Mantle of the Gods

We were going back into the dungeon.

I was tired and sore and we had to go back into the dungeon. There were three rooms spread out on the second floor and it was going to take us a few hours to reach them. Suddenly I realized what the past few days training of getting through the rooms fast without killing anything had been about. I shook my head. Of course Trent would turn a punishment into another training exercise.

“Let’s go.” Rix motioned at the gate, then vanished. I had a feeling that we weren’t going to see her again unless we got into trouble.

“We’ve got a few hours of work, so let's do this so we can get off this island and back to civilization so we can all shower.” I smelled myself, “Because we stink.”

That got a few nervous laughs. I waved at the other team, then the five of us made our way back to the gate. I fired it up and set our destination. Everyone else looked too nervous to say anything. Honestly my nerves were buzzing, but I knew if I stopped that I might not start again, so I was going to use that to push forward.

The gate flared to life and I motioned, “Let’s go!”

Once we were on the second floor I pulled up the map again. The routes to pockets were in three different directions, so I selected the closest one and sent it to the other’s CBs. “We’ll go after the fastest one first.” I looked at Ether, “We’ll leapfrog, you take the first one and I’ll take the one after that. Oz can pick up the third one and we’ll alternate.”

“I have a question.” Oz looked confused, “If these are only supposed to be Mundane, then how did they get so deep in the dungeon?”

I looked around, “Rix?”

“They must have been brought there by Adventurers.” The invisible voice seemed to have no starting point, “None of the people in the pocket on the first two floors registered as Adventurers.”

“Rix, that’s SUPER creepy.” Aelin was looking around.

“Let’s hurry up then.” I nodded at Ether, “Go ahead.”

The white-haired Tank started running the route that had been mapped out for us.

I went through the portal after her, but didn’t stop as she pushed the Zombie back. As soon as I was in the next room I pulled out my sword and slashed through the Zombie’s left leg, hobbling it. When I turned around Ether was running through the room. The Zombie was still trying to move, but it was having to crawl across the floor, which severely lowered its mobility. I ran after Ether and through the next room, where Oz was incapacitating the Zombie in her room. I kept following Ether through the room and then ran for the portal as Ether peeled off to knock back the zombie in that room with her shield.

We followed that pattern for about twenty minutes until we got to the first room with a pocket dungeon portal in it. The three of us were breathing hard and we took a moment to catch our breath.

“There’s two in there.” Rix's voice came from nowhere, “They don’t know you’re here yet.”

I nodded and put away my sword. If I needed a weapon, then Rix would handle it. “Aelin, Charm the one on the left. I’ll bind the one on the right.” I suddenly realized that we didn’t have any restraints. “Rix, what are we supposed to…”

Two pairs of restraints hit the floor.

“You just happened to have those on you?” Aelin looked around with a grin on her face, “Kinky.”

“Aelin…” I waved at the blonde, “Whatever. Oz and Ren can get the restraints on them.” I pointed to the next place on the map. “Rix, Can you go and restrain them, then we’ll go collect them?” I pointed at the portal, “You already know that these two are Mundane, so we shouldn’t have a problem.”

“Going.” Rix’s voice seemed to vanish.

“Why doesn’t Rix just bring them back herself?” Aelin sighed.

“Could you drag two people back through a few dozen rooms of Zombies?” Ether shook her head, “This plan will work.”

I took a deep breath and nodded at the portal, “I hope so.”