“Dude… How the fuck we suppose to get past all that?” Gallardo stepped up and recoiled as the tentacles shot out with foot long probiscuses shooting out from inside the pink fleshy pods on their ends.

“Well, us older folks with our bonus attributes can probably sprint through without getting touched, you youngin’s may not be quite there yet…” I mused with a smirk on my face. A life long lived indeed.

I got a combination of wry grins and sour looks and Hawkings stepped up with a goofy too big grin on his face and offered a solution, “How ‘bout Sumpter just use his shield like the romans use to do when facing an arrow volley? You know, hold it over his head and escort a couple through underneath it at a time. I can also throw up a small shield that should deflect the tentacles. We could also crouch walk, maybe? Have to see how far they can stretch out of the holes.”

I nodded at his suggestion and looked at Phil as he considered the option presented then spoke up and tapped his shield, “I can probably squeeze the ladies in underneath, but you guys are bigger, so, only one at a time that way. How many do you think you can bring, Hawkings?”

“I can probably do one at a time, it’ll drain my mana pretty fast though.”

“There’s another thing to consider.” Junipher spoke up and everyone looked at her questioningly, “What’s waiting for us in the next room? If we have to ferry people back and forth, we might get caught without all of our strength as we emerge from the hall.”

“That’s a good point, so, let’s do this. Phil, you escort Scheel and Valley, Hawkings, buddy up with someone and Bradley, I got just the task for you.” I turned to the sniper who looked at me with a smile and ready his rifle, almost predicting what I was gonna have him do. “Yeah, I’m gonna sprint through the hall to the otherside, and I’m not going to duck, drop as many of the creepy tentacles as you can, and try to cut us a path, kay?”

“Yeah, I can do that.” He said as he made himself comfortable and adjusted the optics. “Ready when you are.”

“Alright, if you’re not in the team crossing over, and you have the ability, blast some tentacles.” I added to the rest of the group as they gathered up.

I turned back and positioned myself at the mouth of the hallway and looked back at Bradley and Gallardo who had taken up positions and were aiming at the ceiling. They both nodded that they were ready. “Here we go.”

I launched myself at full speed down the hall not bothering to duck as I covered the distance in barely a pair of heartbeats. Damn I’m fast! I really need to take the time to see what I’m REALLY capable of. I noticed that as I shot through the hall I could feel a slight turbulence in the air behind me as the stalks shot out of their holes. Then the echo of rifle fire exploded behind me and chunks of black fleshy tentacle were sent spiraling in the wake of my passage. The tentacles were rather weak and no system enhanced bullets were needed to destroy them.

I slid to a stop at the entrance of the next room and looked around real quick to make sure nothing was waiting to jump on my face and took note that the ground in front of me was broken by large, glowing, orange cracks of heat that shimmered and belched hot ash into the air. The oily black tentacles grew in patches next to the cracks but never grew from within. The ceiling stood about 15 feet high and large black boulders were spread across the room creating seemingly natural obstacles. Nothing presented itself as a threat so I turned back to the hallway and saw Phil with his tower shield held over his shoulder and crouched to the side of it moving forward with Scheel in front and Valley behind him.

The duo of Bradley and Gallardo had managed to cut down the number of tentacles behind my passage pretty well and continued to eliminate the errant offender that grasped at the top of the Juggernauts shield. Soon Hawkings and Hernandez began a quick crouched run through the hall behind them. Hawkings shield would shimmer with purple energy whenever a stalk reached out. Bradley or Gallardo would then shoot out the tentacle stalks. The pair stopped in the middle of the hall which was seemingly clear of tentacles and checked the body of the dead inmate I had ignored. They said something to each other then hurried forward as Phil and his group arrived next to me.

“That worked well, this place sucks.” Phil said as we watched the rest of the group begin to brave the hallway.

“I think they got them all.” Scheel added as she looked around the new room and wiped her brow from the heat induced sweat.

Hawkings and Hernadez were next, which left Bradley, Gallardo, Junipher, and Dick. Dick stepped forward eyeing the tentacle holes and held his hands out and began spewing fire like a flamethrower to his left and right. He did this for a second and then cut off the jets of flame.

“You got enough mana to keep that up?” I yelled down the hall.

“No, that’s what I was testing, that dropped me to half, I’d make it maybe a third of the way before I was empty. And I don’t want that to happen.”

“Yeah, I can’t see that being a good thing, you guys think you got them all or should I come back?” Phil asked, readying his shield on his shoulder.

Gallardo swaggered forward next to him and looked around, “I think we got ‘em, I think we’re good.”

I had my doubts but figured they were the ones executing the little fuckers so they should know if they were good to go or not. “Be careful.”

Bradley took the lead and decided to practically low crawl while keeping his head tilted up to intercept any errant tentacles. Dick followed directly behind him not quite as low and held fire in each of his hands ready to burn out anything that snapped his way. Gallardo was followed shortly after which left Junipher as the last, though she didn’t move into place as the others made their way steadily down the hall. Probably going to use her speed to rush it after the others get here.

Bradley and Dick stayed low as they progressed and after several slow moments Gallardo got impatient and simply stood straight and began walking around them, “I really think we’re good, see.”

“Dude!” Bradley and Dick said almost in unison.

“Probably not a good idea dude.” I added as he stood to his full height and looked around.

Gallardo shrugged and turned confidently and began to step forward, “We’re fiiine, we got them -HuRk!” He had walked halfway down the hall before ‘the one that got away’ snapped out from a hole that was recessed into the wall on his right. It stabbed into the back of his skull at an angle and the tip of the long proboscis speared out the side of his left eye. He stopped moving and sagged but didn’t fall. The pink fleshy bulb pressed up against the back of his skull and began to pulse. His right eye rolled back into his head until only the whites showed and his rifle clattered on the black stone floor.

Bradley reached up and grabbed Dick by the collar ensuring the other man got as flat to the ground as he had. They rolled onto their backs and began checking holes above them. Curses rose up behind me as everyone watched as Anthony Gallardo died for being overconfident. Fucking idiot. I let my AK hang around my neck and drew my plasma pistol with my left hand and fired into the tentacle, severing it before it could feast more on his brains. He finally slumped forward when the tentacle was severed.

“Christ!” Valley blurted out and moved to provide aid. I swung my arm to bar her and she looked at me in frustration.

“There’s no coming back from that.” She looked back at his body then turned away in anger.

“You guys going to low crawl, or you want Phil to come out?” I asked Bradley and Dick. They were only about twenty meters away.

Bradley looked at Dick who nodded back and he replied by moving smartly, “Crawl.” They warily eyed Anthony’s body as they crawled past it as quickly as they could. They arrived next to the rest of the group and looked back down the hall where Junipher still waited. When they cleared the exit she copied my mad dash down the hall and was smashing into my bulk in all of three seconds.

“I’m sorry for your friend.” She said and looked back at his body.

Phil spoke before I could, “No more of that shit, people. That was a death that didn’t need to happen.”

“I agree, once we clear the dungeon we will deal with his remains, until then there is nothing we can do for it.” Everyone stared solemnly at each other and then me. Dick and Bradley were probably the only ones to have seen combat, one next to me when the shit hit the fan, and the other before the system in the Middle East. At least now they realize just how dangerous this shit is.

“You able to identify the inmate?” I asked Hernandez as everyone gathered their wits.

“Yeah, I think that was Carasco out of 3BD, he was an absolute asshole. Looked like he got pretty much the same treatment as…” He let the last word linger without being said.

I sighed and looked at the ceiling and froze momentarily then hissed “EYES UP PEOPLE!”

Above us in several larger holes I hadn’t taken the time to identify vaguely humanoid coal colored figures began to emerge and were already swarming down the far wall taking up positions amongst the boulders. The creatures had small skinny bodies topped by large tear shaped heads with featureless faces except for a tiny tooth lined mouth. They seemed to lean against their arms that ended in meter long bone spikes and their legs were short with large feet that were covered in thick black claws. They began chittering as they gathered in the room and looked us over. Deciding on the tastiest morsels, huh? I scanned the room of dozens of creatures and analyzed the nearest. Creep, Lvl 15.

“What are we waiting for people.” It wasn’t a question, it was a call to action. I activated STEADY SHOTS and began to fire on semi. My gunfire was joined by the others and then the creeps responded in hoots and screeches and charged our hastily assembled line. In a matter of seconds several dozen Creeps fell from the devastating volley of fire. Junipher sprouted roots and speared and ensnared a dozen of the creatures and I turned my fire on the easy targets. Dozens more came screaming from the holes in the ceiling where Dick and Hawkings were flinging magic, incapable of fully stemming the tide of screaming coal colored bodies.

“UNSTOPPABLE ADVANCE!” Phil shouted and charged forward with his shield in front of him. He collided with a line of Creeps and the one exploded, having taken the full force of the attack on the face. “I’M YOUR OPPONENT!” He shouted again as several Creeps attempted to run past him and then suddenly were compelled to attack only him. It looked like he was about to be surrounded and then he shouted “WAR STOMP!” And smashed his foot on the ground. The earth shook around him and the Creeps fell backwards and stumbled on their awkward feet.

Scheel and Hernandez were then by his side working his flanks and pushing back the unending tide of Creeps. I checked their position against the position of the holes in the ceiling above and shouted at them while I reloaded. “HOLD THEM THERE!”

“COPY!” Phil responded while cleaving a trio of the Creeps with his sword.

Junipher continued ensnaring the grounded Creeps while Bradley and myself gunned them down. Hawkings and Dick continued to herd the Creeps into our line of fire and soon we were able to stem the tide of attackers. Eventually the last of the creatures fell and everyone heaved a weary sigh. Bradley and I went around checking bodies of creeps for loot and gathered a sizable sum of UMC. Everyone earned roughly 4500 each. Which prompted me to check my level gains and was pleasantly surprised to see I had just barely earned two levels, as well as several skill levels in Rifle Marksmanship, Keen Observation, and Tactical Acumen. Can we do that again?

“Check your level gains and catch your breaths, we got another creepy hallway to cross.” I commented to the gathered group. I dumped my free attribute points into Endurance and listened as everyone else muttered about their gains then reviewed the information on my newest ability.

Congratulations, you have unlocked a new ability! Hidden Advance, Level 15!

Hidden Advance, while not true invisibility, you move with a natural ability to blend into your environment and advance unnoticed or unseen depending on varying environmental factors. 200 Mana, 30 second duration, 5 minute cooldown.

Could be useful.

Everyone signaled they were ready to move on and Dick provided a fireball down the hall that promptly smacked an intersection maybe fifty meters in. No tentacles struck out from hidden alcoves and it appeared to be a fairly normal looking hall.

“Shall we?”