The Wolves Ch. 040

With my spear still stuck in the hobgoblin's chest, I stopped channeling mana into my cutlass and activated my shield, this time hitting him with a Shield Bash. He didn't try to free himself from my spear, instead raising his staff to try to ward off the attack. It didn't work as well as he had hoped, as he couldn't move as freely as he was accustomed to, and because I had put so much force behind the strike. It struck with his neck, stunning him and nearly knocking him over, my spear being the only thing keeping him up. With the time I now had, I ripped my spear free before thrusting forward once more, this time hitting my original target.

The hobgoblin choked up some blood as my spear shredded his heart, and soon ceased all movement. With one down, I scanned the room to see where the shaman was, only to see her dead not too far from where the druid and I had been fighting, an arrow sticking out of one of her eyes.

Sonja was still fighting the warrior, though he had a few broken arrows sticking out of him, and seemed to be bleeding quite a bit, while she didn't even have a scratch on her. Anja was battling some vines as she was fighting the druid, but she wasn't getting bogged down like Mason and I had.

Speaking of Mason, I turned to see how he was doing just in time to see the head of his halberd cut clean through one of the limbs that made up the archer's bow. Quickly pulling his halberd back, he started a sweeping motion, letting go until his hand was holding onto the very end of his weapon. The archer tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough. While Mason's halberd didn't knock the archer off his feet, it was in prime position to do so, thanks to the hook on the opposite side of the axe head. The hook captured the archer's foot, which sent him to the floor with a quick pull from Mason. All it took after that was a quick thrust from Mason, and that was half of the hobgoblins dead.

Realizing I hadn't seen the assassin since the fight started, I looked around the room until I saw her fighting Ben. Or trying to, at least. She was wielding what looked like two short katanas, though I didn't know what they were actually called. I was sure that Anja would fill me in on them later, but I didn't dwell on them.

Watching the fight, I saw that while the assassin wasn't doing any damage to him, he also wasn't doing any damage to her. Every time he would finish casting a Fireball, she would have already moved. He also didn't have any abilities that did damage in an area around him, so the only other option he would have is casting Meteor Shower on himself. That didn't seem like something he would want to do.

I had no doubt in my mind that the assassin would be dead if she had been fighting Mason. With so many abilities that can knock people down, or back, she wouldn't be able to dance around as freely as she was currently doing.

I had deactivated Precognition when I finished with the unknown hobgoblin, but reactivated it while watching Ben fight the assassin. As soon as I found an opening, I blinked forward, appearing behind the assassin. Gripping her shoulder with one hand, I thrust with my reactivated sword through her back before twisting and pulling it free. She collapsed to her knees, and that was four goblins down.

Or five, actually. I looked over to the side and saw that the warrior had finally fallen, which meant that Anja was the only one still fighting. Again. This time she didn't seem to be playing, however, as she was still battling the vines that the druid was using.

[Is that all druids can do?] I asked, looking over at Ben.

[On a floor like this, and at this level, pretty much,] he nodded. [It would've been a nightmare if we had faced one on the big floor. He would have been able to awaken the trees and get them to do the fighting for him. At higher levels, they can transform into a few different animals, and they gain some additional attacks. Besides the roots or vines or whatever you want to call them, it's likely that all he has is some minor healing ability.]

[If you four want to stop standing around, I could probably use some help here! This guy isn't nearly as easy as I thought he'd be...] Anja said.

I heard chuckling from beside me, and then there were four arrows flying at the druid in quick succession. He had his back to us, so he wasn't able to see them coming. All four struck the hobgoblin in the back and after stumbling forward, he fell to his knees. The vines stopped their attack at the same time, allowing Anja to cut off the hobgoblins head with a flick of her wrist.

[Thanks, sis!] she said.

After cleaning off her sword, she put it away and waited for the body to disappear. Once she collected the Mana Gem, she walked over and joined the rest of us.

[So what was that unknown hobgoblin?] Anja asked. [Was it a mage?]

I shook my head. [It was some sort of martial artist. I tried taking the shaman out at the beginning of the fight, but my sword was blocked by his staff. We started fighting and he was dodging all my attacks. Got a few in on me as well before I activated precognition.]

[Ooh, that sounds like a monk, or something like it, anyways.]

[Are you sure?] Ben asked. [I don't think I've ever heard of a hobgoblin that was a monk.]

[He didn't seem to cast anything and he fought in melee using his staff. I don't know what else it could be.]

[Huh. I'll have to do some reading later tonight. I suppose it could be something unique to this dungeon, but stuff like that is rather rare.]

[Well I'm not complaining. I'd rather fight a monk than have another caster to deal with. Especially if that caster is a mage.]

*****

We took a minute to gather the few Mana Gems that were scattered around us, and that's when I had a thought.

[Hey, Ben. Should we be heading back down there to see if there is any loot?]

He looked over and shook his head. [Nah. You don't get experience or loot for killing monsters during a gauntlet. It would be too easy for a team with a good strategy to farm the monsters to level up quicker and get high quality loot.]

[Oh,] I said, walking back over to join the group.

We made our way down the staircase that had opened up and immediately went through the door. There was a common theme with the last few floors, as each of them gave us a view of what we would be facing. This floor, for example, was a massive rectangular room with a maze taking up all of it.

The walls of the maze were at least six or seven meters tall, which would make climbing them very difficult. Still, the vantage point we had would probably allow us to plot our way through the maze, had we been patient enough to sit there and do that. We were working on limited time, so that meant that we just walked down the steps and got started.

Ben and Sonja led the way as they usually did when we were dealing with narrow corridors. Ben so he could see to command his skeletons, and Sonja so she could detect and point out traps. Ben also had his luminescent chalk in his hand so he could mark the directions we had gone in, just in case there was a disorienting aura present on this floor.

We had been walking for about ten minutes where we had to backtrack three times, and disarm two traps, before I had an idea.

[Hold up a minute, guys.]

I began shifting forms, soon standing there in my Scyftan fox form. I looked up at Anja pointedly before beginning to scan my surroundings. I was able to tell that there was another dead end around the turn ahead of us, so we turned around and went back the way we had come once more.

It wasn't completely foolproof, as the room we were in was massive and I could only scan about one hundred meters away from me, if not a bit less than that. Still, it did increase the rate at which we advanced through the maze. Unfortunately I wasn't able to detect the traps like Sonja was able to, so that meant that I had to stay at the back and direct Ben and Sonja on where to go.

The amount of traps we had encountered slowed us down quite a bit, but we finally got to the end of the floor about fifty minutes or so after we had entered. The end was a comparatively small area, and all that was waiting for us was a lone hobgoblin. He was a bit bigger than others we had come across, but he was still alone.

He was seated with a one handed axe draped across his lap, while another identical one sat on the bench beside him. He looked up as he brought the whetstone across the head of his axe, but looked back down and continued working, as if our presence didn't bother him one bit. After a few more passes of the whetstone, he tested the axe's edge and then set it off to the side and grabbed the second one.

[What's the deal with this guy?] Mason asked.

[There are two possibilities, I think. The first is that he is a berserker. They hit harder and move and attack faster as they take damage, which makes them exceedingly dangerous in a prolonged fight. The second possibility is that he is an axe thrower. They're less dangerous, but still pretty formidable. Typically, they'll have an ability that makes their axes behave like boomerangs. If they miss, they'll circle through the air so he can retrieve them, or if they hit, he'll be able to call them back to him, almost like telekinesis.]

*****

It ended up being the latter rather than the former, as the axe-throwing hobgoblin leapt up, doing some sort of acrobatic flip before throwing both of his axes while he was still in the air. He opted to throw both of them at me, since I was the largest target now that I was in my dragonkin form. I channeled mana into both of my weapons, intending to bat them out of the air, which is when I noticed that they were glowing red.

I dodged the first one, though that put me right in the path of the second one. Knowing I wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time, I raised my left sword to block it, only to have my sword literally shatter as the axe head connected with it. The collision did knock the axe slightly off course, but it did continue on, easily cutting through my armor and opening up a few inches of my side.

I cursed, and placed my hand on the wound. Immediately afterward I felt pain in my chest signifying that another healing agent had been injected into my system.

[Jonathan, get down!] Anja shouted.

I let myself go limp, falling to the floor just in time to see the two axes soar past me on their way back to their master. Getting up, I looked at my wound to see that it was already getting smaller, and would soon look like I wasn't injured at all. Besides the rip in my armor, that is.

I got back to my feet, putting the shattered sword back into my suit's storage while grabbing a brand new one. Activating Mana Shield, I rushed towards the hobgoblin knowing that he wouldn't be able to use the same ability for a while. Mason and Anja had already closed the distance and were surrounding the hob, though he seemed to be just as good in melee as he was at throwing his axes.

He easily parried the attacks that came from the two of them, all while dodging the occasional arrow shot by Sonja, but it left him with very little time to counterattack. As I ran forward, I watched the hobgoblin's axe cut through the air where Anja had been milliseconds before hand, and he was visibly shocked when he didn't connect with her. He was even more shocked when there was an intense pain that suddenly flared up as Anja cut through one of his hamstrings, effectively crippling him for the rest of the fight.

Or so I thought.

He shouted and glowed red, the wound getting smaller and smaller as I got closer. Or maybe that was him getting bigger and bigger. He also got noticeably faster after taking the hit.

[Oh shit, he's a berserker!] Ben yelled.

It seemed as if the axe throw was only his opening move, and that is why he was so proficient in melee combat. I finally closed the distance, using an overhand chop, but the berserker raised his axe behind his head, easily blocking the attack while also blocking an attack from Anja, and dodging a thrust from Mason.

[You're up, Mace!] I said as I thrust forward with my other sword, meeting nothing but air.

Anja and I used our respective movement skills to get out of the way, just as Mason lifted his foot and brought it back down. About three meters all around him, the ground shook and started breaking up. Mason was unaffected by Tremor but the berserker wasn't. His foot fell into a newly-formed hole, which sent him crashing down to one knee, just as a Fireball and a number of arrows and Ice Shards were fired at him. He attempted to dodge to the side, but with his foot trapped he could only move out of a few of the attacks.

The Fireball flew past him, as did some of the Ice Shards, but all four arrows connected. They didn't hit anywhere vital, but that didn't seem to matter. The berserker glowed brighter and grew bigger, likely reaching, or surpassing, eight feet in height. After the tremors stopped, the berserker planted his free foot on the solid ground and then crouched down.

With a powerful leap, he pulled his foot out of the ground and tossed his axes again, this time spreading them out and going for Ben and Sonja. Both of them were easily able to dodge out of the way, and they also kept an eye out for their return trip.

Realizing that I had an opportunity here, I stopped channeling mana into my weapons and let go, before using Blink twice in quick succession, each time grabbing one of the berserker's axes. Apparently that wasn't enough to stop them from returning to the berserker, as he had his hands raised in front of him as he dodged attacks from Mason. Planting my feet on the floor, I tried to stop them from moving, but had no such luck.

[Mace, get out of the way!]

He wasted no time turning and activating Dash, while I was already breathing in. When I was about ten feet away from the berserker, I unleashed my breath weapon, projecting a cloud of extreme cold towards him.

Dense fog formed as soon as the cold reached the berserker, totally obstructing him from view. I knew he was still alive, however, because I was still being dragged towards him. He wasn't obstructed from view for long, his hands reaching out and grabbing onto the axes. As he leaned forward, I realized that the cold hadn't done any damage at all to him. He got even bigger.

Letting go of the axes, I quickly locked my hands around his wrists so he wouldn't be able to get away. I breathed in again, this time projecting a jet of fire at him point blank. The flames obstructed my view of him again, but I did hear him briefly cry out in pain as he let go of his axes, sending them clattering to the floor. There were a few strong tugs before he fell to the floor, and I was able to see him again.

I let go seeing as he was very, very dead. The upper half of his body was burnt to a crisp, while the lower half looked fairly normal, considering. His body started disintegrating shortly after, a single Mana Gem in its place. I bent down to pick it up just as my friends walked up beside me.

[Y'know, maybe if you opened up with that, then maybe things like this wouldn't happen,] Anja said as she poked my side where there was now a new hole in my armor.

I shrugged as I turned my head toward her. [That would make things way too easy though.]

[Probably,] she nodded.

I took out my phone, gently manipulating the controls to check what time it was. I saw that it was now past 22:00, which meant that we had been inside of dungeons for something like fifteen hours or so now. Letting them decide, I asked whether they would like to continue or call it for the night.

[I'm fine with whatever,] Mason said. [We said that we wanted to clear this dungeon, so we'll have to come back tomorrow anyways.]

[I say we wait until tomorrow. We still have all of the next floor, and the one after that to clear before we can fight the boss, and who knows what is in store for us. It could be another two or three hours or so before we even reach the boss.]

Nodding I turned to the twins. [Ladies?]

They looked at each other briefly before turning back to the rest of us. [We agree with Ben. We've been fighting or walking all day and it will be good to get some rest. We can come back tomorrow and knock things out before deciding where we want to go next.]

[Alright, give me a minute to switch forms and then we'll head back to the surface,] I said before beginning to shift back. While that was happening, I had to make sure that our transportation would be ready. [Hey, Zaszi. We're calling it for the night and will be back at the parking lot shortly. Can you meet us there?]

[Sure thing. How'd it go today?]

[It was probably our most successful day so far. I've even got the holes in my suit to prove it,] I chuckled. [I don't even remember how many times we leveled, but we all got at least one piece of gear.]

[Great!] she replied. [Well, I'm here in the parking lot so I'll see you in a few minutes.]

[Cool. I'm still shifting back to my human form. It's annoying how much time it takes to switch between forms.]

I heard her laugh within Mindspeak. [It gets better, I promise you. As you shift, it will gradually get faster and faster. It will never become instant, but it will decrease the amount of time it takes to shift by at least half, if not more.]

[I can't wait for that,] I said as I finished shifting back into my human form. Reaching up to my head, I channeled mana into my helmet which loosened it and allowed me to pull it off. Stowing it in my storage, I turned and joined my friends who were standing just at the top of the steps that led to the nineteenth floor. [Alright, we're headed up now.]

"Zaszi will be waiting for us up top. She'll open up a portal so I can just drive us back to HQ," I explained.

"Man, Portal is the best thing ever," Mason said as he led the way down the steps. "Without it, we'd have a very long drive ahead of us."

"Or we'd just sleep in a hotel," I replied. "It is a very nice ability though. We've definitely gotta practice using it, then we could open up a portal from here to there all by ourselves."

*****

It was a longer staircase than we had seen previously, taking nearly three minutes to reach the bottom. I was tempted to open up the doors to see what we would be facing on the nineteenth floor, but I stepped onto the waygate instead. Making my way outside, I saw that Zaszi was wearing her civilian clothes and was leaning up against the SUV.

"You really weren't kidding about the holes in your suit," she said, walking forward to examine them. "Let me guess; penetrating attacks?"

"That's right. This one was from a two-handed axe, I think," I replied, reaching up to the one on my shoulder before pointing down to the one on the left side of my torso. "And this one just happened. A goblin berserker threw his axes at me and it cut right through my sword. It deflected slightly, but still gave me a nice gash as it flew by.

She nodded. "Penetrating attacks are a bitch, even at higher level dungeons. The next set of armor you can use will provide a bit more protection, but you're a ways off from being able to use it. The armor you're in is shot, though. I'll make sure another set is delivered to your room when we get back."

"It can't be repaired?" I asked.

"Nope. As soon as there is a hole in it, it begins to lose integrity. It's similar to the old ballistic vests in that respect. They're good at protecting against a few shots, but after that they aren't nearly as effective."

"I see. How about we get going, yeah?"

"I'm ready when you are," she said with a nod.

Walking around the SUV, I took out the keyfob and unlocked the doors so my friends could get in while Zaszi walked just in front of the vehicle and waited. After starting it up I nodded at her, and she began opening the portal. It took very little time to form, and she was soon waving me forward. I drove through as I had before, and then pulled into the parking spot that seemed to be mine.