***** Amandine’s POV 3:35 PM *****

“Here’s the gravity lift. I’m not entirely sure if it is working though…” said the refugee with the map pointing at an open doorway about a meter in front of our formation.

“How are we supposed to use this to go up a deck or two?” asked Billodon, sticking his head through the doorway. “There’s nothing in here, it’s just a vertical shaft that goes a fair distance in both directions.”

“Are the walls glowing at all?” asked the map holder.

“Yes, they are, but it stops about 10 meters up the shaft,” replied Billodon.

“Then we can only take it up one deck before its lift peters out. Just step in and say, ‘Deck 4,’ it will take care of the rest.”

“Okay, here goes nothing!” he said as he cautiously stuck his foot into the shaft and started feeling around for the floor. When the bottom of his foot was even with the top of the floor, a glowing surface sprang into existence beneath it that was maybe twice the size of his foot. He tested it gingerly before slowly stepping all the way in and saying, “Deck 4,” as he had been instructed. The glowing surface then whisked him straight up with nary a whisper of sound.

“All clear!” he called back down the shaft a moment later.

“I think we can fit most of us into the shaft at the same time. As long as we fit it can lift us,” suggested the map holder. There was a part of me that wanted to ask her what her name was, as calling her the map holder is a bit rude, but since she is a part of the dungeon I knew that she probably didn’t have a name. After all, the named monsters are a dungeon’s elite forces and she clearly wasn’t.

“Shouldn’t there be a weight limit?” I asked.

“There probably is, but lift systems are intended to carry heavy equipment and such. Compared to that, even our entire party doesn’t weigh anything.”

“Huh,” I said as I stepped up to the lift to see how much room there was for myself, and was pleased to see that there was enough room for five or six of the Shihoth to stand inside comfortably, so we’d all fit without too much difficulty.

“Alright, everybody in the lift, let’s keep moving!” I ordered.

It took a bit of organizing, but we did manage to fit in the shaft before I said “Deck 4!” and it gently yet quickly lifted all of us. The really scary thing about the process was that it didn’t actually feel like we were moving, yet we obviously were. As we climbed out, a couple of my troops looked a little nauseous, but once the lift stopped they seemed to recover. Most of them were the same ones who got seasick, so I figured that it was much the same thing.

After a brief discussion with the map holder, I decided to get as close as we could to the target room here on Deck 4, then find a way up to Deck 5, but that plan didn’t last very long.

As soon as we got to the next intersection, where we could either turn left or continue straight, there was a familiar clattering noise from behind us heralding the arrival of more of the mechanical spider things that we’d fought earlier. The first problem was that this time there seemed to be an unending wave of them. The second problem was an identically sized group that came pouring around a corridor ahead of us, giving us only one real option.

“To the left, double time!” I yelled knowing that we couldn’t fight off that many of them with the refugees in our midst.

We made it around the corner just before they got close enough to start shooting webs at us, which was a blessing.

“Bonheir, slow them down!” I ordered.

“Glue bombs out!” yelled the trap master as he threw a couple of his limited supply down the hallway behind us. A moment later they went off with a satisfying *pop* splat! covering a 5-meter section of the hallway in very sticky glue. The front rank of the spider things hit the glue and immediately faceplanted when their front legs refused to come up off of the deck. The second rank then climbed over them and up the walls to go around them, then they too got stuck before the third rank followed suit.

“I don’t think that’s going to slow them down all that much Ma’am!” he called.

Before I could respond, there was a muted thunk followed by a metal tearing screech from the ceiling, where a pair of glowing blades were cutting through it like it was butter. They started in the middle of the hallway before working their way to the sides and turning towards the spider things and cutting along the walls. As soon as the last of us was past where they started a large section of the ceiling fell down, forming a ramp up to the next floor and creating a barrier between us and the spider things.

“This way, quickly!” yelled a different kobold from the top of the ramp. This one was carrying what looked to be a cross between a spear and a wizard’s staff with the power crystals embedded in the base of the spearhead. The kobold itself was larger and much more heavily muscled than the last one, and had a much deeper voice, which I hadn’t thought was possible.

“Formation halt! About face, double-time up the ramp!” I called. My troops pulled the maneuver off with the polished precision that I expected from them, but the refugees weren’t anywhere near as organized and created a bit of a pileup in the middle of our formation. We got it sorted out without too much trouble and started up the ramp. As we were just starting to step off the top of the ramp there was a rather unpleasant racket from the spider things under the ramp. They were probably trying to push it up out of their way, but with us standing on it the ramp didn’t move.

“I’ve cleared the rest of the way to the safe room,” said the new kobold, “Left at the intersection, then straight through two more, and another left at the end. It’ll be the fifth room on the right with the turrets everywhere.”

“You heard the kobold! Move it! I’ll be right behind you.”

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am!” chorused my troops as they streamed around me.

“Thanks for the save,” I said, turning to the kobold.

“You helped my sister get the refugees to safety, so the least I could do is help you finish the job,” he replied as we followed everyone else down the hallway.

“Wait, the other kobold was your sister? I thought she was a guy.”

“Nope. We’re reptiles, we lay eggs rather than breastfeed our young. On top of that, we also have rather deep voices due to the dragon’s blood in our veins. You’re far from the first mammal to make that mistake, and you definitely won’t be the last.”

“Wow, I didn’t expect you to be that well educated. Most of my troops don’t know what reptiles and mammals are. For that matter, even I barely know what they are, and I have a much better education than everyone except Doskan and a couple of our mages.”

He just laughed and shook his head, then sped up a bit. “Make way! I need to open the door to the safe room,” he called.

We got to the front of the formation just as we rounded the corner, and I realized he had a completely different definition of turrets than we did. I thought he had meant there was some sort of elevated positions where someone with a ranged attack could hide and shoot their enemies without fear of reprisal. Instead, there were a bunch of weapons on the walls, the likes of which I had never seen before. Each of them inside their own energy shield and turning to follow our advance seemingly of their own accord. They weren’t shooting at us, which is a good thing as they all looked like they did something nasty to whoever or whatever they hit.

“Welcome to the safe room,” said the kobold as he opened the door. “I guarantee that the refugees will be safe in here. The rest of you are needed in the tertiary cargo bay to help us kill the enemy general that has claimed it for his own.”

“Wait, we’re already almost at the boss fight?” I asked.

“Nope, the Hive Boss is in the primary cargo hold which is on the other side of the tertiary cargo hold. By the way, here is the next key you’ll need. Give me one moment to settle the refugees in and I’ll show you the way.”

“Well, today has gone nothing like I thought it would,” I said to Billodon.

“You can say that again Ma’am.”