Thirty seconds later, the two shining Knights were back-pedaling with control and poise as five moarsmen bellowed and flailed at them with hissing acidic claws and flaming jaws.
Arrows thrummed, and one moarsman dropped, half-frozen, including its entire head. The moarsmen trying to get around the sides of the shoulder-to-shoulder Knights just presented themselves to the archers, and another volley dropped another as the two parrying, defending Knights pulled quickly back to the line of their fellows.
Like the jaws of a trap, the whole shield line stood up and snapped shut around the three remaining moarsmen, led by a lot of bright freezing points. Fifteen seconds later, the Summons were down.
“Wipe the floor!” Kris ordered, and the Knights raced out to finish their sweeps, poking at the floor, walls, and ceilings if they could reach them, spreading vivus everywhere. The Scouts remained where they were calmly, listening to ice-steel striking stone and spreading cold and vivus through the place. Hissing strands of Blight in the stone ignited, and five strong poofs of vivus indicated they’d found the Summons points.
That done, the two teams quickly circled around the ramp down, and converged on where Princess Kristie and Lord Mick were waiting patiently. The two split to the sides, and Knights warding the Scouts with the bows, certain there was nothing behind them, they started down.
The chamber below was dark and dripping with Blighted mold and fungi, things that instantly erupted in vivus when touched by diamond-like motes of cold and misting Lost Light.
It also had no less than four different ways out.
“The proper way on were to take the left wall until the Portal. If the Black Market were brought into the Dungeon, that’s like t’ be the strong point,” the Mick informed everyone, pointing in the direction those going to the Black Market in the past would take.
“Two knights with me, watching the rear. If they want to clog us up in one of the side passages and try to wear us down, that’s fine. I want these side passages cleared up. Lord Mick, oversee the sweep.”
That meant not to get involved if they didn’t need it, and be on watch for any nasty surprises.
Kris went over in front of the tunnel that Mick had pointed out, and planted herself, her two Shields, her Autobow, her arcing Tail, and her Sword of the Lost Light right in the middle of it, the two knights she’d picked moving up behind her. Idly, she began shooting off Bursting Spikes all over the chamber, bringing frozen vivic flame to the Blight, and quickly started to cover the whole chamber in circles of ice and white mist.
The Mick led the sweep through the other tunnels and chambers smoothly, taking no chances with combat if he didn’t have to, including bringing up the Scouts to feather a dozen Summons and pull them back into the ambush of the Knights without an ounce of shame.
It took them half an hour to cleanly sweep the tunnels and the chambers off them, spreading vivus everywhere with sweeping spirals of Lost Light igniting Blight everywhere.
When they came back into the main chamber, there were six moarsmen Burning down with the slower speed of real creatures, and pretty much the whole place was coated in whiteness.
“Four real ones spread among Summons, enough ta charge out an’ take the ramp if we didn’t bother t’ check on ‘em,” the Mick informed her unnecessarily.
“Ten here, in addition to these,” Kris told him back, letting everyone else know. “We can expect them to try and envelop us from all angles at some point as we go through this place.”
“Probably in the lower level,” the Mick agreed easily. “Plenty o’ chambers an’ tunnels running willy-nilly in all directions down there. Every chamber like to have three or more ways in and out.”
“Since the left wall is probably the faster way down, we go along the right wall. I’ll lead the sweep, the Mick will secure the rear. Our danger points will intersecting tunnels as we move along, and them trying to cut us apart by attacking the middle of our formation. Stay tight and trust in the soldier next to you.”
Fist clapped to breastplates, no other word spoken, and they went down the ramp to the next lower level.
------
The moarsmen didn’t actually realize that Kris didn’t need any kind of lights or illumination to see, unlike most Isparians. The Knights had plenty of light sources, not limited to their Swords, so fighting visibility wasn’t an issue for the teams, but it did clearly mark exactly where they were from some distance.
Kris’ Devilsight, not so much.
The moarsmen were in a side tunnel and around a corner, waiting to charge out when the team was engaged from the front. They didn’t notice Kris ghost past the entry, dip her head around the corner, see them, then head to the interconnecting tunnel behind them.
Instead of charging into the middle of the line of Isparians, they instead found Knights charging into both the front and back of them, pushing them together and backwards behind blindingly bright Shields while poking them all in close-quarters rather nastily.
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The moarsmen belatedly running up to attack them instead ran into the Mick, two braced Knights, and all the arrow fire the Scouts could send down the tunnel to forestall the rush coming at them. Before the agitated moarsmen could force the three fighters back, Kris disengaged from the other fight and flitted up to relieve them, promptly turning the tide viciously in an explosion of whirlwind icy death.
------
Kris watched the two support mages among her students using Healing Reserve on the knights wounded by the last action for a moment before walking up to the Mick, who was studying yet another long downwards ramp with a thoughtful expression. It occupied a section of wall where once the Portal to the Black Market had existed, transformed into a long downsloping Dungeon ramp down into stinking darkness.
Kris’ Tail never stopped sending out frozen Spikes trailing vivus and other energies until the area were covered in Burning Blight. Likewise, every floor and the walls were traced by vivic Weapons to do the same thing.
She popped all four walls of the ramp close to them with the Spikes as she walked up, generating a huff of laughter from the Mick for her casual efficiency at the task.
“Yeah, that smells really bad,” she said before he spoke. “We’re going to be slowed down just having to clear the area ahead of us of the stench.”
“Or be putting on Masks, aye,” the Mick agreed, such things being among the kit Scouts had, given some of the stuff they had to crawl through or under, including water. A little water-breathing through the new alchemical Masks was pretty damn useful, as was the way it filtered out glasses and rancid smells. “Ye’ve a fair nose. Worse for ye?” he had to ask, glancing at her wrinkled nose curiously.
“Yes, but I can also tolerate more, and it actually tells me more stuff. Breeding chambers and young below, for instance, as well as a Spawning Pool.”
The Mick blinked. “We’ve not gone near that far…” he said slowly.
“Just need water and salt to make Brine, Mick. Season with Blight, and you’re all good to go, I guess.”
“Huh. Bleh. Anything else?” He stuck out his tongue with feeling.
“More Blight in everything. We’re likely to see a lot of mutants down here. Bigger, stronger…”
“Smellier?”
“Definitely.”
“The area below be three, four times the area up here, if not larger. Mmm, nae, lets go five or six if ye include the area o’ the Black Market itself, which were fairly sizable.” A good chunk of the ramp-tunnel going down was now rimed in ice and vivus, and the mist was flowing down the slope, igniting more Blight as it did so. “Eww, slick shit,” he observed. “They be using them claws fer traction here. Slip, and ye might slide all the way to the bottom.”
“I guess someone is going to have to go down there and engage the shit certain to be waiting there,” Kris said fatalistically, but there was a nasty wild gleam in her pale violet eyes that promised Hell for whatever was waiting for her below.
The Mick considered that. “Well, then, best to use it to our advantage, aye? Disks, now, they not be sliding around,” he said thoughtfully.
“Funny how goddamn useful what essentially a cart with no wheels is, right?” the princess grinned.
“Especially fer the quick-footed an’ light-fingered sorts, I be not hearin’, not I,” he said piously. “Think ye can do a fast entry and distract the heck out o’ them while I trot the rest down an’ get ‘em off the Disks?”
“And here I was thinking you’d have them sliding down on their shields or something,” she grinned.
“Aye, that do sound fun, but only for the first two or three. The rest would run into them an’ bollox everything all up, right?”
“Yes, that is true. Also, they probably will have shamans waiting there, and there’s going to be some nasty concentrated spells coming in.”
“Full Null out should take care o’ that, if they aren’t too ridiculous. If we can push ‘em away from the entry, will, the kids will be up on the Disks, and their spell-flingers will be popsicles quickly enough, right?”
“Sounds like a suitably horrible plan.” The ramp went down for at least two hundred feet, with a slope of nearly forty degrees, Blighted moss and lichen growing over it for nastily unsure footing. “They are probably planning to charge up midway and use the footing to their benefit.”
The Mick cocked an ear at the ramp, listening to the sounds echoing up it. “They be muttering in that shite they call a language. Mayhap about how the mist is setting the Blight on fire?” he grinned.
“If they get nervous and decide to charge us up here while I blast the Blight out of this tunnel, I’ll be happy to let them!” Kristie grinned, but there was no action down below.
“Let’s get everyone set up for the descent.” Kris tapped her temple. “Ryin is almost done and can join us if we need it.”
The Mick looked back at everyone.
The introduction of the Matrix system had changed a lot of things among melee combatants. In particular, it had introduced the Healing Reserve, and the Combat Focus Mastery Line.
Healing Reserve only healed Health, but it had an unlimited ability to do so. Thus, if you took damage on Health, it could be Healed up speedily with the Reserve, without needing Potions or spells, all you had to do was last until combat ended.
Combat Vigor was the third Combat Focus Feat, and healed 4 Soak a round for at least thirteen rounds during combat. That was 52 Soak minimum going to be returned to you if you got into combat, which was a nice cushion of Soak that also didn’t need to be Healed by exterior magic.
Every single person here had Wands of Cure Light Wounds now, usually in a Wand Chamber on their Weapons so they could use them in combat without having to lose their Weapons to do so. The Lost Light would even swirl up around them when the magic went off, reacting to the Healing energy. The Wands were for emergencies, as they didn’t Cure all that much at one time, a measly 1-8+1 damage, but they still allowed a Melee to Heal themselves up without needing a spellcaster’s attention, or even a Healing Kit, the formerly magical effect which the Wands basically subbed for.
More Powerful Wands, get more Healing, and the Healing Skill could also boost the amount you got from a spell or Wand. The Healing Skill combined with a Healing Kit could also treat fresh injuries fast and well, further reducing the need for Healing magic.
The Combination of the two effects meant there was a decent cushion of how much punishment people could take before needing mana spent to cure them, which helped greatly extend the longevity of a fighting team.
“Only if we need to. She’s too damn good at her job,” he finally said. “They won’t learn nuthin’ if she’s savin’ their arses all the time.”
Kris chuckled, but didn’t deny it.