Dragon Quest Novel

by Melania Zveja

  "I'm surprised it took this long," commented Ron, preparing to charge forward.

  Around the corner were three monsters that looked almost identical to human skeletons that walked on their own. The main difference was that while a human skeleton obviously still has two arms these skeletons had six each. Each arm was holding a sword and the skeletons had blue helmets and blue armor on their shoulders.

  "Alice, the zombie slashers will do more damage than fire to bones! Double on one with Tom!" said Suzanne.

  Following Suzanne's advice, Thomas and Alice ran at the same skeleton. Alice went in first in order to distract the monster from Thomas, as he had a zombie slasher. The skeleton bore down on Alice with all six of its arms. Alice quickly had to go on the defensive. Fortunately, the skeleton did not seem to be a very skilled swordsman as she was able to block three of its blows with her shield. But with three other arms coming at her she was only able to parry one with her own sword and took two blows to her shoulder. Her armor took the worst of the blows.

  Fortunately, this allowed Thomas to get behind the skeleton and as it had used all its arms against Alice, none remained to block Thomas' attack. Thomas brought his zombie slasher diagonally through the skeleton's back, destroying its spine and leaving the head and arms on the ground. The spine proved to be the monster's weak point as the arms and head were not moving on their own.

  Meanwhile, Suzanne and Ron had engaged one skeleton each. As neither of them had backup they had only their swordsmanship to rely on. As Alice had just found out, the skeletons relied on their extra appendages to fight rather than any real skill. Suzanne made a move towards the middle of the skeleton. The skeleton responded by slashing at Suzanne with all six of its arms. Suzanne then made a spin move and used her shield to push aside the creature's right arms. With the creature's side exposed and its arms out of position, Suzanne completed the spin with a horizontal slash. Although her strike was not a direct hit on the creature's spine like Thomas', the magic of her blade took care of the rest. The searing light of the blade reduced the skeleton to a pile of unanimated bones on the ground.

  Ron was less direct in his approach. He waited for the creature to strike after which he would mount a counterattack. The skeleton came at Ron with four of its arms while its other two began moving in a strange manner. The four were engulfed in purple light, making them more vulnerable to physical harm. Due to the spell, Ron was only able to block one blade with his shield while the other three were able to hit him. His armor made two of the blows negligible while the third slash hit him in the ribs. The strike forced Ron back a step but deciding not to let his opponent cast its spell again, Ron charged forward and gave it a vicious vertical slash. Ron's sword narrowly missed the skeleton's helmet and went inside of its shoulder armor, destroying the skeleton's spine in much the same way Thomas had destroyed his, only from the front this time.

  As the four went through their usual post-fight routines, Alice had a question, "Tom, I thought you said the undead couldn't wear armor?"

  "I said few zombies could wear armor," said Thomas. "And these aren't zombies anyway. They weren't created by the poison we've seen Samanao use. As far as I know, only necromancy can animate skeletons, alter the remains, or put enough power in the undead to wear armor."

  "If that's the case, we might find necromancers here," said Suzanne. "And if that's the case, I wonder if they're in the employ of the imposter. He may have found out about this cave after all."

  With the fighting done for the moment they found that another hallway branched off to the right from the one the four were currently in. They decided to stay their present course and continue forward. The hallway zigzagged a few times and then turned to the right until it once again split; this time with a path left and a path right. In this case, the four quickly found the two splits met and made a loop, with a different path going off the loop opposite the one they had taken into the loop. This path finally led to a large chamber with a pond inside of it. The pond was fed by a stream coming from the ceiling down the wall of the chamber.

  "Who would've thought we'd see such nice scenery in this cave?" wondered Alice aloud. "The pond here must be fed from the lake above us."

  "Looks like it's a popular spot with the monsters," said Thomas, pointing the other three to two figures that had emerged from the water.

  The two figures looked like huge turtles at first until their heads also came out of the water. The creatures' heads looked like those of dragons. They had dark green skin and had red frills running from their head, into and out of their shell, and to the end of their tail. It was clear that they believed lunch had arrived as they immediately moved for the group.

  Alice pointed her staff at the two turtle monsters and a stream of fire rose up at their feet. However, neither monster appeared fazed or hurt by the flames.

  "They're resistant to magic!" warned Alice.

  The four would once again have to solve their problems with their blades. Suzanne and Thomas teamed up against one of the turtle monsters. Their weapons were remarkably less effective against the turtles than they were against the skeletons. The creature's scaly skin was tough to get through and Suzanne's strike barely drew blood. When Thomas launched an attack of his own the creature parried it with its tail, knocking Thomas' blade harmlessly into the turtle's shell.

  Ron met with a little more success. He ran up to engage the other enemy on his own and aimed a slash at the monster's head. The turtle jerked its head away at the last second but exposed its neck in the process. Ron's strength allowed his blade to break through the turtle's scales and deal it a serious wound. The creature fell back a step and then took a deep breath and exhaled a purple, sweet-smelling cloud. Recognizing the breath attack Suzanne, Thomas, and Alice were able to hold their breath while the cloud passed but Ron had been right next to the creature when it exhaled its breath and so caught a full breath of it. He fell to the ground asleep.

  The turtle started advancing upon Ron intending to take advantage of his slumber to land a terrible blow. Alice rushed forward to cut the creature off. With the Meteorite Armband enhancing her speed and the fact that the turtle monsters were not very fast she was just able to get there in time. While Alice engaged Ron's foe Suzanne drew her enemy's attention to allow Thomas to disengage. Suzanne took a bite to her arm for the effort but was far from incapacitated by the wound. Thomas cast a spell upon the four and several small bursts of light briefly covered each one of them. The spell had no effect on Suzanne, Thomas, or Alice but served to wake Ron up.

  As Ron crawled to his feet Alice made a strike at his turtle. Having not been paying attention to Alice the creature made no effort to block or parry her attack and she landed a terrific blow right between the creature's eyes. The added weight of Alice's hand-and-a-half sword gave enough force to her attack that the turtle's face was smashed in by it. The creature gave a strangled cry and fell to the ground, no longer able to support its heavy shell as the blood from Alice's and Ron's wounds proved to be too much for it. Ron quickly ended the beast.

  Meanwhile Suzanne continued to duel against her foe. The turtle's tough skin saved it again as Suzanne faked a strike to its face and then pulled off another spin move to strike at its neck. The move gave Suzanne a good shot at its neck but kept her from setting her feet for the strike so there was less force behind it. The wound was not fatal but did hurt the turtle enough to throw off its next attack. Suzanne easily blocked its bite attempt with her shield. By this point, the other three had dealt with the creature's companion and came over to help Suzanne. It stood no chance against the four of them.

  "Damn, these things had some impressive defenses," noted Ron after the fight was over.

  "Magic didn't appear effective and their tough skin and shell made it a pain to hit them," concurred Alice, elaborating on Ron's observation.

  "At least they were slow," said Suzanne.

  "We should probably get moving," said Alice. "I would imagine those turtle monster
s love this pond here. More of them may be here in a matter of time."

  The four continued their exploration of the cave. The chamber with the pond had two exits other than the one the group had taken in: one straight across and one around the pond and to the right. The four chose the one straight across. This path took them to yet another chamber with exits straight ahead and to the right. The group had noticed a pattern by this point but continued to explore as usual to make sure not to miss anything. The whole first floor of the cave was arranged as a large loop. In several places the loop branched off towards the middle. In the middle of the loop was a staircase leading down.

  The staircase took them to a huge chamber, the largest of the cave so far. The first thing the four noticed was a treasure chest not far from the staircase. Weary of a trap but not wanting to waste unnecessary time the group decided to check the chest out. Alice used her magic to verify that it was not a trap and they opened the chest to find some gold pieces.

  Not far from this treasure chest was another chest. And not far from that chest was yet another. The group quickly found a trail of treasure chests leading the group into and through a hallway which brought them to a small chamber. Alice checked each chest along the way and not one of them was trapped. The group found some more gold, a medical herb, an acorn of life, and a strength seed. Suzanne decided to put up with the pain of eating the acorns this time while Alice took the seed. The chamber the group was led to had four more treasure chests inside it.

  "Looks like a treasure chamber," observed Ron. "You think the Mirror is here?"

  "Maybe, but we're not going to start taking chances now," answered Suzanne. Alice was already using her magic on the chests. Unlike the other treasure chests, she immediately backed away from the first chest she checked and motioned for the others to avoid it. She went to work on the other chests. She gave a similar reaction to the other three.

  "They're all trapped!" whispered Alice nervously. "Let's get out of here!"

  The four wasted no time and quickly withdrew from the room. They made their way down the hallway that had led them to the room. Suddenly, the four were engulfed in a purple light, the same spell one of the skeletons had used earlier. Before any of them could react Suzanne was engulfed in a flurry of blades. As the spell had lowered her defenses several of the blades found their way past her armor and those that did not left dents in her armor, almost knocking the wind out of her. As Suzanne staggered backwards another figure ran up to her and hit her in the head with a staff.

  Suzanne's attackers were two more of the six-armed skeletons like those the group had met earlier. They were the source of the spell and the blades. The staff came courtesy of a man wearing red and blue furs and a weird mask.

  "Yes! Kill them, my children!" yelled the man.

  Alice was the first to react to the attack. Seeing the hits Suzanne had taken she began chanting a strong healing spell. The spell did not erase all of Suzanne's wounds but certainly made them look much better. Suzanne focused on trying to defend against the next flurry of blades that came from the skeletons. She did an admirable job but was only able to block five of the twelve blades that came flying at her, causing new wounds and reopening some of the ones Alice had just healed. The man contributed a smack to Suzanne's ribs with his staff.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Suzanne saw Thomas hesitate on his charge. Knowing he was about to cast a spell, Suzanne yelled out, "I'm fine for now Tom! We need to thin out their numbers!"

  Once again, the skeletons' lack of skill and awareness was of great aid to the group. Ron met no resistance as he made a great jump attack on one of the skeletons, obliterating it with the combined might of his attack and his blade's magic. Thomas' hesitation allowed the other skeleton to recover and bring some of its blades against him. Thomas managed to dodge all but one of them but he was unable to destroy the creature with his attack. Instead, he only managed to take off the skeleton's legs.

  Alice saw the man back away from the melee and realized he was either going to try and escape or cast a spell. Alice cast a spell of her own to try and stop him. Since she did not know if the man meant to cast a spell or escape she decided not to seal the man's magic. Instead, she sent a fireball at the man. The fireball exploded on impact, inflicting serious wounds on the man. However, he was not put down yet. He cast a spell and a bright beam of light, seemingly from the ceiling, and shined down on the remains of the destroyed skeleton. Most of the pieces of the skeleton levitated in the air and reformed most of the skeleton.

  With one skeleton now focusing on Thomas and the other having just reformed Suzanne was finally able to mount an offensive. Before the newly-reformed skeleton could act gave it a vicious upward slash, reducing it to even finer pieces than it had been in before the man's spell. Thomas finished off his skeleton while Ron ran at the man. The man tried to backpedal and get another spell off but Ron proved to be too quick and ran him through with his sword.

  "I think we found one of our necromancers," said Ron as he removed his blade.

  "I wonder if they were the ones to leave the trail of treasure chests, hoping we would get attacked by chest monsters in that chamber," mused Suzanne as Thomas healed her wounds.

  "It's possible," answered Alice. "That guy had some powerful magic. He was able to reanimate that skeleton in the middle of battle. That takes some serious skill."

  "It also means that the imposter probably knows about this cave now," said Thomas. "We've seen how well-hidden the cave is. I doubt that man could have just stumbled upon it."

  "We'll have to hurry then," said Suzanne.

  The four quickly crossed the large chamber and found a hallway on the other end. A short ways down the hallway split to the left and the right. To the left was another trail of treasure chests leading the group to another small chamber. The chests on the path were once again deemed safe and held a small amount of gold, a medical herb, and a seed Thomas said could boost a person's resilience to illness and the spells that inflict them. However, just like the other small chamber, this path led to a room with two chests that Alice said were both actually monsters.

  The group prepared for another ambush as they left the chamber but this time they met no resistance as they withdrew from it. They went down the other hallway and after a small walk another hallway branched off of the one the four were currently on. This hallway had a single treasure chest leading to another chamber with two more chests in it. In this case, the lead-in chest was identified as a trap and one of the chests in the chamber was deemed safe. Inside that chest was a beautiful stone with a set inside it.

  "What is this?" asked Suzanne, holding the stone up.

  Thomas looked shocked when he saw what Suzanne had taken out of the chest. He went over to her and began examining the object as the other three gave him confused looks. "This is called a Stone of Life," he answered finally. "It works as a charm against spells that inflict death without wounds, such as those used by mimics. It is said the Stone 'dies in your place.' If you have a Stone of Life in your possession when such a spell is cast on you it will break into a million pieces but you will be unaffected. It's an incredibly powerful item."

  "Alright, Tom, you take the Stone," said Suzanne, handing the Stone to him.

  "Me? No, I couldn't take such a powerful charm and rob one of you of its protection," protested Thomas.

  "But you are the most skilled at healing among us. If one of us is hit with such a spell you could possibly save us before we die," explained Suzanne. "But if you are taken out than none of us can help you."

  "I don't know if that's true," said Thomas.

  "Stop being Mr. Self-Doubt," said Alice with an exasperated sigh. "Of course it's true! Now you heard Susie, take the Stone before we knock you out with it and put it in your pack anyway!"

  Normally such a remark would earn one of Thomas' scowls but this time he gave a small grin and took the Stone. Without further argument, the four continued their exploration. They returned to the ha
llway they had been exploring and soon arrived at its end: a small chamber with a descending staircase.

  On the next floor the group was greeted with another small pond. This pond actually had a stream running to a larger body of water; this one could almost be considered a lake. In the middle of the lake was a small body of land upon which were a couple of pillars and a treasure chest between them. Unfortunately, there was much more than water between the four and the chest.

  "That's a lot of monsters," said Ron. The lake was a breeding ground for the turtle monsters the group had fought above. Not a single place on the lake was stagnant due to their splashing and thrashing.

  "Why aren't they coming at us?" wondered Alice.

  "They appear much more agile in the water than they did on land when we fought them," noted Suzanne. "The water is their home; they'll tear us apart if we try to enter but we can put up a much better fight if they come to us. And judging by the decoration on that little island I would be willing to be that must be where the Mirror is."

  "That's just great," grumbled Thomas. "We have to go through a legion of monsters to cross the water. There's no way we'll make it,"

  "Maybe not," said Ron, looking up at the ceiling. "Look." The other three looked where Ron indicated and saw there was a hole in the ceiling.

  "I'm thinking we missed something upstairs," said Ron. "If we can find the top side of that hole up there, we could just drop down to the island. We get what's in the chest and get out before the monsters decide to swarm us."

  "Good eyes, Ron!" said Alice. "That should work perfectly!"

  "Unless it's another trap," said Thomas. "Decorate a piece of land, put an empty chest on it and fill the lake with monsters. Put a hole in the ceiling so anybody who sees it thinks they're clever in getting to the island. Then the monsters overwhelm them."

  "Tom has a good point," agreed Suzanne. "Before we go looking for a way to that island let's finish exploring the rest of the cave. If we don't find the Mirror then we'll have no other choice but to find that hole."