CWD: GA ~ Twenty-Three

Nacho had vague recollections of people telling him stories about this place, though frankly a lot of tunnel-dungeons looked very similar. The stone steps didn’t drop all that far; they were similar to the Deep Buggy Darkness, coming to a T-juncture. In this location, however, the corridor didn’t end on the right, instead continuing to descend into darkness.

The floor was covered with white streaks, suspiciously similar to bird droppings. Somehow, he doubted the Blues Birds had come this far down—he’d seen them out there, and these smears looked far bigger than anything they could produce. The droppings gave the whole corridor a stink that was just below overwhelming.

“Left or right?” Brie whispered, the ‘ta’ sound from the word ‘right’ echoing off the walls as though a tiny person was hitting it with a hammer.

From behind Nacho, Reuben *clinked* his gauntlets off his chainmail, then spoke far too loudly for the trained assassin among them to be happy. “Well, it kind of depends on why we’re here. There’s more guano to the left, so if we’re here to kill monsters, that’s the direction we want to take. The right smells fresher, so if we’re here for fun, we should follow what makes our noses happy.”

Nacho hoisted the lantern higher. “We’re all about killing monsters and collecting credits.”

Reuben started singing softly, “To the left, to the left, everything you kill in the tunnel to the left.”

“Left sounds great.” Brie strode ahead, hammer ready as the tension in the air began to increase. She was poised like a serpent ready to strike as the corridor’s floor twisted down, then upward. The level of the hallway rose enough for them to smell the creek above and for occasional roots to grow out of cracks in the ceiling. Gradually, they began to hear clattering and clicking, a few squawks, and then cawing—evidently, a murder of unhappy crows waited up ahead, and Nacho shivered at the memory of the Melted Crow that had nearly ended his Evaluation.

Brie stopped and looked back, sweat dripping down her face. “I always laughed at people who were afraid of birds. Now, I think Hitchcock was on to something.”

“Let’s start getting quiet now.” Nacho peered into the darkness, attempting to get his System View to lock onto the moving figures in front of them… and failing. They were big, though not man-sized—still, they were larger than the Blues Birds from the cave entrance.

“Hit me with some Positive Vibes.” Brie took a fresh grip on her maul. “I don’t mind the fighting so much; it’s the anticipation of the fight that drives me crazy.”

“Crazy awesome, like the Berserker you are.” Reuben moved forward and wiggled his hands at his girlfriend’s back. “Positive Vibes for everyone! Let’s hit these things with an extra one-point-two-six points of damage! Whoo, six percent of twenty-one!”

“Or twenty-three, when I Combat Dash,” Brie cheered under her breath. A shimmer of golden light flashed up their bodies from feet to helm, or in Nacho’s case, his dark hair. Nacho gently pushed Reuben forward, which pushed Brie forward, and gave them their first glimpse of their next adversaries.

They were definitely crow-shaped up top, though instead of wings, they had stumpy arms that ended in bone hooks. Their beady eyes were as black as their beaks, and their feathers appeared to have been dipped in oil. Nacho got a definite vulture vibe from them, until he saw that instead of a bird’s clawed feet, they had the paws of a panther, complete with bright white claws.

He finally managed to get a lock on one of the things:

Caw Paws

Effective Tier/Level:?

HP:?

“Caw Paws?” Reuben wasn’t impressed. “More like ka-pows! Get ‘em, baby!”

Brie shouted her battle cry and raced forward with a Combat Dash, tearing through the corridor and into the middle of the bird monsters. She used her Defensive Whirl to parry the strike of a hook, returning the favor by splattering the skull of one of the Caw Paws. As she pulled her weapon through a backswing, she shifted her grip and hammered another into its chest, but the last one climbed up on her, digging its claws into her legs and attempting to disembowel her. Happily, the chainmail held, though she was facing two of the things alone for a long moment.

Then Reuben arrived like a Kansas thunderstorm, bellowing in fury at the sight of his future bride in danger. He ripped the crow off her, mashing it into the wall and punching the thing repeatedly. “I. Want. To. Do. More than. Twelve damage. At a time!”

While Reuben beat the Caw Paw into oblivion, Brie brought the hammer around on the last of the mutated animals. It let out a loud *croak*… as she drove her Splatter Mallet through it and into the floor.

Nacho made his move as an unexpected beast silently flew out of the shadows at Brie. He pushed off the floor and slithered forward with a non-system-assisted movement technique that he had practiced as an assassin, appearing next to the Berserker as though he had teleported.

His spare combat knife flashed out and skewered the creature’s neck, holding it in place while his other one darted forward and back, each strike opening a wound as he intentionally twisted the blade for maximum bleeding. The Caw Paw died with a look of animalistic surprise on its face, and he tossed it to the ground. He turned and found his friends looking at him with their mouths hanging open. He headed off any questions, “I don’t want to talk about it. Sorry I’m so rusty.”

Active Combat came to a sudden end, and the gash in Brie’s leg immediately began to close.

“Yeah… you totally suck at combat, Nacho. Such rust. Very bad.” Reuben rolled his eyes as he wheezed from the exertion, something Nacho knew the man didn’t actually need to do thanks to his modified body. “Was the dungeon named after the croaking of the… cat birds?”

The cook merely shrugged and lifted the lantern higher. The tunnel contained a mixture of dirt, roots, rock, and guano—and laced with small passages that opened to the outside. Unfortunately, those small tunnels were not empty. Dozens of Caw Paws came racing in, cawing and croaking in fury when they saw their dead comrades. In a flash, a flurry of feline feet formidably forced themselves forward.

“Fall back to the stairs! Regroup!” Nacho shouted to his friends as he turned and ran. They retreated, Brie limping slightly as her Health Regen fixed her legs—technically, they had not yet engaged in active combat. The party made it to the steps and turned just in time to open the fight against the river of monsters on their own terms.

The Caw Paws came tumbling over each other in a flurry of hoarse cries, feathers, and hooks. Brie gasped at her teammates as her hammer flew back and forth, “Guys, I can’t fight all of those things at the same time!”

A dull *thumping* drumbeat filled the air from down below, echoing from the corridor to the right. The tidal wave of hooked crow-panther hybrids all came to a screeching halt, then reversed course, the ones in the front clawing over the ones in the back. In seconds, the corridor was empty as the bird-cats flew out of the tunnel and escaped into open air.

“No.” Nacho turned to warn Reuben, but he was too late. The Healer’s mouth was already open.

“Drums,” Reuben quoted solemnly. “Drums in the deep.”

Brie didn’t comment. She was done bleeding, but she appeared to be close to freaking out. “That was way too close. Three Caw Paws turned into thirty so fast… you could fight like that the entire time? Why were you making us struggle so much?”

“You need to be excellent fighters. Attacks come at all times, in all places. I can’t always be there to protect you, and I don’t have the stats I need to kill stronger things. Pretend I can’t help you. Plan on that, because as we get to the higher levels, it’s just going to be the truth. Come on, I know where we need to go.” Nacho had devised a plan in the event that they had to defend themselves again. He was pretty sure that the left corridor ended close to the surface, so all they had to do was find out where those holes emerged, and then they could pick off the Caw Paws a few at a time.

If they played their cards right, they’d just found a great credit generator. He quietly drew his friends back and explained his thoughts. “Let’s go back to the entrance cave.”

The drums continued to throb at a rapid beat, the tone reminding Nacho of… something, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Back up in the cave, the Blues Birds were slowly liquifying, and the stench was nauseating, so the cook led them out past the waterfall. Though the water was cold, it washed the top layer of sweat and blood from their bodies and allowed them a minor moment of relief.

“Where are you going?” Reuben finally questioned, as Nacho climbed up the roots to the top of the cliff.

“The front door is a bad idea, so I’m trying to use my mental picture of the underground hallways to get us a better starting point.” Nacho and his friends would have to cross the river; not a problem, since it was autumn and the river wasn’t as swollen as it would be in the spring. While crossing over exposed rocks, they began finding exit holes on the other side. All they had needed to do was follow the Caw Paws surrounding a dead Wight-Tailed Deer, and there it was!

Nacho, Reuben, and Brie squatted in the undergrowth between the stream and the monsters. Brie quickly washed her leg off, revealing that under the scabbed layer was healthy, pink skin. She’d used both Combat Dash and Defensive Whirl—even in the brief combat, she’d lost twenty-five percent of her Hunger points. Her Athletic Endurance was finally kicking in, but unfortunately, that only saved her a half a point.

“Don’t judge me, but the raw Wight-Tailed Deer looks good.” Brie was obviously feeling her hunger, but she interrupted Nacho before he could stop her line of thinking. “Hold on, I want to say this. Humans can’t eat Putrid Mana. At their same Tier, it only tastes gross and gives a few symptoms, but higher-Tiered meat can kill. Now, what I’m wondering is… humans don’t have Putrid Mana, right?”

“Right.” Nacho’s heart fell; he knew what was coming, so he kept his eyes on the Caw Paws dining on the deer corpse.

“Wait. Humans are plentiful, slow, and easy to trick.” Reuben had begun to put things together. “If humans don’t have Putrid Mana-”

Before the big guy could say the words out loud, Nacho pointed at a good climbing tree above the well-traveled brush of the clearing. “If we get Brie up into that tree with the bow, she can pick off the Caw Paws. Reuben and I can lure them out, get them into position, and we take them out a few at a time.”

“We will be talking about this later. If nothing else, you need to let us know what we need to watch out for.” Brie turned and gave Nacho a long look. “Why do I need to be in the tree? What if I want to bash their little crow heads in?”

Both Nacho and Reuben were speechless at the sudden turn in conversation, so much so that Brie laughed and started toward the tree. “I’m so kidding. If we can kill from a distance, let’s do that. As long as we get the same number of credits.”

“How much are these things worth?” Nacho questioned their resident credit-earner.

“Thirteen a pop, so we have another thirty-nine credits to add to the kitty.” It was a relief to see Brie relaxing enough for a pun. They didn’t laugh right away, so she felt obligated to point out her joke. “Get it? Add to the Kitty? Since… they have cat feet. Anyone?”

“We love each other because we have complimentary strengths.” Reuben offered soothingly, getting a glare for his efforts. “Perhaps we leave the puns to me?”

“Gimme the bow.” Brie turned on Nacho and practically ripped the bow out of his hands before stalking toward the tree.