by Konrad Ryan
Tad’s jaw dropped. He had been expecting something ferocious, but not this. Besides his fangs, the creature was laughable. The man had transformed into a deer with fangs.
Blaze’s mindvoice boomed with laughter, his eyes were glued to Tad’s, though his face was still expressionless, not showing any amusement at all. “I love it, it never gets old. Everyone expects him to transform into a bear, a wolf, or a lion, they never expect a Chinese water deer.” The laughter died down, his voice turning more serious. “But don’t underestimate him, Hothead, once transformed, he is probably the strongest soldier rank slayer in the state. If you want to be a dungeon leader, you can learn from the best.”
“Anyone else? No?” Blaze’s eyes skipped from person to person before he depressed the small stone disc. “Then let’s get this over with, I’ve got a dinner date at five.”
The first of the five glass beads sparked to life. The four walls shook and then sank into the floor while the ceiling rose higher and higher. A bigger room, ten times the size of the small box, loomed before them. In its outer reaches, where the lightsphere didn’t touch, hundreds of red eyes gleamed in the darkness. The eyes charged forward. Two slayers threw light orbs high into the air, revealing small, doll-sized mossy creatures. Golems.
The room erupted into chaos.
“New kid, with me, Tristan and Squeak, guard the healers. Blaze, do your thing.”
Tad sped out toward the charging mass of miniature golems, only a hair behind Ironfang himself, obsidian dagger clenched in his hand. Tad suddenly regretted losing his silver dagger. Raekast’s Fang found its first victim. It sliced clean through the golem, but instead of biting into moss, his daggers bit through blood and flesh. His skin crawled at the sensation. What were these creatures?
Fireballs rained from the sky. A glance showed Blaze falling from the ceiling, spraying fireballs across the battle. Just before the man crashed into the ground, he’d blink to the top of the cavern where he continued his fall. The man spun in the air, still sitting in his wheelchair, blasting fireballs in all directions. How did the man have enough mana to cast all those spells so quickly?
Ironfang sprang from golem to golem, stamping them into bloody red marks across the mossy stone floor. His fangs slashed and bit as the golems punched and kicked with miniature arms, but the deer was too nimble, evading the slow attacks.
Tad flew between targets, the golems were laughably slow compared to him and Ironfang. His obsidian dagger cut down golem after golem, in a race to kill more of the miniature green monsters than everyone else. Not for the prestige, or the reputation, but for the experience. The levels. Only Ironfang and Blaze killed more than Tad. But not for long.
“Stats!”
*Tad Harrington
Rank: Soldier
Class: Fighter
Level: 30
Health: 700/700
Mana: 42/42
Str: 70
Dex: 28
Con: 60
Mag: 21
Cou: 10
Cha: 1
Points to allocate: 15*
Tad slammed his remaining fifteen points into dexterity, bringing it to 43. With strength so high, he wouldn’t have to worry about a weakness debuff. His muscles tightened as his supporting tendons and ligaments strengthened. His overly muscular body slimmed into a deadly weapon, his speed nearly doubling. Faster and faster Tad flew into a whirlwind of daggers, blood, and moss as he dispatched golem after golem.
A shriek pierced the explosions and the cacophony of battle. The scream belonged to the douser. Anger flashed in Tad’s mind. Why had they even let her enter the dungeon? Wasn’t she more useful to the guild to scout the dangers? A green golem had jumped onto her back, but the golem was half the size of the others. Moss covered fleshy appendages pulled themselves from the core of the golem, one by one, they slipped into her skin, until the golem disappeared completely.
Tad sped to her aid, her back spurted blood as the divided golem burrowed further. The woman fell to the ground in spasms, but Tad had reached her. He pushed his health into her and cast ‘heal other.’ Flesh repaired and miniature moss-covered tongues were expelled from the wounds on her back. Fifty health disappeared in an instant.
The mossy tongues wriggled together in a mass until they formed a golem once more. Tad’s skin crawled at the sight. It was like Wraithford all over again.
“Don’t let them touch you!” Tad assessed the group in an instant. As a blade, Tristan was the sturdier type, the type to swing an enormous weapon and inflict huge damage in one blow. Similar to how Scar had fought. But he was too slow to deal with the sheer number of monsters attacking. “Tristan, back up Ironfang, I’ll guard here.” Tristan looked to where Ironfang was fighting, then shrugged, charging off to fight.
“Stand together, I’ll circle. Blaze! Don’t let them get overwhelmed!” Tad had expected Ironfang to take charge, but he was off fighting his own battles. It felt strange giving commands instead of receiving them, but Tad wasn’t about to let his party members die that easily.
Not again.
Tad flew in a circle, his enhanced dexterity made the golems look like they were standing still. He sliced cleanly through a moss golem, but then it separated and reformed, leaving the damaged tongues behind. The new golem was even smaller. Tad changed tactics. His powerful muscles drove him from monster to monster. Instead of cleanly slicing through the monsters, he channeled his strength into deadly thrusts. His daggers drove into the golems. Golems hit by Raekast’s fang instantly exploded into a cloud of blood, like a fish caught in a boat propeller. He ripped a shield away from Squeak’s back and used it to bash golems he couldn’t stab to send them flying away. Blaze caught on to Tad’s strategy, the man bombarded his fireballs just outside of Tad’s circle of death. Tad glanced upward, Blaze seemed to be falling slower now. No, it was Tad, he was faster. But the skinny man’s body was perfectly still. Fireballs spontaneously formed from six points in front of him and shot at Golems in fiery explosions.
Tad fought furiously. This was the wrong dungeon for this group. They needed more versatile people, what good was a healer or a tank, when they were mobbed from all sides?
*You have leveled up!*
Silence enveloped the room as the last golem fell to Ironfang’s hooves.
“What in Titan’s gates were those?” The douser said. “It was crawling through my body. Toward my heart. They moved too fast, I couldn’t see what they were.”
“Tongues,” Sara, the blonde healer replied. “Tongues with moss on the outside, they burrowed into your skin. I tried to help, but there were too many between us.”
Ironfang squished the last of the golems with his hooves and leapt toward the group. The first of the glass beads were lit up across the entire room, the light shone, even from beneath the moss.
“New kid, I told you not to be a hero, follow my orders or else.” The threat was plain in his voice.
Tad’s heart dropped in his chest, bewildered at the censor. Tad had saved the douser. She would have died had it not been for Tad. Before, with low charisma, Tad would likely have quietly accepted the criticism, but not anymore. Not when there was a better way, “Wait, why don’t you let me guard the healers?
“This is a dungeon. You can’t protect every member of your party. Your job as a blade is to strike at the heart of the enemy, cripple them so badly that they can’t attack your back line. Our shield and healers could have handled it. Tristan had them covered.”
It felt odd arguing with a deer, but Ironfang was clearly wrong.
Ironfang almost growled. “Last warning, I need slayers who can follow my orders. I’m the dungeon leader, the one with a sixty-five percent survival rate. Luckily for you, this is a dungeon with an exit, so we won’t need to cull if there are more problems. Follow my orders or leave.”
Tad swallowed his pride. If he left, people would still die, he just wouldn’t be there to see it. And he wouldn’t be able to level up any more. He itched to fi
ght, itched to grow stronger, to push the limits and become a warrior.
Tad studied the room. There was something wrong. Where were all the essences? Above the shallow pools of blood and wriggling tongues, there wasn’t any golden essence to harvest. Where was the treasure?
“There.” Blaze’s mindvoice filled their minds, a beam of light, almost like a laser, shone on one of the moss-covered walls. “There’s no light there. It has to be the start button.”
“Alright, lets try this again. New kid, you’re with me, guard my back. Tristan, you protect the group. Everyone healed?”
The blonde healer placed her hand on Tad’s arm, then made a murmur of surprise at his full health state. She turned to Ironfang and gave the go ahead.
“Anyone wish to leave? There’s the door.” No one moved.
Tad had to bite his tongue.
Ironfang bounded off toward the switch, Tad followed in tow. Without ceremony, Ironfang pressed the button with a hoof. The floor below them shook, and the ceiling rose, and like before, the walls dropped once more, revealing a room double the size. The new golems were twice as big, almost up to Tad’s hips, they charged toward the center of the room together. Tad attacked with a ferocity he had lacked before. He would try it Ironfang’s way, he would kill so many golems that they couldn’t overwhelm their support team. Thrust after thrust, even the larger golems exploded into a bloody mess. Tad matched Ironfang kill for kill.
Tad glanced backward at the support team. They were already overwhelmed once more. Blaze, above, blinked less frequently, but his spells still flew out in a frenzy. Only Blaze’s accuracy and quick repositioning kept the support from completely falling apart. Tad turned back to his slaughter, but the pair of blades had only destroyed the one section of golems. Three sides still pressed on the support team in the middle of the room.
“Retreat this way!” Ironfang’s strange and sharp deer voice rang out. The support team reacted immediately. Blaze blasted the three sides with fireball after fireball. Ironfang dashed to a dense group of golems and got to work. Tad watched the retreating group. They were too slow, some would get caught. The golems chased with a gleaming hunger. They moved with wet squishing noises as their boneless legs compressed and propelled them forward like springs. There would be casualties. Their retreat was too slow. They wouldn’t make it to the far wall in time.
Unless…
Tad dispatched three tongue golems around Ironfang in a blur of motion, before he leapt toward the group. He would only be gone a second, Ironfang wouldn’t even miss him.
“Firewall!” Tad cast the spell in a semicircle, directly behind the four retreating slayers. Text floated before his eyes.
*Firewall: Consumes 20 mana upon use. A magical wall of fire twenty feet across will appear where you designate. Duration: 600 seconds.*
Immediately the golems rerouted, and ran around the spell, instead of charging directly through. The extra space bought the four just enough time to regroup and retreat to the wall. Where they made their stand. Blaze’s spells overwhelmed the golems, now that they could only attack from one side.
Tad sped back to Ironfang’s aid. They fought wordlessly, fiercely, and finally, Tad dispatched the final golem before the room became still once more. Well, quiet, except for the electronic ping in his head.
*You have leveled up!*
Both Tad and Ironfang breathed heavily from exertion. Severed tongues sprawled across the floor in every direction, the green and spongy moss floor dripped with blood wherever the pair had fought. Even slick with blood, his feet always found a sure footing.
“Out. now.” Ironfang seethed with anger. He pointed toward the black misted dungeon door with a hoof.
What! Tad had done everything that Ironfang had said! Neither of them had even been hurt, and once again, Tad had given the support team a chance to reorganize and regroup.
“Uh oh.” Blaze’s mindvoice spoke. “The dots.” Like before, the second light was shining, but something was different. The last glass beads all pulsed softly.
Arguments erupted across the room at the meaning, but the blonde healer spoke up the loudest. “The last three waves! They are coming simultaneously!”
Tad turned toward Ironfang. “Still want me to leave? You saw what I can do.” He thought his actions had more than proved his worth.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Infuriated, Tad spun on his heel and headed for the door. Sure, maybe Ironfang and Blaze could kill the bosses on their own, but almost everyone else would die. The douser had horribly low speed; she had even thought the golems fast, and they hardly moved! Tad hadn’t even been scratched this dungeon yet, since he was so much faster than the trash mobs.
He walked past severed tongue after severed tongue. The faces of the others looked worried, especially with Tad leaving. Surely, they had seen Tad’s worth. More frustrated than he had ever felt, Tad walked out the door of the dungeon, leaving all those within to die a gruesome death.
Floating through the void was little comfort.
But he payed attention to the thickness of the void, the longer he was in, the thicker it got. If he was moving, the void was thicker near the entrance to the dungeon on earth.
Tad popped out the exit only to find a confused-looking Blaze.
“How did you come out after… did we cross paths?”
Tad’s frustration vanished at hearing the supremely confident Blaze doubt himself. “Ironfang told me to leave, so I left. Better out than culled.”
“Yes, well, I’ve had a brief chat with our dear friend.” Blaze paused, as if to appreciate his own pun. “And he said you could come back, because of the special circumstances.”
“On one condition. I get to do whatever I want, I’m not listening to that blowhard anymore. He doesn’t even try to keep his party members alive. His strategy sense is bafflingly bad.”
Blaze’s eyebrows turned down in consideration. “Everyone in there willingly follows the man. Or beast. Or whatever you want to call him. They believe in him, and your doubt stirs their insecurities. Everyone wants to believe their leaders to be flawless, that perhaps, in the darkest moment, their hope in Ironfang will be what pulls them out to safety. If you think you are a better dungeon leader than him, then maybe it is for the best that you try to become one. You cannot become the best, without challenging the status quo, without believing in your own genius. But Ironfang is our best dungeon leader and has cleared over a hundred dungeons, with a sixty-five percent survival rate.”
Tad’s head spun at that number. After more than a hundred dungeons, the best strategy the man could come up with was to kill monsters so fast that the fewest people died? It was a miracle the man hadn’t had a party wipe yet.
Blaze still hadn’t even agreed to Tad’s condition.
Blaze’s eyebrows twitched. “Talk to Ironfang. I asked him to give you some leeway. He might not see it, but I know a rising star when I see one. Been at this job too long to miss them. If you choose not to come back, stick around, I lead dungeons occasionally, and I could use you.” And with that, Blaze blinked away, probably back into the dungeon.
Half of Tad wanted to turn and leave Ironfang to the mess he had created himself, but the other half understood what Blaze was saying. Far too well. In Tad’s eyes, Gruff had been a gleaming light of hope. A superhero, almost. Tad’s tongue slicked to his missing teeth. At least until the betrayal.
Tad strode through the door. Any deaths would rest on Ironfang’s head.
And Tad was suddenly in the mood for murder.
Chapter 7
Slayers scoured the walls, still looking for the last switch to start the fight. Ironfang stood next to the exit, back in his human form, overseeing the process. The look on his face made it clear that he didn’t want this working partnership any more than Tad did.
“Ironfang. I’ll do it your way, but the lives I could have saved are on you.”
Ironfang’s eyes burned. “You know what? That’s
the exact attitude that makes you so detestable. I’ve cleared over a hundred dungeons and saved hundreds of slayers. I’ve been in life and death scenarios more times than you wet your pants as a babe, and yet you come in here, green as shit, with two dungeons under your belt and think you know better. You think those slayers out there need coddling? You don’t think they would have figured it out? This isn’t their first rodeo either.”
Tension filled the air between the two.
Tad wasn’t having any of it. “You done?”
Anger darkened Ironfang’s features further, but was quickly replaced with such a deep look of despair that it startled Tad out of his defiant mood. “You can’t save them all. You don’t think I tried that? You think I haven’t tried to send away the slow, the weak? They just join other dungeon leaders and die without you looking. But even worse than that, you know what happens when you send away the weak? The strong die. You never know when even one of the weakest slayers might make the difference. Sometimes, even the weak shine so bright that it blinds you.
“But tell you what, since you’re such a know it all, you do what you want for the rest of the dungeon. Save everyone. Kill everyone. I just can’t seem to give a damn anymore.”
With that, Ironfang sauntered off, scrubbing moss from the walls like the rest of them.
Tad almost felt guilty at Ironfang’s tongue-lash. Almost. He had been the weak; he had been the one who had made the difference. For Bunta, a warrior rank slayer, he had done it twice. But he had never given up like Ironfang either. If it didn’t work, then Tad would change it. If it was broken, Tad would fix it. Becoming numb to the death, to the loss was unacceptable. Tad would rather agonize over every lost friend than just accept the despair and admit defeat. Sixty-five percent wasn’t good enough.
