As the others all turned to look at Kyle in surprise Amy cursed internally, of course that’s what was going on, she had noticed some streamers of Mental Energy attached to certain Scorprats but she had assumed that this was just the Pack Hunter Skill that some higher Level Scorprats were known to possess but as she looked closer she saw that the Mental Energy gathered in one spot before flowing back into the tunnel that they had failed to seal.

“Kyle’s right,” Amy said. “I’m sorry I should’ve noticed sooner.”

“Don’t worry about it Amy, not only did I distract you by telling you to seal one of the tunnels but finding an enemy that can use Mental Energy like this on the first floor is unusual to say the least,” Kyle consoled the disappointed Geode as he ran through a mental list of the monsters that he knew of that could both control a large group of Scorprats and lived in this Dungeon. “Amy how many of the Scorprats are actually being controlled?”

‘Just a few,” she replied. “It looks like most of them are just following the ones being controlled.”

“Well that’s something I suppose,” Kyle sighed. With this he was pretty sure he had figured out what it was that they were fighting.

“It seems we’re up against a Scorprat Lord,” Kyle told the group. Scorprat Lords were variants of normal Scorprats that were even weaker physically but were considerably more intelligent and able to control a number of Scorprats that increased dependant on their Level allowing the normally relatively weak Scorprats to use simple tactics making them more dangerous.

Turning back towards the entrance to the small cavern that they had just retreated from he frowned seeing that the flames that Herman had spewed out were beginning to sputter out but for the moment the Scorprats couldn’t get through to attack them without sacrificing some of their number to the flames. Normally he wouldn’t be worried about that but with them being controlled by a Scorprat Lord it was possible that they could attempt something that they otherwise wouldn’t but for now it looked like they had a few more moments to recover and felt a healing spell from Fi wash over him closing some of the small wounds that he hadn’t even noticed he had before she landed back on his shoulders to recover. She had mostly been healing Hal and Sasha

“Right, well let’s get ready for when the flames die out,” Kyle said as calmly as he could given the situation, they were in. “It looks like the Scorprats aren’t going to risk depleting their numbers further to get over the flames so let’s take this chance to recover and prepare.”

“Right, that’s probably a good- ow!” Hal started to reply before yelping as Sasha injected him with an antidote.

“Sorry but I have to make sure that everyone’s alright while I’ve got the chance,” Sasha apologised but Kyle saw the smirk that flashed over her face as she turned towards him and stared checking him over for any signs of being poisoned.

Kyle smiled as he realised that Sasha’s actions had made everyone, even Hal more relaxed than they had been mere seconds ago. They had all been stressed out after being ambushed by the massive group of Scorprats but now all of them were smiling except for Amy who still bobbing up and down in amusement.

“Good job,” he whispered in her ear before grunting as she stabbed a needle into his side having found a small scratch that was starting to turn green.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied with a wink before turning around and passing her shield to Hal who took it and slipped it on his arm to replace the one that he had used to help seal one of the tunnels.

Zerah watched them prepare with a worried expression on her face, while she and the other teachers had chosen this entrance in the hope that this group would encounter a Scorprat Lord, but they hadn’t expected that they would encounter one that could convince this many Scorprats to follow it without controlling them on the first floor. It was quite common for people who could use Mental Energy techniques to encounter monsters that could do the same. There were many theories as to why this happened ranging from the monsters seeing them as a greater threat to Mental Energy users being their preferred prey but the most likely was a mixture of these two reasons. Whatever the reason was monsters that could use Mental Energy were extremely dangerous having a wide range of abilities that allowed them to do things that other monsters simply couldn’t as well as having a much higher level of intelligence than the average monster at the same Level. Zerah was worried that she and the other teachers had miscalculated by allowing both Amy and Kyle to be in the same group, especially with her going along with them, she was using technique that allowed her to make her harder to notice but it was possible that the skill wasn’t working well enough to hide her presence and their combined power had drawn a more powerful Scorprat Lord from the deeper floors but then she disregarded that thought, there was no way that a monster that should have been in a lower floor would’ve been able to make it up to this one in time to prepare an ambush. Something else was going on and whatever it was, was giving her a bad feeling.

Seeing that the flames were finally dying down completely the group once again prepared to fight the Scorprats that remained, but it was at this moment that Kyle realised that he had made a mistake.

“Shit!” he exclaimed slapping a hand to his forehead in exasperation. “If there’s something controlling the Scorprats then this won’t end until we defeat it!”

“Well then, that’s what we’ll have to do!” Hal growled. “Herman take my hammer, I’m going all in on the defence and charging back in! You guys follow me and attack!”

As Hal said this, he tossed his hammer up into the air which flashed and disappeared as Herman took it into his Inventory before casting one of his most powerful spells from his new school of magic called Mountain’s Armour which summoned rock from the area around him forming armour that while heavy provided a significant amount of defence. Hal didn’t particularly like using his spell because not only did I use up most of his MP it slowed him down considerably, the spell also affected anything he was holding making it both stronger as well as much heavier as shown when the rock that was covering him flowed over the shield as well not only reinforcing it but binding it to him. This was why he had given his hammer to Herman, he wasn’t quite strong enough to wield both his hammer and a shield at the same time yet so he had decided to trust in his friends to defeat the enemies while he protected them as best he could.

Sasha immediately followed gripping her spear tightly in both hands, she wasn’t happy with how things were looking but she knew that they had no choice, if she needed to she could always activate her beast form which was something she tried to save for emergencies and this situation definitely qualified but still decided to hold off on activating it until she was certain it was the right time.

Amy also followed immediately after, with her crystalline body she could handle the weak attacks of the lower levelled Scorprats without any real difficulty so all she had to do was be careful of any that were more powerful, she was also the only member of their group who would be able to defend the others against any Mental Energy attacks that the Scorprat Lord might be able to use as Kyle had yet to learn a Sub-skill that would allow him to do that.

As Kyle also tried to follow Zerah tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to look at her in surprise, his eye widening as he saw the worried look on her face.

“I’m going to let you guy attempt this but I’m letting you know right now that this wasn’t something that we were expecting to happen so don’t be surprised if I interfere in the battle,” she told him sternly.

“But won’t that men that we fail the test?” Kyle asked his face paling in shock. They had done so well in their first battle, but it seemed that Zerah didn’t think that they could win this fight which was the conclusion that Kyle himself was rushing to despite his desire to win.

“Well, not necessarily,” Zerah replied holding up on of her hands to stop him from interrupting her. “Like I said; this is something that we hadn’t expected to happen, so I still have the right to decide that you guys passed if you show me that you’ve earned it now go, the battle’s already begun!”

“Right!” Kyle nodded turning back towards his friends who as Zerah had told him were already fighting. As he did so he could’ve sworn that he heard Zerah say ‘good luck’ but he put that out of his mind as he rushed towards the fight preparing a Mana Bolt that he unleashed as a Scorprat leapt at Hal who had turned to defend against an attack from his other side.

“Nice shot!” Hal shouted swinging his shield int the stunned monster sending it flying back into a stone spike that Amy conjured behind it. “It’s about time you helped out!”

“Sorry!’ he replied as he used Entangling Coils on another Scorprat tripping it up just in time for Sasha to finish it off with her spear. “Zerah just had to tell me something.”

The others gave him confused looks as he said this, but he just shook his head and thrust out his hand at another group of Scorprats launching Mana Blast that sent them flying.

“We don’t have time to talk about that now!” he said quickly before anyone could ask him the question that he knew they wanted to. “We’ve got to get through this first!”

“Right!” the others replied and refocused their efforts on the monsters on front of them. Hal’s shield knocking attacking Scorprats out of the air to be finished off by one of the other three, but it soon became clear that they were struggling against these numbers.

As they realised this Amy let out a psychic squawk of surprise that echoed inside of their skulls causing them to cringe in pain.

“Sorry guys,” she apologised. “Here it comes!”

Suddenly all the Scorprats stopped attacking with some of them screaming as though they were in pain and a loud screech erupted from the tunnel that they had failed to seal followed by a wave of Mental Energy that had both them and the Scorprats clutching their heads in pain.

“What the hell!?” Kyle shouted as Amy created a barrier of Mental Energy around them to protect them from any further psychic assaults. While he had failed to learn a Sub-skill that he could use to defend against Mental Energy attacks he had become very good at working out how the attack worked and any emotion that it may use, and this attack hadn’t used the rage that one might expect but fear.

Terrified squeals continued to erupt from the tunnel causing waves of Mental Energy to buffet the barrier that Amy had put up and shortly after a misshapen creature pulled itself out of tunnel it’s eyes wide in fright.

This was the first time that they had seen the Scorprat Lord and even though the thing was obviously terrified it was still a dangerous and monstrous enemy in its own right. For the most part it shared the same characteristics of a normal Scorprat but unlike the normal variety which used their speed, poisonous tails and numbers to overwhelm their opponent the Scorprat only had the ability to control others of its kind and its crafty mind. It’s legs and body were frail, and its tail was only about half the length of its body, in fact the only physical feature that it had that one could call impressive was its head which was strangely elongated and looked like it belonged on a larger monster.

Along with this misshapen beast were two others that basically looked like larger versions of normal Scorprats that had overdeveloped front legs.

“It has Brutes as well!” Kyle exclaimed upon seeing them his face turning pale with shock. When monsters reached a certain level, they could grow into a more dangerous form. Normal Scorprats had two forms that they could grow into; Stingers which had longer tails that they used like whips to attack from a distance with incredible speed and Brutes which gave up on speed and became more physically powerful instead, essentially becoming tanks that could take damage while other Scorprats attacked their prey. The presence of Brutes following the Scorprat Lord was a bad sign for multiple reasons; Brutes were more powerful and rarer than normal Scorprats meaning that this Scorprat Lord was even more powerful than they had assumed, probably even being close to reaching the next stage of its own lifespan and growing into a Scorprat King which was not only capable of using Mental Energy and controlling other Scorprat in larger numbers but could also use magic. The other reason this was a bad thing was that even the Brutes seemed to be afraid of something and as Scorprats could only become Brutes after reaching Level 10 this was a very bad sign for the group and they once again started to retreat back into the tunnel as several oversized needles flew past them as Zerah immediately reacted to the threat smoothly penetrating the tough skin of the brutes and pinning them to the wall as she sped forward to stand in front of the group before they could even react.

“Get back!” she shouted without even turning around to look at them. “There’s something else coming that’s even worse than these, you kids need to run!”

Kyle didn’t hesitate and immediately grabbed Hal by the shoulder and pulled his surprised friend back before the stubborn blacksmith’s son could argue.

“Wha-!” Hal gasped in surprise as Kyle spun him towards him.

“Let’s go, we wouldn’t stand a chance against even one of those Brutes let alone whatever the hell has two of them running scared even through the control of the Lord!”

I know that!” Hal replied. “I’ll cover us as we retreat, now move!”

The others nodded and turned and headed back towards the entrance glancing over their shoulders at their diminutive teacher who stood between them and whatever was causing the Scorprats to act so oddly so they were surprised when they saw a small purple light flash out of the mouth of the tunnel and weave past Zerah at immense speed before reaching them.

“Oops, I think messed up!” a tiny voice said from within the light causing the group to almost stop in their tracks from surprise.

“Sorry this is my fault!” the voice continued as the light faded slightly revealing a tiny winged woman. “I underestimated this dungeon, it was preparing to reach the next rank and one of the powerful monsters it had been preparing to gather the remaining energy it needed detected me!”

“Uh, what’s going on?” Sasha asked looking at the fairy in shock.

“Don’t have time to explain!” the fairy replied. “I have to go on ahead and warn the people in charge of Greenhearth. The Dungeon is going to send its most powerful monsters to attack them.”

As she said this she sped up once more and shot ahead glancing back over her shoulder at Kyle as she did so. The fairy was of course Puck and she had indeed messed up and was currently regretting her actions as she knew that Larchius wouldn’t let her hear the end of this especially if something happened to Kyle, if she had just trusted the teachers at the Adventurers School then Kyle would’ve only been up against that Scorprat Lord at worst but what was chasing her was capable of crushing both the Scorprat Lord and its Brutes in a single blow.

But this wasn’t even the worst thing, her showing herself had caused the Dungeon to accelerate its plans. The attack that it had merely been preparing before was happening right now causing large numbers of powerful monsters to rise from the Dungeons depths just in time to meet the unprepared Adventurers School students!

“At least the students have their teachers with them,” Puck muttered. “If their as strong as that Gnome they should be able to make it out safely, but I’m worried about the town.”

The town had enough guards and other defences to protect it against the normal monsters that left the dungeon occasionally, but the monsters that were being sent this time were a cut above the normal ones. The one that had detected Puck was only one of many and although she wasn’t particularly good at combat herself she may have been able to beat one or two of them but there were dozens of monsters as powerful as it down there and a handful of more powerful ones that she would have trouble with and upon her being discovered all these monsters immediately rushed for the various entrances so even if she had been able to defeat them in a straight fight there was no way that she could catch all of them before some of them managed to escape the Dungeon and launch a surprise attack on the town so she had decided to prioritise the town and its inhabitants and trust that the teachers could at least protect their students while they retreated.

As her students fled Zerah continued to attack the Scorprats in an attempt to decrease their numbers and prevent them from following Kyle and the others while she was preoccupied with the more powerful monsters but her needles hadn’t quite been enough to hold the Brutes back due to her having to be careful about hitting her students and they had torn themselves from the were they were pinned to the walls showing both the toughness that they were known for and the terrifying effects of being completely controlled by the Scorprat Lord which didn’t care whether its pawns lived or died showing that even though it had lost control of them briefly in its panic it was still powerful enough to take back control of them and it snarled angrily as the Brutes bore down on the petit Gnome.

Zerah smirked at the creatures which were about the same height she was but looked far more powerful despite their gaping wounds, she was being underestimated. Holding out her frail seeming arms she caught both Brutes with an ease that would’ve surprised anyone who didn’t know that her Level was over 80, there was no way that such low levelled monster could stand a chance against her even if she didn’t have a Class that specialised in Strength.

“That was foolish,” she said calmly as the two beasts struggled against her grip, she didn’t even look at them her gaze was completely focussed on the Scorprat Lord which was beginning to panic once more as it realised what it was up against. “You should know better than to let your guard down against a fellow Mental energy user!”

As she shouted this at the shocked Scorprat Lord needles shot out of the special sleeves that she kept them in precisely shooting at the Brutes’ vital points causing them to collapse like puppets whose strings had been cut.

Zerah’s smirk widened to a full-on grin as the Scorprat Lord shrieked in rage once more grabbing hold of several Scorprats with streamers of Mental Energy and directing them to attack Zerah. The needles that had killed the Brutes mere seconds ago were joined by others which orbited Zerah briefly before striking out once more spearing directly through the Scorprats without slowing and then reoriented in the Scorprat Lord riddling with holes before it could even move before moving on to the remaining Scorprats.

“But I guess you won’t be learning from that lesson,” the teacher said her smile turning amused in an instant despite the bloody corpses that now surrounded her, it had been a while since she had been able to let loose even a little bit so almost felt grateful to the Dungeon for what was happening but that feeling soon faded as she realised even though she had managed to defeat most of the Scorprats some had managed to get past her while she was dealing with the Brutes.

“Oh well,” she sighed. “That’s what they’ve been training for I suppose.”

Just then a loud roar echoed from the open tunnel in front of her.

“Anyway, I’ve got other things to worry about.”