The four of us raced through the tunnels, wasting no time. The dungeon had repopulated some of what I had killed last I entered, but not fully, and the early, weaker beasts towards the entrance were no match for myself, Treepo, and Birdo. Even Gregory probably could have handled them, if he would get his head in the game, but I couldn’t bring myself to command him to fight if he didn’t want to. Lingering guilt over the first flying nodmouse I had evolved still flared up on occasion, so he had a free ride.

The tunnels seemed the same as before, but I had trouble remembering the finer details. We hit intersections I thought I knew the way through, only to find ourselves hitting dead ends and needing to double back. I had a strong light summoned; I wasn’t as worried about informing enemy beasts of our approach now that I had practical combat experience, my knife drawn and at the ready, and flanked by my strong familiars who were raring to go. I was focusing on using my detect skill and giving commands to Treepo and Birdo when I suspected we were coming up on a cluster of beasts, trying to predict how many and what kinds of beasts they might be, only sometimes getting it exactly right.

“We should be about as deep now as we were when we encountered evolved ramhogs,” I said to Treepo, slowing down. We were approaching a bend in the tunnel that seemed familiar. “Should be just around that corner,” I whispered, reducing my light’s intensity.

I peeked around the bend in the tunnel and witnessed a beast like the one that had caused me to flee when I first challenged this dungeon. It was five feet tall, shaggy and crimped dark fur covering its hide. Its spiral horns had grown into metallic horrors, each spiral horn now terminating with a devastating looking blade. I couldn’t help but be disappointed I wouldn’t be able to loot its corpse for those horns.

The hog was more like a bull, only recognizably still a hog from the snout. I couldn’t see its backend, so we would need to stay wary in case its tail had turned into a weapon as well. It stood, stone-still, menacingly, in the way that dungeon beasts behaved. I was positive that if I got close enough, it would immediately charge.

I looked at my knife. I had only won the previous battle with illusory tricks, traps, and almost all my MP, and then almost died to a vipis. This time I wanted to win with my combat skills. My knife would not deflect those horns, not with the sheer weight and force that was behind a charge. I would have to rely on acrobatics to dodge, either to the side or risk going underneath to gut it. Going over could be instant-death if it bucked and raised its head as I went over. If I could damage its leg it might not have the same level of speed when charging me. I glanced at my team of beast companions.

“All right. Watch the horns. Birdo, try to distract it, get above it, and if it ignores you tear into its backside, but watch out for the tail–it could be dangerous. Treepo, don’t get stomped, but your best bet is to get underneath it and do as much damage to its belly as you can. I’m going to try to get at its side, do some damage to its haunches to try and slow it down. Gregory–” the sleepy blue flying rodent looked up at me as I said his name. “Uh, keep your eyes open. Let us know if anything else approaches.” He yawned, and I shook my head.

I stood, and prepared myself. “Let’s do this.”

We charged.

* * *

The beast crashed into the wall of the dungeon tunnel, trying to crush me between it and the unforgiving and weird rock. I dodged just in time, throwing myself to the beast’s side. I couldn’t help but notice that even now, with the force of that crash, no pieces of the dungeon wall broke off, and the dungeon itself seemed to not damage the beast in the slightest despite the force of the blow.

The beast was slowed, bleeding from multiple wounds, but its head was still a huge danger. Treepo danced around and under the giant, slashing with his claws and kicking off the beast’s side to get away before he could get trampled. Birdo flew overhead, diving and slashing with talons, trying to avoid the sharp horns as the massive hog-bull craned its head back towards the airborne attacker.

Fortunately, the tail wasn’t a weapon, but it was impossible to get an attack in from behind as the beast would kick at anyone who approached from the rear. The force of the kick was enough to send a minor shockwave through the air, so we were trying to stay clear of that. It had turned into a game of luring it into a charge, trying to deal as much damage as possible while dodging it as it moved past us, then regrouping as it turned around to come again. Each pass was getting slower and slower as we whittled down its health. I badly wanted to pull out all the stops and hit it with a ton of magic to finish this and avoid any serious injury, but we still had the rest of the dungeon to conquer after this monster, and I only had so many MP potions to work with. Each one was worth a fortune to me in case of future disaster, so I couldn’t just waste MP, especially since I would need to keep everyone healed.

Another pass, and yet another, before it was slow enough that I could seize the opportunity. I dug my blade into the beast’s hide just below its ribs when it passed again, and managed to slice open a rough cut in its abdomen. Blood poured out, and the beast bellowed.

“We got it on the ropes now, stay focused!” I shouted to my familiars.

The beast managed one more charge before it stumbled, a trail of blood left behind it as its intestines spilled out and dragged behind it. It collapsed, and the dungeon swallowed it up. I threw my hands up into the air.

“We did it!” I shouted, grinning at my tamed beasts. We immediately circled up and stared at the surrounding darkness, waiting to see if a secondary ambush would appear, but I detected nothing. The tired familiars collapsed in front of me, recovering from the extended bout. I bathed them in healing magic and smiled warmly. “I think that deserves a break and some food,” I said.

Gregory ran over at the mention of food, pulling on my pant leg with big eyes.

“Yes, you get food too, Gregory.”

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I settled down, sheathing my knife after wiping it on my shirt. We were covered in blood, sweat, and dirt, and without a water source in the dungeon we would stay that way until we got back to the ocean. I pulled out a waterskin just to wash my hands off before eating and took a drink.

“What do you think is coming up next?” I asked Treepo, looking down the tunnel into the darkness.

Ramhogs, and clearly their dungeon-evolved counterparts, were tanks. Part of the difficulty in battling them was just dealing enough damage to kill them. Normal ramhogs could be killed with a solid headshot, but to do that, I usually stunned them first, and it was much too risky trying to stun this bigger, badder bull due to the sharp horns. What would an evolved vipis or griffator be like, then? Stronger, sure, and hugely dangerous. If they had an opening that allowed for an easy kill, then despite the danger I could probably still end a fight quickly. More drawn out battles would tire us out and slow me down.

We sat and digested our meal for a while, not quite ready to tackle the rest of the dungeon just yet, as I petted Treepo who had lay down by my side. Gregory had curled up on my lap, and Birdo was preening, cleaning his feathers. “Well, whatever comes, we’ll face it head on,” I said, resting my eyes.

* * *

I never even saw it coming.

Maybe if I had advanced my detect skill before challenging the dungeon again. Or maybe I had just let my guard down too much after so much success in this dungeon run. I should have been using a brighter light, maybe then one of us would have seen the attacker before we were hit.

We had pressed on after our meal, following the tunnel deeper into the darkness. There had not been another intersection yet, and I was wondering about the other possible paths down that I hadn’t yet ruled out. I had turned around to look back down the tunnel, showing my back to my familiars and the darkness that lay ahead.

The evolved striking vipis blew past me with enough force to push me to the side. By the time I turned my head, the bladed beast had already cut Birdo clean in two. A strangled cry pushed itself out of my throat as my eyes widened, taking in the scene. “No!” I shouted, regaining my senses before the vipis could launch a second attack. “Treepo, Gregory, to me!” I commanded.

The vipis-like monster was already turning, preparing to launch another attack, but it was exposed now. It was only about twice, maybe three times as big as the striking vipises I was used to in the jungle, but its body was hairy now, and its back legs had grown muscular and clawed. Its face was broader, its eyes smarter but angrier. The forelegs glinted, reflecting my light. They were proper blades, similar to the evolved ramhog’s horns.

I watched with dread as Birdo’s remains started to be absorbed by the dungeon. Furious, I raised my hands in front of me, and summoned my large 4-point magic circle. “Die,” I demanded.

I poured my magic into a blast of fire which filled the tunnel. The heat was intense, and my hands began to blister. I only stopped when my MP hit 0. The tunnel cleared of the blaze, devoid of life, any remnants of the murderous beast either ash or absorbed by the ever-hungry dungeon.

I fell to my knees, and Treepo stepped forward, putting himself in front of me and peering into the darkness to ensure that another attack wasn’t coming. My eyes teared up. “Damn,” I whispered, my fists clenched. Blood trickled out as blisters tore, the pain a welcome distraction from the other emotions fighting to take over.

Gregory squeaked softly. Treepo chittered, and looked back at me. I reached out and swept them up into a hug, and let my tears fall.

* * *

“We press on,” I said, coming to my decision. “We won’t let Birdo’s sacrifice be for nothing. We’re going to clear this dungeon.”

I chugged an MP potion and healed myself, then double checked Treepo and Gregory’s stats to make sure they weren’t also hurt. I reapplied protection buffs for everyone. I cursed myself for not doing that after the previous encounter, but I didn’t think Birdo would have survived that surprise attack head on even if he had been buffed, and for all I knew he still had his buff from earlier anyway.

I briefly considered what might be coming, and decided to buff the whole team further. I had some buffs on deck that we hadn’t really ever needed before, but it was better to be safe than to be sorry. I applied a poison resistance buff called immunity, a paralyze resistance buff called mobility, a sleep resistance buff called insomnia, and then decided to spend the rest of my MP on a physical attack boosting buff called strengthen, an agility boosting buff called limber, and an expensive magical reflection buff called reflection. Each was minor and the latter buffs wouldn’t last that long with the MP I had available, but I no longer knew what was around the next corner and would hate myself if we turned out to need the buffs but didn’t have them.

I threw back a second MP potion to top myself up. The second one didn’t sit as well in my stomach. One can only drink so much potion at once. “Let’s go,” I said through gritted teeth.

Birdo’s death was devastating. I hadn’t even liked birds before raising him. I had trained him for most of the last year, first as a rank F vicaw, and then the long stretch of training required to level him up as a rainbow vicaw. Now I was asking myself questions I couldn’t easily answer. Would I have rather never come back into the dungeon than lose my familiar, even if it meant my strength flatlined? Part of the reason I had raised him in the first place was to avoid taking a strike myself like the one that killed him. How many more times would things like this happen, if I kept following this path?

However, having already decided to clear the dungeon, Birdo’s death was one of those instances in life which led to decisions that wound up being critical later on.

I wouldn’t have used up a whole MP potion buffing the team with everything I had were it not for Birdo’s loss, too confident in my own abilities before feeling the sting of loss firsthand. Had I not, our next encounter would have undoubtedly ended us all.

We entered the large cave before us, my head on a swivel, using detect to the fullest of my abilities. The whole dungeon had been tunnels up until now, but we had reached some kind of cavern. My eyes struggled to pierce the darkness of the immense underground room.

A low grumbling emerged from the darkness before us. The hairs on my neck raised, and Treepo started grunting with displeasure. I poured magic into my light and pushed it forward.

Before entering the dungeon, the beast had probably been a griffator. Now, at the dungeon’s darkest depths, it was something much, much more terrifying.

The beast had talons that were a foot across, thick and strong-looking with metallic claws bursting from the ends of its toes, the same biological metal I had seen on the other rank D beasts in this dungeon. Its feathers were pitch black, blending in perfectly with the darkness of the cave. Its body was twice as large as the evolved ramhog, muscles rippling beneath the feathers. A massive crest had grown out of its head, and the feathers grew long around its muzzle, drooping and hanging low in line with the saber fangs.

As it growled, a frill opened from its neck, quivering.

It roared, and it took everything I had not to collapse in fear.