Stepping forward and looking at the fake Sally in front of me, I quickly went over Sally’s spells and possible weaknesses. The biggest hurdle is that her Toughness was fairly high, and the Blood magic she used rose her Toughness to another level. Knowing this could be a brutal fight, I considered my options. I could use my Domain, but on the off chance I couldn’t finish the fight in time it could leave my tired. Frowning, I figured the best option is just to fight upfront while waiting for a chance.
Feeling Alice fly off my head, I kick up the wind around my body and move as quickly as I can and throw a punch out, intending to hit the Mimic’s head. Sensing danger, I pivot at the last moment and lean my body back as a sword swings above me, narrowly missing me. Throwing up a kick, I plant my hands on the ground and use the momentum of the kick to backflip away.
The kick doesn’t connect and standing up after backflipping I saw the Mimic had dodged. Its eyes were solely focused on me, and as I prepared Astral Glacial Spikes behind me it too uses the sword it has to cut a wound onto its arm. The blood that comes from the wound winds itself around the Mimic that looks like Sally, meaning it has prepared itself to use Blood magic.
“I hate you.” Speaking, the Mimic perfectly matched Sally’s voice. Ignoring its words, I throw a spike at it. Blocking it easily with a Blood Barrier, it keeps talking. “You abandoned me. You abandoned our kind. All for some cheap thrills. I hate you, you bitch.” Sounding angrier with each word, spikes of blood appeared around it and shot out towards me, taking me by surprise.
Sally never knew this magic, so how did it? Thinking quickly, I realised where I had seen the Blood spikes, it was from the Guardian, Velka, in the Temple of the Blood God. Is it copying her moves, or did I believe Sally could do the same since her magic was similar to Velka’s? Recalling Velka’s moves, I kept a close eye on Sally’s eyes. If they glowed I had to look away or reflect it back.
“You have forsaken the Hybrids. You never cared for them, even though they suffered as you did. You left us for some stupid adventure, never considering what would happen to us.” As the Mimic speaks, it keeps firing and creating those spikes. Dodging them easily, I tried ignoring the words it spoke. This thing isn’t Sally, even if it looks and sounds like her, it wasn’t her.
Moving quickly, I dodged the spikes and appeared to the side of her, and upon igniting my leg, I threw a Lashing Fire Kick at the Mimic’s neck. Striking, I saw the Mimic stumble for a moment before quickly grabbing the leg I had yet to retract, gripping it like a vice. Before I could try to kick her hand off, she threw me over her head, slamming me into the ground face first.
Gasping from the shock and pain, I felt my nose start bleeding and my mind become dazed. Trying to get my bearings back, I felt myself lifted once again as panic arose within me, causing my mind to clear. Twisting my body, I bend my knees as I’m tossed at the wall and throw three spikes at the Mimic as my back is slammed into the wall. I felt her grip leave my leg as I fell to the ground, gasping for breath.
Quickly getting to my feet, I looked at the Mimic and saw two of the three spikes had struck her. One had struck a Blood Barrier and the other pierced her leg. I could tell it had been a shallow strike and gritting my teeth, I grew frustrated. The Mimic had not moved a single step, yet the most I’ve hurt it is a burn mark on its neck and a shallow wound on its leg.
“Pathetic and weak. No wonder you left, you must’ve been ashamed of yourself. You couldn’t even protect Elizabeth and now she’s dead. You left because you knew you were too weak to protect everyone. Die.”
Pushing a palm towards me, all the blood surged around her palm, I knew what she was about to do. Not wanting to get hit by such a curse, I knew this was the best opportunity. Clasping my hands together, I used Lunar magic on myself to give me a Lunar Blessing, even if incomplete it increased my strength. Stepping forward, I shouted “DOMAIN!”
Surging out of me, my Domain quickly established itself. Ignoring the gasp from the young man behind me, I heard Alice screech out as she used her Blindness on Sally…the Mimic. At the same time, Sally fired her curse at me. Blood Eruption. At a speed I barely kept up with, I felt myself hit by it as I moved into the fake Sally.
I knew that when Sally used this spell, she had felt exhausted as it used a large amount of her blood for it, and taking advantage of this recoil, I slam my fist into her chest, grip her heart and crush it, exactly as I had done with the last one. Feeling the effects of Blood Eruption boiling in my body, I pushed myself away from Sally, no the Mimic, with her…it’s heart in my hand as my domain faded.
Staring at me with anger, I could see the Mimic slowly melting. Feeling blood leak from my eyes and ears, I kept it down from my thoughts, resisting the curse as best as possible. The Mimic turns to me, half its face turned to blue goo as it says “This is our fate, we will all die and it’s because you abandoned us…”
In the next moment it completely collapses into a pool of goo. Coughing up blood, I felt the effects of the Blood Eruption slowly fade. Thankfully I had managed to somewhat resist it, but I could feel myself lightheaded, and feeling around my top lip, I felt a lot of blood there. The blood nose in addition to the Blood Eruption lost me more than I thought.
Grabbing a healing potion, I sat down as Aubrey went to work while glancing at me with a hint of worry. With ragged breath, I downed the contents of the bottle as I saw the young man gaze at me in surprise. Ignoring him, I considered our next step, as saving someone in my condition would be very difficult. I wasn’t severely injured, but this light head due to blood loss mixed with my sore body from being slammed on the floor and wall would slow me down.
Alice lands in my lap and gives me a soft “kraa” before laying down. Patting her softly, my mind wondered to the words that Sally…no, the Mimic had said. I knew it’s likely it had been trying to unsettle me, but I couldn’t help feeling down. I knew that wasn’t how Sally nor Gray actually felt, but the words it spoke had some truth to them…those words had been from my worries.
Attempting to distract myself, I glance at the notifications from the System.
You killed Deviant Runic Mimic, gained 20,000xp
You received drop: Bottle of Deviant Runic Mimic liquid
You received drop: Undamaged Core of Deviant Runic Mimic
Alice gained 20,000xp
Alice has levelled to 7!
Seeing the drops, I had noticed I received these far more often than I had anywhere else. Chalking it up to being an aspect of this dungeon, I accepted both the drops as Aubrey made her way back to me. Handing them to her, she looks at me with surprise before taking them and storing them away.
“It’s like you killed two deviants, these are worth a lot of money.” As she says this, out of the corner of my eye I saw the young man with a very different face than usual as he stared in greed at the bag. A second later his face returned to the previous solemn and saddened expression. For a moment, I wondered if I had been imagining things, or perhaps given his situation he had just felt greedy for a moment. Putting it to the back of my mind, I continue to rest for a moment while keeping my guard up.
After about an hour of resting while the young man, who I learnt was named Henry, grew more impatient, I got up and checked over everything while putting Alice back on my head. I hadn’t received any injuries on my body except for the broken nose, which had healed. My mana had dipped just below the halfway point and I felt fairly tired, but if it’s to help defeat monsters I should be okay, as long as I pace myself.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Just as we set off, I felt that presence again. Stronger this time, closer. Again, it was only for a moment before it faded but it left me unsettled. I couldn’t tell where it was, but I knew it was somewhere in this dungeon. I knew I’d have to face it sooner or later, but I’d hoped I was more well rested. I considered telling the others to stop and wait for whatever this presence was to face it, but seeing Aubrey and Henry’s impatient faces, I decided against it, since we still needed to save people.
After another thirty minutes of walking, and a few more monsters handled by me or Henry who had somewhat recovered, we arrived in another tunnel.
“T-this is the tunnel leading to my friends. We need to hurry!”
Picking up his pace, we followed behind. Deep within, a feeling of uncertainty welled up within me. Frowning, I strained my ears and couldn’t hear anything like fighting. Sniffing, I could pick up on the faint scent of monsters ahead of us, as well as blood. I also smelled humans, but I couldn’t tell how many from here.
Either the fight is over or they were trapped and both sides couldn’t fight. My vision, even zoomed in, couldn’t make out the room yet, but as we got closer it came into view. Not exactly a room, but a very narrow passageway into the room, a person sized crack in the wall. I knew a room laid beyond there as the smells were coming from there.
Reaching the crack first, Henry squeezes through it. Aubrey glanced at me and looking at her, I see she looked shy, but mixed in was some concern as she nodded at me before squeezing through with her bag. Looking behind me, there was nothing nor nobody down the passageway. Taking a breath in, I turn and squeeze into the crack. Only the first part was a squeeze, beyond the crack is a path that is only one person wide that leads to a room.
Following behind Aubrey as I looked over her and her bag, I saw a pile of monster corpses in the room but no one else in my limited vision. As we enter the room behind Henry, he suddenly kneels down and yells out.
“I-I’ve brought others, please exchange them for my fiance and friend and we’ll leave. Please.”
Hearing laughter ring out, I looked around me and watched as a wall of dirt fell away around the room, revealing ten people, two of which were bound and gagged, looking seriously injured. I may have been ignorant of the world, but I knew what had happened. Henry had led us into a trap.
Looking towards Henry’s kneeling figure, I step forward as a man in front of us starts speaking.
“Well done, you’ve actually brought us valuable slaves. I’m an honourable man, I’ll give yo-”
Without letting the man finish speaking, I grab Henry’s neck, lift him up and using my free hand, stab it into his back, where his heart is. After a struggle, Henry stops moving as I throw the corpse away as a shocked gasp came from behind. I don’t care for the reason, Henry had betrayed us and led Aubrey and I into a trap.
After a few seconds, I see one of the gagged and bound people screaming through their gag. It was a young women who wore plated armour. Without caring any further, I look back at the man who had been speaking and saw him with a shocked expression that quickly turned to one of glee as he smiled deeply.
“Decisive! As expected of a monster pretending to be a human. Very good.” Looking away from me, he stares at Aubrey behind me. “Aubrey! I will give you this chance to leave.”
Turning to stare at Aubrey, she wore her serious face while facing the man. As I’m about to take a step forward, Aubrey spoke.
“I don’t think I will, William. My friend here is my responsibility from the Guild, I can’t just leave her here.”
“I’m giving you this chance Aubrey. You helped my party when we were first starting off, so feel free to leave now or we’ll just enslave you as well.”
“I helped you as per a request from the Guild, nothing more William.”
Looking at me, Aubrey shrugs. I did quite like Aubrey, so I felt glad I didn’t have to kill her. Glancing around once again, I checked the levels of everyone here without reserve. The lowest is level 24, the highest is 28, with this William being the highest.
“Well whatever, in a few months of being a slave just remember I gave you a chance.” Turning to face me, he pulls out a thick metal necklace and throws it at my feet. “Put this around your neck and lock it. You don’t want to die down here do you, monster?”
Glancing at the necklace, my System provided the information on this horrifying item.
Basic Slave Collar.
Enslaves those below level 50 to the owner of this collar. Can not be broken once worn and must be dispelled. Disobeying orders that the owner provides will result in punishment from the collar.
If the humans in Crater had such an item we would’ve been done for. Looking back at William, I shake my head. All humans were like this in the end. Greedy and wanting to enslave those that weren’t human. Then again…glancing at the crying human female who was still gagged, she had the same collar around her neck.
As I take my stance, I hear weapons being drawn around me. I knew this would be my death, and I would gladly accept it if it meant I wouldn’t be enslaved. I swore I would take as many of these fuckers with me and twisting my body, I launched myself at one of the level 24s I had seen earlier.
Emergency Unique Quest! Kill the enslavers!
Your life is in danger, and to overcome this you must slaughter all who oppose you. Rip them to shreds, show them you control your own fate.
Rewards will be determined on performance…and if you live.
Knowing I had to act fast, I cast Lunar Blessing on myself and at the same time I wordlessly released my Domain. As it was the third time I had used my Domain, I knew I had less than a minute left to kill as many of these humans as I could. Reaching my first target, I let my monster form take me over as I grab the throat of the young man and tear it out.
Ignoring his reactions, I turned and saw the humans had reacted much faster than I anticipated and were all on guard, moved close to each other. Four of them stood in front of three who were in the back, all three had staffs of various sizes. William had gone from looking gleeful to serious in that space of time.
Growing angry at such a sight, I revert my monster form quickly. Claws wouldn’t work on them, most had plated armour with very little exposed areas. Glimmering in the moonlight I could see they all had silver adventurer plates, meaning they were all experienced in combat.
“Kill her if you must, but do try to keep her alive. Such a product will let us feast for a very long time.” Commanding the others, William stomps a foot down as he moves towards me. Feeling my anger reach a boiling point, I let out a roar from the bottom of my throat and turn to the human who was moving to my side.
Raising his fists, he deflected my punch easily before sending out one of his own. He had a different style to mine and kept his fists raised about chin height. Throwing out multiple punches as quickly as I could, he kept ducking and weaving while throwing out his own attacks. Growling, I felt myself being pushed back as my anger got the better of me.
Creating a dozen spikes behind me, I threw punches out while using the spikes while he was deflecting, but he still dodged everything. His eyes were watching my arms and legs. Remembering Teacher Lee’s words, I threw four spikes at the same time as I stepped back. Looking around, the other three had surrounded me, watching me fight. Were they not going to attack?
Plunging a hand into my pocket, I pulled out the last bottle that Teacher Lee had given me. As I uncorked it, I felt a force slam into my hand, shattering the bottle as the contents spilled from it. Widening my eyes, I glanced at the three staff users and knew one of them had sent a magic attack to break the bottle. My anger peaked, I’ve only killed one of these bastards yet I'm already on the backfoot, unable to kill another.
As my anger hit its peak, I felt something cover my fists. Confused, I looked down and saw gauntlets on my hands. Lunaria’s Fury? W-why are they suddenly on my hands? The moon etched on the top was glowing in full force, and I could see stars slowly appearing around it. Glancing up, I see the four surrounding me cautiously looking towards me.
Deciding to figure it out later since I didn’t have the luxury of time, I felt my Domain end as I stared down the human I had just fought. As I'm about to step forward once again, two things happened that caused me to freeze up in fear. A System notification and that presence, it’s right behind me…it’s entered this room!
The one bound to your soul has arrived.
Turning myself towards the entrance to the room, my eyes widened in shock and surprise. Standing there, sword in hand is Elizabeth. Meeting her eyes, I realised at the same time that it couldn’t be her…no, it’s not her, but for some reason I could’ve sworn I saw a mix of relief and fear in her expression.
A Deviant Mimic had entered the room. Seeing it open its mouth, I turned and ignored it as I threw myself forward at the male fighter once again as I hoped the Mimic would throw itself at the three humans. A question arose in my mind…how did a Deviant Mimic become bound to my soul?