Eternium ~ 47!

Dale and Minya were stunned as the words reached them. They were being told to run? Then the words sank in and they realized the danger. Dale’s eyes went wide and he kicked the golem, destroying it and not even noticing that it had gone limp even before he had attacked. Without Cal’s influence urging the automatons to fight, they tended to stay in a statue-like state.

“We need to run.” Dale reaffirmed Cal’s order. “Barry has been known to eat people that were in his way, and I don't think he would do anything but smile if he realized that he had the option to chew on my Mana.”

“I’m with you, Dale.” Minya pointed at a door that was sliding open for them nearby. “Let’s run, I don't think Cal wants to keep that open any longer than needed.”

Indeed, the door was already starting to slide down the wall. They raced along the pathways and dove in, letting the corrupted stone walls provide them with safety. Now in the maintenance area, Dale could feel Cal’s mind brushing his again, and knew that his influence remained here. “Cal, is he just eating the main things on each floor?”

<Just?> The reply was scathing. <Oh. Wait, I see what you’re asking. Yes, he doesn't seem to realize that there is more behind everything. Most people didn’t know about it, so I'm not surprised. Plus, he would need to eat so much basic stone to get at these areas, and I don’t think he’s gonna bother. Run, you two. Get to the surface and find somewhere to hide. Xenocide is in the area, so… good luck on everything. I'm going to get out through my portal when he gets close, just to be on the safe side.>

Dale winced as the connection cut off, and scrambled back as an orb of some kind rolled past him. It was throwing so much Mana off that Dale knew it was at least in the A-ranks. “What is that? Is that from the lower levels of the dungeon?”

“It sure is.” Minya looked at the creature with great interest. “Wow. That’s an elemental! I had no idea that he had been able to create such advanced Mobs! Stabilizing Mana to the point that it forms a will of its own is impressive! Did you know that those can be naturally occurring under the correct circumstances? A lot of people theorize that they are actually just Cores that specialized too heavily with their affinities, and lost the power to create influence, They might have been dungeon Cores at one point, but-”

“Minya, you have a lovely voice, but we really need to get moving.” Dale informed her calmly, though he had been trying to pull herr out of harm’s way as another ‘elemental’ came rolling past. “I don’t think those things are tame, and I can feel that Cal has his mind elsewhere. Please?” 

“Right! Sorry, dungeons have always been my passion!” Minya blushed as they started moving again. “I just keep getting so caught up in the amazing things that I get to learn firsthand that I forget to be safe, you know?”

“I sure do understand.” Dale wryly replied. “I’ve seen you examine the Manticore’s stinger when he was sleeping, just because you thought he was sick. Because he wasn't producing enough poison!”

“Oh, Manny is the best!” Minya didn't seem to be talking about the same murder-monster that Dale was, so he opened his mouth to correct her, but Minya spoke first. “He’s just a bigger version of Snowball! He might be scaled and able to taunt people with words, but Manny is still just a big softie!”

“What, he just doesn’t like all that many people?” Dale snorted as they chose a smaller side tunnel that the elementals were avoiding.  “I never was a cat person.”

“Of course not!” Minya poked him in the nose, “You’re a human person!”

Dale groaned, which only seemed to make her more pleased with herself. “Now I see why you get along so well with Cal; to think I had been attributing maliciousness where only terrible jokes could be found.”

“Well, at least now you know better!” Minya danced ahead, showing off her powerful - yet graceful - body. “Terrible jokes are good for the soul!”

Dale couldn’t think of a response to this non sequitur, so he pretended no to hear her and simply went quiet. They were approaching a group of people that Dale didn’t recognize, and he wasn’t sure what to think of the intermixing of Goblins and various races. They looked at him and nodded, keeping their eyes on him in preparation for trouble. Apparently being with Minya was enough to allow them to get close enough to talk, but not enough to guarantee safety.

“Hello, everyone!” Minya waved at the group and seemed to undergo a sudden personality shift. “We are gathered here because there is a S-classed disaster striking the dungeon currently. Our mission, granted to us by the Great Spirit himself, is to escape and go through the portal above us. This portal will allow us to truly become a part of the dungeon, no longer trapped on the outside as we have always been. Prepare yourselves, this will be an all-out sprint across open ground with a hostile force possibly awaiting us.”

Dale looked at Minya, impressed by the pure force behind her words. She was inspiring! He felt aggrieved and embarrassed that he had never given her a chance for the simple reasoning that her allies had been distasteful. Ah, well. Nothing to do now but learn from his mistakes and move forward with his eyes open the possibilities in front of him. The group approached the surface, and found that all the buildings were gone except the one protecting the entrance to the dungeon.

Since there were no other structures remaining, it was easy to see the destination; the black portal. The group was about to make a break for it when Dale called out, “Wait! Something is… wrong.”

A few of the members looked at him condescendingly, but Dale was still able to feel that there was something out there. He reached out through the influence that Cal had in the area, latching on with his mind and looking for things out of the ordinary. His eyes snapped open. “We need Bashers. As many as possible, and have them scatter as much as they can.”

There were plenty of the bunny-Mobs in the area, but they were standing calmly and waiting for their Goblin overlords to give them the command to move. Annoyed by the human giving orders, the Goblins almost ignored the warning. Minya took command, putting her foot down and kicking a Basher out into the open. As it landed, creatures swarmed out of the air and started fighting for the succulent meat that the bunny offered. The Goblins looked at Dale with new respect and sent their creatures running ahead; knowingly sacrificing them so that the group of sentients would stand a fighting chance.

The flying creatures swooped and screeched, snapping up the fleeing creatures no matter how they worked to twist or avoid the conflict. A steady stream of Bashers sprinted out of the hole in Mountaindale, and soon they were spreading out and drawing away attention. Dale kept a mystical eye out, and everyone was watching him with bated breath. His jaw popped open, and a word tore out. “Go!”

The group ran, the longer-legged humans and Elven attendants outpacing the shorter Goblins. Only Bob-type goblins were Mages, so the majority of this group was under the Mage ranks. This made them comparatively slow, and without the distraction of the Bashers they would have assuredly been annihilated. As it was, the group started taking losses not even a quarter of the way across what was now an open field. 

Dale and Minya devoted their time to fighting off a few of the creatures that were attacking, but most of the flyers were upper C-rank at the lowest. The others were easily Mage ranks, and the best the humans could manage was to drive them away. If they took the time to kill each monster they came across, the others they were trying to protect would be slaughtered. All of the people present were fine with whatever fate awaited them, knowing that even if they didn’t make it into the portal, they would only need to wait a short while to be returned to life. Still, they appreciated not being attacked.

The front runners started diving through the portal, and Dale found that they didn't cause pain in his system like any other had, and he briefly wondered if the reason for that was the fact that they were dungeon born, and therefore attuned to his soul. The only reason his pondering was brief was that as the last of this group ran through the portal, the shifting curtain of energy suddenly narrowed and sliced the man in half. Dale and Minya skidded to a stop, and Dale fell to his knees.

He started to scream, clutching at his chest and head so hard that blood began to pour from wherever his grip had landed.