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Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

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Despite any initial hesitations on her comrades parts to receive her healing spells, Estellise finished her work with a contented smile on her face. But this soon dampened at Sergei's words. He had corrected himself to simply compliment her but she was not so ignorant to not know what he had initially meant. She was very kind and thoughtful for a mage. And it was a sad truth. Seldom few mages would be traveling with this group, let alone using magical energy to treat simple wounds to ensure the progress into the dungeon went smoothly. Regardless, the Fereis wouldn't let her smile fade completely as she hadn't been personally hurt by his words, just call to reflection on the way of the mage families.

"Really, it is nothing all that special." Estelle assured with a laugh at Lana's awe over the healing magic. She meant for this too to play down Sergei's compliment as she felt this to be a basic standard of human decency given her abilities. "Magic can do much more incredible things than patching scrapes and lighting hallways if one has studied enough." the Fereis added without commenting how far her own study had taken her so far. But for the moment, these simple tasks were much more immediately helpful and so she turned to Chris who had returned from scouting ahead. Sergei issued a quick scolding, eliminating the need for Estelle to do so as well. The woman stepped forward, magic already glowing from her hands again, to help the group identify whatever it was Chris had found.

"Be careful not to look directly at these, given how our eyes are adapting to the dark." she offered as a gentle warning. From her hands sprang forth four orbs of light, smaller than the ones she had sent off to light the long hallways before. With a wave of her hands, one orb drifted slowly to each member of the group, finding a spot at about eye level but behind their left shoulder to help light the way forward. They would keep to this position were not snappy in their movements, lazily drifting after the intended member, hence the warning to not look directly into them.

"Now then, Chris. Let us go investigate the thing you have found." she declared with some confidence.

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The light, as they are wont to do, illuminated the area as Estellise cast her spell. The glow, a more pure, white, light compared to torches, dispelled the darkness without the flickering shadows that most of them are used to with less magical means.

Without the distraction of rats they could more easily examine their surroundings. The stone was dark and unusually smooth compared to most caves. It didn't seem to be natural yet at the same time there weren't signs of it having been tunneled out.

Down to the left the light now revealed the dark patch that Chris had seen before. Seeing it now it was clear it was a perfectly cut square hole in the ground. So perfectly that the edges seemed almost jagged. As though if one were to touch it they'd come back with a cut on their hand.

Several inches below they could see the first of several stairs, rectangular, with more rounded and worn edges, and a lighter color stone than the rest of the tunnel. Presumably this would lead them to the second floor of the Dungeon.

Though now that the light was shining the creatures lurking in the darkness of the other tunnel began to stir. Three more rats, with beady, hungry, eyes stood in a row a couple dozen feet from the nearest source of light. They didn't move right away but seemed to be recovering from the sudden flash of light. Soon, however, they would start forward towards the group.

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Lana was still in awe of the girls magical talents, as well as the magic itself, as the entire dungeon seemed to light up. Looking around, seeing the light follow wherever she looked. The girl was definitely envious of the noble's magic, even more when she mentioned how much more could be done then just this stuff. But the girl as well wasn't particularly great at studying, nor did she even know where she would study how to start using magic to begin with. So, she resigned herself to envy as the group made their way through the dungeon. 

Eventually, they have came to the end of the tunnel they had been following, seeming to lead into a staircase that would lead them further in. A very neutral tone, Lana simply blurted out, "huh. We did it." They had managed to already get to the end of one of however many floors they were at. In her own case, she had said 20, so they were one twentieth of the way to their goal. Getting ready to go down the stairs, the girl stopped and slowly turned around as she heard the familiar noises of the beasts from before. Turning around, and letting out a, "guh..." as she saw her foe, she muttered, "rats." 

With the exit right there, the girl didn't want to be chased by rats down stairs and certainly thought it'd be about as dangerous as playing on the stairs. And so, resolved to make it to the second floor, rat free, Lana a bit behind the group - in between them and the rats - and readied her greataxe, waiting for one of the rats to charge to kill it with a hefty swing of her weapon. 

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Chris didn’t really know what he had been expecting when Estellise’s light shone over that mysterious black patch but, yeah, the way down probably should have been near the top of his list. In fairness, his mind had been otherwise occupied by Sergei trying to tell him what to do, and not in a tactical way. “You can’t just go running off ahead,” he’d said like it wasn’t Chris’ job to run around unfamiliar places with a cautious eye. He hadn’t gotten hurt before and he wasn’t about to start now.

Or more hurt than normal, anyway. Estellise had already spent time fixing the rest of the party up and while he’d managed to escape injury so far (despite being covered in blood) he wasn’t so prideful that he thought he was going to completely avoid any nicks or scrapes.

Then he heard it. It was Lana who sent the call out, actually, but he could hear their noise even above her. More rats, and when he turned around he saw how many. Well, three started to feel like an “only” sort of number now. Like, if all the rats they’d seen this floor had decided to group up, then they’d have been in big trouble, but especially after they’d all recuperated a little, it didn’t seem so bad.

With the rats approaching so cautiously, Lana had the right idea, Chris thought. He slowly made his way to the new front of the group and waited, weapon drawn and ready, for the inevitable charge.

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"Let's do this again." Sergei rolled his shoulders, preparing himself for the battle with the new combatants. It seemed that the party had learned from their last fight. Lana and Chris readied their weapons, taking point at the front of the party. Typically, Sergei would have stood in front of them to intercept the claws and fangs of the cautiously approaching rats, but he was growing a bit impatient. Instead of casting his durability spell, Sergei muttered a quick incantation to increase his speed and reflexes. The familiar green glow of the tattoos across his body briefly illuminated his figure. 

Sergei waited until the rats were just a few feet outside of Lana and Chris' range before charging in. He moved past his teammates, a blur followed lazily by the light that Estellise had cast at his shoulder. With a battle cry, Sergei dashed towards the rat on his right, trying to avoid a flanking situation by keeping the wall of the cavern at his back. He reached to grab the rat's skull with a firm grip and smash it into the hard stone of the cavern as many times as it would take to keep it from moving. 

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Sergei managed to reach one of the rats before they decided to pounce on the group. The creature let out a hissing noise as its head was grabbed. A noise that didn't last long as the beast's skull was crushed against the wall of the tunnel. It took several hits but the rat soon stopped moving as Sergei felt warm blood leaking down his fingers.

The other two, startled by the movement, recklessly advanced towards the rest of the group. Ignoring the large man who had grabbed one of their fellows.

The first, somewhat faster, rat made a beeline straight towards Chris. It didn't waste much time and as the rat got near it leapt up in order to sink its fangs in Chris's face. Bringing with it a rather heavy body that would be in position to slam into him were the main attack fail.

The further one darted to the side and got in range of Lana's axe. As the rat was focused on biting her, without even the smallest instinct to avoid the incoming weapon, she managed to bring her axe down on the beast's skull without much of a fuss.

Spoiler

So once this is all cleared up feel free to post in a sort of transitional period but most likely when all the rats are gone I'll just move down to next floor within a couple days of that unless someone really wants to post before I do that.

 

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The plan worked perfectly, or, well, parts of it did, anyway. The part that worked was the actual reaction. Chris felt the impact of the rat hitting the point of his readied sword, which then did what any pointed object was meant to do in a situation like that. But -- and this was a big but -- the impact didn’t stop there. A rodent of that size moving through the air wasn’t about to stop moving so simply.

He had to let go of his sword again. Just like last time, it had been an effective hit, but not a critical one, and the rat was still very much alive when it crashed into Chris, sending the two to the ground.

The rat snarled and gnashed its teeth, aiming for Chris’ neck, and without his sword, it was all Chris could do to, well, keep that from happening. His hands were wrapped around the rat’s neck and he was pushing away, but it was still getting closer with each effort.

“Uh, guys? Help?”

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Estellise had been relieved to see the stairs come into view as the group progressed. They were making quick progress and she was excited for their prospects to go down fairly deep today. Of course, nothing was ever quite so peaceful in The Dungeon and so three more rats quickly came into view. The sudden lights seemed to stun them for a moment before they jumped into action. Her companions all ahead of her, Estelle readied herself to support them as needed. It wouldn't do to put herself on the front line. Sergei and Lana both were quick to move in and deal powerful blows to the rats they had encountered. Chris meanwhile appeared to be struggling. He had lost grip of his sword and been pinned to the ground by the third of the rats. Even as he called for help for his situation, the Fereis repeated her maneuver from earlier and drew an arrow of light into existence between her hands. This shot needed more steady aim so as to not hit Chris, but it was one the woman was confident she could make.

"Try not to look at this!" she called out energetically to Chris as she fired the somewhat blinding projectile. It was on course to hit the rat in the face which of course meant it had to fly near to Chris' own face to find its mark. As it passed over him, Chris would feel the heat the light magic generated but sure enough, Estelle's aim was on the mark. The rat was hit squarely in the face and let out a loud squeal in response. It was in dire shape though not immediately dead. Still, best not to try her luck or magic further the mage thought.

"Quickly, let us pull it off him and move on to the second floor." Estelle nearly ordered of Sergei and Lana. She had to catch herself to not sound like a noble ordering servants about in the process. But regardless, however weak these rats were, it seemed better to move on before too many more could appear.

Edited by Doggo

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Lana still winced in disgust as her axe had managed to find purchase in the rat, letting out yet another sickening crunch sound as she had managed to fell it. "It's still gross," she muttered, putting her foot on the rat corpse and pushing off of it to pull her axe out of the body. Hearing the commotion quite literally a two feet from her, the girl jumped back a bit as the rat was now incredibly close to her. Seeing Chris underneath and hearing Estellise's command, the girl brought her axe up, ready to kill the rat to get it off the boy. As she was winding up her swing, the girl then suddenly realized something. Her axe was large. And hefty. And Chris underneath the rat. Thinking the worst would happen if she had done so, the girl let out a, "waaaahh!" as she tried to redirect her own swing, spinning in the process and throwing herself off balance. 

Falling backward, Lana fell on top of the rat, shivering in disgust yet again as she let go of her greataxe. Now being in prime position, though, the girl pulled out her smaller axe. With a few swings, the girl repeatedly plunged her blade into the creature until finally it seemed to stop moving. Letting out a sigh of relief as she got to feet and helped Chris push the rat off of him, albeit with her foot rather than actually trying to push with her hands. With that done, Lana cleared her throat saying, "um, everyone alright?" 

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The steps leading deeper into the Dungeon were wide and the tunnel they took step by step was made of stone that looked too smooth. Unnaturally so. Even magic would struggle to get such straight, smooth, walls and ceilings.

Their steps didn't make much noise as they walked downward. Just a muffled thump thump thump.

It didn't take long for the steps to end and lead them towards an opening. The room beyond opened up greatly into a wide cavern. The ceiling was low, barely over a foot taller than Sergei. It seemed to be some sort of cave with light grey stone throughout. Despite the area looking to be mostly stone there were a number of fungi sprouting up from the ceiling and floor in small patches. A dripping noise brought attention to a small pool of water off to the left side of the cavern. Scattered about near the water were ten figures.

Short stature, just over four feet tall, mottled green skin, disproportionately large heads with long knife-like ears and wide, sharp-toothed, mouths and red eyes. The group of goblins hadn't noticed the group yet but there wasn't much distance between them so it wouldn't take them long to notice.

Across the other side of the cavern was another opening which, due to the better lighting in this area, they could tell was another staircase.

Spoiler

Map

Yes, the good ol classic goblins. From what can be seen most are armed with short swords but a couple of them have slings. 10 and 5 specifically.

 

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Sergei peeked around the corner as they descended to the second floor. Absentmindedly, he bent his neck forward, feeling a bit closed in by the low ceilings. He had taken the lead as they advanced through the Dungeon, just in case they were ambushed. Best if he took the brunt of the assault. Sergei counted the goblins, holding a hand to still his companions. He took note of their weapons and turned back to the group. 

"Ten of them. They haven't noticed us yet, but there isn't much anywhere to hide in the cavern." He said, careful make sure his voice was low. He urged the group back a couple more feet to be sure that they'd be out of earshot. 

Sergei didn't like that they were so greatly outnumbered. There'd be more than 2 goblins to each of them. That could get dangerous very quickly. Their fight with the rats hadn't gone as smoothly as Sergei had hoped. No one had taken any serious injuries, but they had also had the numbers advantage. 

"Estellise, would it be possible to blind them so that we could get to the other side without conflict?"

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Getting the rat off Chris was no easy task, but it was much easier once it was finally dead. And with three other people helping, it was enough to roll the thing off and return Chris to a functional member of the group. One sword-retrieval-from-the-underbelly-of-a-dead-rat later, and the only way left to go was down.

In contrast to the previous claustrophobic and dank hallways, now they were in a dank cavern, replete with mushrooms and all the other things Chris expected to find in such a place. Even goblins! Goblins were a step up from rats in Chris’ opinion. Sure, both of them had the potential to be screaming balls of fury and hate but at least if one leapt at him, he wasn’t about to fall over catching its weight.

Sergei, who, of course, was leading in front asked Estellise if she could blind them. And that was a good idea, all things considered. Chris was pretty sure he could make that sprint without the distraction but maybe not everybody in the party could as well. But there was a niggling thought in the back of Chris’ mind. If it didn’t work, and conflict became inevitable, they’d have lost the element of surprise. Those brief moments -- those times when someone saw you but before they’d done anything about it -- were what Chris thrived in, and he wasn’t sure he was so ready to give it up.

“Alternatively,” he whispered to everyone else, “we could lead with that and charge in, maybe take out the ones with slings first so they can’t hit Estellise and then it’s a fairer fight. Taking care of the problem now also allows us to not have to watch our backs later.” He paused to let everyone absorb that. “I’ll leave that decision to you all, though. Just tell me where and when to run.”

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With rats disposed and Chris back on his feet, the group made their way down the staircase, descending into the Dungeon's second floor. Already the scenery had shifted remarkably, a feature of the Dungeon that never ceased to fill Estellise with some small sense of wonder. While the Fereis was rather enraptured with their new surroundings, the others seemed to take notice of enemies in the immediate vicinity. And indeed there were, ten goblins a distance off. As Sergei commented, they had yet to notice the group but would no doubt do so soon and there was little cover in the open cavernous area they found themselves in. He then suggested a blinding of the enemies while the group ran through without a fight. Chris countered with a surprise attack to handle the group quickly. Given the numbers Estellise leaned toward Sergei's plan. Were they a larger group, fighting would make more sense. But as their main goal was to explore, fighting a larger group of enemies not immediately impeding their progress seemed less than ideal.

"Please be ready to move on my signal everyone." Estelle started as she began channeling magic into her hands again. "We shall go with Sergei's proposal. This is going to be rather bright so do be sure to not look the way of the goblins until the light has faded." she warned. The woman continued channeling magic as a ball of light formed between her palms. This grew in size for a moment before shrinking quite a bit, smaller than even the portable lights she had given the group earlier. When she seemed pleased with the amount of energy gathered, her palms stopped glowing as she shifted the ball to float over only her right hand. With a graceful motion she sent it on its way and it moved rather swiftly despite the lack of intense physical motion from the caster. The goblins took note of the small ball of light, all gathering to try and investigate it.

"Now!" Estellise called to the group to begin running while nothing dramatic had yet happened. Not but a moment after they began moving though would the small ball of light instantaneously expand until it filled the whole room with a blinding light not unlike attempting to look into the unobstructed sun at midday. Caught unawares, the goblins all began screaming in their language at the event and the group would hear a splash as one of the ten fell over into the nearby pool of water. The light would last a few seconds before rapidly losing intensity. After that, they'd have only until the goblins' eyes recovered to make it to the next floor.

Edited by Doggo

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With the group getting to the second floor, Lana grimaced at the sight of the goblins that had been all gathered around. The small green creatures were definitely a step up from rats, at least as far as disgust factor went, but she still wasn't the biggest fan of them. Add to that there were a lot of them, as well as all of them armed, and Lana could already tell that they were going to be annoying to fight then the rats. The girl readied herself to go and charge in once again, but stopped as Sergei and  Chris seemed to bring up the different ways of approaching their current predicament. Lana looked the far larger of the two, seemingly taken aback by his suggestion. She had never once thought they could just pass the fight by and avoid everything completely - both because she had sneaked past anything in her life as well as it just not being something she thought a person with a large axe was able to do when there was still fighting to be had. All the same, the crux of either of their plans revolved around Estellise's magic, and as Lana was sure that the end result of either of them would be something amazing, she didn't quite care which one they went with. 

True to her own thoughts, Lana was on the edge of her proverbial seat as the young noblewoman started to summon a ball of light. As she tossed it, and all the goblins took note, Lana was waiting for something to happen though had her attention called back to running as Estellise gave the cue. Looking away and starting to book it for the exit, the girl was somewhat disappointed she couldn't actually look at the spell's full affects, but seeing an incredibly bright flash in her peripheral told her that she was probably better off not. 

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The goblins were startled by the sudden light. Most of them disoriented and unsure what direction they were facing. Though even if they did  know they couldn't be sure where the light had come from. Instinctively some of them started towards the stairs that the group were located and one of them even managed to spot them. However the adventurers had already been on their way across. The last to enter the stairway would see a rock from a sling strike the wall besides their head before they ducked into a stairwell that was much the same as the previous one.

Though once they reached the end it opened up into an area more similar to the first level than the previous one. A singular main tunnel, wide enough for two to comfortable walk side-by-side, stretched across a lengthy distance. The light was brighter than on the first but dimmer than the previous and they couldn't make out the end of the tunnel. Water dripped in multiple spots on the ceiling and along the edges of the tunnel mushrooms sprouted up.

While they couldn't see all of the tunnel they were able to make out that there was some small openings further along that opened into narrower tunnels. Beyond the dripping of the water they couldn't hear anything. After a few moments there was some hushed voices that seemed to be squabbling for a moment before being cut off suddenly.

Spoiler

Basic map

So yeah here's the 3rd floor. Very mysterious. Lemme know how far you go and what you do about the tunnels.

 

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“Now!”

Even before that -- as soon as the decision had been made, actually -- Chris had been ready. Sure, he was a bit miffed his suggestion wasn’t the one they followed, but the middle of the dungeon wasn’t the time for such a squabble. He’d have to save it for later. “Just tell me where to run” he’d said, and he meant it. He was the first one to the staircase, even, and to the next floor he went.

And yet, despite his speed, as soon as he reached the bottom, Chris skidded to a halt. Again with the branching paths, again with the sounds that probably weren’t human. He turned to face his companions again. “So, uh, left-hand rule again, right?” he whispered. “This tunnel over here, I guess? Or do we just keep going?

“I mean, I can check it out first if you want, but you all seemed to get mad at me for doing that last time so…”

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It had all gone without a hitch! Lana had been surprised by how little monster killing there had to be done there, but with the group having made it to the next floor and no sign of the goblins actually tailing them, it had seemed bloodshed wasn't necessary for the time being. Making their way to the next floor, Lana was feeling pumped up yet again, having just cleared their second floor with minimal effort. Now, quite like the first floor, this third one also seemed rather straight forward. Thinking it would be a cinch to get to the next floor, Lana nodded her head. "Left hand it is."

Walking over to the left hand tunnel, Lana then added, "and it's just a straight path with no bends or anything, then we should all go toge-THAAA!" The girl cut herself off as the floor beneath her feet, at the entrance of the tunnel, suddenly gave way. Quickly reaching out with her hand, the girl grasped the ledge of the sudden pitfall she found herself in, wincing in pain as the suddenness of her fall caused a jolt in her arms. Looking down, the girl saw her legs dangling, and a few feet further down was a pit of jagged rocks. Panicking a bit as she tried to pull herself up, the girl shouted, "left was not right!" 

As the girl tried to pull herself back up, she realized that there was suddenly a noise coming from further down the tunnel. Looking up, and over the hole, she was met face to face with a small lizard like creature - smaller than the goblins - wielding a dagger in hand. Lana gulped as the creature, a kobold, went to stab at her with its knife. Swatting the dagger away with her hand, the kobold looked at her annoyed and stabbed at the hand she had just slapped with. "Owwww!" The girl shouted, now dangling with a dagger stabbing into one hand and - lovely a second kobold was approaching her. "Heeeeelp!" 

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Chris took the lead as the group darted from one end of the cavern to the other. Sergei stopped at the entrance to the stairwell to usher Estellise and Lana to the third floor, standing guard just in case any of the goblins recovered quicker than expected. Following his team down the stairs, Sergei offered Estellise some admiration, keeping his voice low. "Great work, Estellise. Saved us all some cuts and bruises."

The third floor confronted them with branching paths and more decisions to be made. Sergei strained his ears to catch any more of the faint whispers he had heard just a moment before, but whoever had been making the sound had gone silent. It seemed that surprise would not be on their side this time. 

"I can check it out first if you want, but you all seemed to get mad at me for doing that last time so…” 

"No, I wasn't mad," Sergei scratched his head, his cheeks a bit warm with embarrassment. He moved past Estellise and Lana to get a little closer to the swordsman. "I was just worried, that's all. I don't want any of us to get hurt." Sergei thought back to his mercenary work, to the times he had braved the Dungeon before. He was all too aware of the stakes. "I'm sorry if it seemed like I was angr-"

The sound of crumbling stone interrupted Sergei's sentiment. His eyes shot down the tunnel, towards the noise. He just barely caught the sight of Lana falling through a trap in the floor. Sergei pushed past Chris, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Lana's hands caught the far edge of the hole. The tattoos across Sergei's body flashed; his arms and legs became a blur as he dashed towards Lana. 

"Owwww!" Sergei didn't catch sight of the small lizardlike humanoid until Lana exclaimed in pain. The kobold was not alone as another appeared down the hall, also wielding a dagger. 

"Heeeeelp!" Sergei pushed off with his right leg, leaping over the pit and Lana's struggling form. His momentum carried him the first kobold and sent him careening towards the second. Its small form was not prepared for Sergei's massive frame. The kobold was sent skittering further back down the tunnel. Sergei wasted no time in whipping around and wrapping his hands around the waist of the kobold stabbing at Lana's hands. He lifted it with ease; it struggled in his hands, twisting around and landing a couple of painful slashes across Sergei's arms. Forgoing any grace, Sergei threw the scaled creature into the pit, taking a small pleasure in its high-pitched scream as it fell victim to its own trap. 

"Come on, let's get you out of there." Sergei reached down and grasped Lana's forearm, avoiding the arm wounded by the kobold's surprise attack. Blood trailed down his own arm, dripping onto Lana's clothes and face. He began to hoist her up, ignoring the angry burning from his exposed wounds. 

A dull crack accompanied a splitting pain in the back of Sergei's head. A rock, launched from the sling of an unseen third kobold, had found its mark. Sergei saw stars dance across his vision. His grip slipped for a moment on Lana's arm, but he had enough sense to regain his purchase on his dangling teammate. "I've got you, I've got you." Letting out a grunt of effort, Sergei hoisted the smaller girl out of the pit. 

"I got you." He said. 

Now that Lana wasn't in immediate danger, Sergei turned further down the tunnel. He drew upon the magic in his veins, the speed in his limbs fading and turning into a fortification spell. His tattoos flashed menacingly as his skin took on a taught, rough texture. He fixed the pair of kobolds with a steel gaze. 

"You've made a big fucking mistake."

 

Edited by Ren✧

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Here the group was in ever more tunnels. Estelle had to wonder just how many tunnels the Dungeon could produce or why it would do this over anything else. Maybe they had to go deeper to see more exotic locales. The Fereis had heard many tales of the various parts of the Dungeon and she'd been in the early floors several times herself. Still, it always provided a lot to think about. No doubt this first venture with her friends would occupy her thoughts for many days after. Of course, the Dungeon was the last place for such flights of fancy. Soon the girl would have to focus again at the present circumstances. Lana had moved ahead when the floor suddenly gave out underneath her. Estelle called out in fright but her legs froze while Sergei moved into action. The young mage wouldn't have been physically much help for Lana but she still felt bad about the hesitation to help her friend. While debating what to do, Kobolds began emerging. Two, three, she couldn't be certain just how many would show, especially after the group of ten goblins they had escaped. The woman defaulted to her passion project as her whole body began glowing.

"Chris! I will clear out the monsters around them, get to the others to make sure they're okay." Estelle called to the last of her companions by her side. A glyph formed underneath the woman as she continued channeling her magical energy. It was heptagonal in shape and began filling with interior circles and complex symbols not readily understood as written language. The woman clasped her hands together, her fingers interlocked, and held them close to her chest as if praying or begging as the light from her body intensified. As Estelle began to speak her voice had an unnatural reverb to it.

"Seven sisters mourn in heaven.
Depth of anguish. Autumn's decay.
Lift up the song of lament and cry out.
Light of justice, pierce the harbingers of loss.
Strike true through oceans of tears.
Grant me resentment, for I am Estellise!

Second Grieving Star, Electra!
"

At her calling of the name, the light around Estellise's body dissipated as the glyph beneath her began to glow all the brighter for it. In the air behind her shone seven rays of light that persisted until they formed into what looked like spears. Four of them rotated until they were parallel to the ground and all at once fired off at a decent pace from the woman's location. The spears took arced paths through the air so as to weave around and over Lana and Sergei and into the nearest Kobold and the one slightly farther down the tunnel. Estelle was fairly sure there was at least one more but it was slightly obscured from her vision and so she reserved the last three of her weapons. The lizard creatures were struck through by the spears. They crumpled under the spell's impact but were one to look at them they would have been able to see a tragic tale in their faces as their lives faded. A life of mourning their weakness. The best meat ever eluded them because they weren't strong enough to take it. And now their lives were over and they would never have experienced it. A truly tragic loss.

Estelle meanwhile remained on the look out. Maintaining the spell was going to be taxing but it seemed wasteful to not make use of the remaining spears. 

Edited by Doggo

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A couple things happened to Chris at once. The first was Lana brushing past him with a cheerful “Left-hand it is!” which kind of ignored the other part of Chris’ question? The offer to stake things out? Or maybe it implicitly answered it. Either way, before he could respond, his attention was interrupted by the second thing: Sergei.

“I wasn’t mad. I was just worried, that’s all,” Sergei said. Well, that was comforting, though it was comforting in the kind of way that a parent would comfort a child and Chris didn’t find that comforting at all. That whole age difference thing, too, that was part of it. But, like all the other grumbles Chris had had throughout their expedition, now wasn’t the time to whinge about them, at least out loud. Now was the time to-

“Help!”

Now was the time to help Lana. Sergei was already on it for the most part -- he also whipped past Chris down the path that, now that he looked, had an open pit right there. And… were those kobolds? Sergei seemed to ignore all of that and focused intently on Lana, hoisting her back up from the trap she’d sprung. But that focus had cost him, and he got a rock to the noggin for his troubles.

“Chris!” Estellise’s call pulled him away from simply narrating things as they happened and back down into the dungeon. “I’ll clear the monsters around them,” she said, “get to the others and make sure they’re okay.”

Alright, that was at least the start of a plan. Chris took off, though he was careful to stay on the left where there hadn’t been any other pits so far. His first instinct was to jump over the pit like Sergei had done, but now that he had pulled Lana up, there wasn’t any space unless he wanted everyone to collapse over like bowling pins. Instead, he turned to go around, and, in doing so, caught a glimpse of the first right-side tunnel.

There were four more kobolds -- at least four, really -- all waiting expectantly for something. From the looks on their faces as Chris passed by (not that he could read kobold faces that well, especially given the circumstances) they were surprised that he wasn’t it. That didn’t mean they didn’t put a kink in the plan, though, and as he reached Sergei and Lana, he explained why.

“We need to keep moving,” Chris said. “We’re gonna get flanked if we stay, and we’ll be cut off from Estellise too.” Unlike the goblins of the previous floor, the kobolds had already gotten the drop on them, so they neither had the numbers nor the tactical advantage. And, perhaps because of those same goblins, retreating wasn’t really an option anymore.

Chris drew his sword. There was one more side tunnel, too, which surely had more enemies in waiting, and if the pit was any indication, at least one more trap to be sprung.

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The Kobold holding the sling, directly across from Sergei and Lana, cowered as it saw two of its allies struck down from some mysterious light. It backed away farther down the tunnel and gripped its sling tightly.

Seeing as Sergei was still in view it decided to act. The lizard-like monster spun the sling around and let loose another rock towards Sergei. Missing his head and instead impacting with his shoulder. With a start it fumbled around for another rock from a pouch to put into the sling and got ready to throw another at the man.

In the tunnel closer to Estellise the kobolds were bickering. Shoving each other and speaking in hushed whispers, not that the group could understand were they to hear, about what to do. It seemed most of them didn't want to go out yet. They were waiting for...something. But shoving continued and so did arguing until one lone kobold, wielding a dagger, was shoved out of the tunnel.

It looked around with wide eyes at the four adventurers. Then, with a scream of half terror half anger, charged straight for Chris. Waving their dagger around and attempting to slice into the human's relatively soft flesh.

Spoiler

Map

What could the kobolds possibly be waiting for. Hm hm hm. In any case as is clear this one for sure will need to know what your actions will be to see how the kobolds react from here.

 

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Gritting her teeth, dangling over a pit with one hand bleeding and the other clutching on for dear life, Lana wasn't quite sure what she was going to do about the kobolds stabbing at her. Thankfully she didn't have to worry for that long as Sergei had come to her rescue, bowling over the ones near her and managing to scoop her out of the pitfall. The girl was then further awed as the other kobolds that seemed to be scurrying around the two of them were skewered by lances of light. "Whooooa..." Lana was not sure if she would ever get used to seeing all the different things magic could do, but she would surely always be able to gawk at it. 

Brought back to the situation, at hand by Chris warning them about what was around the corner. Knowing that they needed to move, Lana looked up and said, "I'm good now." Hopping off the man, the girl pulled out one of her hand axes with her unstabbed hand. Looking at the kobold, Lana began to move forward, but slowed her pace a bit as she was very wary of falling to her death again. The kobold, scurrying a bit back from her, slung another rock at the girl hitting her in the shoulder and causing Lana to let out an, "ow." Now even more annoyed then before, Lana chucked her axe at the kobold, though hitting the wall next to it in her haste. 

As the Kobold scurried away further back into the tunnel, Lana rushed over and retrieved her axe, glaring at the kobold and looking ready to chuck her axe again. The kobold, thoroughly frightened, moved further down the tunnel, disappearing behind a corner that was at the end of this one. Running back to the others, the girl shouted, "that tunnel is clear! For now, at least." 

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The concentration needed to maintain her spell kept Estellise focused on the situation at hand as she heard stirring in the tunnels around them. Kobolds were bickering with themselves, not that they were immediately in sight of the woman. But she knew at least several more were in the vicinity and she'd already fired off four of her seven spears. She had to be careful with the last three, but maintaining the spell was wearing on her and the kobolds weren't moving very quickly. Eventually she saw it, a lone dagger-wielding kobold scrambling out of a hole on the side of the wall and running after Chris. In prime position as she was, Estellise launched one of her spears off toward the creature and decisively ran it through before it could catch up to her friend. This kobold's fears that being first in line would get it killed were confirmed, the regret evident as its life faded quickly from the strike. If there were others yet in the side tunnel, Estelle couldn't yet see them. The gap between her and the others was larger than she'd like and so the woman tossed the remaining two spears where best she figured the entrance was. No creature was hit but the three remaining kobolds all cowered in fear as the bright death sticks came so close. The light from the Fereis' body faded as her spell ended and, tired from the spell though she was, she took off running after Chris.

Her path was slightly curved in an attempt to steer clear of potential pitfalls. The path Chris and the now dead on the floor kobold had taken seemed safe so she intended to follow it. As yet the other kobolds were too afraid to come after her which was helpful as the mage was not nearly so quick on her feet as any of her companions with her. Her body was still trying to adjust itself from the large use of her magic power but still she summoned more of it into her hand to shoot a light down the tunnel. It flickered as it flew, her control clearly not quite back to normal yet, and it began fading faster than previous lighting attempts. But still, it would help the group see that for now, there were no more side tunnels that the kobolds might pop out of to attack them from.

"Can everyone still move?" Estellle called out to her friends as she approached, uncertain of Lana or Sergei's conditions. If she had to the mage would immediately start trying to heal them. But if they could move on that would allow her time to recover her magic and control over it which would make for a much smoother healing process.

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Chris had been too focused on Sergei and Lana, he didn’t even see the kobold until Estellise speared it, a bolt of light impaling it, practically suspending it in place before it crumpled to the floor. “Thanks,” was all he could say. It was all he had time to say, really. Lana had popped back out of the tunnel (was her hand bleeding? That wasn’t good) and declared that tunnel clear, and with the group back together, it was time to move.

“If I were to guess, I’d be there’s something in front of that last tunnel,” Chris said. “So stick to the left. You don’t have to be quick; you just have to be efficient. And there should be more in that first tunnel, keep an eye out for those, too.”

He took the lead, practicing exactly what he’d preached. Looking back had other advantages, too, like making sure that everyone else was keeping behind, and, when he was even with the third tunnel, he could catch a glimpse of inside.

What else would it be besides more kobolds? But these three had short spears instead of daggers, and they were clearly bolder than the ones that had come before. They came charging out the moment they spotted Chris, and all of a sudden they were trapped in combat again. But this time, there was no longer any element of surprise. He was ready for them.

Just like with Leo, the first thing he had to do was close the distance, a feat he managed just as swiftly as he’d done then, and as he’d done with the rat two floors ago. The only difference now was making sure the kobold’s spear didn’t get anywhere near him, but a single deft step out of the way of the obvious thrust was all it took. But a moment later, he was running the kobold through with his sword.

Two left. “Sergei!” Chris called out, hoping that was all it took to get his meaning across.

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As Chris took the lead down the tunnel, Sergei covered the group's rear. His instincts were yelling at him to switch places with Chris, but he reigned them in. He might as well start trusting the party to handle themselves sooner rather than later. Estellise's lights illuminated their way. Sergei tensed as Chris drew even with the third tunnel, his sword at the ready. Immediately, Sergei noticed the change in the fighter's body language. Not surprising anybody, they had more company. 

Chris brandished his weapon and disappeared into the mouth of the tunnel, no doubt advancing on their new adversaries. The soft, wet squelching of metal being thrust through flesh and scale, accompanied by the painful wail of a kobold told that Chris had found his mark. Sergei was already following his lead, moving to the mouth of the tunnel, when Chris called out. 

“Sergei!” 

Without the same finesse, Sergei barreled towards the remaining kobolds. This cohort did seem better equipped for battle, but their numbers couldn't possibly compensate for the size advantage that Sergei had. The first kobold jabbed at him with its spear, but Sergei caught the weapon just below the sharpened point and yanked it out of the reptilian creature's hands. Then, with his left hand, Sergei's wrapped his fist around the kobold's throat, lifting it into the air.

The second kobold took the opportunity to throw its spear at Sergei. Normally, the kobold's aim would have been true, striking Sergei in the soft part of his stomach. However, Sergei's spell protected him from the weapon's sharp point. The blow caused him to grunt in pain, and would undoubtedly leave a bruise, but he was none worse for the wear. The kobold began to turn tail and run. However, he wasn't quick enough as Sergei readied the same spear he had taken from the first kobold and lined it up to throw.

With ease, the weapon torpedoed towards the fleeing kobold, skewering it with hardly a sound.

Sergei looked to the struggling creature still in his hand. Its attempts to claw into Sergei's magically hardened skin were growing weaker as it failed to draw air into its lungs. A shadow of mournful regret passed over Sergei's face before he gave the creature's a neck a sharp twist, accompanied by a dull crack. Sergei let the kobold's body fall to the cavern floor. 

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