Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 41 (Patreon)

“Enemy!” I shouted.

The two security guards Iris had brought were already reacting. Jackson’s shield, already planted in the ground, started to glow with mana as the man finished activating his [Force Shield]. As I watched, a thin barrier of pure white magic encased it. Behind him, Ed the [Arcane Archer] already had his bow in his hands, a [Homing Shot] flowing through the weapon and into the nocked arrow.

Ed released, the arrow flying straight and true.

If it weren’t for my dungeon senses, I would’ve missed it. Halfway through the arrow’s path—which it got to in the same time it took me to blink—its trajectory changed abruptly. It wasn’t a full ninety-degree turn, but it was enough to noticeably change its target.

The [Divine Assassin] that the Kingsguard had sent didn’t sit there idly and let the shot take his eye out, though. He’d started dodging the moment the arrow had left the bow, and somehow he was fast enough to react to its sudden reorientation towards him.

As the shot approached him, he touched two of his fingers together and [Shadow Step]ped, his body melting into shadow for just long enough to allow the arrow to whistle through the space he’d occupied before he appeared again, wreathed in shadow once more.

“That’s no way to greet one of your betters,” the Kingsguard man said, the grin clear in his voice even though the unnatural darkness wreathing him hid his face. “Shall we play?”

“Who is this?” Jackson asked, stepping backwards. He sounded remarkably calm for someone up against an enemy five levels higher than him, but then maybe he couldn’t actually see that power disparity like I could.

“Kingsguard,” Ed drawled. “Nasty piece of work.”

“Ah, those shits,” Jackson said. “I thought we beat them back years ago.”

“Rumors of our demise,” the Kingsguard said, hefting his greatsword, “were greatly exaggerated.”

Mana exploded out from the [Divine Assassin]’s position, and then he vanished.

As he did, the room faded to black. For a second, I thought I’d been suddenly knocked unconscious, but my dungeon senses stayed functioning and I realized that the [Darkness] was localized.

“I’m blind!” Jack shouted. “Get back!”

Good idea.

I could still see the topography of the room we were in with my dungeon perception, but I’d lost track of the [Divine Assassin]. Whatever spell he was using, it was strong enough to mostly cloak himself from even my stronger senses.

“We’ve got incoming,” I said. “Stick with me.”

I was probably the only one who actually had a sense of what direction to go. The sphere of [Darkness] encompassed  nearly the entire safe room, so that meant that our only real option was traveling into the dungeon proper.

“Don’t touch me,” Jackson said. “I’ll hold the line. Ed, get back.”

“Hells, don’t get yourself killed,” the [Arcane Archer] said. “I can jus’ barely make ya out. Lead the way.”

Huh. He had some degree of sight that let him see through the [Darkness] spell? At short range, from the wording of his statement, but still. Blindsight was strong.

I started sprinting off, and the archer followed. I had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t have budged an inch if Jack hadn’t told him to come with me, but that was what it was. A single game of cards wasn’t enough to break down every wall between them and me. I’d settle for him actually agreeing to come with me.

Behind us, the [Shieldbearer] had expanded the scope of his shield, forming a ring of force around him instead of a wall facing only one direction. Visually, though, the shield appeared to have faded until it was almost nothing.

It was good thinking, making himself an attractive, unshielded target while the two of us ran away. If all went well, his invisible shield would be able to block an incoming attack and let him respond, which would give the two of us time to get to a better position to fight from.

Unfortunately, even the simplest plans could go awry against an enemy with unknown capabilities, and the [Divine Assassin] seemed intent on proving that.

Just as the [Arcane Archer] and I had made it to the edge of the shadowy spell’s area of effect, our enemy rematerialized above Jackson. To my [Darkness]-piercing senses, he didn’t exist one moment and then was fully visible the next, which absolutely meant he had a second spell going on top of his darkness that was strong enough to overpower my senses. I supposed it stopped working when he went for an attack?

Whatever the case, it caught both me and the [Shieldbearer] completely off guard. I didn’t have the time to manipulate rock to make a second shield for Jackson, and though he’d covered most of his body, he apparently hadn’t bothered to use [Force Shield] above his head. Maybe he’d thought that nobody would strike from that area.

It cost him. The [Divine Assassin] brought his greatsword down, the Kingsguard insignia burning bright within the magical darkness, and the strike connected with the full force of an [Assassinate] behind it.

That would’ve been enough to deal massive damage to any non-tank build at level 10, but that wasn’t all. The sword flared bright blue, a detail probably only visible to me, and a searing [Divine Smite] ripped its way into Jackson’s body, coursing through his armor.

As Jackson fell, the force of the strike and the ensuing smite knocking him off his feet, he repositioned his spell, bringing the ring back and reshaping it into a circular shield facing towards his enemy.

I threw a [Healing Stream] at him, adding a [Rejuvenating Pulse] for good measure, but any greater healing that I had access to right now was only usable at close range. I wasn’t going to be able to heal him back to his prime state in an instant until I isolated him from the battle.

The [Divine Assassin]’s arms blurred, a [Quickened Strike] taking effect and repositioning him for a second swing immediately after the first.

This time, though, the greatsword was met by the [Shieldbearer]’s defensive spell, and it held. Without the bonus power of the [Assassinate], the force of the blade alone wasn’t enough to shatter it.

The [Divine Smite], however, was.

Fuck me, how many of those does he have? The only time I’d seen someone use [Divine Smite] before had been the level twenty-something [Sorlockadin Ranger], who wasn’t a great basis to powerscale off of, but the casual way this Kingsguard was burning his spells made me thinkg that he could’ve easily had a similar, seemingly unlimited supply of them.

Fuck me, it was rough being reminded how powerful higher-leveled people were. At least this guy didn’t seem to have nearly the prowess of the [Astral Monk]. Jackson was still alive and conscious even after a direct hit, which was more than I could’ve hoped for against her.

Alive and conscious didn’t mean he was going to stay that way, though. He’d lost control over his spell—getting hit had hurt his concentration enough to the point where a single strong [Divine Smite] could take it out, if I had to guess.

“Shame,” the [Divine Assassin] said, talking to nobody, “I do prefer it when you fight back.”

He raised his sword and I acted, reshaping the stone to raise a makeshift barrier between the two of them. As I did, Ed and I made it out of the darkness, the dim light of the first room almost blinding after the pitch black of the Kingsguard soldier’s spell.

The strike connected with the hastily-created stone, and the rock cracked underneath it.

The Kingsguard laughed, the [Darkness] spell muffling his voice enough that only Jackson would’ve been able to hear it if it weren’t for my remarkable senses. “So that’s how it is.”

This was fine. Nobody was going to be able to tell that it was me influencing the dungeon—neither of my allies could actually see the dungeon being manipulated, and even if they could, I could always just say that the dungeon defended itself.

“Jackson’s taking hits,” I told the [Arcane Archer]. “Do you have a way to get him out?”

“Once I can see him,” he replied. “Jus’ one moment.”

The [Shieldbearer] was still moving, if just barely. The [Healing Stream] was still going, and it looked like that was enough to keep him on his feet, practically stumbling away from the strike.

That was a bit of a shit decision on your part, I thought. As far as I knew, there was no way he could see through the darkness himself, so unless something happened quick, there was going to be a problem.

Fortunately for Jackson, Ed had another arrow nocked. For a second, I had to wonder at the uselessness of the gesture, but then mana started flowing through the bow, an [Infuse] taking hold in the arrow.

It was a complicated process, I could tell—Ed was sweating as he extracted more mana from within himself to force into an arrow—but eventually he got it figured out, pushing a [Neutralize Magic] into the arrowhead.

“Goddess, I hate magic,” he grunted, and he let the arrow fly.

The Kingsguard noticed the arrow before it was even shot. With a simple few steps out of the way, he didn’t even come close to getting hit, but that wasn’t the objective of the arrow.

As the arrow flew, it didn’t just scream through the air. The [Neutralize Magic] infused into it tore the [Darkness] asunder, smashing a path straight through it. Its effect only grew stronger as it kept flying, and by the time it buried itself into a wall, the entire middle half of the [Darkness] was gone, revealing one extremely injured [Shieldbearer]. The Kingsguard was nowhere to be seen, presumably still in the darkness.

“Why the fuck are you here?” I asked, raising my voice so that the entire room could hear me. I nudged Ed as I spoke, gesturing for him to go do his thing.

“I thought that much would’ve been obvious,” the Kingsguard replied, his voice echoing in a way that made it hard to locate the speaker. “Two scouts. A insignia ring worth a fortune. All three of those go missing in one place, and you thought we would… not notice?”

Ed moved. In one instant, he was with me, and in the next, he’d [Tactical Reposition]ed himself, arriving at Jackson’s side so fast that a lesser eye might’ve been unsure on whether he was teleporting or just moving insanely fast.

A second later, Ed was back with the semi-conscious body of his friend, the [Arcane Archer]’s face red with exhaustion. “Got…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he sank to his knees.

Mana drain. He looked just like Ryan had during his last tour. He’d overexerted himself in his effort to save his friend, and while he hadn’t left the best impression on me so far, I could respect that.

“Good work,” I told him.

“Thank… you.”

I couldn’t do anything about the mana drain, but I started casting stronger healing spells at Jackson, using [Multiplicative Heal] to speed up the process.

“One question,” I said, once again splitting my thought process into two. As I spoke, I manipulated the dungeon, activating the mobs stored in the room. “Why attack these two first?”

And, for that matter, why not kill the Dungeon Core? He’d shown that he could evade dungeon perception—at least, he could while under the cover of [Darkness]. It would’ve been a significantly harder fight if he’d been making his way towards my core the entire time. Yes, I’d buried it underground, and yes, I doubted he knew that I was part dungeon, but his issue was with the Dungeon Core, not the tour guide, right?

Actually, it was very possible that he was targeting me. If they’d gotten the intel that there was a dungeonbound around these parts—which was rather easy to get, given the existence of the ARI and all—then they could’ve put two and two together to realize that I’d probably been responsible for the Kingsguard disappearances.

“Because, my dear tour guide, you are my target,” the Kingsguard said, his voice still maintaining that weird echoey quality that obfuscated his location, “and that means that you will know fear.”

“Ah,” I said. “Sadism. Never my favorite.”

A figure shot out of the distored black, visible once more to my senses. He still had some kind of stealth skill going on, but that wasn’t strong enough outside of his [Darkness] to fool my senses.

This time, though, I was ready. Ed and Jackson were recovering, but they weren’t the only forces I had on my side.

Before, we’d been fighting on the [Divine Assassin]’s initiative. We’d been on his chosen battleground, caught with our pants down, and he’d taken full advantage of that.

Now, though? Now, I’d had time. The room we were in now was of my design, filled with my monsters, and I’d had enough of a break to move a certain testing room closer.

As the [Divine Assassin] drew closer, I connected the two rooms, letting my brand new [Displacer Snake]s loose.

We fight on my terms now, motherfucker.