Dakota Krout - Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon Book 1)

Now illuminated, it was obvious that that giant mobile boulder was actually a Mob, so he wasted no more time, charging directly at them. I was nearly screaming with excitement as battle was joined! I had direct control of my Boss, my mind merged with Raile’s simplistic thoughts, so I was able to better control how this battle would progress. Josh boldly moved to block the charge at first, but a yell from Craig forced him to dodge at the last second.

Now, I had a lot of momentum. Raile was a big ol’ boy, so when I missed I couldn’t exactly turn him on a copper. Crashing into the wall with the grinding of stone, I quickly redirected my Boss to spring back to the attack. For a several hundred-pound stone covered rabbit, I still moved pretty quickly. Instead of sprinting this time, I ran at them and leapt; gaining momentum and covering distance as only a rabbit could do. Plunging down like a meteorite intent on the extermination of all life, a shockwave shook the ground, knocking the armored members of the team off balance. The lightly armored men sprang into action to distract me whilst their comrades regained their footing.

Hans ran at my Boss, trying to wedge his daggers into the joints of my armor, but with a satisfying shattering of metal the wedged daggers broke off as Raile moved, shaking off the weak attack easily. Ignoring the lone fighter, I began racing toward the off balanced team members; Josh had no choice but to attempt blocking with his massive shield. He plunged the arrowhead-shaped base into the ground, leaned into it, and braced himself with a roar of challenge!

Raile pounded the shield with a mighty blow, and it almost held. Sparking with released Essence, the obviously enchanted shield was able to redirect some of the force back at Raile, slowing his charge and doing a bit of damage, before the previously dented area gave way. A flash of lightning-like Essence joined into the cacophony of sound when the metal plate shattered, Josh being thrown backward as his defenses were annihilated.

Raile was effectively stopped for a heartbeat, with his momentary halt the others took the chance to rain blows on him. The blunt staff and spiked Morningstar were whooshing through the air and dealing some damage, cracking the granite armor and transmitting force to the flesh beneath. The single dagger Hans retained simply glanced off the armor, as was intended, a useless tool in a fight like this. I laughed when Craig punched bare-knuckled at Raile, sure he would break his fist. My laughter was rudely cut off as the punch shattered the armor in a fist-sized area and he struck Raile’s shoulder, breaking that too.

I exclaimed in wonder.

Raile started moving again, limping a bit but still very dangerous. Charging Dale, I was able to land a glancing blow to his oversized armor as he danced out of the way. Even this light hit made him fly to the ground; I heard a crunch from his ribs. The others ran at Raile, attempting to keep his attention as Dale recovered, but I. Sensed. Blood! I turned and got Dale in my sights and started charging. A few feet away, Raile slowed drastically, I could no longer see out of his left eye.

Raile crashed to the ground twitching, I was confused, still trying to order him to attack. Though he tried as hard as he could, he could not follow my command. Raile soon stopped moving entirely. I changed my view to get a better picture of things, no longer looking from his eyes, noticing feathers where Raile’s eye had been. Ah. An arrow had somehow made an impossible shot, piercing Raile’s eye and brain. With a furious mutter I dropped some loot. It had been a good, enlightening fight. I’d get them eventually.

I rained quite a bit of silver, the steel dagger I had been working on with the Honing Inscription, and a steel helmet with an Inscription that boosted the protection granted against physical attacks. Also, as I absorbed Raile’s pattern for the first time I learned that the ability he had was called ‘Avenger’. I was a bit disappointed that I could not understand what it did, but it apparently held some requirement in order to be used.

“Dibs.” Hans called, pointing at the dagger. Steve collected the silver, while Josh tried on the new helmet. Dale was sitting against the wall, wheezing a bit, but breathing easier than I felt he should be with broken ribs. Grr. He wasn’t even coughing up blood or anything !

“Let’s take a look at you, shall we?” Craig pulled off Dale’s armor, I really wished I had a Mob in here for a sneak attack. No, no. I had to be a good sport about these sorts of things, they beat me fair and square; I didn’t want to be a sore loser. Craig pushed on the bones that were broken, aligning them with his Essence while Dale gasped in pain at the movement.

“Drink this.” Craig put a recently acquired healing potion to Dale’s lips and within a few moments after drinking Dale was breathing easier. “That is higher quality than I thought it would be.” Craig muttered. Of course it was! I had pride in what I produced, after all. I’m not some snake-oil peddling herbologist! The original potion had indeed been barely potent, but I was able to make a much purer version when I had the pattern. While they were otherwise distracted, I ate the broken tower shield, then the remnants of the light potion. I had a chuckle at the strangled cry Josh made when he realized the halves of his old shield were gone.

“Damn it! I was still paying that off!” Josh raged, pounding the rock where his shield had been laying the last time he saw it.

They cultivated for a while, a cloud of swearing constantly flowing from Josh, then decided to head back. Another group was in the second tunnel of this floor, and my attention was now mostly on them. Surprising me, they had managed to take out a few squads without sustaining too much injury. They broke the leg of a Smasher, so instead of letting them finish him off I had it jump into an acid trap on the wall, killing it, but also releasing a flood of acid that drenched all but one of the small group.

Screaming as their flesh boiled, melting in their armor, the remaining squad quickly ended them. Since he was distracted by the horror he was witnessing, a horn found the soft flesh of the one who had managed to avoid the spray. By the time Dale’s group reached that point in the tunnel, all that remained was a series of acid scarring on the rock below, which I would soon fix. Dale’s group never even noticed the recent demise, too focused on warning the other groups they found along their way, which I growled at.

I pouted, angry that they were always one step ahead of me.

Dani suggested an easy solution, “How about we make an exit to the surface from the Boss room? Easier for them to leave, and better for us to get them out of here so they can’t tell people about new obstacles.”

I questioned. Because of the concentration of people above, the mass of auras made it really hard for me to extend upward at all, to the point where we had decided it was a futile effort.

“If we make it below ground and just push it upward... Somewhere there isn’t really a strong concentration of people, it should be doable? I’ll go look for a suitable place tonight, ok?” Dani promised me as I calmed down and thought about it.

I slowly agreed, not really wanting her to go anywhere dangerous.

Returning my attention to the people moving in my dungeon, I started picking off groups with my well placed traps. None of the groups that came down into the second level were above F-rank, so were easy pickings for my squads of mid F-ranked Bashers. Beyond Dale’s group, only one other returned without casualties, even then only because they left after the first fight they had with a squad. The other, cocky F-ranked groups provided me with enough Essence in one day for me to move into the second rank of the D-series.