The gloom of the dungeon was oppressive. While they weren’t too far underground, the lack of light and the rhythmic hum from whatever was at the bottom of the staircase was stifling. Sally had been given a torch to hold—seeing as she wasn’t expected to contribute much to the combat—and the urge to just throw it to burn out the whole place down was tempting.
As soon as they were all fully in the Dungeon, the Party had been apprehensive and on edge. It was very much something she wasn’t used to. The undead Outsiders had a calmer approach to potential death, which made some sense when she thought about it like that.
Up ahead, Poppy stopped. There was a grumbling between the men as Sally and Kenny caught them up.
[Poppy: It’s a dead end?]
Sally peered past them to see what was going on, and in fact, the way forward was blocked as if the Dungeon just ended there. They were now in a rather slim corridor just past the end of the stairs - so it wasn’t as though they had missed a turning or side door. The buzzing here was louder too, so they were close to something…
She clenched her teeth together as the pieces fit together. “Trap,” she growled, “back to the stairs.”
Before she could turn away, it began. The first stinger pierced through the wall like a giant steel nail. Virgil went to turn away from it, but it gouged through half of his neck. The air vibrated with the pulsing of wings, Claude chanted a healing spell, and another spike scraped against Poppy’s armor with a squeal.
Sally turned, but Kenny was already off, almost out of view up the stairs. She spun with her sword to avoid impalement as another stinger burst through the wall, sparks shedding from her blade as the force knocked her from it, closer to the rest of the group.
Claude yelped and stumbled back into her as a stinger went through his calf, right before bubbles of white energy bloomed up around the four of them. Flickering blue light came from the far end, where the knight was trying to fight back against the piercing attacks. The ones that had started the assault had withdrawn, probably to ready up a second wave. Best she could judge, there were four or five enemies.
As she pushed the cleric back to stable footing, there was a loud crack. Her eyes darted back to the staircase as a gap ran around the walls and ceiling after the last step. The whole section they were in started to lean and separate from the staircase. Very clever.
Few other compliments came to her mind as vertigo took the Party tumbling into each other, to then squashed against Poppy near the end. The false room bounced from the edge of the true stairs and dropped away into emptiness with a groan.
----------------------------------------
Chuck rubbed at his eyes. “Didn’t think it would take this long.”
“It was a troubled world. Getting those first few steps might be more difficult.” Dent shrugged. "Told you we should have staggered the drops.”
“Did not.”
The swordsman grunted. “Regardless. You have the choice of what to do. Wait, send Theo now, or send him tomorrow.”
“Eh.” The Architect looked over at the patient vampire, who was leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed. “I thought you might be curious about the inner workings of the System. All these numbers we have going on here.”
Theo didn’t budge, but pulled a slight face. “Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s already sad that I have every power that I could possibly want. If I knew how the world actually functioned, then it would take any remaining joy out of the process.”
“Fine.” Chuck rolled his eyes. “Get in the damned machine, I’m already on edge - I don’t need Mr. Told You So and Mr. Bored of Existence winding me up.”
“Neat!” The vampire hopped out of the chair with a grin and went to lay in the empty machine.
Dent got up to set him in place, putting the heavy cuff on his right wrist. “Any questions about your mission?”
Theo raised an eyebrow. “I just have [Novice Strike] and [Vampire Bite], correct?”
“Correct.”
“And I’ll be down there until I die, speak my safe word, or get powerful enough for you to take over their System?”
“That’s right.”
“Just one request then.” He smiled, exposing his fangs. “Let me know as soon as you’re in contact with Sally, and set our Chat channel up as soon as possible.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You have my word.” Dent gave him a nod and smiled. “Just spooling up. Hang tight for a minute.” He looked over at the Architect.
Chuck sighed. “Not optimal. Everything is within safe bounds, but… no, it’s fine - I’m worrying too much. We are green, good to go.”
“Say the word, Theo, and you’re away.” Dent gave the machine a few pats. “Best of luck out there.”
“The word,” Theo replied, and was gone.
----------------------------------------
Sally rolled up to her feet from the fallen debris, a twinge of pain in her right leg - but it was just a sprain. Their false room had dropped from the staircase, which was actually now an open sided spiral that carried on down into this wide chamber they now found themselves in.
A peaked dome, dark recesses in the walls that were almost hexagons like honeycomb - but not quite. In the air buzzed four large, bipedal insects. More hornet-looking than the bees she had expected. They didn’t look too pleased to have visitors.
Poppy stepped up beside her, some of her plate dented and a huge scrape across her shield where a stinger had been blocked. The knight gave her a nod, but didn’t have the time to type out a plan of action in chat.
“I would be wary,” Archie said from just behind them. “You are vastly underpowered at present.”
Sally glanced behind her to see Virgil still prone. He was pale and his good eye was unfocused and staring blankly at the ceiling. Claude was trying to heal him and stem the constant flow of blood from the man’s neck.
Any joy she had felt for joining this new world cooled away right there.
She flourished her sword and readied herself. “Don’t you die on me Poppy, I’ll never forgive you.”
The knight gave her a brief nod before raising up her shield.
Four level-nine giant hornets? Sally seethed at the Monsters. How dare they threaten her? Did they not know what she had achieved? What she capable of?
A hissing screech reverberated around the large room as the first two hornets darted down toward them. Poppy was struck first, a flash of red covering her shield before her own sword lashed out with an amber glow.
Sally rolled to the floor to avoid the descending stinger of her opponent. The hardened spike drew a deep gouge through the flooring before the creature landed on its feet and turned to her. Chittering mandibles and alien eyes tried to make sense of what kind of threat she even was.
She hit it with [Gravecurse] as she got back up to her feet. It lashed out with a thin arm that ended with a hook-like appendage, which she managed to block, before a second one came quicker than she could react to. Pain through her left side, which she ignored.
With a wild upswing she attacked the Monster, drawing her dagger into her left hand as the hornet blocked her clumsy attempt to damage it. As it raised up to counter, it shrieked as a spark of radiant energy burst from its side. It turned its large eyes over toward Claude, who had cast the spell, giving Sally just the opening she needed.
[Chain] struck the distracted bug, bringing it toward her. Both the hornet’s arms crossed to stop her sword, but her dagger came through and wedged into their neck. Foul ichor burst from the wound, and the Monster twitched and tried to fight against it.
“Useless stepping stone,” she growled, forcing her blade deeper into the thick chitin.
[Eat Brains]
She pushed the corpse away just as the second airborne creature struck her. Long stinger pierced through her upper chest near her shoulder, the wound immediately burning as if it had been set alight. She lashed out with her dagger as the hornet dodged back, withdrawing the sharp appendage so that they could land on the ground.
Sally’s right arm was numb now, the attack either breaking some of her nerves or they held some kind of poison or debilitating goo on their pointy parts. It was difficult to raise the sword up against them. Before she needed to, her zombified one rose up and immediately got the attention away from her.
Poppy bashed her shield three times with her glowing sword and a pulse of energy washed through the area. The knight had slain one, and was now drawing the focus of the remaining two with some kind of taunt.
A heal washed through Sally, alleviating some of the pain. She had started sweating, something uncomfortable for her undead form. [Gravecurse] switched to the one Poppy was attacking. She stumbled forward to join the fray, but her body wasn’t very responsive.
Claude sent out another attack, and her zombie hornet lashed into the remaining two. For some reason she took a step forward and then two back, before deciding to stick in place.
“Stay put,” Archie said from her side. “Caution is your greatest shield.”
She grumbled, but heeded his words. Her zombie was cut down. Poppy heavily damaged one of the Monsters, who tried to back away to recover. [Chain] brought it over to her, the surprised hornet impaling itself on her sword and almost knocking her to the floor from the impact. [Eat Brains] finished them off, and she collapsed with a groan. Tasted like battery acid.
“A debilitating poison,” Claude said from amongst the debris. “You are under-leveled so it is worse for you.”
At the moment, it seemed worst for Virgil. She ground her teeth together and pushed herself back up to her feet. Poppy spun with a flash of crimson, decapitating the last hornet, before the woman dropped to one knee.
“Zero out of five stars,” Sally said, shuffling herself over to the two men.
The cleric looked up at her. “Monsters are one thing, but the traps are often more deadly.”
She nodded. A trap had probably been the closest she’d ever come to dying, although she’d had a few close calls over the year or two. “How’s he looking?”
“It’s…” Claude looked exhausted as he glanced between her and the prone man. “It will be touch and go. He will need to be taken back to the Keep, and rest there.”
“For longer than five minutes, I take it.”
A nod was the only response.
[Poppy:… ]
[Poppy: I’m sorry, I feel at fault.]
Sally looked back to the knight, who righted herself to her feet, but hung her head low. Not willing to look back toward Virgil. Might sound a little cruel to say that he knew what he was getting into. She never asked them to follow her… but she’d have died without them, too.
“We’ll take him back. The valley is open. It is up to you all what you decide to do now.” The zombie shrugged and lifted up her left hand, still clutching the dagger and shaking slightly. A golden STAR returned her glare.
“Oh, joy.” She rolled her eyes.