Chapter 291: The Delve

Alex focused his mind, pouring his mana into Summon Small Water Elemental spells while the expedition readied themselves at the bases of the dungeons’ hills.

He’d already summoned Bubbles—conjuring the little creature by using the elemental’s name—then kept summoning more water elementals until he’d called four in total. Next, he summoned a fire elemental beetle swarm, then took stock of the creatures before him, concluding that they’d be enough for the time being. He then began regenerating his mana, it might be a pretty mana intensive day.

His summoned monsters would be accompanying his team, but there were a host of summoned monsters that other wizards had conjured who’d be going into the dungeons ahead of the strike force. Wizards who’d chosen to stay outside but were capable of summoning, had been tasked with calling a small army of demons, spirits and elementals. The creatures were assembled at the bottom of the dungeons’ hills, all set to go while their summoners gave them last minute instructions, showing them maps and illusions displaying the targets they were assigned to hit.

“Remember,” Watcher Shaw said. “Summons won’t last forever, so make sure they take the quickest routes to their targets. We don’t want them disappearing back to their home planes because time runs out. And for you sentries, keep watching those holes. We also don’t want any surprises while we’re waiting.”

His sharp eyes scanned the hills, and so far, none of the enemy had appeared to attack them.

“Likely they want us down in their lair. It’d be better for them if they can get us fighting on their terrain. But, we’ve got surprises of our own for the bastards. Watch the illusions,” Watcher Shaw said. “As soon as all the summons start the attack, we go down. Our priority are those two dungeon cores. We’ve got to break ‘em as soon as we can so they can’t warp the terrain or make reinforcements. If there’s a commander? Gut ‘em like a fish, then clear out stragglers like we’re crushing monsters in The Barrens. After that, it’s clean up time and time to divide the spoils. Everyone got that?” He asked.

Murmurs of agreement went through the expedition.

Alex took a quick look at his team.

Grimloch had just finished cleaning chitterer remains off the spikes on his maul and was slinging the weapon over his shoulder. Thundar had recast Lead Blows on his mace, and also cast several defensive, body strengthening and agility enhancing magics. Khalik was casting earth armour on himself, or what looked like a higher tier version of the spell. Isolde’s defensive spells had been recast, and Svenia and Hogarth were busy checking their weapons. Theresa had her blades drawn, she’d resettled her armour on her shoulders and Brutus was busy sniffing the air ahead, his long necks stretched forward.

Meikara checked her equipment, preparing for any healing she might be called to do. She looked strained from healing the injured earlier, but said she could handle whatever came. Cedric had shifted his weapon through various shapes before settling on his trusty spear.

And Claygon?

Claygon was always ready, no preparations necessary.

As a second thought, Alex had retrieved his lasso, cleaned and untied it and had it ready to use in a few different ways he’d come up with.

“Everyone ready?” he asked.

His team nodded, looking at each other supportively, but before they could say anything.

“Send the summons in!” Watcher Shaw cried.

The summoned monsters swarmed toward the tunnels, pouring into the passageways.

Alex took a deep breath and began watching the illusions displaying the interior of the tunnels. As the summoned monsters advanced down into them, they appeared in the illusions. They were concentrated in dense groups, quickly making their way to the chitterers and blood-draks huddled within tunnels.

And they greeted the Ravener-spawn with violence.

Extreme violence.

Demons ripped into the enemy while elementals blasted them with fire, lightning and stone. Blood-draks sprayed their diseased blood onto onrushing demons, but the immortal creatures just kept charging, shaking away hardening blood like rainwater off a dog’s fur.

Soon, groups of the dungeon core’s hostile creatures were engaged throughout both dungeons, while wizard’s dispatched summoned monsters to the barriers made of chitterer bodies to break them down. Ravener-spawn attacked, sending some back to their home planes with vicious strikes, but the remaining summoned creatures did their work. Soon, the barriers were broken, clearing the way for the strike teams.

Alex took a deep breath. “Here we go.”

“Forward!” Watcher Shaw barked. “Get to those dungeon cores and break them into sand!”

The teams moved.

Alex’s group mounted the hill at speed, heading toward one of the largest chitterer tunnels: they’d need the room to accommodate the hulking Grimloch, Brutus, Thundar and Claygon.

“Best thing to do in a dungeon,” Cedric said as he marched forward. “Is move as brisk as ya can, but not like you’re bein’ chased or anythin’ of the like. You move too fast and you’ll be blind ta anythin’ nasty waitin’ in the shadows for ya. But you don’t want to stay put in a dungeon either. Remember, dungeon cores take awhile to make big changes to their lairs, but they can make thin walls an’ such pretty quick if they’re pressed. You stay too long in one spot, and they’ll box you up and leave you right there ta’ die. S’reason why Chosens and Champions get so much strength from their Marks: Hart can bust through thin stone by hisself, an’ I can do it too if I combine magic or divinity with good ol’ muscle power.”

“We got that covered,” Grimloch said matter-of-factly, gripping his hammer. “I’ve broken stone before.”

Crnch.

Claygon’s foot crushed the body of a chitterer as they ran up the hill, almost like he was punctuating the statement.

“Aye, I suppose you’ve no problems with that,” Cedric said, not doubting the sharkman’s words for a minute.

Alex nodded. He remembered the dungeon core in the Cave of the Traveller raising walls and changing stone. Not for the first time, he thanked the Traveller that that dungeon core had been nearly drained of mana.

If it hadn’t been, he knew he wouldn’t be here climbing the hill he was on.

When they’d made it out of the Traveller’s Cave, he never thought he and Theresa would be willingly heading into another one. But, here they were again, like some crazy deja vu.

He glanced at Theresa, who brandished her swords and nodded at him.

“Here we go,” she mouthed, with a look of confidence on her face.

He nodded back. Things were different now than back then: in the Cave of the Traveller, Alex had only known one spell, he’d been as skinny as a rake and Selina had been with them. Their only real defences had been Brutus, Theresa, his forceball, and their wits.

Now?

He looked at this team again as they reached the dungeon.

Cedric—a temporary member—was the first to enter the tunnel, his spear ready and with divinity blazing around his hands. The Chosen of Uldar was their vanguard, ready to face anything coming from the front. He was followed by the two experienced warriors, Svenia and Hogarth, with their halberds pointed forward, well-equipped to cut down anything trying to get past Cedric.

The cabal was next.

Looming Thundar, filled with physical and magical power. His enchanted mace was gripped in one hand and a force shield hovered beside him. The formidable Prince Khalik covered in earth armour strode beside him, the armour was polished and sparkled like fine quartz; he’d grown stone spikes on the arms and shoulders of it.  Najyah flew above the prince, powerful and experienced in fighting any threat they’d ever encountered in Generasi. Isolde had her electric blue force shield hovering beside her, and her poniard in hand. She held no other weapons, but Alex could feel the mana coming from her, tinged with the electricity of her favourite spells.

Brutus licked his chops while his master stalked beside him, as silent as death. Between them Alex strode—broad shouldered and strong—surrounded by his Wizard’s Hands, elemental beetle swarm, and his water elementals following close behind like a small watery army.

Within each one floated a bubble of booby-trapped sleep potion, ready for use. Meikara came next, prepared to protect the wizards with her own magic and provide her healing as needed. Healing from Cedric at the front, and from her in the middle.

And to guard the rear? Their heavy hitters.

Claygon and Grimloch, their massive shadows melded with the darkness as the two giants entered the tunnel.

Their team, with all its strengths, was something to be proud of.

Alex took a deep breath, filling his chest with air and pride.

Today was a lot different from the first time he and Theresa had entered a dungeon.

A hell of a lot different.

“Lights!” Isolde said.

The forceballs and other light spells sprang to life. The caves ahead brightened from many-hued magics, replacing the dark with a rainbow of light. Alex placed sleep potions into a pair of his Wizard’s Hands then sent them shooting forward to hover over walls, ceilings and floors, seeking any traps or secret tunnels hidden in the passageway ahead.

Soon, the sound of wind blowing outside faded, replaced by the echo of the team’s footsteps walking through the multi-coloured light of their magic, and the sounds of battle coming from all around. Summoned monsters and other teams were fighting Ravener-spawn in other tunnels.

“What’s the map say?” Thundar asked.

Alex glanced at the map—in his Wizard’s Hands—while keeping an eye on the tunnel ahead. “Looks like forward for a hundred steps, then right at a fork, then we slope into a curving tunnel that goes straight down. Another hundred paces then left at a crossroads. There’ll be secret passages on either side of the next tunnel, about a hundred paces down. And then—”

Rmmmmble.

The stone around them suddenly shook, dislodging bits of rock and dust from the ceiling.

“Ohohoho!” Cedric cried. “Looks like the little black ball’s gettin’ grouchy already!”

“Then let us keep moving,” Khalik said. “I am eager to meet it.”

“Well, keep moving and we’ll be meeting it soon enough,” Alex said, glancing back at Grimloch. “Hey, big guy, you think you can smash open those hidden passages when we get to them? I’ll have Claygon blast fire-beams down them when you crack them open. If anything’s waiting for us, they’ll be the ones getting the nasty surprise.”

“Will do,” Grimloch said, brandishing his hammer.

They stalked through the tunnel, and reached the corner.

“Power up those fire-gems, Claygon,” Alex said.

Whooooooooom!

Red light grew within the cave.

Everyone went quiet as they reached the hidden passages; they passed them cautiously, until Grimloch and Claygon were between them.

Grimloch lifted his weapon.

Whish! Whish!

He struck twice with his maul.

Crash! Crash!

The thin passage walls exploded; unpleasant chittering noises filled the air. Hordes of monsters were packed into each secret passageway, freezing when suddenly revealed.

Some rush forward.

Whoooooosh!

Booom!

But, explosions filled the passages as Claygon’s flame ripped through lines of chitterers, turning hordes of Ravener-spawn into floating ash within heartbeats.

Alex shuddered at the heat, imagining what that smell must have been like. Smoke billowed high in the air, monster cries died in instants as the team’s Orbs of Air wicked the smoke cloud away.

“Two down!” Alex cried. “Let’s keep moving.”

They move forward, even more alert than before, eyes raking all sides of the tunnels. Wizard’s Eyes had found a lot of secret passages down there, but probably  not all. Tension moved with them like a cloak. They pressed on, stepping through a cleared barrier of dead chitterers, then passing strewn corpses of a pack of newly mangled ones the summoned monsters had cleaned out. They’d been torn apart with extreme prejudice.

Cedric stabbed each body he came to.

“Watch yerselves,” the Chosen said, thrusting downward with his spear. “Sometimes they play dead, so we might wanna skewer ‘em just in case.”

If anyone was squeamish about doing so, no one said. They were too busy watching their flanks…stabbing chitterer corpses, and keeping alert until they came to the crossroads.

“Left here,” Alex said, and the team turned. “We go for another fifty paces ‘til we come to another fork. It’ll right there, and then things—”

Rmmmmble.

The dungeon shook even harder.

A horrific scream rang through the tunnels, seeming to echo from every stone.

The team paused, scanning the ceiling and every other direction.

“Aye, that’d be the commander,” Cedric said. “Either we’re gettin’ close, or maybe another team is.”

“We should push harder,” Theresa said. “But cautiously.”

“Slow is smooth,” Khalik said, quoting an expression often used in his Kingdom’s army. “And smooth is fast.”

Slowly and smoothly, they kept pushing into the dungeon. As they moved forward, wreckage of dead chitterers were piling up in the tunnel like debris. Alex remembered the silence-spiders Cedric had obliterated outside the Cave of the Traveller.

“Stop!” Theresa shouted, cocking her head to one side. “I hear chitterers...it sounds like there’s two groups of ‘em. One’s coming from up ahead and the other’s behind us.”

Seconds later, loud chittering confirmed what Theresa had just said. The monsters were coming at them from two sides. There was also a strange clanking and clashing noise as if a smithy had sprouted legs and was coming for them too.

“Whatever’s making that sound,” Alex said. “Focus all your spells on the front, Claygon’ll take care of anything behind.”

“Agreed,” Isolde said.

Cedric gave them a puzzled look. “Right then.” He extended his spear in front of them. “If you wanna wait, then let ‘em come.”

Alex heard a note of disapproval in the Chosen’s voice, but before he could say anything, Theresa suddenly swore.

“Damnit, everyone, look alive,” she said, closely examining the wall to the right. She swore again then moved to the other wall. “No wonder they came at us now. There’s hidden passages on all sides. They’ve got us caged in.”

Alex’s mind flashed back to the Cave of the Traveller and how the worker spider swarm had come up from tunnels hidden beneath the floor tiles.

He looked at his team.

But that was then. Things were far different now.

Alex cracked his knuckles. “Maybe they think closing a hand around a piece of glass is a good idea..they’re going to regret that.”