Tommy slipped out the back of the building while everyone else dived towards the portal. He had no intention of leaping blindly towards anything being held open by those fell flames. If he played it right, no one need know that he’d slipped away in the confusion, but he’d have to move quickly. His heart pounded as a commotion broke out behind him, it seemed not everyone had made it through, but he didn’t dare look back. He tossed the torch into a nearby blaze and smoothly hoisted himself onto the roof. Damp hair pressed close to the rough stone, his skin itching in the sudden stillness. He held his breath and waited. Sure enough, a moment later one of the dwarves stumbled out looking around. For all his criticism of the midgets, they weren’t moronic enough to trust him. The other two staggered out, one supporting the other, as the first was still looking around scratching himself.
“No sign o’ Tommy or the guard.”
“Guess they must ‘ave made it through.”
The acrid smell of smoke was a consistent unpleasant undertone on this floor, but now when stealth was paramount, Tommy felt it catching at the back of his throat. He wished the bloody fools would hurry up as he held back a cough.
“So, what do we do then?”
“We gotta find the token and catch up te ‘em”
“It donnae look like he’s goin’ much farther with that head wound.”
“I can manage… Ye ain’t leavin’ me behind. I can still fight.” Slurred the dwarf leaning on his friend. Whatever bump he had taken while diving at the portal seemed to have exacerbated his earlier injury, or maybe it was just all the walking and fighting. Tommy didn’t care as long as the blasted trio finally moved on!
“Why don’t you guard the exit for us?”
“Aye, it’ll help us find this again.”
“I uh, I suppose I could do tha’…”
Almost choking, Tommy held steady as the pair trotted off. He didn’t dare make a sound while they were within earshot. Yet, he couldn’t hold it for long, and sooner than he’d like after they vanished into the winding streets, he let out a hacking cough.
Of course, the one who remained noticed, “Oi! Who goes there?”
Forcing air back into his protesting lungs, Tommy sprang from his supine stance, over the edge of the roof to slam into the dwarf below. Snaking his dagger past the target’s hastily raised arms, he sank it into the shoulder of his victim. The pair crashed to the ground, separating as Tommy rolled clear and spun, ready to strike once more. The dazed dwarf barely blocked the successive slices. It all happened in seconds, but Tommy needed him silenced. Their eyes met. Suddenly Tommy’s body seized. It had to be some sort of stunning skill! For an instant he stood there helpless, counter-strike closing in. As suddenly as it happened the effect ceased and Tommy slipped under the blow. That skill was nasty, but Tommy was used to scrapping after using [stimulant]. He savoured the sucker’s terror as his sinuous movements saved him, simultaneously his stinger shot out and sank through his foe’s eye.
Slowing his breathing, he heard only silence over the twitching of the corpse and crackling flame. It seemed the others were far enough away after all. Since he was here anyway, Tommy decided he might as well steal the stun. Could be useful on the way out. Speaking of which, he was going to need a distraction. A dungeon break would do nicely to keep the guards busy. And so he slunk off in search of a skeleton to drag outside.
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Div tried to ignore Pamyel’s pacing as he focused on the scry. It was well within his abilities, but he was trying to be efficient. Even in the best case he’d have to finish piecing back together the memories that frayed when the girl languished in the void between worlds. And in the worst case... no, better not think about that. No one had power to spare right now, and the heart of one’s domain should be sacrosanct. The littered bone field came into view, the Lich within already casting some preparatory spells before the intruding pair came into view.
“Finally. It’s better odds than expected, but do you really think she has a chance against a level 40?”
“Don’t count her out Pamyel, she was level 39 herself before the dungeon formed. Giants are tough, damn Warrior got that much right at least, but the dungeon has absorbed quite a few skills and affinities.”
“That [Dread Captain] is no slouch himself, even if death is a poor matchup against undeath.”
Div winced, “She just has to hold on.”
“For all our sakes, I hope she can."
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Luke dove for the opening even before the black flame had fully extinguished. It felt like someone had taken a grater to his skin where he brushed past its embers. Splashing into full submersion he swallowed a gasp of pain before he took too much water with it. Disoriented. Submerged in murky blackness. Sttruggling not to choke. He managed to slip out a lightstone, the pale light revealing a small bone strewn pool with a slope to the exit. The giant who was floundering beside him realised she could simply stand up, grow and breathe. A few swift strokes and he was walking up the ramp out of the water beside her. Water streamed down him and the sodden padding beneath his leathers felt like it had doubled in weight. As he stepped onto dry, bone strewn ground, he kicked clear a hand shaped set of bones that had snagged on his boot. Suggestions of larger shapes loomed at the edges of his small globe of light. A wave of heat hit him, making him feel suddenly drier, but more importantly the flickering flame in the giant’s hand revealed the looming shapes as towering bone piles.
A crystalline lance arced through the air towards them at incredible speed, the giant throwing herself to one side to avoid it. A blast of flame towards its point of origin charred scattered bones but seemed to achieve little else. The intensity causing the marrow within to pop and bubble as the exterior charred and cracked. There was a pause as his companion regained her feet, growing taller and raising the flame to peer over the nearby cover.
“See anything?”
“Not nearby.”
“Let me try something.” Luke raised his voice, “Evelyn the mortician, or should I say murderer? Is that you out there? Up to your usual tricks?” He paused as his voice echoed through the uneven terrain, stalking forward with a firm grip on his warflail. “Not going to cut a deal with a petty bureaucrat lacking the spine to poison the former Lord himself this time? Or maybe you already have? Krieger did seem usually keen to keep the dungeon safe.” His words hung in the air, seeming to linger unnaturally. He hunted among the piles of bones as he spoke, chest tightening as he rounded each hiding place. Each empty spot another coal beneath his simmering frustration. “Answer me you coward!”
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Evelyn ghosted through the bone piles. It was a pity her alpha strike failed, but despite the guard’s provocation, delays were only to her benefit. Painfully slowly the bones around her were animating, the cooldowns on [conjure skeleton] and [animate corpse] were passing – a pleasant surprise to find the lich had her old skills, even more so as a way around the limit on creatures in the core room, though it simply felt right for a lich to summon minions. Foolish though it would be, she did wish she could set the blowhard straight, but the prohibition on direct communication still seemed to be in effect. It rankled her that he of all people called her coward. It was him who lacked conviction, unwilling to kill subordinates that would have never supported the new regime. Where he hesitated and made perfunctory overtures, she identified the threat and eliminated it, taking great risks to limit additional bloodshed. The mess with the ranger vice-captain was proof positive that she’d been right to act, and even that had been much less severe than if half the guard had been swayed by the die-hards. She thought she’d accepted being seen as the villain, not everyone could understand you needed to cut off the rancid and decaying flesh to save the rest of the body. But him invading, throwing her painful efforts in her face when he should have been the one to do it, was sickening. She didn’t know how he’d found out she’d made preparations to kill the old lord, but he was wrong. Krieger the mild-mannered bureaucrat had surprised her too. A key moment of conviction, decisive action, and most importantly, sacrifice for the good of Timberhollow. That dispelled her doubts that he was fit to be Lord.
Swallowing the sour taste in her mouth, she focused on the matter at hand. She had to survive, and keep them away from the dungeon core buried deep in a pit of bone at the far end of the room. The air swirled around her as it crystalised once more, into dozens of tiny gems this time instead of a single large lance. The gem skills from the spider beastkin were intriguing, Ivy’s creativity already demonstrated their potential. Unfortunately, they were both mana intensive and slow to form, but liches had exceptional mana capacity and regeneration. With a whoosh, light filled a section of the room. They must have found one of the skeletons. A flex of [crystal manipulation] lobbed the shards of crystalised air towards the disturbance, Evelyn already repositioning as they cleared the first bone pile.
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Faint pops and flickering of the fast-dimming light warned her that it had some sort of interaction with the flames, but none of the grunts of pain she was hoping for. An orb of fire arced over the bones to scorch a spot far behind her. She was hoping the hearing damage from earlier would make it harder for the giant to track her, but she couldn’t count on it.
She managed a few more shots, slipping away after each, though she had yet to score a meaningful injury. Animating more skeletons as she could, only for them to be shattered, whether man or beast. A barrage of fireballs rained towards her former position, the giant clearly losing patience and opting for quantity over accuracy, forcing Evelyn to pick up her pace to get clear. She skidded round a corner and locked eyes with the captain.
“There you are!”
He charged towards her and she flung out a fist though he was still far distant, a blast of air flying forth to hit his face with a crunch. She broke line of sight, hoping he was dazed by the blow. The giant had grown and was crashing towards where the captain had spotted her. She could only hope the noise would hide the pounding of her feet. A shout from behind revealed the captain was giving chase. She felt oddly calm, her heart unbeating in her chest, a cooldown ended and she glanced back sending a bolt of greyish energy into a pile of bones. Slaloming through the bones she heard the new skeleton leap at the captain only to be batted aside by the polearm, but it slowed him slightly, letting her slip away. A thundering crunch rang out as the giant stumbled, [Undeath parade] barely managing to provide a distraction for her. Now she only had to do that a couple hundred more times, somehow.
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Tommy cursed whatever god governed luck or fate as he returned to the building with the path to the saferoom, a squirming boar skeleton slung over one shoulder, to find guards and rangers fanning out from it. Worse still, one of the rangers immediately spotted him.
“Stop him! If he takes that beast out it’ll lead to a break!”
Tommy tried to play for time, “Now, now, be reasonable-”
Knives from the other ranger whipped through the air, he barely dodged one only to realise the other shattered the mana gem of the boar. The guards were only a step behind in charging towards him, and he did a double take as he realised an inexplicably alive Keith was among them. Backpedalling, he tried to put some distance between himself and the angry group. He was good, but he wasn’t nine on one good, at least not if those rangers and the sergeant were in the nine. He needed to divide and conquer, starting with the weak link.
“Keith! I good to see yer alive and kickin’. I wanted to go back for ya but these arseholes have been-”
“You left me for dead Tommy! The others did die! And now I find out you ran off to a bunch of midgets. For what? Money?”
So much for the soft target Tommy thought, dancing back to dodge anther swipe. Then the dwarves finally did something right for Tommy as he heard distant war cries, one of which was cut short by a hacking cough.
Smirking he taunted, “That’ll be the dwarves grabbing the key to the next door, some of youse lot best be chasin’ them before they get too far ahead.” From their grimaces Tommy could tell his point was finding purchase, unfortunately they had points of their own getting closer and closer to sinking into his flesh. “Of course, if you let me pass and leave peaceful like, I’ll tell ya where the entrance to the next floor is.”
“You aren’t escaping here alive.” Keith growled, recklessly pushing the attack with his rapier. Tommy wished he could exploit the brat’s openings, but the others would gut him if he tried.
A sharp crack distracted some of them enough for him to get some distance. It seemed that weapon had been fired again.
“Sounds like they’re making progress, what’s your answer?”
To Tommy’s surprise it was the blonde staying at the back who answered, “I won’t permit one who would cause a dungeon break to pollute this world further.”
“Farad, Vidan, stay with Keith and Gabrielle.” the platemail-clad sergeant ordered. “Get the direction out of him if you can, but don’t take chances. Signal if you’re in trouble or find the exit.”
With a series of affirmatives most of the group split off towards the fading sounds of battle. Tommy still stayed on the defensive, trying to gauge their strengths. Four on one still wasn’t great odds but for all the fire of the girl’s words she was hanging back, clutching something around her neck. One of The Lover’s healers perhaps? If he could lure one more of them off…
A beam of light in his eyes dazzled him and he leapt to the side blinking. The bumps and scrapes from his earlier exertions protesting at the sharp movement even as an unseen blade added another scrape to his weak arm. He heard Keith’s hiss of frustration clearly and started to shift to strike his opening but his nose caught a hint of cologne through the smoke just in time for him to leap back. His watering eyes could just make out the blurry form of a spearpoint a moment later. The others had been gone long enough, and that was too close.
“Fine, the exit’s in a house that direction,” he gestured with his best estimate, “Don’t suppose you’ll let me go now.”
“Not a chance.” Keith snarled.
The spearman was more measured, though Tommy wasn’t sure if the tone was more to convince him or the two who seemed zealous for his death, “No, but if you speak true and you drop your weapons, I’ll try to convince Sarge to accept your surrender.”
“Pah, drop my weapons, as if. That’s the right way best as I can tell, but you might want to hurry. Theres lots of houses on this floor and I might have forgotten to mention earlier that your captain and the giant already broke their way through. How long do you think whatever the dungeon has left will last against that pair?”
“He’s lying, he’s just trying to distract us.”
“Keith, in case ya hadn’t noticed, I don’t care about the dungeon. I just wanna leave. Preferably with some gold. You’re the one who’s makin’ this personal.”
The kid's incredulous spluttering would have been hilarious any other time, but right now Tommy was more interested in the expressions of the ranger and guard who were clearly weighing his words.
The priestess drew a blade, holding it like a novice while the other remained wrapped around her holy symbol. “Go if you must. He cannot evade forever and I shall provide support for Keith.”
Tommy would have loved if they were that naïve, but it seemed the spearman at least had a more realistic assessment of the young duellist’s abilities, “Go, we’ll manage.”
The ranger fired another beam of light towards his eyes and he was once again forced to rely on sound and scent as he remained on the defensive. The spots from his eyes didn’t last long but they remained watery, though he was pleased to see the ranger was gone as the blurry shapes began to focus once more.
“My class has benefits one versus one, back off a little and I’ll –”
Tommy saw the opportunity and batted the rapier aside with his knife as Keith was distracted. Swerving to keep the duellist between him and the spearman he darted inside his guard. The spearman was reacting quickly, barely flinching as he tossed the torch from his weakened arm towards him. But it wasn’t quick enough. As Keith’s eyes followed his knife, the stinger on his tail plunged into the boy’s side. If the brat was so upset with the others’ deaths, he could die just like them.
The boy dropped like a sack of grain as [paralytic venom] and [enhance poison] proved their worth once more. The spear thrust over his head with sudden force, it’s owner had clearly been holding a few skills back himself, not that it mattered as Tommy triggered [muscle stimulant] and batted the blow aside.
He savoured the look of terror on the guard’s face. The priestess’s grip around her holy symbol was white knuckled as she ran forward mouthing a prayer. And of course, Keith lay paralysed at his feet, waiting for death.
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Evelyn flung the lance of ice towards the giant, already fleeing from the entrance pool used to form it as it plunged through a blast of flame. The shattering and plume of steam helped cover her escape, but each was getting closer and closer. The fire resistance from a few judicious activations of [flame mane] had proved essential, but shining like a beacon was just asking to be attacked. It felt cruelly ironic how useful some true water spells would be in this situation, but making the deal to save Lydia was the right decision at the time, even if it meant she lacked water affinity now.
Slipping through the twisting maze of bones she had a goal in mind, [reflection of flame] and [greater tremor-sense] illuminating her path and helping her steer clear of her pursuers. Juggling so many skills was a mental drain as she constantly crystalised more projectiles, but there was little choice.
Her eyes alighted on the prize she’d been searching for, the edge of a shield protruding from a bone pile. It was one of a few pieces of equipment scattered throughout. It had been intended for the skeletons to use, but right now she wanted it for herself. The rumbles through the ground told her time was running short. With a jerk she pulled the shield free. Her hands rapidly worked the straps, steady only because of their lack of pulse, as her pursuers came into view once more, closing in from different angles. They didn’t want her to escape again.
There was a tense pause as her eyes darted back and forth between the pair, then wordlessly the towering giant raised her hand and a gout of flame rushed forth as the captain charged her in tandem. The flames were the bigger threat and she stymied the approach of the plume with a trio of blows that loosed blasts of air. The last blast had a [burning echo] she hoped might distract the giant a moment as bones in the ceiling shifted from [undeath parade] to drop a stalactite on her. Evelyn had no time to see if it worked as the captain had closed the distance. She took a crushing blow to her upraised shield, standing firm only because of [block], [shield reinforcement] and [sure footed] but the studded head of the warflail, shrouded in death energy swept over the top brushing her arm and it dropped as weakness shot through it. This form didn’t feel pain as such, but that was unpleasant. The undeath supporting her animation partially depleted as it worked to counter the death effect. Desperate to make some space, she flung the lone crystal she had formed at him. There was a cocky smile on his face as he stepped back and the crystal shattered on the haft of his weapon. She met his eyes and he froze, the skill she acquired during the fight buying her the second she needed to send a cupped slap from her free hand straight towards the side of his head. [Resounding thump] was never supposed to be used like this. It was supposed to help a noise maintain its volume over a larger distance and through different mediums. But Evelyn knew the bones of the ear were fragile, and the captain staggered screaming at the echoing blow.
At that moment [danger sense] screamed. She shifted her shield towards the giant, hoping it could hold back the flames even as she drew the knife at her hip. This was her best chance to finish the captain. But this time the flames were black.
The fire consumed the shield and the arm holding it before she could react. The fire resistance from [flame mane] had no effect on these flames. If she was in a living body she’d be dead. Shock and pain would knock her out. But as a lich she was cold and dispassionate, with clarity she never could have achieved in such a frantic battle otherwise, she spun clear of the flames, loosing her held dagger at the end of the motion. It was a blade designed for melee but with an urgent need to injure her assailant she poured all the skills she could into the attack. [Quick toss], [precise shot], [power shot], [wind’s edge – knives] all culminated in the blade sinking a few inches into the giant’s chest, her most serious injury to date, but far from a crippling one. As [regeneration] started bubbling in the stump of her arm, she let clarity be consumed by a [berserker rage]. Grabbing a femur, her final [charge] began.