Chapter Twenty

Shuka was tense. Nervous. Or maybe just scared out of her mind. Ok, so it wasn’t quite that bad, but she definitely wasn’t having a good time. The reason for all of her unease was right in front of her. Two statues standing guard over a bridge. Or so it seemed. They were monsters and she had to shoot one with a poisoned arrow. Even worse, she was just informed that the poison wasn’t even strong enough to kill the creature. The only assurance she had that they wouldn’t maul her to death was the two Quanso in front of her. Admittedly that was a pretty good assurance, seeing as Quanso are some of the best fighters in the world, and one of the two in front of her was a veteran adventurer, but still. If the last few days taught her anything it was that you were never really ‘safe’ in a fight.

With a deep breath the young hunter drew back her bowstring and aimed carefully at the gargoyle on the left. Pushing out all of her intrusive thoughts Shuka focused solely on the one thing she knew she could do. Hunt. The shot was released, and the arrow flew in a slight arc right into the monster’s chest, a little off from the center. It was barely an inch into its stony skin, but it drew blood and that was enough for the poison to do its work. It was also enough to wake it up. A bolt of panic shot up her spine, but she quickly got a hold of herself and drew another arrow as Xorvos and Videon approached the now moving monsters.

Fuck, the arrow didn’t even stick in it. I hope the poison works, because if not then I am useless here, and I don’t want Xorvos fighting that thing unimpeded. Can he even hurt it? I mean, if an arrow barely draws blood, what will a punch do?

She got her answer soon, as Xorvos approached the poisoned gargoyle carefully. His fists were up in a defensive stance. While normally he had his hands open to be ready to grapple, now they were closed into fists. The gargoyle stumbled towards him unsteadily, the poison already taking effect, and swung a claw towards Xorvos. He dodged the rather slow attack, and struck back with a jab, hitting the monster in its face with a gauntleted fist. It didn’t even flinch. Seeing his attack fail, Xorvos backed off and created some distance between him and his opponent. In the meantime, Videon had engaged her own opponent and had already broken the monster’s arm. With only one arm left it slashed at her with an unnatural ferocity. It landed on nothing but a shield, and after its attack was done, Videon slammed her weapon into the side of its head, dazing it. Shuka watched it all feeling thoroughly useless.

I can’t get a good shot with Xorvos and Videon in the way. Even if I can’t kill one of those things, I could at least distract it so Xorvos can get a good hit in. If this bridge wasn’t here, I could at least reposition so I can get a clear shot.

While Shuka was worrying, Xorvos continued his fight. He dodged another attack from his, sluggish gargoyle, and then countered by putting all his weight into a punch to the side of the head. This time, he definitely dealt some damage, but not enough. While his arm was still extended the gargoyle grabbed it. Xorvos winced as he felt the monsters’ claws dig into his arm and tried to pull back in vain. Even weakened by the poison it simply had too good of a grip to let go. Xorvos was worried before now he began to panic. He started punching with his other hand but found he couldn’t do more than hurt it a bit. With his prey caught, the gargoyle made his move… and took a step towards the edge of the bridge. Xorvos saw this and felt the fear start to creep up in him. He started punching faster and more desperately, but nothing he could do could stop it. The monster was bleeding from multiple points on its face where its stony skin had broken but seemed to ignore its injuries and kept its grip strong. It had almost gotten to the edge, when there was a loud CRACK and it stopped in its tracks. And then slowly slumped to the ground dead. Standing behind it was Videon, with a bloodied weapon outstretched.

With the fight over Shuka let out a deep breath she didn’t know she was holding. Looking at her friend in the distance, she saw that he was doing the same. Videon was the only one who seemed unrattled by the encounter. She calmly walked back towards the entrance and started untying the ropes that were tied across everyone’s waist. Xorvos just stared at the now dead gargoyle that almost killed him. Shuka walked up next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, it’s alright. We survived, and as long as we are careful, we will survive the next fight too. I’ve got your back and Videon does too.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

“It’s not? Then what is?”

“Videon.”

As he said her name, Xorvos looked across the bridge to see her still untying the ropes. He looked scared, but also a bit in disbelief. When he spoke again, it was quiet.

“She killed them without hesitation and didn’t even glance at their corpses afterwards. I know it was to save me, and monsters don’t really think, but it still seems cruel. If that’s what she can do to a monster, then how far off is she from doing the same to a person?”

Now that she was closer, Shuka got a good look at the gargoyles they were facing. It didn’t have a human’s face, or even a Quanso’s, but it did have a face. It was scary and monstrous but was still closer to a person than an animal. And it was covered in its own blood with its skull caved in. Shuka was starting to understand what Xorvos meant now.

“Hey, you two done looking at the corpse yet?”

Shuka almost jumped out of her skin, having not noticed Videons return. She was in the process of coiling the rope she had retrieved and putting it back into the pouch she had on her belt.

“Yes. Sorry for not helping with the ropes, and… thank you for saving me back there.”

Xorvos couldn’t look Videon in the eyes when he thanked her, but he was at least genuine when he said it.

“Don’t worry about it. Keeping everyone safe is just part of being an adventurer.”

I guess potential murderer or not, she did still save his life. And he never was one to pass up an opportunity to be polite or honourable. And she is still nice to us at least.

“So… is that the dungeon? Are we done now?”

“Done? No, of course not. There should be at least one more fight left, maybe two if we’re unlucky. The higher tier a dungeon is the longer it lasts, but even tier one dungeons don’t last only one fight.”

Oh great, more fighting. One more chance for one of us to die.

Risk of death or not, she was already too far into it all to turn back now. Well actually she could go back to the entrance and leave at any time, but then she would have just risked her life for practically nothing. Either way, she was going to see this to the end. Probably. As long as she didn’t die at least. Beyond the bridge was the side of a mountain with a narrow set of stairs spiraling up to the summit. The stairs were only wide enough for one person with one side being an immovable mountain, and the other being a miles long drop to the bottom. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, the moment the whole group got to the small platform before the stairs really began, the wind started blowing more intensely.

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Why can’t anything ever be easy?

“Hmm… maybe I should have looked at what we had to do next before putting the rope away. Oh well, everyone line up, I’m tying us to the ground again.”

Videon took out six coils of rope from her pouch and started to tie the ends of two different length of rope together extending it. After that she then began to tie the extended rope onto more spikes she hammered into the ground.

How much rope does she have? And that magic pouch of hers sure can hold a lot if she’s using so much of its room on rope.

After a few more minutes, three extended ropes were tied to the three adventurers, securing them in case of a fall. Again. Shuka was starting to see a theme.

“Shuka, I need you on lookout duty. Keep an arrow in your bow, and if you see anything, tell us and shoot it. I will also be planting spikes into the wall as we move. Xorvos I want you to always be grabbing a spike with one hand, and Shuka’s rope with the other in case she falls. I will take the lead, with Shuka in the middle, and Xorvos in the rear. Is that all understood?”

“Yes.”

Shuka and Xorvos both answered at the same time. They were starting to get used to how serious and business like Videon was in a dungeon. They got in order behind Videon as she hammered the first spike into the wall with her metal baton. It didn’t take long and soon enough they were ascending the stairs. The wind didn’t lessen in the slightest, and actually seemed to get stronger. It wasn’t enough to blow anyone off the stairs, but it was close, for Shuka at least. Every step she took was uneasy with worry and she had to alternate between watching out for monster and watching her step. With the wind whistling in her ears, she put one foot in front of the other until Videon stopped in front of her.

“Hold up everyone, we have a problem.”

A problem? This is the worst time for us to have a problem! I’m a few inches away from falling to my death here.

“W-what’s the problem?”

Shuka tried desperately to not show how scared she was. It didn’t work.

“Nothing too bad. I just underestimated how much rope we would need to reach the top. I can see the end from where I am, but we will need to cut our ropes to reach it.”

“Cut the rope!? What if I fall?”

“Relax, we can just cut it at a spot that will still give Xorvos plenty of rope to grab onto. If you fall, he will still keep you alive.”

What she didn’t mention was that now there wasn’t a backup in case he fell too. Shuka continued to hesitate and Videon lost her patience.

“Look, we can’t stand on this ledge all day so eventually you are going to have to move it. You knew it was going to be dangerous when you entered so why are you only causing problems now?”

It was a good question. The answer was of course, that Shuka was terrified the whole way through and was always one step away from not being able to function, and this was the last step. But she knew that answer probably wouldn’t go down so well, so she gave an alternate solution instead.

“I’ll do it, but only if you let me hold onto the spikes for the last bit of the way up. I won’t have my bow ready, by if we were going to be ambushed it would have happened already.”

She tried to sound more confident than she really was, and it mostly worked. Of course, the curse made her sound selfish instead, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.

“Fine. Once your done with your rope give your knife to Xorvos for his. You can do that much on your own, can’t you?”

“What about you? I know Xorvos doesn’t carry a knife, but you’re a Quanso too.”

“I’m not here as a Quanso. I’m here as an adventurer.”

As she spoke, Videon reached into her pouch and took out a large dagger. It was almost the size of a short sword with how big it was, but that was admittedly probably just to make it fit in her hands. Still, the sight of a Quanso, who hated bladed weapons with a passion, holding such a large knife was unnerving. Doubly so for Xorvos. Still, Shuka didn’t have all day to gawk, so she started working on cutting her rope. It was a bit awkward since one hand was occupied holding onto one of the spikes in the wall, but she managed. When she finished, she made the mistake of looking down, off the side of the cliff, and her grip on the spike tightened. Still, she managed to steel herself and hand her knife over to Xorvos. He took it tentatively, almost scared of it even though Shuka was handing it to him handle first and he was wearing metal gauntlets.

I wonder what makes him so scared of it? he’s spent most of his life living in the empire, and I’m pretty sure even the Quanso from Yivix still use something as simple as a knife, even if not as a weapon.

Just for a moment, Shuka’s eyes wandered to her friend’s shoulder. The shoulder that had been cut by Validus in their first encounter. The armour there still had a large gash in it where the paladin’s sword had cut through it like butter.

Ah, maybe that’s why. I suppose he hasn’t had many good experiences with blades lately.

Soon enough he was done and handed Shuka her knife back. Blade first, but she wasn’t going to complain. Once that was done, and all of the ropes were cut, with Xorvos holding onto the end of hers, they were finally ready to proceed. The problem was Shuka really didn’t want to. The wind was still blowing, and she couldn’t even see the end past the curve of the mountain. Still, going forward was better than backwards, if backwards was even an option. And she knew that staying were she was wasn’t going to help much either. Videon wasn’t going to wait that long anyway.

“Alright, you two look good to go. The end looks to be about 6 meters away from my position. Stay close behind me, there could be a fight the moment we reach the top. I will try to keep the monsters off you while you are still on the ledge, but the less time I have to spend doing that the better.”

Shuka got the message. Doesn’t mean she liked it though. The whole ordeal was dangerous enough without her being rushed. Videon started moving again, and Shuka reluctantly followed with Xorvos behind her. It didn’t take long for her to see that Videon wasn’t lying or exaggerating when she said they were close to the end. As she inched her way over the curve in the mountain, she saw the path widen into a flat platform. It was so close, and yet it still felt miles away. Even worse, Videon spikes didn’t reach the end, since she hadn’t actually been to the end yet. Still, Shuka continued moving, inch by inch. Hands always clenching a spike and with her rope still clenched in her friends hand. Eventually, Videon reached the platform and immediately took out her baton and shield, ready for a fight. The fight never came though so she turned back around to find Shuka stuck two meters away holding onto the last spike before the platform. Videon wasn’t having any of it though.

“Just get over here already. It’s not that far and you can jump the last bit.” She half whispered.

“Not with this shitty footing I can’t. Why can’t you just add another spike?”

“Now that we’re at the top the noise might trigger the next encounter. Look, just shuffle over and if you feel yourself slipping try to jump towards me and I’ll catch you. Even if I don’t your friend is still holding your rope.”

She’s not wrong. Doesn’t make it any easier though.

Shuka’s heart was pounding in her chest. She kept on looking down and it wasn’t doing her any favours. But it also wasn’t going to get any better so ever so slow she began to let go of the spike she was holding on to and started shuffling towards Videon. Then the wind picked up and all the fear she had inside her turned into panic. Maybe she should’ve stopped moving and stabilized herself and perhaps she would’ve if she was thinking more clearly. She wasn’t though so instead she started shuffling even faster and inevitably slipped. All of her panic intensified, but she still at least tried to jump with her one foot that remained on the ledge. She didn’t get far, but she also didn’t need to go far. She held out her hand and right at the last moment felt it get grabbed by Videon. No longer going down, but still going forwards, Shuka slammed into the side of the stone platform knees first. It hurt, but only tightened her grip on her lifeline. Soon after she was dragged up onto the platform and she let out a sigh of relief.

Fuck, that was way too close. How the hell is this a tier one dungeon!? I almost died getting from one fight to another. How can people make a career out of this? It’s insane.

She was sitting on the ground drenched in sweat, not at all ready for another fight. But she was alive. She heard the scraping of metal on stone and looked over to see Xorvos shuffle onto the platform looking almost as scared as she was. But he was also alive.

Whatever I get at the end of this dungeon better be worth it.