Runeguard 021

Nearly an hour later, I was charging forward again, my hammer whirling above my head in a two-handed grip.

The others were sitting with backs against the walls, cheering from the sidelines and providing advice that was less than useful. Still, the battle was nearly done.

With a powerful heave, I brought my battlehammer down and struck off the head of the last golem. It fell to the ground, and I with it, my chest heaving and muscles burning with fatigue.

The Paragons cheered, and despite myself, I couldn’t help a half-smile. Fighting with the aid of some companions made for a pleasant change.

I rose to my feet as the others surrounded me and accepted their congratulations and backslaps with good grace.

“I told you, Bayan,” Beth said. “Bringing Dace along was a good—”

She broke off and others fell silent with her. Following their stares, I turned to look at the far end of the chamber.

A door had appeared in the previously seamless wall.

“Well, well,” said Bayan. “Looks like we have our exit at last.” He glanced at me. “Are you ready to continue, Dace?”

“I need a few minutes to recover,” I said.

He nodded. “Gavin, Jorge, go scout what lies beyond. The rest of us will wait here.”

 After the two youths left, I considered Bayan. Despite his uptight nature, he made for an effective leader. 

“What?” he asked, catching my stare.

“Just wondering what magic you used earlier,” I said easily. “It certainly looked handy.”

A heavy silence fell, and I noticed Beth and Lauren exchanging glances. It seemed like I had asked something I shouldn’t have.

But before the silence could become uncomfortable, Bayan answered. “It was psionics,” he said.

My eyebrows rose in surprise. “Mental magic? What Essence does it use?”

“You are inquisitive, aren’t you?” he murmured.

I kept silent, waiting.

“It uses psi Essence,” he said grudgingly. “Like your own life Essence, it’s tier two.”

“Ah,” I said. “Where did you find it?”

“In the catacombs,” Bayan said. “On a ghast. But don’t think of going looking in there for more Essences. We’ve searched nearly the entirety of the catacombs but haven’t managed to find another Essence.”

I nodded. I tilted my head to the side and hazarded a guess. “You got a task to find a Class Stone in a dungeon too, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “As near as we have managed to figure out, dungeons seem the only place to acquire a tier two Class.”

I chewed my lip, thinking. It made sense. Tier two Class Stones should be harder to come by than tier two Essences. But what did that say about tier three Essences. Did they even exist? And if they did, could we find one in the dungeon?

I turned to Beth and Lauren. “What about you two? You have any tier two Essences?”

Lauren chuckled. “If only. I know only of three people in the Creche lucky enough to have tier two Essences—two of whom are here already.”

I looked at her curiously. “Who’s the third?”

A scowling Beth answered. “A thief, named Marcos.”

My brows drew down. There is that name again. But before I could question Beth further, Jorge and Gavin re-entered the chamber.

“Incoming,” Gavin shouted. “Snakes and golems on our heels!”

✵ ✵ ✵

We scrambled into action, but the threat proved less dire than Gavin’s yell led us to initially believe. A small pack of about a dozen snakes and two golems entered the chamber following on the youths’ heels. But having learnt already how to deal with both, the Paragons and I made short work of the twin threats.

After that, Bayan kept us moving.

For the next few hours, as we explored the network of corridors forming the first stage of the dungeon, we waded through groups of snakes and golems mixed together in varying blends. It was almost as if the System was trying out different combinations in an attempt to find one that would work against our party.

Curious, I addressed the matter with Adi. “Is there an intelligence behind the dungeon, Adi? These last few hours it almost seems as if the dungeon is experimenting.”

“Every dungeon has an administrator assigned to it, Dace,” she replied.

“I see,” I said, frowning. “Where do the dungeon creatures come from?”

“They are teleported from elsewhere in the Proving Grounds when the dungeon instance is formed.”

I had more questions for Adi, but just then our party entered a small chamber, empty but for the glowing door at its far end. 

I paused as I studied the door. The glowing halo around it portended something different about the door. Sure enough, once the last of our party entered the chamber, a System message dropped into my mind.

Congratulations Paragons + 1, your party has reached the entrance to the first stage’s boss chamber.

✵ ✵ ✵

“A boss,” I said, groaning. “That can only mean one thing.”

“Yep,” Gavin agreed, rubbing his hands together. “Treasure!”

I shook my head at the youth.

Catching my look, Beth chuckled. “I think Dace was thinking less about the treasure, Gavin and more about the difficulty of the battle ahead.”

Gavin shrugged. “We’ll win as always, of course.”

Ah, the confidence of youth, I thought.

“We’ll take nothing for granted,” Bayan said firmly. “This dungeon has already surprised us more times than I care for.” The Paragon leader turned to me. “Dace, can you buff us all before we go in?”

“Sure,” I said, beginning the chant of a lesser bless. 

After I was done, Bayan addressed the group at large. “We don’t know what we’ll face in there. We will proceed cautiously. If things get too hot, we retreat.” 

“If we can,” Lauren added grimly, likely thinking about how the dungeon had trapped us in the golem chamber. 

Bayan grunted, acknowledging her point. “Ready people?”

We all nodded. 

“Let’s go then.”

We entered in a single file, with me leading the way. I edged slowly into the room, not rushing despite some choice whispers from Gavin about cowardly tanks.

Right away, I noticed the chamber was different from the rest of the dungeon. The floor underfoot was covered in ankle-deep water, a dirty brown color and filled with sludge. The walls were draped with vines that curled down from above, and the air was heavy with moisture.

It’s a veritable swamp. 

The others spread out along the wall behind me, not advancing with me as I waded deeper into the room. “Keep an eye on the water,” Bayan whispered. “It may be concealing more snakes.”

I nodded. I had the same thought, but despite the abundant greenery in the chamber, I hadn’t spotted any foes yet.

Three yards into the chamber, I stopped. Something was rising out of the water, about twenty yards away, at the room’s far end. “Bayan,” I called out in warning.

“I see it,” he replied.

Narrowing my eyes, I examined the emerging mound of earth. On first glance it appeared to be little more than a tangle of branches, slime, and dirt. But I doubted the mound was anything so innocuous.

The pile of earth kept rising until it was twice my own height. Then, near the top of the mound, two sections of earth caved in, revealing a pair of sickly-green orbs.

You have examined a dungeon creature and have partially perceived its nature. Your target is a level 12 shambling mound.

I swallowed on seeing the System message. How was I supposed to fight that thing? It had no limbs that I could see and given its size, hacking it to pieces like I had the mud golems, didn’t seem a viable option. 

I glanced down at the sword and shield in my hands. Both appeared puny in comparison to the monster.

The shambling mound began moving, cutting through the water the way a boat would. I tightened my hands around my weapons and waited. How is it going to attack? I wondered.

The branches on the mound swayed into sudden motion, answering my question. There were hundreds of them. Whipping back and forth, they lifted out of the water and up high in preparation to strike.

Right, this is going to hurt, I thought. Crouching down low behind my shield, I prepared to meet the behemoth.

“Gavin, rock wall,” Bayan shouted. “See if you can stop its advance. Lauren, freeze the water. Jorge, Beth start destroying those branches!”

The Paragons set to work. 

But the dungeon—or rather the administrator controlling it—didn’t let them go about it unimpeded. Predictably the door behind us slammed shut, cutting off our retreat. We had expected it, so it fazed no one.

But that was not all. The vines on the wall began to writhe and the water bubbled ominously. I watched both warily. 

Admirably, the Paragons maintained their concentration despite the distractions, and launched their first volley of spells before the shambling mound was halfway to me.

A stone wall materialized into being a few paces in front of the creature. It brushed through without hesitation, shattering the rocks asunder.

The water around the mound slowed in its swirling, then froze altogether as it iced over. The mound was stopped, but only for a second. A moment later, the ice turned brittle and cracked into thousands of shards and the behemoth resumed its advance.

Lightning cut through the air, and blue static rippled along the mound’s many tree branches. For a moment my heart lifted as the charged air seemed to shock the mound still, but when the static faded, the branches appeared whole and hale.

Balls of flame arced through the chamber and splashed into the mound. They, unlike the Paragons’ other spells, gave the shambling creature pause. Another cavity gaped open in the monster. 

Its mouth. And from it a wail of anguish emerged.

Good, I thought in grim satisfaction. Beth has hurt it.

The attack did not go unanswered, though. Even though the mound was still too far to attack us directly, the vines were not. 

“Aaaargh!”

“Help—!”

“Goddamn—”

My head whipped around. The ropy cords of living green draping the walls had shot down and wrapped around the necks of the Paragons. 

Dropping my shield, I spun about and sprinted to their aid. Beth, Lauren, Gavin, and Jorge struggled frantically to free themselves from the vines choking them. 

Only Bayan appeared unaffected by panic. Lying limp in the vines’ grasp, he made no effort to escape. No that wasn’t quite right, I realized. His mouth was moving.

He is chanting.

A moment later, the Paragon leader, gasping for breath, materialized next to me as he teleported out of the vine’s clutches. 

I didn’t stop running.

“Free Beth first!” Bayan yelled from behind me. “I’ll keep the boss distracted in the meantime.”

I hurtled into the wall, using it to halt my mad dash instead of bothering to slow down. With my longsword in a two-handed grip, I slashed my blade through the vine trapping Beth.

The sword bit deeply into the living green cord but failed to sever it entirely. I sawed at the vine frantically and finally Beth dropped free.

Panting for air, she moved to help me, but I motioned her away. “Help Bayan, Beth,” I said. “I’ll free the others.” 

She hesitated for a beat, then nodded curtly. “Free Gavin next. He’s the weakest,” Beth said as she hurried away. 

A vine reached for me, and I dodged its grasp. “Stay away from the walls,” I called after Beth before turning to the others.

A quick scan of their faces showed Beth was right. Of the vines’ three remaining victims, Gavin was the only one whose face was turning purple. I strode to his side, chanting lesser heal under my breath. I hacked him free as I completed the spell. 

“Thanks,” he mumbled. 

Nodding sharply, I shoved him unceremoniously away from the wall and moved to Lauren’s side, another spell on my lips.

I freed her and Jorge without undue difficulty. Hurrying away from the wall, I surveyed the battle. 

The shambling mound was on fire. 

Beth's flames were dealing huge swaths of damage to the creature while it chased after Bayan. Every so often the behemoth would swap targets and attempt to close with Beth, but Gavin and Bayan were both aware of the danger and drew the creature off, leaving Beth unhampered and free to send further volleys of flame lancing into the boss.

“Looks like they are managing well enough without us,” I murmured.

Jorge nodded as he came up from behind me. “Lauren, let’s help Bayan and Gavin keep the boss distracted while Beth does her thing.”

The blonde woman nodded.

Jorge turned to me. “Dace be ready with your heals. Top up anyone who looks like they need it.” He paused. “Oh, and bless Beth when you can.”

I nodded wryly. It seemed that for this battle at least, I had been relegated to the role of support.

✵ ✵ ✵

Beth, it turned out, was the only one able to deal any meaningful damage to the behemoth. But given how slowly the creature moved, none of the party was in any danger of falling prey to the boss while she inched its health down.

I spent most of the battle blessing one or the other of the Paragons. With little else to do, I considered the course of the battle.

It was turning out to be laughably easy. In fact, other than the vines, nothing had so much as troubled our party.

“Adi, was the battle meant to be this easy?”

She didn’t respond immediately, and I could almost hear her internally debating her response. “No, Dace,” she said. “I suspect the administrator-in-charge overplayed his hand with the serpents.” A note of derision had crept into her voice.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The administrator should have held back at least some of the snakes to ambush the party during this encounter.”

I chewed over Adi’s word while eyeing the churning water. I was less troubled by the thought of being ambushed—we had the battle in hand and any ambush now would make little difference to the outcome—no, what worried me was the implication that the administrators could control the encounters in a dungeon.

This battle might be won, but what about the next? Would the administrator learn from its failures here?