The Pinnacle Warrior

Astrid settled her shield more firmly on her arm as the party walked into the second floor of the Dungeon. She’d kept all her equipment secured their entire time since they entered the Dungeon and monsters would be everywhere around them, but now that they were going to be fighting, she wanted to be ready. Regardless of what she’d become accustomed to, though, it was going to be Felix‘s time to prove himself as a Bodyguard frontliner, not her time to hold through the attacks of the gnolls.

“So you’re ready for this?” She met Felix‘s eyes as she asked as much. The Bodyguard smiled confidently and nodded without hesitating. As he rolled his shoulders and flexed his hands, the metal banding on his forearms clicked together with a subtle sound. Then, he held both of his arms up in a loose ready stance and strolled forward before looking at Muti.

“Where are we going? I’ll follow your lead, just let me know what you’re planning.“

Wordlessly, Muti held up three fingers, then five, then pointed with her index and middle finger in a direction.

Felix and Benedict both nodded in understanding, knowing that that meant about 300 meters in that direction, there would be five gnolls.

“Muti, stay close. There will definitely be a ranger, but I want the initial engagement to be Felix.”

The Barbarian bared her teeth, obviously wanting to show off, but the months of trust built up between the Warrior and Rogue were not for nothing, and Muti did nothing other than make a face. With their approach and general directives decided, all five stalked forward in as near silence as they could manage. Before long, Muti settled from her hunched stride into a crouch, and when she turned and made eye contact with the rest, the party understood what she was getting at. They were close.

Skandr, Muti, and Astrid had come to an agreement that, at least for the very first hunt, Skandr wouldn’t use Lightning Reflexes. Instead, he would function entirely as a ranged debuffer and battlefield controller while they put their two newest companions through their paces. 

They made their way closer and closer, and just before they were in the perfect position, Benedict pulled out his flute and took a deep breath. Astrid‘s eyes widened as she realized it was about to happen, but she was too far away to react to the quick trill of notes that the Bard let out. Immediately, she could feel the surge of energy that rushed through her, but more than that, she could hear the gnolls rise from their rest and prepare themselves for battle.

“Oh, Duchess above!“ Astrid didn’t have time to say anything more as she stood tall and rushed forward. The effect of the Skill was just as marked as Lightning Reflexes, though less uncomfortable, and the idle, less frustrated part of her mind quickly realized that this would be immensely valuable to be able to stack the two buffs in the future. The rest of her, however, was much more concerned with the equal numbers that the gnolls would have, combined with the stupidity of Benedict’s action that’d stolen away any chance for surprise.

Astrid didn’t need to say anything as Muti vanished into the tall fields, ready to pick off any supporting ranged monsters that lurked behind the brawlers that were already sprinting towards the party. She idly noticed that Benedict looked confused with her vehemence, but she stood up and prepared herself to receive the charge of the gnolls alongside the Bodyguard. They’ve gotten used to fighting monsters that were conscious over the past weeks of being on the third floor, given that the gnolls were no longer sleeping there, but she’d been looking forward to the easy hunts today, given that the resting menaces would be much less prepared for the party’s arrival. Instead of that, she was stuck in a battle that wouldn’t be nearly so easy.

Astrid raised her shield, her hammer in hand, and only then realized that Felix was still crouching nearby in the fields. Immediately, she discounted him as a potential party member for freezing in the fight, and given that Benedict had already thrown off their element of surprise, she was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be someone she would be willing to work with in the long-term either. Making those judgments, she needed to protect the party and prepared to receive the four brawlers’ charge, her shield pressed against her shoulder. Just as she threw her weight into the shield to keep from being blown back herself, Felix stood, activated a Skill, and took a couple quick steps behind the group of gnolls.

Unwillingly, the four turned their attention towards the Bodyguard, their momentum forced to be halted as they stumbled over their feet and, with jerky movements, turned their faces towards him. Astrid grinned, realizing she had been wrong about Felix. He casually parried the first two gnoll strikes with his forearms before twisting and smashing his metal-ringed forearms into two gnoll throats. As they gagged, Astrid laughed out loud, finally able to be a finisher, and smashed her hammer and shield into the back of two wheezing monsters’ heads. Immediately, there were two kill notifications, and Astrid turned her attention to the other two brawlers, which tried to watch her out of the corner of their eyes, but were still forced by Felix’s Skill to focus on him.

Astrid disregarded the ranger kill notification as she dispatched the other two gnolls. The combat was over in less than 30 seconds and she nodded appreciatively.

“You are tricky!“ Muti said with a laugh as she shook a finger at Felix. “I did not expect you to have a Skill to do that! I doubted your bravery, but you are clever and brave and I was wrong. There was no need for you to shed blood there, and I respect you. Now, we shall fight and decide which of us is superior. I will give you time to recover, but it will not be long before I show your tricks are insufficient to me.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on there.” Skandr agreed as he stopped channeling his spell and attempted to pull the attention away from the threat Muti had just made. “I didn’t have to do anything. Is this what you wanted to have happen, Benedict? Because I think I can see the appeal.”

The Bard’s grin matched Skandr’s as he replied, “Yes, it’s the life. We can just sit back here and contribute whenever and however we want!”

“Felix, I need to apologize to you.” Astrid left the two backliners to their joking as strode up to the Bodyguard with her hand stretched out. “I immediately discounted you as a possible party member when I saw you still hiding, but I should have thought about you having an attention drawing Skill. Honestly, you used it masterfully. So much of what’s dangerous about the gnolls is when they get the opportunity to build momentum right at the beginning of the fight, and once you take care of that, they’re not nearly so threatening. Doing that without somebody having to take that first blow is brilliant.“

“I should probably apologize to you three as well.” Felix grinned as he relaxed his forearms and his bracers settled down to his wrists. “I figured there would be something wrong with you because you’re on the third floor but don’t have a support or frontliner. You’re all competent, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else we can do.”

“Well, you’ve already seen that Muti, while a wonderful Rogue, is also a Barbarian and acts in every way in accordance with that. That’s a big one, and combined with that, I’m not always the most patient person.”

“She gets along more with Muti than you might expect. especially since she’s gotten the lioness onto her best behavior!“ Skandr tried his best to dodge the stone that was thrown at him as he sniped at the Rogue, but Muti’d expected it, and the stone thudded painfully into the side of his head.

“At least blood was shed now.“ Muti grinned widely as a tiny rivulet of blood coursed down the side of the Lightningmage’s face.

“No injuries!“ Astrid said, pulling herself away from communicating with Felix and looked at Benedict, who immediately understood what she wanted to ask as he stepped closer to Skandr and hummed quietly. The blood quickly stopped flowing, and Skandr wiped it off with a casual smile still on his face. Keeping her focus on the perpetrator of the violent outburst, Astrid glared at Muti but she didn’t shy back or hesitate at the implicit threat. “I don’t care that we have a Support who can help us heal now, there’s no blood shed while we are delving!”

The Barbarian bared her teeth as she bent down, cut the ear from the ranger, and plucked out its fangs before disappearing into the field that surrounded them. The red grain stalks seemed to embrace the Rogue as she vanished from view and Astrid groaned as she rubbed at her forehead. “I’m sorry about that. Random acts of violence are much more acceptable to her than they are to most of us. She’s also posturing right now to show that she’s strong enough to maintain a position of authority over you two, because she doesn’t want to lose her position as the unofficial second strongest in the party.”

With a sort of a sixth sense, Astrid raised her shield just in time for a stone to crack against it. The Rogue grunted something, but Astrid paid her no mind.

“Yeah, most of us. You’re not one of ‘us’, though, Astrid.“ Skandr grinned widely as he said as much, though he did cower behind Felix as Astrid turned her attention to him.

“You think you’re some tough guy now that you have two other people to back you up? Are you sure about that?”

Despite himself, Skandr did avert his eyes as Astrid said as much, then apologized briefly.

“Anyways, I don’t think we need to stick around here on the second floor for long. Do we want to do all of our delving today here, or do we want to go down to the third and get a little bit of an introduction to the dangers there? I’m happy to do either, but I also recognize that you might want to take some time to get used to the gnolls.“

“You killed them so quickly that I want to have a couple more opportunities to see what we can do first. Is that fine?” Felix asked, and Benedict continued just smiling. 

“Yes, I’m fine with that, so long as Benedict doesn’t wake them all up before we can get the initial hit in. I appreciated the boost, but I’d rather be a little bit slower and have the element of surprise.”

“I just wanted to participate! You know, show off. Or at least show what I can do.“

“More than showing off what you can do, I want the party to be successful.” Astrid shook her head. “The way I see it, a support is ideally just their soaking up experience most of the time. If we never have to get healed and never need a buff, that’s totally fine for me. Honestly, I don’t mind slowing ourselves down to stay safe and then being competent enough to never need the help.”

“That’s never going to happen though.“ Benedict retorted. “If we’re not having any trouble, we better get to a more dangerous place to make sure that we’re pushing ourselves to our limits. If not, we’re never gonna get any Skills that are worth keeping.“

“That is not what the leader is saying.” Muti scoffed as she poked her head out of the nearby fields. “She is merely stating that it is better to be wise and conscious of our situation than to attempt to show off.”

“Listen here, Barbarian, we’re allowed to have conversations and thoughts of our own.“ Felix squared his shoulders as he said as much, but Muti was unconcerned.

“Is it your opinion to do foolish things and harm your allies? If so, I retract every positive thing I have ever thought about you, as you are a fool and no true delver.“

“All right,“ Astrid said, stepping between Muti and the angry Bodyguard, “I don’t think either of you are talking about the same thing right now. Felix, seems like you wanna make sure that each member of the party is supported, useful, and treated as useful by the rest of the party. By doing so, you wanna make sure that each of us can reach the highest peaks that we can. It’s a valid point, and we each need to make sure that we’re working hard to improve our Skills so that we can get good class evolutions and continue to keep up with our peers, or, as I think each of us plans to, surpass them. That right, Felix?”

The man nodded, his eyebrows still pressed together under his helmet. Astrid nodded, turning to Muti, and continued, “Muti, you’re used to delving with a party that doesn’t have a supporter. You’re used to each person doing what they can to make sure we don’t bankrupt ourselves paying for draughts, potions, and healing, though you do have a fair amount of experience in trying to show off. I appreciate the stance, and you want to ensure that each member of the party is not harming the interests or actions of the rest, right?“

Muti bared her teeth, but she obviously agreed with the sentiment as well.

“It seems to me that you’re both concerned about the party at your core. One of you has more of an individual view, and one of you has more of a broad view, but both of you want all five of us to be safe, secure, making money, and getting experience. So, instead of assaulting each other over stupid things, how about instead we kill some more monsters, huh?“

Benedict, who had been surprisingly quiet through all of this, spoke up, “And, in Muti‘s defense, I was wrong. I said I was trying to help, but I was also trying to show off. I mean, I already knew that you guys were higher level than us, so I wanted to show that I’m valuable. Should’ve just waited to show off when it made sense, you know? Thanks for sticking up for me, Felix. Next time, I’ll just offer my own butt as a distraction for the gnolls to munch on.“ The Bard posed suggestively as he said as much, and Astrid blinked twice slowly. Behind her, Skandr laughed, though he quickly fought to hide the sound.

Felix and Muti met eyes for a moment, then, after a moment’s thought, they nodded in unison and looked at Astrid. When the other two men looked at her as well, Astrid smiled and asked, “We ready to kill some more monsters?“

***

“Lightning!”

“Pulling back! Go, Skandr!”

“Rangers down, not dead.”

“Good, Muti, come help clean out the last of the brawlers.”

The Barbarian didn’t answer with words as Skandr’s spell exploded and shredded through the assembled seven brawlers and shaman while the rangers were, apparently, dealt with. Astrid struck with her hammer to kill the two brawlers that’d maintained their focus on her through Felix’s Skill before rushing forward to engage with the shaman. It’d been focused on Felix specifically, and though the Bodyguard was fighting to the best of his ability, with the bloodlust aura, he was being overwhelmed. Fortunately, with Lightning Reflexes and Quickened Step working in tandem, Felix had kept himself from taking any notable hits, though he was quickly losing the attention of the gnolls that swarmed him. As soon as the spell hammered down into the gnolls, though, Astrid could, once again, step into her Great One-given role as a finisher.

The two dead brawler bodies were quickly joined by that of the shaman, though the monster took three strikes to dispatch. Its higher attributes combined with the time since Skandr had hit it allowed it to survive for a mere moment longer. Even so, with just a single hit to its back, the monster fell to its knees and she killed it without any real difficulty. As the body thudded to the ground, Astrid grunted and turned to the other monsters. Just as soon as she did so, Muti blurred forward, her messer sword chopping through one spine while her short, straight sword plunged between the ribs of another. Ignoring both kill notifications flashing in her eyes, Astrid lunged forward to keep herself from being outperformed by the Rogue.

In just a few short moments, the party of five was surrounded by twice their number of dead bodies. Astrid grinned as she swiped the head of her hammer through the nearby field, clearing the viscera off of it. Even though they’d been successful, she did feel her lip curl in frustration. It was only about lunchtime, and already the party had met their full quota for the day. A part of Astrid wished that she hadn’t even suggested the possibility of delving on the second floor instead of the third, given that Anders had warned her that the Guild would only allow them to hunt 80 gnolls in total for the day, regardless of if they’d hunted almost exclusively on the third floor, where they had no cap on their hunts. Even so, she only almost wished as much, given that it had taken three packs for the party to really feel like they found their groove with each other.

“Well, that’s gonna be about 8 silver for us, hope you got some good experience!“ Astrid spoke cheerily as she unofficially ended the delve, and Benedict looked at her, his face surprised.

“That’s it? I’ve been under the impression that you would… push us a little more. Make us work for it?“

“Don’t worry, I’ll do that tomorrow.“

“… I think you forgot a ‘the day after’ somewhere in that sentence. You know, the day after tomorrow? In case you forgot, like regular delvers?“

Skandr threw his head back as he laughed, though his hand didn’t stop yanking the fangs from the shaman‘s mouth. Felix immediately understood what the party was getting at, his head, nodding appreciatively, though Benedict squinted in confusion. He didn’t wait in suspense for long, though, because Skandr stepped forward, hands still bloody from collecting trophies, and threw his arm around the Bard’s shoulders.

“Did you think for a second that we are regular delvers?” 

“No… but every day? Really?”

“I’ll say something for your benefit,” Skandr spoke with more severity than he had before, “because I want this to really sink in for you. I am entirely ordinary. I am not at all superior to any other regular mage that you could find anywhere else. I didn’t have any Bronze Skills offered to me when I was Bestowed a class, and I’m going to get my first Bronze tier Skill when I hit level 11. These two women over here, they’re exceptional. It’s a fight for me every day to try to keep up with them, because if I didn’t, I’d be just like everybody back in the inn, wasting their time wondering about how we are able to do what we can. I’ll give you the answer for free, and it’s because, if we’re not counting sleeping, recovering, and traveling to and from the Dungeon, we spend most of our lives here in the Dungeon. If that’s something you’re not willing to do, that’s totally fine. We’ll keep doing what we’re doing, and will probably end up making our way out of this city in a couple months without you if you choose not to. 

“Or you can stick with us. What you need to decide is if you wanna come with us or if you want to have some extra time sitting around with your thumb up your arse every day. Be exceptional by working hard, or be ordinary and lazy. I was the second, and now I’m fighting to become the first.“

With that, he clapped Benedict on the shoulder, made eye contact with Felix, and then strode to the next gnoll corpse to be harvested. Felix pursed lips, nodded approvingly, and said, “I’m in. I’ve spent enough time scrounging in the streets to know that this is a damned golden opportunity, and I’m not throwing it away because I’m gonna have to eat a couple more meals in the Dungeon. And I mean to do this,” he said, looking at Benedict, “even if you’re not in.“

For the first time, Benedict was totally serious. There was nothing playful and the way he held his shoulders or in his tone, and he walked up to Astrid, looking up at her. He was a relatively regular height, so something like 30 centimeters shorter than her, but he tried his best to make solid eye contact. Then, still maintaining that eye contact, he asked, “You’re going to be exceptional?“

“It’s that or death. Rather be exceptional than dead, so that’s what we’re doing.“

“Then I’ll add my own exceptionality as well as I can muster.” Benedict said, his face spread in a genuine smile. Then, before Astrid could allow herself to feel a little relieved, he grinned widely and said, “I’ll start with being exceptionally loud!“

Thankfully, Astrid shot her hand out and, uncaring about the filth and gore that coated her glove, held his mouth closed. “If you call more gnolls down on us, I’m going to get violent, and not just with them. Make your choice wisely.“

Behind him, Felix threw both hands up in the air and silently cheered, his eyes crinkled in amusement as his mouth spread in that wide grin. Benedict recoiled but didn’t make another noise as soon as Astrid released him. The party picked the last of the trophies and materials off the monsters, and as soon as that was done, Benedict cocked his head. Astrid glared at him in warning, but he raised both hands in surrender before asking,

“So how are we splitting the earnings?“