Dungeon Noble - Squire

The two blasts of flame struck the Lesser Rhythae at the same time, scorching it and sending the ponderous stumbling back with a creaking roar of rage.

The deafening roar, which was an odd mix of a tree being felled and an animal cry of anger, alerted all the other monsters present as well.

In a staggered wave, everything present came boiling out of their hiding spaces and charged at them.

It was an impressive mass, and Jake’s heart pounded as he moved in front of his chosen Tendrae. The previous floor had been a slog, but this was the biggest fight they’d had so far.

Jake’s world shrank down to his immediate area as the first Rootlings came rushing out of the undergrowth, their thin tendrils seeking his legs.

Raising his wand, Jake took down both of them with a thorn to the chest, piercing their small cores.

Fire flickered at the edge of Jake’s vision as Aspen and Gargan put their abilities to good use against their own enemies.

The Tendrae arrived on the heels of another Rootling and Jake was forced to throw himself to one side to stop it from grabbing him with its long roots.

Dodging a second attempt, Jake put a pair of thorns through the closest Rootling before slicing the end of the roots the next time they tried to grab him.

The Tendrae let out a little screech before pointing a hand at Jake and sending a cluster of roots shooting straight at his face.

Swaying to the side and cutting across as he activated his infusion Skill, Jake sheared the roots in half before leaping forward and slamming his shoulder into the reeling Tendrae.

Off balance and in pain, the Tendrae didn’t put up much more of a struggle as Jake hacked through its leaves and pierced its core.

Pulling his blade free, Jake looked around to see that the fight was all but over. Nepthys had carved her Tendrae up and both Rhythae were burning merrily. It was just a matter of waiting for them to finally die.

“Well done. That was some good dodging and blade work,” Aspen said, coming over to Jake with a grin. “Sure you don’t want to swap over to using a spear? It’s great for keeping your distance from grabby fuckers like Tendrae. It’s also great for bigger enemies as well.”

Jake looked at the big Rhythae, then at Aspen’s spear, and nodded. “Yeah, I can see how that’s useful. I’m already learning a lot at the moment, though. Maybe once I’m better at using my sword and wand together.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” Aspen said with an exaggerated sigh. “Guess I’ll just have to use it enough for both of us.”

Jake chuckled and drew out the Wyrdgeld from the monsters he’d killed. “I think you’ll have your chance soon. This was pretty intense and we’re not even there yet.”

“Yeah,” Aspen said, the humour falling away as he gave Jake a serious look. “The last two floors are the most intense, but we wouldn’t have agreed to this if we didn’t think you three were up to it. Besides, look how far we’ve come and with no injuries!”

Jake hesitated before realising it was true. With the armour they were wearing, they’d come through unscathed.

That was a pretty big accomplishment. He just hoped that it wasn’t about to balance out with the next floor.

-**-

After a brief rest, they pushed on to the ninth floor.

The four Enhanced monsters in that final glade had really driven home that things were escalating, and the tension in the air was thick as they emerged into a small clearing.

A wide trail led straight out from the clearing, one that was much wider than any other they’d seen so far in the Dungeon.

Young saplings and tall grass mingled together for as far as they could see, creating a paradise for anything trying to hide and ambush them.

“Damn, looks like another long and straight,” Aspen said, sighing to himself. “Means we need to be careful with fire again.”

“Worse than that,” Alan said, pointing to something in the distance. “There are slight hills to the path. It’ll obscure what I can see.”

“Well, that’s manageable. We just need to be careful,” Jake said, fighting the urge to sigh and rub his face. This was going to be another rough one. “Any monsters that you can see, Alan?”

“Let me get a bit closer,” Alan said, moving up to the edge of the clearing they were in and peering off into the trail. “Yeah, I see a couple of Rootlings, a Tendrae and a Lesser Rhythae.”

“Just in that area before the rise?” Jake asked incredulously. That was a lot in a short space of time.

“Yeah, the Rhythae is near the back, though, so we might be able to get it last.”

“Worth a try, I suppose,” Jake said, hefting his wand thoughtfully. “Any Rootlings we can try and pick off at the front?”

“There’s one there and another to its left,” Alan said, pointing out two spots before gesturing further back at a small section of bushes. “The Tendrae is in there, if you look to the right, you can see its shoulder.”

Jake did just that, and with some effort he was able to pick out the three monsters. “Alright, let’s go for the Rootlings. You take the one on the left, I’ll go for the right.”

Alan nodded and readied an arrow, while Jake lined up a shot with his wand.

The hidden monsters were a pain in this Dungeon, but the advantage for them was that they tended to stay still and only react once the fighting began.

That meant if they could pull off an attack or two like this, they could winnow their numbers with little risk.

“Ready?” Alan whispered and started a quiet countdown as Jake nodded, both of them taking their shot at the same time.

The Rootlings were knocked back as they were struck, their cores pierced and broken.

Jake held his breath for a long moment, but nothing happened. Flashing a grin at Alan, Jake motioned to the undergrowth. “Any other Rootlings?”

He kept his voice low, just in case, but it looked like they were in a good position.

Alan studied the trail ahead before shaking his head. “Just the Tendrae and the Rhythae.”

Jake grimaced and began to reply when he felt a tug on his bond from Moby as the duck flew past them toward the spot where Alan had pointed out the Tendrae.

“Moby!” Jake hissed, shocked at the duck’s abrupt move.

Before Jake’s eyes, Moby descended to where the Tendrae was and hit it with the edge of one wing before pulling a tight turn and flying away as fast as he could.

Questing roots erupted out of the spot as the Tendrae reacted to the strike, coming out of hiding and following Moby toward them.

Jake scowled and was about to order Moby to change direction when Nepthys put a hand on his shoulder. “Wait, he’s bringing it away from the Rhythae. We can use that to kill it and hopefully avoid drawing the Rhythae in.”

Jake blinked in surprise. She was right. As much as he hated Moby acting on his own like this, the damn duck was being useful.

“Alright, let’s get ready. We’ll hit it hard and fast,” Jake said, holstering his wand for the moment. The thorns wouldn’t do much to the Tendrae, so he was going to focus on creating an opening for the others.

Moby easily outpaced the Tendrae, letting him take an unsteady perch on a nearby tree with plenty of time for them to interpose themselves between him and the chasing monster.

The Tendrae didn’t even slow down as it charged into them, its arms lifting and roots shooting out to try and ensnare Jake and Aspen.

A grey shield of Wyrd protected Jake, and Jake cut through the ones attacking Aspen, drawing out a screech of pain from the monster.

What followed was a brief and brutal takedown, with the Tendrae unable to deal with all three of them at once and being rapidly cut to pieces.

As soon as the monster was wilted and dead, Jake looked over to where Alan and Gargan were watching the Rhythae. “Anything?”

“Nothing at all,” Alan said, grinning broadly as he gestured to Moby. “I think we’ve found a good way of doing this.”

-**-

Of course, it wasn’t that simple.

The hills and dips in the path were both frequent and perfect for hidden monsters. While that was bad enough, the extra problem was that the majority of what they faced were Enhanced monsters.

When they did get ambushed and a larger fight occurred, the group that was drawn in was much worse than just a few Rootlings.

By the end, Jake was sure they had to have fought a dozen or so of each type of Enhanced, and the same in Rootlings.

They had the process down for dealing with both Tendrae and Rhythae, but it was still tiring.

Jake was just thankful that they could bait out a few of the looser groups one at a time using Moby.

There were a few close calls for Moby, but ultimately, not a single monster touched him.

The rest of them, on the other hand, finally began to accumulate a few scrapes and cuts. The sheer number of Enhanced monsters and their requirement to always be moving forward had almost overwhelmed them.

“Damn,” Jake muttered to himself as they finally reached the end of the floor. “It was a lot shorter than the other one, but it was a lot worse.”

“Yep, that’s a good floor nine for you,” Aspen said in a chipper tone that belied the nasty cut on his face. “They wear you down ready for the big one.”

“Looks like we’re not done being worn down just yet,” Nepthys called out, pointing to a second arch in the treeline. “There’s the Challenge.”

Jake hurried over to the arch and ran his eyes over the depictions shaped into its leaves. He recognised a lot of them now from previous Dungeons.

“Looks like we have a survival Challenge, a big group of Rootlings from what I can see here.” Jake pointed to the bottom depiction, which seemed to be a large number of Rootlings clustered together.

“Five minutes and then we do the Challenge?” Alan asked, looking hopefully at Jake.

Jake glanced at the others before dropping his pack to the ground and sitting down with a soft groan. “Yeah, five minutes sounds good.”