DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Nate checked the edge of his kukri blades under the light from the flickering flames of the fire one last time. He was fully awake now, but the darkness outside their camp had started to take on a life of its own as well. In his last life, Nate had a complicated relationship with the nighttime hours.

They were the ones where he was usually truly alone. There were no nurses or other caregivers around. The whispers he would occasionally hear from the darkest corners of the room, and the rustling in the night, were all he had for company. They weren’t exactly the most comforting of noises, especially when no one was around to make them.

He never saw anything, not that he could remember anyway, but he had always heard those whispers in the night whenever he was alone. Even as a man just before he had died, they had continued to send a thrill of fear through him each time.

Thankfully, Nate hadn’t heard those voices since he’d come to this world. It would still be some time before the memory of them faded if they ever did. Out here in the woods, surrounded by the darkness, brought back memories of the many nights he had woken with his heart pounding in that old house swearing someone had called out his name. Only he was alone each time, just like always.

Shaking his head, he dispelled the memories. He was happier now than he had ever been in his past life after his parents died. There was no use focusing on things that were left forgotten. He had a job that needed to be done out here, and he wasn’t going to let some shifting shadows get the better of him.

Nate snapped his eyes back to the shadow he had seen shifting and lifted the focused beam of his flashlight on it.

“Mom!” He tried to call out, the word coming out strangled and short. He swallowed and tried again, as his flashlight beam bounced with the beat of his racing heart. “MOM!”

Standing calmly at the edge of the trees, just outside of the clearing, was one of the shadow beasts that had repeatedly killed his avatar in the dungeon. It was watching him, its dark head tilted curiously to the side, as though unsure of what it was seeing.

There was no doubt in his mind that this was one of the beasts that had killed his avatar. It had seen him die, and now it was wondering why he was standing alive in front of it. Nate just really hoped it wasn’t the first shadow beast he had encountered. That one had torn him apart, limb from limb. It had been an excruciatingly painful way to die. At least the others had been quick.

“Nate, no matter what you are thinking about doing right now, you cannot move.” His mother called out. Her voice was tight with fear as she recognized the beast. “These things are abnormally fast and very smart.”

The computer on his wrist vibrated as a message from Aura appeared as a small, unobtrusive notification. He would need to tap it if he wanted to read the actual message. Unlike before, when he had some screens already up, this time there was none for it to take over. As a result, it did nothing.

As carefully as he could, he lowered his arms and tapped the notification icon. The beam of his flashlight remained as steady as he could possibly make it throughout the entire series of motions.

‘I want that beast back in the dungeon! The Shadow Guard was all part of the royal guard that was supposed to protect my family. Instead, they turned out to be one of our primary betrayers. This one appears to have still been in training since it was able to come through the portal so early. Still, the fact remains that it betrayed my family! I want revenge on it and every one of its kind. Repeat the phrase you find at the bottom of the message under your breath. It will hear it; they have good hearing. You might have to do it a few times to get the sound right, but keep trying until it leaves. It will send the shadow guard right back to the dungeon, and to me.

-Aura’

At the bottom of the message, just as she had promised, was a phrase, though how he was supposed to say it was beyond him.

The words looked like gibberish to him, which made sense since it was meant to be understood by a beast, not a human. Gritting his teeth, Nate mumbled the words out as best he could, nearly biting his tongue several times in the process.

He exhaled and relaxed his mouth. The shadow beast standing in the beam of his flashlight had perked up when he began trying to speak. There was no doubt in his mind that he had butchered every single word. However, the beast had apparently recognized some semblance of the words in what he had said because it wasn’t eager to attack them.

The beast’s eyes were entirely focused on Nate as he tried saying the phrase again. Then he immediately launched into a third and fourth iteration. Finally, the shadow beast snarled at him and dashed away without giving the group a second glance.

‘That was terrible, Nate. I’m surprised he didn’t attack you on that third round. You called his mother a hamster and said his father smelled of elderberries. He was probably too shocked at the novelty of a human even speaking the beast language, albeit terribly, to respond. Regardless, the message, in a somewhat garbled form, eventually got across to him. He’s coming my way now, and with any luck, he’ll call any other Shadow Guard that is out there along the way. Don’t forget, if I die, I’ll be back at midnight. This revenge is mine! Do be careful though, if something happens to me, I won’t be able to watch over your back like this.

-Aura’

Nate snorted at the Monty Python reference, wondering if she was being serious. He hadn’t seen any reference that the movie or even series existed in this world. It was possible that they did, but were limited to the area across the pond.

His mom came up beside him, her face pale as she checked him over. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, mom. You saw yourself; it never even attacked or came out of the trees.”

“I know! It was completely abnormal. Those shadow beasts are the most dangerous beast a cultivator can run into at night. They are fast, smart, and they blend into the night. Not to mention the stronger ones have their own abilities that make them even more of a pain.” Her eyes were wide as she swept her flashlight over the trees.

Nina pulled him back towards the fire and called to both girls to join them. She and the guards would have been able to deal with the shadow beast since it was in this area, but it still might have hurt one of the kids before they managed to kill it. The speed those beasts possessed could not be underestimated.

That it had left without doing anything to them had freaked her out more than anything. She had never heard of that happening before.

Even the three remaining guards were acting jumpy. The beams of their flashlights had widened, each forgoing a narrower, brighter beam for more visual range in this case.

A chilly wind was blowing through the clearing, carrying the smell from the corpses farther into the woods. The tarps may have prevented it from mostly spreading originally, but that was useless against the wind. A few beasts that had been close, such as the shadow beast, had already been approaching the group. Now, that number had just increased. If they were lucky, it would be by a smaller number than what they had been forced to deal with earlier.

There was no guarantee of that, unfortunately. The fans they had on the rig were decent, but they couldn’t compare with the wind’s nature produced.

If things became more than they could handle, then the option to simply ditch the bodies was there. It was one of the benefits of not having the trailer around. They couldn’t exactly leave the truck and trailer behind if they were getting swarmed and driving it out would be impossible under those circumstances.

Nina and Fitch set up position in the middle of the group, with high-powered, focus-beam flashlights attached to their long-range weapons. The other two guards spread out a little farther closer to the trees. Behind them, in between the two, sticking to the formation they had been practicing with Nate, Angelica, and Lindsay.

They were as ready as they were going to get.

None of them spoke for a moment, each just listening to the whistle of the wind through the trees. They could hear the beasts growing closer, as branches broke throughout the forest and dry leaves and crackly pine needles crunched underfoot. Already they could see a dozen eyes briefly reflecting light back at them, only to vanish moments later.

The beasts were already there, surrounding the clearing. They were simply waiting for their own backup to arrive before they attacked.

Nina brought the radio back to her mouth. “Honey, where are you two? Things are getting dicey here. The wind just kicked up and the beasts are starting to come out in force. The entire clearing is surrounded right now. Depending on where you are, we’ll need to abandon the remaining bodies and count them as a loss.”

It wouldn’t be a total loss since they had already collected the cores from the ones who had them. However, the meat and materials could be worth more than the cores, especially at this stage.

The radio crackled as Niall’s voice came back to them. “Um, it might be a bit sweetie, sorry. We missed the turnoff in the dark. I was driving too fast because of the people behind us and just completely blew past it. There won’t be a decent spot to turn around for another few miles, but whoever is following us is still there. Do what you need to do and leave the bodies behind if it comes to that, we can always get more, just stay safe. All of you.”

“That’s not what I was hoping to hear, but I understand. You both stay safe and make sure they are actually following you and not just on the same road before you do anything.” She clipped the radio onto her vest and pulled her bow off her shoulder. “Alright everyone, tighten up our formation. We’ll stay here as long as we can, but be prepared to leave the area if it looks like we’ll get overrun.”

Fitch raised his crossbow and aimed down the old-school iron sights toward the beast, the powerful beam of his flashlight had just illuminated. Without delaying for a moment, he pulled the trigger on his weapon and launched the bolt through the air. Before it had even hit the beast, Fitch had already slapped a device onto the back of his crossbow that rapidly wound the arms back for him. In a matter of seconds, the powerful weapon was ready to be used again.

That first attack against them was the push the beasts had been needing, and they burst out of the trees a second later. No longer were they waiting for backup and overwhelming force. Now they were simply lost in the frenzy that had overtaken their simple minds.

Angie’s blade flashed with incredible speed as her motion-sensitive eyes kept everything from getting close to their group. Her reflexes were truly getting a workout as the beasts kept pushing against them. Her one-handed blade was built for speed and a sharp edge, not attacks that had a ton of power behind them. It was the perfect weapon for her current style of attacking.

Every move she made added another long weeping slice into one of the beasts she faced as she slowly diced them apart. Each cut she added made them a little more leery of attacking her until they lost all control.

Then Nate or Lindsay would step in and finish them off. They were putting more of a burden on her this time than before, but she would let them know when she could no longer handle it. At that point, Nate would step up as the point man for the group.