Keith stirred groggily, trying to recall where he was and what had happened. As the woolliness of his mind cleared he could feel something hard beneath him and the stiffness that came from sleeping on it. His surroundings were pitch black, he couldn’t hear his family and his leg throbbed, demanding attention and wakefulness. A sudden sharp spike of pain in that thigh sent adrenaline shooting through his system, he jerked away by reflex and cracked his head off a hard surface above him. He felt a small weight dislodge from his leg with a tearing of flesh.
Fumbling around in the dark he tried to find his lightstone as he blindly attempted to crush whatever had bit him. Between lingering grogginess and growing panic he realised he was trapped in some kind of tight space, his mind wasn’t working as he wanted, he couldn’t remember where he was or how he got here. Hand finally finding the lightstone he poured mana into it, immediately his eyes burned as he saw spots, he hadn’t made that mistake in years.
He felt a concerning warm wetness seeping across his injured leg, its cuisses missing. Then it all snapped into place, the boar, the dungeon, the tunnels, losing consciousness. That recollection while not making him feel any better brought his mind enough clarity to crush the rat skeleton that was about to take another bite out of him. With the adrenaline starting to fade and a hint of copper becoming noticeable through the earthy smell around him he knew his leg was fairly messed up. Likely something a [healer] could fix, but he was a [duelist] not a [healer] and hadn’t been able to afford one of the fancy healing potions some of the more experienced members of his team could. Which begged the question, where were they?
Starting his slow crawl back through the tunnels since he wouldn’t have space inside to bandage his injury, he considered that the dungeon must have reset. Crawling over stone wasn’t doing him any good but there was nothing else for it unless he wanted to wait to be rescued. They should be coming to rescue him. After all, even if they saw the sand and assumed he died, once they left the dungeon the entrance would still show one person inside. As he shuddered recalling all the sand, he considered it was possible that others might need help too which would help account for the delay, but surely not all of them. He was the lowest level by far, the new kid to the group, wet behind the ears as far as they were concerned. So why hadn’t they come for him?
The stone tunnels had no answers for him as he dragged himself foot by painful foot through them, past dead end after dead end. Focusing on keeping his breathing even lest the tight confines and scent of blood cause his pounding heart to surge. He encountered the other skeletal rat but facing it head on and awake this time it was more cathartic than dangerous but every delay mattered. The smear of blood he saw when he had to backtrack was a grim reminder of that and he was considering if he could contort himself in any of the junctions to apply the bandages but it was like someone designed them to be awkward to manoeuvre in. Just as he was beginning to despair the end of the tunnel appeared in the tiny bubble of light shed by his lightstone.
Once his initial panic had faded, he’d become much more conservative with his mana usage, particularly remembering what lay beyond the door ahead. His team should be there or at least should have dealt with the huge skeleton, but if they hadn’t? Keith admitted to himself as he firmly tied the strips of cloth around the oozing bitemarks, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Theoretically he only needed to get past the brute and up the stairs to the saferoom but as he gingerly began trying to put weight on his injured leg it became obvious even the stairs alone would be a significant challenge at the moment.
He briefly considered waiting there to be rescued, if not by his group then by the next that ventured in. He could only hear silence behind the door so it was unlikely there was a group nearby and while the disk had vanished when he awoke – much to his frustration, though it wasn’t like he was intending to go further in the dungeon right now – the lack of sand suggested no one had passed through this level yet. Feeling the room spin as he leaned heavily against the wall it was obvious if he waited he couldn’t wait long, otherwise blood loss would get him. He’d been told about tourniquets but he wasn’t confident of doing it right and there was a good chance he’d be sacrificing his leg for his life. That wasn’t the kind of injury healers he knew could fix. As much as intellectually he knew it might be the right answer, he just…he just couldn’t do it. He was just starting out in a combat squad for his tribe, barely treated as an adult by most, he couldn’t become a cripple. He definitely couldn’t become one that would slow the tribe down as they travelled through the wildways.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Could sneaking past work? It wasn’t his forte and he didn’t even really know how skeletons saw things. Maybe some sort of sneak attack on the mana stone would work but he didn’t have an ability that he was confident would be both accurate and powerful enough to shatter the mana gem in the thing’s rib cage as it moved around. Could he take out a knee? Hobble it and even the playing field a bit? Something like that might be his best shot, and if he didn’t act soon it wouldn’t matter anyway, he thought grimly.
Drawing his rapier and wishing not for the first time in this dungeon that it was something with a bit more heft, he steeled himself, took a deep breath and opened the door. He was already moving as the huge skeleton began to turn. His leg throbbed with every step but he could ignore the pain for now, his unsteady gait more of a problem as his sense of balance felt woolly, subtly off like sounds underwater. Nonetheless he was moving at pace, aiming past the side of the skeleton.
His class’s signature skill [one-on-one] activated, letting him read the subtleties in the behemoth’s actions to predict its strikes a little ahead of time but that was little comfort as its club whistled towards him in a long sweeping strike. He stumbled forward, fingers brushing the ground for a moment and sending a quick pulse of [Earth Pillar] beneath its near foot. Not enough to topple it, the thing was too heavy, but just enough to unbalance it so with his hunched posture the club whooshed over his head. His leg screamed in protest as he straightened, trying desperately to keep some of the momentum he’d built. He was within its reach, and now it was in his.
His blade shot forward towards the knee joint, [Jab] and [Stiffening Strike] activating for most of his remaining mana, it was beautifully aimed but the tip barely penetrated the thick joint. Keith didn’t have time for regret, barely acknowledging the failure before continuing on towards the door, though as his limping became more pronounced and the room began to spin he knew he couldn’t dodge again. He became laser focused on the exit, desperately trying to move his injured body faster.
He was faintly aware of the heavy stumbling behind him, [Stiffening strike] should have locked the joint for a moment, buying him a little time, he just needed to get a few more paces through the door and hope it wouldn’t follow him up the stairs. He was almost there, warmth running down his leg despite the bandage. A few more steps and he heard thudding behind him. [One-on one] screamed at him that he was about to be hit but he couldn’t dodge. He felt his whole body clench as his eyes scrunched closed and then there was a slickness under his injured foot and he was falling forward. The impact came but as he fell face first towards the ground it became a glancing blow that broke his tail and hit his hip hard, sending him careening forwards in a spin. He ricocheted painfully off the wall and then slammed into the steps. His whole body hurt, his vision was swimming, his leg was wet but now barely warm. His one small hope was he didn’t hear the creature coming towards him over the ringing, maybe it thought he was dead, he kind of wished he was. Shaking his head to clear that kind of thinking and instantly regretting it he mustered his willpower and forced his arm up onto the next step.
It was slow but step by step he forced himself upwards. Each moment he didn’t hear the creature encouraging him that it wasn’t following but with his head swimming and the extent of his injuries it became a struggle to stay conscious. He had to keep moving step by step, if he blacked out here he wouldn’t wake up. He wanted release from the pain, he wanted a break, he wanted his damn team to come and save him but he knew today it was on him, he had to do his family and clan proud. If his team wasn’t here there was a reason and whatever it was the clan needed to know, needed to know how dangerous this place was before any other combat teams entered. Step by agonising step he made it until suddenly there wasn’t a step in front of him. His addled mind took a moment to understand what that meant before letting out a groan as he remembered he needed to cross the saferoom. He’d been working mostly on touch up till now but he thought he saw a hint of grey in front of him and chose to believe it was the veil in the level gate. He spurred his pace, hand over hand in one last surge of strength as it got larger and larger. He barely noticed the odd trickling sensation as he passed through, but the sudden shouting he noticed. He couldn’t process the words but barely croaked out a pair of his own before the darkness claimed him. He didn’t know if anyone heard but he had done what he could.