Kat ducked under a stream of acid, not even bothering to watch it splatter against one of the fake wooden pillars that were strewn about the dungeon. As far as she could tell, the wood cylinders were designed to resemble trees in order to give the rooms a ‘forest’ feel, but in practice, they mostly served as densely packed obstructions.

Kaleek hissed, the liquid splashed next to him and spraying his coat. As agile as the big warrior was, the ‘trees’ prevented him from using his sword properly, rendering him little more than a big furry target.

A purple glow twinkled around her enemy, a snail-like creature covered in a dull black pyramid-shaped shell as Dorrik unleashed his Psi Abilities to slow the monster.

Kat darted forward agilely picking her way through the ‘forest,’ the combination of Levitation and Cat Step making her little more than a predatory blur as she wove through the obstructing pillars. An eyeblink later, she cast Dehydrate, assaulting the delicate membranes the creature used to breathe through its shell.

It popped its head out, switching to its lungs to draw in some of the dungeon air just in time to meet a downward stroke of Kat’s dagger. The blade squelched through its soft flesh, pinning the slimy cylinder to the ground.

“Ancients damn it!” Kaleek burst out in frustration. “Dorrik, I know you spend half of your free time researching these dungeons, so can you please tell me why, despite all of that time and effort, you managed to pick a dungeon where I’m absolutely useless?”

“Fuck, that STINGS,” he grumbled trying to brush some of the fizzling acidic residue off of his fur. “Seriously, half of these splash attacks don’t even hit my armor so the enchantments can’t help. It doesn’t do much damage, but at this rate, I’m going to look like I have the mange by the end of the dungeon.”

Dorrik picked their way past one of the pillars, raw red welts covering their scaled arms from where one of the snails had sprayed them. The lokkel wiped their swords, one after another on a tree, cleaning the monster’s thick mucus off of the weapons before sheathing them.

“We are in the Iron tier, Kaleek.” The lizard shrugged, as if their statement were explanation enough. “Dungeons aren’t simple anymore. None of us should expect to make it all the way through one without taking a hit. That simply isn’t practical.”

“Plus,” Dorrik continued, patting the grumbling desoph on the shoulder amiably. “I selected this dungeon mostly because it is well suited to our combination of abilities. The early rooms suit Miss Kat, but the boss fight is primarily going to fall to you.”

The despondent otter perked up, his whiskers twitching slightly.

“What kind of boss fight are we looking at?” He asked hopefully.

“A much larger version of the dread snails that we’ve been fighting.” Dorrik nodded at Kat as she pushed her shoulder into the monster’s corpse, tipping it onto its side. She sliced open the creature’s soft underbelly, careful to minimize her contact with the acidic mucus as she began rooting through its innards.

“Make sure to get the stones from both gizzards,” Dorrik called out. “They’re fairly rare and have uses in both enchanting and alchemy. If we can get them back to town, each one is probably worth at least thirty marks.”

Kat just grunted back, trying to keep her mind on her disgusting task through the constant low-grade pain brought on by contact with the creature’s acidic membrane.

Kaleek nudged Dorrik in an attempt to return the lizard to their former discussion.

“Ah,” they shook their head, crest fluttering in embarrassment. “Yes, the boss fight. It is more or less a much larger version of the dread snails except that it clings to the walls of its chamber and fires gouts of acid with enough force to shatter stone.”

“I could use a larger opponent to vent some stress,” Kaleek began thoughtfully, “but if it's on the wall-”

“Obviously,” Dorrik continued, eyes unfocused as they delved deep into their memory for information on the monster. “Given its greater size, the acid has a lower pH and is much more concentrated than what we’ve encountered so far.”

“Yeah,” the otter tried to interject, “but if it-”

“We will also have to deal with the fang bats.” Dorrik nodded thoughtfully. “They have four wings and hunt by scent. One or two aren’t that bad, but they have a tendency to swarm if they detect blood.”

“Dorrik!” Kaleek waved both of his hands in front of the lizard’s face. “I can’t fly! As much as I’d live to smash some sort of big acid monster in the face, if I can’t reach it, I can’t hit it.”

“Sorry.” The lokkel winced. “I’ve been distracted. Many things have been going on in the waking world that have been warring for my attention.”

“The Aldebaran incident?” Kaleek’s expression softened. “A desoph courting one of my podmates was there. Thank the ancients that the lokkel fleet acted in time. The Consensus Peacekeepers sure looked like they were just going to let it happen.”

“Aldebaran?” Kat asked, reaching out to hand four blood-red, gleaming gizzard stones to Dorrik. “That’s awfully close to Earth. What happened at Aldebaran?”

“A ‘privateer’ fleet attacked an orbital habitat.” Kaleek shook his head angrily. “Aldebaran is an open system with multiple races present so it should have been under the jurisdiction of the Consensus Peacekeepers. They did absolutely nothing, and a lokkel taskforce had to step in to prevent civilian deaths.”

“Later it turned out that the ‘privateer’ ships were crewed solely by the stallesp and their allies.” The desoph spat on the dungeon floor. “The commodore in charge of the defenses was a well-known expansionist, sympathetic to the stallesp cause. He claimed that there was a communication error that prevented his ships from determining who the aggressors were until the situation got out of control, but we all know that’s a steaming load of shit.”

“The public reports left out some important details,” Dorrik rumbled unhappily. “Commodore G’Sain locked his weapons on Commander Takkal’s vessels when she moved to intercept the privateers. She dared him to open fire and the coward stood down, but he actively tried to stop her from protecting the habitat.”

Kaleek stopped batting at the acid burning its way through clumps of his fur. He frowned back at the lokkel.

“I didn’t hear anything about that.”

“Most didn’t,” Dorrik replied, shaking their head. “G’Sain has lodged an official complaint against Takkal for ‘not following the directives of a duly appointed Consensus officer.’ It isn’t going to go anywhere, but the Consensus is keeping things under wraps while they ‘investigate’ the ‘serious accusations’ from both sides.”

Kaleek just snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Lokkel high command agrees.” The big lizard flashed a feral grin. “All ports are currently closed to stallesp ships in the name of ‘piracy prevention.’ They’re complaining, but for once the Consensus’ inefficiency is working in our favor. The stallesp have blamed pirates for so many attacks made by their navy that we were able to force the issue. Now their request is buried under years worth of committees and investigations.”

“At least your people are taking it seriously,” Kat replied unhappily. “Back on Earth, everyone has acknowledged that the stallesp tried to take the planet over, but no one is willing to actually step up and act. They’re literally covering up the extent of what happened in order to justify putting their heads in the sand.”

“I was standing next to Commander Tosset when he got the orders,” Dorrik chuckled. “All lokkel fleets are to treat unidentified or stallesp aligned ships as hostile. No attempts will be made to render aid if they are in distress and we have been directed to fire upon them if they enter weapons range.”

“It took everything in me to not flare my crest at the self-satisfied old dolt,” they continued cheerfully. “I know I shouldn’t be happy about what is functionally a state of war, but at the same time-”

They shrugged, a strange rippling motion as all four of Dorrik’s shoulder moved upward at the same time.

“We’re already there,” the lokkel finished. “I felt like I was going mad, screaming into the void that the stallesp were sharpening their knives at our gate. They broke norm after norm, killing innocents and exploiting new races. As awful as the status quo is, it feels like the entire galaxy has finally woken up.”

“Speaking about waking up,” Kaleek interjected. “As much as I like complaining about Consensus politics, if we keep at it, all three of us are going to be stuck running this dungeon again tomorrow night. Right now, the problem is that I swim. I do not fly. As such, I cannot attack an enemy stuck to a wall.”

“Right.” Dorrik winced as the big otter brought them back on topic. “You currently cannot fly. That said, between Miss Kat utilizing Levitation and me casting Telekinetic Field we should be able to move you toward the wall. You will still have to find a way to brace yourself against the stone as you will be mostly weightless, but a couple of good blows should be enough to break through its shell.”

“So I should treat it like a zero-g drill from school.” The otter perked up, whiskers twitching. “That I can do.”

“In the meantime we handle the piranha bat things?” Kat asked, rolling her shoulders to loosen them up. “I mean I could probably Gravity Spike the snail if it’s just going to sit there.”

“Unfortunately its shell is highly resistant to magic and psi abilities,” Dorrik lamented with a shake of their head. “It will still do damage, but not anywhere near the levels necessary to bring the monster down. The better plan is still to send Kaleek after it.”

“Plus,” the lokkel inclined their head toward the excited desoph. “Look at how excited he is. I couldn’t bear to break his furry little heart by having us bombard it with spells from a distance, even if that would work.”

Kat glanced over to Kaleek and felt a smile blossom on her face as the big otter hopped from foot to foot, whiskers twitching and eyes sparkling.

“If we’re done debating the glossy luster of my fur,” he said with a quick grin, “let’s get going. After all of this awful dodging and boring political talk, I’m more than ready to just break something.”

She broke out laughing, earning another smile and flutter of the crest from Dorrik

“Come.” They pointed at the forest’s exit tunnel. “The next room should be the boss chamber and it wouldn’t do to keep Kaleek wound up forever.”

Kat followed them out of the room. A short walk later, the three of them stepped into a huge rectangular chamber. All of the wooden ‘trees’ were gone, replaced instead by massive, vaulted stone walls. At the far end, barely visible from the entrance, she could barely make out the dim shape of the dungeon altar.

The boss was clearly visible, a dull black pyramid affixed to the left wall at the narrowest point in the room. The floor below it was white with guano, leaving Kat to speculate unhappily at both its smell, and slipperiness.

Above it, hundreds if not thousands of dark grey shapes, each about the size of her forearm, clung to the ceiling. Kat’s grip tightened on her knife as she imagined the bats swarming over her and Dorrik.

She turned to her companions to ask a question about strategy only to notice that Kaleek wasn’t there. Dorrik shrugged apologetically, only for the sound of paws on stone to tear her gaze from the sheepish lizard.

“Die, you carrion-dwelling lump of flesh!” Kaleek screamed, already a quarter of the way to the boss. “You’re big and ugly, but in about five minutes you’re going to be lunch!”

“Fuck!” Kat bit the word out before sprinting after him. Even as she ran, she began gathering her mana for a casting of Levitation.

Kat dove to the side, her conscious mind catching up with her reflexes a second later as a torrent of acid blasted a crater into the rock just beside her. A few drips of cold liquid splashed across her left forearm, feeling like little more than gentle rain.

Then her mind all but went white with pain. Frantically, Kat cast her spell on Kaleek, hoping that she wasn’t too early, but unsure that she could maintain her focus on the spell pattern through the agony gnawing its way into her skin.

A shriek from the bats above alerted Kat that she only had a couple seconds. A frantic sweep of her knife, pressing the flat into her injured arm, spattered the acid onto the dungeon floor and left behind a bubbled and bloody expanse of flesh.The blade drew some mana from her to resist the corrosive liquid, but that was a price that Kat was more than happy to pay to end the soul-scouring pain.

Then the bats were upon her.

Kat backpedaled as fast as she could, knife flicking from side to side in an attempt to ward off bloodthirsty vermin. Not for the first time, she cursed the weapon’s short reach. As useful as a long knife might be for assassinations and close combat, she felt its limitations every time she was forced to stand and fight against an enemy.

Then Dorrik stepped up beside her, unleashing a glittering tempest of sword blows. Kat wasn’t sure exactly what levels their strength and agility had reached, but it was high enough that she could only follow their strikes by virtue of her enhanced senses.

Kat spun around planting her back against Dorrik’s dry scales. For almost ten seconds they fought without speaking, the cacophony of screaming bats more than loud enough for both of them.

“Gravity Plane, Miss Kat!” They grunted out, stepping in front of her in order to relieve her of the brunt of the airborne attack so that she could cast her spell. “Kaleek has landed on the snail’s shell and he has a handhold. Right now, weightlessness isn’t even helping him. The Plane might not be enough to stop an acid stream head on, but at least it will be able to deal with the splashing.”

She didn’t even respond verbally, instead focusing her mana into the unfamiliar spell pattern of the iron tier ability, all while weaving and stabbing her way through the bats.

The spell snapped into place just in time. Dorrik grabbed her and jumped to the side as another torso-sized line of acid bored a hole through the bat swarm and ate a chunk out of the cavern floor.

Kat watched in fascination as fingernail-sized droplets hit the invisible plane of force in front of her, slowing to a stop before gently being ejected in the direction they came from.

Beyond the thinned swarm of bats, Kaleek was having the time of his life. She couldn’t hear him, but someone Kat knew that he was happily shouting something vile as his greatsword glowed red with the power of an activated ability. It rose and fell repeatedly, sending shards of black armor raining to the ground as the big otter vented his fury.

Then the bats returned, swarming over the two of them as they ignored the half-molten puddle of their comrades.

The Gravity Plane deflected most of them, leaving a handful confused and immobile in front of Kat just long enough for them to skewer them with her dagger. She could feel the bites and scrapes beginning to build up on her arms and calves. Her lokkel made armor was more than enough to ward off the flying rodent’s fangs, but it simply didn’t cover enough of her body.

Dorrik recast Telekinetic Field. Suddenly the impenetrable cluster of bats near the two of them arced toward the ground, delicate bones snapping as they hit the rocks hard. The Psi ability wasn’t quite as effective as Gravity’s Grasp, but against the massive swarm of fragile enemies, it did the trick.

Kat’s eyes widened as the sudden hole in the wall of enemies revealed the boss fight once more. Half of the monster’s shell was missing, and Kaleek had wedged himself into the hole, stabbing repeatedly into the creature’s unprotected slimy back.

Its bullet-like head wormed out from under the remains of the shell, swelling around a glob of something passing up its gullet as it looked for all the world like a snake eating an egg in reverse.

“Down!” She barked out, slamming her slight shoulder into Dorrik’s side before rotating her body to bring the Gravity Plane into play.

The wall of force glimmered, barely visible as it redirected the stream of acid just enough to keep it from Kat’s tender skin.

The attack crashed into the ground, leaving a third crater in the stone as it drilled a hole through the heart of the bat swarm. Dozens of the creatures fell from the air, writhing in pain as the acid corroded holes in the thin membrane of their wings.

Kat stood up cautiously scanning her surroundings for more of the bats. Distantly, she heard a whoop of triumph from Kaleek as the snail fell from the wall, slamming to the ground with a thud that shook the entire cavern.

The few bats that were still flying retreated, returning to their roosts on the ceiling. With a sigh of relief, Kat reached down and offered her hand to the prone Dorrik.

Their claws bit gently into her grip as Kat pulled them to their feet. The big lokkel just grinned at her before they began speaking.

“See? That wasn’t so bad. Kaleek just needed to let off a little steam.”

Kat rolled her eyes and began walking toward the altar. Off to the side, Kaleek cheerfully gutted the monster, looking for the basketball-sized gizzard stones that were sure to be buried in a monster its size.

She pressed her hand into the cool stone of the altar and nodded in satisfaction as an alert popped into her vision.

Congratulations, Adventurer!

You have completed the Iron Tier Level Six Dungeon, Acid Forest

Three of Three party members surviving. Good Job!

Assigning awards:

Skill Stone (Throwing I)

+ 1 Reaction

As the swirl of rainbow light surrounded her, Kat called up her status sheet.

Name

Katherine Debs

Class

Elementalist Initiate

Max Level

6

734 Marks

HP

27/39

Dodge

Poor

MP

62

Damage Mitigation

Insignificant

STA

43

Strength

4

Agility

10

Fortitude

4

Endurance

5

Mind

7

Reaction

9

Charisma

5

Spirit

6

Spells Known

Gravity’s Grasp

Levitation

Pseudopod

Dehydrate

Dazzle

Shadow

Water Jet

Gravity Spike

Mirage

Overpressure

Gravity Plane

Skills Known

Knife I - 12, Max

Gravity II - 1, 61%

Water II - 2, 21%

Cat Step - 12, Max

Light I - 12, Max

Cure Wounds I, 10, 91%

Penetrate

Crossbow I - 1, 0%

Perks

Nightvision

Leaping

Sensory Dampening

Crippling Blow

Fast Healing

It was ironic that she’d assigned the free ability points she’d gotten from the last dungeon to reaction, only to earn another boost to the ability. Still, the two points of stamina and mana she’d earned along with that increase to her reflexes might have been the factor that saved her life from the giant snail’s ranged attacks, so she was hardly in a position to complain.

Energy coiled around Kat, dropping her in a mist-filled valley inside the Tower proper. She nodded and closed her status. She was moving in the right direction, and the throwing skill would certainly help. Still, she had a long way to go.