The loss is barely mourned as the camp is reformed. Bedrolls are magically absorbed by a young man, while people withdraw torches from makeshift holders, that gave us light through the night and the troupe is quickly formed up once again.

Then, the special shields are distributed. Concave, large, light shields on sticks, giving off a feeling of either the stick snapping or the shield being bounced away, should any major force hit it. I feel very nervous having to defend the lives of other using these.

“All right, move out!” Ahorn orders us from behind, after all the shields have been distributed. The stairs are just a little walk around the corner.

The dreaded 26 floor displays itself in front of us and it is like nothing I have ever seen in a dungeon. Usually, there is at least some compartmentalization of a floor, but here, there is nothing of the sort. A wide open space spreads out in front of me. There is no fog, even though I feel it should be large enough to warrant it. Instead, it appears to climb to a hilltop in the middle of the room. If we deal with the monsters and arrive there, it will be over shortly.

The monsters. Many of them are directly visible from here. I fear them, as their bile spit sounded quite nasty. They look like carapaced frogs the size of cows, with massive mouths and a foot-long spikes emerge from their backs… This could be grim.

“Everyone, ready shield, bend the formation just as we practiced, and start advancing till your squad leaders attack from range.” We follow the instruction and form the convex shape, then slowly start approaching the nearest monster in unison.

It, however, does nothing. I remember being told it didn’t attack till they themselves did last time. I wonder if there is a reason for that.

Darts, javelins and magic start flying out from behind us and we stop. The way they started firing at the same time makes me think they purposefully waited till they reached the range of the one with the shortest, so that they could start firing simultaneously. The frog, however, seems barely bothered by the range attacks. This monster is one tough son of a bitch, as they correctly assessed last time.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Halt!” Ahorn cries out. “New plan! Approach until spear users can hit it!” The fire stops, and we march once again. How I can feel the desire of just charging it down well up inside of me.

We get closer and closer. We are almost there, but then, the monster opens its large mouth and shoots. The problem is, it doesn’t shoot at us, but the ball of yellow-green bile instead is launched high up in the air. I can see the many drops falling from it. Shit.

Panic immediately breaks out, people scream. I can hear Ahorn shout “Get back in line!” But there is so much chaos, I decided on a different route. I dash forwards. The monster’s mouth is so large, that I can’t reasonably distinguish between its belly and throat, and I stab at the monster with my newly acquired sword. I aim at a gap between the carapace shells, but the leather skin is tough and stops my strike anyways. “YOS!” is cried out from behind. The monster doesn’t shoot any more bile though, maybe it takes time to build up?

I pull back my sword, throw away the shield and hold it with both hands. I channel bestowal in my arms and give a powerful thrust. This time it pierces the monster’s belly/throat, and I violently slice to enlarge the wound, upon which the monster keels over, dead.

I turn around and see a mess. Several people have cast aside various pieces of armor, mostly helms probably fearing the bile that may be stuck upon it. Only a few stand still, among which are Ahorn, Nimor and Yorgar. Even Derby and Arin seem to have broken ranks and stripped a little.

As I return I hear advice “Try rinsing it out before it activates, hurry!” And several people have started to do so, using precious canteen water to clean their heads. A few minutes later however, four people start screaming, smoke rising from them, and they jerk unnaturally around until they stop.

A few moments in silence pass before Ahorn speaks up. “Right, I think we can call this a failure for now. With such uncertain ways of defeating the monsters, and no practical means of defense, we will save more lives by retreating now and preparing a new way, rather than gambling away the rest of us!”

So he says and people start to turn around, only to face a rather cruel twist from fate. The monsters have moved to guard stairs, that lead back up to the next floor.

“Oh fuck” I hear Yargor behind me mutter. Right. I see how this has to happen I think. There are still only two of them.

“Leave this one to me, Ahorn!” I shout and step forward, away from the line. It’s time to put this absurd strength to work.

Or so I think, but Ahorn himself steps up. “You take the one on the right, I’ll take the one on the left” He says.

We approach them quickly.