Dungeon Noble - Squire

Jake ducked beneath a heavy branch that tried to brain him and rammed his sword into the nearest Oaken, the Wyrd infused blade cutting right through to pierce the core.

The Oaken toppled to the ground, lifeless, leaving Jake to look around for the next target.

After the large ambush, they had gone straight back to a steady stream of Oaken. They must have killed eighty or maybe even ninety of them by this point.

Each one took little effort, but the relentless aspect of this floor was wearing them out, and only their higher rank was keeping them going.

This floor would be death to any first tier classers, that was for sure. They just wouldn’t have the stamina, or the Wyrd, to keep going.

Well, perhaps the more physical ones would, but definitely not the casters.

Jake almost suggested slowing down, but he didn’t know how much time they had to clear all of this, and he didn’t want them to have no chance to rest at the end.

There was just one Oaken active at the moment, and Nepthys was the first to reach it, her blades flashing with Wyrd.

Nepthys’s new Sigil let her give her swords a Wyrd-infused edge, which let her cut apart the Oaken with terrifying ease.

Whatever that Sigil counted as, it was better than Jake’s infusion, and watching her put it to use was a sight to see.

“Any more?” Nepthys called out as her latest opponent crashed to the ground.

“We’re good,” Aspen called back, pulling his spear out of a dead Oaken. “Maybe we’re finally at the end?”

“I don’t see the arch, though,” Jake said, peering ahead with growing concern. “I don’t like this.”

Tugging on his link with Moby, Jake sent the duck flying on ahead to see how far away the end of the floor was.

“I don’t see any more Oaken,” Alan called out as the Wyrd faded from his eyes.

Jake’s frown grew as Moby sent him a sense of completion, which meant that the door down to the next floor was only a short distance ahead.

Still, this was a break in the floor’s pattern, and that made Jake wary.

“What’s wrong?” Alan asked, but Jake realised he was looking at Gargan, not at him.

“I think there’s something else here,” Gargan said softly, his eyes on their surroundings. “It’s unusual for a floor to end in this manner. They don’t trail off like this.”

“Agreed,” Jake said, relieved that he wasn’t the only one with that feeling. “Moby says the exit is nearby, so let’s move forward carefully.”

The air was thick with tension as they went back to their original formation and started forward slowly but steadily, with Alan using his Skill regularly to search for monsters.

“I’m not seeing any more Oaken,” Alan said, using his Skill again as he peered ahead of them. “There’s nothing hidden among the trees.”

Jake skirted a large mound of moss and dirt which sat amongst the trees, his unease growing as he saw the arch was in sight now.

Another mound was a few feet in front of him and Jake frowned, his instincts telling him that something wasn’t right.

Looking back, Jake realised the mounds had only started appearing recently, right about when they’d killed the last Oaken.

“Shit, everyone stop!” Jake snapped out the order, immediately backpedalling from the closest mound.

Everyone else followed suit, right as two of the large mounds burst into motion, clods of dirt and moss falling clear from the monsters as they charged at them.

The first attacked Nepthys and swung for her head, only to find a grey shield of Wyrd blocking it.

At the same time, the other tried to grab Aspen but was sent staggering back as his spear erupted into flames and sliced across its body. Much like an Oaken, the creature let out a groaning roar of pain and anger as the flames struck it.

Both creatures turned to focus on Aspen, giving Jake a moment to get a clear view of them.

The monsters were similar to an Oaken, but were seven feet tall with a more pronounced humanoid form and a hunched back.

Small gnarled thorns were spread liberally across the monsters, and their bark exterior formed into a pattern like scale mail.

Moss and dirt still hung from both monsters, and Jake cursed as he realised that Aspen’s strike had burnt more moss than monster.

The part that he had hit was scorched and burnt, but it was a lot less than it initially looked like.

With thunderous steps, the two monsters charged at Aspen, ignoring the thorns and arrows that Jake and Alan peppered them with.

The interlocking plates of bark were a lot stronger than those on an Oaken, and while Alan’s Skill could still pierce them, there were several layers to get through.

The humanoid shape of the creatures made their slow and jerky movements seem uncomfortably unnatural, but it gave Aspen time to get away from their long arm-like branches.

As soon as Aspen was out of the way an intense blast of flames struck the injured monster, scorching its front and making it cry out in rage.

Aspen darted in and struck at the creature, his spear breaching the scorched exterior and cutting deep into it.

Blackened plates of bark fell away from the monster as it tried to drive Aspen away, only to be knocked back by a series of fiery blasts from Gargan.

“Nepthys, Alan, focus on this one!” Jake shouted, leaving the first monster to the others as he engaged the second.

Now that he’d got past the initial surprise of the ambush, Jake realised that these were just bigger and strong Oaken.

The strengths of their lesser kin were built upon and heightened, but their weaknesses remained.

With that in mind, Jake dodged beneath one ponderous swing and infused his sword before hacking into the back of the monster.

Nepthys attacked from the front at the same time, using her shields to block its attacks and keep it pinned, all while Alan put arrow after arrow into any damaged sections of bark.

Jake’s first cut had broken through a section of bark, but it simply fell away, revealing a second one underneath. Pouring as much Wyrd as he could into his sword, Jake swung again.

This time the underlayer of bark was breached and a huge section of its carapace-like armour fell away, revealing its hollow interior.

Much like an Oaken, this monster had roots spanning out through its body from its core, however, unlike an Oaken, it had two cores.

A heavy impact knocked Jake back as the monster clipped him with a swing, sending him tumbling into a nearby tree.

“Get the core, Alan!” Nepthys shouted as she rushed to Jake’s defence, conjuring a shield to block one attack before catching the next on her sword.

The edge of Wyrd on her sword cut deep into the arm of the monster, but the sheer force of the clash drove Nepthys back, and Jake barely had time to get to his feet before it was swinging again, driving them back into the thicket.

“I can’t get a clear shot!” Alan called back as he tried to flank around and get a clear view of the monster’s back, where Jake had removed the armour.

A foreign sense of eagerness and delight touched Jake’s mind as he saw a fast moving shape flit between the trees and crash into the monster from behind.

Nepthys conjured another shield to block an attack before bisecting that arm with her blades.

The monster thrashed about wildly as half its arm fell to the ground, and Jake was just about to strike its other arm when it jerked to an abrupt halt and crashed down next to them.

In the distance, Jake could see Gargan reducing the other to a smoking ruin with repeated fire blasts. It looked like they’d done it.

“Did Alan get it?” Nepthys asked, giving the body a puzzled look. “I don’t see an arrow.”

Jake began to shrug, but stopped as he looked down at the hole in the monster’s chest and saw Moby struggling to free himself.

Bright green strips of plant matter hung from Moby’s beak where he’d torn into the vulnerable cores and Jake felt a feeling of intense satisfaction flow across their link.

Looking closer, Jake noticed that Moby’s bill came to a sharper tip than before, and the edges had a metallic glint to them. That explained how he’d damaged the cores, at least.

“No, looks like Moby got it,” Jake said, sheathing his weapons before kneeling down to help Moby back out of the dead monster.

A few feathers had been damaged on the way into the hollow interior of the monster, but otherwise Moby was in good shape.

“Damn, good work, Moby,” Nepthys said, giving the duck an impressed look.

Moby gave a smug quack and hopped out of Jake’s hands to begin avidly grooming himself.

Jake shook his head and considered telling his familiar off, but really, Moby had done a good job. There was no chance that he could have breached the armour of these monsters, so something this weird was really his only option.

Rubbing his face, Jake turned away to join the others. “Everyone okay, any injuries?”

“No, I think we came out alright actually,” Aspen said, giving Jake a strange look. “Did I see your duck fly into the back of the one you were fighting, though?”

“Yeah, I’d cut open the thing’s back and Moby went right in for the cores. I guess they were just about fragile enough for him to break them.”

“Wow, that’s a pretty dedicated familiar,” Aspen said, giving Jake an impressed look.

“Yeah, certainly seems that way,” Jake said, looking over to Moby, who was still cleaning himself. He remembered the eagerness he’d felt when Moby had come in to attack those monsters, it hadn’t felt like he was acting to save Jake.

“So, what were these things anyway?” Nepthys asked, moving over to the one that Moby had killed and examining it a bit closer. “They seem to look like Oaken, so I’m guessing they are the Enhanced version?”

“Agreed. I looked up some information when we decided to commit,” Gargan said as he drew out the Wyrdgeld from the one he’d killed. “They are called Lesser Rhythae.”

“Lesser?”

“Yes, the Greater Rhythae is the Awakened variant of the Crandyn Lineage. I believe it is taller, faster, and far smarter.”

“Well shit, that sounds horrible,” Aspen said with a broad grin. “Hopefully that’s what is awaiting us at the end!”

Jake shook his head before gesturing to the archway that held the door to the next floor. “Let’s take a few minutes to rest and then move on.”