Chapter 46 - Tough situation

Day 59

Mike's POV:

  "Ok, let's clear the boss room." Hans said after they finished looting the last goblin group.

  "Wait a moment, we need a plan first. So, there is one elite goblin and five mountain lions right?" Scorpion asked.

"Yes, that's right. The goblin should be around rank E4 and the lions at E1."

  "Ok, let's do it like this. Tanks in front, try to block the lions. Hans, you are our best fighter, you focus on the goblin. Izzy and I will use AoE spells at the beginning to weaken them. Then we focus on the lions that get past the tanks. Scorpion, you stay between us and the enemies and try to buy us time, so we can use our spells." Keldian suggested.

  "I don't know. Izzy, you have the ice wall spell, right?" Scorpion asked.

  "Yes, but it takes a little time to form and it's not strong enough to block them for long. A fire wall would be much better but, we don't know that spell." Izzy answered.

  "Damn, so we won't be able to create choke points. I think we have to do it Keldian's way. But, be careful, if you get attacked by the mountain lions from different sides, you're probably done for." Scorpion warned.

After the discussion they made their way to the entrance of one of the boss rooms. The hallway was four meters wide, so they wouldn't be able to block it with two persons.

"How about Hans helps us block the entrance at the start, you fire your magic and then we go on according to Keldian's plan? If we are unlucky and try to block the lions with only two persons, they can surround us and attack from behind."

  "Fuck you, country bumpkin. Do you see a shield on me? I'm a real fighter and not some tank who stands in line, only to fight like some stupid soldier." Hans answered.

Mike looked at the rest of his teammates, but it seemed like nobody was coming to his support. He sighted, then got ready for the fight. When Izzy and Keldian had their spells prepared, Karn opened the door.

The five lions immediately started to charge at them. Then, Keldian's fireball and Izzy's ice shard hit between them and exploded. Two of the lions went down, but they didn't seem to be defeated. Mike had no time to concentrate on them, the first lion was already attacking him. He activated Tough Body and put his shield in front of him, while he prepared for the impact of the two hundred kilogram heavy feline.

The force of the impact pushed him back half a meter and the lion tried to pull away his shield with its paws. He wasn't able to deactivate Tough Body, otherwise he wouldn't be strong enough to keep his shield in place. The shield prevented him to see much of his enemy, without any better idea, he started to use his sword to stab the lion in its side.

The lion howled, then it let go of the shield and tried to get below it. Mike immediately slammed his shield downwards on lion's head, switched to Windseeker and stabbed to lion in its throat. It moaned and slumped down, but just when Mike wanted to look at a new enemy, another lion charged at him from the side. With his shield in the wrong position and without Tough Body activated, he had no chance to block it. He was knocked over and before he was able to stand up again, the lion was on top of him. Mike switched back to Tough Body to reduce the damage, but he was too slow. The lion pushed aside his shield and went for his throat. His arms were both in the wrong position and he wasn't able to shake of the lion, so there was nothing left he could do to defend himself.

'I'm sorry Anna, chief and Gunthar.' He thought, before his imminent death.

Then in the last moment, Mike was already able to see the lion's gums, it changed direction and bit into the shoulder of his shield arm. The pain was atrocious, but Mike used all of his willpower to ignore it, so he could take the chance he was presented with. While the lion still had its teeth in his shoulder, he rammed his sword through its neck into its brain.

  "Damn boy, you are really stupid. You went with a party you know nothing about into a dungeon. Instead of going slow and getting used to each other, you challenged seven floors in a row, even after you were wounded multiple times. In addition, you agreed to be a tank without having a real armor. At the latest, when you saw how dysfunctional the team was with Hans in it, you should've turned back and stayed away from them. Don't expect me to save you again, instead try to grow a functioning brain." He heard Neo curse.

Mike was in too much of a haze for it to really sink in. His shoulder hurt like hell and the lion's teeth were still stuck into it. He lifted his head and saw that the other fights had ended too. He started to laugh hysterically after seeing he wouldn't die. Izzy came to his help and unclenched the lion's mouth and pulled it away from him. Mike nearly passed out from the pain, but then she used her water magic to heal him and the pain started to numb.

The wound was serious and it took her more than ten minutes to heal it. When she was finished, Mike stood up, the shoulder still sore and Izzy went to look after Karn.

"I think we should call it a day and get back. This fight was dangerous enough."

  "Are you stupid? Look what we've got. Another skill book. This time it's Troll Regeneration. I've never heard of it, but it's life magic and sounds pretty powerful. With loot this good, we should keep moving and didn't you say the eights floor was only a large maze with a lot of traps and some goblin groups?" Hans asked.

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  "I think he is right Hans, he and I were both wounded in this fight. If we were a little less lucky, we could've both died." Karn objected.

Mike looked around and it seemed as except Hans, the rest wanted to finish their dive, too.

  "Who asked you Karn. You're only a guard that works for my family, you'll do as I say! And you, Scorpion, wouldn't it be too bad if the Holten family got to know how their psychopathic son died? I know, he raped and killed your sister, but they'll still torture and kill you for it. You both better do as I say. The rest of you, do you really want to fight your way back from the dungeon with only two mages and a lousy tank?" Hans asked.

The others stayed silent. Mike could see Scorpions face getting red from anger, but they still followed Hans to the next level. For a moment Mike though about getting back alone, but then decided that it would be suicide. He shook his head and went after the rest of his so called party.

Neo's POV:

Neo sighted. This Hans was really a quality person.

  "Why did you save him? We could have used his life energy. A dungeon should not save intruders!"

"He is young and has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, he comes from a small village and has no idea what kinds of people are running around in this world. He was far too naive to go with this group without knowing anything about them. I decided to give him a second chance to learn and I must confess, I'm a bit curious how far he can go in his life."

  "Still, don't save intruders in the future. It's us against them and they killed our lions and goblins."

"Don't worry Luna, we'll get our first kill. I don't think they can beat the maze and this Hans guy would probably not turn back without his party dying. But, their situation showed me something. I should create exits between the floors, so they can get back to the previous mining floor without fighting their way back through the dungeon."

With that said, Neo started to shrink his lower floors a little bit and began to create one way hallways between the floors.

Mike's POV:

They arrived in the eight floor and started to explore it. After three hours, they hadn't met another enemy. They only found lots and lots of hallways, which seemed to only consist of a few types. Even the traps were at the same place. Hans got more and more annoyed and started to walk in front. Karn went after him and tried to hold him back.

  "Hans, don't go in front. Let Scorpion check for traps first." Karn suggested.

  "Are you kidding me? We been through this type of hallway at least ten times, there is no trap here." Hans angrily answered, pushing Karn to the side.

*Click*

All of them were able to hear the trigger. A wall at the end of the tunnel disappeared and a large steel ball, almost as wide as the tunnel rolled in their direction.

To save himself, Hans pushed Karn between him and the trap and tried to run back.

*Click*

Hans triggered another trap and steel bars came down from the ceiling, separating him and Karn on one side with the rolling steel ball and the rest of the party on the other. Karn was still lying on the floor, looked at the steel bars, then at the ball. He didn't stood up. Instead, he rolled himself to the side of the tunnel and put the shield in a sharp angle in front of his head. Hans tried to use his Flamesword and cut through the bars, but he had no success.

  "Help me, I don't want to die! Help me!" He screamed.

Scorpion had a look at him, then turned to his party and suggested.

  "We have no chance to destroy the bars in time, but we should get ourselves to safety. The ball will probably crash right through it and it will keep going."

While they threw one last look at their doomed comrades, the others went to a side tunnel and waited for the steel ball to pass. Hans was still screaming and begging for his life, then this changed and they heard a squashing noise. Then, a loud bang from the ball impacting on the steel bars.

Nobody said a word and a few seconds later, they saw the steel ball roll past them. On it were a lot of blood stains. Scorpion went back into the hallway first and had a look, then Mike went after him.

Were Hans had been, there was only a bloody mass left. It looked like he was first squashed through the steel bars and then ran over by the steel ball. However, to their surprise, Karn was still moving.

Izzy immediately ran over and used her healing magic on him. Karn had a smashed shoulder and hip. Thankfully, he was unconscious.

  "Smart, he used his shield to divert the ball a bit to the other side of the tunnel. The gap he created, was just enough for him to not share Hans' fate." Scorpion commented.

Fifteen minutes later, Izzy was exhausted and Karn woke up. He immediately started to laugh, when he realized he was still alive and Hans was dead.

  "Calm down Karn, you are still heavily injured. My magic is not strong enough to put you shattered bones back together." Izzy suggested.

Mike saw Scorpion getting thoughtful. The he shook his head.

  "We must build a stretcher and carry him back with us. If the boss on the seventh floor re-spawned, we have no chance of beating it. Our only hope would be to camp on this floor until help arrives. How much water do you have with you?" Scorpion asked.

They gathered their supplies and determined that they had enough for two days.

  "Let's hope, the boss is not there. It would be hell for Karn anyway to wait this long with his shattered bones." Izzy commented.

Mike looked at the steel bars, their weren't bent or broken. It was just their fixture that was destroyed by the trap. They decided to use two of them for a stretcher. With their blankets and some leather stripes, they were able to build a makeshift one and put Karn on it. Scorpion paused for a moment, then he went through Hans' stuff, only to come back with the skill book Troll Regeneration. He handed it to Karn.

  "Read it and try to use it. It may be our only chance to get out of here alive." Scorpion said.

Karn used the skill book and a moment later, they detected him using life magic.

  "I think it's working, but it'll take some time." Karn explained.

A few hours later, Karn was able to stand up again. He was still heavily limping, but this was the best he could do for now with his low skill on life magic. They plundered the rest of Hans' stuff and started to make their way back to the 7th floor.

When they arrived at the upwards slope, they started to cry from joy. There was a new tunnel with a green arrow and a five written next to it.

Neo's POV:

Neo was just at creating his new tunnels when he heard Luna's yell.

  "Yes! Our first kill! Quickly absorb the body and check if you get the blueprint.!"

When his guest were far enough away, he absorbed the body.

Human fighter

This was a human that was absorbed by the dungeon. It will now be able to create mindless copys from it

Rank: E8

Affinities: Fire 23 Water -23 Earth 5 Air -5 Life 1 Death -1

Traits: Fire warrior ( skill 16)

Costs: 9k mana ; 95 kg animal material