Ogre Tyrant

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 17 - What lies beneath - Part Two {Rewrite}

Tobi gripped the handle of his borrowed bow tight and drew another arrow, “Hail Shot,” he mumbled, drawing back the bowstring and loosing the arrow. The moment the arrow left the bow, two slightly smaller arrows shimmered into being on either side of the first and sped towards their intended target. “Sure Shot!” Tobi muttered, nearly gasping as he felt the sudden surge of weakness wash through his body. Tobi was running incredibly low on mana and likely only had enough for one more augmented shot.

Following the path of the three arrows, Tobi grinned with grim satisfaction as they found their mark in the exposed flank of the giant reptilian monster attempting to clamber aboard the ship.

A Hydra, that was what Clarice had called it, a fucking Hydra!

Nearly large enough to occupy the deck all on its own, the twin-headed beast was coming dangerously close to capsizing the ship. Half the ship’s crew had already been killed or eaten, the poor Goblins having never stood a chance. Even Tobi was accomplishing little more than pissing it off. The Goblins weapons were simply not good enough.

The Hydra’s attention was currently upon Clarice herself, who was swinging and jumping through the rigging like a madwoman. She was bleeding pretty badly, but so was everyone else. Emelia had been knocked out cold by a swipe from the monster’s tail and Nadine had barely managed to drag her to safety before barring the doors below decks shut.

When the Hydra had first appeared, Tobi had been terrified and wanted to hide. But after it hurt Emelia...something had just snapped, and now he wanted it dead!

Shady was already harrying its legs, nipping at the Hydra’s underbelly when and where he could, before teleporting away and beginning the attack anew.

Tobi had wasted close to a dozen arrows trying to blind the Hydra by shooting it in its eyes, but the arrows had bounced off without doing noticeable harm. It was insane, because the iron arrowheads provided by the Goblins were peppering the Hydra’s scales without any real problems.

*Crash*

Clarice barely managed to dodge the snapping jaws of the Hydra as its bulk splintered the mast closest to the front of the ship.

Cries of alarm and terror came from the ruptured deck, attracting the attention of all the fighters still left standing, and the Hydra itself.

Bellowing in hunger the beast’s heads snaked down towards the hole.

“Emelia!” Tobi croaked, fumbling for another arrow and lining up to take his shot, “Precise Shot!” he roared, drawing the arrow back as far as the bow would allow and then letting it loose.

The leftmost head of the Hydra turned its cold reptilian gaze on Tobi, hardly blinking as the arrow impacted with its eye and ricocheted away.

Tobi drew and fired another arrow, then another and another.

The Hydra opened its mouth wide and revealed several rows of sharp fangs.

*Thump*

There were more cries from below decks as the rightmost Hydra head attempted to force its way through the hole.

Movement from above caught Tobi’s eye and daring to glance away from the Hydra for half a second, he could barely come to grips with what he was seeing.

“DIE YOU FUCKER!” Clarice had launched herself off the crow’s nest on the remaining mast and was hurtling down towards the Hydra’s exposed back at impossible speed. With a splintered boom from the sails clutched tight in her arms, it was obvious what she intended to do with it.

Clarice’s sudden outcry got the attention of both the Hydra’s heads, but Clarice was moving too fast for either of them to really do anything about it.

*Shunk*

The impact shuddered through the deck and nearly knocked Tobi off his feet.

The Hydra roared in fury and pain, thrashing and splintering the few intact railings and slaying any Goblins unfortunate enough not to get out of the way in time.

Clarice was unconscious, broken bones protruding from both her arms and her right thigh.

Shady suddenly appeared beside her in a cloud of shadowy smoke and launched himself at the Hydra’s leftmost head. A half-second later, Beaky appeared and charged the rightmost head, shrieking at a pitch that made Tobi’s ears ache.

For the first time in the engagement, the Hydra baulked, slowly backpedalling away from the relatively diminutive Shadowcat and off the deck.

“FUCK OFF!” Tobi ignored the pain in his arms and fired another arrow at the Hydra’s flank.

The remaining Goblins began doing the same, hurling spears and firing arrows of their own. Those without weapons ran at the Hydra with teeth bared, howling and whooping like frenzied beasts.

Backing still farther away, the Hydra’s heads took in the situation for a few moments longer and then fled, rolling off the ship and into the river.

The ship rocked heavily to one side and Tobi lost his footing, sending him crashing to the deck and striking his head.

Dazed and feeling incredibly weak, Tobi tried to push himself to his feet, but couldn’t. The ship was spinning out of control and he couldn’t tell which way was up. Tobi barely managed to roll onto his side before a sudden wave of nausea caused him to empty the contents of his stomach down his front and onto the deck.

“Emelia...” Tobi groaned and tried to stand again. However, he lacked the strength and felt so very cold...

*****

The Captain’s requests had been understandably few. Besides the briar walls, terraformed ground and running water to form a relatively defensible and self-sustaining base, he had only made one other request.

Cpt. Klive wanted to store a beacon in the Grove, which I categorically refused. After he explained what the beacon was and what it did, it only made me more certain that my decision was the right one to make.

The beacon allowed soldiers bearing a matching mark to travel through an external portal and arrive in the beacon’s general vicinity, so long as the beacon was adequately charged. It was sort of like a reversed Ward, forcing the human soldiers to spawn in a specifically designated place. In fact, the more I thought about it that way, the more I was convinced that it was exactly how the Beacon worked.

Probing Cpt. Klive for more information. I was even more surprised to find that the humans had some sort of magical communication device that could transfer information back and forth between the outside world and inside of the Labyrinth, but also between the floors as well. He tried to bribe me with one, showing it off as the ultimate technology, but from what I could tell, it was a two way shared screen with leather-wrapped stylus.

Without someone on the opposite side and an army of scribes to transfer messages, it was almost worthless to me. Certainly not worth the colossal security risk of armed soldiers suddenly appearing inside Sanctuary. Not by a long shot.

In fact, now that I was aware of how the beacon worked, I was surprised to find that I could block its effects with the Barrier.

Did that mean I could do the opposite as well? If myself or any of my people were to enter a portal from the outside, would that allow us to return straight to Sanctuary?

If it did, that would be a fantastic escape route if anyone was captured and managed to slip away.

Explaining the situation to Hana, she more or less agreed with my judgement. Allowing the human army to have a presence nearby would come in useful if another Awakened tried causing trouble, even if they only served as an early warning of The Destroyer’s arrival.

To that end, Hana insisted on the prospective fortification being located between Sanctuary and the river, which would put the army on our eastern side rather than the south where they currently had their camp. The general idea was that she would simply make a second gate on the western side once the human territory was finished, allowing our hunters free rein on the western front and giving the humans control and responsibility for the east.

It wasn’t a terrible idea. It would mean that the Captain would be responsible for all the adventurers that tried heading towards Sanctuary in the future. And would similarly be held responsible for any trouble the adventurers caused.

Even so, Hana still estimated that it would take the better part of a week without burning through a whole mess of manastones. Even with the manastones, she still insisted that it would take a few days and that she would need a dedicated escort to fend off monsters that would be drawn to her disturbing the area.

Normally, that would have been a completely reasonable request. However, since using the Daemons was out, that only left the Deep Orcs and Serpent-Kin, of which both groups were already pulling rather significant duties for Sanctuary. The best compromise I could figure, was that the hunting parties served as Hana’s guard detail. So long as enough monsters were agitated, I supposed it could work out well enough.

There was a silver lining of sorts, with a better handle on the ranking officer of the human’s army, I was reasonably confident that I could allow the Serpent-Kin and Deep Orcs to begin hatching eggs again. It would probably be better to start on that front again sooner rather than later. The strength and size of Sanctuary’s Barrier was dependent on the number of bound citizens, not how old they are. So the more children Sanctuary had, the better its future prospects would be.

Lastly, I convened a meeting with Lash, Gric, Hana and Asra by the new partially completed mine entrance. I needed to know what exactly made dungeons so damn dangerous and whether it would be worth venturing inside of the one near Sanctuary, or collapsing the cavern to block it off forever.

‘Sorry Tim, I haven't heard of these ‘dungeons’ either,” Hana shrugged apologetically, her tall frame waving slightly in an imaginary breeze as she worked her magic.

Now having removed, and assumedly returned his borrowed Deep Orc armour, Gric seemed positively ecstatic at the news of the dungeon. “This is a fantastic opportunity Lord!” He exclaimed, “Dungeons hold Artefacts and magical items of immense power! They are worth nearly any price to obtain! At your order, I will lead an incursion into the depths and retrieve all items of consequence for you my Lord!”

More than a little taken aback by Gric’s fervour, I looked to Lash and Asra for confirmation.

Lash had removed her helmet and was holding it in her free hand, so I could clearly see the conflicted expression on her face. “Dungeons are dangerous and valuable,” she agreed reluctantly, “Best if Daemons explore and die, but awakened dungeon will hunger and hunt if not defeated.”

Asra nodded emphatically, visibly terrified, “Taless of adventurerss entering dungeonss and letting loosse hordess of powerful and nearly unsstoppable ssoulesss are many...” He gulped hard and gave me a pleading look, “Pleasse Lord, bury thiss dungeon!”

Lash nodded in minor agreement, “Risk is too great,” she agreed.

Gric deflated somewhat, sighed deeply and nodded, “Forgive me Lord...I was excited...Their advice is sound. The dungeon should be buried until such a time as your army is strong enough to purge its denizens.”

To have a unanimous agreement like this, the dungeon must be incredibly dangerous indeed. “Alright, how do we collapse the cavern?” I asked, “That is, how do we do it without getting crushed to death in the process ourselves?”

“Easy,” Lash snorted with a grin and pointed at Gric, “Make Daemons do it.”

I smiled a little as I realised she had a point. Even if the Daemons were caught in a cave-in, provided we only used summoned copies, then it wouldn’t actually matter.

Lash then pointed down Hana’s new mineshaft for emphasis, specifically at Dar who could be heard deeper down clawing through the dirt and rocks. “Dar will collapse the cavern,” she stated simply.

Whatever changes Dar had made to his claws had turned him into a powerful digger. Assuming he could at least climb the walls as Qreet had, then it was possible Dar could destabilise the roof of the cavern and cause a wider collapse. Worst case scenario, he could just collapse the tunnel leading to the cavern.

“Well...We should probably handle it sooner rather than later, right?” I asked, doing my best to keep the disappointment from my tone.

"It is for the best...” Gric agreed with a grimace, as if the words pained him to speak aloud.

“For the best,” Lash agreed bluntly, nodding in such a way that it seemed like this was the only reasonable outcome.

Asra began letting out a deep relieved sigh, but suddenly stiffened in a panic as he realised his own necessary involvement in the plan. As our only Pact Binder, Asra was a mandatory member of the demolitions team.

In fact, our group would be close to identical to the one we entered with earlier. As loath as I was to bring Toofy and Ril into danger, I needed Toofy’s synergies for our team, just in case something went wrong or if we were ambushed again. Similarly, I needed Ril to look out for Toofy and keep her from trouble. Lash and I were obvious choices for nearly the same reason as Toofy. Our Class Abilities and synergies would be needed if anything tried escaping the dungeon before we could seal it off.

Stocking up on required supplies, mostly food and extra ropes, we descended Hana and Dar’s roughly formed tunnel and into the depths below. Anchoring and tying off a rope to help us return later, we climbed down the final twenty feet and entered the staging cavern.

Asra got to work almost immediately, nervously flinging out manastones and summoning copies of the Daemons from above. As summoned monsters, the first ten Daemons would generate and earn full Exp from any monsters they killed. The remaining fourteen bled over from the regular party limits and became part of my assigned retinue as the party leader. A phenomenally broken mechanic if ever I saw one, not that I was going to complain about it.

With the majority of Daemons eagerly roving ahead of us, and a selected pack of trusted elites covering the rear, namely Dar, Qreet and Gric, our journey through the tunnels and caverns was almost entirely uneventful. The daemons were ruthless, mobbing and feasting on any monster foolish enough to reveal itself. I honestly doubted that a BloodHunter swarm would accomplish much against the Daemons unless they were caught in a confining tunnel and buried beneath a literal tide of bodies.

For the most part, the few monsters remaining in the general vicinity seemed to get the message and had retreated from the area. Much to the Daemons disappointment. Being confined to Sanctuary since the arrival of the humans had obviously been stifling and they were eager for a fight.

As we were about to enter the tunnel leading to the cavern housing the dungeon entrance, Wraithe and two other Daemons I didn’t know by name, came speeding down the tunnel, “Lord! A dungeon beast has escaped! We must kill it!” Wraithe insisted excitedly.

“Escaped?!” Gric grinned wide, revealing his razor-sharp teeth.

Wraithe nodded, “Indeed Underlord! And it is already wounded!”

The two other Daemons shared excited hungry looks with one another and licked their lips.

“Lord?” Gric looked to me for permission, “Such a beast will aid our growth immensely!”

I didn’t doubt it, “Alright,” I agreed, “But no suicide tactics!” We had a limited number of manastones with us and I would prefer not to have to make poor Asra burn through all of them just fighting one monster.

Gric and the other Daemons grinned wickedly at one another and raced down the tunnel, all except for Ril of course.

Slowly following along behind them, by the time we reached the cavern, the battle was in full swing.

What looked like a bloated and massively overgrown Spineback, with two serpents in place of a head, was locked in a deadly life or death struggle on the cavern floor a short distance from the lake at the centre of the cavern.

Dar and Qreet were clambering over its back, ripping and tearing with their powerful claws, biting down and swallowing chunks of the monsters still living flesh.

The ‘weaker’ Daemons were doing much the same, anchoring onto the monster's legs and tail, very nearly rendering it immobile as they gorged themselves on their prey.

For his part, Gric was actually rather reserved, lobbing boulders and rocks at the serpent heads, stunning them and preventing them from accomplishing any meaningful reprisal. “FEAST!” The light in the cavern dimmed briefly and I saw the pulse of Grics dark mana manifest and wash over the other Daemons, driving them into a greater feeding frenzy.

The monster gave trumpeting roars in protest, looking longingly towards the lake. However, try as it might, the monster seemed incapable of dislodging the Daemons, or even moving in any meaningful way at all.

“Bad baby!” Toofy cried in anger.

I turned around just in time to see Ril sprinting towards the wounded monster, Toofy hot on her tail.

Damnit!

Sprinting after them, I was moderately consoled by the fact that the monster seemed to be weakening by the second. Unfortunately, Gric was relocating to source a fresh pile of ammunition. So the monster was now free to counterattack.

Snapping up one of the Daemons, the monster’s snakehead very nearly dropped it immediately, revealing the Daemon making a bloody mess of its tongue and mouth.

Unfortunately, the other head had found easier prey and darted at Ril. Before I even had the chance to try and do anything, the serpent's jaws had slammed shut around Ril and swallowed her whole.

“BABY!” Toofy screamed hysterically, leaping onto the serpent’s head, her shiv a blur of motion as blood poured from its eye.

The serpent flung Toofy away with a gurgling roar, sending her crashing into the cavern wall.

My blood ran cold and before I even realised it, my morning star was gripped tightly in my right hand and I was flying towards the serpent’s head.

*Thump* *Crunch*

Half blinded, the serpent misjudged its angle of attack, causing its nose to slam into my midsection, but not until after my morningstar pulped its eye socket.

Somehow keeping a grip on my morningstar, the momentum caused even more damage to the serpent’s face as I was thrown away.

Crashing to the ground, I sprang back to my feet and raced back towards the monster again, “KILL IT!” I bellowed, feeling the surge of mana leaving my body but only after strengthening and reinforcing it.

The Daemons collectively hissed, howled, roared and screeched their eagerness to obey.

The rightmost head of the monster bared its fanged maw to try and ward the Daemons away, but only managed to draw their ire instead. A half dozen daemons redirected their efforts into wrangling its neck while inflicting as much damage as possible. The leftmost head was flailing and spitting up bloody bile.

“KILL! KILL!! KILL!!!” Toofy had streaked past me again and was scaling the monster's body, using a pair of shivs like climbing picks, determinedly headed for the leftmost serpent’s head.

Rushing after her, I laid into the monster’s body with my morningstar as best as I was able, losing myself in a haze of anger and bloodlust.

It wasn’t until the monster collapsed and a golden status alert appeared in front of my eyes.

[Toofy has slain {Dungeon Guardian: Hydra: 5 } +25000 Exp]

Blinking away my surprise, I lost track of the message, but vividly remembered what it had said. “Dungeon Guardian?” I muttered in shock, “Twenty-five thousand EXP?!”

“Where baby!” Toofy wailed nearby, pulling me from my shocked state.

I could see Lash animatedly hacking away at the rightmost neck of the dead Hydra and was about to join her when I saw a section of the Hydra’s neck move. “Over here!” I called out and pointed to the moving section of its neck.

Dar was first to arrive, anchoring his powerful claws into the scaly hide and snarling as he slowly ripped a hole through its hide.

To my immense relief and no small amount of horror, Ril wriggled free of the Hydra’s neck and into the light. She was soaked in blood, but despite a couple of tears in her sodden tunic, Ril seemed perfectly fine. More than that, she was grinning from ear to ear and licking her lips with relish, glancing eagerly back at the exposed flesh of the Hydra.

“Baby!” Toofy knocked Ril down with a flying tackle, “Baby no leave Toofy!” she scolded, hugging Ril tight and sniffling.

“Sorry Mama...” Ril’s smile had faded and she seemed genuinely remorseful over her actions, although I noticed that her newly found remorse still didn’t stop her from eagerly licking herself clean.

Leaving the Daemons to their feast, I stepped back with Lash to ask her a few questions. “Do you know what a Dungeon Guardian is?” I asked, but made sure to keep my expectations appropriate to the fact that Deep Orc’s literacy was insufficient to read status alerts or quests.

Lash seemed lost in thought for a moment and surprised me with a tentative nod, “Stronger monster patrols dungeon, keep weaker monsters in line,” she explained thoughtfully, “But is not the strongest monster. Strongest monster guards treasures.”

That sounded like both good and bad news, “So it's possible that with the Hydra dead-” I motioned to the dead Hydra, “-the other remaining monsters inside will begin leaving the dungeon?”

Lash nodded and shrugged, “Haven't seen a dungeon before,” she apologised, “Scouting dungeon less dangerous now,” Lash admitted in a conflicted tone.

I nodded as I considered what she meant. Without the dungeon Guardian wandering around, the dungeon would be relatively safer to explore before they sealed it away.

Who knows, maybe it would be weak enough for them to kill the boss too? The Daemons didn’t seem to have any problems dealing with the Hydra, so it was possible...

Somehow, the Daemons had polished off everything but the largest of the Hydra’s bones and Toofy had stowed away some of those for later, including more than a few of the Hydra’s fangs...

Toofy’s most important find was a strange-looking jewel that had to be some sort of drop item like the iron ingots. Roughly the size of my thumb, the oval jewel had what seemed like a swirling vortex of water in its centre, the luminescent waters within shimmering with painfully obvious magical influences.

Of course, Toofy had handed the jewel off to Ril, who was now obsessed with it to such a degree that I wouldn’t be surprised if she began whispering to herself obsessively over how important it was to her, perhaps even naming it after that fact.

Most of the Daemons seemed unchanged, which was a little surprising, but perhaps that was because many of them already had reptilian traits. Taking a closer look at Ril, I quickly recognised a similar change in almost every other Daemon.

Ril had an almost completely translucent third eyelid, and judging by the way she was experimentally poking at it with her clawed fingers, I realised why the Daemons had judged it to be so valuable. Unlike the Deep Orcs, the Daemons didn’t have any armour or weapons. So they made full use of their claws and teeth. Unfortunately, biting other monsters brought their eyes incredibly close to their enemies' own natural weaponry. Armoured eyelids seemed like an incredibly valuable trait to copy.

Standing before the colossal entrance to the dungeon, I was curious as to how exactly the gates were meant to be opened. There was no sight of any handles or anything similar that would allow the doors to be pulled open, so I had to assume that the doors needed to be pushed instead.

Giving Gric and Dar, the two largest and heavily muscled Daemons the go-ahead, I watched with mounting trepidation as they bunched their muscles and heaved.

The doors opened with a near agonising slowness, the hidden hinges seemingly reluctant to allow the invaders entry.

Beyond the dungeon’s gate was the beginnings of a dark hallway. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any light sources inside, but the faint shadowy light from the luminescent fungi close to the entrance revealed rows of tall statues lining either side of the hall.

“Gric, do you see anything?” I asked, knowing that the Daemon’s eyes are far better adapted to the dark than mine.

Gric scanned the darkness for a few moments, panning his head back and forth, “Just statues Lord,” he called back with no small amount of confusion. “There is a much larger statue deeper within Lord, but I see no other exits or entrances besides this one, just more statues.”

That was incredibly suspicious. Moving closer to look at the statues closest to the doors, they looked oddly reminiscent of theocratic knights. Carved in such a way that they were depicted wearing robes and scapular over the top of what looked like plated armour of some kind, bearing staves, spears and all manner of polearms.

“Gric, I want you and a few of the Daemons to take some of the glowing fungi in there and spread it around so I can get a better look,” I ordered, “If the statues suddenly come alive, you have my permission to start trashing them,” I added, just to make it clear what I expected was going to happen.

Gric nodded, and motioned vaguely over one shoulder, causing Wraithe and four other Daemons to begin hurriedly collecting luminescent fungi.

With a decent amount collected, Gric led the Daemons across the threshold. Rather anticlimactically, nothing happened and the Daemons continued into the chamber proper, distributing the glowing fungi here and there to somewhat light up the chamber.

The dungeon chamber was close to a couple of hundred feet in diameter, seeming to be roughly circular in dimensions and with a domed ceiling. Not that I could see that far into the darkness to be sure. It was far larger than I had expected it to be. Roughly dead centre was a larger statue that was more or less the same as the others, with the exception that it was nearly three times as tall and both its arms were empty, lowered and held out to either side while the serene face stared upwards towards the ceiling.

It was a shame really. If the arms had been held upwards rather than lowered close to its sides, it would have matched a popular meme from Earth...

“Lord?” Gric called out from within the chamber, “I detect no movement from the statues and sense no mana suggesting they will animate...”

I was about to tell Gric and the other Daemons not to let down their guard, but was distracted by Toofy suddenly crossing the threshold. She was making a beeline straight for the base of the largest statue in the centre of the room.

Damnit!

Glancing quickly back at Ril, I could see her beginning to panic as she hurriedly stuffed the magical jewel in her pocket and raced after Toofy.

Chasing after both of them, I kept a wary eye on the statues, “Looks like we are doing this!” I called back over my shoulder and nearly tripped as I saw the large double doors slam shut just as Lash nimbly dove through the gap.

Lash landed with a cacophonous clatter, the plates of her armour scraping and clanging against the rough flagstones.

“Adventurers!” A melodic and altogether androgynous voice called from seemingly everywhere at once, their voice echoing ominously throughout the chamber, despite the light and non-threatening tone. “You have submitted yourselves to the judgement of the Heavens! Should you prove pure of heart, riches beyond measure will be bestowed upon you. However...” The voice grew cold, “Should you prove unworthy, your lives will be forf-” the voice abruptly halted mid-sentence and there was the sound of a sharp intake of breath, “High heavens preserve us,” the voice gasped, “DAEMONS! PURGE THEM ALL!” The voice snarled.

I was wrong, the statues were apparently still just cold inanimate statues...However, a large shimmering portal appeared ten or so feet above the large statues head, a strange facsimile of a halo.

Within less than a second, a tall man in shimmering robes and plated armour descended through the portal, a spear outstretched in one hand and golden shimmering wings of pure light extending from his back. Directing his spear at the closest Daemon, the holy warrior released a howl of rage and charged.

Thankfully, the target of the holy warrior’s ire was Gric and he had kept enough of his wits about him to leap out of the way and even delivered a kick to the winged warrior’s back in the process, “ANGELS!” Gric roared with such contempt and loathing that it left my ears feeling fouled for having heard it.

The other Daemons howled in outrage, moving to engage the Angel.

Sensing his disadvantage, the Angel rose up towards the domed ceiling and out of reach, revealing that the ceiling was in fact about fifty feet tall at its highest point, making the chamber an almost perfect hemisphere.

Seeing that the Daemons were keeping the Angel at bay for the time being, I rushed over towards the statue to retrieve Toofy and Ril.

“Toofy stuck!” Toofy whined unhappily, her right arm very nearly buried to the shoulder in a hidden alcove in the base of the statue.

“Stuck how? What happened?” I asked, trying not to panic and keeping one eye on the portal above us. All I could see was a bright sky filled with silver and golden clouds.

Toofy pulled hard trying to dislodge her arm, “Toofy see shiny, Toofy try to get. Shiny won’t let Toofy go!” She cried, tears welling at the corners of her eyes.

A sudden flash of light and blurred movement signalled the arrival of another Angel, but Lash seemed to have been waiting for it, because a loud crash echoed from somewhere behind me a couple of seconds afterwards.

“Toofy you need to let it go,” I insisted, “We can find more shinies later, just let go, okay?” I could only imagine that inside the base of the statue, Toofy was determinedly holding onto an anchored thief trap of some kind. Like a monkey refusing to let go of the banana, her arm would remain stuck until she was caught or let it go.

“Can’t!” Toofy wailed in a panic, “Shiny won’t let Toofy go!”

Glancing upwards, I caught sight of three Angels, two male and one, presumably female judging by the armour, joining the fray.

*Clang*

Lash managed to batter one of the male Angels down to the ground and pin him beneath her boot while the remaining pair flew towards the ceiling alongside the other Angel, no doubt waiting for a numerical advantage before committing to an attack.

Noticing the lack of remains provided by Lash's previous victim, I realised just how much trouble we were in. The portal was Summoning Angels to fight us, so it was entirely possible that their numbers were limitless. Given I had no idea how much mana it took to summon Daemons or Angels, it would be far safer to move forward with the assumption that the portal could summon as many Angels as it wanted.

Recalling that the voice had said something about being pure of heart and proving worthiness, it seemed like a real dick move to ensnare Toofy like this. Her kleptomania was not maliciously motivated!

Noticing a small hole further along the base of the statue, I quickly pointed it out to Ril, “Try slotting that jewel into the hole!” I insisted urgently.

Ril nodded and hurriedly withdrew the jewel and pushed it into the hole. With her hand coming away empty, Ril looked at Toofy in a panic, “It fell in...” She croaked anxiously and gave Toofy’s arm an experimental tug.

Toofy flinched and hissed in pain.

Taking a quick look around, I could see that the three Angels had now descended and were harassing the Daemons from a distance with their spears. Lash was standing close by and covering us the best she was able.

A sudden bright flash of light from the portal caught me unawares and blinded me for a handful of seconds before I managed to blink away the after images.

To my dismay, the portal had grown close to twice its original size and no fewer than seven Angels descended from the portal and rushed over to deal with Gric and the other Daemons.

The only conceivable silver lining I could see in this situation was that thus far, they had elected to leave Ril and Toofy alone.

Desperate, and unable to think of anything better to try, I got to my feet and tried shoving over the giant statue.

“Hey!” The voice called out angrily, “Stop that!”

Filled with confidence that not doing what the voice wanted was the key to resolving this situation as quickly as possible, I redoubled my efforts and felt the statue start to give.

“I SAID STOP THAT YOU BIG UGLY BRUTE!” The voice screeched in rage.

Lash dropped her axe and joined me, pulsing her Bastion ability and sending the four Angels that just crossed the portal tumbling through the air.

All at once, the statue gave out and crashed to the floor, snapping into several pieces.

“NOOOO!!!” The voice shrieked in outrage, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

Contrary to my expectations, the portal did not disappear. In fact, it seemed to be growing larger.

Furthermore, a nimbus of golden light had now formed above the portal and was slowly taking shape into a winged humanoid form. Armoured in the same ceremonial robes and shimmering plate and mail as the other Angels, the latest arrival did not have a helmet to conceal his delicate and admittedly feminine features. Waist-length shimmering golden hair flowed down his chest and back in effortless silken tresses as he trembled with rage, “YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS BLASPHEMY!” The Angel screeched materialising a silver spear from thin air and diving for Lash.

Knocking aside Lash at the last moment, I caught the tip of the Angels spear on my arm and felt a cold burning sensation as it tore through my flesh.

A quick Glance over Gric left me with little confidence that this fight was going in our favour. Two Daemons were badly wounded and just about on their last legs. Meanwhile, the host of Angels harassing them seemed unharmed.

As the Angel charged me again, he was buffeted aside as Lash activated her bastion ability again and hurriedly retrieved her axe. “Fight me! Coward!” Lash taunted with a feral snarl.

The Angel sneered contemptuously and flew slightly higher out of reach. Pointing his spear squarely at Lash, the Angel grinned malevolently, “Judgement!” The word reverberated through the chamber and Lash fell to the ground.

Rushing to her side, I pulled off Lash’s helmet to see what was wrong. Even though she was still breathing, Lash’s pupils were fully dilated and she seemed to be completely unresponsive. Gently slapping her cheek and roughly jostling her, I began to panic as I realised that whatever the Angel had done rendered Lash catatonic. “Lash!” Even though I didn’t expect it to work, her complete lack of reaction chilled me to the bone.

“Doesn’t feel good does it?!” The Angel taunted, “Ruining my trial will cost you all dearly!” He shrieked and lunged towards Toofy.

Letting Lash fall to the floor, I desperately scrambled to intercept the Angel, but I was too late.

*Shlink*

Unable to avoid the incoming attack, Toofy had been a sitting duck.

Ril stared balefully back at the Angel and tightly gripped the spear shaft lodged in her stomach, “Not my Mama!” She croaked painfully, crackling energy erupting from around the wound and causing Ril to gasp in pain.

“No...” The Angel gasped in horror, “Nononono! This is impossible!” His spear and armoured vestments suddenly vanished, sending the Angel toppling to the ground in an unceremonious heap.

Ril collapsed.

“BABY! NO!” Toofy howled in anguish dragging Ril close with her one free arm, “Toofy no mad at Baby. See?” She babbled, smiling awkwardly, “Baby just stop tricking Toofy! Kay?! Baby just wake up!” Toofy shook Ril’s limp body desperately trying to get a reaction, “Don't leave Toofy!”

“NOOO!!!” The soul-rending cry of anguish from the Angel shocked Toofy into silence. The ephemeral golden wings at his back had blackened to a mottled grey and so had his eyes. “There must be some mistake!” He demanded, shouting towards the ceiling, “I didn’t harm an innocent! She was just a Daemon! I couldn’t ha-OOF!” The Angel doubled over as if someone had struck him hard in the gut. “No...” He croaked, “I...I can fix this!” The Angel reached out towards Ril with his right hand, “Grace!” He cried, closing his eyes and smiling gently with a somewhat expectant expression on his face.

Nothing happened.

“What?...NO!” The Angel became enraged again, but I ignored it. Wadding up Ril’s tunic, I tried my best to stem the bleeding. Despite the wound looking like she had been badly burned, it was far from cauterised, her blood welling freely from the open wound.

“Status,” The Angel croaked.

“Ril, you just need to hold on alright. Everything will be fine, we just need to get you back to Sanctuary." I tried my best to remain calm despite how hopeless the situation seemed to be. Not bringing a Surgeon had been a colossal oversight on my part. To make things worse, Ril wouldn’t even be in this mess if I hadn't brought her and Toofy along in the first place.

“Nooo,” The Angel moaned pitiably, “This isn’t fair!”

A sudden flash of anger refocused my attention on the enemy at hand, “YOU!” I snarled viciously at the Angel, “Even if you are just a summoned monster, I’ll make you regret this!” I gently laid Ril down next to Toofy, allowing her anguish to pass through me and feed my anger.

Gric and the Daemons had overpowered and disposed of the other Angels, so they took up flanking positions to stop the final Angel’s escape.

“W-wait!” The Angel stammered, “I can save her, just don’t kill me! I can make things right, I swear!”

“How?!” I growled malevolently.

The Angel gulped hard and winced, “F-fallen Grace,” he sobbed, pointing a trembling finger towards Toofy and Ril.

“What is that meant to-” The words died on my tongue as a ragged burned incision appeared in the Angel’s midsection and began weeping black blood.

“S-see?” The Angel chuckled nervously towards the ceiling, “I c-can make it r-right!” He then promptly keeled over and collapsed unceremoniously to the ground.

It took a moment for what happened to fully register and begin making sense. The prospect of exchanging injuries was almost more than I could process.

Quickly returning to Ril’s side, I was relieved to see that the wound in her stomach was significantly smaller than it had been before, and appeared to have already stopped bleeding. Cradled tightly in Toofy’s arms, it came as another shock realising that Toofy had somehow managed to free her other arm.

“Lord?” Gric growled ominously, “What do we do with the Angel?” He asked with unconcealed animosity.

I was severely tempted to have the Daemons tear him apart, piece by piece, but looking over at Lash stayed my hand. Whatever the Angel had done, we may need him alive to snap Lash out of it.

“Stabilise his wound,” I hissed angrily, ripping off my tunic and throwing it in their general direction, “He has a lot to answer for...”

Gric grinned evilly and nodded, “As you will Lord.”

*****

Nadine staggered and nearly fell as the boat rocked from another strong wave. Having barely slept a handful of hours over the past few days, the battle against the Hydra had pushed her past the breaking point.

Completely out of mana potions and forced to improvise with the primitive materials on hand, Nadine had accomplished far more than she ever would have believed herself capable of. Even so, Clarice had nearly died.

With no MP left and no mana potions to restore it. The best Nadine had been able to manage was setting Clarice’s bones as best as she could and praying to the gods for a miracle. Unable to do anything to stop the internal bleeding, prayer had been Nadine's last resort, and she wasn’t too proud to admit that she had made more than a few promises to try and tempt the gods into intervening.

Nadine had held Vigil over Clarice and watched with ever-mounting dread and despair as her HP continued to slowly but steadily descend deeper into deficit. Nadine recalled how shallow Clarice’s breathing had become, how cold her hand felt within her own.

Then, just as all was well and truly lost, Nadine received her miracle. With a flash of golden light and the sudden appearance of a golden status alert, Clarice was given a second chance.

Somehow, Toofy, of all people, had tracked the Hydra down and killed it. The colossal EXP reward for assisting in the kill, pushed both Clarice and Nadine herself each into their next levels.

For Clarice, the level up gave her one additional point of Toughness, effectively staving off her demise with another three effective HP.

Even though Nadine didn’t gain MP for levelling up, she did gain another point of Willpower, and after another hour of damn near torturous waiting, Nadine regenerated the necessary MP to stabilize Clarice by using Field Dressing and accelerating her healing and restoring a chunk of HP.

The only problem now was that Nadine couldn’t bring herself to sleep.

Not that she didn’t trust the Forest Goblins, they had proven themselves to be genuinely helpful and trustworthy. However, with everyone out of commission, and Ushu actively working to conceal their presence from the enemy army, Nadine felt that succumbing to sleep at this point would be tempting fate and everything would suddenly go horribly wrong.

Of course, with how heavy her eyelids were feeling at that particular moment, it may not be a question of if she would be going to sleep, so much as when.

“Land ahead! Land ahead!” Screeched one of the Goblins, immediately rousing Nadine to sudden, albeit grudging wakefulness.

She didn’t remember falling asleep, but Nadine could tell that she was a special sort of tired you could only get if you were woken from a deep sleep. A cross between raw unmitigated fury and a touch of melancholy that would gladly let the world burn down for another minute of sleep.

Blearily acknowledging her replenished MP Nadine groaned and dragged herself to her feet. There was no shortage of patients in need of healing and she had both a job to do and a slew of promises to keep.

Staggering over to Clarice’s makeshift cot, an immense luxury under the current circumstances, Nadine double-checked that she had set the bones correctly, moved on towards the stairs and laboriously climbed up onto the top deck.

The fight with the Hydra had left the ship in dire straits, but Nadine tried not to think about it too much.

The ship was someone else's problem.

Shuffling stiffly across the deck to the mostly enclosed forecastle, Nadine found her next set of patients. Badly wounded while fighting the Hydra, the half dozen Goblins sharing crude makeshift hammocks for warmth had been in rough shape as near as Nadine could remember.

With two MPs available to be spent, Nadine would once again have to decide who would live and who would be forced to survive on a hope and a prayer...