Haeros Dungeon - Chapter 25 preview (Patreon)

They came for us that night. Slipping through the simple traps we had set up, surrounding the broken-down building that we had taken as our resting spot. Hiding from the glimmering, floating wisps that bobbed and twisted in the dark, lurking in the shadows far from the single fire that we had placed at the opening. By the time Kira realized it, we were surrounded.

The first to emerge from the shadows managed to make it halfway through the flickering light of the fire, hunched over and charging forwards. Fur and bulging muscles rippled as long, clawed hands reached for her.

The scream of surprise from the mage woke us up. If it hadn’t, the explosion of fire, drawn from the fireplace and empowered by her skill was as loud as an IMAX theater experience. Rushing wind and screaming flames caught the charging landfang in the face and swept past it to bathe the other two charging behind it in flames.

They screamed, loudly, the first falling over in surprise as it tried to hide its face and flinched at the same time. As one, we rolled into battle. Brand got caught in his bedsheets, stumbling, while Yorrick tossed his lone blanket aside and snatched his shield from the ground, a knife already in his hand.

Sophia did not even bother to roll all the way out of her bedroll before engaging, a hand thrust at the landfang as she levered herself up with the other arm. The first mirror shard appeared, causing the monster to bump into it. Fur on fire, skin bubbling beneath, it sliced itself apart on the fractured edge, opening up a long cut along its arm before it was through, collapsing a moment later as its entrails dropped out beneath it.

All around, wisps darted back in at Kira’s urgent summons. It shrunk the ring of illumination, but the swirling and bouncing wisps struck at the creatures as they charged us. Yorrick caught the first to get a few feet from Kira, slamming his shoulder into its lower body and shoving it back. He kept pushed it back as his blade licked in from the sides, cutting into arms, chests, leg. Striking at anything that showed itself, the unarmored opponent bleeding.

The third attacker – the first to arrive – was throwing itself back and forth on the ground, the flames unnaturally hungry as it refused to die. Kira’s face was tightened and focused, a hand extended as she controlled and stoked the fire on the monster, the wisps darting about to strike at the other landfang at the outer edges of the light.

Brand finally managed to get to his feet, grabbing his weapons and unsheathing them as he slid to the side, stabbing a landfang in the face as it tried to crawl through a window. It screamed as he released a pulse of lightning through the weapon, shocking the monster.

The team fought like a well-oiled machine, and I? I did my job, slipping through the darkness around the group and coming at them from behind, grabbing twisty and ropey necks and snapping them, knife plunged into throats and tearing out windpipes, gauntlet spike entering the base of skulls to drop them before they could make a noise.

What can I say? Being old and paranoid had its uses. It helped, of course, that I had noticed the group snaking in behind us, the occasional glimpsed party that might change their clothing and their presence, but forgot to change their numbers.The trickiest part had been finding a place to hide that they were unlikely to find but was close enough that I could call for help if necessary. I had found it in a shallow depression where I assumed their well had been once, now covered and boarded up, and had Kira center her wisp close by the area, patrolling around the spot such that the landfang would avoid it.

After that, it was just a matter of dozing fitfully till they had closed in on us, their hiss-barks blending in near enough that I woke to the danger. I had to wait a little longer than I wished to take action, slipping in behind them, such that more of the group managed to close in on the team than I had planned for.

Even so, the doppelgangers never expected to be struck from behind. A kick to the back of the leg brought one low, its warning cry lost in the din of the fight as my team did battle with those ahead. I was moving faster, trading stealth for effectiveness.

The landfang finished its turn, only for face to meet jaw. The spikes on my gauntlet tore off its skin and cracked its jaw, ripping one side of it off entirely to leave the rest hanging. I struck again, backhanding the monster to leave it staggering before throwing a straight punch into the opening. A battering hand managed to shift the trajectory of my fist enough that I managed to only impact its throat and side of the neck rather than strike the pipe, but the damage was more than sufficient.

My opponent dropped, and I sidestepped, moving on. Even if it was not dead, it was hurt enough that it would not be coming anytime soon. That left me able to focus on the next creature that had turned, backlit by the wisps and fires as it charged me.

This one had armor on its body, something stolen perhaps. No easy punches to throat or body, so I jammed an elbow in the way of the swing, stepped in-between its leg and dropped my weight as I grabbed the arm, tugging it forward. The creature’s forward momentum did half the job for me; a slight lift of the hip and a twist of the arm finished the throw, causing it to fall over my hip and extended leg.

Slamming into the ground on its shoulders, I cursed as the hand I’d kept control of slipped a little, tearing into the undersides of my arm. Blood ran down the bracers, and I rose, bringing my feet upwards to allow me to stomp. The creature thrashed beneath me, its dark fur and gleaming eyes the only thing that could be easily seen in the dark.

Didn’t matter. I followed the line of its arm down, stomping into the armpit and twisting at the same time. Its shoulder popped as I forcibly dislocated its arm, causing it to scream and thrash about. Then, another stomp to the side of the ribs further down, going for where the floating ribs were in a normal human but only managing to strike normal ones.

Didn’t matter again; from this angle and with the bracing, I could put in a lot of energy. All those kata that you watched? Those footstamps that made little sense, or seemed entirely for show? It was teaching you how to put energy into a single action, to accelerate a leg to full speed while on one foot, so that when you had a downed opponent, you could end it.

Ribs cracked, and a second attack into the same broken ribs drove bone into lungs and caused the screaming – tuned out for the most part and tinny and distant to me – to cut short. I shifted, positioned for the head and struck one last time, hardened leather boots crushing nose and snout before I moved on.

Hands held up, I grinned savagely as I went for the remainder. They might not be the smartest creatures in the world, but they had shown enough intelligence to hide amongst us. Which meant they could hold anger and resentment.

Guessing they would come after us was the simplest thing in the world. At least for someone who’d dealt with internet trolls and spiteful exes.