Chapter 304
Captain Lagrange has one of their men douse the Champions and the Dark Champions in water magic. He has no idea what they have gone through, but they stink .
However, while they’re getting cleaned up, Narzla and his second in command, Junt, point something out.
“Sir,” Junt says, “didn’t they come from the opposite direction they just departed from?”
“Yes, Captain, they go back . But… they end up coming from the corridor we’re going down this morning,” Narzla confirms.
Captain Lagrange frowns, looks at the two corridors that open into the room and then walks up to a drenched Jacob Cloud, who’s looking perfectly rested, just as if he had taken a week off on a warm island.
“Cloud, where the hell did you come from?”
“One of the rooms had a passage and we ended up going through a little roundabout way through the Dungeon, sir,” Jacob explains, digging some water out of his ear. “It was very interesting to see what kind of monsters are around here, honestly. Scary stuff, Captain.”
*They must have found a passage that loops through the corridor here and they were lucky enough to spawn close to us. And who the hell just enters a secret passage in a Primordial Dungeon like that?! *
In Captain Lagrange’s mind, what has just happened is even worse than if a few of them had died. No one strolls through a Primordial Dungeon unscathed like this. If they did, it means they were lucky enough to meet mostly weak monsters and empty rooms.
Primordial Dungeons are very irregular, with several rooms in a row capable of sending hordes of monsters at you, or forcing you to go through hundreds of empty rooms before you encountered the next monster. Intermediate Grounds are frustrating to say the least. And if you go through a hundred empty zones, you’re very likely to drop your guard, which means only one thing: you’re a dead man walking.
Captain Lagrange deduces that what just happened is close to the worst possible outcome: the Champions and Dark Champions must have had such an easy time that they think they’re untouchable.
He looks at the calm Jacob Cloud and feels tired even just at the thought of explaining what went down.
But still, it’s his duty to at least try .
“Cloud, if you came all back in one piece after seeing combat, you guys most likely fought some inferior monsters. If you get cocky during your next outing, you’re going to get everyone in your team killed .”
“Hear that, Jacob?” Delefagus, the de-facto Leader of the Dark Champions accosts Jacob. “Why do you want us all to die?”
But there’s a smirk on Delefagus’s face, through his nerdy glasses, that Captain Lagrange can’t really understand. It feels almost like they’re mocking him—but why would they? Who would be so shameless as to mock the one trying to warn them about the suicidal training outings they’re trying to undertake?
“I do want a few of you dead,” Jacob smirks. “But it’s fine. I still need all of you for now.”
Captain Lagrange can’t understand why Jacob would speak like that to his teammates, but he has more important things to worry about.
“We’re moving out in five minutes. Get ready and stay with Narzla.”
“I’m sorry that you have to babysit us,” Jacob tells Narzla. “I imagine it’s not the greatest job.”
He does feel bad for the woman who has to be with them at all times.
The Infernal woman looks at him and sighs, “I don’t care. There are no egos to stroke in a Primordial Dungeon. If you want to show off, if you feel wronged, you get killed by the next wave of monsters. Often, you get killed even if you do everything right. So, no complaints here. It’s just another part of the job like any other.”
“Misconceptions about one’s own expectations that are tied to their fragile egos are possibly the most dangerous killer,” Baal suddenly says. “Our Leader could learn from you. He worries a lot about what others think about him. Even when he’s just playing cards.”
Jacob stares daggers at Baal, who just smiles warmly toward him.
Narzla is puzzled until Nimirea gets to her side and explains, “they have found out they have a similar personality. They both think they’re the best of the best, just in a slightly different manner. That’s why they don’t get along.”
“Hey,” Jacob says, looking hurt. “Don’t compare me to him. I don’t have an ego . I just trust my own plans.”
“I suppose I should take pride in the fact that I am being compared to a man that, despite all his flaws, can become the Leader of Champions.”
It doesn’t escape Narzla that there’s a jab in Baal’s words.
She wonders briefly why the two don’t get along when the column of fighters suddenly stops and Captain Lagrange shouts, “there are five Archers! Scatter immediately! Protect the casters!”
Narzla’s eyes go wide and she immediately tells the others, “careful, this could get ugly! Keep your eyes open and erect barriers if you can!”
But before she can say anything else, Kai Valemont, Korrath Kethys, and Orrivane step forward without saying a word. It’s almost a casual stroll that brings them in front of the group, but then Jacob says.
“Orrivane, stay here. Kai, Korrath, stay at the back.”
She has seen people argue with Jacob, make fun of him, and even disregard everything he says. But now, the giant black-scaled Dragonkin and his brother obey without saying a word, taking position at the very tail end of the group.
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Wait, do they know that monsters can attack from the back in these scenarios? Captain Lagrange should be about to—
A few moments later, she sees a couple of Shields from the group shift to the very back, shooting cold glances at Korrath and Kai who just ignore them in return.
She keeps her eyes glued to the front, ready for projectiles making their way past the defenses of the main Shields in the group.
The problem with Nightmare Archers of Apocalypse is that they have the highest damage output, even above Lancers. They cannot discharge more than one arrow at once, but their attacks are simply devastating. And four is the highest number of those monsters Narzla has ever heard of together.
“They usually consume a lot of the Dungeon’s energy to maintain, so it’s very rare to see more than one here or there. And it’s even rarer to see many Nightmares working alongside each other. They consume too much Mana for the Dungeon to be able to pool them together. With how much energy upkeep they take, they would starve each other if they fought side by side.”
Jacob nods at that, watching the battle.
Captain Lagrange immediately makes an executive decision and lunges toward the two nearest Nightmare Archers of Apocalypse.
The Archers are taller than the Lancers and built around a single grotesque purpose. Their right arm is not an arm at all — it is a crossbow-arm, a fused lattice of bone and pale sinew, bracket-shaped, its frame humming with Mana that gathers a little brighter with every breath the monster takes. They do not aim with their eyes. They aim with the slow, careful turn of the entire body, and when the Mana in the bracket reaches its peak, the air around the limb thickens and warps, as if the world itself has noticed what is about to happen and is leaning, briefly, out of the way.
Covered by layers of barriers cast by Supports and Shields, he manages to kill two of the Archers in quick succession. But before he can attack the other two, they point at the casters in the group.
“SHIELDS!” Captain Lagrange roars, lunging toward the monsters. But before he can attack them, the large corridor suddenly goes darker for a moment. Then, with a deafening roar of thunder, the projectiles light it up as if it were a bright, sunny day.
The devastating power of the two energy projectiles is terrifying.
The first two barriers they meet, they vaporize in an instant, without showing any sign of being blocked.
A dozen barriers are erected, and Narzla sees something flickering in the midst of them, as they shatter, one after another. Suddenly, as just a couple of them remain, the attacks fizzle out of existence.
Soon after, a rain of spells hits the two remaining Archers, annihilating them on the spot.
“That was a close call!” A woman, one of the Shields, says. “I’ve never seen anything like that. They coordinated the attack!”
“Man, I felt my Skills all dispel one after the other. It’s a miracle that we even managed to block it! With how powerful they were, I was sure they would have punched through the barriers!”
“When you layer a lot of barriers together, sometimes attacks like these seem more dangerous than they are,” another Shield chimes in, one that came from the back.
Narzla frowns. One of her talents is in Mana Manipulation. In the entire Team Five, she might very well be the best at it. She’s not an Infernal for nothing. And she would have sworn that the attack had enough energy left to kill at least half of their entire group when it suddenly fizzled out.
She turns to see a Jacob Cloud patting another Champion on the back, the one that had stayed at the front with them.
Orrivane Nyxmoor.
“Those shouldn’t have been there,” Jacob says cryptically and Orrivane nods after exchanging glances with him.
She agrees, but she has no idea what just happened — something smells fishy to her.
“Everything alright, Lady Narzla?” Jacob asks with an innocent smile. “Why are you looking at us like that?”
“Did you just do something?” She asks, narrowing her eyes at Jacob Cloud.
“Yeah,” Jacob admits.
I knew it!
“I prayed,” Jacob adds. “That was really scary. Thank goodness that Captain Lagrange killed those two monsters so quickly. Otherwise, we would have all died.”
The group retreats to the previous room, with Captain Lagrange looking around with bloodshot eyes.
“ What the hell was that?! ” he growls under his breath to his second, Junt.
“I don’t know, Captain,” Junt says. “I didn’t even think it was possible to meet so many at once.”
That is the closest Captain Lagrange has come to having most of his team fully wiped in a Dungeon so far. Nightmares like Archers and Lancers are not particularly bulky, but they’re an absolute, well… nightmare to deal with.
“We need to clear our heads before we continue,” Captain Lagrange says. “Tell the Shields to meditate and rest a few hours. Adrenaline is still running high. I don’t want to risk our people for nothing.”
Junt nods and goes to inform the others about the change in plans. They were supposed to be exploring right now, but seeing so many Nightmares at once has scared the living shit out of everybody.
Yet, when they go out in the corridor again, all armed to the teeth and ready for war, there’s a weird silence.
They go through a spiraling corridor that goes downward, eight feet wide, and there’s nothing . There are just a few scorch marks here and there. In Primordial Dungeons, it’s not weird to find marks of this kind around, so no one pays particular attention to them.
There’s a bit of ash here and there, but nothing more.
“Let’s continue. Narzla, please, keep mapping out the place. Scouts, if you find anything suspicious, please inform us.”
They go on and on, through corridors, rooms, and they even find a few deactivated trap arrays.
“This is getting creepy, Captain,” Junt says. “What the hell is this? And what’s all that ash?”
“I have no idea. It’s the first time I’ve seen this pattern. But this could be nothing unusual. Let’s push forward.”
The group simply moves on and on, ending up walking for the rest of the day until they’re at the very end of the Dungeon.
“This makes no sense,” Captain Lagrange says after they reach the surface through the exit of this ruin.
Ruins have multiple exit points. They spent the entire day mapping out the entire place and, after making sure they found every single room, including secret ones, they just came out the other way with no further monster encounters.
“Sir,” Captain Lagrange is lost in thought when he finds Jacob Cloud in front of himself.
“What is it, Cloud?” Captain Lagrange asks.
“I know that we’re headed toward another ruin tomorrow. Since it’s time for our training, we’ll be going ahead and check it out.”
“You—“ Captain Lagrange frowns. “You can’t enter a ruin in the Intermediate Ground alone. Don’t be stupid.”
“Sir, we’ll be extra careful and retreat if anything goes south. Don’t worry about us.”
Captain Lagrange starts being suspicious of Jacob Cloud when one of the scouts that was double-checking everything in the Dungeon suddenly emerges and goes straight to him to report.
“Anything?” Captain Lagrange asks.
The scout shakes his head.
“Sir, we only found this in the Dungeon,” the scout takes out an obscenely large sandwich full of so much meat that one might as well have put an entire pig in it.
“What the hell is that?” Captain Lagrange almost laughs. “Cloud, I’ve never seen anyone among my men eat anything like that. Is this from one of yours?”
Jacob blinks a few times at the sandwich and shakes his head.
“Never seen anyone eat anything like that. It would truly take a fat bastard to eat such a thing on the job.”
“I agree,” Captain Lagrange sighs. “Just toss that out and let’s rest for today. We’ll camp in the dunes. I’m tired of the damn artificial light.”
The scout just tosses the sandwich in the sand. Captain Lagrange notices Jacob Cloud staring very intently at it. But he doesn’t make anything of it. The kid is probably just wondering who the hell would eat something like that in-between fighting Nightmares.