<~> CHAPTER 5 - MAXWELL

This trip into the dungeon was going to absolute shit. The guy we brought with us had been a complete moron and gotten himself killed. It was hard enough to find party members for our weird group but this was going to make things even worse.

I held the torch over his body so my sister could look over him.

Piper stepped away from his body and shook her head. "He's dead. Poison."

I looked down at our dead scout. He was covered in small scratches all over from the goblins. The idiot kept trying to 'protect' our healer, Piper. He did this by jumping in the way of every knife, spear, and hook the dumb creatures threw at us rather than just killing the damn things and letting Piper take care of herself. It looked like he was trying to get into her pants more than actually survive this dive. I guess I understood his thought process but my sister carried a sword and shield for a reason. She's our healer sure but she's also an experienced swordswoman, clearly more than this idiot.

("I'm sorry Max... It's my fault we have such a hard time finding party members...")

I turned to look at Luna before letting out a sigh. "It's not your fault, we're just working with what we've got." Her large fox ears stayed back but she nodded.

Luna always blamed herself for everything, ever since we left the village together two years ago. It's not her fault she had a shitty father that did that to her. I glanced at the scars on her throat. They had been so damaged that Piper wasn't able to heal them right and now Luna could barely speak. Instead, we have to use these stupid rings. I glanced down at the silver band on my index finger. These rings were both my best friend's savior and her albatross.

I grabbed his hunter tags and pulled the matching silver band from the dead man's finger, handing it to Luna. "Hold onto the spare." She nodded and accepted the ring.

I picked up his pack, it was light, did the guy even bring enough rations for this trip? We were supposed to spend another week in here at least. I don't think we can stay on this floor for much longer without him. The goblins here are crafty, they build tools and bombs. And apparently poison... That was a new one, not something in the guidebook otherwise I would have brought some medicinal antidotes along. This guy was getting hurt so often that Piper's mana was constantly tapped out, she wasn't able to heal him through it this time.

"We're going to have to go back up... at least two floors."

Piper pulled a lock of her red hair out of her face. "I can't believe this shit."

"I know but it doesn't matter now. This floor is too dangerous for the three of us alone."

One of the goblins screeched and all of us jumped back to readiness. Piper and I formed up next to each other with our shields held ready while Luna began to cast. Four goblins rushed at us with daggers but the two of us pushed them back when they got close. There were two in the back, one was holding a rope and the other a makeshift spear. They were waiting for an opportunity to grab us when we were too tangled up to notice them. We've fought enough goblins to be aware of most of their tricks by now though.

Piper and I just held them there, not letting them past us while Luna finished charging her magic. She took a bit longer because she couldn't chant but that was okay, we were used to it. She more than made up for it in firepower.

A large magic circle spread out on the floor and a heartbeat later the room filled with magic fire that caught onto the goblin's skin. The fire didn't burn anything else, instead, it stuck to them close and enveloped them in flames directly. It was a little overkill maybe but it took out all six of the goblins in short order. We couldn't afford to use this magic in every fight, but this was a decent way to deal with groups when Luna had the mana for it.

The goblins fell over and the magic burned itself out. I picked up the rope one of them had been carrying and sniffed it. It didn't smell great but it was decent enough. There's not a lot you can scrounge from goblins but the amount of magic you gain from killing them makes them more than worth hunting. It was one of the safer ways to get more powerful. Most of the time anyway. I spared a glance at the dead guy.

I pushed the rope into the spare backpack and stood up. "Alright, we need to make our way back to the stairway up. Let's go."

We walked back in silence. The rings cost mana to use so we can only really use them when it's necessary, I don't have a lot of mana in the first place and Piper needs to keep as much mana as she can get for healing, her regeneration isn't as good as Luna's. She was the only one of us who could afford to regularly receive messages but at that point, we might as well speak to her out loud. It meant that inside of the dungeon we had to be reserved in our conversations with her, it wasn't a great solution but it was the best we could do. It was sad but entire days could pass by without hearing her voice once.

It was even worse before we bought the rings.

"Bro, there's something up ahead."

In response to Piper's voice, we all got low to the ground. The goblins were crafty but this area shouldn't have many of them.

"Let me go first, I'll take a look," I whispered.

I crept forward down the tunnel. I peeked around the corner and did not like what I saw. Unfortunately, it was the way we were supposed to go. I stood up and waved them over.

"The hell?" Piper looked around the carnage.

Six dead goblins were spread out in the little room. Three of them were mostly intact with small but lethal wounds, one's head was torn open with large claws, one's skull was crushed in, and the last one was in two pieces, the top half of it had been thrown at the wall. There were also the remains of a few dungeon tunnelers, mostly harmless things that ate dead bodies and carved out new tunnels on this floor. In the middle of the room was a pile of shit and piss from a monster marking its territory. But it was the huge claw marks in the wall that freaked me out the most.

I pointed the marks out to my party. "Those claw marks are from an umber hound. Those aren't supposed to be on this floor. They're also recent or the stone would have healed itself by now. We're going to have to go around, an umber hound would kill all of us in a single breath. We can't risk going into its territory."

"Wait, isn't this supposed to be the passage to the lake?" Piper asked.

I nodded. "Unfortunately. We'll have to go deeper into the goblin ruins and make our way through there to get to the lake. I'd bet on goblins over an umber hound any day of the week. We can't afford to get spotted by one."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

("Is it safe to be this close to it's territory?") Luna asked.

I pointed at the droppings. "That's a warning, unless the thing is hunting, it'll leave us alone as long as we don't enter its territory. ...If it is hunting then we'd be screwed anyway."

"Ehhh, let's not risk it and turn back. I've never heard of an umber hound but I've also never seen you act this serious before," Piper said.

We started heading back in the opposite direction. It felt like the string of bad luck was really starting to pile up now. I clenched my fist. Every step of the way things were getting worse and worse. An umber hound on the 16th floor? That should be impossible. I'll have to make a report to the association... if they'll even believe me.

We came across another goblin but Piper was quick to kill it before it made any noise. We couldn't afford to get into too many fights so close to the goblin ruins. I patted my sister on the shoulder and she nodded at me with a smile. I glanced back at Luna to make sure she was still with us and she was there. Good.

We made our way through the ruins as quietly as we could. There were goblins everywhere, this was their home turf. It was possible to eradicate them here but only for a short while, given enough time the dungeon would repopulate this area with the ugly creatures. No one knew why the dungeons behaved this way but it was because of this that the dungeon city was able to make so much money from monster materials.

We almost made it through the ruins without getting caught.

A goblin landed right in front of us and screamed as it hit the ground, pushed off the roof by one of the other creatures as a sick joke. When the others came to look at the macabre antic we were caught, surrounded by the bastards.

"RUN!" I yelled out. I pulled up my shield and bashed one of the goblins out of our path. I glanced back to see Luna and Piper right behind me so I kept plowing forward. We were caught near the end of the ruins so it would only be a short run towards the lake.

An off-key horn sounded and with it horrible yells and chanting spread throughout the ruins. We had woken up the entire horde of goblins. I hacked through one of the goblins in my way and pushed another to the ground where Piper was quick to behead it with her sword. A fire arrow flew over my shoulder and sparked into a large area in front of us, clearing the way ahead. I glanced back at Luna again, glad to see she was keeping up despite charging her magic during our escape.

Finally the tunnel came into view but one of the larger hobgoblins was guarding it. The horn blew again and the goblins were closing in.

"Luna! Hobgoblin! Piper! Help me keep them off while she charges!"

"Got it, bro!"

The two of us formed around Luna while she mouthed the incantation silently. A little bit more money and she would be able to get a mage to teach her how to cast without chanting at all and speed her back up to normal levels, assuming we could afford it after our payment on the rings.

I bashed in the skull of one of the goblins and stabbed another but I was careless and took a slash from its dagger. If that was poisoned too I might be joining that idiot today. It was starting to look more and more like we would all die here.

An explosion shook the tunnels as the bottom half of the hobgoblin fell over. Luna's magic had vaporized the top half of the monster entirely, clearing the path to the tunnel for us. Piper rushed into the tunnel first, shield up and ready to push through. Luna followed and small sparks of magic sprayed the faces of the goblins around me. The sparks wouldn't do much to hurt them but they gave me plenty of time to get to the tunnel and cover our retreat.

I could smell the cool air of the lake as we walked backward through the tunnel, holding off the goblins in the narrow corridor. Now that we were here, now what? Getting into an open area would help Luna's magic but how would we avoid getting surrounded? Perhaps my best bet would be to try and hold them at the mouth of the tunnel.

I heard another horn blow and before I realized what was happening I was thrown on my back. Another large hobgoblin had barreled through the tunnel and knocked me backward. Now that the goblins were pouring through, any hope of holding them here was gone.

Luna helped me stand. It was dark now, my torch had been thrown all the way into the lake and the only light left was the torches the goblins carried and the small amount of fake moonlight that filtered through the ceiling.

The three of us ran along the side of the lake trying to gain some distance and let Luna get enough time to cast another spell but we were quickly running out of places to run. A half-dozen horns blew behind us as more and more goblins rushed out of the tunnels toward us. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse I saw something that chilled me to the bone.

There were glowing white eyes sitting in the mouth of the tunnel ahead of us.

The umber hound is here too.

I stopped in my tracks, every fiber of my being wanted to despair but I had been taught over and over to never give up when things looked bleak. Too many hunters have come back alive from sheer dumb luck to give up now. I turned around and faced the incoming goblins. I desperately hoped the umber hound would continue to sit in the mouth of its tunnel and protect its territory. If we're lucky, it'll walk away if we somehow manage to make it out of this alive.

The three of us cut down hordes of the goblins but the noose was slowly pulling tighter and tighter around us. Despite the number we've already killed they just kept throwing themselves at us. Things looked hopeless, we were getting overwhelmed.

Then something completely unexpected happened.

The umber hound rushed out of the cave and started tearing into the goblins. Claws and fangs slashed them apart like they were made of grass. Several times I thought it would turn on one of the three of us but it had only gotten close to put itself between us and the goblins. Like a whirlwind the monster tore through them, its eerie white eyes leaving trails of light in the darkness of the cave, the only part of the creature we could consistently see.

The monster was protecting us from the goblins. I don't know why but each time it drew near it pulled one of the goblins away from us and launched it back into the horde or killed it on the spot. Once or twice could have been a fluke but for over thirty minutes it protected us and stopped any of the monsters from getting close even once.

Eventually another horn blew and the goblins began to retreat. For a while the umber hound followed, picking them off where it could. When it reached the mouth of the goblins' tunnel, the white glowing eyes off in the distance stopped and turned back toward us. As it came closer I lit a torch, I hoped that maybe the fire would deter the monster away but no such luck.

I didn't know what to do. Umber hounds were known to chase any prey that ran. The only thing I could hope for was that it wasn't interested in us. Those hopes were dashed once I could tell that its eyes weren't trained on the tunnel it had come from. The glowing white eyes that were often used to frighten young children into behaving, were trained on us. The eyes kept creeping closer, moving much slower than they had when hunting the goblins. Eventually, after so long that my chest was heaving with anxiety, the eyes got close enough to see the monster in the torchlight.

What stood in front of us was not an umber hound, but a woman with the eyes of one.