S21, Reptids Hunt (Part 2)

“Damn!” Bolton swore as the first monster reached him.

The repellent did nothing to slow the reptids down and the strength of their charge pushed us a couple of steps back. I thrust forward by instinct and a reptid was impaled by my spear. It was difficult not to hit something inside the flood of monsters.

We fought desperately, hitting and kicking monsters as fast as we could.

“Shit!”

“Agh!”

“Screw you!”

I could hear the swears of my companions and the occasional shout of pain as we were gradually being pushed back. I had the wall at my left and grabbed Terence’s fork-lamp as I passed by with my shield hand, then threw it at the pack of monsters. It would at least distract some of them for a moment.

The fight was taking a toll on us, and as we grew tired the reserves replaced us at the front. I felt Falnid’s rocks pass close to my face a couple of times before I let him take my position.

“Wheeze!” I was gasping for air. “Falnid, pass me the powder’s pouch!” I asked him as we exchanged places.

I spared a quick glance at our group. Bolton and Rupert were the only ones that hadn’t moved from the first line. They had more sturdy armor with some metal bits, so they were doing their best to endure. Meanwhile, Terence, Stroud, and I had been replaced by Linwood, Bert, and Falnid. The three of them had small physiques and weren’t safe fighting the monsters. Bert had already lost his spear and was using his fork-lamp as a replacement. We needed to get back to our original positions as soon as possible.

“Fuck you!” In front of me, Falnid was being overwhelmed very fast. I was hurriedly rummaging through the pouch but stopped to pierce a reptid that had slipped close to him.

“Here!” I finally found the mouthburner I was looking for and spread it in the reptids direction. When the nearby monsters came in contact with the reddish dust they vigorously shook their heads and closed their eyes in an attempt to quell the stinging they were feeling.

Then Falnid staggered and started to cough. He had also been affected by the powder. I dropped my spear and yanked Falnid by the armor as a reptid jumped at him. The jaws of the monster closed near his face before I bashed it midair with my shield.

I found myself on the front line without a weapon. “Pass me your spear!” I asked Falnid in a hurry, but he needed a moment to get up off the ground. Not having time to recover my lance I instead grabbed my shield by the edge and hit the monsters with it.

The buckler wasn’t much of a blunt weapon, but it was better than using my fist. I plunged it into the heads of any reptid that came near me and even sent the teeth flying out of one of the monster’s mouths.

“Argh! Damn beast,” I cursed as a reptid’s claw tore my pants and sank into my leg. I could feel the blood flowing down my calf. I kicked the monster with my other leg but in doing so I widened the gash.

“Take it,” Falnid said, finally passing me his spear. My own had been lost under the tide of reptids as we slowly fell back.

I didn’t know how the battle was going, I only knew I had Bolton at my side and Falnid at my back. From time to time some reptids were jumping at us. I bashed those that came at me and kept stabbing the rest with a sore arm.

Suddenly, someone cried out in pain.

“Bert! Damn it!” Rupert shouted in distress and out of the corner of my eye I saw two people retreating to the back.

“He is bleeding a lot!” Exclaimed Linwood from behind. I wanted to take a look at Bert but couldn’t afford to do it. Knowing that Linwood could treat him better than me I focused once again on the monsters I was facing.

“Fuck! Fucking monsters!” Rupert shouted once again and rushed at the reptids with violent strikes.

“Rupert! Stop it! I’m fine!” I heard Bert’s pained voice.

I kept thrusting my spear for what seemed like an eternity. At first, my arm was aching and then I stopped feeling it. Every time I had to move my leg I groaned from the pain caused by the reptid’s wound. The nasty injury made me stumble more than once and left me open to the beasts’ attacks.

Our line almost collapsed on a couple of occasions under the monsters’ assault. We kept exchanging positions, but as time went on fewer and fewer people were able to put up a proper fight and the intervals we had to rest became shorter.

Falnid had taken Linwood’s spear and was striking monsters beside me. Bolton was currently supporting from the back, trying to recover even a bit of energy. Extremely tired, I impaled yet another reptid. My spear was slippery from all the blood, the same as my arms, chest, and pants that were drenched with it. Even my face and my hair had been splashed by the red fluid.

Finally, I took down another reptid and none replaced it. We had won! I looked at the cave full of fallen monsters, I didn’t know how many I had felled and I didn’t care.

I took a look at everyone, they were in a similar state to me. At the back, Linwood was still tending to Bert. The light-bearer was half-conscious, his leg had been bandaged, but the cloth itself had turned dark red.

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“Bert, you have to drink this!” Linwood said, trying to feed him a blood potion.

“No… That’s too expensive… I already had one.” Bert barely managed to answer.

“For fuck’s sake, Bert, drink it,” Rupert shouted at him with a deeply concerned expression.

“No… My wound is not so serious…” Bert said, weakly pushing away the vial.

“Damn you! Just drink it!” Rupert took the potion out of Linwood’s hands and showed it in Bert’s mouth. “What am I gonna tell Uncle Caulder if you die here?” He cried.

Not far from the two, Terence was sprawled on the ground. He was breathing raggedly but didn’t have any serious wounds. “Is everyone alright?” He asked raising his head and we nodded tiredly. Most of us too were bandaging our wounds.

I saw Falnid step into the midst of the fallen monsters, their bodies covered dozens of feet in front of us. He walked slowly, taking care not to be bitten by those who were still alive. After a moment, he came back with Terence’s lamp and a few spears. I took a look at my lantern, it was running out of oil, and I had to refuel it.

“Is there someone who can’t walk?” Terence asked getting on his knees and everyone but Bert shook their heads. “Then we should get out of here as soon as possible.”

I wiped my gloves and grabbed the map with care, trying not to leave many blood stains on it. Rupert carried Bert on his back and I guided everyone far from the battleground. Half of us were limping, so we were advancing slower than I would have liked.

After a long time, I felt we were far enough and told everyone we should rest a bit more. Everyone almost plummeted to the ground, I drank some water from my boot and then washed my leg’s wound before bandaging it again.

“Here,” Linwood said, passing me a blood potion. The vial was almost empty.

“Thank you,” I told him and passed him my waterskin.

Some of our containers had been ripped during the fight and we were lacking water and oil. Water wasn’t much of a problem, we could get more from one of the many ponds in the caves, but the oil would need to be rationed. We would have to turn off half of our lanterns on the way back.

I drank what remained of the potion and felt a warm sensation that went down my throat and then settled in my stomach before slowly spreading through my body. I couldn’t feel my wounds healing like in Father’s tales, but my body felt a lot more comfortable.

I rested for a bit, then fiddled with my lamp to keep myself occupied.

‘This was my fault.’ I thought, looking at everyone’s wounds. It was a miracle all of us had made it out alive.

Finally, I mustered up the courage to talk. “Everyone! I’m sorry, this whole mess was my fault!”

I bowed and for a moment there was only an awkward silence.

“Nah, it wasn’t your fault,” Stroud said, dismissing my words with a wave of his hand. “Everyone agreed to come looking for shrill reptids.”

“He is right,” Terence agreed with a nod. “It was the group’s decision.”

“No! I put everyone in danger, and I must take responsibility for this. I will compensate everyone!” I shouted, there was no way I could leave things like that. “To begin with I won’t take a share of the money from this mission, I will also pay for your healing expenses, then I…” Flustered I started to list the thing I would do for them.

In the middle of my recount, Stroud grabbed my fingers and blew out loudly with an annoyed expression. “Hear, Simon, you aren’t our nanny. We knew what we were getting into. So leave it at that before I get angry.”

“Yeah, we are alright man, and we made a lot of money,” Bert said casually as Linwood changed his bandages.

“Yes, that moss will sell for a lot,” Rupert added.

I knew they had good intentions but their reassuring words didn’t sit well with me. I was about to argue with them when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Simon…” Turning back I saw Terence shaking his head and I calmed down a bit.

Maybe this wasn’t the right place for an argument, but I wouldn’t leave things like that. Now I had a debt to settle with them. With a sigh, I moved a bit away and stood guard while the others rested. Looking at the empty cave I tried to sort my thoughts.

This time I had underestimated the reptids… No, I was probably underestimating the dungeon monsters as a whole. I had considered them inferior versions of the beasts in the mountains, with lackluster instincts and no fear for humans. I remembered Instructor Remme’s words during our first lesson. “As monsters age, they get more cunning.” In my head, his words had only applied to the promoted monsters and everything else was easy prey.

I clenched my fists. I had grown too comfortable with the dungeon. This was another lesson Father had taught me time and time again and I had forgotten it. I always had to be cautious when I hunted because I could become the prey at any moment.

“Now, what should we do? There is no way the instructors won’t find out what happened today,” Stroud asked with a worried tone.

“Oh shit! You are right, Remme is gonna chew us!” Bert said covering his face with his hand.

“He can’t find out! I don’t want to be stuck thrusting my spear all morning long!” Falnid wailed while grabbing his head.

There was a bit of a commotion as everyone realized we would have to face the instructors after we left the dungeon, but Terence quickly intervened “Enough!” He shouted and glared at everyone. Then, when things had calmed down he added. “First we should get out of the dungeon. We are injured and our lanterns are running out. We can think about the instructors once we are outside.”