Chpt. 25) Tier six dungeon, level two

Item: Burning spear; quality: rare; can shoot fire spears; cost: one-hundred mana or more depending on size. Ford read the item description as she held the black and red spear she pulled out of her loot bag. She cast weapon storage on it and stored it away, she’d probably never use it, but it’s nice to have.

Ford looked up and saw Farah dawn golden liquid armor over her chainmail. The armor shimmered and glowed as though made out of the sun. “That armor looks awesome,” Ford couldn’t help but say.

Farah looked up and said, “It’s legendary sun armor, protects me from heat and melts things it comes in contact with.”

“Cool,” Ford said, “but anyway, let’s get on to the next level,” a new portal appeared, and Ford immediately walked through. The room she entered was only five meters wide, long, and high, with blue-green crystals lighting the stone floor, an oak door on the other side of the room, and the throne made of children’s board games. Ford summoned her arsenal of weapons and cut her wrist with the blood bracelet to make twenty blood spears.

Once everyone was through the portal, Tanashi appeared on the throne, “Hey everyone, how’s it- AHHH!!” he screamed as Ford launched all the weapons at him, destroying the throne and leaving a cloud of dust. The throne reappeared with Tanashi still sitting on it, “Okay, not in the mood to talk, I see.”

Ford de-summoned the weapons and let her HP regenerate, “No. What do you want?”

“Just to tell you your next challenge.”

“Which is?”

“A Maze. Go through the door and find the portal,” Tanashi said simply.

Ford hesitated, “That seems too easy. What aren’t you telling us?”

Tanashi’s smile widened, “You really are brilliant. The maze has no walls, just a thick fog. Now, I’m going to go,” and then he vanished.

“That still seems too easy,” Ford said, then walked over to the door and opened it. A thick green-black fog hung just past the door. “Everyone hold hands; we shouldn’t be separated. Ace, you’re lead. Farah, you’re in back.”

Ace made his way to the door, and Ford grabbed his tail, then took Lilly by the hand while she took Max and so on. Then Ace walked through the door into the darkroom full of fog. The smell that assaulted her nose nearly made Ford vomit, but she kept it together and kept walking. Ace moved slowly so everyone could keep up, his flaming body the only source of light they had in the room; he periodically sniffed the air, which Ford could also smell through his nose, and it did nothing for the nausea the fog already gave her. The fog hung in the air so thick that she couldn’t even see her hands, but she could feel Ace’s tail and Lilly’s trembling hand.

Ford instinctively began rubbing her thumb along Lilly’s, causing her to stop trembling. They walked in a straight line for ten minutes before Ace stopped. Ford walked right into his, but then Lilly and everyone else collided with her, “What’s wrong?” Ford asked. Instead of answering, Ace sent a feeling along their connection that made her feel like a sword had been driven through her heart and sounds she couldn’t pick up on before. A skittering clicking sound came from all directions, surrounding them.

“Ace, can you pull in the fog and destroy it?” Ford asked.

“Maybe,” Ace responded, and Ford felt the pull of gravity slightly affect her. Soon after, the fog got thinner, and she could see her hands and Lilly come into view. After a minute, Ace had cleared a three-meter circle of fog and growing.

Everyone made their way into the clearing and looked around. Farah drew her twin claymore blades and said, “My helmet can see them, barely. I count twenty.”

“Wha’ can ye tell me abou’ them?” Lilly asked.

Farah fell silent as she looked through her helmet into the fog, “They’re small, crawling on all fours. Very skinny. As if starved.”

Lilly pulled out her staff of destruction and readied herself; Ford did the same and summoned her burning spear and spear of blood and ice, allowing the latter to float beside her. Then she heard a clicking noise behind her and turned to see a humanoid monster crawling out of the fog. Its skin looked thin and slimy; it had long, boney fingers tipped with claws that made no sound as it placed a hand on the ground underneath Ace. Soon its whole naked body emerged from the fog. It had no decerning features to indicate sex, but its face was a solid mass of skin. It had no eyes, nose, or ears other than two holes on the sides of its head, and its mouth hung open in a constant snarl, its three rows yellowing razor-sharp fangs on full display. Oozing from its mouth was the fog that hung around them.

The creature crawled slowly, and Ford didn’t hesitate to stab her spear through its faceless head. The monster uttered a guttural ear-splitting screech as it tried to lunge at her, getting the spear shoved deeper and deeper into its body. Lilly and Max sent several earth and fire spears into the creature, combusting it and creating a noxious gas. Ford had the misfortune of smelling it, and a poison de-buff appeared in the corner of her vision, ticking her health, mana, and stamina down ten points per second.

Ford staggered backward and covered her nose and mouth as she spoke over comms, “When you kill one of those things, don’t breathe in the smoke. Adds a poison de-buff. Lilly, what are those things?”

“Denizens, they’re a varian’ of undead monsters.”

“A variant? How many variants are there?” Ford asked, then her radar lit up with red dots of all different sizes, and several distant and unique screeching howls filled the air, “Nevermind, forget, I asked.”

Lilly cast a healing spell, and Kii and Mizu said, “We need light! We can’t see anything in here.”

“Sunny, get some altitude and light this place up. Ace, keep doing what you’re doing. Kii, Mizu, get on Ace and ready explosive spells. Everyone else circle up around them,” Ford quickly commanded, and Sunny flew up and into the sky, becoming bright enough to look like a second sun. Everyone else did as they were told, and Kii and Mizu climbed atop Ace with their Wise man bows in hand. Once everyone was in position, Ford turned her attention to the surrounding area and saw dozens of shifting shadows moving about in the fog. Some crawled along the ground like the first Denizen, while others walked stiffly; one shadow that she saw didn’t move, and she assumed it was a rock.

Ford tapped the hilt of her spear impatiently, then raised it as though aiming down the barrel of a gun and sent one hundred mana per second into it, launching one fire spear after another. Lilly, Max, Kii, and Mizu followed Ford’s lead and began firing at the monsters. The area filled with the dying screams of Denizens, and the monsters charged in a desperate attack that only resulted in their deaths. The waves of monsters were relentless, and everyone could barely kill the monsters fast enough. Plus, the constant barrage of poison gas the monsters created didn’t help since Lilly had to stop shooting every so often to heal everyone.

“Ford,” a soft whispering feminine voice said in Ford’s head, “Ford, I think I see a door.”

“Who said that?” Ford asked over comms.

“Said what?” Benet asked.

“There’s no time! Trust me to lead you to the exit. I can see it,” the voice said.

Ford stabbed her spear down onto a Denizen’s head and said, “Fine, show us the way.”

“Who are you talking to?” Morgan asked.

Then the light overhead flew away and hovered over a spot two-hundred meters away or so. “Everyone get on Ace. Ace, go to that light. Gimble, you won’t fit; you and I will go on foot.”

“But-” Max began to protest when a Denizen grabbed her ankle only to be decapitated by Max’s new sword.

“No, buts. Go,” Gimble said sternly. Everyone began climbing onto the flaming Hellhound, and Ace ended his black hole spell and ran toward Sunny. Ford cast a new essence enforcement spell with only light essence, and her golden blond hair glowed brightly, illuminating Gimble and the Monsters. Then they ran toward the light, either quickly dispatching the Denizens or dodging them all together. While they ran, they went past several more of the big rocks. Ford launched a fire spear at a Denizen, missed, and hit one of the rocks. Then a long, slimy tentacle shot out from it and nearly grabbed her; instead, capturing the Denizen, she launched the fire spell at. The monster screamed in terror as it was lifted high into the air and then dropped into the rock monster’s gaping maw. The sound of crushing bones and screams reached Ford’s ears, and she forced herself and Gimble to keep moving.

Ford could see the light Sunny created getting closer as she ran, and a small smile cracked her lips. Then it immediately disappeared as she heard Gimble scream behind her. She turned to vaguely see the outline of Gimble clawing at a tiny monster on his face. The monster looked no bigger than a baby, and it swiped and scratched at Gimble’s face and eyes. She willed her blood and ice spear to cut impale the little monster.

“Gimble, you alright?!” Ford asked as she rushed to his side.

Gimble covered his face, sobbing, and said, “It clawed out my eyes!! It hurts!! I can’t see!!”

Ford pulled his arm around her shoulder and said, “Come on, buddy. We got to keep moving. Once we get to Lilly, she can fix you right up.”

Gimble staggered up, still sobbing, and said, “Ford.”

“Don’t worry about thanking me. We just need-”

“I’m scared,” Gimble cut her off, “I’m scared of this place. Of everything. I’m scared.”

Ford didn’t know what to say right away as she willed her spear to fight off several lumbering Denizens. Once they were killed, Ford placed a hand on Gimble’s chest and got his attention, “Hey, everyone’s scared right now. Myself included. But so long as I am here, you don’t have to be afraid of anything. I got you, buddy.”

They got closer to the light, and Ford could see an archway portal underneath it. “Thank you, Ford,” Gimble said, taking a long sniff.

They reached the portal, and Ford said, “No problem, buddy,” then pulled him through the archway.

***