For a single sickening moment, time seemed to slow, letting the sound of the triggered pressure plate echo around the room with painful clarity. Even the chest monster paused to allow the depth of our folly sink in.
Then all hell broke loose. Stone scraped against stone, and the monster leapt back into action, lunging at Aelisra. The former lid of the chest had parted from the rest, revealing long teeth and a slavering tongue dripping with saliva
“The door shut!” Raina called from above. “We’re trapped!”
But it was worse than that. Lightning mana arced over the worms hanging from the ceiling. Stone continued to grate along stone and the few threads I could actually see began to shake and dance with vibration.
“I think the ceiling is descending!” she called again. Sure enough, I watched the distance between the ceiling and the now closed entrance became smaller and smaller, until the door had been swallowed up entirely. Our escape now a completely hopeless prospect, I turned back to the fight below.
Terrowin and Aelisra were doing their best to fight the monster that had once been a chest, but it was covered in a thick, wood-like shell that seemed to be resisting many of their attacks.
Inspecting hostile creature: Level 14 Dungeon Mimic
A creature favored by dungeons to fool unsuspecting adventurers into a trap. They are covered in a hard shell based on the item they are mimicking.
How was that helpful, Amsiii?! We already fell for the trap, and we already knew about the shell! All that we learned was that it was level 14, which was simply terrifying.
Either way, I relayed the information to Raina who shared it with the rest of the party. At least now we knew what it was called. That had to count for something, right?
I prowled around to the side of the creature. Aelisra held her axe with two hands, her shield having been tossed aside by the mimic when it sprang to life. She roared with fury and raised the axe high before bringing it slamming down on the creature’s head. Wood creaked, but the creature’s shell was barely scratched.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she shouted. “Tell me you didn’t put all your points in Internal defenses!” The mimic didn’t answer, instead chomping its teeth towards her. For a thing with no legs and no obvious method of movement beyond throwing itself forward, it moved with surprising speed. There was magic at work, no doubt about it.
But, it wasn’t the only one with speed magic on its side. Terrowin activated his own mana with a single whispered command. It was as if he’d suddenly taken off a weighted jacket. His movements were more graceful and agile as he whipped his blade around and tried to sink it into the creature’s hinges. Unfortunately, though that might have worked on a normal chest, the mimic’s hinges were largely for show. His glaive cut a deep scratch in the shell.
If the shell really was made of wood, then the answer was obvious. I loved fighting wooden enemies. Ever since the barkhounds, I’d been practicing Fire II in my free time in an effort to prepare myself for the next time we came across a more powerful enemy. If the mimic was made of wood, then I could deal with that.
My mana swirled outward from my pool and into the air around me, igniting into a ball of flame that I hurled at the enemy. The mimic squealed and shivered, but when the fire dissipated, it was only covered with scorch marks on its shell.
“Raina, tell Malzy to do that again!” Terrowin shouted. “It was more effective than anything either of us did!”
“Malzy,” Raina began, but I cut her off.
“My ears might be damaged, but they’re still better than yours!” I snapped, already summoning even more fire. Once again, I threw my ball of flame at the monster. Again, it squealed.
This time, when the flames dissipated, the creature turned, staring me down with ten beady red eyes that had opened up on the creature’s top. Its tongue lolled out, as if in anticipation of a delicious cat treat.
I yowled a challenge at the monster. Did it think it could take me on? Did it think it stood a chance against the great Tacticat? I’d find a way to beat it, just as I did all the rest of the enemies I’d faced before! I was not a creature to be trifled with!
Aelisra took advantage of the mimic’s distraction to race behind the monster and retrieve her shield. Terrowin swiped at the creature, but the shell was too strong.
So this monster was weaker to magical attacks than to physical ones, but even my flames weren’t setting it alight as I wished they would. Were its defenses that strong?
It shuffled closer, waving its tongue furiously at me and narrowing its beady little eyes. Saliva flicked in every direction. I hopped back, lest the acidic stuff land on my perfect fur. That would be terrible.
It was time to live up to my title of Tacticat. Self-appointed though it may be, it was still accurate, and I was proud to be the brains of this operation. No one else could do it, after all.
Mana swirled around me, forming another fireball that I held above my head for just the right moment. Its shell was what protected it from the cuts and burns of our onslaught. But…if I bypassed that shell…
It opened its jaws wide, preparing to lunge at me and gobble me whole. I threw my ball straight into its mouth. The mimic’s squeals of pain echoed around the chamber in a grating sound like claws on a slate board. It coughed and burped up smoke just before lunging at me. I nimbly dodged to the side before ducking behind Aelisra. She was the sturdiest of the hench-humans.
The mimic turned. She raised her shield.
“Terrowin, when it comes back, try and stab inside it with your glaive!” she called.
She got no response, only the clang of his glaive hitting the stones. We both turned to see Terrowin standing stalk still, his eyes wide. Ten strands of lightning infused worm silk hung over his shoulders, holding him completely in place.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“That’s…not good,” she muttered. The mimic was coming back, but that suddenly wasn’t the only part of this fight we were dealing with.
The ceiling had lowered enough for more of the strands to reach the bottom of the pit. Though Raina and Cithrael had been doing their best to knock the worms from the ceiling with a combination of arrows and tiny shards of ice not unlike Fire II, the strands were still electrified. Terrowin must have accidentally wandered into a cluster of them.
But…how could we avoid threads we could barely see? There were only a handful of worms, but each tended a small forest of threads!
Aelisra swiped at the mimic as it lunged at her with its acidic jaws. Once again, her axe did very little, but, at least, she had avoided the blow.
What was I supposed to do? What tactic could I create to get us out of this? Terrowin was unreachable and paralyzed. Cithrael and Raina were being forced closer and closer to the battle below, and we couldn’t deal enough damage to the mimic to significantly wound it!
“Malzy!” Raina called, sprinting down the rest of the stairs. “Burn the threads! I’ll protect Terrowin!”
The mimic tried to lunge at her, but only managed to catch the hem of her skirts. Acid sizzled, releasing Raina to sprint the rest of the way to the paralyzed knight.
“Now!” she shouted, already drawing on her mana to chill the immediate area around herself and Terrowin.
What? Oh. Right. Fire. I needed fire, and a lot of it. There would be few chances to burn as much of the thread forest as I could…presuming the threads were even flammable at all. For that, I needed to make sure I gave it everything I had.
Available Aptitude Points: 6
Allocating 4 Aptitude Points to Energetics
Allocating 2 Aptitude Points to Environmental
I yowled with all the fury I could muster as the mana in my pool roared to life with all the fire I could create. Fire leapt to life around me and I whipped it in a furious storm of mana. I pushed it further, harnessing the pure mana inside me and infusing the life and energy of the inferno into a veritable firestorm.
I’m told that the display was not as impressive to others as it was to me, but I would argue that they are small-minded and unenlightened. Every action I take is awe-inspiring. Every spell I cast is beyond reproach.
Heat and fire filled the room with a bright tornado of brilliant flame. It surged in a storm of mana which consumed every thread in its path! Aelisra was forced to retreat into the radius of Raina’s chill spell in order to keep out of harm as cinders from the destroyed threads cascaded like burning confetti everywhere you looked.
Fire II upgraded to Fire III
New spell discovered: Firestorm I
The flames vanished. Aelisra cut the last of the threads holding Terrowin with her axe, freeing the knight from his paralyzed stupor. He shook himself before picking his glaive up and holding it close. For a brief moment, he looked…lost and unsure. It was almost…childlike? Then he shook himself and swung the blade back into a defensive stance.
This fight wasn’t over yet. Scorched streaks covered the mimic’s shell, and the worms still clung to the ceiling, even if their traps had all been destroyed. The inspection hadn’t said what they’d do without their silks, but I really hoped we’d never have to find out.
Cithrael was already working on dealing with them. One by one, he fired arrows into the worms that crawled angrily over the ceiling. The lightning between them crackled and boomed. Each arrow made its mark, which angered them further.
“Raina, help Cithrael,” I said. “We’ll take care of the mimic.” She nodded and readied herself to run.
“Hey! Ugly chest thing!” Aelisra shouted. “Bet you’re not so tough without your buddies upstairs incapacitating your enemies!” She clanged the head of her axe against the metal of her shield. The mimic turned, hungry jaws filled with acid.
We fanned out around our enemy, now confident in the safety of our battlefield. Terrowin began to circle around to the far side of the mimic while I stayed on its left.
“Alright, same plan as last time, but this time with feeling!” said the paladin. “Terrowin, try to stab it inside its mouth.”
He nodded. “Just get it open for me.”
He was on to something. If we could get the mouth to open wide, Terrowin would have a better chance of hitting something vital. The faster we dealt with the mimic, the faster we might be able to assist with the worms.
The mimic lunged at Aelisra. She raised her shield just enough to wedge the implement in the creature’s mouth. It tried to crunch down, but the shield held firm. Terrowin raced in, shoving his glaive between the jaws with expert precision. The mimic shrieked and whipped its tongue around in pain. Acidic spittle flew from its mouth, mostly landing on Aelisra and her shield, but spraying out to the side, as well, forcing Terrowin back.
The paladin grunted as the acid burned into her legs and feet but held firm. The mimic released her shield, allowing her to back away a few paces and ready her shield again. It lunged forward again, spraying its acid with its tongue.
Now it was my turn. I streaked forward and latched onto the mimic with my telekinesis. It jerked in surprise as I yanked its tongue back, forcing the creature to open its mouth wider.
Taking the opportunity, Aelisra hooked her axe on the lower jaw. We pried the mouth open between the two of us. It gargled and thrashed, but there was nothing it could do. Terrowin rushed in, driving his glaive straight between the mimic’s tongue and lower palette.
It howled in rage and pain. The knight drove the weapon deeper, causing the creature to thrash wildly from side to side. I pulled harder, as did Aelisra. With one final motion, Terrowin pulled his glaive upward, slashing through the squishy flesh at the center of the monster’s shell. Acid splashed in every direction, but when all had settled, the mimic was still.
Telekinetic IV upgraded to Telekinetic V
Congratulations. Level 14 Dungeon Mimic defeated. Experience shared between challengers.
Above, the battle continued. Though the descending ceiling had forced Raina and Cithrael to descend the stairs, the worms resembled pincushions with how many arrows stuck out of their hide. Several sported large cuts where Raina’s ice had dug deep into flesh. Without their threads, the worms writhed and turned in anger, but had little means of attacking.
An arrow flew, dislodging one of the worms from its perch on the ceiling. It fell, but not nearly as far as I’d have liked. It didn’t have nearly enough impact to harm the large creature, but that didn’t mean it would survive. In an instant, Terrowin and Aelisra were on the creature, slicing it from tail to head…not that I could tell which was which.
One more fell, then another, and another. Each one was gutted and killed in short order. Only once the last of seven worms had fallen and been slain did the scraping sound of stone on stone finally cease.
Congratulations. Seven Level 12 Fulminous Worms defeated. Experience shared between challengers.
Level up to Level 15
One Attribute Point Available
Abilities available for selection
Slowly, the ceiling began to rise again, revealing first the stairs, then the door. Once the room had returned to its original state, the door slid open, revealing the way out.
“We did it!” Aelisra shouted, giving Terrowin a high five. The knight smiled and obliged. “And we levelled up, too! Level 15, let’s go!” Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I found myself purring in spite of myself.
The three of us climbed the stairs to where Raina and Cithrael were waiting. All in all, the party wasn’t terribly injured from the fight. Aside from a few acid burns that had gotten through Aelisra’s armor and Terrowin’s occasional twitching, we were almost entirely unharmed.
“We must be close to the end, right?” Raina said. The others nodded in agreement.
“Just a little more, but stay alert,” Terrowin warned. “Boss monsters are another breed entirely.”
Even the mention of a boss monster made the sound of a tail rattle echo in my ears. I wondered what special horror would await us this time.