Punch tried to catch up with Shtorrr. The troll wasn’t hearing his shouts to slow down or stop. They had left the glowing tunnels behind a while ago, but Punch and the other two bandits were having a hard time keeping up with the tireless troll. When they came to an intersection of multiple tunnels, Punch ordered the torchbearer and the other bandit to halt. “Wait here!” He growled at them. He dropped the torch and ran full out to try and catch up with Shtorrr.
After half a minute, he finally got close enough to throw his spear and hit the troll in the back. The spear didn’t pierce deep and fell out after a few heartbeats, but it got the trolls attention. Shtorrr slowed and looked back at Punch. “Ouch.” It said.
“Sorry.” Punch said, breathing hard. “Had to.” He bent down with his hands on his knees. “Had to stop.” He spent a dozen seconds breathing hard as his heart slowed to a normal speed. “Let’s go back and get the others. I told them to wait back there.” Punch pointed back down the tunnel. “Sorry Shtorrr, I should have told you when to stop before I told you to keep moving. You know, I think we ran in circles a few times in those glowing tunnels.” Punch patted Shtorrr on the shoulder and began to walk.
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Chaney and the moon cat glared around a corner at the bandits. These bandits had a lot of torches and they were moving in small teams, carrying bags full of dungeon treasure. They seemed to know where they were going and weren’t concerned about fighting the dungeon creatures that trickled down the tunnels.
“I don’t think this will work for more ambush kills.” Chaney said to the cat. The cat agreed. They moved away down darker tunnels. After a few minutes, Chaney felt the cat’s interest perk up. The moon cat could smell something and increased its speed. Chaney jogged along next to the cat. Around a few corners, Chaney saw the light of a single bandit torch.
Chaney and the cat approached silently, their stealth skills active. There were two bandits in a large intersection. The bandits were just standing there, staring down one of the tunnels. Chaney exchanged a few silent messages with the moon cat. The pair slipped into the intersection behind the bandits. Chaney yanked the taller bandit to the ground with his metal hook at the same moment the moon cat hit the torchbearer from the side. Since the cat was busy, Chaney had to finish off his own bandit by himself. He tried to slam his hook on the bandit’s face, but the man let out a choking cry and caught the hook with a hand, breaking at least one bone. Chaney’s foot caught him in the jaw then stomped on his neck. The bandit grabbed Chaney’s leg, but the hook broke his skull before the bandit could dislodge Chaney.
The moon cat hadn’t had any difficulty dispatching her victim and sat cleaning one of her eight paws. Chaney felt smug satisfaction over their bond. He went over and pet the cat for a while. The two of them reacted in sync to a voice coming from the tunnels that the bandits had been watching. Chaney led the cat into one of the other tunnels. He didn’t want to be caught between the treasure carrying bandits and the rest of this group, so Chaney picked the tunnel right next to the tunnel with the voice.
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When Punch and Shtorrr reached the intersection, they stopped and stared at the two dead bandits, lying on the floor. Punch, as was typical of the pair, spoke first. “Looks like it’s just the two of us now, Shtorrr.”
Shtorrr picked up the dropped torch. “Hmmm.” It said.
Punch sighed. “I don’t know how he could have followed us through those tunnels. I saw him, when he killed… I forget which one died right after we found the new tunnels. It was a man, looked half starved.” Punch looked around the intersection and picked a tunnel at random. “This way.” Punch led the way and Shtorrr followed.
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“See? No troll.” Violet pointed emphatically at the visual scanner which was showing the underworld cavern under the mesmerizing worldlet. Yrryth glared suspiciously at the scanner. The shifting colors in the room and the shifting colors on the scanner were giving Violet a headache, but he ignored it. Finally, Yrryth sighed and nodded. She began digging down through the waterlogged sand, using just a bit of magic to keep the sand from falling back into the hole.
In the underworld cavern, Violet sent the scanner a long way down several of the tunnels. There were no bandits, but a few dozen dungeon creatures had shaken off the mesmerizing effect of the shifting colors. “Oh, right.” Violet said. “Yrryth, could you tell all these creatures to find and fight the bandits? There is a crow up top going around sending more creatures down, but I don’t have anyone down here to direct things.”
Yrryth grunted. She picked up a water aligned rabbit and glared at it. The rabbit blinked stupidly but met her eyes after a few seconds. Yrryth growled and grunted at the rabbit. It flicked it’s ears and jumped to the ground before racing out of the cavern. While Violet continued to scan tunnels to find the way out, Yrryth tried to get the attention of the whole pile of creatures. She was partially successful, and a small wave of creatures swept out of the cavern on her command.
“Ok, this way will get us back to the fields tunnels, then we can go above and cut across to the main worldlet and down to the snake.” Violet said. The pair set out at a jog. Violet found that he had too much nervous energy to stay silent. “Do you think these new tunnels made the mana flow situation worse, or better?” He asked.
Yrryth wiggled her bat ears and sniffed the air. After a few moments, she tipped one hand back and forth.
“So-so, I guess.” Violet said. “I got the communication mechanism working, by the way. That’s why the dungeon is spawning all these creatures. I don’t-” Violet fell silent for a dozen seconds as they continued their jog. “It didn’t seem to care about the bandit situation at all.” He said.
Yrryth grunted inquisitively and gestured behind them, in the direction of all the spawning creatures.
Violet looked at the ground, feeling ashamed. “I tricked it, somehow. I told it that it was dangerous when dungeon creatures died, which is only somewhat true…” Violet shrugged and nearly tripped and fell. “…and it believed me.” Yrryth didn’t seem to know what to say to that.