Dragon Mage 091 - Horrors Abound (Patreon)

374 days until the Arkon Shield falls

11 hours until Dungeon Purge

I whistled appreciatively at the horror’s rank. The strength of our foes was advancing rapidly with each encounter. Another thing to worry about. If this kept up, soon we’d face a Veteran creature champion. I didn’t relish the thought, particularly if we had to do it with low energy reserves.

“What a surprise,” Liyanda growled. “Another horror.” But despite her words, she sounded eager. “We can make some real money now.”

“If we can take it down,” Pierre retorted. He turned to Jain. “That lightning is going to make things difficult. What’s the plan?”

The rogue’s eyes flitted over the party before coming to rest on Cedric and me. “Send in the pets,” he ordered. “The rest of us will form up in the corridor and wait to see how the undead fare before entering ourselves.”

I nodded in agreement. It was the smart play. Moving up to the doorway, I braced myself on the left while Cedric occupied the right side. After the others positioned themselves behind us, I peered through the entrance and took in the room. Our foe was at the far end of the chamber, pacing up and down, arms waving erratically.

I turned to the death mage. “Ready?”

“Go,” he replied.

Picturing the horror witch in my mind, I reached through the weave connecting me to my pet and gave it its orders. “Kill.”

The creature lumbered into motion. I winced, seeing its shuffling steps. It was going to take the undead a considerable while to close with its prey.

Cedric’s pet moved faster.

Slipping past its bulkier companion, the undead rushed towards its designated target. The moment it crossed the threshold, the control ward dissipated and our foe spun about.

“Incoming!” Cedric shouted.

Jerking my head back from the doorway, I pressed up flat against the passage wall and sensed the rest of the group do the same.

A bolt of sizzling white light shot through the doorway and down the passage, electrocuting everything in its path. Thankfully, that didn’t include anyone from the party. Of those in the corridor, only my pet was struck. The bolt of charge seemed to harm the undead little, though, causing only a momentary hitch in its step.

Wondering how Cedric’s pet had fared, I peeked around the door. The second undead was wobbling but still closing in on our foe. I glanced at Cedric. His eyes were glazed over, and his face was scrunched up. He was piloting his pet directly now.

Another bolt arced across the room. Cedric threw his pet forward in a dive, and the lightning flashed past to strike harmlessly at one of the chamber’s walls. Picking itself up, the undead resumed its advance.

Our foe, meanwhile, had realized its danger and had started backing away, angling across the room. It kept its arms outstretched, though, and threw a steady stream of lightning bolts at the charging undead.

Most missed.

Under Cedric’s control, his pet wove an erratic path through the room. Each time it was struck, it tottered unsteadily, and sometimes fell, but always it picked itself up and resumed its relentless advance.

“What’s happening?” Jain called from further down the passage.

“Cedric’s pet is chasing down the horror,” I replied. “It will reach the witch soon.” I glanced at my own creature and grimaced. It had only just entered the room.

“Shouldn’t we help?” Liyanda yelled.

I shook my head. “No. Cedric’s pet is doing well enough. If we enter, we will only give the witch more targets.” Living flesh, I also suspected, would be more susceptible to the lightning than the undead. “Best we wait.”

Liyanda sighed.

“Let us know if anything changes,” Jain said.

I nodded and returned my attention to the battle unfolding in the room. Cedric’s pet and the horror witch were playing tag. The undead rushed through the room, trying to close with its foe, while the witch, not much slower itself, kept backing out of reach.

If not for the witch’s lightning, Cedric’s pet would have caught its prey before this, but each time our foe looked in danger of being caught, a bolt sizzled into the undead from close range, momentarily stunning the creature and allowing the witch to escape. The skirmish appeared a stalemate, and I could sense the others’ impatience behind me.

Then our foe made a mistake.

Harried by the fast-moving reanimated lesser horror, the witch all but forgot about the other undead ponderously advancing on it and literally fell into my pet’s arms.

“Hold!” I snapped through the weave connecting me to the undead. Obediently, my pet began closing its arms.

Feeling the unexpected resistance against its back, the witch compounded its initial error by spinning about to send lightning coursing into my pet from point-blank range.

The attack had no effect.

Realizing this, the creature whipped about and attempted to flee. But it was too late. Cedric’s pet had reached melee range and swiped at the witch with its clawed hands.

Fragile, exposed muscles shredded, and the creature staggered back into my pet’s waiting arms. The armored horror’s arms tightened, trapping the witch fast. Dashing forward, Cedric’s pet slashed at the ensnared creature again, ignoring the ceaseless bolts of lightning its foe discharged.

I smiled grimly. There was no need for the rest of the party to take a direct hand in the fight. The battle was all but won.

✽✽✽

You have gained in experience and are now a level 65 Trainee.

I grinned at the Trials message I received at the battle’s close. For all that the horror witch had been higher leveled, the fight had proven more straightforward than our first two encounters, and in the process, I’d gained three levels.

Understandably, the party was in high spirits. “What do you think we’ll encounter next?” Pierre asked idly as we strode into the chamber.

“Another horror,” Liyanda replied with a laugh.

I chuckled along with the others. However, the real question was not what horror we discovered next, but how many more of them awaited us.

Then there were the encounters themselves to worry about. The last one had been easy, true, but if not for the undead pets, things could have gone altogether differently. My gaze drifted to the two reanimated horrors.

Cedric’s pet was a shambling husk. The repeated lightning bolts had claimed a toll, and the creature was struggling just to stand. It would be of no further use to us, I judged. The armored horror was in better shape, but it was of less use in combat given its lack of speed.

What happens when Cedric runs out of scrolls?

It was a sobering thought, and the smile slipped off my face. Jain’s face had smoothened too, I saw. I suspected he was also pondering the future challenges that awaited us. The party drew to a stop before the horror witch’s corpse, and the rogue knelt down to retrieve its core.

“What do you use the champion cores for?” I asked abruptly.

The others’ mirth died, and a pregnant silence fell over the party. Rising slowly to his feet, Jain studied me for a drawn-out moment. “We can’t tell you,” he said at last.

“But you know what they’re for?” I probed.

“We do,” he answered bluntly.

I nodded and let the matter lie. I wasn’t ready to push the issue, and there was time yet to convince them to tell me what they knew. I gestured to the corpse. “What about that? Do we reanimate it?”

Cedric shook his head. “There’s little point to reviving magic users, especially those as physically weak as this one. As undead creatures, they don’t retain any of their magical abilities.”

“Ah,” I said in disappointment.

“Do we move on?” Pierre asked. His eyes glazed over for a second. “We have only ten hours remaining on the purge timer.”

Jain nodded. “We have to speed up from here on out, but at the same time, we have to conserve energy too.” He grimaced. “I know that is a contradiction, but we don’t know how many more of these horrors we will need to face.”

Liyanda shrugged. “Then let us not waste time chatting about it,” the big fighter said and strode towards the room’s exit, a door on the right wall.

✽✽✽

We dropped into formation as we slipped into the next corridor. As I’d guessed, Cedric was forced to abandon the reanimated lesser horror. It was a quivering mess and could barely manage more than a handful of steps.

Pierre retook point, and though we all felt the press of time, in the face of the dungeon’s predictability, we were more relaxed as we advanced down the fourth corridor.

It did not take long, however, for the dungeon to disabuse us of our complacency.

“Something’s wrong,” Pierre muttered, stopping abruptly.

Jain raised a hand, halting the rest of the party a few yards behind the ranger. “What is it?”

“I can’t find a trap,” Pierre replied. He paused. “I’m not even sure there is one.”

My brows furrowed. “There must be.”

The ranger shook his head. “I’ve gone over this stretch of corridor multiple times already, and I’m telling you there aren’t any.”

“Thank goodness!” Liyanda exclaimed. “The dungeon’s design has finally changed, and we’ve finally seen an end to those bloody traps.” She strode forward with a big grin on her face. “At least now we can make better time.”

I flung up my arm and pulled her back. “Not so fast.”

The fighter looked down at my hand in surprise. I met Jain’s gaze. “The dungeon’s pattern could also be changing for the worse.”

Jain nodded. “He’s right, Li. Maybe the traps are just better hidden now.”

“B-b-but,” she sputtered, “that would be unfair!”

No one responded to her, though we all had to be thinking the same thing: the Trials was never fair. My gaze flitted to my undead pet. “Let it take point,” I suggested.

Jain smiled. “That’s a good idea. Do it.”

Closing my eyes, I gave the creature its orders, and it strode forward, pushing past Pierre to take the lead. For a minute, the party watched in tense silence, but after the undead covered six yards with nothing ill befalling, we began to relax.

Too soon, it turned out.

The undead fell over a tripwire a step later, causing projectiles to burst out of the hidden murder holes on either side of the passage and pepper its body.

“Oops,” Liyanda said.

“How did I not see that?” Pierre asked, his face a picture of disgust.

“Is your pet alright?” Jain asked.

“I think so,” I replied, ordering it back up. The armored horror staggered upright. By all appearance, it was only lightly scratched.

“Keep it moving forward, then,” Jain said. He waved the others past the spent tripwire. “Let’s hope the undead lasts long enough to lead us to the next room,” he finished in a mutter.

✽✽✽

The fourth corridor turned out to be just as trapped as the previous ones. Only its traps were better concealed.

Pierre repeatedly tried to identify the hidden devices, but much to his frustration, he failed to uncover any of them. Eventually, Jain pulled him back and stopped him from further attempts—it was only slowing us down more—and had the reanimated dead lead the way.

The armored horror triggered trap after trap. Time and again, it was hit by deadweights, rammed into the walls, dropped into pits, and struck with countless projectiles.

Each time, it rose back to its feet and continued onwards.

Eventually, the door at the end of the passage appeared in sight, and the party’s spirits rose again. Our journey through the corridor was almost over. Twenty yards from the door, the armored horror triggered another trap.

This one proved its undoing.

Stepping onto a seemingly firm patch of ground, the undead plummeted through a dark hole. The threads of mana joining my pet to me stretched then finally snapped.

You have lost control of a level 120 reanimated armored horror.

“It’s gone,” I breathed. Venturing to the edge of the revealed pit, I peered down. Even with night vision, I couldn’t see the bottom of the hole.

“That’s just great,” Cedric muttered as the others drew up alongside me. The hole, while seemingly endless, did not extend the width of the corridor. It stopped short of both walls, and even I could cross without too much trouble. That was not what was concerning everyone, though.

It was the twenty yards that still remained between us and the door that had everyone in knots.

“Now what?” Liyanda asked.

No one answered.

I studied the corridor ahead. It looked innocuous enough and the door achingly close, but the twenty yards might as well have been a hundred. The passage’s exit was just as much out of reach.

There must be at least one more trap, I thought. If not more. Turning to the others, I could see the same realization on their faces.

“I’ll take point,” I said abruptly.

The others looked at me in surprise, and Liyanda chuckled. “You? Not a chance. Those traps chew you up and spit you out in seconds. I’ll do it.”

I shook my head. “I’ve more tricks up my sleeves than you’ve seen yet. The traps won’t touch me,” I promised.

Jain stared at me, his face expressionless. “Explain.”

“I have an ability that will shield me from damage for a short duration. It should be sufficient to get me past this stretch of passage and trigger every trap along the way.”

“You’re sure?” he asked.

No, I wasn’t sure. Invincible would certainly not stop me from being trapped in a hole like the one my pet had just fallen into, but I had to hope there were no more pits ahead. And besides, I knew that my companions had even less chance of making it across alive than I did.

But I refrained from voicing any of that. “I am,” I said simply.

“All right, go ahead then,” Jain said.

Bracing myself against the corridor’s left wall, I stepped gingerly past the pit at my feet and activated invincible.

Then I strode down the corridor.