The Wolves Ch. 036

[Works for me, keep in mind that there is another group in the area. What should I call you? Zaszi isn't exactly a common name.]

[Natalia is what I go by when I'm out in public. I'll be there in a minute.]

[Alright, thanks.]

I put my phone away and walked over to the minivan where Kaya and her team were storing their equipment. They didn't appear to have the amount of dimensional storage we had, so each of them dropped a small backpack along with their weapons in the trunk before moving to get inside. They all froze at the large popping sound, looking in the direction it came from. Standing there was Zaszi in more casual clothing than what she had been wearing when she opened the portal earlier.

"Ready to go, Jonathan?" she asked.

"I'll be back in a minute," I said, looking at Kaya and her team, as well as my own.

Zaszi opened the portal and I stepped through with her right on my heels. We appeared in the parking lot where my new SUV was parked, and she directed me to get in and drive it over while she waited. I did as she asked, and as I got closer she started casting Portal. As the seconds went by, it got bigger and bigger until it was easily big enough to drive through. She waved me through and I wasted no time.

Moments later my SUV was in the middle of the parking lot, and saw the women of Victorious Secret walking over with my friends right behind them. The front passenger door opened and I was surprised to see Zaszi get in.

"What?" she asked when she saw me looking at her. "I figured I'd join the five of you so I would be able to open up a portal directly to the base, otherwise you would have another long drive ahead of you tonight."

"Couldn't the follow team have opened up a portal for us?"

She shook her head. "Those teams are instructed to remain hidden unless you are in danger. I can do this today because it's my day off."

"I appreciate it."

There was a knock on my window, and looking over I could see that it was Kaya who had done so.

"That is so not fair!" she said after I lowered the window.

I smile and gestured over to Zaszi. "Kaya, meet Natalia, Natalia meet Kaya. She's the leader of Victorious Secret, I think."

"That's right!" Kaya said with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Natalia!"

"Likewise," Zaszi replied. "An interesting team name you've got there. I like it."

"Thanks! We were happy to see that there weren't any other teams with the name, which allowed us to register it. Jonathan, we talked about meeting up for dinner sometime soon. How does next weekend sound? Our treat."

"If it was lunch on Friday that might be doable, otherwise it will need to wait, unfortunately. We're leaving Friday night to go on a six week vacation. I'm not sure when we're getting back, exactly, but it will be sometime during the first week of October."

"I see. How about we plan for dinner on the second Friday of October, then?"

"That should be fine, I'm sure one of us will message you if it isn't."

"Perfect! Well, we'd better get going. We have a long drive ahead of us and want to get some lunch before we head in. Thanks again for earlier, and good luck!"

"You too!" I said before she turned and headed back to the minivan with her friends.

My friends hopped into the SUV, greeting Zaszi as they did, while I waited for Kaya and her team head out. I started up the SUV and began to follow them, but not before my friends reacted to the holographic display on the windshield.

"Something to tell us, Jonathan?" Ben asked. "I thought you'd be going to get your truck."

"I traded it in," I said with a laugh. "Nah, Tessa's dad wasn't comfortable with me driving around in my truck, so he gave this to me. Apparently he had a bunch of them made and they're built stronger than a tank. It also has its perks, as you can see."

"I wonder how long until we see more cars with holographic displays. It definitely beats looking down at the dash."

"That it does. Tessa alluded to there being a bunch of features, but I haven't checked it out yet."

"Computer: set destination: Hillside Lake Dungeon," Zaszi called out.

"Affirmative. Destination set: Hillside Lake Dungeon," a disembodied voice said.

The right-most portion of the holographic display changed to show the most direct route to the dungeon we were going to next. In essence, it was a slightly more advanced GPS."

"That's kinda cool. What else does it have?" Ben asked.

I saw Zaszi spin around in her seat to look behind us before turning back around.

"Computer: lockdown."

"Affirmative. Locking down the vehicle," the computer answered.

As soon as the computer stopped speaking, thin sheets of some black material began covering all the windows. The holographic display changed once again, this time acting as a screen, showing me what was in front of me so I could actually keep driving. Once the material was in place over the windows, new holographic displays appeared on each window, allowing us to see all around us.

"Now that's cool!" Ben said. "Is it really as strong as a tank?"

"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration," Zaszi said. "The armor can stop many different forms of weapons fire, but the shields are required to stop anything more than that. Computer: end lockdown."

"Affirmative. Lockdown over," the computer answered once more, the armor retracting back to wherever it is stored when not in use.

"How are the shields powered, anyways?" I asked.

"This doesn't use a combustion engine or an engine that runs off of mana, either, for that matter. There is a small fusion power plant located where the engine normally would be, and that powers everything."

"Why does it sound like a regular car?" Sonja asked.

"A sophisticated computer controls speakers located all around the vehicle. When Jonathan starts it, or hits the gas, the computer uses stored recordings to simulate the sounds a vehicle would usually make."

Zaszi continued to go over the many features as I drove, and it turned out there were a lot of them. The most interesting one was something meant to prevent injury in case of an accident. Instead of the normal airbag, there was something Zaszi called a 'Stasis Bubble' that would activate, preventing all movement inside the vehicle. It was a massive power drain, so the fusion power plant could only keep it powered for about thirty seconds, but that would easily be long enough to prevent injury.

We stopped to get lunch before continuing, and arrived at the dungeon just under two hours after we left the dungeon in Algonquin Park. Zaszi opened up a portal and left until we needed her to get home, and my friends and I entered the building. We had to go through the evaluation again, but it took significantly less time than it had previously.

Entering the first floor, we made sure to toggle off our Insight perks so we could level up our abilities some more. I shifted into my dragonkin form before we started down the first corridor, and were surprised when we got to the first chamber. Up until now, the first five floors of a dungeon had animals local to the area as the monsters we had to kill. This time, however, we came across the first humanoids we had seen so far.

They were shorter than we were, looking to be about five feet tall, and with long tails and horns on their heads. They were pretty well muscled with digitigrade legs and were covered in reddish-brown scales. They didn't carry any weapons, but they did have sharp claws and some nasty looking teeth in their alligator-like mouths.

[Kobolds.] Ben sent. [They're a common low-level creature, though they can get quite strong depending on evolutions or mutations they have undergone.]

[Kobolds?] Mason asked. [I thought those were little rat-like creatures that were obsessed with candles.]

[These ones are what they actually look like. They're distantly related to dragons, hence the appearance. The ones in the game you're talking about are from German mythology, I think. They're not real.]

[Any tips for fighting them?] I asked.

[They're very fast, but not particularly strong at this level. Or smart. Don't let them swarm you, though. They don't appear to have any weapons, but they have strong jaws and sharp claws, so keep that in mind. It appears that these ones are just warriors, but we'll likely see assassins, shamans and the like as we go deeper.]

[Alright. Make sure to let Mason, Sonja and I get the kills if you can help it. Let's go.]

One of the kobolds raised its nose in the air as if detecting something before looking in our direction. It screeched before dropping to all fours and charging towards us. Many more kobolds came out of small alcoves at the cry of alarm before dropping to all fours and charging as well. They were as fast as advertised, but not as fast as Sonja with her new bow.

Three arrows impacted the closest kobold, knocking it backwards with each impact, while a fourth followed shortly thereafter, entering its left eye and finishing it off. That seemed to anger the other kobolds, who seemed to speed up, if that was possible. I swung my swords at one as it got close, but it easily dodged and continued past me. I couldn't worry about that as there were other kobolds to deal with.

Mason used Whirling Leap, landing in the path of four of them. They leapt towards him, but met the blade of his halberd, having expected to knock him down where they could savage him. They went flying but soon got back up and continued their attack as if nothing happened.

My first few attacks connected with nothing but air, but soon I was able to figure out how they fought, and my attacks were beginning to connect. I was able to finish two off with Siphoning Strike, but an arrow finished off the third as I was bringing my sword down on it. I looked over to look at Sonja who had a cheeky little grin on her face, before getting back to work.

Over three minutes after we entered the chamber, we had finally dealt with all thirteen kobolds. While they weren't very strong, they were as fast as advertised, making them hard to pin down. For anyone but Sonja, at least. Before they disappeared, I counted seven arrows sticking out of kobolds, all of them sticking out of a head or right where the heart likely was. I wasn't sure how many kills Mason got, but it seemed like the first chamber was very successful when it came to leveling our abilities.

We continued on having cleared five more similarly-sized chambers of kobolds before arriving at the final chamber. There hadn't been any traps to worry about since the first few floors usually look like a cave system, though that didn't stop Ben from summoning a couple of skeletons to level up both of his abilities. Raise Skeletal Warrior had reached rank two, so he was now able to summon two Skeletal Warriors, or one Skeletal Warrior and one Skeletal Archer.

In the previous dungeons, the final room on every floor usually followed the same design, three groups of enemies followed by a floor boss sitting in the back. This time, there was a kobold holding a staff, with ten kobolds around him, so it seemed like we would be fighting everything at once, rather than in waves of enemies.

[I think that's a Kobold Shaman,] Ben said. [You can think of them like Skeletal Priests, but they are more offensively oriented. They are able to heal their allies and buff them to increase their damage, but they can't resurrect them, so we don't have to worry about that, fortunately. Killing it will also immediately send the remaining kobolds into a frenzy, increasing their speed and damage further.]

[So we save it for last. What kind of damaging spells does it have?] I asked.

[I'm not entirely sure. I think they can call down lightning and cast something similar to a fireball, but we'll have to wait and see.]

[Alright, how about using your new toys, especially since the Insight plan didn't work. I wasn't expecting there to be this many enemies, or get this much experience per kill. Are you sure the experience gain has turned off?]

[I'm sure. I did a search and enemies at level twenty give approximately sixty-two experience each. We were a level lower, so there was a slight increase, giving us sixty-eight experience per kill. If Legendary Insight was active, then we would have gotten three hundred forty experience per kill.]

[Okay, let's get going. You wanna get us started,] I asked, looking between Ben and Mason.

They both nodded and walked just in front of the rest of the group. Ben started summoning his fire elemental, while Mason started summoning his earth elemental, having reached the one hundred Intellect requirement to be able to cast it. It was his first time casting it, but I saw that it was casted in much the same way Summon Fire Elemental was.

I couldn't see their mouths, but I knew both of them would probably be chanting something under their breaths, while holding a hand out in front of them. A pebble appeared in Mason's hand at the start of the cast, which steadily grew. After about ten seconds he bent down and placed the now boulder-sized rock on the ground while keeping his hand on it. It began to grow rapidly once it was on the ground, and by the time Mason was done with the cast, it stood over ten foot tall and stood on two legs.

After finishing the cast, Mason stood back up and the earth elemental began running forward, with the fire elemental gliding right behind it. The rest of us jogged behind them, content to let them be meatshields.

As was the norm, one of the kobolds saw us coming and alerted its allies with a screech before dropping to all fours and sprinting towards us. The Kobold Shaman immediately began casting something, the end of its staff glowing red before the other kobolds actually grew in size, if only slightly. A red aura also encompassed all of them, and they began running even quicker.

Most of the kobolds decided to go for Mason's earth elemental first as it was the biggest target, while one kobold leapt at Ben's fire elemental. It passed right through but it seemed to do very little damage. It's scales were a little darker, but it got right back on its feet before three arrows penetrated its head, one right after the other.

I turned my attention back to the rest of the kobolds and saw that many of them were swarming the earth elemental, with at least four climbing all over it, holding on with one hand while they swiped with the claws on another, or, in one case, trying to bite the earth elementals head off. They weren't too bright.

I saw the earth elemental itself do quite a bit of damage, actually crushing one kobold's head in one of its large rock hands, before pulling another off its back and pulverizing it with both of its fists in an overhead strike. The Kobold Shaman wasn't idle all this time, either casting some sort of healing spell or calling down lightning bolts at the two elementals, which didn't have much of an effect.

I was idle, however, just watching to get an idea of the elementals' strength. The fire elemental didn't seem to be doing much, but I think that was because the kobolds' scales provided some protection from fire. It wasn't complete protection as there were some scorch marks, but it did some damage.

I also looked at Sonja who was to my right. She looked like she was having the time of her life, firing off arrow after arrow, dealing damage with most of them and finishing off kobolds when she could. Just watching her I got the sense that Mason wasn't the strongest of us anymore. At least when I wasn't in either my dragonkin or Seotross forms, and we were talking about single target damage, that is.

Within ninety seconds all the regular kobolds were dead, and only the Kobold Shaman remained, all without me raising my weapons once. Mason promptly closed the distance using Whirling Leap before going to town on it, finishing it off twenty seconds later. All the corpses started disappearing shortly after, and we all around picking up our spoils.

Mason and Ben stopped channeling mana into their elementals, with the fire elemental dispersing into nothing, while the earth elemental fell into a pile of boulders before disintegrating entirely. When they were both gone, we walked down the ramp to the next floor, making sure to activate the waygate on the way. Waygates activate by proximity, but this one was in its own little alcove that required us taking a tiny detour.

Once it was active, we continued down the passageway before coming up to something else which was new. Previously cave-like floors were pretty linear, but we came up to an intersection, giving us three different options.

[Hold on, I wanna try something,] I said, putting away my weapons and beginning the process of shifting into another form.

It took longer than it usually did, but that was probably because I was shifting from a large form to a comparatively tiny form. I looked up at Anja when I was done shifting, who stood back up immediately and looked away. I closed my eyes and began moving my tails, which allowed me to scan my surroundings. It was similar to echolocation, but my tails emitted some sort of energy which was able to move through solid objects, rather than bounce off. Still, it allowed me to get a decent idea of what to expect.

After a good thirty seconds or so, I was able to determine that the path to our left had twelve kobolds in the first chamber, while the path directly in front of us had fourteen. The path to our right didn't turn up any results, with it just being a long tunnel. There may have been a chamber just beyond my range, but I wouldn't be able to tell without us heading that way.

I relayed my findings to my friends, and we decided to head down the right path. I continued to scan as we walked and soon detected another large chamber ahead. Waiting in that chamber were twenty-one kobolds, including at least one shaman.

[Figures this would be the hardest tunnel,] Mason said. [Do we wanna go for it or turn back and choose one of the other ones?]

[Typically when you're given options like this, there will be two long paths and one shorter one. It could just be this chamber before we reach the floor boss, whereas one of the other tunnels could have a bunch of chambers,] Ben answered. [I say we continue down this one. We haven't had any issues so far.]

Everyone agreed so I shifted back to my dragonkin form and retrieved my weapons from my suit's dimensional storage. We didn't exactly have room to summon the elementals again, so we decided that I would lead the charge to draw the attention of the kobolds, and my friends would join in after.

I had barely entered the room when a kobold screeched, calling to its friends, but I continued running. I had opted to activate both of my shields rather than use my weapons, as our plan was for me to just tank them. My mana regeneration was more than good enough to keep Mana Shield up for quite a while, even with twenty-one kobolds beating on it.

I sent a few of them flying while running directly to the shaman and hitting it with a Shield Bash to stun it. Otherwise, I just stood there and tanked all the damage they were putting out while I waited.

[Now!] came the signal from Ben. I immediately used Blink to get away, just as meteors and arrows began to fall where I was previously standing. We knew that Meteor Shower probably wouldn't do much damage to them, but it would at least knock them down long enough for Volley to do some damage. It would also allow Mason to do his own thing. He activated Mana Shield and then used Whirling Leap to actually appear in the exact spot I had Blinked away from, dealing a lot of damage to any kobold that was unfortunate enough to stand up. Volley was off cooldown by then, so Sonja used the ability again while Mason used every last ability he had that did damage in an area. Thirty seconds after we entered the room, all twenty-one kobolds were dead.