Haeros Dungeon - Chapter 39 preview (Patreon)

“You alone there?” The voice that cut through my haze, as I leaned against a hoodoo in the main jagged scar of the floor, caught me by surprise.

I cursed under my breath, my focus having been entirely focused upon the watering hole before me. I desperately needed water, having cut my healing vault off and switched back to storing – hah! – healing energy rather than wasting power creating much-needed liquid. As it was, I was pretty sure half the reason I was having moments of dizziness was the blood loss, but I had to husband my healing.

Once I had managed to get into the main cavern, the number of monsters and adventurers had increased significantly. I’d already avoided two adventuring groups out of caution, but this one had caught me entirely unawares.

Turning around, I smiled at the speakers, eyes drifting over the four that were there. Small group, undersized compared to the expected five. Unusual, especially at these levels, but not uncommon. Two ranged fighters, from the heft of their short bows that they held, neither raised or pointed at me threateningly but an arrow nocked in both. Nothing unusual there, not in an adventuring party in a dungeon.

The third was a female fighter with a pair of curved short swords in her hands, a small friendly smile on her face underneath the pixie bowl cut of her metal cap. She must have been the speaker, as the only female in the group.

The last member was tall, broad and swarthy with a massive maul he carried in one hand and an even bigger shield he rested on the ground. Their tank, I assumed.

“At the moment,” I replied, looking them over, “I’m scouting out the watering hole.”

“That was what we were planning on too.” The girl’s smile broadened as she tapped the side of her leg where a rather empty waterskin sloshed. “Need to refill. We’ll need to draw them close though; don’t want to dirty our water.”

One more check of their armor at those words confirmed my initial impression. This was not a deep delving group, but a more moderately armored and equipped one. In fact, I was certain I had more enchanted equipment on me than any one of them, though not by much. It was sometimes hard to tell though – some enchanters liked to hide orb and shard slots, such that they could not be damaged or seen. It reduced their lifespan and recharge rate, which was why it was not as popular.

“Should have bought the filters…” one of the ranged fighters muttered.

“You’re the one who keeps wasting our coin on enchanted arrows.” The other ranged fighter butted in, their argument seeming entirely good natured.

“Didn’t see you complaining when I took out that razorwing boss with one arrow.”

“That was a lucky shot.”

“Hah! You couldn’t do it even if you had Protos’ own luck.”

I tuned the arguing pair out, gesturing back to the watering hole. “You want to clear it?”

“Need to. But if you want to…”

I chuckled, darkly. “A little much for me alone.”

“Then do you mind…?”

“Not at all.” I gestured for them to go past me, but while the girl and the two ranged fighter started moving, the big tank did not. Instead, he glowered at me and raised his voice. To my surprise, it did not suit his body at all, being much higher pitched than expected.

“I don’t like him being behind us.”

“Fair, but I do need water too. I’m not going.” I tapped my near empty water skin. “I’m happy to wait for my team to arrive and we can do it my way.”

“I don’t want to waste time,” said the second of the ranged fighters, the one with a long scar along one cheek. He was the one who had complained about wanting filters.

“Frik…” the girl whined at the tank.

“No, Elois. It’s too dangerous. I can’t protect you if he’s behind us,” Frik said.

She pouted but that did nothing to change his demeanor. Once she realized that Frik was holding firm, she looked back at me helplessly. Thankfully, I did have a suggestion.

“I can help. I’m a damage dealer, close-ranged melee.” I raised my gauntleted fist to show them what I meant. “There’s a couple of tarzak’s over in the right group I can handle, if your team are good with the razorwings and the lurking shadow cat.”

“Shadow cat?” The surprise that registered in Elois voice was a little gratifying.

“Left side and closer to us. If you follow my lead, we won’t spook it. It’s been watching for a while now, likely to pick out a tarzak that strayed too far. If we attack, it’s likely going to come at us from behind.” I nodded to the ranged fighters. “Figure that’s when you guys can injure it.”

Frik gave me a much more respectful nod after I outlined the brief plan. We discussed things a little more, nailing down details and any emergency commands and pleas they utilized before we made our move. The fight itself went fast, the tarzaks that I had to deal with easily killed and the shadow cat, unable to ply its surprise attack, dealt with.

A little expensively, I thought, with an explosive-tipped arrow taking off its upper leg and a chunk of its upper body, but who was I to comment on their spend? I was more interested in their skills. Elois was rather boring, utilizing a flickering motion skill that launched herself forward in scything cuts that acted like charged attacks. Useful for instant kills but she often stumbled and had to either pull herself out of danger with another skill use or have Frik absorb her punishment.

That was his skill – a perfect tank skill. Those he targeted shifted energy to him, which he could transfer to his body or his shield. I wondered at the specific type of energy he was transferring, and if he could do it the other way, because if he could… man, that might be a nice combo with my own momentum skill.

As for the ranged fighters, one was a utility skill user whose ability came into play at the end of the battle, when he retrieved and reshaped their arrows. Even the explosive shard one, though at seeing my look he shrugged.

“Only works once in a while with these.”

“Gotcha.” So it was still expensive for them, and it was not entirely broken a skill.

The last ranged fighter had no visible skill, though that meant little. He could have just been hiding it, or it was something much more subtle. Or powerful.

Either way, with the way clear and all of us having extracted our orbs and shards from our kills, water skins were refilled and I drank down full cupfuls of it. I ignored the looks they gave me, desperately in need of the fluid and aware I could handle any germs or bacteria with my own skill.

Once that was done, I took a seat, waving the group on, explaining I was waiting for my own team. Even hinted that we might be making camp here, because the day was coming to an end and we’d need to rest anyway. A few more pleasantries were exchanged before the group left, leaving me to deal with the corpses and the water by myself.

Only when I was certain they had gone for real did I slip away, finding a spot out of sight to watch over the watering hole and the likely approach to it. After all, you were only paranoid if they weren’t out to get you.