Speaking of that, she returned her attention back to the fight against dozens of Hellspawn after being distracted by Fred’s new light-explosion ability. She directed her Level 6 Crystal Scorpion she had just created to start attacking the bear demon thingies that looked powerful. The large winged devils with pitchforks diving toward Regnark and Trenk appeared to be even more dangerous, but her Scorpion was better suited to tackle ground-based foes.
At a size that was half again as big as the biggest demon bear, her defender tore into the closest bear with its front claws, doing significant damage to its body and its left front leg. A return attack by the powerful paws of the bear rocked her Scorpion back a little as the hit impacted its right claws, but the sharp-looking nails of the demon only skittered along the outside of the crystal exoskeleton, doing very little damage. The vulnerable point of her Scorpion was in its face and the tip of its stinger, which the bear couldn’t reach – which meant that it was picked apart quite easily by the giant claws of her defender.
For herself, Eisa threw out a Lightscythe spell toward one of the imps throwing dark-colored fireballs and scored a direct hit, but all it seemed to do was annoy it. The flying Hellspawn was more powerful than the undead they had been fighting outside of the dungeon, and her Level 2 Lightscythe just didn’t do quite enough damage, despite its vulnerability to light damage. She quickly opened up her Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface and spent an additional precious 12,000 Essence to bring it up to level 4, essentially doubling the damage it did.
She closed her Interface and immediately saw a black fireball heading right for her face; the imp that she had targeted with her Lightscythe was fighting back. Without time to dodge, she instinctively transformed into her Earth Elemental form and felt the dirt covering her body – and face – just in time to receive the flung fireball. Her head snapped back from the force of the impact and she braced herself for the feeling of having her face burnt away; she reached up with her dirt-covered hands and felt around, finding some cracks in the rough exterior of her head, but it was fully intact – and it wasn’t hot in the least.
She didn’t think she could surprise Hellspawn, but she could’ve sworn the look on the imp that had tried to burn her face off was one of shock. She wiped even that look off its face as she flung out two more improved Lightscythes in succession, finally knocking the annoying demon out of the air with her last strike.
A line of pain running down her back made her stumble forward in reaction to an attack from behind; she recovered quickly and saw that one of the dark-colored goblins she had seen earlier had snuck up and tried to stab her while she was dealing with the imp. Fortunately, her new Earth Elemental’s dirt “skin” was a lot stronger than her normal human body, which was probably the only reason she hadn’t been hurt too badly. She could tell that if she completely ignored the Goblin that it would eventually break through her hard exterior and inflict some real damage.
She mentally transformed her arms into sharp-bladed instruments of death, which she had found over the last couple of days was much easier than she had thought it would be. It was almost as natural as performing a spell or activating an ability; she had the knowledge of it in her head – all she had to do was think of it and it would happen. The biggest difference was that, instead of available Power limiting her potential, she was limited by how much of her body she could manipulate.
The easiest thing that she could do was turn her arms into blades, but she could also grow taller or shrink down, become thin as a stick or as fat as a large tree, or even extend her arms to three times their normal length. The only issue was her mass of dirt covering her; if she grew taller, for instance, her body would extend upwards, but she would grow much thinner as a result. Essentially, if she wanted to make something bigger, something else needed to become smaller. Still, there was only so much she could do, but it was quite a bit if she didn’t mind bending and stretching her very form in order to do all of it.
Eisa struck back at the dark goblin with admittedly clumsy strikes, which were just as clumsily deflected by what appeared to be a steel knife in its hand. She’d never had much weapons training in the past, which only made sense – most of her Adventurer days had been filled with slinging spells or occasionally fending off an enemy with a staff she kept stored in her PIB. As far as edged weapons, however, she had never really fought with one before she acquired her new Earth Elemental form, so she knew her skills were a little lacking.
Fortunately, desperation and a willingness to throw oneself into a fight could make up for that lack of training…a little bit. When Eisa added the fact that she knew she wouldn’t be seriously hurt if she was stabbed once or twice, she was more than willing to go all out without regard to any type of defense. Well, that, and she cheated a little.
A Lightscythe she shot directly in its face caused the agile goblin to dodge quickly out of the way, while partially blinding it at the same time. When it was disoriented, she struck hard and fast, stabbing and slashing for everything she was worth as she practically jumped on top of the shorter figure; she felt a single slash from its knife scrape across her chest, but she was able to overcome its natural speed and defense with her suicidal assault.
She kept slashing at it until it disappeared into the ground, melting away and leaving Dark Mana behind – which was immediately absorbed by the dungeon. She looked up to see the rest of the group finished with their own fights and staring at her; the new group they had joined with were looking at her with expressions ranging from shock to veiled interest, while Fred and Regnark just smiled at her.
“What?” she asked, trying to figure out why they were staring.
She looked around to see that the other dungeon monsters had already disappeared as well, and Essence flowed into all of them. She couldn’t believe that they had managed to kill all of them so quickly while she was fighting, but then she saw Deecy shrink back down to Pup size and pad over to her side, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
“Apparently, my Fire mana makes me partially immune to Hellfire and some Dark Mana attacks; that, and with my ability to jump and snatch those pesky devils out of the air, they didn’t stand a chance. And your Crystal Scorpion garnered so much attention that everyone was easily able to pick them off individually rather quickly.
“Unfortunately, one of those darn succubi managed to grab my leg with its barbed whip – which hurt…a lot – so if you wouldn’t mind, could you heal me with your special ability? I think the shock of my appearance has sent the Druid into conniptions.”
Eisa smiled at Deecy – until she saw that she was limping and bleeding quite heavily. She shot a glare at the small, green-clothed “Druid”, and immediately used Earth’s Renewal on the Dire Wolf Pup. Within a few seconds, the wound stopped bleeding and Deecy quickly walked around showing off her healed state. Eisa looked around for her Scorpion and saw it in the center of the room, looking quite a bit worse for wear but still miraculously alive.
“Thank you, Eisa. By the way, you’re naked. Just thought you’d like to know.”
Eisa immediately banished her Earth Elemental form and hid her face behind her hands once she was back to her human body again. I must’ve forgotten to add clothes when I changed so quickly! She couldn’t believe she had been figuratively naked again in front of all those people; it was one thing to do it in front of Fred and Regnark, but it was something else to do it in front of strangers.
Muted laughter from the group was quickly cut off as Trenk told everyone, “Alright, we’ve made good time and there’s only one room left – let’s go!”
Chapter 28
Fred couldn’t believe how deadly Deecy could be once she had the opportunity to show off her skills. To her Giant Dire Wolf form, the demons and devils and imps were more like chew toys than real threats, and she – along with Eisa’s highly durable Crystal Scorpion –dominated the battle. Once the other group had overcome their shock at their appearance, they threw themselves into the fight with
enthusiasm – so much so that they had managed to kill everything in the room within three minutes. That was good, though, because Fred just overheard the Dark Core Communicating again.
“I don’t know what is going on, but these livestock are more than they appear. I swear one of them just created an Earth defender from the Mana inside its body! And then there’s this wolf creature that can change its size – and it’s made from both Water and Fire Mana!
Fred heard that one-sided conversation and worried just a little bit. Not only was the final boss – a Demonlord, apparently – transformed into something likely more powerful, but there was another Core’s undead army now at their back. They needed to move – and move quickly.
Fortunately, Trenk was able to get everyone moving after they were distracted from Eisa’s show of hacking apart a Defiled Goblinoid in her “naked” Earth Elemental form. Eisa, now recovered from her obvious embarrassment, had run over to her Scorpion and reabsorbed it, as it wouldn’t fit through the passageway to the next room.
As they started to move towards the exit tunnel, Pollianne finally showed up, after having spent the entire battle deactivating two more trap defenses that had been set up in an area near the far side of the room.
“What did I miss?” she asked, running along with the large group.
“What did you miss? Just the fact that this little wolf can transform into a giant 20-foot monster. Oh, and this girl can summon monsters to do her bidding and can become some sort of naked dirt creature that has the ability to create blades from her arms. That’s all,” Metlin told her with exaggerated sarcasm. “And then, let’s not forget that this guy here is apparently a Channeler as well, along with some sort of Mage…who are you people?” he continued, directing his question toward Fred.
“It would take too long to explain it right now; if we survive the next five minutes, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. We have to hurry to get past this last room before time runs out,” Fred told him.
“What do you mean by survive? And, by my reckoning, we still have over ten minutes before those monsters reach Death’s March – as well as over twenty before they reach here.”
I guess it couldn’t hurt to tell them. “Oh, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the army of undead that just entered through the entrance tunnel. We’ve got about five minutes before they hit us from behind.”
Trenk stopped at the front of the group, halfway through the tunnel to the 30th and last room. “What? Where did they come from, and how do you know?”
The question was echoed by the Dark Core at almost precisely the same time – she could obviously understand her “livestock’s” speech well enough.
“…how does this wretched livestock know?”
“Because I can hear the Dark Core talking. Look, I can explain later, but we’re running out of time.”
Refelynn spoke up, which was a rarity, but whenever she spoke the others seemed to listen. “I would very much like to hear more about that. But if you’re telling the truth, we need to hurry – and your plan better have something to deal with this army of undead you say is coming.”
I sure hope so.
“Enough of this – let’s get going,” Regnark said, pushing ahead and the others followed close behind him. Fred was glad that they hadn’t stopped to question him more, because they really couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
“Let me disarm this trap at the entrance really quick—huh? It’s not there,” Pollianne said, leading the group into the final room. She hesitated when she passed over the threshold and looked around suspiciously, as if the trap being disarmed was somehow unnatural and had to be a trick.
Fred used his Mana Sight and didn’t see any activated defenses, but he thought he saw a faint residue where one might’ve been, but it was essentially powerless now. Looking around the room – which he could see in the complete darkness better than his normal vision – he saw seven other spots around the room that appeared very similar to the “emptied” defense at the entrance. When he looked toward the middle of the room, however, he thought that he had found where the Mana went.
A pulsing Dark Mana outline of…something…stood tall in the middle of the massive room, unmoving but facing toward the entrance of the room. Fred immediately brought forth another Magelight – which fortunately cost very little Power to cast – and directed the bright, harmless orb toward where he saw the pulsing Dark Mana. It flew at least 50 feet forward before it collided against something so dark red that it appeared almost black.
Gasps near him from the Druid-Thief and Lasgo were echoed by the rest of the group as Eisa added her own Magelight, followed by Refelynn channeling her own illumination spell so that they could see all of what they were up against.
“Well, now I know why this room is so large; it had never made much sense for a boss only 20 feet tall that couldn’t fly to be in a room with 100-foot-tall ceilings, but this…this would explain it. What happened?” Trenk said, wonder and a little fright in his voice for the first time since Fred had known him.
At over 60 feet tall, a massive dark-red demon stood in the center of the expansive room, staring at them but not moving. Two sharp, 3-foot-long horns shot out of the top of its nightmarish head, which looked like a combination of an insect and a pig with small embers burning in where he thought the eyes were; six arms extended from its shoulders all the way down to its torso on both sides of its chest, which sported muscles on top of muscles to support the extra appendages. A black-colored rotted loincloth covered its waist, which allowed the tree-trunk legs extending from its hips – which ended in cloven hooves – free range of movement.
To top it all off, each of the six hands held a large black-steel scimitar at least a dozen feet long, currently held upright without the demon seemingly straining itself.
“Uh, guys – there’s no way we can kill that thing. It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s something only seen in at least a very high B-Rated dungeon, if not an A-Rated. If we were completely rested and at full Power, we might be able to harm that thing, but I doubt we could kill it – even with whatever special abilities you all seem to have,” Trenk said, glancing at Eisa and the Dire Wolf in particular.
“He’s likely right; there’s no way we can kill that thing. I might be able to do a little damage, but a solid hit or two from one of those swords and I’m done for.”
That wasn’t promising, if Deecy was admitting defeat before they even tried. After looking closer at it, though, he couldn’t help but agree.
Demonlord – Upgraded (Level 1)
Vitality: 35000
Attack: 1800, Multi-slash, Crosscut, Forced Assault, Hellfire Stomp
Defense: 750, (+70% Dark defense, +70% Fire defense, -85% Light defense)
Yeah, that’s not good. The Demonlord wasn’t quite as bad as an Emerald Dragon in terms of raw strength, but then again, he didn’t have any mana to make a giant Rock Beetle, either.
“We can’t do this – we’ve got to go back,” Metlin was saying to the others in his group, who seemed to agree with him. Before they could decide to go back, Regnark tried to stop them.
“No! Our only chance is if we go forward; Fred already told you that there is an undead army behind us, so going back isn’t an option.”
They still looked to want to turn back as they all stared at each other in silence, for entirely too long – to the point where Fred thought that they would just wait for the undead
reinforcements to reach them before deciding. All except Pollianne, who rocked from foot to foot in impatience – she just wanted to do something to save her sister.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait until they were overwhelmed by undead, because Refelynn amazingly came to his rescue. “Ok, for some strange reason I feel like I can trust that you’re telling the truth. So…what’s your plan?”
“Well, you’re probably not going to like this, but this is what we’re going to do…”
* * *
Fred crept around the perimeter of the room, following after Pollianne who was silently leading the way in the shadowed darkness near the walls. All of their illumination was concentrated in the middle of the room, where the others could use it to “fight” the extremely deadly Demonlord. The Assassin was cloaked in her normal invisibility, which she had tried to show Fred – but he failed to learn the ability. Although it was Power-based, it wasn’t necessarily a failure on his part; the entire process was internal and actually converted her body and clothing invisible from the inside out. By the time it reached outside of her clothing, most of the Power had dissipated and there was very little he could learn. He thought that if he played around with some of his other spells and abilities as a Researcher that he might be able to figure it out, but he didn’t currently have that kind of time.
After about 30 seconds of prep, Trenk walked forward and passed some invisible line in the room, which triggered the attack by the Demonlord in the middle. Luckily, despite having the strength to likely chop Fred in half with one blow of a sword, the massive defender was relatively slow. Trenk wasn’t particularly fast himself as he went up against the large-building-sized demon, but he was at least able to dive out of the way of a few sword swipes. The problem was that his foe had six swords that it could strike down at him.
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 23