It was an apex predator and it knew it. Unlike the many other creatures that felt the call of the dungeon, the bear dog felt overwhelming confidence in itself and braved the darkness. Confident as it was, the bear dog walked with a steady speed, scanning every nook and cranny with keen eyes till it would tell there was no threat to be held. It continued this without stop, never growing complacent even as minutes stretched on and on. No, it had too much experience, faced too many greater foes before its rise to the top. Even now, it remembered run-ins with creatures that it had to run from, rare as they were. Some of her more bestowed cousins could still muscle her around despite her level advantage. But such was one of its, her, reasons to enter the unknown, to take place as the single greatest being in the forest. Life would be a long buffet, creatures much too weak to ever match her, but she’d never over hunt them either. All she needed was the core, she knew. To find the core was to become a veritable god.
As another step brought her deeper into the core’s domain, her nose wiggled every which way. The flat end of her nose glistened as the smell of prey grew stronger, or at least as close as she could call it. Some notes she could remember and pick apart, while others were not of anything she knew, as such she cataloged them intently, keeping the potential threat in the back of her mind.
The tunnel she was in grew deeper and deeper, confusing the dog bear as she pattered on with no challenge. She huffed as she grew closer and closer to a light in the distance, odd in the dark of earth. Only better for her, though, as her eyes were not built to peer through absolute darkness as was in the tunnel before. She paused as she came to the source of the bluish light: a hole going straight into the earth, with only a flimsy looking construct connecting the top to the bottom. No doubt it would break under her weight, but she had to go on. She had to. With an unnatural and unusually intelligent behavior, the dog bear pulled its muscles taut before lowering her back half into the hole. Her claws dug into the stone, finding perches in the relatively weak mineral, before she began her descent. Her weight countered her claws and she screeched down the wall, grinding up both claw and stone all the way till she met solid ground.
With grace, the dog bear righted herself, staring at the chamber she found herself in. It was roughly round, with rough-hewn walls that looked like something had worked it for a long time. In the center was a small tree she could easily put her head in the breaches of if she stood on her hind legs, as well as two passages leading out of the room. She peered into both of them, finding light in one and darkness in the other. Randomly she chose the dark one, but after a few steps she quickly determined there was no core to be found here. She did not know where the core was, only that it wasn’t in the area connected to the dark tunnel. Quickly, the dog bear adapted to this sense, heading down the light up path and eliminating another out shoot easily.
She turned to head down the correct path before tensing up at the sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her body to face the area, only to see a hole in the tunnel, leading to what must have been a tiny little tunnel. Carefully, the dog bear redoubled her scan of the tunnel, and after moving some distance found another small tunnel. Easily she could be ambushed by some sort of snake, small as the passages were, many of the deadly snakes could wiggle their way through.
The dog bear continued on her methodical search, slower this time, as she stayed as far away from those holes as possible. Curiously, she sniffed again, the action bringing in swaths of data in much more detail than her passive sense. The unknown smells were growing stronger, the idea of a threat almost making it noisome to the dog bear. Worse was the fact she could smell it all around her, on a more detailed note, she could smell it to such a degree it must have been actively wafting off of some creature. It made her anxiety skyrocket, and her bloodlust simmer. They were surrounding her, no doubt using their home advantage to circle around and prepare. In the face of a threat, all she wanted to do was to rip them apart, confirm that they were of little danger.
But, the creatures showed nothing of themselves, and as paths grew equally connected to the core, and more and more confusing, the dog bear grew more and more wired. The tunnels were like a dream, and in the low light almost impossible to determine from each other, and the omnipresent scent was leaving no other way for the dog bear to track its way forward.
Thus, at the first sign of what must have been it's would be hunters, the dog bear locked onto them. It was just a scuff behind them, the shifting of a paw, that set the hundred and fifty kilogram caniforma on a warpath. The dog bear let out a chuff as it locked on to this creature’s specific scent and flew down the tunnels, quickly gaining on its prey by the quickly growing noise of its gait. It sounded light, nothing like the pounding steps of the dog bear, bringing the creature ever closer to a non threat in the dog bear’s mind. The dog bear rounded one last corner, breaking into a full sprint as it saw the stretch of tunnel before it and the small back it was chasing. With contempt, the dog bear activated a skill to close the twenty-meter gap, but instead of pouncing away, it felt its forelimbs pierce the ground they were on, then felt a couple tons of stone collide with its back and head.
With rage, the dog bear activated its Lightening Roar, shaking the tunnel around it before it torn itself out of the stone tomb, launching boulders like they weighed nothing. The trap made its entire body sore, making it painful to move several parts of its body, but nothing that would stop it. No, it ignored the pain and instead locked onto the prey that led it here, which was just now continuing its run. Annoyed at the presumptuous creature, the dog bear growled and dashed off. Blood boiled at the thought of its attempt to kill her, it could not be allowed to live now. But, with its movement skill on cool down, the dog bear was only just making ground as she was forced to slow to make the corners the smaller creature did with ease.
The dog bear roared in rage as the creature disappeared, going in a hole upwards a level, forcing the dog bear to leap up and follow it. It bellowed as it started running again, completely tunnel visioning on the only real threat it had seen. To its joy, the small creature turned into a room, only to discover it was stuck. The dog bear sauntered towards the creature, noting its odd neck frill, and letting out a deep, wet, throaty growl. It had it now. Or at least it would have, had the next step towards the creature not made the dog bear fall through the floor.
As the dog bear slammed into the ground, it could only see red. It was enraged before, now it had become a mindless berserker, ready to do anything to get her kill. Thankfully, when she righted herself she saw the multitude of similar creatures and quickly lashed out, ignoring the weak prods through her hide. Like a real monster, the dog bear bit into the ambush with deadly fervor. She locked onto one of the creatures, looking scared out of its mind as it trusted its metal tipped spear at her. The dog bear ignored its thrust, her charge jerking the weapon out of the creature’s hands as it was stuck in her hide. It tried to scramble, but she lunged forward and bit it in half, letting it drop away as she turned to face her next target.
—--------
Fuck you, you fucking myopic dog brained cunt! the dungeon spirit cursed itself, watching its delusional trap turn into a bloodbath. Its first mistake was hope, beginning to believe that it could sort this mess out even minus their greatest asset. The beast was strong, durable, and even clever, but still it was a beast and could be led around by its nose. Sure, the accursed system wouldn’t allow it to just grow full walls of stone to prevent the level eight dog bear from getting to it, but it had traps and numbers on its side, what could go wrong? What could go wrong is severely underestimating its enemy, cheering on its spawn just before it broke through the ceiling and starting chewing them to pieces. I even gave some of them armor!
It had known the difference in strength between levels, and even knew of the mighty stat growth of many monsters. But hope is an insidious force of the greatest devil's work, worming its way in when I should. Have. just. Stalled. Rangtwor, having only return from her day and ha half long hunt just an hour ago as still soaking in energy from the dungeon to heal. She needed time and the dungeon spirit could have easily it could lead it around, using its traps but not wasting hundreds of DP in deaths.
The Dungeon spirit sighed, lamenting its decisions now were of little use, but pretty much everything else. Truly, it was fucked. With what resources were in the dungeon now, there wasn’t even a plan to be made. Its traps were under powered, its spawn needed time to grow and strengthen, and it’s not like it could make anything powerful enough to fell the beast. It could spawn items in the areas not being influenced by the invader, but little mundane things could harm such a creature. Acids, explosives, poisons, and what have you would never make it through the fifteen vitality with who knows what modifier. From the dog bear struggling off huge boulders, to only getting scratched by the sharpest spears it could summon, it was looking bleak.
Rangtwor, I know I’ve already asked you, but are you ready yet?, the Dungeon spirit asked over its connection, the stress leaking into the connection making it a nigh-psyonic attack. [Yes] Rangtwor responded simply. The Dungeon spirit took a deep sigh of relief, here it said as it beamed Rangtwor the path she would take to get to the beast. I’ll leave the plan up to you on how you want to attack it, but you’ll need to kill it before this point here, the dungeon spirit explained while showing Rangtwor the the point roughly ⅓ of the way thought the final tunnel that the core was in.
Anything after that, and my last resort will be to transmute a large amount of rock into air, which would likely kill the invader, but, since the invader is in the way, I will not be able to create any paths for the pressure wave to escape, so any denizen and delicate works in the ay will be destroyed, the dungeon spirit explained. Rangtwor sent a message of her understanding before heading off towards the invader.
The dungeon spirit watched as the raging dog finished off the last of the mupputs. Each of their spears was covered in the most deadly mundane venom out there, but either because of the vitality of the beast or the lack of penetration, it looked no worse for wear. The dungeon spirit growled as the beast headed towards the exit of the room, and was surprised when the beast turned to face it. How annoying, listen here beast, I’ll have your fucking head on the wall and use your corpse to summon more of your kind and use them as prey. The dog bear parsed over the words, the dungeon spirit's voice understandable for all creatures, before turning its heavy head away. Leaving bloody paw marks in its path, the beast continued on its path. It paused for a moment as the dungeon spirit manifested before it once again, there is only darkness for you and death for your people. The dog bear just chuffed before walking through the non-existent phantasm which was the dungeon spirit’s eye.
Ugh, it seems my threatening skills need work.
As the dungeon spirit watched the dog bear pick up speed through the tunnels, they took count of their resources. They had ten muppets left, as well as two more traps that were left on the beast’s path. Already they’d made it pretty far into the first area, and now with their increased speed, they were growing uncomfortably close. Rangtwor should be arriving soon, For now, let’s see what can be done. With multitasking abilities beyond most. the dungeon spirit commanded its mupputs, sending one to try and lead the beast around like last time while also commanding all lesser spawn to try and distract the beast, and finally using all of it’s DP to create jars of oil with a wicker, along with some flint and steel. It’ll buy some time.
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The dungeon spirit had the rest of the mupputs pick up the oil jars and lead them to their positions, choke points that the beast would need to cross. Since the beast had not followed the muppet it had sent, instead searching the tunnels, it was a waiting game. Sending flurries of lesser creatures to pester the beast was the last thing it could do now. Surprisingly, it was the bugs doing the best job, by flying into its nose, ears, and eyes. It was just a hindrance though, one the beast soon learned to ignore, using strong blasts of air to keep them from flooding its nose.
Oi, nice job! the dungeon spirit commented as a snake turtle managed to find a grasp on one of the toes of the invader, making it pause to fling it away.
Making slow work are we, at least one part of the dungeon works properly. The dungeon spirit joked, but the nervousness was getting to it. Would Rangtwor make it in time? Would she even be able to kill the monster? Was it really going to die because it was too greedy to spend some DP and level up some spawn? Was it a mistake to fucking chose a spawn that needs water and then fucking don’t use water in the first level?
Just like the last real invader, it was a race between them and Rangtwor. Damn, does she need a raise. Like some drama, on cue Rangtwor popped into one of the nearby tunnels, the wrong tunnel. Rangtwor go to the tunnel that leads- ah, fuck that, here look, the dungeon spirit said, resorting to sending over a mental map of the dungeon. [ok] came the simple but willfully backed response.
You can’t understand how happy I am to see you ready, but you’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so pretty please get the move on, the Dungeon spirit said, causing the muppet to roll her eyes. [you know, dungeon, all of a sudden I am feeling very tired. Might need to rest some before dealing with your invader] the muppet threatened, only half joking. Respect was quite important for the fledgling warrior. Alright, alright, I’m deeply sorry, but there does happen to be a massive problem in the dungeon right now, looks like a bear and a dog had sex, shrugs off boulders bigger than itself, oh… and now it's also fine being on fire, the Dungeon spirit snarked, getting a little chuckled out of Rangtwor. [yes, quite the problem. The one you want me to kill] Rangtwor dead panned, making her way down the tunnels at a speed faster than what an unclassed human could ever hope to run.
—----------------------
Despite her words, though, Ragntwor was filled with calm but excited energy at the prospect of battle. She’d had reached level 5 while out hunting in her day out hunting, but really she had gained little exp; the majority of it had come from the worm. But, no doubt a level eight monster would give her a nice influx of exp. That and give her a damn great fight.
Could she die, yes, but she believed full-heartedly in herself. The notion of losing never even appeared in her mind. It was an odd state of mind, not one of overconfidence, but one of knowing either she won or she died. She refused to die, thus she would win. Not even must win, she would.
Taking stock of the invader's position, the dungeon spirit was confident that with her understanding of the dungeon, Rangtwor would engage it well before a hundred hu of where the dungeon spirit would have to resort to its winds to kill the beast. So how's your training been? Manage to get close to a class yet? the dungeon spirit asked casually, do the best it could do to stay calm. [haven’t a clue] Rangtwor responded flippantly, doing nothing to quell the fear of death in the dungeon.
Fan-fucking-tastic
The closer Rangtwor got to the invader, the denser the swarm of bugs became, like a buzzing fog in the air. At least they split open to provide an unobstructed path, something that could not be said for the invader. Rangtwor skidded to a stop, pulling her spear into an aggressive stance as she looked at the black and shifting blob that must be the invader. It was moving at a decent click, most likely the fastest it could go with bugs destroying its vision. Any faster and the wall it just rammed its head into might do damage.
Rangtwor approached cautiously as the beast shook off the collision with the wall, the violent shaking of its head dispersing the bugs around for just a second before they flew back like they were magnetically attracted to its eyes. It hastily continued on, heading closer to the core.
It seems it hadn’t even noticed Rangtwor, despite being only five hu away. The muppet easily ignored whatever drivel the dungeon was sending over their link and focused on formulating an attack. It would be hard to tell how close she could get to the beast without alerting it, so it would likely be her most important decision. [Dungeon, explain the beast’s senses. How close could I get to it without alerting it] the mupput queried, using its mental map of the dungeon to find a smaller, but serviceable, tunnel to run parallel to the beast. Hmmm, now you want to talk. Ungrateful spawn. You should be able to get close enough to attack it. It can’t see shit. It can’t hear shit. And its nose got burnt inside via the efforts of your brethren. So, sneaking up on it should be no problem. Also, just so you know, it’s passed all the traps. Well, all the traps I didn’t use on it. So, it’s up to you the dungeon prattled, continuing on after giving all the useful information. Rangtwor already knew the stakes.
Rangtwor exited into a side tunnel to keep parallel to the dog bear, while matching its speed as she decided where to attack. Really, there were four areas worth attack: the stomach, the eyes, the neck, and the genitalia. The genitalia would be the easiest to target but do the least damage. The stomach would be the hardest to target, the hardest to pierce, and would be unlikely to do fatal damage. The neck would be pretty hard to pierce, but would be the most likely to be a fatal injury. Finally, the eye would be hard to target, but there was a chance of an instantly ending the beast. Ultimately, Rangtwor reasoned out the less lethal attacks and eventually concluded that she was unlikely to pierce the orbital with her spear. Thus, the neck remained the best option for winning. One strike, one kill. It was a good strategy, not holding back a single ounce of strength, nor waiting for one's opponent to be at their best. A great plan, but not one that greatly resonated with Rangtwor. She could only hope and wait for a time when she didn’t have much more to lose than her own life, a time when she could duel to her own liking.
Like a black knifed assassin, Rangtwor slunk around the beast, using its greater understanding of the dungeon to get in front of it. In front of the beast, it only grew upon Rangtwor the threat it signified; with its great pauldron-like shoulders and massive jaw looking less like a bear’s and more like a bear trap’s. Even without levels it would out class her physically, and with them, it gained the capability to kill her with a casual swipe. But, even with the gifts the system gave to the brave, to stand heedless like a god was a mistake, for without a heart, one would die, without blood, they’d topple over like an old oak tree. She’d only get one chance at winning, though, to miss was to die, so she did not miss. Without a peep, but with a soul like stone, Rangtwor took off. Each leg moving in a way which would be unnatural for another of her kin, but for her was like flowing water. Each stride barely made a noise, each one adding to the speed till Rangtwor was in range of the beast.
Rangtwor aimed at the throat, thrusted towards the throat, but hit it in the shoulder as it suddenly shook its head to get rid of the bugs that hampered it. [fuck] Rangtwor cursed before pulling her spear tip out of the thick muscle of the beast. Her spear tip had pierced all the way up to where the wooden shaft began, a good hit, but the beast was much too large for such a wound to matter.
In a single blink of the eye, the invader had snapped its massive maw out to Rangtwor in retaliation, but missed as she continued on towards the hinds of the create. [if I can’t hit the main target, then I might as well hit a secondary one] Rangtwor thought as she came to behind the beast, striking out towards the genitalia of the beast in an effort to make the beast stumble. It would have been impossible for the beast to move away with its body half turned to try and hit Rangtwor, that is, if its skill wasn’t available. The beast jumped away from Rangtwor to save itself from the pain, using up its Pounce to do so.
Rangtwor considered the fight in front of her as the beast right its self towards her. One hit from it and she’d be dead. She’d never see the forest again, or be able to eat, she’d never be able to enjoy time with her brethren, and she’d never feel the joy of fighting, [I could just run…] she thought. She could hunt more safely till she was stronger, then she could fight those coming to the dungeon. But then again, [what would even be the point].
If she did not fight and kill the invader, the dungeon would be forced to use drastic means to kill it, means which would kill countless lives in the dungeon.[If they all die, what is even the point?]
Rangtwor stood tall as she approached the beast. [If getting hit means I’ll die, then I won’t get hit]. With the bugs dulling the dog bear's senses, Rangtwor thought it would be possible.
—--------------------------
Oi, are you crazy! the dungeon spirit yelled at Rangtwor as she ducked under a swipe from the dog bear, nicking its armpit on the way past. Rangtwor seemingly ignored the dungeon spirit, or couldn’t even hear it through the throes of battle. Go get ‘em, Rangtwor, the dungeon spirit yelled, this time in encouragement, as Rangtwor scored another hit on the invader’s flank before it could turn around to face her once again.
Close by, other mupputs and denizen crawled from their holes to watch on as Rangtwor played the beast like some circus animal. The dog bear had ump around to swing at Rangtwor once again, but just hit rock, making its body shier from the backlash. Rangtwor, meanwhile, grew braver with her hits and drilled a hole between two of its ribs, pushing its spear a third of the way into the beast. But, Rangtwor was forced back as the invader bucked and attacked in every which direction, taking her spear with it. Rangtwor stayed cool, meanwhile, [get me another spear] she demanded of the dungeon spirit.
Well, I’ll be damned, she’s doing it! The dungeon spirit quickly had a mupput run up to restock Rangtwor, and ready the other spectators to do that same if need be.
Though, the beast continued to rage, erratically hitting in every direction, hoping to catch the mupput which was not near it. But, because of this, Rangtwor was not able to get near the beast. Just let it tire! It can’t see anything and its stamina will deplete quickly like this! The dungeon spirit told Rangtwor, finally getting a response from her. [Dungeon, that is obvious.] she said, [but, once it does stop, I have a plan. Have one of the other’s throw a spear at it from the side opposite to me, then I’ll be able to strike].
Aye, aye, captain.
Soon, the beast was forced to stop its rampage against stone walls and thin air to accommodate its heavy panting and depleted stamina. Stamina is a finite stat that determines how long one could use their system given strength, and as it lessens, it becomes harder and harder to dig into one’s stats. Even if one has some stamina left, it can be hard to access.
Just as Rangtwor had planned, a muppet, a Hanuyana to be precise, made a small sprint before using the momentum to help propel the spear into the beast. The spear barely made it into its hide, and quickly was flung away as the beast made an effort to swipe at its attack. The beast chuffed and roared, but it was all bark. The spear in its side was not fatal, but blood was leaking into its lungs with ever breath, making it going to fits of coughs that only worsened the wounds. It had multiple shallow but still bleeding wounds over it. And most of all, its stamina was running dry. That why, when Rangtwor stuck another spear through its ribs, it could only muster a lazy swipe at her.
Rangtwor stepped back once again as the dog bear made more attempts to hit her, but didn’t bother moving that far away. [one more] she commanded, and soon the dungeon spirit directed another spear to her.
She took a couple steps forward before tapping on the beast, causing it to turn to her; when it did, she simply stepped back to dodge its swipe before stepping back in to hit the invader in its jugular, piercing the artery that supplied its brain with oxygen.
—------------
Holy hell! You did it! Nice fucking job Rangtwor, honestly didn’t think you could do it, but nice to see you prove me wrong! The dungeon yelled at Rangtwor. For a second, she didn’t react, unlike when she had defeated the worm and screamed to the sky. Her head was blank from the focus she used to killed the beast. Though, once battle focus left her, the first thought to trickle into her head was [disappointing]. She had expected more, [perhaps too much]. Once the beast lost its ability to see or hear her, it was impossible for it to react to her attacks. Really, it was the bugs which had won that battle, and her low exp gain seemed to agree with that.
[ disappointing, and sad. This was no duel, or battle. It was just an execution.] she thought. While she felt little for the beast as it died, she could only wonder how it would have turned out without the other denizen’s inference. [a loss, most likely]. That thought angered Rangtwor some. The whole situation left a bad taste in her mouth.
But, as the hollers came in from her fellow mupputs, she felt a smile come to her face. At least, at the end of it all, she did save the other denizens, so she could be happy and satisfied with that. For now. The battle had crystallized a desire in Rangtwor, that being a true duel. Where she could give her all, and so could her opponent. It was something to look forward to.
Finally, Rangtwor let out a screech to signify she had won and to declare she would do better.