“HOOOOOLLLLYYYYY SHIIIIIITTTTT!!!” screamed Gelm as he fought not to pass out from pure fear.
Valentia had managed to grab the knocked over rider and Lucas was still holding onto the unconscious mana drained Aurora. Neither really had a plan but their eyes were scanning for any possibility of survival.
Wind roaring in his ears Lucas yelled to the vice-captain “ANYTHING!?”
Barely audible she called back “TRY TO SPREAD OUT AND SLOW YOUR SPEED! BUT DON’T DROP HER!”
“GELM DID YOU HEAR HER?!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!”
Ground quickly approaching Lucas placed his shield in front of him and Aurora, at the very least he could try to use his body as a cushion for her survival.
Only 200 feet from the ground Lucas began to closed his eyes and braced for death. When all of a sudden a voice called from beside him calm as could be.
“Need some help?”
Looking over revealed a woman with blood red hair and pitch black skin smiling next to him. Further inquiry showed that she was riding a large mountain goat with crystal horns lazily chewing on a silver crown stolen off an Oberon.
Not one to question in a crisis Lucas immediately replied “PLEASE!”
Whistling as the goat began to descend rapidly the woman motioned to other mountain goats bouncing at similar heights all around them with small green spiders riding on their horns. Said goats ceased their jumping immediately and formed a circle formation underneath the plummeting party. The green spiders acted next, spraying an absurd amount of webbing considering their small stature, and soon a net of silk was held between several mountain goats beneath the humans. Once the net was finished the monsters leapt and caught the party midair.
Slamming into the makeshift net at ridiculous speeds the party caused the webbing to stretch wildly as their inertia was spread throughout the substance. Lucas groaned as his shield dug into his back and Aurora rolled off of him. Valentia and the old rider hadn’t fared much better and were bound together by the threads. Not that the old rider looked that upset. Since Gelm had never stopped screaming his mouth was currently stuffed with a large strand of thread.
Casually walking over to the still swaying net, the shadow woman squatted down next to the small spiders and said “Alright, get them out now guys. Be careful not to shock them.”
Fear slightly renewed at her comments Lucas was about to inquire further as to who this person was and where her [Tamed] minions had come from when Valentia asked first.
“Mary I thought you and the 1st floor boss were guarding the entrance tonight?”
Shrugging as she took Aurora off Lucas and laid her gently on the ground the woman answered “Master said Irwin and I should come help you all out once we took the invasion units out. Much as I hate to say it the bird and her squad didn’t let too many slip past. The Reapers, Clay Skeleton Golems and Anacondas are hunting down the stragglers while the Solar Salamanders work with the Terracotta Golems to guard the entrance just in case. We couldn’t send fire monsters off to fight in the forest after all.”
Rubbing her bruised wrist as the inch long spiders stood her up Valentia said “Got it. How many reinforcements are we looking at exactly?”
Dramatically putting a finger to her chin Mary smiled, “Oh about... 300 Lupin Spiders, 50 Bouncing Billie’s, 30 Perytons, 5 Elemental Elk, 30 Coal Cats, some Vacuum Hippos, if they ever get here with those little legs, around 25 Kirin, 100 Tempest Hares, 50 Timber Wolves not including the injured alphas, and of course me and Irwin.”
Valentia nodded in appreciation before explaining “That’s great news. We just took out the imp [Commander] so if you could help us further disorient the enemy it would be much appreciated. Oberon seems to have taken off and we’ve yet to spot the Parasitic or Erlking [Commanders] so they may not be present.”
Mary gestured over her shoulder towards the forest “Already done on our end. Just push the rats away from your frontlines and we’ll pick them off. We don’t want your people attacking us until you let them know to hold off.”
Lucas looked to where she was pointing and saw around 200 medium sized dogs lining the trees. He wasn’t sure what good they’d be, but this woman seemed to have Valentia’s trust.
Released from the web by the spiders Gelm began kissing the ground before pointing a still shaking finger at Mary “Y-you’re her aren’t you?”
“I am female yes.” She responded sarcastically putting a hand on her hip.
“You know what I mean! You’re that Shifter from the rumors!”
Unfazed and grinning at the accusation she said “Is that what they call me? If you don’t mind can we change that to The Reaper? That’s what my unit is called.”
Turning in frustration to Valentia Gelm explained as he pulled out his dagger “She’s a dungeon monster! In fact all the shit she just listed is! We need to kill her now!”
Holding a hand up and knocking the freed rider unconscious in one movement before answering Valentia explained to the party “No need guys. The town of Brooksdam and all participating adventurers in this battle are allied with the “Unnamed Dungeon” and its inhabitants for the duration of this war.”
Blankly Lucas turned to The Reaper who simply waved and stuck out her black tongue jokingly.
“My master and your mayor struck a deal a few days ago. All you lot need to do is defend your little town and let our army pass through to invade the other dungeons. My unit will be leaving in the coming days for the Dungeon of Fireworks while Almar and his squad have already left for the Dungeon of Fairies and will begin operation “Starvation” in the coming days. While we’re gone just do your best to keep as many out of the dungeon as possible. Depending how much those assholes put into defense, and all goes according to plan, we should be able to end the war in 2 weeks’ time.”
Completely stunned by the news Lucas and Gelm stood silent as a giant slime with a blue haired human boy swimming inside it hopped across the battlefield to them. Shrinking quickly the monster both recognized as the boss of Mangle Bog coiled around the boy’s neck and he quickly hugged Mary from the side.
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“K-knock it off Irwin that tickles!” she said pushing him away.
Tilting his head curiously the boy walked over to the mana starved Aurora and poured a potion over her. Her face immediately regained some color and her eyes fluttered open. The boy simply smiled, gave a thumbs up, and then tried to hand the waking girl a very small green hippopotamus. Confused she tried to sit up and push the hand away, but the palm sized hippo gave a small roar in response and she decided to give up and lie back down.
“Irwin, stay with this group until they recover, Valentia?” Mary motioned outwards to the battlefield where captain Eli was dueling 11 Oberon at once in a free for all “Would you like to go kick some ass with me to let your troops know we’re cool?”
Helpless to understand the monster’s tone Valentia nodded and Mary let out another whistle. In an instant 2 stunning blue and green scaled horses with trailing whiskers and clouds obscuring their hooves stood beside her. Mary promptly hopped on the back of the animal while Valentia hesitated for a moment before turning to the others and said
“You guys get back to town and report once you can get there safely. I’ll be fighting on the front lines for the rest of the night. If you’re feeling up to it you’re free to keep fighting but you’ve more than earned the night off.”
With that Valentia hopped on the monster’s back and no sooner had a clap of thunder echoed from their horns did the two horses gallop into battle. The slime kid stayed with them while they began healing and Lucas couldn’t help but speak after the form of Valentia.
“Think we can get to that level? I mean she just fought a [Commander] head on, fell 30 stories into a web of spiders, and then proceeds to hop on another monster’s back so she can go fight some more.”
“That’s why she’s vice-captain of the Royal Knights man...” Gelm said as he plopped down on the grass exhausted from the ordeal. The fight had been short all things considered, barely 2 minutes, but it had taken a lot out of him to keep up.
Aurora, who currently had several small multicolored hippos climbing all over her, weakly said “How much we getting paid to keep that bombshell secret? This kid here is a sentient dungeon [Boss] after all.”
Giving a thumbs up Irwin, as he’d been called, turned into a large white axolotl in an attempt to remind the party of his fight with them over a month ago.
Hands spread behind him Lucas sighed “Yeah... once the captains not busy we’re getting some bloody answers. That is if the dungeon doesn’t do so itself.”
---
Mary was pretty sure that the remaining dungeon forces could finish off the leaderless imps without the adventurers and knights. The only reason they’d been enlisted in the battle was because the dungeon didn’t have quite enough forces to fight on 3 fronts at once. Almar had taken more than half of Burza with him while Mulan had led most of the flying creatures into battle in the surprise attack. But she couldn’t ignore how fun it was seeing the humans react to the monster cavalry.
Initially Mary arrived with Valentia to show that the familiar monsters were on Brooksdam’s side but when the unknown monsters of Burza began storming the field panic and confusion arose. Mary thought it was obvious that her master’s creations were much more diverse and complicated than the generic templated monsters used by the enemy dungeons but from the human’s perspective a monster was a monster.
Eventually some of the more ‘eccentric’ adventurers began trying to [Tame] Kirin and Perytons as mounts, one idiot of smaller stature even tried for a Coal Cat. On her order the prideful beasts let the adventurers ride them, but she assured them all taming’s would not be possible during the war. Something she had little proof of, but she was a bit too distracted to test the theory.
The battle was one devoid of much strategy given that the enemy had no leadership without [Commanders] and the allied forces couldn’t communicate except through Mary. It was one big free for all with monsters versus humans and monsters together. Mary herself had transformed into Valentia to help lure away the Oberons and fought alongside captain Eli to thin the fairies numbers. She was saddened to admit he was still much stronger than her but given her specialty was assassination she choked the difference up to raw fighting experience. Maybe if she used another form she could hold her own for a short while.
Amidst the fighting she quickly discovered the hilarity of a Lupin Spider transforming in front of a human. Several adventurers had approached the seemingly normal dogs only to reel back in horror as their long legs unfurled and eyes opened. Best part was that the spiders enjoyed being pet just as much as normal dogs. The result was several adventurers running in fear as docile and slobbering spiders lumbered after them. Much to the Stalker’s amusement.
All in all the battle was a complete mess given the sheer variety of her master’s monsters. One minute the adventurers would be fighting alongside black Coal Cat’s releasing steam at the Oberon’s flesh, the next a Peryton would burst in front of them and take a fatal blow, only to be one upped by a giant spider falling out of the sky riding the back of a Bouncing Billy before a Tempest Hare crashed through a Erlking’s dark magic construct in a flying kick. Something about the pure chaos warmed Mary’s monstrous heart.
By the end the people of Brooksdam and the monsters of the “Unnamed Dungeon” successfully repelled the initial wave of enemy forces. Losses were not small but not enough that the victory was of a Pyrrhic nature. Before celebration could be had the two allied forces separated to grieve. The monsters returned to the battlefield while the adventurer’s corpses were rounded up to be cremated.
Lined up in no particular order the dungeon monsters in all their shapes and forms stood on a hill outside Brooksdam overlooking the quickly absorbing lights that were their comrades. All together in a cacophony of howls, roars, purrs, and neighs the mismatched comrades all mourned the deaths of their allies as one. Though few had ever even seen each other before the war a sense stronger than any human comradery united them. Each had died so the dungeon could live on, and it was up to the living to see that goal through to the end.
---
Standing near the river’s edge with all the inhabitants of Brooksdam Simmons spoke quietly to Eli as he heard the wails of his allies “Do you hear them mourning? They sound almost human.”
The fire of the dead being cremated reflecting in Eli’s eyes as he answered “Indeed. Fighting with them you would never believe them dungeon born. They aren’t the mana beasts we’re used to by any means, and I don’t just mean those “[Named]”. Capable of strategy, self-sacrifice, and grief... a real wonder to behold.”
Burning the dead was a necessary practice across the entire world. While illegal, necromancers did exist and the last thing anyone wanted was their loved ones to be pulled back into their bodies, away from a perfect life with the gods. Souls could still be pulled from the heavens but even the most powerful litches and devout cults would pause at the sheer effort to capture them from under the god’s direct protection. By burning a body the life of the lost was honored and released from the imperfect world they’d called home.
Amidst the cracking of the fire Simmons asked “We should hold off on making any announcements for the night. We won but the people may be too tired to listen to us.”
“Make sure they know an answer is coming at the least. I don’t know what the core plans on doing but he’ll need to make a public declaration of his existence at some point in the near future. All things considered waiting until we’re fighting a war with him was probably a blessing in disguise. Hard to label him a threat when we’ve all shed blood together.”
Nodding he added “We should expect a public denouncement by King Rylen soon as well. This war was declared on a dungeon he was protecting after all. Since their attempt to end the war in a single night has been foiled we can expect a public statement of some kind to smooth things over. Though I don’t envy his position. During my time in the capitol the candidate chosen to manage the dungeon was still undergoing his apprenticeship with Ms. Banely. His family will be furious if the deal falls through. They were going to be rich after all.”
Falling into silence the two men turned their attention back to the memory of the dead. Just days ago everything had been normal and all of a sudden hundreds of good men and woman were dead, with even more in jeopardy. But for now that was beside the point. The memory of those who died in service for the peaceful residents of Brooksdam would be mourned and celebrated tonight. It was the duty of the living to finish the war they’d died for.