We were attacked twice more while Fitzfazzle and the dwarves worked on the mech. It did seem like the tiki attacks were starting to lose some steam as the number of enemies in each wave was fewer than the one before. I hoped it was a sign that the dungeon core was running out of resources. From my brief time helping a friendly core, I knew that it usually took a dungeon some time to replace its losses.
“I think this is about as good as we’re going to get,” Fitzfazzle finally said. He had done some good work, the bent leg was still bent, but he’d pulled some of the damaged parts off and used them to reinforce the weakened limb. I climbed into the cockpit and fired up the mech.
It ran on mana, and assuming it was fully charged when summoned, it should have several more hours of use before it began to run low. I’d suggested a fuel gauge on these mechs, but this summoned one didn’t have one. Giving it a small bit of throttle, the mech took a stuttering step, dragging the damaged leg behind it. Another step caused me to almost topple over as the leg dragging behind me snagged on some of the jungle foliage.
Step by step I moved across the chamber and onto the trail leading deeper into the dungeon. According to Grumbellow, the trail led directly to the ruins where the boss should be found. He wasn’t with the team that breached the temple so he couldn’t tell me if I was going to be able to fit the mech in there or not.
As we slowly progressed down the trail, I spotted the tiki monsters a few times. It was only one or two, and once they spotted us, they quickly faded back into the jungle before I could get a clear shot at them. Magic missile wand launchers were great, but they couldn’t track a target you couldn’t see.
“Rico, I’m detecting a trap up ahead,” Marie said.
“How far, and where is it?” I asked.
“It’s about twenty feet ahead of you, and it’s on the ground,” Marie warned.
“Everyone stay back, I’ll check it out,” I said, waiting for the others to pull back before I began prodding the ground in front of me with the spear. Right where Marie said the trap was, my spear pierced through the jungle floor. Tearing up the roots and vines that covered the ground, I could see that the path was blocked by a huge sinkhole.
“I don’t think there’s anything to this trap other than the pit. Let me clear more away so we can see what we’re dealing with,” I told the group as I began to hack and slash with the spear. I cleared a good eight feet in front of me and I was only halfway done. A small path to either side of the pit would allow human-sized people to pass by safely, but I didn’t see any way to get the mech across there.
“Any ideas? That looks too deep for us to just fill in quickly,” I said. The dwarves and Fitzfazzle moved up to inspect.
“Other than spending a week filling it in, I don’t think we’re going to get the mech over,” Fitzfazzle said.
“Aye, and if we waste time trying to build a bridge, the dungeon will have time to just create another one further down the trail. Giving the master of this place more time to grow in power seems like a bad idea,” Grumbellow added.
“Sorry, Rico, I think you’ll have to hoof it with the rest of us from here,” James said.
“No problem, we can still do this. If all else fails and we have to fall back, we have the mech back here to cover our retreat,” I offered. Too bad if we had to retreat, it probably meant we had failed.
“I’ve still got a few tricks for when we meet whoever’s in charge, don’t worry,” Fitzfazzle said as he patted the oversized backpack he wore. Somehow, he had roped several of the dwarves into carrying the other duffel bags full of gear he had brought along.
“Let’s get moving,” James said, waving us forward.
I joined the others as we pushed forward. Our team of summoned beings and my minions led the way, and the dwarves would reinforce us if we ran into something we couldn’t handle. We were all on edge, but nothing attacked us as we headed toward the temple, and there was only one more trap that Marie detected. It was a simple tripwire that was attached to several blowguns. My disarm skills were more than enough to render it safe, and if there was something I couldn’t handle, Fitzfazzle probably could.
The trail finally ended in another large clearing. At the far end were ruins that looked like they came straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. They looked ancient, but the wall of the temple closest to us had recently collapsed, and Grumbellow confirmed that was where his people had breached the temple.
“We head in first, then Grumbellow will send his people in. Fight our way to the boss and take him down quick. Use everything you have, any consumables, weapons, or abilities. If you held something back for a rainy day, well, this is it,” James ordered, charging up his barriers to cover the party before leading us in.
We couldn’t see very far into the temple, the darkness inside seemed to be of a magical type that the artificial sun leaking through the foliage refused to penetrate. As soon as we stepped inside, things changed, and the opening I had just passed through was now a solid wall again. I watched as the rest of our group seemed to pass through the now-solid wall of the temple.
It was a one-way entrance, you could come in, but you couldn’t get out. Now, more than ever, I realized that there was no through this other than killing the boss of the dungeon. The chamber we were in was lit by flames emerging from wall sconces that looked like tiki heads. It gave enough light for us to see but created a gloomy atmosphere.
The gloomy atmosphere was the least of our worries, it was the horror at the other end of the huge chamber that caught and kept my attention. Hundreds of the little tiki monsters and a score of their anaconda pets were crowded around a large altar. On the stone altar were several mutilated humans, the previous party of summoned beings that had tried to stop the dungeon, as well as several dwarves.
At the far end of the altar, a ten-foot-tall, stone tiki idol loomed. From the statue, I could feel waves of magic flow, concentrating on the victims in front of it and then washing over the assembled dungeon forces. In the back of my mind, I knew something was wrong, the tiki monsters weren’t attacking, and I couldn’t seem to do anything other than watch what was unfolding in front of me.
After a few minutes, the magic took on the form of a dark apparition that hovered over the altar. I pointed toward one of the humans lying there, a young woman with no arms and both legs severed at the knees. The dark energy coalesced around one of the woman’s legs, leaving her screaming in pain as the flesh of her thigh bubbled and shifted.
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I watched the flesh transform into a trio of tiki monsters, which scampered off the altar and began to join in with the others groveling before the evil tiki idol. My mind pushed back against whatever was forcing me to watch. It felt like pressure lifted off me and suddenly, I was in control of myself once more. Looking around me, I could see the others, except for Fitzfazzle, were still held in place, their gaze locked on the altar.
It was the statue, that was what was controlling all of this. There was no monster, no giant tiki creature as the dungeon boss, it was simply this statue and the horrible ability it possessed to mesmerize and transform its victims into new minions. Looking over to me, Fitzfazzle motioned for me to stay quiet.
He was digging into his backpack, pulling out items and setting them up in front of our team. Moving slowly and as quietly as he could, the gnome didn’t draw any reaction from the monsters in the room, or from the stone master that ruled over them. He passed me by whispering as he worked.
“Keep quiet and still, don’t wake the others yet until I have everything ready,” Fitzfazzle said.
“Can I help?” I whispered back.
“No, I’m almost done, you were zoned out for almost an hour,” Fitzfazzle said. Had I really been held that long by the powers of the stone dungeon boss?
From the amount of work that Fitzfazzle’s had done, it seemed like I really had been out of it for an hour. While I had been out, he had constructed several short tripods across the floor in front of our group. Atop each tripod was a small crossbow with a hopper full of bolts to fire. A dozen of the tripods were set up in an arc, each one moving slightly whenever the target it had selected moved.
Fitzfazzle was almost done with his preparation, he had retrieved the duffel bags from the dwarves, and they were now empty and scattered on the temple floor. From his backpack, my gnomish friend was gathering the last of his toe poppers that he placed in front of the crossbow tripods.
I remembered both the crossbows and the toe poppers from the last time he had helped me in a dungeon. The combo was an effective one and would really put the hurt on a swarm of tiki monsters. A small field of explosive devices were scattered for a good twenty feet in front of the crossbows, they would mess up anyone’s day that tried to charge through them.
“We’re about ready, start waking up your team, just cause them any kind of pain and it should break their trance. Save the dwarves for last, your people will handle themselves okay, but I’ve seen dwarves react to anyone harming their kin, and that is worse than just about anything I’ve seen,” Fitzfazzle said, pointing to the dwarves laid out alongside the humans on the altar.
Even now, their bodies were being slowly transformed into more of the tiki monsters. I don’t know how many monsters a single body could create, but if three came out of the upper half of a human leg, each captive would create at least a dozen of those things. I started with Marie, pinching her neck where the body armor didn’t cover. She shook her head and looked at me in horror, her mind recalling everything she’d seen, and now knowing she had been trapped.
One by one, we woke the rest of the team, all the while, I expected the stone idol dungeon boss to sound the alarm. As long as we stayed over here and didn’t make any noise, it seemed caught up in its work. My minions were easy enough to wake, all I had to do was send the command over my summoner link with them. Both Grulnok’s seemed especially eager to come to grips with the foe that had held them in a mental prison.
“What devils work is this! Have at them boys!” Grumbellow shouted as he was woken up. His shouts woke the remaining dwarves, but also alerted the enemy that we were no longer under the idol’s thrall.
“Hold, I’ve got traps scattered out there, let them come to us!” Fitzfazzle shouted over the grumbling dwarves. Angry or not, they were smart enough not to go charging into the minefield that Fitzfazzle had created.
The dwarves might have been smart enough, but the tiki monsters and their anaconda minions weren’t, and the whole horde of them began to charge. Fitzfazzle shouted a command, and his crossbows opened fire, their bolts killing the monsters they had each targeted. Now, the weapons began the slow reload process, but they would continue to aim and fire as long as they were intact and had ammo.
The rest of us with ranged weapons joined in the fight. I fired off magic missiles from my pistol, and Eliza used her most powerful spells, sending tiki monsters tumbling and showering them with bolts of force. A few of the dwarves threw small hammers to great effect, smashing into the ranks of enemies. Fitzfazzle’s crossbows got off a second volley right as the tiki’s started hitting the minefield.
True to their name, the toe poppers didn’t pack that big a punch, more intended to injure larger opponents than kill them outright. For something the size of a tiki monster, each blast was devastating, blowing the little terrors to pieces. My pistol ran dry as the enemy finally made it through the minefield.
Half our foes were down before we engaged in melee, but there were still over a hundred monsters. Not worried about the minefield any longer, the dwarves charged forward, roaring battle cries of vengeance for what the dungeon boss had done to their people. Our people held the line, keeping well inside Nicolas’ healing radius, and making sure we were protected by James’ barriers.
The dwarves tore into the front ranks of tikis, but soon bogged down and were starting to get swarmed. I threw a healing spell over Grumbellow and the knot of dwarves fighting near him, but I wasn’t sure how much it helped, and I soon lost sight of them as the horde of enemies hit our line.
The ones attacking us were mostly armed with spears, negating the need to worry about poison darts showering us. Most of the dart shooters were back near the dwarves, slowly picking them apart. Even as the dwarves fell, our front-line fighters carved through the enemy force. The Grulnok’s, James, Melissa, and the other summons were scoring kill after kill on the tikis.
One of the anacondas reared up and tried to strike James, but it collided with his barrier which reflected a portion of the damage back into the monster. While it was reeling from the damage it had inflicted on itself, James dispatched a giant snake and then cut through a pair of tikis.
Another volley from the crossbows further thinned the enemy as James ordered us to push forward, trying to rescue the people trapped on the altar. Looking at the dungeon boss, I noticed something happening. A small chunk of it crumbled away and there were cracks showing on its exterior that I hadn’t noticed before. It had always looked ancient, but now it looked more worn down. In addition, the mana flowing off it was diminishing, but I wasn’t sure why.
“The boss is getting weaker, keep pushing,” I shouted.
Marie conjured a trio of illusions that looked like giant anacondas and sent them crashing into the tikis between us and the altar. A pulse of power was sent from the idol, and all the tiki’s shifted their focus to our party, ignoring the remaining dwarves. With their enemy ignoring them, the surviving dwarves cut down more of the foes as they turned their backs on the dwarves and charged toward us.
“I think it’s the tiki monsters, the more we kill, the weaker the dungeon boss gets,” Nicolas offered. If he was right, and I was pretty sure he was, all we had to do was keep fighting. Another volley of crossbow bolts cut down another dozen tikis and then something hit me and knocked me over.
A slimy, crushing darkness closed over my head as one of the anacondas began to swallow me whole. It had knocked me down and was now trying to turn me into lunch. I couldn’t breathe as it forced me deeper into its gullet. Struggling was useless as the monster snake was far stronger than I was. It convulsed a few times, adding to my agony, then it went still.
My vision began to fade as my body used up the last of its oxygen, but then I could feel the pressure on me start to relent and I felt air on my face. I took a breath, choking when I inhaled some gore along with the life-giving oxygen. Someone pulled at me, and I could feel myself sliding from the snake’s body even as I struggled to remain conscious.
“Get medical in here, we have wounded!” A familiar voice shouted as I tried to open my eyes. The vision that greeted me wasn’t the ruined temple, I was back in the basement of the house where the dungeon had been located. Around me were my battered and wounded team, along with one visitor. I wanted to ask if it was over, but I couldn’t stop coughing, and was having trouble getting enough air. Darkness descended over me as I lost consciousness again.