Book 2 Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Sound traveled without interruption through the dungeon’s cavernous fourth floor. The fight drew the second patrol’s attention, and then the party was fighting on both fronts.

If not for Alexander's squirrels, the second would have got the party off guard and unprepared. He bought them time by setting traps. Nox gave everyone a pouch of alchemist-made supplies before the delve. Alexander and his summons put them to good use. The squirrels used a smokescreen to hide tripwires and then trapped an asura assassin and mage in Trap Foam. Nox couldn't help but feel impressed by Alexander’s ability to multitask and simultaneously control multiple groups of squirrels to execute diverse and complicated tasks.

By the time the squad reached the party, Lillin was ready for them. Her gravity armor made it look like someone had draped her in dark satin so thin it was near transparent. She assaulted the asura with a gravity orb in each hand. She knocked two off the bridge with her initial attack and then killed a mage with the third. Then, the asura successfully regrouped and put forward an organized defense, forcing Lillin to retreat.

In the meantime, Ernest and Caitlin successfully pushed back the first squad's vanguard. The squirrels still had the mages occupied, and Nox killed another using a well-placed arrow. He had to refrain from using his most powerful projectiles. It wasn't just to avoid hurting his friends. Nox worried he'd damage the bridges, making everyone plummet to their deaths or whatever terrible fate lay below.

Instead of killing the larger, armored asura, the party focused on using them as shields against the long-ranged dungeon dwellers or pushing them off the bridge. Once sure that Ernest and Caitlin could handle the first group, he assisted Lillin with the second. Since she didn't create as large an obstruction, Nox was free to pose more mana into his arrows. He aimed high to ensure the projectiles never struck the bridge or structures supporting them.

Having to hold back frustrated Nox. The second asura squad had a healer amongst them. They regenerated rapidly if he didn’t put down his target in one shot.  Someone in the group had summoning abilities as well. Lillin failed to go on the offensive as snakes climbed over the bridge’s railings and assaulted her from the sides. The squirrels defended against them but could not keep them all at bay.

Joanna stood aside, watching them. She leaned lazily on her polehammer, occasionally dodging projectiles that came her way. Even though the situation felt dire, Nox guessed none of them were in mortal danger. As a result, the summon neither assisted nor interfered.

Ernest screamed behind them as his opponent breathed fire directly in his face, forcing Nox to pull his attention away from Lillin. Individually, the party’s opponents were weaker. However, they compensated with excellent teamwork and tight formations. The dungeon’s dwellers were more intelligent, skilled, and, as a result, dangerous than any rift-dwelling opponents they had faced before.

An idea formed as Nox studied the asura closely. “Ernest! Shrink all your metal and retreat when I give the signal.”

The giant man only roared in response. Caitlin temporarily took over as the loan vanguard as he extinguished the flames clinging to him. His face peeled off like the skin of a blanched tomato. Nox accepted the gesture as an acknowledgment and executed his plan—if it could be called so.

Fighting Professor Wolfhammer’s summons had resulted in a surplus of lightning and frost essences. Thanks to the summoning horn Nox received from his last delve, Nox’s pockets were full of sonic essence, too. He weaved lightning and sound together into an arrow. Finesse Shaping and Live Spell Weaving again proved helpful. Because of his lack of practice, Nox lacked the ability to create something complicated enough as fast as he would’ve liked. Instead, he settled for something simple and straightforward.

“Cover your ears!” Nox yelled.

Much to his surprise, the Ratra’s Bow reacted to the spell-woven projectile. The weapon’s limbs grew longer and better defined. The bowstring solidified, too. Nox felt greater resistance as he nocked the arrow and drew the bow. The arrowhead crackled to life. Lightning arced from its tip, licking at the air and dancing. A metallic hum filled the air. It sounded like the twanging of heavy metal wires.

The arrow transformed as Nox fired it. The rings of essence glass revolving around it multiplied, and the volume increased. Caitlin failed to get out of the way in time, and the largest of the revolving essence glass shards grazed her armored shoulder. The lightning scorched the wood, leaving ember veins streaking through them.

Thunder roared when the arrow struck asura at the center of the first squad’s formation, drowning out all other sounds. Then lightning blinded the asura. The party knew better than to leave their eyes uncovered. Anyone not pushed off the bridge by the explosion fried from the inside out.

When Nox opened his eyes and uncovered his ears, he had to blink away spots and struggle to hear his friends over the ringing in his ears. A six-foot wide crater sat under the point of explosion, and cracks spiderwebbed from it. The blast had blown bits off Caitlin’s armor, and the scorched shoulder piece lay blackened by her feet. A new woody replacement slowly grew to cover the hole.

The one arrow had drained Nox far more than he expected. Ratra’s Bow demanded more concentration than mana. Crystallize Essence and his Shaping planet weren’t as expensive as his companions’ spells either. Meanwhile, the techniques that came with his newest classes demanded all of his mental faculties. The one arrow left him with a dull ache at the back of his eyes. Then Ratra’s Bow used the opportunity to take a monstrous bite out of his star.

Ratra’s Bow maintained its size when Nox spun around to assist Lillin. He assumed her mimic physiology protected her from the thunder and explosion. Having her back to the flash meant she didn’t get blinded, either. Her opponents didn’t have such luck. Most of the blinded asura had already died or were hanging off the bridge’s sides. Nox sniped them before the squad could recover.

“We need to move!” Alexander yelled. “Now!”

“What is it?” Nox asked, eyes desperately searching for the source of the younger man’s panic. Alexander frowned, staring at the distant veiny ceiling. Nox saw nothing at first but then noted a giant, moving, dark patch. It took Nox a moment to realize that a silhouette was rapidly moving toward them.

“Hogg’s Avatar,” Joana said, sounding much too calm for the chaotic atmosphere. “The young Woodson is correct. You need to move.”

The party fled in the opposite direction. Blinded by the elite asura’s fire breath, Ernest needed to be led by the hand. Alexander’s squirrels scouted ahead, directing them toward an area free of asura patrols. When Nox attempted to pause and cover their escape, Alexander’s squirrels ushered him along.

“No time!” Alexander yelled. “Don’t stop moving.”

The bridge shook underfoot, and asuran screams filled the air. Loud thuds thundered behind the party, and the following vibrations rattled Nox’s bones. Joanna disappeared. The pursuing chaos grew more distant in the next moments. It took five minutes for the party to find silence. They ran for five more before stopping in a quiet alcove where the bridge met a wall, and the path bisected.

“What the hell was that?” Nox asked, panting. His heart raced, and his temples pounded because of the exertion.

“Hogg’s avatar,” Alexander replied, appearing in much better shape than Nox. The younger man lacked martial ability but moved faster and had significantly better stamina. “He’s the reason journeymen delvers avoid the floor. A good enough party might safely deal with a couple of patrol squads at a time, but you need a full party of adepts, if not an expert, to kill him.”

“What is he, though?”

“Hogg’s avatar. A lesser dragon carrying a fragment of the dungeon lord’s consciousness.” Caitlin’s wood armor opened, and she stepped out of it. The elemental remained standing erect like a hollow statue. “We failed to escape it last time, forcing Professor Wolfhammer to interfere.”

“We paid for that dearly,” Alexander added.

Once sure no asuran assassins were pursuing them and no patrols would come their way, the party decided to rest for a short while. Ernest enlarged the coffin container on his back, and Michelle climbed out of it. She got to work on her brother straight away, healing burnt flesh and regrowing skin.

“So what do we do?” She asked. Michelle’s voice betrayed her annoyance. She clearly wasn’t pleased about what they let happen to her brother. “We can’t return the way we came. That thing is too much for us.”

“Class isn’t over yet,” Joanna said. “You must stay in the dungeon for six more hours.”

“Ernest was seriously injured. You’re not putting him through that again.” Michelle’s words carried more venom than any serpent Nox had ever milked. “Class is over—”

“No. It is not.” Joanna cut her off coldly. “Dungeon delves rarely go the way planned. You must find a way to survive and continue combat or exploration. Unless someone suffers a near-fatal injury, you have five and a half hours of combat or exploration left.”

“This is ridiculous!” Michelle exclaimed, throwing a scrap of bloody cloth across the alcove.

Caitlin kneeled in front of the Beaufort woman and placed a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll survive this,” she said, keeping her volume low and tone gentle. “We’ll scout carefully and pick our targets better.” Caitlin looked at Nox. “No more loud arrows. We won’t make more noise than we have to. Targeted, tactical strikes are the way forward.”

Nox sighed. “Of course. I attracted Hogg’s avatar.” He had Lillin retrieve a flame-repellent concoction out of her spatial storage. Nox coated himself in it and then made all party members do the same. Caitlin and Ernest needed a second container. “Michelle, I’m sorry. We should’ve made the appropriate preparations when I learned of their draconic breath.”

“By Yggdrasil, you should’ve,” Michelle said. “The party needs rough knowledge of everything you bring on a delve.”

“Everything okay with you, love?” Caitlin asked.

“Not now. We’ll talk once we’re out of this damned place.”

Nox didn’t know the whole story of what happened to Ernest. However, he knew it had something to do with a rift or dungeon incursion. Nox wondered whether the city’s dungeon had something to do with it. For the time being, he put such thoughts out of his mind and supplied everyone with more empowering brews and concoctions to resist the asura’s magic.