by Konrad Ryan
Tad flew into the fray. “Bunta! Catch! Put these on!”
Immediately Tad cast a firewall between the two fighting parties. Tad flung both the gorilla gauntlets and Becca’s dungeon pouch up and over the wall of fire. Tad drove his dagger deep into the neck of one swordsman, who crumpled where he stood, then spun to face the other two attackers as he pressed the attack with an intensity that he didn’t know he had. Like a wounded lion, or a mama bear protecting her cubs, he roared as his dagger flashed. The three figures had been so focused on their own fight that a fresh attacker caught them completely off guard. But they quickly recovered. The knight and the swordsman spun to face him. Their insane smiles widened.
The knight smashed Tad across the face with his shield, knocking him to the ground. His nose broke instantly, blood splurted down his face. The attack had been so fast Tad hadn’t even seen it coming. The swordsman slashed downward at Tad’s head. Tad rolled out of the way of the attack and back to his feet. But the knight rammed his shoulder into Tad’s chest, his sword pierced deep into Tad’s gut. Blood burst from Tad’s mouth as the knight plunged the icy steel even deeper into Tad’s abdomen.
Tad brought up a foot and kicked. The knight was too strong, but Tad’s kick slid him off the blade and shot himself across the cavern. What was with this knight! The swordsmen wasn’t too impressive, but this knight was a monster!
The swordsman dashed after Tad. Tad’s gleaming obsidian weapon blocked and deflected a series of slashes. He slipped past a thrust attack and drove his unfamiliar weapon through his enemy’s breastplate. His weapon pierced through the armor like hot butter. Like it wasn’t even there. The swordsmen’s health vanished as he fell to the ground, dead.
The knight in full plate mail strode forward, one-handed sword and shield at the ready. His grace and speed shouldn’t be possible in such heavy armor. Power overflowed from the knight. It made Becca’s strength look like a drop in a bucket. No wonder Bunta struggled so much against the five. This one could easily disrupt Bunta’s attacks at the crucial moments to allow the healer to fix the rest of his party. Ice filled Tad’s veins. This man, this knight, was their Bunta.
And their party still lost. Still died to whatever awaited them farther in the dungeon.
The knight charged. He wasn’t as fast as Bunta, but his speed was blinding. Tad’s arms and legs exploded in a cloud of blood. The knight aimed all the attacks at Tad’s vitals, but Tad could deflect the blows, dodge the attacks just enough to cause them to be superficial wounds. The knight didn’t let up. He pressed his attack over and over. Where was his party? Why didn’t Tad have backup yet! Desperation filled Tad. Ice vortex! The spell could buy him time!
In panicked frenzy, Tad prepared the spell.
“Ice vortex!”
The knight’s joints stiffened as ice appeared below him. The ice climbed his legs and clogged the junctures of his armor, slowing his movements. The knight attacked again, his fluid motions no longer rushed like white water rapids. Instead, they flowed like a quick stream. Even with ice vortex, the knight’s speed surpassed Tad’s own. Tad was still overwhelmed as he dodged, deflected and danced from attacks. The knight’s attacks still landed, but they landed less frequently. Scratches instead of gashes. Pricks instead of puncture wounds.
Tad retreated backward, full concentration on dodging every blow. His feet caught on something. Tad stumbled to the ground. The fallen body of the mage tripped him. Even in death, the knight’s allies helped him. Terror filled Tad’s chest as the insane smile of the knight widened. His sword whistled through the air toward Tad’s head. It was over. Tad’s stratagem had failed.
A ring of steel on steel filled the cavern. Bunta’s daggers flashed in the white glow of the lightspheres. The sword flew from the knight’s hands. Tad’s vortex slowed the movements of the knight, but not Bunta’s. Bunta was a blur. The knight raised his shield to defend, but the shield dropped to the floor. Blood streamed from two wounds on the knight where his arms used to be. Confusion sprang to his face. But only for the instant before Bunta’s twin daggers separated his head from his body.
Tad had never known a thicker silence than the one that filled the cavern as Bunta stood over him. The fury in his eyes, the confidence that aired on his face, his entire expression was one that Tad had not thought possible from the timid man. Bunta just now moved faster than Tad had ever seen him move. Despite Tad’s own dexterity being over twenty, Bunta’s must be higher. Much higher. His slashes had practically been invisible.
*Warning, you are hemorrhaging. Health will continue to drain until the wounds receive medical care, or healing.*
Tad glanced at his health bar.
*Health: 7/110
Mana: 2/42*
Bunta had made it just in time.
Tad placed both his hands on his abdomen where he’d been stabbed and cast his heal spell. He only had two mana remaining, but the blood staunched as the flesh of his abdomen twisted to repair itself. Pain at his many wounds surged and screamed as the adrenaline wore off. Tad’s hands shook as he watched the new opening to his abdominal cavity twist, coil and finally close.
Bunta’s roar startled Tad back to the present as Bunta threw back his head and let out sound filled with pain, fear, desperation and not least, exhilaration.
“Tidwell’s arse Tad, that was amazing! I thought it was all over!”
“Bunta.” Tad’s voice sounded strange to his own ears. A smile touched his lips. “What took you so long?”
“Your firewall went up, and I blacked out. That knight gave me two serious puncture wounds that wouldn’t stop bleeding. It took Gruff a hot moment to fish out a resurrection vial from Becca’s pouch and get me back on my feet.” Bunta extended a gorilla hand to help Tad to his feet.
“Tad, what do these gloves do again?” Bunta paused for a moment in wonderment. “And how did you know?”
Tad took Bunta’s hand. The description of the item floated before Tad’s face at the contact.
*Hands of Meztlegoph: The severed hands of Meztlegoph the Mosquito Conqueror. Increases the strength of the wearer by twenty percent. Resistant to elemental and acid damage.*
“Your strength. It was too low. You were too fast, your muscles couldn’t handle your speed. I… kind of had the same problem, so I figured it out. It’s called weakness.”
“It’s that simple? People have had theories and there have been items that have cured it, but nobody has ever known why.” Bunta marveled at the gloves on his hands. “This whole time I’ve felt like a shell of the fighter I knew I could be. I sought for answers everywhere. If only I’d had these earlier.” Tears appeared in Bunta’s eyes as regret painted his voice. The man turned away from Tad, embarrassed at the display of emotion.
Tad’s cheek burned at Bunta’s display of emotions. Tad wasn’t good at emotions. He always said the wrong thing. By far, Bunta was the strongest in their group. Tad didn’t know the affable man had harbored such insecurities.
His plan had worked. Relief surged through Tad. The twenty percent increase in strength was enough to cancel out Bunta’s weakness debuff. With his shackles removed, Bunta could kick his speed into an even higher level.
But Tad’s plan alone wasn’t responsible for their success. Tad looked down at his new obsidian dagger. Even though the blade was named Raekast’s Fang, it didn’t look much like a tooth. The hilt looked like rotting wood, despite being smooth to the touch. It looked like it should crumble from the softest of touches. But it didn’t. The craftsmanship of the blade was unparalleled. Ominous obsidian, yet rainbows danced across its glassy black surface as Tad moved it back and forth in the light. The edge was deadly sharp.
Tad was out of mana after casting two big spells followed by healing. He could hardly wait to identify his new dagger, but knew it would take some time.
Tad and Bunta walked around Tad’s firewall. It almost extended from wall to wall in the small cavern. Gruff’s shield once again hid himself and Scar as a blue film prot
ected them from the burning heat of the too-close firewall. Tad hadn’t realized how close to them he had cast it in his haste to separate them from the swordsmen and knight. Tad rapped on the overlarge shield. It hadn’t been a perfect seal against the stone cave exterior, but it had been good enough. Gruff shrunk his shield down to its normal size, sweat and relief on his face, followed by a masked look of embarrassment that seemed out of place on the usually confident man’s face.
“I knew the battle ended, but I didn’t know who won.”
Tad was surprised to see the look of embarrassment and cowardice on Gruff’s face. The man had been scared. Uncertain if he was about to die. It must have been hard to not know which side was winning. To not be able to help, but only await your doom. Even Gruff was human. He put on a good show, but he was not beyond fear. No matter how seasoned. How experienced.
Scar was once again on the ground, unconscious. Gruff threw him over a shoulder and the four of them retreated around the still-burning firewall. Gruff reached inside Becca’s dungeon pouch and found their last resurrection vial. The man uncorked the crystal bottle with sure hands and coaxed it down Scar’s throat.
Scar sat up with a jolt, then groaned in pain.
“We’re not… dead?” The man blinked in pure confusion as his eyes focused on Tad’s face. “No, wait, you’re definitely dead. So we’re all dead. Where’s Becca?”
“We’re not all dead you idiot, Bunta and the lad came through. I had to guard your useless ass twice though” Gruff laughed at the joke, and repeatedly slapped the just revived Scar on the back, much harder than the man probably would’ve liked.
Scar didn’t seem amused. “Where is Becca?”
“Becca is…” Gruff’s voice trailed off as he looked at Tad for answers.
“Becca is unconscious, just over there by the entrance to the next room.” Tad’s voice sounded more confident than he felt.
Both Gruff and Bunta looked relieved at the news.
Scar stood on shaky legs as the color returned to his face. “I need to get to Becca.” He stumbled across the cavern in the direction where Becca lay. Gruff and Bunta, however, both stared at the dagger Tad held in his hand.
“Have you identified it yet?” Gruff said.
Tad shook his head. “I’m about to.” The dagger was a beautiful weapon, but more than that it looked foreign, unlike any blade he had ever seen. Their curiosity was warranted. It was time to learn what this sucker did.
Tad held out his hand and cast his ‘Identify’ spell.
The dagger floated from his hand and gently spun. Black mist poured from the blade as the spell began its work. The mist made the obsidian blade of the dagger look even more sinister.
Suddenly an alert blared inside his head as the dagger fell to the floor.
*Not enough mana to cast the skill ‘Identify.’*
Oh. Right. He still hadn’t recovered enough mana yet. Tad met each of his party members’ curious gazes before he sheepishly muttered.
“I uhh… need to wait for more magic.”
Gruff let out a loud barking laugh. The tension that had oppressed the group melted in an instant.
“You might be a better fighter Tad, but some things never change.”
Tad couldn’t help but join in the laughter.
Chapter 20
Tad, Gruff, and Bunta sat in a circle around a magical fire that Gruff had pulled out of his dungeon pouch. It looked like an ordinary log until Gruff said the word “Blaze!” Spontaneously, flames burst alive as they danced across the length of the log, providing both warmth and light. But no matter how long it burned, the fire didn’t consume the log.
Gruff suggested they take a breather until Tad could heal them. It had been a couple of hours and Scar and Gruff had already been healed. Bunta had so much life, however, that it was taking some time. Gruff was right to want to prepare. If there had been one group of failed adventurers, who was to say there wasn’t a second lurking deeper in the dungeon. There was also something controlling the slayers. A boss, most likely.
Scar still nursed Becca’s wounds on the other side of the cavern. He hadn’t wanted to move her. Bandages wrapped across her chest where the gruesome stab wounds was. They couldn’t revive her, even if they wanted to. They were out of resurrection vials. Not that Tad wanted to revive her, anyway. Becca was still possessed. Her eyes were closed, well… her regular eyes. Her creepy black eyes were wide open. The glossy black surface was slick with blood that pooled from the corner of her eyes. Even while unconscious her bottom eyelid blinked unnaturally far downward to spread blood across the black iron surface. The dark pools glistened in the white light of the still floating light spheres.
The entire scene made Tad sick.
“So what happened to you back there?” Gruff’s words pulled Tad back from his thoughts. “I mean, after I smashed you into that pile of roach husks.”
Tad paused for a moment. So much had happened, it was hard to know where to start.
“Well. I cast a firewall to cover your retreat, to stop the roaches from chasing you-”
Gruff cut his words off. “Thanks for covering our back. We had to plow through the ones ahead. Your help made it easier.”
Tad continued. “Then I fought the rest of the roaches in that room… And then it gets hazy after that. I think I got stung or bit by something that lives inside the roach husks.” Tad tried to recall the event but had to stop as his head spun.
“After that, I followed your trail of dead roaches until I caught up.”
Gruff grunted. Besides the crackles of the magic fire, silence filled the cavern.
In the lull, Gruff and Bunta walked over to the pile of dead slayers. they rummaged through pockets. Gruff took the huge iron shield from the dead knight and attached it to his back. Their casual looting made Tad’s skin quiver. Bunta pulled a small lantern from the mage. Filled with golden roaches, at least, a hundred essence squirmed within.
“Here.” Bunta threw the lantern to Tad, who caught it by the handle. “Hang on to that soul lantern, we can sell their essence too.”
Tad placed the lantern inside the dungeon pouch at his side. The mouth of the pouch stretched to accommodate the item.
Bunta then pulled out one of the daggers from his belt and stabbed the dead knight in one of his black eyes. A metallic ring filled the cavern. Bunta grunted in surprise before he used his dagger as a lever and popped the black eye from its socket with a sick sucking sound.
A six-inch iron spike dripped with blood. The shape of the spike reminded Tad of a railroad tie he’d played with as a kid, except along the shaft of the spike spidered out thin metal wires. Wires that had been entrenched in the knight’s brain. At that length, with those wires…
It was at that moment that Tad knew he had made a mistake. He should have killed Becca in the fight. She was gone. Dead. There would be no removing those stakes and wires. They would never have Becca back. Bunta and Gruff shared a knowing glance. They knew it too. Only Scar didn’t know.
Bunta searched the pockets once more before he retrieved something from a chest pocket under the knight’s breastplate.
Bunta sat once more next to the fire. “His wallet. His license says he’s from Singapore.”
They all sat in stunned silence as they shared the same unspoken question. How did a team of slayers from Singapore enter a dungeon in Lincoln, Nebraska?
“The mountain symbol.” Gruff said. “It looked like two mountains connected by a road. This dungeon. I can only think of two things it could mean. Either the dungeon has two entrances… or the dungeon can move and appear in a new spot. Both would explain how slayers from across the world could enter the same dungeon.”
“Have you heard of anything like that?” Bunta seemed concerned.
“No. Never. I’ve never heard of a dungeon with this many symbols either. Three of which I’ve never seen before.”
Silence smothered the conversation once again.
Gruff spoke once
more, eyes glued to Tad. “How though?”
“Hmm?”
“How did you get past all those roaches?”
Oh. Back to that.
“We fought past so many roaches to keep up with these guys.” Gruff pointed a meaty finger at the pile of the black-eyed corpses, their insane smiles still on display even after death.
Tad stood and walked to a section of shadows in the cavern. Somehow it seemed easier to show Gruff than to explain. “I uhh… walked past them like this.” Black mist stuck to Tad’s skin as his form disappeared completely. A moment later, he released the spell.
Bunta jumped at seeing Tad completely disappear. “Raekast’s claws! How did you do that? That was stealth! I thought only items could unlock that skill!”
“Maybe it came from this dagger… I don’t know.” Lies. More lies. He hadn’t even had the dagger back then, but they didn’t know that. He wanted to tell his friends, but he didn’t know what even to tell them. He’d never heard of anyone being able to control their growth with stats and levels like a video game.
A lengthy pause stretched out as Tad sat by the fire.
“Hey, Kid. Sorry we left you back there. At the moment, we kind of chose Becca over you… we thought we could save her.”
Tad didn’t answer. This was the first time Tad disagreed with one of Gruff’s choices. Repeatedly they said that if Tad held them back, they wouldn’t hesitate to leave him behind. And Tad expected the same for all the party members. But it wasn’t. Becca was kidnapped and had held them back. But Gruff hadn’t left her behind, he abandoned Tad instead. Gruff was the dungeon leader. Supposed to keep calm and make the hard choices. He was responsible for all of their lives and they would have party wiped had Tad not been able to follow them. To help them turn the tide of battle versus the other party of slayers. His poor decision almost cost them all their lives.