“I can switch off healing everyone every 25 minutes until we’re all completely healed,” I said, “then we’ll finish this dungeon.” I used rejuvenation another 6 times over the next couple of hours; once on Aaron and Gabrielle and twice on Gary and myself. After that, we waited for my essence to recover fully before we moved forward. We had Gabrielle cook up some of our rations since none of us wanted to wait until we got back outside of the Bloodfields. Finally, we made our way back to the cave entrance and headed inside. After a short walk, the tunnel slowly started to fill with clouds of fog or mist. The tunnel continued sloping slightly down with no other changes and we cautiously moved forward.
“The tunnels opened up,” Gary whispered from a few meters in front of me. I could barely see through the haze of white mist so I walked quickly to close the distance between us. There was a faint murmur from moving water ahead of us and the air was rapidly heating up as we moved into the room.
“Should we just be heading straight in?” I asked anxiously. I stood a meter behind Zack and Gary with Aaron and Gabrielle close enough behind me to touch. We had walked about ten meters into the room and as I looked around I couldn’t see anything other than thick clouds of mist. The heat was getting more intense the further we went and the sound of moving water was swiftly getting louder.
“We can’t fight like this, let’s move back,” Gary finally replied. I turned around with a nod and focused on following Gabrielle back the way we came. A loud skittering sound broke up the uneasy silence a few steps later. All of us froze at the sound and I swallowed worriedly, painfully aware of how little we could see in the mist. I hesitated for another moment as we all stood still, then realized I needed to cast Barkskin before it was too late.
“Barkskin,” as I cast the last time on myself I heard the sharp clicks coming from behind us and to our side.
“Get our backs to a wall!” Gary called out as we heard the sounds heading in our direction. I kept my eyes locked on Aaron’s back as I sprinted behind them and listened to the clicks get louder and louder. Finally, I watched Aaron turn around as he reached the side of the cavern and I spun around to stand beside Zack and Gary in front. The clicking noise continued just out of sight, but none of them came close enough for us to see. A tense minute passed as we listened to the monsters scurry back and forth in front of us. My eyes widened in shock as three massive beetles ran towards us all at once.
“Drill Shot!
“Fireball!”
“Impale!” I didn’t have time to watch the rest of the fight as the beetle heading towards me shrugged off the fireball without slowing. I leaped to the side as it got close and barely managed to dodge the pincers half the size of my body. I aimed a thrust towards its side after I landed but my poor footing caused me to barely leave a scratch in its carapace. I cursed and quickly backed up as I tried to buy time for my allies to kill the others and help me.
“Thornbolt,” as soon as it turned to face me I shot it directly into one of its huge unblinking eyes. The thorn slid deep into its eye and the beetle clattered its mandibles in pain for a brief moment before refocusing on me and charging. I prepared to leap to the side right before it reached me like last time. I dodged towards the wall with a leap but one of its legs caught me in my calf, sending me crashing onto my side. I cursed and rolled back to my feet. I limped a bit from the new bruise on my ankle. I glanced up as the beetle turned back towards me. Gary Charge into its back and slashed one of its legs off with the skill. An arrow slammed into the beetle's other eye as it turned towards Gary and I rushed towards its side and stabbed into its stomach before retreating back.
“Impale!” Gary stabbed into the side of its face and pierced through its brain with his long spear. I scanned around as it fell and saw the other two beetles slumped in front of Gary a few meters away.
“That wasn’t too bad, I didn’t even get a chance to use my new skill,” Aaron groused as I walked back over towards the wall. I thought about waiting for enough essence to use Rejuvenation on myself but I quickly decided I didn't want to extend our trip any longer than necessary. The new bruise along my ankle hurt but it didn’t impair my mobility much at all.
“We’ll hold this position until our essence recovers. Any ideas on how to see through this fog?” Gary asked as we took seats near the wall. None of my abilities would be able to help and I had no ideas so I stayed silent while I hoped someone else would think of something.
“Well… When I shot a fireball at that beetle it seemed like it might have burned away the fog,” said Gabrielle. “Maybe we could make some torches?” I dropped my pack to dig through my supplies and see if I had anything to use.
“I have some extra tent stakes, we can wrap some rags around the tip and use that?” Gary offered. The short metal stakes were less than a meter long and the sharp tip at the end would work to hold the dirty rags. A couple of minutes of tinkering later, Zack and Gary both held improvised torches and we threw our packs back on.
“Fireball,” Gabrielle cast at a piece of cloth she left on the ground. Half of the cloth turned to ash at the powerful force, but thankfully parts of it caught and allowed them to light the two torches. With the two torches held in front of them, the fog steadily cleared away and we continued our slow pace through the chamber. Gary kept us heading in the direction of the moving water where I assumed the fog was coming from. The room quickly started to get warmer the further we got from the walls where we entered.
“Stream ahead, we’ll follow it deeper,” Gary advised as we arrived at a thin stream. “The noise will mask the beetle’s presence as well as ours. Stay alert.”
The fog was becoming denser as we followed the stream although the torches were working well to clear it around us. I studied the stream as we continued and didn’t see any fog coming from the water as I had expected. A short distance later I started to hear a hissing sound coming from just ahead where the room was completely covered in thick steam. We lowered our pace to barely a shuffle while we tried to ignore the increasing heat. I felt sweat mixed with steam drenching my body and pouring down my face.
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“There’s a ledge here,” Zack informed us as he stopped. I quickly stepped forwards to get a glimpse and heard a loud noise from ahead.
“Barkskin,” I placed my hand on Zack and cast. The noise was getting closer and sounded similar to the beetles from earlier.
“Barkskin.”
“Barkskin,” I finished casting on myself and Gary as the noise got louder, but held off on Aaron and Gabrielle after they packed up and prepared for whatever was approaching. I saw Aaron wiping down his bowstring with a grimace as I turned back to the front, dropped my pack, and held my spear with both hands. The sharp clicking noise finally revealed itself as a dark red scorpion, slightly larger than the beetle’s from before. It looked like it was made of the same type of plated carapace with a tail as thick as my torso and it was over five meters long. The pincers were pitch black and looked sharp enough to cut through stone.
“Thornbolt!” I shook myself out of my stupor and cast towards the two slightly glowing red eyes embedded on the top of its head. The thorn impacted just below its eye and bounced off, barely leaving a scratch as it closed the distance between us.
“Haste!”
“Dill Shot!”
“Drill Shot!”
“Drill Shot!” Aaron sent out a barrage of arrows each causing a loud boom as they impacted the monster. Bright red blood poured out of both eyes and the front of its face had small fissures leaking down its body.
“Vigor,” Zack whispered as the scorpion reached us and slowed to a stop. The scorpion sent its tail arcing over our heads and lashed down towards Gary. I rushed to Gary as he dived out of the way to stab the tail but the crash of the tail sent me stumbling to the ground. A loud boom from upfront sounded as Zack slammed his mace into the right pincer, cracking off a few plates and grabbing its attention. I pushed myself back up and resolved not to spend any more essence in case someone got injured. The scorpion was completely focused on Zack to my side and I sprinted forward to slash at its back leg with all my strength. A small cut appeared from my strike and I grit my teeth as I saw it barely even penetrated.
“Charge!” Gary appeared next to me and stabbed completely through the leg with his rush.
“Gary!” I called out and tossed him my spear as I backed up, seeing him yanking ineffectively at his spear. I looked towards the front of the scorpion and saw Zack darting back and forth as he fought to hold the monster's attention.
“Meteor!” I heard Gabrielle start to cast her spell from a few meters behind us. I glanced towards the ceiling above us and frowned, seeing the large meteor forming above the monster's tail.
“Zack!” I shouted to get his attention, “Run towards us!” I didn’t check if he listened and grabbed Gary's arm as I retreated back towards Aaron and Gabrielle. I reached their side and turned around just in time to see the meteor slam into the top of the scorpion's face, slamming it into the ground to crush its legs beneath the large body. It twitched on the ground but it seemed like it couldn’t manage to stand after it crushed the majority of its legs. The blood pouring out of its wounds quickly bled it out until it stopped moving a minute later as we watched from a few meters away.
“Eli?” Zack gestured toward his leg with a grimace on his face. His pants had a dark spot from blood pooling up near his foot.
“Stay alert. Eli, check him out,” Gary said as I walked over to his side. He sat on the ground and pulled off the battered greaves from his left leg. As he pulled his pants up to his knee I saw a bloody wound from where a portion of his greaves had broken off and cut into the area just below his knee.
“Rejuvenate,” I cast, emptying almost all of my remaining essence at once. I watched in awe as the gash started to pull itself together as a large scab covered it in a few seconds. Zack had his eyes squeezed shut and his hands clenched as he sat through the uncomfortable healing process. Thirty seconds after I cast, the large cut was engulfed by light green and gray scab in the center, with newly healed skin on the edges.
“Thanks, Eli,” Zack huffed out once the healing ended. I smiled back and helped him to his feet, then walked up to join the rest of my team.
“I’ll need another twenty minutes until I can use it again, should we wait or continue forward?” I asked once I reached Gary’s side. Aaron was wrapping a new bunch of rags around our improvised torches so they wouldn’t run out of flames. The fog had cleared up in a wide area surrounding us, but thick clouds still spread out from below the ledge in front of us.
“Can you see that?” Aaron pointed towards a little speck of color that seemed to be catching the light off our torches down the ledge and a few meters away. I squinted at the spot and watched as Aaron moved the torch back and forth, revealing a shiny rounded object.
I smirked and let out a deep breath of relief, “It’s the core, I think. I hoped that was the dungeon boss, after a fight like that,” I replied.
“I think you're right, but let’s move down as a group,” Gary said after a moment. I sat down near the ledge and then turned around to lower myself by hand. Thankfully, I felt my feet touch the ground. I waited for the rest of my team to join me and then walked slowly beside Aaron as the torch burned away the fog around us. The shallow stream pooled up just behind the bright blue dungeon core and sent clouds of steam streaming into our faces as it reached the heated stone floor. None of us wanted to stand around in the uncomfortably hot and humid area so Gabrielle grabbed the core and we immediately turned around to head back out.
“Let’s grab a few of the larger plates from the scorpion before we head back,” Aaron pointed at the bloody corpse. I tossed my spear to Zack and watched him lever a few of the heavy, unbroken plates off the body before we split them among our packs.
“Good job, everyone,” Gary congratulated us as we climbed back up the ledge. “This was by far our toughest challenge so far, yet we pulled through just like before. I’m sure you're all just as tired as I am, so let’s get out of here. Hopefully, night hasn’t fallen just yet.” I nodded tiredly in reply as we trudged back along the stream. I would be surprised if it wasn’t nearing dark by the time we got back outside and now that we were leaving I felt my muscles starting to ache. We quickly left the cave and arrived back at the large cavern still half-filled with wargs.
“Straight to the portal,” Zack stated unnecessarily. I snorted, all of us were completely worn out, none of us would willingly fight another one of the massive groups of wargs today. Luckily, the wargs seemed to be sticking to their patrol along the far side of the cavern and they ignored our presence again as we hugged the wall and made our way back to the blue portal where we had entered from.