After a few minutes of rest, James led the novices through the portal on the other side of the arena. On the other side was a false sky depicting the night above them and the dense forest of floor 12. Each of them looked around and saw no immediate enemies waiting for them to enter the floor. Even as they tentatively walked around for a minute no enemies showed themselves.
“Where are the enemies? Don’t tell me I’ll have to start burning down the forest again only for them to pop out of holes or sneak up on us from behind.”
“I shouldn’t say what the enemies are at the moment. And I would not recommend starting to burn down the trees. You will waste too much time and mana. And the enemies of the floor will just watch and wait it out for you to clear an area of attack for them. In the meantime, good luck.”
The four novice’s spread out and began to fan through the immediate forest area for threats before returning to the entry portal.
“I didn’t notice any enemies or traps nearby,” Derek said.
“Me neither. Maybe they are bunched up at the exit portal waiting for us,” said Ian. “What did you see with your bug eye powers?”
“I didn’t see anything either. If there are traps nearby then they were well hidden. Should we just pick a direction then? We can’t wait here forever.”
“Just take the lead and move us away from traps. I’ll take over and burn everything to the ground once we encounter the enemies on this floor.”
“That’s fine by me,” said Derek.
The four of them left their huddle session and let Naomi take the lead. Wes then Ian and Derek followed Naomi. They started following the path they had led on the goblin floor due to the reused terrain. Even if the exit portal wasn’t likely to be situated at the same approximate location as before it was a good place for them to start. Especially when there were no enemies to fight.
A few minutes later.
SNAP
Ian let out a yelp and collapsed. Gripping his leg, he felt the bear trap biting into his leg causing blood to drip down his foot. He tried adjusting his foot but felt his broken ankle bones grind against one another. He looked up for help and only saw Naomi looking down at him with a smirk.
Ian lashed out with both hands, but Naomi was obviously going to be too fast for him. The bear trap pulled him back and dug into his foot even more. He let out more sounds of pain and collapsed to the ground. His arms were scuffed up and dirt covered his robes further, the enchantments working overtime to self-clean.
Shortly after Derek was by his side and helping to pull apart the trap. Naomi just watched from the side and smartly moved away from him. Ian wrenched his foot out of the trap and was sitting on the ground when it started to shake. Leaves started to fall from the branches of the trees above.
“What was that?” asked Wes.
“Probably the enemies we have yet to see,” she turned to Ian. “Hopefully you can hobble away from them fast enough otherwise you might choke on your own smoke trying to defend yourself.”
“Well, this wouldn’t have happened if you had been doing your job.”
“So what? Am I your mommy now? Watching over your every step so you don’t crawl over a cliff. Please. You wanted to fight that troll by yourself even to your death, but I stepped in and made sure we all helped you. You would have been flailing and burning through your mana faster than it healed.”
Around them, the sounds of shaking stopped and were instead replaced by growls and hollering. Ian hurriedly uncorked his single health potion and downed it as quickly as he could.
“We are down to four health potions and have yet to see the twentieth floor. You happy?”
“Very.”
Ian threw a fire ball towards her head, but his attack went wide so Naomi had to dodge to avoid it.
“Better not waste the mana potions either or we will be out of here by the end of the floor.”
“Screw you,” Ian said as he stood up with the help of Derek.
Naomi pulled out her bow a pointed it at Ian before turning towards the sounds of the creatures in the distance.
“It looks like we have a bunch of goblin riders on what looks like deformed wolves. They must have smelled your blood and heard your crying.”
“They are worgs and it is hobgoblins that should be riding them. They are basically just closer to human-sized goblins that might have some magical abilities. And those are limited to physical strength boosts. Usually,” said Ian.
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“And how do you know this?” Naomi asked.
“I had to read up on what to expect if I wanted to get to the 25th floor.”
“That stuff is supposed to be secret at least for our first run. Whatever,” Naomi sighed,” Did you at least get any information that might help us here?”
“Not really. They supposedly have memorized the trap locations that have been set which is why it’s taking them a while to reach us. Their whole group has to maneuver around them,” Ian paused thinking to himself. “Derek we need to reset the bear trap but set it in front of us under the bushes there. Quickly if you can.”
Derek picked up the bear trap and ripped the chain and stake keeping it in the ground and moved it into place. Wes helped pound the stake into the ground as Derek reset the trap. Once it was in place they hurried back to the others.
Branches snapped and the trees bent around the worgs and their riders. Arrows and a few fireballs flew on either side of the encroaching worgs and their riders in an attempt to push them together towards their set trap. A few seconds later their simple preparations activated.
SNAP
The leading worg rider went toward causing those around it to follow. Only a few worgs made it around the trap but the damage was done. The first worg flipped over and with its momentum and weight, it toppled a tree causing more issues for the hobgoblins. A few hobgoblins stumbled up or got off their worg further behind, but Derek was on them. He took the head off an unprepared hobgoblin and ran towards the next one nearest him. He occasionally would get cuts from lucky hobgoblins, but none were very impeding.
Naomi and Ian followed shortly after while Wes protected them with his shield. A few arrows flew in their direction, but they were drawn towards Wes’s tower shield. The hobgoblins hurriedly prepared a new defense but their main arsenal as cavalry troops were ruined. A few hobgoblins stayed up on their worgs, but they were few and far between. Even as the hobgoblins were regrouping their forces their worgs were being dealt with.
As Derek focused on a mix of prepared and unprepared hobgoblins Naomi smartly began dealing with the worgs and Ian soon followed. With the worgs dealt with the hobgoblin's attack power more than halved. Regardless of their loss of rides the hobgoblins fought fiercely even as the last of them died.
Derek rested while his wounds healed. He also took this time to wash over the blood and dirt from his scrapes. Their exhausted party paused for a minute before returning to their trek toward the exit portal. As luck would have it the exit portal was situated in a similar location as the last time there were in this forest. The main difference was that the portal was set atop a new hill that had held worgs and hobgoblins atop it. They stood in wait for the novices. The dungeon had directed them to hold their positions so that is what the hobgoblins did without question.
“Wait,” said Naomi holding everyone back, “How should we approach the portal and the hobgoblins? We won’t have a trap again and I’m not sure where we can find a new one.”
“We need to deal with the worgs first,” Wes answered.
“Obviously we need to do that. But that isn’t a plan,” said Ian, “Maybe we can still lure them into a part of the forest proper. It will reduce their mobility and make it easier for us to deal with them.”
“That might work,” said Naomi, “We just need someone as bait and then an ambush.”
After a bit of arguing Ian was pushed forward as the one to act as bait due to his ability to create plenty of fire around himself. He used his flames as a beacon and drew the attention of the hobgoblins. He grumbled as he walked up the hill, but he did as he was told.
In the meantime, Derek waited behind a tree and Naomi got up into the tree. Wes also waited below readying his shield for use. Once Ian got halfway up the hill the hobgoblins started to notice him, and he started his firework show. A few bolts hit the worgs but not much damage occurred. Despite the minimal damage, the attacks riled up the worgs and their riders in turn.
The worgs charged and Ian turned around and ran. He followed the same path he walked, and the riders were soon on his tail. Ian ran until he almost hit Wes and dove right. As he dove Derek swung down on the first worg rider. It was a clean cut and the worg was decapitated causing the hobgoblin to be flung forward and off its now dead worg and into Wes’s empowered shield. With a crunch, the hobgoblin’s body folded. The stunned hobgoblin barely had any time to look up or try to before an arrow went through its head.
The collapsed worg caused the other riders problems and so did the trees as they tried to fight. In the end, it took a few more minutes for the four of them to clean up the rest of the hobgoblins so they could continue onward.
“We are not continuing onward,” said James.
“What! You can’t do this to us.”
“You threw a fireball at a teammate.”
“It was a joke, and I was aiming at the tree behind her.”
“That’s not how I saw it.”
“Well, that is bullshit. I want to continue.”
“It depends on if your teammates agree and if you continue to misbehave.”
“I want out of here,” said Naomi from behind Ian, “He is a terrible teammate and has said little more than rude remarks on every floor.”
“There you have it. I will not try to convince your teammates to change, and I will not be arguing about this with you.”
Ian huffed and turned around. He looked up to the portals. On the left stood the exit and out of the dungeon and on the right stood the entrance to the seventeenth floor. Ian walked forward a few paces before deciding to go for it.
Ian sprinted for the portal shifting his direction towards the right one. He was a foot through the portal when he heard shouts from the others. Ian felt the portal pull him through and he felt the world change as did the landscape. The dense tree covering the floor were replaced by cracked and drying ground with only a few dead trees littering the area. They were all wrapped in dark vines that also ran along the ground. The sky had barely changed at all except for a harsh red moon in the sky.
Ian took a few steps forward after looking around when he was pulled back. He yelped as he was pulled back by James.
“You are not to do that EVER again. You are lucky that I have an escape token that will send you out of here while the rest of us finish this floor without you.”
James forced Ian to sit down, and he pulled out the returned token. As he leaned forward to hand it over the ground started to shake and the ground cracked around them causing James to fall. James felt everything in slow motion like he would with one of his abilities. He reached out to his abilities and felt none of them active or activate as he fell over and went unconscious.