Wild Wood Village Dungeon Floor 1 Final

"Mick.." I said, slowly placing my hand on his shoulder, "what happened?"

"I don't know," Mick replied with a tired shaky voice, "I was getting frustrated and angry after I got knocked on the ground, and then it got worse when the explosion happened and all of a sudden it felt like it grew exponentially and started feeding into my strength and speed and also made me feel kind of bloodthirsty and vicious. Now I'm just worn out."

"Interesting..maybe you somehow unlocked a new ability or skill or something. We can check out our gains after we leave the dungeon, for now can you work on getting the Ethereal cores out of these creatures? I'm going to go help Isabell with Ren and Jenna."

"Ya, I'll take care of it."

"Thanks man." I said as I turned to head back to the Isabell and the now conscious Ren and Jenna, receiving only a grunt in acknowledgement from Mick.

"How're they doing?" I asked Isabell in a hushed voice as she examined the wound to on Jenna's leg.

"Ren is pretty banged up but he'll be alright. He'll be sore for a few days and has a couple of minor burns and some bruises from being that close to the blast, but other than that he'll be fine. Jenna needs more than what I can do here, she's lucky that spear didn't pierce anything vital like artery or she'd already be dead. She realistically needs surgery, but I don't know that any hospitals are still operational. We need to get out of here so I can at least thoroughly disinfect the wound and stitch it up. I just wish we had thought to bring some bandages or medical supplies along."

"I have some clothes in my backpack, I can cut up a shirt or something to get a makeshift bandage we can tie around the wound. Can she walk?"

"I don't know if she can, but she really shouldn't, it coul-"

"I can and I will walk. I might be a little slower, but I'm not going to weigh you guys down by making you carry me through the rest of dungeon. Besides, if that last fight was anything to go off of we're going to need all hands on deck to get everyone out of here alive." Jenna interrupted.

"But-"

"No buts Izzy, we don't know how far, how many, or what we have left to go before we can get out of here."

Isabell finally relented and I went and cut a t-shirt from my bag into a makeshift bandage before handing it to Isabella. After that I went and helped Ren up off the ground.

"Doing all right man?" I asked.

"Sore, and I have a headache that feels like I hit myself in the head with my own hammer, but other than that I'm ok I think. The story might be different tomorrow though," he said while trying to smile, though it looked more like a grimace.

At that point Mick came over with six Ethereal cores of varying sizes which I had him put into my backpack for us to split up later after we got out of the dungeon. I slung my backpack over my shoulders and turned around to check on Jenna and Ren to see everyone standing and Jenna holding one of the spears the creatures used while using her staff as a walking stick. I looked around at everyone, covered in dirt and blood with torn up clothes and grim, resolute expressions.

'I'm sure I don't look any better than they do, the world is definitely a different place than it was yesterday. We need to get stronger, I need to get stronger, as fast as possible in order to survive.' I thought grimly.

I gathered up my arrows letting everyone get a couple more minutes of rest before saying, "Let's get moving, we've got to be almost to the end of this thing." I said with as much confidence as I could trying to motivate and raise the spirits of everyone.

We set off in the same formation although at a slower pace to accommodate the injuries from the last battle. We traveled several hundred feet down the path without getting ambushed or running into any creatures guarding the road. I was beginning to wonder if we were heading the right direction to reach the end of the dungeon or if the path just went on endlessly. Finally, what I was hoping for and what I was dreading appeared. In front of me was 4 of the same creatures from before, though one looked a little different, guarding two portals. Three of the little green creatures looked similar to the ones we had defeated previously, two of them wielded spears, one a sword and shield, and they wore the same crude clothing. The fourth however looked different, it was slightly bigger than the other three, it held a shield that was made out of metal instead of wood, a slightly bigger and what appeared to be better quality sword, and appeared to be wearing some sort of crude leather armor.

'This isn't going to be good, at least we don't have to deal with whatever magic shit the one with the staff sent our way with the explosion. The one with the armor worries me though.'

I was roughly 50 meters away from the group of creatures and i debated what the best course of action was, basically whether to wait for the rest of the party or not. I decided that given the amount of injuries everyone had I would try to take out as many of the creatures as I could before everyone else got here. I took aim at the chest of the smaller creature holding the sword and shield since it would be the hardest to take out once their guard was raised and I wasn't sure if my arrows would pierce the armor covering the larger ones chest. I let the arrow fly and immediately nocked another arrow not waiting to watch the arrow find its mark. I took aim at the chest of one of the spear wielding creatures and sent the arrow sailing through the air just as the first arrow struck and sent the smaller sword and shield wielding goblin to the ground. I nocked the third arrow as swiftly as I could and took aim at the third of the smaller creatures and sent it on its way just in time for the creatures to recover from their shock and release an angry screech in my direction. The second arrow found its mark sending the first of the spear wielding goblins careening to the ground just as I nocked a fourth arrow and the two remaining creatures charged in my direction causing the third arrow to miss its mark, landing in the dirt. I took aim at the spear wielding creature again letting it close some of the distance before sending another arrow at it to reduce the amount of time it had to dodge. When the creatures were 30 meters away I sent the arrow straight at the chest of the spear wielding goblin just as Ren, Jenna, Mick and Isabell arrived.

"Welcome to the party guys." I said just as my arrow struck the right side of the creatures chest sending it into a deathly pirouette accompanied by a spiral of ruby droplets sent into the air.

"Ya no kidding, that guy with the armor looks like no joke." Ren replied.

"The good news is this time we have them outnumbered. Get ready it's time." I said doing my best to get in some last minute confidence and morale boosting.

Everyone quickly got into formation as the remaining creature charged past the 20 meter mark. I drew an arrow back and took aim at the face of the creature, but was surprised when a metal ball suddenly went shooting past our group aimed at the creatures' head instead. The creature barely managed to get its' shield up enough to deflect the ball, but it blocked its' line of sight in the process so I quickly changed my target to its legs and let the arrow fly, hoping I would hit either one and the arrow would pierce its' armor. My arrow managed to pierce the armor of its' right leg as it crossed the 10 meter mark causing it to shriek and slowing it down slightly, but not as much as I would have liked.

"Ren, get ready to hit that things shield as hard as you can to try and stop its' momentum. Everyone else, get ready to collapse the formation into a circle around the creature as soon as it hits Ren." I yelled across the formation to make sure everyone could hear me through the tunnel vision I was sure at least a couple of them had.

Everyone nodded or grunted in reply an instant before the creature reached the range of Ren's hammer. Ren swung his sledgehammer with all of the force he could muster causing the creature to lose its' momentum and even slide back a few feet, but knocked himself off balance as well.

'This thing is way stronger than the other creatures like it we fought before.' I thought as I traded my bow for my knife and we collapsed the formation around the creature. We assaulted the creature from all angles, forcing it to stay on the defensive the entire time. Ren swung his hammer in large heavy blows, Mick swung his machetes swiftly and from varying angles, almost like they were dancing, taking advantage of every opening he could, Jenna and I would jump in and and stab the creature every time it presented a weak point or wasn't paying attention to us, and Isabell harassed the creature with a steady stream of metal balls from her slingshot until eventually the creature fell beneath our onslaught.

"We did it...we made it through the dungeon..." Isabell said in disbelief.

We looked at her and then back at the fallen creatures and then finally at the unguarded portals that were finally within reach and when reality sank in the entire party let out a victorious roar-

"WE MADE IT THROUGH!"