11

Cynthia

I had to make sure I heard correctly, There was no way I had.

“Do what now?” I asked incredulously.

“Kill the human, quickly, before it runs away.” The talking squirrel confirmed, I hadn't hallucinated.

I looked back at the girl.

Name: Cynthia

Classification: Unclassed

Race: Human

Level: 0

Cynthia… This little girl couldn’t be older than four or five. She still hadn't noticed the horde of zombies she was walking into, and slowly crept up on the squirrel, as if stalking prey.

I was worried I wouldn't be able to work myself up to kill an adult, even one that we knew was a criminal as Geoff suggested. There was no way I could kill this innocent little girl.

But I didn't have to, any one of my minions could do it for me, and I would still get the credit. And they all knew that. They all knew we needed to kill a human to tier up and get stronger.

Suddenly someone moved, and my heart stopped.

Before I could react, Tessa had scooped up the giggling girl, and was bouncing her making playful noises. With a look around I confirmed that no one had even started to move with violent intentions. I felt a rush of shame having expected the worst. These were monsters, but only in name. None of them had done anything by their own choice that would even make the news on Earth.

Humans and monsters were both capable of kindness, innocence, cruelty and depravity. The word ‘monster’ was no longer sufficient, but I didn't have a better one. I would have to just think of them as people, that would have to suffice for monsters and humans alike.

I returned my attention to Squirrely, “I can't kill her."

He slumped, clearly disappointed, “Why not? I made sure to pick a small and slow one…”

Seriously?

“That's a child!” I shouted incredulously.

“So?”

Yeah, I couldn't deal with him. I targeted Cynthia with the amulet and spoke to her.

“Hello Cynthia.”

At the sound of her name, she broke off her giggling fit and looked to me.

“Do you know how to get home?” I asked, already knowing the answer I would get.

Cynthia looked around. It seemed like she only now realized she didn't recognize where she was. Tessa noticed the girl’s mounting distress and glared at me.

I raised my hands in surrender, “Easy, I just asked if she knew how to get home. This is going to be a problem.”

Tessa didn't stop glaring, but Cynthia finally spoke, “Who are you?”

Hmm… It would really help to know how I was going to resolve this before deciding what exactly to tell her. If I told her my name, I would effectively be telling her entire family and her neighbors, and the local stray cat. This could be a very dangerous situation. We might be better prepared now, but an angry mob of pitchfork and torch wielding villagers had no good outcomes.

Well, a name shouldn't hurt, “I am Rob, nice to meet you"

I held out a hand before remembering it was a half rotten thing of skin and bones. Cynthia didn't seem to mind though, and shook my hand vigorously.

She solemnly introduced herself, “I'm Cynthia, Papa says not to go in the woods… Can you help me sneak back home?”

I snorted, this one was already trouble, “I think that is a good idea Cynthia, but… I’m stuck here and can't leave"

I gestured around indicating the clearing. This was a gamble. Children talked, when, and I do mean WHEN, we managed to get her back home, she would now know that I couldn't leave this area. Humans may be aware of how dungeons worked, if a little girl suddenly started telling stories about a bunch of monsters who couldn't leave a clearing in the woods… Suffice to say, one plus one may just equal let's go kill the dungeon.

“Mama needs my help to make supper, I need to get home soon…”

As she said this I could see her starting to tear up.

I really didn't need a crying child right now, so I agreed, “Mmm, yes, we do need to get you home then, let me think a moment…”

I started pacing and rubbing my chin, really playing up the whole ‘thinking’ angle. As I did so, I talked to the goblins. Geoff had mentioned knowing where the humans were, hopefully he knew well enough to guide a party.

“Geoff, can you find the human village from here?”

The goblin winced and my stomach fell, “I don’t think so boss, I’ve never been there…”

As he trailed off Geoff looked toward Gabriel significantly.

Shit… This could really end poorly. If Gabriel was the only one who knew the way to the village, then he would have to put away his pain and fear for a short time and guide a party. That was easy to say… but he was barely functional, and still flinched at shadows. Not to mention it was going to be dark before long, and who knew how long the trip would take.

As I paced and considered our options, the damned squirrel hadn't given up it's murderous plans. While everyone was distracted Squirrely McSquirrel found a small reject knife that Tessa had claimed for cooking purposes, since it wasn't worthy to be a weapon. He climbed a nearby tree, and shimmied over the child still cradled in Tessa's arms.

Later I would think back on the sight of a tiny, furry assassin leaping from the canopy, and wonder if perhaps this world had action movies. This squirrel had to have watched too much Rambo. Tessa had some special mother powers though, and, without looking, reached up with one hand and caught him out of the air. She didn't even seem to notice the knife dig into her massive palm.

As we watched in stunned silence, Tessa started to squeeze. Cynthia had been placed under the trolls motherly protection, nothing could touch her. The squirrel’s eyes started to bug out, and his face contorted in pain, but no sound escaped. The more she squeezed, the angrier Tessa looked.

The squirrel and the troll stared at one another, both of their mouths hanging open, one in a silent scream, the other in a snarl of terrible wrath. I couldn't bring myself to step forward to stop it, and perhaps everyone else felt the same as I did because the entire clearing was still. The moment lingered for a moment until Cynthia looked around in confusion, and saw what was happening.

“No! Don't hurt him!” She wailed, as if it was her being crushed.

Tessa reeled as if struck. They couldn't understand each other’s words, but Cynthia's cries were plain enough.

Slowly, very slowly, Tessa set the squirrel down. The knife tumbled to the ground, and blood trickled from her hand for a moment before the wound sealed. That finally answered the question of zombie troll regeneration at least. Squirrely McSquirrel lay on the ground gasping for air, but otherwise whole.

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Finally I gathered myself enough to act. I changed the amulet's target back to the squirrel and picked him up by the scruff of his neck like a kitten before he could recover enough to run.

I smirked, “So… That was probably not the best idea…”

The squirrel’s squeaky speech came between pained gasps, “…Fuck… You…”

I raised an eye brow, “You aren't very smart are you?”

“If you can't kill it, then I will. The Mistress must be freed.”

“Well, I don’t think you could put a scratch on that girl with a squad of Navy SEALS while Tessa has her. So what’s your next plan?”

He finally seemed to have caught his breath, and stared back at me defiantly, “I don't know what blue sea creatures have to do with anything, but you have to kill a human to tier up.

A blue sea creature? Oh right, different world.

“That may be, but I have this now,” I poked the amulet, “We can talk to the humans, find one that isn't an innocent little girl.”

He shook his head at me, “You think the humans will just offer up one of their own for you to kill? You can't talk to them. Even if they don't come after you right away, they will know about you. Someone will come, sooner or later.”

That was true enough, if humans knew about us then it would only be a matter of time before someone showed up that we couldn't handle. That didn't make it right to kill a child though.

Cynthia said something that I couldn’t understand and struggled free from Tessa's arms. She made her way over to us, and held out her arms looking sternly at me. I grinned. The little killer was disarmed, and more importantly, knew the consequences of trying to harm the child.

I handed my captive over, who was then crushed again, this time in a hug. The twisted personality of the rodent would have to be dealt with later, for the moment we had to find a way to get Cynthia home, fast.

“Gabriel, Gabrielle, chat?”

I explained the situation to the goblins, and asked Gabriel if he could handle an escort mission right now. He hadn't been very responsive during my explanation, but when asked, he nodded firmly. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he seemed confident in his ability to guide them to the humans before dark, and Gabrielle didn't object.

I targeted and spoke to Cynthia once more, “Alright Cynthia, these are my friends. They are going to protect you, and take you back home. They can't talk though so just stay with them, and they will protect you… and…let’s keep this a secret ok? Your papa might get angry if he found out you went into the woods.”

She nodded seriously. I didn't feel great deceiving a little girl like that, but if it kept her quiet about us then I would gladly do so.

So it was that the human escort party was formed. Gabriel would be the guide, Gabrielle the emotional support, Cynthia the VIP, and Squirrely McSquirrel the prisoner of war.

As they prepared to leave I made sure the squirrel understood that retribution would be terrible if he tried anything while they were away. I was relatively sure that he wouldn't try anything. He seemed to know about the dungeon, so he would understand that killing the girl wouldn't help the dungeon if she wasn't here. Just in case though, I asked Gabrielle to keep an eye on him.

Dungeon wave event started

Maximum cumulative level of minions in dungeon wave: 6

Cumulative level of minions in wave: 6

The rest of us tried to settle in and rest, but everyone was aware of the stakes. The atmosphere was tense. This was first human contact. Even goblins and trolls knew how dangerous humans could be.

Lilith tried convincing me to work on the dungeon now that I had some money from the gathering mission earlier, but stopping time for several hours and then waiting even longer sounded every type of unappealing.

So we sat up and waited. Gerald made a valiant effort to distract us with his new games, but the tension was just too high. As the sun set the last of us made our way into the bunk room and anxiously chatted.

Finally a message popped, but it wasn't the one we expected.

Dungeon Invaders detected

Invaders: 1

Dungeon construction interface locked during invasion

Dungeon entry and exit locked during invasion

Unassigned minions locked in stasis for duration of invasion

Moving minions to assigned rooms

An invasion? Now? But it was only one invader, so maybe some random animal had wandered in or something. Gary quickly, but calmly strode in the room and over to the weapon rack, so nothing urgent then. I joined him and together we carried some of the better spears to our defending party.

Nothing was happening.

It was too dark to see the top of the stairs, which was intentional. The stairs weren't a trap but the wolf had brilliantly demonstrated the danger of that drop, so we kept it dark and treacherous.

Still, nothing was happening. There weren't even any sounds. Gale began fidgeting, and Gary clearly wanted to charge up after whatever was here. We needed to do something.

I made the decision and whispered to the others, “Gale, get ready on the rock fall, don’t cut the rope until I yell. Geoff get a torch and come with me. Gary get ready for a fight.”

The goblins hurried to their tasks, and soon Geoff and I were climbing the stairs. The torch light flickered and shifted making it hard to see very far, so we were about halfway up the stairs before I spotted it.

A huge figure stood motionless at the top of the stairs. I couldn't see who or what it was yet, but they had to see us. We were holding the only light source on the stairs after all. Still, it didn't move.

We crept forward even slower than before. Even though it had to see us, we still held our breath. We didn't really NEED to breathe as zombies, it was just habit that made us do so. The torch came close enough that I could finally tell what we were facing.

A troll.

That was odd. The trolls from before had come in a pack, and had been screaming and hollering. All of them were in some sort of frenzy. This troll though stood silently, watching.

We continued to approach, readying our spears. Eventually I managed to get close enough to examine it.

Name: Terrence

Classification: Dungeon BW Monster

Race: Troll

Level: 4

Terrence… wasn’t that Terry's… leg brother? The other half of the troll that had split in two.

But that didn't make sense, we had splattered all of those trolls, except for Terry and Tessa. No… I had suspected before, but now this confirmed it.

The trolls had a dungeon of their own. We couldn't kill them, not really. They would respawn in their own dungeon just like Gabriel had done. Dungeon BW, what sort of name was that for a dungeon?

I would have to figure this out later, now we had a troll to get rid of. I was already almost in range of a spear thrust already, so I took one more step forward. I must have crossed some threshold, because as soon as my foot landed Terrence launched at me.

Geoff and I both raised our spears in panic. Our technique was terrible, Gary would be appalled, but it didn't matter. Terrence didn't even try to dodge. Geoff's spear went straight through the troll's throat while my own took it in the gut. Someone should have told Terrence that spears hurt when they impaled you, because he seemed totally unaware of his new holes.

The troll continued flying toward us, and our own grip on the spear hafts pushed us back with the momentum, but there was nowhere to go. We tumbled down the stairs in a heap. Something snapped in my shoulder halfway down, and pain exploded all across my body.

The troll remained silent but Geoff and I both cried out in pain, drawing Gary into the fray. Soon the four of us were struggling at the bottom of the stairs. My arm didn't work anymore, but I wasn't the only one down a limb. Geoff's leg had somehow been ripped off completely, and Terrence managed to fit three elbows on his own arm.

More snapping and popping sounded out from the troll and suddenly he looked totally uninjured. This was not going well. Gary tried his own spear, and Terrence took it in the chest right where his heart would probably be. That didn't seem to matter as the troll turned and snapped the spear in half. Once again he was nearly healed by the time Gary regained his balance.

“We need to do something else, this isn't working." I shouted.

“What CAN we do?” Someone yelled but I couldn't tell who.

“Over here, the rock!” An angel called from above.

Terrence hadn't stopped his advance just because we wanted to chat though, and my distraction cost me. I took a massive fist to my side, and the world went dark.

Thankfully I wasn't out long. I had flown sideways into the wall smashing my head, but the crown was either indestructible or at least more durable than the stone. I could see where the impact had cracked the blocks, but my head felt fine. Gary shouted something, but I couldn't hear properly… Maybe I had taken some damage then.

The torch had gone out at some point, and the only light was back by the doorway to the bunk room. A giant shadow swatted clumsily at a smaller, quicker shape in the dark. Finally, I realized that was Gary holding the troll back on his own.

We were out of options. Geoff was laid out, hopefully still alive, but unmoving and down a leg. I couldn't tell how bad I was myself, but there was no way I could fight. We couldn't bait Terrence to the rock trap anymore, not with two of us down.

There was more shouting that I couldn't understand, but it wasn't Gary.

Finally Lilith broke through my stupor with a mental shout, “BITE IT! Turn it to a zombie!”

Right… that was how we killed Tessa and she had two levels on this guy.

I shook my head to clear some of the cobwebs as I dragged myself to my feet, and instantly I regretted it as the pain I had been missing flared. I didn't have time to wallow though, and looked to the fight.

Gary wasn't doing well. He still had speed and agility over the troll, dancing around the wild swings, but he had taken a hit at some point, and his arm hung limply. I tried to sneak as quietly as possible around the flank. The dim lighting worked in my favor, and I managed to approach unseen.

Gary saw me, nodded once, and worked to keep the troll facing away from me. That limited his options for dodging though, and he took another hit, tumbling head over heels into the wall. I used the opportunity and jumped on Terrence's back biting and gnashing at his neck.

He reached back and grabbed me with a giant hand, easily prying me loose. I was reminded of my own handling of the squirrel earlier as the giant held me up to look me in the eye.

The eerily silent, emotionless mountain stared at me for a moment… and smiled.

Gale shouted from above, “I’M SORRY!"

And I heard the rope snap.

Terrence and I both looked up.

Terrence and I both turned into paste.