Unconquered Tower

FORTY-ONE

Roan grunted with pain when the ebony blade slammed into his back. He spun and backhanded the goblin, throwing it against the stony wall. There was pain in his back, but Roan didn’t feel blood or anything that appeared broken.

“Armor works,” he muttered as he turned back toward where they were headed. His mapping skill had helped them immensely as they fought through the warrens, slaughtering goblins by the score as they tried to reach the junction point.

“How close are we?” Darren asked, panting heavily. The man leaned against the rock walls, blade hanging loosely from his hand. It was only the light from Taoya’s body that let them see.

“We’re here. That corner, we set the explosives there and detonate them and it’ll collapse this intersection,” Roan said. It was the final junction they needed to seed. They had lost most of the mobs they’d brought, using them to guard the explosives, and more to ambushes. They still hadn’t seen anything stronger than a goblin, but the sneaky bastards had a habit of bursting out of the seemingly solid rock walls.

“Alright, set the explosives and we’ll move back to the surface,” Darren said. With a thought, Roan ordered the mobs to their position, stacking up in a circle as those carrying the explosives sat with them right in the middle of the corridor.

“Time to go,” Taoya said, leading the way once Roan pointed it out. They forced their way through the goblin hordes, slaughtering any that came too close. None of the small mobs could really contest them, but the sheer number ensured everyone picked up cuts and scrapes.

Time passed quickly, the constant fighting forcing them to move slower than any of them wanted. When they broke out from the cramped confines of the warren of tight corridors into a wide cavern, Roan breathed a sigh of relief. His back popped as he straightened up, looking over the empty space.

“Creepy,” he muttered, but Taoya agreed with him, grunting loudly enough to be heard. The rest of them piled out of the tunnels and stood up, looking upward toward the surface.

“There should be a reaction force here. Something to ambush any rescuers,” Darren said. Roan agreed with him, but didn’t say anything. Instead he looked away from their freedom and down, into the depths of the caves.

“Unless they can move fast enough it doesn’t matter,” Roan muttered. None of the goblins aside from the hobs had been impressive with their speed. Goblins were quick, trolls slow, shamans had been fairly stationary. He just had to worry about the general. If the gap between the general and the hobs was the same as the hobs and the shamans, they were going to struggle.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to be underground when those bombs go off,” Taoya said, jogging forward and asserting himself for once. Nobody wanted to be stuck in the dark, the only light still the sparks of stored energy jumping off of Taoya’s wide frame.

Nothing confronted them as they ran up the steep slope. The rock was smooth and free of any type of debris. The crumbly rock that they had traveled through was nowhere to be seen, and Roan felt an itch at the back of his neck about it. Something felt off, but he couldn’t pin it.

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“It could just be how the level was designed. The more we explore the more paths to success we’re finding. The compressed time frame is fucking us over though.” Roan didn’t voice any of his thoughts, just sat on them as they worked their way up. Everyone knew this was risky and were tense enough as is. Adding his vague sense of ominous doom wouldn’t help with anything. If there was a trap, they were walking into it with eyes wide open.

The darkness lightened swiftly as they rose. Streams of daylight piercing through the gloom. Roan weighed with relief as they exited the mouth of the cavern at the top of the hill. They weren’t far at all from the prisoners, all of them noticing Roan and company as they walked out of the earth.

“Blow it,” Darren ordered, speaking over his shoulder. He was already running toward the prisoners. Roan looked over to the treeline and saw the rest of their impromptu party coming toward them quickly. With a single thought he ordered the mobs below to activate their explosives.

The earth rumbled, loose earth dancing over stone. One of the hills further over imploded, collapsing in on itself in a geyser of dust. Then another and another. A scream of rage echoed off of the stone and exited the cave as a howl.

“Those were man made tunnels. Goblin-made tunnels.” Roan now realized why there had been such a difference in them. Roan jogged away from the entrance, not wanting to stand there when the general and crew came running up from the depths with vengeance on their mind.

Tyler took his spot, throwing aside her over robes and revealing her skin tight body suit. Her bare arms were red, inflamed, looking swollen to the point of bursting. Strain was evident on her face as she staggered to the entrance, sweat pouring down her face. She leaned against the rock, checked to ensure nobody was around her, and lifted her hand.

Darren, Taoya, Moira, and Grace were busy freeing the prisoners, cutting apart the ropes that held them in place. Roan kept his eyes on the broken hills, seeing if anything would be coming out of them. The earth continued to rock and jump, more and more dust rising to obscure the sunlight.

He coughed, swatting at the dust as it thickened further. Visibility was growing worse, Tyler hardly a blur as she stepped into the tunnel and shouted. That was her signal she was going to unleash her heightened attack. Roan was far enough away he shouldn’t have to worry about the blowback, but he backed up further anyway.

“Where the hell are they?” Taoya asked, appearing by Roan’s shoulder.

“I don’t know. Will they even come out?” Roan knew they were nocturnal, but them blowing up part of their home had to drag them out. There was no way they were going deeper into the mess of caves to fight them. Not now, not knowing how convoluted they were.

“Something is off about this,” Taoya muttered. The dust was causing everyone to cough now. It had grown so thick that no sunlight reached them at all, a premature dusk.

“Run your skill on this hilltop,” Taoya said suddenly, grabbing Roan’s shoulder in a tight grip. Roan figured out what the big man was thinking instantly. He had found the cave tunnel leading out, but hadn’t surveyed the hill itself since they weren’t going to blow it up.

Mana whirled in him, draining as the skill activated. He didn’t bother with a steak, just focused on what his new skill was telling him. His face blanched as he felt what they were standing on. Another false hill, crafted atop of a natural cave system.

“It’s a trap. GET OFF THE HILL!” Roan yelled, but his voice was muffled by the dust and crashing of the other imploding hills.

Roan became weightless, stomach surging through his throat. The ground beneath them swung open, the thin pillars holding them up collapsing, collapsing the entire false top of the hill with everyone on it.