A Dungeon’s Survival

Vie

Pee had been right. Breaking the man's staff seemed to do the trick. The crystal at its tip ended up being surprisingly resilient, but with enough thwacks, it eventually gave way, and as it shattered, so too did the mage's waning sanity. From there, it was only a matter of keeping the giant between us as we stalled for time.

“You pathetic, weak Dungeon monster, know your place!” he screeched as he fired off blast of frozen magic after blast of frozen magic, none of which even came close to hitting us.

Maybe we pushed him too far, I briefly considered.

The man's manic state wasn't a problem in itself, but with his aim deteriorating as much as it was, it made it extraordinarily difficult to coax him into hitting his ally with any of his magic blasts. The giant wasn't helping our situation on that front either. Instead of taking advantage of any of the openings we were leaving for him, the hulking man only stood back and watched, an unsettling grin spreading across his entire face.

He's waiting this out, I noted, Our venom is already coursing through the human's veins, and he's burning his mana too rapidly. We need him to hit the giant now!

“Leave that to me!” Pee said in response, and I immediately shifted to follow her lead and support her the best I could.

What do you need me to do?

“Charge straight at him!”

I didn't question it. I just did as asked, shifting our angle so that we were headed straight toward the man. He Fired yet another icicle at us as we moved, but it missed by a wide margin. The next shot he fired wasn't so poorly aimed, however.

“Shadow Surge!”

My sister pulled us into a dash of flaming shadows, and we passed by the projectile in better shape than we otherwise would've. Our shadowy flames still burned away at us as a consequence, but compared to a direct hit from that ice spell, it was a small price to pay. Still, all of our uses of that maneuver were beginning to take a heavy toll on us. This couldn't continue.

“Don't!” Pee warned me right before I was about to strike out at the mage; she had something else in mind.

“The giant!” she urged me, and I followed her lead.

As we neared our seemingly invincible target, I saw him ball a fist and move to swat at us. We needed to dodge, but I didn't even have the mana left for a single Flaming-Shadows-enhanced Shadow Surge. That being the case, I had no choice but to leave evasion up to my sister.

“Shadow Surge!”

And dodge she did. A moment later, we blazed past the man's extending arm, and as we exited the dark flames, I wrapped us around his shoulder and bit down. It hurt. My fang cracked under the immense force I slammed it into the man's unbudging muscles with, but unlike before, now that there was no armor to get in my way, I was able to pierce his skin.

It was barely enough to inject him with a dose of venom, but I still managed it, and a moment later, Pee pulled us away in another blur of burning darkness. We barely cleared the area in time, but whereas we managed it, the giant wasn't so swift. By the time the spell impacted the area right next to him and exploded, he'd only managed to throw himself far enough out of the way to avoid a direct hit. The resulting explosion of frost and ice still caught him, and it was enough to knock him from the path into the pit of fire below. That was both a good and a bad thing.

I had little doubt such a solid hit would take its toll on the man, but it also served to remove him from the mage's line of sight. That made getting him caught in the crossfire impossible for the time being. We needed to stall for time, but from the heat that was beginning to leak through our shield of Flame Gel, I could tell that was a luxury we were quickly running out of.

I'm spent! Pee warned a moment later, and I barely slithered us out of the way of another pair of giant icicles.

It seemed time wasn't the only thing we were running out of. Neither of us had much in the way of mana left, and our physical condition wasn't holding up much better either. Magical evasion was off the table, and even mundane evasion was failing to do much more than waste what limited stamina we still had so long as the giant remained safely out of harm's way. How we were going to be able to handle the Onikuma after all of this should it be necessary, I wasn't sure, but still, we needed to wrap things up here.

Briefly, I considered diving into the blaze to get out of the mage's way until the giant had been given enough time to climb his way back up to us, but I quickly dismissed that thought. As it stood, our uses of Shadow Surge had temporarily extinguished us. With that being the case, all that leaping back into the inferno would accomplish would be to reduce what little time we had left and to obscure our vision while the mage could still rely on Mana Sense. It wasn't worth it.

Instead, I darted back and forth, keeping my path constantly swerving and unpredictable. Meanwhile, an unending rain of icicles continued to bear down on us until the moment they suddenly stopped entirely. The mage, gasping for air, made a visible effort to fire off another spell, but from his fingertips, nothing came. That was when he fell to his knees and then to his stomach. It was also the moment the giant began to pull himself back over the edge of the path that ran through the room.

No! I hissed in alarm as the massive man made his was straight toward the human and heaved his body off the ground by the collar.

It was clear to me what was happening. He was going to finish the man off himself, depriving us of a large portion of the valuable experience he would award. Regret instantly flashed through me. I couldn't help but to think we should've finished the mage off while we'd still had the chance instead of prolonging this, but now, it was too late, and I had a split-second decision to make.

Ugh, I hesitated for only an instant.

I still had the mana left for a single Shadow Blast, but in my frantic attempts to avoid the mage's attacks after the giant's fall, I'd put too much distance between us. From our current position, it was clear to me that the spell wouldn't reach them. I could've leaped toward him in a desperate attempt to land my attack in time, but there was no guarantee it would've been enough, and without a surefire way to fall back, approaching the giant so carelessly could've cost us everything. Instead, I accepted the loss and made to do what there was still time for.

Our queen! I desperately called to her as quickly as I could, Activate Summoned Hero!

Even if the loss of some experience was unavoidable at this point, so long as she switched titles fast enough, she could at least get something extra out of this. That was what I'd been hoping for, but instead of finishing his companion off, the giant did something I hadn't been expecting. With the mage's head still raised up in one hand, his other shot straight to the human's bag, and from it, he pulled out a distinctive bottle of red fluid. Though it was clearly of a higher quality than anything we had access to, there was no mistaking that it was a health potion.

Seriously? I thought as I watched in a mixture of stunned disbelief and horror, After everything he's done to him, he's actually trying to save the mage!?

The giant looked terrible, and it was all his fault. His seared wounds weren't even closing up anymore, yet despite all of that, he was still making an effort to save the person who'd put him in that position. It was inconceivable, and I could hardly even believe my own eyes as he uncorked the bottle. Then, he proceeded to down half of it, and everything began to make more sense.

“Aah, much better!” he exclaimed jovially before yanking the bag the rest of the way free from the mage's grasp, and then, he unceremoniously dropped the mage back down face-first.

“That should stave off your venom for a bit!” he exclaimed as he rose back to his feet, turned, and began to excitedly bounce his way back to the first room, his companion completely forgotten about.

“Now that that's dealt with, how about we finally get around to the real fight, snake?” he called over he shoulder as he walked, “Ha! With my Restorative Body depleted, this should be good!”

I could only gawk as he left, unable to understand the man's actions. That was until the notifications began to roll in. That was enough to break me free from my stupor.

“Um, Vie?” my sister asked after a brief pause.

Yes?

“What just happened?

I'm not entirely sure myself.

* * *

Connie

Now, that's just not fair! I complained as I watched the woman counter one of my deadliest traps with ease, I thought she was supposed to be a mage, not a miracle worker!

In a spherical area around the pair, the bog water was being repelled. She was quite literally parting it. That hastening their progress was bad enough, but the fact that it was keeping them completely dry was far worse. The gunk I'd had the Trentis mix into the bog water was the most dangerous trap Vie and Loot had come up with, after all.

Okay, I thought to myself after a moment, trying to figure out how to proceed past this unexpected setback, I still have phase two I can fall back on, but so long as she's repelling the water, it probably won't work. That just means I need to force her to stop or make the cost of doing so outweigh the benefit, though, right?

It was a simple solution, but it was the best I could cobble together at a moment's notice. It was entirely possible nothing would come of it except for me wasting my first wave of troops that I'd prepared. Still, even that would've been preferable to letting this opportunity pass me by, so I acted.

Go! I shouted, and at my order, six minuscule figures dropped from the ceiling.

A moment later, I willed it, and eight more joined them. The second wave had another purpose, but should the first succeed, I needed them to be ready to capitalize on the opening. This was phase two of the plan.

First, I had the half dozen dracos swarm the pair from all directions, staggering their approach to make them less predictable and harder to counter. The Hero, to his credit, managed to cut the first four down swiftly and with ease, but the fifth, catching him from behind while he was too preoccupied to deal with it, activated Velocity Transference. A moment later, he was splashing through the tainted bog water as he tumbled away from his ally.

As for the sixth and final draco, it went straight for Fable. Before it reached its target, however, its life was quickly put to an end by a single whack of her staff. The one that'd landed its hit against her ally followed a moment later, and like that, the wave was dispatched. Still, though, even if they hadn't interrupted her cast, they'd done their job.

Perfect! I thought before giving my next order, Now, go!

At my command, the second wave of monsters flew straight for the Hero, but these ones weren't the same. They were something far more special that I'd prepared, and as if to illustrate that, in a cloud of feathers as the man's sword sliced the first of them in half, the reason why that was made itself known. In a burst of dark fluid, he was immediately made to regret his actions.

“Argh! What is this stuff?” he screamed as the same black gunk the Trentis had poured down from cauldrons above burst forth from the bird's severed beak and showered him.

It was Vie that'd come up with the ingenious idea to weaponize Archie's mistakes, the failed iterations of a potion intended to permanently modify the drinker's brain not being the kind of thing even second-tier individuals would want to come into contact with. Loot had then come up with the idea of mixing it into the bog water to make it impossible to avoid. That hadn't seemed like enough to me, though, so I'd taken things a step further by devising a new delivery system for it.

Despite having access to them since the invasion of the Berserker and Onikuma some weeks back, I'd yet to find any real use for the new monsters I'd unlocked. In large part, they were redundant, lacked anything even worth converting into an aspect, and didn't match my supposed themes. Worse, by unlocking the two species of birds, the System had even tried to offer me a third since then: the Swift Gulls, but looking back on it, they'd at least partially inspired this idea.

Stonepeckers aside, the Dark Crows I'd gained access to were swift and, unlike the Horned Dracos, built in a way that could carry things if needed. They might not have had access to the Swift Gulls' Water Spray ability, but when I could modify them however I needed, that hardly mattered. Sure altering their beaks to more closely resemble those of pelicans was costly, and sure, carrying such a volatile concoction in those beaks was slowly killing them, but that didn't stop the tactic from being effective. The sight of my small flock flying overhead and dropping their hauls onto the Hero was more than enough to convince me of that. It was only a shame that the mage had managed to escaped the attack unharmed.

“It's Failed Mind Enhancement Fluid!” her voice called out a moment later in response to the Hero's question, no doubt having used Appraisal on the stuff, “It's bad but livable. This isn't worth it. I'll heal us once we're out of here. It'll be cheaper.”

Following her words, she released the water spell she'd been casting, and the crystal embedded in her staff shifted back to an electric yellow. A moment later, lightning was arcing from monster to monster as she electrocuted the larger half of the remaining corvids. From there, she made her way straight to her ally and began practically dragging him forward.

Perfect, I thought.

I still had three of the avians left, and even as I watched, I was summoning another six dracos. Things were getting expensive fast, and I likely wouldn't end up having any extra mana to spend on troops after this, but with how much time I was buying, I couldn't help but to consider the cost worth it.

Our queen! Vie's voice reached me a moment later, Activate Summoned Hero!

I didn't hesitate. At her words, I immediately swapped out the Limitless title that I'd equipped as soon as all of this had started, and as I continued to direct my monsters all the while, I barely noticed the delay. After a brief pause, however, the notifications began rolling in.

[Vie and Pee (Level 18) have killed a Human Ice Mage (Level 31)! 345,600 experience gained.]

I didn't read past the first alert, too busy to spare any of my attention in the moment, but that one line alone was enough to fill me with excitement and immense pride. They'd done it!