Duelling Dungeons

“I knew that Jyssa’s miasma was strong, but this…” Kass wheezed as she leaned against the tower’s wall. She’d pushed her team to reach the top of the tower as quickly as possible to limit their exposure to the corrosive miasma, but even though they managed to make the climb in less than a minute, she could already feel the dark magic seeping into her bones.

“I’m not sure about this plan of yours, Boss. You’re looking a little green around the gills,” Helen muttered. As soon as they arrived at the top of the tower, the Naiad had used her water magic to push back the Miasma and give them a place to rest.

Most of her team was in exceptional shape; most of them had to make a longer climb every day to make it up to their pools during practice, but right now, most of them appeared to be really struggling. The dark magic had turned what should have been an easy jog into the equivalent of a marathon.

The worst part was they hadn’t even engaged Jyssa yet; they hadn’t even made it to the room she was sitting in; all they’d done was climb a set of stairs.

“Which part of the plan?” Kass asked.

“The part where you intentionally expose yourself to the miasma in order to attract Jyssa’s attention away from everyone else,” Helen hissed. “Look at yourself; right now, you were only exposed to the mist for a minute, and you’re already gasping for breath. What are you planning to do, collapse on her?”

“I admit, the miasma took a lot more out of me than I expected, but that’s because Jyssa’s been sitting in the boss room for a while, just letting her miasma slowly flow down and pool at the bottom of the tower. That was the absolute worst her magic will be, and we managed to push through it no problem,” Kass explained. “I’m sure I can handle a minute or two of exposure at lower levels.”

Helen’s eyes narrowed. “That’s bunk, and you know it! Even if you manage to withstand the miasma for a minute or two, you’d be crippled for the rest of the match.” When Kass didn’t say anything, the Naiad’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re planning on a sacrifice play?”

“It has to be done. We’re running out of time; the Sanctum’s failsafe will activate soon, so we can’t afford to waste time fooling around. The manor still has a couple of combat-capable squads, and a handful of bosses remaining; if I can exchange my life for Jyssa’s, it’ll be worth it.”

“Well, isn’t that great,” Helen huffed. “You could have warned us this was a sacrifice play from the beginning; it would have given us more time to prepare. We’ll have to change up our plans.”

“What? Why?” Kass asked, bolting upright. “The current plan is perfectly fine. I distract Jyssa while you and the others pelt her with ranged attacks and magic to wear her down. She can’t have much backup, so we’ll overwhelm her with sheer weight of fire.”

“Please, Kassandra, you know as well as I do that it’s not smart to throw a large number of weak attacks at a caster because if they have any sort of defensive magic they’ll shrug them off. What you need to do is either move in close and force them into close combat, or hit them with an exceptionally strong attack to break that shield,” Helen replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “And out of everyone here, you’re probably the only one capable of doing that. From what I can tell, your sacrifice play of yours is less about making the smart play and more about you trying to shield the rest of us from harm.”

“That’s not true,” Kass exclaimed. “I just trust you to have my back.”

“If you trust us, then you should make the smart move and let me shield you from the miasma long enough to engage Jyssa, instead of shielding the rest of the team,” Helen said. “Yes, it’ll probably result in many of us withering away, but it also gives you the best chance of delivering a serious blow to Jyssa.”

“You sound like Talia,” Kass muttered.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Helen replied. “If this were a traditional dungeon run, we would be throwing ourselves at the invaders, weakening the best we can just to give you a chance at delivering a lethal blow. This is no different. Let us open the way for you.”

“You shouldn’t have to sacrifice yourselves for me; losing all you just to save me isn’t a good trade,” Kass grumbled.

“We’re not sacrificing ourselves to save you; we’re sacrificing ourselves to give you a chance to take on Jyssa. Let’s face it, we’re probably going to lose our lives in the next fight no matter what we do, so we might as well do everything we can to ensure that you’re successful,” Helen explained. “Because the worst case scenario isn’t you or I dying here, it’s not breaking through Jyssa’s defences and forcing another team to repeat this floor.”

“Ugh… I hate to admit it, but you’re right,” Kass grumbled, swishing her tail back and forth in irritation. “I just hate taking such an uneven trade; it makes me feel like we’re losing.”

“We’re losing a fight to win the war,” Helen said with a slight nod. “Keep that in mind.”

“When did you get so wise?” Kass asked, raising an eyebrow at the sprite.

“With age comes wisdom, or at least that’s what my grandkids tell me,” the child-like Naiad replied.

Kass’s mouth flapped open a couple times before she found her words. “I, uh, forgot Naiads were so long-lived.”

“I don’t blame you. We’re closer to elementals than most mortal races, and we don’t age the same way,” Helen replied. “Well, that’s not true. We age; we just don’t show it as much as other races.” The Naiad shrugged. “That’s not important now; we have a job to do. Have you recovered?”

Kass clenched her hands a couple of times while flicking her tail back and forth. She certainly felt better, but she could still feel a slight trembling in her muscles. The magic had sunk deep, and wouldn’t let go. It was an insidious curse.

“I’m as ready as I can be,” Kass replied, pulling her knives from their scabbards and looking at the rest of her team. “How about everyone else?”

“Our pets aren’t going to be able to help,” one of the sirens said, cradling an otter which lay listlessly in her arms. “They didn’t fare very well in the miasma, but the rest of us are ready to go.”

“Are you sure?” Kass asked the girl.

The siren nodded confidently in response, but didn’t put the creature down. “If we’re going to go, we should do it soon. I can still feel the miasma flowing through my system, and if we wait much longer it may affect our magic.”

“It’s still spreading through you?” Kass asked in surprise. “I knew that it might affect you more, but to spread…”

“Naiads and Sirens are creatures of magic, and dark magic is like poison to us. Given enough time, it will consume us,” Helen explained. “We should continue while we can.”

The siren nodded, and the rest of her squad stood up and gathered around her, each one cradling their pets.

“I’m sorry that you all have to go through that,” Kass said quietly. “I know it’s probably not much solace to you, but I won’t let your sacrifices be in vain. I’ll do whatever I need to to finish this quickly.”

“You better,” Helen huffed. “Because if you don’t, I won’t let you hear the end of it during our next practice.”

Kass grinned. “Fair enough,” she replied, flipping one of her knives into the air before pivoting on the spot and snatching it out of the air again. She eyed the corridor across from them. Even though waves of miasma completely choked it, she could just faintly make out a form on the other side, waiting for them. “There’s no point in putting this off any longer; let’s go.”