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

It faded back into the darkened room as the group moved to form a defensive half circle. Hans, Dale, and Tom stood with their backs to Adam and Rose, who in turn stood against a wall. Dale began calling out orders, telling everyone to begin using their Essence viewing abilities. Unfortunately, the darkness in the room was created by Essence, so this vision could not penetrate the inky darkness. Rose pulled an arrow halfway back, squinting into the shadows and preparing herself. Adam looked around, trying to find any way to help. He looked to the heavens as he prayed, and an idea wriggled into his brain.

The Cat decided to end this farce of a battle and used a potent ability, a powerful sonic wail. The maw on each tentacle opened wide and shattered the still air with a pandemonium of noise. The roar was quadra-tonal, each maw having a slight variation of sound. Laced with infernal energy - the source of darkness itself - the noise hit the group as a physical blow, stunning them and paralyzing their muscles as the Cat charged in for the kill. Dale could feel the death of his new friends approaching, but could not struggle away from the bonds the sonic wail had imposed on his mind and body.

Dale's mind went into overdrive, the word ‘bonds’ had triggered a memory. The Cat appeared out of the darkness, now sauntering toward his helpless victims. Dale forced himself to reach out to the pendant he was wearing, infusing it with Essence. A ripple of golden light whooshed out of the pendant, destroying the infernal bonds placed on him. Dale leapt at the startled cat, swinging his Morningstar at its head. A tentacle blurred, moving in to catch the blow, shattering the glass vial and dumping the contents onto the massive Cat.

As the liquid poured across the front of the Distortion Cat's body, light began to glimmer on it, increasing to a brilliant shine. At the same time, the liquid that had made its way onto the fur and skin of the Beast began melting anything it touched. The Cat howled and bounded back into the darkness, though it's shining form and loud hissing gave its position away. The effect of the sonic wail ended, the rest of the group was able to spring into action. Rose began firing arrows as fast as she could line up the shots, Tom, Dale and Hans charged the shining Beast, and Adam started an incantation.

Incantations are the verbal form of releasing Essence or Mana. Using an incantation tended to be frowned upon if a Rune was available because it permanently used up a person's Essence for an instant, single use effect on the world. This allowed cultivators to shape their Essence or Mana - aided by hand gestures or movement - into the form they needed at that moment.

Incantations were especially powerful because they used all of the Essence provided in a single, massive burst. The Mages who had opened the portal recently had used incantations to quickly and evenly distribute power to the Runes inscribed on the portal obelisks, for instance. Heedless of the battle continuing, Adam carefully added his Essence to the spell forming from his words and actions.

The Cat was too agile to hit easily, each blow of Dale's Morningstar or Toms Warhammer easily dodged while the tentacles smacked arrows out of the air. Hans stopped moving, concentrated for a second and seemed to vanish into the darkness as he took a single step backward. He moved as quickly as the wind, hovering over the floor by a quarter inch. He suddenly shot high into the air and dove down, timing his attack for when the Cat was dodging a series of blows from the other fighters. The Cat moved too quickly and while he was unable to land a killing blow; he did manage to stab his daggers into the Cat’s flanks and activate the Inscriptions, injecting poison deep into the wounds.

The Cat whipped around and focused entirely on Hans for a moment. Three tentacles slammed into his torso while the other dropped to the ground and provided stability for the attack. Hans braced himself as best he was able, crossing his arms in front of his face as the attack landed. Now flying through the air for entirely different reasons, he felt both of his arms break at odd angles and something inside him ruptured as his torso was impacted. He collided heavily with the wall and fell on his face awkwardly, unable to arrest his fall with his unresponsive limbs.

Tom landed his attack for the first time in the battle, crushing the tentacle that was providing stability to the massive Beast. The tentacle vanished in a gout of black blood, being ripped by the roots from the body of the Cat. Screaming, the Cat turned on him lashing out with its paws. The only thing that saved Tom from having the arteries of his neck severed was the acid which had destroyed two of the malice filled eyes and reduced its depth perception. The sharp claws tore open Toms’ chest, spraying the area with red blood over the black. Tom fought on, doing his best to ignore the potentially fatal wound.

Several arrows had found their mark and a second tentacle now hung limp, connected to the body only by a scrap of flesh. Dale swung at the main body of the Cat, dealing some small damage but not enough to seriously hurt the Cat. The spikes only penetrated half an inch; its thick fur and tough, leathery hide underneath protected the Cat from real harm. The glow on the cat was beginning to lessen, so it took an opportunity to vanish back into the shadows, a now-soft glow the only indication of its position. It charged at the wounded Tom, when Adam finally finished his incantation.

Adam held up his staff, celestial Essence pouring from the topaz in the top like a sieve, as his face grew far too pale. A beam of light shot upward, entering the celestial quartz far overhead. With this sudden influx of Essence, the Quartz above glowed stronger, flooding the Inscriptions with Essence which rebounded the energy downward, greatly extending the power and range of the Runescript placed upon it. The Runes, similar to the pendant Dale wore, tore through the veil of darkness below, dissipating it all at once. The Cat - which had leapt at Tom - was smashed to the floor by the massive pressure of the celestial Essence, while the others took a deep breath with feelings of hope filling them.

Tom did not waste the moment and swung down at the prone Distortion Cat, landing a blow even as it twisted away. The massive force behind the hammer shattered the spine of the Beast just beyond its back legs, rendering them useless. It roared and used the remaining tentacles as legs, dragging itself into the brilliant light - vanishing entirely. It appeared again a few feet away, running this time at Adam who had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Rose stepped in front of his fallen form, firing arrows wildly at the Beast charging her, but every attack seemed to either miss it or move right through its body without causing damage.

Rose screamed in frustration and terror as a tentacle raced toward her, tossing her aside with bone shattering force. It mauled Adam, vengefully tearing open his legs with vicious attacks. Dale and Tom reached the cat, simultaneously swinging at it. Both missed, though the Warhammer continued on and clipped the real form of the Cat, launching it away with a yowl. A lightly glowing silhouette was visible, though the illusion in front of them didn’t move. Tom took another step after the Cat, but stumbled and fell to the floor, too weak from blood loss to continue. His hammer clattered to the floor as he fell unconscious.

Dale grabbed the Warhammer and nearly fell over trying to lift it. “Right,” he thought, “It is bound to Tom.” Dropping the hammer, he raced after the Cat, viciously swinging his weapon into its acid eaten torso. With contemptuous ease, the Cat sent him flying in the same manner as Hans had before.