The first bug dove down toward Jake, stabbing out with its mandibles to try and impale Jake. Raising his shield to block it, Jake braced against the impact as he blindly thrust at the creature.
Unsurprisingly, he missed, but it did force the creature back, giving Jake a moment to regain his balance before two more tried to fly past him.
Bolts of blue energy raced up at the bugs as they went over Jake, one of them catching a bug in the wing and making it drop several feet before stabilising.
The first bug was buzzing closer again, keeping Jake’s attention locked onto it, leaving Alan to strike the one that had lost altitude, hammering it down to the ground with an overhead strike before stabbing it repeatedly.
A spray of ichor struck Jake from his right, and he glanced over to see a fading pale nimbus of power around Karl’s hammer and a pulverised bug on the floor.
A sharp pain in his shoulder dragged Jake back to his own fight as the bug took advantage of his distraction to cling to his shield and sink one mandible past it into his shoulder while its proboscis shot down toward Jake’s throat.
Jake ducked down and lifted his shield, making the deadly attack miss but shifting the mandible in his shoulder at the same time.
Grunting in pain, Jake did his best to stay calm as he stabbed around his shield, trying to force the bug off him without letting it get a clear shot at his face.
Jake felt his blade hit something, but its chitin was tough, and he had the wrong angle to apply as much force as he wanted.
The weight on his shield was growing more and more uncomfortable by the moment as Jake held it high and hacked at the creature.
Twisting enough to make the mandible in his shoulder rub against bone, Jake hacked at the bug’s upper legs. It wasn’t elegant, but Jake managed to cut through, making the bug fall away, its mandible ripping out of his shoulder as it did.
“Shit,” Jake cursed, hissing through his teeth as he stabbed the creature before it could recover. The thing’s chitin was still tough, but with all his weight behind it, his blade pierced it without too much issue, crunching through to end deep in the bug’s thorax.
“You okay, Jake?” Karl asked, straightening up from where he’d just crushed his second bug.
“Yeah, damn thing got me in the shoulder, though,” Jake said, looking around to make sure the bugs were all dead before removing his shield and relaxing his arm.
“Here, let me help bandage that up for you; I don’t think it’s deep enough to need a potion,” Alan said, sheathing his sword and pulling a bandage out.
“Thanks, Alan,” Jake said gratefully, moving to let Alan cover up the wound. “At least that went better than last time.”
“You can say that again,” Rhew said with a shaky smile, glancing down at the dead bugs around them. “We have a problem, though. My ice can kill the rats easily enough, but it’s not so good against the bugs. Their chitin deflects a lot, and it took several volleys to kill this one.”
“True, but Alan killed the one that you hit in the wings,” Jake said slowly, turning over the problem in his head.
“I’m not accurate enough to hit the wings every time,” Rhew said with a shake of her head as she bent down to harvest the Wyrdgeld from her kill.
“What about the wand? It slows things, right?” Karl asked abruptly, his expression thoughtful as he squatted over one of the dead bugs, turning over a Wyrdgeld in his hand.
“Yes, and so does the ice, just not as much. Why?”
“Well, it seems to me that I’ve got the best weapon for killing these fuckers, especially if I use my Skill. The problem is that they’re quite mobile, and I’m not the fastest fighter. If you could slow them down, though, I can take them out.”
“That could work,” Jake said, trying to play it out in his head and liking the idea.
“I think it’s worth a try,” Alan said as he finished securing Jake’s bandage. “I don’t mind triggering them again, the same as we did here.”
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“Alright then, sounds like we have a plan of sorts,” Jake said, a smile spreading across his face as he picked up his shield once more. “Let’s get to it.”
Leaving the dead bugs behind them, they carried on through the cave, into the short tunnel on the other side and in what felt like a matter of moments, they were at the second cave.
Bright torches on the far wall bracketed the exit to floor four and highlighted two porous columns of rock that stood halfway between the entrance and exit. Jake shared an uneasy look with Karl, remembering the last time they’d been here.
“Okay, same plan as last time,” Jake said, nodding to Alan and taking up his position to cover Karl’s flank. “This time, though, Rhew will focus on the bugs attacking Karl while Alan keeps them off her. Everyone ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Alan said, taking a deep breath before heading into the cave.
As before, the bugs responded once Alan reached the midpoint of the cave, but the columns were further forward this time, so Alan was forced to pass directly between them to reach it.
The droning came, Alan ran, and the bugs soared from their hives.
Eight bugs emerged in total, four for each hive, and streamed towards them. Two of them seemed to focus on chasing down Alan, while the remaining six went straight for Karl and Jake.
“He’s not going to make it,” Rhew whispered in horror as the bugs gained steadily on Alan. Lifting her wand, she fired off a series of blasts of cold energy, catching one of the bugs chasing Alan.
The impact of the cold energy caused the bug’s wings to slow, making it fall slightly and slow down, dropping it from the oncoming pack.
The second bug chasing Alan was almost directly behind him and closing, stopping Rhew from getting a clear shot, forcing her to instead focus on the ones coming in to attack Jake and Karl.
Two more bugs were slowed down, but the remaining four descended on Jake and Karl in a wave of unsettling droning, the sound pierced by Alan’s cry as his chaser caught him moments before he rushed between the two of them.
Jake’s world quickly narrowed down to him doing his damnedest to stay alive as mandibles were stabbed out at him, and he dodged what he could, blocking the rest with shield or sword.
“I can’t hold them for long,” Jake shouted, unable to spare even an iota of attention for the others as he fought.
One of the bugs climbed up in the air and tried to go overhead, but a bolt of blue smacked into it immediately, making it drop back down. Rhew seemed to be focusing on Karl’s side, but she was still stopping them from just bypassing Jake altogether.
That slight relief was enough to let Jake land a quick cut on the wings of the closest bug, making it drop to the ground awkwardly.
Alan had managed to get free from his bug and joined Jake with a wild-eyed expression, sword in one hand and flaming torch in the other.
“I’ve got your flank,” Alan said in a strained voice as he drove back one of the bugs, clipping it with the edge of his torch.
Jake noted that the bug flew back much further from the flame than from his sword. It was a shame they didn’t have more fire to use against them. He did consider swapping his shield for one of his torches, but doing that mid-fight would be difficult, and he needed his shield.
The two of them worked together to cover each other, focusing on buying time more than doing damage to the bugs.
The fight was all but over when Karl joined them, his hammer covered in ichor and his clothes bloodied here and there.
With Rhew supporting them actively, the remaining bugs were swiftly dispatched, leaving them all to catch their breath and tend to their wounds.
“We actually did it,” Jake said, staring at the dead bugs in shock.
“Yeah, it was close, though,” Karl said as he drank one of his healing potions and let out a relieved sigh. “Rhew saved me more than a few times there.”
“Me as well. That bug was about to stab me in the neck when you knocked it off my back,” Alan said, giving Rhew a grateful look.
“You all kept them off me; it was the least I could do,” Rhew protested, pointing to the blood-stained back of Alan’s shirt. “Alan did the hardest thing by starting the fight.”
Satisfied with their progress, they quickly gathered the Wyrdgeld from their kills, counting the total up eagerly. They now had thirty-six between them.
“Enough to rank one of us up,” Alan muttered, eyeing one of the coins with a complicated expression as he rolled it over in his hand.
Jake winced slightly and looked away to hide his expression. He didn’t want to give anything away to the others; it was bad enough how much he’d accidentally exposed to Ari.
It was one thing to know that he had double the costs for increasing his rank when compared to the others, but it was another thing altogether to see what that meant in a practical way. Thirty-six Wyrdgeld wouldn’t even get him his first rank, and they’d cleared three floors of a Dungeon for that much.
The thought somewhat ruined Jake’s good mood from beating the floor, but he did his best to fake it as they bandaged up the wounds they’d taken and made their way over to the floor’s exit.
“Not a bad showing, not at all,” Ari said once they reached the door. “Sticking together was a good plan, and I’m impressed by the teamwork between Rhew and Karl. That’s a good synergy of abilities. For the rest of it, I’ve no specific advice, you all just need to get better, but that will come in time.”
“Should we take another rest?” Jake asked, looking to Rhew more than anything. She’d used her wand a lot in that fight, and her eyes had a tired look.
“I can keep going,” Rhew said hesitantly, not looking happy about needing to rest again so soon but feeling tired all the same.
“Remember, just pace yourselves. You’re over halfway there, but every floor has new challenges, and they only get harder,” Ari said with a pointed look in Rhew’s direction. “In an emergency, you can use Wyrdgeld to restore some of your Wyrd, but that eats straight into your share of the loot from the delve.”
Rhew grudgingly nodded and agreed to rest for a short time. It wasn’t much more than an opportunity to catch their breath and munch on some rations, but it was enough. In no time at all, though, they were getting themselves ready and heading through to the fourth floor.