Brel

“This is my first time making the trip. Does it always take this long?” Gavin asked. He’d been grumbling for the better part of the last few hours.

Brel shook his head. “Nope. We’d usually be halfway back by now. It’s rare to see lizards in these parts of the dungeon. Almost like they’re blocking off all our usual routes. It is what it is. I’ll tell Varroc we need a few days off when we get out of here.”

Gavin and the other two soldiers grinned at that. Brel smirked for their benefit.

But inside, he was worried. He’d long since grown tired of the barren dungeon walls. They were taking a path he wasn’t familiar with anymore. He didn’t like being in unfamiliar territory.

Especially in a dungeon.

The beast here should be working for the dungeon. The soldiers of Sange were supposed to be working with the dungeon. So why were the Scalers getting in their way? Was the dungeon up to something? Or was it something else?

Maybe it was turning on them.

Brel swallowed. The only comfort he had was the large hammer on his back. He looked down at the baby cradled in his arm. He’d carried the kid like a toy before. But it was more natural like this.

He thought the other children had said its name was Kyo or something like that.

It looked up at him with sad brown eyes. It had cried almost nonstop when they’d taken it from the daycare. But now…well, it was probably cried out. The others trailed behind him. Brel lifted a finger to poke the boy.

He looked so small. So delicate.

You’d think a baby growing up in a dungeon would be tougher.

Kyo stared at Brel’s hand and then reached out and grabbed the outstretched finger.

Brel’s mouth fell open. The little fingers firmly wrapped around his own. He hadn’t expected that.

“Whatcha doing, Brel?” Gavin asked, hurrying to catch up to him.

Brel yanked his finger free from Kyo’s hand and turned to look at the other soldier.

“Nothing. Something wrong?” Brel asked him, flustered that Gavin had almost seen that exchange.

Gavin yawned. “Nah. Just bored. Kind of have to piss, too.”

One of the other guards laughed. “No water buckets around this time. Gotta use the wall like the rest of us.”

Brel chuckled. “That was a good one, Gavin! I’ll buy you a drink when we get back.”

Gavin playfully punched him on the shoulder. “When have you ever bought anyone a drink? I’m going to go on ahead and handle my business.”

The fourth guard, who hadn’t spoken yet, scoffed. “Come on, man. Then we’ll smell it when we pass. Piss here, then catch up. Don’t run ahead!”

Gavin flicked him off and ran ahead. They could already hear him tinkering with his belt buckle. Brel shook his head and laughed.

“Arca!”

Brel and the two soldiers stopped and looked at each other.

“What was that?” one of them asked.

Brel turned to look behind them. It had come from somewhere back there. He nodded at the men, and each of them drew their swords. Brel couldn’t wield his hammer and hold the baby. He thought of passing the kid off to one of them but decided against it. A few rogue Scalers weren’t anything they couldn’t handle.

“Arh!”

They turned. This one hadn’t come from behind. It was up ahead.

“Shit! Brel, help!” Gavin called from up ahead.

Brel cursed and jogged after Gavin. He pulled the baby in close. He wouldn’t dare let something happen to it until the hand off had been completed.

It didn’t take long to catch up.

Gavin’s trousers were around his ankles, but he’d drawn his sword and was warding off a pack of Scalers who crept closer by the second.

Brel’s eyes grew wide. There was a dozen of them, easily. “What happened?” he asked.

Gavin shook his head. “I don’t know! They just ran up on me! What do I do? If I move too quickly, they might attack! I’d really like to pull my pants up!”

Brel turned back to look at the other two soldiers and beckoned them forward with his head. They hurried to cover Gavin but stopped when they saw it.

A new Scaler scurried forward, and the others made room for it. It was a spitter. The Scaler looked at all of them and then turned its attention to Gavin. It tilted its head at the man’s exposed crotch.

Then it spit a glob of acid into the air straight at him.

Gavin’s scream was bloodcurdling. He fell backwards.

The other two soldiers ran forward to cover him before the Scaler could seize the opportunity. But the Scalers didn’t attack.

They retreated.

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What was going on? This wasn’t like them at all. For one, they shouldn’t be attacking them in the first place. Brel had made this trip a hundred times, and he’d never run into any issues with the beast inside. He’d crossed paths with a few, sure. But they always scurried away or let him pass in peace.

So why were they attacking now?

One of the other soldiers inspected Gavin. “Uh, this isn’t good. What do we do?” he asked, turning to Brel.

Brel grimaced. He ripped a canteen from his belt and threw it at the man. “Pour this over it. Other than that, can’t do much until we get a healer. Problem is, I don’t know how we’re going to get him out of here. We still gotta deliver the kid.”

He heard a noise.

Brel cocked his head. It sounded like something flying through the air at high speed. His head turned just in time to see the projectile shoot by. His eyes could barely process what it was before it hit the guard tending to Gavin’s wound in the back of the head.

It knocked him out cold, and he slumped over, falling on top of Gavin.

“What was that? Some kind of rock?” The other guard asked. Brel cursed and turned to look in the direction the attack had come from.

He held Kyo out to the other guard. “Take the boy,” he barked. The soldier hurried up and grabbed Kyo. Brel reached back to grab the hilt of his hammer.

There the noise was again.

Two projectiles this time. The first one would hit Brel. He couldn’t get his hammer out in time. Brel’s head shot to the right. A second slower and it would’ve hit him square in the face. It skirted past him, nicking his cheek without losing any momentum. That one had been almost as fast as an arrow. Maybe faster.

The second one was aimed at the other soldier. But he didn’t try to dodge. He panicked and did the first thing that came to mind.

He held the baby boy up in his arms as a shield.

Brel’s arm shot out to shield the baby. The small pillar of rock exploded into dust. It was magic then. Whoever had used it still had control. But even their reaction wasn’t fast enough. A piece of the pillar didn’t dissolve in time.

It hit Brel’s arm, and a loud crack resounded throughout the dungeon. He gritted his teeth.

Kyo shrieked. He was okay. He had a mouth full of dust, but he was okay.

The guard looked at Brel’s arm and then back at the baby boy he held out. “I—” he stammered. Brel didn’t allow him to finish the sentence. He grabbed Kyo with one hand.

With the other, he grabbed the soldier by the head and slammed him into the wall. His skull popped like an acorn. Brel grimaced at the pain in his arm. It clearly wasn’t broken. But it was injured. A fracture perhaps?

He sighed and knelt before the corpse, while keeping an ear out for any more projectiles. Brel sat Kyo on the ground and worked quickly, positioning the dead body so it was sitting against the wall. He pushed the body’s knees inward and then wrapped the arms around them.

Brel always carried rope. You never knew when you needed to tie someone up. He tied the arms together. Then did the same with the legs. He tugged at both to make sure the corpse wouldn’t move. There wasn’t much he could do about the blood.

Oh well, this would be temporary.

Satisfied, he picked Kyo back up and set him on the corpse’s lap. A makeshift baby holder. The legs and arms would act as barriers to keep him from crawling away. At least for a little while. Good. Now he wouldn’t go anywhere. He stood up and grabbed his large hammer from his back. He gripped it firmly with both hands and waited for his attacker to reveal themself.

“Alright! Now it’s just me and you. So, let’s get started.”

Slap!

Brel squinted, leaning forward. What was that?

Slap!

Slap!

Slap!

Brel shook his head. The slaps were soft. Like something hitting the ground over and over. One after the other in quick succession. Was it a Scaler? No. They moved much more quietly than that. Besides, Scalers were normal beasts. He’d never heard of a hex beast Scaler. That wasn’t possible. So, it had to be human, right?

A small shape appeared in the darkness. A tiny silhouette.

When it realized what it was, Brel turned to look back over his shoulder and make sure Kyo was still there.

He was. He was doing his best to crawl out of his makeshift prison, but he was still there.

So then, who was the baby crawling toward him?

The new baby held a hand up, and a projectile shot forward.

Brel barely dodged as it went whistling by his face.

He shook his head. What the hell was going on?

Did a baby just try to attack him?

Charlie

Charlie knew the Scalers weren’t far behind him, lurking in the shadows. The first part of his plan had gone off with no issues. He wanted to isolate Brel and take out the other soldiers.

Still, he hadn’t expected one of them to try to use Kyo as a human shield. If Brel hadn’t intervened in time…

Charlie swallowed, thinking of Bonehead the Scaler.

Human babies were a little less resilient than Scalers. He was just glad everything had worked out.

He just needed to distract Brel for a little while. Buy time for the Scalers on either side of them to sneak up, grab Kyo, and escape. They’d been lucky the friendly Scaler had sensed the group he’d sent on ahead. They’d been waiting to ambush Brel’s men when they’d made contact. A simple “arca” had handled the rest. Charlie had left the friendly Scaler with one simple instruction.

“Try to get the baby away from the big man with the mohawk! Take down the other men with him. Don’t hold back. These aren’t good guys,” Charlie had said, projecting his thoughts to the Scalers. He wasn’t sure how much would get through. Luckily, his friendly Scaler was smart enough to figure most of it out.

“Arca!” it had barked. The other Scalers had called back their understanding. A series of quiet cries of agreement.

Brel stared at him, unsure of how to react. Kyo had noticed him, too. He now leaned forward and held a hand out towards Charlie. His face was still covered in the dust from Charlie’s dissolved attack, but still he smiled.

Kyo was just as excited about their reunion as Charlie was.

“Status!” Charlie said, addressing his interface.

“Status requested. Current dungeon integrity is 35%.”

Charlie nodded. That wasn’t bad, considering he’d used his powers to slap Tomas, and then again against Brel and his men. He’d need to be careful, though. There wouldn’t be much time in between fighting Brel and the core guardian.

He had to conserve dungeon integrity in this fight while also using enough to bring Brel down quickly.

If he expended too much power now, he would be useless in the fight against the core guardian.

This would be tricky.

Before, he’d held back to make sure he didn’t kill any of the men. But Lyra had warned him about just how strong Brel was. He couldn’t afford to pull his punches if he wanted to bring the man down.

Brel pulled the hammer off his back. “What the hell are you? Children don’t have power like this.” He paused, then looked back at Kyo.

“That attack was powerful. I don’t know what you are, but I’m going to beat you down and then feed you to the dungeon. Maybe it decides you’re a better option than Kyo over here.”

Brel roared. He charged forward, readying his hammer to slam down on Charlie.

Charlie shrieked. He summoned a pillar that sent him flying forward.

One way or another, he was taking Kyo back.