We climbed out of the ravine and quickly made our way to the tunnel toward West Exit.

“We have eyes on us,” Fiona said as she appeared next to me.

Seeing as they already knew about Fiona there was no reason to hide her existence here.

“You think they will check the ravine to see what we were up to?”

“Yes,” she answered unhesitantly.

“Shit, we probably should have waited for the dungeon to fully collapse before we left. Too late to change that now.”

Fiona nodded as the two of us ran to keep up with Ska. It was an impossible prospect as Ska put his points in agility. Ska had been able to go above the limit on agility due to a previous encounter. I hadn’t even realized his agility was at twenty prior to today. I wasn’t sure if I would win against him in our next duel. Not that a loss would be bad, it just meant my friend was getting stronger.

We disappeared into the dark tunnel as Fiona kept us apprised of the tails we had picked up.

***

Iron Claw stomped across the dry rocky ground as he made his way to the valley. A job that should have belonged to that stupid human woman Miss Farley. They were useful if properly motivated but their naming sense left a lot to be desired. Why couldn’t they be named as the Mohai, by their first major accomplishment? But she had vanished when word of what that damn Paul Fuller and his cohorts had done in the depths came to light.

How that group had learned about a horde dungeon was unknown. Likely their ethereal friend. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was the fact they cleared the dungeon without informing the Mohai of its existence.

The council had immediately come together upon hearing this news. They declared the man and his team outlaws and were in the process of securing them and the magical artifact sitting outside town.

“Well!” Iron Claw yelled as he neared the object.

A man wrapped in black quickly ran over to him.

“Councilor, we weren’t made aware you would be arriving personally.”

“Of course not,” Iron Claw spat, “as if I would tell a lesser where I was going. Have you gained entry?”

“Not as of yet, esteemed councilor. The artifact is heavily defended and we were afraid to damage the device.”

“Useless, get out of my way and I will show you how it’s done.”

The man bowed his head as Iron Claw strode up the ramp, his long claws glowing with magic. No metal or earth had stood in his way since he was but a boy, and today would be no different.

With a downward slash, his three claws ripped through the metal of the door, tearing a long gash through the thick entryway.

“See,” he roared, “easy as can-“

There was a bright flash and the crack of thunder as everything went blank. Iron Claw woke up a minute later, sprawled on the ground dozens of feet from the object. People were yelling but his ears were ringing and he couldn’t hear. Someone shoved a healing potion into his mouth and he choked it back as he pushed people away and sat up.

His hearing started to return as the magic went to work.

“Sir, are you ok?”

“I’m fine, what happened?”

“A defensive spell was triggered.”

Iron Claw glanced at his health, seeing he was still down three hundred points. It must have been one hell of a defensive enchantment to pack that much punch. Then he saw his beautiful hand. A look of abject horror crossed his face as he saw that his claws had been melted away to nothing. Unlike the other damage, the claws wouldn’t regrow from the healing as it was dead tissue. It would be years before he could tunnel properly again. He roared in outrage.

“Get inside that structure and take it apart piece by piece. I want all of its secrets and I want them now! Send a message back to the city. Kill Paul Fuller and his companions. No Mercy,” he growled, getting to his feet as his orders were carried out.

His eyes snapped to the doorway as one of the men turned to smoke and went inside the open rent. This was followed shortly after by a scream as a white light flashed through the damaged section.

“Warning, breach detected. Safeguard protocol engaged!” a voice boomed from the structure before a crackling field of electricity covered the entire outside.

Iron Claw knew better than to stick around, using a skill to swap himself with someone much further away. It was just in time as the field of electricity billowed out from the magical construct and killed anyone within twenty feet.

Ten of the twelve people the council had here were killed by the attack. Only Iron Claw and the man he had issued orders to had survived the attack.

“Warning, unknown entities detected. Retribution protocol engaged!”

Iron Claw’s eyes went wide as openings revealed themselves around the structure, revealing mana cannons. He didn’t have any more time to reflect on this as all cannons fired, sending him to the land beyond.

Nobody was left near the fortress to hear the next words as the cannon openings resealed themselves.

“Warning, owners not detected in range, initiating lockdown procedure.”

The forcefield snapped into place with those last words. With this procedure, the fortress could draw on the remaining energy of all three crystals to keep the field active until it was deactivated or ran out of energy.

***

The three of us slowed our mad dash out of the final tunnel. Some shadowy figures still followed us from a distance but made no move to stop or hinder us. Some had even stopped following altogether as we kept a grueling pace, using endurance potions to combat the lack of sleep or rest.

The few monsters we encountered died quickly and we were at the last stretch of tunnel, leading out.

“Be prepared, we may have to fight our way out,” I said flatly.

Ska and Fiona nodded. While I had helped the city defend itself, there was no telling what the mood would be after they learned about the horde dungeon. My understanding was that they were rare, at least in other worlds and highly fought over.

As we passed the last bend the exit became visible. I could see armed soldiers behind barricades, similar to what I had seen previously. The only difference was the four Mohai standing in front of the barricade.

We stopped at the tunnel exit and I scanned the collected faces. I already had my weapon out as we faced off.

One older female mohai, at least I assumed she was older due to the brew on her face, stepped forward.

“Mr. Fuller, I am Councilor Stonebreaker, what you did was an injustice. You should have notified someone and brought the discovery to the council.”

“Yeah… you guys haven’t been exactly welcoming.”

“We are aware of our shortcomings on that matter. Perhaps we are both in the wrong here. In an effort to change that, we have come to a decision. The council has banished you and your friends from our city. Anyone that consorts with you are likewise banned from using our passage through the Spine. We would appreciate it if you left our fair city in peace, Mr. Fuller. Our soldiers will follow you to make sure you and your friends don’t cause any more harm.”

That was it. The woman returned to the others and they walked away. I was confused but decided to take the offered escape.

The soldiers shadowed the three of us on either side as they led us to the exit. Some of the humans looked oddly conflicted but the mohai captains kept them in line.

“What the hell happened?” I asked as the gate slammed shut behind us.

Ska shrugged but Fiona had something to say.

“She seemed deeply saddened by something.”

“Well, whatever it is, let's get out of here before they change their mind.”

We quickly left the city and its residents behind, making our way to the valley where I parked the fortress. Ska was the first to sense something wrong.

He paused sniffing the air.

“It smells of blood and magic.”

“Wait, you can smell magic?” I asked.

“No, just the after-effects of strong spells. It smells of a fresh thunderstorm and burnt rock.”

“Shit. I think I know why, let's hurry.”

We ran through the ravine until the fortress was in sight. We had to stop as the ground around the fortress had been blasted into craters. I could also see charred bodies near the fortress where the other defensive measures had activated.

“What happened,” Fiona gasped.

“The idiots tried to gain entry into the fortress, they must have triggered the failsafe and defenses.”

Even now I could see the sheen of the forcefield.

“You two wait here, I need to go disarm it. You should be on the acceptable member list but this is the first time the magic has been activated, better safe than sorry.”

They nodded as I made my way to the fortress. I didn’t fly over, deciding to take it slow. There was no telling if they had damaged something in their attempt to gain entry. I stopped at the edge of one of the craters, the mana cannons had done a terrific job of blasting everything around the fortress into rubble.

Sliding down the loose stones, I made it to the bottom. I pulled out my identification slab. While not necessary, seeing as I had the tattoo, it couldn’t hurt. I waited for a minute and the fortress didn’t respond by blasting me to bits so I moved forward.

The climb up the ramp was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I had done in some time. I had built the defenses to be effective, but I hadn’t expected them to be this effective. They even scared me.

I set the tablet into an indent next to the door, seeing the damage that had likely activated the defenses, I shook my head.

My own voice spoke from a concealed speaker.

“Voice authentification required!”

“Open up, you piece of shit.”

“Voice code accepted, lockdown disabled, retribution protocol disabled, safety protocol disabled. Welcome home.”

I let out a sigh of relief. I knew the magic would work but I hadn’t been able to test the protocols, for obvious reasons.

Despite the obvious violence of the defensive measures, the runes used were quite simple. I added a lightning trap rune connected to a sensor rune, a few different sensor runes actually. This way the defenses could be triggered in any number of ways. Adding the mana cannons into the defenses had come later and they had to be manually hooked up to the system for them to fire and they could only fire one time. Unlike the other defenses, which were linked to the three mana hearts.

The audio warning was a bit much and I made a mental note to modify it later. It was really only there to deter friendlies but I don’t think there was enough delay time between the warning and the activation for most people to escape. The charred bodies were proof of that. Those weren’t the only defenses on the fortress, but they were the only ones to have activated.

“Alright, it's safe to approach!”

I turned back to the damage on the door and sighed. It was going to take time to fix. I activated my tattoo and the door unsealed itself but the automatic open function was damaged. I slid my good hand through one of the rents and pulled the heavy metal door open. Inside was another desiccated husk. I wasn’t surprised. I pried his dead hand off the button marked ‘open inner door’ and tossed the corpse outside. I waited for the others before I closed the exterior door and cycled the inner door. Without a tattoo or one of my identity plates, you weren’t getting in that easily.

It was quickly determined that nothing else had been damaged, at least inside the fortress. The shield and cloak gems had been drained by the activity but the main power gem still had just over a thousand mana. That gave me an accurate timeframe of events. It was less than three hours after we were spotted leaving the dungeon. I disabled the defensive program, a simple switch that physically disconnected the power flow to those runes.

“They sure didn’t waste any time trying to steal from us,” I said bluntly.

“Oh,” Fiona said, floating to stand next to me.

“Yeah, less than three hours after we were spotted. It makes me think they were trying to get in for some time before that.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Fiona replied, “A flying magical construct of this size would be a prized possession for any city.”

“Yeah, well, let's hope they learned their lesson.”

“Ska are we secure?”

“Yes,” he hissed happily

“Good, let's get strapped in and get the hell out of this shithole.”