Joe, his choice made, soon rejoined in the conversation the others were enjoying and the time passed quickly as they made their way through the known parts of the dungeon before slowing cautiously when they reached the last unexplored section of the maze.
Their pace slowed as usual, but their complacency still crept upon them and they finished the last quarter of the labyrinth in about three quarters of the time they had needed to finish the any of the other corners of the labyrinth.
A bit tired and bothered by the time spent in the labyrinth, Joe didn’t take the time for an extended rest when they found the next boss room and Joe took a moment to look around the corner at the next sub boss to get a measure of it. Joe grinned when he recognized it, although that grin soured when he realized that the snow he’d just fought turned out to be a bit more difficult to fight than he’d expected.
A two core snow was quite a bit harder to fight… I guess so was the two core slime, compared to the one core ones anyway. So… maybe a two core mukfrog won’t be as easy as I thought. At least it isn’t a shaman type; can’t drown me in a bubble of water.
The thing seemed to be more fighter than mage, wearing a decent set of armor and equipped with a shield and a rather intricate looking sword. It was thin, delicate, and seemed almost like a rapier, although it was quite a bit wider than a normal rapier but didn’t reach the width of a broadsword.
The unique aspect to the sword that gave Joe pause was the strange, delicate, and intricate curlicue like structure centered at the intersection of the hilt, guard, and blade. Joe found it quite odd to put a hollow and delicate structure directly at the center of the sword where the integrity of the blade would be easily compromised. A single hard blow would break the blade right off the hilt and possibly the guard. Regardless, putting such an obvious weakness at such a critical place on a sword gave Joe pause, especially as all the rest of the mukfrog’s armor and shield seemed to be of equal quality and did not host any such weakness.
Joe took the moment to glance over the rest of the mukfrog’s accoutrements, surprised by the anomaly on the sword and he quickly recognized similar curlicue structures adorning each of the other pieces, often in highly centralized locations. The shield and breastplate had one at their centers, while the arm and leg armor had one centered on the outside of the forearms and shin guards. They all face towards the enemy
The sudden realization made Joe quite a bit more nervous about their purpose, increased caution driving him back around the corner to equip himself a bit more appropriately than in his fight with the snow.
He made sure he had a sheathed spear and sword as well as a large shield. He took a club just to see if he could use it in the fight, but wanted to err on the side of safety. He would keep his spear, as it was shorter and sheathed to his back, allowing it to not bother him too much, except in any rolls or floor work. His sword he would drop if he felt comfortable enough dealing with the beast with just a club and shield.
He took another moment to stretch and prepare himself for the fight, settling the weaponry as best he could, then stepped out and walked towards the mukfrog. He didn’t take an aggressive stance, although he did wield his shield and kept a hand on the sword. If the mukfrog exhibited any desire to communicate, Joe was unable to discern. It turned towards him just as the snow and slime had done, facing him with caution. When Joe stopped and waited, the thing simply sat there, staring balefully towards him. Joe cocked his head with some thought and took a step away and the mukfrog immediately stood and lost its caution, even turning away to stare in the direction he … she? it?... was originally staring.
He took another step forward and it immediately repeated its cautionary stance toward Joe. Joe repeated this several times and found the interaction strange, bordering on the absurd. Hyper lack of object permanence… but it’s even worse than that. The thing can obviously see me, but it still only reacts if or when I’m within a specific range. It’s almost like it’s programmed… robotic!
Joe then stepped forward carefully until the thing began advancing on him, shifting from a cautionary stance to aggression. Joe tried to stepped back out of range again, moving quickly to see if he could reset the things behavior as he had done before, but it kept closing with him, even as he got almost twice the distance away from when it normally just began to eye Joe with caution.
Joe was able to get that far away because as soon as the mukfrog began to close with Joe, it began humming a strange song and the curlicue on the breastplate took on a glowing beauty as a wave of water seemed to flow out from curlicue and took on a shape similar to the breastplate. While the mukfrog was humming, it seemed to need to slow down and concentrate carefully, not quite able to match Joe’s rapid retreat. It hummed another two times, activating the curlicues on the shield and sword.
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The water on the shield and sword was placid and gave the impression of the deep ocean; immutable and impenetrable. The sword also gained a swirl of water along its blade and guards, although there was a wild wind swept feel and look to it as it swirled around the entirety of the blade, but did not dull the blade. In fact, it seemed to add to the sharpness, flattening the blade out, making it thinner and longer; a truly fierce and terrifying look. I really don’t think I want to know what getting hit by that means… and now I know what the curlicues are…
Joe sheathed his club and pulled out his spear instead, wanting to keep the thing away until he could figure out what the water stuff… magic?... did. Joe quickly settled, his curiosity muting as he needed to focus on the fight. Right… brain… go away.
The surroundings faded and Joe felt himself focused on the mukfrog, everything around it blurring away to inconsequence. Basic movements… suited to sword. Hitching right shoulder, shield still heavy… normal? Armor… normal… ish. Swordsman, basically, with water. Water shoots? Blocks? Engulfs? Blade longer, sharper, harder… still sword…
Joe fell back on his training combatting swordsman and felt himself settle into the easy measuring when he confronted an opponent. Joe kept his senses on a hair trigger, but felt nothing surprisingly unusual; everything he was picking up seemed to tell him he was fighting a basic swordsman. A magical swordsman, true, but still a basic swordsman in its combat capabilities, actions, and reactions to Joe.
Joe maintained a healthy distance, keeping his spear between them to force it to stay at spear distance. The mukfrog was intelligent enough to try to close, but not force the issue as Joe made sure the spear always kept the mukfrog at range. Soon, the two began exchanging blows, Joe quite a bit more cautious of what effect the water blade would have.
After a good five minutes of thrusts and counters, Joe had calmed significantly. The water blade did add a decent range to the blade’s attack, as the water acted to extend the blade. It also seemed to add to its mass, increasing the weight of the strike, although the mukfrog seemed to throw it around like a rapier, even a light dagger. When the water blade parried his spear, Joe did feel a slight tugging on his spear, and realized that the water could also work to entangle his weapon, although Joe found it to be pointless since it seemed to also interfere with the mukfrog’s sword as well. Although when he struck the shield, the slight resistance to pull back his shield allowed the mukfrog to almost close the first time.
After the third or fourth time when his spear had been entangled, Joe smirked as an idea came to mind. He waited for his spear to be entangled once again with the mukfrog’s sword then immediately reacted. Jerking back and to the side hard, Joe pulled the mukfrog towards him even while he jumped forward. Using the jerk to pull the mukfrog towards him while also giving him a quick pull forward for his leap, Joe closed quickly. He dropped his spear and left it ‘glued’ to the mukfrog’s sword so he could pull out his club, bringing it down in a heavy overhand swing towards the mukfrog’s head.
The mukfrog’s eyes opened wide, shock deforming its face even as it quickly hummed, the curlicue on his helm lighting up and water began forming to cover the helm, the water on the breastplate fading away even as the glow of the chest plate curlicue faded. However, it was too late, Joe simply shifted the strike slight to the right, bringing the club down hard to the side of the helm where the water still hadn’t formed up. It thudded with a massive thunk against the mukfrog’s skull.
Joe leapt back and to the shield side, away from the mukfrog’s blade, and wound up for a quick second strike but then stopped, blinking with some surprise as Joe felt the wash of gaining experience flood through him. Huh… that was… too easy? Or… maybe… well… the thing is less than half my size. That still has to make a difference, right? Even with cheating magic?
Joe stood up and looked at the mukfrog with some confusion. It had collapsed immediately to the floor and lay there. As he took a moment to recuperate from the surprise of such a simple end, the three apprentices ran forward, shouting excitedly with surprise. Joe didn’t really hear what any of them had said, still coming down from his combat high, and by the time he was ready to interact, Garnedell and Zilnek were already down and butchering the mukfrog.
The armor and weapons were thrown aside carelessly, and Joe almost rebuked them when he noticed they seemed to disappear in a haze, dissolving into the very air of the dungeon. Joe’s mouth clicked shut and he calmed down. They gotta know what they’re doing. Relax.
Garnedell and Zilnek had dug into the torso of the mukfrog before reaching in and pulling out a double core. Zilnek’s hand been covered in bloody gore which quickly dissolved, leaving it pristine. Well… that makes butchering a lot easier… or… maybe only dungeons? Huh.
Zilnek gave the core to Joe, and he looked over it carefully, still a bit mesmerized by the beauty of the intricate structure, hazed with a bit of blue. Joe smiled then tossed it back to Zilnek.
“Enjoy it. Use it well!”
Zilnek’s mouth opened in a giant oh before breaking into a massive smile and all three began excitedly talking with one another. Joe left the three behind as he headed down the hallway to pick up the last medallion. Despite his caution, the journey proved as boring as the rest of the labyrinth, and he picked up the medallion with ease. It also proved similar, showing a simple mukfrog on one side, just like the others’ displaying their respective bosses.
Joe shrugged, tossing the medallion into the air before dropping it into his bag to return to the other three. Huh… well… that’s done, but I’m getting tired of this. Let’s get this done and get out of here… oh.. hey… did my cudgel go up at all?
Joe flipped open his status page and took a look at his skills sheet before smiling, a giant grin on his face. Heh… not bad. Eighty eight percent. Might be able to get it done today! Although… not sure if I’m going to be too comfortable fighting the boss with clubs… Whelp… let’s do this! Joe turned, leading the way back to the boss door they’d found, five medallions now in hand. Gotta figure out this Zilnek thing too, though…