We followed the path down a corridor as the needle of the compass guided us toward what we hoped was our end goal. All I wanted was to find the body of the adventurer and get back to town for the reward, so we trusted it was taking us in the right direction. There was always the possibility that my intentions weren't clear, but I couldn't think thoughts like that. In fact, as I thought this to myself the compass went off track, then solidified in the position it held before.

The compass seemed to know when there were turns in the path, unlike a traditional compass that pointed only north always, and would always point down the path to take even if the corridor turned. When we came to a path that ended in a small room with three tunnels leading in different directions, it pointed to the path on the left and we didn't have to follow them all to figure out where we needed to go.

A little way down this path though we encountered our first real set of monsters that weren't a swarm. At first glance, they looked like really big bats. Honestly, they looked like they would have problems flying even if they could find space to do it. Upon further inspection, they looked less like just really large bats, and more like humans that were turned into bats. They stood on two legs, and walked mostly upright, though they hunched over quite a bit. What would have been their arms, were contorted oddly into wings, and there was a membrane that stretched from their bodies to the end of their arms and angled down to their feet forming triangles of super thin flesh. They had some teeth sticking out of their extra wide mouths in certain spaces, and their heads were large and squared. It looked like their heads should have been too heavy to hold up. Their noses were smooshed flat onto their faces, and their eyes were tiny, and too close together. They also had huge pointed ears that stuck up from either side of their head and extended up about a foot and a half higher than their heads.

We halted when we spotted them and they seemed to be hunting around for something.

"Is this what they meant by vampires?" I whispered.

"No, these are batmen," Brutus offered.

I couldn't help myself.

"So one of them would be....." I trailed off.

"A batman," Brutus continued, though slightly confused.

I couldn't help it, I snorted. Such descriptive and unique naming.

"If we had some red-breasted birds and a guy named...."

"Well, they heard you talking!" Tristan interrupted.

"Crap, alright, let's do this!" I said drawing my sword and putting the compass in my bag of holding.

We formed up as the four creatures darted toward us. I had Aeolith send out a dragon slash catching three of them and knocking them back while I cast Grasping vines on the spot the three fell. After three seconds of casting, I extended my hand and from out of the ground grew thick vines that writhed and wrapped around anything they could find. All three of the thrown-back batmen were grabbed by arms, legs, waists, chests, necks, and any other parts that could be wrapped around. They began to scream in a high-pitched tone as they were grabbed.

The one who had not been grabbed seemed to not care about his comrades being grabbed. He powered on running on all fours similar to how a bat would but looking more like a gorilla. I sent a shocking bolt at him to see what would happen. He skipped a step and almost tripped, which was what I was hoping would happen, but he regained his footing and ended up just looking even madder. At the last possible moment, I cast a dragon shield between me and the monster, and it smashed itself into the shield with a massive thud. It seemed stunned for about half a second, which was all I needed because as it bounced off the shield, actually forming cracks in it, I thrust my sword into its gut, pulled it out, spun around, and slashed at its neck. The first stab sent shocks of pain through the monster causing it to come back to itself with enough shock it pulled forward and almost doubled over. If I hadn't kept moving it would have sunk its claws into me that were at what should have been the elbows of its wings, but because I pulled back it missed, and as I spun it was trying to stand upright to reach me and the slash that came across with the black flame glistened off the creature's beady eyes and went straight through its neck. Its head bounced to the floor as the body moved around for another couple of seconds before toppling over and laying still.

The other creatures were struggling with the vines and were about to break free when I cast grease under them so they started sliding around instead of being able to get to their feet. Aeolith, seeing what I was doing cast fire breath on the down creatures in the grease, and the grease caught fire immediately. They started screaming in pain. The vines were also burned, so they were able to free themselves, but still couldn't stand up because of the grease. We stood there watching them struggle until they stopped screaming and curled in on themselves. After the fire burned through the grease and went out we moved forward.

These bat creatures were everywhere. Almost every room we went through had at least one of them hiding in some corner. The good news was, they weren't super tough, and with their lanky bodies, they really weren't able to do much except try to bite us, and that was pretty easy to avoid. We had one close call where one of them jumped on Tristan from behind while we were fighting with the others and bit him on the neck, but Aeolith was able to jump onto it and with her teeth and claws killed it pretty quickly. One health potion later and Tristan was back in action. The plus side was that the creatures were worth a fair bit of XP for what they were, so we were going to be able to level up at a faster pace if we kept fighting them.

Finally, when we were following the path the compass led us down, it suddenly turned left in the middle of a corridor. I turned left to face the same direction and saw it was pointing at a wall.

"Why did we stop?" Tristan asked.

"Because the compass says that whoever we are searching for is that way," I said pointing at the wall with my sword.

"But that's a wall."

"I know it's a wall. But if it says it's that way, there must be something that way. Maybe there's a switch for a door or something."

We walked over to the wall and began searching for something, anything, that might tell us why it pointed at the wall. I rubbed my hands over the wall trying to find somewhere that might indicate a separation or button or crack that might show a passage. Tristan was busy inspecting as well while Aeolith sat behind us waiting patiently. Brutus even flew around the wall to see if there was any way he could help. As we were searching I happened to find a small spot in the rock that looked to be something one could stick a small rod into. The hole was just too perfectly round.

"Do we have anything long and pointy?" I ask.

"I have this wand," Tristan said.

"Let me see it. And you have a wand?"

"Sure, but the staff is better for magic."

Tristan took a long stick out of his belt and handed it to me. I took the wand and pushed it into the hole. It went in up to about the middle of the wand and there was a click. After the click, a small part of the rock moved forward. It was a lot less of the wall than I would have expected to move forward. Then I realized what it was. A handle. I turned the small roundish piece of rock and a slab of the wall moved and opened outward. A new tunnel lay behind the slab. We entered and closed the door behind us to keep from being surrounded. With this new discovery, we were on the hunt again.

The path was narrower than the main corridor and shorter as well. If we got caught in here we might have a bit of trouble with fighting. We went deeper and deeper into the dungeon in this smaller corridor, but we never saw any creatures. Which was a nice rest for us, but I was beginning to get suspicious. As we walked down the dimly light hallway, I began to see a glow coming from the far end that seemed to indicate a new source of light other than the torches, like possibly a cooking fire. The light danced on the walls and moved just like firelight normally does, and it became brighter as we got closer. We rounded the bend and came to a large room. In the room were what looked like shelves lining the walls with a cooking fire in the middle of the room. There was a big black cauldron hanging over the fire and it smelled like there was some kind of food cooking in the cauldron. The most surprising thing in the room was the stout dwarf sitting behind the pot with a spoon halfway to his mouth, which was wide open waiting for the spoon to be put in his mouth. He, however, was frozen in place staring at us with wide eyes as we stared back at him. After about ten seconds, he moved the spoon back from his mouth and closed his mouth. I looked away from him briefly to look down at the compass, which I saw was pointing right at him.

"Erm, hello," The dwarf said hesitantly.

Several things happened all at once in the next couple of seconds. The Dwarf rolled backward, grabbed a mammoth of a two-handed axe, and then jumped over the fire towards us. I, in turn, moved forward to stop the axe with my sword, and Aeolith took to the air and flew behind the dwarf, and as his axe met my sword she landed on his back. It was fortunate that I had caught the axe head on the end of my blade and had moved to the right to block because the power from the strike pushed my blade down and slid off the end and it hit the ground. Aeolith however had him pinned down after she landed on him. And with her new size, she was not easy to dislodge. The dwarf tried to roll over to get her off, but Aeolith would flap her wings forcing her back on top.

"Stop struggling, we don't want to hurt you, we were sent to find you by the guild," I yelled at the dwarf.

He stopped moving at saying this.

"What do ya mean sent to find me? I did na want to be found. I did na ask to be found."

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"That doesn't mean anything to us. We took the quest. We want the reward. Though you being alive makes things harder."

'Can ya get yer wee beastie off o' me?"

Aeolith jumped off of him after I nodded to her. He got up and looked at Aeolith and froze stock still.

"Is that a dragon?!"

"That's what complicates this."

"Truly a dragon?! Like the tales of old?!"

"You mean you know about dragons?"

"Know of 'em? Me da used to tell me stories of the riders of old and the majesty of the great beasts they rode. Fires hotter than any forge came from their bellies. Their scales were stronger than the finest armor, and their claws sharper than any swords."

Aeolith seemed to sit up straighter at this and puff out her chest a little bit. I eyed her, feeling like I was going to have that come back to bite me later.

"So, why are you here? We were told you were likely dead, and you just never came back."

"Oh, that. I really had planned to come back ya know. But I found this room, where the food just keeps replenishin' and I could make as much as I wanted and stay hidden. And I could go out and get some of those bats if I needed, so...."

"So, what?"

"Well, I might have been a wee bit behind on some repayments. So I figured I'd hide out here til the heat was off."

"So you were just hiding from having to pay people back?"

"You could say that."

I let out a loud sigh and put my face in my hand.

"Look, we have a new issue. You aren't supposed to know that we exist. Al'Doran is going to be so mad."

"Al'Doran?! The great dragon Al'Doran?!"

"How do you know about Al'Doran?"

"He was mentioned in one of the books me parents had on the Dragonriders. He was wise, fair, and fierce in battle."

"Huh...you don't say. Well, what does it matter? We have to figure out how to handle this situation."

"Are you trying to tell me that ye know THE Al'Doran?"

"Why?"

"Because the only way ye could know Al'Doran is if ye were..." He trailed off and looked at me and his eyes went wide.

"Ye canna be. It canna be true. A Dragonrider?! After all these centuries?!"

He fell to his knees and took his axe and laid it at my feet. I, for all my graces, stood there gracefully gawking at him awkwardly on the floor.

"Let me serve ye. I have great skill with me axe and will do well to be yer shield. Let me join with ye in battle and be a part of your prestige!"

"Told ya. Dragonriders had followers, and they were the greatest of their kind. You are going to get this all the time once people know who you are." Tristan whispered in my ear, with more than just a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I don't really know what choice I have at this point. You aren't supposed to know we exist! But how am I supposed to know that I can trust you? You're hiding out down here to not pay back debts for christ's sake!"

The dwarf frowned at first. Then stood up and looked up at me.

"I swear by the beards of my forefathers, by the craft of my lineage, and by the stone halls I call home, I will never do wrong by you, I will use my skill to defend you, and if it calls for it, use my life to protect you."

His words were so deep, so strong, and the conviction I could see in his eyes was overpowering. The universe must have also taken note of his intentions, as I got a prompt.

Personal Oath

You have been given a personal oath by a dwarf on not only his beard, but his craft, and lineage. This is not an oath made lightly, and if broken will mean that he is stripped of all rights as a dwarf. Do you wish to accept the oath given to you and take this dwarf to be a defender?

Yes No

Reluctantly, I selected Yes.

"...Fine. But you have to come with us to the town so we can prove that we found you. How much do you owe anyway?"

"I really would rather not go back there. It's several hundred gold I owe."

"SEVERAL HUNDRED GOLD?!"

"I got behind on me payments, and the interest stacked up, and now I dunno what I'd do about it."

I sighed heavily again.

"Come with me. That is a must. We have to turn in this quest, then I'll see what I can do about your debts. But you will owe me for a long time."

"Are you serious?"

"I am. That hit I took from your axe scares me. It was strong, so you must be too. And I need a tank. What is your name?"

"Vokin Ironspine, my lord."

"None of that my lord business. I am Callan Ryder, this is Tristan...You know I never got your last name, Tristan."

"It's Sellis."

"Right, Tristan Sellis, and of course this little lady is Aeolith."

"Even has the name of a rider," Vokin winked at me when he said that. "Aeolith." He almost whispered the name. "Such a beautiful name for such a beautiful thing."

Again, Aeolith stuck out her chest showing she was very happy with the praise she was getting.

"Alright, alright. We know she's beautiful and all, but we are in a dungeon still. We have to get to the end of this thing, defeat the boss, and then get back to our meeting place."

"I happen to know where the boss be if we wanna just skip to the end."

"I think that's not the best idea. I want to see how we fight together before we go running into a boss fight that might get us killed."

"I see yer point. Alright, I know a place we should be able to get a fair bit of practice in."

"Well then, let's party up, and you can lead the way Vokin."

I sent him a party invite and he accepted. He walked to the shelves and grabbed some supplies and put them in a bag and then tied that to his waist. He grabbed a few weapons that were lying around the room, put out the fire, and led us out of the room via a passageway at the opposite end of the room from where we entered. We walked down this passageway for quite a distance and then came to another wall. Vokin stopped and turned to us before we kept going.

"Now in the next room, there be some bats. This be a good test for us to see how we handle ourselves. There be fliers and walkers, so you two help keep the fliers off of me and I'll handle the walkers."

I reached out to get his attention before he got going, but he had already pulled some kind of lever that opened a door and was walking through it. Bugger it all!

I followed him through the door drawing my sword and saw what we were up against. Again we were in a massive cavern similar to the first one where we fought the bat swarm, but it was a little smaller. The main difference was that in the middle of the room was a raised stone platform that was flat on top and reminded me of a stage with a light shining down onto the middle of it. The light came from a hole in the ceiling that looked like an opening that cave explorers might enter by climbing down a rope. Vokin was running right for the platform too, yelling at the top of his lungs. This dwarf was going to get us killed, I just knew it.

We took off after him looking up at the ceiling as we went. The bats didn't seem to be too upset at the moment, so I looked at where Vokin was currently. He was a lot faster than I would have expected someone of his size to be. He was already at the edge of the platform. I could see figures now starting to come out of the shadows and from behind stalagmites and starting to head toward him. Looking up again the bats were also getting restless enough that they looked like they might take flight soon.

"Guess it's time to get the party started," I said to Tristan and Aeolith.

I stopped running and looked up at the ceiling and pointed my hand at it and cast Fireball at the bats in the most concentrated place I could find. As it had previously the fire started at the size of a pea and grew until it rocketed off my hand and blasted at the bats on the cavern ceiling spreading out in all directions on impact, burning everything it touched. This put the attention of the bat swarm very firmly on me. It also appeared to have drawn some of the batmen's attention as well as I saw some of them turn toward us as well.

"Come and test yer strength ye beardless bastards! Or did yer mothers raise cowards?!"

Immediately after Vokin said this, the batmen turned back toward him and looked angrier than normal.

"What was that?"

"A taunt," Brutus said. "It's a fighter skill to get the attention of enemies on themselves."

"Will that draw the attention of the swarm?"

"Maybe, but I bet if you attack again it won't matter."

That was enough for me. I found where the bats were concentrated the most and cast Wind Blast on the swarm. The tornado formed out of my hand and stretched out to the swarm and began sucking them in. As the bats fell to the ground, dead, Tristan began bringing them back to life to fight for us. Aeolith flew through them using dragon breath and dragon slash, waiting for the moment when confusion would be more effective.

While I had the tornado pointed at the bats I took a moment to look over at Vokin. Vokin was almost a blur fighting the batmen off. He swung his axe in almost every direction at once, and every time his blade absolutely destroyed the bodies it hit. There was a pile of bodies mounting around him. At one point he was about to be surrounded and spun his axe behind him without looking, killing the one that was pinning him in. He wasn't without injury though and had taken cuts and scrapes in many places. However, none seemed to slow him down yet. When the Wind Blast ended I shot a Minor Healing spell at Vokin.

"Thanks, laddie!"

He yelled from his spot on the platform and continued to cut down foes in every direction. With a significant number of the bat swarm dead, Aeolith used Confusion on the remaining bats and I took off to help Vokin. Running up to the platform I slashed at any creatures that got in my way. When I finally crested the platform I let out my own battle cry and jumped into the fray. I finally got to Vokin and we took to fighting back to back, slashing and stabbing at enemies to keep them away from us. I sent Aeolith a mental note and cast grease in one direction under the enemies' feet. They began to slip and slide around on the grease and then Aeoligh flew by and lit the grease on fire with a fire breath attack. they began to burn and we continued fighting.

Suddenly a swarm of bats began to descend toward the platform. I was about to curse when I saw the bats start landing on the batmen instead and start biting them. They seemed so surprised that many of them started falling back from us. Vokin and I didn't give them the chance though and struck out at the fleeing foes. When we were down to just a few remaining creatures, I let Aeolith hunt them down to kill them and I sat heavily on the platform.

"Ye fight well," Vokin said as he walked up to me.

"You weren't too bad yourself," I replied with a smile.

He smiled back and clapped me on the shoulder. We waited for our mana to return and I cast Minor Healing on anyone with wounds. Once we were all at full health we needed to figure out where we went from here.

"I leveled again!" Tristan exclaimed.

"Aye, I'd be surprised if any of us didn't level in that fight," Vokin replied.

I looked at my notifications, and sure enough, even I had enough XP to level. That would likely mean that the others leveled more than once. I wasn't sure where Vokin was on the level scale, but at least Tristan and Aeolith likely got two levels each. That was great news. I couldn't wait to see where we were when we finished this and turned in the quest.

"We seem to fight well together. I guess that means it's time to go find the boss."

"Aye, I know where he's at. Let's go beat his ass!"