While everyone healed up I reviewed some of my notifications. A few things of note popped up after the fight. Firstly, the system was holding our loot.

Congratulations! You have defeated Xokar, the Indomitable. You have earned 25000 experience and 5000 UMC per party member.

Conflict Rules In Effect!!! All loot held until only one party remains active within the dungeon. All loot will be distributed when the last remaining party claims or defeats the dungeon core.

Well that’s some shit. New gear would benefit the kids here.

“That’s some hot garbage.” Phil piped up having been healed and now reviewing his notifications.

“Noticed the system is holding our loot til we clean out… everything?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind finding some badass armor like you got!”

I laughed and patted him on the shoulder and went back to my personal review. The next thing that popped up was interesting too.

Congratulations! Keen Observation has gained a rank and is now Advanced Level 33!

Keen Observation now grants +2 Perception, +1 Wisdom at regular level intervals.

Congratulations! Tactical Acumen has gained a rank and is now Advanced Level 3!

Tactical Acumen now grants +1 Perception, +2 Intelligence at regular level intervals.

Congratulations! Dirty Fighting has gained a rank and is now Intermediate Level 10!

Dirty Fighting now grants +1 Strength, +1 Perception at regular level intervals.

Congratulations! You have gained the ability: Gouge the Eyes!

Gouge the Eyes! Costs 50 stamina to activate, causes the ‘blind’ effect on target that lasts for 20 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown. You have gained this ability for reaching Dirty Fighting Intermediate.

NICE! I can always use some more utility. More attributes is always good, I need a skill that boosts my Endurance, I need more stamina. Bleh.

I looked around and found that everyone seemed ready to go. “Everyone ready?”

Everyone gathered up and we now had a choice. The door on the right, or the door on the left.

“Eenie Meanie Minie Moe?” I asked ruefully.

“Paper, Rock, Scissors?” Scheel offered.

“Fuck it, lets open both doors and see if we can see where they lead before we choose?” Bradley chimed in.

I drew my plasma pistol and walked over to the farthest door, Junipher followed. Phil and Bradley walked up to the other door. Seeing as there was no handle I simply reared back and kicked the door as hard as I could. The door swung open and smacked the wall on the other side with a loud bang that echoed loudly down the now exposed hall. Probably not the best option in hindsight. I paused awkwardly in the door with my pistol drawn. Nothing jumped out at me and the hall seemed to travel for some distance and curved off to the right.

I leaned back and looked at Phil and Bradley and they also didn’t move right away. After a moment they also leaned back and looked at me and shook their heads.

“Nothing here, beesh, looks clear. Curves off to the left.”

I turned to Junipher, “Keep an eye out, I’ll be right back.” Then I made my way over to Phil and the others. Hawkings decided to go make himself useful and joined Junipher as I arrived and I was grateful for his initiative. “Alright, mine curves off the right, yours left, we can all go down one, or we can split the team, I’m not particularly comfortable with that.”

Phil countered my concern while Bradley gave it some thought before speaking, “I would suspect they meet up somewhere along the way. If we pick one as a group we neglect the other, on the other hand, we can split up, and clear both sides and leave nothing behind us.”

“I think we should stick together”, Bradley added, “We’ve lost both Dick and Gallardo. Not trying to beat everyone over the head with that, but half of us are underequipped. We’re stronger together, period.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point. I just don’t like the idea of leaving half a dungeon behind us” Phil pouted a bit at the last.

“So which one?” I left the decision to the two senior officers, I didn’t really care much myself which way to go.

They both shrugged and then their fists started shaking in the air. Phil dropped paper and Bradley dropped Scissors. He sighed at his defeat and Bradley smiled back at me and said, “Let’s go right.”

I gave Phil a pat on the back and headed back over to Junipher and Hawkings with the rest of the group. They both smiled at our arrival and let Phil lead the way down the hall with his shield raised. Loser leads I guess.

We made it about half way down the hall before we heard the skittering of hundreds of feet and everyone tensed up. I swung my rifle to my shoulder and assumed a combat stance and waited, hoping silently that another Xokar hadn’t appeared. Fortunately, it wasn’t another Xokar, unfortunately it was a group of Xokar’s grown spawn. They were about a quarter of the mothers size and scurried in at all angles.

“Shit!” Valley exclaimed as she trained her Glock 19 on the incoming centipedes.

Her exclamation was echoed by the rest of the group and then we went into action with Phil, Scheel and Junipher in the lead, Hernandez covering their flank and the rest of us providing cover fire. Fortunately for us these smaller ‘pedes were also much less durable and were easy to put down. It took several minutes before the tide of yellow black chitin ceased and I was coming to see the value of my automatically reloading magazines.

“Damn, those magazines are tits.” Bradley echoed my exact thought as soon as it sprang to mind.

“You develop the ability to read minds, I was thinking the same shit.” I laughed and he smiled then the group pressed onward chatting quietly amongst themselves.

Another thing to note is the juvenile centipedes’ blood was not acidic. Which was fortunate because it covered every inch of the walls ceiling and floors for a good 10 meters. Shattered chitin crunched under our boots and a chorus of disgusted voices rose up from every member of the party.

“Hawkings, do you have to crush them til they explode?” Valley asked with look on her face that suggested she may soon add her stomach bile to the collection of bodily fluids.

“Sorry?” He shrugged sheepishly and smiled too wide for his face to contain.

After a few more meters we came to a series of roughly shaped rooms that felt damp with the smells of piss, shit, and decay. Centipede carapace was mixed in with piles of chewed and cracked bones still red with scraps of meat attached. I thought I may have spotted scraps of inmate clothing in some of the piles and looked harder from the entrance of the room I stood at when KEEN OBSERVATION confirmed my suspicions.

“Some of the inmates died here.” I spoke just loud enough for everyone to hear. Bradley and Phil came over and I pointed at the scrap of clothing that sat between a pair of meaty bones.

“Yeap. Good.” Bradley spat and Phil agreed.

“Now for what killed them?” Scheel motioned around the room a moment too soon. A trio of dog-like animals rounded the corner further down the hall in the direction we had been traveling. They stood nearly chest high and were built like a bulldog but with thicker and longer legs that ended in wicked black claws. The stand out feature was the fact that their heads were completely covered in thick bone and yellow glowing eyes peered out from their skulls. One on the far side of the group sniffed the air and the other two lowered their stance and began to release a growl that sounded like riding on a front loader.

Before the group could ready itself they charged and barked violence as they closed the distance. I activated STEADY SHOTS and CONTROLLED BURSTS, then crossed the hall dumping rounds at the animals. The rest of the party moved to counter attack as Bradley and I managed to pin them down with volume of fire. Junipher summoned roots to ensnare them while Phil and Scheel hung back and let the ranged DPS do its job. They’re learning! Don’t dive in head first!

Hawkings unleashed a trio of GRAVITY SPIKES that forced the hounds to collapse. This allowed their softer sides to be exposed to our withering fire and the animals were quickly defeated. We pushed past the trio of dead animals, looting them as we passed, and rounded the corner of the hall to see a larger group of hounds charging our direction.

Just as in the last engagement the combination of magic from Junipher and Hawkings crippled the beasts and they were finished at range. We continued down the meandering hallway for several minutes killing groups of what I determined were identified by the system as Hell Hounds. It was rather anticlimactic to the say the least. We had enough ranged damage and control that the monsters couldn’t reach us unless they managed an ambush, and they just didn’t seem to be concerned with such a thing. They were creatures made to simply eat and kill.

We finally rounded the corner to a clover shaped room with four pillars spaced evenly, a hall extended opposite from the one we had emerged from and on our right and left were sets of doors. Torches were planted high on the pillars to provide light and we studied our options. We could ignore this room for the moment and clear the opposite hall, or we could investigate the room on our left and right. Left took us essentially back the direction we came, and right kept us on the path to the dungeon core and the remaining inmates.

A discussion had already broken out about the merits of clearing the opposite hall versus pushing ahead, or even checking the back room.

Hawkings disengaged himself from the discussion and pressed on the door leading further in. When it didn’t give he inspected it closer and got everyone’s attention. “I think we need a key.”

“What?” Valley asked and the group focused on the young man.

“We need a key. See, there’s a keyhole here, and the door won’t budge.” He demonstrated by pushing as hard as he could. The door didn’t move.

"You’re probably just not strong enough, dude.” Phil shot back and began to move to the door.

“Well, Phil, you probably have the highest strength stat, give it a kick.”

“Fuck yeah I do! Watch this, step aside youngster.” He smiled cockily and reared back with his knee high to his chest then lunged out. He howled in pain as the bones in his leg audibly snapped and fell over clutching his leg in agony. He could always use some more humility I suppose. Valley was on him with an aluminum splint from her med bag and applying healing magic to both Phil and the splint.

I let Valley and Junipher tend to Phil and turned my attention back to the rest. Bradley tried to hide a small smirk while the others just gaped. “Looks like we need a key. Who wants to bet me all their credits that the key is behind that door.” I said and pointed at the door that stood opposite the one Phil had just snapped his leg on.

“Yeah, that’s probably right.” Scheel said still watching Phil being tended to.

“Let’s do this. While Phil is getting back to a hundred percent, we clear about 50 meters into the next hall, return and investigate the back room here.”

They nodded and we moved to make it happen, Junipher joined us and as before, groups of Hell Hounds came charging as soon as they sniffed us out. We used our previous tactics to eliminate them then waited a few minutes when we reached the designated distance and murdered a few more stragglers. When we were satisfied there was nothing more to be an immediate threat we returned to the clover leaf hall. Phil was angrily on his feet again and refused to look at Hawkings. He ain’t mad at the kid, just pissed at himself for not being as invincible he believes himself to be. I smirked when he walked past me.

“So?”

“Don’t wanna talk about it.” he muttered.

“Meh, you ready to tank again?” I shrugged.

“Yeah, lets go.” And he stomped off towards the other door. For a minute I thought he was going to try to kick it in spite, instead he pushed gently and the door swung open silently.

We entered what appeared to be kennels for the Hell Hounds. The walls had stone dividers set ever 3 meters with hay for bedding strewn about at the back of the pens. More torches were placed on every other divider and the middle of the room was left open. The room was probably 20 meters wide and extended at least another 200 meters deeper. This was by far the largest room we had entered so far. The dog kennel extended maybe a quarter the length of the room on each side.

In the center the room sloped slightly inwards, a circular feeding area filled with various protein sources including a couple of the inmates we came looking for was set a meter deep in the ground. Chains stretched across the ceiling and hung loose with hooks. The middle half of the room looked like a training yard for the hounds and was cluttered with ramps, combat dummies and other objects that made no immediate sense.

At the far end of the room sat a large creep with more proportional legs. He was surrounded by a dozen of the largest hounds we had seen so far, they were probably as big as Kaia. And Kaia was the size of a war horse.

The boss creep stood from his throne as we entered and I finally got a good look at him.

Broshaan, the Executioner, Master of Hounds. Level 25 ***

Broshaan had the same featureless smooth gray Creep face as the lesser creeps divided by a round lipless mouth full of angry looking teeth. His body however, was larger and more robust. He was all muscle tendon and bone. His waist still shrunk to almost nothing and exposed his pelvic bones but the legs attached to that tiny waist were comically thick with muscle and long enough for him to stand properly. And while he had the long lanky arms of his species, he had regular forearms with too large hands and too long fingers. But that still allowed him to heft a truly massive black metal greatsword in challenge to us.

He swung his sword to rest upon his shoulder and gestured to the two smallest hounds in the creepy chittering language the Creeps used. The hounds looked back at him and then us and their eyes flared and they charged.

“Welp, let’s get this started!” I smiled and raised my rifle.