Chapter 11 of Wayward Ranger by J Scott Miles

They moved deeper into the dungeon after a quick break and a drink from a water skin Elease produced from her pack. Aidan was disappointed none of the sprites had been harvestable or dropped loot, but Elease said that was pretty typical for dungeons.

“Only bosses will drop loot in here, and there are usually loot chests with them as well, but not always,” she explained. “It’s possible to find additional random loot chests scattered around inside dungeons, though, so keep your eyes peeled.”

The strange forest corridor continued to meander onward, curving just enough ahead of them to obscure their sightlines. Aidan tried to be cautious as they progressed, not wanting to trigger another trap. Tarna also seemed wary, moving forward slowly with her head down, her eyes and nose scanning the way out in front of them.

I know Elease keeps saying she doesn’t like parties, but it would be really nice to have a rogue with us who could alert us to at least some of the hidden traps and dangers in here. It wouldn’t hurt to have a proper tank, either. Or a true healer, for that matter. Truly, a full-fledged party would make this way easier and less sketchy.

Five was the maximum number of party members allowable, or at least that was what he’d always heard, and he could see how having two rangers wasn’t ideal for a well-rounded party. Although the ability to have a familiar changed that somewhat. It was nice Tarna effectively acted as another member, although he didn’t think she counted against the five member cap. It’s effectively two members for the price of one. Summoners and warlocks are probably the same.

The room they eventually came to was about thirty feet in diameter, although calling it a room seemed as inaccurate as calling what they’d just been in a corridor. It appeared to be a small glade with the same impenetrable forest around its edges and the same thick canopy overhead. And a ton more of those fireflies hovering around the ceiling. I still can’t get over how much this place feels and smells like a real forest. Everything except for the lack of forest sounds.

In the center of the glade stood a large, gnarled tree-trunk that looked to Aidan to have once been an enormous oak. Its entire top was missing, though, as were most of its branches. About eight feet off the ground, the thick trunk just ended in a jagged, splintered line as if the entire top two-thirds or more of the original tree had been torn off. Likewise, all that remained of the limbs that had once jutted out from it were stubby little arms, none longer than a foot or two.

It was clear the damage to the tree had occurred long ago. Its thick bark was dark and weathered where it showed through a covering of lichen and moss. Even the once sharp splintered edges around its top where most of the tree had been torn away were worn down and softened by time. In several spots, dark holes, eight or nine inches across, stood gaping like ominous caves on a cliff face.

The gnarled tree-trunk had a kind of termite mound look to it and Aidan could imagine more of the small, winged sprites emerging from the dark holes. If it’s just more of those sprites, I think we can handle that. But all the bard’s stories say that the further you progress in a dungeon, the more difficult the challenges become.

Again, Tarna’s ears perked up a moment before Aidan heard a faint chittering coming from the dead tree-trunk. Then a few seconds later, more of the buzzing they’d heard before, accompanied the ominous chittering.

“I think more of those sprites are coming.” Aidan said.

“No shit.” Elease replied. “Stop stating the obvious and get ready. Take out as many of the magic users as you can first.”

Before her instructions were even out of her mouth, a bread-loaf sized horned beetle galloped from around the back of the tree-trunk. Astride the oversized bug’s hard carapace back, rode a sprite wielding a foot long lance like a miniature jousting knight. Although a knight would have armor, and these little things don’t seem to wear any clothes at all.

Growing up and learning to ranger in the forests back home had forced Aidan to become acquainted with many types of insects. He couldn’t say he liked any of them, but he’d developed an uneasy acceptance of them. The huge fireflies overhead were weird, but ultimately helpful. The enormous beetle that looked ready to gore them with its horns was unsettling, though.

As another of the mounted sprite-knights rounded the other side of the trunk on its own horned beetle, more of the flying sprites erupted from the holes in the tree-trunk in a flurry of beating firefly-like wings. As before, the fliers were split into a group of magic users and a cadre of warriors.

An arrow from Elease split one of the magic using fliers in two as it hovered and began gathering a glowing ball of magic between its outstretched hands.

Despite the half-elf’s instructions, Aidan focused his first attack on the nearest of the giant galloping beetles. The sprite mages are still out of my range, and besides, those beetle knights look like they’re capable of doing some real damage if they get within goring range.

His spear met resistance when it struck the beetle’s tough carapace shell, but his epic weapon penetrated the chitin, and he forced the tip deep into the bug’s innards. The bug chittered louder, an unnerving sound that grew in pitch, until it abruptly cut off altogether.

As he received a kill notification for the thundering rhinoceros beetle, its lance wielding sprite rider screamed with anger, launched itself off the dead bug’s back, and took to the air. The long weapon the sprite had been carrying seemed more than it could manage to fly with however, and it dropped the foot-long lance. Immediately, it produced an appropriately sized sword from a sheath on its back, and the enraged little sprite-knight charged at him.

He tried to shake the dead beetle from his spear point in time to defend himself from the bug’s rider, but the angry sprite was already on him. A stab of pain flared across his cheek as the things tiny sword opened a gash in his face.

“Ahh.” He shouted and swatted at the sprite with his open hand like he would a mosquito.

The little humanoid creature tried to dodge his swipe, but he struck it with a glancing blow that sent it tumbling away toward the forest. He was sure it would be back, but at the moment, he had other enemies to worry about.

Several more of the rider bearing beetles had appeared from behind the tree-trunk, and one of them had already gotten close enough to attack his calf with its jousting lance and the bug’s horns. Pain flared through the impact point, and his leg gave way beneath him.

As he crashed down onto his side, he felt the large bug explode beneath his weight. A kill notice for both the bug and its rider confirmed his attacker’s fate. Well, that’s one way to take them out, although I much prefer stabbing them.

Looking up, he saw Tarna leaping and snapping at the flying swarm of sprites around her, blood and sprite viscera dripping from her jaws. Likewise, Elease’s bow twanged over and over at an astonishing rate, bringing fliers down with almost every shot.

Another of the beetle-knights galloped at Aidan. With his spear on the ground beside him, and his next attacker already too close to use it effectively anyway, he reached for his rusted kurkri blade.

Rolling out of the path of the oncoming sprite-knight’s charge, he felt the place where the first sprite’s lance had caught him flare again with pain. Gods that hurts more than the kobold’s arrow did. At least it didn’t go all the way through, and it didn’t stay lodged inside me. But still, how can something so small hurt so damn much?

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Recovering himself to his hands and knees, he narrowly avoided taking a pair of horns and another lance in the side. As the beetle and rider charged past, Aidan swiped at them with his knife. The kurkri’s edge proved insufficient to cut into the bug’s tough chitin the way his spear had, but it was plenty sharp and high quality enough to sever the sprite’s leg who rode the beetle. The little humanoid shrieked and fell from its mount’s back onto the dungeon glade’s grass covered floor.

Aidan brought his blade down onto the writhing sprite, finishing it off. Without its rider, the huge beetle seemed to lose its sense of purpose and enthusiasm for the fight. It broke off its attack and skittered away toward the forest walls.

After collecting his spear, Aidan staggered to his feet and turned his attention to the fight going on around him. Tarna’s muzzle, neck, and flanks were bloody, but she’d defeated two more of the beetle-knights and what looked like a score of sprites.

Elease had also been busy. So busy she’d either exhausted her supply of arrows completely, or decided she couldn’t spare the time to retrieve more from her pack. She slashed and stabbed at the remaining sprites with a short, single-edged falchion-style sword in one hand and a similarly styled knife in the other. It was the first he’d seen of the blade set and he was impressed how well she dual-wielded the blades.

With most of the sprites dead or dying, Aidan hoped they might get a momentary reprieve, but he heard a renewed chittering coming from the tree-trunk. Then from out of its top crawled an oversized centipede, as big around as his forearm. Its front pair of appendages waved and came together in front of its awful insectoid face like a pair of pincers.

A chill coursed up Aidan’s spine, and he momentarily forgot all about the pain in his calf.

He also realized the bug bore a rider. The sprite on its back was noticeably larger than the other sprites and wore a glittering jewel on its head. For an instant Aidan thought the centipede rider might be the promised Glade King, but then he realized the naked little humanoid was clearly female with tiny breasts and long, flowing silver hair.

The little sprite woman yelled at them in a language he couldn’t understand and brandished what appeared to be a staff with a jewel on its end that matched the one in her tiara. Whoever she is, she’s definitely not happy with us.

“Can you understand what she’s saying?” he asked Elease.

“Not most of it.” She replied with a shrug as she refilled her quiver from her pack. “It sounds vaguely similar to the elvish dialects I know, but I’m only getting every fifth or sixth word. Princess… Feast… Entrails… Her intent is pretty clear, though. These little shits would love nothing more than to make us their supper.”

As if Aidan needed any more motivation to fight his hardest, the implication that if they died or were captured in the dungeon, they’d be feasted on helped him force his pain to the back of his mind.

I do not want to become dinner for these things. And for some reason, the thought of them eating me is even more disturbing than the thought of the kraken devouring me was when I was knocked off the ship. Maybe it’s the thought of being carved up and cooked first that makes it more unnerving.

He shivered and shook himself at the thought, but their moment of rest and the little sprite’s tirade came to an end all too quickly. She spurred her centipede mount on and the full length of it flowed over the top edge of the hollow trunk and down the outside. At the same time, a fresh wave of flying and beetle mounted sprites emerged.

Elease seemed to feel the centipede was the biggest threat on the battlefield because her first arrow was aimed at the terrifying creature’s head. Unfortunately, the little sprite princess waved her staff, making the jewel at its end glow, and creating a momentary bubble of shimmering blue force in front of her mount. Elease’s arrow hit the bubble, popping it, but not before her projectile went ricocheting off and harmlessly past the centipede.

“Shit.” Elease growled from behind Aidan. “See what your epic spear can do against that bitch’s magic shield.”

As Tarna stood her ground waiting for the oncoming wave, Aidan came up beside her with his spear at the ready, focusing on the centipede and its rider. Another of Elease’s arrows whizzed overhead, taking out a sprite caster who looked about ready to loose a ball of energy.

Three other little casters succeeded in releasing their payloads, however, and one of the marble-sized balls of magic found Aidan’s shoulder. He yelped as his entire arm and the left side of his chest lit up with pain. To make things worse, as the pain racked him, an involuntary spasm caused the muscles in the affected area to clench and go numb. Thankfully, the effect dissipated quickly, and he was able to keep a grip on his spear with his unaffected hand.

Gritting his teeth, he re-gripped his spear and focused on the incoming centipede and its rider, preparing to strike. Let’s see if I have better luck getting to this thing than Elease’s arrow did.

When the centipede was within range, he thrust. The snarling sprite princess cast her shimmering magical shield again and Aidan felt stiff resistance against his spearpoint, but as her shield popped, he managed to keep the spear’s blade mostly on target. His spearpoint raked alongside the centipede’s body, shearing off several of its legs as it went. He thought he might get lucky and take off the sprite princess’s leg as well, the way he had the beetle rider earlier, but she was too quick and managed to get out of the way.

To his horror, the multi-legged insect didn’t even slow at the loss of so many limbs and its remaining legs grabbed onto his spear shaft and began climbing up it towards him.

“Oh, shit.” He gasped and threw the spear away.

His knee-jerk reaction might not have been the smartest thing to do, but as the spear and bug clattered to the ground together, it did dislodge the sprite princess from her mount’s back. She flew up and away in a flutter of angry wings. The centipede didn’t lose heart or the will to fight the way the beetle had when it lost its rider, however. It untangled itself from the spear and continued toward him.

Unsheathing his kurkri blade again, Aidan slashed at the oncoming bug. The relentless monstrosity didn’t even flinch or try to dodge as his knife raked across its insectoid face and cleaved one of its front appendages clean off. Its mandibles opened and its remaining front appendage swept back and forth, attempting to deliver its payload of venom.

A shimmering ball of magical energy, larger than the one that had hit him from the small sprite, impacted his chest and he fell backward. As pain and spasms gripped his entire body, Aidan was vaguely aware of the sprite princess hovering and cackling a few feet above where he lay paralyzed on his back.

He watched helplessly as the centipede closed the last few inches toward him, its jaws wide and its appendage poised to strike. Then an arrow sprouted from its head, pinning it to the dungeon floor.

Oh, thank the gods. I’m never going to complain about Elease being bitchy and snide again. She just saved my ass.

The centipede writhed and chittered wildly as the sprite princess shrieked above. As his spasms subsided, he watched the furious sprite quickly gathering another ball of magic between her tiny palms.

He did not want to feel another hit from one of those glowing magic balls, and out of desperation, he hurled the knife he still held at the hovering sprite. Knife throwing was not something he’d practiced and his kurkri was unsuited to the task, in any event. But it tumbled through the air awkwardly and a moment before it hit the little sprite side on; she released her ball of energy.

The glowing ball did not fly at him, however. It flew at Elease and the half-elf screamed when it hit her. Then she locked up and toppled to the ground.

Although his blade had not struck the sprite princess with the tip, or any sharp part for that matter, it was heavy enough to knock the small woman out of the air. She dropped like a stone to the dungeon floor and a second later, an irate Tarna clamped down on her and shook violently.

Kill: Princess of the Glade, Fiendish Woodland Sprite. Level 15. Experience 265. Upgrade-points 7. Non-harvestable corpse. Loot-drop none.

Getting to his feet quickly, Aidan retrieved his spear, then skewered the still writhing centipede.

Kill: Greater Woodland Centipede. Level 11. Experience 80. Upgrade-points 3. Non-harvestable corpse. Loot-drop none.

He ignored the notifications as he looked for any remaining threats, but Tarna and Elease had either finished them all off, or when the princess had been killed, they had scuttled away.

A quest update, as well as a notification he’d leveled up, flashed before his eyes, but he shoved them away so he could rush to Elease’s side. Tarna was already there, blood and gore covered, although most of the mess on her looked as though it belonged to the bugs and sprites that littered the dungeon floor.

“Are you two okay?” he asked.

“No,” Elease croaked. “Whatever that bitch hit me with still hurts from my toes to my teeth.”

Aidan could sympathize. Although the worst of the effects from the magical bolt he’d been hit with had dissipated, he could still feel an unpleasant tingle radiating through his body.

“That was a nice shot on the centipede.” He said as he helped Elease to her feet.

“Yeah, I’m just saving your ass right and left in here,” she replied with a pained smile. “In hindsight, I should have put that arrow through the princess and let that creepy bug have its way with you. I’m sure it wouldn’t have done anything we couldn’t fix with a healing potion or two.”

“Well, I’m glad you shot it when you did,” Aidan replied dryly. “What do you say we go see what treasures the Sprite Princess left behind before we find our way out of here?”