SS - Chapter 29 - Ravaged 

“We’ll take a break here,” I announced through ragged breaths. 

“How big is this dungeon?” Selena asked as she leaned on the wall. “I thought most of them were between five and seven rooms, this is our tenth!”

While the rest of us slumped to the floor, Camille continued bouncing around, snapping up the stones from the defeated beasts. “I dunno, I’ve heard they’ve found some dungeons that are twenty rooms, or more, long. From what I’ve heard they were pretty scary places since the older, and deeper, a dungeon is the stronger the monsters they create. The strongest we explored was a ten, but it was a heavily monitored site.”

“So this is as deep as you’ve ever been?” Selena asked.

“Yup. Can’t say I’ve been super impressed with the monsters we’ve encountered so far though,” Camille pouted. “The golems we fought in the Citadel were stronger than everything we fought in here.”

“Don’t exaggerate, we just fought a pair of giant bear-sloths, and those things were no joke!” Selena huffed.

While Selena and Camille squabbled, Deirdre passed out the water skins. I nodded my thanks to her before taking a big swig.

It had taken us a couple hours to get this far in the dungeon. It had been fairly straight forward so far, very few traps, and short corridors between the rooms, but we had to be exceptionally careful when we moved forward. All it would take is a single misstep and someone would get seriously injured, or worse. 

Now that we were eleven rooms deep I was starting to get a little concerned. The monsters were slowly getting tougher, and I had no idea how much deeper this place went. If things continued escalating, we could be in serious trouble.

“Do we have any clue how much deeper this place goes?” Gabriel asked.

I shook my head. “None. My system provides a few stats, and some options for how to control this place, but nothing about the depth or the monsters. I’m actually a little surprised I can’t get anymore, considering how much information it’s able to provide about everything else.”

“Maybe it’s a restriction, or an upgrade you have to buy,” Deirdre suggested.

“Possible, but I haven’t seen anything like that, and I’m not going to risk going through the system options while we’re all stuck in here. I don’t want to risk someone getting caught by a wandering monster or something.”

“So what’s the plan, just keep delving deeper until we can’t go on?” Gabriel asked between sips of water. 

“We don’t have a choice. If we can’t shut down the dungeon in the next few days everything that we’ve been working towards over the last few weeks will be for nothing,” I explained. “I’m not going to ask you all to follow me on a suicidal charge or anything, but we need to do our best to conquer this place.”

“You won’t hear any complaints from us!” Gabriel declared.

I nodded towards him in appreciation. “I want everyone to make sure you rest up fully, we’ll need our strength for the rooms ahead.”

We took our time, establishing a basic watch and having a quick meal. Trail rations and jerky weren’t exactly the most appetizing foods in the world, but they were light and compact enough that a single person could comfortably carry them. Well, that and they didn’t smell that strongly. Years of experience had proven it was a bad idea to take strong smelling foods into a dungeon, that was a sure fire way to attract extra attention when you really didn’t need it.

When we were done, everyone stacked up again. 

The next corridor was slightly different than the previous ones.  The hallway was far more ornate, the bricks were uniform, there were magical lanterns mounted on the wall, and there were strange carvings along the wall. 

The strange thing was, the carvings were always abstract. It was another sign of the dungeon mimicking human constructions, without fully understanding it.

As we crept further into the corridor I could make out a faint scraping, and growling sound. Camille immediately held up a sign to halt, She twisted around, eyes wide and mouthed one word. “Ravagers.”

I did my best to hide my surprise, and concern behind a stony facade. 

“How many?” I mouthed. “Traps?”

She shook her head and held up two fingers.

I nodded, then tapped Gabriel on the back, and put my face close to his ear. “Can you pin one down while we deal with the other?”

He gimiced. “I might be able to keep one occupied for a minute, but beyond that…”

“It’ll have to do,” I muttered. Turning to the others I spoke in a low voice, “We’ve got ravagers ahead. Once we get in there we have to focus everything we have on one, while Gabriel ties up the other. Don’t hesitate, we have to bring them down as quickly as possible.”

“Wait, what are ravagers?” Selena hissed. 

“Big, and dangerous,” I whispered, gesturing for her to keep it down. “I don’t have the time to explain everything about them right now. Just remember, aim for the gaps in their armor.”

Selena’s eyes grew a little wider, but she still nodded. As soon as I turned around again I tapped Gabriel on the back. 

“On the count of three,” I whispered. “One… Two…”

I didn’t even need to say the three, the big man sprinted into the next room, the rest of us just a couple steps behind him.

In the middle of the cavernous area were two creatures. From a distance they might have been mistaken for large gorillas, but up close they were terrifying beasts. Each one was covered in heavy armored plates, like an armadillo, and they had four horrible prehensile tentacles tipped with meter long bone spikes. 

Gabriel caught the one on the left in a berserker rush, shoulder checking it and carrying it a couple feet away, despite its massive size. The beast furiously whipped down upon his shield in response, looking for an opening.

I didn’t have the time to watch his fight though, we had another monster to deal with. I dashed in close, then immediately dodged to the right as the tentacles smashed down where I’d just been standing. Flicking my wrist I bathed the horrid limbs in purple fire, causing the skin to bubble, the bones to blacken.

The Ravager screamed in pain, and fury. I might have crippled the tentacles, but it was far from defenseless.

While I was bathing the tentacles in fire I reared back, standing on its back legs and raising its arms high in the air. I registered the attack just a moment too late, and by that time it’s arms were already hurdling down towards me.

Just when the armored fists were about to connect with my skull, a vine wrapped around my leg, it pulled me with enough force to send me sailing back across the room. I was vaguely aware of Selena charging past me as I tumbled away. 

I struggled to regain control, flailing about and even digging my nails into the floor until the roll finally abated. As I tried to jump up a firm hand pushed me back down.

“Stay down! You took a blow to the head when you feel, your hands are a mess and your leg might be busted. Camille’s vine had to wrench you hard to get you out of the way,” she exclaimed.

“But the fight!” I mumbled.

“Those two can handle it for a minute or two, you can’t even hold a sword. Sit!” Deirdre hissed.

I looked down and stared blankly at my hands. They’d been ripped up in my mad scramble, I’d even ripped out a nail trying to regain control. I couldn’t feel any pain.

Deirdre carefully laid her hands on mine, and I felt a gentle warmth flow into my body. Slowly, the cuts and scrapes began to close. 

While I was undergoing healing my eyes were locked upon the fight in front of me. Selena danced in and out range, poking the Ravager then darting out of range before it could bring its fists down on her. Meanwhile Camille slowly made her way around the monster, repeatedly firing arrows into the gaps in its armor, and entangling the creature in vines.

Once she got into a flanking position Camille threw her bow down and whipped out her knives. She darted forward and lept onto the monster’s back, embedding her knives deeply into its neck. As she did, Selena charged and smashed her halberd into the seam between the creature’s arm and chest. The limb immediately went limp, and the monstrosity collapsed to the floor. It struggled for a few moments, but it’s one remaining arm wasn’t flexible enough to dislodge Camille, so all it could do was flail as it slowly bled out.

When it laid still, Camille hopped off. 

“Easy peasy,” she proclaimed, earning disapproving looks from both Selena and myself.

“You're good to get back into the fight,” Deirdre declared, tapping me on the shoulder.

I immediately bounced to my feet and drew my rapier, running at the other beast.

“Enough boasting, we still have work to do!” 

The second Ravager was completely focused upon Gabriel, and didn’t even seem to notice as I approached it from behind. Zeroing in on a particularly wide gap in it’s armor I drove the blade as deep as I could.

Its tentacles quivered in fury, but before it could strike me down I released the full power of my Ashflame through the blade. The flame flowed into the monster, spreading and consuming. The whip-like limbs attempted to turn on me, but before they could the fire spread out, and started consuming them from within. They spasmed, blackening before curling up and becoming useless. The ravager thrashed trying its best to dislodge me, yet I stubbornly kept the blade embedded as deeply as possible. As the monster focused on me Selena rushed forward and brought her polearm around in a wide sweep. It connected with a soft unarmored section of the Ravager’s neck.

It embedded itself so deep that the monster immediately stopped moving, dropping dead.

Once I was convinced it was dead, I finally pulled out my blade and looked at my friends, breathing heavily.

Camille threw her arms behind her head and smiled. “See, that wasn’t so bad.”