The second general

"This was easy enough," Neria said with a big smile. She looked at Vash, Skyler, and Hera, who turned away quickly, "What?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Did we get anything?" Hera moved to the place where the armadillo had dissolved and found one of the plates of its shell. It was golden, but it had a gradient like a piece of minimalist art, "Flint? Can this help you?" 

The dwarf walked closer to her and took a look at the item, "By itself, probably not. If I have a few, maybe. I need to make some tests later. Can I?" he turned to the rest of the party, all who nodded in response. 

"OK then. What comes next?" Vash asked, trying to move his mind away from Neria's display. 

"The best option should be going clockwise. So the Spotted Squirrel is next," Roan said. 

"Right, let's go then. We wasted what? Five, ten minutes to kill this one?" Hera asked.

'Eleven minutes and twenty-two seconds, Empress!' Dusa replied, excited to help.

'Thanks, Dusa,' the Empress turned to her court. They had been outside since they arrived in the dungeon. 'And sorry for not calling any of you to help. That happened fast.'

'Don't worry, Empress. We understand,' Tide replied.

"It's been about 12 minutes," Skyler answered Hera.

"Oh. Thanks. Dusa already told me, but I need to remember to pass what they tell me along," Hera frowned, thinking about the times she just forgot to say what her court was telling her. She couldn't remember if that happened a lot or not, but it seemed likely. 

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the domain of the next general. And lucky for them, this one was also easy to track. The Spotted Squirrel would leave behind paw prints in various colors. The more the color clashed with whatever was around, the closer the monster would be. It took them just about another 10 minutes following the tracks to find the monster. Another benefit of this area was that there were no other monsters. Those Animated Deer seemed to avoid this particular territory for some reason. When they finally found the general, Vash and Flint got squeamish. Not because the being was an abhorrent creature or anything like that. No, the Spotted Squirrel was a prime example of pointillism. Its entire form, that was as large as an adult capybara, was made out of small colored dots. The colors were exactly the same as an African Ground Squirrel, and from an artistic point of view, the monster was also made to be hyper realist. That combination turned the general into the best and worst example of trypophobia that any of the team members ever saw. The dots were not just superficial but went all the way inside the monster. As it moved, the space between each of the tiny spots of color would show the layer underneath, which in turn would react the same way and show the next layer of ink, and the next, and the next. Eventually, it would reach a point where there was so much ink and so many dots that no one could see beyond it. However, that didn't help with the odd feeling that this triggered in everyone. 

"Let's just get rid of that thing quickly," Vash shivered and looked away. 

"Yeah, I agree," Flint nodded and reactivated the upper area of his exoarmor. When walking, he only kept the armor on his legs and feet, still working. Using the full setup reduced his flexibility, too, and it wasn't like his armor had a particularly good defense. 

"Flint… I don't mean anything bad by it, but can you fight it? Like, can you actually look at it and fight?" Hera turned to the dwarf, who seemed to flinch every time he looked at the monster.

The crafter looked at the monster but closed his eyes and looked away quickly. Not wanting to see this creature like this, "Honestly. I don't know. If it was a life or death situation, maybe."

"Then stand back. You had to run from the Golden Armadillo. Let us handle this," Roan tapped his shoulder with a smile. 

Despite his pride, Flint nodded and walked back, staying close to the titled blades who were watching the team run the dungeon without saying anything out loud. In their minds, they were already talking about plans and ways to fight against each of the monsters they saw so far. Vash also joined him, but he was closer to the rest of the group. The Spotted Squirrel made him uncomfortable, but he didn't have the same visceral reaction as Flint. 

"Hera, let's do this quick," Roan told the Ophidianite before he started to move. 

Hera just nodded and prepared the same combo she was going to use against the Golden Armadillo. Skyler pulled her harmonica and got ready, too. She was going to use a spell using sound waves to make the monster dizzy. That wasn't something she could do against the previous general since it had some sort of resistance against that effect, but the squirrel wasn't so lucky. The team had to recognize even if Milla was just being their contact with the alliance. She was doing an amazing job of warning them about potential issues they could individually find. 

Roan and Hera got closer to the squirrel now that it was eating something it found in the trees. The beastman raised his hand and started to count down from 5 with his fingers. When he reached 0, Skyler played that loud note with her harmonica, using a spell to bounce the sound around. The squirrel got spooked, but before it could run away, Roan and Hera jumped at it. Slamming their weapons on its sides. They weren't able to hit the vital spots they wanted, but as Hera's spear broke thanks to the [Weapon Brake], the right leg of the general was completely decimated. Small dots fell out of the gaping hole on its body as if they were leaking from a bow. 

Roan's attack wasn't as effective, but he was still able to open a large gash on the side of the monster. Vash started to play his maracas to buff the strength of the party, and Neria created a couple of barriers around the two who were facing the squirrel. That was just in time, as the creature slammed his tail on the ground, creating a wave of dots that crashed down on Hera and Roan. Tide and Autumn attempted to block the attacks, sniping around the Empress to push the dots away, but there were too many of them. This attack, or spell, whatever it was, made more dots than the Spotted Squirrel had inside its own body. By themselves, those particles didn't hurt, although much of it was due to Neria's barrier. However, in volume, not only did those dots weigh heavily on top of their bodies, but they also let out an abrasive scent that made it hard to breathe. 

Tumbling back and shifting some of his loose skin around, Roan managed to escape the torrent of dots and groaned, "I fucking hate the smell of oil paint." 

'Oil?' Hera thought with a smirk, 'Ember, you are up,' the sword flew closer and used its skills to ignite itself, burning the dots away and allowing the Ophidianite to break free from the avalanche of ink. 

Hera tumbled to the side, using her tail to prop herself up, and yelled, "Neria! We need water!" before the triton could even ask why, Hera used a fire elemental armor and jumped towards the squirrel. Seeing only a single enemy, the monster felt it had a chance and clashed with the Empress head-on.

Or at least that was its intention. 

Just as the two were about to collide, Hera focused the flames on her feet and jumped, doing a flip above the monster. Just as she was directly on top of it, she opened her mouth, unhinging her jaw and revealing her Ophidianite fangs, and used a spell in a way that she had only done once before. From inside her throat came a fire spray, an altered version of her grease fire spell, that covered not just the Spotted Squirrel but the surrounding area in what could only be described as an oil fire in the middle of the ocean. The general roared as the Empress landed and ran away from the fumes. The monster tried to find its assailant, but as it attempted to move, it slipped, falling face-first into more fire. Skyler's spell is doing its work and causing it to be too dizzy to do anything. 

Hera sent out Ember to continue attacking together with DJ and Chris. Tide and Autumn stayed behind. After all, one was based on water, which could work against the flames, and the other had an affinity related to vegetation. A roaring sea of fire wasn't the ideal spot for her to be. With the general basically out of sight, Flint also decided to join. He slammed his hands on the ground and instantly made a crater around the monster, who fell about half a meter down in the process. All the fire that Hera had created was now slowly dripping to the center of that crater, and the creature continued to be unable to escape. It took almost a minute, but the Spotted Squirrel eventually perished in the middle of the orange flames. 

After hearing from her court that the monster was gone, Hera tried to stop her grease fire. It worked to a certain extent, but most of the flames were no longer her creating. The surrounding vegetation and, more importantly, the oil created by the squirrel were now fueling that inferno. Neria thought about stepping in but remembered Roan's comment about oil. If she tried to use water, things could go south very quickly. Instead, Vash was the one who came to the rescue. He flapped his wings a few times and created a temporary vacuum around that area. It lasted for only a couple of seconds, but each time he did that, the fire would grow smaller and smaller until there was nothing left but the crater and a single brush in the place where the general dissolved. 

Everyone took a moment to breathe while Neria used a couple of water spells to put out the fire that spread to a few of the nearby trees. 

With another general killed, Skyler stretched her arms while turning to the crafter of the group, "Hey, Flint. Just out of curiosity. Did something happen for you to get trigger like this? It just felt like… a lot. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to. I was just curious."

Flint groaned, "I used to work in a demolition factory. We made the explosives to tear down buildings. One day, there was an accident. Someone put a crate of explosives that were already ready to ship near a furnace that was making some ball bearings, and the whole thing exploded. I got hit, fucked up my hand, but that wasn't the issue. A guy who worked there took the brunt of the explosion. He was tossed to the other side of the factory and went through a wall. The ball bearings were embedded into his skin. Having to see healers pluck those things out of his body one by one… that stays with you," Flint shivered, "You could see the bones in some parts."

"Fuck me. That's awful," Skyler gasped.

"Visually, yes, but he ended up fine, like a couple of weeks in a hospital being treated by the best healers and then six months of paid time off. Plus, he sued the factory and retired after he got back. And do you want to know the kicker?" Flint chuckled.

"What?" Roan frowned.

"That bastard didn't even remember what happened. He passed out the moment everything exploded and woke up back in the hospital, almost completely healed. That fucker testified he couldn't sleep due to stress and PTSD, but he slept like a baby the entire time. Didn't even need some meds," Flint started laughing, and soon the rest of the party joined. It was such a bizarre story that made it hard not to. Despite everything, this dungeon was a lot more fun than they expected, and hopefully, it would continue like that.