"Team Two is in immediate danger!"Sylus's voice exploded through the crystal, no longer whispering. "The market tunnels are not safe! Requesting—"
The transmission cut to static.
"Move!" I shouted, already sprinting through the concealed entrance. "Team Two's under attack!"
Mira and Darius were right behind me as I threw myself through the hidden doorway into the tunnel system. Our footsteps thundered against the stone as we raced through the narrow passages, the sound of our breathing harsh and urgent in the confined space.
"How far?" Darius called out between heavy breaths.
"Three minutes if we run full speed!" I replied, taking a sharp left at the first junction. My knowledge of the tunnel network kicked in as adrenaline flooded my system. "These passages connect directly to the market's sub-levels!"
The ancient corridors blurred past us as we ran, lit only by occasional magical runes that cast dancing shadows on the walls. Behind me, I could hear Mira's controlled breathing and Darius's heavier footfalls as his axe clanked with each stride.
But three minutes might be too long.
[Divum]
I felt the familiar surge of enhanced speed flow through my muscles. The world around me shifted as my pace nearly doubled, the tunnel walls becoming streaks of grey stone.
I pulled ahead of my teammates, my enhanced reflexes allowing me to navigate the branching passages without slowing. Right through the wine cellar connections, straight past the old storage junction, then left toward the market district. The distance that would have taken three minutes at full sprint was compressed into less than one.
The tunnel ahead curved toward the market's lower chambers. I could see the glow of magical lanterns through the archway that marked the entrance to the storage area where Team Two had been investigating.
I was almost there when a tremendous crash echoed through the tunnels. It was the sound of something heavy slamming against stone, followed by an inhuman shriek that made my blood freeze.
Then there was silence.
I burst through the archway into the wider chamber beneath the market square, my enhanced senses taking in every detail instantly. Storage crates and barrels lined the walls, magical lanterns casting their light across disturbed stone floors.
My [Insight] triggered.
But the scene before me made no sense.
Sylus lay unconscious near an overturned crate, his sword still sheathed. Kami was sprawled beside a barrel, her weapon halfway drawn but unfired. Montgomery was collapsed on the ground, with a bleeding gash on the chest that had torn through his jacket.
A single bloody trail stretched deeper into the tunnels; it was likely from the woman who had been dragged away earlier.
Mira and Darius arrived seconds later, breathing hard from their sprint through the tunnels.
Her breath caught as she stalled next to me. "Are they..okay?"
Darius frowned, his eyes scanned the room for an enemy that wasn't present, "They're breathing."
Mire confirmed it immediately, dropping beside Sylus to check his pulse. "But completely unconscious."
I scanned the chamber once more. The claw marks gouged into the stone wall were deep and fresh. An overturned barrel showed recent impact. Scattered debris suggested sudden movement.
But whatever had made that shriek, whatever had attacked Team Two, was gone.
"It knew we were coming," I said grimly, the enhancement fading as my breathing returned to normal. "I heard a crash before I came here. It was covering its escape. This thing is intelligent enough to hit fast and disappear before backup arrives."
Darius examined the claw marks, his expression grim. "These gouges are deep. Whatever made them has serious natural weapons."
I activated my communication band while studying the unconscious forms of our fellow operatives. "Lieutenant Zamri, this is Team Three. We've found Team Two unconscious in the market tunnels. They're alive but unresponsive. Signs of conflict, but the threat has fled. There is a chance of a civilian casualty. We heard a woman scream, and a trail of blood that leads deeper."
"Status report. Is the area secure?"
"Unknown. Whatever attacked them escaped before we arrived. Something about this isn't right, Lieutenant."
Several tense minutes passed as we waited for Team Two to regain consciousness. When Sylus finally groaned and sat up slowly, his hand immediately went to his head.
"What happened down here?" I asked once he seemed focused enough to answer.
He blinked several times, his brow furrowing in genuine confusion. "I... we were investigating the sounds. Moving through the tunnels and then..." He trailed off, looking lost. "I don't remember. The last thing I recall is..."
Sylus stuttered. "I recall that..." He clutched his head again and shook his head in a daze. "I don't know."
"Kami? Montgomery? What about you? How'd you get that wound?"
The two sat up in a similar panic. But Montgomery's reaction was strange. He looked down at this wound in shock, as if he didn't remember anything about it at all.
It was one thing to forget small details due to shock, but an injury like that was no small thing.
His expression was troubled, and he winced and pushed himself to the wall. "How long were we out?"
"Ten minutes since your last transmission, and when we found you. Mira answered.
"Ten minutes," Kami repeated slowly, touching her temple. "And I can't remember any of it. Not a single moment."
I activated my communication band again, my voice tense. "Lieutenant Zamri, we have a serious problem. Team Two has complete amnesia regarding their encounter with the threat. No memory of the attack whatsoever."
"Understood. Do not chase the threat deeper. We don't know what it is, and it could be dangerous. Document everything and continue the investigation. We need to determine what we're dealing with before more civilians disappear. The safety of the Old Quarter depends on results."
The band went silent, leaving us in the underground chamber with far more questions than answers.
I stared at the fresh claw marks, pieces of a terrifying puzzle beginning to click together in my mind. Memory loss. Deep claw gouges. A creature intelligent enough to flee when backup approached. Seventeen missing people with no witnesses, no traces.
An Argyle.
The realisation struck me immediately. Argyles were among the most dangerous creatures in Marazan's documented bestiary.
Aquatic predators that had a horrifying ability that made them nearly impossible to track or study. Anyone who broke eye contact with an Argyle would immediately forget its presence, lose all memory of the encounter. The only way to maintain awareness was constant visual contact.
But something fundamental didn't add up. Argyles were deep-water hunters, feeding primarily on large fish and aquatic mammals in the partially submerged outer rings. They rarely ventured into terrestrial environments and rarely attacked human prey. Their physiology was adapted for underwater hunting, not tunnel stalking.
Unless something was forcing them to change their behaviour entirely.
"What's going on, Noah?" Mira asked quietly, noticing the expression on my face. "You look like you've figured something out."
I glanced around at both teams. Five people looking to me for answers I wasn't sure I should share. There was a chance I was right about the Argyle, but sharing that info without certainty could interfere with our missions and our combat ability.
I hesitated.
"Just analysing the attack pattern," I said carefully. "Whatever hit Team Two moved with precision and escaped cleanly. We need to assume it's still in the area and extremely dangerous."
Darius helped Sylus to his feet, the team leader still looking shaken. "Can you three continue the investigation? Or do you need medical evacuation to base?"
"We continue," Sylus said firmly, though his voice carried an edge of uncertainty. "We came here to find something about those missing civilians. A mysterious attack isn't going to stop us from completing the mission."
The tension in the underground chamber was thick enough to cut with a blade. None of us knew for sure what had struck us.
But at least now I had a working theory. The question was how I could prove that it was true and use it to our advantage.
"Team one, checking in. Are you guys good?" Nico's voice cut through the tense air.
"All good now." I replied, "What about your side?"
"Nothing conclusive. The tracks we found in the Harbour district just lead straight to the water. From there, it's all gone."
Tracks that lead to water.
It seemed my Argyle theory was picking up steam.
"The Lieutenant told us not to chase further into the tunnels. For now, we'll document what we can and meet you guys at the Harbour later."
"Got it. We'll be waiting." Nico answered.
I turned back to the scene, and the rest were still standing frozen in shock. I couldn't blame them, but we had to gather information as best we could.
"Let's go over everything systematically," I said, activating the recording function on my communication band. "We'll document every detail for the summary report."
"Understood," Mira nodded, her professional demeanour returning.
Darius placed his axe against the wall and started clearing the broken barrels and scattered debris, giving us better access to examine the scene. Meanwhile, the rest of us focused on the claw marks and any tracks the creature might have left behind.
I activated [Insight], feeling the familiar mental clarity wash over me as my perception sharpened.
The claw marks told a story. Four parallel gouges, each about an inch deep, raked across the stone at roughly human shoulder height. The spacing suggested claws between six and eight inches long.
"Team Two was investigating near the eastern wall when they were attacked," I said into my band's recorder. "Claw marks indicate the predator approached from the direction of the water access tunnels. The attack was swift. No defensive wounds on the victims, minimal signs of struggle. Complete memory erasure suggests another magical ability."
I moved to examine the overturned barrel more closely. Moisture around its base, not from spilt contents, but as if something wet had knocked it over.
"Evidence of aquatic nature," I continued recording. "Damp residue suggests the attacker had been in water recently."
Twenty minutes later, we'd documented everything we could find. The investigation felt thorough, though for now I had kept my Argyle theory to myself.
"Let's head to the Harbour District," I announced. "Time to compare notes with Team One."
-
The harbour district was shrouded in the pre-dawn light. The first hints of sunrise painted the eastern horizon in pale gold, casting long reflections across the harbour's surface.
Nico looked up as we approached, his expression immediately shifting to concern when he saw Montgomery's chest.
"Medical attention needed?"
"It's not that deep of a wound," Montgomery replied, though his voice carried the strain of someone trying to appear stronger than they felt. "Whatever hit us packed a punch, but I'll be fine."
I activated my communication band's playback function. "Here's what we documented at the scene. Four parallel claw marks, six to eight inches deep, attack from the direction of water access tunnels, damp residue suggesting aquatic origin, swift assault with no defensive opportunities, complete memory erasure of the encounter, and a blood trail leading deeper into the tunnel system."
"Now tell us what you found in the harbour district," I said, settling against a wooden post as the morning light continued to strengthen.
Nico pointed to the docks. "Three sets of tracks, all leading directly to the water's edge. But here's what's interesting, they weren't human footprints."
"Webbed impressions," Sara added, crouching beside a patch of dried mud near the dock. "Large, probably seven to eight inches long. Deep impressions suggest significant weight, but the gait pattern indicates something comfortable both on land and in water."
My pulse quickened, but something was bothering me about the pattern we were seeing.
"Any evidence of struggle at the water's edge?" Darius asked.
"That's what made this investigation frustrating," Kai replied. "Clean entry into the water. No signs of victims being dragged, no blood, no torn clothing. It's like people just... walked in voluntarily."
I frowned, moving closer to examine the stone quay where Sara had pointed out the webbed tracks. There were indeed claw marks here too, scratched into the weathered stone, but they were different from what we'd found in the tunnels.
"These claw marks are much shallower," I observed, running my finger along the grooves. "Maybe half an inch deep at most. And the spacing is different; these are closer together."
Mira crouched beside me, comparing what we were seeing to her notes from the tunnel scene. "The tunnel marks were at shoulder height and much deeper. These are lower, more like someone—or something—was gripping the stone for leverage rather than attacking."
"Two different situations entirely," Sara murmured, her analytical mind working through the implications. "Here at the harbour, no signs of violence, no struggle, shallow grip marks. In the tunnels, deep gouges and far more aggression."
The sun crested the horizon fully now, its light revealing details that had been hidden in darkness. The harbour water was clearer than I'd expected, and I could see perhaps fifteen feet down in some areas.
"There's something else," Sara continued, checking her field notes. "We interviewed three dock workers before dawn. All of them mentioned hearing strange calls from the water over the past two weeks."
My blood went cold. That was distinctly different from the violent ambush in the tunnels.
"So we have two completely different hunting patterns," Kami said, her memory apparently returning gradually. "Luring behaviour here at the water, violent ambush tactics underground."
"But why the difference?" Montgomery asked, wincing as he adjusted his position. "Same creature, different methods?"
I stood up, pacing to the water's edge as I worked through the implications. The pieces were fitting together, but they painted a picture more complex than I'd initially thought.
"What if it's not the same creature?" I suggested.
Before anyone could respond further, I felt the familiar weight of responsibility settling on my shoulders. We had enough information now to make some preliminary conclusions, and Lieutenant Zamri needed to know what we were dealing with.
I activated my communication band. "Lieutenant Zamri, this is Noah reporting from the harbour district investigation."
"Go ahead," her voice crackled through clearly.
"We've completed the comparison of both investigation sites. We're dealing with an aquatic predator capable of memory erasure. And maybe a separate threat exhibiting the ability to lure victims to the water."
There was a pause before she responded. "Understood."
I glanced around at the harbour, now bathed in full morning sunlight. Early merchants were beginning to set up their stalls, and I could see fishing boats preparing to head out for the day.
"Since it's full daylight now, you can return to base for proper debrief and medical attention for the wounded. However, if you prefer, you're authorised to remain in the city and take some downtime. You've all been working through the night, and rest might be beneficial before we plan our next moves." Lt.Nomi's voice echoed from the band.
I looked around at both teams. Everyone looked exhausted, and Montgomery definitely needed proper medical care.
"What's the preference?" I asked.
"I could use actual medical attention," Montgomery admitted. "But you guys can stay if you like."
Nico nodded, "I'd rather go back to base and catch up on some sleep."
"Me too." Kai chimed in.
The rest seemed to agree.
I activated my band again. "Lieutenant, we'll be returning to base using the processing spire lift. Please prepare medics for Team Two."