Jake had dropped the dagger with the pain of being stabbed, so instead he reached for a potion on his belt, cracking it open with a trembling hand as he wheezed wetly.
The Murkling finally tore Moby free and threw him aside, revealing a bloody mess where its right eye had been.
Knowing his time was short, Jake quickly drank most of the potion, pouring the rest onto the wound in his chest.
The pain receded as the potion got to work, and Jake renewed his struggle to get free as the Murkling repeatedly stabbed Moby while screaming at him incoherently.
Realising he needed a boost to get free, Jake took a moment to force a change in his thoughts. He might be trapped right now, but this was all a hunt, a hunt where he’d been stalking and killing the Murkling and its allies.
Holding that belief, Jake used his last Manifestation to activate the Hunter’s Grace Boon.
Immediately, Jake felt a slight surge of energy race through him, giving just enough of a boost that he could lift the Murk Hound and break free.
Snatching up a second potion with his good hand, Jake quickly drank it before grabbing at his dagger, picking it up right as the Murkling threw aside Moby’s broken body and turned back to him.
Baring its teeth, the rat creature charged at him, its bloody spear ready to finish the job.
The slight boost from the Hunter’s Grace was just enough to offset Jake’s injuries, and the numbing effect of the potions was able to keep him focused as he tried to close with the monster.
The Awakened monster was shorter than Jake, but with its spear it had the reach to keep him at bay and out of range of his dagger.
Unfortunately for the Murkling, that wasn’t all Jake had.
Faking a charge, Jake let himself get pushed back, noting as he did that the others were just about finished with the rest of the enemies, but they’d got pushed a short distance away.
That explained why no one had come to help him, at least.
Jake’s injured right arm had been healing since it was first bitten, first from the spear and then the two potions, and he put it to use, drawing and firing his thorns wand.
Hours of practice let him draw and fire as one smooth motion, and while the accuracy wasn’t great when he did it, the Murkling was right in front of him.
Pushing as much Wyrd as he could through the wand, uncaring of how much he wasted in the moment, Jake let loose a flurry of thorns right into the monster.
The Murkling cried out in shock and pain, reeling back from Jake as a dozen or more thorns dug into its flesh.
Jake rushed the creature before it could recover, knocking aside the spear and grappling with the monster as he drove the dagger home.
For all that it was smart and in control of the Murk Hounds, the Murkling was smaller and weaker than Jake, and once Jake was in close, he used that advantage to its fullest.
The Hunter’s Grace Boon faded as the Murkling slumped to the ground, and Jake turned, bloody dagger in hand, to see if the others were alright.
They were all injured, but they were all still standing, which was what mattered.
“Damn, that was rough,” Jake said, moving off to one side to sit down, drink his third potion and try to catch his breath.
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“Are you alright, Jake?” Alan asked, hurrying over to him while Aspen helped bandage a nasty wound on Nepthys’s leg. “That’s a lot of blood on your armour.”
“Yeah, it got me good,” Jake said tightly, his chest still feeling like it was in a vise as he struggled to get a full breath.
“Do you need anything?” Alan looked down anxiously at the empty vial in Jake’s hands. “Another potion?”
“No, I’ve had three. I should be okay once I’ve had time to rest,” Jake said, waving off Alan’s concern. “What about you?”
“More burns from acid than anything,” Alan said, showing Jake the back of his left arm, which was badly burned. “Actually, do you mind pouring this on it?”
Jake took the half-drunk potion Alan offered him and slowly covered the burns with it, making Alan sigh in relief.
Nepthys, Aspen and Gargan joined them once everyone was bandaged and had drunk a potion. There was one thing playing on Jake’s mind, though.
“If that Murkling had managed the second stab, would that have killed me outright?”
Aspen shifted uncomfortably, sharing a look with Gargan before nodding. “It could well have done, yes. As it is, you’ll likely feel strange in that area where it struck you until your soul heals.”
Jake shivered, the image of that spear coming down at him flashing through his mind again. It had been close, far too close.
“What did we do wrong?” Alan looked between them with a frown. “It all started off well, but then Jake got cut off.”
“We played it too conservatively,” Aspen said, shaking his head. “We’ve been holding back enough that we’re not matching the situation for fights like this. Who has Wyrd left that they could have used earlier to take out some more Murk Hounds?”
Gargan immediately cursed and shook his head, which was all the answer Jake needed.
“Damn,” Jake said, shaking his head. “You’ve got a point. I’ve only used half of what I have.”
“I’ve used more, but not that much,” Alan said, shaking his head. “Sorry, Jake, I should have been doing more.”
“We all should have,” Nepthys said, her gaze resting on the bloody patch on Jake’s armour. “I was saving my Wyrd for more shields, rather than using it to kill them more quickly.”
“A mistake I think we all made,” Aspen said, looking both angry and disappointed at the same time. “I’m sorry, Jake. Gargan and I, at the least, should know better.”
“I think we all fucked up here, at least a little,” Jake said, thinking of how he could have used the Hunter’s Grace Boon right at the start. It would have lasted for the entire fight with how quickly things had happened.
“A learning experience,” Nepthys said firmly. “We will do better. We have to do better.”
Nepthys’s words echoed in Jake’s ears as he set about drawing out the Wyrdgeld within the dead monsters.
She was right, and hopefully, whatever Boon he was about to get would be a step in the right direction.
Little was said as they finished gathering everything from the floor, including a flask of what Gargan identified as Murkwater from the reward chest.
The pile of Wyrdgeld they claimed did much to boost Jake’s spirits, but the brush with death had put a chill in his heart that wasn’t going to fade anytime soon.
Shaking it off as best he could, Jake followed the others into the exit.
-**-
Congratulations, Jake Khesh, you have bound the Dungeon Valhol Murk. Choose from one of the four rewards the Dungeon has selected for you.
Jake experienced the usual rush of power through him as he bound the Dungeon.
Shrugging it off, Jake moved over to the plinths, looking over the options carefully as he listened to the whispers from the Dungeon that described them.
The first was a transformation Boon that would let him grow and strengthen his teeth for a time so he could bite monsters.
That one was a hard no.
The second Boon was a poison one, and it looked like it would be quite powerful as well.
The problem, though, was that there was a lot of crossover between it and the Hidden Fang, as it conjured a weapon for him to use as well.
Moving on to the third Boon, Jake listened with interest as the whispers described a way to move stealthily. It wasn’t a way to become unseen or hide himself as such, but it would let him dim the area surrounding him.
Jake thought he caught mention of controlling shadows as part of it as well, but when he focused, he didn’t hear it again.
The fourth option was more Manifestations as usual, but Jake wanted one of these Boons. He knew that more Manifestations were good, but he was appreciating more and more how versatile his Boons made him.
With that thought in mind, Jake took the concealment Boon, deciding that something like that would be very useful in the future.
If not in Dungeons, then most definitely with the Triarchy.
The power of the Boon flowed into him and Jake let it settle before conjuring up a summary via the System.
Shroud of Shadows - Granted by the Valhol Murk Dungeon, this Boon allows you to become harder to see in dim lighting and darkness. You may also exert the Boon to dim the light surrounding you. Both exerting the Boon and maintaining it draw on the power held within it on Manifestation.
“Interesting,” Jake muttered to himself, considering how best to use such an ability in the future. A lot of the Dungeons were tight in their layout, but the second tier ones were a lot bigger.
If that was going to be a trend going forward, and it would make sense if it was, then this would be very useful indeed.