Dungeon Champions

What emerged from the floor resembled a gigantic octopus, albeit with far more legs. Each of the monster's limbs—well over fifteen feet long—ended in a sharp spike and was covered in a mixture of metal and bone barbs.

At the top of the central mass was an oversized brain. No, not one brain, I realized, but dozens or even hundreds of them, all fused together with a mixture of physical and magical sutures. A ring of glowing white-blue eyes surrounded the base of the amalgamated brain, each blinking and swirling, as if they were trapped inside the monstrous creation.

As the creature thrashed about, freeing itself from the chamber that had given it birth, I noticed a sharp beak between every other pair of tentacles.

The creature—which I labeled Brainard for the ease of Tablet tracking—was gut-wrenching to look at. Worse, however, was when a twisted, mal-formed Tablet appeared next to the head.

Like Brainard, it appeared to be several Tablets sutured together, bound with a thread that glowed with static non-light that hurt my stomach to look at. The framework around the franken-Tablet mesh was purple and silver. Magical red-orange sparks flew from the artifact as it shook and quivered in the air, looking as if it were struggling against its own, awful, existence.

My Tablet flashed with a notice that I didn’t dare look at, as I had the awful feeling that any distraction could cost lives.

“Wh….what?” Nym said, voice quivering as she took in the giant, unfamiliar, Tablet-mess.

We all knew what it portended. It was one thing to fight monsters. It was entirely another to fight one with our advantages.

Jordan: Switch to telepathy!

As soon as I sent the telepathic message, Brainard oriented on me. Lifting itself higher into the room, beady eyes focused on my face as I felt a great, screaming mind slam into my own.

A dozen, no, a hundred people’s thoughts bore down on me. I saw people living their last moments of life, adventurers and townspeople in agony as their bodies were experimented on. And above it all, there was a malignant, twisted voice.

Louder than anything my ears could have survived, it rang in my head, inside my thoughts, burrowing into the very telepathic ability my Tablet granted me.

WE WALK THE WORLDS MORTAL. OUR AGENTS TRAVEL THE AETHERIC TUNNELS AND WIELD THE ARETE OF ELDER GODS. THE LUMINESCENCE OF BEINGS OLDER THAN FATE ANIMATE THIS PAWN. YOU AND YOUR UNWORTHY MASTERS SHALL FALL AND JOIN US!

It was too much. Brainard’s statement was more than a declaration, it was a river of vision and thoughts, of insights no human mind was meant to comprehend.

In the span of a breath, I glimpsed the creature’s intent.

Flash.

I was on Earth, where a man with pointed ears injected static-filled goo into a red-skinned woman’s arm.

Flash.

I was in some sort of club, one with a hundred different types of fae creatures, most of them women. A caterpillar worm sat atop a platform.

Flash.

Two creatures, demons by the looks of them, stood in an ancient ruin. The air rippled between them, ripped asunder to reveal a universe of static and light and the ageless, unknowable madness beyond…

SNAP!

A golden aura flashed protectively around my thoughts as I surfaced from the psychic attack. I’d fallen to my knees, vomit fresh on my mouth. An aura of golden light surrounded my body, flickering in the very-recognizable pattern of Britney’s Thorns ability. A similar pattern shone around Merielle.

In that moment, I realized the ability didn’t just deal retributive damage to physical attacks.

A high-pitched squeal came from Brainard’s beaked mouths as it thrashed, tentacles surging and writhing. Inside its brain tissue, golden holy light burned, tracking across the crevices between annealed meat.

Despite the monster’s size and strength, Britney had found a weakness. It was visibly suffering, cerebral tissue smoking as her holy fire burned it alive.

“Holy brain bombs have to hurt like a bitch,” I muttered, forcing myself to my feet. The visions continued swirling behind my eyes, revealing a plot so massive, so beyond my scope, that I couldn’t begin to fathom it. Pushing it all aside with every iota of will I had, I growled, “That thing has to die.”

I tried telepathy again, wincing in anticipation as I did.

Jordan: We okay? How long was I out?

Zuri: Two seconds at most. There are noises coming from below.

True to her word, fresh creatures swarmed out of the pit beneath Brainard. They were goblins. Lots and lots of goblins. But…also not goblins. Cobbled together, collections of red and green skin were punctuated with tentacles erupting from mouths and arm-pits, the three-foot tall abominations had wild, empty eyes.

With a single, horrible scream, the horde came.

Climbing through broken bits of flooring, they clawed and grabbed one another, moving less like creatures and more like water as they poured toward us.

Jordan: Nym, you’re up. Save your most powerful spells for the boss.

Nym: On it.

The little catgirl, once terrified of absolutely everything, squared her shoulders and took a step forward. Lifting her newly-won wand, she held out a hand and a blast of water and sand spewed into the throng.

Scouring Blast had a thirty-foot cone radius, and hers expanded to cover more than half of the room. Although the wand did not amplify the damage, it cut the mana use, making it incredibly efficient to cast.

It wasn’t enough damage to stop any single goblin, but the mixture of water and sand was enough to send them falling over one another. What had been an avalanche of monster flesh became a slow, but ongoing, spread as fresh creatures emerged to push in the backs of the last.

There was a wave of pressure I recognized as Brainard’s commands, and some of the goblins began to circle the room, edging around Nym’s spell.

Summoning my Bow of Sight-Blinding in one hand, I flicked arrows into my hand from a storage pouch and began firing, alternating between goblins and the boss monster’s eyes. I had more luck with the goblins, as each shot struck home and blinded a creature.

Brainard was fast, with an Agility score clearly higher than mine. He flicked his tentacles, snapping my arrows long before they’d strike.

Merielle: Going to the other side!

Expanding her hammer, Merielle took up our other flank. Now that her Strength was even higher, the giant weapon proved to be perfect for dealing with an overwhelming and relatively weak enemy. Every swing crushed at least three of the goblins in place, swatting them like cockroaches.

Beside me, Skullie grabbed Zuri and lifted her to one huge shoulder. I thought he intended to simply keep her out of danger, but that wasn’t it. Once she got to his shoulder, he shoved her even higher until she could reach a support beam nearly fifteen feet above the floor. The half-gorgon lifted herself into a new perch, where she began to crawl forward.

Toward Brainard.

A stab of worry skewed my aim, allowing a single goblin through the mass.

Dismissing my bow and calling my Axe of Felling, I lunged to meet the straggler. If I couldn’t shoot the boss into blindness, I could keep the riff raff from stopping our mage.

THWOOM!

Brainard lifted and lowered a tentacle. A sphere of molten stone burst from the tip, flying toward Nym.

“Crap,” I snarled, about to move and put myself between her and the attack.

Nym: Stay there!

Snapping the wand between her lips, the brave little catgirl held out her other hand. A second torrent of water and sand burst from her outstretched grip as her Tablet flickered into view.

The redoubled effect was enough to cool the sphere of molten stone, and the force was enough to slow the spell attack until it came crashing down nearly six feet away from its intended target.

A wall of goblins that had been able to survive one use of the spell fell as the second took full effect, and the giant metal ball only added insult to their injury. In a span of four, maybe five, seconds, Nym had taken out well-over a hundred of the creatures. Unfortunately, they showed no signs of slowing.

Brainard shrieked in frustration, his still-smoking brain mass throbbing as he twisted, bringing another tentacle into view.

“Two of them at once?” I cried, so surprised I forgot to use telepathy. “You can do that?”

It was Skullie who replied. “Low level spell. No verbal or gesture component. Since she’s casting the spell using her Tablet’s augmentations, she effectively gets dual-casting for free, as long as she can maintain concentration.”

“Nym is a badass!” I cried, returning to my spot, mowing goblins down.

“Just wait until I finish training her,” Skullie said, sounding smug.

Another tentacle whipped through the air. This time, it aimed for Merielle. A horizontal blade of mist and electricity burst into view, rotating and moving in a blur as it shot through the air toward her.

Jordan: Merielle!

She heard the warning and twisted in time to see the spell attack coming, but even her heightened Agility was insufficient to fully dodge out of the way.

A spray of blood burst from her torso as the blade cleaved across her back, passing across her body as it rotated like a saw blade, dealing massive damage. She stumbled forward, but managed to keep her footing, swinging her hammer with determination into her foes.

The boss monster’s attack had opened another window, however. Two goblins rushed past, claws and tentacles outstretched for Nym.

Skullie intervened, using the titanic Strength of his new body to grab and toss the monsters into Nym’s ongoing spells.

“Toss the goblin is my favorite game!” he said, giggling insanely.

Crackle! Pop!

Turning, I saw even more holy magic writhing down Brainard’s tentacle, the one that had created the spell. Britney’s newly-improved damage was proving to be incredibly effective against the monster, blackening the tentacle even worse than our previous foe.

The first of Nym’s spells ended and she staggered, not from mana drain as much as the toll of maintaining two simultaneous spells. Her eyes were unfocused, her jaw slack.

Thwack!

A tentacle flicked and bolts of fire shot out of the air, striking the catgirl on the face, chest, and stomach. She cried out, faltering and nearly falling.

Skullie caught her, holding her up with one hand and using his claw limb to block the still-raining bits of fire from the boss’s spell. “Modified firebolt spell,” he said, “give it eight seconds to end.”

My familiar’s new body was not immune to the spell, but his knowledge of how the effect worked proved to be even more important than raw hit points. His armored claw limb was big, and Nym was small. He pulled her back, outside of the range of effect, taking only a few glancing strikes to the tough limb.

Protecting Nym proved to be the one thing we could ill-afford, however.

A wall of goblins came flooding through, with only me to stop them.

Summoning both of my primary weapons, I let everything fall away. Gone was Jordan Cash, Battle Scholar. In his place was a man who would do nothing less than protect his friends with his life.

My boots doubled my movement rate, and my sword was fifty-percent faster than it should have been. With my supernaturally high strength score, I was dealing between nine to fourteen damage with each strike. Against anyone without a tablet, I became a buzzsaw of death.

That definitely included these goblins, it seemed.

I slashed and dove, hacking and spinning as wet goblins came to their feet, racing to put an end to our spellcaster.

Most of the time, it only took a single swipe to take a goblin down. Some took two, however. The tough ones slowed me down, forcing me to give ground, or even allow them past me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Merielle dealing with her own threats. Although her abilities made it incredibly difficult to get to her, her health was already lower, and the few clawing goblin slashes she’d taken were wearing her down.

JOIN OUR HORDE! Brainard screamed in my mind again, sounding triumphant at our loss of ground.

I staggered, the new psychic attack enough to give six goblins room to swarm my body. They latched on, biting and clawing at every available bit of skin.

Golden light burst around me as Thorns went to town, dealing seven points of damage to every goblin who dared damage me. It also struck the monster’s brain.

“Gaaack!” the boss said. From the sound, I couldn’t help but guess the creature had made a strategic mistake when it attempted the psychic barrage a second time.

Guess it doesn’t know how her Thorns effect works. I whirled and shrugged, ripping goblins free and stomping, slashing, and skewering my way out of the mass.

CRACK. CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

Clearing my immediate area, I surfaced to see that Nym had once more held both hands out. With Skullie protecting her, she’d resumed her water and sand assault. The edges of the spells sandblasted my arm as I backhanded a wayward goblin, clearing her way.

“What made that crunching sound?” I asked, using my voice out of habit.

Then I saw the Boss monster, its brains glowing with golden light and covered with little scorch marks from Thorns. It had moved to the side, making room for new creatures to climb out. On the plus side, the infinite goblin army had slowed to a trickle, with few left to threaten us.

On the negative, three of the mini-boss monsters we’d fought before surged into view.