Dungeon Champions

A sound like a thousand branches snapping under high winds crackled through the air, sending us all staggering back. Given a moment’s opportunity, I shifted my hand from Nym’s tail to her wrist, dragging her away.

FWOOOM CRASH!

It sounded as if the storm, in all its fury, had momentarily teleported into the hold. Lightning splayed outward, along with a wave of wind, as a humanoid pushed free of its captivity.

The elemental was massive, towering over us at nearly ten feet tall. Made of turbulence and light, it was distinctly female. Her hair was a web of light, and her sculpted face was defined by brilliant golden angles that hurt to look upon. She bent over, folding into a space far too small for her. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I could not help but notice wide hips and astonishingly large breasts.

Where her eyes should have been, two glowing orbs of electric blue energy pulsed.

“Free...” the elemental said, her voice both feminine and like a whip crack. “At last, I am free!”

I pulled Nym behind me, shielding her with my body as I faced the elemental. “Everyone, stay back!”

The elemental turned her attention to me, sparks of electricity dancing across her form. “Mortals. No. Tablet Wielders.” Her voice rumbled, ominous and threatening. “I recognize none of you from my capture. Do you obey those who attacked me?”

“No,” I said firmly, focusing on bringing my Tablet into view without its normal disguise. It glowed golden and filigree next to my face. I turned it around, hoping she could read the name of my class at the top.

At the sight of a Legendary Tablet, the elemental hesitated, her sparkling eyes sliding across the text, moving from left to right as she read. “Battle Scholar? You are a leader.”

“I am.” I gestured at the other occupants of the room. “We are the Society of the Defiant, and we’re here to help you.”

Nym, thinking fast, twitched her tail at the floor. “I was trying to help just now! We were using magic to detect what sorts of elementals were trapped, so we could find a safe way to free you all.”

At the catgirl’s assertion, the elemental looked down at the smudged chalk marks. I couldn’t read her expression, but saw her lips tighten. She laughed softly, muttering something beneath her breath in a language I did not understand. “Perhaps you tell the truth,” she said, looking back at me. “But I am still not convinced. Why should I believe you, when it was mortals who trapped me in that accursed sphere?”

Britney stepped forward. The celestial looked so tiny, looking up and up and up at the sapient storm that threatened us. But when she spoke, her voice was melodic and calm. She raised her hands up, palms skyward, as if in greeting. “Great elemental, we speak the truth. We seek to return you and your kin to your rightful planes.”

The elemental’s form seemed to flicker, her attention now fixed on Britney. “A celestial,” she said. Her tone was different, smoother, as if Britney’s mere presence was enough to ease the tension. “Perhaps you speak truly. But my anger will not be so easily assuaged.”

Suddenly, the ship lurched again, nearly knocking us flat. Above, we could hear the bells ringing once more.

“Who thinks to turn my own power against me?” Distracted, the elemental woman looked toward the sky, her earlier rage returning. “I am made of this, know its flavors and the mind behind it. An assault against me shall do the spellcaster no good!”

That was the opening I needed. In the split second I had to formulate a plan, I seized on our opportunity.

“The fiends who imprisoned you and yours attack our ship,” I said. “They are here to steal you away, and if that can’t be arranged, they will release you all and create a tear in the Veil.”

“How dare they!” Lightning danced across the elemental’s form, chasing the anger in her voice.

“We can help you,” I added, quickly.

The elemental peered down at me. Her anger roiled off her like the thunder of a summer heat storm. The golden angles of her face lifted, shifting into what I wanted to call a sneer. “What do you propose, Legendary Tablet Wielder?”

“Fight them off. We’ll be at your side, and once they are gone, we help free the others.” I held up a hand in caution. “It has to be done with care, or there will be consequences for all involved. But I promise we’ll do everything in our power to make it happen.”

Was I planning on making it Mayor Regan’s problem? Absolutely. But I didn’t need the giant elemental to know that.

She considered my words, her form swirling with barely contained power. After what felt like an eternity, she nodded.

“Very well. I will fight alongside you against these arrogant interlopers. But know this—if you betray me, the wrath I unleash will make this battle seem like a gentle breeze.”

I nodded, trying not to show my relief. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Skullie, stay here and watch Sadie?” I didn’t give the lich a chance to argue. “Let’s go.”

We rushed up to the deck, the elemental having to change form to squeeze through the passages. At a more normal size—although still very tall and muscular—she was a beautiful and buxom mortal woman, naked as the day was long. She had blonde hair streaked with silver, and her eyes took on a more normal blue color. Her skin glowed with a soft golden sheen.

No one would ever mistake her for a normal person. There was something alluring and exotic about her that marked her as other, but at least she could maneuver below decks better.

As we emerged into the rain-soaked air, chaos greeted us.

The storm had worsened, intensifying as the enemy fleet had drawn in. There were more than I’d expected, including several three-and-four masted galleons and a veritable swarm of sleek, two-masted sloops. Now that they were closer, I saw signs of other mages at the decks of the galleons, along with men and women with Tablets visible next to their faces.

Captain Drake was at the helm, bellowing orders. When he saw us emerge with the elemental, his eyes widened in shock.

“By the Fates, what have you done?”

“Made an ally,” I shouted back, carefully avoiding adding the word ‘hopefully’. “She’s on our side!”

Hands lifted in a mimicry of what Britney had done before, the elemental laughed. Lightning strummed from the clouds, striking her outstretched hands. Even in her humanoid form, the effect was incredible. A sphere of electricity burst around her, crackling like she was some sort of walking plasma ball. Wind whipped through her hair and seemed to amplify the discharge effect.

“You think to strike at me with my own power?” With a booming laugh, her voice rolling like thunder, she declared, “Storms obey me, little wizards.”

With that, she began to swell, returning to her previous form. Instead of stopping, however, she continued to grow, rapidly gaining size until she lifted from the deck and directly into the turbulent sky.

“Insects,” she boomed, her voice like rolling thunder. “You dare to challenge me?”

With a gesture, she summoned a gust of wind so powerful it nearly knocked me off my feet. I had to catch both Nym and Zuri to keep them from being batted about. Merielle did the same for Britney.

The attacking ships were buffeted by the sudden squall, their sails straining against the onslaught. As the elemental’s power expanded away from her, creating a much larger version of the protective sphere, the worst of the storm ebbed around our ship.

Once I was sure Zuri and Nym had their feet under them, I summoned my Bow of Sight-Blinding to hand. It was far less powerful than my other weapons in terms of damage, but more than made up for that with its primary enchantment.

Sight-Blinding would render most targets unable to see for ten seconds. In most combat, that was an eternity.

Our enemies were still relatively distant, which would have made the shots difficult even in the best conditions. These were not the best conditions. Waves churned, sending the boat surging and falling, making footing difficult while I was trying to aim.

I drew an arrow from a storage pouch and took an experimental shot. It went wide, wasting the shot a hundred feet or more from the target.

In the time I’d tried to make the shot, our new ally had begun sending counterstrikes of lightning raining on our enemies. Many of the smaller boats, lashed by her wind attacks, floundered, as close to capsizing as we’d been mere minutes before.

Yet the enemy was not content to have their fleet sunk. Wizards countered with blasts of fire, or even what I thought of as “earthballs” - clods of stone that appeared next to the elemental’s body and burst apart, absorbing and slowing her attacks.

“Damn it,” I snarled. “I need to be closer and off this boat.”

“Take off your armor!”

I turned, looking for the source of the command. It was Britney, her little wings flapping. She had a length of rope in her hands. “I’m not very strong. I’m definitely not strong enough to lift you and all that armor.”

Catching onto her idea, I rapidly dismissed my armor and clothes, dropping down to just my pants and belt. I helped with the rope, tying it around my torso, beneath my arms.

“Here we go,” she shouted a moment later, activating her flight power. Her wings instantly doubled in size, then doubled again, spreading a solid nine feet from her torso. Wrapping her arms around the rope, she took off. Fortunately for us, even “modest” speed wasn’t bad.

It didn’t last, however.

According to the flight description, she had poor maneuverability—which showed itself immediately as she barely got over the rail of the ship without clipping her feet.

The rope drew taut around my torso, biting hard. I looked up, seeing her struggle. The celestial had a low strength score, and I probably weighed nearly two hundred and thirty pounds, even with my gear unequipped.

I suddenly doubted the maneuver would work at all.

Zuri: Skullie! Get your flying power going and help Britney. Your strength combined with hers might be good enough to get Jordan off the ship.

Jordan: Isn’t he belowdeck?

A beat later, my familiar came flying through the air. “Yeehaw! Flying skull assistant on the job!”

Grabbing the rope between his teeth, he tugged.

Technically, Skullie had a strength score of four, quite a bit lower than Britney’s. But he flew with speed equal to my enhanced movement rate. Between the straining, struggling celestial and the determined familiar, my feet left the edge of the boat.

I drew my legs to the rail and kicked off, helping the team gather height. As soon as I was airborne, things went faster. We quickly floated thirty feet away from the ship, and began closing on the enemy vessels.

As my team worked to get me to our targets, I took shots at the mages. It was awkward and painful, with the rope beneath my arms and the distractions of battle raging ahead, but I made it work.

In the precious time we’d spent trying to get me in range, the fight had taken a turn. Instead of summoning a storm above the ship, the weather mages had turned around, waving their hands in the opposite direction. This put their backs to me. It also drew the very regenerative energy our new ally had been using away from her. As earthballs, magma showers, and other effects took hold, she shrank.

When I hazarded a look up, I saw that bits of her had begun to show signs of injury—places that had gone entirely dark, and where no electricity shone any longer.

Not that she hadn’t given far better than she’d received. The ocean churned beneath our enemies, and multiple vessels had capsized. Lightning now strobed among their ships, and several were on fire. I guessed there were fifty or more people in the water. More joined by the second.

Atop the rolling, teetering galleons, crew flew from one side to the other as their sails worked against them, catching hurricane-force winds and threatening to tip even those great vessels.

Finally, one of my shots landed true. It hit the back of an unaware mage, one with a Tablet. He faltered, gestures stopping as he groped at his now sightless eyes.

Adjusting my aim to the next-closest galleon, this one with a trio of mages who seemed to be casting some sort of unified ritual spell, I fired. The shot went wide, and was about twenty feet short of the closest.

“Closer!” I roared to my flight crew.

“T…Trying,” Britney stammered, breathless with the effort of her flapping wings. Skullie also said something, but it came out as a muffled, “Hfmfhfh.”

They rotated me toward the next target, losing some height for their effort. I was now maybe fifteen feet above the waves, some of which were high enough to tickle my bare feet. Ignoring the risk, I aimed and fired.

This time, my shot was instantly true.

Before the other two mages could respond, I had another arrow, then another in the air. The second missed, striking the first mage again. The final shot was on target, taking the third mage—who had the misfortune of looking in my direction at the wrong time—in the eye.

Insult to injury, I thought, pleased with myself.

And then the second mage made a tossing motion with a hand.

An honest-to-Fates meteor, one the size of a car, appeared in the air and came hurtling toward us. The thing was at an angle, one I calculated would take it through Britney and into me with a single toss.

Ka-BLOOOM!

Lightning struck the projectile in mid-arc, shattering it to splinters.

I looked up in time to see our elemental ally looking at me. Her enormous face of golden angles should have been impossible to read, but I picked up on something between disbelieving amusement and pain in it. She returned her attention to her foes, sending lightning at the mages who continued to harry her.

“Thank you!” I called, lining up another shot.

An instant after the arrow left my bow, a giant shape burst from the water.

A shark.

By the looks of the thing, it was one of the transformed, elite sharks from the previous evening’s attack. The thing must have been thirty feet long at least. It sailed above the ship, mouth closing on the final mage as it continued its arc.

Dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what I’d just seen, I looked down.

As I’d feared, there were shark fins in the water. Lots of them. Some of them were obviously elites—suggesting Zuri’s potion had done more than I’d thought.

Then I saw someone in the middle of the flurry of sharks. It looked…well, it looked like a mermaid, complete with sea green hair and green-tipped breasts. Surfacing right below me, she blew me an exaggerated kiss.

“The Old Man of the Sea has been plaguing our people for decades, adventurers. Please accept a little thanks.” She flashed me a smile which was all sharp teeth, then dove beneath the churning waves.

Her disappearance was only the beginning of her work, however. I caught glimpses of other mer-people, both men and women, as they surfaced near the ships. Fresh magic, on top of shark attacks, proved to be just the distraction our elemental ally needed.

Shrinking as she discharged her powers, she burst apart one hull after another, seeming caught up in a competition with the mer-people to see who would end the most lives.

Seeing how things were going, I called it. “Okay. That’s enough for me. My armpits are really starting to chafe. Let's go back.”

I had fortunate timing. As soon as we reached the ship’s rails, Britney’s flight power ended. She plummeted, falling toward the water, taking Skullie with her.

“Ooof!” I said, snatching at the rail just in time to catch the rope. The celestial woman was far from heavy, but the sudden tug was nearly enough to snatch her from my grasp.

She came to a stop three feet from the water, maybe thirty feet from a curious shark. Yelping with terror, she pleaded, “Reel me in! Reel me in!”

“What do you think I’m doing, playing with myself?” Snarling, I hoisted myself up, hooking a leg on the rail. A group of sailors raced over at the captain’s orders, helping me pull her up.

“Hurry!” Britney screamed with piercing fear. “Shark!”

Grabbing the rope with both hands, I pulled, running the opposite direction with all my force. It proved enough to zip both of my dangling allies away from the water and over the railing. They hurled onto the deck, rolling to a stop.

Britney started to cry. At first it was just wordless sobbing, but then she looked up at me with wide eyes. “S-so. Glad. For those…extra hit points.”

Her eyes rolled back and she passed out.