A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

I may have underestimated the Hero by a fair margin. While it was true that I'd yet to see anything particularly impressive from him, apparently, that didn't mean he was helpless, far from it, in fact. The moment Fable had left in a hurry, his personable front had fallen away in favor of absolute seriousness. From the looks of it, he wanted to end things here as soon as possible.

This really would be the perfect time for Adraugon to blindside him, I thought offhandedly, the memory of the dragon nearly killing him still fresh in my mind, though I already knew it wasn't meant to be.

Vie and Pee were busy. I didn't want to pull them away from their fight near the entrance unless I had to. That was why I'd selected Adraugon to oversee the situation with the bear. From his brief clash with it last time, I knew I couldn't expect too much from him in terms of slowing it down, especially since the upgrades I'd just given him were less than helpful to his fighting style.

It didn't matter that I'd spent twenty DP on him as opposed to the fifteen I'd owed him. If ever there was a time to spoil the little menace, this seemed to be it, yet with his upgrades beginning to cap out, the changes I'd made weren't enough to make a meaningful difference. Technically, I might've still been able to give him more AGI or SOUL if I'd taken the time and gotten creative with his last modification slot, but time was a commodity I didn't have in excess, so instead, I'd been forced to make due by primarily upgrading his strength. It was an improvement, sure, but against something like the Onikuma, I doubted it would do much.

No matter how heavily I invested in him and no matter what I gave him, Adraugon wouldn't be able to kill the bear. It was simply a bad matchup. For that reason, I had my reservations about leaving Fable and the beast to him and his. At least with Noctis to help, some level of trickery and interference might've been possible. Unfortunately, my familiar had already gone down to the magically empowered roar that rattled my entire Dungeon.

At some point, the Onikuma was a walking natural disaster. Involving it here was risky; there was no denying that, but even as it began to rampage in my boss room, I was sure it was the right choice. I still held Twelve's warning to heart, after all. The moment the bear began to see us as a threat, it would come for my core. That was the real reason involving it in this fight had been so important.

If we managed to wipe out the Hero's party, I was almost certain the ursine terror would take that as it cue to finish the job. That meant we needed to take it down here, and because of that, allowing it escape or to rampage its way to me after killing Fable weren't options. We needed someone powerful enough to keep an eye on it, and while Adraugon wasn't the ideal candidate, he was still the best we had. The bear wasn't our only concern, however, which was the other reason I'd made that call. By leaving things up to the lizard, it freed me to devote my full attention to handling the Hero.

For his part, the Executioner of the Wicked and Enforcer of Light, Sean, was far more dangerous than he'd initially seemed. My first response to his charge had been to order Prism to bounce in, activating Cleanse Mana as they did. Doing so cost the slime a quarter of their magical reserves and purified the shadow magic they'd taken in. It was a steep cost, but that price of fifty-three mana was exactly what I'd been after. Thanks to the slime's upgraded ability, the lost magical resources were released in the form of a dark, shadowy burst that momentarily blinded the Hero.

As I probably should've expected from a man whose class literally had the word, “light,” in its name, that barely managed slowed him down. Still, it did bait out an ability from him, as, almost immediately, the inky darkness that'd engulfed him exploded with streaks of light. Prism, too, was caught in the attack's range, and for a moment, I was certain the little slime would go down. A second later, however, they bounced away forcefully but unscathed. It seemed that hadn't been an offensive ability after all, but I didn't have time to worry about that either.

Archie had been the next to engage the Hero. With the massive weapon we'd liberated from the bandit what felt like ages ago in hand, he brought down his spiked club toward the man. Sean didn't just take the hit, however. An instant later, the Hero's blade impacted with the spiked metal weapon with tremendous force.

An impressive one hundred five points of strength, that was what the Trenti had from my title, the modifications I'd made to it, and even an Elixir of Minor Strength, yet it was nowhere near enough to hold up to the Hero's strike. In a resounding crash of metal on metal, one party's strength gave out, and it wasn't the invader's. A moment later, Archie's proxy was sent soaring across the room in a manner I'd only ever seen Adraugon's Velocity Transference evoke. I wasn't sure if it'd been the result of an ability or even multiple on the Hero's part, but that sight made one thing clear. Anything I had that took a direct hit from our opponent wouldn't be surviving the impact.

I'd only witnessed two exchanges so far, and they'd barely taken a handful of seconds. This wasn't good. At this rate we were going to need to break out our trump card early, something that could prove disastrous.

No, I told myself as I forced my thoughts back to the present, it's a trump card. Don't waste it.

As confident as I was it could remove one invader from play, our greatest weapon came in limited supply. We would only be able to use it once. Be it the Hero, Fable, or the Onikuma, whoever we used it on, we needed to make sure it was the individual who posed the greatest threat. The Hero was strong, but now wasn't the time.

Stein, my thoughts drifted to the last of my awakened monsters.

While I'd come close, I'd been unable to raise the ghoul's WILL to the fifty points he needed to make the most of his new ability. I'd also been unable to raise his DEX with Monster Customization, my previous neglect to develop a standardized change that could impact the stat having finally caught up with me. Worst of all, though, with no time to even consider why it was, we'd come to learn something else about the ghoul just before this confrontation. Apparently, unlike just about any of my other monsters, the forgetful undead couldn't use potions. As a result, he was the only one out of the three without an alchemically induced strength buff.

Despite all of that, though, he was still our best chance against the man. I could only hope the preparations I'd made would be enough, and he'd pull through regardless. If nothing else, I desperately needed him to buy us a small amount of time while the rest of our forces got everything into place, so with Empower Bond at the ready and his slot of Imperfect Imitation already filled, I waited for the perfect moment.

* * *

Sean

I didn't know what was going on, but for Fable to have left in such a hurry, I doubted it could be good. I needed to clear out this room as soon as possible so that I could go help her. It wasn't that I was underestimating my opponents, but even if it meant taking some damage in the process, I knew speed was key.

As I stepped forward, the slime, Prism, launched toward me. I prepared to slice it apart, but before I could, an unnatural darkness exploded out from the creature, blotting out all light from my lantern in the process. That was fine. It would take an ability to resolve, but I'd be taking down a monster in the process, so I burned my longest cooldown and activated Flashing Whirlwind.

My blade struck out in a blur of light, but it wasn't just in its path that it cut. All around me, slashes that mirrored my initial attack sliced through the air. It, like nearly all of my other abilities, illuminated my surroundings, dispelling the darkness in the process. It also sliced everything around me to pieces. The slime shouldn't have been able to survive that. As I continued forward, though, I noticed a distinct lack of System messages.

My mind raced. Fable had said it had weird abilities. It was possible that it'd dodged my attack somehow, or maybe, it had managed to endure it. Either way, though, I couldn't afford to waste time trying to figure it out. Sir Archibald was slow, and I needed to take advantage of that while I could.

As I approached him, I paid the cost in stamina and mana to enhance my strike with Light Slash, empowering it with a coating of luminescence. At the same time, I activated Deflect, which redirected the momentum of my opponents weapon. Between that and paying the cost to activate my Power of Light ability, I was able to easily overpower the so-called alchemist, sending him flying backward, the spikes of his own weapon penetrating his wooden skin as he flew. From there, he was sent tumbling into the wall of a structure.

I hadn't had much of a chance to take the room in yet, the strangeness of the monster's offered dialogue having caught me by surprise. As I was given a small opportunity to look around, though, I noticed it was odd. There were the ruins of some stone-brick structures scattered throughout the place, but otherwise it was rather spacious and open. With how treacherous the rest of the Dungeon had been, it felt much too straightforward.

I knew there had to be a trick to it, not that I was likely to figure it out before whatever trap awaited me sprung. Knowing that, I didn't try. Instead taking the monsters that opposed me at face value, I turned toward the last of the three.

My hand tightened around the hilt of my blade as I locked eyes with the monster. Theirs were lifeless, yet they contained an unsettling depth to them. They were cold and unfeeling, but still, in spite of that, they reflected the creature's maliciousness and intelligence. They were wild and feral, yet somehow, they were also calculating.

Subconsciously, I found myself taking half a step back. This fear, it was instinctual, something natural. I'd faced down criminals aplenty, those who relied on fear, embodied it. I knew the effects of Intimidation abilities. This wasn't that. Something deep within me was picking up on something the rest of my senses failed to. No matter what Fable had said about it, this thing was dangerous.

Carefully, I watched its every move as I prepared to respond. It did the same, remaining strangely still. It wasn't entirely motionless; its muscles were still twitching to an unheard rhythm, jerking about in waves as the creature stared me down. Then, with no warning, its open mouth snapped shut, and its head jerked to the side as it gave a too-wide grin. A couple of seconds later, it was in motion.

Slowly, it moved one step toward me, its posture straightening unnaturally, stiff and rigid. It took another step forward. It's mouth fell agape once more, open wider than what could possibly be natural, even for it. A few seconds passed in silence after that. Then, just as the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise, it came: the sound, that horrible sound.

“Graaaugh!”

Somehow deep from the chest yet shrill enough to evoke a ringing in my ears, it roared as it threw its arms back in a menacing display of unhinged and wild anger. I thought I'd been prepared to respond to whatever it had in store for me, but the pain that followed was sharp and insidious, creeping throughout my entire being but deeper than that. Not even my Protection of Light that I'd activated on reflex seemed to do much of anything against it. I'd never experienced that kind of pain before, total and all-consuming.

It took me a moment to respond, my brain having seized up at the unexpected attack. As one second turned to two, the pain intensifying even further, I knew I needed to act. I could feel my sense of self begin to crack and shatter as the world blurred around me. On instinct more than anything, I felt my body begin to move.

“Piercing Light!” I shouted frantically as I swung my blade.

Through the air, a magical, glowing slash traveled toward the thing. My aim was off, but it still came close enough to the monster's head that it needed to dodge, and as it did so, the sound mercifully came to a halt. I staggered, my relief at the blissful, ringing filled silence short-lived. I was free, but I wasn't clear enough of mind to avoid what came next.

“Argh!” I shouted in pain as a glowing blade, identical to my own, cut deep into my arm.

Impossible! I thought, but I didn't stop to question it.

I charged. Fable had undersold this thing by no small margin. That scream would surely haunt my dreams for months to come should I survive this. There was no doubt in my mind. It was on par with artillery magic. This thing needed to die. There was just one problem with that. Fable hadn't been kidding when she'd said it was fast.

As I approached, it fell back far quicker than I'd been expecting. Its unsettling grin returned simultaneously. It was at least twice as my speed. That could only help it so much, however. Immediately upon realizing I'd be unable to catch it outright, I pivoted to cornering it against the ruined building. It worked, but before I could strike it down, it raised its blade to mine parry my own.

What? I couldn't help but to think as I watched the pitiful display.

Its form was awful. I'd seen amateurs who'd never raised a blade before with better grasps on the fundamentals than this thing. With ease, I broke its guard along with its arm. Then, just as I was about to strike it down, a viscous goop engulfed my vision. I'd fallen victim to tunnel vision and lost sight of the slime at some point.

Stumbling back, I began to panic. Slashing my sword at the little core in front of my eyes, I desperately tried to dispatch the thing. I landed my attack, the sharp edge of my blade directly impacting the core, but to my surprise, it didn't shatter. No kill notification came either. Instead, the core harmlessly sailed through the air up until it hit a wall. It cracked on impact, but it didn't break.

I didn't have time to question that, however. While I'd been distracted, the ghoul had retrieved its blade, and now, using its opposite hand to grip the handle, I took on a pose I recognized immediately. It was my own preferred stance.

Turning to face it, all I managed to do was to repeat my previous mistake. Had I not both still had Protection of Light active and noticed in time to bring my own blade up to cancel out some of the force, I had little doubt the spiked club that blindsided me from behind would've killed me. It seemed I had underestimated these three monsters, after all.