Vol.3 Ch.22 – Ambush

Chapter 22: Ambush

“Something's on your mind," Alisha told me as we were having breakfast the next morning. “You got that look on your face like you're chin-deep in thought.”

I smiled at her. “I can't hide anything from you, can I?”

She just looked at me and I continued:

“I've been thinking that we've been approaching this all wrong, but... eh. So, we've been focused on clearing the dungeon, right? But we aren't actually here to clear the dungeon, are we? We're here to find those cultists, but yesterday was the first glimpse we've even seen of their presence.”

“Right," she said. “So?”

“So now that we know they're here, and that they've started to leave surprises to slow pursuers down, we need to be more careful. We are after the cultists, not after the dungeon bosses. For all we know, the cultists are on this floor with us and beating the boss will get us farther away from them.”

“They're not," Alisha said with absolute conviction.

“How can you know that?" I asked her.

“I should probably have said something yesterday, but after my goddess made me a Minor Saint my Sense Evil skill has become far more powerful. I can feel the entire floor and there's nothing here that shows up as evil, except the corpses of the wendigos.”

“That... is good to know," I said, honestly surprised. “Any other new tricks?”

She blushed. “Well," she said, “my blessings actually do something now. They're a weaker version of the enhancement miracle now. It takes me less work to create sacred circles, too.”

“Any new miracles other than Barrier?”

“Just one," she said. “It's called Soothing Warmth. It's a healing miracle that affects a huge area around me...”

“Wow, that's amazing," I interrupted, but she interrupted me right back, saying:

“Buuut it heals injuries more slowly than the normal Heal miracle.”

I considered that for a moment. “That's still amazing," I said. And it was. Since it was a miracle it would only affect those the cleric wanted to affect with it so there was no need to worry about hostiles getting into the area of effect either. Combined with Phantom Step this would improve our chances of survival by quite a lot.

She looked down, her cheeks a little pink, and I picked up my train of thought from before:

“But what I wanted to get at is this. We need to start worrying about the cultists, but I am fully aware that thinking about that doesn't really help us right now. Because even though our goal is catching up to them and not just fighting the bosses, we still need to do just that, especially if the cultists aren't on this floor anymore.”

That reminded me.

Syr? I asked.

What is it? she replied in my head.

You said you saw the Holy Maiden bless those cultists she sent into the dungeon, right? Does that mean you know how many people she sent?

Not quite, Syr said. I can make a pretty good guess by what was said, but I can't be entirely certain.

I'll take what I can get, I said.

Well, the main group of cultists were five people, one of them clearly in charge, she said. He wore a mask and a cloak and the others deferred to him. Him and another were the ones she empowered but the three others were heavily mutated, so I assume they were powerful in their own right. But they also took along two bottom rank cultists, the kind that aren't at all mutated yet. I'm pretty sure they were meant as sacrifices if need be. I also heard that they had a group of wendigo but I never got to see them. I'm assuming the ones you killed were them but it's also possible that there were more than those three. I'm not sure.

So at least seven more people? I asked.

Assuming none of them have died yet, yes.

Alright, that's good, thank you, I said, then added: By the way, you've been very quiet lately.

I haven't had much to say, she said. Whenever I've been back in my body I've just been watching her sit around. Sometimes she's penning letters that I somehow can't read or she's listening to supplicants but I've yet to hear anything relevant. And when I'm with you, well, I'm not one for strategy and you've had your hands full with the others.

That doesn't really excuse me not taking time to talk to you, I said and got the distinct impression of Syr rolling her eyes.

You haven't had to keep watch lately, so we haven't really had any alone time. And I don't really want to bother anyone while you're fighting for your lives in the dungeon. Especially since I'm not really useful here. I can't scout ahead, I can't tell you about the monsters or the routes you need to take. Right now I'm just a freeloader in your mind.

I didn't bother trying to suppress the anger I was feeling at the way she was putting herself down and knew she could feel it and knew why I was mad.

Sorry, but that's just how I'm feeling right now, she said. It's frustrating. I know you care about me, but I still see everyone earn their keep while I just sit around in your mind being useless.

You didn't seem useless to me when you distracted that giant monster on the second floor or when you gave me estimates on the cultists, I countered.

That gave her pause.

You are limited in what you can do, yes, but given those limitations I think you've been doing a great job.

Alright, she said after a long pause. If you stop feeling bad for not paying enough attention to me I'll stop feeling bad for being of so little use.

Deal.

**

I had stopped paying attention to time pretty quickly once we'd entered the dungeon. The concept of a day didn't hold much meaning to us anymore. Early on we had been able to go all day, even skipping rest spots to rush through the dungeon as quickly as possible, but the encounters had gotten tough enough that we had to take every rest spot on the way, so the only unit of measurement that still held importance was the distance between rest spots. So when I say that we had been traveling for half a day until we reached what had been the watering hole on the previous floor what I mean is that it was located halfway between our last rest spot and our next rest spot.

And Annabella's journal hadn't lied, that liquid was most definitely not safe for consumption. What had been a wide puddle of crystal clear water on the second floor was now a yellow broth that looked like apple juice and smelled like rotten eggs. Judging from the steam coming off it the stuff was also warm, which made the disgusting sulfur smell even more powerful.

Much worse than the liquid was the dozen fire golems surrounding it. They were as tall as the average human, though slightly bulkier and with no discernible features. Their arms ended in three thick fingers and their feet were just rounded blocks. They looked a lot like the moss golems on the previous floor, clay bodies covered in moss, but with these the moss was on fire. That was especially weird considering the moss golems on the previous floor were too damp to be lit ablaze so we had hypothesized that they might be soaked in something flammable.

We'd observed the flames covering them to vary in intensity and now we finally knew what the difference meant. The golems that came to the watering hole were almost extinguished, the moss covering them only holding tiny little embers, but as they drank from the yellow liquid the flames covering them roared back to life, then stabilized at a sheen of fire the likes of which we'd seen on most of the ones we'd fought in the dungeon. Apparently they needed to refuel at regular intervals.

On top of that, two of the golems were elite variants and, quite frankly, I couldn't wait to get my hands on their bodies afterwards. The crystals were threaded throughout their bodies, which was pretty standard, but they looked as though the flames covering them had crystallized as well, so that the crystals were orange and flickering. I wondered whether they would be warm to the touch and I couldn't wait to find out if the material had special qualities.

After we had finished gawking I took a moment to formulate a plan against such a huge group, given that the biggest group of these things we'd fought so far had consisted of four of them. When I was reasonably sure I had a proper plan I said:

“Alright ladies, here's what we'll do...”

**

Hiding in shrubbery wasn't really an option, what with the shrubbery being on fire and all, but thanks to Yume's illusions we still managed to get the drop on the golems. The first thing they saw of us was when I cleaved one of them apart vertically with a well-timed Qi Burst and Selene sliced through another diagonally. It took a lot of strength to cut through them in one swing even with how soft their bodies were, but our Qi techniques made it possible, if not easy. Right after slicing through hers, Selene sent her Icicle Crash miracle at the bulk of the group, burying three of them under sharpened ice spears and injuring one of the elite variants. Had that one been a normal golem it would have died, but the crystals held it together through the onslaught, though it disoriented the golem enough that Annabella could smash into it with a crystal club. When it went down she started hacking at the soft spots with a sword. Alisha meanwhile fired air lances in quick succession, twirling around as she did, destroying another two and crippling a third. I'd been watching her cast spells for months now but it had never seemed quite so effortless as it did just then. Either the promotion to Minor Saint had made her magic stronger or that magic channeling technique her and Yume had found was out of this world. I almost snorted when I remembered that with the technique coming from a dungeon there was a possibility that it was literally out of this world.

To further prove the point, light blue mist exploded from Yume and shot towards another golem trying to blindside Annabella. When the wall of mist hit the creature it turned to the left and slammed into another golem and began clobbering its buddy. The little fox's magic hadn't been quite that fast or strong before, either.

We'd barely been fighting for a minute and there were only four of them left. One was currently beating another, a third was barely stumbling along and only one of the elite variants was still unscathed, so I allowed myself a moment of smug satisfaction.

Of course that moment died when I turned to look at Alisha and saw one of the fire snakes, larger than any I'd seen so far, come up behind her and open its maw wide.

“Look out!" I yelled and attempted to use a Qi Dash, knowing full well I wouldn't make it.

I was panicking and that made me fumble the technique and Alisha turned around just in time to see the beast behind her open up to swallow her whole.

Of course, I had forgotten about the little fox.

Yume suddenly appeared next to Alisha, using that Qi technique I didn't know, the one that was faster even than a Qi Dash, grabbed the elf and then both of them disappeared just as suddenly. The snake's jaws snapped shut on empty air and then three projected slashes appeared in its snout, piercing clean through and leaving holes in its muzzle.

I was so relieved I almost didn't notice how fucked we still were. Not only was this snake easily twice the size of the other ones we'd fought so far, it also had multiple crystal growths coming out of it, mostly on top of its head. The normal version of the snakes was about a hundred feet long, with brown, red and dull orange scales that let it blend in with the smoldering underbrush and a cream-colored underbelly. They had the same puppy-dog face of a viper and the same huge fangs and, as Annabella had mentioned, they could inject molten hot metal into their prey and could swallow their prey whole. Normally that wouldn't be too bad. If someone was swallowed by a giant monster then you could usually kill the monster and cut the victim out of the monster's stomach, but these things were so damn hot that anything they swallowed would probably boil to death within seconds.

This elite variant looked like the normal version, except it was at least two hundred feet long and it had the same kind of crystals as the golems, the ones that looked like crystallized fire, and the way they grew out of the snake's head made them look like dragon horns, two on either side. If the beast hadn't been so obviously hostile it would actually have been a beautiful creature to behold.

Unfortunately for us, however, it was hostile. Even worse, Yume's attack had only managed to piss it off and it thrashed around, snapping its jaws all around. The little fox was long gone but with each bite the beast came closer to me and I had to scramble to back off. Once I had gained a bit of distance I considered my options. My crossbow wouldn't do a thing to a beast of this size, probably not even if I could manage to hit one of its eyes. My sword, meanwhile, would probably suffice to cut the beast, but the fire enchantment wouldn't do anything, so the sword would only be useful as a sword. Good enough.

I swung Helios Edge and sent a Qi Projection at its snout, cutting it but not deeply. Still, the beast didn't like that and came after me, forcing me to use a Qi Dash to get away from it. The ground shook, embers flying off the trees all around as the snake's massive bulk slammed into the ground, and I was glad I was so quick on my feet or I would have stumbled. Just as I prepared to attack and dash away again a tornado lance, bigger than any I'd seen before, shot at the beast.

Alisha's magic had become staggeringly powerful and I knew I would be asking her about it later, but for now all I could do was admire the carnage. The projectile spun around like a drill, boring into the snake, not even slowing down as it hit the tough scales, and once two thirds of it were buried in its flesh the spell went wild, sending spirals of cutting winds that tore and shredded and sent a blast of furnace-hot air out of the wound.

The beast leaked rivers of weirdly dark blood that caught fire the moment it was exposed to air from a wound that would have been fatal on the normal variant of these snakes. On this bigger one, it still looked awful. Whether by chance or by design Alisha had hit the creature about halfway along its length, tearing a massive hole into its side that went all the way down to the bones.

The thing went mad with pain, thrashing around, throwing its entire body into spasms that shook the ground. Its tail and head whistled through the air like the tips of a whip, except far too big and far too dangerous. Either way, the three of us made sure to get out of the way of its tantrum and as I did I caught a glimpse of Selene and Annabella still fighting the remaining elite golem. Their fight was going well and they had the thing down to one arm, but it would still take a while before they could aid us with this monster.

No sooner had I turned back to the snake than I had to use another Qi technique to jump away as its massive head came sailing towards me, intending to swallow me whole. Instead of my body the beast chomped into a mouthful of dirt and once it noticed its mistake it shook its head violently the way a fox does when it catches a hare, only it opened its jaws wide halfway through, raining hot dirt all over the place.

Just when I got clear of the raining dirt it reared back again to strike at me, but then something strange happened. It wobbled, looking almost woozy, and then turned to look at its wound, which was still gushing. I allowed myself a small smirk, but then the snake bit itself, right in the wound. I could see the heat mirage that accompanied them releasing the molten metal they had instead of venom and when it pulled its maw away the wound looked as if it had been stapled shut and cauterized. Apparently its maw was more heat-resistant than the rest of its body to allow for such a course of action.

“Clever monster," I muttered right before another tornado lance struck the beast, this time from the other side.

This time the beast did not throw a tantrum. Instead it lunged right at where Alisha and Yume were standing, but once more the little fox grabbed the priestess and vanished. When it realized it had missed the snake immediately bit itself again to cauterize the new wound, but by the time it was finished Alisha had dealt it yet another wound.

It seemed to realize that it wouldn't be able to win like this so after the third attack the beast lunged at me, trying to kill at least one of its foes, and I had to scramble to get out of the way. When it missed I chanced a look at the women and saw that Alisha was breathing like a bellows. Clearly those spells were taking their toll on her.

“Why won't this thing just die already?" I heard her gasp as she tried readying another spell but her knees buckled and Yume only just caught her before she fell.

We needed to end this, and fast.

Just as I thought that I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and jumped back to avoid another attack and once more the snake ate dirt.

“Ice Storm," Selene yelled and a massive swirling vortex of cold wind wrapped around the snake and I scrambled to get away.

I knew what this miracle could do to exposed flesh, though here, in this hellish heat, the miracle mostly felt refreshing. For a moment I worried that the snake's internal temperature would be so high that the miracle would fizzle out but then I realized how wrong I was.

Snakes were cold-blooded. The colder they got, the more sluggish they became. This beast could supply its own heat and had a much higher heat tolerance than any natural creature, but that only meant that even a small drop in temperature would slow it down tremendously. And it did.

By the time the miracle had run its course the snake's body didn't emit any more heat and the beast could barely move. I wondered idly whether the molten metal inside it had solidified, but I didn't actually care. What I did care about was Selene shouting:

“Now!”

And as one all of us except Alisha charged at the beast, hacking and slicing and stabbing at its gigantic body as the beast could do little except lay there and take it. Once it had a few dozen wounds Yume took pity on it and decapitated it in one clean swing. I would have wondered why she couldn't have done that from the start but it took her over five seconds to gather the power needed to do so, which for her was completely unprecedented. Even more, she actually staggered after she was done, something I'd never seen her do after using Qi. Clearly cutting through this beast was just as hard for her as it was for me.

She kept wobbling and I grabbed her around the shoulder to steady her, saying:

“It's all good now.”

“Yeah," she muttered and leaned into me a little. I turned to Selene and Annabella who had finally joined us.

“Thanks for the save.”

“No problem," Selene said. “Sorry I couldn't help out sooner. That elite golem was annoying.”

“It all worked out in the end," I said, then looked at Annabella and tossed her two of my water-skins. “Here you go.” She smiled and nodded at me, then went to work filling them with the sulfurous yellow liquid. As I'd noticed during the fight, it wasn't as hot as it looked. In fact, if the stuff had been water then the temperature would have been just right for bathing.

Once I was sure Yume could stand on her own and had checked on Alisha I started taking apart the golems for materials and tossed a dismantling gem at the giant snake. We'd learned before that the snakes broke down into meat that was unpalatable unless specifically treated, scaly hide that made excellent leather, tough bones that could be sharpened into weapons and ingots of a special alloy that could only be found within these snakes. The metal had a weirdly low melting point, which made it ideal to use as liquid and Annabella had shared that the capital had large quantities of the stuff lying around to melt down and rain down on attackers if the city was ever under siege. Normally they'd use hot tar for this, but hot metal was even more devastating. Annabella also told us that, if treated a certain way, the metal alloy made great fire-elemental weapons, so I decided to keep at least a few ingots, just in case.

And of course this elite snake also dropped the skull tipped in the crystal horns, which would probably sell for a fortune all on its own.

**

That fight ended up tiring us out pretty badly to the point where we let out a collective sigh of relief when we reached the next rest point a few hours later, almost out of miracles for the day and exhausted. I knew it would only be getting worse on the later floors but I hoped that ambushes by giant elite variants weren't going to become commonplace.

Dinner preparation went surprisingly quick with everyone pitching in to help Alisha, who seemed to be falling asleep on her feet she'd used so much Qi and magic. So everyone tried to take over for her and soon enough we had another stew to eat before we just sat around and chatted. This time I remembered to have Yume establish a link so that Syr could join us but in the end I just ended up sitting with Yume and Alisha.

“So, I guess that magic channeling technique you got really is a game changer, isn't it?" I asked.

“It is," Alisha gushed. “It's incredible.”

“So, how does it work?" I asked.

“How much do you know about magic theory?" she asked back.

“I know you draw mana to yourselves and then weave it into spells," I said. “But I can't use it on my own so I don't know any more of the details.”

“But you can see mana, can't you?” I nodded.

“I can," I said, then nodded over at Yume. “But I've become much better at seeing it ever since you taught me about Qi techniques.”

The little fox smiled at me. “Alright, then you do know the basics," Alisha said. “So, I was taught this: Mana is divided by elements. Around fire you can find fire mana, around water you find water mana and so forth. But there is also pure mana, which hasn't been broken up into elements. We can use the mana we have an affinity for or we can use pure mana.”

“Oh, is that how you can use spells you don't have an affinity for?" I asked. I'd heard mages were able to cast spells outside their affinity but it was so difficult for them that they rarely bothered.

“Exactly," Alisha said. “With pure mana we can use any element, but using those we don't have an affinity for is much harder and using pure mana is harder in general.”

“Alright, but what's different about this new technique?" I asked.

“Right," she said. “It's the sort of thing that should be obvious, but I've never even considered it before. So, this technique we learned is called the Panta Rhei technique.” I knew the words. They meant 'everything flows' in the old ritual language of the worshipers of the Olympians. “It consists of multiple parts. The most important one is that we can break up pure mana into its component elements. We imagine ourselves as a prism that breaks the mana up into the elements we have an affinity for and let it flow through us. This makes using spells much easier. But there is also a way to recombine disparate elements of mana back into pure mana, which allows us to fuel our magic with any mana, not just mana we have an affinity for.”

I blinked. “That's impossible," I said automatically.

“No, just really weird," Yume said. “And the technique doesn't end there. There was more there. Even more impossible stuff. We've cooked up something crazy we think will help against the next boss.”

“Namely?" I asked.

In answer the two women just looked at each other and grinned.

“What?”

“You'll find out soon enough," Alisha said with a smile.

I wanted to argue but instead I shrugged and turned to Yume. “By the way, what happened there at the end? I've never seen you look so exhausted after using Qi before.”

She actually blushed a little. “My reserves aren't limitless, you know?”

“Could've fooled me," I said and she smiled a little.

“I like ending fights with few decisive strikes. Usually that approach lets me end fights before I become too exhausted, but this was rough. I was maintaining illusions to mess with the snake's perceptions, slowing down the elite golem and then on top of that I was using Qi to keep Alisha and me safe. That technique isn't easy, you know?”

“What even was that?" I asked. “I know Qi Dashes and that was no Qi Dash. It was way too fast for that.”

She nodded. “It's called a flash step," she said. “It's a very wasteful technique. It's much faster than a Qi Dash and easier to control but much more exhausting in exchange. You need a lot of Qi to make it work.”

“I guess that's why you haven't taught it to me yet," I said.

“Exactly. And then the cut I slew the snake with, that took all I had left. Not only were its hide and bones tough, it also had the solidified metal in its neck that made it even tougher. I would have broken a normal sword trying to cut through its neck like this.”

“Is your sword alright?" I asked worriedly. Her blade had a major durability enchantment, but that still made it noticeably more fragile than a true legendary piece of gear.

But she nodded. “I checked it over already. It's fine. It hasn't even dulled. The enchanter did good work.”

“That's good then," I said, then looked over to Selene and Annabella, who were talking to Syr and apparently having a great time. “Want to go back to the others?”

“Let's leave them for now," Alisha said and flopped against me, her body pressing against mine.

“Great idea," Yume muttered and then scooted closer until she could rest her head on my lap.

“We're going to have to make up for lost time once this dungeon dive is over," Alisha said from right next to me.

I brushed my hands through their hair, gently petting them until they made satisfied buzzing noises in the backs of their throats. “Don't worry, I intend to.”