SS - Chapter 8 - Scorched Earth

It took several seconds for the shambling mounds of earth to drag themselves to their feet. There didn’t appear to be any consistency between the golems, they varied anywhere between four and ten feet, and each had a different number and configuration of limbs.

That chaotic design marked them as either natural elementals, both human constructs, and dungeon monsters, tended to be a lot more uniform.

“I don’t suppose that eye of yours works against magical creatures,” Camille said, fitting an arrow to her bow. “Because that would be extremely helpful right now.”

“It depends,” Selena replied quietly, brandishing her new polearm. “I can cause weak monsters and constructs to break down, but most of them just get sluggish.”

“That’s still useful,” I muttered. “Don’t hesitate to use your power if you think it’ll help, but try to avoid exhausting yourself. We don’t know what else this dungeon has in store for us.”

The nearest creature lurched towards me, forcing me to abandon the conversation and focus on the misshapen mound of earth. It really appeared to be having trouble, stumbling forward on two stubby legs while swinging three massive bludgeoning arms, all hanging off the left side of its body. Even though it was unbalanced, it somehow managed to stay standing as it advanced, twirling its flail like arms.

It was only after it closed within a couple feet, the flail-like limbs coming close enough that I could feel the breeze created by their passing, that I finally acted. Darting towards my left, I slipped around to the monster’s undefended side. My magic flared, flowing down the rapier and coating the blade in fire a moment before I flicked the sword forward, slicing deeply into the golem’s side.

The weapon passed effortlessly through the packed earth and dense stone, nearly bisecting the creature with a single strike. It teetered in place, top half almost toppling over before the golem righted itself. The two halves slammed back together, tendrils reaching out in an attempt to knit the monster back together.

It probably would have succeeded, if the wound wasn’t filled with blackfire. Jumping to the tendrils and consuming them like dry twigs the unnatural fire surged, slowly spreading along the monster’s exterior, consuming whatever it touched. 

The monster stopped and poked the wound with its arms, like it didn’t understand what was going on; This just let the fire extend to its limbs. After a couple more seconds the creature just collapsed as the fire finally ate through the last bit of stone connecting its two halves. That wouldn’t be enough to actually put the thing down, but now that the fire had taken hold it was only a matter of time, so I moved on to the next target.

Camille whooped in joy, causing me to glance across to the far side of the arena. The girl was quickly working her way around, weaving around the various golems, unleashing arrows at near point blank range. Each arrow blossomed into a web of brambles, quickly tangling and tripping up the elementals. 

Selena followed a couple steps behind, using her eye to completely cripple the hobbled creatures before jamming her haliberd directly into their heads, causing the monsters to finally crumble.

I adjusted my grip on my rapier, and refocused on the remaining golems on my side of the room. It seemed like I was already falling behind.

Sprinting up to the next creature I ducked under its slow, ponderous blow before bringing my blade down on its leg. Stepping past the toppling creature, I twirled around and brought the sword up through the back of its head. Again, not enough to finish it, but the fire had already been lit. It was enough.

Bouncing away from the soon to be corpse I plunged the rapier down, straight through the massive shield like arm of the next creature, embedding the blade into the golem’s chest. By the time I wrenched the sword free the construct was wreathed in flame. 

It had been several months since I’d last brandished the darkflame, and even though I was a little rusty it was quickly coming back to me.

As the remaining constructs lumbered towards me I let my magic surge. It rolled down the blade like a black torrent, a hellish ephemeral torrent which grew so large that I could feel the heat through the sword’s guard. 

With a flick of the blade I released the power in a wave that washed over the nearest golems, instantly setting them ablaze. 

After that I simply stepped back, and watched the creatures burn. Their limbs twisted, and snapped within seconds, leaving the monsters to roll pitifully as the fire slowly burned its way into their heads, and chests.

“That wasn’t necessary, you know,” Camille remarked after she finished off the last Golem. “A surge like that’ll leave you drained for a while, and we don’t know what else we might run into down here.”

“It might not have been necessary, but it felt good to flex my magical muscles again,” I said, extinguishing my blade. “Besides, we’re unlikely to run into anything else that can regenerate like that. I can probably get by with my swordsmanship.”

Camille raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t argue. 

Selena stumbled over a few seconds later, looking a little disheveled but no worse for wear. 

“That went exceptionally well,” she declared. “Those golems were exceptionally tough, and could regenerate extremely quickly. We could have been in real trouble if you two had different types of magic.” 

She looked at me thoughtfully. “You don’t think whatever lured us here, and challenged you, sent these specific monsters at us knowing your skills, do you?”

I paused, considering for a moment, before shaking my head. “I think we were probably just lucky. Those monsters would have been a good choice against most parties, able to shrug off most damage, and recover from most of the wounds they receive. Do you honestly think if this thing knew about my darkfire, and your antimagic, it still would have sent these things against us?”

“I don’t know,” Selene shrugged. “You have to admit, they were perfectly suited to test our skills against. Made of earth so Camille’s magic could easily take root, no pun intended, and regeneration so both your darkfire and my antimagic were effective counters. They would have been a good way for us to demonstrate our skills, without putting us in too much danger.”

“I hate that idea,” Camille growled. “Because that would mean this thing is fucking with us.”

As we were discussing I slowly inspected my blade. It was etched and pitted by the last attack, but was still structurally sound. At least for now. 

“Even if it is, what can we do about it? We need to push forward to find the other elf bloods.” I slid it into the sheath and sighed. “Besides, if this core really wanted to kill us, it would have sent much stronger monsters to do it.” 

“So we continue?” Selena asked.

I glanced back. Even after crushing the golems the portcullis that had crashed down behind us had remained closed. 

“We continue,” I confirmed, “but we move cautiously. We don’t know what other surprises this thing has for us.”

“Light steps, eyes open,” Camille chirped. She bounced towards the exit of the room, pausing just before crossing under the imposing stone arch. I might have been concerned about her actions, if I hadn’t known better. Her attitude wasn’t an act, she was one of the most carefree people that I’d ever known, but even when prancing about, prattling mindlessly, she managed to keep a sharp eye out for traps and ambushes. Very few things got past her, it was a gift.

Despite the massive gateway, I couldn’t see into the next room until I stepped right up next to Camille. It turned out the reason I couldn’t see anything was the floor of the next room was recessed in the ground. A short staircase led down towards a massive table which appeared to have a contoured terrain sculpted on it.

As soon as I saw it I shot Camille a questioning glance. She just shrugged.

“Do dungeons normally have a map room?” Selena asked as she came up behind us.

“No… usually they’re just a maze full of shifting corridors, monster filled rooms, and traps. This is new to me,” I slowly admitted as I scanned the rest of the small room. It didn’t look like a trap, so I cautiously made my way in, flanked by my friends.

Our footsteps echoed loudly as we descended the smooth stone steps and finally stepped up to the table. Now that I was up close, I could see that it was a model of the surrounding area. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the small model village sitting off to one side. This map was recent, containing changes we’d made in the last week. 

As I pulled back, unsettled by the revelation, my system window popped up, unprompted.

When the people who follow you are threatened, what will you do? What will you sacrifice?

Show your strategic skill and defend your village. Your troops are provided, but you can only give commands when you’re in the same area as someone. Think carefully, lives are at stake.

I blinked, and the window disappeared. Several dozen blue stones emerged from the table, scattered around the village, along with a single larger blue figure in front of each of us.

At the same time, a dozen small red figures, along with four larger ones, emerged from the far side of the table.

Unprompted, and untouched, the red figures slowly started inching towards the town.

Camille turned towards me, wide eyed. “Alright… I might need a little bit of an explanation for this one.”