QuestWright Bk2 C67: The Second Dungeon (IV) (Patreon)

Chapter 67: The Second Dungeon (IV)

Shirley came over, blood dripping and clothing torn at her shoulder, along with Wallace and Seb. The two archers both looked exhausted as they held their Pellblasts, their arrows having long been spent. 

The group split in half on each side of the trap, and once he was sure they were all ready, Cass created a new Bane template. 

Rather than causing harm, this subtype focused on weakening the monster it targeted. There was an implicit danger in testing a new Hybrid Quest for such a pivotal moment, but he was sure he was making the right choice.

Looking from one face to another, everyone gave the nod, then he sent a single Quest to Alan. It was a delivery-type.

The map showed Alan pause for a heartbeat before disappearing and reappearing on a set path straight for the ambush. As he got close, Cass activated Bane in a small area but at high intensity.

A purple-colored miasma formed just past the trap, and even as it did, Alan appeared. The old man stood for a heartbeat, then collapsed bonelessly to the ground. It wasn’t long before the Rake came into sight.

The speedy monster soundlessly shrieked as it charged toward them. As planned, its eyes weren’t on the group or the trap, but on the red-glowing old man lying in the white and gray ash. 

Dead trees shattered and snapped as it smashed its way through the Dungeon, and again, Cass had to doubt if his plan would work or if they were all about to die horrible deaths.

The ground shook as the crocodilian monster opened its mouth wide and plowed forward. Those two, meaty legs hit the cable, and it pulled tight against them, but the monster barely slowed in the slightest. Cass couldn’t hear anything, but he was sure that if he could, he’d have heard the trees holding the tubing groan.

One snapped, then two as the monster continued to push forward against the thick cables, slowing a little. Then, it hit Cass’s newest Bane Quest.

The purple miasma almost had a life of its own as it lifted up and attached itself to the Rake. Those thick arms suddenly started to scrabble against the ground as the trap now had a fighting chance. Then, everyone lit into the creature all at once.

Pellblasts fired on both sides as everyone tried their best to fire into the underbelly. Not much of it was showing, but for those hits that did land, the damage was apparent as small holes opened up in the Rake’s body.

Then, another dead tree fell as the upper-tier monster continued its efforts to reach Alan’s prone body. And another. Weakened though it was, the Rake was single-minded in its efforts to destroy the human-shaped lure.

Cass was mid-swing into the monster’s side when a thought came to him. Right after connecting, he took a step back.

With a quick action, Cass formed a Quest. Its intended targets were the two people he was closest to in the world, and it wasn’t Gary.

The Quest was a Delivery type. 

Another tree fell, and the Rake started to make ground when a cyan pulse pushed the ash back. In the clear air, Cass spied a thin, sharply angled Bella pouncing forward. 

On her back was Adya, spear held forward and a furious expression on her face. The Scout angled her body, spear braced against the stirrup as woman and horse blurred forward together.  

Less than a heartbeat passed before every inch of the spear was embedded deep into the Rake's side. It gave a soundless scream, but didn’t stop trying to push forward as horse and Heraldrider did it again and again. Then they did it again; the sharp spear pushed forward by all the weight and speed that Bella could bring forth.

Once one side was properly bored, they switched sides, diving forward and timing the Rake's slowing movements, predicting each thrust with pin-point accuracy. 

So this is what a high-tier monster is like.

He swung again, chipping a piece of armor off the monster with his ‘ever-sharp’ hatchet.

Just one of these would’ve killed so many people back in Liora.

Cass analyzed the situation.

The creature still wasn’t dead, and Alan looked like he was two steps into a coma. Another tree cracked as the monster’s lifeblood stained the ash, but evermore, it pushed forward. It wasn’t going to stop.

Cass tried making a Bane Quest, but the moment it touched the purple miasma currently weakening the creature, it disappeared.

They don’t stack like that. Hell of a time to find that out.

Adya and Bella looked like they were going to fight again when Bella took two steps back and collapsed. Cass sensed her feelings, normally a bonfire constantly thrumming in the back of his mind, go completely muted as she passed out on the battlefield. 

The Herald had worked herself to the point of complete exhaustion, something he’d warn her about when the fight was over.

After making sure Bella was okay, Adya joined the rest of them in trying anything they could to slow down the Rake. Pellin tweaked his weapons, firing them off, then looked frustrated and did so again. Gary grabbed part of the tubing, mace forgotten on the ground beside him, as he pulled in the hope of slowing the creature while a piece of thick bread filled his mouth. Wallace and Seb were timing their shots, attempting to hit the same location at the same time. 

But nothing worked, and what’s worse, Shirley collapsed to her knees beside the creature, forcing Cass to pull her back as the wound on her shoulder bled at an alarming rate. There was also an odor coming from it that curled the nose and pushed bile into the back of his throat. 

Placing the leader of Team Razorwire beside his passed-out horse, Cass had a thought as he rejoined the line and swung his axe.

It’s going to get to Alan at this pace. 

Realizing that all his cards needed to be played, Cass tried another untested idea. Holding up his hatchet, he modified Bane again. Rather than target an area, he placed the Hybrid Quest on the hatchet itself, setting the subtype to harm and burn again. As there was no size limit, intensity was the only adjustable modifier, which he set to high.

Hatchet blazing golden, Cass hacked into the monster’s hide, just beside the neck. For once, a weapon broke through, as blood seeped out of the crack he’d just made. A quick Quest later, and Cass attacked again, this time with his reflexes jumping up to three times.

Awaken Activated

The last tree gave out, and though both anchors were large and heavy, the Rake easily pulled them from the ground as it moved. That left Cass only one option as the monster approached Alan’s fallen position.

It’s close to dead anyway. I can do this.

No, I need to do this.

Adya looked from Alan to Cass with big eyes as she realized he was about to do something foolish. 

This isn’t a gamble, Adya. This is calculated, Cass thought, but all the same, he threw her a wink and as much love as he could burnish in that short moment. Then, he activated a template he’d prepared for just such an occasion.

Lure Activated

Now in a red-tinted world, Cass felt the moment the Rake sensed the Lure. The giant monster looked at Alan, then Cass, then back at Alan. A second pair of lids swept over its eyelids before it opened its mouth wide and took another step closer to Alan.

Oh no you don’t.

Cass reached his hatchet arm back, blade still burning golden, and flung it at the monster as he took two steps with the action. The axe spun end over end before burying itself in the monster's side.

The Rake’s head turned toward him with a silent scream, its rancid breath knocking his hair back.

That got its attention.

Then Cass ran.

Tactical Framing gave him options as he used every twist he could find in the spacing between the trees. Two steps to the left, Cass then dodged right, pushing off the ground with a stomp as all his momentum went the other direction. But that wasn’t all he was doing.

The moment the first small clearing appeared, Cass reached into his templates. By projecting the Outliner on any dead arboreal helpers he could find, the QuestWright spun up a Bane Quest and dropped it in his path on a one-second delay. 

Another few steps later, he did the same, only changing the Bane-type to tendrils as a green aura lit up the ash around him. Taking a sharp left, his eyes followed the motion, only to find the Rake right behind him.

Glowing green vines were wrapped around the monster, its neck stretched to the max as it reached for Cass, missing the mark by only a few feet. Saying a mental prayer that he was doing this right, Cass leaped, kicked off of a stump, then bounced back in the direction of the Rake. He landed on the monster, just behind the small nubs cornering the back of its head. 

Then, he cast Bane on his position at max intensity.

The Rake's head snapped up as both of them were cast in golden fury. The ashfall around them took on a golden hue as the monster bucked. Cass held on, hands gripping the loose edge of plating that covered the monster’s body. 

Once it ended, he did it again as the monster had a fit. He couldn’t imagine the creature's reaction to having a lure literally right on top of it while its body burned. It probably felt like that time Cass rolled through a bushel of poison oak once. 

Itchy all over.

Then it spun so fast that even Cass’s elevated reflexes couldn’t manage. Thrown from the creature's back, he flew through the air, landing in an involuntary roll twice before coming to a harsh stop against a tree some distance away.

A branch was only inches away from impaling him, which might’ve been the end had he not been lucky. But all the same, he felt his healing powers kick in as his back felt like it had shattered and his leg was twisted at an odd angle from the hip.

Cass took a stuttering breath as the Rake took a single step toward him, but then it collapsed, and all the air came out of his lungs. It was done. The Rake was dead.

We actually killed it.

There was no celebration, no parade waiting for him back in the tower. A high-tier monster was dead, and still, the Guardian lived.

A tingling sensation ran through him as his restorative powers worked away; meanwhile, his notifications were blinking. But there was a problem. The moment the Rake had died, Cass had pulled up the map to make sure no other monsters were around the area, and that was the issue.

Right where the Rake was lying, a tiny, almost unnoticeable, red dot showed on the map.

The sense of feeling in his legs came back right around the time his leg decided to straighten itself with a crack. Luckily, there was no sound, or his friends springing toward him would’ve surely heard the scream ripping from his mouth.

Taking two sharp breaths, Cass tried to smile as he waved Adya’s way when she found him. Planting her hands on her hips, she looked from him to the Rake and shook her head, but he could feel what she was thinking all the same.

Gary popped up a second later with Pellin at his side. The large Baker helped Cass stand, as together, they all moved over to the monster that had caused them so much trouble.

Cass noticed something as they got closer. The muscles covering the monster’s figure were prominent, and much smaller than he remembered.

When first fighting the creature, it had seemed like a goliath of a figure. Teeth and terror wrapped up into one package. But now, after stabbing, burning, and shooting it full of holes, there was a de-mystifying edge to look at its prone body.

And as he looked, Cass recognized something truly strange. All of the injuries that weren’t burns, such as Adya’s deeply thrusted attacks and Pellin’s shots, were missing. He couldn’t put his finger on why that was so off.

That’s not right. Neither Alan nor Joran said anything about it being able to heal like this. 

Then he remembered the red dot.

Cass glanced at Adya and gestured at her spear. She raised her eyebrows at him, but handed it over all the same as he gingerly climbed on top of the Rake’s cooling figure.

There’s still something here to kill.

As Cass’s friends watched him with conflicting looks, he walked along the length of the monster. Then, as he got close to the hindquarters, he noticed something.

On the back of the Rake’s left leg was a bulbous yet prominent red scab. From all of the blood and viscera, the exposed bone, and the burns, nothing on the Rake had ever been red. 

Monsters bleed in white.

Spear held aloft, Cass stabbed it down into the abnormal growth. The scab was tough, requiring him to apply extra force to penetrate it. Then, for the first time since entering the Dungeon, everybody heard a sound.

Shraah!

Cass’s eardrums felt like they were going to burst as, through pained tears, he stabbed down again. All the worry and anxiety in his body transferred to his hands as he unmercilessly ravaged whatever the creature was. Visible to the naked eye, each fresh stab closed behind the last, but Cass wasn’t having it. This was a monster. 

This thing needed to die.

A moment later, a mace cracked into the same area, and as it wound up again, two Cyan lights burned in. They were soon joined by a hatchet-wielding Adya, each of them grimacing as the monster continued to shriek.

One by one, they attacked, beating back the creature's regenerative powers without offering an ounce of forgiveness. Until, finally, there was no more sound in the Dungeon yet again. 

The ash in the air was set off in a flurry as the surrounding environment shifted. Cass had experienced this feeling only once, but he knew what was coming. 

Spear dropped to the ground; he lifted the glowing Quill high into the air just as the magenta bubble spelling the dungeon’s end arrived. Only inches from his face, Cass gripped the Quill tight, then stabbed down..

One Dungeon left.