Dungeon Noble - Squire

“Are you alright, Alan?” Jake asked softly, offering his friend some of his rations.

Alan took a piece of jerky absently and turned it over in his hands, staring down at it with a distant look. “I fucked up, Jake. Really badly.”

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Yeah, but this one could have ruined this delve for us,” Alan said, his hands curling into fists as he stared down at the ground. “If one of those Rhythae had injured someone badly, we’d be in a bad position on the next floor. We’ve got a lot riding on this, and we all need to be in good shape for the end with the Awakened. There’s no room for error here.”

“Yes, but no one was injured,” Jake said, putting a hand on Alan’s shoulder. “I realised what was happening in time.”

“Yeah, you did, but what about next time?” Alan looked up at Jake with a worried expression. “We’re pushing hard Jake, what happens if I’m not good enough for this?”

“You’re more than good enough for this,” Jake said firmly, squeezing Alan’s shoulder reassuringly. “You work damn hard and you’re better with all the Wyrd usage than I am. Yes, you missed something, but you’ll learn from this and do better next time.”

“I hope so.”

“No. I know you will, alright?” Jake waited until Alan nodded before letting go of his shoulder. “Good, now eat up and get yourself ready for the next floor.”

Alan nodded and absently ate the jerky that Jake had given him.

Getting up and stretching his legs, Jake reflected on just how close things had come. If there had been anything else left on the floor, Gargan and Aspen using fire would have drawn it to them, and a bad situation would have got worse.

Alan was right that he’d screwed up, but Jake knew his friend would never make this mistake again.

-**-

Once everyone had rested, they stepped through the arch and down to the eighth floor.

Jake immediately let out a sigh of relief as he saw they were back in the previous format, and not another of those long paths.

At least with these clearings, it was fairly easy to judge where the monsters would be.

Jake’s pep talk seemed to have had the right effect on Alan, as the Scholar led the way along the path until the first change in scenery.

The wide trail led them to a large clearing, much like those they’d seen before, but this time it had a range of environments within it.

A few small groves of young saplings were spaced out with knee-high undergrowth in between, and punctuated here and there by large dead trees.

“I can’t see all the way to the other side, not with all this,” Alan said after a few moments of peering into the clearing with his Skill active. “Still, I can see a Tendrae and a pair of Rootlings.”

“Can you point them out?” Gargan asked, lifting his fire wand before looking over at Jake. “Shall I see if we can get a rise out of them?”

“No sign of any Oaken or Rhythae?” Jake asked, looking over at Alan, who shook his head firmly. “Alright then, let’s poke the bear.”

A tight blast of flames flashed out from the end of Gargan’s wand, striking one of the dead trees and illuminating a figure within a mostly hidden nook.

A familiar screeching sound came from the tree as the Tendrae jumped out, its leaf body smouldering and still burning in places as it batted at the flames.

Gargan’s flames seemed to be surprisingly difficult to deal with, but the Tendrae eventually extinguished them, right as Alan put a pair of arrows through its chest.

Compared to the Oaken they’d just been fighting, the Tendrae resisted the piercing Wyrd Alan applied to his arrows quite well. They still penetrated, though, which left its core exposed for the followup blast from Gargan.

While Alan and Gargan dealt with that Tendrae the rest of the monsters in the glade revealed themselves. The six Rootlings that came surging out of the undergrowth were hardly a problem at this point, but a second Tendrae emerged from another of the dead trees.

“I’ve got the Tendrae!” Nepthys called out before Jake could say anything, her blades flicking out to bisect the closest Rootling as she moved to intercept the monster.

Jake gave her as much cover as he could by hacking into two more of the annoying Rootlings, doing his best to avoid their grasping roots as he did.

Aspen was taking care of the other Rootlings, and the first Tendrae was being burnt apart, so Jake hurried after Nepthys as she engaged the second Tendrae.

The monster swept in, roots shooting out of its hands to ensnare and drain Nepthys. A Rootling’s roots were painful, but a Tendrae’s were worse, far worse.

Jake went to put on some speed and catch up, but Nepthys had clearly been waiting for just this and conjured a shield of Wyrd to block one while she dodged and sliced through the second.

The Tendrae screeched in pain and lashed out again, but Nepthys dodged aside and lunged forward, cutting up and across with both blades as she did.

The leaves of the Tendrae were tough, but their main defence was the resistance to magic. Nepthys’s blades cut straight through the leaves and interior roots, causing a portion of the creature’s chest to cave in and reveal the core within.

Jake arrived a moment later, just in time to foul the creature’s roots with his sword while Nepthys shifted the grip on her shorter blade and stabbed through the gap, piercing the core.

“Thanks, that made it a lot easier,” Nepthys said as the Tendrae wilted on her sword and fell to the ground.

“No problem. You had it in hand, though. Nice move with that second dodge.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Nepthys said with a proud smile. “These things are nasty if they get you, but they’re nowhere near as tough as those Rhythae were.”

“True, but they’re harder for casters to kill,” Jake said as she drew her Wyrdgeld from the dead Tendrae. “Though I suppose a non-fire caster might struggle with the Rhythae as well.”

“Maybe,” Nepthys said with a shrug as they walked over for Jake to claim his Wyrdgeld. “But that’s why delving groups are diverse. It helps balance things out and you’re less likely to find a hard counter to everybody in your party.”

“True.” Jake nodded, but his thoughts were on how it would work for him if he were to solo delve again. As just one person, he was fairly limited.

Then again, if he had a collection of wands, or some other ways to change up what he did, he could manage.

Then again, there had been two Enhanced monsters here, along with a cluster of Beasts. That was a lot to take on as a single person.

“Ready to move on?” Aspen called over, breaking Jake out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, let’s see what comes next,” Jake said, straightening up and jogging over to the others.

-**-

The next glade was the same layout, but this time it was six Rootlings and two Lesser Rhythae waiting for them. With the monsters so relatively close together, they would attack regardless, so Gargan and Aspen used their flames from the start.

The two Rhythae focused on Gargan immediately, but a relentless series of attacks from the caster killed one and heavily burnt the other before they could even get into melee range.

“And that’s why we were happy to try this one,” Aspen said with a chuckle. “Two Enhanced and Gargan basically killed them on his own with no real threat.”

Jake nodded, impressed by the amount of Wyrd the caster could throw around when he needed to. Between that and the Woven wand helping to boost the strength of his attacks, any Rhythae they found would have a bad day fighting Gargan.

“Let’s take a minute to rest and then push on,” Jake said once they’d gathered the Wyrdgeld. Looking around at the dead monsters, Jake considered how many they’d killed and turned to Aspen. “How many more of these clearings do you think there are?”

“At least another two or three,” Aspen said after a moment of thought. “The increase per floor is greater with each tier, and there were quite a few on that last one already.”

“So how big will the Guardian floor be?” Jake asked, considering the fact that they had another floor to go yet.

“Well, it’ll be one large space, and then an absolute shitload of monsters. We’ll be fighting groups of Enhanced, not groups of Beasts, so make sure you’re ready for the nastiest fight you’ve ever experienced.”

-**-

Aspen’s words lingered in Jake’s ears as they worked through two more glades, which alternated between holding two Tendrae and two Rhythae.

Dealing with a pair of Enhanced was rapidly becoming routine for them, but Jake noticed that neither Aspen nor Gargan were pushing themselves.

Jake had always known that they would fight an Awakened monster and a whole host of others, but the idea of fighting groups of Enhanced monsters put everything into clarity.

Aspen and Gargan were holding back, pushing Jake and the others to do more, to get more comfortable fighting Enhanced foes by themselves.

Now that he realised what they were doing, Jake pushed himself to do more. He was going to finish this Dungeon, and he was going to claim a new Boon.

If he had to fight through a small horde of Tendrae to do it, then that’s what he would damn well do.

His commitment to doing more was immediately tested as they reached the end of the floor.

The fifth and final clearing was a step above the others, holding two of each of the Enhanced monsters and twelve Rootlings. The clearing itself was marginally bigger, but not by much.

Thankfully, Alan had steadily improved at spotting the Tendrae in their nooks, so they were quite confident that those numbers were right.

“Alright. Gargan, Alan, you two take out the Rhythae. Aspen, you focus on the Rootlings. Nepthys, you and I will take a Tendrae each,” Jake said, giving out orders in a firm voice. “Gargan, you kick us off.”

“With pleasure,” Gargan said, lifting his wand in one hand as he conjured his Skill in the other. Taking a moment to aim, he released both at the closest of the Rhythae.