“You’re crazy,” Bea said, as she, Bella and I stood at the entrance to the Dread Isle dungeon. “Taking on a floor with only the gremlins as backup, it’s suicide.”
“Naw naw naw, it’s smart!” Jenkins replied, as she looked up from packing the oversized backpack. She casually threw a glass, liquid-filled orb, over her shoulder to one of her companions, making me flinch; I could only imagine what was in that, and how destructive it could be. “You see… this whole battle has been more of a brawl between large groups, with the bosses being the linchpin of these fights. What we’re doing right now, it’s more like the traditional dungeon delve. Small, elite group.” Jenkins nodded sagely, then turned back towards her group. “Be careful with that, it’s fragile,” She said, waggling a finger at the gremlin that had barely caught the orb she’d thrown earlier.
I shook my head at her antics, before turning towards my compatriots. “Jenkins isn’t wrong… we can move a lot faster as a small group, and each of us is probably as strong as a full squad anyways, might as well put our strength to the test.”
“That’s definitely part of it,” Bella replied with a smirk, “but I’ve been around you long enough to know there’s more to it than that. I’d bet you don’t think we can hold the Ballroom anymore, and want to do something more productive.”
Bea turned towards me, eyebrow raised. “Is that true?”
I flinched, “Maybe… slightly. I figure if the ballroom is going to be overwhelmed anyways, might as well give it up and try to cause some damage in return.”
“You could have assigned Bea over to our defense. I think you just miss being an adventurer,” said Bella, with a cheeky smile.
“I won’t deny that,” I replied, after a moment. “Linivia brought me here because I had experience in both adventuring, and dungeon defense. Everyone knows the defense plans, so I figured it was time to use my adventuring skills.” Behind me George purred in agreement. The big spider had been fairly quiet since we took out Ugoki, probably enjoying his victory. I reached down and petted the big lug, rewarding him for being a good boy.
“If you say so,” Bea said with a shrug. “I think we’d be better off on defense, especially with your traps, but we DO need to stay on the offensive to stay ahead.”
“Exactly so!” Jenkins agreed from behind. I turned, to find the small group of gremlins attempting to take apart a cannon, and stuff it in their bags. Something that would never fit. I shot Jenkins a disapproving look. “They have one!” she pointed out.
“They’re on defense, and it’s part of the stage. Where did you even get that from?”
“Left it with Sulivan’s people. Figured it would be safe there,” she replied, proudly.
“Leave it behind, we’re going to move quickly,” I told them. I could see how disappointed they were, but refused to back down. After a quick staring contest, the gremlins slowly started removing the pieces from their bags.
“So what’s the plan then?” Bea asked. “Attack the village, take down the cannon with a quick hit and run?”
“We could, but I would also bet that’s what Kenaya expects,” I replied, willing the portal in front of us to shift from the town, to another floor. “She pulled troops off of the beach, so it’s weak right now. I suggest we go there.”
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“Whatever you say,” Bella said, with a shrug. “You’ve already proved your tactics many times over, I’m not going to argue with your decisions now.” Behind her, Bea and Jenkins just nodded.
“Good,” I lifted my glaive, glanced at the gremlins to make sure they weren’t overburdened by a cannon, then strode towards the open portal. “Let’s begin.”
Beyond the portal was a beach. Tropical, but littered with driftwood, wreckage, and massive rock formations. It looked more like a graveyard than a vacation getaway. Behind me, both Bea and Bella passed through the portal, then took to the air to surveil the area.
“Not much to see,” Bella reported, as she floated through the air. “Some sort of cephalopod people further down the beach, but I don’t see much else.”
“I doubt they have much. If we move fast enough, we might be able to get to the boss before they even know we’re here.” Even as I said this, George rushed up the beach, eager to engage. I shook my head, then jogged after him.
It didn’t take long to come to the first combat area, a relatively clear area of the beach. A gigantic ship, the hull long since rotted away, lay on its side. It provided some light cover from the sun, and it was here that the cephalopod people had taken cover. I peeked through a random hole in the broken boat, and took a quick look at our foes. The cephalopods were roughly human-shaped, but had either squid or octopus shaped heads, massive-beaked mouths in the front, and tentacles hanging down their backs, like hair. I wasn’t sure if there were two species, or it was a gender-based difference, maybe I’d look into it later. Most stood on guard, their oversized eyes slowly sweeping the area. I frowned as I saw the closest one casually swinging two pairs of cutlasses, one in its hands, the other gripped in its longest tentacles. If we didn’t gain the upper hand quickly, they could do some damage.
I glanced down at George, who was skittering in place, impatient for battle, and gave him a quick hand signal. The arachnid didn’t hesitate.
Although they were on alert, the group was still taken by surprise as George literally burst through a rotted wood wall. The first woman died almost instantly, as the massive spider brought his massive frontal legs down upon her before she could turn. Just as the others managed to gather themselves, the rest of us fell upon the group. I stepped through the gap George created, impaling a cephalopod with a quick thrust when it attempted to flank the spider. Bea spiralled down, flying through a gap in the broken hull, she used her momentum to add power to her strike. She nearly ripped a poor cephalopod in two with her downward strike, lightly touched the ground, then immediately shot back up into the air. Bella, meanwhile, simply sauntered through a solid part of the hull, and stuck her hand into the back of one of the remaining cephalopods. The woman barely managed to turn her head, face tentacles reaching out for her assailant, before she withered away.
The final cephalopod jumped back, cutlasses flashing back and forth, trying to keep us at bay. Her eyes darted back and forth between the four of us, slowly backing away. As soon as she made it to the edge of the clearing, she turned and started running towards the boss area. She made it about ten feet, before she was cut down by a hail of bolts. The gremlins stepped around the edge of the hull, the one with the crossbow followed by Jenkins, notebook in hand, who was busy questioning her compatriot. “Did you think the kickback was too much? I noticed there was a little bit of a spread on the burst, did you do that on purpose?” Unlike most people, who would find the rapid fire questions annoying, the gremlin was happily answering every question he could. I just shook my head at their antics.
Bea, once that she was convinced there were no more enemies, zipped back down and landed next to me. “I don’t see any more, but the boss area is inside an overturned ship, and I can’t see anyone inside.”
Bella sat down, and started petting George, who was busy poking random debris. “I think there should be… one more group, assuming those sharkin in the village were from here.” She looked in my direction, for confirmation, and I nodded.
“Chogril, the sharkin berserker who’s in charge, has a group of tribal alchemists on his payroll, which we haven’t seen. He may have them with him,” I said, eyeing up the wreck in the distance. “Now that we’ve engaged his vanguard, I doubt we’ll get the jump on him. We approach slowly and carefully.”
The others nodded, except for George, who danced in place, happily. I rested my glaive on my shoulder, and stared at the hull in the distance, thinking about what we might encounter. In the end, we wouldn’t know until we went inside. “No point in delaying. Let’s get this done,” I said.