Azure: Gunner

Thankfully, IN DUNGEONS, monsters are much less bothered by things that happen outside their little area. If they can’t see you, they probably aren’t going to pay much attention even if your Bard breaks out into fucking song. Well, assuming those particular monsters can see in the first place.

Hopefully I don’t need to spell this out for you, but if I don’t the Guildmistress is gonna make me do it anyway. In most ways, dungeons are a shit-ton harsher than the world outside. But in this one specific and important way, they are much more forgiving.

If you let yourself get used to the idea that making a ruckus won’t draw monsters from miles around, you are going to get yourself and your Squad proper fucked one day out in the real world. When you’re on patrol out in the wilds, you had best mind your sound discipline. In some regions, you need scent discipline too.

There’s a reason every new Squad of Delvers does at least one patrol with our friends from the Hunter’s Guild. Pay some fucking attention to what they’re going to teach you, and you’ll spend a lot less time running away screaming.

- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 10.9 – “Dungeon Oddities”

After some consideration, we identified a structure at the edge of the ruins as the most suitable for our purposes. What was left of it was two stories tall, though the roof was long gone. The walls seemed to be some kind of stone that none of us had seen before, though it was possible it was the decaying cousin of the material of the bridge over Devil’s Gorge.

We went in carefully, but found nothing besides rubble and an absurd amount of dust everywhere. The orcs barely fit through the doors, having to duck and even turn slightly sideways to fit their massive shoulders through. We tested the walls and floor, finding them still sturdy despite the mess. Then we went to work, piling up debris to block off the ground floor windows and the door that faced towards the rest of the city.

The orcs’ strength was invaluable as we blockaded the ground floor, leaving only the back door partially open. Then we gathered on the second floor, which was open to the sky, but held our weight without complaint. After a quick review of the plan, we moved into position, with most of the team forming a firing line facing the city, using the half-intact walls and remains of the window openings for cover.

Raylan waited at the bottom of the stairs with Zaire behind him, ready to throw up Stone Walls if any attackers threatened to breach the barriers. I took a deep breath, gave everything one final check, then remembered one more thing. I pulled out my blunderbuss and leaned it carefully against the wall next to me, then retrieved an extra pouch of 454 Casull and tied it to my belt. As ready as I was going to get, I signaled Tara.

“COME OUT AND GET US!” she Roared, her voice echoing off the walls of the ruined buildings nearby. At first, it seemed all of our preparations had been in vain.

<Contact!> called out H’ruk, and then a flood of HKs appeared, crawling out of buildings like an angry swarm.

Our building was about thirty yards from the nearest neighbors, and I opened fire with measured precision as mechaniods skittered down the street towards us, sparks flying from their metal feet and tentacles lashing.

BOOM! click-click BOOM! click-click BOOM! click-click BOOM! click-click BOOM!

My first five shots downed two enemies, and Spells and shots lashed out from my team. Arlo had pulled out a full dozen speedloaders loaded with non-conjured ammunition, and he rained down 357s on the advancing monstrosities. Jayce’s Spells echoed brutally off the walls, as the cyborg added Roll the Dice to the mayhem as often as possible. H’ruk, G’hala, and Tara opened fire with their wands, adding a mix of fire, lightning, and ice bolts to the chaos.

The extended volley left at least a dozen corpses sprawled around the rubble-filled stone streets, but that was at best half of the number of attackers.

click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!

Two more shots downed a third HK, and I used Pierce with my last shot to nearly take the head off a fourth. Then the monsters were on us, leaping up at us with incredible agility on their six multi-jointed legs. With no time to reload, I vanished my shotgun and ripped out my Adjudicator, loaded with six rounds of 454 Casull. I wanted the penetrating power of the single, solid bullets, afraid that the weaker buckshot it fired wouldn’t pierce their metal shells.

I put two shots into an HK that was halfway up the wall, then ducked behind the remains of the wall as another leapt with explosive power, sailing over my head and crashing into the roof behind me. Tactical Reposition triggered as I called out to G’hala, who broke away from the wall to deal with the jumper.

I screamed in defiance as I ripped through the last four shots in my pistol, leaning over the wall to take out an HK that was throwing itself against the barricaded door below. There was a crashing sound.

<One in! WALL!> Raylan screamed into the Comms, and then I was forced to draw my cutlass as another pair of mechanical nightmares made it to the roof. H’ruk kicked one off the roof with a mighty boot, and then my concentration narrowed as Battle Focus took hold.

The fight dissolved into chaos and I remembered only bits and pieces. When clarity returned, I hissed in pain. My entire body hurt, and I had a vague memory of G’hala screaming out “Balance” at some point. My left arm was the worst, and I looked down in shock to see a broken-off fang punched clean through it.

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I forced aside the pain, ‘grateful’ for my experience with Trite. If nothing else, it had taught me to function through devastating injuries. As I looked around, I was relieved to see everyone still alive. Broken and battered HKs littered the area, and my Squad was bloodied but still mostly on their feet. G’hala was tending to Raylan, who was lying down on his cloak as she wrapped bandages around his leg. I saw the tourniquet around his upper thigh and winced.

Tara and Zaire were keeping watch, and seemed to be in the best shape of us. H’ruk was bleeding from multiple shallow wounds, and Jayce was holding their mechanical hand tightly to their flesh side with blood leaking from below their fingers as they gritted their teeth in pain. It took long enough to get everyone bandaged up that Balance was nearly off cooldown by the time we were done.

Then we each had a new set of wounds to patch up, as I ordered the Shaman to use her Skill again. Raylan couldn’t walk, Jayce wasn’t much better off, and my left arm was barely functional. The fang had pierced through between the two bones of my forearm, and I didn’t think either was broken, but my fingers weren’t working well and I had needed to hold my shotgun in place with my knees while I reloaded with one hand.

“Balance,” G’hala said softly, and I grunted as the pain in my arm receded dramatically while new injuries seared through my thigh and side, just below my ribs. Nothing had stirred nearby since the end of the fight, so we’d all changed out of our armor for a moment, with plenty of bandages prepared and ready to go.

I wrapped one tightly around the oozing gash in my thigh, then another around my stomach, tightly binding my share of the cut that had punched into Jayce’s abdomen. We’d probably look ridiculous on the recording, but the result was brutally effective. We all hurt just about everywhere, but were able to function despite the pain. We’d have to wait for a while before our next round of healing potions, however.

I sighed and looked around. <All right everyone, forty-five minutes to rest until we can down another potion. Then we do it all again, am I right?!>

Raylan, who was sitting on the back of a dead HK, kicked a piece of rubble at me and everyone laughed. Jerks. I was being serious.

Wolf sighed as the team obviously settled back down to recover. The only thing worse than sitting and watching them fight for their lives had to be sitting and watching them… sit. To make things worse, it was just him and the Head Instructor. Zenia was working with Squad Excel, and Lydia was with the old man.

Speaking of the other Thompson, he seemed older by the day. He hadn't even been able to get out of bed that day, his cough was so bad. Angels knew what Lydia thought she could do for him at this point, but that was up to her. He just wished he had someone to talk to besides Kiara.

Wolf had delivered her little message to Az and the team the night before, acting like it was a secret he wasn't supposed to know. He still had no idea what kind of a game the Head Instructors was playing, and it infuriated him. She was clearly using the kids for some purpose that Wolf didn't understand and was certain he wouldn't approve of.

Worse yet, every time he worked up the courage to do something about it, his mind went back to Trite’s hot breath on his neck. There was only one way he’d muster the courage to stand up to that, and if he let his rage control him… Well, he’d find himself making his last stand on his feet, at least.

Instead, he sat, clutching a glass of water that he desperately wished was whiskey. At least Thompson didn't expect him to make small talk while they waited. Finally the Squad reassembled, taking up their defensive formation as Tara used Roar. Wolf smiled slightly as she belted out another expletive, imagining the echoes bouncing off the ruined buildings. When nothing stirred, they cautiously moved out, heading into the ruins.

Wolf sighed and scribbled some notes. They should have cleared at least one more perimeter sector before penetrating into the dangerous urban area. He also made sure to note down that they hadn't yet had any lessons on urban combat. If Thompson had given him more warning, he could have tried to give them the basics at least.

Two blocks in, they encountered a patrol with one of the larger monsters accompanied by several smaller drones. The team dealt with them without too much trouble, from which Wolf inferred the cat-like mechanoid was not as high Level as the one they'd faced in the hills. Another block in they cleared a small group of drones, but the noise attracted a more dangerous adversary.

Wolf guessed the System would identify it as a titan or colossus. The mechanical nightmare looked to be two stories tall if it stood up straight, though it was moving through the city with a hunched gait. It stomped down the street, passing between the ruined husks of vehicles. Wolf could never remember what they were called, just that they obviously weren’t manamobiles given the style pre-dated the System.

The team fell back as the huge monster approached, lacing it with fire from everything at their disposal. The titan responded by tearing up a huge piece of stone from the road and hurling it at the team. Wolf winced internally as the hundred pound projectile slammed into the ground just short of the now-fleeing students, skidding along the road and smashing Raylan and Tara aside like toys.

Az and the others came to a halt with admirable swiftness, dashing back to grab their wounded friends before another massive chunk of rock shattered the ground where they’d been standing. The team sprinted into one of the buildings in desperation, clearly hoping the enormous monster’s size would prevent it from following.

They ran deeper into the cavernous structure, doing a cursory job of best at clearing the rooms they passed, though Wolf could hardly fault them for that. The orcs were each helping one of the injured, and that left them with essentially four ranged fighters, with Azure leading the way.

He debated briefly whether to criticize that – convention would suggest putting Jayce in the front, since the cyborg had a shield. On the other hand, Az had heavier armor overall, and her shotgun excelled at delivering huge bursts of damage in a hurry. No, he decided, he’d approve that choice.

Though the sound relayed through the projection was terrible, Wolf was confident he could hear the titan tearing down the building behind them, making room for itself to follow. From the way the team kept looking back, they obviously heard it too. They came to a sudden, abrupt halt, and Wolf strained to interpret their faces and occasional gestures as they communicated over the Comms.

The brief discussion ended with them turning down a side corridor, so he suspected they’d heard or otherwise identified another threat ahead. Raylan and Tara were lowered to their feet, though they both steadied themselves against the walls as the team continued.

The orcs’ heads nearly brushed the low ceilings, and they had to duck through each doorway. People had been shorter in the old days, or rather taller races hadn’t existed back then. So-called ‘historical’ dungeons like this one faithfully recreated that.

Zaire looked into a room as they passed, and the team immediately stopped. Azure pulled back from her point position to take a look, then after a brief exchange of glances the team followed her into the room, and Wolf was able to see what the Earth Mage had spotted. There was a stairwell, leading down into the dark.