Ambrose burst back into the light of the dungeon, blinded by it as his yell faded out. Frantically blinking while listening out for the plodding footsteps of doom only to be met by the echo of his own voice.
Not wanting to wander about without knowing where the creature was, Ambrose decided to yell out once more, adding the power of Speech hoping that the thing could understand and potentially be thrown off. “Oi elephant feet, where you at?”.
Knowing that the punishment shouldn’t know his exact location, only a vague idea, Ambrose decided to take the risk of leaving the tunnels protection and moved out towards the more open entry way, siding up against and behind one of the trees that lined the opening as he waited for the approach of footsteps once more.
Only a few moments later Ambrose could hear the creature ambulating towards him, as it came into vision he was finally able to take the time to look it over. Before he got the notification telling him what the creature was, Ambrose noticed something was wrong with this incarnation of the creature. The swarm of them that he had summoned was of different sizes and shapes but each was only slightly different, mostly looking like scaled up or down versions of the same creature.
This one however, looked off, malformed in places. Now the original versions he had run into looked malformed naturally, their faces were a collage noses, mouths, and eyes, with teeth peeking out in between, jutting out in random directions, as if a toddler had been given all the parts needed to create a human face and just dumped them all onto the poor creature with a pile of glue to stick them in place. This one had similar facial features, but several of the mouths were unfinished only having an upper or lower set of teeth. A nose or two only had a single nostril. Most important to Ambrose was the creature's second arm, which seemed to have had its joints put on backwards in some places, and tendons on backwards in others. The arm bent out of place, muscles and tendons pulling it in one direction while the joints all faced in other random directions, leaving the arm dislocated and tendons subluxed, poking out from under the skin in places they shouldn’t, trying to pull bones in directions the couldn't safely bend.
Well at least I know that they have bones and muscles, unlike the Loobins.
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Tongue Punisher (Dungeon), Greater Level
Someone's been naughty. A dungeon punishment summoned by Ambrose Edward Rogers for breaking one of the Gaol of Neterin's dungeon rules. This creature will hunt for the one who summoned it, staying around until either it has executed its punishment (ripping out the tongue of its summoner), or it is killed.
Punishers will focus on their main target if they know where they are, taking their rage out on anything else in their way when they don't know the precise location.
* Strength of Body: Higher
* Speed of Body: Comparable
* Strength of Mind: Higher
* Speed of Mind: Comparable
* Strength of Soul: Higher
* Speed of Soul: Comparable
Malformed: This creature was created incorrectly, all Attributes are at 80% effectiveness.
Better than you: This creature will always be stronger than its summoner.
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As the punisher approached the dungeon entrance, Ambrose snuck up behind it, and swung for its good arm with the side of Pan. If he could disable its good arm, Ambrose’s chances of survival would skyrocket. The blunt item smashed into the thick arm and elbow joint of his opponent, Pan’s indestructible nature absorbing much of the impact that came back. Even with much of the force being negated Ambrose’s hands began to sting from the effort of holding onto his item based weapon as it struck the meat and bone of the punisher. Ambrose was ready for the impact and while slightly shocked at the amount of pain his blow had dealt to himself, it wasn’t enough to interrupt his flow of combat as he tumbled backwards and to the side underneath the return strike.
The creature faced Ambrose and roared from its many mouths as it found its summoner once more, the sound came out wrong in places as air was forced through several collapsed windpipes, coming out as a violent gurgle. They moved towards each other, Ambrose sticking to the creature's weakened left side, he was confident that the creature would still strike at him with the malformed limb if provided the opportunity, but was positive that he would be able to dodge it thanks to the incorrect angles the arm would bend at. Sure enough, when Ambrose closed in the punisher went for a grab, its left arm contracting in odd angles, emanating disgusting creaking and popping sounds as it came forward.
Ambrose ducked under the grab and pulled back on the weakened arm by grabbing onto a meaty finger whose tendons bent backwards uselessly. Ambrose struck the back of hand as he yanked on the finger, forcefully engaging the tendons as his Cruelty engaged, exacerbating the pain the creature felt as Ambrose and its own body pulled backwards on the finger, snapping it. The creature hesitated as it roared in pain allowing Ambrose to spin around to build momentum, dropping to the ground as he whirled Pan around his body, slamming the item into the side of the punishment's knee with a heavy thwack. He threw himself to the side to gain some distance and returned to his feet, ready to dodge as he expected a follow up strike. Instead of striking at Ambrose the punishment had backed away, turning to face Ambrose side on with its injured arm protected behind the mass of its body.
“Higher Intelligence means you are able to understand your weakness and how to protect it.” Ambrose said in a contemplative tone.
The two watched each other, Ambrose slowly circling the creature, wanting to see if it would try for a strike or allow him an easy opening. No strike and no opening came, the creature calmly watching Ambrose and turning in time to keep its arm protected. When Ambrose would step away, the punishment would close forward to maintain the distance between them, happy to wait out Ambrose due to its endurance, but not able to simply let him go and wait for him to sleep due to its compulsion to rip out his tongue.
Ambrose couldn’t wait out the punishment but was hesitant to attack it while it was ready for him, intelligence in its eyes, staring him down with a greater reach, and deadly direct blow.
“I find it pretty funny that the broken little runt of the litter is the first one to show basic intelligence. But it's okay because you are all going to die real soon, when this trashy little dungeon finally collapses with you in it, and all the people outside will be so happy, because the universe will be a better place without something as unbelievably ugly as you are in it. I mean have you ever looked in a mirror? I am surprised that I am not taking some kind of damage just for witnessing you.” Ambrose taunted.
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As each of his taunts hit the punishment, its patient visibly dropped as its anger grew. Ambrose felt dirty as he used the same methods that Telpin had tried to use on him the day before, but couldn’t deny their effectiveness as the creature once again rushed towards him as it was overcome by emotional damage, blocking out some of its logic as rage bloomed within its mind.
The two began their dance anew, punishment going for large swipes with its good club-like arm, its goal of protecting its arm still held in its mind. Ambrose continued to slam his ineffective weapon against the knee and elbow joints of the creature, slowly weakening them as he commented on each of the creature's failed strikes.
“Sloppy.
Poor form.
As close as me and my dead grandmother I never met.
I know you were born today but come on, I thought you were meant to be dangerous.”
Slowly but surely Ambrose was able to weaken the creature's knee, as he landed strike after strike with the pan, his hands growing numb and arms growing tired from the strain. The punishments strikes were becoming more wild as its rage built, having less overall power behind them but becoming harder to predict and dodge. Ambrose was clipped by several of these strikes when he wasn’t quick enough to fully avoid the blows, forced to throw himself with the momentum of the hit to avoid catastrophic damage. His back and left arm would come out heavily bruised from the exchanges.
As the fight continued on Ambrose was beginning to flag, there was only so much rolling his stamina could take and the beast he fought seemed to have no such limits, the strikes coming just as frequently and as powerful as ever, the damage its body was receiving however was a different situation.
“You still haven’t killed me? I am the bloody king of Losers and you are some hulked up monstrosity yet here we still stand?” Ambrose said through heaving breaths.
When the creature rushed him in response Ambrose was of course prepared, dodging fully away from the incoming grab by slipping under it and stepping forward, he could see the creature favouring its left leg, its gait uneven as it avoided using its weakened, bleeding, and inflamed knee. Utilising his little remaining strength Ambrose walloped the knee with his pan for what felt like the hundredth time. The foot hit the ground as the punishment arrested its momentum and tried to turn, pan slammed into the weakened joint, finally caving it in as the eight foot tall creature began to fall towards Ambrose, roaring in pain.
Ambrose skittered backwards and gained some distance, taking some time to catch his breath. He had damaged the creature's good arm enough that it was struggling to pull its full weight towards him, quickly giving up when Ambrose was able to simply walk away to keep the distance, instead the creature decided on maintaining its strength as it watched Ambrose with its many rage-filled eyes.
Confident that he wasn’t in active danger, Ambrose took a seat in the dirt not too far outside the tunnel entrance, just in case something else showed up. The two foes stared at each other, each trying to gather strength to finish the fight but the victor was clear. Several minutes later Ambrose returned to his feet and circled the creature, he was down an arm after a previous blow had damaged his left shoulder but it had only lowered his damage output instead of incapacitating.
Finishing the creature, much like the Dungeonese Sheep before it, was an agonisingly slow process. First Ambrose started by disabling the creature fully, smashing its hands as it clawed at him, even the malformed arm would take strikes at him as the creature desperately tried to kill Ambrose though it caused more damage to the creature than it could ever do to Ambrose.
“It's over, you weren’t good enough, you lost.
The more you struggle the sadder you look, acting out as a toddler rather than accepting the loss as a warrior.
Look on the bright side, if you hurry up and die it will help the dungeon.” Ambrose taunted once more, trying to bring forth the creature's despair so it would stop fighting and give in.
With only a single leg left to fight with and emotions overwhelmed by the physical and emotional damage, the creature finally gave in, simply accepting the next handful of strikes. Ambrose was wary but went in for finishing blows as he bashed in the head area of the creature, hoping that it had the brain to damage.
“You did your dungeon proud, even with a dodgy arm you almost had me mate, until next time.” Ambrose said with a small salute to the monster, making sure his Incite Emotion Ability wasn't active. With it not resisting it only took a few more of Ambrose’s weak strikes to finish it off and put the creature to rest. With the final blow dealt, Ambrose accepted the notification glass awaiting him as he walked over to the tunnel entrance, and leaned against the wall next to it.
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BE AWARE OUTWORLDER
Your Punishment has expired.
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“Eat your fill buddy, sorry I don't have anything to harvest it with and get the good stuff for you” Ambrose said as he placed Pan on the ground.
The magical cat began to munch on the flesh of fallen punishment while Ambrose rested. He would need to go in search of a Loobin camp to try and recover a leather harvesting knife at the minimum if he were to get the food he needed.
A disturbance in the air drew Ambrose from his thoughts as he felt energy being sucked out of the world and into a small point nearby. He almost thought that Those Beyond, the eldritch creature who had gifted him Pan, was coming for another visit, but the disturbance was far smaller in scale and didn’t last nearly as long. After just a couple seconds the disturbance solidified into a familiar blue pointy orb.
“Greetings Otherworlder. Welcome to the dungeon” Prisms monotone voice said.
“Are you a different Nightlight? I already have one called Prism.”
The orb didn’t respond with words, but thanks to the critically low ambient mana, Ambrose was able to notice as mana was used to activate an Ability on him, likely the advanced version of Analyse that the Nightlights had access to.
“Ambrose, how are you back? They fed me your corpse. Wait, no!”
Prism fell to the ground as the earth began to shake, the sky flickered and went dark, plunging Ambrose into almost pure darkness as the daylight disappeared. He could hear screams echoing from various parts of the dungeon. Prism was partially lodged in the ground but thankfully still glowing, with the orb being the only light left in the dungeon Ambrose’s attention was naturally drawn towards it, not wanting to stare out into the darkness beyond. Because of this he was able to see the series of items that were appearing one by one. The items cast shadows over the shrinking area of light, when a jewel encrusted mace appeared at Ambrose’s feet he realised what had occurred.
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BE AWARE OUTWORLDER
The dungeon you are in is experiencing critical mana failure and will collapse within the hour.
Evacuate immediately or offer enough mana to stabilise.
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“No no no.” Ambrose said in a panic, rushing over to Prism, knocking tools out of the way as he scrambled to the orb.
“I offer everything here except the royal sceptre to the dungeon.” He shouted to the broken sky. When nothing changed he pulled Prism out of the ground and took a quick scan of the area. He was searching for his backup sets of Dungeonese Sheep wool clothes, having kept two unfinished sets in case he messed up his application of the second layer and needed to scrap the whole thing, or use them for experimenting to improve future sets. Neither were as good as the finished set, not yet counting as a proper item, but would still provide some slashing resistance.
Finding a set, Ambrose went about slipping into the garments before taking the sceptre and running into the dungeon forest. He had an hour to get enough mana to stabilise the dungeon or he would be shunted out with the remaining monstrous inhabitants, right into the tiny tunnel. The good news was that the limited space would likely crush them all near instantly.
As Ambrose rushed through the trees, he was forced to yell out into the darkness beyond Prism’s light, hoping that between the two he would gather enough creatures towards him, and hoping they would be weak enough that he would be able to beat them in his ragged and weary state. At least he had a weapon now.