32: An Honest, Simple, Regular Dungeon, Part Three

An Honest, Simple, Regular Dungeon, Part Three

As Neve finished messing with Erin's settings, the lamia woke up.

Erin blinked a few times and then looked down at herself. Neve shifted uncomfortably behind her, her hands wrapped around her staff behind her. She tried to hide her guilty expression. 

"I..."

Erin turned around and looked back at the room full of plates.

Countless spots of blood decorated almost every single one, along with arrows, bullets, scorch marks, and bloodstained spikes of ice. 

"What happened?" She asked.

"Uh... We were making it past some traps and you hit your head pretty bad at the end."

"... That must have been quite the hit," Erin murmured as she looked at what was essentially a floor covered in blood. 

"It was. Are you alright, though?"

"I... believe so. Yes. It feels quite strange, but, I suppose I have you to thank for not being in a worse condition. Thank you," she said with a grateful smile.

[... Well, I feel terrible. I'll tell her as soon as we're done with this dungeon, though. Again, I really don't know how she's going to react to the news. I don't want her becoming ineffective in combat in the middle of this thing.]

"Let's just keep moving."

It had taken quite a bit to make it past that puzzle room just now. Thanks in part to the fact that Neve could only summon Erin three times before she had to way for her mana to regenerate.

Erin had taken many, many crossbow bolts, spells, and gunshots from the trapped plates but, slowly, she and Neve brute-forced their way to the other end of the room.

And, of course, now, she didn't recall a single one.

[I'm glad they put that memory erasure stuff in the Summon Settings... I still feel like a piece of shit, but whatever. At least she doesn't remember what triggering those traps felt like.]

Now that they were here, they could finally move on to the next part of the dungeon.

The next room saw six coffins placed side-by-side at its center, with two doors opposite the entrance that Erin was slithering through.

To her left, Neve saw that there was a higher floor overlooking this one, though she couldn't see any way to get up to it.

[There might be enemies over there... I can't do anything about them from here without seeing them, though. Unless they do something that gives away their position, I guess. For now, I'll have to try to stand behind Erin.]

As she'd been erasing Erin's memory, she'd taken the opportunity to change her Combat Style back to Defensive and increased her Protectiveness a little.

Only a little, though. She would be lying if she said she hadn't enjoyed the embrace Erin had given her before but this wasn't exactly the time for that again. 

In this dungeon full of enemies she could not see, she'd be relying mostly on Erin to make it through.

[Seriously, how fucked would I have been if I didn't have her with me? I'm so lucky.]

On cue, three of the six coffins in the room had their lids fly off. Erin got into a combative stance, positioning herself just in front of Neve. The healer clutched her staff tightly, preparing to assist her summon in whichever way she needed to.

She saw something, though.

Up ahead, to the left, there was a purple runic circle that appeared in the air.

She instantly recognized it as magic, of course, but could not tell what exactly was being cast.

"Hm. This seems dangerous," Erin said, noticing the same spell. "Make sure you-"

She wasn't allowed to finish her sentence, however, as she then disappeared. 

Neve blinked.

[What?]

She moved to summon Erin again but was unable to. Her eyes widened and she realized what could be happening. The healer confirmed it when she tried to cast {Sacred Ground} under herself. It didn't work either.

That spell she just watched get cast was a silence spell.

Silences were a type of spell that canceled magic. Once affected by one, a spellcaster would be unable to cast any more spells for a period of time. Additionally, any concentration-type spells would be canceled.

Concentration spells were spells that were continuously cast. "Turned on", so to speak.

Such as, for example, spells that summoned streams of flames from one's hand or water or...

Summons.

[Crap.]

She heard feet dragging over the stone floor to the right. Ahead, she saw an orange runic circle appear, from the same exact place where the silence spell had been cast.

[This is not good.]

Instinctively, she jumped to the left.

A giant sphere of flames launched itself and crashed into the wall behind her. Metallic clanging signaled that a weapon had just fallen over the very spot she'd been standing in.

And, she could hear another set of bony feet dragging their way toward her.

It came to her then that, although she hadn't had the ability to summon her for too long, she'd already grown accustomed to having Erin around. At the very least, from a combat perspective. It might have had to do with the fact that she simply didn't see this type of situation coming, or the fact that the conversations she shared with Erin made her feel like her presence was not the result of a spell.

Now, however, she felt foolish for not preparing a backup plan in case something like this happened.

She couldn't do anything about it now, of course. She was in a fight.

She had to focus. There were enemies to kill.

[Silencing spells can be concentration-type spells too. Either that or regular spells with a set duration. Judging from the fact that the silence rune disappeared, I'm guessing it's the latter. If I wait it out, I'll be able to summon Erin again. I guess I'm just going to have to survive for a little bit...]

Ominous sounds reached her ears, caused by the nearby footsteps of her invisible enemies.

[I'll have to guess when they're attacking...]

At that precise moment, dust was lifted off the ground just a step away from her, and a guttural groan entered her ears.

[Now!]

Neve dodged to the left. Again, metal slammed into the stone where she'd been sitting. Now that she knew what she wanted to do, though, she stood up.

[Buy time, buy time!]

She ran straight to the opposite, right-hand corner of the room. Strange clicks followed her, and as she reached the spot she wanted to be in, she found that the invisible undead mage was preparing another spell.

This one was water-based, judging by the blue rune that appeared in the air. Nothing came out, though.

[That might not...]

She looked under herself.

[Of course!]

Spotting a blue circle appearing beneath her, Neve dodged toward the mage. As the spell activated behind her, causing water to erupt from the stone, Neve held her staff out in front of her and rammed her weapon into the spot where the spell had been cast. A collision occurred, and she could feel something having been pushed back by her staff.1

[That last spell likely wasn't meant to deal damage. It was probably something to hold me in place. That probably would have been more dangerous than anything that was actually meant to hurt me. My mobility is all I have right now.]

Her breathing was so heavy that it grew hard to hear whether the enemies were close to her or not.

Just as she was wondering where to go, she heard a low clicking sound coming from the left.

[How-]

She meant to ask herself how had the skeleton gotten so close to her so quickly, but she wasn't able to get the words out of her thoughts.

A slash across her abdomen interrupted her.

"...!"

She stepped back. A red line appeared across her Priestess Garbs, with blood quickly dripping down from it.

Pressing her back against nearby stones, she instinctively moved to cast {Healing Ground}, but, of course, the silence prevented her from doing that.

[Come on, come on! How much longer can the spell take!] She thought, gritting her teeth. If the cut had been any deeper, her entrails may have been decorating the floor, right now. 

Footsteps appeared in the dust-covered ground directly in front of her.

Neve ducked.

... Which was useless, because the attack that came through was an overhead swing.

A sword stabbed into her left shoulder.

"AGH!"

It cut in deep. The pain was sharp and electric.

She froze up. The situation was getting worse. More skeletal feet slid across the stone, dragging themselves to her position. 

[Come on, come on, come on...] 

And, finally, {Healing Ground} worked. 

As soon as that spell went through, its white rune appearing beneath her, confirming that her magic was back, she summoned Erin.

The lamia appeared before her.

"ERIN!" Neve called out, screaming the woman's name.

Her summon responded instantly. Slithering toward the unseen target in front of Neve, Erin grabbed something and pushed her hand against the wall next to Neve. She heard a loud crack.

EXP Gained: 50

EXP: 55/410

WS Tokens Gained: 50

WS Tokens: 5731

Pulling the sword out of her body, Neve collapsed on top of the healing rune she'd conjured.

She was just about ready to pass out. Before she could do that, though, she needed to tell Erin something important.

"If you see a spell being cast, do everything you can to interrupt it."

Erin briefly looked back at her, before turning her attention back to the unseen enemies. 

"Understood."

And, with that, though she was in the middle of a fight, Neve closed her eyes, whimpering as the wounds on her body slowly closed. 

[It hurts so fucking bad...]

A voice in the back of her head whispered that this could be karma for what she'd put Erin through earlier.

If so, she would just need to bear with it. 

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