Velua took point as she drew her blade up, taking in a deep breath and cringing slightly as she smelled the rot once more and understood what she would have to face. This was a classic magic caster monster, high tier from the fact that she was the size of a human compared to the fairies that were out in the gardens. The rotted cathedral was the hint of what the woman would be throwing at them. She had magic connected to rot and poison, meaning her main method of area denial was status afflictions. A caster with status afflictions would have been dangerous if they didn’t have a bard prepared for the horrible swamps outside.
As if reading her mind, she felt a wave of magic flow over her as a flute chirped out a simple tune. She grinned as Molin gave them a spell to resist the attacks of the fairy queen as they came. “We accept your challenge, Queen Lotus. For I, Velua WatchfulBronze shall be the one to lay you low and make you know the meaning of love. For the love I have for my people guides my blade!” She said as she raised her sword, it glinting in the light as a small sheen of magic came over it. It was the buff she had gained from guessing the floor theme, the object of her attacks being the center of faith for all the fairies outside.
“You can try, dirt dweller, but you will never see those people again!” Lotus cackled as strong wisps of mana swirled around her hands before she raised them at the charging dwarf. Two blasts of foul poisonous sludge sprayed from her hands and shot out like beams at Velua, the thick gunk splashing against the floor as the dwarf used a movement skill to sidestep the ranged attacks. She brought herself low before lunging forward with a surprising leap towards Lotus.
“Lacerating Lunge!” She shouted as she propelled herself forward and brought her sword down in a slash across Lotus’ torso, cutting through the fabric and digging the blade in deep enough to release a spray of silvery blood. The queen screamed in rage as she was cut deeply, looking down at Velua with hatred as her hands came down and grabbed onto her.
It was Velua’s turn to scream, as a flood of green liquid that burned her skin sprayed against her and tore at her clothing. The illusion of the bronze dress faded away, the damage having taken too much for Arabella’s spell to persist. There was agony running across her arms as anything not covered by cloth or leather burned and sizzled. She could see as parts of her flesh bubbled while blood drooled out of burnt openings. She bit down on the scream, bringing up her foot and slamming it into Lotus’ stomach to send her backward.
“You dirty little bitch!” Lotus snarled as she looked down at her dress, finding a disgusting boot print pressed into the fabric from the kick. She began gathering her power again before she gripped her head, a high-pitched note from Molin’s flute sending her sensitive fey hearing alight. It was more than enough time for Velua to back-pedal and get one of the blue slimes to wash over her burns with its healing goo. She sighed in relief, the slime feeling like aloe as her wounds sealed and the damage reversed itself. She looked at the slime that healed her, frowning as she realized that it was far thinner than what she would have expected. She guessed that each of them only had about two heals in total.
The note faltered and Velua heard Molin take in a deep breath, watching as Lotus turned her toxic tear-streaked face pulled back in a sneer. “A bunch of mountain-dwelling bastards, the lot of you!” She roared as she raised her hands and suddenly the dead room began to thrive with a life most foul. Mushrooms bloomed from the environment, the rotten pews, the tattered banners, and even the podium holding up the core of this dungeon’s very existence. Greasy yellow mushrooms, rancid black mold, and thick stocks of poisonous things all around as the room became a minefield of mushrooms. She could see the spores radiating off of them, a miasma forming as the queen glared down at her.
“Please, you think a bunch of mushrooms is going to stop me? My blood glitters Bronze, and you’ll just rot away.” She said with a glint in her eyes as she felt her energy begin to glow across her blade, the power building as she prepared her strongest skill to take down the queen.
“Bronze Bisection!” She roared in rage as her sword shined with the orange-brown color of her name. Her sword was her connection to her family, crafted by her grandfather before his passing. The sword sparked with power, aggressive and deep as her bloodline roared through her veins. She charged forward, screaming with all the fury she had left in her heart. She needed to get Dle and Molin home. She needed to get the hammer back to her people. She… She needed to prove to her father that she wasn’t a failure!
With astonishing speed, the swords-dwarf flew across the room and brought down the blade through the Queen’s left arm and into her sternum. It sang with ancestral magic, her eyes glowing in that same fiery power as she dug the sword in deep. She coughed at the spores she inhaled, the room becoming less hospitable by the second. She knew the rules of dungeons, and if she beat the boss then the three of them would be allowed to run free. She could not even hear the sound of Lotus howling over the blood rushing in her ears.
She was riding high on the energy of her skill, the power coursing through her as the mana leaked from her blade, halfway through the Queen and only digging deeper. It was at that moment that she felt two things occur suddenly. The first was the magic of Molin’s blessing; as if it had struggled on its last legs before petering out, the second came like a cold wave leeching every drop of energy from her body. She looked up at Lotus, trying to see if some spell had caused her to feel so weak. Her amber eyes went wide with horror as she saw that the queen had changed. Mid-scream, Queen Lotus of Toxic had become a statue of lapis lazuli and rose quartz, the tattered remains of the dress unchanged with the silver ichor staining it. She released the blade that was trapped in the statue and stumbled back.
“Fucking. Finally.” The voice of Dle crept out of the shadows as he approached, his blade covered with dripping red ichor. He had snuck around behind Lotus, just like he was supposed to, but where had the blood come from? She glanced back and tears pricked at her eyes as she realized why Molin’s blessing had faded. She saw the lifeless body of the dwarf, tear tracks down his face with a wide slash across his throat received from behind. The gooey remains of the holy slimes littered around the body to show they were dispatched as well.
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“D-Dle? What the hell is this? What did you do?” She asked with a bit of panic as she tried to lift herself, only to find her body failing as her mana-enhanced muscles were completely useless in the situation. She watched as Dle dropped a strange device, some strange arcane plate with floating pylons that was growing a mana crystal tainted red by the core’s energy.
“Mana siphon. Pulls the mana from any organic thing it can find. Even works on dungeon monsters, not so much the core though.” He said with a shrug as he gestured towards the podium that seemed unphased, if the glow might be ever so dimmer. “Main thing I needed it to work on was a plucky little bitch who got my brothers killed.” He growled as he approached her, the knife still gleaming with Molin’s blood. His accent was different, clear, and crisp without the twang of lesser families. How much did she not know about the men that were traveling with her?
“W- Was this the plan from the start? Kill me and take the glory for yourselves?” She asked as she at least brought herself up onto her hands, dragging herself backward to try and escape Dle. Her heart was pounding, fear coursing through her as she tried to find some way to escape. The device had sapped her of every drop of mana she had, and that meant she would not get a drop of it back before she could rest and recoup the loss. The statue of Lotus was a possibility for salvation, but there was no telling how long the siphon’s effects would take to wear off.
“Of course it was, you dumb whore! The moment me and my brothers took this mission, it was with the glee that we would get to end your life for good. A disgrace to our culture. A dungeoneer making real men look lesser. You ruin so much for what? Because of the fact you want to act out and make your dad appreciate you more? My brothers died on your quest for glory so they could get an honorable mention?! No. With your death, MeltBlaze is moving up in the world. The hammer, your fall from grace, all of it. The WatchfulBronzes will no longer be the caretakers of the Mountain Home. It will be the time of the Melting Blaze!” He said with passion and fury as he approached her, each foot an echoing stomp.
He was so focused on his speech that he had not noticed the lapis statue had begun to crack, Lotus beginning to regain her living status as the mana from the core flowed back out. However, that was not what made Velua take her eyes off the crazed dwarf who was about to kill her. Behind him, just in front of the core, the hammer of her ancestors appeared on the ground, as if it had always been there. It began to lift into the air, pulled up by some unseen force that was hauling it behind Dle.
“You-you’re crazy! If you kill me, then you are never going to be able to get back to the Mountain. It’s suicide!” She begged, not sure what was going on with the hammer, but needed to focus on the more immediate threat. Dle was coming at her with his blade drawn, and seemingly no adverse effects of the mana siphon pulling from him.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white orb, the glass containing what looked like a swirling fog that wished to be released. Velua’s heart sank as she saw the Home Sphere, knowing that there was only supposed to be one person who could have given it to the dwarf. Dle’s family could not afford the massively expensive cost of a sphere that would teleport him back to the Mountain. Not to mention the fact that all the spheres were under lock and key; within her family’s vault.
“That’s right. We weren’t the only ones wanting you dead. Not that it matters. All this is going to be over real quick-” Dle was cut off as the full weight of a platinum and gold hammer smashed into the back of his head. He collapsed to the ground, the hammer covered in red flames of mana that curled around it. The weapon was raised again as Dle tried to get back up, coming down with a sickening crunch. It did not stop there as it raised again and again, thick ribbons of meat and cranial slime snapping from the hammer’s face as the dwarf’s head was reduced to nothing but a bloody mess on the dungeon’s floor. The hammer raised once more before it began to tremble, falling to the floor with a clatter as Lotus was almost fully returned from her petrified state.
Velua began to force herself up before stumbling when the entirety of the dungeon began to shake. Every surface trembled and what remained of Lotus screamed in agony as she gripped her head with the remaining hand. Velua was about to ask what was going on before a notification filled her point of view.
Core Stability: Below 50%
Status Affliction - Red’s Remorse
All within the dungeon shall know his pain.
Effect: It hurts, it hurts, it hurts it hurts it hurTS IT HURTS ITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTS-
Velua could not help but scream as the affliction covered her body. A thousand motes of sizzling red mana dug into her flesh making her feel pain. It was a horrid feeling as if she was being burned alive by pinpricks of fire over her being.
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she looked at the collapsed remains of Lotus, dragging herself towards the hammer. The red motes were not on the Queen, but she was clearly in just as much pain.
“Red! Please! It’s not your fault! I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough!” Lotus cried out as her hand seemed to grab onto some invisible thing, real tears coming from her eyes and washing away the toxic face paint. She was in agony, and yet she was trying to console the core of the dungeon. Her words didn’t abate the affliction however, both women were in agony as they tried to resist the pain.
“Red, come on talk to me! Red… Dad! Please it hurts! It hurts so much, Dad!” She pleaded as the tears were in full force, mascara and the face paint staining her cheeks as she begged her creator for mercy. Velua could only imagine the core’s rage, the passionate fury that was making the dungeon tremble and destabilize. Some mighty forcing roaring at the failure of his first floor, punishing all for the terrible performance.
The only question that went against this thought was the fact that it saved her. For some reason, the core had gone out of its way to stop Dle’s plan. This ‘Red’ had done something she had never heard of a core doing just to save her. If it was truly so benevolent, why was it falling apart?