A Dungeon’s Survival

Lawrence

I reached into my pouch for another handful of Flame Powder only for my fingertips to brush against mere grains of the substance. I was out. Panic filling my heart, I instead grabbed for an Acid Burst Potion. My hand passed unobstructed through the spot where I kept them on my belt. My stock of them, too, had been depleted in full.

It was then that I heard Autumn let out a pained grunt. Instantly pushing the matter of my dwindling supplies out of mind, my eyes darted in her direction. A Carrier Rat had planted its teeth in her leg. She immediately kicked it aside, and Dan speared it through with his weapon a moment later, but the damage had already been done.

I moved as fast as I could, repositioning my free hand to my staff. Now gripping it with both, I took a couple of steps toward my ally and thrust it out toward the area just above her ankle. As I touched it to the spot of the injury, I muttered, “Purify,” while focusing my mana into activating the staff's ability.

Its innate magic took care of the rest, emitting a faint green glow at the tip. I felt only a moment of relief before the bright green crystal affixed to its end shifted to a much duller shade of the color. My blood froze at that sight.

“I'm empty!” I shouted to the others before realizing how unintelligible my warning had been and moving to clarify, “My staff is out of mana. The only healing I can do now is what my mana pool can afford me.”

As I stood there, my hands beginning to shake, my eyes darted across our surroundings. Hundreds of rats filed in from every direction in an unending swarm. Caterpillars occasionally streamed in amongst them, and monstrous birds swooped in from above while more less common monsters made their way toward us. Even if none of them were weak, their sheer numbers were unending. It was as though every monster for dozens of miles, if not hundreds, had found their way here.

That was when a loud cracking sound thundered out above the chittering of the horde. A group of bird monsters shot forth from the direction that it had come from, completely ignoring the cave that we were backed up against as they made to flee. Then, a booming shook the ground. It was followed by another crack, this time slightly closer, and another boom. The source of the sounds was getting closer.

“We're falling back!” Lance ordered.

“Where to? There's too many of them,” Dan objected.

“The Dungeon.”

My eyes darted to the dark cave behind us. It was our only path of retreat, but I didn't have a good feeling about bringing the fight within. Still, it was our only option, and the sounds were rapidly drawing nearer, so I, along with the others, followed our most senior party member's call and backed my way into it.

Not long after, the thunderous, rhythmic noises that had caused my heart to sink as I realized what they were approached, making their way to the entrance. Suddenly, the footsteps, along with the constant flow of monsters following us in, came to a halt. Soon, a clawed paw slammed against the side of the entryway near the top. Another placed itself against the opposing wall as whatever was out there blotted out all light, its mass taking up the opening in full.

Slowly, I reached to the jar of Light Magic Infused Water at my waist and raised it up in front of us. There, squeezing its way through the cave's opening was a massive, furry, and snarling snout. Attached to it was the head of a giant bear monster that I'd only heard rumors of. It was the ruler of the forest and the strongest monster anywhere near Firmsoil. It was a second-tier monster, the Onikuma.

* * *

Cameron

Get it together, you two! I shouted at Vie and Adraugon, Prism will buy you a moment, but that's all they can do. I don't know what your problem is, but work it out in that time!

Without waiting for a response, I turned my focus toward the slime who'd drawn the Berserker's attention. The enemy was shooting toward them at a ridiculous speed. With no time to string together words, I sent the very concept of what I wanted them to do through our bond. In the next moment, the crazed woman's fist found its way through their amorphous body, a large chunk of the goop comprising it shooting off and splattering against the ground as the punch connected, but their core, the only part of them that could take lethal damage, and the potion they still carried inside of their body were safe. Prism had shifted their positions in time.

In the next moment, all twelve of the Crystal Puffers puffed. They hadn't had enough time to recharge after attacking my boss, but the tiny embers that shot forth from them and the few spores they'd had enough time to produce were enough to momentarily blind the Berserker. Prism took advantage of that opening to launch themselves onto the woman's head. From there, the flaming mass of goop repositioned the contents of their body, leaving behind only the bottle of Flame Solvent. With that done, they split their goop in half and made their escape.

Moments later, the invader began clawing at her face. Then, it happened; she shattered the potion with her frantic efforts to tear away the flaming goop that had been left behind. The substance within reacted as it mixed with the abandoned portion of Prism's body, and the already fire-aspected chunks of slime ignited even further.

Screams filled my Dungeon, and for a moment, I dared to hope that had somehow been enough to end things. I even switched my title back to Summoned Hero to capitalize on the experience she would give. Instead of that, though, completely blinded by the blaze, she just began thrashing about as she continued to pull one burning handful of goop from her head after another. I shuddered as I realized just how powerful she had to be in order to still function in that state.

Now would be a good time to do something! I said, directing my thoughts to Adraugon and Vie.

* * *

Vie

I shuddered at the loss of my sister. I knew she would come back once all of this was over, but that did nothing to change the fact that I was alone now.

“Get it together, you two!” my queen's voice rang in my head, “Prism will buy you a moment, but that's all they can do. I don't know what your problem is, but work it out in that time!”

With those words, I cast my gaze toward the lizard who'd been hindering my efforts. He, somehow, was in rougher shape than me, struggling to get to his feet.

“Stupid snake,” he hissed, “what even was that? Prey clearly poised to defend.”

My anger flared at his words, and I retorted, At least we struck when she was preoccupied. You just recklessly attacked head-on!

“That's all you ever do! You fight with pure confidence, nothing backing it up! And, preoccupied? That was far from opportune timing!”

Confidence? I spat, What confidence? Unlike you, I'm never good enough. I never succeed. I use speed and tactics to make up my shortcomings, but it's never enough! All you ever do is take advantage of openings made by others, so why would you charge in like that now? That isn't how you fight!

“Because that's how you fight! Tactics? What tactics? There was nothing I could do. I no just take advantage of others' work. I use it, but I make own opportunities!”

I glared at the lizard, and he glared back. Then, my queen's voice came again, “Now would be a good time to do something!”

I snapped my head in the direction of the invader.

No!

I panicked. Their head was on fire, and the immense light from it was extinguishing the flaming shadows that coated her back. My plan was falling apart.

“No? Why no?” the lizard questioned.

The dark flames, I need them.Why aren't you moving? Isn't this your opportune timing?

“I'm barely standing! What can I do!?” he roared back at me before asking, “Flames? Why need them?”

I think I can use them.

“Then, go get them!”

I can't get in close enough! With the way she's thrashing about, she'd crush me.

“You need distraction? Better opportunity? This your tactics?”

Yes.

“Fine, then, I create opportunity. You go.”

I stared at him in shock. He was cooperating, creating an opening for me? Why? He never did anything for anyone besides himself.

“Go!” he hissed at me again, and I snapped free from my thoughts.

It didn't matter. If he could get me in, I'd take it. I had to. The queen's life depended on it, so I turned and darted toward the enemy.

Fire was spreading to the grass throughout the room, forming a natural barrier between us. It was hard to move through it, but I leaped into the flames regardless. I needed to get there.

“Now!” I heard the lizard roar from behind me, and from above, three Horned Dracos zipped toward my target.

The first was splattered by a wayward fist swinging about frantically. The second impacted her, sending her tumbling forward, and the third activated Velocity Transference a moment later. She tumbled in my direction, and I leaped for her.

Hardly any of the flames remained, but there was one patch of dwindling size left on her calf. I aimed for it, and as I reached it, I coiled myself around the woman's armored leg to stabilize myself and felt for the flames. I pulled, concentrating on my Shadow Cloak ability like never before.

Pee would have been much better suited for the task than I was, but she was gone for now. That meant I had to do this myself. I resolved myself to, no matter what. Then, as I concentrated, my consciousness brushed past them. Knowing it was only a matter of moments before my enemy crushed me, I activated a spell I had previously been unable to due to all of the light.

Shadow Surge!

I felt myself sink into the darkness like normal, but something was different this time. Rather than the cool comfort of shadows that I normally felt, it was hot, unbearably so. I ignored it, even as it felt like my entire being was burning away. Instead of dwelling on that, I moved. Shooting through the burning shadows, I emerged in front of the woman's flaming head. Then, I cast another spell.

Shadow Blast!

As I felt the magic begin to coalesce, I tried to push something else into it. I grabbed for the shadowy flames I still had the slightest of grips on, the ones that still felt as though they were burning me alive, and I pulled on them. I willed for them to do my bidding.

It wasn't working. I didn't even know what it was I was trying to accomplish. Magic was my sister's specialty, but the System treated us as two parts of a single whole. When one of us leveled up a skill, the other intuitively gained the same knowledge. Whether or not we utilized it was another matter entirely, but here and now, I let my instincts handle the process, Spell Casting, Tactics, and even Gambling leading me as I fumbled for the magic I desperately needed.

Still, it didn't feel like enough. Undeterred by that, I pushed to accomplish the goal before me anyway, putting my all into doing what was just out of my reach. My Battle Instincts and Quick Learner abilities helped me to feel for the power that was burning out all around me. Then, I did something different.

Instead, of trying to force it into the spell, I pulled it into myself, and ignoring the immense pain that caused, I let it consume me. The fire began to burn from within. Then, I pulled from inside of myself to fuel the spell. I put all I had to give into it and unleashed it. In front of me, instead of the usual blast of shadows the spell summoned forth, a sea of shadowy fire erupted from my mouth, straight into the woman's face.

A stream of System alerts filled my vision. I only skimmed through them, looking for a single thing. Then, I found it: the death notification. I had done it. I'd won.

As soon as I was sure of that, I allowed the mundane fires to claim me. Darkness consumed me once more, but for once, I was perfectly content with that. There was no longer any danger looming over my queen. I had succeeded.