Dungeon Champions

I dropped Zuri where she was and leaped to Nym. Grabbing the frightened catgirl by the hips, I used every iota of my enhanced attributes to carry her toward the onrushing army.

“Jordan!” Nym screamed as we neared Merielle. The elf stumbled, foot slipping on blood and sending her falling.

Jordan: Nym, cast Scouring Blast right now. Directly ahead of us. Now!

At first, I wasn’t certain she’d heard the telepathic command. Then she shifted, hands extended.

A massive blast of superheated sand burst from between her hands. The spell created a thirty-foot cone, flooding the air with burning dust. Merielle’s earlier work to injure so many of them proved advantageous, as a dozen monsters simply collapsed.

That left a small army of momentarily blinded creatures for us to contend with.

Jordan: Cast it again!

Nym: It has a six-second duration.

Jordan: As soon as it’s over, cast it again. Trust me.

I sat the catgirl down at an angle that gave her total coverage over the monsters. Lifting my hands and screaming, I ran the opposite direction, taking a circuitous route intended to keep them all in one space.

The mob chittered, voices clicking, as they tried to follow me. A few tried swiping at me, but I simply leapt aside.

Jordan: Britney! Get your ass here. Right now. I need you to cast your Thorns ability on me.

I checked my Tablet, and was pleased to discover it appeared and provided a HUD-style battle display. Britney was closer than I’d feared, having found the courage to approach within fifty feet during the battle. Her status was [terrified]. At my mental scream, the status changed to [frightened] and she moved forward.

Leaping over one claw and dodging around another, I circled all the way around to Merielle. She was standing again. According to my Tablet, her status was [injured] and her hit points were listed as [5].

It wasn’t much, but we’d make it work.

Jordan: Merielle! You can do this. I’m going to get you the hammer. Keep it short. When I’m distracting them, I want you to target their limbs. Crack their claws when they attack me. Do you understand?

Without waiting for a reply, I moved into the throng of ant-dwarves, accepting claws and sand damage to get to her fallen hammer. I kicked it, sending it spinning out of the melee.

I didn’t have time to see her catch it. Minoant, the giant among the rest, roared and brought two muscular arms down on my shoulders as its claw snapped at my neck.

All three attacks landed…

Right as I felt a spell flash around me.

Notice: You have been granted the benefits of a [Thorned Angel]. All damage you suffer is reduced by [3] points. The enemy suffers that as retributive [holy] damage each time they strike you.

It still hurt, but it was a lot less than it would have been before.

Minoant roared in pain. Multiple ant-dwarves, or dwants as I’d labeled them on my Tablet combat screen, also struck at me.

I let their blows land, suffering scratches in exchange for wounding them severely. As all this happened, the wall of blinding sand began to ease. In another heartbeat, our enemies would be able to see again.

Jordan: Nym! Now! Cast it again!

She did.

Fresh sand burned in the air, hot enough that it nearly damaged even me.

Merielle was ready, her hammer flashing as she went from trying to absorb and redirect the army to a mobile tactical unit. Chitin cracked as she used the lighter weapon to make surgical attacks, timing them so hers landed a beat after they struck me.

The combination of the sand, retributive damage, and the hammer was enough to take most of them down in a matter of seconds.

Not all went as planned, however. The pile of bodies, some still alive, coupled with their oozing fluids was enough to cost me my footing. I went down hard, narrowly avoiding jamming the dagger I still held into a near-corpse.

“Click-clack!”

I pushed off the ground, my throwing arm momentarily crushed in the vice grip of a pincher. The damn thing was strong enough to deal damage through my gauntlets. Forcing the pain aside, I twisted in time to see the minoant reach for Merielle. It lifted its pincer, angling for a critical attack on her head.

“Merielle!” I called, turning to fling my dagger. The dwant held on, pincer catching on my armor. Desperate, I wiggled my arm, jerking it free from the claw.

Too slow.

The minoant’s pincer closed on Merielle’s neck, the calculus of her inevitable death, just a few feet away, playing out in the glacial composure of my mind.

“Skullie saves!” The high-pitched, insane screech barely had time to register before a blurring bit of white bone slammed into the girl’s side, knocking her out of the way at the last instant.

All three attacks missed.

Jordan: Merielle! Extend your hammer and hit him here! He’s vulnerable.

I accompanied the message with a mental image, showing the tactical maneuver I wanted her to take.

She listened.

Her hammer shimmered again, growing as she flung herself around. Screaming a battle cry, she used every ounce of her body weight and strength to slam her weapon into the minoant’s torso.

Crack!

It crumpled, collapsing on a veritable pile of its fallen allies.

The sand spell ended a beat later. Past the pile of bodies was a clear shot up the road. There were no signs of additional creatures. I looked around, seeing no fresh threats.

Then someone flung themselves at my chest, fists pounding against my armor. It took me a moment to realize it was Britney. She was crying, screaming at me.

“You nearly got them killed! You monster! You could have ended this fight yourself, with one hand behind your back. What were you thinking!”

Looking down at her face, I felt the ice around my heart begin to thaw. I didn’t let it. Voice hard as iron, I grabbed her wrists, whispering, “So, you give a damn about Merielle? Nym? Zuri?”

“Of course I do!” She struggled, switching to kicking my shins. “Why would you do that? Why would you risk their lives! You’re no better than any of them! No! You’re worse!”

“Use Thorns on Merielle.”

Ignoring my still-soft voice, she kept kicking, shouting epithets at me as she cried. I squeezed her wrists. I wasn’t hard, just firm enough to get her attention. Again, calm as death, I commanded, “Use Thorns on Merielle.”

“Why? Why should I listen to you?! I have a healing spell. I can just cast that instead.”

“When your core class ability effect ends, it heals four hit points,” I explained flatly. “It costs you three mana to heal four hit points. It’s more efficient than your variable healing spell. Merielle and I are the only ones hurt. You can cast the spell four times on her. That’s sixteen hit points, enough to almost fully heal her.”

“What?” She blinked up at me, as if realizing just how wounded I was for the first time.

I repeated myself, turning the girl so she could see Merielle standing nearby.

The redhead was a mess, maybe even worse than I was. Her body was covered in cuts and bruises. Yet beneath it all, her lips stretched into a savage grin. “Jordan. That was…impossible.”

Britney goggled. “What are you talking about? He nearly got you killed!”

Walking over, Nym put an arm around Merielle’s shoulders. Despite her fierce demeanor, the warrior leaned against the mage, accepting the help.

Sadie had appeared finally, the cat walking over to Zuri. Sniffing the gorgon once, she made a warm, purring, “meow” sound.

Hearing it instantly seemed to lift a veil of darkness from the catgirl’s face. “Zuri’s fine! She’s just mana drained!”

At that revelation, Merielle’s fierce look took on something new. I felt her eyes warm as she took me in.

“That doesn’t change anything,” Britney said, in that same hate-filled voice.

“You don’t see, do you, Britney?” she asked, mirroring my calm voice. “We just defeated nearly forty monsters and only he and I were hurt. Thanks to his quick action and command of the situation, we just fought way above our level. Without him, we’d have died. Without him, the entire north side of the city would have been lost.”

“But he could have killed them all himself!” Britney wailed, pointing at me. “How can you forgive him for abandoning us like that?”

And there it was.

“Brit?” Nym pointed down at my hand, where the summoned dagger remained. “We can’t be adventurers and not face risks. But he was ready to intervene the entire time.”

I didn’t mention that last opening, when the minoant may have killed Merielle. There was a chance the dagger would have done enough damage to save her life, but I wasn’t certain. Against the dwants, sure. Against that thing?

Jordan (to Skullie): Good job. You can have that corpse.

Skullie (to Jordan): Oh, yay! I knew being a hero would pay off.

Merielle spoke into the silence. “He risked his life, suffering for all of us so he could rescue that guard. And then again to help us benefit the most from his pain. Britney, Jordan made the hard call. But he never abandoned us. You did that.”

Before the fight could escalate again, I pointed at Merielle. “Thorns. Use the ability. Don’t just stand there. Heal your friend.” There was iron in my voice now, although I withheld any threats.

Britney had admitted that she was worried about her party members. Even if she blamed me for how things had gone, she’d taken a big step that day. I wasn’t about to punish her further for it.

Sniffing, but more confused than angry, Britney did as directed.

While Britney healed Merielle, I drew out one of the mana stones we’d found in the Chaos Dungeon and offered it to Nym. “Can you use this to help replenish Zuri? I’m afraid she bottomed out and won’t wake up for an hour without it.”

The little mage accepted one of the lesser magic stones, studying it. Her eyes flashed, suggesting her Tablet had provided her with insight. “Got it!”

She rushed to Zuri, putting the gem against the gorgon’s forehead. A second later, there was a flash followed by a groan as our final party member came back to consciousness. My Tablet told me Zuri was back to [6] mana, which seemed the threshold required to get her back up.

Holding her head, she sat up with Nym’s help. Taking the area in, she winced. “My head. It hurts so badly. I take it we won?”

***

Quest Update: A Cry for Help

Details: Society of the Defiant, you have exceeded all expectations and preserved the entire north side of Boulibar Bay, minus a section of the gate. You have been awarded full rewards.

Rewards: [25] experience per party member. Each party member contributed according to their class requirements, and have been awarded an additional [75] experience points. [Jordan[ has earned a bonus of [200] experience points for leading the party to an [Overwhelming] success and their new levels.

Bonus: It is likely this attack had an origin. Investigate as much as you are able within a reasonable amount of time and report the findings to [Mayor Regan].

Notice: Merielle has earned [100] experience points and qualifies for level [4]. She may allocate [15] Attribute points and [9] skill points. She requires [87] experience points to reach level [5].

Notice: Britnayel has earned [100] experience points and qualifies for level [4]. She may allocate [15] Attribute points and [9] skill points. She requires [87] experience points to reach level [5].

Notice: Nym has earned [100] experience points and qualifies for level [4]. She may allocate [15] Attribute points and [9] skill points. She requires [87] experience points to reach level [5].

Notice: Zuri has earned [100] experience points and qualifies for level [4]. She may allocate [15] Attribute points and [9] skill points. She requires [87] experience points to reach level [5].

Notice: Jordan has earned [300] experience points and is now level [12]. He may allocate [5] Attribute points and [3] skill points. He requires [622] experience points to reach level [13].

Notice: Skullie is now level [7] and has regained the use of [3] new spells.