Azure: Gunner

Chapter 8-5

One of the most frustrating aspects of studying the more exotic types of monsters is that the names assigned by the System range wildly in both quality and uniqueness. There are many categories of monsters that reliably share the majority of their traits with ‘kin’ bearing similar names.

Unfortunately, there are numerous counter-examples of seemingly-related names being assigned to creatures that no self-respecting Scientist would categorize together based on forensic examination.

Some examples include generic, almost childish terms like ‘horror’, ‘terror’, ‘demon’, and ‘mutant’. The most palatable – which is to say, semi-coherent – theories posit that these names indicate creatures sharing some sort of common evolutionary tree. Should this be the case, then known examples span many widely-separated branches of said tree.

A ‘horror’ may have anywhere from zero to hundreds of legs. It might possess wings, tentacles, both, or neither. It could be the size of your hand, blindingly fast and deadly venomous, or the size of a city block and slower than academic bureaucracy.

- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian, Oddities of the System

This time nothing attacked us. Instead, I heard a soft voice call out from the other side and smiled in relief. We’d located Zaire. I ran and gave him a big hug, inviting him back into the Squad as I did. The room was now relatively bright, and I realized we were each being followed by our own light. When we were together, it was three times brighter than it had been on my own.

I asked once I’d released him.

the Earth Mage explained.

He showed us the next room, which had four – un-trapped – plates and a third, larger door in addition to the ones we’d come in through. I hesitated to go through, worried that we’d be leaving a team member behind. When Zaire admitted he’d also taken all left-hand turns to reach our current position, an idea occurred to me.

he replied.

G’hala reminded me.

I pointed out.

In the end I made the decision as Squad leader and Zaire showed us which tunnel he’d come down through. We followed G’hala up the stairs, carefully checking each intersection before turning right. We retraced Zaire’s steps as far as the first door room he’d passed through, then took the other branch.

Once again I was impressed with the way my manaborn friend had efficiently disposed of the monsters in his way. Of course it helped that his Spells were nearly silent, but still. He hadn’t sustained more than scrapes and minor cuts in the process, though he had burned through a lot of mana.

Now that we were on a ‘fresh’ path, we encountered a few horrors, though they were only Level 3. They were no match for G’hala, and with us backing her up, we made swift progress. With three of us together, the dungeon was quite a bit brighter. We’d passed – and marked – a half-dozen more intersections and I was getting ready to call a halt, when G’hala suddenly stopped in front of us.

she said, edging forward, then she dashed forward a few dozen long strides.

I followed at a run and gasped in horror at the sight before us. There were several monster corpses, along with a humanoid figure. Jayce was sitting against one wall, unmoving, their eyes closed. Blood pooled on the ground around the Sound Mage, and their robes were shredded and pulled to the side.

Their leg was exposed, huge chunks of flesh missing from their limb. A tourniquet was wrapped around their upper thigh, and the wounds looked partially healed, but the damage was severe. I was pretty sure they were down to the bone in places. The cyborg’s shield and scepter were nowhere to be seen.

Then my view was blocked as G’hala knelt in front of them, leaning in close. she reported after a moment, and I let out a breath.

I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder as she reached down to shake Jayce awake. The Shaman looked over her shoulder at me in surprise. I felt a wrenching certainty that we should not heal Jayce, no matter how bad their injuries looked. My stomach twisted with self-loathing as I explained the situation to my friends.

I said with far more certainty than I felt.

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G’hala snarled and pounded her fist on the wall in frustration as she processed what I was saying. Fortunately, the noise didn’t call any more monsters. All we could do was use two of our trap-finders and a coil of rope to make a stretcher. The big sticks had a single hole drilled through them six inches from each end specifically for that reason.

While Zaire and I rigged it up, G’hala cleaned and bound Jayce’s wounds, finding an empty potion bottle on the ground as she did. We agreed we’d give them another potion or use a health injector in thirty minutes if they didn’t wake up – or die – first. The orc and I carefully loaded the still unconscious cyborg onto the stretcher, discovering that they were a bit heavier than a normal person.

As the two strongest of our small group, G’hala and I started to carry the stretcher between us, but quickly discovered the height difference was too large to make it work. Instead Zaire took up the other end, and G’hala led the way again. With all the monsters cleared, it didn’t take long to reach the room with the large door, though it was tricky handling the stairs.

Anticipating a fight when the door opened, we left Jayce hidden out of sight and had Zaire use his Earth Wall trick on one of the plates. When we stepped onto the other three, the ground shook slightly. This door split in two in the middle, the two halves pulling away to either side. Through the opening I saw a swarm of horrors writhing across the floor.

Zaire quickly cast two more Earth Walls, blocking off the lower half of the opening, then another centered above them. Even as G’hala and I dealt with the first pair of monsters that had slithered through before his Spells took effect, more slammed into the walls and they shook. It was only moments before they located the openings and heaved themselves up on their long serpentine bodies.

Hideous eyeless faces thrust through the openings and G’hala and I made them regret it. I fired a pair of shots directly down the throat of one. G’hala lashed out with Spiritual Strike and her blade sliced down through the other’s snout, splitting it two as blood poured out.

The fight came to a brief halt then as the corpses partially blocked the openings, but we could hear the scraping sounds of more monsters writhing around behind Zaire’s barrier. I swallowed drily at the horrible sound of ripping flesh. The horror I’d shot twitched and jerked, then its body was suddenly yanked back into the dark amidst the sounds of crunching jaws.

Moments later the one G’hala had killed met the same fate. There was a low hissing, and then the sounds of claws tearing at stone. Clawed fingers clamped down onto the top of Zaire’s wall and started tearing into the hardened earth.

I darted forward until I could see the huge fangs of the monster, huge nostrils where eyes should be. Then I pulled the trigger on my Adjudicator. Two shots rang out before my revolver clicked on an empty cylinder, the monster’s barrier absorbing the hits. I flicked the cylinder free and shoved the extractor rod, the spent shells tinkling as they hit the floor.

My left hand dove into my pouch and yanked out one of the huge speedloaders, then rammed it into the cylinder. With a click it released the shells, and I dropped it and rammed the cylinder home as an Earth Spike drove up into the creature’s jaw and slammed its head up into the ceiling. I put another shot into a gaping nostril just to be sure, then looked over at G’hala.

The Shaman had dealt with the horror on her side, with some help from Zaire. I heard the Mage groan behind me.

he replied.

I nodded in acknowledgement without taking my eyes off the openings. The clawed monsters had torn away parts of Zaire’s walls, and I spotted movement in the shadows behind the gaps. I resisted the urge to fire blindly and waited. The corpse of the clawed horror was pulled back into the dark in a series of jerks and spasms.

When the next monster tried its luck, I was ready. A pair of shots finished it off, and then everything was quiet. The wave of Essence hit a moment later, and I let out a sigh of relief as my heart rate started to slow.

Zaire announced in a tired but pleased voice. He quickly Leveled up while we stood guard, receiving a new cuirass in his System chest. After a short discussion, G’hala and I went ahead, leaving Zaire to keep watch on Jayce and recover his mana. His Spells were powerful but costly, and he hadn’t started the fight with full mana.

We descended a large flight of stairs into an open chamber larger than anything we’d encountered so far. It was empty, and I cautiously stepped off the stairs onto the ground only for rocks to come crashing down from the ceiling around me. I jumped back onto the stairs but tripped and fell, damaging my barrier slightly, not to mention my pride.

thud thud thud

Three large horrors followed the rocks down from the ceiling and slithered straight for us. Still sitting on my butt on the stairs where I’d fallen, I leveled my Adjudicator and opened fire.

bam! bam! bam! bam!

It took four shots to down the first of the creatures, and I realized as I shifted my aim that I wouldn’t be able to stop them all.

G’hala boomed out over the Comms, and then the huge orc leapt down from the stairs, flying over me and crashing down feet-first onto the first monster.

The impact of her huge body shattered the horror’s barrier, and then she tumbled off its serpentine body and rolled to her feet behind it. My gun was leveled at the one she’d just stomped, but my friend was directly in the path of fire behind the creature and I couldn’t risk pulling the trigger.

Then the monster reared up, ready to plunge down on me, and I put my last two shots into the bottom of its massive jaws. Blood exploded from the wounds and I frantically rolled out of the way as the now-dead weight of the creature thudded to the ground where I’d been sitting. I jumped to my feet, discarding my Adjudicator as I ripped my cutlass from its sheath and charged the flank of the last creature.

G’hala’s totem flashed in a storm of steel, holding the huge monster at bay. I Quick Stepped into another devastating thrust, this time closing both my hands around the hilt and guard of my blade. I grimly hung onto my weapon as the monster thrashed in pain. I staggered back, off-balance, as G’hala exploited the distraction to stab deeply with her totem. I saw her weapon leave a glowing trail in the air and knew she’d activated Spiritual Strike.

The fight turned to a battle of attrition, with G’hala and I alternating attacks. The monster writhed back and forth, unable to focus on either of us as it bled out from the deep wounds we’d given it. When it finally collapsed, I immediately returned to my dropped pistol and reloaded, but no more emerged.

We scouted the only exit from the large chamber, finding another room with a door and four pressure plates. Then we trekked back up the stairs, warning Zaire we were coming over the Comms so he didn’t Earth Spike one of us by accident. We found him crouched over Jayce’s stretcher, tilting a vial of healing potion into the cyborg’s mouth. They were awake!