The Runic Artist

Trudging through the dark tunnels, Nate was thankful that they were no longer constantly being harassed by the bloody kobolds. If they had been, they likely would’ve been on the receiving end of some fresh doses of poison. The poison they’d encountered so far had been delivered directly into their bodies courtesy of the hidden mechanical traps firing bolts enchanted to pierce magical barriers. At least that was what he was assuming the enchantment on the metal bolts was, as he couldn’t find any sigils on the blasted things. Even after their rest, he still felt miserable. Under the effect of the poison, every use of his mana required twice the normal amount, if not more.

The fact that the tunnels were filled with traps meant Nate was taking point, scanning everything constantly with Spatial Awareness, his sphere able to detect the projectiles hidden in the rocks beneath their feet and the walls surrounding them. They’d been walking for over an hour by now and he had to acknowledge that Aisling had been right about the difference in size for the Dungeon. The cave system they were in was an order of magnitude larger than both the Construct Dungeon and Undead Dungeons he’d faced. According to Kiri, it was probably only five times as big as the Goblin Plains she’d faced alone. Still, it was annoyingly big, and this Dungeon was only Low Rare. They were going to get bigger.

They weren’t wandering aimlessly. Frick had been scouting ahead and guiding them ever downward. It was the best idea they’d had as Kiri’s basic tracking skills hadn’t been up to the task of figuring out the mess that was the tiny claw marks made by hundreds of kobolds. Seemingly, they’d come from every corner of the Dungeon to attack the Rune Fort. Which begged the question, why hadn’t the other three Challenges? He could understand the Bonus Challenge not coming. Could be some giant mole for all they knew. Still, he had a good feeling about this plan, even if it was the only thing that was currently feeling good.

It was another hour before they reached the bottom of, what he was now guessing, was the pit they’d seen when they first entered the Dungeon. That realisation left him torn. It meant that they likely could have made their way directly down to the bottom from the start using his barriers like an elevator. On the other hand, this area didn’t look very defensible and they likely would’ve been overrun. Then again, it also would’ve skipped all the traps they ran through while trying to find somewhere defensible, so maybe they wouldn’t have been in as bad of a shape before the fighting had even really begun.

With an annoyed grunt he stopped himself thinking like that. Second guessing themselves and theorising on what might’ve been would just frustrate him.

“You alright up there?” called Kiri from a few metres behind him as she followed in his footsteps to avoid the various traps.

“Yeah, I am fine. Just ready to be done I guess,” he replied.

“You and me both. A long bath when we’re done?” she asked hopefully.

“Deal,” was all he could manage to say in response.

As they crossed the bottom of the pit, they approached the first actual architecture he’d encountered in the entire Dungeon. Double doors that stood at least four metres tall. The scrollwork decorating it was exquisite, moving in whorls and bursts to bring out the glory of the creature captured in the image. A dragon.

Well, two dragons. One for each door. They were slightly different from each other. Staring at the artwork he couldn’t decide if he was elated to see such beauty, or worried because of what that might mean for what lay beyond this door. Surely a Low Rare Dungeon wouldn’t contain a dragon. Surely.

With a look at Kiri, who he could see visibly gulp, he waited for her nod before he pushed on the doors. He’d expected resistance but they swung open soundlessly on well oiled, or more likely enchanted, hinges.

As they gazed into the antechamber of what was surely the final challenge of the Dungeon, he sighed in relief and tried not to laugh as his Eyes of the Runic Artist activated.

Trakzing Cleverclaw

Kobold Trapper (R) (31) / Tinker (U) (7)

Uzderk Shadowscale

Hidden Claw (R) (33) / Rogue (U) (5)

Szuzkrung, Chosen of Xenyntiss

Blood of the Dragon (R) (37) / Fire Mage (U) (3)

The three kobolds stood on the far side of the room, each unique in appearance. Uzderk was the most normal looking of the three and lived up to his name of Shadowscale. His scales were black as night and if it wasn’t for the mana flowing inside of him, Nate wasn’t sure he would’ve spotted him. Next was Trakzing Cleverclaw, so named apparently because he had four arms. A kobold with four arms. They’d noted the differences between the kobolds as they’d fought them but it was starting to look like the creatures were mutagenic, evolving down specific bloodline paths or some such.

Trakzing had at least two bags draped over him and maybe a third on his back, though it was hard to tell. The bags were bulging at the seams and looked about ready to break open. Neither of those two were what had caused him to laugh though. After being worried that the Dungeon was setting them up to face a dragon, he couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the winged, red scaled kobold named Szuzkrung. It was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He shared the notifications with Kiri and Frick as the three of them settled into a staring contest with the kobolds.

“I suppose that’s the last three Challenges then. One last push and we’re done,” he said.

“Yeah, Boss man. All you gotta do is beat the discount dragon,” Frick said, snickering as he floated around them, making rude gestures at the kobolds that seemed to be growing agitated at the Spirit’s posturing.

Kiri stepped up next to him, “Like you said, one last push. Thoughts?”

He looked over their enemies' classes again. A trapper, a rogue and what was basically their totem chieftain who could likely use fire magic.

“I’m thinking the Trapper has to go first. If he’s carrying poisoned bolts in that bag we’re going to be worse off than we already are. The Rogue’s the lowest threat. I can probably see him anyway when he tries to hide and you just need to get a Soul Tether on him and he won’t be able to hide from you either,” he paused, considering the one that was likely the Chieftain. “The dragon wannabe is probably going to be the hardest to take down and we’ll have to wear it down. So, the plan is, we focus on the Trapper, then the Rogue, then finish off the one with the wings.”

Kiri glanced back at their opponents before smirking at him and giving a nod.

“Frick, check the room for traps,” he said, motioning to the tiled floor. The cut stone was decorated with patterns. Far better for concealing traps than the shitty tunnels they’d been trudging through all day.

He felt the tug on his mana reserve as Frick started using Spatial Awareness, zooming around the room. The kobolds weren’t idle when they saw the Spirit checking the room. The Rogue vanished, or at least it probably vanished from Kiri’s sight. He could still see it just fine. The Trapper started pulling parts out of its bag faster than he thought possible with the creature's four arms, and he wasn’t certain, but he thought it might be assembling a crossbow. The Chosen stepped up onto a raised platform at the back of the room and began swirling its claws in front of it. Mana was already building in front of the kobold and his Eyes of the Runic Artist told him that it was imbued with the Concept of Fire. No surprises there.

Frick returned to him and quickly pointed out the ten different tiles they couldn’t step on. With that out of the way and one last glance at his best friend, he charged into the room. The Trapper was almost finished and he’d been wrong to think it was just building a crossbow. It had built a crossbow that sat on a wooden stand like some modern weapon. He knew it was going to start firing in a moment and called on his Powerful Fire rune and Gather rune, linking them in an array. Applying his Imbue Intent he tried to force the Fire to take on the Subconcept of sticky before unleashing the built up rune at the mounted crossbow. He heard the Trapper yell something about the ‘sacred fire’ but chose to ignore it as he took up a position in the middle of the room.

The smoke from the burning wood of the Trappers weapon had already begun to fill the antechamber and he sent Frick to harass the Rogue and keep it off Kiri as he turned to face the Chosen. The fires had continued to build in front of the winged kobold and it was clearly getting ready to release the ungodly fireball that was now over a metre in diameter. Thinking quickly he split his attention as he formed two separate runic arrays at the same time. The first was a Fire Barrier meant to protect him, or Kiri if necessary. The second was a Mana Exclusion runic array meant to disrupt the spell.

Glancing behind him to check how everything was going, he could see that Kiri was going toe to toe with Trapper and winning handily. The Trapper had pulled out a total of four different weapons and was attempting to overwhelm her only to find that she also held four weapons, her daggers flicking in and out, each time leaving a new bleeding line on the kobold. On top of that, his Eyes of the Runic Artist could see the soul energy leaking out of the creature. She just needed a little longer to finish the job.

Turning back to the Chosen, he threw the Mana Exclusion rune array beneath it. The fireball, which had grown even further and was now encompassing a metre and a half diameter, instantly began to shrink. The Chosen hissed in what he interpreted as rage before throwing the still shrinking fireball at Nate. The fireball whistled over the tiles, the flaming light reflecting off the tiles throughout the cavern, but even with the ten or so seconds the kobold had been allowed to charge its spell, it wasn’t enough to overcome a barrier specifically made to counter the element. Fireball met Fire Barrier and the wash of flames cracked some of the tiles around Nate, even activating a trap that sent a metal bolt flying into the wall, but the attack hadn’t done more than ruffle his Mana Reserve.

Nate started to smile. They were really going to pull this off. After a quick check on Frick to see that the Familiar was still chasing the Rogue, shooting what looked like small bolts of shadow to annoy the creature, he turned back to the Chosen. Maybe it would like some water?

*************

Xalvoloth waited patiently. It was almost time. It had been following its prey for the better part of the day, keeping a careful distance. It knew the human had some detection capabilities. It had even tested their limits to some extent while back in that human town. Seeing how far away the Familiar could spot it. It had doubled the distance, just in case. Spirits were rarely capable of using the Skills of those they were bound to to the fullest. No, better to be safe. But now its moment had finally come.

The humans were fighting the remaining Challenges of this Dungeon. More than enough to keep the female distracted. The Spirit didn’t matter either way. If it interfered, it would be devoured. Maybe even if it didn’t. Xalvoloth knew it would be punished severely if it killed the other human and it had known she would interfere if it attacked its prey. Waiting, after the interminable waiting it had already had to suffer, made its rage run hot. It wanted to make its target suffer for this humiliation!

When it struck it had to be swift. It had to get close before the target could detect it. It really really wanted to drag the suffering out but it was wary of doing so. The target had held it off before. If it did so again it might even fail. Then there would be no reward, and the penalty for failure was as brutal as the reward would be sweet. No, better if it struck with finality. Take off its head in one strike. It only had to wait a little bit longer. Crouching down outside the door it waited, devouring as much of its own presence as it could. The right moment would present itself soon.

*************

Nate glanced over to see Kiri still trying to finish off the Trapper. These things must be tougher than he had thought if she still hadn’t managed to defeat it using her Soul Drain skill. Focusing back on the Chosen he began using Runic Creation to form a new runic array. Linking his Powerful Water rune and his Projectile rune, he applied Imbue Intent to shape the resulting water into what were effectively compressed bullets of water. He was being careful to ration his mana as he was already approaching half his reserve after using the three runic arrays he’d performed so far. This one should last for a while though and he could just keep funnelling a little more mana into it to create more of the water bullets.

The winged kobold hadn’t been idle either and watching the way the mana swirled inside of it made him suspect that it was activating a boosting skill. With his own attack prepared, he didn’t give the Chosen any more time to empower its skill. Water bullets started shooting off at two every second and while the attacks weren’t enough to penetrate the scales of the kobold, they kept it off balance. Each splash forced the kobold to stumble backwards as it squawked in indignation but he just kept up the barrage, peppering the kobold with the water blasts to keep it off balance. He just needed to buy Kiri a bit more time to finish off the Trapper.

As he focused on the Chosen, he felt something enter his sphere of awareness at breakneck speeds. Spinning, he controlled his barrier with Imbue Intent to reinforce it and tried to activate No Steps Necessary. The skill came on sluggishly and he threw himself backwards as he finally got eyes on what was charging at him. The demon slashed at his head with claws made of light and the barrier parted beneath its fell light. The claw passed in front of his face, scoring a line from cheek to cheek across the bridge of his nose and over his eyes. No Steps Necessary finally activated, moving him a few metres away but the damage had been done as he bit down on his tongue, blood flowing into his mouth as he tried not to scream. The darkness was all encompassing as panic began to colour his every thought. The Devouring Light had taken his eyes. He was blind.