Chương 21: Betrayal in the Dungeon

The next room held another ember salamander and two poison crocodiles, along with a swarm of swamp rats. Their injuries required minimal healing from Crevus. From what Malachi could tell by eavesdropping, Crevus's second ability was cure lesser ailment, which was a highly valuable spell, already fused together from cure lesser poison and cure lesser disease. The group was clearly over-leveled for the challenge of the dungeon.

If he'd understood Arisone correctly, most people who went into an Initiate's dungeon didn't have any Magical Cores at all, never mind abilities already leveled with essences and merged spells. Or enchanted weapons like Lord Tebor's blade. No enemies here would be a significant threat. Even without him, the bog demon would have eventually succumbed to Talnax's fire shield and Tebor's longsword. SERA-Phasia's plan would be his only chance. They finished the puzzle in the room quickly.

It involved matching colored glass baubles to carvings. The green orbs went in the forest mural. The red ones went in the mural that had a lot of fire. The blue ones, ocean. The orbs had been hidden around the room, but in obvious places. Each had been hidden in a carving associated with a symbolic representation of an object associated with the biome: a picture of seashells hid the first blue orb, and a weird looking tree hid one of the green orbs.

Malachi had been in escape rooms that were significantly more intricate. Once he'd found the first orb, the rest of the group had gotten the idea fast enough. A few more waves of basic swamp critters attacked in between puzzles. The cloud of giant mosquitoes was the most annoying to deal with, but Crevus both healed the health drain and the poison, and Talnax's fire shield spell could kill them en masse, quickly eradicating most of the swarm.

Malachi had waved his lightning javelin around like a bug zapper racket, which had helped a little. None of them had essences he could use, and it wasn't like swarms of bugs dropped armor or anything. It was a reminder to Malachi that, despite SERA gamifying his interface, this wasn't actually a video game. The last creature they killed had one of the green emeralds in it. He watched as Crevas extracted it and headed for the statue in the center of the room. Malachi looked around.

SERA had mentioned these rooms had hidden treasures, but he didn't want to find one only for an ass like Tebor to steal what he found. There was one more hall. It led to a colossal set of double-doors. Just like the dungeon entrance, there were five green jewels. Now, all five of the green jewels were lit up. As they walked toward them Lord Tebor took the lead, a grin spreading on his face, Talnax just beside him. Malachi walked beside the priest.

"So, Crevus, what's life like at a temple?" Crevus smiled at him.

"Thinking of joining? It's a good life. You would start as an acolyte. A lot of drudgery and lessons, but with a Core you'd rise fast in the ranks. Perhaps you could be a priest-guard, or a sentinel of the order. The best thing to do is find a larger temple in a rich city, one backed by a generous benefactor like Lord Marakof." They were almost at the door. There wasn't time to be subtle. Malachi said, "Do the wealthier temples get slaves to take care of the worst work?" Crevus looked at him quizzically.

He muttered, "You must have come from a very poor place if… yes, of course. Even an acolyte wouldn't be forced to sully themselves by cleaning the latrines and sewers. Though I suppose it's different if your village is small enough," he added diplomatically.

"Lord Marakof is a generous patron. If you'd like, I could—ah, we can talk afterward. Are you ready?" Malachi felt a strange mix of feelings pass through him. Anticipation. Fear. Rage. And also—relief. His decision now was easy. He felt himself tensing.

"Yeah," he said. Lord Tebor unsheathed his longsword and put his hand on the giant door, though his visor was still open. Talnax joined him, then Crevus. Apparently we all have to touch it? Malachi felt his adrenaline spiking as he laid his hand on the door as well. There was a deep cracking sound as the stone doors parted. It rumbled open, revealing a large chamber. In the middle of the chamber was a strange creature. It looked almost like a massive spider, but it had at least a dozen limbs.

At first, he thought it was made of stone, but the way each limb lifted off the floor as it moved was—strange. It was like the limbs were connected to the floor by taffy. Green runes glowed all over its body. The words that appeared in Malachi's vision sparked with crackling red. [Warden] - Conquer its trial to claim a gift of magic. Is that what the descriptions are supposed to look like? he wondered. He focused on that thought so that he didn't focus too much on what he was about to do.

Even so, his left hand was trembling slightly. The door rumbled shut as they passed through.

"What's this?" Tebor said. Malachi followed his gaze across the far end of the room. There, wrapped up in a cocoon of silk, was Arisone. Her mouth was also wrapped in silk, but her eyes were looking out at them. She looked calm for someone who was trapped. Talnax said, "A gorgon. But how did it sneak by…?" Malachi pulled out his knife the gorgons had given him.

"I demand a Novice's Trial!" he shouted, and plunged his knife directly into Crevus's jugular. Runes all over the chamber floor glowed, as did those on the Warden's body. Sconces holding torches in the chamber flared to life. Several of the limbs on the Warden seemed to get sucked into the floor, and the entire creature seemed to shrink. At the same time, Tebor fell to his knees with a grunt and Crevus let out a terrible gurgling sound as he fell to the ground. Talnax and Tebor both whirled at him.

"What—what is the meaning of this?" the lordling said, looking at Malachi's blood-spattered face in horror. He struggled to rise. Talnax raised his staff to try to cast a firebolt, but nothing happened.

"Novice's Trial. But why—? My Lord Tebor—" Tebor slammed his visor shut.

"Kill him!" he shouted.

"I have a potion, there may be time to save Crevus." Malachi kicked Crevus in the head with the steel toe of his boot. Something crunched, and he briefly felt a wave of nausea pass through him. He charged forward towards Tebor, knife still in hand. The Spell icons on his interface were grayed out. People without Magical Cores couldn't use magic. As SERA had promised, this trial leveled the playing field. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

He'd seen the thickness of Tebor's armor. It was probably twice as heavy as normal armor, but he'd deduced that Tebor had a Martial ability giving him enhanced strength. Given how fast he'd fallen to a knee when magic was turned off, he'd been right. Tebor raised his longsword for a strike. Over-encumbered, the lord's form was sloppy. Malachi did a slide-tackle under the blade, then grabbed his leg and lifted. The armored man toppled over in a clatter of steel. His longsword fell out of his grip.

Meanwhile, Talnax was running over to join the fight, his staff raised. Malachi dove for the sword, but Talnax got their first. He kicked it away and it went scraping across the floor towards the Warden. Malachi felt Talnax's staff smack him in the back. He grunted and his knife dropped to the ground. Malachi leapt back to avoid another swing, then came at the mage as the lord struggled in his plate armor on the ground.

When the staff came cracking down again, Malachi raised his arm and deflected it with his forearm. That hurt like a motherfucker, but it allowed him to follow up with a right hook. There was a satisfying crunch as his knuckles clocked Talnax in the jaw, and then the mage let go of his staff. It clattered to the ground. He came in with another few punches, but the mage brought both hands up to cover his head. Clearly, these nobles had been trained in hand-to-hand combat techniques.

Malachi went for the staff, having lost track of where his knife had gone in the flickering torchlight of the room, but again it got kicked away, this time by Tebor. Malachi saw the flash of the steel sabaton and had just enough time to raise one arm in front of his neck as the armored lord attempted a chokehold. He glanced over. Both the staff and longsword were right in front of the Warden. The strange spider-like construct hadn't made a move yet. It was just watching them with glowing green eyes, almost curious.

As Talnax tried to charge Malachi, he leaned into Tebor, letting the steel plates painfully dig into his back as he jumped up and kicked at Tebor's chest. This caused the mage to stumble back and the lord to collapse to the ground with Malachi on top of him. Malachi grunted as the fall caused the breastplate to jab into his spine. He rolled off the lord, looking around for the knife. As he scrambled to his feet, Talnax recovered. He didn't go for the knife though.

He reached in his belt and grabbed a vial of something and threw it at Malachi. Malachi dodged to the side, the vial passing so close to his head it tickled his hair. He glanced back to see it shatter on the stone floor in a flash of fire. He ran again, this time tackling the mage to the ground. Talnax let out a cry as he hit the ground.

"Talnax!" Tebor called, voice muffled by the visor. Malachi glanced up long enough to see him moving in the wrong direction, the visor on his helmet and the poor lighting restricting his ability to follow. Malachi took the mage's head and slammed it into the ground one, twice, three times. He heard the clatter of plate armor and whirled, but realized Tebor wasn't going for him or his friend. He had a red vial in hand, and he was going for the healer. Malachi wasn't sure if Crevus was dead or not.

He wasn't sure what a healing potion could do and couldn't do. He wasn't going to find out. He slammed Talnax's head against the ground one more time, then ran towards the armored fighter. Tebor must have caught the motion at the last second. With his left hand, he continued to clutch the healing potion, while with his right he raised his visor so he could see Malachi better.

Malachi's attempt to grab Tebor's shoulder was knocked aside by a steel gauntlet and he winced, but he'd been flayed, bathed in acid, then had two limbs burned off. He could take pain. And with magic off, he was stronger than the lordling. Malachi swept Tebor's leg. His legs were armored, which put them on more even footing. When the warrior stumbled, he followed up by slamming into him. This time, Tebor went to ground, and Malachi didn't.

The healing vial shattered in Tebor's fist as he smashed into the stone floor, the red liquid pooling like blood. It crackled, and the floor seemed to absorb it. Malachi glanced toward the Warden. It still wasn't moving, but he didn't want to go for the staff or sword in case close proximity triggered an attack. Instead, he planted a knee on Tebor's chest and slammed his visor shut, then twisted the helmet. The lord cried out in pain.

Then, Malachi yanked upward on the helmet to expose the leather chinstrap underneath. Tebor flailed at him, blinded by the helmet's visor being at an angle, but his armored fists couldn't help but hit Malachi in the chest. He grunted again, gritting his teeth. With both hands, he fumbled with the buckle, managing to undo it even as a sharp part of the lord's gauntlet tore open a gash across his torso. Twice more, Tebor punched him, but this time when he yanked at the lord's helmet, it came off all the way.

Malachi stood up then brought a knee down, the steel plate covering his knee shattering the man's nose. Then he heard footsteps. Talnax had recovered and was running at him, having picked up Malachi's knife. There was no time to dodge. He kept his knee planted on the warrior's face and raised his arm, taking the knife's cut to his left forearm. He hissed in pain. When Talnax tried another slash, Malachi stood suddenly, darting out to snatch his wrist, then twisted it until the knife fell out.

Talnax screamed as Malachi twisted his wrist, then there was a terrible snap as it broke and he screamed louder.

"Why are you doing this?" Malachi threw Talnax to the ground. This time, there was no one to stop him from picking up the knife.

"Because John Brown was right you fucking bitch," he said, and planted the knife in the back of the mage's unarmored neck, stabbing repeatedly until the man stopped twitching. Tebor, to his credit, was tough. He stumbled to his feet, nose dripping blood, and growled, "You'll pay for what you've done. My family—""Can go fuck themselves. Slaving piece of shit. Where did you get them? Where are they being held?" The lord didn't answer. Instead, he raised his fists again.

They began to spar, going back and forth, Malachi trying to grapple Tebor, but Tebor throwing quick punches, relying on his steel gauntlets to keep Malachi at bay. But the lord was wearing armor that was too heavy, and he was tiring fast. When he realized it was Malachi playing for time, he made a dash for the longsword—or tried. Malachi slammed into him, their fight having taken them both to the edge of the chamber.

He crushed Tebor's body into the wall, then slammed him into it over and over, each time sending Tebor's head cracking against the wall. Then Malachi punched him, right in the broken nose. While the lord was recovering, he grabbed a magical torch from its sconce in the chamber. It came free, and he plunged the head of the torch right into Tebor's face. There was the smell and sizzle of burning flesh. Tebor's body jerked and flailed.

He knocked the torch aside, but Malachi kept his grip on it and clubbed him over the head with it. The quilted lining beneath the armor had caught fire. As Tebor spasmed, he sent the torch flying out of Malachi's hand and skittering across the ground. Malachi head-butted him, then threw him to the ground. He walked over, breathing hard, sweat pouring down his bare chest. The wounds on his forearm and chest were bleeding freely. His entire body ached from getting pummeled by blows.

Malachi picked up the torch again and buried it in Tebor's exposed face. This time, the man only spasmed once before he stopped moving. He shut his eyes. Malachi had done a lot of killing. He'd killed lizardfolk. Goblins. Elves. Naga. This was the first time he'd killed humans, though. The emotions washed through him. Slavers, he thought. People like them are why Malia got taken. Are why good people like William died. He steadied his breathing and opened his eyes. He shoved his emotions down. This wasn't over yet.

Hah! Got their asses, SERA said in his head. Now, you just need to defeat the Warden. Which, uh, I'm absolutely not allowed to help you with, especially when it's in the chamber watching me. Is she allowed to help? Malachi thought, gesturing towards Arisone. She was still tangled up in the silk cocoon. Uh. Well. Technically. Except, ERROR. Fuck! Haha, swearing is fun. Very expressive. Anyways, I really can't tell you anything useful here. But you're a clever ape.

I'm sure you'll find a way to kill a boss that is meant to be a challenge to four people. Four properly armed people. Malachi nodded. Yeah, I fucking will, he thought, and turned to face the Warden. The colossal stone-like spider looked at him with a tilted head. Malachi steadied his breathing and got ready for the next fight.