The Pinnacle Warrior

Things started to fall off of the planned course of action quickly. In the first wave of monsters, the tide shifted away from the delvers. The irregulars, a shaman and a ranger, refused to engage, and as Felix cut his way through the other brawlers, the shaman was painfully willing to stay in the back and focus on healing its fallen but not dead allies. The brawlers weren’t able to keep up easily with Felix, and even with their Skills activated, they didn’t get more than glancing blows on him. Despite being engaged in a battle of attrition and winning, the party was on the back foot, needing to eradicate the entire pack before the chieftain arrived.

Felix continued keeping the attention of five brawlers all by himself, dodging back and forth while only occasionally managing to make an attack in return. Four more swarmed Astrid, and she dealt devastating blows with each swing of her hammer. Between the bloodlust aura and the shaman’s healing, once she’d made her decision to kill the monsters as fast as possible, Astrid needed to open herself up to a couple minor hits. Fists thudded into her ribs as she put her whole effort into dispatching two of the gnolls. Her hammer and shield took lives with measured swings and she turned to the others. 

With two down, Astrid roared as she wrapped her left arm around one of the gnolls. With its face trapped, smashed against her shield, it thrashed in an attempt to get at her, but she merely twisted her entire body and tripped it to make it fall to the ground. On the ground, the other brawler launched itself at her, confident in its ability to dispatch her, but that wasn’t to be.

Astrid used her own body weight as well as that of the second brawler to drive her right forearm into the back of the prostrate gnoll’s neck. Bone crunched as 200 kilograms pressed implacably against spine, and then there was only a body. With one foe dead, she whipped around, using the additional Alacrity from Steady Load to move quicker than the brawler expected. Her right elbow smashed into its jaw and knocked it back. Even with bone audibly breaking, the gnoll didn’t stop throwing itself at her.

Astrid struggled to get the corpse untangled from her arm and shield, but was able to struggle back to her feet after making a warding attack with her hammer and then a solid smack into the monster’s knee. It threw itself at her, but this time, when grappling not on her own terms, Astrid found herself struggling to deal any meaningful damage to the gnoll. Then, as she heard Skandr call out for help, Astrid realized she’d completely tunnel visioned. With a scream of frustration, she stepped forward into the gnoll as it attacked, purposefully weathering several blows that circled around her shield and slammed into her torso. With her full body, weight and power, Astrid threw her shield arm forward, getting a little bit of space from the gnoll. Then, finally able to swing freely, she turned and smashed the hammer into the base of the monster’s neck, dispatching it with a single blow. Finally, she could look and see what was the cause of Skandr’s distress.

Skandr and Benedict were trying to hold off the shaman without any backup. Between being an irregular and of the second watershed, the monster’s totem was surprisingly large, at least 50 centimeters across, and Skandr was preserving his mana, so he only threw a couple Lightning Bolts at the beast as he continued to prepare himself to cast his spells at the incoming chieftain upon its arrival. Benedict too was attempting to preserve some of his resources to be able to better fight against the Boss when it came, while Muti and Felix were dealing with the other brawlers and rangers. Astrid rushed forward, screaming to get the monster’s attention, but it ran towards Skandr and leapt on him. He tried to dodge to the side, but he was too slow.

The Lightningmage’s screams for help were garbled and terrified, and Astrid, more than wanting to kill the shaman, needed to get it off of her friend. She rushed towards the enemy, jumping and tackling the monster off of Skandr. The very small, still rational part of her, thought about how apparently tackling was an application of her Blunt Weapons Mastery. The Skill guided her to drive her shoulder into the monster’s ribs, blowing it off of Skandr. The rest of her wanted bloodshed. 

As it scrambled in an attempt to reclaim its feet, Astrid didn’t stop her assault. The shaman hadn’t resumed using bloodlust after attempting to heal its allies, and it was far too weak and slow to stop her advance as she needed to exterminate it quickly. Astrid reclaimed her feet first, the monster’s bloodied muzzle seeming to mock her. She hadn’t looked at Skandr yet. She couldn’t. Instead, she raised her heavy boot and delivered a devastating kick to the monster’s face. It raised its totemic shield and blade, stopping the blow, but Astrid just smashed her hammer down on the monster without thinking deeper about it.

The first five strikes weren’t enough, but the five that followed finally killed the monster. Astrid whirled, looking for any other gnolls that would continue to attack before the chieftain’s arrival. There were none yet, so Astrid turned to Skandr to see the severity of his wounds. Benedict leaned over him, but Skandr sat up, his left hand covering his face as blood pooled between his fingers and ran in rivulets down his arm.

“Let’s kill the bastard.” Skandr snarled as he fought to his feet. Seeming to think better about it, he let his hand fall to make sigils, then showing the damage the shaman had managed to leave him with in less than three seconds.

“Duchess above.” Astrid breathed.

The monster’s fangs had left deep gashes that would need to be tended to quickly. Each tooth on the top of its mouth had managed to carve down the left side of his face, starting just above his brow and thankfully missing his eye before gouging out most of his left cheek. A thick flap of skin had been ripped entirely off, exposing his teeth underneath.

Any further conversation was interrupted by Muti, who came forward, saw his face, and asked, “Is the blood spilled sufficient?“

“You know the answer.“ Skandr grimaced, pointing in the direction where the party could hear the chieftain’s approach, “It’s time to kill the bastard responsible for the monster that did this to me.”

Astrid stood, listening to the somehow steady voice of the Lightningmage behind her as he prepared his lightning curtain to smite the monsters that approached. The irregular chieftain strode forward with a sort of disrespectful confidence, a pair of axes similar to Felix‘s slung over its shoulders. The way that it wielded two weapons at once had also been part of the party’s problem in fighting the irregular chieftain before, with the greater maneuverability Regardless of whatever had happened in the past, it was time to focus, and Astrid threw herself towards the chieftain as it whirled its right hand’s axe above above its head. That seemed to be a sign for its followers, as six brawlers rushed out of the brush.

“Oh, dammit, there’s definitely going to be a shaman with the Boss.” Benedict cursed as he started to Doublespeak Quickened Step and Song of Healing.

Astrid wished for Lightning Reflexes as well as as she was forced to take the first to attack from the chieftain, but that wasn’t to be. Both of the Boss’s attacks threatened to blow her back several steps and expose her body from under her guard, but fortunately, she’d experienced this once before. The monster whipped the weapons through the air nearly as quickly as the brawler used their fists, and if she wasn’t careful, it would tactically knock away all of her protections before carving her to ribbons. Astrid took advantage of the second blow that came her way, giving an extra step where she might have hesitated to do so before. The lightning curtain smashed down all around her, and Astrid watched as the irregular shrugged off the magical effect while it cackled a draconic laugh and lunged forward.

The axes sung through the air as they whipped towards her head and body. Astrid dodged what blows she could and parried those she had to. Even so, she took a glancing blow that became a much more serious wound when the shaman finally activated its bloodlust aura. As the weapon scraped off her right shoulder’s pauldron only to cut into and through the chain mail on her right hip, Astrid felt her leg threaten to give away under the hit while her right hand’s fingers tingled.

Activating Quick Recovery, she stepped back in the perfect time to give Skandr an open attack on the irregular. His lightning javelin smashed into its chest, sparks flying in every direction, and the chieftain shuddered as it continued to attack. It managed to swipe one of Astrid’s attacks out of the air, but her second and third both struck home on its hips. Despite herself, Astrid smiled, smelling victory, and that was when the monster stepped back with surprising speed and let out its Rousing Howl. Astrid tried to stop it, but the shaman came from nowhere and fought to sink it’s dagger into her waist.

After weeks of experience against the shamans here on the fifth floor, Astrid knew that the dagger couldn’t cut through her armor, and merely twisted as the blow landed on her. It knocked her two steps back without cutting her, but it was still enough time for the Boss to gather itself. The shaman wasn’t using its bloodlust aura, but instead was actively healing the chieftain from the stunning effects of the lightning javelin.

“No!” Astrid screamed as she lunged forward, but then she heard Benedict scream out a deafening blast of sound. That Astrid could hear it at all meant that he was in grave danger as well, and she felt her stomach drop. The party was all separated, and the gnolls were seizing back the momentum. Even so, she could only trust that they were able to take care of themselves, and she had to take care of the shaman and chieftain. The shaman was threatening her right side and holding back her hammer, but the supporting monster wasn’t as much of a threat to her right now as its leader. Instead, she threw herself towards the Boss as it regained better and better control of itself. The next moments were a blur, her hammer and shield both swinging out wildly as chieftain and shaman dodged out of her range. Without any Skill to draw them closer, all she could do was continue to press the attack, and when finally, she managed to get a glancing hit on the chieftain, she felt the tide of battle turn.

“Felix!” Benedict’s despair was obvious in his scream, and Astrid saw a flash of Petr, dead while she struggled to activate her father‘s talisman. With desperation, Astrid abandoned all pretense of defense, allowing one axe to sink into the flesh of her waist on the left side as she exchanged that blow for a full bodied strike of her shield into the chieftain’s throat. Bone collapsed as it wheezed and fell, and Astrid, with a rare moment of clarity, turned away from dealing the killing blow, instead whipping her hammer into the ambushing shaman’s ear. Bone crunched as the monster‘s brain was crushed in a single swift move. Astrid raised her hammer and did the same thing in a single hit to the Boss.

Irregular Gnoll Chieftain Boss slain. 120 experience gained, split among party.

Without thinking further, she turned her attention back to the backliners, where Skandr had taken his knife in hand and, with purple electricity dancing across the blade, threw himself forward and buried it in a brawler’s eye. That same electricity surged across the gnoll’s body as its other eye exploded. He wasn’t the reason for Benedict’s fear, then.

Felix was on the ground, so much blood covering him that Astrid couldn’t tell where he was wounded. Spatters of gnoll blood covered him head to toe, but a few seconds later, Astrid saw the dent on his chest as he struggled to breathe. Skandr didn’t hesitate to throw himself at the single remaining brawler, his snarl made all the more grotesque by the missing flesh over the left side of his mouth. The remaining brawler was wounded already, a testament to Felix’s last stand, and Astrid returned her attention to Muti, ensuring there wouldn’t be any more to add to the death toll of this idiotic course of action.

Against the three Rangers, one of them irregular, the Rogue had fared well, only taking a couple hits, and now that she’d dealt with the flighty, cowardly monsters, she rushed to assist with the final enemy and to hear Felix‘s last words. To her surprise, Skandr waved her off, screamed in challenge, and while his left hand sent three quick Lightning Bolts into the monster’s chest, he lunged forward and, within an uppercut, buried his knife up to the hilt in the soft flesh under the gnoll’s jaw. It twitched and fell, dead, as all four party members rushed to Felix‘s side.

With a wheeze, he opened his mouth. Astrid’s eyes wetted with tears as she fumbled with the straps of her helmet under her chin.

“Got the bastards.” A faint trail of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he said it. Benedict continued using his Song of Healing, beginning to Doublespeak it to better attempt to heal the dying man. Astrid pulled a potion from her pouch and unstoppered it with her teeth as she held Felix. He smiled softly, seeming to doubt her, but accepted the potion even so. As it dribbled past his lips, he coughed twice, took a shuddering breath, and coughed once more. After coughing again, with a look of surprise on his face, he looked down at his chest.

The ribs shifted and filled out his armor once again, and he took a long, slow breath. Then another, neither rattling in his chest. Finally, he wiped the blood on his lips and with a grunt, sat up straight.

“Well… This is awkward.”

***

After the reasonable reactions of surprise, anger, excitement, exultation, and more, the party finally started insulting Felix.

“‘Fare thee well friends. I am off to another, kinder world. Remember not my death, but my life. I lived but a short, cruel existence, but remember the light that I have shed for thee.’”

Benedict effusive words growing more than a little frustrating, but Felix‘s reaction had yet to grow any less humorous. He visibly shrunk back at every new jab, his face twisted up in a painful, overwhelming shame. Once he’s taken the potion, he was the first to recover to fighting shape. Astrid and Muti both enjoyed the soothing touch of Benedict’s Song of Healing, but Skandr’s face, still weeping blood, needed a more specialized Healer’s attention.

“OK, I know we already agreed where we’re going,” Astrid cut in as Benedict began a new tirade, Felix’s face lighting up as a possible avenue of escape from the teasing showed its face, “but I’m done delving where one of the main difficulties is just sheer numbers. At least for now, it’s too hard for us to deal with. Maybe at Iron we’ll have a couple more Skills that can deal with groups of enemies at the same time, but as it is, this is just the final nail in the coffin of throwing ourselves at hordes of enemies.“

“Seconded.” Felix added. Benedict and Muti quickly agreed, while Skandr took several seconds to realize what was happening. His face was, in a single word, grotesque. Beyond the blood that hasn’t fully coagulated yet, his saliva continued to drip out of the left side of his face, between his teeth.

“Seconded.” Surprisingly, Skandr’s face wasn’t at all an impediment to his continued speaking. He did grimace in pain at the movement, and then shook his head, evidently unwilling to speak any more.

“I know the reason, I just want to verify that you really don’t want a potion right now.“ Astrid asked as she finally recovered enough from the deep cut in her side to go about collecting the materials from the various monsters around. 

Skandr shook his head, and Astrid nodded once in acknowledgment. Taking the potion would stop the pain and the bleeding, but would absolutely guarantee a massive scar, if not a permanent hole over his teeth. Perhaps it was just  in vanity, but Astrid understood the unwillingness to live a life with such a marred face. Her question finished, she turned to the task at hand.

With the irregular chieftain, the sled would be mostly full, though they might be able to stuff the irregular shaman in alongside it. That would be a damn heavy load, though, and Astrid could feel that straining herself that hard would damage the only slightly recovered wound in her hip. By the time they got to the first, or maybe even the second floor, Quick Recovery would be off cool down, and she could probably get to the point of being able to pull, but she also didn’t want to just have Skandr sit down here in agony while his face continued to heal and he possibly ended up with the negative consequences he was looking to avoid while also going through all the pain.

“Muti, Felix, will you be able to haul this without me for a while? If I pull too hard, I can feel there’s gonna be something bad that happens with my intestines.”

“I’ll take all of it.“ Felix said. “I am basically all good now.”

Astrid stepped forward and put a firm hand on the back of Benedict‘s neck as he opened his mouth to snark at the Bodyguard.

“Don’t say anything. Just shut up and be happy that your friend is alive.”

Benedict sighed heavily, but it did blessedly stop his stupid running of his mouth. Instead, he made himself useful and went around collecting the materials so that they could get moving sooner rather than later. While they weren’t on a true time crunch, it was imperative that they get back to town as soon as possible to keep any scarring at a minimum. As such, with care not to split open her wounds, Astrid contributed to their escape from the Dungeon branch, pushing herself to move faster to try to help Skandr before it was too late.