Dungeon Noble - Squire

Jake was rushing towards the Woadite in a flash, the potion he’d drunk numbing most of the pain as it worked to heal the damage to his side and thigh.

He couldn’t see Nepthys from here, but he saw the flashes of light from Aspen’s spear as he fought against the Woadite.

He’d got a few steps into his stumbling run when he realised his sword had been knocked from his hands.

Cursing, Jake pulled his wand free and started firing thorns into the Woadite’s back as fast as he could, doing anything he could to distract it.

The Woadite didn’t turn his way, but twisted a hand to send a root spearing past him.

Ignoring the deadly attacks the creature was throwing around, Jake thrust his wand back into the holster before leaping at the Woadite, spending his last Manifestation to conjure the Hidden Fang.

The poisoned dagger appeared in Jake’s hand as he hit the Woadite, and he plunged it down into the monster’s back with all his might.

The dagger bit deep into the glossy leaves of the Woadite, and the one he’d punctured started to turn brown, but the Boon lacked the strength to do more.

Grunting with effort, Jake ripped the dying leaf free from the Woadite’s back as he dropped down.

The monster let out an unsettling screeching howl as it whirled on Jake and swung a wild strike at him.

Dozens of questing tendrils erupted from the Woadite’s hand as it came rushing in, seeking to bind and drain him.

Jake dodged aside, but grinned in relief as a grey shield of Wyrd blocked the strike.

“Jake!” Nepthys cried out as she came into view, blood soaking her side from a large puncture wound in her shoulder that was slowly healing.

She was only carrying one sword now, but she put it to good use, striking the Woadite where she could with its Wyrd-infused edge.

An arrow struck the Woadite in the side of the head, and a large blast of flames burnt its upper chest, blackening and burning several leaves.

They were hurting it.

“Keep up the pressure!” Aspen yelled, blurring past Jake in a burst of speed and plunging his spear into one of the monster’s legs.

The Woadite howled again and spiked roots speared down at Aspen as it tried to pin him in place.

Following suit, Jake bore down on the big monster, cutting at its legs with his dagger. He only had ten strikes with it before the Manifestation faded, and he intended to use as many as he could to cripple the Woadite.

Step by step, the Woadite retreated, its tough body being steadily torn apart by their relentless attacks.

Gargan and Alan closed the distance, coming into the woods so they could hit it more consistently despite its best efforts.

“I’m down to my last strike with my dagger!” Jake called out, dodging a spearing root by mere inches.

“I’ll cover you!” Nepthys shouted, and Jake nodded before rushing at the Woadite, who was still backing up towards the stream.

Aspen attacked from the other side at the same time as Jake, using a Skill to cross the distance in a blur and leave a smouldering gash across the monster’s chest.

Digging his heels in, Aspen was turning to attack again when a badly injured Tendrae lunged out of the undergrowth, catching him by surprise.

Roots wrapped around Aspen, slowing him and stopping him from dodging the spearing root of the Woadite.

The hardened tip of the root drove through Aspen’s chest in a spray of blood, and Jake roared in rage as he saw the roots of the Tendrae begin to climb over the classer to suck up the blood.

Roaring flames washed over Aspen and the Tendrae, burning away the monster but leaving Aspen untouched as Gargan sprinted towards his fallen comrade.

Jake began to follow suit, but realised that Gargan would get there much quicker.

No, it was down to him to finish the monster before it could hurt anyone else. The mere thought of it doing the same to Nepthys sent ice through Jake’s veins.

The Woadite’s other hand had turned to Jake, but its attack was blunted by a grey shield of Wyrd, letting Jake close the distance and get right in next to it.

Wyrd-tipped arrows were striking the Woadite repeatedly, digging steadily through its blasted and burnt leaves.

Pouring Wyrd into his dagger, Jake realised it could take a lot more than his sword. He’d never pushed it this hard before, yet the dagger was soaking up the Wyrd with no sign of stopping.

The Woadite’s rear leg reached the stream, and it sank into the loamy soil at the bank as small tendrils emerged to slip into the water.

Jake watched as a wave of revitalising green began to sweep over the Woadite, starting at its back foot and slowly flow up and across its body.

Damaged leaves were healed, not completely, but enough that if it finished drinking from the river, they would be in serious trouble.

With Aspen either dead or crippled, Nepthys badly wounded and Jake down to his last strike with his Boon, it was all or nothing.

A grey shield blocked another root strike, and then Jake was upon the Woadite, jumping up to stab his dagger right into the centre of its chest.

The sheer amount of Wyrd in the blade let it overcome even the Woadite’s resistance, and his dagger went right through a damaged leaf to pierce the core behind, injecting it with a lethal dose of poison.

Right as the dagger vanished, Jake saw the edge of a second core within the hollow cavity of the Woadite’s chest.

As he fell back, Jake used every moment of training he’d done to draw his wand in a single smooth motion and put a thorn right through that hole, piercing the second core.

The Woadite howled and staggered sideways, the rejuvenating process stopping as it fell to one knee.

Shuddering, the creature tried to reach out for the stream with one hand.

Jake was out of Wyrd and had no weapon, so he physically tackled the creature, wrenching its arm away from the water.

Badly wounded as it was, the Woadite was still stronger than Jake and slowly began to win their contest of strength as small tendrils wormed out of its leaves and began to bore into Jake’s skin.

Flames swept over them both, burning the Woadite badly, but feeling like little more than a hot breath to Jake.

The Woadite howled again and made a final attempt to reach the water before an arrow cut past Jake and buried in its lower abdomen.

The Woadite wilted with the same abruptness that Jake had seen in any Tendrae or Rootling that had its core destroyed.

Sagging to the ground, Jake winced as he felt all the tiny holes that the tendrils had begun to bore into him slowly begin to bleed.

Reaching down to his belt with a bloody hand, Jake grimaced as he realised that all of his potions were shattered, and some of those glass shards were sticking out of his side.

“Fuck.” Jake leaned back against the dead Woadite, his chest heaving. That fight had been something else, and they’d come very close to losing it.

Too close.

“Shit, Jake, here,” Nepthys said, rushing over to kneel by Jake and feed him a healing potion. “You’ll be alright, I just need to get this glass out of you.”

Jake winced as she began to do just that and grabbed her hand. “What about Aspen? Is he okay?”

“He’ll be fine with enough rest,” Gargan said solemnly as he came into view. The caster looked pale and drawn, but was otherwise in good shape. “He owes me one, though.”

Jake noted with a sinking feeling that while Gargan was in good shape, his right hand was bloody, and so was the hilt of the small dagger he wore.

Jake had never seen Gargan draw that dagger, and now he knew why.

Grunting in pain as Nepthys pulled out a large piece of glass, Jake looked over to the stream with growing frustration.

The damn thing had been a bad omen, after all.

“I’m sorry, Jake,” Alan said, coming over to take a seat nearby. The fingers on his right hand were bloody and raw from the number of arrows he’d shot, and he looked just as tired as Gargan.

They’d all given it their all in this fight.

“No need to apologise,” Jake said, taking a hand from Nepthys and getting to his feet. He knew just what Alan was apologising for. “None of us knew they could do that.”

“I know, but I could have spoken to Ivaldi more, or done some research somehow…” Alan trailed off, shaking his head angrily.

“What’s done is done,” Jake said, gripping Alan’s shoulder tightly. He knew full well that there was nothing he could say to make Alan accept it wasn’t his fault. “We learn and we get better. This was our first true attempt, and we did it. We beat the Dungeon.”

“Yeah, I’ll be better next time,” Alan said with a stone-like expression as he got to his feet and walked back the way he’d come. “I’m going to harvest the Wyrdgeld from the other Tendrae.”

Jake sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair, feeling how tangled it was with blood, dirt and sap.

The truth was that this was on him. It was his Tendrae that must have got to the stream and healed itself before ambushing Aspen.

If it wasn’t for that, they would have got through it all with only the injury to Nepthys’s shoulder, Jake was sure of that.

Turning back to the Woadite, Jake reached out and grasped at the magic within it, drawing it out as Wyrdgeld.

A single, heavy coin formed in Jake’s hand, one with a dense concentration of Wyrd. Turning it over, Jake took in the fifty embossed in the blood-red metal of the coin.

Fifty Wyrdgeld was both a lot and very little for what they’d done here.

Slipping the coin into his pouch, Jake helped the others harvest the rest of the Wyrdgeld, eventually regrouping at the base of the huge tree with all of their equipment.

Gargan had stripped Aspen of everything salvageable, and was carrying his share of what they’d left by the entrance.

Once they were ready, they walked silently over to the Dungeon exit, where the reward chest was waiting for them.

Alan went forward and opened the chest before letting out a sharp breath “Gods above.”

Sharing a look with Nepthys, Jake hurried forward to see what was there.

The chest was filled with dozens of Wyrdgeld, three sections of Wyrdwood and a small orb made of a deep green wood.

“What is it?” Nepthys asked as she picked up the orb, rolling it in her hands.

“That’s a Woadheart, a valuable material for infusions or making Woven equipment. Consider it the essence of the Widrun lineage that the Woadites belong to.” Gargan explained, eyeing the chest’s contents and nodding to himself. “A good reward.”

Jake took the Woadheart from Nepthys and rolled it in his hands, feeling how smooth it was. Varin would be able to make something interesting from this. Jake could feel it.

Passing it back to Nepthys, Jake turned and made his way to the exit. “I’ll see you guys outside.”

It was time for him to claim his true reward.