by J. J. Thorn
He looked around the room for anything that might give them more details about what they were going to face, but saw nothing. The chamber was large, but the walls were bare. Even with the large steps leading up to the Talons, there was nothing to indicate how they had entered.
As soon as the entryway was finished collapsing, the large black Talon grunted and howled. Tom relaxed as he didn’t feel any magic try to impact him. As he looked around the team, they looked alright as well. Instead, the howl acted as a starting signal for the ensuing chaos.
Immediately the two large Alphas charged the group.
“Come here, ya mutts!” Griff yelled, activating his ‘Draw Them In’ Skill.
Lin and Rana immediately started using their abilities and Skills on the beasts as Tom himself charged the monsters.
Griff’s ‘Hold’ Skill, and any body augmentations he currently had applied, were the only things that stopped him from being bowled onto the ground as both Alphas smashed into him directly.
His Skill proficiency had increased in the Dungeon and the fact that he could now draw in and hold off 2 high D-Rank Talons was an indication of this.
Arrows bombard the Talons as Lin applied ‘Disorient’ and ‘Shackles’ to each of the monsters.
Tom reached the right-most monster and started to slash at its legs. Damage started to accumulate on the beast as it finally changed targets and aimed at Tom.
His speed had increased as he augmented his legs and also used his ‘Dash’ Skill to avoid any of the monster’s strikes.
The monsters were losing as the team continued to deal sustained damage onto each of them.
Tom decided to use some of his Energy as he tried to use the distraction of the Alphas to attack the black Talon. Throughout the entire fight, the black Talon had done nothing, choosing to sit on the pedestal and watch.
Tom accumulated Energy in his arms before releasing a full ‘Talon’ towards the black beast. The Skill was well-timed and unexpected as it careened towards the beast.
The attempt didn’t work though, as the monster’s keen instincts allowed it to swiftly avoid the attack. Right before being hit, its body blurred and blended with the darkness of the cavern, and it leapt to the side.
Tom cursed as he realized he might have wasted a good opportunity. That same Skill might have been used on the lesser beasts.
He started to chug down an Energy Potion as he checked his progress to see his Energy reserves replenish.
Throughout it all, Holly used her Skills to make sure the smaller scrapes and bruises they got were either healed or restored.
Tom took a moment to look at how the fight was going. It had only been a couple minutes, and the two white Alphas were covered in wounds. Their white fur was now covered in red marks as they continued to take damage from Rana and Tom’s assault.
Through it all, Tom was still confused. In the quick move the black Talon had made to avoid his attack, Tom could see it was incredibly fast. It could attack all of them if it wanted to.
But still, it waited.
For whatever reason, it was waiting for something…
“Lin, something’s not right! Stop focusing on the white Alpha’s and check the darkness in our surroundings!” Tom yelled behind him.
His team was okay, but something felt off about the encounter.
Instantly, Tom knew he needed to finish the white Alphas.
Most of his Energy had returned as he once again prepared to use his ‘Talon’. This time, his focus was squarely on the white Alphas.
“Griff, ‘Draw Them In’ again, try to get them as close together as you can.”
Despite the wounds of the monsters, they stayed blindly focused on the large man with the shield. Griff’s abilities kept him mostly unharmed as he held them back from the rest of the team.
Around him, Tom could see that Holly was using Energy Potions as well. She had to constantly use Skills to keep Griff in peak condition.
Tom dashed towards the Alphas with ‘Talon’ and ‘Sharpen’ both applied to his sword. The Talon noticed him this time as it jumped back towards its sibling. They both now stood side by side, which is what Tom had hoped for.
He immediately released a fully powered ‘Talon’ towards both of them, hoping to reach both of them.
He was happy to see that the first Talon was almost completely bisected at the waist, now incapable of movement and probably on its way to bleeding out. Sadly, the second white Talon had not suffered the same fate and had been able to avoid the blast of Energy.
Still, only two monsters remained, and Tom felt a little bit better as he looked around.
“Holly, Rana, behind both of you!” shrieked Lin. “There’s two Talons in the darkness of the walls! Get away from the walls!”
They glanced behind them and were now able to see what Lin was talking about. Tom could not believe his eyes as two other black Alphas came directly out of the darkness in the walls. After Lin’s warning, both of them immediately attacked.
Both women were E-Rank Dungeoneers who had participated in several monster fights, and luckily, they were able to protect themselves, but still, the surprise attack had caught them both off guard. If not for Lin’s warning…
Tom ran as quickly as he could to intercept the beasts. He was exhausted from using up his Energy so quickly, but he needed to help his team. He left the white Alpha to Griff and chugged down an Energy Potion.
Rana was a Ranger in both profession and name, so she deftly avoided the beast’s strike to her head.
She received a wound to her shoulder as she dashed away from the monster’s claws. The beast was fast, and she was incapable of attacking back, but beyond the cuts on her shoulder, she was mostly okay. She took out a dagger and swiped back.
Holly had not faired as well. She narrowly avoided a bite to her neck, but instead, the monster took a chunk out of her torso.
The black Alpha went for a second bite, but Tom met it with ‘Sharpen’ and ‘Talon’ applied to his sword just in time.
Tom realized that time was short as he augmented his body as much as he could to cause the monster to retreat. He watched from the side of his eye as Holly bled out on the ground. She had passed out due to the wound, and Tom needed to give her a healing potion as quickly as possible.
His Energy manipulation had improved, but he felt himself barely surpassing the monster in speed and power. He pushed it back and was able to cause some cuts to his opponent.
He took a few slashes in return, but didn’t care as he used every ounce of his power to push the monster back.
Luckily, Lin was watching. Shackles appeared around the monster’s legs, tripping it.
In its confusion, Tom slashed down onto the beast.
It narrowly avoided the hit, twisting to the side. Instead, Tom cut one of its legs off completely.
The beast bounded away using some of the shadows as cover, and retreated until it touched the podium, where the larger black Alpha waited.
Tom darted to Holly and poured a health potion into her mouth. He checked and despite the blood loss, she was still alive. Her heart had not been hit.
He watched in amazement as her side started to restitch itself. Health potions couldn’t heal everything, but Holly had been very lucky in how and where she had been hit.
As her body regrew before his eyes, Holly’s eyes opened with a start.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” Tom told her.
She didn’t look okay, but Tom knew that she needed to hear it.
“Apply ‘Minor Heal’ to yourself and ‘Regeneration’. We need you and you’re not a hundred percent as yet.” Tom eased her into a standing position and looked around.
Griff was tiring, holding back the white Snow-Talon by himself. Lin was chugging down another Energy Potion as she applied ‘Shackles’ on both that Talon and the one attacking Rana.
As for Rana, she did not look good. In their exchange, the beast had some wounds, but Rana was now covered in blood fro
m head to toe.
“Holly, get up and heal Rana! Lin, keep using ‘Shackles’. The black Talons use Darkness as well. It’s probably a Skill of their own. It lets them blend in with the darkness.”
Tom almost jumped to help Rana but looked up at the pedestal to see that the larger black Talon in the middle seemed different. In its position at the top of the pedestal, Tom was shocked to see that the monster now had two heads instead of one. And even as he tried, he couldn’t see the other black Talon anywhere.
Somehow, the second Talon had combined with the first, and now they were one.
While watching the black Talon with two heads, Tom noticed that it was finally starting to make its move. It moved onto its haunches, readying to pounce.
But instead of looking at Griff, its gaze was fully focused on…Lin!
Somehow the monster was smarter than regular beasts and knew that Lin was their best asset to find the monsters in the darkness!
“Griff, SWITCH! DEFEND LIN!”
Griff looked back and saw the urgency on Tom’s face.
Following directions immediately, Griff pushed the Talon back and as fast as he could to Lin’s position.
Tom apologized to Rana internally as he left Holly and started to use his Rank 2 Skill to dash as quickly as possible to intercept the white Talon.
Tom realized that the white Talons had been a distraction all along. The ‘three’ mentioned in the name of the lair was never referring to the white Talons. It was referring to the three black Talons. And somehow, they were capable of joining together to heal.
Tom knew right then that he needed to finish off the last white Talon as quickly as possible.
The two-headed beast didn’t sit idle any more, it launched itself down towards the humans below.
Lin saw what was happening and used ‘Disorient’ on the black beast before running towards Griff. Griff reached Lin just in time as he yelled at the top of his lungs.
“TO ME!” He turned his back to Lin and put up his shield.
One second sooner and one of them would have been cut in two, but they made it in time and Griff intercepted the black two-headed monster.
And then Tom, who had been running at his top speed the entire time, chugged down another Energy Potion, before closing with the white Talon.
At this point, he could feel every muscle in his body aching. His body was being overstressed by the constant augmentations. His Energy was meant for quick bursts, not a constant sprint.
He knew this might cause permanent damage but didn’t care as he used everything he had to cut at the white Alpha.
He didn’t use his ‘Talon’ outwardly, but still used a significant amount of Energy to move as fast as he had in the fight with the second black Talon.
It worked, and within moments the white Talon was dead on the floor. One swipe at its neck and it spasmed to the ground.
Tom rejoiced as he felt the familiar light of Holly’s restoration meet his body. She was once again standing, and although she looked pale, Tom could see that she had healed Rana.
Tom looked back at Griff and Lin and saw that Griff was having a difficult time. The black Talon had shown itself to have magic already, but it also showcased its increased speed and power when compared to the smaller Alphas.
“Lin, try to help Rana out! Holly, heal Griff!”
Lin took her focus away from the two-headed beast to focus on the one currently fighting with Rana.
Tom rushed towards the two-headed beast to divert some of its attention.
At this point, he was out of Energy Potions and Holly had the only health potion left.
By how much Energy he was going through to keep up with the Alphas, he knew his team was probably having to do the same.
If this went on for much longer, the Talons might beat them in a game of stamina.
Tom attacked the beast from its side. It shifted away, easily, like he was fly.
While Tom and Griff held off the larger monster, Lin considered what she could do to help Rana.
Her ‘Disorient’ had shown that it could be a bit effective as she applied it to the beast, but Rana was still having a difficult time. Holly was also struggling to keep everyone in the party healthy as she chugged down her final Energy Potions.
Her ‘Regeneration’ was best suited for prolonged healing and her ‘Minor Heal’ was good for small wounds, but she had no large-scale party heals.
Lin thought about how the darkness was used by the monsters to empower their actions as she tried to use her ‘Darken Area’ Rank 2 Skill in yet another new way. Like when she had created the ‘Disorient’ Skill, that had allowed her to concentrate the darkness in an area to a confined space.
Instead, she tried to remove darkness from an area.
But instead of adding light to the area, she instead focused on moving the darkness elsewhere. Like when her magic used the darkness around her to augment her Skills, she used all her effort to move the darkness away from the Talon attacking Rana.
Her Energy started to plummet, but it appeared to be working as the darkness moved.
As it moved, the Talon became easier to predict and Rana had an easier time dealing with the monster. Still, she wasn’t winning, but she was now able to avoid its strikes.
Meanwhile, Tom and Griff were barely o holding off the two-headed Talon. Tom knew that defeating this monster would take everything he had, but his body continued to rebel against him. He had overextended himself as it was.
Only Griff’s constant distraction kept him alive as they worked in tangent to attack and block the monster. Tom was the SWORD and Griff was the SHIELD. They danced with the monster back and forth, neither side leaving unharmed as they battled.
Holly watched the team intently, casting the few spells she had left to keep them alive.
Lin watched Tom and Griff as she put all her focus on keeping the darkness away from Rana’s position.
“Tom! This won’t work!” Lin yelled. “You need to help Rana so she can start helping with damage.”
Tom heard as he looked around.
Rana was doing better, but Lin was right. Holly would run out of Energy and someone else would fall if this continued.
Tom tapped on Griff’s shoulder to switch as he brought his sword screaming down towards the monster in front of him.
The sudden change caught it off guard and it received another cut on its fur.
Since it was startled, Tom once again dashed towards Rana as Griff used ‘Draw Them In’ for what would probably be the last time.
Most of his Energy expended, and no additional Energy Potions available, Griff was now left to deal with the monster by himself.
Holly knew this as she switched her focus squarely to Griff.
Tom struck at the single-headed Alpha from its side. Tom’s distraction allowed Rana to create some distance as she took up her bow again finally.
She immediately ‘Empowered’ her arrows with an idea of both sharpness and destructive power. Visualization had helped her picture how she wanted her ‘Empowered’ attacks to work.
She held back the attack until all of her Energy was used up to ensure that the destructive power was as high as possible.
“Tom, clear away!” She screamed.
Tom saw her pull back and knew what would happen as he dove away just in time.
The arrow exploded with more power than she had ever expelled before onto the spine of the monster.
The monster’s legs were blown completely off as a large ‘boom’ rocked through the cavern.
Even the two-headed beast looked over as its third part was cut in half by the power of Rana’s arrow.
Rana fell to the ground. She had used all of her Energy on the final attack. Tom checked and she was still alive, but knew they likely wouldn’t be able to count on her for the rest of the fight.
He was happy to see the single-headed black monster not moving. Which meant it couldn’t rejoin with the larger beast.
And then t
here was only one left.
Holly applied a heal onto Rana to be sure, but then went back to healing Griff.
“Lin, we’ve got one left!” Tom placed his focus on the final monster. “I need you to keep it in place with your shackles! I have one more ‘Talon’ in me, but this will be our last shot!”
Like Rana, he knew this was everything he had left in him.
He stopped accumulating Energy in his legs and focused completely on his ‘Talon’ Skill.
Despite all of his experimentation, he knew this Skill was best used as a ranged attack. It placed all of his Energy in a concentrated attack with one goal only. To end whatever monster was in its path.
For Tom, his only issue was that the black Talon had shown itself capable of avoiding the attack.
He slowly walked towards the monster, but knew he would need something else.
Griff held it back, but he was out of Energy and practically dead on his feet.
He counted on their most proficient magic Affinity user to keep the beast in place.
Lin thought about what Tom was asking as she still held onto the large mass of darkness she held in her grasp.
The darkness wasn’t physical, but she knew her ‘Shackles’ had proven effective at slowing down and hindering monsters before.
She knew she had to do something.
So, as she looked at the monster, she put every ounce of Energy she had into her Rank 3 ‘Shackles’ Skill. Automatically, the shackles appeared on the beast. Four shackles held each of their legs together. But still, she knew this wouldn’t be enough, so she once again pressed for more!
She thought about the Energy she held in her grasp and willed for it to stick underneath the Talon directly.
And once it was there, she placed another set of shackles that attached directly to that darkness.
So now, multiple shackles appeared underneath the beast, holding it in place.
Blood started to pool from her eyes as she spent everything she had to keep the two-headed beast in place.
Tom did not hesitate.
He swung his sword and the largest ‘Talon’ he had produced to date appeared. Unlike his previous uses, this ‘Talon’ manifested as three claw marks forcing itself through the air.
