Shadow Sun Expansion

by Dave Willmarth

  The others all made generally agreeable noises, and they proceeded down the nearest stairwell, Amanda casting Light to create a globe to illuminate their path. One floor down they exited and began again. The room at the end of the hall turned out to be the maintenance office, and after making sure there were no monsters, they split up and began to search. Dawn was the one to discover a box on one wall with dozens of keys attached to numbered tags. The keys were hefty and metal, made to look like the original keys used in the late 1800s when the building was constructed. There was a diagram on the inside door that showed each of the floors and the numbered offices that corresponded to the key tags.

  “That’s helpful, but I don’t really want to carry around a hundred keys. Let’s keep looking for a master.” Allistor opened a desk draw and began to rifle through. A few minutes later, Lars held up a ring with six keys.

  “The tag on this says Skeleton Keys. I’m guessing this is what we need.”

  “Right on!” Allistor gave him a thumbs-up. “Let’s go. We’ll clear this level, then head down. Might as well clear the rest of the way down.

  The balance of the first basement level was cleared without incident, other than a rat that scared Dawn nearly as much as she scared it. The rodent disappeared around a corner, and Fuzzy took off in pursuit, his nose to the floor. A moment later a growl and a squeak spelled the end of the rat.

  The next level down was a completely different story.

  The moment Logan opened the stairwell exit door on the lower level, he was attacked. Tentacles shot through the half-open doorway and latched onto his arm, tiny hooks biting into his skin and pulling at him. Dropping his shotgun, he used his other arm and one leg to brace against the door frame and push, trying to free himself. Allistor blindly cast Flame Shot through the opening, where it burst against a pair of octopoids, illuminating them for a few seconds.

  They were larger than any octopoids Allistor had previously faced. Easily eight feet tall, their heads nearly reached the ceiling of the corridor. Allistor Examined one.

  Octopoid

  Level 14

  Health: 23,220/24,200

  Taking hold of Logan’s waist, he added his strength to the tug of war. The two men together were able to out-muscle the creatures, and free Logan’s arm. A good bit of flesh was removed, and several heals hit Logan all at once.

  The lead octopoid, enraged by the flame damage, which the amphibious creature was especially susceptible to, pushed through and forced the door farther open. Lars and Chris both fired shotguns directly into its face from just a few feet away. At the same time, now on his back after he and Logan fell free, Allistor cast Erupt into the monster, stopping it cold partway through the door and blocking the one behind.

  Allistor saw an experience notification float across his interface as the front octopoid expired. Logan quickly surged back to his feet and kicked at the corpse, pushing it off the stone spike and knocking back the monster behind it. He then slammed the door shut and put his back to it, sliding down to sit on the floor. There was some thumping, but the metal door easily held.

  Dawn snorted, sitting on one of the stairs. “We’re good. Those things are tough, but they’re dumb. They don’t know how to turn a doorknob.”

  The others looked at her in stunned silence. That thought had not occurred to any of them. After a few seconds, Lars said, “That makes a lot of sense, actually. It’s why we haven’t found any of them upstairs. They spawned down here and have been trapped on this level.”

  Amanda added, “And they must be feeding on each other. Unless they’re spawning at higher levels now. That thing was level 14. I dinged when it died.”

  Dawn nodded her head. “Me too.”

  They took a moment to catch their breath and recharge, those who cast spells regaining their full mana. Logan was fully restored and though he’d lost some skin in the fight, he hadn’t lost much blood due to the prompt attention of the others with their heals. Amanda had observed the multiple spells dropping on him, and addressed the group. “Hey guys, it’s great that everybody dropped a heal to support Logan. But we can’t all do that all the time, or we’ll be out of juice in the first five minutes. I’m dedicating myself to healing, at least as far as spells go. I’ll do damage with my gun when I’m not healing. If I start to get low, or can’t keep up, I’ll call for help. Helen, Allistor, and… Lars? You guys can alternate backup heals. I’ll shout your name and a target. Good?”

  Everyone nodded their agreement, even Chris. Good group mechanics were important, and this was a life and death situation. Octopoids had a habit from the very first day of spawning inside homes and places where people were sheltering, often catching their prey asleep or otherwise unaware. They were responsible for a huge percentage of the losses the human race had suffered. Helen stood next to Lars at the door, where the pounding had ceased. “They’ve backed off. Must have learned that pounding on the doors was useless during their time down here. If these things can learn, they might become a problem.”

  Back on his feet, Logan raised his shotgun and aimed it at the door. “One of you want to open it for me? I’ll blast whatever’s closest, try to give us some breathing room. Don’t know how many are in there, but I saw several bodies moving when they tried to pull me in. We need to push into the corridor. Whatever you do, don’t let them into this stairwell.”

  Chris stepped forward and took hold of the door knob. After a quick look around to make sure everyone was set, he nodded at Logan and yanked the door open. Before it was even halfway open, Logan had his barrel thrust forward and was firing, pumping, and firing again. Behind him, the others were aiming to either side of him and added their rounds to his. Three octopoids that were clustered in front of the door took slugs and buckshot to their heads and torsos, but none went down.

  Octopoid

  Level 16

  Health: 22,400/29,500

  Allistor cast Restraint on the nearest, which was to his left. He hit the center mob with Erupt, stopping it cold before he chambered another round in his own shotgun and blasted it in the face from less than ten feet. He saw the slug punch into its bulbous head, then exit out the back with a spray of spongy flesh and blood, and it dropped dead. Allistor and the others had learned that regardless of a creature’s remaining health pool, destroying its brain, decapitating it, or taking out its heart would kill it.

  He didn’t see who cast the spell, but someone hit the third octopoid with a fireball. He thought it was probably Lars or Logan, as the spell was relatively weak.

  He was about to fire again when Logan called out, “Moving in!” He waited a heartbeat for the others to hear and hold fire, then stepped forward through the doorway, blasting the burning octopoid as he went. From just three feet away, the impact from the blast knocked the eight-foot tall monster onto its back, still burning and waving its six tentacles wildly.

  Allistor and Chris were the next two through the door. Chris naturally moved to help Logan with the burning monster while Allistor went for the one on the left, just recovering from his earlier stun. He cast Erupt on the ground in front of it, but his aim was off. The spike that shot up from the floor pierced its upper thigh rather than its gut or chest. Still, it did serious damage, pushing through the stumpy limb and nearly severing it. Gouts of blood poured from the wound, but the creature shrugged it off and reached for Allistor. Unable to step forward, it bent at the waist and leaned toward him, all six of its tentacles bleeding from gunshot wounds.

  Allistor tried to halt his own forward progress and lean backward to avoid them, but was too slow. Three of the appendages reached him, wrapping around his left arm and leg. Another got hold of his shotgun and ripped it from his grasp. He could feel the hooks on the underside of the tentacles digging into his skin as he set his feet and began a tug of war with the octopoid.

  It was at least as strong as he was, and higher leveled. The thing made a bubbling screeching sound as the contest of strength caused the stone spike to do even mor
e damage to its leg. But the spike also helped the monster, giving it an anchor from which to pull at Allistor.

  Helen stepped up next to him and shoved her shotgun directly into the octopoid’s face. When she pulled the trigger, the head exploded, showering them both in gore. Behind them, Dawn complained, “Hey, dammit! What’s with the goo-splosion?” She sniffed at her arm, adding, “I smell like swampy ass covered in spoiled egg-salad.”

  Despite the pain from the hooks pulling at his skin, Allistor couldn’t help but chuckle. Her description was pretty accurate. He carefully untangled the tentacles from his arm, then his leg, and Amanda waited until he was through before casting a heal on him. His leather gear now had several small blood-stained tears in it, and he’d have to get it mended soon.

  The corridor was clear as far as they could see. Allistor launched a second light globe and pushed it down the corridor ahead of them. They worked the floor the same as the others, opening each door and clearing the room, then closing the door behind them. It helped to have the keys with them, as they could quickly open the locked doors without having to kick them in.

  Three more of the rooms had octopoids in them, but these must have been trapped in the rooms and unable to feed, because they were all low level and easily dispatched. At the end of the corridor was another stairwell leading down. This one was much older than the others, and was carved right into the bedrock beneath the building. As they descended, the temperature dropped, and there was trickling moisture in places along the rough walls on either side.

  “This can’t be good. Those things love wet places. They wouldn’t have stayed upstairs unless there was something down here they didn’t want to mess with.” Lars observed.

  The stair curved around one hundred eighty degrees so that they were moving back underneath the main corridor above. When they reached the bottom, an old iron gate was sitting open. Past that was a wide corridor with rough stone floors and walls, lined on either side by what could only be jail cells. Framed in iron bars, each was about six feet square with a drain hole in the stone floor. A familiar stench emanated from somewhere in the back, where a heavy looking iron door stood open.

  Dawn grumbled under her breath. “Great, whatever it is, it’s even smellier than the others.”

  They didn’t have to wait long to find out what it was. A massive version of the mobs upstairs stomped past the door at the back. The bedrock below them vibrated slightly with each step. Even with the seven-foot tall door open, all they could see of the monster was from its waist down.

  Octopoid Alpha

  Elite

  Level 20

  Health: 43,900/43,900

  “Well, shit.” Allistor sighed, resigned to having to fight yet another over-leveled monster. At least this time he had help. And an idea.

  “This might be easy!” his tone changed as he began to formulate a plan. “I don’t think it can fit through the door.” He looked at Helen. “We’ll kill this just like the dragon inside the Silo. Pound at it from out here, trap it in the doorway if it tries to come through.”

  Lars nodded. “I like it! We can stand well back from the door and work the hell out of its legs till it falls. Then work the body till it’s dead.”

  They moved forward, carefully checking the empty cells as they went. When they were ten feet from the next door, they paused and spread out slightly. Allistor, Logan, and Chris took a knee while the others stood behind them, making the group look like a revolutionary war firing line. From this position they could see more of the creature, which looked to be at least fifteen feet tall. They still couldn’t see its head as it shuffled back and forth. The area of the room visible beyond the door showed it to be a large cavern, at least fifty yards wide, that looked like it had been carved from the stone with hammer and chisel. They couldn’t see the ceiling, but it must have been much higher than the room they were in, because the creature didn’t appear to be stooping over at all.

  Logan whispered, “Alright, as it walks by, we all focus fire on its nearest leg. Aim low, try to hit its ankle. If you aim too low, your shots will ricochet back up and still do damage, so don’t sweat it. Let’s see if we can cripple it.”

  They waited as the thing stomped closer. The moment it appeared in front of the door, all of them fired. The impact and sheer blasting power of eight shotguns’ worth of buck shot and slugs all striking roughly the same spot was devastating. Most of the monster’s lower leg disappeared in a cloud of blood and bits of flesh. It staggered, letting out a roar that hurt everyone’s ears. Before any of them could fire again, the beast dropped to its belly and shot through the doorway head first, using all six of its tentacle arms to first grip the door frame and pull it through, then to grab hold of Logan and Allistor.

  Both men cried out in pain as the monstrously long and strong appendages wrapped around their bodies. The hooks dug in deep even as the coils tightened, ripping armor, clothes, and flesh like they’d been dumped in a shredder. Allistor’s health dropped by thirty percent in seconds, and Logan was faring only slightly better because he’d put more points into Constitution. Somehow, the alpha managed to grip him with two different tentacles in opposite directions, so that when they coiled tighter, Allistor’s body was twisted painfully at the waist even as his flesh was torn off in chunks.

  Amanda shouted, “Helen! Heal Allistor! Lars, you get Logan! I’ll help with both. Everybody shoot!”

  Allistor felt first one heal, then a second, trying to focus through the pain enough to cast a spell. His health bar quit dropping near the halfway mark, and held there. Finally, he managed a Restraint spell that froze the creature and its mercilessly rending limbs. He felt another heal and closed his eyes for just a second. Opening them again, he nearly puked as he took in the state of Logan’s body. Much like his own, it was badly shredded, bleeding from dozens of places where half-dollar sized chunks of flesh had been torn away.

  He took a moment to cast Restore on himself, then on Logan, to help the healers. Then he shouted, “Everybody use Erupt while it’s on the ground!” Not waiting for the others, he cast the spell right in front of its bulbous, malformed head. A spike shot up from the stone floor directly into its face, but didn’t kill it.

  Octopoid Alpha

  Elite

  Level 20

  Health: 15,100/43,900

  His spike had missed the monster’s brain, but its health continued to drop as Helen, Amanda, Lars, and Logan all sent stone spikes up into its body. The attacks freed it from Allistor’s stun, and it began thrashing wildly. The rending and tearing of the tightening coils ceased, but instead both men were smashed against the floor, ceiling, and iron bars.

  Allistor tried to cast Restraint again, but an impact with the floor interrupted and stunned him. Logan’s body was flapping about limply in the creature’s grip, either unconscious or dead.

  Another round of shotgun blasts went off, and Allistor caught a glimpse of Chris running forward. The man stopped a foot from the prone monster’s head and fired a slug from point-blank range, even as he ducked to avoid a flailing tentacle. The slug blasted a deep hole, and blood welled out, but still the thing wouldn’t die. Allistor, still partly dazed and with his head ringing, couldn’t help but focus on the hole left by Chris’ slug. He called out in a weak voice. “Everyone back. Ten steps, get back!”

  When he saw the others complying, he returned his focus to the hole in the elite mob’s head. A moment later he brought to mind the Vortex spell, but before casting he, focused on compressing it, making the whirlwind as small yet violent as possible. When he thought he had what he wanted, he let the spell loose.

  A second later the whirlwind sprang to life, just as he’d imagined it. A tiny tornado of air and blood and dirt that spun impossibly fast in a tight cone inside the shotgun wound. A mental push from Allistor sent it deeper, effectively drilling into the monster’s melon. The effect was mesmerizing. Everyone in the group stood gaping as the wind drilled its way into the screeching monster, se
nding a spray of blood that coated everything in the room.

  Seconds later, the alpha stopped thrashing. Allistor was slammed into the floor again, but with only the force of gravity this time as the dead limbs fell. Everybody leveled up, and when the lights around Allistor faded, he saw Amanda was already running toward Logan, casting heals and pulling out a potion. Helen went with her, ignoring Allistor. He had to admit that it caused a bit of a twinge inside to see his two favorite women running to help his injured friend instead of him. He told himself it was a triage situation, that Logan needed them more than he did just then. It only made him feel a little bit better.

  Surprisingly, Chris stepped over and reached a hand toward the tentacle wrapped around Allistor’s chest, then paused and looked at him with a brow raised, a question in his eyes, but no sound coming from his lips. He’d taken Logan’s warning seriously. Allistor nodded to him, and Chris began to carefully peel away the end of the appendage, doing his best with a belt knife to free the hooks from Allistor’s flesh as gently as possible.

  “I’ve been snagged by these things more than once. Though never one even half this size.” Chris looked down along the monster’s fifteen-foot length. “The secret is to treat them like fishhooks. Push them through, snap off the barb, then pull them out.” He calmly matched deed to word as Allistor watched.

  “Thank you, Chris. You did well in the fight. How ‘bout we put our past behind us?”

  The man paused in his work and nodded his hand. “I’d like that. I’d shake your hand, but…” He nodded toward his occupied hands.

  Allistor tried not to laugh. Any movement at all hurt at this point. “Yeah, please just keep doin’ what you’re doin’.”

  Dawn came over to help as well, and over the next several minutes Allistor cast heals on himself while the two of them worked to free him. His leather gear was so badly shredded that it was beyond redemption. A pool of blood had formed under him by the time he was free. Logan was conscious but still looking dazed as he sat with his back against one of the cells. Lars had helped the ladies free and heal him, and they were trying to feed him some jerky.