Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The dungeon they entered was a hellscape of epic proportions, but it wasn’t just the environment Fer was talking about.  While the volcanos, dark storm clouds, and barren landscape certainly set the scene, it was the hundreds—no, thousands—of monster corpses she could see starting near the entrance and extending toward the tower in the distance that really completed the picture. 

In her time as a Warden and even before that, she had been inside countless dungeons, so the environment and the monsters corpses weren’t really shocking.  Having killed millions of monsters by this point, another few thousand was no big deal, as she had participated with her own Party and her fellow Wardens to cause a similar level of destruction.  Even the environment wasn’t exactly new, as she’d seen some variations of it that made this one look rather tame.

However, what made it all worse was the fact that the corpses were from monsters at a much higher Level than they should be.  During their search in the Region and subsequent elimination of any Adversarial threats, they had faced such numbers before, but none of the monsters had been over Level 380 or so; even if there were thousands of them, they couldn’t stand up to their party of Level 567s, as they had the advantage of nearly 200 Levels on their opponents.  When they factored in that 3 of them were Wardens, then the gap in their power Levels was practically insurmountable by any monsters under Level 400 or even Level 450.

But a Level 500 Dramolga Voidwalker was something else entirely.  While still not a threat individually, or even in groups of 10 to 15 alongside Voidcallers and Voidwhippers, even the powerful Wardens would have some problems killing them before one or more of the Party got seriously hurt. 

A Level 500 monster, aside from the random Boss in high-Level, Maximal difficulty Intermediate dungeons, shouldn’t even exist in the Region.  Back where the Stronghold was built, such monsters and their Levels were more commonplace, but each individual Region shouldn’t ever see a non-Boss monster around this Level.

Yet, there were thousands of them in this dungeon, and even more were visible in the distance.  Granted, those near Fer and her Party were dead, but she wasn’t the only one that could see a veritable wave of darkness ahead that indicated that an entire army of these Dramolga were still threatening those who were inside the dungeon.  What made it even stranger was that this wasn’t some sort of Horde Siege Challenge or anything like that, which typically had countless weaker units that were fairly easy to kill, because each of these particular monsters were extremely dangerous.  Fer had only fought Dramolga a few times in her life, all of them while she was a Warden and a much lower Level than her, but they always proved to be slightly difficult opponents because of their relative intelligence and speed.

Constrained by the System at Level 567, she instantly knew that if they had entered this dungeon first and encountered all of these Level 500 monsters swarming them within seconds of entry, there was a good chance they wouldn’t have survived.  As it was, they had someone else to “thank” for their survival—

“There he is!  That’s Thaden!  And I think I see his squirrel friend near him,” Lyn shouted, pointing unnecessarily toward what appeared to be a large hole in the Dramolga army line a few miles ahead of them. 

Using her superior eyesight as an Aelveen, which was multiple steps above the Human Contenders and even the Charee that inhabited the Region, Fer focused on the figure her fellow Party member had pointed out.  Seeing the Human wearing an obnoxiously sparkly outfit that hurt even her—admittedly poor—fashion sense, Thaden didn’t exactly fit the picture she had of a dastardly agent of the Adversary.  She was too far away to see his name or his Level, as her eyesight didn’t automatically fill those in unless she was closer, but she could only imagine that he had to be at his Level cap just like they were, as she couldn’t see how he had not only survived that long, but had also managed to kill everything in his path.

Next to him was the giant squirrel that the pair of Aelveen representatives had mentioned from their experience in the Undead Horde Siege Challenge, and both of them had stopped and were looking back toward the entrance.  Seeing his eyes staring right at them made Fer think that they were looking right at her, causing her to involuntarily shiver, as even from this distance she could feel the raw power inherent in that gaze.

Who is this Contender?  How does he have such strength?

Having lived for a long time, longer than she cared to think about, she’d seen power in many forms over her life.  There was magical power, as was wielded by those such as Che as an Arch Elementalist; those like Tac had physical power, as they applied their Physicality to make them nearly unstoppable in combat; and then there were those who had a socially adept quality to them, such as Lyn and other Classes that relied on their Personality stat, and they exuded both competence and a certain magnetism that was difficult to ignore when wielded by an expert in its applications.  Lyn, not having the experience in adapting her Personality as a means of power, wasn’t quite at the level where she simply exuded a powerful aura around her, but Fer had seen others who she would consider masterful examples of using their stats to the utmost.

But this individual, as ridiculous as his outfit was, practically exploded with a personal aura of power that was hard to define.  It was almost like a mixture of multiple types of strength, both the physical and magical kind, with a hefty helping of speed that she could recognize as being similar to herself.  But that’s impossible; he’s a Support Class, after all. 

There was a temporary hesitation as the new arrivals stared at the Human Contender in the distance, everyone seemingly experiencing the same sort of reaction she had in seeing their Quest objective ahead of them, but that only lasted until Thaden turned away and started moving toward the tower that most likely marked the exit – and the cluster of energy that could only be the Adversarial entity they had originally come to exterminate.  Sadly enough, she could also sense a tinge of discordant energy within the figure racing away from them, slaughtering monsters effortlessly to the left and right of him, which was a bad sign that he was some sort of agent for the Adversary.  It wasn’t guaranteed, but now that she had a longer time to sense it, things weren’t looking so good for a peaceful resolution to the Quest they were given.

“After him!” Tac shouted, and they all started running.  Fer lifted off the ground with her abilities, hoping to get some height to avoid having to run through the corpses, but as soon as she was about 10 feet from the surface, which was just barely able to pass over some of the carcasses, a bolt of lightning shot from the sky right at her, forcing her to use one of her defensive Cooldowns to quickly move herself out of the way of the attack.

“Stay down!  There’s a flight restriction in the dungeon!” Tac yelled back at her, even as he nimbly sidestepped the bodies in his way. 

Wish he had told me that earlier.  Such information was available to those who knew how to connect with the dungeons, such as what Tac typically did outside of the dungeon before entering, but he apparently failed to mention it to her before they entered.

Restricted to the ground, or at least to leaping over the corpses in her way instead of flying over them, she caught up with the rest of the Party quickly and decided against pushing ahead.  Normally, she’d be the one to scout their way, but in this case, there was no need; they knew what was ahead of them and there shouldn’t be any surprises.

Unfortunately, she was proven wrong the next moment, and her eyes widened in shock as the army of Dramolga that had previously been clustered around Thaden and the squirrel by his side began to stream toward the incoming Wardens, almost going out of their way to avoid the Human Contender.

She immediately thought that this was yet more proof that the figure at the heart of their Quest objective was working for the enemy, but then she had to retract that as she remembered the monsters she was now watching head toward them.  She had just been reminded why they were so dangerous, as their relative intelligence was now being shown; rather than ineffectually throw themselves against an unstoppable opponent, they almost instinctively understood that there was now another target inside the dungeon that was a much safer bet.

To think, a party of 3 Wardens and two others that are Level 567 are considered to be “weaker” than one man. 

“Halt!  Get into formation and prepare for incoming!  Fer, you’re on Voidwalker duty!” Tac yelled, and everyone quickly fell into position, with everyone behind the Elite Sentinel of Domination.

In less time than she had hoped, the army was upon them, and the first of the Voidwalkers disappeared when they were in range, appearing over Lyn who was near the back of the formation.  Fer reacted quickly and intercepted the blow that would’ve hurt the Vine Strangler, if not killed her completely if they were unlucky, deflecting the claw away from their Control Class with one knife, before stabbing her other one into its neck, practically decapitating it in the process as she pulled it out at an angle. 

Lyn deftly moved out of the way of the falling corpse as she called forth multiple tangles of vines that fought against the corrosive-tipped tentacles shot out by the Voidwhippers, locking them in place, while also erecting a dome of hardened vines that covered her body from additional ambushing attacks – or it would, normally, but Fer wasn’t going to rely on it to deflect the Voidwalkers’ deadly claws once they were determined to get through it.  

At the extreme edge of their range, a dozen Voidcallers launched void orbs at them, but Che was already on the job as she formed a number of floating ice walls that intercepted them in the air far above them, the impacts causing them to explode and rip the ice walls apart.  A rain of fire fell upon the distant Voidcallers, enveloping them in flames that they appeared to ignore for the most part as they began forming additional void orbs, but the strength of the flames only increased as time went on.  In less than 10 seconds, those covered by the fire began to melt, the heat so powerful that even the nearby monsters stumbled and nearly combusted into flames, but they managed to move away before that could happen. 

Out of the corner of her eye, just as she intercepted yet another Voidwalker trying to decapitate Che, Gen was launching arrow after arrow, each of them filled with a power that made them glow, and each one erringly landed in a vulnerable spot among the Dramolga before exploding.  Unfortunately, even though they had a chunk of their bodies ripped apart from them, the majority continued running for the Party, with only a few suffering critical damage to their heads that stopped them cold.

For those that got through, which was only a few at first but quickly turned into a tide of monsters, Tac was up front, using his shield not only to block those coming straight at them from getting past him, but also to smash and tear through their bodies, ripping out tentacles and breaking bones by the dozen.  With a sword in his other hand, he was a force of nature that wouldn’t let anything get by his defense, even as he moved all over the battlefield to intercept attacks that he could predict and counter with amazing skill and a show of power that she hadn’t seen from the Warden in a long, long time.

Unfortunately, despite doing much better than she originally predicted against at least 10 times their number in the initial wave of Level 500 monsters, the army of Dramolga was too much for them.  As the bodies began to pile up around them, making sightlines more difficult and footing treacherous, the press of opponents upon them began to take their toll.  First, the number of Voidwhippers became too numerous for Lyn to deal with, and her vines – which had been doing a fairly impressive job of holding off the tentacles that tried to reach the Party – were ripped apart faster than she could recast them.  As a result of that, dozens of the deadly appendages made their way through the defenses, the first one wrapping around Che and yanking her off her feet.  Fer was there in a flash to sever the tentacle, freeing the Arch Elementalist in less than a second, but the save cost them.

Two Voidwalkers appeared around Gen while she was saving Che, and the Veteran Ranger didn’t have a chance to scream as he was ripped apart, his head going one way while his torso went another, leaving his legs behind to tumble to the ground a second later.  Even though it was unexpected, Fer didn’t let that phase her as she’d seen countless deaths over the years, even if such deaths haunted her for a while afterwards, so she continued to do her best from preventing any further deaths. 

They fought back to a standstill for all of 30 seconds as everyone redoubled their efforts, but they finally started to break once Lyn ran out of Mana, reducing their defenses by a significant margin.  She wasn’t the one to fall next, however, as Che got impaled by another tentacle punching through her robe and through her arm, nearly ripping it off her body.  She managed to blast apart the offending monster – along with another dozen Dramolga nearby – with a detonating boulder of stone, but as she went to reach for a Healing Potion, Fer saw her eyes widen in shock.

“I can’t access my In—” she started to shout, before another tentacles by yet another Voidwhipper impaled her through the forehead, destroying her brain before she could react.

NOOO!

Incensed by a fellow Warden’s death, Fer fought back with everything she had, slaying dozens of the enemy even as her Mana and physical energy started to bottom-out.  She barely blinked as Lyn was ripped apart by a void orb explosion that she couldn’t avoid completely, and only a leg and an arm were recognizable as belonging to a person once it was done.  Fighting near Tac as the only 2 members of their Party left alive, they managed to hold on for another 30 seconds before Tac was pierced through the back and legs as they were surrounded and he was busy defending against an onslaught from the front.   

He grunted in pain as the tentacles ripped out those portions of his body, and while Fer slid around another Voidwalker that attempted to ambush her, she went to pull out and throw a Health Potion to Tac, but she found out what Che was trying to say before she was impaled through the skull.

Her Inventory was completely inaccessible.  It hadn’t been that way in any of the other dungeons they’d cleared of the Adversary, but this one was obviously different – and it had ended up killing them.

Collapsing to his knees as his heavily wounded body couldn’t stand up to the damage, Tac held on as long as he could while they were piled on from all sides.  It was all she could do to use her speed to dodge the attacks sent her way, but even that wasn’t enough to avoid everything.  Within seconds of Tac being buried under dozens of claws that eventually ripped his limbs off his body, followed by his head, she had taken a number of grazing claws attacks that left gaping wounds all over her arms and legs.  A claw slice down her back made her cry out in shock and pain, distracting her enough that she was unable to move out of the way of a tentacle that impaled her hip, before ripping itself out along with some of her shattered pelvis and a portion of her intestines. 

Collapsing to the ground, unable to hold herself up any further, she waited for death to take her.  She couldn’t help but be disappointed in herself because she hadn’t been strong enough to complete the Quest that the Assimilation System had assigned her, though she could only hope that her death would help to prove that the Contender they were tasked to find was, indeed, in league with the Adversary.  It might’ve been her impending death making her think that way, but on the cusp of her life slipping away from her, the Warden could only believe that the only reason he could do what he’d done was because of some connection with the enemy.

She closed her eyes, her physical energy having been sapped away along with her plummeting Health, not wanting to see the blow that would end her position as a Warden of Tarth.  Doing what she could to brace herself for the inevitable, she waited for that final claw swipe or tentacle impalement…

…but it never came.

Chapter 18: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120210550