CH. 23 The Dungeon

The spots had not cleared from their vision when they found themselves in what looked like a labyrinth. Something screamed at Bell to duck. She yelled to the rest of the group. "Everyone get down!"

Without questioning it, they all fell to the ground on their stomachs. Moments later, a large blade came out of the side of the wall and swung around to cut anything in its paths in half. The lifted their heads just enough to see the blade continue rotating. Crawling forward slowly, Bell took the lead. Goo was ahead of her scouting the area out for any more traps. Suddenly Bell stopped the group as a set of spikes shot out of the ground ahead of her. Impaling Goo but not harming it. The spikes go back into the ground, and Bell swings Goo into the air to check for more blades. Nothing happens, so they all decide to stand up. They jump over the section of the floor that has spikes and continue forward.

"Not even five minutes into the test, and we already have two things try to kill us. They did mean it when they said meat grinder..." Peter sighed.

"I don't think we should do this, Peter." Sarah said, holding onto him. She was shaking a little now.

"We can't turn back now that we entered. We either make it out to the end or die in this place." Bell sounded more serious now. She was listening for anything that might be coming towards them. They eventually made their way to a door. Bell had Goo slide towards it first to check for traps. Nothing exploded or shot out, so Bell walked up to it and checked for anything that might trip if they open it. Finding nothing, she placed her ear to the door and listened to the other side. Grumbling could be heard between two things, but they did not seem aware of the party's presence.

Bell looked back to her companions and put up two fingers and pointed at the door. Everyone nodded, and she slowly opened the door to get a peek at the inside. She quickly closed the door and looked at the party. Goo took a small miniature form of what looked like a greenish-blue orc jello. Sarah gulped and prepared herself for combat. She had been practicing for this moment. She would show the party that she was not useless.

Sarah walked up to the front of the party, followed by Bell, then Peter, and finally Roland. Opening the door quickly, Sarah rushed in and spotted the first enemy. Charging him with her sword drawn, she screamed and sliced the first one cleanly in the chest before it could react to her. It fell to the ground, and the other Orc grabbed his club and looked at her. It growled and barked something at her that she did not understand before charging her.

She raised her sword to defend it and blocked the attack just in time. Bell came charging in behind her getting behind the Orc and slicing his side on the way in. It howled in pain, and Sarah took the opportunity to slice at that one as well.

Falling to the ground, Bell went to both and stabbed them one more time for good measure. Sarah took a deep breath and bent down to put her hands on her knees. She looked very unnerved at the sight of dead monsters. Bell laughed and looked at her. "Well, it looks like you got some fight in you, after all, sweet stuff!"

Peter ran over to Sarah and looked her over. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

"I did it, Peter, I'm not useless after all."

Peter looked over at the dead Orc corpses and back at Sarah and smiled. "You sure did. Take a breather, and let's continue."

Sarah smiled weakly and did just that. Roland entered the room and walked over to Sarah, looking her up and down. "Looks to me like you need a little healing hand."

Sarah gave him a scowl, and he backed away. "Very well, just know the option is always open if you need it."

Bell searched the room for anything of value and found a few coins and a strange book in a different language that had what appeared to be an attractive female Orc on the cover. She decided not to take that with her. The continued down the corridors dodging traps and surprising small groups of Orcs and Goblins as they made their way deeper and deeper.

Hours had passed, and they decided it was time to rest. They were all exhausted and needed a break. Peter and Bell took the first watch, and Sarah and Roland took the second watch. Well, more like Sarah took the first watch, and Roland just kept watching her.

It was relatively uneventful, and after about 8 hours of rest, they continued forward. As they made their way ahead, Bell stopped the group. They had arrived at what looked like a more intricate door than the rest. Everyone looked at each other and prepared their weapons. As far as they were concerned, this must be where the final boss was. Bell did the usual and sent Goo to investigate the door for traps. Nothing visible showed up, so Bell continued toward the door to check for anything else.

Entering the space, the door occupied set off a cloud of purple dust. Bell tried to cover her breath before she backed away but inhaled some of it.

She fell to the ground and started coughing loudly. Roland came rushing up to check on her. "Investigate!" Roland's hands grew a dim white color, and he moved it over her body. It began to glow green as it got to her lungs and mouth.

"Crap its poison. I don't know how to remove it with my spells." Roland said in a worried tone.

"I might have something for that. Peter said as he dug in his bag, pulling out different potions. One was labeled Antitoxin. He popped it open and placed it in Bell's mouth. She drank it slowly and started coughing again.

"I'm not sure how quick it acts, but we need to head back and regroup before we continue."

As Peter said that, the door opened and out stepped a large Orc with a reasonably large sword. It spouted something it thought was humorous towards them and started to approach slowly. Sarah quickly stood her ground between her friends and the monster. "I won't let you go any further!" The Orc smiled and charged her with his sword held high. She prepared to block, and when she did, she nearly went unconscious from the weight of the sword bearing down on her.

"Sarah!" Peter called out as he prepared a spell. "Firebolt!"

A bolt of fire shot from his hand and hit the Orc in the shoulder. It looked at the mage and laughed a horrible laugh. Bell struggled to get up, and Roland kept her down. "You need to recover. Give yourself a second. I will go to your place."

Bell argued weakly. "But, you suck at close combat."

Roland laughed and reassured her. "I'm better than you give me credit for." Gently placing Bell down, he charged ahead towards the Orc who watched him and prepared to slice the kid down.

Using the distraction, Sarah raised her sword and swung at the Orc, who quickly grabbed it and kept it in place. Struggling in vain, Sarah began to get worried. Roland continued to charge the monster and slammed his mace into the Orcs chest, bouncing off with little damage inflicted. The Orc Slammed his Sword down onto Roland slicing the young clerics arm off from his shoulder.

Blood spewed everywhere as Roland fell to the ground staring at the Orc Wide-eyed clinging to where his arm used to be. Bell attempted to get to her feet and grabbed a dagger. She looked at Roland, who was quickly bleeding out, and gripped her blade harder. "You monster, I'll kill you!"

She charged the monster and went to slice at his leg. The Orc saw the attack coming and went to move his leg out of the way and swing his blade at the young girl.

"Flash!"

A bright ball of light appeared in front of the Orcs face, and it stumbled back a little, giving Bell enough time to get a clean shot in on the Orc, forcing him to release his grip on Sarah's blade. It fell to one knee and growled at them while swinging its blade around in a futile attempt to hit one of them. Bell quickly dove behind the beast, and Sarah took a step away from the sword. Using their coordination, they both attacked at the same time, Sarah piercing the chest and Bell piercing the back of the head.

The Orc fell to the ground in a pool of green blood, and they both sighed before quickly looking over to Roland, who was being tended to by Peter. Using every healing spell, Peter knew he was able to stem the bleeding but not reattach the arm. Peter was sweating as he carefully closed up the wound. Roland kept going in and out of consciousness as he felt his warm lifeblood leaving him.

The battle had been won, but at what cost? They finally were able to get Roland up and move again, but he was in serious disrepair. They entered the room where the large Orc came from and found a small chest in the center of the room. When they opened it, they found that it only had one line in it.

"Congratulations, floor 1 complete!"