Somnus V - Chapter 25

“I cannot believe you Miss Kat,” Dorrik remarked, his body glowing gently purple as he darted to the side an eyeblink before a three pace tall bipedal tiger pounced on the space where he’d been.

 “A train heist without me?” He clicked his tongue, a gesture that Kat was sure he’d picked up on Earth at some point. “You know how much I enjoyed Jenny’s Bandida Secreta story arc. I would have been awash in delight at the mere idea, yet you left me behind, handling meetings about potential post unification trade partnerships like s diplomat.”

 Kat Shadow Stepped out of another tiger’s attack, taking advantage of the dungeon’s dark and jungle-like atmosphere to literally teleport into the shade of a fake tree. Before the monster could take stock of her disappearance, Kat stabbed her hand into the shadows, wincing as the Shadow Strike burned a noticeable chunk of stamina.

 The tiger yelped, jumping to the side before Kat could do decisive damage, but it couldn’t hide the blood streaming from the hole just under its shoulder.

 “I thought you were a diplomat?” Kat asked, trying to catch her breath for a second while her tiger turned to look for her. Twenty paces away, Kaleek was gleefully toying with his prey. Between his armor and his skill with his sword, the tiger couldn’t damage him, letting the big otter smack it around with the flat of his blade with impunity.

 “I don’t have to like being a diplomat,” Dorrik replied crossly. “I would bet that you did not even raid the train correctly. Did you use Mecha Steeds? Did you wear dashing masks? Did you fight your final opponent atop the train while it was still moving? Did you even think to kiss Whippoorwill triumphantly atop the train as explosions detonated around you?”

 “None of that is real!” Kat shouted back, lunging at her tiger’s back while using gravity to assist her jump.

 “I know that Chrome Cowboys is not real,” Dorrik said, the barest hint of a sulk in his voice. “Yet. You’re rich Miss Kat. If no one has bothered to make a Mecha Steed, simply have one of your scientists build one for you. The technology was already there before you began to adapt stallesp techniques.”

Kat’s knife slammed into the monster followed by her body. The impact jolted her shoulders, but between her momentum and the shifting gravity that arrived with her, Kat managed to pick the monster up and drive it toward the dungeon’s wall.

It yowled and twisted, trying and failing to dislodge Kat from its back only for its struggles to end in a loud wet crack as the two of them hit the edge of the room. The monster was only unconscious, but that didn’t stop Kat from leaning down and slitting its throat while it was insensible.

“Dorrik,” she responded, twirling her knife as she caught her breath. “If I commissioned someone to make a giant mechanical horse unique to me, I could hardly use that on stealth missions. It’s rather hard to get around the ‘giant and very visible calling card’ when I’m trying to steal something or assassinate someone.”

“It’s just an idea,” Dorrik said defensively, both of his swords glowing purple as they scissored through his monster’s neck. “It would add some panache to your fighting. A little punch and showmanship.”

“I’m an infiltrator,” Kat replied dryly. “No one is supposed to know that I’m there. Fighting someone isn’t supposed to be about showmanship. It’s supposed to be about winning as quickly and quietly as possible.”

“Well, that’s rather drab,” Dorrik responded, with an unhappy sniff. “Kaleek, please stop playing with your food. The rest of us are ready to move on to the boss fight.”

Kaleek didn’t respond, instead he lowered his shoulder and activated some sort of bull rush skill that he had earned a couple dungeons back. His entire body flashed red as he folded the tiger in half. Before it could recover properly, the desoph threw it onto the ground, planting a metal clad boot onto its chest and stabbing downward with his sword with so much force that the tip of his blade bit into the floor of the dungeon below.

It twitched once before going still.

“Don’t worry about it too much Kat,” Kaleel said cheerfully, wiping the blood off of his sword onto the dead monster’s fur. “Fighting all sneaky like doesn’t have to be as cool and interesting as a glorious one on one battle. I’m sure you somehow manage to have fun in your own way, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what really matters?”

“No,” Kat replied, deadpan, “what really matters is taking a living bad guy and turning them into a not-living bad guy, preferably without getting caught.”

Kaleek cocked his head slightly to the side, a gauntleted hand reaching up to scratch the fur behind one of his ears.

“I don’t know about that. It seems like a far cry from the joy of crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of their pups.”

Kat felt the corner of her mouth twitching as she tried to fight down a smile. It was hard for her to tell when she was running into cultural differences with her two friends as opposed to them actually messing with her. A paraphrased movie quote was a bit of a giveaway though.

“Kaleek the barbarian,” She said with a roll of her eyes. “Sounds about right. Now are you ready to raid the boss chamber? We could sit out here and banter all day, but I doubt that would actually manage to finish the boss off.”

“Miss Kat is right,” Dorrik interjected, nodding toward the door at the end of the fake jungle room that marked the entrance to the boss chamber. “It is time to move on.”

He paused, continuing a second later with the faintest hint of embarrassment leaking into his voice. “Plus. Jaalin and I are engaged in a friendly competition. She started her own iron tier dungeon around the same time we did. Right now the two of us are in a bit of a race to see who can finish their delve the quickest.”

That brightened Kaleek up. “You mean that after months and months of her training and critiquing us, we finally have a chance to show that witch that we’re better than her?”

“Her name is Jaalin,” Dorrik said, a tad sourly, “and she is not a witch. Her coming to help us was a tremendous favor, and-”

“And she’s a female spellcaster. A witch.” Kaleek finished for him. “That’s a completely accurate title that has nothing to do with the fact that she called me a fish-brained moron. I mean, she wasn’t wrong and she’s helped the three of us a lot. It’s not like I don’t LIKE the witch, I just LIKE the idea of showing her up a little more.”

Kat nodded at that. Jaalin was nice in her own way, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a flame of competitiveness that Dorrik’s offhand remark had kindled deep in her chest. Kat would be able to keep it under control, but the idea of showing up their former trainer felt good.

“Let’s hurry then,” She said with a quick smile. “We can’t have Dorrik losing his bet just because the two of us like to dawdle.”

“Seriously,” Dorrik interjected uncertainly. “Jaalin isn’t a witch. She’s very skilled and knowledgeable. Really, when you get to know her, she’s quite nice. Maybe a little bit too concerned about taking things slow and safe, but that is an admirable trait in a leader.”

“Admirable but boring,” Kaleek replied, pushing the door open and revealing the boss chamber.

 It was a big room. Thematically, it followed the same design as the rest of the dungeon, mimicking a jungle clearing. The walls were made out of wood and occasional bumps gave them texture, creating the impression of trees. Around the edges of the room were actual trees. Kat wasn’t surprised to find that they weren’t anything she recognized from Earth, but they gave the same sort of impression as the giants of the Amazon Rain Forest. Tall and almost featureless for paces and paces before branches stretched out to create a canopy where the room’s roof should have been.

 By far the most worrying aspect of the room was the single wooden hut in its center. Almost instinctively, Kat knew that the dungeon altar was inside the structure.

 As if on cue, the animal hide draped over the doorway was pushed to the side, revealing and even larger version of the tigers they had been fighting before. The creature was unclothed other than a leather loincloth and a large staff capped in some sort of animal skull. It stopped just outside the hut, surveying the three of them with all too intelligent eyes.

 The monster slammed the but of its staff into the ground and roared. The sound wasn’t terribly loud, but it hit Kat’s head like a hammer. Suddenly, the idea of moving seemed foreign, almost impossible. Deep down, Kat felt something screaming inside of her as the creature sprinted toward the three of them.

 Dorrik flashed purple and charged to meet the opponent. It swung its staff like a club, and the lokkel was barely able to deflect the blow, both of his swords triggering a shower of sparks as they scraped off the side of the monster’s weapon.

 Part of Kat wondered why Dorrik would move as he darted in closer to the tiger, cutting a line through the creature’s heavy fur. They clearly weren’t supposed to move. Bad things would happen if-

 It was like Kat had smashed through a window pane inside her head. Glass seemed to fall away, taking the alien thoughts with it. Anger replaced her indecision as she sprang into action.

 The room was dark enough for her to use Shadow Strike, and Kat’s hand lashed out, stabbing a knife deep into the monster’s side. The blow didn’t deal much damage, Kat couldn’t use skills or her domain through the tiny portal of darkness that was swallowing her wrist, so she was stuck with only her mundane strength and the sharpness of her knife as she buried it in the boss’ thick fur.

 Still, the attack drew a startled yelp from the monster as it spun around, looking vainly for its attacker. Dorrik took advantage of its distraction to launch an oversized bolt of purple light into the creature’s face followed a fraction of a second later by lashing one of its forearms. His swords, even driven by psi enhanced muscles, weren’t heavy enough to cut through the creature’s reinforced bones, but they still left deep marks.

 Behind the two of them, Kaleek stood still, staring blankly into space as he continued fighting against the tiger’s sonic attack. Silently, Kat thanked her constant training against Dorrik in the real world. It was hard to overestimate the lokkel’s sword skills, but Kat would prefer to contest with him physically andy day rather than face his psi ability to shut down her mind.

 It had been months, and she hadn’t won a single duel in all that time. Slowly but surely Kat was beginning to build up a resistance against his mental interference, but Dorrik was too good of a swordsman. Even a fraction of a second of hesitation after getting tagged by an Ego Shard was more than enough for her to end up slammed to the floor with a pair of swords at her throat.

 The tiger tried to backhand Dorrik, but the swordsman flowed away from the attack, and Kat took that opportunity to charge in. Stamina gushed out of her like water as Shadow Step teleported her to the monster’s side. Crippling Blow guided her hand and Penetrate sharpened her blade as Kat stabbed her knife deep into its upper thigh, slashing a hidden tendon before nicking an artery on its way back out.

 Kat’s Gravity Domain pulsed, and the monster was lifted into the air, tossing the confused dungeon boss toward Dorrik even as Kat took her first step away from it.

 She was gone before it could swipe her with its claws, chest heaving from her exertion. Shadow Strike was a stamina hog, but using Shadow Step twice in a row didn’t exactly give her the time she needed to recover. Still, the blood gushing down the monster’s leg was enough of a reward.

 Dorrik turned into a whirlwind of steel, rushing toward the monster as it tried to track Kat’s quick movements. The boss got a hand up, preventing Dorrik from closing in at the cost of a half dozen nicks and cuts in a matter of seconds.

 Kat cast Overpressure, dropping the spell on the huge tiger’s injured hip. Blood fountained out of the wound and the monster stumbled.

 At her side, Kaleek finally moved. He shook his head, taking a single halting step forward as he regained control of his body. When he looked back up at the dungeon boss, his eyes were practically burning with anger.

 His body exploded with red light, and Kat swore she could actually feel heat coming off of the enraged desoph. Kaleek threw himself at the tiger, ignoring its greater size and the blood slick floor as he swung his greatsword with enough force to destroy a car.

 The tiger got an arm up, but it was in the unenviable position of being attacked from both sides, and neither Dorrik nor Kaleek was giving it a second to breath.

 Blood splashed and flew through the air. Staining the ground and fake trees around the three of them. Kat kept a constant stream of mana to the wound on the monster’s thigh. She could feel its flesh trying to knit back together under the influence of some sort of regeneration ability through the spell, but the damage her two friends were dealing to the monster were simply too much.

 None of their attacks could penetrate the monster’s bones. Even with Kaleek blazing with enough stamina light to prevent her from using Shadow Step around him, his heavy sword could only rend and gash the tiger’s hide and flesh. Kat half expected that the creature’s skeleton was made from some sort of metal that humanity hadn’t discovered yet. She honestly couldn’t think of anything else that would survive the reckless blows Kaleek was slamming into it.

 It was fighting back too. Dorrik was able to avoid its claws with his usual frustrating grace, angling his head and torso at the last second to let attacks pass by him while punishing the creature’s arms with a whirlwind of cutting blades and deep slashes.

 Kaleek didn’t bother dodging. He simply took the blows and hit back harder. There were already dents in his armor and patches of blood matting his fur, but he simply didn’t care. For every hit he took, he returned the favor, except his blows cut three times as deep.

 Quietly, Kat began casting Cure Wounds II. She wouldn’t really be able to properly use it on Kaleek while he was still fighting and taking damage, but Kat had plenty of mana. She could simply keep the spell in reserve until the boss finally fell so that she could get to work on Kaleek immediately.

 The fight continued that way for about a minute seconds, with Kat prowling around the outside of the engagement, occasionally darting in to stab or slash at a weak spot revealed by Crippling Blow. Through the skill, she could see the monster healing itself, but as soon as a severed tendon began to stitch itself back together, she would lunge in again, destabilizing the creature and crippling it with a flurry of precise knife work.

 Armpit, elbow, knees. Each of them drew her knife, and one by one she dismantled the left side of its body, turning the limbs facing Kaleek into a floppy and useless mess. Kat could see the panic on its face as the tide of battle steadily turned against it. Frantically, the creature spun around, hobbling on its remaining leg toward the hut at the center of the clearing.

 They couldn’t let that happen.

 “Trip!” Dorrik yelled, trusting Kat to do her part as he dove toward the monster’s legs. Levitation hit just before the lokkel’s psi augmented body, sending the dungeon boss spinning into the air as it suddenly lost the weight it would need to brace itself against the ground.

 Neither of them bothered to offer instructions to Kaleek. It wasn’t like he’d listen anyway. The otter was simply too angry for that.

 Kaleek pounced, jumping into the air with enough strength that it forced the dungeon floor to tremble. Both of his feet hit the pinwheeling tiger, and Kat cut her spell as he road the monster downward, slamming it into the ground with the full force of their combined weight and his heavy armor.

 His sword stabbed downward, slipping easily between the creature’s impenetrable ribs. It yowled in pain, swiping upward with its good claw while the one that Kat had disabled twitched, nerves and tendons reconnecting at an absurd rate.

 Dorrik stepped in, his swords glittering in the faint light thrown off by the desoph as they slashed and battered the monster’s claw aside, letting Kaleek stab it again and again with impunity.

 The dungeon boss’ regeneration was impressive. Even with all of the damage it had taken and the massive amount of blood it had lost, it managed to survive three hits from Kaleek’s empowered greatsword.

 Its death didn’t stop Kaleek. That was hardly new after all, but Kat sent a quick worried glance Dorrik’s way as their friend continued to burn stamina as he wailed away on the boss’ corpse. His wounds hadn’t closed, and Kat hadn’t been able to get close enough to heal him so blood was flowing down the flanks of his heavy armor.

 Finally, after almost a minute's worth of attacks, Kaleek managed to break through the corpse’s ribcage. Only then did he stop, almost immediately falling to one knee as the massive stamina drain of his frenzy caught up with him.

 Kat quickly ran over to him, hands glowing as she pressed them to the desoph’s back. He was heaving for breath, and without the sword he had planted firmly in the dead tiger man’s throat, Kat suspected that he would have fallen over entirely.

 Golden energy washed over him, restoring Kaleek’s body even as he struggled to refill his empty stamina. The desoph shuddered under her, taking deep wheezing breaths that gurgled a little, the telltale sound of blood in his lungs.

 “Are you alright?” She asked. “You’re not in any immediate danger, but that was…”

 Kat struggled to put her feelings to words. Obviously, she’d seen Kaleek’s wild fighting style before. It was hard not to with the way the desoph warrior liked to put on a show. Despite that, the only other time she’d seen her companion fight that angry was when the war with the stallesp had reached its apex.

 “That was a lot,” she finished, wincing at the inadequacy of the statement.

 “I don’t,” Kaleek gasped, shaking his head once before he looked up at her with a scowl on his face. “I hate it when they use mind control. Monsters need to stay out of my head. There’s only enough room in there for me.”

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