“Do you remember what sunlight looks like? I think I’ve forgotten,” Marianne lamented from where she’s lying on Lelantos’ back as the tiger prowled behind Alistair.
Marianne was the only person other than Liliana who the beast will permit to ride him and she was unafraid to take advantage of her privilege. Since she’s the healer, no one was brave enough to complain about it.
“It’s been maybe twenty-four hours, Mari. You haven’t forgotten what sunlight looks like.” Alistair huffed with a quiet chuckle.
“You can’t tell me what I have and have not forgotten,” Marianne responded petulantly, sticking her tongue out at the tank.
“Twenty-four hours of hell.” Liliana grumbled, arms crossed over her chest as her eyes flicked over the currently empty tunnel they were traversing through.
Her skin crawled with the knowledge of what lurked in this dungeon, what could be hiding right under their feet. Shaking off a shiver of fear, Liliana activated [Windwalk] and took to the air, landing on Lelantos’ back next to Marianne, who sat up to give her space. Liliana pulled her legs up to her chest and glared around herself.
“I hate it here.” Liliana grumbled. She had barely slept the night before in the camp, waking up every hour or so certain she could feel something crawling over her until she gave up and took the rest of the watch shifts. She’d finally ride herself of constant nightmares, only to still find no rest while trapped in her own personalized hell.
“One more night than we head back.” Marianne comforted her with a hand on her shoulder.
Liliana groaned and buried her face in her knees. She knew it was another night in this cursed place before they planned on heading back. It would be easier on the way back. The dungeon wouldn’t have time to respawn as many of the mobs, so getting back would take a fraction of the time it took getting however deep they ended up. But it was still another day and night and day again before she could be free of this awful place.
Something poked Liliana’s cheek, and she lifted her head to see a vine prodding her, a beautiful red rose in full bloom at the end of it. Liliana followed the vine to see it connected to Basil, wrapped around his arm and shoulders. He smiled at her and as he raised his eyebrows the vine twitched, poking her again until she took the rose off the vine, cradling the delicate blossom in her hands as the vine retreated to wrap around Basil, much like how Nemesis liked to wrap around Liliana. Basil never used weapons, but since descending into the dungeon, he always had a vine wrapped around him, ready to use it to fight, trap, or disable opponents.
Liliana smiled softly as she looked down at the rose. A hand reached over and plucked it from her grasp. Liliana’s head whipped up, a protest ready on her lips as Marianne grinned at her. The protests die off before they came to fruition as Marianne wove the rose into her tightly braided hair until it sat snugly above her ear. Marianne tapped one delicate finger against Liliana's nose with a mischievous and knowing smile that drew a flush to her cheeks despite the fact that the princess hadn’t said a word. Her look said more than enough.
“Any sign of monsters?” Liliana turned to her brother, looking away from her friend and trying to ignore down the insinuation Marianne was making with her expressions.
“Dawn, report.” Alistair called out, and seconds later, the quiet girl slipped out of the shadows to walk next to Alistair.
“There’s a large cavern after the next intersection. There’s thirty Soldiers in it that I can see, two Ceturionede’s and one Phalanxede. I spotted a chest at the back.” Dawn reported, her voice toneless and curt before she disappeared back into the shadows, presumably to resume her scouting.
Koth’talan had taken up guarding the rear in her place, Anya was in the middle. Liliana, Alistair and Lelantos guarded the front, keeping their squishy and powerful mages well protected between the melee fighters.
“Yes, a mini boss.” Marianne perked up, spinning her scythe as she leaned forward, trying to urge Lelantos forward.
The tiger ignored the princess’ unspoken request and continued padding along at Liliana’s mental order. The last thing they needed was for their healer to rush off on her own and get taken out. Without Marianne to heal them up, their group would fail before too long. Liliana didn’t want to even think of how Zir’elon’s team was doing without a healer to boost them.
“More fucking bugs.” Liliana groaned, but she sat straight, stretching out her body as she double checked her equipment, being sure she had all her daggers ready.
“I’m sure if you find it, you can take up your complaints with the dungeon core.” Emyr drawled.
“I’ll be sure to ask the next Centipede I see, ‘excuse me sir, can you take me to see your manager?’” Liliana snorted, assuming her best privileged, snotty voice. She had plenty of role models to pick from for that, having spent so much time around nobles. Karens, the lot of them.
“Wouldn’t it be take me to your leader?” Koth’talan asked from the back, voice tinged with amusement.
“No, I think it would be take me to your mother.” Anya said, with a head tilt and a wolfish grin.
“Did you just assume the dungeon core’s gender?” Liliana asked with a scandalized gasp.
“Do dungeon cores have a gender?” Rathwater piped in, face twisted in consideration. The group looked towards Liliana for an answer, and she rolled her eyes.
“Guys, I don’t know everything about monsters, which I’m not even sure you can classify a dungeon core as.” Liliana groaned. There were several disbelieving looks sent her away and a few suspicious hums. Honestly, go on a tangent about a beast one time, well, maybe more than once, and everyone thinks you’re a walking encyclopedia on beasts!
“Take me to see your maker then.” Diana interjected, voice soft and hesitant.
Liliana turned her head and met the girl’s cornflower blue eyes, so different from her own despite the shared base color. Light, like a summer sky as opposed to the stormy dark jewel blue of Liliana’s. There’s something in her eyes, not forgiveness, but a peace offering.
“I’ll be sure to ask the next Centipede I see to take me to see its maker then, right before I stab it to death.” Liliana said with a shy smile. Diana returned it and something that had been knotted and aching in Liliana’s chest released with a soft sigh of relief.
“Can they even understand human language?” Emyr asked, distracting her before the moment could grow to awkwardness.
“At Rank 5? Maybe. Rank 6, no.” Liliana said with a tilt of her head. She knew her bonds could understand her at Rank 6, but being bonded boosted their inherent intelligence because of their access to her mind. Normal beasts would likely be able to understand some language if they spent sufficient time around humans, but dungeon made creatures were notoriously dumber than the beasts found in the wild. And pitifully stupid if held in comparison to a natural born creature.
“Now, if they were more humanoid, like goblins, hobgoblins, orcs or trolls, they might, as those have already proven to have their own rudimentary language. Animalistic beasts its far less likely.” Liliana added on, her voice musing as she considered it.
“Wait, goblins have a language?” Alistair yelped, turning to her in shock. Liliana raised an eyebrow, confused, as the rest of the group paused to look at her in surprise.
“Yes? I thought everyone knew that?” Liliana asked, suddenly timid and unsure, with so many eyes on her.
“No. That’s not exactly common knowledge, Lili.” Emyr said, sounding a touch exasperated. Liliana looked from one face to another, bewildered as to how no one else knew of this. Sure, not everyone had a boon that granted them universal language comprehension, but surely someone had noticed there was a repetition and cadence to humanoid beasts speech that implied a language.
“How do you even know that?” Marianne asked and Liliana opened her mouth before closing it.
Because I have a boon from a goddess that lets me understand any spoken or written language and apparently goblins and their evolutionary line have something close enough to a language for me to understand it with the boon? Yeah, she couldn’t exactly say that.
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“I read it in a book,” Liliana said with a helpless shrug, which seemed to sate the curiosity of the group.
“We’ve been killing creatures with a language?” Alistair whispered, horrified. He was looking at his hands as if he expected to see blood coating them, like some sort of permanent sign of sins.
Liliana snorted with a roll of her eyes. She’d feel bad too, if she wasn’t subjected to the nature of those particular creatures’ conversations. They were doing the entire world a favor by killing them. Nasty things, with nasty thoughts and words. Liliana shuddered with the memory of what she’d heard some goblins and their ilk say before. No one would feel remorse for killing them if they could understand them.
“You’ve killed bandits before and they’re far easier to empathize with than goblins.” Liliana huffed.
“Yeah, but what if they have a culture? What if they have little goblin babies and goblin wives or husbands waiting for them? Have we killed entire families?” Alistair demanded. Liliana rolled her eyes, but she jumped off Lelantos to approach her brother, laying a comforting hand on his arm.
“They’re dungeon beasts, Ali. They don’t have families, or cultures or partners. They’re Mana constructs made by the dungeon for the express purpose of defending the core and killing anything that comes inside so the core can feed off the Mana and grow in strength. They’re dumb as bricks and more vicious than a nest of Blood Hornets in the middle of summer.” Liliana comforted her brother, who looked a few seconds from collapsing into a crisis of morality.
“I, for one, don’t feel bad for killing goblins. They have nasty bites.” Koth’talan interrupted, rubbing at his arm as if in memory of such a bite. Perhaps he was. None of them were newbies to dungeons, and they all had their share of scars from fights long passed. Some more than others.
“I’ve seen what orcs can do to a village before, so I don’t care if they have a language, or culture or if they’ve painted the best damn art on this continent. I’ll kill them if I see them.” Basil chimed in with a frown. Liliana tilted her head curiously, wanting to hear more about the story she could sense under that comment, but she didn’t press.
“If you’re all done, we’re nearly there.” Dawn’s voice cut through their conversation on the sapience of goblins and their evolutions as she appeared from the shadows once more.
The only reason Liliana didn’t jump was because she was so used to Emyr doing the same. Secretly, she hoped the two don’t become overly close. She didn’t know what she’d do if they both began popping out of shadows to wreak havoc on them all.
“Ugh, time to kill more bugs.” Liliana grumbled, dropping her hand from Alistair’s shoulder as Marianne slid off Lelantos to start buffing their team.
Liliana smiled at her friend as the healer passed her, boosting her Mana and Health regeneration. She activated her Set Up chain and shook her arms as the rush of power flooded through her, chased by adrenaline rushing in her veins at the prospect of a fight. [Battle Clarity] activated and tamped down on the fear that’d been clutching at Liliana every second she’d been in the dungeon, dampening it and making it inconsequential.
Liliana ran her fingers over the two soul stones that radiated warmth onto her skin, a small good luck ritual. She hadn’t let Nemesis and Polaris out to fight in the dungeon except when they camp. She let them wander around then, knowing nothing in the dungeon would prove difficult for Polaris and Nemesis was clever enough to not fight anything she couldn’t handle. But she couldn’t let them out during the rest of the time. Lelantos was enough.
Polaris would clear everything and while it would mean Liliana would pass the exam with flying colors, the rest of her team would probably fail. Nemesis was also as much a danger as an ally for her team in close quarters like this. Her poison skills would harm her team as easily as the enemies. Only Liliana, Alistair and Emyr had high enough [Poison Resistance] that she knew of to be able to fight with the flowered serpent without worry of health risks.
However, they were still there, an option if things got too dangerous, if her team was at risk of really losing or being overwhelmed. Liliana had them to call on. It brought a second safety net to her, and probably to her team. They all know if they were at risk of really dying, one of the teachers would swoop in to save them, but they’d fail if that happens. If Polaris had to save them, they won’t fail. Their pride might be hurt, but they’d be able to keep fighting and recover their grade.
Alistair waved the group over, all of them closing in on him in a misshapen circle as he gave out his orders.
“Lili, you and Anya act as vanguard, try to take on the Ceturionede and Phalanxede while me and Lelantos draw the aggro of the rest. Koth’talan, keep to the back in case more come up to surround us. Emyr, once the Soldiers are focused on me and Lelantos, start prepping a large scale spell to take out a good deal of their number. While he’s prepping, Rathwater, Diana hit anything you can and try to keep me from getting overwhelmed. Basil, hold down as many as you can to give our mages easy targets. Dawn act as support, help anyone who is lagging. Mari, keep us all healthy, focus on the tanks since we’ll be holding off the largest number. Take shots if you can make them, but try to avoid anything big. If you run out of Mana, we’re fucked.” Alistair instructed them, giving Marianne a hard look when she started to argue, forcing her to shut her mouth with an audible click.
“Everyone ready?” Alistair asked when no one else tried to argue with him. Nine confirmations came back, and he nodded, turning towards the cavern entrance they could see just at the end of the lights several of them had summoned to see in the depths of the dungeon.
“Move out.” Alistair ordered, raising a fist.
Liliana smiled, looking at Anya, who was bouncing on the balls of her feet. With a shared grin, the two girls peeled off from the group, running towards the cavern. As they reached the entrance, Liliana grabbed Anya’s arm. The wolf girl clutched tightly to her as Liliana activated [Windwalk] and dragged them both into the air, Anya weighing hardly more than a feather as her Gravity affinity came into play.
Liliana’s eyes took in the dark cavern, [Nightvision] working hard to make sense of the dark mass of shapes beneath them. She could see the roiling mass of bodies and too many fucking legs that marked the thirty or so Centipede Soldiers Dawn had told them of. Liliana’s eyes skittered over them, finding the bulky, armored shape of the Phalanxede and the thinner shapes of the Ceturionedes further back, guarding an ornate chest that looked entirely out of place in the rocky cavern.
“Preference?” Liliana asked softly as they reached the ceiling of the cavern.
“Give me the big boy.” Anya said eagerly and Liliana smirked as she grabbed the girl’s other forearm.
She spun them around, building momentum before she let the wolf girl go, hurling her off at the Phalanxede like a deadly rocket. Liliana didn’t take the time to watch the collision as she activated her Beast’s Dance combo chain, able to juggle the extra cost thanks to Marianne’s buff. Six daggers flew out of her sheaths as Liliana shot through the air, the wind whistling shrilly in her air as [Wind Surge] pushed her forward faster.
Liliana activated [Radiant Ignition] as she sent out her daggers to embed themselves in the body of one of the Ceturionedes. Six minor explosions rocked its body as Liliana’s naginata connected with its partner. The beast slid to the side right as she connected, making her blade skitter across its armored body rather than impale it into the ground. Chitin split far easier than its under-evolved brethren.
The Ceturionede sacrifices Vitality for Speed. Its armor is weaker than its brother, the Phalanxede, but it is far more deadly with its razor sharp pincers and blade like legs. Liliana recited from memory as she twisted to avoid a lightning fast strike from the beast as it turned on her. She jumped back into the air, avoiding a slice from one of its wickedly sharp pincers, which looked like scimitars melded on its face.
Liliana recalled her daggers, the six of them returning dripping blue blood on the ground. Behind her she could hear the roars and shouts announcing the rest of the party arriving, drawing aggro from the Centipede Soldiers that had turned at the appearance of two combatants. Now the lower leveled soldiers were focusing on the more flamboyant threat, drawn in by the aggro generating abilities.
Liliana twisted around a shot of earth from her own opponents as she gauged them. Their bodies were weak, easily pierced and sliced, but their legs and pincers were made entirely of metal. Unlike the Centipede Soldiers, which had a thin layer of metal woven in with their thick chitin to protect their bodies, but little protection on their many legs, the Ceturionedes had pure metal on their legs and pincers but nothing mixed in with their thinner chitin. She should be able to finish them quickly if she avoided getting nicked by their legs or pincers. A good, decisive hit and they’d be done for.
Liliana sent her daggers off again, aiming at the one she had already injured with them. It flitted between her shots, only one dagger landing. Liliana grimaced as she recalled the daggers. She couldn’t finish them from a distance then. Activating [Windsurge] again, Liliana charged at the already injured one, daggers held close to her as she strafed over the beast, her naginata swinging down and scoring a glancing blow that had it stumbling. Flipping in the air, Liliana turned to attack again, pulling up suddenly when a long body hurdled at her. The other Ceturionede.
“Wait your turn,” Liliana growled as she drew further back, the two beasts circling under her like sharks when she rose too high for them to approach. She hadn’t even realized the damn things could jump.
Liliana sighed and with a glance at her Mana, she activated [Invisibility], her form disappearing in the air. She sent her daggers out to harass the monsters, distracting them as she approached again. When their backs turned on her, she struck, diving fast to shove her blade behind the head of the more injured Ceturionede.
It writhed under her, forcing her to grip the haft of her weapon tightly as she strained. Despite its lower Vitality, it was still a Rank 5 beast and cutting its head off was more difficult than a Rank 6. Her blade finally broke free, its head tumbling off its neck, the body curled and seized under her in death throes as Liliana jumped to its side. Turning on her heel, she landed a kick to its back and sent the corpse into the path of the second Ceturionede, which had focused back on her approximate location.
The dead body tripped the other beast up, tangling them up in a mess of limbs as the deadly blades on the dead body scraped against the struggling form of its companion. Liliana didn’t give it time to recover as she sent six shining blades into its body, ripping, tearing and exploding as she rushed it. It was too occupied with freeing itself from the limbs of its fallen brethren and escaping the pain of the six daggers slicing into it to notice Liliana, invisible as she was, and it didn’t see its death coming until her blade sunk deep into its head, blade shining as [Pierce] and [Radiant Edge] gave her strike the strength to plunge deep.
Liliana pulled her blade out, recalling her daggers as she looked at her team, seeing them surrounded by a mass of Centipede Soldiers. At least fifteen more than the thirty they had originally seen had joined the fray, reinforcements having popped out of the ground during Liliana’s battle. Liliana grinned as she spun her naginata, daggers circling her as she jumped into the air again to dive into the middle of the fight.