by Max Jager
"What spells do the scrolls cast? Do they say?" Zanath asked.
Mendelen nodded and started opening each scroll one at a time. Reading off what each spell did. "Blink: Teleports the user to a targeted location instantaneously."
"Dibs" Kaden stated.
Mendelen glanced up at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything and turned his attention back to the scrolls. "The second one is a barrier spell. It projects a barrier around the caster, the barrier will protect the caster from harm but will break if it takes too much damage. The third one is called death's grasp, when used the first living target you touch will have the life drained out of them. Any life drained from the target will heal the caster. Takes nine seconds of holding onto the target to drain all of their life and kill them, losing contact with the target ends the spell. The fourth spell is bolt, it takes three seconds to charge but after the charge it fires a powerful lightning bolt at the target location. And the last scroll is gale, it says it creates a massive windstorm in the target area with very powerful winds." Mendelen listed off. Then he took a deep breath, "Does anyone want to pick their own spells? Or is it okay if I give them out to the people I see best fit?"
"I have dibs on blink" Kaden stated.
"None of them really interest me" Zanath replied.
"I like all of them except the bolt one and gale ones" Estellese replied.
"Alright." Mendelen said, then handed out the scrolls. He gave blink to Kaden since Kaden wanted it and giving the swordsman a teleport attack would be useful, Kaden looked over it, then folded it up and put it in his pocket. He gave death's grasp to Estellese since she was the best at grappling and he knew that she was wounded and hurt despite her tough act, he figured this would heal her injuries. He gave bolt to Zanath, since Zanath had the best accuracy and a lightning bolt would presumably be hard to aim. Then held onto barrier and gale himself. "Barrier is the spell I want, I can turn a strong defense into a killer offense. And gale is a tactical spell so I feel it is best left in my hands since I am the tactician here, Zanath and Kaden are both strategists not tacticians. Any objections?" He asked.
Everyone looked around but nobody objected. So after a moment Mendelen spoke up again "alright. With that all set lets get moving." He said. "Estellese are you sure that you are okay? You look a little battered from that fight." He asked.
"I will be fine." Estellese replied.
"If you say so." Mendelen replied "So our next goal is to scout out the hallway on the left of that four way intersection we found previously. Let's go."
"How are we going to keep the book and scrolls dry?" Zanath pointed out. Making everyone stop for a moment.
Kaden, who like everyone else was still soaked from swimming pulled his scroll out of his pocket and looked at it, inspecting it closely, it was dry. Then, he pulled it back and threw it into the water. Ignoring the gasps and odd looks from the others, he walked over to the edge of the platform and watched his scroll sink lower and lower until it reached the bottom.
"Kaden… Why did you do that?" Mendelen asked unsurely.
To which Kaden shrugged. "I dunno."
"Did you hit your head?" Estellese asked.
"No, if I remember correctly I believe it was you who was hit in the head." Kaden said. Then, without warning he jumped into the water and swam to the bottom, grabbing his scroll and bringing it back up to the surface. He climbed back onto the platform and inspected the scroll again, noting for the second time that it was still dry. "The scrolls are waterproof. Book probably is too." He stated.
"You are insane. And lucky." Estellese replied. She hesitantly looked down at her book before she pulled back both sides of the cover and flipped it face-down, so just one page that had nothing but a picture on it was hanging down from it. Then she cautiously dipped that page halfway into the water and pulled it back up, looking closely to see that the page was still dry and unfazed by the water.
Mendelen nodded a little. "Well, I guess it isn't too far-fetched to say that they are magically waterproof since they are magic items. Would kinda stink if a mage lost all their spells just because it started to rain in the middle of a battle. At least the game isn't completely cruel."
"Yes, that would suck." Kaden replied. "Imagine being a mage who uses the water element, but if you get your books and scrolls wet you can't use magic anymore. That would just be silly."
"Anyways, lets get moving. We don't know what else lies ahead." Mendelen stated before he jumped back into the water and began swimming back to the previous room. The others followed shortly after him, with Estellese going last. Her broken ribs were slowing her down and making the swim back very painful.. But in time the four of them made it back to the room with the water and picked up the stuff they had left in the room.
Estellese checked her book to see that it was undamaged by the water. And with that she placed the book in Zanath's duffel bag so she would not need to carry it.
"Alright. Remember, stay in formation and follow me." Mendelen said as he took the lead with Estellese by his side. Zanath and Kaden readied their swords and followed along right behind them. The four of them walked out of the room, across the crossroads room they had been in previously, and into the hallway to the west. It was the only direction they had not explored yet.
The hallway-like section of the cave stretched a long ways to the west, although the group could see a side path to the north. It was not a narrow hall, it was pretty wide, so they had space to maneuver. They stayed on guard as they walked, making it about halfway down the hallway before they could hear something growling.
Out from behind a small pile of rocks walked another monster. It had the body of a lion, the head of a ram with 4' long horns on its head. There was a 6' long snake where its tail should be, and the snake seemed capable of moving on its own by the way it hissed and stood up almost straight upon seeing the humans.
The four Alphas gasped and took a step back upon seeing the creature, Kaden and Zanath raised their swords but were unsure of how to get close enough to strike. Mendelen started making a plan in his head, but before he could speak the creature inhaled a deep breath, then suddenly spat a stream of searing hot flames at the group, making Mendelen and Kaden dive left, while Estellese and Zanath dove right to evade the flames.
"No time to sit around!" Mendelen called out quickly and panickedly. "Zanath, Kaden, flank from the right and left sides. Estellese, we attack from the front. Go!"
Mendelen and Estellese rushed in head-on towards the creature, and as expected it spat another stream of flames at the two of them, forcing them to jump to the sides to get out of the way again. But this bought Kaden and Zanath enough time to get around on the sides of the beast. Kaden moved in first and slashed his sword at the neck of the creature, but the snake-tail moved with lightning fast speeds and threw itself infront of the blade. Kaden's sword was not sharp enough to cut through the scales of the snake's body, it did nothing to the snake aside from leaving a few scrapes on its scales.
Zanath moved in from the other side, slashing his sword down at the monster's back and aiming for its spine. However the creature tilted its head back, moving it's horn infront of the sword to block that attack too.
The snake-tail lunged for Kaden after blocking his attack, aiming to bite his shoulder with it's lightning-fast speeds. But Kaden quickly used his sword to push it away from himself before it could bite him. The beast went to jerk its head back to try and jab its horns at Zanath, but before it could do so Estellese had gotten back onto her feet and grabbed the beast's horns. She was struggling with it, fighting to hold it down as the creature bucked and fought back. Trying to pull away, trying to push forwards and bite her, trying anything it could to get out of her grip. Her broken ribs were searing with pain, the more it struggled the more she hurt, she couldn't hold it back for long.
The snake-tail moved away from Kaden and in the blink of an eye lunged to bite Estellese's neck. But Mendelen was right on the mark, he s
lammed his bone-club up into the bottom of the snake, knocking the snake-tail backwards and away from Estellese.
The beast took in a deep breath again, and Estellese knew that it was about to blast more flames directly at her. She was standing right infront of its face after all. She let go and quickly dove to the side to get out of the way, but while she did that both Kaden and Zanath stabbed their swords into the sides of the creature. Causing it to roar out in pain as flames burst from its mouth again. Estellese and Mendelen had bought them just enough time to get their attacks in. As the beast struggled and stumbled backwards in pain, stunned momentarily from being stabbed twice, Mendelen rushed in and slammed his bone-club down on the creature's head, knocking the creature to the ground.
The snake-tail lunged for Mendelen this time, aiming to bite his shoulder. But Mendelen leaned his head forwards, putting his head infront of the snake's bite. With a loud pang the snake hit the metal helmet he was wearing, the one he had stolen from the goblins back in the city, the night they found the grocery store. Then Estellese immediately grabbed the snake and used her strength to hold it back so the others could safely attack the beast. Zanath and Kaden were quick to both stab at the creature once more, finishing it off.
When the creature and the snake-tail went limp, Estellese threw the snake to the ground, panting lightly. "Good plan." She said. "That could have gone very, very wrong if we hadn't been following an attack plan."
Mendelen nodded. "Yeah. Good work everyone." He said. "Lets get moving though, we don't know how big this place is. And it is likely filled with a lot more monsters." He warned.
The four of them grouped up again and went back into formation, Mendelen lead the way taking the turn to the northern pathway. It was another one of those odd doorway-like openings in the cave wall that lead to a room-like area in the cave. In this room stood three skeletons, all armed with bone-clubs.
"Alright, Kaden and Zanath, you two take the one on the left. Me and Estellese will each take our own and-" Mendelen started to say, before Kaden interrupted.
"Its just skeletons, we handled them before. Blitz. No need to be tactical. Rush in and wipe them out." Kaden stated before sprinting at the center skeleton.
"Kaden!" Estellese yelled after him, her tone reflecting her annoyance and irritation with the man.
"He does have a point." Mendelen said. "Doesn't make him right, of course, but he does have a point. These don't look lethal, let him do his own thing. Estellese, you take the left, I'll tag-team the right with Zanath. This should be easy."
Kaden ran at his skeleton and swung his sword for its head. However, the skeleton didn't particularly care about the sword and swung its bone-club at Kaden's ribs. Kaden's sword struck the skeleton in the head, and the skeleton struck him in the ribs. Both of them were knocked to the ground and Kaden let out a grunt of pain. He was bruised and hurt, but the skeleton was unharmed. They both started standing up, but as soon as Kaden got on his hands and knees he sprung off the ground and tackled the skeleton.
Meanwhile, Zanath and Mendelen rushed at the other skeleton. As they approached it it moved in to take a swing for Mendelen's torso. Mendelen dropped into a slide to dodge the attack, like a baseball player sliding into home plate, and he slid right into the skeleton's legs to knock the creature off its feet. Zanath followed up with a quick stomp to the skeleton's upper spine to pin it to the ground while the two of them quickly got to work breaking it into pieces.
Estellese walked towards her skeleton, as the creature stepped forwards and took a swing at her head with its own bone-club she raised her arm and blocked the club with the side of her fore-arm, wincing in pain as the bone left a nasty bruise. She immediately twisted her blocking arm around to grab the skeleton's arm, then she yanked the skeleton towards herself, while leaning back and throwing a powerful kick at the creature's chest. With her yanking it towards herself, and kicking it back at the same time she tore its arm right out of the socket and knocked the skeleton back onto the floor. The skeleton quickly tried to stand, but Estellese was quick to jump ontop of it, almost the second it hit the floor, and start slamming its own bone-club into its joints. Snapping and shattering each of its joints in its shoulders and legs. She was not in a good mood right now, Kaden was irritating the hell out of her, and she did not feel like dealing with skeletons. When she was finished she looked up to see that Mendelen and Zanath were also done, and that Kaden had his pinned and was breaking away at the joints just now. Once he was finished, Kaden stood up and looked around at the others.
"All clear?" Mendelen asked, not expecting an answer since it was obvious. "Lets move." He said as he took the lead again, letting everyone get into formation while he followed the path to the north. He went through another doorway-like opening on the north side of the cave to find himself in an empty room, the stalagmites and stalactites in this room were all over the place, and there was a ton of them. Even some sticking horizontally out of the walls like spikes which shouldn't have been possible. But with nothing of interest in this room Mendelen moved on and lead the group deeper into the cave. There was only one way to go again, which was west through another door.
As they walked into the west room they spotted a treasure chest up on an incline ahead of them. Although next to it was another one of those beasts from the hallway. The snake-tail of the part lion, part ram, part snake creature hissed loudly and the creature right away jumped down at the four of them. Lunging from the top of the incline straight for Mendelen.
Then, there was suddenly the loud sound of a crack, followed by a loud booming sound and a bright flash of light. When the flash of light faded away the group looked up to see a bolt of lightning striking the hybrid creature out of the air. Mendelen, Kaden, and Estellese looked back, tracing the bolt of lightning to where it came from. Following its path to Zanath, who was pointing at the creature with two of his fingers.
The hybrid creature slammed into the ground, and before it could recover from the landing or being electrocuted Kaden stabbed his sword down at it's head, killing it.
Everyone looked at Zanath for a moment. "Sorry. Didn't feel like dealing with another one. It jumped, and it can't dodge in mid-air so I figured I'd just zap it." Zanath replied simply. However as he spoke, the "bolt" scroll that he held in his free hand suddenly turned to ash, and he watched the ashes slowly flutter to the ground like black snow. "Oh… I guess the scrolls are just one-time use." He thought out loud.
"No, that was good Zanath. Those things give us enough trouble, we don't want more of them if they can be avoided." Mendelen said. "And now we know not to waste these scrolls. That must be the difference between the scrolls and your book Estell. Scrolls are one time use, but your book teaches you how to use the spell on your own so you can use it whenever." He said. "Not sure if that's true, but it seems like that is the case." He added. Although when he finished speaking he realized that Kaden was missing. "Kaden?"
Kaden was already at the top of the incline, had opened the treasure chest, and was poking around at the items inside of it, looking them over as he pulled them out one by one. Hearing his name called he looked down at everyone, tilting his head to the side a little "Hmm?"
"Again Kaden?" Estellese questioned. "You guys go get the treasure, I'm gonna stay down here. It hurts to move, and I don't want to climb up the incline just to have to walk all the way back down. The room looks like a dead end." She said, resting a hand on her broken ribs. "If there is another room up there call down to me and I'll come." She added.
Mendelen raised an eyebrow at her comment about Kaden doing something again, he assumed something must have happened between them before him and Zanath arrived at the minotaur. But he nodded a little. "Alright, no problem. Be safe and yell if anything shows up. Even if you can take it down yourself." He said as him and Zanath climbed up the incline to the chest.
"Nothing useful in here." Kaden muttered quietly. He looked over the items he had pulled out of the chest. Five small golden nuggets,
three ingots of some sort of metal. A golden chalice that had several gems encrusted on it. The chalice gave off an odd vibe when it was touched, something about it felt strange, like it was full of energy or something. And two rubies, they were round and almost big enough to fit in your palm.
Mendelen took the items and added them to Zanath's bag. "Loot is loot. We'll find a use for it." He said, giving a few extra seconds of attention to the odd chalice, before that too was stuffed in the bag. "This seems to be a dead end, so lets head back to the hallway and see where it leads to." He added. He could tell everyone was getting worn down a little, but they had to see this through until the end. Going back up to the city was not safe and neither was stopping to rest here.
Kaden and Zanath nodded a little. "Alright, lets go." Kaden replied before he headed down the incline, with Mendelen and Zanath following behind him. Once they regrouped at the entrance of the room Mendelen took the lead again and directed everyone to get back into the formation.
The group walked back out into the hallway, then resumed following it to the west for a while until they reached the end of it. The four of them were remaining quiet now, they were all tired, sore, and exhausted. None of them felt like talking, at this point they just wanted to go home and rest, maybe take a nice warm bath.