A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

Fog erupted from a Crystal Puffer, impairing visibility in the room. Then, I had my monster lash out with vines from all directions. In that moment, I was immensely glad that I'd decided on using the Crystal Puffers embedded in my boss as substitutes for support abilities rather than weak attacks. The thing was powerful, but it was nowhere near enough to stop such an opponent outright. Instead, I was solely focused on delaying them.

A slash ripped through one vine before chopping the tip off of another. An attack drew the Berserker's attention in one direction, and another struck from behind. It was a clean hit, the first I'd gotten, and it was enough to send her flying across the room. She clambered to her feet a moment later. The only visible sign of damage being done was to her was a new dent in her armor.

She was not this powerful last time.

The realization horrified me.

Why couldn't I have finished her off back then when it would have been so much easier? Ugh, come on, buy time and weaken her; that's all I can do now.

It was clear that my boss wasn't going to make much headway. Clearly, whatever had happened with this woman since the last time I'd seen her, it'd been extreme. I'd have been shocked to find out that she wasn't getting the absolute most out of her Rage ability. Her endurance was through the roof. That meant I was going to have to rely on my elites if I wanted any damage done to her. There was just one problem with that.

Adraugon, her endurance is too high for you to hurt her with physical attacks. Vie, you might be able to scratch her, but you're not strong enough to do much more than that. Rely on venom and magic only.

If my Bloodthorn Vines weren't hurting her, Adraugon, whose STR was currently equal to theirs, wasn't likely to do much better. Vie and Pee had six more points in the stat than them, which was better than nothing but not by nearly enough. That meant Pee and Archie were going to have to be my trump cards here.

With a command sent to the monster holding the line, two of the vines with Crystal Puffers moved. They snaked their way through the tunnels underneath the floor and held their position beneath the woman while they waited for the rest to get into place. Then, I had them emerge at the same time the others moved.

The moment the wild weeds found themselves within range of their target, they released their magic. From one side, a blast of shadowy liquid flew toward her. From the other came a wave of equally dark flames. Both attacks connected, coating her with their effects a moment before the monsters that had unleashed them were cut down.

The goop restricted her movements, and the fire constantly burned at her, unable to be easily extinguished. Both were useful to have hit her with, but neither seemed to do much. The shadowy substance stretched and pulled with her every move, unable to slow her to any noticeable degree under the force of her strength, and the fire, while being enough to make her face twist into an even more fearsome snarl, made no discernible difference in the way she carried herself. Both attacks seemed to have done less than I would have hoped for them to.

As if to demonstrate that, she, with a roar, charged ahead at full speed, movement unhindered. Then, a moment later, she slammed straight into a wall. The fog was working. She had no idea where she was going, and that had bought time, but it was already starting to thin out. It wouldn't last for much longer. Fortunately, it had already served its purpose. The other vines were coalescing in the center of the room. They were ready for the next step of my plan.

Flame Solvent, now!

At my order, one of the grouped up Lizard Men at the top of the shaft opened a bottle and poured it down below. The liquid from within it mixed with the Flame Gel that coated the vines. I was hoping that using fire would be a slightly more effective approach against our enemy, but any such thoughts fled me as my mind blanked at the sight of what followed. As the mixture connected, a loud boom sounded, and an inferno violently erupted.

“Oh, wow, that's quite unexpected. How intriguing,” Archie's voice was the only thing I was able to internalize for long moment as he commented, “Both components seem to have explosive properties when combined. I could almost certainly find a use for that. Ah, the potential!”

Not helping! I snapped as I pulled myself back to my senses.

It was now evident that I should have tested that interaction out before trying to use it in a live combat scenario, but it was too late for that. I'd opted to use the potion to set the vines alight since the shadowy fire didn't seem to interact with the Flame Gel in the same manner as normal fire did, but apparently, Archie's magical mixture had a similar but different problem. What resulted from the reaction was the defender I was trying to empower thrashing about in pain and my other monsters having to retreat back from the edge of the hole between rooms as an immense heat rose up through the vent.

I doubted my vines would last long in their current state, so I jumped into making the most of them while they remained. From every direction, they shot out at my enemy. She didn't hesitate to slice them apart, but things were different this time. She still easily dispatched them; however, it was no longer a completely one-sided exchange. As she cut through them, the flames heated her blade, and as they drew near, her armor suffered the same fate. She was slowly roasting alive as she fought.

This was when my first awakened monsters decided to make their move. From above, Vie and Pee dropped down, the dedicated mage of the pair unleashing a Shadow Blast. The spell connected and sent the enemy bouncing off the ground and sailing across the room. For the first time this fight, she had taken actual damage.

My vines followed, whaling on her. Irritation flooded me as their strikes failed to pierce her with their thorns, but there wasn't much I could do about that, especially not after she dropped her blade in favor of grabbing one of the flaming, stony tendrils. Afterword, her next move was to stand and pull. My mind blanked on me again as I watched the vine rip free from its flower base, damaging the core of the creature in a way I had not yet seen happen to it.

A similar scene repeated itself a few more times as my boss rapidly began losing appendages and chunks of its main body, its missing pieces having forcefully been yanked free. The monster wasn't going to survive losing many more limbs in a manner like that, so I ordered it back. The situation was deteriorating fast, and I didn't have a solution.

A feral, guttural roar echoed from the woman, and she charged the tree my monster rested underneath. The fog had dissipated enough to no longer hinder her, allowing her to home in on it with ease. As she approached it, Vie and Pee lunged at her from behind. Adraugon also chose that moment to make his move. Soaring down from above, he closed in on her, and in a decision that caught me off guard, he flew straight straight past her.

Then, he swerved midair and doubled back around. I expected to see him attempt to repel the Berserker's advance with Velocity Transference, but his next action shocked me. He did use the ability I expected him to, but instead of the woman, his target was the tree. It ripped free from the ground as he collided with it, and it coming crashing down toward the enemy. She, on the other hand, had stopped a moment before to turn and counterattack Vie and Pee's strike.

I wasn't sure what the pair had initially been intending to do once they'd launched themselves at her, but whatever their plan had been, it was quickly abandoned as a tree came crashing down toward them. Vie was forced to unleash a Shadow Blast to halt their momentum, the light from all of the fire in the room seemingly interfering with their Shadow Surge too much for them to use. It was enough to save them from being crushed, but using the spell had unintended consequences. It knocked their enemy back and out of the way of the falling tree. In the end, it thunderously crashed to the ground, but that was all. It hit nothing.

“You saved prey!” Adraugon screeched at them.

“What? You nearly got us killed!” Vie hissed back.

“Why would you strike then? Bad timing! Worst timing!”

“How would we know you were going to throw a tree?”

“Would have killed prey!”

“Vie, move!” Pee's voice cut through their argument as she pulled her sister's attention back to the battle at hand.

Her warning had only just barely come in time for them to evade a blow from the much faster Berserker. As quick as the snakes were, they had nothing on the woman's speed which evidently outstripped even Flur's and, at a glance, could compete with Adraugon's. It was a close call, too close.

* * *

Adraugon

Grah! I roared in anger.

I could have killed the prey then and there. I'd waited for the perfect moment, and performed my attack flawlessly. It should have ended the prey with ease. Instead, those accursed snakes had gotten in the way. It was enough to make me lose all sense of reason as an indignant fury overtook me.

Useless snakes! Always getting in the way! Never succeeding!

Even the last time they'd been given a chance, they'd failed! They had the perfect opportunity to hunt that bug, yet she escaped. It infuriated me. I wanted to hunt her, but she bested me. They'd seized the opportunity, and as much as it would have annoyed me had they succeeded, they earned my respect in that moment. Then, they squandered the opportunity and made me feel foolish for ever acknowledging them in the first place. That infuriated me far worse than them successfully hunting the bug would have.

Grah! I roared again, my emotions overtaking me, Fine, I hunt! I clean this mess up like always, so stay out of my way, stupid snakes!

* * *

Vie

That fool! I hissed, There are no thoughts in that head of his.

Out of all the times he could have made his move, he had chosen the worst one. We moved first, and he knew that. He had seen we were in the way, yet he still tried such a reckless attack. Then, he had the nerve to say we were the ones that messed up? Ridiculous!

“Above!” my sister shouted, and I thrust us to the side to avoid the pouncing human.

Calm down, I told myself.

I was letting my emotions get the better of me. That wasn't like me, and I couldn't allow it to continue. I needed complete focus and to think fast. This enemy was after our queen. I couldn't allow her to make it past this room. We couldn't fail again.

Ideas flashed through my mind as I attempted to piece together any semblance of a plan. With the tools we had at our disposal, there was only so much we could do. We'd been forced to waste our attacking spell, and our mobility one was useless with all of the light from the fires. Then, my eyes landed on the lingering shadow magic that was still present on the woman. Those flames that had entranced me so thoroughly before, I stared at them as the basis of a risky gambit began to fall into place.

Forget that impudent lizard, I hissed, We will handle this on our own.