by David Burke
“Captain Kostik, as much as I might be inclined to agree with you, there is no harm in letting them go inside. Dungeons are, by their very nature, closed off eco-systems. There is only one way in and one way out of any dungeon. The gods have made it so—as a way of protecting their followers from the monsters within. Besides, none of them can escape while my mages and I are here.” The gray-haired lead mage spoke with a nasal tone, contempt for all of them clear on his face.
Kyle couldn’t help it. His snort of derision came out before he had a chance to catch the automatic reaction. In an instant, all eyes were on him.
Captain Kostik snapped, “Mind your manners slave. You may be Lady Meeka’s favorite pet of the moment, but I can tell you that never lasts. I’ve had more than one soldier get invited into her private chambers. Oh, they get perks for a while, but then one day, they just aren’t around anymore. She will tire of you just the same, slave.”
“What, jealous because you’ve never been invited to her bed? Or perhaps it’s the fact that I had to save her from assassins that your guards failed to prevent from getting up to her private office.”
The captain’s face got red, and his hand moved to his sword, as did those of half a dozen of his soldiers. Kyle sampled the mood and sensed the probability of battle rising. For some reason, he didn’t believe it was likely he’d end up in a fight with these clowns. It was like there was a gauge inside his head now—a gauge that measured killing intent. He could feel it rising, but it was still in the green. The point of critical mass hadn’t been reached.
Before the guard captain could say anything more, the head mage held out his hand. The man’s brows furrowed, and Kyle felt the three remaining manacles he wore begin to pulse against his skin. Earth Essence was being pushed into them. Each became incredibly heavy and they tried to pull him to the ground. A part of Kyle warned him to let them have their little show, and then they could get back to business.
He just couldn’t do it. This man was challenging him, trying to shame him. That was not something he could allow.
Kyle reached out with his mind to the manacles. The flow of Earth Essence into them was obvious. But this man’s control was imperfect. There was waste and excess. The manacles were not being used at peak efficiency and Kyle could make something out of that. He poured his own Earth Essence into the manacles and soon there was a struggle going on between the two of them.
The power see-sawed back and forth between them, but the more they struggled, the better Kyle understood how to use this essence. He was learning in seconds of magical combat what hours of practice had been unable to teach him. Just as he was about to overwhelm the mage, he felt more essence being piled on against him.
A quick glance showed that two of the other magi had come up and placed their hands upon the shoulders of the head mage. Apparently, it was going to be three on one.
Kyle raised his head to the sky and yelled out, “So be it.”
He wanted to simply overwhelm them with a combination of Earth Essence and War Essence, but some part of his mind was calm enough to see that this was an opportunity to learn, a chance to practice in practical terms. The three mages combined didn’t have as much essence as he did, between the two types that he could control. Their greater disadvantage, though, was that their conversion rate for recovering raw essence was much less than his. The longer the struggle went on, the greater his advantage would be.
They must have realized that too, as one of them shouted out, “Full pyramid!”
Despite the invisible struggle of essence and the crushing weight trying to force him to the ground, Kyle was able to look up and saw more of the mages come and join in. Placing their hands upon the shoulders of those in front of them, the mages stacked up, one on top of the other. Soon, there were seven mages pouring all of their essence into him.
None of them might have been a match for him individually, but together they were burying him in their essence. Kyle felt himself forced all the way to the ground as the combination of multiple essence types battered against him through the manacles. These damn manacles enhanced the power of these weak mortals.
Kyle thought about shattering the manacles, but then he heard a voice inside his head. It was definitely not Hilde, but a deep, gravelly voice that he had heard once before in a parking deck, far from here. “Now maybe you are ready to learn. Brute force is only one tool, tactics are another. If you are to be the lord of the battlefield, you must master and wield them all.”
Kyle’s mind expanded as he gained a fraction of Krig’s experience with tactics. He understood how Krig had fought with all kinds of beings and the multitude of planes that such battles took place in. Guided by Krig’s experience, Kyle threw up false walls of essence that distracted the energy being sent against him.
To the outside eye, it was an invisible battle. Unless one could see the plane of reality where their fight with essence raged, it hardly seemed like a fight was being waged. As far as the guards were concerned, Kyle struggled against some invisible weight that pressed him to the ground. His body, and that of the mages assembled against him, all trembled with strain, despite there being no other visible sign of struggle.
The fake walls of essence blocked the flow of the enemy's attacks and forced them to keep striking down his targets, in an effort to send their power directly against Kyle. He varied the strength of the walls, so that the mages were forced to send a large amount of power against each one—for fear of failing to knock them down. Much of that essence was then wasted, as they struck down paper thin walls with the equivalent of a wrecking ball.
Behind all these walls and diversions, Kyle formed seven spears of Earth Essence, lacing a thread of War Essence into each one. It was something that he hadn’t known could be done—something that Krig had never done before—but the knowledge of the two combined, created a greater whole.
Once his War Essence enhanced Earth Essence spears were ready, he hurled them at each of the mages. There was still no physical manifestation, as such, because this remained a silent battle of essence, but the magi had thought they were dealing with just Earth Essence. They’d thought to blunt the attacks and then redouble their efforts to beat Kyle into submission. Instead, though, as the spears struck the mage’s barriers, the Earth Essence spread out and the hidden needle of War Essence within struck through into them with deadly intent.
Kyle pulled back at the last instant. If he’d been Krig, there would now be seven dead mages lying in the dirt, their minds burned out and pierced through by lances of War Essence. Instead, he’d only knocked them unconscious and they all fell in a heap on the ground.
One of them mumbled, “How?”, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his consciousness slipped away into the welcoming darkness.
Chapter 14 - Team Set Up
It took Lash a good half hour to calm Captain Kostik down, after that. The one remaining flesh mage who hadn’t engaged in the battle assured him that the other mages were only sleeping. The problem though, was that such a display had crushed the guards’ confidence.
How could they hope to contain him if he could do that to seven mages? And that was assuming they could figure out what it was that he had done. The upside was that the other gladiators had all gathered round him.
It made Kyle feel better about their prospects as a team to know that they were prepared to fight beside him against even a hundred guards. Showing strength in that moment was probably a good thing for their belief in him. The fact that Nyda, too, had come to stand with them, despite their argument earlier was also reassuring. He really did want to find a way to help her out.
And maybe, just maybe, here in Verden he could find a meaningful relationship with more than one woman. All in all, that felt like having his cake and getting to eat it, too.
Gilthan had summed up the group’s feeling when he said, “It was almost worth being their fighting monkey, just to see those guards shitting themselves.�
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Both Nyda and Kierra seemed to be trying to get as close to him as possible. Gilthan maintained his cool, aloof exterior after his one comment, but Kyle could feel the elf’s eyes upon him. As a sorcerer, he probably had a better sense of what had gone on between Kyle and the mages.
As for Skrug, he kept chuckling to himself, “Little men shit pants.”
After Lash finally got things back under control, she walked over to where their group waited. They had moved off to the side and kept fifty feet between them and the guards, to avoid any misunderstandings. All the fighters had weapons they kept at the ready, other than Kyle. He had his soul bound weapon ready, not to mention the weapons inside his ring, but he felt it made him look more composed if he wasn’t fidgeting with a weapon.
The former blonde shield maiden gave him a crooked smile as she said, “I should be irate with you now, but I can’t keep from grinning. I doubt the War God himself could have done better than that at putting them in their place. You even managed to do it without killing anyone, which is the only reason we aren’t fighting those guards now.”
“I didn’t feel like they deserved to die, simply for trying to do their job, but that doesn’t mean I am going to let anyone disrespect me,” Kyle replied.
“You weren’t always so forgiving of slights to your honor,” Lash admitted. When she realized that she’d said this out loud, she snapped her mouth shut. She had just implied that Kyle and Krig were one and the same.
Kyle grinned at her and she swallowed hard.
Trying to smooth things over Kyle said, “I will listen to your advice, Lash, but if they want, I could just as easily remove the manacles from the whole team. I think they have served their purpose. Perhaps it is time that they learn to trust us, rather than trying to keep us on a leash.”
The rest of the team, including Nyda, perked up when he’d said that. They all had at least one manacle and would likely feel better with them gone. Afterall, not everyone could resist them, the way he could.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea—not yet. Let them all calm down a bit, first. It might be better for you to break them inside the dungeon, anyhow. That way, they won’t see anything,” Lash said.
“Does that mean that they won’t be accompanying us inside the dungeon?” Gilthan asked.
“That is certainly what it seems like, but we don’t need them. The only thing I wish is that one of the flesh mages would come with us. We could definitely use a healer,” Lash said.
“Skrug no need healer,” the half-troll grunted.
“Yes,” Lash said, “but not all of us can grow back toes that get cut off.”
“Just you and Gilthan, really. The troll, the alpha, and I all have enhanced healing,” Kierra said.
It was the first time that Kyle had seen Kierra get testy with Lash since losing her match to the woman. Maybe watching Kyle in action, or the partial upgrade that she’d gotten when he’d infused her with an incomplete divine splinter, was enough to embolden her.
“As far as healing goes,” Kyle interrupted, “if Gilthan and Lash are getting hit, then that means that Skrug and I aren’t doing our jobs. Make sure you stay well back. And although I can’t go into it now, just know that we will have some extra help in there.”
Something occurred to him. Looking at Lash, he said, “I just thought of something. Is there a limit on how many people can go into a single dungeon?”
“There are some that the gods have put a limit on. I think the instructions for one of them was something like, ‘The number of your party shall be six, no more, no less. Thou shalt not take five, nor shalt thou take seven, and eight is right out.”
Kyle snorted, wondering if they’d face any killer bunnies in this dungeon.
Lash continued, “But that was a divinely created dungeon, for testing the worthiness of Krig’s followers. It depends on if this is a naturally occurring dungeon, a training dungeon, or if it is just one that the gods set up to contain monsters within. Lady Meeka’s map to the dungeon didn’t provide many details about it—other than that it has never been cleared.”
“Okay, well, hopefully that won’t be an issue,” Kyle said thoughtfully.
Lash nodded and then looked at Nyda. “You should stay with the soldiers. Safer than coming into the dungeon with us.”
The elf maiden looked at Kyle, but he leaned in and whispered, “Do as she says. I’d like to keep you with us, but I think you will be safe out here with the soldiers. We shouldn’t be gone long, either. We are just scouting tonight.”
As much as he wanted to keep her with him, it would be foolhardy to bring a non-combatant into unknown danger.
Nyda bowed to Kyle and then walked off. The way she walked drew his eye like no other. Her petite frame just had this way of seeming imperious and yet inviting at the same time.
“Okay, so let’s get this over with. Any other instructions for us, Lashy?” Kyle asked, trying out the new nickname.
“No,” Lash said with a dramatic pause, “Just… no. As far as instructions go, I think it would be best if Kierra was our scout.” She looked at the lycan and said, “You will need to check for traps and let us know if you find any monsters, without alerting them to your presence. Can you do that?”
“As long as that is what the pack leader wants,” Kierra said, the entire time looking over at Kyle.
Lash waved her hand in front of Kierra’s face. “No, don’t look at him. I’m the leader here. You need to follow my orders, or we aren’t going to do well.”
Kierra didn’t say a word but kept staring at Kyle.
He held out a hand and stroked the side of her face. He wasn’t sure what prompted him to do so, but it felt a proper way to respond to her show of loyalty. “Listen to what Lash says,” he instructed. “She leads our hunt tonight.”
The words felt stilted and unusual when they’d come out of his mouth, and he wasn’t even sure how he’d known what to say, but Kierra responded. She nuzzled up against his hand, lowered her eyes and tilted her head to expose her neck to Kyle.
After a moment, she turned back to Lash and said, “I can do that.”
Gilthan chuckled and said, “Well, I guess we know who the team leader is.”
Lash’s face blushed a faint red and she turned towards the elf, but Kyle stepped between them. “Lash is the leader of this team. For now, she has the most experience of any of us, and we should avail ourselves of that.”
“Whip woman, not one promise Skrug freedom,” the half-troll said.
“And I will keep my promise, Skrug. But for now, we need her guidance,” Kyle said.
Lash looked like she wanted to say something, but apparently decided it wasn’t the right time or place. Any argument at this point, wasn’t going to go over well.
“Skrug.” She continued, “you will be next. It is your job to stop anything that comes at the party. While you do that, Gilthan will attack from the right and I will attack from the left. It is our job to bring them down.”
“What about me?” Kyle asked.
“You will step up if there are more monsters than Skrug can keep occupied on his own, or if I or Gilthan start getting attacked. Your job is to buy us a little time to disengage. Until then, you are our rear guard. You have to make sure that we don’t draw in any additional attackers. It will help you practice your situational awareness. Once we’ve gotten a few engagements together under our collective belt, if you are truly sure that the area behind us is clear, then you can jump in and add your own damage against whatever we are fighting.”
“Fair enough. But maybe Skrug and I can alternate turns up front.”
“Only if it is safe enough. You aren’t our reserve because I don’t want you fighting, you are there because you are strong enough to take a hit and your senses should be refined enough to warn of potential dangers sneaking up behind us. Of course, you’ll still need to prove that in the dungeon,” Lash explained.
A
fter a couple more minutes, they’d sorted themselves out and headed into the dungeon. The entrance was worked stone, which made Kyle think this wasn’t a naturally occurring dungeon. But other than the worked stone, there weren’t any signs that it hadn’t simply been buried underground.
The cave just beyond the entrance showed signs of having recently been torn open. Perhaps it had only been exposed during the cataclysm. If that was the case, there was no telling how long it had been here, buried deep under the earth.
Of course, Kyle didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Chapter 15 - Into the Bowels of the Earth
Once inside, they found a brightly colored moss growing all throughout the cave. Some parts of the walls looked more like carpet than stone. Lash’s careful application of a belt knife, however, revealed that beneath all the shades of red and orange, the walls were made of well-crafted stone blocks, tightly fitted together.
