Duelling Dungeons

“I was wondering where you were hiding,” Charlotte said when Kass dragged Bella and me to one of the large lounges, where pretty much everyone else had gathered.

“I wasn’t hiding,” I replied hesitantly. “I was in another lounge with Bella. I didn’t know you’d all planned to gather here.”

“I booked the room last week and sent out a message to everyone,” Chelsea exclaimed.

“I must have missed it. I tend to get a little distracted before a match,” I muttered.

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Bella snorted as she swooped past me and took up a position hovering above one of the larger couches.

I glanced around the large lounge and at all my friends before awkwardly shuffling along the back of the room to find a seat in the corner. “Where’s Bea?”

“She’s in the cafeteria, with her sisters,” Chelsea said, jumping over the back of one of the couches and earning a disappointed look from her mother. “Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough room here to invite everyone to participate, and she wanted to celebrate their first post-evolution match.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I muttered as I glanced at the massive screen setup across the room. It wasn’t normally placed here; Chelsea must have asked the Gremlins to move it over.

It looked like Voss had gathered whatever forces the Manor had left and was about to begin his assault on the Fallen One’s chamber. After Nor’Goth’s defeat, a passage had opened up underneath the ritual chamber, a long, dark, straight stone staircase which descended deep below the ziggurat.

Since we received one last resurrection after conquering the ritual chamber, the squad wasn’t looking that bad. Voss, the dryads, Calliope, and a newly revived Rembrandt. Normally, the long descent into the darkness served to heighten tension for both the adventuring team and the viewers. However, Voss was so tall he had to squeeze to fit down the stairs, and he regularly smacked his head against the beams hidden in the darkness. It happened so often, and his reactions were so genuine that it was obvious he wasn’t doing it on purpose, and it did a lot to relieve the tension.

“Do you think they have a chance?” Sullivan asked. “No one’s one a clash match through defeating the dungeon master, and clearing the dungeon yet. All the previous matches have been decided by percent completion.

“It would be nice to have that accolade,” Kass said before elbowing me in the side. “What do you think?”

“Well, we definitely have a well-rounded team. Voss can act as a tank, while Rembrandt and the Dryads provide support, and Calliope heals. I don’t know many foes that could handle a group like that…” I said.

Kass narrowed her eyes. “I hear a but in there,” she said.

“How many of you are familiar with who or what the Fallen One is?” I asked.

The chorus of blank looks that I got from everyone told me everything I needed to know.

“Well, let’s just say the matchup isn’t as far in our favor as it might seem,” I said, gesturing to the screen just as our friends entered the final chamber. It was difficult to see at first; it was so dark that it appeared to be nothing more than a massive void, but as everyone stepped inside, the braziers spaced around the room began to light up one by one, revealing a truly colossal cavern.

Just before they reached the back of the room, something moved.

“It seems that despite all Nor’Goth’s scheming, he failed to defeat you,” a deep, rumbling voice said. “Hopefully, both he and my nephew will finally learn some humility after being knocked down a peg.”

As the shape moved, a dry, rasping noise accompanied the clanking of bones as a huge draconic skull slowly emerged from the darkness. “It’s been quite a while since I could cut loose and use my full power. I really hope that you’ll be able to provide me with a challenge.”

“What is that?!?!” Chelsea gasped.

“That’s what happens when a dragon grows too powerful to die,” I explained. “It’s similar to the process that Lanivia underwent to become a Lich, but dragons can achieve it by dedicating themselves to magic and pouring their power into their horde over hundreds of years. They become a dracolich.”

“Okay… that’s scary, but that doesn’t explain why you were so unsure about our chances,” Charlotte said.

On the screen, Rameriz, the Fallen One, roared, opened his mouth, and filled the room with dragon fire. Voss stepped in front of the rest of the team, taking the brunt of the punishment, but even that brief burst was enough to send him to his knees, his bark charred black and split open.

“Traditionally, Treants and Dryads don’t do well against fire,” I said. “Calliope’s magic might be able to shelter them a little and turn the tide, but Dungeon masters typically don’t get to their position by being foolish.”

All around the chambers, piles of bone, which could have easily been taken as set dressing, rose up into skeletal soldiers. Half of them formed up into a spear line, surrounding Voss to keep him occupied, while the others fell upon the rest of the party.

As soon as they were occupied, Ramirez raised a claw, muttered something in Draconic, and pointed at Calliope. Dark forked lightning jumped from his skeletal talons, ripping apart his minions and even parts of the terrain as it arced across the cavern.

Voss smashed into the spearline, trying to intercept the magic, but there were too many skeletons in the way; the distance was too great. Calliope flinched and covered her face as the magic bore down on her.

At the very last second, Rembrandt stepped forward, swiping his greatsword through the magic and redirecting it into the nearest group of skeletons. Simultaneously, the dryads pushed forward, summoning a wave of vines that exploded out of the ground at their feet before snaking through the remaining skeletons, entangling and ripping them apart.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Rembrandt rasped as he stomped down on the skull of a downed skeleton, causing it to explode into shards of bone.

“Oh, I intend to,” Rameriz chuckled, finally stepping forward and fully emerging into the light. Although his flesh and scales had long since rotted away, his original form still existed as a black spectral form overlaid on his bones. He casually wandered to the middle of the chamber before sitting down and looking at the group.

He was titanic, at least twice the height of the Umbral dragon the Manor had fought only a few minutes earlier. When he stretched out his neck, his horns scraped the ceiling of the chamber.

“I would have been extremely disappointed if you hadn’t been able to handle that little trick,” he chuckled, looking over the group. “But since you passed my test, I know that I can take you seriously.”

He lowered his head towards them, his eyes glowing with blue flame, and his spectral mouth turned upwards in a wicked draconic smile. “I hope you’re ready, because this is probably going to hurt.”