[Dungeon Party]

Serenity - Battle Adept - Melee Tank, Melee Damage, Self Healing

~~~~Moira (Follower) - Mage - Ranged Damage (Magic)

Echo - Baffles - Ranged Damage (Magic), Scout

Lancaster - Steadfast - Melee Damage, Agility Tank

Rissa - Time’s Eye - Healing, Support

All of the other groups had left by the time Rissa, Moira, and Echo were ready. Lancaster waited with Serenity near the Dungeon entrance. Neither of them knew what took so long; every other day, they’d been ready at or near the same time as the other groups, but it was two hours late when they finally entered the dungeon to see the eighth level.

The eighth level was different from any they’d seen before; it was underwater, in what looked like a coral reef. There was even small fish and plant life in the reef. None of it seemed to be hostile or even unusually dangerous.

Each of them was surrounded by a bubble of air that went a half-inch past the skin and kept them dry and able to breathe. Oddly enough, they were able to talk normally; the water didn’t change the sound the way everyone (especially Echo) expected. The bubble didn’t particularly help with movement, though; they found that they had to swim through the reef to move around.

It was colorful and beautiful.

Serenity kept expecting a shark to jump at them at any moment. Such a pleasant place didn’t belong in a dungeon unless it was to surprise adventurers when they let their guard down.

It was harder than usual. At first, Serenity thought his lack of healing was the reason his stamina drained quickly as he moved, but he soon decided it was more than that. He had to ask his friends to stop and wait on him every half hour.

They were two hours into exploring the reef when they found a hole large enough that they all could have walked in at once. Lancaster went in first, then waved the rest of them in. It looked like a cave, but unlike outside it wasn’t full of water; instead, there was a large rough but nearly flat wet stone floor and a pool of water at the other end of the cave.

As soon as Serenity saw the layout, he stopped just outside the cave. He wanted to make sure he was at full stamina before he stepped in.

Echo turned to Serenity. “Are there any dungeon levels that just do a few specific fights? This sure looks like one.”

Serenity nodded. “It’ll either start when I step into the room, since I’m last, or it’ll start when someone gets close enough to catch the attention of whatever’s in there. This is probably our way forward.”

“Does that mean the reef really is safe? I mean, it’s beautiful and I’ve never seen so many different fish. And those shrimp were amazing, I didn’t think they could get that big.” Echo was vibrating with excitement. “So if it’s safe I want to spend more time watching it!”

“I liked the rays and sea stars, myself. But we don’t really have time to spend on watching things, I’m afraid. Remember?” Rissa gently scolded Echo.

“Oh, right.” Echo looked down. “So, uh, Serenity. On uh, what you can eat. Would Death affinity be enough? If all you need is Death affinity, we have that. We all have Death-”

Serenity blanched at the idea of eating his friends to survive. Death would be better than that, even if he weren’t able to survive by becoming undead. The notion was abhorrent. He interrupted Echo. “I’m not eating my friends.”

“That’s not what I mean! I mean, we can give you death-attuned mana! You wouldn’t have to eat us, just uh, drink some blood or something, and-”

Serenity’s retort that he wasn’t a damn vampire was cut off by Rissa’s voice. “Echo. Not now. We can talk after the fight. Are you about ready, Serenity?”

Serenity had quit watching his stamina refill when Echo suggested eating people, so it took him a moment to check. “Yeah. You guys ready?”

At the round of nods (and one “yep!” from Echo), Serenity stepped into the room.

Serenity didn’t catch that Echo had immediately changed her posture from an anxious watching-the-ground position to alertly and cheerfully watching the pool of water on the other end of the room when Rissa interrupted her. He was too distracted by the incipient fight.

The cave seemed to shake, but nothing fell. The water at the far end of the cave rippled, but nothing came out of it.

Lancaster led the group forward. Rissa had asked Serenity to hang back a little, since he was harder for her to heal.

They were halfway across the cave when a creature splashed up from the pool at the far end, splashing them all, even at that distance. It landed heavily on the ground. All they could see was tentacles. Long brown tentacles with smaller flat brown things waving all down the sides. They almost looked like worms, except they were flat.

They all joined at the far end, but it didn’t really seem to be a body. It was more like the tentacles were tangled in each other.

It looked like something that belonged underwater, and it moved like it was still underwater even though it was on apparently dry land.

Serenity’s first thought was that it was a kraken, but if it was it was like no kraken he’d ever heard of. Kraken usually had a squid or octopus-like body, not whatever this was. He’d never seen anything like it, even as the Final Reaper.

Moira had. “That’s … kelp? Why is kelp a monster? It’s not even a plant!”

If she was right, those weren’t tentacles, but Serenity didn’t know the right word for what it was. Tentacles would work.

“I don’t think fire’s going to work well. I guess lightning is as good as anything.” Serenity had managed to get his hands on some arrows, but this monster didn’t seem like the place to use them.

Everyone attacked. The kelp monster recoiled, then moved towards the group. It was surprisingly fast, able to lift its body on a few of its many limbs and move forward gracefully.

The only good news was that it couldn’t attack and move at the same time. It had to set down its body to use the ends of its tentacles as whips to strike Lancaster.

Lancaster stuck his magegun back in its holster and pulled his sword, slashing a pair of tentacles as he drew the blade. The tips of the tentacles fell to the floor and stopped moving, but the plantlike monster didn’t react. The same tentacles whipped around and one of them smacked into Lancaster’s thigh, staggering him. “Cutting the tentacles doesn’t work!”

“Hit the body! We need to cut each tentacle off there!” It was only a guess, but Serenity knew that vegetative monsters could be very difficult to kill, since they - like some insectoid monsters - could continue attacking long after a wound that would eventually kill them was inflicted. Something like this would probably not stop attacking until it couldn’t.

Everyone other than Lancaster changed targets. He couldn’t reach the body, so he kept slashing tentacles. Each one he shortened was one more that didn’t hit him on that attack, and one more that might miss due to being shorter than the monster expected in the future. It also got him closer to the body.

The kelp creature seemed to have focused entirely on Lancaster, as though it didn’t know any of the attacks were coming from elsewhere. Lancaster cut tentacle after tentacle short; when he couldn’t do that, he’d slash and knock a whole group of tentacles away from him, whether he hit them or not.

Lancaster was able to take one step forward, then another. The creature eventually seemed to realize that something was too close and rotated itself, pulling the tentacles that had been shortened by half under itself and pushing others with undamaged fronds out to strike Lancaster.

Lancaster was battered and bruised with a bloody nose by the time tentacles started breaking off the main body, but at least it was all blunt trauma. When the third tentacle split off, it left an opening for Lancaster to reach in and stab the thing’s body.

He sliced halfway through two of the entwined tentacles before it pulled back, taking his sword with it, leaving Lancaster weaponless. He stumbled a step backwards and Serenity stopped shooting long enough to grab the knife off his Quick Belt and pass it to Lancaster. It wouldn’t be as good for him as a sword, but it would be better than nothing.

Serenity kept an eye on Lancaster, but it quickly became obvious that Lancaster’s sword-based knockback didn’t work with a knife. He was hit several times in quick succession where he’d been able to prevent those strikes before.

Serenity pulled his shield from the Quick Belt and joined Lancaster in the front line. “Fall back and shoot it! You’ll do more good there!” Serenity didn’t see any need to damage the tentacles if everyone else could kill the body; a shield would work well enough here.

They continued the fight. It was simply a slugfest now, with Serenity keeping its attention and everyone else attacking the entwined “body”.

It wasn’t long before it fell. When it did, it collapsed into a pile of slimy brown goo instead of edible kelp. Lancaster’s sword was thoroughly slimed but recoverable.

They sat down to rest and recover. Rissa took care of Lancaster first, then came over to Serenity, carrying his knife. Serenity was tired, and watched her rinse the blade using a flask she was carrying. He wasn’t sure why she did that; the water in the dungeon should be just as clean as the water above, and he’d need to properly clean and oil the blade that evening either way.

Rissa paused a few feet away from Serenity, before coming up to him and sitting on his left. He was tired after the fight, but glad to have her at his side. “We figured out a way to concentrate Death-attuned mana. It’s in the blood, but blood loss is particularly easy to heal.”

Serenity didn’t really register what Rissa was saying until he saw her arm. She’d cut the side of it, away from the vulnerable tendons of the wrist, and it was bleeding. He could see the strongly Death-attuned mana wisping off the blood. He felt his Aspect-infused aura pull some of it away to heal his Aspect, but there was still more there.

There was a moment where all he could do was lean forward and lick the Death mana off her arm. There was also blood, but the blood wasn’t important.

He felt something try to change. For a moment, he wanted to drink her blood to gain her mana, but he pushed the desire down. It was the first time he’d ever refused an evolution, and it was like he was fighting himself.

No, it wasn’t like he was fighting himself. He was fighting himself. It wasn’t an easy battle, but - “I’m not a damn vampire.”

Once he labeled what he was fighting, the fight became easier. Serenity really, truly disliked vampires (with only a few exceptions), and he hated the idea of being one himself. There was no way he was going to have fangs.

It wasn’t until he knew he’d won the fight that he was able to pay attention to anything other than the fight itself. Rissa’s arm had already healed. That surprised him; he’d have expected her to leave the bleeding there as a lure. “You planned this. You and Echo. And probably Moira. Why? Why couldn’t you just let me be?”

Rissa handed him his knife. Her blood was still wet on it. All of the Death-attuned mana was gone, and the blood itself held no interest. Serenity was thankful for that.

“You’re dying. It’s just blood. Not even close to as much as I’d lose for a blood donation, it wasn’t that big a cut. You’re already looking better. I’m not going to just let you die because I’m not willing to donate a little blood.”