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Lions den 36

Lucifer watched the kittens being carried by the soldiers while wondering why they seemed so familiar, when they turned into full sized Panthers and started to tear apart the magic casters limb from limb Lucifer finally recalled where he had seen them before, they were part of his earlier experiments in creating a body for himself, he thought if flesh could not hold his consciousness maybe sturdier plant fibre could.

A cramped smile crept onto Lucifer face as he wondered how Lucky had taken them from his lab, or why they even listened to her and follow her out, Lucifer knew Selenia would not be so mischievous as to take something from his lab so the culprit was easy to guess.

"I have to remember to reward her again for the kitty surprise... even if she's not herself when she comes back," Lucifer thought to himself, then his mood lowered again at the thought of the pointless death.

The soldiers below had just triggered the spring trap behind the door, bodies turned to paste and twisted body parts with metal armor and weapons shot out, the body parts hit the ground and the surrounding people with a wet thump, which was quickly drowned out by the screams of unlucky people who lost limbs to shrapnel and flying weaponry.

Lucifer was as surprised as the company leader, Lucifer because he thought the last group's survivors would have told these men about the trap, the company leader because he ever expected the door itself to be trapped, so he sent his physically strongest men to pry open the heavy door.

A collective gasp was heard as the men realized that the inside of the door was as frightening as the outside, skeletons lined the inside of the door but, they were wearing the bloodied gear of adventurers in some kind of disturbing warning to those who would trespass.

Soldiers made their way to the portal then jabbed the skeletons, mainly to ease their worries that they would suddenly come to life then soon be adorned with their armor instead. Nothing happened when they poked and prodded the skeletons relieving the soldier's tension.

they began to line up against the portal, but once they passed the skeletons they suddenly sparked to life, using the crude weapons from former adventurers they hacked and chopped at the soldiers, being caught unawares several soldiers immediately lost their lives, however, thier armor stopped most of the attacks from the crude weapons.

The company leaders expression became increasingly ugly while Jacobs secretly became brighter after the constant failures and setbacks, he ordered them to adhere to normal siege practices and charge in, the idea is to overwhelm any mages behind the portal before they get to react, but this was a dungeon,

5 men ran in shoulder to shoulder with weapons held high, only to be promptly cut in two, with no confirmation of a clear room the next group sprinted in after them, these people were luckier by comparison, the sword trap had already sprung so they only ran into a stationary blade, their armor stopped most of the damage, but they had a deep cut on their chests when the fell back out of the portal.

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The next group saw the group fall and prepared to charge themselves when the leader bellowed "HOLD" causing the men to instantly freeze on instinct, then he gave orders to check on the situation inside and get the remaining healers to the injured.

After a quick investigation the company leader was grinding his teeth and his eyes were red with rage, of the 200 he brought 100 were redshirts who had not come back yet, probably killed by the Panthers that attacked earlier, now less than half remained of the main force and worse yet the magic division was almost all but dead.

If he was not ordered here by his majesty himself he would have called this mission off already, now he was forced to continue this mission, even when it is becoming extremely apparent they were not well prepared enough to complete it.

Grinding his teeth in frustration he glanced around to look for a better solution when he spotted Jacobs and the guild leader, viciousness flashed in his eyes as he sarcastically spoke to them loud enough for everyone to hear "are you mages just going to sit there and let us poor soldiers throw our lives away for you, or are you going to actually be useful".

Jacobs glared at the man before he replied amicably "why didn't you ask earlier" before telling his 2 students to go help while he thought to himself "It's best not to have a falling out so early, I would like them to let me save my strength for the battle later". The guild leader looked at Jacobs when he was acting and decided that he is better off dead sooner rather than later.

The 2 students appeared to be about 40 years old, they wore simple blue robes with gold trimmings, after being told to go into the portal they started casting enhancement spells on themselves, then their bodies straitened up and their posture strengthened as they walked into the portal.

Other than chanting spells they did not speak, they like the air of mystery it gave them to talk to each other directly through magic.

When they stepped through the portal they were dumbfounded and all they heard through the link was %@#! after they saw the impossible floor design, they had gone through dungeons before, but every floor usually was quite possible to make it through safely, or else no one would dare enter the dungeon, however, because Lucifers dungeon linked to his core in a strange way he did not require it to be reasonable to enter.

One man nodded to the other in understanding then started a lengthy chant, after several minutes passed he waved his arms and pointed his palms to the end of the hallway, sending a wave of force down it, as the wave moved it forced down all the pressure plates causing multitudes of traps to activate.

They watched in awe at how many traps there were in such a small space, they could barely see the end of the hall with all the projectiles and pistons moving about.

After a minute all the traps had finished their attacks, so one of them signaled the other side that it was safe to enter while the other moved forward.

The man stepped on pressure plates causing them to depress with each step as he marveled at some of the strange traps he has not seen before, one was a pit with strange thin wire in it coiling around itself, some of them even failed to activate, like the one he was just stepping past that resembled a log... he stepped past the low hanging log while chuckling at its poor design, then suddenly the log accelerated towards him, he tried to dodge but he was a mage and his ability was lacking even with enchantments enhancing his body.

The man signaling the others heard a surprising bang behind him, he turned around to see his companion crushed against the wall by a log with a piston extending from the wall, his companion had a terrified expression frozen on his face lying on top of the log, he swore he could hear inhuman laughter from somewhere but could not locate anyone around.

Meanwhile, Lucifer was laughing above the man's head and thought "it's a good thing I made some of them activate on the second press HAHA"