Chapter 13: The New Divide

The creatures didn't go near the river, but to say the deadly stampede had no effect at all on their current situation was not true. As many beasts would pass by, making so, the floor and their hiding shroom would tremble with the massive force of dozens of monsters and destroying everything in their path. One of which hit the mushroom they were on full force, making it sway and shake from side to side.

The pair used all of their forces to not fall off the unstable platform by using a weapon to dig deep into the fungi meat and keep their position safe and steady.

Jack was undeniably having an easier time than Laura, despite her being a few stars above him, his strength was much higher due to the changes happening in his body and his status as a melee fighter.

''This could almost be a theme park ride in the human world, if not for the risk of death underneath.'' He thought. ''Please just pass by before we fall and have to fight without necessity.''

After a few minutes of instability, the pair noticed the tremors slowly dying down and the swaying of the mushroom loosing momentum until it stopped as if unbothered by the violence underneath. Jack heard the deafening sound of the stampede getting further and further away.

They stopped for a few moments to catch their breath, despite the near brush with death, they were alive. Laura began puking off the edge of the mushroom.

Some time had passed, and they were both ready to progress their journey some more.

''Not very fond of theme parks are we?'' Jack said jokingly.

Anna frowned and shook her head in negation. She had a hard time with them as her condition made it, due to her relying on her vision to situate herself, things that moved extremely fast gave her motion sickness.

At this time, the sun had almost finished setting and the radiance of the environment grew bigger with every passing moment. Both were pretty tense, despite knowing that most beasts were still battling at the border between the cave plains and the forest.

Jack even more so as he was sure that the fallen fungi lord was somewhere lurking, waiting for the first inattentive prey to walk into its trap.

The ground felt soft with each step, and the air smelled like mold and decayed matter. Which was specially uncomfortable to Laura, her sense of smell being somewhat better than the ordinary Joe.

From time to time, an infected creature could be seen wandering around as if lost, but both didn't want any more trouble as they were tired and stressed. Thus, they would always circle around it and continue with their non-violent path.

Soon they noticed that at the distance the cave walls were getting ever closer, their stony surface reflecting the light emanating from the bioluminescent life of the forest. Their time in the mushroom cave was finally nearing its end, and the realization gave them some hope, despite the unknown of whether they would have a safe path upwards or not.

However, at least now they'd have somewhere to gaze at in hope, a clear objective to achieve besides just surviving the day.

Hours went by in exploring while Laura showed Jack some plants withe edible properties in the way. Firstly, he had gotten a fright when she grabbed and a mushroom from the floor and straight up ate it, but then Laura proceeded to make him eat it too, to prove her point. It was unusual for her to feel like she has the seniority over someone, so she was taking full advantage of it.

Jack was somewhat frustrated at her lax attitude, but knew she had not even a third of his information on the surrounding monsters. Which made even less sense to him, as it would make him be even more stressed and ready for anything. He gave a deep sigh and thought: ''It isn't too bad, this calmness of hers, at least it gets me calmer too. Plus, it provides me with knowledge that I would not otherwise have access to.''

From time to time, she would point at a mushroom and cross her arms below her neck, indicating it was a no-go. ''Poisonous it is!'' He said, laughing a bit.

She stared at him, reprimanding him with her eyes, before Jack suddenly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her backwards just as a mushroom in a crack below them let out a puff of hot smoke filled with spores.

He laughed a bit and thanked her for the knowledge. ''But let's get a bit more vigilant, oh and stay away from hills! Don't want to end up like yesterday's leopard, do we?''

Laura nodded in embarrassment, noticing she might have been a bit too worryless despite her intentions being good. ''Maybe seeing all the most dangerous beasts going the other way made me relax too much. Sis would've scolded me for that.''

It didn't take long for them to reach even deeper into the infected territory, and the more they ventured, the more of a great feeling of anxiety permeated their being.

Jack's intuition was clearly telling him of a great danger that lurked around, and the memories of Silva made him be sure of what those dangers meant.

He heard the sound of a great waterfall in the distance, which calmed him a bit.

It was now midnight as they perceived the waterfall that sprouted from one of the cave walls. Its waters fell in a great lake spanning at least some five or six kilometers, neatly separating the infected red forest into two sides. One was the lake with its waters reflecting the eerie red glow of the mushroom forest, turning its waters into a horrific blood like hue and the other was the forest itself, where a great hill stood, obstructing their view of the lake's shore.

Jack knew instinctively what this great hill was. The fallen lord of the mushrooms. For a moment, anger clouded his view as he thought about the great forest wolf and all beings who had suffered for the power the monster had amassed.

However, before he could do anything stupid, his instincts reacted, making it so the beast inside him wouldn't go mad.

On the other hand, Laura was fascinated with the view and upon a closer look, she noticed that on the other side of the lake was a large cave with a slight upward inclination. ''Holly crap, he was right... how can his instincts be so on point?'' She wondered.

Despite that, her hopes were ignited by the sight, only to be dashed by the realization. ''How the hell are we to get to the other side of the lake while avoiding getting caught by whatever is underneath these waters?!''

She tugged at his arm, which expressed her worry. She nodded and gave the signal they had agreed on beforehand for 'escape', which was keeping her right-hand straight and sliding her pointer finger from between her finger of the extended hand.

''So it's really there, good thing you spotted it or else we'd have this whole trip for nothing. We just have to see how are we going to cross over this huge lake.''

They couldn't go around the lake either as the land they were on was a peninsula of sorts, and they'd have to backtrack quite a lot to do so, exposing themselves to more potential dangers as the day and night cycle inside would progress.

Laura pointed to herself confidently and gave a couple of slaps to her chest.

''So you can make something for us to cross? That solves a few things...''

''But most worrisome of all is that thing that stands between us and the lake. We'll have to be sneaky or row upstream if we want to pass by without being noticed.'' He commented, a worried frown displaying itself in his face.

A semblance of a plan was hatching inside Jack's head, thought it was one he didn't like very much as it included someone (most likely himself) to attract the fallen's attention, while the other would get the improvised raft Laura would make to a favorable position, one which was deep enough for the ginormous creature to be submerged completely and either give up or be extremely limited in its actions.

With a deep sigh, he turned to Laura and explained her his plan, which baffled her a lot.

''What is he even thinking? He wants to die or what?!''

She tried her best to communicate her worries to Jack, but it was all meaningless as he was too stubborn and, unbeknownst to her, he had a backup plan. A backup that might just reveal some of his deepest secrets to Laura.

Thus, the preparations were in motion and Laura started on the construction of an improvised raft made of a couple of ponchos and clothes she had on her storage ring, some brushes, two small saplings and some vines she had collected from the more diverse part of the mushroom forest.

Time was ticking, and they had no idea if the end of the night would bring them unforeseen variables in the plan they had connected.

Therefore, they rushed to prepare everything they could as fast as possible. After a couple of hours of resting for Jack and Laura to have just finished her raft.

''Now!'' he said in a hushed tone, almost just mouthing the word.

Laura nodded and began taking the raft to the river, from where she was to carry it upstream as fast as possible, get on it and, after reaching the lake, take it as deep as possible. Jack accompanied her with blade in hand and ready for anything.

Everything was proceeding smoothly, and they were about to be freed from the river's tireless pull when something unexpected happened.

The vine Laura had been using to pull on the raft broke, emitting a large snapping sound that echoed through the cave.

Instantly everything turned to deep silence, even the mushrooms all around them went silent as a faint rumbling was beginning to be heard.

Laura scrambled to get her hold on the raft before the strong current would take it downstream. ''Well fuck, there goes the stealthy approach.'' She thought, while Jack rushed to the shore, ready to hold back the beast as much as he could.

The hill in front of them trembled as its ground changed color ever so slightly, shedding layers and layers of dirt until a shinny black with a red luster could be seen underneath.

An ominous feeling overtook Jack as all of his instincts were telling him to run as fast as he could.

The deadly pincers could be seen now, sharp as a knife's edge nad ready to snaap them both in half like twigs.

Shaking off the dust, earth and mushrooms the creature was using for cammouflage, six monumental paws battered the ground around them one by one creating a sound equivalent to the drums of hell.

As it turned its huge body around its several eyes were locked on Jack and Laura who had just managed to get the raft out of the river current by sheer force of desperation.

''Go! Or else we'll both become moldy mince meat!'' He shouted in a hurry.

The young girl wanted to protest but couldn't. She felt the pressure emanating from the creature, it was leagues above anything they could handle and she knew that Jack would most likely perish in this one.

But what she also knew was that if the raft was destroyed both would be doomed, there was no escape from teh mosnter or from whatever was underneath the calm waves of the lake.

Thus she jumped on the raft and began rowing deeper, towaards an escape from this cursed cave.

Meanwhile Jack was staring in anger at teh beast in front of them, its red and black glow menecing and full of killing intent.

Our little monster was finally able to let it out, the anger and resentment he felt towards the beast despite these emotions beeing inherited from Silva.

Even the monster felt these emotions emanating from Jack, as it could clearly see that it was anger, not fear stamped in the puny human's face.

''Come at me you ugly fucker!'' He shouted as both dashed towwards weach other, only some ten meters betwen them.