About a week in building the third level while enhancing the area of the second floor, I got a bunch of visitors again. This time however it were not the filthy humans, but an even filthier species, elves.
Sure, humans are all head over heels for them, admiring their 'beauty' and 'grace' and who knows what else, but they're just filth. All going about how they should protect nature and uphold the balance, while destroying everything that gets in their way.
This time they even had a couple of goblin slaves with them. Oh how 'mighty' and 'just' they were. They cried rivers of blood, or created rivers of blood if one of their own gets enslaved, but they, the 'righteous' are exempt of their own rules.
By the looks of it they came to investigate, a party of four with three slaves. I suspect the slaves are for sacrificial needs by the looks of them. Goblins aren't the strongest nor the most intelligent species around, but this is just pathetic.
Starved, almost on the brink of death, it cannot be said they are for fighting, especially not with an amputee among them.
This along the fact that they were dressed up in war gear while at the same time setting up camp would lead me to conclude it's investigation as for why they're here. Most likely has to do with the annoying freaks from earlier.
When it became night time, they made the decision to send in the amputee. Just him, so most likely the first recon, although it won't necessarily give much information if he doesn't return...
Or it gives only the information I want to be known. In a hurry I called upon all the creatures spread around the first floor to hide themselves, except for Faa and the slimes, he could stay in the former heart room while the slimes could just do whatever.
It would be weird for creatures first there to suddenly disappear. The gob might not pick up on that, but the filthy elves-s will.
I don't know their party formation, but I guess I'll have to focus on the backline which most of the time has the healers and the ranged damage dealers. Pain in the ass, both of those.
It was quite unsettling to just let the gob run around, even though it almost got itself killed by tripping over a rock, not properly being able to catch itself with only a left arm and basically landing face first in a slime.
Must be one of the unluckier few as well, belonging to one of the tribes without night vision in a cave this dark.
It was quickly able to get back on its feet again, I think the melting away of the face by acid did help with the speed at which it was accomplished. Really courageous, or just plain dumb, to continue after that though. Must've been thought properly to never disobey an order.
It did scurry back as fast as it could after seeing Faa seemingly sleeping. Mission accomplished or something along that that line of thought most likely.
They didn't come out of their camp though, but I guess it's all fine, gives me some more time to prepare. I suspect they will wait for morning to come, take some rest this day.
My guess was wrong, they just went in slightly after midnight, I could hear them now that they were in range of my earworms, but it wasn't really interesting. Something about it should've been a... 70B party like them at least or whatever nonsense they're spewing.
Seems some sort of ranking about how strong they are, no use to get worked up over that since it won't hold any meaning in here though. Strength isn't the only factor in a fight after all.
The slimes still got wiped, one tank, one archer, one healer and one mage, the standard set up basically, with some green mules following, picking up the cores of the slimes.
I had learned from my last encounter to hide all my worms, and even though three hiveworms were following beneath the rock, it still counted as out of sight and hidden.
As gobs were slowly getting behind, due to them having to split up and picking up all the cores, I sent out the signal for the first floor black widows to drop down from the ceiling they had clung to and snatch them away.
Each one now the size of a hand in pure body size, there were thirteen of them in total. Four to each goblin. It wasn't a fight, just an abduction. They all got bitten and tied up, in that order.
It was really settling to see how my eight legged creatures crawled slowly over the faces of the fear stricken boogers, which were flailing their limbs all on instinct. It didn't matter however, as they were nearly not quick or agile enough to hit the black widows.
Wrapped up in a slightly reddish pulsing kind of silk, they were stuck against the walls, scraping against the rough floor with their heads.
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It didn't take long, however it was more than enough for the main group to reach the final room of the first floor. I didn't give Faa much of a chance this round, last time was more luck than anything else.
The bastards tried to land a hidden attack by launching both an arrow and a firebolt, assuming my little bear had been sleeping. However of course he wasn't.
Faa dodged the bolt going for his head and caught the arrow with his paw. Not caught as in grasping it, no, caught as in purposely letting it strike the paw. The fight officially had begun.
That tanker, a rather bulky treesucker, was shouting some more bullshit, something related to Faa's mom not being able to be given shade by the world true due to her size. I guess normally it might've been effective, but glorious hate for every invader beats a meagre taunt.
Growling Faa declared his challenge, slowly walking forward, trying not to give away his weak limb from the previous encounter. It was both easier and more difficult with another hurt limb. At one side, the limping could be accounted to the new wound, at the other side, he now had two injured limps to work with.
At the same time, the bloodsuckermoths at the ceiling began fluttering their wings, making the poison rain down in incredible amounts. A shield however was erected quickly by the only twig looking one, the healer.
The first load had landed though, and the moths fluttered around, continuously spreading more poison, forcing the healer to keep his shield up. It all did do some wounds and caused some blisters and the feeling of burning skin, but it didn't hold them up.
Within a mere two seconds, their focus was all on Faa again, the fat barklover didn't even needed half a second. Smashing his mace against the ground along with his rectangular shield in a rhythm to keep the bears attention on him, he didn't make a beginners mistake to slam his shield and weapon against each other.
Normally, that would be a better idea, but in a cave, it's just plain stupid.
The archer took a sip of something weird and mana seemed to swell up all around her. Oh, I can use this, mana, come to papa.
It didn't diminish the effect of the drink, but all the wasteful mana was already mine, let alone the mana on release.
The mage and healer seemed to have switched roles of who's upholding the shield. Now free, he started to chant, which caused a yellow aura to envelop the stickshooters bow while a slightly greenblueish glow surrounded bark.
Bark smirked, making his ugly mug even worse and started to talk.
"Oi, you piece of shit, I know you're listening. You filthy shit of a fairy, keep your dungeon in line. We'll just walk through this garbage and sliiiiiiiiiiightly chip the core, just as a warning because of..."
Kill him, kill the bastard, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.
I'm gonna fucking murder them all!!! Saying I'm still a fucking slave to those pissdrinking donkeyjerking asskissing pieces of bartlosiaaelfiajdlakadfj.
I let the hiveworms come out of the ground, two of them biting into the healer, the third into the mage. At the same time a widow scurried over to each treefucking piece of shit, with four extra on the tank. Faa charged, only going half as fast as originally, but it's still around eight hundred and fifty pounds moving towards you at a dangerous speed.
Stickshooter managed to shoot that fucking charged up arrow before reloading and running while shooting at the spider assaulting her. She managed to shoot off two legs, both on the same side with a single shot, but it didn't stop the black widow.
The concentration broken, the shield came down as well, the countless of moths descending upon their prey. They were however an easy target for that damned rotten thing called a mage. Blasting his firebolts along with mana missiles, the moths started first to fall by tens, then by hundreds.
Once his hands and face were slowly being eaten away and sucked dry from his blood, the chanting of spells transitioned into the chanting of pleas of mercy.
Bark rolled out of the way of the charge of Faa, time enough to try out a slash, but having other priorities, he ran towards the healer.
"Esreal, Himera, I see a hole here! We can get out of here right now and rest up at the safe spot at the start of the next floor! We don't need to defeat the floor boss to move on!" That damned archer, noticing something like that in the middle of me trying to slaughter them.
Bark yelled something affirmative back, so I had Faa focus on him as I sent out two more widows to deal with that archer.
What I did not expect to happen was to see the healer being flown through the air, smashing into the archer who even more unexpectedly caught him. They started to ran towards the pit, not minding it, I only issued the order to continue chasing those two until they actually went down.
Bark pulled out a different flask than seen before, splattering it all over the mage and hauling him around his shoulders like a scarf. It slowed him down, but only barely noticeable, so either he had immense strength, or it had something to do with that flask.
Even with all the years, it's not like I had seen everything there is to be.
Shaking away those sight thoughts, I made Faa go after bark, but in slightly wider arc than necessary, giving the feeling of a slightly bigger path towards the objective.
Faa growled again, restating his challenge and charged towards the opened path.
"Jump already you fools! Don't wait for me" he yelled his legs pumping, moving his body forward in a death race.
Another aura, this time pink of colour, surround bark as the archer and healer jumped down towards their escape and towards safety. Bark barely managed to throw his mage in as well before the paw, still holding the first arrow, slammed into his chest.
Panting, heaving, a slight smile crept upon his face, feeling as he had achieved something, saving his teammates.
"Now it's just you and me you piece of shit, I'll teach you why you don't mess with my friends"
"ESREAL, HELP ME. IT HURTS, IT HUUUURTS. IT'S EVERYWHERE, IT'S INSIDE OF ME, HELP, HELLLLLB"
"ES, ME FIRST, HELP ME. IT HURST SO MUCH, AAAAAAAAAARGH"
"AEAGEAHDOAFIJELKADFAOIH, AOEIJALDFKJAOEIDJFALK. LIAJEFKDAHEOIFDAELF"
Shocked, no, stunned, the horror on his face was apparent. It was such a soul calming sight. It's what you deserve. As a small game, I decided to let Faa stand by for now, seeing what would happen.
"What's going on everyone? What's wrong?????!!?? It should be a safe zone right?"
He pulled out a round bottle, around two inches in diameter, opened the lit and threw it down the shaft. A small light illuminated everything, including his party members being impaled while there was a wave of black surrounding them and washing over them, colouring red on places where his friends should be.
At the same time, the buzzing of the sea grew louder and louder, descending upon the places where the bodies should be, the screaming transformed into a muffled sound, as if the mouths were stuffed.
"no, no, no, this can't be, this should not be, what's going on here?!?" mumbling to himself, broken by the unexpected, by the horror of watching his friends being eaten alive, he had fallen to his knees on the edge of the pit, the whole scenery still illuminated by the orb of light.
"I... we... it was wrong, we should've... no, just... it's.... no, no, no, gon-e.... Himera, Slemar, Esthina.... you...
........
no... not gone, just... illusions, yes, illusions, must be... too strong, illusions, yes, all fake, still safe there"
The fool kept rambling on and on, but I could make up that he doubted my abilities, so I Faa just pushed him into the pit.
He laughed, he laughed and laughed and laughed as he was eaten away, as if it was nothing.
This form of entertainment isn't bad either, breaking their minds. It gives interesting interactions. The swarm of ants and wasps kept on eating, feasting while I kept on enjoying and they kept on screaming for absolution, for the end. Must be painful have a wasp dig into your thigh, slowly corroding your muscles while at the same time ants were eating away your liver.
I urged them to save the brain, heart and lungs for last, since those would kill the intruders a lot quicker once gone.
Oh, blood, tears and the broken, a feast for the mind. I had a goal, a goal except surviving, no way I would want to miss out on this experience again. The sweet taste of revenge, how good would it be to get a fairy like this.
They say revenge is a dish best served hot, and they same the same for cold. I wonder, why not make it a full course meal, why only settle for one version if you can have it all.