by Konrad Ryan
Gross, what was that. The panic disappeared as disgust took its place. He rolled off the object in the darkness and wiped the slime off his pants. He had felt nothing so slimy. Tad retched. Why was this happening? Where was he? And why was it so dark? Cotton filled his mouth. He needed water. His tongue felt unnaturally large in his mouth.
An idea blossomed in Tad’s mind. He was a genius! Surely this was the best idea anyone had ever had! Tad reached into the small dungeon pouch at his side and pulled out his wand. He waved the wand in the darkness as he tried to cast his favorite spell, thunderstorm! At least, he tried to. But concentration slipped through his mind like water through his fingers. He couldn’t cast his spells! Fear gripped him once again. The darkness was smothering.
More time passed. The heart-gripping fear long gone; the battle sounds grew distant. Tad suddenly wished that he could fight too. His last fight had been so exhilarating. Sitting here in the dark was boring. He’d never been so bored in his entire life. Tad opened his stats. Anything to relieve his boredom.
“Stats!”
Despite it being black as night, he could see his stats window gently glowing in the darkness. The glow did not extend to his physical surroundings.
*Tad Harrington
Rank: Soldier
Level: 12
Health: 110/110
Mana: 42/42
Str: 5
Dex: 22
Con: 11
Mag: 21
Cou: 5
Cha: -9
Debuffs: Rockfang poison, Weakness
Quest Reward Available!*
Weakness? Hadn’t he gotten rid of that? Tad read the next line. He still had a quest reward to claim! Giddiness blossomed in his chest as he opened the quest reward menu. Why had he waited so long to choose a reward in the first place when he could just be that much stronger now!
As Tad’s finger touched the menu, a deep growl shook the ground followed by a deep grinding sound like two boulders crushed against each other. Tad jolted to his feet in alarm, thoughts of claiming his quest reward forgotten. Tad had heard that growl before, but where! The memory of a metalroach disappearing deep into a mountain of roach corpses played before his eyes. Poison! Right! It poisoned him. The deep growl belonged to whatever poisoned him. Was it coming for him?
Tad sat back down as laughter echoed throughout the cavern. Tad listened for the source of the laughter, only to find that it was him laughing. Finally, something to relieve the boredom! If the monster that poisoned him was leaving the husks, it was probably hungry. But there were plenty of dead roaches to eat.
Grind. Pause. Grind. Pause. The cycle continued for a space of time. The sounds enchanted Tad. The grinding was so soothing. Despite the darkness, Tad could swear he could see faint shapes off in the distance. It looked like a boat. Or a pirate ship. Oars extended from the center mass, lifted the object and propelled it forward. Were these more hallucinations? It didn’t seem like hallucinations.
How could he see in the dark? It was pitch-black in the cavern, but he could see. Tad wiggled his fingers in front of his face. It was faint, but Tad could definitely see them. Was this a side effect of one of his stats? Why hadn’t he been able to see just moments before?
The grinding grew louder. The pirate ship came closer. But it was no longer a pirate ship. An enormous boulder sat thirty feet from him. Had there been any boulders that big in this cavern? Tad tried to remember, but the attempt made his head spin. Could boulders even move? They must be able to, because this one did. He’d heard of pet rocks before, surely no one would have a pet that couldn’t move. With the mystery solved, Tad laid onto his back and wiggled his fingers in the darkness some more.
The ground below Tad vibrated as the grinding started anew. Tad idly looked in the noise’s direction. Wriggling sticks in the darkness propelled the boulder forward. It was now maybe ten feet from Tad. Eyes and Teeth covered the surface of the boulder. Lots of teeth, and not just one mouth. Jagged maws, almost painted the surface of the rock as they waited for food. The oars hadn’t been oars at all. They had been tongues. Tongues extended from the mouths, like oars from a ship, to lift and propel. What a strange creature. Each mouth looked like shark teeth with rows of jagged razor blades. Had that been what bit him?
A sudden burst of motion shot out of the open mouth toward Tad. Without thinking, Tad reached out into the darkness and caught the fanged rope with bare hands. Tad giggled uncontrollably at the texture of the slimy rope. Tension filled the slimy rope as the creature tried to retract the tongue-like projectile. After a moment Tad let go as the slimy fanged rope snapped back into the open maw. Tad’s laughter redoubled.
Another rope shot out at Tad a second time. He caught it once again, his laughter burgeoned. But this time, instead of letting it go, Tad severed it with a dagger that appeared in his hand. Tad’s jaw dropped. How did that dagger get there? Wasn’t he the team healer? Tad raised his other hand and shouted, “Dagger!” A second dagger poofed into existence. Shock rippled through Tad at the appearance of the second dagger. He couldn’t believe it. He was a wizard. He had never known.
Two more tendrils shot from the conglomeration of rock, mouth and eyes. Tad lazily dodged both, still sitting, before he clambered to his feet. Anger rose in his chest. How dare a boulder attack a wizard!
“Fine, you wanna fight you boulder bastard! Let’s go!”
Tad’s slurred speech reverberated throughout the cavern as he darted toward his foe. Twenty tendrils shot from the sides of the boulder, each from a different jagged mouth. Tad zigzagged and sped through the rain of fanged-tongues. There were too many to dodge, but Tad’s daggers sliced through darkness and tongue alike. What the hell was this thing? What kind of creature had twenty tongues? How many tongues did pet rocks have? He would have to ask his mom. She had a pet rock once.
Tad leapt past a flurry of motion and landed on the top of the boulder. He stabbed downward with twin daggers into the top of the boulder with as much force as he could muster. With a loud clank, his daggers crashed into the diamond surface. The daggers flew from his hands, spinning away into the darkness.
The rock beneath Tad’s feet shifted with a grinding noise. An extra mouth opened directly below where Tad was standing. A tendril burst beneath him. Tad leapt away from the boulder beast.
“Screw that thing, it gives me the creeps!”
Tad dashed out of range of the strange beast. After a short exploration, Tad found one of his daggers, but he’d lost the other one to the darkness.
As he was about to continue his search, a sudden clarity of thought rippled through Tad’s mind. The thick sludge through which his thoughts had swum instantly disappeared.
What was he doing? How much time had he wasted? Tad stilled himself and listened. He couldn’t hear the sounds of battle that he had become accustomed to. Panic filled his chest. Was his party okay? Tad almost pulled out his lightsphere from his pouch before he realized he could see in the darkness. How? Without light, maybe he could sneak by the roaches. He felt very light on his feet. Even more so than before. Tad used his limited vision to orient himself and located the pair of Wraithford axes and poofed them back into his misted equipment slots. He searched the walls until he found the scorched tunnel entrance. Tad gave one look back toward the rock beast which propelled itself toward Tad. It was slow, it wouldn’t bother him. Tad pressed forward into the tunnel.
Dozens of burnt roach corpses littered the ground. Most had been completely consumed by the magic of Tad’s firewall. Besides the glittering golden monster essence, black carbon dust was all that remained. Tad’s stomach churned as he recalled the words phantom Gruff had told him. That his firewall killed his friends. Tad couldn’t find anything that resembled a human corpse. No metal equipment either, besides roach pincers.
Tad climbed over the crispy roach corpses as he ventured farther into the tunnel. More dead roaches appeared the farther he went. These were unburnt. It must have been the handiwork of his party.
His stomach tightened into a knot of dread. How long had he been in a daze? Hopped up on rockfang poison? Was he too late? Tad forced the morbid thoughts from his head as the tunnel opened into a second cavern.
Clicking sounds filled the approaching cavern as dozens of roach-sized shapes worked in the darkness. Tad didn’t have the time to waste on another room filled with roaches, even if he was confident he could dispatch them. His group must have fought past these roaches in pursuit of Becca’s captor… or they had all perished in this room. No. Tad couldn’t think like that. There had to be a way past these monsters, to get to where his party was.
Tad took a step into the open cavern. The shadows in the darkness stiffened. Some turned his direction, clicking animatedly. This wouldn’t work. They would be on him in seconds. Should he try to run past them? If only he could be stealthy. Why wasn’t there a stat for that?
Wait. Like a dream, the vague memory of learning a skill while high on poison floated before Tad’s mind. Had he learned a stealth skill? Or had that been a fever dream? With a thought, Tad opened his skill list.
*Firebolt
Icebolt
Thunder
Firewall
Ice Vortex
Thunderstorm
Heal
Heal Other
Stealth*
Stealth! There it was, he had learned it! Another memory floated before Tad’s eyes, one where he opened his quest reward. Panic set in. No! Had his drugged self accepted an item? If so, where was it? Tad opened his stats page. His stomach about to empty its contents.
*Tad Harrington
Rank: Soldier
Level: 12
Health: 110/110
Mana: 42/42
Str: 5
Dex: 22
Con: 11
Mag: 21
Cou: 5
Cha: -9
Debuffs: Weakness
Quest Reward Available!*
Tad wiped the cold sweat that accumulated on his forehead as he sighed with relief, but then groaned inwardly. On the one hand, he was relieved that he hadn’t accepted his quest reward, but the weakness debuff had returned, and he had no stat points left to fix it.
“Thanks, drugged up me.”
Tad pushed those feelings behind as urgency returned. Tad brought up more details of his stealth skill.
*Stealth: Consumes 1 mana per second. Blend with the darkness to avoid detection. This skill masks your scents and thermal signs. Can only be activated in shadows and darkness. Touching any living creature or moving too fast will break stealth. Stealth unlocks the passive skill: ‘Stealth Vision’.
Stealth Vision: You can see in the dark. This effect is stronger while stealth is activated.*
That’s why he could see in the dark! Suddenly, Tad’s high mana pool didn’t seem so bad. He would have forty-two seconds of stealth. He wished he had a much larger mana pool. He needed to move as quickly as he could without breaking stealth.
Tad concentrated and then cast the spell. He imagined the shadows darkening around himself.
“Stealth.”
A mist of darkness clung to Tad’s skin and equipment. The cavern in front of him instantly grew brighter. There was no color, but Tad could see the room in great detail. Like looking through an infrared scope. There were over thirty roaches building some nest in the center of the room. Signs of battle and dead roaches covered the floor. The dead roaches led directly behind the nest. The tunnel had to be through here.
Tad crept past the nest and into the tunnel behind it. He had intentionally come within a foot of a roach, but it hadn’t sensed him. Tad grinned. Neither his mom nor his brother Liam stood a chance. They would never catch him sneaking snacks past midnight again.
The tunnel ahead was empty. Tad increased his pace. He had to know where the limit for stealth was. Almost immediately the black mist evaporated, the tunnel sank into darkness with only outlines visible once more. Well, shoot. Tad had been hoping he could get away with speed walking, but even a brisk walk deactivated stealth. Tad glanced at his mana.
*Mana: 27/42*
It had taken him fifteen seconds to get through that room. Hopefully, there weren’t too many more to get through before he caught up to his party.
Tad travelled through two more caverns full of roaches in dead silence before his mana ran out, but he’d made it into the empty tunnel beyond. If there was another cavern ahead, he would have to fight. Or speed past, or both. Tad picked up the pace, now that being stealthy wouldn’t get him anywhere. Sounds of battle erupted from the darkness ahead. It was close. Tad’s jog turned into a sprint as light appeared ahead. He had made it, had caught up to his party!
Tad burst into the light. Five humanoids attacked Tad’s party. Only the healer still rode atop the largest metalroach Tad had ever seen. The other mounts had been killed. Scar was unconscious on the floor in a pool of blood. Gruff stood over his fallen body and protected his unconscious friend from blows that fell like rain, a wild look on his blood soaked face. Bunta flew furiously between the five figures. He was a whirlwind, his movements a blur, but a heavily armored figure, nearly as fast as Bunta, blocked his furious assault. The four other figures flung spells when Bunta wasn’t looking. Some hit their target. Bunta’s health bar was under thirty percent and depleted quickly with his movement. That was all Tad needed to see to confirm his suspicions. Bunta had the weakness debuff.
“Gruff!”
Gruff’s wild eyes caught sight of Tad. For just a split second, a look of relief washed across his face. The health bar above his head was even lower than Bunta’s had been. There was no sign of Becca. In a puff of black mist, Tad equipped his healer set, healing Gruff the second he came into physical contact.
“Heal other!”
Tad poured 25 of his own health into Gruff, bringing Gruff to just under half. Tad turned to heal Scar.
*Warning! ‘Heal other’ can only be used on conscious creatures.*
Crap! That’s right! Tad fumbled through the pouch on his side.
Gruff’s voice was deep and hoarse. “Help Bunta! He can’t stay on a target for long enough to finish them! They keep healing!”
Tad passed the resurrection vial he’d bought to Gruff before he sped to Bunta’s aid. Tad involuntarily shuddered as he got closer to the creatures riding the roaches. They were human. Or looked human, except for one difference. They each had a second pair of black, wet eyes directly below their natural eyes. The bottom eyelashes blinked unnaturally downward, the motion made Tad’s skin crawl. But their eyes weren’t even the worst part. It was their smile. Their faces twisted into an insane smile that rivaled Wraithford’s finger-smile as far as gruesomeness went. Tad knew these smiles would also haunt him for the rest of his life. The expressions of the five looked pained, forced. Evil. Like something tried to force them to be happy.
Their equipment spoke volumes about their roles. One wand, one crook, a shield, and two members with greatswords. They looked just like a standard party of slayers. Healer, tank, mage, and two warriors. The hairs on the back of Tad’s neck stood stiff. They were the ones the dungeon warned Tad about. The failed slayers. Invisible strings surely went back to a scaled talon that controlled their movements.
An inhuman screech filled the cavern as an unknown figure strode into the cavern from a far tunnel. This figure didn’t have a roach of her own. The five figures that defended against Bunta’s assault paused just long enough to return the nightmarish screech. Tad blinked, dizzy. He didn’t believe his own eyes. Couldn’t believe them.
The figure was Becca. Her Twin rapiers at her side gone.
Her insane smile matched the others.
Becca drew her longbow and released hundreds of spectral arrows in the downward blink of her two onyx eyes.
Chapter 19
“Magic Shield!”
Tad dove behind Gruff’s enlarged glowing shield, spectral arrows swarmed like a torrent of water. The blue film that enveloped Gruff’s shield dissolved the magic a
rrows on contact, blocked spectral fragments sprayed in all directions.
“Was Becca always this strong?” Tad shouted over the din of blocked arrows.
Bunta, caught in the torrent of arrows, dodged impossibly fast. The arrows almost looked like a stream of liquid, but Bunta somehow dodged and deflected arrows inside the storm of arrows as he drew closer to the shield for cover. The speedy, yet pudgy, man’s movements were so fast it was hard to keep up with, but Tad could keep track of his movements for the first time. The man was a whirlwind! Tad had seen no one so fleet and nimble, graceful yet surrounded by an aura of deadly speed. He moved subtly, with a minimal motion as he dodged arrow after arrow. What did the world look like through his eyes?
Bunta burst from the spectral attack and joined the others behind the safety of Gruff’s glowing shield. Not a single arrow found its way into Bunta’s hide armor. Gruff scoured the cavern walls behind him for better cover. Becca’s arrows pinned them down.
“Someone has to take down Becca.” Gruff glanced at Scar’s unconscious form, eyes filled with guilt. “She’s pinning us down while the others are getting in range. If the others circle around, we’ll be sitting ducks!”
Finally, Becca’s torrential attack stopped. Gruff wasted no time as he scooped Scar in one arm and dashed toward a small enclave where the walls of the cavern came together to form a natural protection on three sides. Tad had no trouble keeping up with the sizable man. A glance across the cavern showed the other five smiling figures circling like vultures.
“I’ll hide with Scar and enlarge my shield to feed him this.” Gruff held up Tad’s resurrection vial.
Becca’s assault restarted just as the four reached the enclave. Gruff’s shield expanded, creating a fourth wall as the spectral torrent of arrows rained down. Why had she stopped? Did her ability have a cooldown? Could she not fire it repeatedly? Gruff exchanged a meaningful look with Bunta. They hadn’t missed it either. Shadows and shrouds no longer hid the Asian man from Tad’s eyes. Bunta looked at Tad differently than he had Gruff. This look measured Tad. Measured his worth. Weighed his capacity.