Touch of Fate

Chapter 31: Into the Depths

"Where are they?" Lloyd asked, panic already creeping into his voice. "I can't see them."

Philomena's authoritative voice cut in. "Stay calm. On rare occasions the floor boss will be switched with some other creature or group of creatures. Hold to your formation and keep an eye on your surroundings. There is bound to be something in here with us."

Mike took stock of the room they were standing in. From what he could see, it much resembled the other rooms in the dungeon, only on a larger scale. The fine mist hanging in the air obscured most of their vision. It moved in sudden swirls periodically, leaving the other members of the party flinching at the strange shadows it created.

Philomena continued her advice while moving to the front of the formation, drawing her twin axes from her belt. "This is clearly an unusual situation, so I'm taking charge. We need to advance further into the room, since we will not be able to return to the surface until the boss is defeated. Everyone stay close and stay behind me, and I'll make sure you get through this."

The group started slowly advancing further into the chamber. The only sounds Mike could hear was the groups footsteps echoing strangely in the fog.

They continued in this way for what felt like an eternity, but was surely only a minute or so, before a voice broke the silence.

"What's this? A chest." Devin's quiet mutter could be heard from the left side of the group, colored with an uncharacteristic level of excitement. "I think it might be a treasure chest."

Philomena muttered to herself briefly, "A treasure chest? That makes no sense. Why would there be a treasure chest in a boss room? Unless...."

She whirled on the party with sudden desperation. "Don't touch it! Its a trap!"

A fatal creak of wood was heard from Devin's direction. "What? A trap? I didn't...I mean, I couldn't....

He was drowned out by a high-pitched whine of energy that vibrated through the room. A glowing magical circle, one that encompassed the entire chamber, formed under the groups feet.

"Oh no...." Philomena uttered breathlessly. "Its a teleportation trap! Its going to separate us. Wherever it sends you, try to find a safe place to hide. I promise you all, I will come to find yo-"

The rest of her words were cut off as the circle flashed blindingly, and Mike felt the now familiar sensations of translocation.

When the glare finally dimmed, he opened his eyes, and immediately dodged to his left. Thanks in large part to his well developed evasion skill and high agility, he was narrowly able to avoid the blast of flame from a horse-sized, red-scaled lizard.

He barely had time to orient himself, before the creature was charging at him, mouth agape. Thankfully he still had his sword out, so he slipped into a Flowing River stance, side-stepped the lizards attack, and brought his sword in an elegant overhead swing which connected with the back of its neck.

Such a blow would ordinarily decapitate a lesser creature, but in this case, Mike's blade only penetrated a hand's breadth before stopping. This nevertheless proved sufficient to slay the lizard, and it had already started disintegrating before its body had completely stopped moving.

Mike took a deep breath to calm himself before examining his surroundings. The layout of the dungeon had changed to some degree, the rough cavern walls had turned into a worked stone corridor that could have been seen inside a castle. This was slightly discomfiting, since the walls still produced some measure of light.

Seeing as he was in some kind of hallway with only two directions to travel in, he randomly chose to go left. [That's what they say to do in mazes, right? Always keep your left hand on the wall.]

He stopped to pick up the mana core left by the lizard, which was about three times the size of the kobold one he had collected earlier, before heading down the corridor to the left.

Mike's felt himself getting a little worried, since he figure that the other students were likely having a hard time of it, given their abilities. [Tal and Philomena should be alright on their own, but I think the rest are going to be in trouble if they have to fight anything like that lizard.]

He traveled down the corridor for a good five minutes without seeing anything.

[Perhaps it was a mistake to take a left at the lizard.] He was thinking to himself when the corridor suddenly veered to the right. He followed along without really thinking about it and almost ran square into the back of a tall humanoid creature.

Mike had time to examine it briefly as it turned to face him. The creature resembled an anthropomorphic lizard, similar to the lizardmen he had seen in Wyrport, but there were some fundamental differences. A sort of savage mindlessness seemed to be all that was present in its eyes. This creature lacked the appearance of intelligence, but still quickly maneuvered its cruel looking, barbed trident in an effort to skewer Mike.

As he instinctively fell into the Flowing River stance and casually diverted the attack, he took note of its rough draconic features and its dark green, scaled hide. With a slightly clearer view, he could see three more of the lizard or dragon men behind the first, and decided that magic was the way to go in this case.

Since he didn't feel any particular danger from these enemies, and indeed he hadn't felt any particular threat from anything he had fought in this dungeon so far, Mike thought it would be an excellent time to try out a new application of fire magic. He wanted to see if he could bring one of his favorite fantasy weapons to life.

He concentrated a massive amount of raw mana into his palm, compressing and collecting it into a spherical shape the size of a softball. He could feel the raw energy struggling to break free, so with a small effort of will he released his hold on one small portion of his containment, aiming it in the direction of the lizardmen.

The result was catastrophic. A thin beam of white-hot fire, a little more than a centimeter in diameter, speared forth from the sphere. It punched a hole in the leading lizardman's torso. With a flick of his wrist, Mike directed the beam horizontally, sweeping the entire corridor. After about two seconds, the mana in his hand had been safely expended, and he released his mental hold, which only a minor burst of flame.

The scent of charred meat filled the air, as the group of lizardmen stopped. Mike felt that the leading member of the group was even wearing surprised expression on its face, as it toppled forward, cleanly bisected at the waist.

He could see the cross section of the humanoid lizard's internal organs, seared by beam. Mike was slightly horrified by this new application of Fire Magic. He had only been attempting to create a magical version of a lightsaber, but had evidently failed in some key aspect.

A moment of dizziness and fatigue nearly caused him to collapse before it receded. Apparently, he had used a massive amount of mana in his experiment. Luckily, it had been regenerating significantly faster ever since he fought the vargul, so in a minute or so he felt fine.

[I'm going to have to hold off on any further experimentation with this attack until I'm in a safe location.]

He collected the four golf ball sized mana cores and continued on his way. [Now that I think about it, canonical lightsabers used some kind of crystal as a focusing element. I'm might have to look into building some sort of apparatus to make it work.]

Mike's contemplations were interrupted by the distant sounds of combat further down the corridor. Not sure if his fellow classmates were part of it or not, he figured he should at least check it out, and broke into a run.

This was the first time he had really taken off running since acquiring the Hero title. He had experienced the effects of his increased stats in other areas, and should have expected the difference, but he didn't. After a few short steps he barely managed to avoid falling on his face, as his legs tried to move much faster than he anticipated.

He took a few slow, exploratory paces, and tried to start jogging at a mild pace. Once he got used to it, he increased his speed until he was zipping down the corridor.

[Wow, I'm moving pretty quickly. If I was back on Earth, I bet I could compete in the Olympics] Mike didn't know it at the time, but he was already running at speeds close to 50km/h which would have broken a world record for the fastest foot speed. More impressive however was his endurance, which allowed him to maintain that speed for hundreds of meters with only moderate effort.

As he passed through the hallway, he could feel the air grow warmer and more humid. He could distantly see a brightening at his destination, and after a few seconds he burst out into a large chamber.

There was a thick, cloying mist in the room that, when combined with the stifling heat reminded Mike of a sauna. He quickly pinpointed the origins of the sounds of combat and moved in that direction.

He found a heavily wounded Brenden attempting to stave off two of the fire-breathing lizards that Mike fight earlier. A third was quietly disintegrating a little distance away.

There were extensive burns along his right side, and he was trying to wield his greatsword with his one good arm. Behind him, Mike could just make out the crumpled form of another humanoid figure, lying disturbingly still.

Unsheathing his sword, he leapt into action.