The Axe Falls -Ch27- (Patreon)

Looking up at the head of his poleaxe Nick felt like he was going to have to pull it apart, clean it, oil it, and make sure everything was tight. After the week of use he’d put it through with Iris and Claudia, he was certain there was a good chance that it was clogged up with hobgoblin and goblin blood.

Sighing, he looked down and to Iris who was sitting next to him on a cracked stone block. It might have once been part of something, but now it was being used as a seat.

In fact, she often sat on it in the morning while they waited for Claudia to arrive from the guild.

“I need to do some maintenance on my poleaxe tonight,” Nick said in a soft voice, looking to Iris’ face. Her eyes were closed and she was leaning up against another part of whatever had once been here.

“Really? I thought I’d been taking care of it pretty well,” Iris said and opened her eyes, looking up at him with a grin. They’d been seeing each other every evening “after work” as it were. Spending the evening with one another until Nick went back to his room.

“Ha. Yeah, you definitely have taken care of that,” said Nick with a grin for her in return. “But I need to pull it apart and make sure there’s nothing inside.”

“Fine, bring whatever you need with you when you come over tonight,” Iris said with a wave of her gauntlet covered hand. “Not giving up the easy sex I’ve been having as of late. I haven’t gotten laid this often in a long time. That and you’re alright in bed.”

“I mean, that’s fair. Yeah, I haven’t had sex on tap like this ever,” agreed Nick. He didn’t care for Iris on a romantic level, but he was definitely having fun sexing her every single day. Multiple times in one night even.

“Right? Kinda nice,” Iris said and leaned her head back against the rock behind her. It inadvertently displayed the very prominent teeth shaped bruise on her throat.

She’d demanded he bite her as hard as he could last night. In the end, Nick complied willingly.

“Very. But yeah, need to maintenance it,” Nick said, glancing back up at his poleaxe. “And if we’re talking about that stuff, I think you need to take charge more.”

Iris frowned, her brows coming down over her eyes.

“I don’t like taking charge,” she grumbled. “I prefer it when you tell me what to do, or you just take it from me. I like the way you manhandle me a bit. Like when you bit me.

“I can try, I guess. I prefer letting you just do what you want to me. Been enjoying it.”

“I… I meant in the dungeon,” Nick clarified. He couldn’t deny that he liked the way Iris was passive and extremely receptive in the bedroom.

“Oh,” said Iris and then laughed. She opened one eye and peeked up at him. “Yeah, I can do that. What were you thinking?”

“You’re our front line. I think you should be in charge when it comes to the pace, attack order, and execution of whatever strategy we agree on,” explained Nick. “You’re the one holding it all together, after all.”

“Yeah, got it,” Iris said in her slow and low toned way of speaking. “I can do that. But… uh… you don’t want me to change in the other thing, right?”

“No,” said Nick quickly. “I like what you’ve been doing. Stay that way.”

“Good. Good,” Iris said, closing her eyes again. “No feelings. Just the activity. Right?”

“Right. No feelings, just the activity,” agreed Nick. He genuinely held no romantic feelings for Iris. He was also making sure to keep it that way. The last thing he needed was to let anything develop between himself and Iris.

I can’t imagine anyone would take it very well if I tried to turn a Beast-kin into a queen.

Like… at all.

“Most certainly not, Sire,” agreed Lucian. “A bastard from such a union? Barely tolerable. A queen? Never. The populace isn’t that kind.

“So far our best option is Claudia since she’s part of the nobility. A relationship with her obviously wouldn’t be for love since you’re… not interested in her like that, but it’d work politically.”

Yeah, maybe.

I dunno.

It’s hard to think of her like that. I feel like it’d hurt her in the long run.

I’m not disagreeing with your asessment, I just think it wouldn’t be good for her. You know, Gramps?

“I… yes,” said Lucian and then sighed. “I agree with you, Nick. It’d do a great harm to her more likely than not. I like her, too. It’s hard for me to remember at times that while my goal is focused and tangible, we do have to make sure we go about it in a way that doesn’t leave a trail of destruction behind us.

“Claudia would be a very worthwhile friend and ally to us in the future. Harming her is out of the question.

“Though… what of Erica? She would be suitable for such a role like that and is technically part of the royal family.”

I… yeah, fine. I’d be willing to consider that. She’s an acquaintance bordering on friend, but there isn’t that… I don’t worry over her the same way I do Claudia.

“Speaking of Claudia,” Lucian said.

Lowering his gaze from his poleaxe head Nick found Claudia heading straight for him.

In the last week she’d leveled up very quickly. Iris and he had been putting her through her paces at an accelerated rate. To the point that she’d easily hit her first promotion in another three weeks without issue.

As soon as his eyes touched her, Claudia broke out in a wide and warm smile. Bringing his attention to the other change that’d occurred with her.

When he’d first met her, he’d thought she was on the tail end of transforming from girl to woman. Apparently he’d been right.

Claudia’s face had thinned out a hair since they started working in the dungeon. Other parts of her had filled out and shifted around as well as her body got used to physical activity.

She’d gone from just being below Sera, to suddenly being one of the most attractive women Nick had ever met.

Which made it hard for him since he really needed to keep his hands, and his eyes, off her. There was no future there that wouldn’t involve harming her in some way, or jeopardizing his goals.

Unfortunately, her infatuation with him had only grown after spending so much time with her. He knew that the longer he was around her, the deeper her puppy love would become.

It was an unfortunate situation, but not one he could solve or stop. Not without harming her, which he wasn’t willing to do.

Coming to a stop in front of him, she set the butt of her staff down onto the ground. Then leaned the head of it forward till it rested against the head of his poleaxe.

She wasn’t forward enough to come out and speak to how she felt, but she was going about it in the “flirting-not-flirting” way that some women did. Where a lot of men would miss what they were trying to suggest.

“Good morning,” she said to him, smiling at him. She held that for a couple seconds before she looked to Iris. “And good morning to you, Iris. I was able to— oh my god, are you okay?”

Partially starting, Nick looked to Iris as well to see what Claudia was talking about.

Iris looked perfectly normal as far as he could see. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Huh?” Iris asked, opening her eyes and looking to Claudia. “I’m fine. What’s up?”

“Your neck!” Claudia said and then held up her right hand, a spell of healing building in her palm. “Is that from yesterday? I didn’t realize one of the goblins had gotten to you! You should have told me.”

“Oh, no. This is from the guy I picked up at the bar last night,” Iris said, sitting upright now. Doing so hid her neck under the armored collar that was attached to her cuirsas. “I wanted him to.”

Claudia shook her head, looking annoyed. The spell went off and enveloped Iris, most likely removing the love bite Nick had left on her.

“You should treasure your body more, Iris,” chastised Claudia. “Some random man at a bar who would do such a thing to you doesn’t deserve you. You’re a good woman who deserves a good man.”

Iris frowned at that, her lower lip catching in her teeth. Then she sighed, shook her head, and stood up. Picking her helmet off the ground she pulled it down over her head.

“I wanted to get laid. Didn’t want an attachment,” said Iris. “Got what I wanted. I treasure myself fine. So, any good quests?”

“Yes!” said Claudia with a sudden and beautiful smile. “We get to challenge the sub-boss on floor five! Our average level is high enough that they allowed it. We’re good.

“I’m really looking forward to it! I hear it’s quite strong but for a trio that works well together, it shouldn’t be a problem. We’re the best three-way there is, I bet!”

Ha. Three-way.

I can barely handle one relationship without fucking it up. I can’t even imagine having more than one woman in life. Fuck that.

Sounds great on paper, unmanageable in reality.

At least for me.

Iris chortled at that from under her helmet. Apparently she had a similar thought to the one he did.

“Well, sounds like we have a job to do then,” said Iris who then picked up her shield from where it was laid nearby. Picking it up she strapped it to her arm, then grabbed the handle and flexed her gauntleted hand. “Sooner we finish today, the sooner I can have my days off. Nick said we weren’t working the weekend.”

“Oh! That’s true,” Claudia said excitedly, turning to look at Nick again. “Can we explore more of the city? Go see some things? Can we wander around and just… and just do stuff?”

“Uh, sure,” Nick said with a nod of his head.

“That sounds nice,” Iris murmured. “Maybe I’ll join you.”

“That’d be lovely!” said Claudia with a nod of her head. “Okay, that’s for later though. For now, it’s like Nick said. Battle-face. Get my head into the fight. Be ready.”

Claudia took in and let out several rapid and deep breaths. Then she gave herself a full body shake and nodded her head.

“Lets go!” she said.

***

Moving into the fifth floor Nick was actually feeling eager.

He had yet to fight the sub-boss and was looking forward to this. It was something he hadn’t actually done in Erica’s group. They’d been more interested in leveling than putting their lives on the line.

In retrospect, I guess their goal was to level up quickly and join the war effort, wasn’t it?

“Perhaps. You’d have to ask them when you see them next,” Lucian said. “And do be sure, Sire. You’ll see them again. This is their home-town after all.

“You should ask Erica to dinner when she comes back. It’ll be a good chance to clear the air and also announce your intentions as being more than just friends. Or at least, the possibility of it.”

Nick rolled his eyes, checked a sigh, and didn’t respond to Lucian.

He knew the Dragon was just concerned that the line would die out with Nick if something happened. Finding a partner to put a kid in right now seemed the least of his worries.

It wasn’t even the most pressing worries for the month, in fact.

“Nick, you done this?” Iris asked as they slowly walked down the narrow hall.

“No, what am I walking into?” he asked. “And what’s our strategy?”

“It’s actually simpler than most think,” Iris replied. “The group leader I was with when we did this called it a ‘gear check’.”

“Gear check?” Claudia repeated back.

“Yeah. You can actually escape this fight if you want to. Apparently that’s not the norm for sub-bosses and bosses in non-city dungeons,” Iris murmured. “If you don’t have the right gear, and can’t win, you can flee.

“And gear check just means you’re ready to continue. Its just a hobgoblin commander with two goblins with them. The goblins are normal and easy to kill out of hand. I just have to hold all three while you and Nick finish the goblins quick.”

Nodding his head to that, Nick was following along so far.

“That’s my gear check. If I can hold the commander for a time before the goblins are eliminated. My damage mitigation.

“Don’t cast any healing whatsoever during that period, Dia,” Iris continued. “He’ll instantly go for you if you do. Just focus on killing the goblins.”

“Alright. Is that the… damage… gear check in this? If Nick and I can kill the goblins fast enough?” asked Claudia, saying the very question Nick was about to ask.

“Exactly,” Iris said with a chuckle. “Once both goblins are dead, the commander will toss his shield away, and use his axe with both hands from there. He’ll hit at least three times as hard after that and with armor penetration.

“That’ll be your turn to be checked on your ability to heal. I’ll do what I can to stop, mitigate, or dodge the damage but… it’ll really be up to you.”

“I understand,” Claudia said, then made a soft ‘hm’ noise. “Rather odd, isn’t it? Such an elaborate thing just to see if we’re ready to move deeper in the dungeon. It’s almost like someone is setting the stage, so to speak, for us.”

“Yes,” Iris agreed, then said nothing more.

Nick, thankfully, had spoken with Erica and Lucian about this quite a bit and had a little insight into the dungeons.

“It’s the gods playing their games,” said Nick when it became obvious Iris wouldn’t say more. “They’re benevolent, but also mischievous and… bored. They like to watch. To watch the best stories unfold, they need people to move deeper into dungeons. That means giving them a chance to develop accordingly.

“They’re not picking avatars or any nonsense like that, but they’re most definitely watching. Most certainly enjoying the show and perhaps influencing things with blessings. Though I hear that’s all they can do. Beyond that, I know little for the reasons of dungeons.”

“My father said the city-dungeons were just dungeons that cities grew around and eventually tamed,” said Claudia, turning her head to look at Nick.

“That’s accurate,” Iris mumbled. “It’s true for other countries and nations as well. If you’re part of the controlling faction, you don’t get to go in. It’s one of the reasons I came here. I was an outcast without family or connections. I wouldn’t have been able to continue there. Not without subjecting myself to the whims of another.”

Ha.

She ended up doing that in the end anyways. So much for trying to escape that fate.

“With you, it’s timed, Sire. She likely would have joined a family permanently without the ability to exit,” countered Lucian. “Possibly as a concubine, slave, or family servant. She chose what she felt was best for her, then made mistakes, and is paying for them.”

“We’re here,” Iris said a second before they entered a larger chamber.

The floor was smooth and flat. Tiled, in fact.

The walls were polished and undamaged.

Above them a number of mage-lights hovered in the air, casting a great deal of light down into the area they were in.

In the center of the room was two goblins. Between them was a hobgoblin in plate armor wielding a shield an a large two handed axe, though it held it in one hand.

“Follow the plan, we’ll be fine,” Iris said. “After this, we’ll move to the next set of stairs and see about moving to the sixth or seventh floor today. That’ll be a good way to close out the week. Next time we’ll bring Ker when we know we can do it on our own.”

“Agreed,” Nick said and then lowered his poleaxe, pointing the head of it toward the goblin on the far left.

Then the ceiling collapsed, the hall behind them exploded, and the ground beneath their feet gave away. All three of them fell into the earth as the world around them seemingly imploded.

Nick had only a brief second, which was spent taking in a gasp of air, before he was swallowed up into the darkness and pulled down into the cold earth.