Chapter 514: Here we go

Mason’s series of shots blasted away chunks from the demon-dog’s left head, his scatter-burst of Crippling Strike lacerating a leg. He could hear the small ‘explosions’ from his Reverberation augment, too, which seemed to multiply with his Cripple. So that was a thing.

The beast slowed, but not much.

Seamus and Tommaso were loosing their own shots behind at the other dog, but Mason couldn’t afford to pay attention. They had two teams for a reason. They each had their own jobs to do.

“Do what you can, Demi,” he shouted, still loosing a steady stream of ice arrows at the beast, especially Exploiting Strike on cooldown. “Becky and John—keep them busy but don’t hold your ground. Be ready to fall back.”

John nodded and crackled with energy as he walked forward, the big man looking suddenly very small as the hound came closer. Mason had the urge to drop his bow and charge, but he wanted to wait—to let the others try and deal with this thing before he went all cowboy.

It was like Becky heard his thoughts, and refused to be outdone. She charged right past John with both physical and magical shield raised, crafter mace in her other hand. The hound slowed as one head lowered and opened its mouth, letting out a blast of fire.

For a moment it looked insane. Here was this skinny girl from Arkansas with nothing but a metal disc charging a walking nightmare. A casual observed might think she’d run out and gotten tired of life. But Mason knew better. She only looked crazy.

Red and blue energy sizzled as Becky held her shield out and stood, the fire parting around her. The big dumb demon dog stopped and kept blasting, as if it assumed its concentrated fire would roast the girl alive.

What was important was that it stopped moving. When an archer like Mason was hunting you, stopping was a very bad idea.

His hands moved in a blur, loosing arrows into the now almost stationary hound. He aimed for its eyes and open mouth in a blink, three in the air before the first one struck. The first grazed an eye then slammed and stuck into the side of the socket, the others vanishing into the flame before the beast horked and choked and the breath attack died.

The hound’s other head looked straight at Mason and snarled, the big body following as it charged. A wall of Garet’s spears formed in its path, stopping it cold as Mason walked forward loosing again and again.

Exploit was growing deadlier with every shot, the force rippling out now with artificial weight. Power and Cripple recycled and Mason again aimed for the creature’s relatively thin legs.

It howled and turned, trying to get around the spears only to find John crackling with blue light and zapping at its face. It gave up and just attacked him, huge jaw snapping air as the Scot pulled back and dodged.

But it lumbered forward, the other head swinging around with incredible speed. Mason shouted in warning but John was too slow. The mouth closed on his arm, but flared with Becky’s Aegis.

Carl appeared almost casually. He did a little hop beside John as he swung his frightening dagger and cut a line in the dog’s second neck. Flaming blood spewed, and the rogue turned and zipped off with equally casual ease.

The showy bastard.

Mason just kept shooting. He made the head he’d been working a growing pin cushion, but with things under control, he glanced back to see how Phuong’s team was doing.

The other two-headed hellhound was desperately trying to kill the swordsman. It did about as well as the abyssal demons during the invasion. Phuong’s sword seemed to blast it away like a battering ram, his every swipe glowing with purple light.

The creature was burning with Seamus’ magic and dripping with Tommaso’s acidic potions. It was stuck to the ground with some kind of glue, getting chopped in the side by Annie and skewered on the other by Jason.

So, yeah, they were doing fine.

Mason turned back to finish his target with a grin before he saw it slump and fall flat. Becky smashed a head with her mace, and John smashed the other with a glowing fist. Both dropped to the stone with a grunt.

The other collapsed in seconds, and for a moment the cavern was still and silent again except for the sounds of the bubbling lava, and the panting of the players.

[Razor Mountain Infestation entrance guards defeated. Group experience awarded.]

Mason was about to tell them they’d done well when the alarm blared.

A high pitched shriek filled the air, coming somehow from the dying dogs, or maybe their corpses. The players started whacking them like a hated alarm clock, but it didn’t help. Mason made a snap decision and activated his Earthsoul gem, the non-nature counter magic blasting out with a wave of power.

As it reached the hounds, the noise died in a blink. He let out a breath of relief, though he expected some damage had been done. He winced, knowing he should have Ranger Marked at the start. It might have warned him.

“Well done,” he said to the others. “But be ready to…”

“There!” Seamus pointed across the cavern, his eyes glowing with magic. “Flying red lights. Or somethin’. Comin’ straight at us, chiefy.”

“All ranged, take ‘em out.” Mason lifted his bow, and got ready to loose.

**

The ‘red lights’ turned out to be flying bomb…demon-drones. Seamus and Mason started exploding them in the air. Even Tommaso managed to hit one with a thrown potion.

Still, half a dozen made it. Jason and Garet managed to spear a few and knock them down. Phuong broke two with a well timed blast. The rest struck with a flare of blue and white light as Becky and Alex protected the targets with shields.

“Mana check,” Mason said, still watching for more flying bombs.

“Ninety per cent,” Alex said, sounding so much like that guy from the old Star Trek Mason expected to hear ‘Captain’. Demi looked flustered and shrugged, and Mason wasn’t sure he’d seen her do anything. Becky cracked her neck.

“Ninety five. John’s pretty damn tough. At least compared to that pansy Carl.” She punched the former in the arm and winked at the latter. “Energy’s pretty much back already.”

Mason nodded. It was a good start. They could always rest and regain mana, but something told him time was important. His gut said they needed to rush down and get to a main target before these demons really rallied a response.

“We move,” he said. “I’ll lead the way. Be ready to rush or fall back if I call for it. I don’t want melee to fight on those narrow strips. We only fight on platforms. Got it?”

Everyone nodded, and Mason took point with his bow. He decided still not to summon Streak or Breaker, not wanting to add more big bodies to the already limited real estate. As he walked he glanced over the sides, and saw no way back up or any kind of edge to walk on. If you fell, you were dropping into half molten lava.

“Don’t fall off,” he said, in case it wasn’t obvious. “But if someone does, scream like a banshee. I’ll come get you.”

“Not to worry, lads, some of us can float.” Seamus grinned. Most everyone else rolled their eyes.

They moved on together, narrowing to basically single file as they crept along the small walkways towards the next, larger platform. Mason explained what he’d seen in his oracle-induced vision. He fully expected this thing to come smashing up out of that grate.

They had so many melee, his ‘plan’ was just to surround it and kill it, keeping the caster types back. But if things got hectic, he’d send most of the others running back to the first platform.

“Any questions or suggestions?” he said, a few steps from the platform.

“We could keep more people back,” Phuong offered. “With my demon-boosted powers, perhaps only I need stand on the platform, hold it back while you bring it down at range.”

“Or we could just run on by. I could wall it off,” Becky suggested.

Mason stopped to consider both. The second he wrote off because he didn’t want to trap them without a way to escape, especially because the dungeon wasn’t ‘mortal’, which meant they could leave. And he doubt it would work anyway. The first was appealing, and probably smart. But this was partly a practice dungeon.

“I want all the melee fighting and learning. But be ready to fall back. If shit goes south, you’ll hold and give them time to run, Phuong.”

The older swordsman nodded, and Mason looked at the players and grinned.

“I could be wrong, but this feels like some kind of dungeon mini-boss. Whatever comes out of the grate, keep yourself on the platform. Do what you can. Call out if you see something or know something. I’ll mark it and hopefully learn something, but I expect unpleasantness. Ready for a bigger challenge?”

There were some sweaty faces, but everyone except Demi looked ready. Even Annie, which was a nice surprise. Mason met Demi’s eyes and put a hand on her shoulder, keeping his voice low.

“Stay with Alex. Just do what you can, you’ll be alright.”

He could see the fear, and the shame of that fear, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Courage was a thing a person learned or they didn’t. All you could do was get scared again and again and keep going anyway.

It was a ‘practice’, but a deadly one. Mason hated sending the others in when he stayed back, but there were just too many melee. The more people he put on the platform the more of a cluster it was going to be.

He nodded and touched each as Becky, Phuong, John, Jason, Garet, Carl and Annie all walked onto the platform. Then he lifted his bow and scrolled through his Endless Quiver, ready in his mind to shoot like a medieval machine gun, or charge in if needed.

“Praying is OK,” Alex said beside him. “But I keep them safe.”

Mason grinned and nodded his thanks. But his players were no strangers to risk and violence. Not anymore. He tried to take comfort in that.

With literally zero surprise from anyone, the ground trembled as the players stepped onto the platform. Growls and thumps started as something beneath the metal grate started struggling to break free.

“Toss some acid on its head,” Mason said to Tommaso, and the Italian grinned as a potion formed in his hand.

“OK, boss. Here we go.”