DD 304 Ch 21 (Patreon)

Arthur Renard stood with the Harem Queen as the rest of their group walked through the portal. Over four hundred strong, it was one-third of humanity’s strength above level 40. So many had either given the dungeon up or focused on making a living over risking themselves further in the dungeon.

"How do you feel about all this?" the gray-haired warlock turned to the woman.

The Harem Queen let out a beaming smile. "I think it's fantastic to watch the changing of the guard. At least we lived to see it, right?"

"Of course we lived to see it. I'm not that old." Arthur scowled at her words. 

"Honey, don't let her get under your skin again," Desmonda's mother patted Arthur on the chest as she walked by, then cast a scowl towards the Harem Queen that turned into a sickly-sweet smile. "I hear your daughter still hasn't found her way into Ken's good graces. Perhaps after this, you can talk to Des. I'm sure my dear daughter would be willing to put in a good word for Helen."

"Some people just aren't meant to be," the Harem Queen dismissed the comment quickly. "I'm more interested in this fight ahead than my daughter's pathetic excuse for a love life."

Arthur visibly winced at how much bite was in those words. "She's a charming young lady. Certainly, she's had some interest."

"Absolutely none," the Harem Queen said. "It is her failing, and no one else's. I think it should be on her to resolve it, even if, as a mother, I wish I could fix everything for her." Heather set her jaw. "But again, I think I must remind you that it's time we focus on the matter at hand. While our children are certainly stepping up, we can't let them do all of the work on this." She glanced around the group gathered with them. "It looks like everyone's here. Let's get a move on." The Harem Queen lifted her sword as it sparked blue catching fire as if it had been coated in oil. Her hair splayed out behind her.

Bringing up the rear, their group numbered over a hundred main combatants, and about twice that in support. There was no reason to keep numbers limited, so they had brought in plenty of healers. They could stay in back and be kept safe with those of lower levels, helping clear chaff and run messages between the groups. There was no guarantee the CIDs would work at all, and in many ways, they'd have to go old-school to ensure communications traveled swiftly between groups.

They'd already killed a handful of dwarves in the current safe zone, but now they were headed for the floor below. As she moved, dozens of dwarves came into view and she flashed forward, her blade burning as she cleaved the air before her.

The space was set alight in a wave of blue fire that caught the dwarves and burned them to ash in a second. The few out of her range suddenly turned black, as darkness seemed to spill out between their pores, quickly consuming their lives.

Heather marched through the dungeon floor, the group fanning out behind her.

The Renards kept pace easily, throwing out afflictions that caused many of the dwarves they spotted to cease functioning correctly, or dealt enough damage to kill them before the larger group reached them. The mass of adventurers pressed down upon their enemies with sheer numbers, solving everything with remarkable speed.

It was impressive how well the army could strip all life from a dungeon floor. The dwarves simply didn't stand a chance, made even more abundantly apparent as many of them began running even before they saw her group. More and more seemed to know they were coming, and rushed away in advance. It wasn’t surprising. They already knew the dwarves had some way to communicate across long distances, as did the Threadspawn.

Heather was moving as fast as she could while keeping the group with her. Even the dwarves who'd begun to run wouldn't get far. Their group was like a blade sweeping through the area, clearing the first floor in less than twenty minutes, already preparing to move on to the next.

Soon a dozen dwarves began to stuff themselves into the stairway down to the next floor. Unlike her daughter, who was taking literal classes to prepare for this, Heather had hired several experts who'd prepared dossiers on the dwarves. She understood that this group before her weren't the drones they'd just been cutting down in droves. These were the warrior caste, with more self-awareness and considerably more strength.

They didn't speak. The first three simply held up large shields and formed a wall several dwarves thick, while those behind drew back javelins and spears, warning her army not to try to pass.

"Pathetic," Arthur said from behind her, his hand outstretched as purple orbs floated up the stairs, as if each had a mind of its own, tracking the dwarves in the back. Even as they swung their spears, trying to bat the orbs away, the motion was futile. The orbs passed through their weapons, reaching the dwarves in back before exploding in shadowy flames, setting them alight.

The chaos was enough that Heather took a proud step forward that boomed within the dungeon stairs, launching herself down them in the blink of an eye, a blue flicker of flame trailing after her sword as the dwarves simply fell apart in her wake.

"Fancy," Arthur chuckled.

"I like to think I don't need fancy tricks, but sometimes it's fun to show off," Heather winked. "As long as you do it tastefully," she added with a subtle pause and a glare for Desmonda's mother.

"Beauty and taste are really in the eyes of the beholder," Desmonda’s mother said calmly. The two of them had once competed for Arthur's affections and had been at friction more than once since that time. Then again, it wasn't as though their children understood the conflict between them and had somehow put them in the same grouping.

The Harem Queen huffed. "I hope you're not just all talk today. We are here to fight, after all."

"Of course," Desmonda’s mother said with the sweet smile of a devil. "But we have the easy part. It seems our kids are going to have all the fun." She crossed her arms and began strolling down the stairs, only to flick her wrist and take down a dozen more dwarves.

There was a flood of action happening further ahead. It seemed dwarves were amassing a huge army not far away.

The Harem Queen braced herself for what she knew would be a massive battle and shouted over her shoulder, "I want a team of level fifties at the base of these stairs, protecting the support teams behind us. Everyone else, down here with me!"

There was a rapid flurry of reshuffling based on her command. Not sparing any of her attention, the Harem Queen faced forward. It was clear the dwarves weren't going to give them time to prepare as a dozen warriors charged up front, with hundreds of drones rushing silently behind them. All their steps together making the dungeon rumble and roar before the first blade even connected.

***

The fighting had begun. Multiple of our groups had already made contact with the enemy, and it was my class’ turn to start as well.

I waved my class forward. It was strange that we were now a power unto ourselves, despite still being in school. Grandpa and a number of the Silverfangs marched with us, though we would likely leave them in position to deal with many of our smaller opponents. This was, after all, a rather risky attack.

Eager for a fight, my classmates rushed first, with the rest of our tanks not far behind. Dwarves were scattered throughout the area, and we'd already cleaned up a fair few of them at the previous safe zone as we had pushed up through the dungeon from the lower floors.

The dwarves had been scattered around, killing monsters and collecting resources. It was an orderly process. Oftentimes those doing the killing and those running off with the loot were different dwarves, especially given that they never seemed to use an inventory of any sort. They simply gathered items or materials off the ground, threw them over their shoulders, or collected them in loose bundles in their arms before hurrying back toward the hive. They were oddly similar to ants.

Our group had moved along the dungeon wall to get in front of them and cut off the next floor before a massacre began. We did not show an ounce of mercy as we worked our way through the dwarves. They certainly wouldn't have shown us any if the roles were reversed.

I scowled briefly at the thought, wondering if I was being too cruel. But from everything we'd seen of the dwarves, they were truly heartless creatures, toiling away like robots. 

The way the dwarves so tirelessly worked came with a hollow expression that I suspected showed just how little attention they gave to any particular task. There wasn't anything behind those eyes besides processing the task before them.

While I finished off the dwarf in front of me, Des bounced to a stop next to me hard enough that her soft bits jiggled pleasantly, and she snapped a salute. "General, the floor is clear." She’d been in an incredible mood since her succubus transformation. Though, at present she had a military cap on, which was out of place with the warlock robes.

I scowled briefly at her, but she maintained a stoic face. It was just absurd of her to do this whole bit.

"Alright, proceed to the next floor," I let my command come out loud enough for everyone to hear. "Tanks, up the stairs."

Des pointed. "You too, Helen," she added for emphasis, and the redhead scowled at her.

"Take this seriously." I told her.

"I am," Des shot back with a saucy wink. "It's just… when is a girl going to get a chain-of-command fantasy like this again?"

"Alright, Des, you're with the tanks. Hurry up, and make sure to slow any of the dwarves that try to run away." I told her, completely ignoring the comment about her fantasy. What even was that kink? Really Des had all the kinks and just enjoyed playing with them.

"Aye aye, Captain," she slapped a salute, and I wanted to press my face into my palm. Apparently I was both a Captain and a General. And now I needed to figure out what the fuck a chain-of-command fantasy was so I could help Des live her dreams.

Everybody moved, ignoring Des’ antics, but I could see the slight lift it gave to the room. And despite her horsing around verbally, she was all seriousness as she followed the tanks up the stairs. She understood that I refused to let anybody mess around in the dungeon to the point that they could get hurt, especially those I loved.

Grandpa came to a speedy stop next to me. "She's quite the spitfire, isn't she?" He rubbed his chin.

"Yeah, but she's my spitfire, so she gets some leniency." I told him.

"Of course. A man should always treat his harem better than anyone else," Grandpa nodded sagely, walking alongside me with his hands behind his back.

I moved along the back of the fighting group, helping make sure everybody got out to the next area, and providing leadership direction. I was itching to do more direct work, but until we got to harder fights, I was meant to hold back. The same went for Crimson, though her idea of not holding back took a slightly different form.

I looked over to see her lounging with a drink.

"Are you going to stay like that through all of this?" I asked her, pointedly, only for her to slurp loudly through the straw stuck in a coconut, complete with a little yellow umbrella.

"Can't I?" she asked. "It's not like you guys need me with these small fry." She waved a hand at the dwarves being cleaned up.

"You know that's not what I mean." I told her.

"Yeah, well, this is good experience for all of them. And I'm saving my strength for when we get into the hive, and there's the queen and the warriors. Not to mention the Threadspawn." Her eyes glowed blue.

So far, in cleaning up all the drones, there hadn't been any Threadspawn among them, much to my own surprise. Then again, the Threadspawn had been slaves to the Drow. It was possible that handing off all the manual labor to the dwarven drones held particular enjoyment for them. I scowled at the thought. I'd hoped for better from a race that had been hurt so badly.

I followed after the main group, stepping up the dungeon stairs and finding our group working to clear the floor. I activated [Eyes of Wisdom] to locate where the next stairs up would be, following the blue line until I found Penny and Des stationed at the base, both of whom snapped a salute as I came closer.

"I get nothing out of your salute, Des," I said, hoping to discourage her.

"Oh, but I get a lot," Des winked, a giant smile splitting her face. "I bet Penny over here is getting plenty of inspiration," she said, bouncing her brows.

"It is kind of hot," Penny agreed.

I scowled at the two of them, then back at Crimson. "Crimson, you're going to come with me. We're going to cut off the dwarves from the main hive. I'm a little worried something's going to come from the other side if this all takes too long."

Des wrinkled her nose, only to spot my reaction and salute again. "Sir, yes sir!"

"Fine, I suppose that probably wouldn't be completely without merit." Crimson got up with the groan of an old man and drained the last of her coconut before chucking it off to the side hard enough that it broke the sound barrier.

"Worse than Grandpa's," I said calmly, only for her to grab at her hip.

"No, but you could go easier on me. I swear, now that you've gotten more strength, it's even tougher than before." She clung to me with wide eyes.

Rather than blush or shy away, I simply squinted at Crimson, ready to call her on her bullshit.

She realized, and stuck out her lower lip. "Fine, fine," she suddenly said in a hurry, when I didn't fold like a lawn chair.

Des did a double take and jumped right in behind Crimson's urgency.

"Grandpa, you're in charge of these forces. Behave," I said to him, and rushed to catch up with Crimson, who had already started moving.