Liliana looked up at the stone archway that heralded the beginning of the dungeon. It was deep beneath the main building of the Academy, accessible only by teachers and with enough wards and shields around it that Liliana felt her skin itch from the almost suffocating magic all around them. There were guards too, staff Liliana had never seen whose sole job seemed to be ensuring nothing got out of the dungeon. They felt almost redundant with all the spell work, but the lessons on the shattered continent weren’t all that long ago. They all knew the damage a dungeon could do if allowed to run rampant and gorge itself on Mana.
Rauk had stopped them right outside. Vereign was doing the same with his group further from them. It was so they could have a chance to get equipped, to put on spells and activate skills and whatever else they needed to do before entering. It was stupid to wait until one was in a dungeon to start their active spells and skills, since there was no telling how far in a dungeon one would get before they started running into the denizens and traps.
“Two Health potions, one Mana and one Stamina for everyone. It’s all I could make in time.” Liliana advised her group as she passed out the potions. She’d spent so many hours in the Alchemy club, even coming in on days the club didn’t meet with Professor Gambrill’s approval to make more. They had a large group and only one healer. The potions could keep someone stable long enough for Marianne to get to them.
Everyone took the potions and stepped off to start equipping themselves and activate their abilities. Liliana summoned her nagianta and four new daggers. Basic things, they’d still drained a good amount of her merit points, twenty a piece. It had cost her eighty points to get them. Alistair had complained that she’d wasted her money on weapons instead of getting something protective, but Liliana cared little. She had fifteen points left over and she planned to save up for a while before she got more gear. If they were lucky and completed the dungeon today, she might get more gear. Liliana activated her set up combo and [Threads of Control], picking up the four daggers so they floated around her in a lazy circle.
Marianne flowed through the group, already covered in her blood armor and wielding that terrifying scythe of hers. She pressed a hand to each member, soaking them in spells and bolstering their Health, Mana, and Stamina. Liliana grinned when her friend finally got to her, and she watched as her own Health, Mana and Stamina increased. Her Health went from fifteen hundred to just over two thousand. Her Stamina jumped from eight thousand to almost nine. Her Mana boosted from its boosted five thousand to seven thousand. And her regeneration of it went up to fifty Mana a second. Liliana activated her Beast’s Dance combo, mentally forcing [Wind Surge] to not activate, as soon as Marianne gave her the boost. Liliana was practically vibrating in place with the power running through her with so many active running at once.
Lelantos and Nemesis were ready and waiting, already released. Polaris was in his soul stone, but wouldn’t be called unless it got dire. He would make the dungeon too easy and would sap experience away from everyone. As it was, Lelantos and Nemesis would mostly sit out, only there as additional protection. They were both too high to share experience with the students, and it would make this entire dungeon pointless if they weren’t allowed to get the experience they had been denied for so long. As it was split ten ways, it was likely no one would level today, despite the sixty-eight percent boost this dungeon specifically gave.
“Is everyone ready?” Rauk asked when the students had finished preparing.
When he got confirmations from everyone, he motioned for them to walk into the dungeon. Despite being underground, the walls of the dungeon were high, the path wide enough for them to gather in groups of up to four comfortably. Alistair took point, Liliana next to and slightly behind. She had a polearm and needed to be in the thick of a fight, so it was best if she was close to the front, Anya was at Alistair’s other side; she needed to be close as well and she had enough Health to act as a second tank. Koth’talan stayed near them. As another close combat fighter with defensive capabilities, he could help hold off a force and do damage.
Behind the vanguard was Zindru. He was a mid range fighter with his Nature affinity and he had more than a few defensive skills and spells that would help hold off an attack from reaching their more vulnerable mages. Next to him were Marianne and Emyr, their hardest hitter and their healer protected by their vanguard and Zindru. Behind them were Rathwater and Diana, mages who would need protection but close enough to help wherever their firepower was needed. Diana was versatile with her affinities and could run quickly to whoever needed aid. Dawn trailed at the back, a strong fighter who could cut off any attack from the back. Lelantos followed behind her, a reserve tank and a comforting presence at their backs.
Rauk followed several steps behind Lelantos, clearly not part of their group but close enough he could intervene if something went terribly wrong.
Their group was quiet as they entered the dungeon and walked, nothing but the sound of their own feet and the rustle of equipment to fill the empty caverns. Light hung high above them, magelights placed there by someone or by the dungeon itself. The light didn’t fill every shadow, and it somehow made it all the creepier, the shadows all the darker for the light. When they got to a crossroads, they paused.
“Right. Vereign will take his group left.” Rauk called out, and they followed his orders easily, almost instinctively, after two months of his tutelage.
“Are we going to see anything? Is this dungeon empty?” Anya was the first to break the silence and even her normally loud and bright voice was dull, quiet in this place that held true danger.
“Sometimes dungeons are like this, lulling you into a false sense of security before something truly awful drops on your head.” Liliana responded and almost on cue, all their heads craned back to look at the ceiling, a sigh of relief flooding through their group when they saw nothing waiting above them.
“Hopefully, there’s nothing too bad in here.” Diana said next, her voice nervous.
“No spiders, please.” Marianne said next and Liliana could feel her friend shivering even if she wasn’t looking.
“Mari, we talked about the jinxing thing.” Liliana chided her friend.
“Great, now there’s going to be spiders,” Emyr muttered darkly.
“Those are easy enough. Just burn them.” Zindru jumped into the conversation with ease after spending so long listening to their banter in classes.
“Wait, do you guys hear that?” Anya asked, her ears perked up and straining forward.
The group stalled, everyone dropping into combat stances as Anya tilted her head to hear better. Liliana strained her ears, her sense were sharper than many of her friends now and even she struggled to hear it. It was faint, almost unheard over her own breathing, but she heard it. Rhythmic clicks, like something hard hitting the stone.
“Pickaxes?” Liliana asked in a hushed whisper, confused. There weren’t many dungeon creatures that would be able to mine. Perhaps ogres had the intelligence for it, but not the drive.
“No. It’s insects.” Anya decided with a frown. Liliana couldn’t help turning to stare at Marianne, as did many of the group. The princess frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.
“This isn’t my fault.” Marianne argued against the disbelieving looks.
“Feels like it. You said spiders. Now we hear insects.” Alistair pointed out, one of the few not to turn and look, his eyes trained ahead of them, on alert and waiting for danger to appear.
“It’s a coincidence!” Marianne insisted, but it was obvious no one believed her as they all turned back to the front.
Slowly they started forward and no more conversations started as they all strained themselves to hear or see these mysterious insects. As they walked through the caverns of the dungeon, the noise slowly picked up until everyone could hear the rhythmic clicking of many chitinous legs hitting rock.
“Something’s coming.” Anya forewarned seconds before Liliana heard it. A different clicking of legs moving quickly against the ground, heading right for them.
Everyone tightened their grips on their weapons and spread out a bit. Spells lit and weapons pointed forward as they waited. Finally they saw it, appearing from the darkness like a nightmare made real. It was huge, shorter than Lelantos bug half as tall as Alistair, wider than two of her brother put together too. The mage light illuminated the vibrant emerald of its carapace as it moved, its huge pincers dripping something that sizzled as it touched the ground.
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Liliana didn’t check her [Identify], didn’t need to as the sight sent fear coursing through her so strong it broke through [Battle Clarity] like a brick through a window. A centipede. A horrendous, disgusting, terrifying centipede. A giant centipede, big enough to slice her in two and eat her in seconds. Liliana could find something to love about any creature that walked, crawled, flew or swam in their world, but she could find nothing to love about centipedes, whatever size or shape they took. She detested the insects; she hated them; she feared them.
“Fuck this.” Liliana said as she backed up first one step, then another. She was tempted to run the other way, failing the class be damned. She didn’t want to deal with that.
“Lili.” Alistair’s voice cut through her panic.
He knew how she felt about these things. Had seen her scream herself hoarse and cry herself sick when a small one had crawled over her hand one day, had held her through the panic it caused. The dungeon couldn’t have picked something worse for her to face if it tried. Fear was dumping adrenalin through her veins, terror was making her heart pound so fast she thought it just might fly away. She wanted to run away, far, far away.
“Lili. If it’s dead, it can’t hurt you.” Alistair told her, his voice tight but still comforting as he addressed her fear even while he stood in front of them all, ready to face this hellish creature down.
His strength stilled Liliana’s urge to flee, and his words helped turn her fear response of flight into fight. Anger licked at the fear, pushing it back long enough for [battle Clarity] to take back over and force all emotions down. Just in time too, because Rathwater’s lightning hit the beast square on, causing some of its armored chitin to blacken and a squeal to emerge from its hideous mouth. That seemed to be the signal for their mages to start throwing out spells. Lightning, ice, water, blood, fire, and darkness converged on the beast, hitting it so hard and so much that by the time it reached Alistair, it was nothing but a corpse.
Liliana danced back an extra step from the giant insect, her face twisted in disgust as she looked at it. She would normally be annoyed that she missed a chance to get experience, but she was just glad she hadn’t needed to touch the awful thing.
“See? Not my fault. That’s not a spider.” Marianne declared, easing the tension.
“I still blame you.” Liliana told her friend as their group moved forward. She shuddered as she passed the corpse, picking up speed to get past it faster.
The next threat they face was three of the giant centipedes, and that was almost enough to break through [Battle Clarity] again. But Alistair’s voice calling to her. The knowledge that her friends needed her to be strong, to fight these creatures made of her worst fears, helped keep the fear under control. She turned that fear into motivation, and when she jumped into the fray, she attacked with prejudice, vicious and brutal, as she sliced the creatures to pieces. Removing limbs and breaking through chitin to dig into their weak flesh beneath until they were nothing but massacred, twisted corpses flung around her.
“Ew, ew, ew, get it away from me.” Liliana squealed as she jumped over the still twitching bodies and amputated insectoid limbs to hide behind her brother again, frantically removing bits of bug from her body as her skin shivered and twitched.
Several classmates chuckled or giggled at her antics. Liliana was always unflappable in a fight, never afraid of anything or anyone and ready to face down any challenge with a mad grin on her face. To see her turn into someone who shrieked and danced as she beat at her body to remove bits of bug blood and broken chitin was amusing.
“I hate this dungeon. Hate it. This is awful.” Liliana whined as they moved on, once more skirting the corpses with a fast pace and carefuller averted gaze.
“Could be spiders.” Marianne said with a grimace and earning herself deathly glares from everyone.
“I’d rather spiders.” Liliana muttered angrily.
“Could be a bunch of snakes,” Rathwater spoke up, his deep voice a surprise. He rarely talked at all, but his voice always felt too deep for a sixteen-year-old boy. His comment seemed to spawn a conversation where everyone began naming things that would be worse than centipedes.
“Roaches. Millions of Roaches.” Dawn spoke up, her tired voice yet another surprise.
“Moths.” Zindru said with an exaggerated shudder.
“Bears.” Diana said with a haunted tone to her normally happy voice.
“Rats.” Koth’talan said with a frown on his face.
“Sharks,” Emyr had announced with a glare as if daring someone to mock his fear. Emyr didn’t like most things that swam, he wasn’t comfortable with water combat as it was.
“Baku.” Alistair said quietly. Liliana frowned, a bit surprised by that one. Baku were fairly weak creatures, they were ambush predators that killed when their prey was asleep, eating first their dreams, then their life force.
Their conversation calmed Liliana a bit though, to hear that she wasn’t the only one with fears, with a phobia. To know others would be weak to some things simply because of fear. It made it a little easier when they came upon a group of eight centipedes in a wide room, some crawling on the walls as others raced across the ground to get to them.
Knowing her team had their own fears helped her manage her own, helped her force it back. Knowing her team needed her to survive this, that without her they might fall, might fail, might die, helped her keep it firmly locked under [Battle Clarity] where it couldn’t freeze her limbs and turn her into a liability.
Liliana took to the ones in the front as the mages were ordered to keep the ones coming on the walls back. She found herself next to Koth’talan as they both weaved and stabbed and ripped and tore into these unholy abominations that should never exist. Koth’talan’s fighting style was as different from hers as it could be, all viciousness, brutal and violent. Liliana looked like a dancer even in the middle of a fight, sometimes making others forget she was fighting until blood flew and screams sounded around her. But Koth’talan never let you forget he was in a fight, all harsh movements and ruthless attacks. In its own way, his fighting style had a savagely beautiful quality to it.
Somehow their very different fighting styles meshed well, and despite their the lack of familiarity with fighting together rather than against each other, they slipped into a type of rhythm. Liliana would dance forward and strike before spinning out of range as Koth’talan rushed forward to rip into what she cracked. So they traded off, moving around each other and decimating whatever came before them. Anya jumped in and out, a third to their dance of savageness and elegance. Anya was far more familiar with Liliana’s fighting style and always partnered well with her.
As they fought, there were some slips, some mistakes. A mage firing too close, or missing and clipping one of them. But as they fought more, everyone got more comfortable judging each other’s moves, with anticipating, or at the very least focusing on something the melee fighters weren’t targeting. Dawn slipped around the entire fight, barely staying anywhere long enough to see her before she dropped back into the shadows, leaving broken bodies and bleeding injuries behind.
Marianne hardly had time to fight herself as she moved around the fight. Healing Alistair before rushing to the mages to give them more Mana before running to the melee fighters when they dropped back for healing.
Their group found a rhythm where fewer commands and shots had to be called as they made their way deeper into the dungeon, as more and more centipedes rushed at them, coming from in front, to the sides and even, terrifyingly, from above. Fewer mistakes were made, fewer spells clipped others as they got comfortable with each other in the middle of a bloody battle.
It was hours later, with a much more tired group, that they finally came upon a rest room. Rauk finally spoke up to let them know it wasn’t a trick room, and they would be fine resting here before he went back to silently observing them. Undoubtedly grading them, remembering every mistake and misstep to berate them over later. At least he would wait until they were done before telling them every way they’d messed up.
“We have another two hours before we need to head back,” Alistair told the group that was loosely circled. They’d all sat down, weapons still out but resting next to their legs and arms. Food and drinks took up their hands now as they ate and filled stomachs aching with hunger from so much Mana and Stamina use in one day. This was the hardest workout many had experience since the start of school. Battle Training was only an hour and a half and they’d been in this dungeon for three hours already.
“We won’t get to the boss today,” Liliana pointed out with a sigh. Dungeons took days at a shortest to clear, sometimes weeks if it was a big enough one. They wouldn’t finish the dungeon today, or any day soon. Not until they were permitted a longer field trip. Or if they got permission to use the dungeon over a break.
“We just need to clear more monsters than the other team to win.” Anya pointed out with a smile. Liliana was rather certain they’d cleared more. While many of them had never fought together before, their team worked well. They trusted each other, and that had helped them come to a comfortable fighting rhythm. Zir’elon’s team was half filled with people who very much didn’t like each other. They would struggle.
The conversation continued from there as they all rested for another ten minutes as they finished their food and stretched out sore muscles, Marianne making sure everyone was healed and whole.
“Let’s finish this,” Alistair declared, as everyone gathered their weapons. Liliana shuddered once more at the reminder that they’d be facing more of those gods-curse centipedes, but she pasted on a strong face as they moved out.