Unexpected Guests - Chapter 7 - Training Arc

Okay! So, the schedule this week... As I mentioned this is going to end up being signifigantly longer than I expected. How long? Probably 25+ chapters. Two-ish chapters per floor with an interlude between each.

I COULD do UG until it's done, because that would get me into a position to start DD book two as early as next month, but feels bad to abandon those other two stories.

Right now I'm considering doing 2-3 UG a week, giving DD and IM either once a week, or alternating.

What would you like to see? What balance? Let me know!

“There doesn’t seem to be anyone in this room,” Bandit muttered as we stepped out of the rest room and into a lavish foyer made of dark gray stone.  “Trap?”

I glanced around, noting how the torchlight barely illuminated the area but still managing to reflect off the highly polished, checker pattern stone floors. Very atmospheric.

There were four exits to the room. There were two smaller doors, to my right and left, that seemed to lead back outside, to some outbuildings on the estate. Two long curved staircases lead to a door up on the second door, which appeared to lead further into the building.

And the final one? I looked down at the intimidating black iron door which sat right in back of the foyer. Dark purple glyphs glowed ominously on its surface, almost like it was warning me away.

When I finished taking in the room, I slowly shook my head. 

“It’s a Crossroad,” I finally replied. We have a choice of three different paths from here, and we need to complete all three in order to open the path that leads to Laniva’s boss fight.”

“Why bother giving a choice, if we have to face them all?” Bob asked.

“Because some teams might find it easier to take on certain floors with a full team, and others after losing a couple members. The fact that Lanivia and her team are giving us a choice means they’re extremely confident in their skills,” Spooky explained. “I don’t suppose you know what we’ll face in each section?”

“Lanivia provided me with some basic information, but no details,” I said, before gesturing to the door on my left. “That door leads to the Training ground, and then beyond that, the greenhouse.”

“Not the most ideal layout,” Deadbeat mumbled. “Strolling through a bunch of knights every time you wanted to go look at the flowers.”

“The door on our right,” I continued, ignoring her quip, “leads us through the baths, then up to the observatory.”

“Again, not the most conventional setup,” Bandit snickered.

“And the room up top will lead us through the parlor, and into the Ballroom,” I finished.

“That sounds surprisingly normal, compared to the other two,” Spooky commented quietly.

“They’re kind of split into different specialities, martial to the left, magic to the right, mental challenges above.”

“So… we’re going top last, right?” Spooky said.

I took a step back, and stared at the bear. “What? Why?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way boss, but you and planning… don’t really mix,” Deadbeat explained. “You have the combined processing power of a thousand bears to help you set up ambushes, and defensive lines, but you almost always choose to act reactively, instead of proactively. Mentals aren’t your speciality.”

“Do you honestly think we’d be able to handle magic, a force none of us have ever encountered before, and have absolutely no understanding of, easier than puzzles?” I demanded.

“Absolutely,” Bandit replied. The other bears all nodded in agreement.

“You know what? Fine. We’ll do upstairs last. Since I’m a little less confident in our ability to handle magic than the rest of you, I suggest we go left first. The one thing I am confident in, is your ability to beat things to death in a contest of strength,” I declared. “Any one object?”

No one did, so I wandered over and yanked open the door. When I stepped through there was a sense of disorientation, and when it cleared I found myself on a rough dirt path with the outer wall of the mansion on my right, and a high stone wall on my right. Scattered down both sides of the path were a number of training dummies, archery targets, and weapon racks.

“That was unpleasant," Bob mumbled from behind me. When I turned to look at him, I noticed there was no door, just a blank stone wall.

“Looks like we’re locked in,” I muttered. “The only way we have to go is forward.”

“I’ll take the lead,” Heavy grunted as he hefted his mace and shield. I didn’t argue, I’d seen what he’d been able to shrug off with that shield, so let him get a few steps ahead before falling in behind.

Once we started moving it didn’t take us long until we ran into our first foe. Well foes.

At first I thought the heavily armored pair were knights, I had trouble telling where the man ended and the horse began. That’s when I realized they weren’t two separate entities.

“Are those… centaurs?” Bandit asked before I could.

“Looks like it,” I replied. “I don’t suppose you two would step aside if I asked politely, would you?” 

The pair raised their lances to chest level in response to my query, performing what I could only assume was some sort of salute. This didn’t last long though, as they lowered the weapons down, parallel to the ground, reared up and charged.

“Fuck!” I shouted as I threw myself behind Heavy and his shield. The centaurs were extremely fast, closing in on our position in seconds. 

I’d expected at least one of them to bounce off Heavy, but the pair danced around his guard and instead smashed into the bears behind us. The first attempted to skewer Spooky, who just causally parried the lance with his sword, while the second aimed for Bandit.

The fox did his best to redirect the heavy lance, but his tiny knives weren’t great at countering a charge weapon. He did manage to catch the weapon, and redirect it slightly, but it wasn’t quite enough. As he sidestepped the charge, just barely avoiding the Centaurs’ hooves, the lance caught him in the ear, tearing it open.

“Awww… come on do you know how…” Bandit shouted at the centaur as it skidded to a halt behind us. I’m sure he had more to say to the charging combatant, but he was interrupted by a trio of arrows embedding themselves in his back, causing him to slump forward.

The area went quiet for a moment, almost like neither side knew what to do, until Bandit stood up straight again and reached for the arrows. “Sonnova bitch! Why’d you shoot me there? I can’t even reach the damned things. You know how uncomfortable it is to have the autorepair shove shit out of my hide?”

As the fox began to hop around, reaching for his back, the two centaurs seemed to snap out of their daze, and prepared for another charge. Before they could really get going, Bob got involved. The big bear came charging down at the pair, forcing them to dance away, and preventing them from building up any momentum. Deadbeat and Spooky immediately sprinted after him, eager to take advantage of the opening Bob had created.

While my squad dealt with the centaurs I peaked around Heavy, and tried to spot the sharpshooters. Even though the area was well lit, I didn’t immediately spot Bandit’s assailants. It was only when the light glinted off the tip of an arrow that I even had a clue where to look. The archers were perched on a couple targets about twenty meters down the trail. The reason it had been so hard for me to spot them was I’d been looking for a solid creature, not a wispy patch of smoke. 

The trio somewhat resembled the traditional description of a ghost, you know see through and floating, but there were a couple differences too. A skull and boney arms poked out from underneath the nearly transparent cloak, like some sort of grim reaper. Oh, and they were carrying bows too. That was important.

One of them took a pot shot at me, while the other two fired another pair of arrows into Bandit just as he turned around. They sunk a couple inches into his face before clanging off his thick head. The fox just smirked, and gestured at the bolts.

“Is that the best you’ve got? The boss usually injects healing directly into my face! This is nothing!” he shouted at the wraiths.

“Okay, you probably didn’t need to share that,” I whispered.

“What do you want to do?” Heavy grunted. 

“I have a feeling that if you try and advance they’ll just fall back. Although you could shrug off anything they throw at you, I doubt you’d be able to keep up. No offense. What I need is an opening so I can close in on them,” I explained quietly.

“Distraction? Don’t worry I’ve got you there,” Bandit declared as the arrows in his face dropped away, ejected from his body by his auto repair functions. The fox grabbed his knives, and turned directly towards the wraiths. “Hey Wankers! You can dish it out, but can you take it?”

With a flick of his wrist he flipped the first dagger in his hand, grabbed it by the blade, and flung it at the ghosts.

The three scattered, darting off their perches in order to avoid the knife.

As soon as they did I took off at a dead sprint. The closest wraith noticed me, and seemed to turn mid air to fire an arrow at me before it even landed. The arrow hit me much harder than I expected, I heard my armor crack, but it didn’t penetrate.  

I thought I saw the wraith’s eyes open wider, which was impressive since it only had a skull under its hood, and it held its bow out in a desperate attempt to protect itself. It didn’t do any good. The smoldering red axe head cut through the spectral assailant, bow and all, like it wasn’t even there. 

I didn’t wait to see if it dissolved or not, instead continuing towards the next archer. As if detecting my approach the ghostly creature leapt away, traveling nearly as fast as I was. It turned towards me, bow drawn but I didnt’ give it a chance to fire. Instead I hefted the heavy axe, sending it tumbling end over end until it smashed into the ghost’s head, causing it to explode into a shower of light.

When I turned, intent on dealing with the third wraith, I found it sitting a few feet away, bow already drawn. Before it could fire a red blur smashed into the shape from behind. 

Bandit fell upon the downed creature, a single arrow in his paw. 

“Let’s see how much YOU like it,” he growled. Stabbing the projectile deep into the hood, causing the last creature to dematerialize. 

I glanced back at the rest of the squad, only to find Bob, Spooky and Deadbeat a little worse for wear, but ultimately victorious over the centaurs.

After taking a second to take a deep breath I threw my hands into air. “See? Our type of fight!!”