, summoned her warhammer and hit it in the gut and againt a wall, causing it to vomit up its own organs. Grabbing for her arm, she yelled “Motherf*****.” Now the initial adrenaline rush had worn off, she could feel the stinging of where the armadillo had scratched her, she should probably disinfect that.

Shor pried out one of the creature’s tiny but sharp fangs and prepared the reagent. “How are things going on your end Koobs? Mix up any bodies yet?” Shor asked mockingly as she returned with the reagent.

“Going quite fine, actually. And with far less noise.” Kubo looked over at her, as she took out the metal reagent. He’d managed to not only prepare the reagents, but also to build himself a little artifact in the meantime. By winding the whisker around a compass needle he’d created a small device that granted him the ability to sense nearby caverns and tunnels, in addition to a sense of how deep he was. Not all too powerful, but an excellent tool for further exploration of the tunnels. Holding out his new toy, he commented “It looks like you’ve managed to subdue the terrible armadillo. I’ll be taking the reagent, I’ve been trying to get one of those for an artifact I was planning.” Walking forward, he gestured to the small fang reagent.

Ignoring Kubo for the moment, Shor grabbed a disinfectant from her bag, spraying it on the wound and covering it with a bandage. “Koobs, the [I]First[/I] one was yours, this is the seventh. Plus, you didn’t even do jack for it, on top of the fact I had also been planning to get a metal artifact, why else do you think I proposed heading for the mines? On that note, I’ll be keeping this.” Shor stated as she closed her backpack and was once more ready to get moving.

Raising an eyebrow, Kubo shrugged. “Fine, but I’m keeping these. And the next tier-2 is mine.” It wasn’t a point worthy of discussion. After all, he was the only reason they had any clue where they were even going. He momentarily entertained the concept of abandoning her in the tunnels, but their previous little encounters had proven that she was a reliable combatant. Good to have at his side in a tight spot. He wasn’t sure if he’d been able to defeat both those earth manabeasts and the metal one if she hadn’t been there, so it was probably best to stick together even if he didn’t entirely approve of her attitude.

Trailing the Sparkle Stick against the wall in order to leave behind an easy trail he made his way further into the Mines for a good uneventful 10 minutes. After some time had passed he sat down, creating a small brazier with the Sparkle Stick to contain Shor’s torch. “Sit down, I brought some bread and juice.” He gestured magnanimously to his backpack, which did indeed contain several small loaves and two containers of orange juice. Sighing he rested for a moment. Of course Shor would never mention it, but he suspected that scratch hurt, and this was a good time to take a short break.

Shor gratefully accepted the food, despite his earlier goof forgetting a light, Kubo seemed to be prepared. She insisted he’d take the juice because he seemed more tired to her. After finishing the food, she picked up a rock and threw it at something in the distance, the sound of impact followed by the sound of a small creature running away. Sighing, Shor sat down again. “This might not be the best place to take a break, so let’s get moving again, you wanted a tier 2 artifact, right?”

“Fine, fine. Let’s get a move on, then.” Sighing, Kubo packed up his stuff again, quickly downing the last few gulps in his sealed container of juice. He made sure that all of the Reagents were carefully stored away, and checked the Compass for depth. Didn’t want to accidentally get into the lower mines and choke to death. Satisfied he moved forward, keeping the compass in his left hand so he could guide them away from dead ends. It seemed they’d made it nearly 50m down at this point, and he believed that breathing would begin getting dangerous at the 150m mark. Although this would probably be different depending on the area of the mines they were in. He’d need to make an artifact capable of detecting poisonous gasses at some point.

After some time they came to a large hole in the floor. It seemed that years of erosion and the effect of various tunneling manabeasts had weakened the floor here, allowing it to cave down into the natural cavern system below. Most likely the creatures down there would be far more dangerous, and despite having brought a rope, Kubo opted it too dangerous. Instead he used his powers to create a ledge and then carefully made his way past the hole. Shor simply jumped the gap, utilizing her own abilities. The pair continued onwards past several similar holes, it appeared they were beginning to reach the transition point from mine into cave.

After some time, however, they heard a sudden scraping sound. Kubo dropped to the floor, pressing himself up against the wall. It was as if something large and heavy was moving in the hall up ahead. A quick peak revealed that it was a Manabeast approximately the size of a cow, a black spider-like creature covered in orange crystalline spikes. It seemed to be using one of it’s razor-sharp appendages to scratch at a wall for an unknown purpose. Kubo couldn’t get a much better look, but he knew this was his prey. He look over at Shor, with a grin on his face. “Wanna help me kill a spider?”

“I had hoped that would be the least you were capable of, but sure, I’ll help.” Shor replied, a mocking grin on her face and her voice equally sassy.

Unbothered by the sass, Kubo dashed into the room with the creature. It had turned around and he had to immediately duck under a swipe from one of it’s front legs, the crystal-tipped point slamming into the rock behind him. Rolling beneath it’s legs he came up on the other side, then stumbled backwards to avoid being impaled again. His rock-arm was active, and batted away a third blow even as he called out to Shor. “Right, I’ve got it’s- oop! Crap, that’s.. Yeah, it’s definitely focused on me, now! Punch it!” He grabbed hold of one of the legs heading for his face in his enhanced arm, holding it in place but losing ground at an alarming pace.

Shor rushed over, amused by his struggling, but swiftly landing a surprise attack on it’s rear, her hammer blowing through several crystals before slamming down on the spider. This wouldn’t make it a happy spider, but it should prove to have dealt some damage. Shor quickly jumped back to avoid the spider’s full attention, though it has definitely noticed her now.

Capitalizing fully on the distraction Shor had provided, Kubo forced the leg pinning him to the wall to the side. Reaching out into the surrounding rock he pulled forth a rock from the ceiling, dropping a boulder on the spider even as he prepared to bring down the whole roof on top of it. He’d be able to dig out the remains later, but this thing was proving harder to kill than he had at first anticipated. Almost as if it realized what he was doing it shipped around with one of it’s legs and got him in the shoulder, nearly slicing off the whole arm. He dropped to the floor with a cry, clutching the sudden gash on his upper arm even as he barely dodged the follow-up blow. It’s blades were now flashing in all direction, slicing at everything that so much as moved.

Shor, noticing her sidekick was getting stomped by the spider drew on her own mana to boost her speed significantly and stormed at the spider, closing the gap between them in no time flat. Quickly hurling Kubo away from the spider, Shor returned to the spider. The spider’s attacks were fast, relentless, precise and many. Shor had a hard time keeping up, so she increased her speed once more, she should probably a bit more careful with her mana from now on, but at least she should be able to beat this thing now. Summoning a weapon once more -a crude blade, closer to a plank- she intercepted the spider’s attacks, but as this broke too, she had to back off a little.

Although getting thrown into a nearby wall wasn’t pleasant, at least Kubo was away from the spider now, although he was planning on punching her once he could once again move his goddamn arm. The most important part was that now, at least, he had space to think. Once more he reached into the rocks, the tiny cracks in what appeared to be solid stone, the seams in the rocks that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. He slowly began widening those seams, channeling his mana into the gaps and expanding the open spaces. Bubbles of air, loose dust, tiny cracks. But, distracted by the pain, this would take some time. If Shor dropped before then, he’d just be another meal. No way he was outrunning that thing.

Seeing an opening between the attacks, Shor punched the spider in the face. The spider recoiled giving shor a small moment, with her current level of speed, she utilised this moment and tore off one of the spider’s legs. That should make this fight easier. Deflecting the spider’s attacks with its own severed leg Shor was confident she could at least protect herself for a good while.

Calling upon the last reserves of his power Kubo gestured downwards forcefully. With a loud bang the ceiling cracked, momentarily doing nothing more than showering dust down on the two combatants. Hissing he repeated the gesture, and with a second bang several large chunks of rock smashed down on the spider. Shor dodged back from the impact even as the rest of the roof gave way, filling up the corridor with rocks and dust. The rumbling and shifting sound continued for several seconds, and once the dust had settled, Shor and Kubo were separated by the massive pile of rocks, which had crushed the spider.

Leaning back, Kubo made a choking sound. He grabbed his face with his good hand and grouned, as he felt the mother of all migraines trying to break it’s way out of his skull. It seemed he might have used a little too much mana there. All he managed to do was sit up before he dropped down, the whole world going dark.