Pocket Dungeon, page 9
My heart rate ticked up, and I sucked in a breath as I slid the dagger back into its place at my belt. I needed to get moving. There were too many things I didn’t understand, and being trapped in some sort of fucked up video game dungeon was not the best place to try and understand them.
I could ponder all the questions I wanted once I was out safely on the other side with a fat pile of gold.
I walked slowly and carefully to the door on the other side of the room. When I reached out to grab the handle, I was shocked to find that it was warm. All of the other metal door handles I’d found in the dungeons so far had been cold and a little clammy. But this one was warm… no, it wasn’t just warm. It was hot, and getting even hotter.
Suddenly, I had a horrifying realization as to just what might be waiting for me on the other side of the door.
I stepped back as far as I could from the door while still reaching the handle, and I yanked hard. The door swung open with an ear-shattering crack as it slammed into the other side of the wall.
The only thing I could see was fire.
I hadn’t been able to hear the sounds of the roaring flames while the door was closed, and I could only assume it was some sort of enchantment that prevented me from doing so.
But now I could hear the roar of the flames loud and clear. It was impossible to hear anything else over the sound of burning. I had never really thought about the fact that fire had sound before, but now it was all I could think about.
I took a stumbling step backward away from the wall of flames. How was I supposed to get through that?
I couldn’t see anything in the room past the thick curtain of fire. The heat that radiated off of the flames was already beginning to make me sweat buckets, and my hands underneath the leather gloves felt slick. I was grateful for the gloves, though, because I doubted I could handle a weapon with how sweaty my bare skin would be.
I gave the countdown clock in the corner of my vision a quick glance to see how much time I had left. I didn’t want to spend the three full hours standing here debating how I was supposed to quell the flames and then waste all of my time.
But according to the clock, I had two hours and fourteen minutes left. I’d only been in the dungeon for a measly forty-six minutes so far. Did that mean there were even worse things ahead? Or was I just speeding right on through?
My thoughts jumped back to the fact that I wasn’t alone in the dungeon. Had the other person been somehow clearing the way? It wasn’t a question that I expected an answer to.
But it definitely added to my level of anxiety right now.
“Focus, Wes,” I muttered to myself.
The flames flickered and spat violently at the edges of the doorway. It seemed like they were enchanted or something, because they couldn’t get through and into the room. It was a small blessing, I supposed, while I tried to figure out what I needed to do to get past them.
I’d already used The Oculus to examine the room, and it hadn’t shown any other entrances into the next room. The only way past the flames was apparently through.
Great.
An idea struck me, and I looked down at Golen’s Shield on my wrist and thought about it expanding again. The piece of metal grew in size until it was just barely big enough to still fit through the doorway. I didn’t think I would be able to push the flames back, but it might offer me enough protection as I ran through them.
It was a gamble, but it was clearly the only choice I had left. There was no way I could backtrack. There hadn’t been any sort of way back up to the floor I had started on, and besides that, the door to the equipment room had disappeared behind me in the first dungeon.
Okay. I could do this. I could do this.
I braced both of my arms behind the shield and shifted until my entire body was angled behind the large sheet of metal. It felt sort of crazy, but so did everything else I’d done since I’d fallen into the dungeon the first time. I was just going to have to get used to crazy.
And with that thought in my mind, I charged through the flames.
The heat that surrounded me was suffocating. One moment, I had been able to breathe with relative ease, and the next, I felt like I was about to choke on my own tongue.
All the moisture felt like it was sucked from my skin, and the metal of the shield that pressed against my forearms began to burn.
The tongues of the fire lapped at my sides, and my clothing had slowly started to burn.
I gasped for air as I flew through the wall of fire and into a wide, circular room. My shirt was singed, and a few charred embers still sparked at the hem. I smacked at the small sparks with my gloved hand to put them out. I feared that I might have lost my eyebrows in the fire, but that was a problem for later.
I smoothed out my hair just to make sure it wasn’t on fire before I finally glanced around the room. My eyes watered from the smoke that filled the space, but I was still able to make out enough of my surroundings.
The room was shaped like a massive circle with a ring of fire the entire way around. But that wasn’t the shocking part.
It was the attractive woman standing in the middle of the room with a sharp, wicked-looking katana extended out in front of her. She wore a flowing green tunic that fell to the tops of her thighs with some wicked-looking armor along her shoulders. The woman swung the blade in a smooth, clearly practiced arc as a fucking dragon the size of a horse jumped toward her.
The text that floated over the pouncing creature’s head marked it as a Silver Dragon Wyrmling: level two.
My breath caught in my throat as the sleek, silver-looking dragon managed to catch the blow from the woman’s katana against its hide without any damage being done.
The woman cried out in distress and stumbled. It was only then that I realized she was putting all of her weight on her left foot only. Her right leg was bent awkwardly.
The dragon wyrmling reared back. Its silver scales glinted menacingly in the firelight that surrounded the room. It was going to kill her.
My body seemed to act before I processed what I was doing. I lunged forward toward the center of the room with Golen’s Shield thrust out in front of me, and then I threw myself down onto the ground in a less than elegant knee-slide.
I kept the shield up in front of me as best I could at this height.
The dragon wyrmling’s claw slammed into the front of the shield. It sent vibrations shuddering up through my arms, but I refused to bend. I gritted my teeth together so hard I was worried one would crack as I held the dragon back with all my might.
“Oh,” the woman behind me gasped. I couldn’t tell if it was a sound of gratitude, or if she was simply surprised she wasn’t alone in the dungeon, either.
Suddenly, all of the pressure lifted off the shield as the dragon wyrmling skittered back. It gave a pissed off hiss, complete with flames sputtering from its mouth.
Well, that explained all the fire in the room.
I stumbled back up to my feet and offered the woman my hand. It was only then that I got a good look at her. I had taken her for a normal, human woman at first, because why would I have thought anything else, but I was shocked to see that she had ears. Well. Most people have ears. But she had ears like a fox. They were a soft reddish color and nearly blended in with her hair. They perched atop her head and twitched at each new sound the dragon wyrmling made behind me.
Her eyes were a molten, metallic-looking gold, and her pupils were slitted like a cat’s. They were strange and mesmerizing, and I found myself having a hard time looking away.
The woman took my hand, and I pulled her up to her feet. She leaned her weight into my side, but it was clear she was still trying to stand on her own.
She kept her katana thrust out in front of her in a mildly terrifying display of strength.
“How bad is your leg?” I held Golen’s Shield up in front of us, but I wasn’t sure how long we had until the dragon launched another attack.
“We can speak later,” she said. Her voice carried a faint accent that I couldn’t quite place. I could have spent all day trying to figure it out without making any sort of progress, but now really wasn’t the time for something like that.
“Right,” I agreed. “Here.”
I didn’t hesitate to pull Golen’s Shield off of my arm and pass it over to the woman. But it looked too big for her, and within an instant of me thinking this, the shield shrank down to suit her smaller body.
Her mesmerizing eyes widened.
“You need it more than I do right now,” I said. In all honesty, I definitely needed that shield, but she was hurt. I wasn’t going to leave her completely open for any sort of attack.
It was only when I pulled out Golen’s Sword and took a step back that I realized not only did the beautiful woman have fuzzy, animal-like ears, she also had a tail.
It was the same color as her ears with a white tip at the end like a fox’s.
Holy shit. She was part fox.
She wore a short, pale green dress that brushed the tops of her thighs with sleeves that billowed out only to tighten at her wrists, as well as a pair of knee-high black boots that looked more than ready for combat. There were armored embellishments on her shoulders and wrists that matched the style of her blade.
She was the most stunning woman I had ever had the pleasure of seeing, but if I didn’t figure out how to deal with this dragon, and soon, she was going to be the last woman I ever saw.
The fox-woman took a small, stumbling step backward with Golen’s Shield still raised up in front of her. Her golden eyes were focused on the silver dragon wyrmling in front of us.
The creature seemed to be done licking his wounds and was gearing up for another attack. The bar above the creature’s head already sat at two-thirds health thanks to my companion’s attacks.
Still, its metallic eyes flashed with rage as it lunged forward toward us. I felt naked without my shield, but it wasn’t like I didn’t have a weapon.
I swung the longsword down with as much force as I could muster in the general direction of the dragon wyrmling. To my surprise and glee, the blade connected firmly with the dragon’s flank. It didn’t seem to penetrate the creature’s thick, shiny scales, but the health bar above its head dropped a small one or two percent.
Interesting. Maybe the hit had done some sort of internal damage or exacerbated what the fox-woman had already done.
I was impressed that she had been able to hold it off for so long given how damaged her leg seemed. Then again, people did all sorts of things in desperate situations that they wouldn’t be able to do usually. Like face down a dragon with a sword.
The dragon wyrmling let out another aggravated hiss, complete with a puff of smoke and another burst of flames. The heat in the room felt like it was increasing with each passing second, and I wondered how much longer it would take for the entire room to fill with fire.
So far, it seemed like it was staying to the edges of the room, but how long was that going to last?
I didn’t want to find out.
The dragon wyrmling lunged again, and this time I was ready for it.
Instead of trying to slam the sword down on its shiny metal scales, I lunged forward and stabbed it with the tip of the heavy blade. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but I was immediately rewarded with a chunk of about ten percent falling from the creature’s health bar.
The sharp tip of the sword lodged itself between the scales in the center of the dragon wyrmling’s breastplate. The scales really did seem to function like some sort of armor. They even looked like armor in the glinting firelight around us.
The dragon gave a wailing roar of displeasure and attempted to jerk back, but my blade was lodged fast in its chest. The health bar above its head continued to drop down a few more percentages with each passing second it flailed in protest.
I had hit something important, apparently. Something silver and oozing began to pour from the wound, and it took me a moment to realize it was the creature’s blood.
The dragon snarled and bared its sharp, curved teeth. We were at a strange stalemate. It couldn’t lunge forward toward me without driving the blade deeper into its chest, but I was stuck without another way of attack as I braced the sword.
Think, Wes, think.
I gave a quick glance around the room to see if there was something in my surroundings that I had missed. The only things in the room that I could see were the dragon wyrmling itself and the fox-woman I’d charged in to rescue. Everything else was obscured by the walls of fire that bracketed and surrounded the room in an oppressive, unforgiving heat.
Wait. Why hadn’t the dragon attempted to shoot me with flames while the sword was stuck in its chest? It had huffed out fire a few times now, but only in small bursts while it reared back to recuperate from an attack.
Maybe it had used all of its juice to start the flaming walls.
If that was the case, I was at significantly less of a risk than I’d expected, which was admittedly like thinking I was totally safe from a tiger if the tiger had just eaten. It was still a fucking tiger, and this was still a fucking dragon, and I’d just stabbed it.
The silver blood pouring out around the tip of my blade was flowing faster now. It dropped onto the dirty stone floors of the room and left small, shockingly reflective pools on the ground. It was like small mirrors all scattered around the room in small droplets.
“Toss me your sword!” I called over my shoulder to the fox-woman. “Mine is sort of stuck.”
“I can help,” the fox-woman said in her strange, entrancing accent.
I was about to open my mouth to tell her I would take care of things because she was hurt, before she lunged forward faster than I had ever seen any human being move.
She had Golen’s Shield braced on her left arm with her katana at the ready. It was strange, but if it weren’t for her injured leg, I don’t think I would have even heard her footsteps at all against the ground.
Her tail swished through the air as she lunged forward and swung the sharp blade of her wicked-looking katana with a shocking amount of force for someone her size.
The blade sliced through the air, and it was like the world slowed down as I watched the metal bite into the dragon’s neck.
The world didn’t speed up again until the dragon’s head dropped to the ground in a messy spray of silver. It thunked onto the tiles with a wet, heavy sound that practically reverberated off the walls. The blow had come so quickly and so efficiently that the dragon wyrmling hadn’t even had time to make another sound.
Its body went slack and limp around the tip of my blade. I planted the foot of my boot next to the place my sword was trapped in its chest and yanked. I felt like Arthur as he pulled the sword from the stone. The metal pulled free with a slick pop, and the rest of the dragon’s body dropped to the ground.
The tiles were flooded with thick rivulets of molten silver-looking blood. The fires still blazed around us, and the heat in the room was suffocating, but the relief that washed over me was practically palpable.
“Holy shit,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to the fox-woman or just the world at large, but holy shit.
I’d just fought a dragon.
And I’d won.
“Thank you,” the fox-woman said. She began to pull Golen’s Shield off her arm, but I held my hand up to stop her.
“You should keep it for now,” I said. “I don’t know what else is in this dungeon, but with your injured leg, I think you might need it a little more than I do.”
She cocked her head to the side, and I quickly cleared my throat as her piercing eyes seemingly stared right through me.
“Not that I think you need the extra help, I just don’t want you to get hurt even more, and clearly you can handle yourself, I mean, you just cut the head off a dragon–” I continued until she thankfully cut me off.
“I would be dead without you.” Her voice was solemn. “I can never repay you for your help. But I would hate to burden you further. My time in the dungeon is rapidly closing, and I fear that I–”
It was my turn to cut her off. “Let me help you, then.”
“Help me?” She seemed stunned.
“Yeah,” I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Neither of us would have been able to handle that dragon alone. I think we make a good team. Let me help you make it out of here. If you don’t finish, you’ll get trapped, right? I don’t want that to happen to you.”
Her sharp golden eyes softened ever so slightly, and I could have sworn her fox tail twitched.
Well, wasn’t that just fucking adorable.
“You are a brave and kind warrior,” she said. “I graciously accept your aid.”
I laughed. “I wouldn’t say I’m a warrior, but thank you. I’m Wesley, Wes, by the way.”
I thrust my hand out toward the fox-woman for her to shake. She stared down at the appendage like she had no idea what she was actually supposed to do with it, before tentatively reaching out to rest her palm against my own.
This was getting weirder and weirder.
“Yasha,” she said. “Take the treasure, it’s yours.”
“Yasha,” I repeated her name. It felt good on my tongue, but her second comment confused me for a split second until I looked down.
I’d been so caught up in the strangeness of the situation and the beauty of the woman in front of me that I had nearly forgotten the treasure that came after slaying a monster.
But just like I’d found after slaying the other creatures in the dungeon, a treasure chest sat atop the dragon’s dead body. I didn’t hesitate to grab it and slip it into my pocket. I would have to look at the loot once we made it back to the equipment room. We were in a bit too much of a bind to deal with it now.
“We must go,” Yasha said. “But how do we leave, Wesley Wes?”
“Uhh…” I blinked at the utter whimsy of the name she’d just attributed to me. “No, it’s… I’m just Wesley. That’s my name, but sometimes people call me Wes instead. That’s what I meant before…”
The woman frowned. “Okay. But how do we leave, Wesley, who is sometimes called Wes?”
