Duelling Dungeons

As the horn announcing the start of the match sounded, Kass stepped into the Bath’s saferoom. Since there was a limit to the number of squads and bosses allowed on any one floor, the safe rooms had been repurposed to act as teleporters. As long as your team had progressed to a point where you could access a floor, you could teleport right to the entrance.

This allowed the staff on floors buried deeper in the dungeon to participate in assaults or easily reinforce weak floors. Making the match far more dynamic and interesting.

She quickly slithered over to the tablet sitting on the nearby table, selected the floor labelled ‘Horde’, and immediately slipped back out the door she’d come in from.

It didn’t open in the same place. Instead, the portal opened onto a claustrophobic stone crypt with skulls embedded in the walls and a single blue flame brazier at the far side of the room.

“Cosy, but not very welcoming,” she muttered.

A moment later, the portal behind her flashed again, and the rest of her team stepped through. Rembrandt nodded to her as he and his squad stepped by, marching in lockstep. Behind them came the wraiths, the ghostly archers, who glanced warily around the room before floating up to back up their more corporeal kin. Finally, Sylvia stepped in.

“How are you feeling?” Kass asked. “Nervous?”

“It’s more stress than nerves,” Sylvia replied quietly. “Even though The Manor is nothing like the grubby warehouse ‘dungeon’ I grew up in, I can’t help but think of my time there every time I connect to a skirmish.”

“I know. I’m sorry that Talia and I didn’t have enough time to implement any of her plans before the match; there just wasn’t enough time. That’s why she reworked her plans to make sure that I’d always be assigned to the same group as you. Hopefully, having a friendly face around will help relax and ground you,” Kass said.

“It certainly helps, as does being assigned to participate in the attack. It’s much less suffocating than being stuck on defence,” Sylvia admitted.

“You can thank Talia for that later,” Kass told her. “She figured having you participate in the assault would make it feel more like you were in an adventuring team, allowing you to concentrate on the task at hand.”

She patted Sylvia on the shoulder. “Come on, we'd better catch up with the rest of the team. We’re on a time limit after all.”

Sylvia nodded, hefted her massive greatsword and casually rested the blade on her shoulder. “Lead the way.”

Kass gave her friend a quick smile before sliding down the hallway to catch up with the small group gathered around the lone brazer at the far end.

“Ready?” Rembrandt asked as she approached.

“I am, but what about you? Thanks to your squad’s elite status, we’re going to be completely outnumbered here. You’re going to have to do a lot of work,” Kass countered.

The revenant simply raised his blade. “We will prevail, no matter what stands in our way.”

“I wish I had your confidence,” Kass muttered. “Lead the way then. Just be wary of the shadows and the roof. Our enemy can come from anywhere.”

“I remember,” Rembrandt replied. With nothing more than a nod, he signalled the rest of his squad, and they pushed forward into the darkness.

“Aren’t they going to light a torch or something?” Sylvia asked as they disappeared into the gloom.

“They don’t need it, spectral sight,” Kass explained. “That’s why they were chosen for this floor. Don’t worry,y though, I have something to help us make it through.”

She pulled a canteen off her belt and poured the contents on the floor in front of her. Sylvia raised an eyebrow.

“Unfortunately, even though I can manipulate water, I can’t create it from nothing, so I need to bring some with me into some of these floors,” Kass explained. “It makes me nostalgic for our fights with The Dread Isles, when fighting on the ships, I had access to the nearly limitless resources of the ocean. I can make this work, though.”

She waved her hand over the small puddle of water, and as she did, it began to glow softly with a soft blue inner light. After a second, the puddle rippled and split into four small, slime-like elementals that zipped down the hallway, lighting the way.

“See?” Kass said as she rose from the floor and wiped the dust off her clothes.

“Why not just bring torches?” Sylvia asked.

“We could have, but I prefer to have my hands free if we get into a fight,” Kass replied, raising all four of her hands and waving them out in front of herself. “Even if I have a few extra.”

“Hardy har har, you’re quite the comedian,” Sylvia snorted.

“I try,” Kass replied.

“Quiet! Something’s approaching,” Rembrandt snapped.

Kass’ easy smile immediately fell, and she snatched her knives off her belt. Through the sudden, stifling silence, they could make out the sound of something skittering towards them—a lot of things.

“Battle formation, sweepers up front,” Kass ordered.

Sylvia swiftly pushed past most of the revenants and stood at the front next to Rembrandt while the rest of the team spread out.

With a wave of her hand, Kass caused the tiny elemental blobs to light up even more, finally illuminating the full area. The team was in a large crypt, with dozens of coffins laid in hollow alcoves dug into the walls. As she did so, a handful of these coffins burst open, scaring off dozens of scorpions the size of dogs.

“Ambush!” one of the wraiths hissed, whirling about and unleashing a barrage of arrows into the nearest coffin.

Kass coiled up and launched herself at the coffins, slashing wildly with her knives, slicing apart the oversized arthropods.

“Now, why did you have to go and ruin my surprise?" a sultry voice echoed out of the darkness, accompanied by a subtle snipping sound. “My babies are hungry, won’t you let them have a small taste?”

“Oh… what’s the matter, are your pets not capable of fending for themselves?” Kass replied, flippantly.

The snipping stopped.

“Do not insult my children,” the voice hissed.

“I insult them because they’re not much of a threat. They feel more like set dressing than anything else,” Kass replied casually, slashing through another scorpion. There weren’t many left inside the perimeter now; hordes weren’t exactly hard to deal with after all.

The voice growled, starting as something humanoid and slowly becoming something more feral.

When the second wave of scorpions poured out of the hallways ahead of us, a large, looming shape came with them—a woman who had a scorpion for a lower half, and pinchers for hands.

“Die and feed my family!” she screeched.

Her long whip-like tail shot forward, trying to spear Sylvia, while she struck at Rembrandt with her pincers. Instead of retreating, Rembrandt stepped forward, meeting the attack head-on and deflecting it aside. Thrown off balance, her tail just barely missed plunging into Sylvia’s chest.

As the poisonous stinger sailed past, Sylvia raised her sword off her shoulder and brought it down on the offending limb. The strength of her arm and the weight of her blade were more than enough to sever the tail completely.

The woman screamed and stumbled back, as the smaller scorpions rushed forward to protect their mother. They should have retreated; their actions were in vain.

Both Sylvia and Rembrandt brought their blades down in long, wide sweeps that cut through dozens of the smaller creatures before cutting deeply into the scorpion woman.

“My children!” she screeched, twisting back and forth to fend off the two swordsmen at her flanks.

“I’m sorry, but you really should have tried to keep your emotions in check during a match,” Kass replied quietly as she slithered forward. When the woman twisted to block a particularly nasty blow from Sylvia, Kass struck, plunging her knives into the woman’s chest. “They make you extremely easy to manipulate.”

The woman slumped, like a puppet with its strings cut, and stared at the knives buried in her midsection.

“But… They're my family. They need to be protected,” she moaned briefly, before coughing up blood. “Would you be able to stand by, knowing your family was being hurt?”

“No. Thankfully, I don’t have to deal with that heartbreak,” Kass replied quietly. “Rest now.”

The woman smiled briefly before evaporating into motes of light. With their mother defeated, the remaining scorpions scattered.

“I can’t believe how well that worked,” Sylvia muttered. “It went exactly like Talia predicted. That girl’s scary smart.”

“And, despite how it might seem when you talk to her, she has an extremely good grasp of how people react, and how to twist their expectations,” Kass sighed. “If only she’d devote a fraction of her focus on developing and maintaining relationships, instead of just analysing them..

“Please don’t even joke about that,” Rembrandt grumbled. “She’s scary enough as she is.”

“That she is,” Kass smiled. “Let's keep moving. We may have defeated Leonia, but we still have a long way to go.”

“Hopefully the rest of our fights go as smoothly as this one,” Sylvia said.

“Yes,” Kass replied quietly. “Let’s hope.”