by Konrad Ryan
No use delaying. Without another thought, Tad sprinted toward the cave. His muscles ached with each stride as he propelled himself to a speed he’d never enjoyed before. His enhanced dexterity pushed him faster and faster. His discomfort increased the longer his sprint went on. He expected himself to trip, or slip, but his feet found sure footholds. Despite his muscular pain, only by the end of the sprint did he even get winded. At full sprint, Tad could feel his deficiencies. His low strength score would become a problem in an extended fight. His speed was decent, and his endurance was great. How much faster could he become? Eventually with enough constitution, could he run a whole marathon at a full sprint? The possibilities made him a little dizzy.
Despite the lack of trees on the landscape, sharp wooden pikes jutted from the ground outside the small cave. On each of the pikes, a strange-looking head sat impaled as a warning. Were these failed challengers like him? If Tad lost the fight would his head be the next one on the pike?
Drawn by the severed heads, Tad drew closer to inspect their features. The heads looked alien, different from any creature he’d ever seen. Their ears made of some rough leathery material, like bat-wings. There was no nose on their squished, prune-like faces. Their pit-like mouths hung open, revealing sharp jagged teeth, but the teeth weren’t bone. Translucent spirals of razor sharp glass covered every surface inside of their mouths. He couldn’t imagine these creatures could ever close their own mouths, even in life. There were too many teeth at odd angles. They would stab themselves.
The eyes, however, were eerily human. They looked out of place on such an abomination, but the glazed over dead eyes stared off into the distance. The dead creatures looked fierce. Had they been trying to rank up to soldier as well? Or were they just denizens of this strange place who had stumbled into the cave? Either way, Tad had to fight whatever had killed them.
Tad took a deep breath to calm his beating heart, then descended into the cave below. He hunched so his head didn’t brush the damp cave ceiling. Not ideal fighting conditions. At least he didn’t have to crawl. He advanced slowly, listening to the sounds of the underground as he strained his ears for potential dangers.
The cave descended farther into pitch-darkness. Tad slowed his pace and groped ahead blindly, using the cavern walls as a guide. The walls had a dank and spongy texture, not earthen like he’d expected. Just what was he feeling? One of those light spheres Becca used for the boss fight would sure be useful right about now. Whenever he got his profits from the last dungeon, a light sphere would be his first purchase.
Tad strained his eyes as black shapes formed. Shadows within shadows. After a moment, he let out a relieved sigh as he realized what was happening. A gentle glow from violet luminescence covered every surface of the inky black darkness of the cave. It was so subtle that at first glance, everything seemed dark. Tiny mushroom-like fungi covered the walls, the floor, and the roof of the cave. A small footpath was the only place devoid of the mushrooms. Tad suddenly got the feeling he would soon meet the creature who made the path. The footprints were tiny, like a child’s. Above the toes of the impressions were deep puncture marks. Claws. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face. He’d have to watch out for those.
His heart pounded in his ears with each step he took. The first fight wouldn’t be that bad. It couldn’t be that bad. Right? It was the first fight he’d have to do alone. His first solo battle. His stats distribution wasn’t ideal for this battle. His physical abilities lagged far behind his magical ones. The darkness of the cave made him uneasy, unsure. If only he had a source of light.
Wait… he had a source of light! He could cast his firewall spell for ten minutes to light-
The smell of rotting flesh stopped Tad dead in his tracks. The windy cave tunnel opened into a larger cavern. The violet light of the mushrooms did not extend into the void beyond. Hazy darkness was the only thing to meet him. The smell of rot and feces made Tad’s stomach churn as he took a hesitant step into the room. His back groaned in protest as he stood straight for the first time since he entered the cave. The ceiling was higher here. Whatever he was to fight, no doubt lived here. It likely brought its kills back to this place to devour.
Tad hoped maybe, just maybe, the creature wasn’t home.
Two glowing brown eyes appeared in the darkness. Humanoid, but feral, evil. Even though Tad couldn’t see the face of the creature, he knew it was smiling. Tad’s stomach jumped into his throat and he envisioned himself casting a wall of fire. Green fire sprang up as he positioned it deeper into the cavern.
“Firewall!”
Light erupted from the darkness, born from Tad’s panic and fear. A small creature sprang at Tad. Glittering fangs sprayed rainbow shimmers across the cavern from the reflected light of the firewall. Tad dove to the right, barely able to dodge the tiny monstrosity as he rolled back to his feet. The creature! It was the same as the ones impaled outside the cave! It was shorter than his waist, but the glass-like teeth rotated inside its mouth, like a blender of death. Tad looked around for a weapon, anything. A piece of rotting wood lay on the ground, Tad snatched it up, wielding it on his arm like a shield.
The creature leapt. It was fast, but not as fast as Tad. In a smooth motion, he raised the makeshift shield into the blender-maw of a mouth. Suddenly the mouth of the creature stretched and opened unnaturally wide. It engulfed both shield and arm in an instant. The rotten shield splintered into a thousand pieces of wood, as dozens of glass-like teeth sank into his flesh. The creature’s mouth closed, but the teeth continued to rotate around his arm. Tad screamed in pain and panic as he imagined what the rotating teeth were doing to his arm inside the maw.
Instinctively he grabbed the closed mouth of the creature, pulling futilely. Tad wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to force the toothblender’s mouth open. An evil smirk danced in the creature’s expressive human eyes. Panic redoubled. He did the only thing he could think of.
He punched it in the face, but the loose skin sagged and absorbed the blow. The smirk intensified on the creature’s face. Tad’s health bar dropped below sixty percent. He could feel his blood, his life force, drain into the creature’s belly. His arm felt like hamburger as the tooth-blender continued slicing. Endlessly slicing. A thought broke through Tad’s panicked, frenzied mind.
His firewall!
Tad dashed as fast as his enhanced dexterity could take him and plunged his arm and the creature both into the raging flames. The blaze of fire was immediately effective. Tad felt the creature’s scream as its grip on Tad’s arm weakened. Tad grabbed the slimy hair of the creature with his free hand and held it there with all the strength he could muster. It wasn’t enough.
The creature’s hold on his arm disappeared. It flipped, sharp clawed toes dug deep into the hand holding its slimy hair. Instinctively, Tad released the creature, which fell deeper into the firewall. In a streak of flame it jumped from the firewall, like a fireball shot into the darkness. Tad couldn’t bring himself to look at his arm. He finally did. Bile filled his mouth at the sight. Bone exposed. Blood spilled like rain from shredded arteries. There was hardly any skin or flesh left on his arm. The sight made him dizzy. Could that really be his arm? Tad glanced at his health bar.
*Health: 49/110
Mana: 24/42*
“Heal!”
Could he even heal an arm this shredded? He couldn’t waste all of his mana into healing. What if he needed another big spell? Two mana disappeared as Tad’s health bar jumped by ten. He watched with rapt attention as the shredded muscles writhed like snakes intertwining, sinew and ligaments connected like cables. Arteries and veins found themselves connected and regrown where they had been missing, but that was as far as the healing went. Muscle and bone wept clear fluid, but at least the bleeding had stopped. His arm still throbbed, the naked muscle stung, exposed to the dank cave air. But Tad still had options. He could heal later.
Tad scoured the cave. Anger flared in his chest. Revenge on his mind. Tad found the heavily burned c
reature as it yanked a stick out of the earthen wall on the opposite side of the small cave. It was a pike, just like the ones outside of the cave. Suddenly the creature’s entire body writhed as if in pain. A supersonic screech sent Tad’s hands to cover his ears. The glassy, toothed-maw of the creature opened impossibly wide. Did the creature have no bones in its face?
Tad’s jaw dropped, his eyes refused to believe what he saw. A smaller creature emerged from the now-bloody maw of the bigger creature. It was half as short as the last one, barely up to Tad’s knees. Covered in blood and slime, it flopped out onto the cave floor like a newborn. The larger tooth-blender creature dropped to the ground. Lifeless.
The smaller toothblender grabbed the stick. In a bizarre motion, it flipped the larger toothblender inside-out. Like a garbage bag. Then impaled the larger toothblender on the pike. Blood-soaked teeth covered the pike as the corpse of the toothblender tightened onto the pike. It was the most gruesome weapon Tad had ever seen. It resembled a glassy, spike-covered baseball bat dripping with Tad’s blood.
The hairs on Tad’s arms rose on end as the glass-teeth of the weapon spun on their own. Red strands of Tad’s blood splashed across the cave walls.
The small toothblender slowly approached Tad, step by step, weapon at the ready. It practice-swung it like a baseball bat. With the spinning wicked teeth on all sides of the weapon. If it landed, it would shred him like pulled pork. In a quick darting attack, the toothblender stabbed the weapon at him. Tad dodged backward, but Gruff’s overlarge shirt got caught in the fangs, shredding in an instant.
Tad twisted away from the pulling fabric of the shirt as the toothblender chased him with the weapon. Finally, the shirt ripped completely off Tad’s back, shreds of cloth were all that remained from Gruff’s loaned shirt. He retreated from the still-approaching toothblender. He had no shield or even a weapon. All he had were his spells. Even if Tad was faster than the creature, it wouldn’t help if he couldn’t attack it. He didn’t have the strength to force it into the firewall a second time. But maybe he didn’t need it. Tad envisioned a thundercloud inside the small cave.
“Thunderstorm!”
The darkness of the cave condensed and swirled into an inky thundercloud until it filled the entire cavern above them. Tad had only read the spell once and pulled up the description.
*Thunderstorm: Consumes 20 mana upon use. Lightning strikes a random enemy for 3 damage each second. Duration 600 Seconds.*
Three damage wasn’t a lot, but with just one enemy it would do 1800 damage over ten minutes. Tad just had to dodge the toothblender long enough for his spell to do its work.
With a crack of thunder, lightning shot from the cloud and zapped the toothblender. It hissed in surprise as it hopped back, a minor burn mark smoked where it struck. A second strike followed, then a third. The monster tried to dodge the strikes to no avail. They were impossibly fast. Again and again the lightning fell. Crack, crack! It swung its weapon into the clouds to no effect. Crack! The lightning struck it once more. Rage filled its eyes as it turned its attention to Tad.
The toothblender charged in a flash and swung the weapon almost twice its size at Tad’s head. Tad sidestepped the attack and punched it in its little face, careful to avoid the mouth. Crack! The punch landed, but its skin rippled and dispersed the blow, seemingly having no effect. Tad needed to increase his strength stat! He was worse than worthless in melee combat!
The creature followed as it attacked again and again, the weapon in its hands spun at supersonic speeds. But it was futile if it couldn’t hit him. Crack, crack! Tad dodged out of its way as the thunderstorm did its work. The creature chased, but slowed as its health bar drained. Its odd human-like eyes burned with rage as each swing of its weapon met air. Tad was out of breath, but there was no way he would be hit by that weapon. He carefully dodged each attack, leading the monster in circles.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of dodging, the toothblender fell to the ground, lifeless.
The thunderstorm floated overhead, finally quiet.
Tad inhaled in great gulps. The monster had been quicker than he’d expected. It took almost every ounce of his concentration to avoid being smashed by the spiked-bat weapon. Tad eyed the weapon for a moment. It no longer spun. He walked carefully toward the corpse of the creature. Another one wouldn’t pop out of its mouth again… would it? Like grotesque glass-toothed Russian dolls? If it got any smaller Tad could just squish it with his shoes. It was safe. Probably.
Tad prodded the dead creature with his foot, then flipped it over with a harder kick. Burns covered its body from head to clawed toe from his spell. It did not look like a pleasant death. But his arm being ground down to a sloppy mess hadn’t been pleasant either. Tad gingerly lifted the toothblender-on-a-stick and cast the ‘identify’ spell.
*Tooth-blender-on-a-stick: Named by Tad Harrington. Two-handed weapon. The Tooth-blender-on-a-stick can be activated for ten seconds with one mana.
Deals 6 Damage.
Deals 24 Damage while activated.*
Tooth-blender-on-a-stick? That was the dumbest name! That was way too long of a name for a weapon. Something like teethspinner, or fangblender, would have been a way better name. Fangblender. That sounded cool, at least. A music note filled Tad’s head as a dialogue box appeared before his eyes.
*Do you wish to change the name of ‘Tooth-blender-on-a-stick to Fangblender?’*
Tad never pushed the ‘Yes’ button so fast. He could now wield Fangblender proudly.
More musical chimes filled his head.
*Congratulations! You are now the rank of Soldier! Your level cap has been lifted! You have ten seconds until the next battle starts. Next battle unlocks the ‘Equipment System’.
Recommended level for quest: 12.
Do you wish to quit?*
Tad swallowed hard. He’d done it. Had done the bare minimum. He was now soldier. If he quit, he could go home and heal his wounded arm. It still made him queasy to look at. Not to mention Tad was still level eight, but the recommended level had gone up by five. The next fight would be harder. He looked at his health bar.
*Health: 59/110
Mana: 0/42*
He was out of mana, and he only had half of his life left. Suddenly Tad felt silly at identifying Fangblender. It used five precious mana when he sorely needed it. Maybe he could cast a few minor spells as his mana regenerated, but his new big spells were out of reach. Tad wanted desperately to continue, but he hadn’t thought his resources would become so drained from the first fight.
Not to mention that this monster had been scary enough, and it was just the first of five! If they got progressively stronger… Tad suddenly wasn’t sure he could beat them all. He’d hoped to be strong enough. But he just didn’t have enough stat points. He put them all in magic to help his party, and now that seemed like a tremendous mistake. He was almost useless by himself once his mana ran out. His mana replenished almost at one a minute now. By the time the battle started, he might have one or two mana back.
But he had a weapon now. A good one if activated, even though it cost mana to use properly.
Maybe just one more fight.
*Three. Two. One. The fight will now commence. Good luck.*
Good luck? That almost felt personal. Was someone trying to warn him it would be dangerous? Or was it just programmed that way?
Tad had no more time to think as the floor dissolved from beneath his feet, into a freefall.
Chapter 12
Chilly air rushed past as Tad fell endlessly downward. Blackness filled the space before his eyes as the light of his firewall vanished far above. Tad gripped Fangblender with both hands, fighting the urge to wave his arms for balance. Without mana, losing his weapon was a death sentence.
The wind slowed. No, Tad slowed. Until he stopped completely. He floated in the pitch-darkness. His hands hurt from how hard he gripped the haft of his unique weapon. Suddenly, Tad fell once again, and icy water enveloped his entire body.
Bright blue light illuminated the grotto in an instant as huge underground crystals sprang to life. Tad kicked his feet and flailed his arms awkwardly, still holding his weapon. He kicked for the surface, while he searched wildly for his enemy. Tad’s wounded arm stung in the fresh water of the lake. Surely this was the new arena in which his deathmatch would be held. Tad broke the surface of the lake and gasped for air, but something clamped onto his leg and pulled him back under the water.
Fresh water filled his mouth and throat as Tad glanced downward at the hard green lobster’s claw that gripped his leg. Tad choked and vomited water out of his lungs as the lobster claw pulled him farther and farther from the surface of the underground lake. The claw belonged to a dark green creature covered in rough scales. The water in the lake was as clear as glass, lit by shining blue crystals, Tad could see straight to the bottom of the lake far below. The face of the creature was like some twisted version of a pig and a fish. Its nose was pig-like, but every other feature looked like it had been stolen from other aquatic creatures. Lobster arms and claws, mermaid tail. Human-like head with a pig nose. It was one of the most bizarre creatures Tad had ever seen.
The claw on his leg tightened as Tad’s leg bone creaked. Was it broken already? He needed to get to the surface. His lungs burned, his coughing fit let most of his air escape. Tad tried to swing his weapon down toward the lobsterpig. Underwater, however, the weapon had too much resistance to swing effectively. Maybe if his strength score were higher, he could attack with it, but it was impossible. His grip loosened as the drag of the water increased on the weapon, threatening to rip it out of his hands. Tad cursed himself. What he wouldn’t give for some extra points in strength!
The second claw sliced through the water as it grabbed Tad around the ribcage. Tad felt a pop and then immense pain as a rib broke inside his chest. The incredible crushing force of the claw pushed out what little air remained in his lungs. Tad had to do something quick or the lobsterpig would crush him before he even had time to drown! Tad pushed Fangblender down toward the face of his foe and glanced at his mana. The time between fights and the freefall replenished two mana. Warmth sprang down his neck into his arm. It pooled into the unfamiliar weapon, consuming one mana.
