Gregory blinked his eyes open. The room around him came into focus, with the dungeon spirit having returned. The hazy figure was standing over him.
He expected to feel like death, or to be dead, but he felt great. His body was completely healed, and he barely felt tired at all. He managed to sit up, and saw Cooper sitting up as well, yawning.
“Congratulations. You have both passed the Trial of Resolve. Your unflinching desire to protect one another pulled you through.”
“Did we defeat the skeleton knight?”
“Almost, you managed to break it in half, but it would have still been able to fight without legs. Fortunately, your actions allowed you to pass the trial, and the skeleton was dismissed.”
“What happened after I was hit? I think I was knocked out.”
“Yeah, you weren’t moving, I had just a sliver of health left, and the skeleton was about to wreck you with another hit, but I managed to get another magically charged hit in.”
Gregory could see his sword sitting near the middle of the room, where he had dropped it after striking the skeleton. There were still patches of blood all over the floor from where the two of them had been wounded, but no other evidence of the battle remained.
He looked down at his shoulder. There was still a hole in his tunic where the arrow had struck him, but his skin was clean an unmarred.
“I see the blood, and the rip in my tunic, but it almost feels like a dream.”
“I have repaired you both to perfect condition. You have passed the Trial, and may continue on to the dungeon’s guardian,” the spirit said. It raised an arm and pointed towards a new exit at the far end of the room.
“No bonus?” Cooper asked, tilting his head slightly.
“There is a bonus, but only if you clear the dungeon. Now go.”
With that, the spirit faded away. Gregory got to his feet and headed towards the exit, Cooper following by his side.
“Thanks for trying to save me. I don’t know if that spirit guy would have let that thing hit me again or not.”
“We’re in this together, Cooper. We protect each other, right?”
“Of course!”
The exit door pulled open and they found yet another corridor. This one was different than the previous ones though. It looked more like the entrance cavern. It was a damp, dank, wet cave, with uneven footing and random formations from the floor and ceiling. Glowing fungus illuminated the space with a bluish glow. The cave twisted and turned, so they couldn’t see the end.
“This looks like the entrance, but not most of the middle of the dungeon. That’s weird right?”
“I’ve completed about half a dungeon, so I can’t call myself an expert, but it does seem a little weird. Makes me want a nice ball to chew on.”
Gregory supposed a comfort item would help with anxiety. His mind was drawn back to the cave before him. Sometimes he let his mind wander a little too much.
“It’s like there was one dungeon, but then another dungeon, or a least a piece of one, was just popped into the middle.”
Cooper just scratched his side. He didn’t have any ideas.
They started making their way into the cave. After Gregory tripped a few times, Cooper stopped him.
“Can you not see well in here?”
“It’s a little dark. I keep missing steps up or down, especially while I’m trying to watch my head. They made this cave for someone a little shorter than me.”
“I forget humans see differently as well. I can see fine, follow me and I will guide you to avoid tripping.”
After that, Gregory didn’t trip again, though he did hit his head a few more times.
When they made it out of the winding cave, Gregory was wet and had a mild headache. The moisture in the cave had made it hard to avoid dripping water and puddles, one of which he had fallen into early.
The cave dumped them into another cavern. It was similar to the first in size, but it was more level. Another similarity was the moonlight streaming in, and the large doors with torches on the far wall.
The biggest difference was the large flat stretch of ground and the large hairy creature that stood in the middle, waiting for them.
Gregory should have expected this. They had walked into a troll’s mouth coming in, after all.
The huge brown troll stood up to it’s full height. It had thick arms of sinewy muscle and an oversized head with dangerous looking teeth. Its eyes blazed with fire as they rested on Gregory and Cooper.
“Ok, I feel like this is part of the Trial of Resolve. Maybe that spirit was lying about us passing, because I do not want to fight that thing.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“It does look very strong. But this is our only way forward. Our path to strength goes through that thing. What is that thing? It smells like a wild beast, but I have never seen or smelled one before.”
“It’s called a Troll. It’s what the cave was shaped to look like outside.”
“Do you know how to defeat it?”
“I’ve always been told fire, but we don’t have any of that.”
“I guess we just try to fight. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’m going to be.”
Gregory readied his sword. They would try the strategy that had, so far, been working for them. Gregory would engage, and Cooper would strike from behind.
Gregory rushed in, and the Troll roared.
It swung a massive fist at Gregory, which he tried to deflect with his sword. The impact rang his sword like a bell, and the force nearly made him lose his grip on the weapon. His wrist screamed, but he fought through the pain. He had managed to knock the fist off course, with the huge creature’s momentum carrying it past Gregory as he slipped to the side.
Then he and Cooper struck at the same time. He thrusted with a mana infused strike, and Cooper’s fangs flashed as he sunk his teeth into the troll’s leg.
To Gregory’s delight, the troll howled with pain as his sword’s passive additional damage made its skin blister under the patchy fur. He had been fighting the fire-resistant skeletons for so long, he forgot about the additional effect.
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Channeling Sword of the Desert Wyrm
* Weapon: Sword
* Rarity: Rare (Upgradeable)
* Crafted from the heart of a Wild Desert Wyrm with the assistance of a Master Magician.
* Allows the user to channel spells through the blade. Doing so will imbue the weapon with an effect based on the spell channeled.
* When not channeling spells, this sword does additional scorching damage.
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Cooper’s attack had caused a nice gash in the beast's leg, but almost as soon as he pulled away, the bleeding slowed. Then the wound started to scab over.
“It has massive regeneration! That’s why fire is key!” Gregory shouted, getting in an uncharged strike
“So what do we do?” Cooper asked, jumping out of the way as the troll turned on them.
“My sword’s extra damage doesn’t seem to heal. Try to distract it, and I’ll load it up with damage!”
They went to work. Cooper snapped at the beast’s face, making it bellow in rage, and try to chase down the dog. It was fairly lumbering though, and was only able to get some glancing hits on Cooper when he darted back in to strike.
Cooper had to keep putting himself at risk, otherwise the troll would turn back to Gregory, who was charging up another strike.
It took Gregory a few moments of focus to charge up his blade again. He had done it quickly when he had been in desperation mode against the skeleton knight, but now he needed a few precious moments.
He lunged back in at the troll’s back, scoring another hit. He didn’t wait for another charge up, and kept battering the beast.
The troll did not like just letting Gregory whale on it, so it activated an ability.
The ground cracked between Gregory’s feet. A tiny quake made the ground lurch, and Gregory fell, his head striking the ground first, dazing him. When his hand hit a moment later, he didn’t have the presence of mind to keep a grip on his sword. The blade skittered across the floor after he dropped it.
The troll finally got a clean hit on Cooper knocking him away. Then it turned back to the prone Gregory.
A flash of panic and a mad scrabble saved him from being crushed under a huge foot.
He regained his feet and put some distance between himself and the troll. He looked around desperately. The moonlight and the flickering torchlight wasn’t quite enough to totally illuminate the space, and he couldn’t see his sword anywhere. He had lost track of it.
Wait! He thought with renewed hope.
“Cooper! Get its attention again, I have an idea!”
Cooper had been running in to attack again, and took the request to heart. He jumped onto the troll's back, a Bone Breaker strike digging into the monster’s shoulder.
Gregory sprinted away from them. Towards the exit to the chamber. Towards the torches.
They were simple torches, large and blazing, with plenty of fuel. He jerked one, trying to get it off the wall, but it was latched on.
He glanced back, where the troll was spinning in circles, trying to grab Cooper, but not quite able to figure out what was happening.
Gregory focused, there were a pair of latches. He undid one, two, then pulled on the torch. It still didn’t move.
“What!? Come on,” another glance back, Cooper was being tossed away by the troll. He didn’t look to hurt, but he rolled away and was clearly dazed when he stopped.
The troll turned towards Gregory. It saw what he was trying to do and bellowed again, starting to run towards him.
Dammit dammit dammit. Come on. There!
The torch had been jammed in, it came free with a wrench.
Gregory spun, holding the torch in front of him.
It hit the side of the troll's head as it lunged in.
It immediately hissed in pain, backing away from the burning torch. Hair on its face was catching fire, and the red burn was more severe than the brief contact should have caused.
Gregory pressed his advantage. Waving the torch and driving the beast back. He saw Cooper dash by, but was focused on keeping the troll on the back foot.
When it stumbled slightly, he was able to thrust the torch forward and get a hit on the troll’s chest.
It howled again, but the agonized howl quickly turned to rage.
It lurched for him, deciding that a little pain now was better than a fighting retreat.
Now it was Gregory who was being pushed back, torch barely deflecting raking claws. The troll still wouldn’t fully commit and that saved Gregory.
He lost ground more quickly than he had gained it. He was closing in on the door and running out of room.
Then, he saw something that was — up to that point in his young life — the coolest thing he had ever seen.
Cooper soared through the air, he had climbed a small rock formation nearby and jumped off. He plunged towards the troll, Gregory’s blade, blazing with blue mana-charged light, held in his mouth.
Cooper twisted just as he was about to hit, and the blade plunged deep into the troll.
All was still for a moment, until the troll's burning eyes faded to black, and it tipped over.
Gregory had to scramble out of the way so it didn’t land on him.
“Did we do it? I think we did it!”
“That. Was. AWESOME.”