Mark of the Fool

Alex was more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs as Theresa, Claygon, Brutus and Ripp swooped toward the snow-covered hill.

The huntress’ hands were already blurring, loosing arrow after arrow into chitterers as the group of four attackers went for the Ravener-spawn. Her bowstring’s heavy twang announced a rapid stream of bolts that pierced their monstrous hide, catching the creatures by surprise.

Some collapsed, some stumbled back, hammered by projectiles now protruding from them like pincushions. Others raised their chittering voices, raising cries of alarm, scrambling for bows lying in freshly fallen snow.

Whoooooom!

But Claygon’s fire-gems charged in heartbeats

Whoooosh!

They blasted from the sky with fury.

Three blazing rays struck, two lanced Ravener-spawn like boils, turning the monsters into geysers of flame and steaming snow. The third struck the hilltop, reducing it to vapour in a flash of light and terrible heat.

As the attack-force touched down at the entrance to the dungeon, the white hilltop boiled, pouring bubbling mud down its sides like lava from a volcano.

“All goes well,” Khalik nodded. “And now we just wait for…ah there it is.”

Alex felt a rush of mana from below, followed by shrieks of rage rising from deep within the hill, dozens of shrill voices joined as one.

“Yeah,” Alex said nervously. “Do we go now?”

Khalik watched the brewing battle like an eagle. “Not yet, Alex. Not yet. Let these Ravener-spawn commit. Let them fully fix their gaze in the wrong direction.”

“And down you go.” Theresa fired an arrow into an oncoming chitterer, taking it in the throat. She was nocking the next before the creature hit the snow. “And down you go. And down you go.”

Arrows found throats and chittering mouths, staining the snow black, littering it with bodies. For every Ravener-spawn she slew, two more emerged from the snow-covered treeline, wading through snow drifts, hurling horrid cries, long spears, and arrows at the intruders.

She watched the weapons fly—moving toward her as slowly as driftwood to her potion enhanced-senses—and weaved through them like a lithesome dancer, skimming the deep snow with flight magic.

The huntress answered the attacks with more arrows, sending the creatures to their deaths in heaps. “How’s it going back ther—”

A blast of heat stopped her words, spraying her cloak with billowing steam.

“They’re mad now!” Ripp cried. “But they’re still not coming up in numbers.”

Theresa swore softly, hitting another charging chitterer in its broad mouth. “They’re probably hoping their scouts get back here and take care of us. I can’t blame them, but I’d just like to know where all these damned things were hiding. There’s way more than twenty-one!”

The chitterers were boiling from the woods, growing thicker in number, brandishing spears and rusted blades above their heads, coming for the huntress as they half-charged, half-loped toward her.

“Aye, well let’s speed up the killing, then. Get them stuck in,” Ripp growled.

A blur shot past her.

Even with her sharp senses fully engaged, she could barely follow the swiftling’s movements as he skimmed the snow. The diminutive warrior hit chitterer ranks like an angry wasp raging through a horde of unsuspecting honeybees.

His strikes were flicks of steel and splashes of black blood as chitterers were cut to ribbons in heartbeats. When one fell––its body covered in a dozen wounds— the swiftling would immediately be wreaking havoc on his next target.

Between his blade and Theresa’s bow, Ravener-spawn were dropping by the dozens, dead before they could even reach their enemy.

“Brutus!” Theresa shouted, launching a clutch of arrows at the horde. “Rip them up!”

Three barks answered and the cerberus barreled ahead, a trio of vicious jaws snapping. Chitterers whirled on the flying beast, raising dented shields or rusted swords, but he crushed their guards with his bulk, teeth tearing, crushing armour and finding Ravener-spawn flesh.

His prey fought back desperately, but a single bone-crushing bite to the skull silenced all counters.

Between the huntress, cerberus, and swiftling, the scouts’ numbers thinned until few remained.

“Come on,” Theresa challenged, loosing a final arrow then slinging her bow on her back. “Come and get us!”

She gripped her sword-hilts, drawing the Twinblade, its steel screaming in triumph and bloodlust.

And the dungeon screamed back.

The ground rumbled, scores of chittering cries erupted from the cave mouth. Claygon’s fire-gems glowed, sparking with magic as he raised his war-spear.

“Finally!” She snarled, whirling on the cave. “Ripp, Brutus, you clean up the stragglers out here. Claygon, let’s get started on the next part of Khalik’s plan.”

“Aye, I’ll gladly take the easy job, thank you very much!” Ripp shouted, his flickering blade opening another dozen cuts on a chitterer before he’d finished the sentence.

Brutus barked, chomping on a pair of Ravener-spawn.

“Then, let’s go,” Theresa said, nodding to Claygon.

Together, the golem and huntress entered the cave, soaring through the low light.

Daylight from the cavern’s mouth quickly faded, leaving only a slight portion of the interior illuminated, revealing a horde of Ravener-spawn racing toward them.

“Alright,” Theresa stopped, hovering some ten paces from the entrance. “Let’s wait for them to come to us.”

Claygon slammed his fists together in agreement before unleashing threebeams of flame on the advancing horde.The first monster rank quite literally dissolved, falling in heaps of ash and fine dust.

More raced forward, screaming and leaping through flame, yet driven beyond pain by the dungeon core hidden somewhere in the darkness behind them.

These single-minded creatures met Claygon’s war-spear and Theresa’s swords. Enchanted metal parted rusty chainmail and rotting leather like decaying leaves, splitting the screeching monsters with every strike. The golem’s spear withered their bodies, while the huntress’ Twinblade delivered two cuts for every strike.

In moments, dead Ravener-spawn lay across the tunnel floor, and a rumble of fury echoed from down below.

“Almost there…” Theresa murmured, marvelling at the ease with which her blades cut through shields and armour. “Come on, I know you’re not giving us everything you’ve got—Hah! There you are!”

In the inky light their prey had finally emerged.

Towering chitterers bearing the finest armour and weaponry within the horde, loomed from the dark. They roared, shaking their heads, flinging shining lines of spittle through the cave as they bashed rusted greatswords against shields the size of carriage doors.

The dungeon’s elite forces were here.

And that meant its attention was firmly on her and Claygon.

It was time.

“Brutus!” Theresa cried. “Now!”

She signalled her cerberus with three quick whistles, and he answered with a pair of howls that echoed through the cavern, over the trees, and into the sky itself.

The huntress cracked her neck, focusing on the foes ahead. “Now it’s up to you, Khalik and Alex. Go get it. Claygon?”

Exploding into motion, the golem charged, spraying the chitterers with an endless stream of flame. Squinting against the heat, Theresa leapt after him, the twinblade poised, steel singing.

War-spear and swords were soon ripping through burning Ravener-spawn.

Alex watched as Brutus snapped a chitterer’s bony neck in a pair of jaws, tossing the creature’s broken body to the snow. A heartbeat later, the cerberus paused—ears perked up—then he raised his heads, baying at the sky.

“There’s the signal,” Alex said, cracking his knuckles and drawing a single booby-trapped flight potion. “Alright, then. You ready, Khalik? This next part’s all you.”

“I am,” the prince confirmed. “Remember, you will have to guide me.”

“I will. I’ll be the best damn eyes you’ve ever had.” Alex prepared to dive.

“Good. Then guide me well. Let’s begin.” Khalik took a deep breath.

The two young men nodded to each other, tucked their arms by their sides and swooped downward, aiming for the hill. Cold wind stung Alex’s face as the ground rose up, trees rapidly growing in his vision.

Frigid air died away as residual heat from Claygon’s flame radiated from the steaming hill.

‘Any moment now,’ Alex thought, closing in on a muddy path on the hilltop. ‘Any moment it’ll sense—’

Suddenly, he felt a shift; dark mana swirled somewhere beneath the earth and the attention of a powerful force fell on him.

He sucked in a breath of air. “Here it comes!”

The earth shook like an angry beast. “There it is, Khalik!”

“Can you pinpoint it?” The prince shouted, landing atop the hill, hot mud splashed as he thrust both hands sheathed in earth-armour into the steaming earth. “Can you sense it?”

Alex concentrated, reaching out with his mana senses, following the path of that dark power below. As it watched him, he watched it in return.

‘Deeper?’ He thought, searching through the earth, seeking out their quarry. ‘Deeper? No…too deep…closer…to the left, maybe?’

“There! I found it!” Alex shouted to Khalik, pointing at the earth. “Seventy feet down, thirty to the left!”

“Good! Then here we go!” Khalik pushed his hands deeper into the soil, chanting an incantation. Earth magic shifted around the prince, seeping into the ground, reaching deep beyond its surface…

…and touching the stone below.

“I’ve made contact! Now go! Draw its gaze!”

“Way ahead of you!” Alex catapulted through the air, soaring above the hill. He banked to the left, flying in a loop around the hilltop, concentrating as he slowly cast a summoning spell.

The ground shook as the dungeon core raged within the earth.

He could feel its mana coursing through the hill, shifting stone, forming new tunnels. Alex imagined chitterers surging through the dungeon, moving into those new passages with weapons ready to gut him.

Now, the dungeon core’s attention would be split between intruders striking from the cave mouth, butchering its horde, and the Ravener’s enemy soaring out of reach.

It would have little thought left to direct at the earth mage who was slowly reaching into the earth with his stone-shapespell. His mana shifted rock, forming a small shrouded tunnel through the dungeon, leading from the hilltop to the source of the core’s mana.

The prince was doing his work quickly…but Alex could help him be quicker.

As the last syllables of his summoning spell died, a conjured earth elemental appeared on the hilltop below.

“My elemental friend!” He called in anelemental tongue of earth. “I need you to burrow into the earth until you find my friend’s earth magic!” He gestured to the prince. “Widen the tunnel that he’s digging and help him connect it to the chamber he’s aiming for!”

The earth elemental gave a grunt like grinding stone then plunged into the soil like a sea urchin diver into the sea.

Alex could feel its mana join Khalik’s, reinforcing the prince’s spell and lengthening the tunnel. Their power reached deeper into the hill…

…while the dungeon core’s was reaching toward the surface, lengthening its own tunnels. Soon the hilltop would be teeming with Ravener-spawn.

“Khalik! How much longer?” Alex shouted. “That hill’s about to explode with chitterers!”

“I am almost there! I feel the earth changing and your elemental is guiding me! I know I am near the chamber!”

The hill shook violently, coughing soil through the air as new caves formed on its surface.

“Khalik!” Alex shouted again. “We’ve got to pull back, we won’t make it!”

“I will!” The prince’s voice boomed with confidence. “I will not let some rock best me! Call Ripp and tell him to get ready!”

“Damn, you’re one stubborn bastard!” Alex cursed him before turning to the battle before the cave mouth.

Brutus and the swiftling had made short work of the remaining chitterer scouts, leaving the snow covered with lifeless monsters.

“Okay, come on, Ripp!” Alex called. “Get up here! We’re almost ready!”

“Better be sooner than ‘almost’, bosses!” The swiftling shouted, dashing through the snow and up the hillside. He was beside Khalik in less than a blink, watching the tunnels from the hilltop. “We don’t have much time!”

“I am nearly there…just allow me to…concentrate!” The prince roared. “There!”

He stood, forcefully spreading his hands as though ripping apart a set of doors hanging in midair.

The earth growled, then it gurgled, then came the tearing sound. Soil and stone abruptly split, revealing a long, narrow tunnel leading down into the dungeon. Its opening was too close for most to fit in.

Most, but not all.

“Now!” The prince commanded.

“Back in a blink!” Ripp leapt in, sprinting down the tunnel’s length faster than an arrow in flight.

A heartbeat passed.

Then two.

“We should—” Alex started to speak.

Furious roars came from below, rising from an untold number of throats, chilling Alex’s blood; he recognized the hideous cry of a gibbering legion.

Then something small shot from Khalik’s tunnel.

“I got it!” Ripp shouted in triumph. “Stole it right from their grasp!”

Clasped in his hands, held high above his head…was the dungeon core.