Fight!

“I got em.” I flip open my satchel and reach for the alchemist fire. Only it’s not in there! “Cyrus! Fuck! Where’s the Alchemist Fire?”

“Sorry boss!” He cries as the first dog shaped shadow pounces at him. He holds the mace up to use it as a bit for the dog. “

I had my own dog to deal with. Suddenly two paws are pressed against my chest and driving me into the ground. I drop the bag, grab a dagger and drive it into the beast before it can rip my throat out. It bursts at a simple touch, thank goodness. That same thick shroud of darkness disperses around me, but the dog is gone.

Elizabeth deals with her own dog easily, she takes a step forward and kicks through it, although a strange kind of thing happens as she does. She’s expecting the shadow to have bulk and weight. She puts her back into blow and when it just disintegrates she stumbles forward. The two humanoid shades immediately rush forward and each impail her with a sword driving her to the ground, and pinning her there. “Hurk!” She gasps and cries out as the two very real very solid pieces of steel now have her pinned one in each shoulder.

If they just pulled the swords out of her she would be fine, but it’s like they know her healing ability is there. They leave the swords in, trapping her, and dooming her to bleed out of Cyrus and I don’t do something. The sliced muscles in her shoulders won't allow her to remove the blades, and she can't begin to heal while they're still in her body.

Damn I wish I'd thought of that.

Running is feeling pretty good.

I scramble to my feet, and hold both daggers up looking more cool than dangerous. Both shades turn to me, not paying much attention to Cyrus who is still in a **** spiral with a dog.

Knife throwing is a neat trick!

I do my best to send the knife against the dog to free my boy up, but it clatters against the stone wall, good and off course. “Fuck!”

“Boss!” Cyrus cries.

I take a swing against the approaching shadow, but it blocks it with a steel bracer on its black arm. It the delivers a gut punch. I cough and hunch over, at which point it grabs me by the back of my robe, and tosses me over to the other shade. I stumble forward my face meeting his knee. “Fuck!” My head bounches back and I don't even have to mind to know what becomes of my body. I just end up on the ground, groaning.

They go to stomp me but I roll away, my escape aided by the slant of the hall. I think I leave a pattern of bloody faceprints against the floor as I roll, but I 'm not sure.

Second knife go!

I arrest my roll and throw my hand out. It hits the dog handle first but is still enough to get it to burst. “You’re a hero!” Cyrus cries, actual tears and charges the nearest shadow with his trailing mace.

I’m too busy with my own shade to pay much attention. I stumble to my feet only to suffer a kick to my chest that almost sends me back down the hall.

Fuck this is hard.

If I’m fighting I’m losing.

That’s what the alchemist said, but I’m out of alchemy. My bag is sitting up there, and all I have is healing potions.

Damn.

I just have to survive this fight and I’ll heal.

Neither of us had any weapons.

If I could negate the shadow fighting skills, then this would all come down to who could take the most pain.

…and ya’ll know I’m a kinky bastard.

Determined to get the shit kicked out of me I charge forward and get a punch to my jaw that nearly knocks me out. I stumble and list to the side and the pain burns, but I breath and hold on. He presses on me punching me in the ribs, and throwing me against the cave wall. The idea doesn’t work if I’m the only one being punished. Roaring I take another punch but this time I manage to wrap my arms around his. We lock arms and are stuck together. He struggles to get out, but I’ve got a good hold!

“Raaaaagh!” I bellow and ram my head forwards slamming it into the solid chunk of shadow before me. My head swoons, it really is solid, like some kind of compacted dirt, or maybe coal.

He looks at me, there’s no face, but I can almost see surprise in the expression.

I roar and head but him again, my brain bouncing off of my skull. Again! I can feel him crumbling against me, even as blood drips into my eyes. I keep roaring keep slamming, eyes closed, teeth clenched, again, and again until there’s nothing in me but roiling pain, and there's nothing left to hit.

Eventually I’ve done it. I feel the creature crumble in my arms, like stone turn to sand.

I drop to my knees. “Cyrus?” I call out, good and bloody blind.

“I’m here boss I got him!”

“Potion.” I mumble, throwing up into the ground.

“You’re so pathetic.” I hear Elizabeth voice above me. Then her rough hand pull me to my feet and pour a potion down my throat.

That’s better, but my head still hurts, badly. I rub the blood from my eyes, the wound on my forehead healed for now. I vaguely see my blonde **** through the gunk in my eyes. “No problem!” I cough. “And we did it without you!”

“I got a dog.” She says dropping me to the floor. I guess when the shadows vanished so did their weapons. She’d already healed the wound, and was good to go.

Cryus had gotten away unscathed, but he had a weapon, so that made sense. Somehow he'd managed to find a way through too.

And just like that we'd survived our first encounter in the dungeon.

Star Acquired!

Slot 2: Shadow Blade- Type: Attack - Effect: When activated the shadow of the user’s weapon becomes a deadly weapon of its own. When the user makes an attack a second attack immediately follows.

“Holy shit!” I bellow. “I just got a Star!”

“Me too!” Cyrus grabs my hands and begins to jump up and down, just ruining the mood.

“I didn’t get anything.” Elizabeth says, **** on her sour grapes.

“Well you didn’t do much.” I say with a shit eating grin. “I guess that means our first challenge is done. Three to go.”

“May they all be so easy!” Cyrus cheered, much to I and Elizabeth’s annoyance.

“Shut up.” We spat at the same time.

I lean against the cave wall and try to catch my breath, and the other two take my lead. Elizabeth assuem an unladylike squat, and Cyrus does the same.

"That was Cob and Kal." I say, think of the two young adventurers who'd gone into the dungeon before us. That of course left a mage sized hole in their party composition. Somewhere deeper in the dungeon was a fireball slinging shadow we'd have to contend with. "I knew them."

"How long ago did they enter?" Elizabeth asked.

"A week ago, maybe two." There was a hazy fuck fest that I'm not entirely sure how long it lasted.

"Then they probably died against whatever's in the next room." She said, rather coldly. "They cleared three rooms. Died, then the dungeon used them to repopulate this length."

"Is it the boss?" There's a strange logic to Dungeons. They're always controlled by some central monster that's bound to the dungeon. The other monsters can leave and threaten the world, but the boss is usually trapped in their tiny domain. I'd be fascinated to meet an intelligent boss, just to see what causes such an event.

"Doubtful." She crosses her arms. "That'd be four challenges. Not enough to earn someone a full set of stars. "For whatever reason, dungeons are tied with the star system. They almost always have at least five challenges worthy of a star when they spawn."

"Going by my luck, this will be one of the rare ones that don't." I take out my canteen, take a swig and wash my face off.

"Scared yet?"

We almost got wiped out by our first encounter, of course I was scared. "Never felt better." I stand up straight and toss her the canteen. "We're already one step closer to clearing this thing out."