Dungeon Noble - Squire

The Guardian floor was a huge clearing, surrounded by the same wall of tall trees that they’d seen all the way through the Dungeon.

In the rough centre of the clearing stood a single tree, much like they’d seen on the fifth floor, but this time in one piece.

The tree was still dead, but the damage to it wasn’t quite as extensive, and long rivers of dried sap wound their way down its sides.

Saplings and new growth spread across the clearing, as did several small streams. Tall grass and bushes covered the area liberally as well, though there was a space around where they entered that was just dirt.

Looking around, Jake realised that this floor was half again as large as the fifth floor, and there was a lot of space here.

Jake found himself just staring at it, only absently noticing as Alan stepped up next to him and let out a low whistle.

“Crazy that this fits inside the Dungeon, isn’t it,” Alan said, looking up at the sunny sky above them. “I can and write that off as being fake somehow, though I have no idea how. But all this space, it just boggles the mind.”

“Well unboggle it,” Nepthys said, coming over to them and nudging Alan. “Go and drop your extra weight off and then let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

“Right, sorry.” Alan hurried off to drop whatever he didn’t need next to the growing pile the others had made.

Following suit, Jake dumped everything but his weapons, potions and some of his first aid supplies. He doubted a bandage or two was going to make a difference here, but there was no reason to not bring them.

That done, they gathered at the edge of the dirt-covered area as Alan used his Skill to try and pick out as many of the monsters as he could.

“How’s it looking?” Jake asked after a minute of Alan muttering under his breath.

Unassisted by any Skills, Jake could pick out at least a handful of Tendrae moving around out there, but if there were more, they must be staying still or blending in to their surroundings.

“Alright, so I can see at least three of the Lesser Rhythae, and I think a dozen Tendrae?” Alan said, his voice rising questioningly at the end.

“That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” Nepthys muttered before grimacing at the look Jake gave her. “Sorry, Alan. I meant that you’ve only seen Enhanced creatures, not that you are struggling to find them.”

“Its alright,” Alan paused long enough to give Nepthys a reassuring look. “I haven’t seen any Oaken or Rootlings at all, and from how spread out the Tendrae are, I think there’s at least a handful more.”

“Some Dungeons have no Beasts at all in their Guardian floors at this tier,” Gargan said, spreading his hands palm up. “It’s hard to know if they’re just hidden or not, though. Especially with all this cover.”

“More importantly, any sign of the Awakened?” Aspen asked, peering off at the huge tree. “It’ll be at or in the tree somehow.”

“Well, there’s something there,” Alan said, hesitating a little. “I’m too far away to really make any details out, but it looks kind of like a Tendrae.”

“A Woadite, perhaps?” Gargan asked aloud, turning to look questioningly at Aspen.

“You’d know better than me.” Aspen shrugged and waved a hand idly. “Let’s just pick off anything that’s nearby and start getting to work.”

“I think that might be for the best,” Alan said, rubbing at his eyes. “I’m straining to see everything from here, so we’ll be better served getting in close. There’s a Tendrae over at that copse of trees we could try and surprise.”

Jake glanced over to where Alan had pointed, seeing a small stand of saplings with some open space around them. A stream that traced through the clearing ran close by as well, enough to make Jake uneasy.

He had bad memories of water in Dungeons. First with the fire Dungeon and those damn snakes, and then with the stupid duck Dungeon and the hypnotic grebe.

Hopefully, this would be the time that broke the trend, but Jake wasn’t going to hold his breath.

If things did go wrong, at least he had most of his Manifestations left. He’d used one to summon Moby, but he still had two more.

“Okay, I’m going to send Moby to distract the Tendrae while we sneak up from behind. Once we’re in position, we all strike at once, and hopefully kill it before it draws any others to us.”

The others nodded and started to move in that direction as Moby flew on ahead and landed in the stream.

For a moment, Jake half expected something to lunge up and swallow Moby whole, but all he got over their bond was a sense of contentment as Moby idly paddled around the stream.

Sighing, Jake left Moby alone for the moment and focused on keeping quiet as they entered a section of long grass.

The Tendrae Alan had picked out seemed to be basking in the sun, not far from where they were now. There was a set of larger, somewhat gnarled trees next to it, but it was otherwise exposed.

Getting into position nearby, Alan and Gargan readied themselves and Jake, Nepthys and Aspen crept closer.

Calling on Moby to start the distraction, Jake found his gaze resting on the gnarled tree they were moving towards.

There was something about it that was bothering him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

A deep quack rang out as Moby swept past the Tendrae, a root spearing up at him in response as the Tendrae rose to its feet.

The three of them began to charge the Tendrae as it focused on Moby, intending to strike it from behind, but as Alan’s arrow and Gargan’s ice flashed past them, the tree moved.

Jake’s eyes widened and he shouted a warning too late as a moss-covered branchlike arm swung down and clipped Nepthys, throwing her from her feet.

Aspen was already slowing, having seen the attack, but Jake waved him on. “Go, I’ve got this!”

Another limb came sweeping Jake as the heavily overgrown Lesser Rhythae finished breaking free from where it had been hidden.

Dodging the blow, Jake hacked into the monster with an infused strike, breaking free several of its bark plates.

The Rhythae kept up the assault, but now that Jake knew it was there, he was able to put all that recent practice to good use.

He was just setting it up for the kill when Nepthys rejoined him, her right arm a little stiff but otherwise uninjured.

Ducking in close and avoiding its slow swings, Jake put his sword through the creature’s core, killing it.

Aspen, assisted by Gargan and Alan, had already dealt with the Tendrae in the meantime, so with the Rhythae dead, they watched carefully for any other enemies.

“Looks like we’re clear,” Alan said after a few seconds had passed. “I think we were lucky, and these two were just out a ways on their own.”

“Good,” Jake said, relaxing a little before turning to Nepthys. “It got a solid hit on you, are you alright?”

“Yeah, it just knocked the wind out of me is all,” Nepthys said, rubbing at her arm. “It will bruise, but I’m good to go.”

Aspen saw the doubt on Jake’s face and laughed. “Don’t worry, you’re forgetting she’s a second tier combat classer. I bet she has at least something boosting her resilience, and then we all get a little extra from each rank up. It’s not enough to stop a sword, but it does make a difference.”

“I’m lucky it didn’t hit me cleanly,” Nepthys said with a nod. “If it had, I have a feeling that it would have broken my arm.”

“We should get moving,” Alan said abruptly, breaking into the conversation. “I don’t think we alerted them all, but a few of the Tendrae that I could see earlier have moved.”

“Right, let’s head that way and circle the exterior. If we pick off as much as we can before the big fight, that’ll be for the best,” Jake said, pointing off to their right.

-**-

By the time they’d made a full circle of the tree, they’d fought well over a dozen Enhanced monsters, and were considering making their way in towards the centre.

“Nothing else you can see, Alan?” Jake asked as he looked up at the tree looming over them.

“None out here. There’s one at the base of the tree, though, and I’m sure there’s others.”

“Well, Moby can’t spot them either, so I say we push in, and deal with any that are hidden as they come. How many more could there be, Gargan?”

Jake tended to ask the caster questions like this, not because he had more experience, but more that Aspen tended not to care enough to take note.

“We should expect a similar strength to the last floor,” Gargan said, considering his words for a moment before adding. “Minus the Awakened, of course.”

“So around thirty, I think that’s what we saw, right?” Jake asked, getting a few hesitant nods in return. “So that leaves maybe ten Enhanced, and they’ll be quite spread out.”

“We can do it, but we should start using our flames as well,” Aspen said, tapping a finger on his spear. “Now’s the time to go hard and overwhelm them.”

“Agreed,” Jake said, his heart starting to pound as he realised they were finally at the moment he’d been anticipating. “Do you know where the Awakened is, Alan?”

“No, the thing I saw earlier is that Tendrae at the base of the tree.”

“Damn,” Jake muttered with a grimace of frustration. “Well, we’ve spent too much time as it is. We need to start pushing forward before we run out of time.”

Everyone nodded, though none of them were happy about it. The reality was that they’d used up all their leeway in clearing the exterior of the floor safely.

While useful, it also meant that if they didn’t act soon, the pressure of their time running out might hit mid-fight, with deadly consequences.