SS - Chapter 28 - Hog Wild

“Do we leave our bags here or…” Selena asked, as the rest of us busied ourselves with changing into our armor and powering up our weapons.

“In the duchy we typically left most of our gear with the guards, and one of the supporters carried our supplies,” Camille explained.

“And you think that’s wise, trusting someone else with your gear?” 

Camille paused, and looked up at the other girl. “Although I can see why a mercenary would be hesitant trusting their gear to people they didn’t know, we always delved into dungeons with other duchy vassals. People we could trust. The supporters carried the supplies because if we ever got surprised the front line could react, and give the backline a couple seconds to drop their gear. It’s safer for everyone involved.”

“If you want to take your pack inside, no one is going to stop you,” I added as I finished buckling up my armor. “This is just the technique we developed, and are familiar with.”

Selena bit her lip for a second, then nodded. Digging into her pack she pulled out her rations, and water skin to pass to Deirdra. 

After that it only took a few minutes for us to make our preparations and gather in the entrance to the dungeon.

 “Our standard formation is scout, followed by tank and frontline, then healer, and finally rearguard,” I told Selena. “For this group that would be Camille, then Gabriel and I, Deirdre and finally yourself. Do you have any issues with that?” 

“Not really, I can use my power from a distance, and the halberd has some reach,” she replied, hefting her weapon to emphasize her point, “but… why is Camille the scout? She’s not exactly the most cautious person in the world.”

“I’m plenty careful! My cautious expression just looks very similar to my carefree one!” Camille whined. Selena just rolled her eyes, causing Gabriel to chuckle.

“The reason that Camille is the scout is she’s constantly using her magic to probe the area in front of her. Her wind magic warns her of anything suspicious, and then she can probe it with her nature magic,” I explained. “That’s why it appears like she’s not paying attention to her surroundings, despite never tripping on anything.”

“What did she do when she was cut off from her magic?”

“Tripped on things,” Deirdre smirked.

“No fair picking on me!” Camille whined. “I don’t tell people your dark secrets!”

“That’s because you don’t know any,” Deirdre countered.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I snapped. “I don’t mind a little banter before we step inside, helps loosen everyone up, but the instant we step into that hallway I need you all at the top of your game. Everyone ready?”

Everyone nodded, so I tapped Camille on the back, signalling her to begin; She immediately started striding confidently down the corridor. Gabriel gave her a few seconds before sliding his plate helmet on, hoisting his heavy shield and mace, and following behind. 

After a few steps the corridor started to change. The smooth rock slowly transformed into a facsimile of rough stone brick. It wasn’t actually stone brick, it was still a single unbroken stone wall, but for some reason as dungeons developed they liked to mimic humanoid constructions. There were various theories why they did that, but to this day no one has been able to find a conclusive reason.

Camille stopped dead, pulled her bow off her shoulder then lifted her off hand, raising four fingers so the rest of the group could see them.

“Four fingers means four monsters in the next room,” I whispered over my shoulder to Selena. “If she detects any traps in the next room she’d also rotate her hand back and forth.”

“She didn’t do anything like that when we were in the citadel,” Selena hissed. “That kind of information would have been extremely helpful.”

“She tried. The two of us have our own, more subtle version we use when alone, or with someone we don’t trust yet,” I explained. “Unfortunately the Citadel went out of its way to mess with us. Illusions which prevented her wind from penetrating, constructs that didn’t move until we stepped in the room, so they appeared as statues… it did whatever it could to take our magic out of the equation.”

As soon as I finished explaining, Camille gestured for us to advance.

“Four quadrupedal predators, pack hunters,” she whispered when we got close. “Should be easy prey.”

“No alphas?” Gabriel asked.

“Not that I can tell, they’re all the same size, and moving in a similar way. You’ll have to make that judgement when we get inside,” Camille replied as the massive man stepped past her.

I heard deirdre slip the pack off, and gently drop it against the side of the corridor as we advanced. Gabriel’s grip on his shield tightened.

When we were a couple feet from the end of the hallway Gabriel broke into a run. His armor clattered loudly as he burst into the room, immediately charging towards the darkened shapes on the other side of the room. I was only a couple steps behind, rapier in one hand. 

As soon as there was room I stepped far enough to the side to see past Gabriel’s wide back, and thrust my hand pointing at the nearest monster. Magic surged through me, converging at my fingertips and forming several bolts of purple black flame which arced out across the room. 

They struck the creature in several places, causing it to squeal in pain as the magic slowly expanded, attempting to consume the monster whole.

With a little bit of extra light we could finally see what we were dealing with, quillboars. One of the lowest level monsters, quill boars were exactly what they sounded like, boars covered in layers of razor sharp quills which they could launch at their enemies. My eyes went wide as I watched the back pair of hogs bristled at the sudden attack. I threw myself to the side, taking shelter behind Gabriel just as a wave of razor sharp spines filled the space I’d just been occupying. 

As I ducked back a wind covered arrow streaked around Gabriel's other side, curving around the knight before embedding itself in the eye of the second beast. It shrieked, shaking its head wildly, before staring at Camille with its one good eye. 

The final two beasts charged, the first attempting to bypass Gabriel, while the second attempted to go through him. Not a good move.

Gabriel planted his feet, anchoring himself in place and brought his shield around smashing the beast charging him in the side of the head with a vicious backhand blow. It was more than enough to send the monster carening to the side, smashing into the second pig and carrying both of them into the wall.

Before either of them could recover Gabriel was on top of them, bringing his mace down upon their thick heads. It only took a couple blows before the sound of shattering bone echoed around the room. 

While Gabriel finished that pair I stepped up to the flaming hog. The monster was squealing in pain, twisting and rolling around the floor in an attempt to put out the magical flame. It was useless, the flame wouldn’t go out until I allowed it.

When I was right on top of the monster I flicked my fingers, causing the flame to extinguish, so I didn’t have to risk getting burned by my own magic. The quill boar stopped for a moment, surprised by the sudden change, which is when I plunged my blade straight through its eye and deep into its head.

With the monster dead, carefully wiped my blade clean before sliding it back into the scabbard.

I turned just in time to see Selena plunge her halberd deep into the final monster’s neck. It wasn’t in any shape to fight, it’d been laying on its side, pushing itself around in a circle on the floor.

As the monster bleed out she shot an inquisitive look over at Camille. 

“Hallucinogenic poison,” the blond explained. “Not great for larger monsters, but it’s extremely fast acting on the small ones. It probably would have managed to complete its charge if I hit it with a slower acting, lethal one.”

“Smart thinking,” Selena muttered quietly. 

After a couple seconds the monsters shimmered, became insubstantial before finally dissipating into thin air, leaving nothing but a small stone behind. I scooped up the closest one and tossed it to Camille.

“Looks like the monsters haven’t fully stabilized yet, which means they can’t leave the dungeon yet. That certainly makes harvesting the stones easier.”

“They’re a little rough, but they’ll be fine for non combat applications,” Camille announced as she inspected the stone. “They’re not as good as the ones we used, but this is only the first room. The further we get, the stronger the monsters, and the higher quality the stones. It’s a good sign. Everyone, gimme!”

I rolled my eyes as she gleefully inspected each stone before carefully placing them in a pouch at her waist. 

“One down, a dozen or so left to go,” I muttered.