Chapter 14: Ties - Part 3

Dominic had Silas' arm across one of his shoulders, walking the exhausted man slowly back to the entrance of the cave. Admittedly, he didn't have as graceful of a way of navigating like Lazarus did, but the rule he set for himself seemed to work. Whichever pathway went up would take him closest to the exit of the cave. After a few minutes of silence, Silas eventually spoke up. His voice was ragged and weak, but since they were next to each other, Dominic could hear him clearly.

"Do you have any water?" Silas asked, Dominic gently sat him on the ground, getting onto one knee and opening up his canteen. "Here. Just don't drink the whole thing, alright?" He said, Silas taking the water and taking a few drinks from it, just so his throat wasn't hurting so much. He closed the cap, handing it back to Dominic as he spoke. "I saw someone else die while I was in there… I thought it was all over." Silas explained, Dominic put his hands in his pockets as they slowly walked through the cave back to the entrance.

"Man, Irena's gonna kill me." Silas said, shaking his head gently, though Dominic wasn't sure who that is. "Who's Irena?" He asked, Silas quickly explaining in response. "My aunt, she sorta.. Taught me all the stuff I know. She gave me the best weapons she's ever used, and I lose them the very first day of the exam." Dominic whistled, amused. "Wow… That's pretty bad." He replied, Silas shaking his head a little.

"What happened to your hair, by the way? It's like.. Half white now." Dominic asked, but Silas stopped where he was standing, looking at Dominic with a concerned expression on his face. "Wait. What -did- happen to my hair?" Silas asked, pulling out his scroll from his pocket, shaking some of the sticky webs from it and turned on the camera to look at himself. "Wait… It did!" He said, gently sliding some of the strands of his now white hair through his fingers.

"I heard your hair turns white from stress, but I thought that was an old wives tale." Dominic commented, but Silas sighed. "I'm gonna need dye for this, jeez." He complained, closing his scroll and looking over at Dominic. "Sorry for asking all these questions, Silas. It's just… crazy how the spiders got INSIDE you and yet you don't seem to have all that much damage." He said, Silas looking at the floor. "I think I get what happened… Instructor Wolfe told me at the academy that my Aura is based on my emotional state… I was trapped against a wall and saw some terrible stuff." Silas started to explain, his hands in both his pockets. His hands were still trembling, but he felt his composure starting to come back.

"My aura protects me from damage, they were holding me there until it fizzled out so.. They could strip me of my flesh." Silas said, awkwardly rubbing one of his arms. "That's pretty freaky…" Dominic said, as they quietly stood together, staring at eachother. "How did you guys find where they were keeping me? I don't remember myself how I got here, but this cave is pretty deep. I couldn't imagine it was all that easy." Silas asked, but Dominic looked at the floor, scratching the back of his head before admitting the truth.
"Lazarus did that. He used this… crazy thing by following which way the air was making the fire on his lighter dance. I've never heard of something like that before." He said, casually impressed, but an annoyed expression crossed the tired Silas' face. "HE HAD A LIGHTER THIS WHOLE TIME!?" He shouted, stomping foot on the ground and holding his head so he didn't bust a vein from the oncoming headache.

"W-wha…?" Dominic replied, Silas glaring at him as he explained. "He made me sit in the middle of a clearing, rubbing two friggin sticks together until I made a fire, it made my arms hurt. So he just sat back, watched me sit there and make a fire just to mess with me, knowing he could have lit a damn LIGHTER to help me." Silas complained, but Dominic started to giggle at him when suddenly the cave rumbled, dust falling from the rocks above.

"What was that…?" Silas asked Dominic, Dominic just slowly reached down to grab the grip on his Katana. "Trouble." He said, turning around and taking a step to run, but stomping his foot on the ground in frustration. "Damn it. Dahlia said not to leave your side. I.. can't help them." He said, slightly defeated. Silas furrowed his brow, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry… I don't want to be a burden for you guys." He said, Dominic looking back at him and slowly turning to face him.

"They don't really intend on clearing this cave out, do they?" Silas said, Dominic slowly stroking his chin as he thought. "It was partially my idea. I wasn't thinking it would be this dangerous when I brought it up." He confessed, Silas pacing from side to side. "...Could you help them if I came with you?" Silas asked, but the question made Dominic curious at the idea. "Are you sure? I wasted a lot of energy getting to you… I'd say combined we'd be at 50% max." He warned, Silas sighing a little.

"I know that, but… I can't leave them here. They're in this because of me. I should be at least able to get them out of here." Dominic explained, but Silas was curious, slowly walking in front of him. "What do you mean because of you? What did you do?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips as Dominic chuckled, tugging his collar awkwardly. "Okay, uhh… Here's the thing." He said, slowly going back to walking.

"If you didn't know, we're actually pretty close to the Temple of Wind. These Spider Grimm nested here to pretty much eat any students dumb enough…" He cut himself off, when Silas started to glare daggers at him."Er… Unlucky enough to land near the temple. This will keep happening until someone chases them out. Dahlia agreed with me, and Lazarus is trying to make up for my absence." He said, looking at the ground awkwardly. Silas sighed, lost in thought as he began to consider the possibilities.

"Look… Something in me is telling me that I have to help them too… They're in this because they came to rescue me. It's not like I can go 'Hey thanks for saving me! Bye!' on them, yknow?" Silas expressed, which Dominic just spun his sword in his fingers, looking back to the origin of the noises. "Well, it's settled then." Dominic said, breaking into a run. The tired Silas broke into a similar run, though he was still staggering a bit from not walking for so long. "Let's do this!" Silas shouted back, hoping to assist their two friends with the Grimm.

Deeper in the cave, Lazarus and Dahlia were neck deep in spider Grimm. The deeper they went, the larger they were, Some were even the size of small cars, with 8 hateful eyes, and legs so sharp they could split rocks. Lazarus was in the thick of it, precisely landing shots on the Grimm who got too close to him for his comfort. Each shot resonated against the walls of the cave, nearly hurting his ears. Dahlia was on an overhang from where Lazarus was with a small slope leading up to it. She was perched on the ground, assault rifle in hand as she provided covering fire for him.

"You doing alright on Ammo, Alva?" She projected her voice so he could hear her between each gunshot. Lazarus kicked a spider, stomping it onto the ground and blasting it once in the head. "Starting to run short, actually." He said, annoyed since despite conserving his ammo fairly well, he was still running short. He wasn't just made of bullets. The screeching of a Grimm startled him, spinning around and landing a hard kick to the face of another one, sending it backward. Dahlia quickly getting her sights on it and peppering it with a few shots to keep it off him.

Suddenly, a larger spider dove at him from behind, he quickly rolled on a shoulder, it's front legs clad in bone and dug nearly half a foot into the rock from its attack. He looked to a web coated hole, which burst open, and even more of the larger Grimm sprang forth, nearly a dozen of them from Lazarus' first glance. "Son of a bitch, there's even more of them!" He shouted, loading more rounds into his revolver and taking a quick step back, kicking up dust as he stopped his momentum.

"We need to pull out, NOW!" Lazarus shouted to Dahlia, she reloaded her rifle, firing a few shots that unfortunately missed. "I think they'll chase us down! We're not in a great position." Dahlia responded. Another one launching at Lazarus, who rolled to the side, only to trip and land on the ground helpless. He covered his face, only for the spider to be kicked away by Dominic, who dashed forward, launching the razor sharp katana through the legs of another Grimm, hearing a shriek of pain as he spun his blade between his fingers, giving a grin back at Lazarus. "Yo~" He said, giving a playful wink.

Suddenly a bullet shot past his face, making him squeak from being startled. "What the hell was that for!?" He shouted, but Lazarus just pointed where he shot, a dead spider grimm just a few feet from him, making him take a step back from it being so creepy. "Oh." He mused, but Lazarus stood up, slapping him in the face. "And just WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" He shouted, grabbing him by the tie of his white jacket in anger and pulling him close. Dominic shoved him off, dusting his clothes off. "Helping you, you ungrateful prick." He replied, before pointing behind him.

"Silas' idea. He came with me so I could help you guys." Dominic said, Silas' battlecry fading in almost on cue as he charged at a Spider Grimm. "HAAAAAA!" He screamed, reaching down to his belt, "WAIT NEVERMIND, I DON'T HAVE MY WEAPON! AHHHHHHH!" Silas screamed, turning around and running the other way, 3 car sized grimm chasing after him. Lazarus just watched this with a squalor look on his face and a matching sigh. "We're gonna die. Oh my god." He said, as he heard the faint cries of 'Oh crap! Oh Crap! Oh crap!" Coming from Silas, who was currently running around in circles out of terror.

"I think the sad part is he did the exact same thing when we were fighting beowolves earlier." Lazarus said, defeated, before putting two fingers in his mouth and blowing a loud whistle to get his attention. "I have your daggers, you massive dork!" He shouted, before tossing them where he thought Silas was going to run to. Silas caught one, before trying to catch the other one. He almost caught it, then awkwardly juggled to hold onto it, before it slipped and bounced off the cave floor.

He quickly reached down, grabbing it and doing a neat little combat roll, but lacked the awareness to realize he was surrounded on both sides, crashing into the legs of another Grimm and shrieking in terror. Lazarus just groaned at the stupid, firing two shots to its face so Silas could finish it off with a blade flourish. "Pay attention, kid." Lazarus complained, as Silas got back to his feet to glare at him.

"Wow, you sure made me happy that I came back to help you." Silas said sarcastically, but Dahlia hopped off her perch, landing between the three of them, turning her weapon into a sword and cutting another one down. "I'm glad you made it back, Silas." She said with a smile, before looking at Dominic. "And… You. I guess." She added, his name not on the top of her mind. Dominic looked unhappy, just frowning at her before they all turned to the task at hand.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD A LIGHTER, YOU STUPID JERK!?" Silas shouted in a high pitched voice, Lazarus just looked confused at him shouting that. "What does that have to do with now?" He shot back. Silas groaned, before sluggishly launching at a spider, digging his daggers deep into its back, feeling it buck and sending him flying into the air until he slammed the other blade into the beast's back, keeping himself in position and slicing into its head.

The rest of the spiders went down in time, Silas sluggishly finishing them off, as Dominic did most of the damage once Lazarus ran out of ammo. Lazarus finishing the last small one off by stomping it, but the whole ordeal felt like it nearly took an hour. Silas found a place not wiped floor to floor with ink like Grimm blood, leaning against it and taking a deep breath. "Worst day ever." He muttered out, as Dahlia went over to sit with him. "Yeah… But we made it, right?" She said, Silas looking up at her with a smile on his face as she dug into her backpack, pulling out a small box of food.

"Let's take a breather, I don't mind losing a ration for it." She said, Silas gently taking it, pulling apart the chopsticks on what appeared to be a bento box. "Uhm… Thank you." Silas said shyly, before slowly and carefully eating it's portioned. Dahlia sighed, gently getting up from the rock he was sitting on and back to the other two men stationed with her. "Hey. Do you two have any idea where the wind temple could possibly be?" She asked, before the sound of rumbling was heard, some of the dust and rocks dislodging from the ceiling before the rumbling settled.

"Silas and I heard that earlier." Dominic said, wiping some sweat off his brow from what felt like fighting forever. Lazarus tapped his foot, slowly closing his eyes. "Everyone shut up, I need to listen to something." He said, the cave falling silent except for the annoying, but quiet smacks of Silas eating food voraciously. Another rumble sounded, and Lazarus shot his eyes open. "To the right." He claimed, slowly turning to the side and taking a few steps, closing his eyes again to see if he could hear the rumble again.

He walked further, before realizing there was a hole in the ground, sitting against the corner, but it was wrapped tightly in web. "Guys, got anything to destroy this web?" He called back to the other three. Silas just standing up and trying to swallow some rice, spinning his dagger in his fingers as he walked up to where he was standing. "Let me try something.." Silas asked, channeling what little Aura he had left, the blade flickering purple with energy. He sliced the blade through the web, the heat transferring and slowly burning through all of the webs until nothing but ashes remained.

"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Lazarus asked, but Silas just looked behind him. "Because shut up." He snapped back, when suddenly a massive blast of wind shot out of the hole, along with what appeared to be a green glow. The blast was enough to knock Silas back onto his butt, Dahlia and Dominic covering their eyes to block the dust in the air from getting into his eyes. Lazarus looked once the wind settled. The cavern they opened was filled to the brim with what appeared to be green crystals lining the cave, with oddly smooth boulders resting on the ground.

"Is that… Dust?" Lazarus asked, Dahlia closing the gap to look at it. "The temple of wind… I think I get it." She said, looking at him and pointing a finger. "You used wind to guide us here, to a cavern made entirely of Wind Dust! Get it?" She explained with a smile on her face. Silas getting up and dusting himself off. "Is that really why they called it that? This is awful." He complained, when the dust flashed green, and another hurricane force gust blasted the entire room with more air.

They covered themselves from the wind, until it cleared again. The four of them hopped into the tunnel of Dust, slowly walking through it and watching the Dust crystal to see if it would pulse it energy and blast them again with wind. The Dust flashed, Lazarus shouting back to the rest of them. "CHEST TO THE FLOOR. NOW!" He screamed, getting onto his stomach, Dahlia and Silas diving down within the second, but Dominic was too slow, the gust of wind slamming him against the back wall of the cavern, near where they descended at the entrance.

"O-ow…" Dominic complained, getting back on the ground and rushing his way back to the rest of them, ducking on the ground and letting the blast of wind rush over them. With a hand signal, the four of them stood, walking about 30 feet before the next gust of wind. After carefully timing their movements to make it to the end of the tunnel unabided, they found another hole in the ceiling, where there seemed to be a lack of the wind crystals stalling their progress with massive gusts of wind.

Silas lept up easily thanks to his natural agility, Dahlia did the same, though Lazarus and Dominic weren't so lucky. Dominic took a deep breath, flashing gold and activating his ability boost for just long enough to jump up to meet everyone, leaving Lazarus stranded. "Okay, cool jumping guys… Can I please get some help up?" Lazarus asked, Silas oddly getting onto his stomach and reaching a hand down. "Either of you strong enough to hold me as I pull him up?" Silas asked, Dahlia shrugged, gently getting on her knees and taking grip of his legs, unbeknownst to him, also extending her arachnid legs and digging into the dirt as Silas shimmied his hips, sliding down until his torso was hanging off the ledge. "Alright, before the winds gust. Ready?" Silas asked, dangling gently as he stretched his lithe arms out to grab his ally.

"Ready." He said, seeing the crystals flash and making a break for it. He leapt up, slapping his hand against Silas, who quickly gripped as hard as he could on his wrists. "Got him! Pull!" He shouted, Dahlia groaning as she shifted her weight back and using all the strength she could muster to pull Silas back up, who was using his own body for leverage so he could pull Lazarus up with him. Lazarus tumbled to the side, landing on his back right when a massive gust of air shot out of the tunnel, shooting up and out a skylight above them.

Silas was panting on his stomach as Dahlia retracted her extra legs, walking over to check on the two of them as Dominic watched in the background, trying to shake off the goosebumps watching Dahlia pull off spider stuff gave him, before turning around, his jaw dropping as he gazed upon something. "Guys… Look!" He said, pointing a finger at what he was looking at. Silas looked, going wide eyed. "Woah…" He muttered, before Dahlia and Lazarus looked as well. "W-we did it!" She said with excitement, almost hopping on her tippy toes.

Lazarus smiled for once, putting his hands on his hips. "Damn right we did…" He said, they were all gazing upon what appeared to be the temple of wind. A massive building made seemingly out of Clay, holes and tunnels cut through the ceiling that hummed notes as the wind from the dust tunnel flew up and through them before going out the exit on the top. Every time the notes played, the runic symbols of the temple would glow a soft shade of green.

"It's out of a damn video game." Dominic said with a goofy smile on his face, breaking out into a run before realizing there was a long bridge, overseeing a chasm before him. Slowly taking a step on the bridge and leaning on a handrail as he looked down the pit. "That's… Kinda deep actually." He said, gently dropping on one knee, grabbing a stone and throwing it off the ledge and into the darkness of the descent… only to hear it never hit the ground. He swallowed loudly, slowly crossing the bridge until he crossed the threshold and entered the front door, which was wide open and nearly 30 feet in height. The other three crossed in a single file line, each one not sure if the bridge could take their weight, but eventually it led to success.

The inner chamber was large, yet mostly empty. The only detail in it besides the paintings on the walls was a staircase to an array of pedestals, each one featured a small glowing trophy like rock that slowly changed colors from red, blue, green and yellow in no particular order. Dominic smiled. "Does that mean we're the first people here!?" He said, breaking out into a run, heading up the staircase and grabbing the first crystal, it turning red and staying that color. "Ooooh… Red." He said, inspecting it from different sides.

Lazarus went after him, slowly walking to grab the next crystal, his turning blue. "It looks like that spider Grimm knew this place was the temple, so they could nab any students who tried to make their way here. That's kinda messed up." Lazarus spoke, as Silas went next, the one he grabbed turn blue as well. "I'm just glad we actually managed to make it." He said, Lazarus handing him the backpack he lost earlier at camp, so he could store it somewhere for his trip back.

Dahlia got there last, grabbing her piece and watching as it turned red as well. "Do you think it changing color like that means anything?" Dahlia asked, Dominic chuckling a little bit. "Maybe it's playing matchmaker, huuuuh?" He said, leaning over and giving eyebrow wiggles at Dahlia, who didn't even bother responding. "I think if I had to kiss Silas I'd vomit." Lazarus commented, Silas responding with a pout. "Hey! Not cool!" He complained, but Lazarus just chuckled at his expense.

All four of their scrolls rung at once, all of them pulling it out to check their messages. On the other line appeared to be a prerecorded message from Headmistress Dorothy. "Great job, student of unknown gender! Please proceed to the area I've marked on your map to place your glowing stone to finish your test!" She said, before it hung up on all of their lines. Lazarus put his phone away, looking at the other three. "Well, that settles it." He said, slowly turning around and making his way out of the temple, before Silas ran down the stairs after him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Can we take a break first…? I don't want to run out of time or anything, but I think we all deserve a break after what we've been through." He explained, but Lazarus just shrugged, crossing his arms. "That's fine." He said as the four of them went to find a place to camp once they got out of the caves.