Chpt. 24) Tier six dungeon, level one

Ford looked at the excited child, trying to figure out what to do; then, an idea came to her. She gave Tanya a warm smile and said, “Hey, Tanya, why don’t you come down here so I can show you something.”

Tanya managed to look even more excited and jumped off Ace while asking, “Really!? What are you-” the rest of what she was about to say got cut off as Ford opened a void space and stored Tanya within it for twenty mana per second. A notification came up; a living being has entered your void warehouse; Tanya the Elf is in stasis. Do you accept the mana cost for sustaining life, yes or no? Yes. Tanya the Elf is stored.

The notification closed, and Ford looked at everyone staring at her, “Was that really necessary?” Gimble asked, “I could’ve watched over her.”

“Yes, it was necessary. No, you couldn’t have watched over her. You and Morgan are our front line and supposed to take hits. If you’re doing that, then so is Tanya. At least this way, she won’t be in the way and will be safe. Now, I have to take in the situation,” Ford said, then turned to memorize the room they entered.

The room looked like a rocky cliffside with spires of stone protruding from the ground. Trees grew around the area; some had been uprooted and laid scattered across the floor of the room. Nothing else was in it besides the familiar clearing in the center of the room. Ford waved a hand and began moving toward the clearing. As soon as they all entered, a quest notification popped up.

Quest: Prop hunt; search for and destroy all five Geists; reward: two-hundred EXP.

“OH! I LOVE PROP HUNTS!!!” Ford exclaimed after reading the quest.

“You know what a prop hunt is?” Benet asked.

“Yeah, though I need to see if my theory is correct.”

“What theory?” Kii and Mizu asked simultaneously.

Ford summoned a fireball with air and fire essences and shot it at the closest rock. The rock exploded, and so did the arm she shot it from. She groaned in pain, immediately re-grew the arm, and shifted her clothes back to her usual three-piece suit. “Yep, just as I thought. You got to be right about what you hit; otherwise, you get hurt. Lilly, what can you tell us about Geists?” Ford asked.

“Huh,” Lilly asked, snapping out of a daze she was in.

“Geists, what can you tell us?” Ford repeated.

“Oh, um. Righ’. Geists. They are Ghosts tha’ can inhabi’ an inanimate object and move them to their will,” Lilly explained after quickly collecting herself, “they could be anythin’ in this room.”

“Great. Kii, Mizu, keep an eye out for anything that looks out of the ordinary.”

“Like us,” they responded sarcastically.

“No. When you see something, call it. Farah, Lilly, go south. Max, Morgan, go north. Gimble, Benet, go east. Ace and I will go west,” Ford ordered, then jumped atop of Ace, and they both began heading west.

“Heard,” everyone else said as they moved in their own directions.

***

“Don’t do it!” Finn pointed an accusing finger at Tanashi, “Don’t you fucking dare!”

“But I have to,” Tanashi said, holding a card he drew in his hand, staring at it lustfully.

“No, you don’t! You can fight the urge! Don’t play the card!”

“I’m sorry,” Tanashi said as he played the card, “But not really! This card is just too fun!”

Words streamed from the card and into the open air in front of them; Chaos card played. Additional items added to quest. Select items. Tanashi then played three more cards, and more words were added. Beowolf, Night terror, merge; items and effect added. Geists will now merge with Beowolves and Night terrors. Creating monster. Monster created: Horror golems.

“What have you done?” Shurma asked, horrified.

Tanashi gave his evilest smile and said, “We’ll soon find out!”

***

The quest screen popped into Ford’s vision again. Quest: search and destroy; search for and destroy all five Horror golems; reward: X EXP, secondary secret reward. ‘What the fuck? Why did it change on us?’ Ford thought.

“I don’t know,” Wrath mumbled in answer.

Before Ford could retort, the ground beneath her shook as boulders, and fallen trees rolled uphill toward one of the stone spires. Ace reacted before Ford could say anything and ran back toward the rest of the team, his ethereal blue and purple flames turning red, “EVERYONE FALL BACK TO THE CENTRAL CIRCLE!” Ford yelled over comms.

“HEARD!” they answered. Ace and Ford made it to the circle, first dodging the boulders and trees that uprooted themselves as they were pulled uphill. Max, Morgan, Gimble, and Benet were the next to arrive at the designated rendezvous. Kii, Mizu, Lilly, and Farah were nowhere to be seen.

“Kii, Mizu, Lilly, Farah, where are you!?” Ford called over comms.

“We are in the middle of a problem right now!” Kii answered.

“A really big problem,” Mizu added.

“Like massive!”

“Enormous!”

“Stupendously gigantic!”

“Colossal!”

“STOP READING A THESAURUS AND GET TO THE FUCKING POINT!” Ford yelled, interrupting the Twin’s word chain game.

“Look uphill!” Lilly yelled.

“Why-” Ford cut off what she was about to say as she looked uphill and saw a stupendously gigantic-colossal-like-massive-enormous-big-problem. The last boulders flew past her, and she used linchpin on the monster. Name: Horror golem; class: Horror; level: twenty-one. The monster cast a shadow over the entire area, blocking out the sun and lowering the temperature in the dungeon. The trees had become a light armor on its stone body. Where ever there were gaps, white and red fires filled the spaces, making joints and giving the monster an intimidating aura about it. A pair of flaming eyes appeared on its hound-like head, and it stared right at Ford and the rest of the team.

“Hey, where are you again?” Ford asked.

“Lilly and I are inside the monster somewhere,” Farah answered.

“Kii and I are in its leg, and we’re stuck,” Mizu said.

“Where in the leg?”

“Right by the crotch on the right,” one of the Twins said, “I have to admit that it has a bigger pair than me.”

“We don’t need that information!” Ford said exasperated, “Max, Gimble, get the Twins. Lilly, Farah, can you move?”

“Yes,” Farah responded.

“Good, find a way out. Morgan, Benet, you’re with Ace and I.”

Gimble and Max ran off uphill toward the right leg while Morgan and Benet mounted Ace. Once they did, they all dashed toward the left leg. “What are we going to do?!” Morgan asked.

Ford summoned her soul Warhammer which increased her strength stat by thirty-five; then, she recharged her essence enforcement, adding times three strength. “We are going to kill that thing!”

“How!?” Benet asked, “That thing is Huge!”

“The same way you eat an elephant,” Ford answered, “One piece at a time.”

As she said this, a massive, familiar presence imposed itself on everyone’s minds, making them stop in place. Ford could feel Ace try his best not to flex his fur and stab everyone on his back. She turned, grabbed Morgan and Benet, and fell to the ground with them. The second they hit the ground, Ace tensed, and his fur turned into razor-sharp spikes.

“Thanks,” Benet said, through gritted teeth, “I’d like to have kids someday.”

“I should’ve done the worlds a favor and left you up there,” Ford responded.

“What is happening?!” Morgan asked.

Ford thought as fast as she could, and she tried to place where she had felt something similar. Then as her heart began to race even faster, she remembered, ‘The Night terrors!’ Ford stood and created a volley of stone spears and fired them at the Horror golem. They struck its massive body, and it slowly stumbled back. The pressure released from their minds, and Ford said, “Was everyone affected by that attack?”

“We were,” Max responded.

“Wha’ attack?” Lilly responded at the same time as Max.

“We didn’t see or feel anything either,” The Twins said.

The Golem’s massive stone foot hit the ground, shook the floor, reverberating in the air, and sent an enormous gust of wind that knocked Ace to his side. “We need to get on or in that thing now!” Ford said over comms, then got up and helped Ace stand. Once he stood, everyone climbed on, and he bolted toward the golem.

The Golem looked down, and a snarl cracked the stone of its mouth, revealing white-hot rows of fangs. Fire dripped from its maw, and it roared, spraying the fire all over the area. Due to Ford’s speak ability, she understood what the monster said. The words from the roar shook the bones in her body and filled her with dread as they translated in her head, sounding like metal grating against metal, “FEED ME! REND THEM! KILL THEM!!”

The fires splattered across the ground and coalesced into the shape of Beowolves with eight arms; each one immediately roared, making her heart race and her stomach churn. Ford forced herself to take several deep breaths and calm herself. “Stop!” she said, then jumped off Ace and looked at the colossal golem. It looked no closer than before, and it kept creating minions.

“Max, Gimble, did you reach the monster yet?!”

“No!” Max answered.

“We’re kind of busy,” Gimble also answered.

Ford cursed and said, “Morgan, Benet, get off. Ace, get Max and Gimble and bring them here.”

As soon as Mogan and Benet were on the ground, Ace darted off to the right side of the golem. “What are we going to do?” Morgan asked, hefting his shield and hammer.

“Cover me! I need time to figure this plan out!” Ford said, then sat down and opened up her skills and looked at the destructive field and gravitational pull skills. She used a finger to write in the dirt; destructive field: twenty meters; one-hundred mana per diameter meter, and one-hundred mana per second. Gravitational pull: one-hundred mana per second per object plus ten mana per point one-meter per second squared pull.

Once she finished writing, she said, “Lilly, Farah, where are you now?”

“We’ve been heading down,” Farah said, “were at the bottom of the body.”

“Near the crotch?” one of the Twins asked.

“Most likely,” Lilly said.

“Good, can you get us out.”

“NO!” Ford said, “Stay where you are. You’re safer there, for my plan. Be ready to brace yourself. Kii, Mizu, I need to know how far we are from you.”

“Okay, we’d love to help, but-”

“We have to see you,” as they finished their sentence, Ford sent a crackling storm of lighting into the sky for a few seconds. “Okay, we see you. You’re four-thousand kilometers away.”

Ford wrote that down in the dirt, too, then wrote the equation. ‘Twenty meters times one-hundred is two-thousand mana. The earth’s gravitational pull is nine point eight meters per second squared. So, nine-hundred eighty mana per second. Let’s make that one-thousand mana per second for gravity, then adding in the additional hundred mana per second is one-thousand two-hundred mana per second. Total mana usage is two-thousand mana plus one-thousand two-hundred mana per second.’ After writing this all down and looking at the Golem’s size, she wiped out the one-thousand two-hundred and replaced it with two-thousand five-hundred eighty mana per second. ‘Let’s see how you like the gravitational pull of Jupiter!’

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?!” Wrath asked, looking at the math as Ford wrote down two-hundred two-thousand ninety-eight and began figuring out how long she would be able to sustain the spell.

‘No. Two-hundred two-thousand ninety-eight minus two-thousand leaves me with two-hundred-thousand ninety-eight. Two-thousand five-hundred eighty minus three-hundred eighty-three equals two-thousand one-hundred ninety-seven. Two-hundred-thousand ninety-eight divided by two-thousand one-hundred ninety-seven equals…ninety-one point zero seven seconds,’ once she finished writing, Ace had returned with Max and Gimble, and they joined the fight going on around Ford. She stood and said, “Max make a dome around us! Now!”

Max did as she was told and made it big enough to hold everyone, including Ace. Once it was finished, everyone collapsed to the ground. “Okay, we have a reprieve. Now what?” Max asked.

“I need you to make a spire. A really big spire,” Ford answered.

“How big?”

“Two hundred meters at a forty-five-degree angle. Give or take.”

“Does it have to be made of anything in particular?”

“So long as it can reach that far, it’s fine.”

Max’s eyes glazed over as she looked at her mana, “I might be able to do it, but I need to rest first,” Ford nodded and waited patiently. Five minutes went by before Max stood again a said, “Alright, I should have enough to make that spire spike or whatever.”

“Okay, Gimble, make a hole,” Ford said, pointing at the wall. Gimble stood and used a repulse from his shield to smash the wall open, revealing a swarm of the flaming-spider-beowolves, which Ace quickly took care of using his own destructive field and gravitational pull. The created field looked exactly like a black hole, and it pulled everything into Ace’s mouth, giving him the appearance of a Hellhound eating souls.

Once they were all clear, Max twirled her spear and created a massive spire going up into the sky at a forty-five-degree angle for two-hundred meters; then, she collapsed unconscious. Ford caught her before she hit the ground, handed her over to Gimble, and began running along the spire, looking for the end. Once she spotted the spall point at the end of the spire, she fixed it in her mind’s eye and ran back to the dome.

Once there, she ducked behind the wall and said, “Lilly, Farah, Kii, Mizu, brace yourselves. And if this doesn’t work correctly, I’m sorry in advance.”

“What!?” Farah, Kii, and Mizu responded simultaneously.

Ford ignored them and cast the two spells. First the destructive field, then the gravitational pull. She was immediately pulled toward the direction of the black hole she made and flattened against the wall; then, Benet slid across the floor where he stood and smashed against her. His face buried in her boobs.

“I like this plan,” Benet’s muffled voice said.

“When this is over, I’m going to kill you!”

“When will it end?!” Morgan asked from beside her.

Ford heard a loud cracking and grinding sound as something massive slid across the ground at a tremendous pace. “Not long now,” Ford said, “Kii, Mizu, how close are you to the black hole?”

“Two-thousand kilometers and dropping. One point seven five, one point five,” One of the Twins said, giving Ford a count down. Then an earth-shattering crash resounded in the distance, and Ford peaked an eye out the hole in the wall and saw the spire had disappeared and the golem rolling across the ground, closing in on them fast. Due to gravity, they couldn’t move, so Ford had no choice but to hope that the golem won’t collide with them. Then Its head impacted the black hole, and its body began crumbling into the sphere.

Ford sent a mental command to cancel the spell…it didn’t work. She tried again and again. Every time the black hole ignored her command. A pop-up came into view. Spell has gone wild; system auto-cancel will initiate in ten seconds.

“Shit! Lilly, create a shield and get the Twins in there with you two!”

“On it!”

A counter appeared in her vision as she watched the final parts of the Golem disappear into the black hole; ten seconds. Ford looked franticly for any signs of a mana shield; nine seconds. She couldn’t see anything as she franticly looked for the blue light; eight seconds. “Lilly! Kii! Mizu! Farah! Are you alright?!” seven seconds, “Can anyone hear me!?!” six seconds, “LILLY!!” five…four…three…two…one. System auto-cancel complete.

The immense gravity disappeared, and Ford crawled across the ground as she tried to get feeling back in her legs, ignoring the notification that came into the corner of her vision. Once she did, she stood, stumbled, and ran toward the massive creator the black hole created. “Lilly! Is everyone okay?! SOMEONE ANSWER, DAMN IT!!!” once she was at the edge of the creator, all she could see was a few left-over boulders from the Golem and nothing else. She fell to her knees with a massive knot in her stomach and tears in her eyes, ‘No. No. No. Did I- no, I couldn’t have. She has to be- they have to be alive! Right?’ Tears still in her eyes, Ford tried comms one last time, “IS ANYONE OUT THERE!!? LILLY!!”

No response. Ford curled into a ball, pressing her forehead against the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. “YOU DID THIS!!” Wrath yelled in her mind, “YOU KILLED HER!! KILLED ALL OF THEM!! YOU SAID I WOULD!! BUT YOU WERE THE ONE WHO KILLED THEM!!! ALL OF THEM!!! NOT ME!!! YOU!!! I’LL KILL-”

“Tha’ really hur’ Ford,” an exhausted, beautiful Irish voice said over comms.

Ford’s breath caught in her throat, and she looked up. Seeing a pink drake carrying three small bundles on her back. “We’re fine, Ford, just a little beat up,” Farah said.

“Good, much better than what I thought. Stay there, rest. Ace will pick you up in a minute,” Ford said.

“We are not done here, Ford!” Wrath yelled.

‘I know. Yell at me all you want later. For now, let’s be happy we’re alive.’

***