This time, Jennifer was the one to explode into dust. An array of items fell out of the space where she once stood. The items provided Arden the cover she needed as she swooped down for the most precious one of all: Jennifer’s golden skull. Without the skull, her party members wouldn’t be able to revive her.
She hugged the skull for dear life, then activated her Teleport skill to get back to the Dungeon Heart room.
Minette’s orb was a mixture of purples and reds, the swirls crisscrossing around her. “We should have retreated. What were you thinking, killing that girl? Now they’re going to be after us ten times as bad.”
“Ten times or one time, it doesn’t matter. They already wanted to get us.”
“This was supposed to be a scouting mission. Because of you, they might be trying to kill us now.”
Arden didn’t have the patience to enumerate her arguments to the contrary. “They were always going to do that if they had the chance. We kill them now or we kill them later, what difference does it make?”
Minette sighed. “I’m saying we should be careful.”
“Switch me to the Overview mode. I wanna see what they’re doing.”
“Robin’s still running from that catten. It looks like they’re heading into our maze area.”
Arden laughed. “Look at him run. He’s so scared.”
“Everyone else is looking very upset. They’re not happy.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault I have to use underhanded tactics. They should’ve seen that coming.”
“It seems like they’re dividing. The archer’s going one way and the cleric and warrior are going a different one. I don’t know if that’s the smartest plan,” Minette said. “That’s pretty brave of them after we took out their mage.”
“People love being heroes. I’ll tell you what. Bring the spiny lynx for a meeting with the cleric and warrior. I’ll go along. The archer’s walking straight into one of our trap-infested zones. She’ll be my second stop.”
“Then, we’ll rush her with cattens, right?”
“On my command only. Don’t do anything without checking with me first. You’re keeping track of the workercats, too, right?”
“Right, right, right. That’s the one thing you trust me to do, isn’t it?”
“Seriously, wait before you do anything else. We’ve lost half of our units and we don’t have to lose the rest of them as long as we play it smart here. Take it easy.”
Minette flashed red at the implication. “Excuse me?”
“What I meant to say was that we shouldn’t be hasty,” Arden said. “I’ll go once I’m finished resting.”
“Good luck. Don’t take too long.”
Time was a narrow expanse as it was. Things were only made more difficult by that limitation.
Chapter 15
Moving down the hallways was a clumsy endeavor. Controlling her limbs while in Overview mode always felt clunky. She didn’t like experiencing embarrassing things like flying right into the wall when she meant to turn left or getting stuck around corners.
For those reasons, she much preferred to never move when she was in the Overview mode.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Minette not to inform her where the adventurers were. The problem was that the dungeon already had enough things to do as it was. An extra set of eyes, just to double check over Minette, wasn’t meant to be insulting. Everything had to go off without a hitch for their plan to work. If Minette minded that later, then oh well.
Micah and the cleric, Arden’s first targets, were meandering through twisty passages. It took some straining on Arden’s part to notice, but Micah was red-faced and of furrowed brows.
The cleric took the widest strides he could to keep up. He kept waving his arms around, seeming to try to reassure Micah. If it wasn’t for Arden having to focus so much on being able to walk a straight line, she would’ve listened to their conversation.
Paradiso the spiny lynx followed behind Arden. He had a considerably less difficult time walking than she did. Walking in a top-down viewpoint wasn’t something she ever thought she’d be able to get used to.
After taking a moment to judge the distance between them and the adventuring duo, Arden switched out of the Overview mode. Their voices—the cleric’s frantic shouting of “Micah, slow down!” and Micah insisting that they couldn’t—carried over to her from around the bend in the hall. She glanced back at the spiny lynx, admiring the spikes that bloomed from its spinal ridges.
Although she couldn’t select Paradiso, Arden imagined what his current numbers were:
[Nickname: Paradiso
Name: Spiny Lynx 1
Unit Type: Ranged
Health: 85/85
Energy: High!
Morale: Excited to Kill!]
She let the adventurers come to her rather than running up to meet them. As soon as Micah saw them, the warrior took charge, his ax with raised over his shoulder.
The spiny lynx leaned low. Spikes launched out of his back. Micah deflected some of them as he swung his ax. The ones he missed wound up sticking out of his arm like angry barbs.
“Stay behind me, Xander!” Micah called.
Xander leafed through his spellbook. What was he going to do, buff Micah and/or debuff Paradiso? That wasn’t any fun.
Arden flew for the cleric. Micah’s hand cupped the air next to her, nearly knocking her off course. Arm swinging, he made another attempt to snatch her out of the air.
Paradiso yowled, ducking to fire off more spikes. Micah threw his arms in front of him to block the spikes. Whatever damage his blocking seemed to soak didn’t seem to be very much. He flinched, big time, and shuddered, too.
The cleric swatted at Arden with his book. “Get back, you beast!”
She pestered him. She flew past his ear, giving it a slap. He opened his book to shut her inside. Her aerial maneuvers ensured her safety. If worst came to worst, she planned on activating a Disguise.
I’d like to see you try and trap a catten like that.
The warrior decreased the distance between himself and the spiny lynx. He went on the offensive, swinging his ax around. The spiny lynx leaped to the side, it spikes shooting off of its spinal ridges. The shots went wild. But they were enough to get Micah to stumble back. He was no Robin the Rogue when it came to movement speed. Unlike Jennifer, he could take more of a beating.
Micah swooped in for another attack. The spiny lynx dove. Micah’s ax caught Paradiso in his backside, the damage a disturbing 8 points. Paradiso hardly reacted. He fired off a row of spikes, each one making its mark in Micah’s body. Paradiso wasn’t as nimble as his catten brethren, but his spikes were still fast and deadly.
“Get out of there!” Xander yelled.
Arden misjudged her turn. Xander’s book slammed into her, knocking her away. Arden tensed to keep from spinning. She forced herself to revolve in the opposite direction of the spin. Switching into her human-like Disguise, she drew the flame dagger from her Inventory.
Xander scrambled to find the right page in his book.
“Burn!” Arden cast a fire Hallucination at Xander’s feet.
The cleric boy danced away from the flames.
Meanwhile, Paradiso kept up his fight with Micah. Micah deflected and blocked what he could of the spikes. Spikes lined the dirt walls from his most recent deflection.
Xander regained his footing. Holding his book open with one hand, he aimed his spell in Arden’s direction. “Bi-in-do!”
Invisible ropes bound her arms and legs to her sides. She clenched the dagger, refusing to let it go.
“You think this will stop me?” she asked.
Minette’s Influence appeared beneath the spiny lynx. Paradiso shuffled back, then aimed his next attack at Xander. The spikes shot out. Micah did what he could to block the damage, namely he took a poor dive. He crashed to the ground, not a good move for his falling health points.
Xander took Paradiso’s attack so hard that he fell backward. A row of
spikes protruded from his chest. He gasped, taking in a deep gulp of air. The book dropped from his hands.
He gripped the spike coming out of his stomach. “Back to town,” he said. The spikes did nothing to mar his voice.
If Arden hadn’t been looking at him, she wouldn’t have expected the spikes to even be there. Each spike was supposed to be worth 12 damage, give or take whatever items the cleric might’ve been wearing or spells he had active. He’d be a tougher target to crack, unlike Micah who seemed to be reaching the last of his health points.
“Give her back!” Micah shouted. He ignored what Xander said.
Instead, he continued to fight the spiny lynx. Blood dripping from his wounds, he landed a hit on the creature. The slice split the beast above the head, with a nasty amount of damage applied. Arden couldn’t dwell on it. She still had to focus on Xander.
“She’ll give you her skull if you and your friends leave,” Minette’s voice sounded throughout the hallway.
The spiny lynx refrained from fighting back, its movements bound by the green circle of Minette’s Influence.
“What are you saying? I didn’t agree to that,” Arden said.
“All of you, leave.”
She pushed against her invisible restraints. They appeared to be weakening.
“We’ll go as long as you give us Jennifer back,” Micah said. As soon as he was done speaking, he struggled to suck in air.
“Arden, the skull, please,” Minette said.
“We’re winning. I don’t trust these fools. First, the skull, and then they’ll…you know exactly what they’re going to do,” Arden said. “Stay out of this, Minette!”
“I’m ending this before we get over our heads,” she replied.
“I’m not.” The effects of the Bind spell wore off. Arden broke free. She ran.
Xander brought up his book. A syllable passed out of his mouth—
Arden jammed the enchanted dagger into Xander’s shoulder.
It wasn’t Xander, but Micah, who screeched. Micah’s hands turned blue. He made a grab for the spiny lynx.
Arden yanked out the dagger. Xander shoved her, sending her stumbling.
Words flew out of Xander’s mouth just as spikes flew out of the spiny lynx.
Micah exploded into a flurry of glittery dust. Items erupted out of the space where he once stood. Various weaponry and armor spun in place before falling down unceremoniously. Better than all of those trinkets, though, was Micah’s golden skull.
“Minette, make the spiny lynx get it!” Arden yelled. The green circle didn’t appear.
Something else of a different color did.
Xander shouted something that sounded like a combination between “solar” and “hot dog.”
A white flash took over Arden’s vision. The spiny lynx hissed. She swung her arms wildly, hearing the dagger slice and dice through the unseen nothingness. When the blinding light faded, Xander and Micah’s things, including his skull, were gone.
Arden wiped tears from her eyes, the Blind spell having jerked them out of the corners.
“Why didn’t you move Paradiso?” she complained. “If you’d have gotten it, they would’ve been two people down. Now they’re going to go off and revive Buff Dude. Why’d you have to go soft on them all of a sudden? What gives?”
No answer.
“Say something,” Arden demanded.
“I’m busy,” Minette finally said. “The archer’s really scary!”
“What’s she doing?”
“Killing us. What do you think? I tried to make a deal with her and you ruined it.”
“The cleric and archer have to be higher levels than the others. They’re their aces. Dammit. I’ll catch up to her on the other side. How much damage have we done to her so far?”
“She’s mowing through cattens like they’re nothing. She got caught in some traps, which has slowed her down a bit. I think we should make a new spiny lynx. We won’t have many glowyrms after that, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Calm down and don’t do anything like that until I get to her. Just keep slowing her down with the cattens.”
Arden checked on her remaining mana. She burned through 75 of her maximum 200, her points still draining because of her active Disguise.
“Send Paradiso after her. I’ll follow him and sneak up on her from behind,” Arden said.
“Hurry.” Minette’s Influence lit up beneath the spiny lynx. Paradiso took off running.
Never a fan of running, Arden did her best to keep up.
***
Seriously, she wasn’t a fan of it. Legs were the worst. They burned when they moved too much. Knees were weak. They were prone to all sorts of injuries. Running was like inviting all the possible injuries into one room and letting them have at it in an orgy of madness.
And don’t get me started on walking friction.
Thigh rub was all kinds of terrible. She had to tweak her humanoid form to avoid it. What she looked like now as a pseudo-human was a mash-up of her favorite parts of humanity rolled into a shiny, dazzling package reminiscent of her true form. Because why Disguise yourself as something if you’re not going to kick things up a notch?
“Run faster,” Minette urged, her voice loud in Arden’s sensitive ears. “Why are you slower than Paradiso?”
“I’m trying! I hate running!”
“Be a pixie again.”
“I’m conserving my mana.”
Paradiso disappeared around the corner. Arden followed shortly behind him, skidding to a stop when she saw the archer standing in the middle of the hall. She raised her bow, her arrow held in place for some shooty, shooty time.
“Hello, pixie,” greeted the archer. “I see you haven’t changed your look very much.”
“Do I know you from somewhere?”
“You lured me into your last dungeon with the same routine you used on Robin. Old habits die hard, don’t they?”
Arden blinked, straining through her memories. “Are you sure you aren’t confusing me with someone else? It’s not like I’m the only one who uses that trick.”
The archer smirked. “I figured you’d have forgotten. Whatever.” She shrugged. “Interesting monster you’ve got there.”
Putting them back on track, Arden said, “I heard you worked out a deal with the dungeon.”
“I canceled it when I saw that my party members were being attacked. I wanted to get Robin and go.”
“Well, I’m glad that you stopped because now I have a chance to kill you like I killed your warrior. Your cleric ran away with his tail between his legs.” Arden tapped the dagger against her palm.
The archer’s hands didn’t shake. The bowstring stayed tensed. “That’s no surprise to me. Xander’s my apprentice. He likes being careful.”
“Is that why he’s using a pain-free buff?”
“Maybe. Maybe that’s the result of deep meditation, I don’t know. He’s an interesting kid.”
“Shouldn’t he be apprenticing with his own kind?” Arden asked.
“He wanted some field experience with a roaming adventuring guild. I’m providing that.”
“Too bad you’re also providing him a fast track to his death. Your guild will never defeat—”
The archer took a cheap shot. She interrupted Arden’s grand villainous speech, and let loose her arrow at the spiny lynx.
“20 points of damage,” Minette announced, her disembodied voice speaking into Arden’s ears only. “57 out of 85 points left. Do you get why she’s so scary?”
The spiny lynx ducked down. Spikes rippled out of the ridges along his back, heading for the archer. The archer crossed her bow over her body. Purple swirls whirled around her, a minor shield appearing. The shield repelled the spikes. They plunged into the walls and ceiling, nowhere near the human’s flesh.
Disappointment heavy on her tongue, Arden shouted for the spiny lynx to fire again.
The archer twirled around. Her body heated up with a brief purpl
e glow. When she faced Paradiso and Arden, she had three arrows against her bowstring. She had them pulled back and everything, her face calm, amused, and altogether inappropriate for the situation.
Her expression infuriated Arden like nothing else.
She threw herself in front of the spiny lynx. Arden cast her own version of a triplet of arrows using her Hallucination skill. The fake arrows blasted towards the archer. They went overheard, following a curve before swooping down.
The archer leaned on one foot and released her arrows to hit the fake ones. Hers pierced through the Hallucinations.
Arden crouched. Paradiso blasted spikes at the distracted archer. Arden cheered when they landed, a series of four shots in quick succession. The archer flinched from the hits.
Barbs stuck out of her, trailing from her thigh to her shoulder. A blue light fizzled over them and they popped out, the archer’s skin and clothing unmarred.
The spiny lynx’s next shots had a similar effect on the archer. Whenever Paradiso hit her, the archer healed. Arden didn’t try another Hallucination “attack.” The archer had already caught on. What she did instead was switch out of her Disguise. Her form shrunk to fun size, her wings appearing behind her.
“I can shoot a fly out of the sky, you know,” the archer said. She rolled out of the way of the spiny lynx’s spikes. The archer came out of her roll into a kneeled position, her arrow pointed at Arden.
“Even blind?”
Arden cast her next Hallucination, a thick and heavy smog that filled the hallway. She barreled downwards, an arrow grazing her.
Paradiso fired wildly into the smoke, as unable to see as the archer. That gave the archer a good guess on their whereabouts, her arrows returning Paradiso’s fire dead-on.
Minette chimed in. “Paradiso’s struggling.”
“Where is she?” Arden asked for only Minette to hear.
“I can’t see, either. The smoke’s too thick.”
Based on the archer’s shots, Arden guessed where she might be. She charged, completing aerial rolls and tricks as she went. Arrows whooshed by her. Something worse than a graze happened, the tip of an arrow slicing the side of her leg. The blow knocked her off of her flight pattern, sending her spinning.
The Trash Tier Dungeon Page 20
