Dungeon Master

by Eric Vall

  With a bloody squish, the sword pierced the man’s cheap leather armor and plunged into his chest. As a crimson stain began to radiate from the wound and color his filthy tunic, the man froze and looked down at his chest in shock. Blood began to dribble from his mouth, and he clutched at the sword as he staggered a bit before he fell to the ground.

  Annalíse looked at the corpse with a twisted grin. She was proud of herself. She was indeed an impressive swordswoman, and she had made a shot from a distance that would have been a challenge for even the most adept of sword wielders. She was skilled, but I feared that her hastiness would prove costly because now the smaller archer had her pinned down behind a tree. Still, it would be interesting to see how she resolved the situation since she was weaponless and would likely get herself shot should she move.

  As the other three men gazed at their fallen brother in horror, Rana took advantage of the distraction and delivered a well-executed kick to one of the swordsmen’s stomachs before she swept her leg beneath the other’s feet. The first man staggered backward and dropped his sword as he clutched his stomach in agony while the second crashed to the forest floor and hit his head with a wet crunch.

  “Carmedy, get the other one!” she shouted as she leapt toward the man whose stomach she had kicked.

  “No thanks. I’m good,” Carmedy called out. Amidst the chaos, the cat had left my side and rushed to hide behind Xerxes. She now cowered beside one of the lizard’s scaly haunches in a crouched position.

  “Carmedy, I don’t expect him to help, but I need you to get your furry butt over here!” Rana shouted back as she threw a series of blurry red punches at her adversary’s face.

  Her words struck me as odd. Did she not think I would step in if I thought they were in trouble or if I was attacked? They were my minions, and I would save them if need be. Still, they hardly seemed to be in danger now.

  I heard a soft moan, and I saw that the last man was eyeing the cat. Rana was right, this was no time for Carmedy to run and hide. Maybe I would have to step in after all.

  “Stop hiding, woman!” the bowman spat, and I turned to see Annalíse doing her best to keep the tree between her and the bowman while he edged sideways to get a clearer shot. I would have thought that he would have attacked me or one of our companions instead of fixating on her, but maybe he was angry at the loss of his comrade?

  Either way, her attacker had her at a serious disadvantage, and I wondered if I should assist her. The female warrior had foolishly thrown her sword at the first assailant, and she was now without a weapon, and there was no way she would win without one.

  “Morrigan, now’s your chance. Get him!” Annalíse’s voice made me realize that the elf hadn’t bothered to enter the fray.

  Morrigan stood beside Scylla and made no effort to aid her friend. Her ravens Fea and Macha showed as little interest in the fight as she did and perched quietly on her shoulders.

  “I will not waste my magic on trivial adversaries such as these,” the white-haired elf said with disinterest.

  “I don’t care if you think it’s a waste, just attack him while he’s focused on me!” Annalíse cried out as she sidestepped around the tree right as another arrow whizzed past her ear.

  “Very well,” the elf sighed. The pale woman’s eyes began to turn wholly black as she raised her hand, and her red mage markings began to take on their familiar glow. Why had she stood by while her friend was in peril? I had not joined the fight because I wanted to see how the women would do on their own, but I was ready to step in should they need my help. Morrigan had no such reason for standing idle. As the bowman’s body began to rise into the air, I heard Carmedy scream from behind me.

  I turned to see the black-haired cat sprint away from the last man. He chased after the green-eyed feline with his sword. As Carmedy ran, she began to fiddle with the pouches around her waist. Her task caused her to slow her speed, and the distance between herself and the swordsman began to close. Once again, Carmedy’s pacifist instinct had come into play. She always waited to make her attacks until she ran out of options. The small woman seemed to abhor violence, but she needed to understand that her hesitation frequently put both herself and her friends in danger.

  Rana quickly looked over her shoulder at the cat before she turned back to her bruised opponent. The brigand released a guttural yell and began to charge at her, but the fox-girl just shifted her weight and narrowed her blue eyes at the man. As soon as he was within her range, she delivered a swift kick to his kneecap and another to his head.

  The man’s skull snapped back with a mighty crack. She had expertly used enough force to kill him instantly, and the man toppled over like a felled tree. Rana turned and began to run to Carmedy’s aid, but even with her speed, I knew she wouldn’t make it in time. I would have to step in. The moment before the swordsman reached out to grab the cat-girl’s shoulder, I raised my hand.

  The man abruptly lurched to a halt. His entire body began to shake, and he dropped his weapon as he howled in agony. The man looked down at his hands, his face frozen in horror. Piece by piece his fingers began to disintegrate into ash-colored dust. Within seconds, his entire forearm had disappeared. Then The man fell to the dirt floor writhing with pain as my magic devoured his spasming frame with relentless voracity. It swallowed up body part after body part and spit out sooty particles into the air.

  When his wretched body had been whittled down to a mere torso, I began to walk toward him. I wanted him to know who the cause of his demise had been. As I approached the man, Carmedy and Rana stared at me in awe. I stood over my victim, and my feet brushed against his head, which was, in fact, all that was left of him. Tears had begun to flow from his eyes, and he gulped and shuddered in torment. But I felt no pity for this man. He deserved no mercy. He had made his choice, and he would pay the price. I nudged his lonely head with my foot. I wouldn’t put him out of his misery until he saw my face.

  The man looked up at me with a final desperate whimper, and his eyes bulged when he saw me. I glared down at him with my palm still out in the air in front of me and then ended his suffering with a quick squeeze of my hand. My strength caused his head to burst into a cloud of black matter, and the pieces scattered into the wind like dislodged tree leaves.

  Two swordsmen were now dead, and the third was unconscious. That left the bowman alone. I hoped that Annalíse and Morrigan had managed to take care of him without issue, now that the elf had decided to participate. I turned my head to check the status of the human warrior and elf’s battle. The bandit’s body hung suspended in the air, incapacitated and lifeless. Morrigan’s ravens perched on their master’s shoulders, eagerly flapping their dark wings in anticipation of their meal.

  As Morrigan began to tighten her fist, Annalíse dislodged her sword from her victim’s chest and, without hesitation, ran at the brigand who hovered helplessly in the atmosphere. The freckled woman ran up the side of a nearby boulder and leaped from its highest point.

  As she came down, she sliced her sword through the man’s neck. Her cut was so quick and so clean that for a second, I wondered if she had actually missed, but as soon the woman landed on the ground, the man’s neck began to spurt blood, and his head plummeted to the forest floor. The rest of the man’s body dropped like a rock that had been hurled into the sea.

  “Sorry,” Annalíse said as she wiped the blood from her face with the back of her hand. “I wanted to get going, and we’ve wasted enough time on these idiots.” As she spoke, she wiped the front and back of her sword on the headless man’s tunic.

  Morrigan shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t seem to mind the intrusion.

  I turned to check each of my traveling companions. They were each unharmed, but now they all stared at me with shock and awe.

  “Wooow, that was… kinda scary,” Carmedy whispered. She looked a little sick. “Thank you for saving me, but did you have to, you know…?” She winced as she held out her fingers and pinched them together as though she
was squeezing a grape.

  “You were in immediate danger,” I said, and I placed a hand on the cat’s shoulder. “Had I not acted quickly, you would have been greatly injured or worse.” I didn’t want to scare her, but she needed to know the truth. This was no way to fight. “Sometimes, retreating is the best choice, but you can’t run every time, Carmedy. Sometimes, you must strike first.”

  Carmedy gulped in response.

  “Yeah, I hate to admit it, but he’s right,” Rana said as she walked over to join the two of us. Annalíse and Morrigan began to make their way over to us as well. “I wouldn’t have gotten to you in time. Demon man saved your furry butt.” She nodded in my direction. “You’ve gotta get to them before they have a chance to get to you. Don’t leave them any room to attack, understand?”

  Carmedy nodded her head quickly.

  “Good,” the fox said with a reassuring smile. “I know you have it in you.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Rana had actually given me a compliment. This was progress. A small smile came to my lips, and Rana wrinkled her nose at the sight of it.

  “Hey, don’t go getting any ideas, big guy,” she said as she folded her arms over her chest. “I appreciate you saving Carmedy, but I still don’t trust you, and I still don’t like you.” With that, she walked away to pick up the treasure that she had dropped earlier. It was still a victory. A small one, but a victory nonetheless. She would grow to trust me.

  “What was that magic that you used?” Morrigan asked as she and Annalíse reached Carmedy and I. The elf’s dark eyes burned with curiosity.

  “Yes,” Annalíse said hurriedly. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “It is called death projection, one of the many abilities that come with being skilled in the art of necromancy,” I said with a half-smile. It was a pleasure to be able to talk about such things with someone. “With my hand, I can destroy all that lies before me within a certain distance, or I can choose a specific target. I could have destroyed the majority of the surrounding trees and the bandits with them.” I gestured to the massive trees that stood on either side of us. “But you all would have been caught in my projection so, naturally, I chose the latter.”

  “By the gods,” Annalíse whispered. “That’s quite an impressive skill.”

  “Indeed, it is,” I said as my eyes darted to Morrigan, “but using the magic only takes a small fraction of my power, and that power quickly regenerates. Having me as a traveling companion is most beneficial.”

  The tattooed elf stared at me and blinked her eyes several times. She opened her mouth slightly as though she were about to speak but then she closed it again.

  “We should not waste daylight. Let us leave this place,” the pale elf finally said as she turned away and began to walk toward Scylla.

  “Right,” Annalíse said with a shake of her brunette head. “Let’s be on our way.” Carmedy nodded and began to turn toward Xerxes, but Rana suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

  “Hold on just a second, pussycat,” Rana said as she turned to face Annalíse. “How about we take a look through their pockets and see what they’ve got? They won’t need money where they’re going.” The fox grinned mischievously. “I’d be happy to relieve them of any items that are weighing them down. It probably won’t be much, but there’s no reason to leave money lying around in dead men’s pockets.”

  Annalíse smiled and sighed as she shook her head.

  “Alright, but make it quick,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away.

  “Aye, captain.” The fox gave Annalíse a quick salute. “I’ll be done in two shakes of a cat’s tail.” Rana gave Carmedy’s tail a playful yank, and the cat yelped in surprise. Then the red-headed fox chuckled mischievously and dashed toward one of the dead bandits.

  “Hey, cut that out!” Carmedy said with a laugh as she walked in the direction of another corpse. Within a few minutes, the two women had alleviated the would-be thieves of all of their worldly possessions. There hadn't been much. A mere handful of gold coins was in each of their pockets, but Rana insisted that every little bit helped. Once the purloined coins had been stowed in the chests, Carmedy and Rana jogged away to take their seats.

  As I slid into the saddle behind Carmedy and our party began to move through the forest once more, my mind wandered to Morrigan and her strange behavior. During our altercation with the brigands, she had been reluctant to help, but she wasn’t the type to abandon her friends when they needed her. What was the reason for her lack of action? She did come off as aloof, but I was sure it was something else that had caused her to delay, but what?

  I peered over Carmedy’s ears and watched the elf’s hooded figure sway back and forth as Scylla crawled across the ground. Then it came to me. Back in my dungeon, I had suspected that her dark magic was limited because time and time again she resorted to soul exorcism.

  My suspicions had been confirmed when I witnessed her use the same technique on the bowman. She had been hesitant in her attack, and I now knew why. It was her High Elvish pride. I didn’t know much about the mysterious woman, but I did know that she was of High Elvish descent due to her distinct white hair. Had she been a common elf, her hair would have been a shade of brown similar to Annalíse’s. For as long as I could remember, High Elves had always been known for their pride and feelings of superiority. It appeared that even the centuries past had not changed this. It seemed most logical that Morrigan didn’t want her companions to catch on to her lack of experience.

  I had a feeling that before we had departed, she had wanted to ask for my help, but couldn’t bring herself to do it in front of the others. I decided that I would keep her secret, and I would wait until she got over her ego and asked for my guidance. But the white-haired elf wasn’t the only one of my companions who needed to hone her skills. Each of the women had much room for improvement. Luckily for them, I was a patient master and knew I was up to the task.

  Chapter 7

  We traveled for several hours, but I couldn’t tell for certain how long. My mind was otherwise occupied by my picturesque surroundings and my new traveling companions. The trees began to thin, and a town soon came into view. It was small, but the tranquil sounds of the forest were gradually replaced by the bustle and chatter of townsfolk, traveling livestock, and wooden carts as they rolled and clattered across the cobblestones. As we left the forest and drew closer to the town, the sounds of civilization began to swell.

  When we reached the town’s edge, my senses were overwhelmed in an entirely different way than they had been from the woods. There seemed to be only one road, and either side of it was lined with homes and shops selling various goods. The architecture was by no means grandiose in nature, but it had a certain simplistic charm, and I found it to be satisfactory in a way I couldn’t quite explain.

  None of the structures were very tall, no more than two or three stories, and they were packed tightly together side by side with a narrow alley in between every so often. Each building was made up of dark-colored wood and stones of various hues of gray. Any other passerby would probably have described the town as drab or run down, but in comparison to the confining rocky walls and dark endless tunnels that my solitude had brought me, this was paradise.

  I enjoyed my new surroundings and wanted to appreciate all that was around me. It was clear that this community was not an affluent one. Most of the cobblestones which we rode over were loose or broken or missing altogether. The roof of each building we passed had a pointed shape and appeared to be constructed of overlapping wooden shingles that looked a little worse for wear. This town was poor, but I found it charming, nonetheless.

  The street was filled with people who moved in every direction. Some moved hurriedly, some meandered. Women carried wicker baskets and ducked in and out of stores. Men sat atop riding lizards of varying colors and zigzagged through the throngs of passersby. Children raced and weaved through the crowd and bumped into strangers who gave dis
approving frowns. Every few yards, there was a peddler’s cart filled to the brim with everything from fresh fruits, silks of questionable quality, to good luck charms.

  The town even smelled busy with the scents of fresh fish, newly cut flowers, cows, and exotic spices. None of these smells complimented each other, and not all were pleasant, but I still found them a welcome change from the scents of stagnant water and damp moss that had filled my dungeon.

  “Everyone, keep your eyes peeled for a place where we can sell the loot,” Annalíse called to the rest of us over her shoulder as our party navigated through the busy street. In my elation, I had nearly forgotten our reason for being here. To be surrounded by so many people and so much activity after having spent so many years in solitude… it felt strange, yet exciting.

  “How about there?” Rana called out as she pointed toward a shop just ahead. On the left side of the street was a small one-story shop with a dilapidated roof and a large wooden door barely held by rusty, bent hinges. It looked a bit seedy, but I doubted that there were any better places to trade in a town this small. There probably weren’t many to choose from for that matter, and we didn’t need to waste time being picky.

  “We’ll stop here,” Annalíse said with a nod, and our group veered to the left side of the street toward the shop Rana had indicated.

  This building, like most of the others, had hitching posts out in front and enough space for a few riding animals, so we tethered our lizards and the donkey with our cart in front of the place of business. The sign in the dirty window read that valuable goods could be traded for fair prices. The five of us formed a group at the back of the cart and began to discuss our next moves.

  “At least one of us has to stay outside with the lizards and cart while the rest of us go in,” Rana said to the rest of us. “This isn’t a dangerous town, but still, we don’t want to leave them unattended. Someone may think we’re easy marks because we’re not locals and try something cute.”