A Soldier's Life

Chapter 339: Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

The others were waiting for me as I brushed off the brief disorientation of the transition. “How did you convince Navek?” I asked immediately, focusing on Konstantin. I had my doubts he would have been willing.

“I convinced him,” Maveith’s deep voice intoned. “I told him you are the most trustworthy human I know.” I winced a little, feeling guilty. I didn’t plan to release Navek again until we collected enough channeling essences for Castile from the manticores in this dungeon.

“Well, now that there are four of us, maybe the rooms will be easier,” Konstantin muttered. “We have enough time to get back to the safe room in the middle before the maze resets.” He didn’t wait, picking up his gear and walking away.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

We returned through the burnt-out blood caterpillar room, and I refused to add any of the charred worms to my dimensional space to eat later. I also deposited the stones and gravel I had collected outside the entrance. We quickly made our way through the maze, encountering one of the missing goats, which I quickly dispatched. Feeling guilty, I saved the essence for Navek.

The golden fig tree had not repopulated, and we would be able to tell from atop the cliff when it did. We climbed the switchback, avoided the trap, and entered the safe room. Without the energetic young griffin and the taciturn Navek, the group quietly set up camp again. It would be our base for our extended stay in the dungeon.

After we rested and ate, we returned to the jungle room. “I only see two black cats,” Maveith announced after we all studied the room. Since we were now just a group of four, we had been hopeful that the dungeon would set the room to its original difficulty.

“No, the shadow hunter is there somewhere,” Konstantin stated with confidence. “See how the two cats are both on this side of the room waiting for us. It means our backs would be toward this other side when we engaged.” Konstantin was right in that the two large panthers were more obvious than in the past.

“Can you three take the two cats? I will focus on the other side,” I offered.

Maveith gripped his hammer ’til his knuckles cracked. “I can manage one alone.”

Konstantin had both his blades drawn. “As long as I get a successful strike with Shockwave, I can handle the other.”

“Shockwave?” I asked, recalling a cartoon from my youth. His new blade stunned an opponent briefly.

“Powerful runic weapons should have a name,” he said gruffly at me, questioning the name. Konstantin seemed to have a habit of getting attached to his weapons. He really needed a woman.

Maveith entered first with the glowstone, followed by Konstantin. I slipped in with Raelia behind me. She would help whoever needed it. Heartseeker was in my hand as I searched the undergrowth with my enhanced vision. Maveith grunted, and a cat howled and hissed. Konstantin’s blades thudded, and the smell of ozone hit my nostrils. Where was the shadow hunter?

As the battle raged, one of the thick branches above me bent unnaturally. Although I couldn’t see any movement, I pointed Heartseeker up, extending it to meet the foe. I sensed the cat leap as a larger branch snapped, and its shimmering outline materialized from its camouflage as it dove toward me.

I had just enough time to place air shields on either side of the shaft as it landed. Heartseeker caught it in the neck and continued out the back, severing its spine. The air shield protected me from the impact, and I turned to find the fight behind me finished as well.

“That was easy,” Raelia said cheerily. She sheathed her blades like she had been a participant.

I confirmed the chest's appearance and that no one was injured. “Good work, team,” I announced while freeing my spear. “At least the room didn’t get more challenging.”

The essences were disappointing: a major nature essence from the shadow hunter and two major power essences from the large panthers. The power essences went to Raelia and Maveith, while the nature essence went to Konstantin. If we were going to have to travel through this room repeatedly, there would likely be many nature essences in the future. I thought a little guiltily that maybe Navek not being here was a good thing—fewer companions to share the rewards with.

The ornate reward chest was a slightly different design as I handled it. The wood appeared lighter in color, and the joinery looked like a dovetail instead of a finger joint. I carefully opened it, thinking maybe it was trapped, but there were no surprises.

There were two potions on a bed of silver coins. A healing potion and a stamina potion. It was the third type of potion we had obtained from the room. I was grateful the healing potion seemed to be a staple of the reward chest, but now, it was a stamina to go with the invisibility and a lesser aether restorative.

Dungeon potions were worth at least ten times that of an alchemist’s brew. Maybe if we cleared this room enough, we could build up an array of useful potions. “For Baldo, but we can let him rest for now,” I said as I handed the healing potion to Raelia. “Maveith, this is yours,” I handed him the stamina potion. I don’t think my companions realized I was being greedy, waiting for something more useful in the future.

“Are we going to harvest the cats?” Maveith inquired.

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“Just the shadow hunter. I think my space will fill up too quickly if we keep harvesting everything,” I replied, walking around the foliage in search of the valuable flowers. We finished in the room quickly and made our way to the manticore room.

We were somewhat shocked to find a manticore frolicking in the pool at the center of the room. It was unaware of us and appeared to be trying to catch the large fish at the bottom. It climbed ashore with one of the fish proudly in its excessively wide mouth and shook its mane, causing a spray of water.

It still hadn't noticed us when a second manticore appeared. The wet manticore dropped its catch, while the other manticore devoured the fish in two noisy bites. “A female and a male,” Maveith whispered. However, his whispers weren’t quiet enough for the manticores, who turned in our direction, surprised by the intrusion. The smaller beast took to the air to settle on the cliff ledge above, while the other manticore whipped its tail, sending a spray of tail spikes at us.

I reflexively set up an air shield, but it turned out to be unnecessary as the spikes’ momentum stopped at the entrance and clattered to the floor. “Why are there two now?” Maveith questioned. I was confused too, as this room would be much more difficult now.

“At least we know where the females come from now,” I speculated. “Remember the manticore we saw flying into the crevice? When it came out, it had a female with it. Maybe they were a pair in this room. The female waited for the male to explore before leaving.”

“Then why was there only one manticore in the dungeon when we entered?” Konstantin countered my logic.

“I don’t know. I’m just guessing. Maybe we caught the dungeon off guard with our arrival, and it didn’t have enough time to prepare for us?” I said as the manticore flew up to perch on the cliff beside its probable mate. They both watched us closely, waiting for us to enter.

“Two intelligent creatures working together are three times as difficult,” Konstantin said unhelpfully. The two beasts were discussing our appearance in their guttural language. It was not a stone giant, but it was a sign that they could possibly communicate.

“Maveith, see if they will talk to you in stone giant,” I instructed.

Maveith grinned as he bellowed a greeting, “Do you want to play a game of checkers?” The two hideous creatures looked at each other in confusion. Maveith explained, “They might be confused. There is no word for checkers in the language, so I used the Telhian word.”

“Do you really want to play checkers with a manticore?” Raelia asked, hiding her amusement.

“No, but I thought it would be a good way to initiate a discourse,” he replied seriously. I knew my friend well enough to tell he wasn’t being serious, though. The manticores didn’t seem open to entering a conversation, just rasping back and forth in their language.

We started to plan our attack. Konstantin nodded, encouraging me. I stated the obvious facts: “It was five against one the first time we fought, and we had the advantage of surprise. This time, it is four against two, and they have range on us and know we are coming. It is best if I pull their attention to me, and you three focus on the other one at range. I can protect myself long enough for you to finish it.”

“Should we bring Navek to help?” Maveith suggested softly.

It was clear the others wanted me to make the decision. “No,” I stated firmly. “If this goes poorly, we can try with him next time, but we have healing potions.”

We spent more time discussing attacks and getting prepared. Eventually, I entered first, moving quickly to the left. As the male took flight toward me, the others entered, went right, and dropped all extra gear. I focused on my fight, trusting the others to handle the other manticore. The male glided rapidly toward me, its tail whipping a storm of poisoned quills at me. This time, I crouched so my air shield would cover my entire body.

With the attack foiled, the manticore broke its attack dive to reassess me as a threat. I took a chance to throw the heavy Heartseeker spear. It was designed as a two-handed weapon, and I had trouble wielding it with a shield because of the shaft's thickness. The spear only clipped the flank of the beast, but the artificed weapon tore a deep gash into it. The manticore growled in rage and pain as it passed over me.

I took the reprieve to steal a glance at the others. The female manticore remained on the ledge, using the ledge to shield herself from the arrows. Raelia was forming a fireball. My target, dripping heavily with bloody wounds, swooped toward the others, aiming for Raelia in the back.

Kraken’s bloody kiss. I shouted a warning, but Konstantin was already turning to fire an arrow at the beast. I kicked off the rocky ground and raced forward to get in range and do something I was trying to avoid.

Manipulating my dimensional space, I angled the cube diagonally to extend the range from corner to far corner and removed a small portion of the manticore’s chest. The speed of its flight and my running made aiming difficult. I was very fortunate that I hadn’t miscalculated and only stored air.

A stream of blood fell from the beast as it crashed into the ground, leaving my companions untouched. I had revealed one of my aces to the dungeon, but felt it was necessary. I glanced up at the large, bright glowstone in the ceiling, wondering if the dungeon realized what I had just done.

My aether shield flashed as the female attacked me with her quills. She roared in anger at her partner’s death as Raelia’s fireball exploded above her, silencing her. The female was still alive since there was no reward chest. Maveith and Konstantin used their last arrows on the creature, which had fallen silent.

“Spread out,” I ordered. “Let it come to us.” We didn’t have to wait long as the reward chest appeared in the center of the room. It had not been a clean fight, but they never were.

I climbed the cliff to reach the female, discovering that she had likely died from one of Maveith’s arrows lodged deep in her neck. I waved the all-clear sign and used the collector on the foul creature. My hopes were dashed when it only yielded a major channeling essence. This quest to cure Castile might have concluded much sooner if it had produced an apex essence. I joined the others, and the male also yielded only a major channeling essence.

Konstantin mimicked my disappointment when he saw the essences. “Maybe if we wait longer between clearing the room?”

I shrugged, not knowing why the first manticore gave an apex essence while these two just gave major essences. No one had touched the reward chest, so I moved to do that now, a little dejected. I was half-expecting to find another dungeon spell book, but instead, an apex essence rolled across the bed of coins. It was a cloudy gray, and my heart raced at the sight of the rare magical essence—an aether-shaping essence.

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