Chapter Ten

Interlude Two

The Lair

There was a sickening crunch, accompanied by a splattering of blood. Abraham had to force himself not to lose his lunch, as Lucy’s corpse fell to the ground, her head completely gone. Slower, louder crunches told him and the rest of his party that the beast, the {Savage Young Cave Lizard}, was enjoying its meal, savoring the flavor. This was the third time this had happened to a member of their party. He wasn’t sure if this was the same creature that had ambushed them before or not, as these lizards disappeared as quickly as possible after feeding, and they had been in shock every time this had happened thus far. As Abraham lifted his staff up to cast a spell at the creature, it’s head snapped toward him and what he saw made his blood freeze. Lucy has hazel eyes, he thought. The beast’s eye changed as he watched, from a slit vertical pupil, into a human eye. A hazel eye. Lucy’s eye. It scurried off into the dark, with hardly a sound.

Abraham’s group had not been far behind the first group to leave. Fred’s group, he had reminded himself, having talked to Fred and Stan a bit before everything had been rushed that morning that they had had to leave the inn in the initial unnamed town. They entered the cave, but hit something that felt like a solid wall, though they couldn’t see anything. A stone was nearby, and they examined in. {Respawn Stone}:

{ALERT} As you do not currently have a respawn location set, you have been bound to this stone until you reach the nearest inn.

As soon as that alert had cleared from his group’s vision, they had heard laughing, like the kind you would hear at a carnival from a young child that was enjoying himself immensely, except much more sinister and it seemed to be coming from everywhere around them.

Their rogue, Bert, groaned loudly.

“We…just got trapped. Didn’t we?”

“Apparently so. Jack warned us this kind of thing could happen later in this layer, or on the lower layers but…this early? This is twisted!”

Abraham said, confusedly and in plain shock.

Marik, May, and Lucy shook their heads slowly in unison while Brian, their archer, looked around.

“It seems empty, but there’s slight distortions, it seems. Look.”

Brian reached into a small pouch on his side, and pulled out a pebble, throwing it and hitting seemingly nothing in midair, but something seemed to ripple.

“How did you even notice that?”

Lucy asked, confused.

“Have to be perceptive, to be an efficient archer.”

Brian actually had been practicing archery back home, something his father had gotten him into, and his father had told him the same thing on multiple occasions.

The walls that has been around them seemed to shimmer into being. As Brian looked around a corner, a creature dove from above, snapping it’s jaws around his head, tearing it off in one clean fluid motion, killing him instantly. Before anyone could recover from the shock, it scampered off, chewing happily on it’s fresh meal.

“Oh G__”

{ALERT} attempted use of a forbidden word has been detected; punishment applied. Deities, besides The Khazam, do not exist here nor is mention of them tolerated.

May doubled over, vomiting an obscene amount of blood and bile, while Abraham’s eyes widened as he saw her health, stamina, and mana drop rapidly to 10%, flashing furiously.

“What the-”

Abraham started, but was interrupted by a scream from Lucy. Bert had been attacked in a similar fashion as Brian. His head was still half attached, the creature had completely ripped off the right side, leaving a gruesome sight behind.

In his vision, the mini-screen off to the side detailing his party’s stats and condition grayed out, where Brian and Bert’s names were. A timer appeared.

Respawn for Bert is fifty-nine minutes, forty-five seconds

Respawn for Brian is fifty-nine minutes, forty-three seconds

Lucy sighed and shook her head.

“Well, this is a shit start!”

She yelled, frustrated and with tears in her eyes.

Just as Abraham nodded to agree with her, Brian and Bert’s bodies seemed to slowly fade away, what looked like a small amount of dust seemed to flake off of them and settle into the ground where their bodies had been moments before.

An hour later, after a lot of paranoid looks around corners, up to ceilings that they could not see, and over their shoulders, the group was shaky but mostly reformed. Abraham heard mumbling from Bert and Brian, but it seemed they were talking to themselves about the experience.

Abraham shook himself out of his recollection, looking over to where Lucy’s screen had gone grey.

Respawn for Lucy is fifty-nine minutes, twenty-three seconds

“Okay guys, lets –”

Abraham was interrupted by a very angry scream and a clang of metal on metal, that seemed to come from deeper with the cave.

“Dios mio, calm down!”

Esteban shouted at Jane, who had just swung her {Minor Warhammer of the Berserk} into his shields. Esteban, being his groups {Shield-bearer} held his ground with little effort, but the scream that had accompanied her strike, along with the clang of metal, would no doubt attract unwanted attention.

Maria, their group {Director} put a hand on Jane’s shoulder.

“We’ll be fine, if we stop drawing unwanted attention to ourselves, people.”

Maria and Jane shared a look, and Jane seemed to relax slightly. She still swung a hand at Esteban with a bit of heat. Mario and Luis, their group {Mage} and {Cleric} respectively, just looked at each other and shook their heads with a slight smirk. They knew what the issue was. Maria, Jane, and Esteban had been something of a love triangle for years. Jane was upset that he could stop anything she threw at him with minimal effort, the fact that they had suddenly been dragged into this world, and that it was already much worse than they had thought. Jane rubbed at her neck, where her head had been bitten clean off by a giant lizard looking creature.

They all looked up as they heard an echoing noise, coming from deeper within the cave. A drumbeat.

{ALERT} You have heard the {March of Invigoration}, being performed by an Earthborn Bard. Appropriate buffs applied.

{Identify Skill}; {March of Invigoration}: applies the following buffs; Increased Movement Speed, Increased Spirit, Mana, Stamina, and Health Regeneration to all allies within hearing distance. All Earthborn are allies unless stated otherwise by specific individuals.

The Rogues in the cave received the notification from their class specific unique skill and shared it with their group members.

Sam, his group’s Paladin nodded to his {Director} Raul. He cutoff his {Minor Sense Life} skill.

“Seems there’s twelve others in here with us, and they’re all moving this way after hearing your skill, boss.”

Sam said in a brusque, confident tone.

“Good, this place is maddening. We need to work together to get out of here. Aren’t there any other Paladins or Clerics in the other groups, though?”

Raul turned to Juan with a frown and his deep voice.

Juan nodded an affirmative and checked his {Identify Skill: Affected Allies}.

“There’s a cleric in the group towards where that clanging noise came from.”

“So, either they don’t have {Sense Life}, or didn’t practice it.”

Sam nodded, understandingly.

Joe, Megan, and Josh, the group’s {Archer} {Mage} and {Monk}, also nodded in agreement.

Raul was glad his group was so efficient. They had all taken turns every week in their D&D campaigns to run it, to be the Dungeon Master. They all knew the importance of knowing each other’s capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, abilities and traits. Even more so now that this was their life.

As Abraham and Maria’s groups both moved towards the echoing drumbeats they had heard, each group had been ambushed twice more. Thankfully, without any more casualties, as their reaction speed had been sped up not only by Raul’s skill, but also by fear and hate for the creatures.

Before either group entered an Y shaped intersection, their respective rogues, Jose and Bert, tossed pebbles that they had picked up, into the adjacent corridor. Abraham’s group saw a pebble ricochet off a wall and land near their feet, as did Maria’s group. Each group looked at their members, nonplussed, and shrugged, moving forward hearing drumbeats again as they did so.

Maria and Abraham’s groups saw each other and breathed a sigh of relief, that they actually weren’t in this nightmarish cave alone. A third pebble struck the wall lightly above their heads.

“No time for that, come on. We’ve got to strategize on what the hell to do about what’s ahead.”

Juan said abruptly, from the upper path of the intersection, Sam behind him, as his backup.

A few minutes later, the three groups were sitting in a very spacious part of the cave, with a bit of room to move around. Raul cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention, taking in everyone appearances and faces.

Lucy was a blonde haired, hazel eyed pale-skinned woman that was oddly tall, but slim. Wait, was one of her eyes like a lizard? He had to know about that soon. That could be important information.

Brian was a brown haired, green eyed white man with a bit of a tan, roughly six feet tall, and about one hundred seventy-five pounds, judging by his build, Raul guessed mentally. Definitely an archer, judging by the bow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back.

Bert was a mousy looking white fellow, roughly about five foot five inches, brown hair and eyes. By the way he was looking around and from Juan’s intel, he was his group’s rogue.

Abraham was roughly six foot three inches, and of a heavier build. Black hair and blue eyes, he was carrying a staff. Raul guessed he was an invoker, and thus the {Director} of his group.

Marik was roughly five foot 8 inches, with a very slim build, also brown hair and eyes, with hand wraps wrapped around his tanned fists. Ahh, a Monk. Interesting. Raul thought to himself.

The last person on the left side of the cave was May. May was a heavier set light skinned woman, at about five foot eight inches, with blond hair and blue eyes. She also carried a staff, but the same kind that his mage, Megan held.

Next, he looked to the other side.

Maria, carrying a unique staff among everyone there, identified her as a summoner. Thus the {Director} of her group. She was five foot even, making her very short, with a thick build. Black hair, pale skin, and green eyes.

Jose was built like a soccer player and had the skin tone to go with it. Brown hair and eyes, he was looking over everyone with a sharp look. Raul knew he was the other rogue among the group, also according to Juan’s info.

Esteban and Mario looked to be twins, with the same features, brown skin, hair and eyes. Both about six foot two inches, with heavier builds. The staff and shields identified Esteban as a {Shield-Bearer} and Mario as a {Mage}.

Luis was a taller and slim white man, with black hair and hazel eyes. He carried a staff that was identical to the mages, but it gave off a different aura, as did the different clothing he had.

Jane was a redhead with green eyes, slim and average height of about five foot six inches. She seemed angry as everyone felt, but actually verbalized it and let it show. Her Warhammer and Juan’s info identified her as the only {Berserker} here.

Raul himself was a heavier set Hispanic man, at around two hundred twenty pounds and six foot five. His equipment shouted bard to everyone around.

Sam, Josh, and Joe were all about the same height, and builds. Roughly six foot even, all heavier set men, with black hair and green eyes. The sword and shield identified Josh as a warrior, the holy symbol on another shield marking Sam as a paladin, the bow and quiver of arrows marking Joe as an archer.

Juan was the thinnest and shortest of his group, and the only Hispanic in his group. Five foot eight inches, brown hair with green eyes, he was very sneaky when he wanted to be and kept his daggers slightly out of their sheaths for ease of access.

Lastly, Megan. The only woman in their group, and probably the meanest of Raul’s group. At six foot three inches, she was even with almost everyone else and had a thick build. She had already shot a fireball at Joe before for making a playful pass at her.

“Alright, so here’s the issue!”

Raul said in his booming voice, while clapping his hands. He then pointed to the door at the other end of the cave. It read the following:

‘Welcome to The Lair of The Treacherous Demon, might this be your final resting place?’