<~> CHAPTER 37

We walked through the rusty bloody hallways at a decent pace. It was a relief that the hallways were large enough for me to fight things in my wolf form. As good as I felt I was getting at fighting in my human form, fighting in my wolf form still felt a lot safer. I was in the front of the group this time. Maxwell had decided that since we were fighting in relatively narrow corridors it would be easiest if the two of us took turns fighting in front, trading off who was in front so the other could rest between fights.

I gripped the shaft of my axe. This will be the third group of armored shadows that I've been able to fight so far. Rather than use the shield I decided to two-hand my axe this time. Hopefully I would get a bit of a feel for it before I trained myself to use it in my human form. I will still have to adjust my swing when fighting in my human form but I'm sure some of the experience with the weapon will transfer over. Using it in just one hand feels completely different by comparison.

The shadow soldiers were a group of four, three had swords and shields and the last one had a pike. The three in front stood in formation and protected the pikeman in the back. Their plan was basic but effective, I wouldn't be able to get the pikeman without getting through their shield wall and I wouldn't be able to break their shield wall as long as the pikeman was able to harass me off of them.

("Helena, I'll cast on the one in back, you engage the shield bearers,") Luna told me through the rings.

("Right.") I ran forward and attacked the one on the left with an overhanded strike. The blow buckled the knees of the shadow soldier but the one next to it slashed at me and didn't allow me to follow up with another attack. Immediately after, I was forced to jump back to dodge the pike that thrust out at me. I was faster than them so I managed to dodge away unscathed. A red circle began to form under them as the temperature in the hallway began to rise, telltale signs of Luna's magic beginning to charge up. As long as I kept them in place they wouldn't be able to escape it.

Swinging my axe like a baseball bat, I struck the one on the right this time. I wasn't particularly familiar with this weapon yet but I had played some sports with the neighborhood kids growing up. Nothing I stuck with but enough to get the basics of a solid stance down. My swing was crushing and the faceless soldier that I hit was knocked on its ass, completely breaking their line but the pikeman managed to stab deep into my shoulder before I could follow up on it. I grabbed for the pike but it slid free of my hand before I could yank him back toward me. I stepped back and let my shoulder heal for a moment before taking another swing at them.

I would need to be checked out for diseases by Piper after the fight but at the moment the wound didn't leave any lasting pain so I kept at it. Another slash of my axe scraped against one of their shields and knocked the soldier off balance, but again the pikeman intercepted me before I could capitalize on it. I was mid-swing when the fire magic finally activated under them. A pillar of flame shot to the ceiling and incinerated the pikeman but only left the shield bearers singed.

When my axe connected this time, the shadow soldier flew back and landed on its ass again. The flame attack must have left them flatfooted because I was even able to follow that attack up by cutting deep into one of the other soldiers, killing them instantly. I jumped back before the remaining soldier could get another swing in and pounced on it just as its attack swung past me. The soldier left itself over-extended and vulnerable. The first one that I had knocked on its ass scrambled back to its feet and rushed to bash me with its shield but it underestimated just how much more stable on my feet I was than the soldier was. I shoved it back and knocked it over again before finishing it with another overhanded strike that split the shadow soldier's helm in two.

"She fights more like a .... than an Umber Hound," Aria said to someone behind me.

When I was sure they were dead I rested my axe on the ground and looked back at them.

Piper walked over to me and placed her hand on my arm. I felt the cold wave of her magic pulse through me and she patted me reassuringly. "You're good. No problems." She had seen me take that stab, seems it wasn't an issue.

Aria touched Maxwell on the arm and pointed to one of the shields on the ground. "Can I take that ....? It's not a weapon."

"Shield," I repeated quietly to myself. It hadn't been a word I picked up yet. Like many of the words I was learning it felt odd to say. The language was similar to English in a lot of ways but all the words were... off. Like they came up with the same structure and tonal queues on accident but didn't have any of the same Latin roots that most English words had. The patterns were the same but it sounded like they were talking in English structured gibberish.

When I looked at Aria again I laughed. She had managed to find a breastplate that had fit her well enough from the empty piles of armor but she still didn't have any pants. Meaning she was standing there wearing boots and a chest piece over bare skin while her panties and bare legs were still left exposed. My laugh got Piper laughing too and the poor girl turned away with a blush and a pout. She held the shield she had picked up in front of her to cover what little skin she could with it but that wasn't helping much.

I walked over to Luna who was still picking through the shadow soldier's leftover armor. ("Find anything interesting?") I asked.

She shook her head. ("No, most of this is too rusty to be worth anything. The pike might have been in the best shape of the stuff here, but it got lit on fire and would have been too big to carry with us anyway so that's not a huge loss.") She looked up at me and gave me an amused grin. ("It seems that poor girl has to go on half naked for a while, none of the clothes here are salvageable.")

("Yeah, that armor probably won't do her much good with nothing under it and so far all the shadows we've fought have been wearing clothes soaked in blood if they had any at all. I'm not sure if we'll find anything to cover her up here the way things have been going.")

("At least Piper looks amused.") I followed Luna's gaze as she was unapologetically trying to push the new girl into Maxwell's lap.

("Does she do this to everyone?") I asked. ("It seems like she was trying to push us together too...")

Luna smiled at me with a light blush warming her face. ("Maybe... Piper actually seems to be having a lot more fun lately. Things... weren't very good before you joined us. She was a lot more grumpy before...")

I nodded and patted her on the shoulder. She walked over to the group and signaled to Maxwell that the armor equipment over here wasn't worth anything. Then Aria asked something that made Luna's ears go back and instantly the atmosphere changed. The catkin seemed to realize right away that she stepped in something because she immediately started to apologize but whatever she said had pissed Piper off. Maxwell just shook his head and sighed before picking up his shield and waving for us to get back in formation.

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Frowning I fell into position behind everyone. ("Luna, what happened?")

She glanced back at me with a frown. ("She asked what happened to my throat and if that was why I was mute. It... probably shouldn't bother me anymore but it does...") She turned to look at Piper who was looking a little bloodthirsty. ("Piper tends to be even more touchy about it than I am though...") she said as she traced her fingers along the scars on her throat. There wasn't much for me to say about all that so I just squeezed her shoulder gently and kept walking.

Despite how angry Piper had looked, once we came across another group of enemies Maxwell and Piper tore through them just as methodically and carefully as always. The berserker fighting style that she showed off during the alraune fight seemed to be something she only pulled out on rare occasions. Even when she was upset, it looked like she respected the danger enough to maintain a cool head at least during fights. That was reassuring.

I took another fight after that, we had maintained a pretty fast pace through this floor compared to the other ones so far. We kept trading off after each fight, letting whoever had just fought 'rest' by not joining in the next one and maintaining a constant pace. The only thing that slowed us down was Aria slowly piecing together a full suit of armor complete with durable clothes that weren't too covered in blood.

While we were picking through the remains of the most recent fight I crouched on the ground next to Luna. ("Why are we going through this floor so much faster than the other ones? We haven't even stopped to eat yet.")

("It's bad luck to spend too much time on this floor according to most hunters. Even if you're attempting to gather items to sell from this floor, most hunters prefer to sleep on one side or the other. There are lots of stories of people getting extremely paranoid or fights breaking out between party members if they spend too much time here all at once. I've never felt that way on this floor before though.")

("Is that what happened earlier?") I asked.

She blinked in surprise as if she hadn't realized it. ("You know... now that you mention it... Hold on, let me go talk to Piper really quick.") Then she got up from the armor she was examining and walked over to Piper.

I looked around at all of the leftover equipment on the ground. None of it really looked all that useful to me. Even though the axe and shield I used were oversized for my human form, having them available for both of my forms was more useful to me than carrying along multiple spares everywhere. Even the longer weapons like spears and glaives didn't feel comfortable to me the same way my axe or even my claws did.

Click

Jumping to my feet, I faced the direction we had come from. I heard something. I stared down the long hallway with my ears perked. I swear I heard something. But the hallway was silent. I'm sure I would have noticed if anything had been following us this closely with how good my hearing has become but... nothing.

I willed myself to relax a bit. Is this what Luna meant when she mentioned people became paranoid on this floor? Was I overreacting because I just heard a scary story? I swear I heard something though.

"Helena, ready?" Maxwell called out.

I stood still, staring down the hallway for a moment longer before turning back around. "Yes, ready!"

I took my place at the back of my pack and followed the group while I carefully listened for danger. I had fought the last group so it was Maxwell and Piper's turn to fight.

("Luna, what did Piper say about the thing you told me?") I asked her.

Luna let out a gravelly sigh. ("She didn't say much about it. She says it's reasonable to think that the dungeon is making us more irritable but it's hard to tell this time because the blunt way Aria brought it up would have upset her regardless.")

("Right... of course,") I replied. I thought about mentioning the noise I heard but... would she believe me? Was I just being paranoid? I didn't want to scare her if I was just hearing things but—

Click

I spun around and looked behind us causing the entire group to freeze and ready their weapons. We stood there silently for a moment while I looked around but there was nothing. Again, I forced myself to relax my grip on my axe and calm down.

"I heard something," I said to the group, still not ready to turn my back on the hallway. "It's gone now."

("Paranoia?") Luna's concerned voice asked.

("...I don't know. I swear I heard something but I don't know if I can trust it. My hearing is really good now so I should be able to tell if something is following us but I don't hear anything anymore.") I took a breath and turned around. Everyone looked concerned but they didn't seem worried about the thing that was following us. They were concerned about me. I shook my head to clear away those thoughts. ("I'm okay for now. Let's keep going. I don't hear anything else.")

Luna hesitantly nodded before silently communicating with Piper. I was starting to notice when they were doing it. When others were talking about me. I rubbed my snout and tried to banish the intrusive thought away.

I glanced behind me one more time at the empty hallway. It felt like I was being hunted and I didn't like it. The five of us continued on down the long hallway. They felt more oppressive than ever.