Ducky Season 2: Chapter 53: Trapping Adventurers.

[Your Minion: Gobledee Has Died]

My mind focused on the notification, a numbness taking me as Slimey held the commander’s body in her arms.

I had given an order.

To stall the enemy advance long enough for my soldiers to arrive.

Gobledee had done just that, slowing the enemy advance from a position not yet scouted by my forces…

“AHHH! AAH!! aHK! GET OFF ME!” A human screamed, the armored knight pinned to a wall by Zorin.

I reached out, my mind touching the man’s where I was greeted with fear and alarm, the pounding of his frantic heartbeat audible to my senses.

“OUT! OUUT OF MY MIND!!”

The man began to scream, my will overlapping his, the knight beginning to convulse and shake as I uttered three words that in a past life would have made me sick.

You. Are. Mine!

The man shook, images of his life spilling from his psyche into mine.

Glimpses, pictures. A city under siege.

Monsters.

A blue sky.

A man… with a family. Two kids and a wife.

Pity? Remorse? I didn't feel them as the man finally seized up and died, the connection severing.

I had a family too, and this human had slaughtered members of my clan without pause.

Find them.

“Yes my Lord.” Slimey sent, my entire army taking off in pursuit as several of my skeletons picked up the bodies and dumped them onto the back of Buttstalion.

Take the head too. I ordered as I envisioned the layout of this floor.

We were close to the castle basement, from their direction they must have either come from the castle, or from the adjoining hallway connected on this floor.

But, considering my skeletons at the castle basement hadn't been attacked, I knew exactly where they were going.

Ayaka.

“Y-yes? What do you need master?” The spider replied, sensing my mood.

I relayed my instructions. The plan simple.

At the rate they were fleeing, they would soon end up at an intersection that either allowed them to go up to the basement, or into unscouted territory. But not before I had my men in place.

Slimey. Let's go. We've got some rodents to exterminate.

“Of course My Lord.” Slimey said, placing me on her head as she gripped her black-iron blade and began dragging it across the floor.

****

Standing in what appeared to have once been a wine storage room, Lhikan and the remaining party members under his command caught their breath.

“Ok, what was that?!” Marcus exclaimed, clutching his shoulder. “Where did those traps come from?! Why was there goblins from an area we cleared?!”

“I don't know.” Lhikan said, catching his breath.

“You!” Marcus spat, turning to Jesse who was switching out his mana battery to his air box. “It was your job to clear them!”

“I DID!” Jesse snapped, the rogue rolling ointment on his regenerated skin. “They weren’t there before! The skeletons that showed up must have planted them!”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“They’re skeletons, the amount of fine tuning required is more than-”

“ENOUGH!” Lhikan barked, taking control, the paladin standing up to glare at the four soldiers left.

In the ensuing retreat, they had lost two more of their party. Christa, the other scribe healer, and Delrio, their hunter. Both succumbing to traps spike traps that separated the group before a nimble skeleton appeared, slashing their throats and forcing the group down a different corridor.

Now they were in uncharted territory, inside the demon lord’s domain.

“You can take your filters off.” Tipsy said, placing the box that began to purify and detox the air.

“Are you sure we’re safe?” Simone asked, the last remaining cleric glancing around anxiously as she tended to Marcus’s injury.

“Marcus?” Tipsy asked.

“The adjoining rooms are empty, and the skeletons and goblins are just waiting at the end of the hall below.” Marcus replied, peaking down the stairway where the spiritual glare of a skeleton met his gaze, the monster unmoving. “We’re safe, for now.”

“Any reason they aren’t coming up here?” Jesse inquired.

“No idea. Maybe the ground is sacred or something?” Marcus replied, wincing in pain as Simone gasped. “Or this is another dungeon’s territory.”

“This! This is holy energy!” Simone said, eyeing the wound seared by divine mana.

“See, and you questioned my equipment.” Tipsy quipped, earning a glare from Marcus.

“Senor, what’s going on?” Marcus asked, all eyes now on the silver-haired paladin. “This route was supposed to be cleared. A straight shot to the artifact you said belonged down here.”

“It was clear,” Lhikan growled, stomping on a nearby skull. “Last we were here there were hundreds of gnolls, thousands of skeletons, and hungry goblins. We already took care of the evolved beings, theyre shouldn’t have been anything else on this way.”

Lhikan shook his head, his brow furrowing.

“Yet, they are.” Jesse said. “And they’re intelligent. Working together. This kind of coordination between monsters isn’t something that’s normal.”

“They’re evolving.” Tipsy said. “Or, something is making them evolve.”

“A dungeon core?” Marcus offered, clenching his fist as Simone chanted and slowly mended his injury.

“A dungeon core can evolve monsters quickly. But they don’t display combat tactics and work in unison with other creatures.” Tipsy said, dropping her large backpack and pulling out a gauntlet made of chiten, web, and bone. “This, the materials are crap but the craftsmanship is expertly woven. A dungeon core doesn’t have the technical know how to do this. Or create the traps we’ve been seeing.”

“What are you saying?” Simone asked, finally taking off her mask to reveal a freckle face blonde girl that was maybe no older than twenty.

“A demon.” Lhikan said., everyone turning.

“But you-” Marcus began.

“That’s the only explanation I have. Only a demon can inspire this much radical change and growth in monsters.”

“Or a number of evolved ones.” Tipsy added, sitting atop her purifier. “But evolved ones still don’t explain the cooperation between anima and dark monsters. Even with a dungeon core they still fight each other.”

“Whats the play here sir?” Marcus asked, finally taking off his mask to reveal a tanned young man with bright blue eyes.

“We can not allow Commander Danse and his army to acquire the artifact. If they do, all hope of our world dies once Krekka gets their hands on it.”

“So waht? You want us to take on a demon?” Marcus asked. “If it has the power of the Hero… we don’t stand a chance, even with you at the helm.”

“Then leave. All of you. I will see the journey through.” Lhikan replied, the reality of the situation settling on the party.

They were baggage, slowing Lhikan down, the group of adventurers a far cry from his former party. Every stop, every injury, every retreat was due in part to his party members being ambushed or hurt.

Marcus and the others knew it, and so did Lhikan. Their purpose here being to carry supplies, validate his claims, and help him conserve his mana to allow him to get to the artifact.

“We can’t do that sir.” Marcus said resolutely.

“I’m not asking, I’m telling, at this point- LOOK OUT!” Lhikan moved forward, tackling Tipsy off her purifier as a green-scaled creature lunged into the room from the stairwell, taking out the purifier.

“MASKS! MASKS! MASKS!” Marcus barked, the adventurers donning their filters as goblins, skeletons, and spiders rushed the room from every entrance.

“WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?!” Simone shrieked, blasting a skeleton with a bolt of holy mana.

Lhikan looked left and right, taking in the chaos, his eyes settling on the green-scaled monster standing upright to reveal itself as some kind of beastkin.

She had strong muscles and green scales, along with a large spiked tail that glittered from the reflection of the party’s glowstones.

The monster roared, brandishing inhuman teeth, the creature charging Tipsy and Lhikan.

“Get up! Let’s go!” Lhikan barked, grabbing the gnome and punching the charging monster in the face, the scally creature careening into the floor.

“They’res too many!” Marcus screamed, cutting down a pair of goblins and unleashing a wave of holy mana that disintergrated a group of skeletons.

Jesse rose to his feet, throwing a dagger, that took out a goblin attempting to rush Simone.

“Retreat!” Lhikan called out, eyeing the one passage that was clear of the flooding monsters.

“Wait! My Bag!” Tipsy cried.

“No TIME!” Lhikan barked, running with the Gnome on his shoulder as Marcus and the others followed him out of the monster swarm.

“More monsters! On our left and right!” Tipsy cried.

“This way!” Marcus said, charging forward, leading the survivors into an expansive arena of dust and bone, a gargantuan entertainment center littered with the bodies of the decease.

Lhikan looked around, eyeing the sandpit filled with bones but devoid of monsters.

With no threats in sight, Lhikan spun, turning to face their pursuers.

“We’ll kite and draw them out here, disperse their numbers and deal with them as they come!” Lhikan ordered, the survivors fanning out into a wide formation to create an arc around the entrance to intercept the monsters.

Yet… oddly, like before, the creatures paused, refusing to enter into the next room.

The survivors glanced at one another, confusion hidden behind their air masks.

“W-what? Why are they stopping? Why aren’t they coming up?” Simone asked, her voice trembling.

“I don’t know.” Marcus said, eyeing the two goblins in armor interlocking their shields to block the entrance.

Lhikan narrowed his eyes.

“Demon. Definitely a demon.” Tipsy said, pulling out a hammer and a screw driver as her weapons of choice.

Suddenly an influx, a large gathering of mana picking up as the sand along the ground kicked up.

“Yeah, definetly a demon.” Marcus said, turning to face the condensing of mana given shape, a man with black hair and silver armor.

“Ah… this is a trap.” Jesse said before being pulled off his feet, a silver blade trimming his hair as he was sent flying from Lhikan tossing him.

“SCATTER!” Lhikan roared, engaging the mysterious knight.