A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

The situation shifted fast. All it took was a moment for Adraugon to cross half the room, but even faster than he could move, a bolt of lightning arced toward him with perfect accuracy. With no margin for error, the miniature dragon shifted course just in time to evade the electricity, but the unleashed magic cared not if it hit its target. An instant later, it connected with the ceiling instead, and where it impacted, my Dungeon-reinforced stone gave way. A crater was left in the magic's wake, and a small amount of debris was sent raining down.

Before I could fully process what I'd just witnessed, the woman was already calling forth another spell into existence. The yellow gemstone at the tip of her staff distorted, the color shifting to a bright green. Then, the area directly in front of her was plunged into further chaos.

Before Adraugon could do much more than correct his course so that he was flying back in the direction of the mage, the smoke above came swirling down around him, and it didn't stop. It, along with the little dragon, shot toward the ground at a blurring speed as the airflow of the room was forcibly redirected. That had been completely unexpected, and for Adraugon, the situation was akin to having his own weapon turned against him. Since the membrane flaps he used to glide with were heavily susceptible to wind, there wasn't much he could do if the air itself was turned against him–not much except for sinking as much mana into his Wind Flow ability as it could take and putting his all into fighting back against the powerful spell's influence.

With a squeak of a roar that was lost to the wind and the still resounding cry of a Mandrake, he pulled up before splattering against the burning floor of the room. Fury burning in his eyes, brighter even than the ever-present glow of flames that pervaded the room, he turned his anger toward the woman just in time to see her staff change color once more, this time to a deep sapphire blue. Then, another spell came his way.

Now, that isn't even fair! I complained internally as I gawked at the scene before me.

In that moment, I couldn't help but to admit I'd made a mistake. I'd considered the mage an easy mark. Going off of the limited intel we'd gained from Lawrence, that she was a focused mage that specialized in electricity magic, I'd assumed she wouldn't be able to hold her own if she was separated from her teammates. In a matter of seconds, though, my assumption had been proven wrong.

Forget being an easy mark; it had become abundantly clear that she was a greater threat than even the Berserker had been. Considering she was supposedly just under level forty, I probably should've expected as much, but between mages always being squishy in the video games and stories I used to know and nothing so far in my new world to suggest that wasn't the case here, I'd made an assumption, one that had clearly been wrong. Whether it was because of her supposedly impressive lineage or just because she herself was so capable, the fact remained that she wasn't to be trifled with. The tidal wave of water she summoned out of thin air at a moment's notice drove that point home.

Maybe Adraugon could dodge lightning, and maybe his control over wind was enough to hold his own against his opponent's, but with a wall of water crashing down on him, I couldn't see any way out for the little dragon. He'd been caught in a bad position, and it seemed his Unnatural Survival ability was going to be put on cooldown early this fight. No sooner had that thought crossed my mind, though, than he surprise me yet again.

With such a daunting and wide attack crashing down on him with only a moment to react, he didn't back down. Instead, he flew straight toward it and activated Gale Impact. At the cost of putting his only spell on cooldown, the mighty dragon called forth as strong of a gust of wind as he could manage, and with his Wind Flow still active, he shaped it to fit his needs. I watched as a drill of air formed around him and collided with the wall of water. Despite being at the center of the collision, Adraugon passed through unharmed, continuing his charge for the girl.

A moment later, he passed through the space she'd just been. With speed comparable to Flur's back from the first time I'd witnessed the Rogue in action, Fable had thrown herself an inch out of the dragon's path. Adraugon, unwilling to keep his disadvantaged fight up a moment longer, took the opportunity to dive off the side of the path that been serving as their arena into the sea of fire below, hugging the wall to put something solid between himself and his opponent all the while. From there, he made his way straight to one of the hidden tunnels to retreat.

With a sinking feeling, I hastily brought up his status. One glance was all I needed to know how much that failed ambush had cost us. It was bad.

[Mana: 858/1,130 (1,300)]

The miniature dragon hadn't held anything back, and it showed. In a matter of seconds, by dumping as much mana into his wind magic as it would take, he'd depleted roughly a third of his reserves, and worse, he'd failed to do anything beyond baiting out a mere three spells from his opponent. It wasn't a complete waste. Those spells had to have cost the girl a substantial amount of mana, but from her confident and resolute expression, I couldn't help but to feel as though Adraugon had paid the steeper price.

With a sense of foreboding rising up from deep within me, I looked from the Shade Lurker and two Horned Dracos I'd taken the moment Adraugon had bought me to summon to the woman rushing through my room at a speed that far exceeded what any dedicated caster should've been able to manage. Clearly, no matter what forces I summoned here, they wouldn't be able to accomplish much, but compared to what magic on the scale that woman had been throwing around had to cost her, the fodder I could summon was cheap. If a few dozen points from my reserves could draw out more spells from her, I'd happily take that trade.

Forget the Hero, I resolved myself, Whatever he's capable of doesn't matter. This woman is the real threat.

* * *

Pee

Flaming Shadows. Shadow Blast.

My spell sailed toward the pair of mortals, but the big one brought up his shield in time to block it. Black flames burst from my attack, lapping past his defense and setting his armor alight with dark flames. If the giant noticed, however, he showed no signs of it. Worse, his large frame in the narrow path between rooms completely protected his companion from my attack.

“Ha ha,” he chucked in a deep, booming tone before calling out, “Not bad. Maybe you'll prove a challenge yet. Bring it on little snakes.”

“Ugh, we don't have time for this,” the mage behind him complained, “It's too narrow in here. We need to fall back to the first room.”

“Fair.”

As the two spoke, my sister decided it was time to move. Putting all of our AGI to use, she launched us into a strike. The giant was no sitting target, though. As we neared him, he brought up his shield and, using the narrow cave to his advantage, slammed the heavy slab of metal forward. In such a confined space, dodging it would've impossible without Shadow Surge. Of course, her instincts as sharp as ever, my sister realized that, and with no hesitation, she activated the spell.

Right before we would've impacted with the shield, darkness consumed us, pulling us to safety. A moment later, we re-emerged. Pressing off of the ceiling, we sprung toward the man, even as he followed through with his failed counterattack. Behind us, the wall shuddered under the force of the hulking man's powerful slam. Surely, had we not dodged it, we would've been pulverized on the spot, but in motion as we were, I had no time to worry about that. Instead, I directed my attention to our enemy, looking for an opening to follow Vie's lead.

A bite would've been ideal. The best way we had to take down durable foes was with our venom, but a single glance told me that wouldn't be happening. Coated from head to toe in heavy metal armor, the man was thoroughly protected. Unless we could tear through it first, we wouldn't be afflicting him with anything, and that severely limited our options.

Had it not been on cooldown, this would've been the perfect time for me to fire off a Shadow Blast. Since that wasn't an option, however, I could only make myself useful by supporting my sister. That was why, as soon as I realized what she was trying to do, I activated Shadow Enhancement with the side of our body as the target and empowered it with Flaming Shadows.

Vie had never been planning on biting him. She must've realized that wouldn't work ahead of time since she angled us us perfectly for what came next. With as much momentum as we could amass, she threw us straight toward his head.

A moment later, we slammed into him. It hurt. Despite the amount of force as we'd generated, it did little good. On the contrary, it only worked to our disadvantage.

The man didn't so much as flinch as we connected with his skull. For as much good as our attack did, we may as well have thrown ourselves at the reinforced stone of our home itself. We had bigger problems, however.

Shadow Surge!

Dropping Shadow Enhancement as quickly as I could, I called forth our movement spell. I didn't want to risk unintentionally messing up whatever Vie was trying to do, but instinctively, I knew there was no other choice. The mage had his staff raised and pointed toward us. Whatever he was casting, we couldn't afford to get hit by it.

Half a second later, an unbearable chill settled over us. From within the shadows, I didn't see what magic the human called upon, but as we exited the darkness, the spell's power became clear. The giant's grunt alone was enough to tell that much.

“Hey!” he yelled, “Watch where you're aiming!”

“Oh please,” the mage scoffed, “As if that really hurt you. You only got caught in my spell's secondary effect.”

The terrain behind us was completely unrecognizable. A massive pile of rubble had been blasted out of the ceiling. Shards of ice were scattered throughout the tunnel, and everything from the cave-in separating us from the second room's inferno to the spot where the giant stood was coated in a thick layer of frost.

Had we been anywhere near where that magic had gone off, we would've died; there was no doubt in my mind. It was clear to see that, under no circumstances, could we allow ourselves to be anywhere near one of that man's spells. Fortunately for us, instead of immediately casting another one, he seemed to be too preoccupied arguing with the his own teammate.

“I don't take kindly to getting attacked by own allies,” the giant growled out.

By the time the mage responded, we were already safely slithering through a crack leading back to the network of the hidden tunnels.

“Stop overreacting. You know perfectly well how impervious to damage you are.”

“I also know you've dumped just about every stat point you've gotten into SOUL like a fool with a death wish. Don't act like your attacks don't hit like a mage a tier above you.”

“Says the man known for being unkillable. If I scratched you, who cares? Just heal it back up, champion,” he spoke the last word with audible mockery.

“You,” the giant responded, but my mind was already elsewhere.

Sister, what's the plan?