All around the room clutches of eggs shuddered and wiggled before cracks appeared. Tiny lizards the size of house cats flopped out. Their lightly scaled hides glistened in the glow of the moss, slick with slime. Dren started to count them all but stopped. All that mattered was there were a lot of them. Dagger in hand he rushed back towards the blinded beast. All the hatchlings were taking a moment to orient. Fighting all of them would prove to be a problem, if they swarmed him all at once he didn’t think he could go uninjured. But he wasn’t willing to retreat from the fight either.

Jumping up he landed on the monster's back and slammed his dagger into a glowing spot at the base of its head. It went into a death roll trying to crush him under its bulk again. But this time Dren was ready. Running along its body as it rolled to stay on top. He even managed to toss a dagger right at a glowing spot under its chin. But had to jump from the beast's body as it flailed around too wildly even for him to keep his balance once the dagger exploded. Worse, its angry pained hisses seemed to orient the hatchlings.

Darting into its side between both its set of legs he stabbed his dagger into the pudgy gut of the beast. With a wrench, he caused a slit as wide as he was before jumping back. Just another heavily bleeding wound added to the others. The beast was just too big for him to do anything major to it. Dren was pretty sure now that all criticals weren’t the same. Some hidden multiplier based on where exactly he had hit something. Unfortunately, while he could see the damage he took as a number in a combat log. He didn’t get the same for his own attacks. More of the system being vague when it wanted to be and concise at other times.

Now he had a new problem. The first group of hatchlings were on him. A half dozen of the tiny lizards scuttled at him with surprising speed. Half the group jumped at him. Aiming for his head, chest, and even an arm. While the rest rushed in on his legs. His right arm was a blur as he whipped it around, the wide-bladed dagger cleaving the three jumpers in half. But the three on the ground reached him. Their small mouths were full of tiny needle-sharp teeth that pierced right thru his cloth pants. Their bites did only minimal damage. Around ten each. Which for someone with his vitality wasn’t a real threat. The problem was he failed two of his three poison resits. Getting not one but two poison debuffs of ten each.

That was a bigger issue. Kicking and stomping he managed to kill all three. Barely able to register the inconsistency with poisons. As multiple applications of the spore toxin had only refreshed the timer. While these bites each left their own poison. Before the clutch mother with her tongue wildly flicking out of her mouth charged him. A swarm of hatchlings flowed around her like a sea of slimy scales.

His left hand became a blur of its own as he flung exploding dagger after dagger into the swarm. Each blast killed multiple of them but he quickly exhausted the ones in his bandolier. There were more in his backpack but he didn’t think they’d give him time to unpack them. Nor had his efforts done much despite killing a ton of hatchlings.

Glancing around the room even as he ran he couldn’t find anything that might be of use. His eyes landed on the exit to the cavern but shook his head. That healer Jen had warned that if they had to retreat during a boss fight. The way to the boss would close. The system only gave you one shot at a boss per run it seemed. Dren needed this kill, every kill he could get before he left the dungeon.

With the swarm and the clutch mother hot on his tail, he ran straight toward a wall. When he got there he jumped and kept running up the wall. With his high agility, he was able to make it a decent height up before kicking off hard. It launched him back toward the horde. While the clutch mother could follow him by smell or taste, he wasn’t sure which it was. It was still blind. Landing on its back he started sliding down its body's length. Before he stabbed his dagger into it hard to both arrest his movement and cause another bleeding wound.

As expected the the monster did its death roll and Dren ran along with it, keeping his balance. It crushed an obscene amount of its own young as it did so. Stopping the death roll much sooner than normal. The sudden stop almost had Dren go running off its body. It seemed the monster didn’t want to hurt their own spawn. As it let out a mournful hiss once righted.

Dren could only smile happily. Either outcome would have been good for him. But this one worked. With wild abandon, he skittered along the things back stabbing them repeatedly. It made angry noises but refused to roll over on its own offspring. With Dren on its back, it had no way to harm him other than spewing out a seemingly endless amount of green gas. Holding his breath he continued his frantic assault while hoping none of his resist checks failed.

As for the hatchlings they weren’t content to just swarm around below him. Seeming immune to the poison gas they swarmed up onto their mother. Kicking wildly while stabbing the larger lizard. He sent many of them sailing thru the air. His kicks alone were normally enough to end their life. But it soon became clear this wasn’t sustainable. His stamina regeneration stopped while he held his breath. While his frenetic assault was burning thru it at incredible speed. That and despite his best efforts the swarm of hatchlings was getting to be too much. For every one he kicked off half a dozen made it up. In the span of a few seconds, he burned thru half his stamina. Took a handful of bites with two more failed poison resists. All while only leaving a dozen or so new wounds on the clutch mother. Nice bleeding ones, but far from lethal anytime soon.

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With no choice, he sprang off the lizard's back with all his might. Sending him over the swarm that was mostly pressed right against the mother. Using their own bodies to build ramps up as they scrambled over one another to get to him. Hitting the ground in a roll he let out a gasp and sucked in a deep breath. Despite the distance, he had put between himself and the clutch mother. The air tasted slightly bitter and he got the message of another successful poison resist check. That was going to be another issue if the fight dragged out.

Behind him, the clutch mother hadn’t moved. Still just spraying out poisonous gas at a terrifying rate. Most of the hatchlings were still scrambling up trying to get onto their mother. But a few dozen had turned to head towards him. Sprinting away to get some space he worked at slinging his backpack off his shoulder. The problem with wearing it in combat was he had to sinch it on tight enough not to become an issue. It also made it hard to get to quickly. But right now he needed to restock. “Where is my magic item box ability.” He wheezed as the backpack came free. Slowing down both hands were a blur as he pulled out new daggers while setting them into his bandolier.

The idea of wearing explosives strapped to his chest had been a bit of a concern. But with testing, he was sure that the system somehow knew when they were being used for an attack. Just hitting them or even dropping them didn’t cause them to detonate. Only when the intent of an attack was applied. He was sure of that. Mostly.

While his hands worked he was forced to turn and face the mini swarm. No longer running he put his feet to work. Dodging and kicking the hatchlings as they attacked. By the time he had eight new daggers ready and a handful still in his off-hand. He had managed to kill all the hatchlings from that rush. But he had taken another six bites and four more poison fails. That was becoming a real concern now. As each bite doing so little wasn’t an issue but in the twenty seconds it would take the poison to run its course it caused fifty-five damage. One or two or even a few weren’t an issue. But he was failing too many times. With still probably hundreds of the little lizards left.

‘Gotta end this fast.’ Sucking in a deep breath he charged back in. Other hatchlings were noticing him. The flood of them shifted from climbing up their mother to rolling down to flow towards him. Dodging as best he could and even stomping on several of them. He rushed back in to jump on the back of the clutch mother. Even as he raced up its back towards the head he stabbed several of the little lizards hanging onto him with their mouths clamped tight.

Once at the head, he dropped to his knees while sinking his dagger into its skull. In response the beast just seemed to hiss louder, sending even more toxic gas into the chamber. Kneeling he slammed his left hand down. Jabbing the entire fist full of small stone daggers right into the already bloody eyesocket of the monster. All of them detonated at once sending a spray of blood, gore, and bone right into Dren. The force of the blast was so intense it sent him flying back. The dagger he had tried to use as an anchor was ripped from the beast's skull. Slamming down on the back of the monster, he crushed a few of the first hatchlings to climb up. It also blasted the breath he was holding out of him. On reflex, he sucked in a breath and got a new horrible system message.

Breath of Decay resistance check failed. You have been afflicted by Breath of Decay.

At the edge of his vision, a new debuff icon appeared. Skull and crossbones with a black background. Complete with a nice big sixty over it. Scrambling up he kicked away a hatchling while his hand moved on instinct cutting another in half. Panic set in. That was a bigger poison than he expected. Far bigger. While he didn’t have time to do the math he was certain that the full duration of the poison would be more than his entire health pool. Standing on the back of the beast he saw that it was no longer spewing out toxic gas.

In fact, that last attack had blown a sizeable chunk of its skull apart leaving the mangled brain exposed. Dren had taken a good chunk of damage as well. His left hand was a mangled mess. But the boss monster wasn’t moving. Blood gusting out of that ruined chunk of its head. But no kill notification had come yet either. The beast must have had a really incredible health pool. Crouching for extra power he launched himself away from the back of the lizard. Dren did not want to stay in that cloud of poison any longer. It was already going to be tight to survive the one application. Even with his Life Surge. He wondered if it was even full. He had spent so much of his downtime recently keeping his health drained.

As he ran he tried to fumble out a health potion with his mangled hand. Giving up he sheathed his dagger to pull one out properly and gulp it down. Only then did he notice it had been a few seconds and nothing had happened with the Breath of Decay debuff. Normally poisons ticked every two seconds. He was just starting to think it wasn’t a poison when it happened. It felt as if his lungs erupted in flames and froze over at the same time. His running gait stumbled slightly from the sheer agony of it. Then his lungs went numb as the debuff ticked down to fifty-nine. Behind him, the swarm of hatchlings chased after him. While the clutch mother still lay where it was. Bleeding out but how long that would take was anyone’s guess.

Dren’s eyes shifted to the exit. Did he leave now? He was so close. But the numbness in his lungs left him gasping for air. His stamina regeneration was slowed, but at least not stopped. Still, he was already getting low. The fight was almost won, he was so close. But as the swarm of hatchlings rushed towards him he decided. It wasn’t worth dying here to kill the boss. Shifting his direction he sprinted towards the exit, mentally cursing with every step.