Dungeon Master 2

by Eric Vall

  The thundering footsteps of the sand giants grew closer with every second.

  “We shall not perish here,” Morrigan said darkly as her eyes began to turn wholly black. “We shall not be defeated by such… trivial beasts.” Fea and Macha beat their wings and cawed as though in agreement. Once again the ravens looked as though they wished to take flight but Morrigan calmed them once more.

  “I hope you’re right,” Carmedy said with fear in her voice as she untied a few bundles from the belt around her waist.

  I nodded. “Of course she is. Recall the obstacles that we’ve overcome. You can handle this.” As I spoke, I drew the seemingly simple staff of the God Slayer from the depthless void pocket in my robe and struck it on the ground once. As soon as the three sinister blades protracted from the pole, I gripped the weapon tightly in my hand, confident I could annihilate these foes if need be, whatever they actually were. I wasn’t certain what manner of magic bound these creatures together, but once I determined it, there would be no escaping my wrath.

  The booming footsteps grew closer and closer as the room itself shook. Suddenly, an enormous fist burst from the darkness of the passageway and slammed onto the ground with such power that the ground vibrated with such intensity that it knocked my four minions off their feet. With that thunderous entrance, the massive sand creatures poured out of the tunnel to fill the immense chamber.

  “Annalíse, engage with the lead monster,” I instructed. “The rest of you hold back and wait for my orders.”

  “Understood,” Annalíse said as she leapt to her feet.

  The swordswoman tightened the grip on her blades and released a battle cry as she charged toward the beasts. The female warrior sprinted toward the first sand monster and brought her greatsword over her head and without hesitation, cut through the giant’s lower leg. Glittering grains of sand sprayed everywhere as Annalíse’s weapon glided through the hulking monster’s limb.

  The huge creature groaned in protest as its leg slid away from its body. The monster swayed and tried to keep its balance, but Annalíse gave it no room to breathe. The freckled woman immediately sliced through the other leg with Bloodscale and jumped out of the monster’s path. The great dismembered sand giant timbered forward, roared, and then collapsed into a massive pile of sand.

  “See?” Annalíse sniffed with self-satisfaction, turned, and called back to the rest of us. “They’re not as invincible as they seem.”

  “Very good,” I said as I focused my attention on the next two sand-demons that were coming from the door. “Rana and Carmedy, it is your turn.”

  “If Annalíse can do it,” the fox-girl laughed. “We sure as hell can. Let’s take one of these sand creeps down, Carmedy.” The fox-tailed woman glanced at the black cat. “You with me?”

  “Right behind you.” Carmedy nodded with determination, and I guessed that seeing that the monstrosity had been so easily cut down gave the feline a bit more courage.

  With remarkable speed, Rana ran at her enormous opponent. The sand monster hammered a cart sized fist down to smash her, but the fox-girl darted this way and that like a feather on the wind, avoided two of the creatures’ pummels, and slashed at its legs with her daggers.

  The sand being bellowed and attempted to grab her with its giant hands, but the fox was still far too quick, and its massive hands only closed around empty air.

  While Rana kept the thing busy, Carmedy undid the string on one of her bundles, poured its contents into another one of her pouches, gave the sack a quick shake, and pulled her arm back as she prepared to throw it.

  “Stand back, Rana!” Carmedy shouted as she hurled her bundle toward the monster’s head. As soon as the small pouch made contact, it erupted into a fiery inferno, and sent sand flying everywhere. Then the headless giant tottered for a moment before it thudded to the ground and remained still.

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” Rana gave Carmedy a high five. “We’ll be done with these things in no time.”

  Both the fox and cat turned to me, and their expressions inferred that they were eager for my praise.

  “Good job,” I said. “Rana, your use of distraction allowed for Carmedy to set up a powerful hit.”

  “That was the plan,” Rana said.

  “Annalíse, finish it off before the third one comes through the door.”

  “Of course, Master.” Annalíse grunted as she sliced through each of its legs and then stabbed it in the spine once it had toppled over. As the warrior-woman delivered the killing blow, I noticed a wild look in her eye. It was the look of bloodthirst in battle, and there was nothing like it.

  The look made my heart skip a beat.

  “Morrigan, destroy the last one,” I ordered as the creature emerged from the tunnel.

  “It’s almost fun kicking their butts!” Rana called out to the pale elf. “Also, a little sad that they’re so pathetic, but still pretty fun.”

  “Very well,” Morrigan shrugged, and she moved to approach the last sand creature. The pale elf seemed disinterested in engaging with the beast, but her ravens cawed loudly and flapped their wings when she neared the sand monster.

  The white-haired elf raised her hands toward the sand monster. A dark red fire erupted from her fingers and seemed to seep across the air like spilled blood. The sand giant paid no mind to the magic, instead, it just lumbered toward the beautiful elf-maiden with both of its massive hands raised in the air.

  Then the first sandy bits of its chest encountered the fog-like red magic.

  The monster opened its mouth, and a panicked scream filled the inside of the chamber. Carmedy actually had to put her hands over her ears, and the other two women winced with pain. I kept my eyes focused on the last enemy, and then watched as the sand caught on fire, smoldered, turned to glass, and then seemed to shatter in an instant.

  Then the beast tumbled in a prismatic spray of burning color and liquid glass.

  “Wow,” Rana gasped. “When did you learn that one?”

  “Master taught me,” Morrigan stated flatly. “It is called Death Fog, and it burns matter on contact.”

  “Remind me not to piss you off,” Annalíse snickered, but the elf sorceress shrugged.

  “We did it!” Carmedy cheered as she clapped her hands together. “We are getting really good at adventuring. I can’t wait to see what kind of fun treasure is in--”

  “We have not won yet,” I interrupted. “The deity is playing with us.”

  “Huh?” Rana said, and the four women turned to me.

  “You four have gained some power under my tutelage,” I said, “but this was too easy. I expect that the owner of this dungeon tricks its victims into thinking that they have won, and then it slowly destroys them. It was a tactic that I often enjoyed using.”

  Just then, some movement off to the side caught my eye. Annalíse must have seen it as well because her eyes were now focused in the same direction as mine. The first monster that the swordswoman had cut down had collapsed into a heap of sand, but now, the piles started to reform slowly as small streams of sand snaked out to connect the separated parts.

  “Ahh,” I chuckled. “As expected. Although I am a bit disappointed that the constructs were re-formed from sand. This was a tactic I amused myself with when I first controlled my dungeon.”

  “Uhhhh, so do we have to fight them again?” Annalíse’s eyes grew wide with horror as the sandy streams attached the reforming body to the base of the head, then slowly started to pull the head back to the rest of the body. It was as though the streams of sand were threads, and the sand monster was stitching itself back together. The same sort of strands of sand wormed their way from the piles that had been thighs to the dismembered lower legs. Just like before, the sand threads attached themselves and pulled the reforming limbs back into place.

  “I should have known it was too good to be true,” Rana moaned as the first sand monster rose to its feet, perfectly intact without any sign of damage whatsoever.


  “Now what are we going to do?” Carmedy cried out as she looked around at the sand monsters. “Are they just going to come back to life again no matter what we do?”

  “Now, that is an excellent question, young kitty!” a voice suddenly said.

  We whirled around to find the speaker, but there was no one else present except for ourselves and the sand monsters. Strangely enough, the great beasts stopped walking toward us. Instead, they knelt down on one knee and bowed their heads. Their horrible growling ceased and one by one they placed a mighty fist over their chests as though they were giving reverence to a monarch, or rather a god.

  “Oh, how I love to see everyone’s faces throughout this process,” the voice laughed. “It’s exceptionally amusing, as you might imagine.” His deep timbred voice was agitating, unnecessarily theatrical, and he spoke with a superior tone that irked me. I already loathed him for the way in which he had led us here, his manner of speaking only fueled my hatred toward him. He spoke as though he reigned supreme over manner of life

  I would soon prove that he was sadly mistaken.

  “First, the brave adventures think they can just walk right in,” the deity droned on, “and then the horror creeps onto their faces when my sand demons show themselves. It’s absolutely priceless.”

  His voice rose enthusiastically as he kept going. “And then they frantically race inside the dungeon only to be met with a dead end. That look, that sudden realization they’re trapped, it’s just hilarious. Oh, but you know exactly what I’m talking about now, don’t you?” The deity cackled. “Then the fight breaks out, and the mighty heroes manage to slay some of my sand demons, so they start to get cocky. That look of self-satisfaction, oh, I just love it.”

  The god’s voice oozed with pleasure. “Now, let me guess, when you beat the first few sand demons, you were thinking, ‘gee, this dungeon must be a dud, we can be in and out within, oh, twenty minutes.’ Am I right?” The voice chuckled wickedly. “Oh but of course I am, it happens everytime. I must say, it’s one of my favorite parts. Now don’t go beating yourselves up about it, my sand demons will take care of that for you.”

  None of us spoke, but we didn’t have to. Rana, Annalíse, and Carmedy had said as much. After the first creature had been taken down, they had all wrongfully assumed that their opponents were weak, and even I had begun to think as much myself.

  “Enough with the chit chat.” Rana rolled her eyes. “Are you going to explain what we have to do to conquer this dungeon or not?”

  “My goodness, such impoliteness.” The god made a clicking sound to indicate his displeasure. “Very well, you’re only rushing into your doom, but I suppose it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. You’re all going to die, anyway.”

  “Get to the point,” Annalíse said impatiently.

  “There is only one way to conquer my dungeon, and it’s quite simple.” The god sighed. “Now, you might have noticed my sand demons on the way in?” He said with a sinister chuckle. I felt my blood rise, he was utterly insufferable. We glanced around at the giant beasts that still knelt on the ground with their massive heads bowed in reverence to their master.

  “Oh, yeah,” Rana snorted. “We may have noticed the gigantic monsters that crawled out of the sand and chased us in here. What about them?”

  “Then you’ve also noticed by now that they can’t be defeated by mere brute force,” the haughty deity continued in an unmistakably arrogant tone. “All you have to do is figure out how to defeat my sand demons. Do that and the dungeon is yours.”

  “We have to figure out how to kill something that can’t be killed?” Carmedy’s eyes widened.

  “That’s right.” The god cackled maniacally. “Oh, and I’d like to mention the fact that no one has ever lived long enough to figure out to destroy them. I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but the odds are not in your favor.”

  “There is actually a way to defeat them, right?” I asked. “This isn’t a rigged game?”

  “Of course not,” the deity said in a mock offended tone. “I would never resort to such cheap tricks. There is indeed a way to defeat them, you just have to figure it out before you all get slaughtered,” he said sinisterly. “Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

  Chapter 2

  No sooner had the smug deity spoken than the monstrous sand demons slowly began to rise to their feet. They reared their enormous heads back and roared simultaneously in a chilling chorus. I studied the creatures as they came back to life. Brute force wouldn’t work, so I knew that I had to use some sort of necromantic skill. I just had to figure out the kind of magic was necessary to defeat these creatures.

  “Perhaps I can cut them down again to give us some extra time,” Annalíse said quickly.

  “No.” I shook my head. “You’ll only waste your strength.”

  “Oh, how amusing,” the deity crooned. “I will give you credit for tenacity, but you will perish all the same. And then, you too shall become a part of my dungeon.”

  “And what is that supposed to mean?” Rana said angrily.

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” the god chuckled wickedly. A series of caws suddenly sounded, and I turned to see Morrigan’s ravens Fea and Macha leap from their master’s shoulders and take to the air. I watched carefully as the black winged birds flew around the sand demons and periodically opened their mouths to nip at their hulking bodies. The behemoths snarled and swatted at the ravens as though they were bothersome flies and proceeded to approach us with thundering footsteps.

  I doubted very much that Morrigan had instructed her pets to attack, and the pet ravens never left the elf’s shoulders unless she asked them to do so, but it was almost as if the ravens were trying to eat the towering beasts.

  Suddenly, it came to me.

  I knew how to defeat the sand demons, and not only that, I understood how they worked.

  “Maybe Carmedy can whip up something to blow them up or something,” Rana said hurriedly as she gestured to the bundles of chemicals around the feline’s waist.

  “There’s no need,” I said as I took a step toward the sand demons that drew closer to us. “I know what manner of creatures these are, how to defeat them, and I’m going to handle this myself.”

  “Oh, is that so?” the self-satisfied deity snorted. “Please, enlighten me.”

  “Fea and Macha feed on the souls of the damned,” I said as I pointed to the ravens that still continued to torment the sand demons. Morrigan whispered something in her elvish language, and her winged companions cawed a few times before returning to her shoulders. “They are drawn to that sort of soul energy, at times they struggle to contain themselves when they detect it, particularly when there are larger amounts of it.”

  “Why does this concern me?” the deity said with annoyance, but I detected fear in his voice. He knew that he had been found out.

  “Fea and Macha seem to be rather fond of your sand demons,” I continued. “It is because you wove together these wretched beasts with doomed souls, most likely from your previous victims that ventured into your dungeon.”

  “Really?” Carmedy looked at me with wide eyes before she turned her attention back to the sand demons.

  “Of course,” Morrigan breathed. “Now it makes sense why Fea and Macha were behaving in this manner. It is indeed difficult for them to control themselves when there are large quantities of restless souls about. And it is has been some time since they have been fed. Their thoughts are harder to decipher during this time, so I was unaware of the cause of their behavior.”

  “That’s- that’s complete nonsense,” the deity sputtered. “You know nothing.”

  “Oh?” I raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Allow me to demonstrate.”

  Without another word, I raised a hand toward the sand demon furthest to the left and proceeded to perform a soul exorcism. While this was one of the largest creatures I had ever performed the necromantic technique on, it would be no trouble for an underdark deity of my caliber.


  The sand demon moved its head around in confusion and bellowed in protest as my dark magic overtook it. Within seconds the beast lost control of its body, and its enormous frame began to rise into the air. Now that the wretched creature was in my dark clutches I could feel the soul energy writhing inside of it. To my surprise, I felt not just one or two tormented souls housed within the sand demon, but several. It was no wonder that Fea and Macha had been so tempted. There were at least twenty souls within this single monster. As I tightened my hold on the demon, the souls thrashed as though they begged to be freed.

  Without hesitation, I closed my grip and the sand demon immediately burst into a large cloud of sand. As the golden granules rained down, a mass of grey mist came into view where the monster had been only moments before. The mist quivered and stretched as though it was alive. Then pieces of the grey mass broke free and curled into the air like wisps of smoke.

  “I-I-you can’t… how did you…?” the deity stammered.

  “Your power is nothing compared to mine,” I said before I turned to Morrigan. “Let your ravens have their fill.”

  “Yes, Master,” she said, and the black birds leapt from her shoulders.

  I waved my hand across the remaining sand demons, and their bodies lifted into the air just as the first one had. Then I immediately closed my grip in the air once more, and the monsters exploded and filled the atmosphere with shimmering sand.

  “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about,” Rana pumped her fist in the air. “Guess this ended up being an easy dungeon after all. Now let’s get at that treasure.” The fox rubbed her paws together excitedly.