Terash sat, eyes closed and breathing slow as he waited in the deceptively simple room, Kifalin traveling back to report to Marianna. The room had been designed for the easy combat of the incoming Serpopards. By placing strategically shaped boulders in the area, Terash could effortlessly collapse them on top of the long necks of the demonic creatures.
In addition, they supported his weight well enough that he could climb them, or leap off them if need be. They really did make evading the serpents a far more doable job.
The corpses had all been pulled away by the rats assigned to the duty, and Terash had scattered the sand over the blood to hide the traces of the fight. He and Kifalin had made sure to make as little mess as possible while fighting against the near-impossible odds. But because the odds were so stacked against them, it wasn't easy to avoid the mess. Gore still coated the walls, though fortunately, it was difficult to see in the darkness.
Marianna had told him of the humans that were invading. She'd let all the rats know. Terash now sat, listening for the hidden one he'd been told about.
His ear twitched, and he shook his head to rid himself of the uncomfortable feeling. A whoosh came from directly above his head, and Terash looked up to see a glowing dagger embedded in the boulder behind him, melting it like a hot knife to butter.
The hidden one. The assassin that bent shadow to his will, or so it seemed. Terash looked at him, the darkness seeming to blend his outline into the background. He stood, half-crouched, gloved hands hanging by his waist at the ready, with one dagger missing from its sheath.
The Ratman revealed a toothy grin. This would be interesting. He dropped the spear resting across his lap and drew the dagger from the rock, turning his black eyes upon the slender assassin. Then, he spoke the single phrase he'd insisted Miradeen teach him in the common tongue. The famous line uttered by the Hero of Derania in his fight against the Demon Lord Stuvraaka.
"Kkuhm aaaannndd geeht suuhmm, sikuhmbaaag."
----------------------------------------
"Ooh! Who's stopping in to see me now?" the gurgling tenor echoed out from behind the shadowy mass. It twitched and began to turn around.
Fergusson heard a clatter from behind him. He turned, noticing Sylvia had dropped her staff. Her eyes were wide.
"No..." she muttered, fear in her eyes. "That voice... It can't be..."
"Who?" the voice, seemingly speaking through water, intoned. "Little old me?"
Fergusson looked back and forth between the cleric and the shadowed monster but rushed to the girl when she dropped to her knees.
"Sylvia? What about the voice?"
Tears rushed down her face as she wept, staring mournfully at the source of the voice.
The laughter of the drowned broke out from the other side of the room, and the magical light emanating from the cleric's staff shined across a grinning face of bloodied yellowed bone. Sylvia gasped.
"Your friend seems to be in quite the state!" the liquidy voice choked out, once more laughing that terrible laugh - with the sounds of gurgling blood.
"Alfonse!" she screeched. "What have they done to you?!"
The skull twisted sideways but offered no response. Fergusson looked into its dark eye sockets, as blood leaked out of them. Then, his eyes shot back to the woman beside him, and his mouth dropped open.
"Alfonse!?!" he shouted in surprise. "You mean Prince Alfonse Fakar?!?"
He stood, facing the behemoth still standing in shadow.
"How would you recognize his voice, anyway?" he asked, staring at the unmoving creature. Sylvia choked out another sob before managing to collect herself. She rose, staff in hand, still trembling.
"Al-" she stuttered. "Alfonse Fakar was my intended."
In another situation, Fergusson might've been floored by this revelation. That the cleric the whole party knew almost nothing about was actually the princess-to-be of their country was huge news! But Fergusson was a professional, and didn't have time to process what had just come to light. He needed to deal with the monster before him.
The bloody cackle rang out again, and the skull twisted back to a vertical position, blood firing out of the nasal cavity.
"Me?" the prince's voice sang. "Do you imply that I'm to marry a pretty little thing like yourself? Lucky me!" The ground shook as the creature's body was revealed. Bloody muscle covered the hulking beast, its head far lower down its body than normal. The skull, clasped by thick red tendons, was held below the shoulders.
The bulging arms oozed blood, and it ran in rivulets down the creature's body, dripping off the tips of its protracted, spiked fingers. The limbs on the beast were trunks of muscle, and it oozed blood from everywhere. Fergusson had seen this type of creature before, but he'd never discovered where the eternal source of blood came from, not that it mattered.
The earth continued to shake as the Dreadnought pranced around, cackling and shouting "Lucky me! Lucky me! I get to marry and she's so pretty!"
This sent Sylvia into another fit of tears. Fergusson planned to ignore the girl and fight the low-ranking creature alone, but when she sniffled, the monster froze, one foot in the air.
Its head rotated around, coming to rest on the girl, and twisted upside-down. The black holes it had for eyes stared soullessly at her.
"Why do you cry, darling? We're together now!"
Sylvia's sniffles froze. She looked up into the empty eye sockets of the colossal mass of muscle.
"I... I don't think I can fight him, Fergusson. Not Alfonse."
The brawler nodded. "That's fine. I honestly don't think we even have to. The prince is dead, and that's now known. We can go, if you'd like."
She responded weakly in approval, and Sylvia began to walk back to the corridor, with Fergusson keeping his eye on the monster.
With speed the man never saw coming, the Dreadnought leaped towards a huge piece of rock jutting out of the floor, ripped it cleanly out of the ground, and hurled it towards the entrance.
It shot over Fergusson's head, the air whipping behind it pulling at his hair. With a crash, the massive chunk of rock slammed into the walls around the opening, collapsing it.
"That..." Fergusson said in awe. "That is far stronger than any Dreadnought I've ever seen..."
The cleric looked at the opening, depressed.
"That thief stole more than just Alfonse's voice."
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Wales and Karla had postponed traveling further into the dungeon to light a torch, since Sylvia had left them, and to discuss the specifics of their bet. Karla had, after all, declared that she would be able to shoot more monsters than he could kill with a sword. Wales thought it blasphemy and claimed that if it were true, he could always just finish off one of her monsters to steal the points. That had launched the pair into a heated discussion on their "rules of engagement".
And then, the sound like a mix of howling and hissing washed over them, and Wales turned towards the front of the cave with his torch, struggling to see the serpopards he knew were there. He threw the light down, and it washed across a wave of hungry yellow eyes.
He looked towards Karla, shrugging. "Anything goes?"
She nodded. "Anything goes."
And so began a five-minute war against a wave of Cordon's monstrosities.
Miradeen watched as Wales, between swings, fired blasts of purple energy from his sword towards the horde. Each sizzled fiercely across the serpopards' bodies, and the monsters howled. With a chop, Wales would lop off a swiping limb, or slash through the thick fur with ease. He truly made her warriors look like apprentices.
"Blighted Sting!" The human swordsman shouted out, sliding his palm across the flat of his blade. A scarlet aura flowed after it.
"Is there no end to his magic??" Miradeen hissed from the shadows. "He even casts with shortcuts!"
As he sliced and jabbed, Karla rapidly fired arrows from her bow. When a sneakier beast leaped from the shadows above her, the archer deftly withdrew a dagger from her waist and stabbed the creature in the throat. The body landed heavily upon her, and she dropped to the ground under it.
"Slacking already?" Wales shouted out, laughing as corpses of the slain fell around him.
A muffled shout of indignance arose from under the body, and Karla climbed out from under the creature while Wales kept a perimeter around her.
"They are truly skilled..." Miradeen mumbled, turning away from the fight to prepare her two guards for the encroaching monstrosities. She dismissed her blending spell to conserve the mana she knew she'd need.
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Shortly after the queen returned to prepare her allies, the human pair came sashaying down the sandy corridor, dripping and covered with gore. They carried two torches with them, and dropped them on the ground when they entered the chamber.
Now the clashing of blades rang out as Mari, with a cold sense of dread, watched Baruk defend himself against the onslaught from the blonde man Wales.
She had tried having the rats communicate with the two, but they had barely been able to mutter a single word before Karla shot an arrow into Yeshi's chest, barely missing his heart. She'd immediately ordered some citizens to pull him away as Miradeen ferociously engaged the fearsome archer. Yeshi wouldn't be fighting anymore in his condition. Mari wasn't sure if he'd even live.
Trena, the new warrior Mari had summoned, had been sent to back up the Dreadnought, and Kifalin had immediately rushed back to Terash after hearing the news of the adventurers. There would be no backup. But what could she do?
Wales rolled away from Baruk's counter and ran an open palm down the flat of his sword.
"Blighted Sting!"
Miradeen's eyes went wide even as she faced against the ranger and Wales swiftly knocked the sword out of Baruk's grip. With an overhead swing, the glowing blade soared down towards the Ratman, and Mari knew there was no way he could possibly block it. But he raised his hands in a grappling stance, his long claws the only protection against the scarlet weapon.
[No Baruk!] Mari shouted to the warrior. [Dodge!]
She watched in slow motion as the blade the blonde man wielded approached the rat. Was there nothing she could do?
[Listen to me!] But the warrior did not move to avoid the blow.
And then it clicked. Something she'd been refusing to even experiment with since she learned of it. She focused on the spell.
Possession!
Mari blinked, and the next thing she knew, a sword was flying towards her face. She shifted to the right and felt a real body move with her thoughts as the blade crashed against the sand-covered stone floor beside her.
She looked at her hands, seeing the clawed hands of the furry Ratman she'd possessed. And a blue aura surrounded them. It pulsed like her core. It was weird to see out of real eyes again.
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Wales was standing back, cautiously observing the glowing Ratman.
"It's some kind of spell!" he called back to the ranger.
Karla, for her part, was having more trouble facing off against Miradeen alone. It seemed that the caster was far more suited to fighting archers than Mari had initially thought. She had some sort of invisible forcefield that was blocking most of Karla's arrows, and she cast simple spells from her staff. Though the ranger looked more annoyed than anything else.
"Here!" she shouted, tossing him a small glass object. Mari couldn't figure out what it was, but she took the moment to dismiss a notification that had appeared in her vision after possessing Baruk.
Possession, Ratman
You've possessed the Ratman Baruk. While you inhabit his body, you will both benefit from increased reflexes and a large physical enhancement.
You are also capable of accessing relevant memory.
Comfort level: Neutral (default).
Cost: 10 E/s
Wales held the object up towards his face, and Mari realized what it was. A magnifying glass.
"It's the dungeon!" he shouted, throwing the item back to the archer, who caught it deftly. "The beast is buffed by it!"
"What?" she replied mockingly. "Can't handle a little dungeon buff?"
"The hell I can't!" Wales laughed, and charged Mari.
She dodged again, rolling out of the way with some instinctual knowledge of fighting she never had. With her new ratty eyes, she spotted Baruk's sword laying across the room near the entrance. When Wales swung at her again, Mari dashed towards it.
Sorry I'm controlling you, Baruk!
She grabbed the sword, and spun around, blocking a weak strike from Wales as he sprinted after her. He looked annoyed that she'd gotten her sword back, but the expression on his face rapidly changed to surprise when Mari moved faster than he expected, and he parried too slowly, taking a glancing blow to the shoulder.
"Agh!" the warrior huffed. Mari couldn't tell if it was because he was upset or in pain, but she swung again, and again, dodging his strikes, and whirling like she'd used blades for years.
"You're sloppy, Rat!" he shouted, before rolling away and gripping his sword firmly with both hands. Inhaling, Wales seemed to close his eyes for a moment, and Mari took the opportunity to go for his face.
A burst of white light blinded her, and she stumbled back, falling clumsily on the ground.
And that was when her energy ran out, and Mari was forcefully ejected from Baruk's body. She watched from the perspective of the Overseer as Wales stabbed downward into Baruk.
He seemed to expect the blow, as even though a hand covered his teary eyes, he rolled away from where Mari had fallen, the blade piercing his thigh.
Baruk roared, and Wales yanked his sword free. It seemed like Baruk had managed to regain his vision, and he stumbled to his feet, blood pouring from his wound. A clawed hand gripped the gash, and the other held out his sword desperately.
Then, Mari saw the eyes.
Seven sets of fiery yellow eyes, tinged with red hues, stared out of the darkness of the hallway. Mari's mental eyes went wide.
[Baruk!] she screamed to the rat trapped in a vicious melee. [Get away from the door!]
He continued to fight as the eyes snaked back and forth in perfect sync, watching the two warriors. As one, they rose, reaching the ceiling of the dark hall, and shot forwards into the light of the room.
Mari was about to shout out when Karla dashed forwards. She must've seen the monster, too. She leaped, tackling Wales and shoving him out of the way.
The huge snaking necks of the multi-headed serpopard pulled taut like a cord as they bit down on where Wales had been standing. One of the heads crashed into an invisible shield in front of Baruk and sent him flying. He landed on his face and slid a small distance.
Mari glanced towards Miradeen and saw she'd cast the same spell she'd used against Karla for Baruk. But it hadn't been as effective. Or perhaps the new monster was simply too strong.
"No!" Wales shouted as he rolled over to gaze up at the new monster, eyes threatening to burst out of his skull. "No! No! No! This dungeon has a hydra?!?"
Massive scaled feet, with scimitars for claws, burst into the room, ripping at the ground. The creature hauled itself into the room, its huge body shaking the ground. Multiple heads scraped the ceiling as they stared hungrily down.
Karla stood up, toppling away from the massive feet that almost crushed her. She shook her head, mouth agape at the monster.
"A tier two dungeon with a hydra? We should've buffed before coming in here... Wait..." She peered at the hydras heads as serpentine tongues darted in and out of its many mouths. It snaked around the room, seeming to appraise each fighter present.
[Anybody who's free!] Marianna broadcast to her dungeon. [Come to the citizen chamber! We need anybody who can fight!]
Karla seemed to resolve her issue and, for the first time, looked serious as she told Wales what she'd deduced.
"I think... that's a serpopard hydra... from Cordon."
Wales stumbled backward away from the monster, and grabbed Karla by the hand.
"We have to get out of here! There's no way I can fight that without the rest of the group!"
A head suddenly shot in his direction, and Wales spun, slicing the face of the monster open. It howled in agony, and more of the heads turned towards him. Wales stared in horror at the massive creature.
"Karla! Run! I'll buy you some time!"
Mari quickly switched perspectives, glancing at her viewports to see when reinforcements would arrive. In one room, the Dreadnought was dancing merrily around the room, chattering something to the burly man Fergusson, and his partner Sylvia. Tears ran down her cheeks, but Marianna didn't have time to pay attention to the room. As long as those two weren't going to make this situation any more complicated, she wouldn't worry about them.
Terash, on the other hand, lay beaten and bloody cuts running all along his body. He held a broken wooden spear in both hands weakly, like he'd been using it as a pair of makeshift escrima sticks.
Kifalin was fighting against the shadowy man in the hallway past the room. He hadn't made it back to Terash in time to help. And he was losing, too. Where was Trena?
Mari located her in behind the hidden wall leading to the Dreadnought's chambers, waiting for a chance to sneak in.
[Trena! Go help Terash and Kifalin! Terash is badly injured!]
The female warrior nodded and dashed off with her bone pickaxe, eager to assist.
Mari changed viewports once more, finding the rat citizens were on their way to assist their queen, then she returned to her view of the hydra.
Miradeen had backed away from the monster, and Wales was furiously hacking and slashing at its chest as he dodged the heads. Mari was amazed a human could even move like that. Glowing with a yellow aura, he flipped, twisted, and twirled, landing strikes when he could.
Karla had disappeared, and Wales seemed to have forgotten his surroundings. Marianna wasn't going to complain about that. As long as he was fighting the beast, he was ignoring her and so was the hydra.
It seemed like Wales was winning as he lopped off one of the heads.
Mari watched with mixed emotions, unsure of who she wanted to win. Wales rolled away and rolled his eyes.
"Oops," he said, looking at the decapitated head. As Mari watched in confusion, the disembodied head dissolved, the particles floating up and towards the neck.
The blood spurting from the wound was choked out, and skin sealed over the neck. Then, as the other heads continued to strike at Wales, it split in two, the ends forming into heads each identical to the earlier one. And their eyes burned with fury.
That's when Mari remembered that the hydra Hercules had fought grew two new heads whenever one was removed. How had he beat it again?
She racked her brain, struggling to remember back to her days in middle school English. She looked around, before seeing the torches that lit the room.
That's it! She exclaimed internally. Fire!
[Miradeen! You have to burn the stumps after he cuts them off!]
The rat queen looked towards the Overseer planted on the roof, squinting. She passed her staff between her hands while she watched Wales hack and slash, the yellow aura burning brighter. He glanced over his shoulder and glared at the rat queen, saying something Mari couldn't make out of the noise of the rumbling beast he fought. Then, the queen nodded and Marianna called out to her dungeon once more.
[Please hurry! We need all the help we can get!]
She was rewarded with a loud screech echoing through the dungeon. Knocking sounded down the dungeon, and just as Marianna was about to change viewports, the source of the sound came into view behind the hydra.
It was the unicorn. Mari's metaphysical jaw dropped open in shock, and the queen's eyes widened. Wales glanced past the creature, seeing the new arrival, and stumbled back in shock. One of the heads took advantage of the opening, and darted towards him. It opened its jaws wide, and Wales shoved his sword in between, jumping away from the other two heads that were snapping at him. The punctured head recoiled in agony, and swung around viciously, trying to dislodge the weapon inside.
[You're here!] Mari shouted to the zipper-mouthed unicorn. [Be careful!]
Then, the horned horse charged forward, its horn shining with white light.
The hydra kicked out, a foot connecting with the horse's chest, and sending it flying across the room. It rolled a few times, before getting to its feet, the bottom jaw opening and rolling back, revealing jagged teeth and a long, red tongue. Acid dripped from the tongue, boring into the ground and leaving deep holes in the stone.
A clatter from behind alerted Marianna to the rat citizens carrying wooden and bone tools as they entered the fight. The group froze upon seeing the serpopard hydra, but as they stood there, gaping, a voice called out from across the room.
"Ratmen! We do not falter in the face of our enemy! Charge!"
Baruk had gotten back to his feet and was holding his bloody head firmly with one hand. With the other, he wielded his steel sword and pointed it towards the hydra as he yelled.
Then, he charged the monster, leaping into the fray as Wales backed away. His sword was still lodged in the monsters mouth, and the dagger he had left didn't allow for much space. It was not a comfortable situation. Then, the blonde man grabbed a pouch hanging from around his waist.
Opening it, he removed his glove and bit his thumb, dripping blood into the pouch as he dodged a striking head, watching as the unicorn kicked and lashed with its tongue at the monster.
He shook the pouch, and then stuck a finger into the pouch, drawing out a black gooey paste. Hastily, he traced lines on the ground, drawing an intricate circle away from the monster as it attacked the rats. Then, he chanted.
"Bound to my service, you'll enter this realm. You may be naught when I am no more, but labor devout! I shall grant the glory to sate thy hunger. Promised demon, come forth!"
The circle glowed a fierce red, and a pillar of light burst out from the ground. Black ashes encircled the pillar, whirling around it like a small tornado.
A few of the hydras heads stopped attacking to witness the event. Some of the citizens were shocked out of their fight, but the heads that were still attacking swiftly bit down into them, and they screamed. Miradeen called out to them, chanting, and covering them in a green healing light. It was chaos, and it sounded like hell.
Mari had regenerated thirty mana in the three minutes since she'd been forced out of Baruk, and quickly possessed a female Ratman that was about to be bitten, forcing her to dodge the strike. When she was ejected from the body, the citizen proceeded to slam her pickaxe into one of the heads of the monster.
Then a howl like the shrieking souls of the dying reverberated through the room. The pillar of red light suddenly vanished, and a proud creature stood within. The white chest of the creature was puffed out, and the massive claws like butcher knives scraped across the stone like nails on a chalkboard.
But the most intimidating part of the creature wasn't its body or the hand on the end of the tail, wielding a massive boomerang. The most unnerving piece of the creature was the red veil that hung down over its face, completely obscuring it from sight. The veil seemed to breathe as it swayed, and red mist oozed out from under it, surrounding the beast. The jagged silver eyes that pierced the covering of the veil stared intelligently at the monster before it, examining the rats, many of which lay unmoving across the ground, and the unicorn, with dangling tongue whipping the hydra.
"Go torium!" Wales shouted at the monster, pointing towards the hydra. "Kill it!" Then, he turned and looked towards where Karla had been laying. Seeing she'd disappeared, Wales fled out into the dark hall. When one of the heads snapped towards him, he dove, rolling along the floor. As he glanced back, the monster he'd summoned, the torium, pounced forward, gracefully landing near the hydra, and slicing its head clean off.
The head began to disintegrate, and the particles glided towards the bleeding stump. The torium watched with interest, but Mari wasn't going to have the hydra making even more heads when the rats were almost wiped out by eight.
[Sombody!] She desperately shouted, maddened by being unable to help. [Burn the stump!]
As Baruk reached to grab a torch, one of the hydra's massive clawed feet struck him, sending him stumbling back into another Ratman. It tamped out the flames, and the room went dark. A shriek sounded out once more, as Mari's night vision turned on, and the unicorn charged the beast again, its tongue whipping behind it.
The hydra tried to kick it away again, but the unicorn dodged, climbing the leg, and leaping over its back. The tongue whipped around it like a hurricane and ran across the healing stump.
The hydra screamed as the skin on the end of the stump began to bubble and steam. The regeneration stopped, and the neck dropped to the floor, deadweight.
The rats cheered. One head was down. The torium glanced back and forth between both the rats and the hydra, as the unicorn gazed at it expressionless. A conversation seemed to transpire between their gazes, and the torium swiftly pivoted, throwing the massive bladed boomerang it somehow wielded at the end of its tail.
Mari heard the weapon cut through the air like a helicopter. It sliced a few heads off the hydra, before returning to the torium's hand, catching another in its path.
The few conscious rats gazed in awe as the summoned creature nonchalantly decapitated several heads in a single blow, while the unicorn leaped once more, sending the necks dropping to the ground. Now the creature was stumbling over itself, and having trouble attacking any of the rats that were left. They climbed the fallen necks, with their queen casting another spell.
"The rate of rise has fallen, and its broken heart beats solemnly. Fall into the starving maw!"
She collapsed, and the hydra's remaining three heads slammed into the ground, cracking the stone as the earth itself seemed to bite down on the necks of the monster. The citizens immediately jumped down, stabbing into the creature as it cried out and flailed.
The unicorn stomped into one of the hydra's heads, turning it to mush, and melting it as it did. Once all three had been slaughtered and burned, it stopped, breathing heavily and snorting. Then, it glanced up at the cat demon standing nearby.
Shrill, howling laughter echoed out from underneath the veil, and the creature turned, and strode out of the room, clacking its massive claws against the ground as it did.
Mari immediately checked her viewports. There didn't seem to be any more monsters coming into her dungeon, and the other two rooms she'd seen the adventurers in were empty. Stone littered the Dreadnought's room as it lay there on the floor, the entryway smashed to pieces.
Terash wasn't in his room, but Trena had brought him to the backroom, where Yeshi lay dying near Mari's core.
[They're gone!] Mari told the conscious citizens. A cheer resonated through the room, and the citizens began to carry their wounded to the back room.
Then, a scream pierced the post-battle silence.
A single serpopard stood near the corner of the room, Miradeen's lifeless corpse hanging from its mouth, her tongue lolling out.