Chapter 4

Claws out

I shot to my feet, filled with rage, and yelled out,

“Who the fuck wants some? You motherfucker!” I stood there, sticking a pose and breathing heavily. I looked around and found Janet already fighting a group of what looked like huge armored mole tiger creatures. Janet heard my pronouncement and separated from the mole tiger she was engaged with just long enough to yell back at me.

“Great, Travis, fucking help time now.” Then she jumped back into the fight.

Janet must have already activated I’m so strong because she was talking like a cavewoman again. Then I realized I was just standing there, lost in my contemplations, and charged at the enemy. These fucking creatures were tough as hell. Their chitinous outer shell was impossibly hard to puncture. The creatures must have had echolocation or sonar of some kind because it always felt like they could see me coming, even if I attacked them from a blind spot. Swinging around with a swipe of heavy claws or a whip of the tail. It was infuriating and troubling to some extent. How long could we keep this pace up?

We were two minutes into the fight, and at that point, we had only taken down one of the four creatures, mostly by luck. Janet had been holding back one mole tiger. I still hadn’t had time to properly identify them, so it was still mole tigers for now. As Janet broke free of her engagement, she swung her axe back to attack when it got lodged in the brain of a mole tiger trying to sneak up on her from behind. Janet’s axe entered the creature’s brain via the roof of its mouth, and the whole experience took Janet thoroughly by surprise.

Janet was defensively holding back two of the creatures as it stood while I gave the other everything I had to kill it as fast as possible. I barrel-rolled to the left while lying on the ground after taking a claw-filled paw to the chest that knocked me down. At the very least, I had rolled to doge a follow-up strike that would have given me a terrible headache. Before I had been forced to roll my ass out of there, I had seen what looked like a soft piece of flesh at the base of the creature’s neck, where several of its plates came together.

I got back to my feet, dodging another two paw swipes as I did. Teremnocal sparking as it danced and clashed with massive claws. I finally got some distance from the creature and tried to plan my next move and how I was going to land a strike on that damn weak spot. It wasn’t like it was in an easy place to get to. As the mole tiger ripped towards me, I set my feet and shot forward.

This is fucking stupid, was all I could think as I ran full speed head-on at a charging SUV-sized mole tiger abomination. As we got closer and closer, I began to sweat. The timing would have to be perfect, and if I messed this up, I would be a sitting duck. We were five feet from each other now, and I could see the greens? Of the creature’s eyes, that was odd. Not the time, slide! Right before I was in striking range, I fell into a baseball slide, tucking one leg behind the other as the head of the enormous creature passed inches over my face.

I couldn’t miss my window, and as I saw the spot I was looking for, I took a short sword I had pulled from my bag and slammed it up and into the soft flesh at the base of the mole tiger’s neck. The blow was struck in moments, but the creature’s momentum ripped the blade from my hands. I felt a moment of triumph as I looked over my shoulder to see the mole tiger collapse to the ground. Blue blood flooded out quickly, forming a large puddle around the creature. I only had a moment to revel in my victory before I heard Janet scream.

Janet’s scream ripped through the night. I turned to run over and help Janet, but as I did, I had to dodge a rolling mole tiger headed right at me. It looked like one of the creatures had landed a deep gash on Janet’s arm, and she had lost it, smacking the creatures away from her with all her strength. I think there was an Empowered Strike in there somewhere as well. I flashed over to Janet’s side and quickly checked her over visually.

Janet looked okay besides her arm, which had a long, deep cut stretching from her lower bicep to about halfway down her forearm. I wasn’t too worried about her, but we would have to finish this soon.

“Hey Janet, are you good?” I asked her between blows. I managed to land a hit in one creature’s face, whacking the mole tiger ten feet back. As our enemy set back up to attack, we got a second to catch our breath. Janet just nodded and gave me a thumbs-up. I smiled back at her devilishly.

“That’s good because I found their weak spot.” Janet looked at me and gave me a malicious grin in return. We made quicker work of the remaining two-mole tigers than I thought and were soon enough again sitting down to enjoy dinner. This time, both of us were more thoroughly exhausted than before. We definitely gained a new appreciation for the watch schedule that we had implemented all those months ago when we headed out in the first place. We both had trouble sleeping that night because the next day, neither of us was in the best of moods.

I woke up to Janet laying out a quick grab-and-go breakfast. So, I packed the camp up, and we got back on the road. We were both still exhausted from the attack the night before, but Janet had definitely gotten the worst of it. She was healing well from the Senzuketa Bean and Mana Kissedwater smoothies we had, but I could tell it was still bugging her. I knew from experience that those smoothies didn’t help the itch much.

We were still on the hunt for this dungeon, but after last night, the fact that we had still only lit up four of the seven rings on the Dungeon Coin was demoralizing. We needed a break from the endless slog of life on the road. I was already missing my bed in Treehouse and the shower. Oh my god, the shower. If I could just take one more shower there right now, I would just stand there and let the warm water wash over me for hours.

I had been lost in my daydreams about a hot shower when I felt something smack into the side of my head.

“Ow, hey, what the fuck was that for,” I asked Janet. I had stopped running and had started picking dirt out of my ear. I knew Janet had thrown the dirt clod at me because she had another one in her hand and was getting ready to throw it at me.

“Watch it!” I told her as I dodged the second one, ready for it this time.

“Dick head, I have been calling your name for the last five minutes, but you were off in la la land thinking about who knows what. Pay the fuck attention. Did you forget about last night already?” Janet, I could tell, was actually a little bit pissed off at me, and she was right. I wasn’t paying attention, and if we got attacked by creatures at or around the same level as the mole tiger last night, every second would count.

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“You’re right. I was being stupid and daydreaming about hot showers. I’m so sorry, Janet. I was being a fucking dumbass, I know.” Janet went quiet at my words, and I thought I was about to really get it. Then she started laughing, like bent over at the waist, grabbing her belly, and laughing. I began to feel a little embarrassed.

Janet laughed like that for a good five minutes. She would manage to get her laughter under control, and then she would look at me and start laughing all over again. It was funny for a while, but I was getting annoyed. It wasn’t that funny. Once the giggles were truly gone from Janet’s system, we got back on the road, and whether I ended up slightly annoyed or not, the mood seemed to be lifted somewhat, and the rest of that day was much better after that.

We ended the day under a large rock overhang that hid our fire quite well. The day had been boring but pleasant. Janet and I joked and laughed the rest of the day and made up games. One game we made up was hitting a large rock with a small rock. Another was throw the rock over the edge of the cliff. Honestly, most of our games involved rocks and throwing them at something, but they were still fun, and they passed the time well. The most important part of the whole day was that we managed to light up two more rings on the Dungeon Coin, and with only one ring left to light up, we knew we were close.

Once morning hit, it was hard for Janet to even get me to eat breakfast. I knew the dungeon was close, and I couldn’t wait to see what we would find. In the end, I ate two donuts and a puff pastry thing with cinnamon and brown sugar, basically a cinnamon roll, but not as doughy. They had become popular in Treehouse, and I was definitely a fan of them. Then, we were back on the road. Janet’s arm had healed almost entirely by now. All that was left was a thin pink line running down her arm where she’d been cut, and it had definitely left her in a better mood. We were ready for a dungeon.

The whole thing pulsed with a soft blue light when the last ring lit up on the Dungeon Coin. Then, every ball of light on each ring started spinning around in circles faster and faster. It was only a few seconds before every light stopped and was left pointing in the same direction. Finally, the ball of light on the ring closest to the coin’s edge began to glow slightly brighter. My eagerness to find this dungeon was building and building, and I couldn’t wait to get there now.

We were definitely getting close, that was certain, but It was getting fucking annoying. Once every ring had lit up, we figured we must have been relatively close to the dungeon, but pinpointing the dam thing was so tedious. We would run for an hour in one direction only to overshoot our target, then have to change directions and re-align with the dungeon. It was infuriating. I ended up just running with the dam Dungeon Coin in my hand, watching the little lights like a hawk. That worked out much better, and I kicked myself for not doing that in the first place. When we had five of the seven balls of light shining brighter, we knew we must be nearing the dungeon. We were closer than ever now and even Janet’s sense of adventure was kicking back into full gear.

We were walking at an average pre-integration speed at the moment so as not to overshoot our target again. Maybe we were being over cautious, but after the day we had, it was worth it. We had been walking for about thirty minutes and had found ourselves on a dirt road after a while. I couldn’t remember exactly where the dirt road had started, but we were on it now. I was more than happy to take the road well-traveled than to keep bush-waking our way through the world. It was fun to pick a direction and just go, but roads existed for a reason. It made travel much more convenient.

We had been walking on the road for only about ten minutes when the next light on our Dungeon Coins lit up. Janet and I looked at each other equally excitedly at the potential gold mine we were so close to now. We were so caught up in our excitement, in fact, that we emerged in the middle of the road right before the road forked.

“Oh shit, what the fuck is that,” I said. Looking at the sign and the fork in the road.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure that’s a sign that directs users of this road which way to go to reach their destination,” Janet responded. I could hear the laughter in her voice as she said it, too.

“Ha ha, very funny. Yes, that is how signs work, but I mean, why is it here, of all places? In the middle of nowhere. It’s just odd, that’s all.” I said, and Janet rolled her eyes.

“Well, what does it say? The sign, I mean.” Janet answered her own question by walking up to the sign and reading the names off allowed.

“Okay, this one says, Coliseum 80 miles, and the other one says, oh shit.” Janets didn’t finish reading the sign and just started laughing.

“What does it say,” I asked. I couldn’t get Janet to stop laughing for a few seconds. When she finally got a hold of herself, she just pointed to the sign. I looked up at the signs, and sure enough, one said, Coliseum 80 miles. Then I looked at the other sign because there were only two signs on the post, and it said, bum fuck nowhere, 80 miles. I understood now why Janet had thought it was so funny. The person who made the signs clearly meant it as a joke. Go to the Coliseum cuz there ait shit else out here. I let out a few chuckles, then turned to Janet.

“I get it. Okay, that’s pretty funny. Looks like someone has a sense of humor.”

“Yeah, that was a dad joke for sure, but it still got me.”

“yeah, whoever wrote this was a dad for sure,” I told Janet, and we both chuckled at that.

“So what do you want to do now?” Janet asked me

“Do now? What do you mean? We’re still going to the dungeon, right?” I asked Janet.

“I mean, that’s totally still a thing we could do, or we could just say fuck the dungeon and head for the coliseum?” Janet offered. I was about to tell her fuck that when I actually thought about what Janet had said. We could just blow off the dungeon for now and check out the coliseum. Hell, it wasn’t like the dungeon was going anywhere. My only reservation was that we had come all this way and tracked for miles just to find this dungeon, and now, when we were so close, we were just going to say fuck it. That was hard for me. I had my mind set on finding and completing another dungeon.

“I mean, we’ve come this far to find the dungeon. Do you at least want to find it? Then we can decide whether to go to this coliseum or run the dungeon. Either way, I want to find this dungeon at some point.”

“Well, duh, of cores were gonna find and run the dungeon. That’s not part of the question. I’m just wondering which one you want to do first.”

“Oh well, in that case, I don’t really care. Either way works for me. Actually, would you mind if we just found this dungeon first? We don’t have to run it right away. I just want to check it out. We might not even be at a high enough level for it, anyway.”

“Sure, that sounds like a plan to me,” Janet said. She didn’t seem entirely happy about my decision, but she still smiled warmly as she took me by the arm. Then we were back on the road, heading towards the dungeon.

As we moved through the land, the plains began to change to a more mountainous terrain. The large expanse of prairie slowly became filled in by a sparse amount of trees, bushes, and rocks thrusting through the ground as if large fish cresting the surface of a grassy sea. The wind whipped around us, throwing Janet’s hair into the air like flippant snakes dancing in the wind. The sky was a soft eggshell blue, and the world, other than the whistling wind, was quiet and peaceful.

After an hour of travel, the prairie had disappeared entirely. Trees were now abundant, and huge rocks had been torn from the earth by centuries of tectonic shift. We stopped at one point to have lunch because the view was too striking to ignore. We had been making our way over a small mountain or a very large hill when we broke through a patch of brush to find ourselves standing before a dramatic drop-off that opened onto a majestic valley. The dungeon was close now. I swear I could feel it in the air.