Dungeon Champions

My Fast Sword of Bloodletting sprang to my hand, a gentle penumbra of golden magic surrounding the powerful magical item as it came into view. Moving deftly across the deck, I dodged sailors as I charged to the tentacle.

As I went, I issued commands to my team, leveraging my new Cunning score to think faster than before.

Jordan: Everyone, I’m going in. Whatever this is, I’m not risking you and the mission. I’ll issue directions individually as I can.

Jordan (to Merielle): Secure Nym! We may need her spells, but don’t want her going overboard.

Jordan (to Zuri): Get your new cooking ability ready. I have an idea.

That was all I had time for, as I’d reached the pink and green appendage. Covered in suckers, some of which had barbed spines curling from their puckering centers, the tentacle was easily three feet in diameter and long enough to cover the entire width of the boat.

Even as I reached the thing, a second tentacle flashed up, knocking sailors aside like bowling pins and smashing through bits of wooden railing as it came down. I caught a glimpse of barbs digging into wood and got a very bad feeling.

Bringing my sword down on the first tentacle was like cutting into sheet steel. The exterior was beyond simply tough, it seemed resistant to my enchanted weapon. My first strike barely sank in an inch before I had to try again.

The Bloodletting enchantment was not as foiled as the blade, however. It dealt an additional one to four damage every six seconds, or until the wound was treated or healed. Pink-tinted water oozed from the first cut, slow but steady.

Again, I struck the thing.

Skullie (to Jordan): I have an idea! Permission to try something creative.

I had no idea where he’d ended up, or what his intentions were. Our familiar bond wasn’t that intense. For that matter, I hadn’t realized he could use party telepathy with me until that moment. Regardless, any help that didn’t put lives at risk was welcome.

Jordan (to Skullie): Do it!

I brought my sword down again, and again. Each hit rang down my hand like a gong. The tentacle squirmed, writhing against the railing, meaning that each place I struck was new. Yet with each cut, more blood flowed. From what I could tell, the monster didn’t have any of the standard fast-healing or regenerative powers I’d have expected from a typical boss-tier creature.

That meant we had a chance.

“Jordan!” Britney screamed.

Twisting, I saw that one of the tentacles had risen from the water. Straddling the thing was an abomination of black scales with a lamprey mouth. Vaguely humanoid, complete with barnacles jutting out like breasts, the siren pointed a webbed hand and the tentacle she straddled zipped forward. This one was leaner and more flexible than the others. It wound around Britney’s waist, lifting her from the deck in a flash.

Merielle, who’d gotten Nym to a length of rope lashed to a mast, got there before I did. She didn’t have her hammer, but as she crossed the distance, I saw her lift her hands. Fire blossomed around her Elemental Fighter’s Gloves.

Smart woman, I thought, proud of her.

Jordan (to Merielle): The tentacles are damn near indestructible rubber. Aim for the siren if you can!

The agile elf shoved off a sailor who’d approached the siren. She was strong enough now to push the guy over. When she did, it allowed her to activate Knight’s Move. Not only did she save the man’s life, but she also zipped six feet away, practically teleporting to close the distance in with the mounted siren.

At the very edge of the deck, right below where the siren sat directing the tentacle, Merielle leaped. Her gloved hand, limned in red energy, wrapped around a scaly foot. The warrior was so strong, and had such momentum, that she managed a one-armed pull-up, smashing her other hand directly into the siren’s leg.

The combination of fire attacks was enough to distract the siren. A webbed hand came down, batting at the dangling elf.

Left undirected, the tentacle carrying Britney flailed about, knocking sailors over but otherwise remaining where it had been.

Nym (to Jordan): What should I do? Jordan? What should I do! I’m so scared!

I had no time to reply, as a thrashing tentacle smashed me to the deck hard enough to see spots. Leaking bloody syrup from multiple slashes, the appendage flattened against my back, pinning me down. Wrenching myself around, I shoved back against the force.

Even with my incredible strength, the titanic creature held me in place.

Nym and Britney were screaming. Merielle was dangling, beating the leg of a siren who kept trying to scrape her off. My team needed me.

Adjusting the blade in one hand, I turned the edge upward, pushing with it against the tentacle. Although I wore Gauntlets of Grappling, their magic didn’t seem to work against the crushing attack. It was either that, or the monster was a much higher level than I was.

The thought was chilling. Not that I let it stop me.

Determined to kill the thing, I shoved, trying to force my sword into the resilient skin. It was just enough to carve another bleeding slice.

Too slow, I thought, wracking my brain for a better solution. My skills told me a creature of this size could have hundreds of hit points. I either needed to deal much more damage, or get it bleeding faster.

“I’m here!” Skullie said from next to my head. “I’m going to distract it. Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

The lich screamed, voice warbling, “Liiiife leech!”

As the crushing tentacle wiggled atop me, my familiar jammed his boney spine directly into one of the wider holes I’d carved. Then he flexed, bending down and jamming his teeth into the lip of the open wounds.

Nothing should have happened. The damn skeleton was as strong as a feather caught in a breeze.

But Life Leach enhanced his bite attack based on my strength score. For the duration of the spell, the undead creature could have bitten through almost anything.

As it turned out, almost anything included the tentacle monster.

I felt life flowing into me as hit points traveled from the monster, into my familiar, and then through our bond. Ribs that I hadn’t felt crack regenerated, restored in that first bite.

It was enough to make the tentacle jerk to the side as if stung.

I took the opportunity to adjust my attacks. My sword had a Fast enchantment, which made it fifty-percent quicker to wield than any of my other weapons. Turning from blade side to tip, I jabbed the tentacle rapidly, stitching a series of tiny wounds down its length.

None of the damage I inflicted with those rapid, shallow strikes was meaningful.

Yet by the time I’d added seven new cuts, the monster was bleeding between ten to forty points of damage every six seconds.

“Yahoo!” Skullie screamed as the tentacle flew into the air, lifting and vanishing overboard.

Coming to my feet, I crossed to the nearest of the other large tentacles. It retained hold of the boat and was rocking us back and forth. The thing was strong, but not quite strong enough to capsize the entire boat with one anchoring limb. It was enough to send sailors flying, however.

A man slid past me, an expression of terror on his face. One handed, I caught his hand even as I jammed my sword into the tentacle. Once. Twice. Three times. I made shallow cuts appear at the thickest points of the limb, creating fresh rivers of unhealing damage.

“Jordan - Merielle!” Zuri called, alerting me to a new problem.

I twisted, using the motion to draw yet another shallow slice along the monster’s hide.

Merielle had climbed up the siren’s leg. Using the monster’s scales as handholds, she’d lifted herself, punched the monster, grabbed hold, then lifted again. It was a climbing-attack style that didn’t seem to make much sense at first.

It had also dealt significant damage to the creature.

The elf had paid a price for her elevation, however.

Whipping her scaled hands down, the siren had clawed at the only vulnerable spot available: Merielle’s face.

The elf was bleeding from her forehead, cheeks, and mouth. One eye was swollen shut. Despite her injuries, however, she was smiling like she knew something.

Why is she smiling?

It was only then that I noticed the siren’s hands. They were covered in bleeding wounds, ones that made no sense.

“Britney!” I gasped, surprised and delighted to finally note the aura of protective energy surrounding Merielle’s body. The brilliant girl had thrown herself into the siren’s attacks on purpose.

And Britney, despite being lashed about by a tentacle, had possessed the clarity of thought to use her ability!

The problem wasn’t team coordination, however. A second of the thinner tentacles had arisen from the water, this time carrying a glowing siren. This one, also decidedly female, had a scepter in one hand and a pouch wrapped around her waist. She was weaving the wand in the air, presumably to cast a spell.

“Screw that,” I growled.

Jordan: Nym! I need you to get into position. Use Scouring Blast to distract that spellcaster. Aim the cone to get the tentacle holding Merielle. If you can get her siren, do that too.

We didn’t have much of a window, and Nym knew it.

I spotted the catgirl, who’d been holding onto the rope for dear life, go positively sheet-white with utter terror. Zuri was there in an instant, wrapping an arm around the girl. It wasn’t clear if the gorgon was pulling Nym along, or simply supporting her. Either way, Nym shifted her grip to her friend and the two raced the ten feet along the deck, crossing it in three heartbeats.

Nym, trembling, lifted her hands.

Two spells went off at once.

One created a sphere of water around Merielle’s head, fully enclosing her face in a bubble of aquamarine, glowing energy. The elf was high enough to pummel her siren’s thigh, although her face had gone from bloody and bruised to barely recognizable as a cost for her accomplishments.

The second was a Cleaning Burst enhanced Scouring Blast that sent white hot sand across the length of two tentacles and both sirens. Merielle’s head would have been in the radius if not for the spell covering it, and portions of Nym’s sand blast struck the water. The effect on the water spell was immediate and potent.

The shell covering Merielle’s face shrank. My skills told me that the effect likely had its total duration significantly reduced by Nym’s attack.

Reduced, but not dismissed.

With a hissing cry, the first of the two sirens finally collapsed, falling to the deck and taking Merielle with her. The tentacle she’d been riding flailed, then began to retreat, carrying Britney with it.

I caught a glimpse of Merielle rolling over, her mouth open as she gasped for a breath that would not come. In the face of possible death, the warrior kept her head. She pummeled the fallen siren, ensuring the monster was dead.

Perched atop the other tentacle, the enemy spellcaster batted at the sand, her alluring cry replaced with gagging sounds. It took me a beat to realize just how debilitating having sand fill her mouth and gills must be. The sea witch, or whatever she was, tried covering her face but Nym’s spell continued, disorienting the monster.

Leaping onto the boat-tugging tentacle, I ran down its length, toward the central mass. The angle brought me closer to the edge of the ship, but also within leaping distance of the tentacle that threatened to drag Britney overboard. As I ran, I held my sword down, letting the tip drag and bounce over blubbery ridges and suckers. The effect only opened a few, tiny wounds.

But those bled, too.

When I was nearly over the water, I roared, “Britney! Thorns me!” And leaped, holding my sword overhead.