Two Brothers

by Phoenix Grey

  Azure gritted his teeth. “Or I could just die.”

  "We have to be careful with our supply," Lonnell told him. "We haven't even cleared the first level, and we've already used up eleven healing potions."

  Had they really gone through that many already? Now that he was counting, the math made sense. While he could understand the need to conserve and ration, he didn't get why Lonnell wouldn't entrust him with his own supply. Perhaps it was a mechanic of the game where he was only given things on rare occasions―a way to force him to purchase and craft potions on his own. Still, this seemed like one of the times for the game to not be stingy.

  "Fine." He sighed.

  "Having said all that," Uden began, "should we go through the bats again? That took a pretty big chunk out of my Health and Stamina. I'm good for maybe one more round. I wouldn't risk a third. If we go again, though, we're all going to come out the other end weak. We won't make any more progress for the day, and we'll have to double back again to heal. Honestly, my opinion on this has changed. I think we should press on."

  "I am in agreement." Lonnell nodded. "It's not worth the drain on our supplies to fight the bats again. Whatever is up ahead we will still gain experience from."

  While Azure was disappointed, he could see their logic. They still potentially had a lot of floors left to go, and their supplies were quickly dwindling. They hadn't planned to run into an experience fountain like this. “I suppose we can always come back once we defeat The Dark One.”

  "It doesn't work that way," the half-imp told him. "Once we defeat the demon, the dungeon will disappear. A path should open up and port us to the surface. There will be no going back."

  "Well, that kind of sucks." Azure frowned. He really loved the easy experience from fighting the bats.

  "Let us move forward." Lonnell pressed on ahead, taking point and forcing the two to follow him.

  They walked for about fifteen minutes before coming to a set of stairs.

  "We made it," Lonnell said with relief. "One level down. Who knows how many more to go."

  "Progress is progress." Uden jogged down the stairs past them.

  As they proceeded further into the dungeon, the scenery began to change. The closed-in path they had been walking on doubled in size as did the distance to the ceiling. The obsidian walls were replaced by rock. It was beginning to actually look like a cave. And smell like one, Azure thought as he shied away from the strong smell of ammonia.

  "Is it safe to breathe the air?" he asked as the odor grew more intense.

  While Uden seemed unaffected by the stench, Lonnell kept drawing his hand up to his face, clearly bothered by it as well.

  "It's just bat droppings," the half-imp informed him. "I'm surprised the smell wasn't stronger on the level above."

  Oddly, Azure hadn't noticed the smell at all on the higher level. If anything, the air had just seemed stale, trapped and unmoving within the confines of the dungeon.

  "It should not be poisonous," Uden assured him.

  He was proven wrong a few minutes later when Azure received the notification.

  You have been infected with sickness. You will now move 5% slower and will lose one health point per second for the next 10 seconds.

  "Oh you've got to be kidding me," Azure grumbled as a wave of nausea overtook him. It was like the ammonia scent was clinging to every hair inside of his nose and crawling down his throat. When he retched, it was all he could taste.

  "What happened?" Uden paused, looking at him with concern.

  "It's sickness. I just got it, too." Lonnell's face turned a pale shade of green, and he pinched his brow, undoubtedly trying to push back the headache that Azure was now feeling as well. A green icon in the shape of a face throwing up blinked next to Lonnell's name at the bottom of Azure's vision to confirm his assertion.

  "That's strange. I feel fine."

  "You may be genetically immune to it, but who knows," Lonnell suggested.

  "Should we tear our clothes to cover our noses. I still have my old tunic," Azure offered.

  "I doubt that will stop you from getting sick. The smell is everywhere." Uden's eyes roved the cave to point out the scope of the problem.

  "I'm willing to try anything at this point." Lonnell gestured for Azure to pull the shirt from his bag.

  They took a few moments to tear pieces of the shirt and create makeshift masks for themselves. Uden took one too, even though he seemed immune to the smell. By the time they had finished, both men's sickness had passed.

  "I didn't expect these kinds of defenses," Lonnell confessed, his voice slightly muffled now that his mouth was covered.

  "I honestly didn't know what to expect," Uden muttered. "Just that it would probably be bad."

  "Everything in this place seems designed to weaken us," Azure commented.

  "That's so it will be easier to kill us when we do finally reach The Dark One," the half-imp pointed out.

  "I wish I would have invested in some cures, but sickness was the last thing I thought we would encounter in here," Lonnell told them.

  "It's too late to worry about it now. All we can do is keep pressing forward. The stench has to subside eventually. Like most other things in this dungeon, it's probably unique to this floor," Uden said before taking the lead.

  About fifteen more yards into the dungeon and they were greeted by the fluttering of wings again. This time, the sound was louder, and it was accompanied by a guttural screech, more ear-piercing than that of the bats―a stronger noise indicating a bigger creature.

  "What's that?" Azure whispered, staying close.

  "Considering what we just encountered," Uden kept his voice low, "I would guess they are large bats."

  "I'm getting the obvious difference between the two," Azure said so that the half-imp wouldn't have the chance to mock him, "but how large are we talking about?"

  "They're about the size of a sheep," Lonnell told him.

  Odd comparison, Azure thought. But Lonnell was a farmer, after all.

  Despite their efforts to be quiet, the creatures still heard them. There was a whooshing sound from the beating of oversized wings, and the cave shook slightly as the monsters approached.

  When the large bats finally made it into the light, it was like seeing something from a horror movie. Dark brown with black beady eyes and upturned noses, they were blown-up versions of the smaller bats they'd faced before. Two crawled along the cavern walls on either side. Two more made faster purchase dragging themselves along the floor, and four flapped their powerful wings as they used flight as their method of attack. It reminded Azure of seeing ants erupting from a disturbed ant hill. They covered whatever space they could to reach the adventurers. As soon as they were close, the ones that had been crawling on the walls took to the floor. Thankfully, they were slower than the large bats in the air. Azure had time to Analyze two of the bats before they reached them. Both Analyzed as purple, an even match. That would have been all well and good if there weren't so many of them. This wasn't going to be an easy battle.

  That became even more apparent when one of the bats easily swooped past Lonnell's defenses, gripping him by the shoulders and nearly biting his head off. He popped the bat in the chin with the butt of his staff just before its fangs had a chance to reach him. Large droplets of slather fell on Lonnell's face, blinding him and causing him to fall back.

  Within seconds, the scene was pure chaos. Uden's speed once again gave him an advantage. He was quick with his dagger, slashing and stabbing any bat brave enough to approach, though he didn't seem to be focusing on a single one with so many upon them.

  Thankful for being armed with the halberd for the first time, Azure was mostly relying on defense to keep the bats at bay. The weapon's reach helped to put a reasonable distance between him and his attackers. Occasionally, he would slash forward with it, and the bats would recede before he could land a hit. The bravest of the three that was on him was the one in the air. It dove to attack every now and then, a
nd the distraction it caused allowed the two that were crawling to move in.

  Uden seemed to be having the most luck of the three adventurers. Not afraid to engage in close combat, he ran and dove, skidding on his knees until he was beneath one of the bats before driving his blades up into its throat and putting a quick end to it.

  I have to man up and get in there. I won't make any leeway if I wait for them to come to me, Azure realized.

  He watched in his peripheral vision as Lonnell smashed one of the bats against the cave wall with his staff. A sharp crack to the back of its head, and it was dead.

  Throwing caution to the wind, Azure let out a battle cry and attacked one of the bats on the floor. It tried to move out of his range, but it didn't go far enough. He practically cleaved its head in half. It was a much easier triumph than Azure had expected, but not one that came without consequences. As he was attacking, the other floor bat moved in to swipe at his leg with its thumb, effectively slashing through his armor to his flesh.

  Defeated Level 5 Large Bat. 35XP rewarded.

  Level 5 Large Bat delivers 35 damage.

  Azure's adrenaline was pumping so fiercely that he barely even felt the cut. Seeing his attention diverted, the remaining floor bat backed away, leaving the next attack to its flighted friend. Azure slashed at one of its wings but missed. When it dove for him a second time, it gripped the pole of his halberd with its foot, engaging Azure in an unsteady battle of tug-o-war. The floor bat saw the advantage, quickly crawling in to strike again. Azure saw this attack coming, though. He kicked the bat in the nose, causing it to screech and cower back. It afforded him enough time to reclaim his weapon, and with it to cut off one of the flighted bat's feet with a lucky stroke. This seemed to only piss it off, and it charged at him, baring down for the kill.

  Wrong move. Azure plunged the axe of his halberd into its gut, causing its entrails to spill out. The smell of iron and ammonia assaulted his nostrils.

  Congratulations! The skill: Two-Handed Weapons has reached Level 4. This skill enables you to use all manner of two-handed weapons to defeat enemies. Increasing your Strength will make them easier to wield.

  You have been infected with sickness. You will now move 5% slower and will lose one health point per second for the next 10 seconds.

  The bat fell heavily with the weight of its death, causing Azure to lose his balance and tumble to the ground with it.

  Critical hit! Defeated Level 5 Large Bat. 35XP rewarded.

  In an instant, the ground bat was upon him, gnashing its teeth at Azure's face. He barely had time to block with his arms, which proved to be a mistake. Seeing his fleshy defense, the bat buried its fangs into Azure's forearm, making him cry out in pain.

  Level 4 Large Bat delivers 20 damage.

  To add insult to injury, it then stepped on his leg, seeming to accidentally cut through his armor with its sharp claws.

  Level 4 Large Bat delivers 20 damage.

  For a few seconds, Azure felt trapped and panicked. His halberd was stuck in the body of the other bat. Due to the length of it, it was useless against a foe at this close range. But then Azure snapped to the fact that he had another weapon. Too bad it was tucked into his boot.

  Sacrificing the arm that was still in the bat's mouth, Azure wiggled to reach his dagger with his other hand. Between his headache from the sickness and the searing agony from his arm being mauled, moving was excruciating. But pain was better than death.

  Realizing that it wasn't getting any closer to killing Azure, the bat let go of his arm to strike again. The removal of the pressure allowed Azure to move more freely. He reached his dagger just as the bat was lurching forward to attack again, plunging it into the creature's eye when its face was only a mere foot from his. Despite the stab that penetrated its eye socket and stopped somewhere in its brain, the bat still pushed forward with its last remaining life. Azure grunted as he held it back, his hand trembling from the effort. Luckily, the bat's life force expired before his strength did. Its body went limp, and then its head followed, dragging Azure's hand down with it.

  Defeated Level 4 Large Bat. 28XP rewarded.

  Congratulations! You are now Level 6! Your base stats have been boosted. You have earned 3 points to assign to your characteristics. Please note that adding points to some characteristics(Vitality, Intelligence, and Strength) will further boost your base stats. You may also advance any 1 skill of your choosing by 1 level.

  Azure just wanted to lie there until the rest of the battle was over. His health was down by nearly forty percent, and he was feeling it. But the fight wasn't over yet.

  He used his remaining strength to push the dead bat off of him, deciding to leave his halberd for now since he couldn't use it with just one arm anyway. Azure forced himself to his feet and drew his sword. Thankfully, the large bat had bitten into his left forearm, so he could still wield the sword with his dominant hand. His effort seemed unneeded, though. Uden and Lonnell had teamed up to finish off the last bat. While Lonnell distracted it from the front, Uden jumped on it from behind like a maniac, thrusting his blades into its back and dragging them down with his weight. The bat arched its spine, screaming in pain before falling to the floor.

  Azure wondered how Uden always made killing things look so bad-ass. Maybe it was because he enjoyed killing so much that he was able to do it with such style. Whatever the case, Azure admired him for it.

  "Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Lonnell said, panting for breath. He leaned over and placed his hands on his knees. A familiar green tint took over his face, and he retched.

  "Speak for yourself," Azure muttered, sheathing his sword and then clutching his injured arm.

  "I see you went and got yourself all fucked up again." Uden smirked at him mockingly.

  "I don't understand how you never get seriously hurt."

  The brothers' wounds were about on par with what they'd received from the swarm, though their stamina wasn't quite so drained.

  Azure stared at Lonnell, waiting for him to dish out another healing potion. He was officially the healer of their group.

  "I'm just that good." Uden cockily blew on the back of his knuckles.

  "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Azure brushed his bravado away. “Explain something to me,” he said as he watched Lonnell start digging into his Bag of Holding for healing potions. “I don't really understand the battle mechanics of this.”

  "What do you mean?" Uden gave him a queer look.

  "This has been bothering me for some time. The large bats Analyzed as purple for me. I killed all three of them in one hit, yet they weren't able to do as much damage when they struck me.

  "I've noticed variations in the fighting abilities of other creatures of different levels as well. No matter the strength of the monster, I feel like it's possible to kill even the strongest foe with one hit."

  The half-imp thought for a moment. “Monster level has little to do with its abilities. Everything has its own attack power. And no matter what level you are, a critical hit is a critical hit. Though highly unlikely, someone who is a level one could kill a level ten monster if they hit it just right. Everything has weak spots. It shouldn't be that hard to believe.”

  Azure sighed. “I am clearly grateful, especially given our current predicament. It just seems a bit unbalanced, I guess.”

  "Think of it this way." Uden walked over and leaned against the cave wall next to him. Though he wasn't panting like his brother, Azure assumed that he must be tired as well. Out of all of them, he exerted the most energy during his attacks. "How a monster Analyzes for you is directly proportionate to its level in relation to yours. Nothing more. You can encounter docile beasts that are a much higher level than you. Just because they're capable of inflicting more damage doesn't mean that they will. Part of what makes up a monster's attack power is its level of aggression. The more aggressive a monster is the more damage its likely to do. As far as humanoid species go, the weapon or weapons they're carrying also play
s into the amount of damage they can do."

  "By that logic, the lecture you gave me when we first met was bullshit," Azure commented dryly.

  "It was not." The half-imp crossed his arms over his chest. "More often than not, you won't be able to kill anything orange and beyond on your own. You have to be partied."

  "If you say so." Azure waved the explanation away, deciding to leave the mysteries of the color system alone. He had more important things to think about right now anyway, like allocating his characteristic points.

  A mere thought brought up his character sheet.

  Name: Azure

  Race: Human

  Level: 6, 2% of the way to next level

  Health: 156 / 200

  Mana: 160 / 160

  Stamina: 131 / 190

  Vitality: 14

  Intelligence: 10

  Strength: 13

  Agility: 12

  Dexterity: 11

  Charisma: 10

  Luck: 12

  Skills: Archery Lvl 3; 36% of the way to next level

  Stealth Lvl 3; 36% of the way to the next level

  Analyze Lvl 4; 95% of the way to next level

  Cooking Lvl 5; 40% of the way to next level

  Alchemy Lvl 3; 0% of the way to next level

  Foraging Lvl 5; 94% of the way to next level

  One-Handed Weapons Lvl 5; 2% of the way to next level

  Tracking Lvl 1; 70% of the way to next level

  Two-Handed Weapons Level 4; 3% of the way to next level

  Languages: Common Tongue, Sprite, Goblin-Tongue

  Feeling pretty good about his Health, Azure decided to place a point in Agility and one in Dexterity. Because this particular dungeon seemed to be pretty big on draining their Stamina, he put his final characteristic point into Strength, just to be sure he had enough for whatever they were to face next.