“No,” Carlyn said definitively as we argued at the precipice of the third-floor alpha’s lair. We’d found the place not long after setting out again and I was beginning to suspect that the party might of had a way of locating alpha dens.
“But I need the experience,” I argued for the second time since our arrival. “Just let me hit it once like last time. Hell, I’ve still got one of Nika’s grenades, just let me throw it at the thing at least.” I pulled said grenade from my storage and held it out, everyone else taking a reflexive step back at the sudden sight of the deadly thing.
Carlyn shook her head, still resolute as she pushed the thing back into my storage ring. “Absolutely not. That grenade is for emergencies only. Don’t even think about trying to use it unless you absolutely have to. I’m sorry, but this alpha is just way too strong for you, Mai.”
Glancing around at the others, I only found a similar resolve. Maybe this was for the best, I told myself. Maybe whatever this alpha was would weaken them enough for me to stop them from destroying the dungeon and Gaulbren along with it. It was a dim hope, but enough to make me back off.
“Fine,” I said, crossing my arms. “I still don’t like this though.”
“You don’t have to,” Carlyn said, then turned to the others. “You all know the plan, let's get in there.” They all echoed a chorus of agreement and the party strode into the Alpha’s den. Jones cast some sort of spell on me to hide my presence and I split from the others as they all fell into formation.
The ‘den’ was little more than a large, perfectly circular room of similar design to the rest of the third floor with walls that almost seemed to disappear up into a lightless abyss above our heads. As I watched from the edge of the room, nine purple-black tentacles descended from the overhanging darkness, followed by an almost ten-foot-tall humanoid figure, completely unattached from the tentacles, who settled on the floor with silent grace.
Borgen slid off his ring and went full agondlon mode at Carlyn’s command and was joined by Goerge’s monstrous centipede form. The two charged the alpha wordlessly, their motions barely visible to my under-leveled senses. The next thing I knew Borgen was holding two halves of the humanoid alpha, one in each hand, staring at it as if he’d expected more. The nine tentacles all started moving in a frantic frenzy, lashing about, slamming into the walls and generally being a nuisance to the party seeing as Borgen simply caught one as it swung past, arresting its forward momentum with ease, then gave a hefty tug on the appendage.
Something screamed from above darkness and the whole room seemed to shudder with an immense pressure that dropped me to my knees. Nobody else seemed to even notice the apparent increase of gravity. As Borgen kept pulling on the tentacle, a massive body began to emerge from the shadows, first just a strange beaky mouth, then it's more monstrous body, a perfectly smooth, slightly transparent squid more than twice the size of an average house. Borgen did not appear impressed.
The giant man simply continued to pull the creature down, a bored expression on his reptilian face. George began pulling on two more of the tentacles as well, drawing the thing down faster as Nika approached, her ever-changing weapon in hand. I pretty much just blinked, and the battle was over, the massive squid falling to the ground in what was clearly more than a dozen carriage-sized chunks.
“Well, that was disappointing,” Carlyn said as Jones lifted the obfuscation spell from me and then set about walking around the room with one hand on the wall for some reason I could not discern. “I didn’t get to cast a single spell.”
“You want us to break this thing down like usual, or just to loot it,” George said as Nika handed him some clothes after shifting back to his human form. Carlyn waved her hand dismissively at the question.
“Just loot it. I’m ready to be done with this place. Jones, have you located it yet?”
The lanky man paused, hand still on the wall. “Should be right behind here. Just blast it and let's get this over with already.”
“You sure?” Carlyn said, turning the pages of her spell tome in preparation to cast something.
“Of course I’m sure, what do you take me for, some kind of plebian hack?” He said, moving to stand behind the woman, arms folded across his chest as he glared at her.
“Relax. I was just making sure. I can’t exactly cast this spell whenever I feel like it, you know.” Carlyn's hand began to glow with an almost white radiance as palpable power grew in front of her.
The portal out appeared a second later, and I opened my mouth to ask a question, still somewhat confused as to what was going on, only to be silenced by the sudden appearance of a pillar of black flame nearly two meters in diameter erupting from Carlyn’s outstretched hand. It wasn’t like her normal flames, this was more like a solid pillar of destruction, the sort of thing one might use to slay a dragon, or maybe even a group of dragons. The spell shot towards the wall with an ear-splitting roar, tearing through stone and metal as if it wasn’t even there.
“The fuck!” I yelled, clutching either side of my head as the spell finished, leaving a perfectly round hole in the basalt, chunks of molten slag dripping down around the still glowing stone. My ears rang, everything sounding as if I was listening to it all through several feet of water as I stumbled about, blinking light from my eyes and trying to regain my bearings.
Borgen stepped up to me, still, a massive turtle giant, bracing me with one gentle hand as his long snouted mouth worked, trying to say something to me. I shook my head and pointed to my ears, unable to hear the man. He frowned, then abruptly scooped me up in one massive arm, and I felt more than heard the indignant squawk leave my throat. He walked me up to the hole, safely dropped me on the other side, then started ferrying the others inside one after the other before putting his ring back on and climbing in himself. Carlyn tried to say something to me once everyone was on the other side of the hole, but I shook my head, pointing again at my still-ringing ears.
The other woman frowned, then gestured towards Jones, who launched a small black healing spell from his wand to wash over my ears with a soothing chill. There was a loud pop, then I sighed as sweet relief flooded my skull from the sudden release of pressure.
“Better?” Carlyn asked, and I nodded. “Great. Now, this is important, Mai. Will you follow my lead? From this point on there will be no turning back for you outside death. I need you to say that you will follow my command and not interfere in any way.”
I opened my mouth to speak and was silenced as I took note of the combination of her flat tone and hard expression. I glanced around to find the others standing stoically, Borgen holding his bow shaft as if ready to use it. I swallowed thickly against a suddenly dry throat.
“What is this?” I asked, my voice rough. “What will you do if I say no?”
The instant the words left my mouth Borgen spun into action, the usually lighthearted man I’d begun to think of as a friend, gone as he slammed the end of his bow into a nearby wall. It exploded in a cloud of dust and pebbles.
“That would not be in your best interest, nor mine. You are our precious little hero after all,” Carlyn said, giving me a sly grin and a wink, but I could still sense a dangerous edge behind the forced casualness.
“Well, um, I agree, I guess,” I said, unconsciously taking a step away, feeling sweat drip down my spine and through the back of my shirt.
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Carlyn gave me a flat smile, alien to her usual expression. “Good, that was the right choice. Now, Borgen, you know what to do, Let's move. The core should be just in the next room.”
“You can stop them,” a familiar voice said in my head as the party began to move towards a crumbling archway in the far wall.
“Are you the dungeon?” I thought back, unsure if it could hear me since every time I’d tried to reach out to it before I’d heard nothing.
“Of course,” the voice said, much to my surprise. “Who else could we be?”
“What do you mean, I can stop them? Stop them from destroying you?” I asked, finding the conversation odd, but surprisingly easy to adapt to. It was like holding a conversation with your own mind, but it was another person instead.
“You know what we mean. We will give you the power you need to stop them.”
“At what cost?” I knew the stories. Whenever a strange unfamiliar power offers you something you want, it always comes at a price.
“The price is ultimate, the reward unmeasurable.”
“So I’ll have to die? I don’t understand how I can stop them if I’m dead.” I was already not liking this idea, though, I had to admit my options were pretty slim. Even if most of them had drained their powers fighting the dungeon and its monsters, I was little more than an insect compared to them.
“It would not be death, but it would not be life, either. The price we ask is you.”
“What about my wife? My friends and the city outside? How do I know I can trust you?”
“We can come to terms later. For now, do not worry of trust, if you agree, then a pact will be made. All you need do is listen and wait. We will tell you what to do.”
I thought about it as the party neared the archway. I looked down at the marriage mark on my wrist, at the one unbroken vow, the vow I now refused to break. If I didn’t do this, I realized, then I would be giving up on everything. I had no choice. I would not give up on us.
“Fine,” I thought at the dungeon. “I agree.” There was a faint burning sensation at the back of my neck as I thought the words and I knew the bond had taken. I let out a breath and steeled myself to do as the dungeon asked, wait and listen.
Carlyn didn’t so much as pause as she led us through the broad arch and entered another room full of a complex array of pale blue lines stretched across the entire room, walls, floor, and ceiling. In the center of the space stood a solid column of jet-black crystal, almost abyssal compared to the basalt bricks surrounding it. The moment we stepped inside Carlyn’s eyes lit up with anticipation and anxiety twisted up inside my chest.
“Borgen, George, let's go. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can all get out of this pathetic excuse for a dungeon and move on with our lives.”
The three moved forward and I glanced over at Jones and Nika who were standing with their weapons at the ready. Idly I began tapping my foot, earning me a strange look from Jones. I forced myself to stop, taking a deep, calming breath.
“Now,” the dungeon shouted in my mind as Carlyn, Borgen, and George all reached the crystal pillar. “Press your hand to the glowing square.”
I frantically searched the pillar for anything resembling a glowing square and found it almost immediately. Either my luck was incredible right then, or the dungeon was somehow making it easier for me to see. Not giving myself any time to think, I sprinted forward.
“The cat sprang forth like lightning to outrun her pursuers. The Tree stood resolute as stone against its enemies. The mountain destroyed the invaders with the strength of its boulders.” I cast all three spells at once, completely draining my mana as my body filled with a sudden surge of power. Carlyn, George, and Borgen all turned with looks of shock plastered across their faces as I surged forward in a blur.
“I’m sorry,” I yelled at them, meaning it for truth as I focused on my demotivating call ability and felt it activate. “But, I can’t let you do this!”
At once, all three seemed to stagger against the effect of my skill, their strength leaving them, even if only slightly. Unfortunately, Borgen still managed to raise his magic bow, an arrow notched as a grim expression settled onto his semi-reptilian face.
“Stop her!” Carlyn screamed, a look of betrayal and unadulterated rage splattered over her sharp features. I hurriedly activated the second rest skill and felt my entire body stiffen as even more power flooded every part of me, barely a moment before Borgen let loose with a bellowing roar.
The giant man threw one of his spear-sized arrows towards me, the arrowhead slamming into my hurriedly upraised arms with the force of a speeding train plummeting off a cliff, then, to our collective surprise, deflected off my skin, sailing past my head to crash into the nearest wall in an explosion of stone and dust. The agondlon and I stared at each other in complete shock.
“Quickly,” the dungeon said, shaking me free from my own empty headspace. I shook myself and dashed forward again, towards the glowing spot on the crystal, and pressed my hand to it. I felt a slight pressure against my palm, and drew back, a small cylinder sliding out from the pillar with the motion, revealing a small white gemstone no larger than the one set into my storage ring.
“What now?” I frantically asked the dungeon, staring dumbly down at the tiny gem in my hand.
“Eat us,” the little stone in my palm said in my mind, which sounds like a sentence that belongs in the diary of someone who’d just done acid for the first time.
Still in fight or flight mode, I brought my hand to my mouth and ate the stone, or at least I tried to. “Fuck,” I muttered to myself, working my spit glands to get enough liquid in my mouth to swallow the damn thing. It was probably the largest pill I’d ever had to swallow, or well, the largest I would likely ever manage to swallow. I still wasn’t quite ready to admit that I was wrong about being destined for greatness.
“Stop!” Carlyn yelled as she lunged toward me, her expression a strange mixture of confusion, rage, and frustration. Somewhat prepared for her, I pulled out the one grenade I still had and held it out between us, fingers primed to trigger the deadly thing. She froze at the sight of it. “Mai,” she said slowly, raising both hands. “We can talk about this. You don’t know what you're doing. If you eat that thing, it will kill you.”
I shook my head, still trying and failing to swallow the damned gemstone. Something flashed past my head and suddenly the grenade was sent flying from my hands, hitting the far wall a few dozen feet away and exploding into a thousand ceramic shards. We all dropped to the floor in an instant, and I felt a vague sense of pain as several bits of fragmentation sliced across my arms and shoulders, leaving shallow cuts. Now practically frantic, I tried to swallow the stone again, but that damn thing was too big and all I managed to do was gag on the stupid thing.
“What the fuck are you doing, you idiot! Spit it out! That thing will kill you,” Carlyn screamed as she watched me struggling, leaping forward to grab my jaw and try to pry open my mouth. Unfortunately for her, I was still imbued with the myriad of effects from my skills and spells, so all she did was break her nails against my skin.
She screamed wordlessly at me as my thoughts began blurring together from the excess of adrenaline surging through my veins. Heart racing, I couldn’t stop the manic grin that spread itself across my face. Was I actually stronger than her right now? I reached out and grabbed both of the other woman’s wrists and slowly dragged them back from my face, much to her astonishment given the way her jaw dropped and the muscle in her arms flexed as she strained against my grip.
“That’s enough of that.” Borgen’s voice came from behind me, and before I could react, I found myself spun about to face the man. My hands were torn from Carlyn’s wrists as I watched Borgen’s massive free hand fly toward my face in a tight fist and for the first time since I’d met the man, I was truly afraid of him.
I acted on instinct, ducking under the blow and raising a fist of my own to strike back, but then I hesitated. He was likely the closest thing I had to a friend here. Was I really willing to hurt him?
What I did not see as these thoughts raced through my head, however, was his second fist flying to crash into my chin with a solid uppercut, knocking me off my feet and sending me flying. I landed in a dizzy heap of limbs, staring up at the glowing lines arrayed across the ceiling.
by some trick of luck, I still, somehow, could feel the small gemstone sitting in my mouth. As the short-lived power began to fade from my body, every muscle and limb relaxing before going numb and limp, I closed my eyes, and finally managed to get the little rock down, the rough gem sliding through my throat like a too-big tortilla chip, cutting and tearing at my insides, making my eyes water with regret. Unlike a tortilla chip, however, it did not fix itself after a few seconds, instead ripping several lines of agony all the way down to my stomach over the next few moments.
A smile of contented satisfaction bloomed on my face, mixed with a grimace of pain, as Carlyn appeared above me. I watched tears fall from her wrathful eyes as my vision began to fade. “Sorry,” I said, and she just stared down at me.
“Get her out of here,” she finally said, her expression settling on disappointment as she turned away from me.
“What about the dungeon core?” Borgen asked from somewhere out of sight. “Did she actually eat the damn thing? What in the hells possessed her to do that?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. For now, our job is done. Grab her and let's get out of here. I’d rather not end up a burnt corpse.”
As my consciousness faded all I could feel was a satisfying sense of victory and the distant sensation of two large hands lifting me from the floor as something hot and painful burned a path towards my solar plexus, and then everything went dark, almost as if everything else had been but a dream.