Al breathed a quiet sigh of relief as Harry stomped away. The plan was to focus on getting as deep as possible and bringing back information, not collecting mana gems. Unfortunately, the [berserker] had the fearsome temper associated with his class.
“Remember the more details we can give the more we can sell it for and look out for any disk-shaped objects, they seem like they might be useful for the door…” Keith called after the departing behemoth, though Al doubted that he was paying attention.
“Excellent points Keith,” Tommy refocused the conversation with his usual slickness. “Now all that remains is where each of us shall explore.”
“Are you thinking we each take one of the remaining doors?” Keith asked with a note of surprise.
“A bold idea young man,” Tommy responded as if impressed, “I’m in favour, I assume you’re interested in the door with the earth symbol, and air and fire are easily filled.”
Keith looked completely flummoxed, unsure how the conversation got to this point. Al shook his head at the naivety, he would be horrified at the manipulation, but he’d seen what other beastkin resorted to in an effort to control their squads. Tommy’s methods, while distasteful, were substantially less bloody than many.
“I’ll take light,” Lisa chittered.
“Then we all have our goal,” Tommy concluded with a grin.
Al walked towards his door, his keen nose detecting a faint hint of smoke in the air that instantly had him tensing. He knew better than most how destructive fire could be and while they’d had time to rest, his [burning echoes] and [flame mane] skills had really eaten through his mana earlier. Gaining the skills from the pride of blazing lions had been a stroke of luck, but he'd massively underestimated the size of their mana pools. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about providing illumination for the others now, the [reflection of flame] in his catlike eyes ensuring the darkness would hide no secrets. Though he sighed as he opened the door to a tight spiral staircase of jet stone, his crossbow wasn't going to be useful in this particular trial. At least the smell of smoke seemed to grow weaker, covered by a woody scent and his nose scrunched before loosing a short burst of sneezes that stirred the light stream of dust pouring from the staircase. Drawing his shortsword he proceeded cautiously upwards.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
He’d barely made a full rotation of the stairs when he came face to skull with a three-armed skeleton barring the path. The ringing of steel on steel echoed through the staircase as it lashed out with twin scimitars. Al cursed The Warrior as he whacked his elbow off the central pillar while parrying instinctively. His shortsword was more practical than most in the tight confines, but that pillar still had him wishing he was lefthanded. His opponent’s curved blades may not have more reach than his but the longer cutting edges added to their threat, and of course, there were two of them. Its third arm bore a small metal buckler and regrettably this skeleton wasn’t making the rookie mistake of thinking it was purely for blocking and was using it proactively to try to bash his face or limit his view. Only his higher stats and experience were allowing him to cross blades without taking damage so far, though he was on the defensive.
Blinking away the dust that had begun stinging his eyes, only to have to step back to avoid the buckler rocketing towards him. A surge of panic shot through him as his foot didn’t find a step behind him and fell through the air… for about an inch. Still, it was enough to totally throw off his balance, sending him stumbling. A stinging line of pain flared on the arm he’d thrown out towards the cold stone in a frantic effort to stabilise as one of his opponent’s blades managed to pierce his leathers.
The opportunistic attack had left an opening though and Al decisively thrust out, determined to end this he activated his [flaming thrust] skill. Licks of flame sparked into being around the tip of his blade and he was assailed by overwhelming heat, pressure and sound.
----------------------------------------
Ivy jerked away from watching the spider-woman as a dull *whump* echoed through the dungeon, felt in her gut as much as heard in deafening volume. After a moment of utter disorientation, she realised she might have overdone the sawdust in the fire tower…