Down below, 6 Gnolls equipped with iron-like armor were arrayed across from the exit to the next room, wielding sturdy wooden shields and basic iron swords. Melee Classes; one of the few things we’re not really suited to fighting against. The variety of different monster types – not just Class-wise, but different species – was what made this dungeon so strange. Normally, dungeons that he frequented and were suitable for his Raider Level had at most 2 different types of monsters, with perhaps a few varieties; this one, however, he had lost count of how many different types of opponents they had gone up against. Now they were up against a melee-Class, of all things.
It was time for him to earn his keep, he supposed. As the only Class in this Cohort that was suited to more of a melee role, it was going to be his job to keep the Gnolls busy, while the others took out the threats. Marvus looked around at Gerthin and the rest of the Cohort, silently encouraging them; they had been around long enough to know what was needed even without words.
“On my go. 1…2…3…GO!”
Marvus sprinted forward, using his Rush ability to slide up next to the lead Gnoll of the pack, sliding his long steel dagger into a gap along the side of its breastplate. He felt it pierce the tough skin of the monster, penetrating all the way to the hilt, before pulling it back out. All of that occurred in less than a second, and the Gnoll dropped to the ground, dead before it even knew what had hit it.
A sudden instinctual flip backwards saved him from being decapitated by the Gnoll next in line, and by the time he straightened back up, Marvus was forced to fend for his life. He wasn’t an expert fighter – he had other skills – but he could sure annoy the Gnolls enough to keep their attention on him; weaving back and forth, he either avoided most attacks against him or blocked them with his long dagger, which he typically used when faced against harder opponents. It was going well until an arrow shot by one of the Kitsune up on the wall slammed into his left shoulder, penetrating deep enough that he quickly lost most sensation in his left arm.
“HURRY UP!” Marvus shouted, barely deflecting another slice at his head, nimbly dancing out of the way. He pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and flung it away, before grabbing another Potion out of his bag while he rolled forward, avoiding 4 more strikes that whooshed through the air right where he had been. Swallowing the life-saving liquid, he felt his shoulder knit itself together again, giving him feeling back in his limb.
Springing up, he managed to slice his dagger along the back of the knee of the nearest Gnoll, cutting through its tendons. It collapsed to a knee, unable to bear any weight on its leg, and Marvus went to finish it off – but was forced to retreat as its buddies interrupted him. C’mon, where’s my backup? Another pair of arrows shot through where he had just been, narrowly missing him, and he began to suspect that he had been abandoned.
Fortunately for him, the Cohort was only getting into position. As soon as he had Rushed the first Gnoll, the rest of the Cohort had disappeared, using their Stealth to camouflage themselves. This, of course, brought the entire room’s attention on Marvus – which was a bit disconcerting – but it was necessary for them to be able to move freely and get into position.
The first of them reappeared behind the kneeling Gnoll, slicing deeply into the back of his neck with a knife; the attack didn’t kill the monster, unfortunately, but the appearance of another Cohort member next to the first followed up with another attack in less than a second, severing its spinal cord in the process. Behind the others, more Cohort seemed to materialize out of thin air, directing their own attacks at the armored Gnolls. Most were successful, but one pair had gotten into position late, and the monster – after seeing what happened to its fellows – immediately swung its sword around in an arc, blindly slicing the air.
Two Cohort members suddenly appeared, their throats slit cleanly through from the attack. They collapsed to their knees, one hand dropping to their bottomless bags to grab a Potion, while the other attempted to stem the flow of blood. Marvus knew there was no hope for them, though; not because of the Gnoll, which had been quickly swarmed by the other Cohort members that had appeared, but because they wouldn’t be able to drink the Potion itself.
Gerthin, their resident Assassin, told him once that without a Healer-Class to help them, slit throats were the worst type of wound and usually meant death. Even if they splashed some of the Healing Potion on their wounds, regardless of its strength, all it would do was close up the external portion of the wound. It would continue bleeding inside, and it was a very rare person that could swallow liquid at that point, especially when their windpipe had been severed – as these two had been.
Within seconds, the two had bled out so much that there was no hope of saving them, even if they had the means. However, the danger in the room had been eliminated, including the Kitsune up above, as a half dozen Cohort had managed to climb up and dispatch them all. Sadly, one of them got a point-blank shot from an arrow into his eye, killing him instantly, so they ended up losing a total of 3 in their endeavors.
It wasn’t the first time Marvus wished they had some Melee and Casters in their Cohort, but they were few and far between. There were some much higher-Level members of different Classes in their Raider sub-group, but none that were willing to work under Marvus – he’d have to work under them, which was something he’d rather avoid. Still, it would’ve helped a lot during this battle, because spell-casting was much more effective in taking out ranged-based monsters, and having someone other than him hold the attention of the Gnolls would’ve prevented him from losing the attention of the one that had killed two of his crew.
Looking around at his now 14-strong Cohort, he saw that morale had taken a big hit because of the deaths. “Nice execution, everyone. If I’m correct – which I think I am, based on how close our payday feels – this next room should be the Boss of this dungeon. Once that’s dead, we can collect our spoils!”
Ragged cheers rang out, not quite enthusiastic, but determined, nonetheless. Greed – it’s always a great motivator. With that, they collected the loot from the slain Gnolls and Kitsune – which included a few much-needed Minor Healing Potions and 25 silver coins – as well as their own dead, and moved on.
Nothing can stop us now.
Chapter 10
This isn’t good.
The Boss Room appeared innocuous enough, even though it was quite dark. Just a bunch of trees – what could be scary about that? A quick look up into the branches revealed no Kitsune waiting to rain death down on them, and there didn’t seem to be any of those annoying foxes hidden in the tree roots. There were a few traps that they had identified, though it took Derf and a few others that had higher Disarm Trap skills to eliminate them. After that…nothing.
At least until they ventured near the middle of the room – or so he estimated – which was when the howling started. A deep-rooted instinct of Marvus, some primal warning, took hold and caused him to freeze in his tracks involuntarily. Moving just his eyes, he could also see that everyone else with him had frozen as well, a few of them actually shivering – and he couldn’t blame them. The sound of a hundred howls coming at them from every side was deafening, and all he wanted to do was cover his ears and curl up in a ball on the ground.
NO! These are just wolves!
Marvus shook himself out of his frozen state, his knees feeling like jelly after being locked into rigidity. When he caught his balance and recovered, he immediately slapped Gerthin across the face, hard enough to leave a mark but not actually injure him. The Assassin’s eyes cleared and he looked at Marvus, nodding his head.
The next moment, the Cohort leader and Gerthin were slapping the faces of the rest of the crew, snapping them out of their sudden fear. None of them said anything – though they all acknowledged their thanks with a nod of their head or by mouthing the words – mainly because the howls were so loud that Marvus could barely hear his own thoughts.
Abruptly, as if they were waiting for them to all recover from their initi
al fear, the howling stopped. Strangely, the sudden silence was even more frightening than the deafening howls.
“Get ready, I think they’re co—”
The first of the wolves entered the ring of light around the Cohort crew – which was created by their Amulets of Illumination – and immediately attacked, jumping or charging ahead, teeth bared in snarls of hungry anticipation. One of them hopped straight for Marvus, and he turned to the side to avoid its snapping jaws, slicing with his long dagger in one swift movement. The fur and flesh parted easily, cutting the side and even the bones of the wolf with remarkable effectiveness. In fact, by the amount of damage he had done, he would say that these wolves were weaker than the ones they had fought…6 rooms ago? 8? He had lost track of how many rooms they had gone through by that point.
He didn’t have time to ponder any more, though, because there was another wolf behind the one he just killed, and another behind that. Maybe this Boss Room is one of endurance? Just waves and waves of a single monster, though weaker than ones we’d seen before? He’d heard of such things happening in a dungeon, though he hadn’t seen it before; even then, he’d never heard of it being in a Boss Room.
Another howl seemed to shake the room, a singular source that seemed even louder than the hundreds of lupine voices they’d heard earlier. A glow suddenly surrounded the wolves racing towards them, and Marvus only had a moment before a trio of them were upon him. One of them lunged towards the Plunderer, intent on biting his leg, and Marvus danced to the side; when he went to execute a counterattack with his dagger, the wolf was suddenly gone, having moved as fast or faster than Marvus himself.
Not good at all.
A crunch on his left distracted him for a moment, and he looked over to see that one of his Cohort had found out the hard way that the onslaught of wolves was suddenly faster; his knee got crunched badly, and he was practically yanked off of his feet. Marvus went to help him, but he rapidly discovered that he had some problems of his own – such as the 5 wolves now arrayed against him, appearing out of nowhere it seemed.
They struck nearly as one, and not even their superior speed could prevent one of them from being impaled through the throat by his dagger; unfortunately, this left him open to attack, and while he avoided 3 of their vicious jaws, the 4th clamped onto his right arm, yanking it off the hilt of his dagger. He could feel the pressure of the teeth against his skin, and the tearing as his flesh parted, but it wasn’t as bad as he feared. Ripping it out of the wolf’s grip was impossible by itself, but a quickly grabbed knife from his waist into its left eye was enough to make it let go – in addition to killing it.
They aren’t really that powerful, just fast. Screams and cries from his Cohort seemed to want to put the lie to that thought, because they were suffering and dying to the wolf horde. None of them had as much physical resistance as Marvus had, however, so even a Level 5 wolf would do some damage to their bodies if they couldn’t avoid it. Some tried to disappear into the shadows, but were hunted down by the wolves, able to sniff them out – an unfortunate ability that the feral canines seemed to possess.
This isn’t going our way; time to break out the secret weapon. If there was one thing that Marvus loved, it was money. Not always for wealth’s sake, but because of one of his abilities as a Plunderer; it was expensive, both in terms of his stamina, but also in relation to his wallet.
Plunging his hand into his bottomless bag, he pulled out a handful of silver coins, activated his Splurge ability, and flung his hand outwards at tremendous speed. Two dozen silver coins flew out of his hand, shooting so fast that they were a blur as they smashed into and through the skulls of the wolves attacking him. And not only the wolves attacking him, but also through every wolf surrounding their group, killing them instantly, where they dropped down to the ground and dissolved straight away.
With that one ability, he had killed perhaps 30 of the wolves attacking them, as some of his coins went through multiple targets before slowing down, but there was a price. Marvus slumped in place, most of his energy having been spent performing his Splurge skill, and looked around at his Cohort. Half of them lay dead, their throats ripped out when they were overwhelmed, and the others ranged from slightly injured to severely – though a Potion or two would fix them right up. In fact, that was immediately what they did, using the break in the tide of wolves to heal themselves up as much as they could.
They had more time than he expected, as the remaining wolves quickly disappeared into the forest of trees, now completely hidden by the darkness. That was just fine for Marvus and the others, however, because it meant that they could recover and strategize before they came back. Or, what he sincerely hoped but highly doubted, they had all been defeated and they were free to claim their prize.
Howls once again shattered the silence around the still-living Cohort members, though its intensity was so much less now. Good; maybe they’ll think twice about attacking us. A moment later, however, the howls were joined by the singularly powerful howl he had heard earlier, though this time it didn’t seem as infused with power. Nevertheless, it was frightening enough.
Is that a really big wolf? he couldn’t help but think.
Nope. Not a wolf at all.
A noise that sounded and felt like pounding along the ground reverberated through the trees, followed by cracks as trunks were apparently pushed aside. Marvus stood up straight, some of his physical energy and stamina refilling from the use of his Splurge ability, and held onto his dagger with a vise-like grip. He nearly dropped it when the monstrosity thundered into the light, all 10 feet of heavily muscled werewolf stepping towards them intimidatingly. A tiny bit of wetness soiled his pants before the Plunderer gathered his courage and charged the massive monster.
The next moment, Marvus found himself hurtling through the air before slamming bodily into the side of a tree. He collapsed in an ungainly pile at its base, shocked at how powerful the werewolf was. The strike hadn’t been all that fast, but for some stupid reason the Cohort leader thought it would be smart to block the horrific claw coming towards him with his large dagger. Needless to say, it wasn’t one of his finest decisions, as the blow had so much power behind it that it sent Marvus flying.
As he picked himself up, feeling a stitch in his side that indicated that something was probably broken, he saw the dangerous beast-man eviscerating another one of his Cohort, before the others stayed far away from it. They were much faster than it was, and though it was strong, the werewolf couldn’t catch them. My turn again; this time, don’t be an idiot.
He rushed over, ignoring the pain even as he downed another Potion, tumbling past the behemoth with his dagger extended to the side. A superficial slice appeared on the upper thigh of the werewolf, not really enough to hurt it, but enough to focus its attention solely on Marvus. As the upright beast turned its eyes on him, the Plunderer gulped as he saw an impossibly intelligent hatred staring back at him. He’d never fought a werewolf before, and the sight of it fully concentrating on him made more frightened than he’d like to admit.
This time Marvus ducked and rolled instead of trying to block one of the strikes aimed at him, which was harder than it looked. The reach on the werewolf was such that it was nearly impossible to duck out of the way entirely, and he got more than a few scratches along his leather armor as a result; luckily, only once did the beast-man actually draw blood along his back, which stung but didn’t incapacitate him in any way.
Another howl from the trees startled him, and he quickly glanced around to see where his Cohort was. They were nowhere to be seen. Good.
“You better hurry! They’re coming.”
As he rolled backwards to dodge another attack, he saw all 7 of his Cohort members appear behind the werewolf and stab it in its back, the skills of their Classes enhancing the damage they did to a target unaware of their location. The werewolf howled again – in pain, this time – and turned on the surprise attackers with a vicious swipe of its claws, smacking two of the
Thieves in the process, sending them flying backwards. Marvus watched them land in a heap, injured but not dead – right in the path of the returning wolves.
Before the werewolf could recover, the Cohort leader yelled and used his Rush ability again, appearing next to the monstrous beast, where he stabbed upwards into its chest, hoping to pierce its heart. His dagger just wasn’t long enough, though, even when it was nearly hidden inside of the walking wolf’s chest cavity, and he sprang away, abandoning his weapon as he narrowly avoided having his face torn off by a savage claw.
Unfortunately, he tripped over the corpse of one of his Cohort and sprawled onto his back. The werewolf stomped over, obviously injured but ignoring those wounds as it strove to kill Marvus. He tried to scramble to his feet, but it was too late; unbalanced, he couldn’t spring or roll away to avoid the hit. He winced preemptively as he anticipated the blow that would tear his head from his body…but it never came.
Gerthin suddenly jumped onto the back of the werewolf, causing the monster to pause in confusion, and then his twin blades stabbed into its neck. With a practiced yank and a twist, the walking nightmare’s head popped off, and the Assassin rode its body to the ground as it collapsed in death.
Howls erupted into the air as the werewolf’s body disappeared, and the wave of remaining wolves bounded into them. Fortunately, there was no longer a glow around them, and Marvus – along with the other Cohort members – were able to dispatch them with only a minimum of hassle. In the end, there were only 6 people left of their original 20: Marvus, Gerthin, Derf, and three Level 19 Thieves.
Not a good result, but they were alive.
In the middle of their battlefield, strewn with the corpses of their dead and the loot left behind by the multitudes of monsters they had slain, appeared a treasure chest. Marvus walked over and lifted the top, surprised at what he saw inside. Not just one, but 2 Enchantment Scrolls, along with 5 Minor Healing Potions…and 2 gold coins! Added to the single gold coin that the werewolf had dropped, as well as the loot from the rest of the dungeon, he calculated that every single surviving member of the Cohort would end up with 2 or 3 gold apiece, a veritable fortune for their Levels.
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 10