Cal sat at the Desk of the Worst Co-Worker in the inner sanctum, but his mind was in with Amorfo’s inside the Stone Gaze Guygon’s guardian form.
The Dudusa had slipped out of the HVAK duct on the fourth level of the dungeon. He stood at the entrance of the Cardiganna’s Lowhand dungeon—High School Hell.
Perkle and the rest of Audit Team Six were with the breakroom cores at the entrance of the Halls of Red Tape just in case Amorfo’s speed run triggered some kind of all-out assault against the first floor.
Amorfo cracked his knuckles and stretched one hamstring then the other.
Amorfo dashed through the glass doors of the High School Hell and ran down a long hallway lined with green metal lockers. The locker banged open to reveal short, slender monsters that were mostly just fanged mouths and long claws—the rest of their green bodies were tiny in comparison.
The lockers banged open. The cacophony was ear-blistering.
From out of half-dozen lockers lurched huge piles of old chewing gum, mixed together, with sticky tentacles of stringy bubblegum. The monsters threw those strings at Amorfo, but he Serpentine Dodged the attacks and kept on running.
A storm of Locker Goblins and Gum Golems chased after him.
Cal figured killing any of the little monsters wouldn’t be too hard, but together, their numbers were overwhelming. Cal made a mental note. Helga could probably use her Demo Day ability to destroy the lockers. Some might escape, but most would probably die.
Amorfo turned the corner and charged past classroom doors. Inside were mostly Mean Ghouls, that came pouring out, but from one classroom emerged a fairy creature with a nightmarish mouth full of fangs. She wore a business suit and had a pointer, though the pointer also cast magic missiles, which were directed directly at Amorfo. He took a sizzling blue bolt to the shoulder.
Cal felt the pain.
It was clear—if Amorfo hadn’t had his Snake Speed, he would’ve been killed immediately. He darted through the hallway, and unbelievably, there were as many Mean Ghouls as Locker Goblins. If each of the four classrooms held thirty students, that was a hundred and twenty vicious schoolgirls in school uniforms with inch-long razor-sharp claws and enough fangs to eat their way through a dragon.
The nightmare fairy leading the way, throwing deadly bolts from her magic pointer.
Another magic missile hit Amorfo in the back. He didn’t pause and smashed his way through another set of glass doors and into a big gymnasium. Dozens of Tot Thugs were playing basketball, directed by Gym Taters, with their whistles.
And at the center of the basketball courts was the Coach Potato. This time, he not only had his deadly whistle and swollen potato muscles, but he was also armed with a potato cannon.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Amorfo would’ve been dead if he hadn’t raised his sunglasses and used his Stone Gaze. Both the Tot Thugs and Gym Taters went rigid as they turned to stone.
The Coach Potato, though, was wearing his own pair of protective sunglasses. He raised the cannon and started shooting high-velocity potatoes at Amorfo, who ducked behind the statues he’d created. Potatoes exploded off the frozen Gym Taters, flinging skin and potatoes everywhere. Several Tot Thugs tipped over, damaging the polished wood as the Dudusa rolled behind another statue, seeking cover.
The Coach Potato worked the action on the potato gun, and this time, he shot out geysers of scalding hot mashed potatoes and gravy, which splashed off the statues, and burned Amorfo badly.
Cal thought this was the end. But no, the Dudusa was tougher than Cal would’ve thought.
The Dudusa kept running. He couldn’t exit out of the gym through the entrance. No, that way was blocked by more Gym Taters, so instead he turned into one of the locker rooms along the side. He ran down a long hallway, which stank like jock body odor and barnyard animals.
Amorfo sped into a locker room full of huge minotaurs. Some wore towels. Others were shockingly naked.
The minotaurs grabbed battle axes, and started swinging, but again, Amorfo had his Snake Speed and his Serpentine Dodge.
A few of the minotaurs came out of the shower, water streaming down their very naked, very muscled bodies. It was abs galore.
Amorfo again used his Stone Gaze, freezing the minotaurs into stone.
One of the naked minotaurs bellowed in fear and ran from him, back into the showers. He pulled down a showerhead, revealing a secret door. The male medusa Stone Gazed him, then sped into the secret passageway—it had the same tiles as the shower room. There were no lights, but Amorfo had his own light source. All of the eyes of his snake hair glowed brightly.
Cal let out a sigh of relief. He remembered the message from his mysterious patron and offered some encouragement.
Yeah, Cal felt the pain as well, but the adrenaline sang in his blood, giving him focus.
Amorfo went down the tiled secret passageway with the BULLies chasing after him. He reached the end of the hallway and pushed through the wall at the end.
He came out in the cafeteria, and it was the same setup as before in the first floor’s inner sanctum. There were another hundred Mean Ghouls, easily, who leapt to their feet. The Lunchladies were behind the buffet line,
Sloppy Joes lurched out from behind the counter and started shambling towards Amorfo.
The Dudusa leapt onto a table, lifted his glasses, and froze half the room—the half that would let him escape through the glass doors at the other end.
Mean Ghouls went rigid.
But Tina Fae was back, throwing magic missiles with her pointer. One bolt sizzled through Amorfo’s snake hair, and he fell off the table, and hit the ground. Sloppy Joes hurled their meaty body bombs full of the steel onion pieces and green glass peppers. The explosions ripped through Amorfo.
Cal could hardly watch as he felt the agony of having his flesh ripped open by all the attacks.
Unbelievably, Amorfo got to his feet, staggering through the stone bodies of the frozen Mean Ghouls. More magic missiles hit him, but he managed to get through the glass doors, narrowly avoiding more Sloppy Joe bombs that destroyed the glass.
Cal was drenched in sweat, everything hurt, but he was watching as Amorfo stumbled out into a hallway that led down a corridor with more lockers.
He sped down the right-hand side as the army of minions came flooding out of the glass doors.
The lockers on the left started exploding, throwing shrapnel and locker debris—burning binders, magazine pinups, shattered locks and other locker junk—out across the hallway.
Amorfo avoided the worst of it, but the explosions took out other minions. But not the bosses—the Coach Potato, Tina Fae, the Lunchladies—who chased after the Stone Gaze Guygon.
Amorfo pushed open the door into the principal’s office, but the place was strangely empty.
The principal’s office was off to the side, completely deserted. Above the desk floated a core gem, and at first, Cal thought that Amorfo had succeeded! He’d made it to the inner sanctum! The Dudusa must’ve bypassed a huge portion of the dungeon by going through the secret passageway connecting the boy’s locker room to the cafeteria.
Why indeed?