In Dungeons Deep Ch. 03

A torrent of sensation knotted up within him as the inevitable finish took hold. He couldn't resist the urge to pull her down and root in place as the first gush pumped hotly into Lug's core. Her body shivered and that heat spread over their thighs as she screamed in climax. A beat, then they were slowly churning again, his cock milked for all it could give while Lug's channel convulsed with orgasm.

Hogarth groaned and sank against the mattress, Lug slumping atop him and nosing wearily into his neck. Clarity seeped in as the rush of climax faded into tranquil completion. There was no doing it differently or concealing anything, now. How would Runa feel about this? Would it create some degree of jealousy, or some other strange attraction? Or repulsion? Sure he had caught her being a voyeur once, but opinions were complex and relationships even more so.

If it weren't for Lug's affectionate little touches, he might have started brooding in earnest. Instead he was pulled out of his thoughts as Lug dragged her fingers through his shaggy stubble. She was always so affectionate in the wake of sex it often inevitably led to the second round. He smiled and pushed a kiss into her palm, which prompted her to raise her head and steal one from his lips. She smiled her shy smile, and he smiled back for her before kissing her again.

"Much as I'd like to keep this up, it's probably time we cleaned up and started on dinner." They shared another quick peck before detaching from one another. Lug worked her magic, pulling away the sweat, dead skin, and other bodily fluids that had been spilled on themselves and the bed into a concentrated glob of yuck in her hands. It was relatively quick and efficient, and probably the most important spell she knew next to the magic that grew their crops. They'd probably dodged every possible cause for infection due to her cleansing spell.

"Oh my." He heard Runa, realizing Lug went straight into the kitchen to dispose of it.

***

Hogarth waited until after dinner to propose their next move. Runa had begun to cut and stitch the furs they'd collected into proper articles of clothing. She sat with her back against her pot, her fingers deftly weaving strong fibers through the skins. She needed only the ability to manipulate her own body to create needle-like thorns at her fingertips.

Lug was preening through the book of spells, trying to feel for the green ones. She was certain one of them was potent, but since she couldn't read the words there was no telling what it would actually do until they tried it. Hogarth quietly stoked an appetite for magic now that it was something real and within his sight, but for now, the realm of expertise remained with Lug and Luna so he didn't intrude...yet.

Hogarth cleared his throat gently to draw the attention of the girls. "Alright, I've been thinking about things...and I think we need to face the rat warren."

"Rat warren?" Lug blinked and turned her gaze upward from the book. They were both on the bed, her head resting on his thigh with her wild mane spread out beneath her.

Runa regarded him attentively, pausing her work but waiting in silence for him to continue. She'd been a little quieter since the incident earlier, which gave Hogarth a small twinge of concern.

"It just seems like the next logical move to make. We haven't found anything else of value in the castle halls to make progressing deeper more feasible. My guess is anything worth looting is going to be down those tunnels."

"Lots of loot, lots of riskiness. Are you sure, Boss?" Lug didn't sound eager to tackle the rat problem.

Hogarth couldn't blame her. He wasn't entirely sure himself. "I can't really think of any other way to go, can you?"

"The twisty ways reach the stone river. That's how I came, the pack boys an' me. The tribe keeps the river pretty safe. The caves is dangerous though...maybe more than here. No, definitely." She frowned as she thought it over. "If we went to the river though, they ain't gonna be friendly. They'd wanna fight and try to take our stuff."

"It would seem the rodent's lair is our next logical step. At the very least, we shall be garbed at least a small measure more suitably when we do." Runa held up the tunic she had finished making. She'd made use of the tattered old fabrics too ripped and moldering for clothes to serve as extra padding, turning their hide attire into a semblance of gambeson.

Hogarth nodded, smiling with appreciation of her efforts. "More of anything is good at this point. You've been a great help since joining us, Runa."

The green woman smiled bashfully, her bare toes wiggling as she looked down at the tunic in her hands. Suddenly there was a flash followed by a crackling buzz of power. Tendrils of lightning leapt up and scored the walls and ceiling. Hogarth jumped and staggered to his feet, bumped into Runa, then fell backwards onto his butt. Runa tipped backwards and landed rump first in her pot, squirming with confusion.

"What the hell is happening?" Hogarth roared as he scrambled to his feet, eyes blinking to orient on the source of sudden chaos.

Lug remained seated on the bed, every strand of her long, wild mane poofed out around her. The room seemed unharmed after a few seconds passed, but a few lingering snaps of electrical energy sparked from the book in her hands. "Uh...not...not green." She stammered.

"Not green." Hogarth and Runa said in unison.

They all blinked, then Hogarth chuckled. Runa followed, and eventually they all were chuckling. Hogarth helped Runa right herself, then stepped over to Lug and gently smoothed down some of her hair.

"That was not what I was expecting at all. If it isn't green, how did you do that? Or was it just the book?"

Lug looked embarrassed as she closed the cover and set it aside. "Green's just better. The others are risky. Do stuff like that. Maybe good for a hunter, but I'mma Lug. I'm s'posed to carry the loot so you can fight. I keep the hearth and make you strong."

"You know, you don't have to just do those things. I'm glad that you do, and you do take good care of me. Of us." He gestured to include Runa. "But if you can do stuff like that, that's great too. Well, if you think you can do it again."

Lug nodded, lips pursed as she considered his words. "The book ain't in aibee sees, but when the pages eat your magic, they burn up and happen. Since it was my magic, I got to feel how it worked. The color has to like you though. If it doesn't like you, it won't work again. But the witch scribblin' is gone after, no more trick."

Hogarth reached over to pick up the book, flipping through pages until he found the ashen remains smeared between the rest of the book's pages. "So does that color like you?"

Power crackled on her fingertips as Lug extended her hands, then jumped when a strand of electricity arced between them. "...Yes, I think so. It's blue."

"Huh. Blue for electricity. Or maybe that's just an aspect of it. Might be weather, or something else. Though I'm not sure there's even weather down here."

There weren't any more answers that night. After relaxing over a pot of tea, the trio settled down to rest for the night. They were going to need all their strength for the task ahead of them.

***

"Alright, I think we're as ready as we've ever been." Hogarth declared with pride as he regarded his companions.

Runa had her bow ready with a quiver full of arrows, dressed in a hide tunic that was now overgrown with small, thorny vines. Similar barbs sprouted from the vulnerable spots the armor failed to cover, the additional protection inspired by her sewing the night before.

Lug held the shield in one hand and a torch in the other, dressed in her own padded fur tunic and bearing the burden of the pack on her shoulders. This time however, Runa's deft hands had been set to work on the short woman's incredible locks. They'd been painstakingly woven and twisted into an elaborate cluster of braids that formed a decorative yet functional bulb to keep it out of her way. She couldn't stop herself from playing with it, patting and probing occasionally at the foreign creation sitting atop her head. It wasn't until her hands were occupied and they were standing outside the entrance of the rat nest that she rallied her focus on their goal.

Then there was Hogarth himself. He'd brought the sword of course, and had layered on the fur armor Runa had fashioned for him. The mace rested in a loop on his belt, and since the sword only demanded one arm, he opted to carry a torch as well. The strange, magically burning rocks caged atop the handle were just as useful for fighting as providing light, and more light didn't hurt either considering where they were going.

They plunged into the nest. Hogarth strode forth and had to keep his head low as they ventured outside the human crafted stone into the uneven tunnels of the rat warren. The smell was wretched, and after a brief pause Lug distributed rags to wrap over their noses and mouths. It wasn't much but it made Hogarth feel a little better about breathing the air down there. It was also much warmer within the tunnels, making him question why the twisting ways were so cold to begin with. Small, relatively normal rats darted around everywhere, avoiding the flames.

Occasionally, Lug would spy something shiny and toss it into the pack as they went along. Of the three of them her senses were the sharpest in the gloom. As they began to methodically navigate through every chamber, she was the first to spot trouble and the last to find something valuable before pressing on. Bigger rats challenged the trio down each corridor, the monstrous creatures for once on the offensive as they stormed in arrows first. Each nest they left a little richer and with fewer rodents to menace them in the dungeon.

"These passages are certainly peculiar. Some kind of magic is instilled in the environment around us, but to what ends is unknown to me." It was Runa who spoke up, thinking aloud while they finished poking through the latest chamber.

"Think it's got something to do with rathulhu, or just a naturally unnatural coincidence?" Hogarth wasn't sure if he phrased that question right, but Runa shrugged as an answer so it didn't matter. Meanwhile Lug was giggling gleefully over a ring she'd fished out of somewhere horrifying that he hadn't had the guts to consider looking through. The woman had guts of iron.

Bringing up the monstrous boss of the warren brought the creature back to the forefront of his concerns. They had to have been making enough of a disturbance to draw its attention, so where was it? Plenty of rats slowed their assault in the tunnels, but that was it. It got him wondering. Would there literally be a boss chamber? Was the Dungeon so influenced by tropes that the monster, the boss, would be waiting for them in a final chamber? It couldn't be that simple, could it? And yet...

Ahead of them loomed a larger cavern, the walls faintly illuminated by an eerie bio-luminescent green glow. At the heart of the chamber was a filthy nest of shredded fur, pulped and twisted wood from ancient furniture, dried up and gnarled roots and equally desiccated skeletons. Among them were a few fresher looking bodies devoid of any remaining morsels of flesh, just manes of black hair tangled and meshed into the monster's bedding. Lug gasped as he pointed out her fallen tribesmen, as well as the torn apart remains of the pack she'd previously lugged around. What remained of the loot it held had spilled to the ground and been half buried by dirt and filth.

Runa touched one of the walls, then extended a hand towards her companions to show them what she'd discovered. Fungi had spread into her palm, small stems stretching little luminous bulb caps from the center of her hand. Closing her hand, the mushrooms disappeared. "This disgusting place has certainly provided us with many new treasures and resources, but it seems to be lacking the kind of items you considered during our preparations."

He nodded, frowning as he looked around the landscape of the chamber. Nothing even close to usable armor had been found inside the warren tunnels. The only metal the rats seemed interested in on first blush was the shinier stuff like jewelry, but the state of the hoard in the master chamber showed that didn't go much farther than to end up in the detritus around the nests. Didn't stop them from collecting up every bit of shiny tableware, gemstone, or precious metal they could find.

The most interesting discovery was the chunk of crystal glittering at the heart of the rat nest. The gem was such a deep shade of red that it was nearly black, yet still gave off a subtle crimson glow that came and went with the rhythm of a heartbeat. It was a strange find, reminding him of the cut room gems. Out of curiosity he tried influencing it with his own gem, but all he got was a slight flicker before being rejected.

Strangest of all was the utter absence of the one thing they had feared encountering most. "Where the hell is rathulhu?"

The blood curdling screech from the entrance of the chamber wasn't the answer he hoped to get. Rathulhu stepped inside its domain and stood on two legs like a fleshy, tentacled bear. Hogarth could see the scorch marks around its face from their last encounter, the warped flesh healed into even more gruesome scars from wounds it had inflicted on itself. Drool dribbled from its distorted maw, though its fangs seemed perfectly unharmed. It drew in several quick, snorting breaths with its tentacles flared out around the skull cap. Its face immediately snapped towards Hogarth as the hostile creature somehow radiated that much more fury upon the sole human in the room.

"Shit, it remembers! Scatter!"

Chaos broke loose. The rat monster threw itself in Hogarth's direction, pulverizing its nest as he scrambled desperately out of the way of its thrashing swipes. Runa circled carefully around the outer perimeter of the chamber, knocking and sinking arrows rapidly into the neck, the sides, anywhere that seemed vulnerable. Lug simply screamed and hopped around, doing her best to keep out of harms way while watching in horror as a monster chased her lover with single minded, murderous intent.

It was all Hogarth could do to keep his parts from being reduced to ribbons. The rathulhu's home space was just large enough to bound from one side to the next, hopping over the scattered pieces of nesting material the creature once kept concentrated at the center of the chamber. His only advantage was the delay in each attack. They were wild, whole bodied lunges that kept it crashing against walls and through rubble. Each attack was enough to probably obliterate him all at once. He took a few chances to stab at it but they were futile. He just didn't have the experience or skill necessary to get his blade somewhere it could make a significant cut before being forced into a dodge.

"We- we gotta escape! Bail! It's still too strong for us!" Hogarth shouted breathlessly as he labored to keep darting around rathulhu. They hadn't exactly been running any marathons down here. His stamina was flagging faster than he'd hoped it would.

"I can still try something!" Runa shouted. Sorcerous green light wove curling patterns across her skin as she extended her arms and thrust her hands towards their enemy. Thorny roots sprang up from the ground, whipping around one leg after another as they struggled to bring the beast to a standstill.

Rathulhu stood and roared as vines snapped around each limb, fighting Runa's efforts to subdue its monstrous bulk. Hogarth took the opportunity to stab and slash as the beast struggled to escape. Even encumbered the animal made him work for each strike, its leathery hide resisting all but his strongest blows and most determined thrusts. Every fresh cut was a small victory, proof that they could defeat their strongest enemy yet. It tried another lunge at him, but the vines reeled it back, exposing its chest full of weeping lacerations. Feeling emboldened, Hogarth went in for the kill. Everything lined up perfectly, the tip of the sword lunging forward into an open cut along the rib cage. Two feet of sharpened steel slammed into the monster's chest. Its gurgling bellow was a death cry as blood frothed around the wiggling tentacles squirming around the muzzle.

The rush of triumphant satisfaction was cut short when the vines holding it in place crumbled like dry leaves. Runa had fallen to one knee, panting heavily as she labored to knock and arrow into her bow. Hatred burned in sightless sockets as the king of rats lurched into action. This time it didn't miss, the massive paw and its long talons clapping across Hogarth's shoulder and chest. The blow knocked him for a spin, hitting the ground and rolling into the wall before coming to a stop at Lug's feet.

A fresh scream tore from her throat as the monster raised its claws, ready to finish what it had started. More arrows blossomed in its neck but they were ignored. Hogarth cringed in fear and regret as his untimely death came rushing towards him. The last thought to come to mind was the hope Lug could escape with Runa back to the kitchen.

Just when his life was ready to flash before his eyes, an actual flash interrupted his untimely demise. A lightning flash. Arcs of blue-white energy exploded before his eyes in a rush of magical energy. Hogarth's jaw dropped as the lightning licked brutally up the creature's body before locking onto the sword impaled into its chest. Electricity bombarded rathulhu, throwing it backwards onto the ground where it shuddered and smoked. When Hogarth turned his eyes on Lug, she looked just as shocked as he felt. Then the creature tried to stand and Lug jumped, sending another barrage of electricity arcing from her fingers and over Hogarth's head into the monster's body. His hair was standing on end by the time it stopped moving.

"Holy shit. That was- that was amazing!" Hogarth started to laugh then winced as pain exploded into his awareness. He was certain several bones were broken this time, to go with the shallow lacerations from the claws biting through the cobbled together armor he wore. It'd done some good at least, blunting the blow if only a little.

Lug blubbered incoherently as she scrambled to examine Hogarth, big eyes full of tears that stung as they dripped through the rips in his clothes. She pulled one of the jars from her pack and rubbed it over her hands before spreading it onto his wounds. Runa was soon there to join them, helping the smaller woman pack a poultice underneath his clothes.

"I think we can safely consider this venture concluded. The sooner we get you away from this filth, the better." Runa declared. He and Lug nodded their agreement, and the trio clustered together to stand as one.

That said, there was still the matter of loot. Lug and Runa insisted on handling the nest themselves, but Hogarth wasn't about to just stand around and wait. He found the gem again, reaching down with his amulet to set it against the now completely dark crystal. Blue light sparked brighter from his necklace as he held it in place, curious as to what may happen. Like a spreading flame, a blue kernel of light blossomed at the heart of the nest stone.

Something tugged against his sense of magic as the light inside the gem grew brighter. He expected at some point the space would somehow be conquered, similar to Runa's kitchen that was just barely holding on to her ownership when they found it. The thought of tunnels suddenly attaching to their home was alarming when he stopped to consider that there might now be a gaping hole in their otherwise completely secure space.

Rather than evening out however, the gem kept growing brighter. Bright blue light bathed the nest chamber in its glow, causing them all to abandon their picking to step back towards the entrance.