Dungeon Noble - Squire

“Get back!” Jake cried out as five dog-sized insects erupted from the stone pillar. Each insect had six spike-like legs, a pair of red-tinted eyes and a set of unfurled wings that were causing the droning sound.

More concerning, however, was the pair of sharp mandibles and the dagger-sized proboscis each insect had.

Rhew launched a spray of icicles up at the creatures, but they quickly moved out of the way, only one of them taking even a glancing hit from the attack.

Jake cursed and dodged to one side as the creatures buzzed closer, swinging wildly to try and keep them at bay. The five insects split up, one going for each of them while the fifth doubled up on Rhew.

A sharpened proboscis stabbed down at Jake as the creature fluttered closer, its sharp and pointed mandibles trying to catch him and pin him in place.

Realising that full swings were giving it too much time to react and get out of the way, Jake changed to quick jabs of his sword, keeping it off-balance until it was in a bad position. However, he wasn’t fighting just the one, as he’d already had to block several attacks with his shield from the other creatures.

The moment came when the giant insect didn’t flutter back quite as high as it bobbed and swayed in the air, letting Jake feint with his sword and bash it with his shield. Carapace cracked, and blue blood oozed free from a broken leg as the insect fell awkwardly to the floor.

Jake stabbed it with his sword, giving it no chance to recover and fight back. Pulling his blade free, Jake turned to see how the others were doing.

Karl was doing the best of the three, the big man keeping his attacker at bay with tight swings of his hammer, but he looked tired already. Rhew was also doing alright for the moment, but Jake wasn’t sure how long she would last. She was casting as quickly as she could with her wand while simultaneously warding them off with her torch, but it wouldn’t last forever.

Looking to the last of their group, Jake grimaced as he saw Alan bleeding from a nasty puncture wound in his shoulder, his sword slipping from limp fingers to clatter to the floor, leaving him with just the torch.

Eyes wide, Jake rushed to Alan’s aid, quickening his pace as the attacking bug dodged around Alan’s latest attack and got close enough to sink all three appendages into the Scholar. The mandibles stabbed into Alan’s shoulder and chest, pinning him in place as the proboscis struck deep into his neck.

“Alan!” Jake shouted, rushing forward to his comrade’s side before backhanding the creature off Alan with his shield. Blood poured out from Alan’s neck as the insect was ripped free, and Jake watched in horror as Alan clutched at his throat with a wet choking sound, blood bubbling up out of his mouth.

“Shit, Alan, no!” Jake hurriedly dropped his shield to free a hand before pulling one of Alan’s potions from his belt. Before Jake could apply it, he heard a cry of pain from behind him and turned to see Rhew had one of the creatures on her back; its proboscis sunk deep into her.

Making a snap decision, Jake pushed the potion into Alan’s hand and pulled the cap off before gripping his sword tightly and racing towards Rhew to help her.

It took Jake precious moments to reach Rhew, enough that the second insect had latched on and started to drink the blood from her body. Jake could almost see the blood being drained from Rhew, and he watched with horrid fascination as the abdomens of the two creatures started to inflate with stolen vitality.

Jake gripped his sword with both hands and hacked through the proboscis of the one on her front before kicking the thing off her, its blue blood mixing with Rhew’s as its mandibles were ripped free.

Blood still seeped from the end of the proboscis inside Rhew, and Jake grimaced as he grabbed hold of the slick chitin to pull it free. This time, the exit wound was cleaner, but it was still bad.

Wasting no time, Jake repeated the process on the other creature, rolling Rhew onto her front to get at it and crush it properly.

There was so much blood, too much for her to make it without help.

Dropping his sword, Jake snatched Rhew’s second potion from her belt and carefully poured a little on each of the two main wounds before forcing her mouth open and pouring the rest down her throat.

The potion worked quickly to seal the wounds themselves and stop further blood loss, but it was too late.

She was gone.

“Fuck!” Jake grabbed his sword with shaking hands and pushed himself to his feet.

Jake knew intellectually that she would be fine, that the Dungeon would bring her back, but right now, the guilt and anger swirling through his chest were enough to block everything else from his mind.

“Jake?” Karl called out in a strangled tone, and Jake looked over to see the big man standing over Alan with a wide-eyed look of horror. The potion that Jake had given the Scholar was still in his hand, its contents slowly spilling out over the rocky floor.

Jake might have saved Alan if he hadn’t rushed to Rhew’s aid. A fact that hit all the harder as he’d failed to save Rhew.

“I think I need a minute to get myself together before we go any further,” Karl said, looking down at Alan’s body before shaking his head and rubbing his face. “This place is fucked up.”

“Yeah,” Jake said, lighting his remaining torch on the guttering flames of the one Alan had been holding. “It really is.”

Karl lit his torch, and the two of them moved away from their fallen companions to take a minute to try and pull themselves together. It wasn’t so simple a thing to do, but both knew there was no way out except going forward.

“Ready?” Karl asked eventually, hefting his hammer and getting to his feet, his shield sacrificed for the torch burning in his other hand.

“As I’ll ever be,” Jake said, following suit and getting to his feet with his own torch. They both stood there for a moment, staring out into the dimly lit interior of the tunnel leading out from the cave.

Letting out a breath, Jake started forward, holding his torch high to illuminate as much of the tunnel as he could. Surprisingly, they were out of the tunnel after only a tense minute of walking.

“Shit,” Karl said, breaking the silence as they stood at the end of the tunnel and looked out into a new cave.

Like the previous one, this cave lacked any debris or cover on the ground, but unlike last time, it had two rocky pillars. The pillars were situated in the back half of the cave, bracketing the Dungeon exit that would take them down to the fourth floor.

“Two pillars this time,” Jake said, closing his eyes momentarily as he fought back the urge to throw up.

“Yeah.”

“Gonna be more of them.”

“Yeah.”

“I know we’ve already said it,” Jake said, thinking of how much pain Rhew and Alan had been in when the bugs got them. “But I hate this.”

“Yeah,” Karl said again, his expression grim as he hefted his hammer and started forwards into the cave. “Gonna kill as many of the fuckers as possible, though.”

Jake squared his shoulders and mentally prepared himself for what was coming. Realistically, they’d struggled with the five that had attacked them last time, and there was just him and Karl this time around.

The droning began the moment they entered the area, making them both stop and lift their weapons, but no insects came buzzing out of the pillars.

“Damn, these things are messing with us, getting in our heads,” Karl growled, stomping forward angrily.

The droning grew louder as they approached, eventually peaking when they were a good way into the cave. Glinting eyes reflected the light from their torches back at them as the giant insects began to fly out from the pillars.

“See you at the entrance,” Karl said, giving Jake a rictus smile before charging forward at the group of bugs that had come from the right-hand pillar.

Each pillar had released four bugs, and the groups seemed to be working together, so Jake followed suit and moved towards the four on his side as they came fluttering towards him.

Jake made broad, sweeping motions with his torch, keeping the bugs at bay as best he could while he tried to take out individuals with his sword. Their carapace was quite tough, however, and a glancing hit would do little to them. He needed to get them with a strong swing.

Sweeping forward with his torch, Jake gasped in pain as a sharp mandible dug into his shoulder, and he quickly twisted to knock the bug away, sending it bobbing back through the air. Disgustingly, it seemed to be cleaning the blood off its mandible and eating it.

“I’m not your food, you bastard,” Jake shouted, dashing forward to smash the creature with his torch before it could get any further away. The impact knocked the creature to the floor, and Jake hurriedly followed up by plunging his blade into its head.

A small weight hit Jake from behind as he felt two more mandibles dig into his back, followed by a third, much larger stab of pain as the creature sank its proboscis into him.

Panicking, Jake desperately tried to get the thing off of him while fending off the other two, but he could already feel himself weakening as it drained him dry.

In the distance, Jake could see that Karl was in a similar position, but he had two dead bugs near him as he tried to get the two drinking his blood off of him.

In desperation, Jake blindly stabbed behind himself with his torch, searing his back with the heat but successfully driving the bug attached to him away.

A lucky swing of his sword was enough to bring down the bug before it got too far, but Jake couldn’t react quickly enough to dodge as one of them came down at him from above.

A cry of pain turned into a wet gurgle as the insect pierced his neck with its dagger-sized proboscis, its mandibles digging in around his neck to anchor it in place at the same time.

Too weak to fight back, Jake distantly felt himself crumple to the ground as his body stopped obeying his commands. The last of his strength slowly draining out of him.