A Dungeon’s Survival

Flur

Blinding the rampaging bandit had been a mistake. It seemed that I had forgotten the first and foremost rule of monster hunting: never back a raging beast, especially one that is stronger than you, into a corner. It resulted in the difficulty of the fight spiking dramatically.

The advantage granted to me by plunging the room into darkness, save for some dim torchlight leaking down from the path above, was enough to even the playing field somewhat, but taking away my opponent's sight also changed how he fought. Whereas before he had wasted time and effort trying to block my mostly harmless attacks and responding to my actions, his approach drastically shifted after he was deprived of his sight. No longer taking what I was doing into consideration, he threw caution to the wind with the only objective of smashing me to a paste.

With his now more reckless fighting style, I could no longer close in on him to land blows before retreating like I had been doing up until then. His flailing about made him too unpredictable, and all it would take for me to die was a single misstep. That was why I shifted my efforts to controlling the pace of the fight.

In addition to the bandit, there was the Trenti with the large head and staff. It was an unknown variable, a dangerous third party that I had no direct control over. The best I could hope to do was to take advantage of its presence and stay outside of its range of attack. Being the frail rogue that I was, I couldn't afford to so much as get grazed by its spells. A normal Trenti's magic would have been bad enough, but from what I witnessed, this Trenti was a step above any other I had seen.

Where its spells made contact, the bandit's skin seemed to bubble and burn. Either the man had to have put everything he had into his physical stats, completely neglecting his composure which would have increased his resistance to magic, or the monster was just that strong. If I was the betting type of person, I would have put my money on it being the former, but I wasn't, and with how unusual the Dungeon had proved itself to be time and time again, I had no intention of finding out which it was the hard way.

I kept my distance from both of them, even as the man sent the creature flying across the room with a lucky blow from his club. I paused in what I was doing to stare for a moment. A disfigured corpse is what I had been expecting to see after the blow, yet the goblinoid was clambering back to its feet. It had survived. Even if it was only a glancing blow, I was impressed. The thing was more durable than I was; I had to give it that.

Turning my attention back to the human, I saw that he was shaking slightly. The three magic attacks that had landed on him before he had knocked the monster back seemed to have taken their toll. That decided it. I needed to draw his attention and to keep it without putting myself at risk. I couldn't afford to let him finish the thing off yet when it was doing so much more damage than me.

That was enough of observing the situation. It was time to act, and I hadn't remained idle while I watched. While the bandit and monster skirmished, I had found another pair of daggers, quality too low for me to use for throwing with any degree of accuracy. I gripped them and charged toward the enemy. As I closed in, I jumped and, midair, threw one of the blades. I was fine with the way it clumsily spun as it soared. I hadn't launched it as an attack after all.

It clanked against a stalagmite on the opposite side of the man. He swung his weapon toward the source of the sound, and I planted my feet against a spike of stone before launching myself off of it. His weapon struck at empty space, extending away from me. I was safe to act as I wished for a second or two without the risk of a heavy, spike-studded mass of metal putting a swift end to my life.

As I closed in, I found myself thankful for the passive stealth the first ability a rogue gets granted to me. He had no clue I was there until my legs planted against his sides, a pair of my arms wrapped around his neck, one of my other hands grabbed his head to stabilize myself, and the last plunged the subpar knife into his eye. Critical Strike empowered my attack, and a roar of anger deafened me as I allowed myself to fall to the ground and roll out of the way of his retaliating blow I knew would be coming.

I jumped away as he spun in circles, smashing anything he could with his weapon in his blind fury. A couple of seconds later, there was the crack of a twig being stepped on, and his head homed in on its source. He ran forward, winding up his strike. His muscles bulged in an unnatural way as he activated an ability I had yet to see. It was a self buff if I wasn't mistaken.

Great, this guy is a real bag of tricks, isn't he?

Even as another blast of magic from the Trenti engulfed him, he brought his club down. When he was done, all that was left was a hunk of mush where the monster had been a moment prior.

There goes that source of damage.

It was a shame. I had hoped to buy the creature the opportunity to cast its spell a few more times, but it was what it was, and the monster had already done more than I could have hoped for. Now, I just needed to finish this. Before I could, however, I had to wait out the empowering ability the man was using. His muscles hadn't gone back to normal after his attack, so it was a waiting game. I expected him to return to flailing about aimlessly with his weapon, but apparently, he seemed to have a brain in that thick skull of his after all.

“I know you sacks of shit are still alive,” he roared, his words somewhat unclear due to the persistent injury he suffered from when I impaled him through the jaw earlier, “so one of you, shine a fucking light down here! If I die, you know you're gonna be next!”

I gulped as I heard movement from above. One of the four remaining injured bandits up there was making to follow orders. As much of a double edged sword as the darkness had proven itself to be, it would have been nice to keep it around a little longer. I might not have been able to attack him well with it as he flailed about, but the same was true for him. With it, he was unable to see me. That would have been a perfect situation to keep up while he was still deriving extra power from his ability. Sadly, hiding while I waited it out was not going to be an option.

Soon, a flicker of light found its way down as a man poked his head over the edge, torch in hand. I wished I had one of my throwing daggers left, so I could finish the nuisance off. It was too bad that I was unarmed.

“Found you,” the bandit growled out.

In the next moment, he was moving toward me at a speed that didn't lose out to even my own. It was his other ability back off of cooldown. Annoyance flared up within me. This guy was relentless.

I dove out of the way, letting him barrel past me. He didn't immediately stop. It was likely a downside of his charge. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I ran in the opposite direction from him, putting as much distance between us as I could.

As I moved, I scanned my field of vision for another weapon. I frowned headed toward and grabbed the only one in sight. I didn't have high hopes for the mushroom creature's staff, but it was better than nothing. I turned, and my enemy was already closing in again. I wished the staff was enchanted with the ability to cast magic like that apprentice alchemist's had been, but I had no such luck. In my hands, it was nothing more than a fancy stick.

I ducked an incoming swing and jabbed the staff upward, hitting my target in the same spot I had stabbed him with a sword before. If my attack did damage, I couldn't tell, but it did seem to disorient him. I'd take it.

I fell to my back as he kicked out with his leg. Then, I rolled. An impact came from beside me, and I winced as my moving pulled out a few strands of my hair that had gotten pinned under the bandit's weapon out.

Too close.

I was in a bad position, and I didn't have any easy ways out from it. I caught sight of his movements and pushed every muscle in my body to their limits to reverse the direction of my roll. The club impacted with the ground again, this time on the other side of me. I pushed off the floor, getting to my knees as he raised his weapon once more. Then he brought it down, and I lunged into the attack. With my close proximity to him and with his newfound speed, I didn't dodge it, not fully.

The metal spikes ripped through my left arms. It wasn't a direct hit, but it was enough that I'd be hard pressed to use either of them again in this fight. Narrowing my eyes, I jammed my finger nails into his bloodied eye socket. He made a loud sound that only conveyed anger and pain. Then, I was sent flying back as he threw me off of him. My back hit a stalagmite, and I felt the air forced out of my lungs. With a wicked smile, he took one slow, menacing step toward me after another.

So, this is it? I thought bitterly.

It was the only coherent thought I could muster as pain flooded my body. I had survived so much, but in the end, it was a bandit that would be my downfall. It was fitting in a sick and twisted kind of way, a situation that reflected the start of my journey as an adventurer.

As I continued gasping, trying to force air back into my lungs, I looked up to the man and forced a grin onto my face. There was no way I would give him the satisfaction of anything else. He sneered in response, and raised his weapon. I brace myself. Then, a dagger collided with his shoulder and bounced off. In reaction to the ineffectual attack, he swung in the direction it had come from instead of at me.

I tilted my head in confusion before tracing the path it had flown back to the man who had thrown it. It was Chris, the other rogue. He was standing, torch in hand, at the edge of the path above, a dead bandit slumped over beside him.

My opponent bent down to pick up the dagger, even as another bounced off of his armor. Every muscle in my body protested as I forced myself to my feet. I was wobbly, and I didn't know what I was going to do, but if I was going to do anything, it had to be now.

The bandit straightened as he stood up with the blade in hand. I dove for the other dagger, and the beast of a man moved out of my peripheral vision. I couldn't make out what he was doing, but instead of worrying about it, I acted. I activated Dash and lunged at him with all of the momentum I could build up in the short distance between us.

In one fluid motion that came more from muscle memory than conscious thought, I stabbed forward with the knife. It plunged into his ruined eye. After that, everything seemed to happen at once. Darkness billowed out from his weapon once again. His ability was coming. Then, the light trickling down from above grew stronger before, alongside a dull thud, it extinguished. The darkness from the incoming attack blended in with the pitch-black room, and I couldn't make it out anymore.

I twisted the blade that was still in my hand. A moment later, pain flooded my body as an explosion of power collided with me from below. The force of the blast drove the weapon even further into the man's skull, even as I was tossed back into a wall.

I felt my thoughts become a jumble as the shock of the impact hit me, an incoherent void in my mind. My body slumped, and time passed without my notice. By the time, I could see again, I could feel my consciousness fading, pulling me into a cold slumber. The only things that were enough to draw my attention back to reality were the words in front of my face.

[Human Marauder (Level 27) slain! You have gained 54,000 experience.]

[You have gained 2 levels!]

[A new ability is available.]

[Title gained: Limitless!]

[Achievement gained: Dungeon Defender!]

A smile briefly found its way onto my lips as I laid there, crumpled up in a daze. That smile faded as I managed to look past the words to the bloody form next to me. It was Chris. He laid unmoving, a dagger through his throat. Pain and horror struck me as any satisfaction I was feeling dissipated, Then, the world faded away.