Advent of Eternity - Chapter 141 (Patreon)

Knell and Emma emerged in the dungeon room that they’d left from. There was no sign of Cyll or the other members of his crew, but Knell could hear the distant sounds of battle from deeper within the dungeon.

“Do you wish to carry this with you?” Emma asked, hefting the crate of precious materials that Veil had given Knell. “Or would you like me to deliver it to your ship?”

“My ship would be fantastic. Hand it to Lillicent, not the skeleton,” Knell said. “You know which one she is?”

“I think I will be able to find her,” Emma replied. She started to turn, then paused and looked back at Knell. He raised an eyebrow.

“What is it?”

“Eliza cares deeply for her brother. She will be distraught if you fail to do what I could not.”

“You’re assuming the boy will even be with the bandits – and you’re also assuming that the bandits are chasing us. That’s a lot of ifs.”

“Lord Veil believes that they chase you, and he has not discovered any other encampments belonging to them while he studied the world. He may not be able to leave our lands himself, but he can still look. If he said that they are coming, then they are coming.”

“And we will do what we can,” Knell said. “I have no desire to watch an innocent die, and I will do what I can to ensure that I can rescue him – so long as it does not involve sacrificing one of my men in the process.”

Emma nodded. She sank into the ground without another word, taking the chest with her. Knell wasted no time in turning away and heading toward the sound of the fight in the distance, his eyes lighting up a dull golden yellow.

His crew had been busy. Knell walked briskly through dozens of rooms, all littered with dead monsters. Not a single one of them had been left alive. With every step Knell took, the fight grew closer.

Cyll’s uproarious laughter was the easiest to pick out, but he could also hear Maya’s voice as well. None of them sounded particularly concerned, so Knell didn’t force himself to move any faster than his injured leg would allow.

After a few minutes of walking, he made his way through a tight, winding corridor and emerged into a large, square room. Two large metal doors loomed at its back, splattered with blood near their bottoms.

Mounds of kobolds littered the ground all around the room. There must have been several dozen of them. Most were carved to pieces, but a fair number had fallen to an arrow or had been pulverized by an enormous bolt.

Stix knelt in a corner, her hand crossbow drawn and the ballistae at her feet. Cyll and Maya both stood in the center of their room with their backs to each other and their blades dripping with blood. The last surviving kobolds had made around them, but neither looked even slightly concerned about their predicament. Stix nodded to Knell as he arrived.

“Did it go well?”

“Better than I expected,” Knell replied, watching as Maya batted a kobold’s desperate attack to the side and ran her sword through its head. “A portion of the goal we have been seeking is at hand.”

Stix, who had been slotting an arrow into one of her bows, lowered her hands and turned to Knell in shock. “You mean…”

“We will discuss it further once this dungeon is complete. There’s no reason to delay further.”

A kobold screamed as it sailed through the room and crashed into the wall. Lassie hurtled through the air like a javelin, slamming into the monster’s chest with a crunch and punching through the stone behind it. Cyll charged after his blade with a mad laugh, vaulting over another kobold in the process. Stix fired her crossbows, taking out two of the monsters that split off to try and chase after Cyll.

Knell watched his crew fight, his magic at the ready to interfere the moment it was needed, but he soon let it fade away. The last of the kobolds fell with little resistance despite their best efforts, and the room soon went silent once again.

“Oh, the Cap is back,” Cyll said, pulling Lassie of a kobold’s chest with a grunt. He wiped the sword clean with the back of his hand, then wiped his hand off on the kobold. “You look happy. It’s weird.”

“My apologies,” Knell said dryly. “And I’m not sure happy is the proper word. Excited may be more accurate.”

“That good?” Maya asked. “What happened? Is the Veil going to join our side or something?”

“Or something. We will discuss things further on the ship. I believe there’s still a boss to kill in this dungeon.”

“I’ll bet Stix’s dinner that it’s just sitting around behind those doors,” Cyll said, nodding to the back of the room. “You showed up at a good time, Cap. Now you can slow the bugger down for a second before the rest of us rip it to pieces.”

“That’s assuming we can get the doors open.” Maya sheathed her sword and walked up to the doors, examining them closely. The rest of the crew joined her.

“Looks like they just push open,” Cyll said. “Shall we find out?”

Knell took a few steps back, making sure he wasn’t standing directly in front of the doors. Stix put her hand crossbows away and raised the ballistae, moving to stand beside Knell and taking aim.

Maya held her hand over the hilt of her blade and gave Cyll a nod. Cyll looked to Knell and Stix. They both nodded as well. With a grin, Cyll walked up to the doors and pressed his shoulder against one of them.

It let out a low creak, then started to grind inwards. Considering its size and Cyll’s relative strength, it moved incredibly easily. Seeing beyond the door was impossible – all that met Knell’s eyes was pitch black. Cyll stepped back once the door was open enough for them to slip through, but its motion continued on without him.

The rumbling filling the cavern came to an abrupt halt as the door slammed against the wall behind it, sending echoes bouncing through the dungeon. The second door rumbled open as well and Cyll raised his sword before him a moment before it too slammed into the wall.

Two torchers sputtered to life within the darkness. Two more followed it, and then two more after those. The warm light reflected off a mound of gold curled in the center of a large cavern. It was roughly as tall as a two story building and twice as wide.

“Ooh boy,” Cyll murmured, flexing his fingers around Lassie’s hilt. The huge, shimmering pile shifted. Cracks split the air as a tail uncurled, slipping out and coiling in the air, a jagged point at its end.

Two brilliant red eyes snapped open, followed by a pair of enormous wings as they unfurled above the monster’s back, stretching out after years of disuse.

“That’s one big ass dragon,” Cyll said, letting out a whistle.

The dragon roared, flapping its wings once and buffeting them with a gust of wind so powerful that Knell nearly tripped. It slammed its front legs into the ground and a spark of flame lit in its mouth.

Knell thrust his hand forward and cast Warp in front of the double doors. A wall of green magic swirled to life an instant before molten fire poured out from the dragon’s mouth, washing into the shield and spinning in place.

Cyll and Maya darted out of the way and Knell released his spell, allowing the fire to snap back into motion, flying past all of them harmlessly. The heat from the flame washed over Knell as it passed him by.

“Speed me, Cap!” Cyll called, then darted toward the dragon. Knell obliged and launched a Haste spell at his back.

Roaring, the dragon whipped its tail at Cyll. Its jagged end carved through the air, slicing a deep gouge through the wall like a hot knife through butter. Cyll blurred, launching himself over the tail and letting it pass beneath him.

He landed on the ground running and threw himself at the monster’s side, driving Lassie into it. There was a brilliant chime and Lassie rebounded, spinning into the air. Cyll swore and launched himself after his sword.

Stix’s ballistae whumped and a bolt streaked through the air. The dragon jerked its head back, and the bolt that was meant for its eye shattered against the hard scales of its forehead instead.

It snarled and swiped at Cyll. He ducked out of the way, but another wave of fire breath forced him to dive for cover.

“Well, this is working,” Stix muttered, hurrying to load a second bolt. “It’s smart enough to know not to let me at its eyes. I won’t be able to hit it while it’s ready.”

“I’ll help Cyll distract it,” Maya said, running to stand beside them. “Knell, could you…”

Knell touched a finger to her shoulder and cast Anchor. “One minute. Go.”

Cyll swore as Knell released the haste spell.

“Cap, seriously?” he yelled. “The damn thing is still trying to toast me!”

“Other people needed the help more,” Knell called.

Maya sprinted for the fight, leaving her sword sheathed. Knell watched the dragon closely as it closed its mouth, spinning to see if it had managed to catch Cyll. One eye tracked Maya’s approach, but the monster clearly didn’t regard her as much of a threat.

She reached its side and drew her blade, bringing it down into one of the monster’s feet with all her might. Another brilliant note rang through the room as the sword rebounded harmlessly.

Then Maya’s sword trembled. Knell was unsure if the dragon was intelligent, but he could put a pin in the exact moment that it realized that something was wrong. Its leg shook violently as a tremor ran up from where Maya had struck it. Scales shattered all along its leg and it screamed in pain, bringing the leg crashing down on top of her.

Maya vanished beneath it, and the resulting crash was so loud that dust rained from the ceiling. A huge wave of dust exploded outward, heavily obscuring the air around the dragon. Stix winced and took aim at the monster, but it was thrashing around even more now than it had been before. With the addition of the debris everywhere, Knell didn’t imagine she’d be able to get a reliable shot off. Stix caught Knell’s eye and shook her head, confirming his suspicion.

Knell readied Slow, but he held off on casting it. The dragon still wasn’t looking in their direction, so even if he kept it from moving as much, Stix’s shot would still be less than ideal. He needed to wait until Cyll got it focused on him, as Maya wasn’t going to be doing much of anything until a minute had passed.

“Over here, glizzard lizard!” Cyll’s voice echoed out from within the dust. The dragon’s head snapped toward the sound of his voice.

Cyll leapt out of the smoke, driving Lassie into the dragon’s leg. Surprisingly, this time, it punched clean through without any resistance. Wasting no time, Cyll launched himself upward and drove his blade through its scales once more, scaling the monster and running onto its back.

The dragon screamed, whipping around and slamming its tail into the wall. The dungeon rumbled in protest and dust rained down from the ceiling again. Cyll sprinted across the dragon’s back, wisps of faint blue energy curling off his back and arms. His features had sharpened, and his eyes were colder than Knell recalled.

Cyll kept his hold on the dragon’s back as he clambered up its neck and jumped onto its head, baring his teeth in a snarl. He raised his sword into the air – and a wingtip caught him in the back.

He shot off like a bullet, dropping Lassie and smashing into a wall. The dragon roared in victory – and turned toward Knell and Stix. Knell grinned. He thrust his hands forward and unleashed the Slow he’d been saving, and the dragon’s movements slammed to a halt for a fraction of a second.

It was enough.

Stix’s ballistae fired. Its bolt pierced clean into the center of the dragon’s eye, passing through it and into its skull. The monster stiffened and blood poured down its face. For an instant, it went still.

Then it collapsed, the force from its body hitting the ground creating a shockwave that blew the cloud of debris away in a single go. Blue energy swirled into all of them.

The gods have granted you experience for besting your foe. You have leveled up.

You have defeated an entity more powerful than you. Experience Gained. Your Level has been adjusted accordingly.

“Not the smoothest execution,” Knell said after a moment of silence. “But well done, everyone. Let’s wait for Maya to rejoin us. Then we’ve got some talking to do.”