Ruthless ~ 21!

Hello from the middle of the ocean! I got internet access just so I could get this out today!! Hope you are all doing super well!!

~ 21 ~

“Destroy them? Who is ‘them’? Joe opened the details of the quest, blinking in surprise as he read.

Quest: Destroy Them. A team of adventurers have blasted their way into the final layer of this dungeon. They are disregarding the sacred traditions of best dwarven choosing site, and damaging ancient artifacts stored within. Slay these adventurers and return all stolen items recovered to the dungeon. Reward: based on number of items recovered and targets slain. Accept? Yes / No.

Accepting the quest, Joe turned to the others and made sure that they had gained the quest as well. Upon confirmation, the team started moving toward the entrance of the dungeon. There was no point in trying to go down further, already they could hear the sounds of water rushing inward from below. Joe had a guess as to who the invaders were, but he had no idea how they would have been able to get out to the area and especially how they would get powerful enough explosives that they could break through a dungeon’s walls. He knew from experience exactly how durable a single wall would be, not to mention however many layers this place may have.

“Joe, I really want to learn more of this history.” Bard was looking at the walls wistfully as they ran away from the steadily increasing noise of water. “Something tells me that this will be not only important information in the future, it will be-”

Poppy interrupted Bard before Joe could get a word in edgewise, “Only way we are going to get lower is if we leave the dungeon and it is able to repair itself. Otherwise, we are going to need some kind of water breathing potion, and I don't think any of us want to go through Alexis’s poison again.”

Jaxon spoke up with a questioning tone, “Did we in fact have a plan to get back to the surface? I did not particularly enjoy the first-”

“There was a hatch right near the entrance that was locked from the inside.” Alexis snapped, “I’m betting that will at least let us out near the top, and we can all swim to be surface from there. If you drown, well at least you do not have to go through ‘my poison’ again.”

Joe simply kept his mouth shut and continued running with his group. When they got to the hatch that Alexis had mentioned, they opened it and stepped inside. They were surrounded by glass on all sides, but before any of them could question why, the glass enclosure shot upward. As they moved through the water, they were able to see all of the wildlife in the area. They were agitated, furious, and incredibly reckless. Many times, a fish or an eel would bounce off of the glass, and the humans could only hold their breath and hope that the strange elevator they were in would not shatter.

After breaking the surface of the water, the glass unfolded and turned into a platform that raced across the surface of the water. When it got close to dry land, the elevator stayed in place; gently bobbing with the waves. They took a few more steps on to the sandy tidal shelf, looking for the people that had so abruptly interrupted their plans. At first, they were concerned that they had missed them entirely, but when a series of faces popped up in the water and made their way closer, Joe and his team could only smile as they readied their weapons.

“How? How in the world did you beat us here?” Sam, the leader of the other party, took his hat off and shook it. Somehow, this simple action was enough to remove all the water not only from his hat, but his clothes as well. He tossed his head to the side, and his luscious hair swept out as if he were shooting a shampoo commercial.

Trying his hardest not to hate the man simply because he apparently had everything Joe did not; Joe took a deep breath, gently let it out, and offered his ultimatum. “We were offered a quest to return the item that you stole from the dungeon. If you hand them over without a fight, we will put all of this behind us and work hard to never see you again. If you want to fight, well... I am fine with that too.”

His team had a large advantage right now, they were on dry, fairly stable ground, while Sam's team was still waist-high in the water. They were prepared, had their weapons out and ready, and had just been given a comfortable ride back to shore. Sam's team had needed to fight with other monsters the entire way back, while swimming and carrying the items they had gained from the dungeon. Though Joe really wanted to know why they had not stored them in storage devices or bags, he wasn't about to give the other team time to relax and prepare by asking drawn-out questions.

When the other group did not surrender, Joe understood that they had a fight on their hands. He lifted his Mystic Theurge staff and started casting Acid Spray at the group as quickly as he could manage. As that was clearly the signal to fight, the rest of his group began in earnest. Crossbow bolts thudded into a heavily-armored, hammer-wielding woman, knocking her back and causing her to slip in the water. A man dressed in a Judo Gi race forward on top of the water and sent a punch flying at Alexis. He was intercepted by Jaxon, who gasped when he saw how the other was traversing the water.

“You… you have fish feet!” Indeed, the Monk's feet from the ankle down had transformed into extremely large koi fish.

“Bro, you need to not worry about that right now.” The monk shook his head as he used his forearm to push Jaxon's fist to the side. “Y'all messed up when you attacked us next to a body of water, there is no way that you can match my mobility.”

“Your fish feet are no match for my T-Rex Head Hands!” Jaxon declared indignantly, sending a flurry of blows at the obviously confused monk.

Most of the group had paired off and were fighting battles one on one; Alexis had switched her targets to a lady dressed in dark leathers, clearly an assassin. It was a game of cat-and-mouse, as the assassin would dive underwater as a crossbow bolt came her way, but was working to close the distance between them so she could put her blades to work. Alexis was having none of that, and so was very carefully timing her attacks to coincide with when the other woman would attempt to dash her way.

Joe had planned on being the one to fight against Sam, but a chunk of ice flying at his head made Joe focus on a man who was clearly a Mage. Bard stepped forward and engaged Sam, using his double axes to fend off the blade, and using his Skaldic chants to boost his resistance to the odd spells the man would intermittently use.

Poppy had set himself up to fight the heavily armored woman, and his attacks were already creating fountains of blood to erupt from the joints of her armor. The woman was strong. Even so, Poppy was able to hold her off with minimal effort. Each time she had a chance to step out of the waves, Poppy was there with a fresh wound for her. finally, it seemed that she had enough, “Devastating blow!”

As the head of the hammer came toward him, Poppy calmly sidestepped and a drew his weapon backward until his right hand was level with his right shoulder, his left hand was a flat Palm pointing at his target, and then he lunged with a shout of, “Counter!”

Eyes wide with shock, the woman tried to swallow the cold, wet feeling in her throat. She choked, and the muscles refused to obey her until Poppy had finished pulling his Rapier out of her trachea. She collapsed into the water, and Poppy moved to help Alexis with the Assassin.

Targets slain: 1/5.

“Solidified Shadows!” Joe finished his spell, and a dark ball and chain wrapped around the ankles of the Mage he was fighting. Already off balance, his opponent stumbled as a wave hit him from behind. The spell on his lips fizzled away to nothing and the congregated shadows began pulling him down into one of the tidal pools. The Mage was doing everything he could to pull himself out of the water, but Joe felt it clearly when something latched onto the chain and began to pull.

“Sam!” the Mage shouted in fear. Something in his voice made Joe pause. He had never seen someone react so violently to a little player-versus-player.

Bard went flying across the surface of the sand, tumbling and picking up muck as he went. Joe was uncertain what he had been hit with, as far as he could tell it was some form of pure concussive force. Sam came running, the Mage struggling and being pulled into the depths, he turned to Joe. “You win! Stop! Let him go!”

Hearing a trick or a trap, Joe blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. “Swear to me that you will give us all of the stolen items and leave without trying to harm us, and I will let him go.”

“Fine! I swear it! Let him go now!” The sword in Sam's hand was shaking, and Joe knew he was about to get stabbed if he did not follow through immediately. The Shadows wrapped around the ankles of the Mage vanished, and he crawled his way onto dry land as fast as possible. “Everybody stop! We lost this one. Hey, why didn't you get a player killer Aura?”

“Prolly because we have a quest to kill you all.” The other Fighters slowly and carefully disengaged with each other. A double scream of primal reptilian joy made some of them flinch, and everyone looked over to see Jaxon's hands trumpeting to the sky before lunging downward to feast on the fallen Monk. Joe's face clouded, and he shouted at Jaxon, “Enough! You beat him and they surrendered! Stop!”

Targets slain: 2/5.

Jaxon nodded, looked down at his fallen foe, and scoffed, “Fish feet.”

Joe did a head count, and found that Bard and Poppy had both fallen in the last few moments of combat. He turned and eyed the heaving Mage. “That's a non-player character, isn't it? Why? Why would you endanger the only life he has?”

“If you try to use this against us in the future, I will devote everything I have into hunting you down.” Sam coldly stated as he pulled his friend up into a standing position.

“Listen, you jerk.” Joe coldly stared at be overly-ostentatious Swordsman. “It took the slowest, weakest, single target spell that I have to put that guy in a position where you had to surrender or lose him forever. Almost everything that I use has a massive area-of-effect, and is deadly within seconds. If you come after us again, and he is with you, I cannot guarantee that he will survive... but I promise that you won't. Hand over the stolen goods, and get out of here.”

The Mage coughed and looked at his leader frantically, “Sam! You can't give him the-!”

“Enough! We made a deal, and it’s not worth your life.” Sam declared, getting a snort from Joe in return. He handed over two items, a stone tablet and a platinum ring. Both were glowing with a faint red Aura, and as Joe accepted them, he understood why.

Cursed Quest item. Cannot be stored in any container until the curse is removed.

There was no other information available, and there was no update from his quest, so Joe could only nod and stand aside as the defeated team walked away. He planned on returning to the dungeon immediately with the surviving members of his team, adjust before they got on the glowing glass platform, a notification appeared in Jose vision. “Son of a…!”

Sam_King has broken an oath sworn to you and gained and a title of Warlock II!