Before Kaden could even reach the spawn point, Trella [Shadow Stepped] to the edge. Her Deceptions entered the cloud and emerged dragging a bleeding, choking [Shadow Blade] who was no longer screaming mostly because she’d scarred her lungs. Trella dragged her back. “Focus fire on the first to emerge,” she shouted to the other three.
All three drew stacks of throwing knives from Inventory. As the first [Goat Man] staggered out, blades errupted from its flesh until it fell over, bleating into the abyss.
Kaden rushed to help Trella, leading with health potions. “Should I clear this spawn?”
“Absolutely not,” Trella answered. “That was a disaster. Let them sweat.”
She turned and shouted “The cloud’s dissapating. Work together to pick a target and focus on it.”
Each time the burned [Shadow Blade] gasped, Kaden trickled health potion down her throat until she could sip. “Hurts so bad.”
“It’s called [Agony Cloud], not [Feather Tickles Cloud],” Kaden answered.
“When I said pick a target, I was sure you’d pick the closest target.” Trella drew her bow and put an arrow through a [Shrieker] that had launched itself at them. “Pick the closest target and focus it down. When you can’t shoot, daggers and deceptions, again, focus damage.”
Kaden tried [Soul Binding].
This is a dungeon spawn. You may not bind it.
The Unono hadn’t had any such protection. Perhaps the monster nature altered it. [Beast Command,] too, wouldn’t work, and if he summoned Trinity, she’d clear the dungeon herself. [Harvest Wind] would help, as well as [Leader of the Pack] and [Guardian of Life], but everything he could do would leave them with nothing.
One [Shrieker] and two [Goat Men] remained, both wounded from the potion explosion. The shrieker fell to the ground as the trio switch to a combat style Kaden knew from watching Trella over and over. [Backstabs] killed one, and between the three, they [Normal Stabbed] the remaining mob.
“On your feet,” Trella said. “Finish them off. When every last one is dead, you can rest and recover.”
Kaden pushed Grilled Girl to her feet. “Get out there. Kill at least one of them.”
Trella stalked among them, pointing to the mobs still drawing breath. “How did any of you make it to twenty? Gather. Everyone gather. Kaden gave you a good plan. In a minute, you’re going to try again. Everyone take a sip of a healing potion and one of a mana regen potion, and one of stamina. I cannot stress this enough. Stick. To. The. Plan.”
Kaden put his arm around her. *They need to regen.*
*They need to suck less. These aren’t initiates, these are Sisters whose primary training has been in ShadowVale. They’ve got the XP but not the experience.* Trella [Shadow Stepped] away to the next spawn.
Kaden turned to the slowly healing Sisters. “When you act together, you four have serious burst damage. When you lead with debuffs or AOE attacks, your burst damage is that much more powerful. You’re good at that. I’m asking you to do what you’re good at.”
You have learned a new skill: Leadership
[Leadership]
You’ve learned to get others to follow your guidance. It’s not about beating them into doing what you say, or forcing them to walk until they reach a shrine of Veela. Real Leaders lead hearts and minds.
Kaden read the notice and shrugged. Sara was a better party leader because she prepared. Kaden had failed to prepare properly and he’d do better.
“Lieutenant up ahead,” Trella said. “A flying humanoid demon who’s going to try and pick you up and throw you off the cliff. Don’t use potions, he’s not going to stay still. Who’s got the highest mana and [Deception] skill?”
Bluey raised her hand. “I’m preparing for Nocto condensate.”
“Great. You’re the bait.” Trella looked to the others. “Who knows what to do?”
“Knives—bows?” one asked.
“[Agony Cloud],” the other said.
The tan one paused. “[Backstab], deception, reset. No! Bleed potions first, then everything else.”
“That’s your plan. Kaden has a power that’s keeping them from healing or regenerating mana, plus he makes the potions more effective just by being around. Your goal is to not need me.” Trella pointed ahead. “Now, do you want to fight where he wants to fight? Near the dangerous edge? Or where you want to fight?”
Kaden held his breath as Tanny spun and threw a dagger in a high arc that slammed into the distant demon. By the time he reached the party, she’d hit him four more times.
Blue dove forward and spread her arms. “Hello, demon. I know—”
The Demon swooped, wrapping his arms around her [Deception] as three [Backstabs] landed. He crushed the shadowy image, but now every solid swing hit only shadow and resulted in more [Backstabs].
“Back off, let him bleed!” Tan shouted.
“Away from the cliff,” Trella added. “But other than that, good.”
The Lieutenant hit a threshold and glowed red. “The Abyss awaits. But most of you won’t—”
Blue slit his throat and ghosted away. “Shut up. Mobs shouldn’t talk.”
Trella looked so pleased.
###
By the time they’d reached the rockslide stair, Kaden and Trella had hammered the four into a team. Admittedly, that had taken hours upon hours. And he’d reluctantly accepted that they had names. Rhys wore blue and specialized in illusions to go with her shadows. The greens were an older sister and younger sister named Zinia and Omala who specialized in sabotage, and Tan was Wyrix, who Kaden was fairly sure was meant to be a leader. The others deferred to her when she spoke, which wasn’t often enough, given that she usually had a good idea.
Trella stood at the top of the trap stairs. They were wide stone, and crossed the abyss to the next horizontal run. Crossing the abyss meant no way to keep from falling, and the broken part in the middle would require a jump straight onto the section that triggered the traps.
At the bottom, an extra-large spawn of goat-men waited. Trella descended to the broken part of the stairs, which Kaden was certain would trigger the rocks. “It’s not just these. I think when the party passes, something spawns up top and attacks from above. Hell, it might be some kind of rock-rolling monster.”
Wyrix spoke up. “I say we pull the spawn from the bottom across the traps. I can hit one with a knife from here. We’ll all be focused up top for whatever spawns.”
Trella looked to Kaden. “This dungeon doesn’t play fair. You and I need to be ready. Screw the XP.”
The longer this went on, the more aggravated Kaden grew at the Core. There were rules and this one was living at the edge. “I didn’t see it setup to spawn anything besides the trap but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Wyr’s plan is good.” Trella looked to Kaden. “Spawn is yours.”
Wyr’s knife was already in the air, sailing down to strike one of the Goat Men in the chest. The stairs began to rumble and the debris below moved of its own accord, sliding downward to strike the rest of the spawn, who roared and came racing up the stairs—only to stop at the broken section.
After all, these were monsters, not intelligent creatures.
Kaden stood at the top of the stairs, his Eldritch Shield drawn. Sure enough, a section of the abyss wall gave way, creating an avalanche downward. Kaden couldn’t stop it, but he didn’t have to, he just had to redirect the worst off the side.
The low growl from beyond had his attention.
“We got a monster spawn up here,” Trella called. “Oh, hello. You’re ugly.”
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From the collapsed wall, a fat, waddling demon lumbered. Well, sort of a demon. Kind of like what someone who had never seen a demon would think of as a demon. It had sharp horns and a forked tongue and bright red skin and wide arms with forearms swelled and flattened like built-in shields.
“Trella, [Identify]?” Kaden called.
“It’s glitched. All I see is [Shield Bash]. Probably all it needs,” she answered.
Kaden rushed it. “Get behind it. Use me as a ladder.”
The Demon lashed out with a [Shield Bash], which always moved the target aside—and off the stairs. Kaden met it with a [Shield Bash] of his own—and now he was close enough that it couldn’t swing.
He braced himself against the stairs and pushed. Trinity would destroy this demon utterly, but that wasn’t the point of taking a party.
“Coming over,” Trella shouted as she put light hands on his shoulders and vaulted clean over the top of the [Shield Demon].
The monster wasn’t completely dumb. It knew the moment Trella passed over it was in trouble. And then three [Shadow Blades] followed.
“Vault with your arms, don’t dig your boots into my back!” Kaden said, cursing.
The [Shield Demon] lurched forward as a trio of [Backstabs] hit. It couldn’t turn to face them with Kaden holding on, and blow after blow struck until the demon collapsed, disappearing. As a group the Sisters turned and began raining down throwing knives on the hapless [Goat Men] who would have completely murdered everyone if they could only cross the broken stair gap.
“Hey.” Kaden called for attention. “That [Shield Demon] didn’t materialize. It came out of a cave. You know what that means, right?”
Rhys nodded. “Means it was a physical manifestation, not a trap mob.”
“And?” Trella asked, picking up on the significance. “It came out of where?”
“The walls. We have to watch for trap walls,” Omala added.
Trella looked to the other two. “And? It came out of the walls. It came out of a cave. What does that mean?”
“We don’t know about every room in the dungeon,” Wyr said, her gaze unfocused. “We had a decent scout of the first half but we don’t know about every room. There’s dangers here—”
“Check the damned cave it came from,” Trella said. “If a monster comes out of a room, that’s usually a signal there’s something worth getting in the room. How many dungeons have you run? How did you reach level twenty like this?”
“We worked sweeps in ShadowVale,” Ryhs said. “And I’ve run four. Three of them were Clown Town—”
“That’s not a dungeon it’s a training—ok, it’s a dungeon. Barely. What parties were you in?” Trella asked as Rhys searched the cave and returned with a two-handed sword with a bright green gem set in the handle.
“Look, it’s a [Sword of Greed!] It increases all loot drops.” Rhys gripped the sword tightly. “And it’s mine. My sword. My loot. If one of you so much as blinks at me wrong—”
Kaden activated [Moment of Speed], hitting the [Shadow Blade] with his shoulder and slamming her into the stairs. The sword clattered to the ground and Kaden kicked it off into the abyss. “[Sword of Greed?] I don’t see one of those. Always beware of cursed loot.”
Rhys looked broken, not just because Kaden had crushed several of her ribs. “How did—what did...” She silently accepted a healing potion, tears running down her face. “I hate this dungeon.”
“Everyone over the gap. We’re crushing this dungeon and then smashing that core.” Trella leaped easily over the gap. Kaden waited until everyone had gone, then climbed back up the stairs and into the trap room. It hadn’t shown in his sight, or maybe he hadn’t looked close enough.
With a sprinting leap, Kaden cleared the stair and landed on the next level of the Abyss.
“Another lieutenant, 4x2 [Goat Men], a spawn of only [Shriekers] and then a trap setup,” Trella said. “Get it done, do not approach the stairs to the third level, it’s a death trap, as in no one is supposed to be able to cross.”
She headed to Kaden, speaking in code. *Doesn’t matter whether this core is ‘erratic’ or not, we’re busting it. Wait until you see the next set of stairs.*
###
Every spawn grew more difficult and easier, because the Sisters became more coordinated, more reliant on each other’s attacks. Kaden intervened exactly once, and he was certain Trella’s Dark Deception had killed a [Shrieker] when it dove for Rhys.
Now he studied the stairs. They were meant to be a puzzle, that much was certain, but it wasn’t the good kind of puzzle. “There’s no pattern. There’s no cypher. Can you send your deceptions down to trigger them?”
“Yes, but watch and see what happens.” Trella sent both of hers down. Pieces of stairway crumbled to dust, a fairly typical trap setup, except this trap was above a kill-pit. As they reached the end, the stairs repaired themselves. “Ready?”
She sent out one deception. Different sections of stairs collapsed. “So not cool. We—the Sisters—can bypass this entirely with [Shadow Step] but look at the next floor. It’s covered in dust. There hasn’t been a party this deep and we’re exactly two levels down.”
Kaden was studying the path on the other side. “If I were a sneaky, bastard dungeon core, I’d have something break out of that wall the moment someone clears the stairs. Drive them back onto it.”
Trella cursed. “What do we do?”
“Do you have anything that explodes?” Kaden asked. “Like, really explodes?”
“I love you.” Trella drew a potion from Inventory and hurled it down the stairs. It struck at the base of the abyss wall and exploded in fragments of rock. “Oh, sorry, I killed a [Extreme Defiler,] whatever that was. Everyone [Shadow Step] to the other side. Kaden, take a flying leap.”
He didn’t hesitate, sprinting for the abyss and throwing himself off. Instinct had him drawing Remembrance and buring the axe in the stone as he struck the other side. “Stay here. We don’t need another [Sword of Greed] situation.”
The collapsed cave held no corpses, just a diamond necklace on a broken statue. Kaden studied it until [Identify] activated.
[Necklace of Lust]
You will be irresistable to all who see you. Your wishes form their commands, and they are powerless to act against you. Make sure you remove the Necklace of Lust before entering areas with farm animals or crowds.
Kaden stuffed it into Inventory and returned to find the Sisters clearing the path forward. “What’s on this side?”
“The boss. Looks a lot like a Demon Lord but he’s only level twenty five and is currently a statue.” Trella pointed forward. “The real danger is the path. It gets narrower and narrower until you reach the boss battle. Do we have to kill everything?”
“All of them,” Kaden said. “I don’t know that this dungeon is erratic in the proper sense but I know if it is, only clearing it will end the infection. You and I can handle it and let the Sisters rest.”
“When this is done, I need to go to ShadowVale. This isn’t acceptable. This isn’t right. We’re setting them up for failure if they’ve hit twenty and don’t know teamwork and tactics and basic dungeon sense.” Trella [Shadow Stepped] away as a mis-thrown knife drew a second spawn.
Kaden summoned Trinity and stood, scratching her back, as she watched in confusion. “No, girl. We don’t get to help. It’s been one of those runs. Let me tell you how it’s gone.”
###
Trella stood on a pathway so narrow the tips of her boots stuck off with her back against the wall. “There’s room to assemble and prepare just on the other side of this ledge. The boss is going to be a brick. He’ll charge and try to bash you off. No surprise, it’s a pit of death below.”
The Sisters edged along behind her.
Kaden stood back with Trinity. “It’s go time. You can’t possibly fit on that ledge.”
She hissed in a way [Beast Soul] translated as *It’s not my fault I’m built like a Dragon.*
Pulling her into his soul was only natural, and Kaden balanced as he ran forward and then slid past the last of the Abysmal Path. Trella was right, an oval lip gave a short space before the radius that would engage the boss. The boss was modeled on an actual Demon Lord, except the scales were wrong, the nose too small, the eyes too large and only two, and the whole Boss hunkered instead of towering.
“No fliers. No minions. It’s definitely a charger, so don’t let it charge,” Kaden said.
“Sisters.” Trella pointed with a dagger. “The entire way here, what I have I said? Tactics. Planning. Don’t rush in. Now, I give you your free-for-all. Swarm that bastard and put him down.”
Kaden had only seen Trella fight up close until today.
Now, as Rhys sprinted straight for the boss, he understood just how deadly [Shadow Blades] could be as a team. The boss straightened up and boomed out, “Who dares—”
She slid past his swipe, cutting at his knee. They came as a hail of shadows and blades, cutting, [Backstabbing] and disappearing before the boss could swipe, and they stayed on him, never more than an inch out of reach, always at least one dipping in to cut.
The Boss roared and raised a deception above his head to tear it in two, getting stabbed in the back, front, and ribs. Tactics could in fact overcome level differences, and these tactics were hell for this boss.
“They’d get murdered against a Swarm Boss,” Trella said. “Or they’d use [Agony Cloud] to lead.”
Kaden activated [Moment of Speed] as a spinning kick by the boss sent Wyr flying toward the edge. He caught her and spun her back onto the platform. “Don’t get kicked. I didn’t say it because I didn’t think I needed to say it.”
His heart stopped as the Boss heaved Rhys over the edge—and Trella followed, dropping into the abyss. “Trella!”
She exploded upward from his shadow using her teleport, throwing Rhys to the ground. “You just cost me most of my mana.”
The problem was, the boss was no longer swarmed. He turned, trying to keep all of them in sight.
“Hold on,” Wyr called. “Wait for our Deceptions. If he charges, let him go off the side. If he doesn’t, we close using them as decoys.”
The boss snorted and pawed the ground—but didn’t charge.
“Now?” Rhys asked as her Deception spawned. It rushed the boss, who ignored it until its shadowy blade stabbed in an open wound.
The roar of rage heralded a fist-strike that sent shockwaves out, but Rhys hurdled the wave and landed on its back, stabbing the throat over and over. Zinia struck at the knee, not slicing but stabbing deep, while the other two switched places, dodging the boss’s flailing strikes to stab over and over.
The boss gripped Rys’s leg and slammed her down, but before he could follow, Omala grabbed her sister’s leg and heaved her out of range, letting her Deception leap onto the demon’s back. The boss spun to throw it off—and his left knee collapsed.
“Back! Throwing knifes!” Wyr called, though she stumbled as she rose.
Every blade poisoned with Bleed, every cut wept as the assassins struck. At last, the boss collapsed, unmoving—then winked away, leaving a ball of light and a blue portal.
“No one leaves,” Trella said. “What’s the chances the loot ball is cursed?”
Kaden grabbed it. “It’s a beltbuckle.” A round beltbuckle the size of Kaden’s fist, it depicted an Adventurer with a wide hat either riding or having carnal relations with a bull.
[Buckle of Champions]
This gaudy gold buckle is proof you went two point six seconds on a bull named Sleepy Petunia, and this time, Petunia wasn’t drugged or dead. While wearing it, your grasp is near unbreakable.
Kaden offered it to each of them. “No one? I guess it’s mine. Now, where is that core?”
The rules were the core had to attach to the boss room.
He focused, looking around. “Oh. Of course. I know you’re there, come on up, open the way down, or I will smash my way there and you really don’t want me in a smashy mood.”
A rock pedastal rose from the center of the boss platform, and atop it rode a blood-red core. Kaden’s [Dungeon Master] abilities activated. “Shit. It’s not erratic, just bloodthisty. I can’t break cores that aren’t erratic.”
Rhys grabbed the core and smashed it on the floor. “I can.”
The dungeon went black.
Conserving Mana in Node Until Genesis.
“Don’t move,” Kaden said. “Give it a moment, the node will be relocated. It should eject us to the cabin. Also, if you see anything glowing, don’t touch it, it will explode you.”
He hunted in the darkness, snagging a mote of light. “Got it, [Shrieker] seed.”
Moments ticked by.
Node selected for relocation. Deactivating Node.
The earth shook, and when the clouds settled, Kaden stood in a dimly lit cabin. Quest notifications began to roll in, and Kaden finally understood why Sara put up with this.