Chapter 165: Familiar Faces in Strange Pces

  The dire boars were huge, their size reminded me of Ameri buffalo. Each of their off-white tusks was the size of my arm, and even with my armor, I figured getting gored would be painful if not deadly. One of the boars wandered closer to us.

  Raelia studied the creature and informed us what she knew: “The tusks may look dangerous, but it is the hooves you o be wary of. Ohey get you on the ground, they will trample you to death.”

  Each boar looked to weigh over a thousand pounds, and the thought of getting uheir hooves was horrible. “So, you’ve fought these before?”

  Raelia flushed at being questioned about her knowledge. “No. I was flying on Mooncw over the Seagrass Pins and saw dire boars in a. I did not know what they were at the time, but my aold me afterward. They chased doair of taurs and trampled them to death. I have never seen a dire boar this close before.”

  I assumed Mooncw was her griffin, but she had never mentio before. “So, how do we kill four?” I asked my group.

  “I think they charge mindlessly in a straight line, like a bull,” Maveith offered after a short silence. “Perhaps one of us could stand against the wall and trick it into running into it.”

  “Are you sure about that, Maveith?” I asked uainly. Having been used as bait before, I did not like the idea.

  Maveith nodded slowly. “Dire animals are on on Stone Mountain Isnd. Their instincts are to attack recklessly. Dire bears have killed many of my people”, he added, nodding to Raelia.

  She voiced some , “Their hide is thick, or so I imagine. My fireball would just burn away their hair and make them angrier.”

  We waited to ehere were only four creatures as we discussed strategies. Twe males, and the other two were younger males, about half the size. They were mostly ed with eating grubs, but Raelia spotted ohat found a truffle and ed it while keeping the others at bay from its prize. After over two hours of watg, I finally decided on a pn.

  “They are aware of us but seem disied. All three of us will attack a single boar when it is separated from the others. Hopefully, the other three won’t e at us together, and we take down a sed boar as a team. I will kill the third, and then we all work together on the fourth.” As I spoke, I produced Raelia’s runic dagger and held it out for her. Her eyes widened briefly before she took it from me, and her expression was unreadable at the trust I was extending to her.

  She spent a moment attag it to her belt before advising, “Do not run into the corridor if things go bad. Once we attack them, the creature will be free to pursue you if you leave the chamber. Dodging something that size will be impossible in the narrow corridor.” We had gotten that answer from the shapeshifters, but we had not experie yet. Once you started fighting creatures in a dungeon room, the fight had to end with a victor. There was reat, as the creature could pursue you.

  It was half an hour ter when our opportunity arrived. Just fiftee from us, one of the smaller boars was near and isoted. My heart raced, and adrenaline surged as I led the charge into the room. My pn was to stab with my bck bde behind the shoulder to reach the heart for a fatal blow.

  The boar turoo fast for me, and I only got a gng ssh, opening its hide on the shoulder. The cut felt as though I was cutting shoe-leather with a steak knife, despite the ented bde. It squealed loudly, calling the others. My shield arm stung as its head whipped around, and its tusk smashed into me, f me to retreat a few steps. With its attention on me, Maveith’s hammer came down on its head, crushing its skull and causing the beast to colpse instantly. Maveith’s hammer was buried in the skull, and he needed a moment to extract it.

  I turo look at the small hill as the thunder of hooves echoed ominously in the room. “Where’s Raelia?” Maveith asked. Shit, I did not see her. Had she ditched us now that she had two bdes and thought she could escape the dungeon alone? I did not have time to worry. I braced myself for the first charging boar. It was one of the rge ones. I yered five air shields in front of me and po roll to my right.

  The good news was that the boars were spaced about twenty feet apart. Maveith towered behind me, orieved. “We are dodging right, Maveith!” I yelled as the boar thuoward us. I dashed right, and Maveith dove. The boar suddenly jolted to a stop, destroying four of the five air shields on impact. I pnted my foot and lunged with the bde, achieving excelleration behind the shoulder. The stunned boar spun, ripping my embedded bde from my grip. Maveith’s hammer came down on the back of its neck. I wi the loud crag sound on the spine, finishing the beast.

  We were not done, as the sed rge boar was too close, and I was forced to kill it with my dimensional spaow brainless, its legs folded, and it skidded into the first boar. The final oppo was one of the smaller boars, weighing only six or seven hundred pounds by my estimation. The ground still rumbled as it charged.

  Raelia suddenly stood up, whipping her camoufge cloak back to reveal herself, and leaped onto its back as it passed her. She squeezed the creature with her legs, preventing herself from being thrown off, and drove her dagger and short sword into the creature's back. The whole sequeook just a few heartbeats but demonstrated incredible timing and skill.

  It reared and squealed at the sudden pain. The boar smartly started to roll onto its back to crush its rider, and I worried for the elf. However, as the boar rolled, she gracefully dismounted and rolled to cushion her fall. She had left her two ons buried in the creature, and it did itself no favors by rolling. When it righted itself, it had trouble walking with the bdes lodged deep in its shoulder. Grunting in pain with every step, it moved spasmodically toward Raelia.

  I took a moment to pull my bck bde free, as it got jammed between the boars ribs when the beast colpsed. Maveith was already taunting the crippled creature, keeping its attention from the unarmed Raelia, allowio fnk it from behind and ssh the tendon on a back leg. After that, it was easy for us to finish off the immobilized creature.

  Raelia smiled as she went to retrieve her ons. I, however, was not happy. “That was not the pn! And you were hiding in the open. What if the boar trampled you? You did not tell us you were doing it! We thought you ran away!”

  A shocked look came over her face at being yelled at. I think it was the first time I had truly shown a the elf. Her mind seemed to race, and guilt appeared on her features. But instead of defending herself or yelling back like I expected, she just squeaked out softly, “I’m sorry.”

  Her response was so ued that I was caught off guard. I gave her my a stare and waited for Maveith to intercede and defend her, but he did the opposite, reiterating my points, “Raelia, I am disappointed in you too. The pn was clear, you should have voiced your iions to us.” Maveith’s statement was like a sp to her, and she physically stumbled. Maveith had taken her side ever since I had released her. She stared at her feet, no longer able to make eye tact. Was she going to cry? Why was I feeling bad?

  I rexed. “You did look like a badass doing it. But if our partnership is going to work, we o unicate better.” I looked over the bloody boars, soaking the earth into a pasty red mud. Maybe a token punishment? “Maveith, Raelia will help you harvest the boars. Make sure she does most of the work. I am going to search the rest of the chamber.”

  I walked away and heard Raelia trying to uand what I said by asking Maveith. “How is my ass bad? It does not smell at all. I just bathed!” I chuckled to myself as Maveith tried to help her sort out my colloquialism.

  The ground was torn up around the chamber as the boars sged uhe sod frubs and truffles. The stone chest was near a small spring that fed a small pool on the far side of the hill. I shattered it and looked at the s spread out in the grass. I was more excited about the silvery runiife ihe metal gleamed on the bde of the short, single-edged on. No, not a on, but a skinning knife. Maveith was going to love this.

  There was only o from this room, so the choice of dire was easy. Rather than dig frubs, I returo the others while waiting for my aether to recharge to retrieve the collector. With a grin, I hahe goliath the knife. “Maveith, try this out. It was in the reward chest.” I presented him with the skinning knife.

  Maveith took the bde reverently while Raelia looked on, her eyes clearly reizing it as an artificed on. Maveith cut into the belly of the boar, the skin parting without much effort, and the gray-skinned man smiled. “This is remarkable. Thank you for letting me use it.”

  “No, Maveith, it’s yours. As well as two of the essences from these creatures. We definitely wouldn’t have won without you.” It was a small jab at Raelia’s as as well. She had abandoned us at the start of the attack, doing her own thing.

  The collector appeared in my hand, and I collected tex stitution essences and two major stitution essences. I gave the tex esseo Maveith, while Raelia watched jealously. I moved a distance aocketing the other two essences. I had not gotteo the gamey smell of animals being harvested. Maveith was joyously using the new knife, cutting away ks rapidly and handing them to Raelia, who could barely keep up with stag the meat and ans. Raelia was covered in blood and did not look happy.

  Four buffalo-sized bave a lot of meat. Maveith asked for the of salt, and he only cured one sb of belly fat, serving our dwindling salt stores for cooking. He stacked the other sbs nearly three feet high. I sent them to ste so they would not spoil, but I doubted we would find more salt in a dungeon.

  I also had to temper Maveith’s excitement over his ool. I added less than a quarter of what he harvested to my space. “Maveith, that’s it. I do not have more free space.”

  Maveith pleaded, “Eryk, I peel the iines? Surely you have enough room to take the gs so we make sausage iure?” How long did the goliath think we were going to be trapped in the dungeon?

  I acquiesced and made a small box with my hand. “This big, Maveith. I o have some space reserved for killing creatures too.” Maveith eagerly started w oestines. He had to strip them, scrape them, and then turn them i and scrape them again, all while washing them thhly.

  He needed water for his work and fouled the only pool in the room. He had a dozen six-foot ses when he was done. I guess the saying that you do not want to know how the sausage is made is true.

  We spent over half a day in the room before pag up and heading to the ohe corridor was not long, and we were a bit surprised to find another safe room. But this safe room ecial, as it had stairs asding to presumably the first level at one end and a bck, oily door at the other. It had been so long since we had seen a dungeo. Maveith and I just stared at it in disbelief.

  Raelia questioned, “Are we going to leave? I thought you said the city was full of specters.”

  “Yes, it is. We ot leave, no matter how tempting it loht noill certainly be killed. We o find Castile first.” I could not tell her there was also an Elven summoner out there trying to kill us. She might risk running to seek his prote.

  Raelia went to the elven script on the wall. “It says dire boars ahead. Guess dungeon notes are not useful if yoing backward.” She offered a weak smile at us before tinuing to read the faded script.

  Maveith asked curiously, “Does it say anything else?”

  “Nothing useful. The truffles the boars were eating are valuable, but other than that, it does not say much.” Raelia cimed one of the stone shelves and started unpag her pack.

  “Maveith, what do you want to prepare for dinner?” I asked while breaking my eyes from the tempti. I spent time getting his supplies, and then I went to scout the stairs.

  Raelia jumped to her feet. “I will e with you.”

  I sidered her for a moment. “Stay with Maveith. If there are legion the top of the steps—well you imagine,” I stated rally.

  Frustrated, she said, “Just do not go in the room. It will seal you inside if it is the final room before a dest.” Was Raelia actually ed for my safety?

  I paused but did not respond to the elf as I climbed the stairs. There was a lot of hope riding on each step I took. Was the rest of the pany on the first level? Were they still alive? Was Castile among them? The stairs did not corkscrew as I climbed, but the wall had a long, slow curve. Wheairs ended, I was on a small nding with a rge circur room beyond. The floor acked earth. The walls of this chamber had a thick green slime c them, giving the entire room an eerie green light, but that was not what caught my attention.

  A massive drake circled restlessly in the ter of the room, its powerful body rippling with hidden muscle. The drake’s dark mahogany brown scales glistened uhe flickering light, and its ck of wings marked it as ah drake—an imposing creature I had reized from the pages of the bestiary. Yet, it loomed much rger than a typical member of its species, creating a daunting presehat filled the vast space.

  As I sed the chamber, a fsh of crimson caught my attention on the far side, where a legionnaire who had beeed in quiet observation had now risen to his feet. The chamber stretched over two hundred feet ih, an expahat made it difficult for me to dis his features. In a moment of resolve, I lifted my helm to reveal my face, revealing myself. He met my gesture by removing his own helm, and for a brief instant, our eyes locked in mutual reition.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

  No Permission is given to transte, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this inal work of fi. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad., or Scribblehub., it has been stolen without my permission and viotes DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by cht w. Removal or altering of this notification is an aowledgment you are aware you are in viotion of DMCA.