Rune Seeker
Chapter 52: The Mire

“Dr. Benza, Enter Dungeon,” Hiral said, the party gathering around him as the portal opened to The Mire.

“Everybody has their food buffs?” Seena asked.

“Five percent increased critical hit chance, and twenty-five percent increased critical hit damage,” Yanily said, one hand caressing his spear. “I didn’t even know we could get buffs like that!”

“Sorry it doesn’t do much for you two,” Seena said to Wule and Nivian.

“Not as much as the rest of you,” Wule admitted, holding up his icy rod, “but that doesn’t mean it’ll go to waste.”

“Just don’t forget to heal me when those snakes show up,” Nivian said, his eyes going to Lonil, who stood nearby.

“Oh, you’re such a worrier,” Wule said.

“Seeyela, we’ll be back in a few hours,” Seena said, ignoring the banter between the brothers.

“Be careful in there,” Seeyela said.

“We will. Don’t worry. Nivian,” Seena said. She tapped the tank on the shoulder, and he headed through the portal.

The others followed, Hiral going last, and as he passed through, the portal closed behind him with a soft pop. Like the last time, they appeared in a rather plain-looking room, though a blue notification quickly appeared in the center.

The Mire – Dungeon

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Top Clear Times

XXX : --:--

YYY : --:--

ZZZ : --:--

Attempt Dungeon?

Yes / No

Seena gave the party one last look to make sure they were good, then tapped the Yes button, and the room dissolved around them in a puff of solar energy. A wave of humidity washed over them in an instant, practically drenching Hiral in sweat right away, while the familiar stench of the bog crawled up his nose.

“Never get used to that,” Yanily said, his hand going to his nose reflexively.

“This place doesn’t look any better in the light,” Vix added, and the pugilist had a point.

A low, muggy haze hung above the ground and wound its way between scraggly tree trunks, hiding the surface of the water and making it impossible to tell where it was safe to walk. Larger fog banks stood off to their left and right, obscuring everything more than a hundred feet away. And, though the sunlight shone from above, a massive briar patch stood shrouded in darkness directly ahead of them. The walls of it had to be fifty feet tall, and the mist and shadows mixing with the foliage almost seemed to have a life of their own, their wisps reaching out like they were tasting the area before dissolving in the light.

“Who votes we don’t go in there?” Wule asked, pointing his rod toward the briar.

“You kidding? There’s obviously a boss in there,” Yanily said. “And you know what bosses mean, right?”

“Means I have to heal you,” Wule said.

“Besides that,” Yanily said dismissively. “Loot and achievements!”

“I don’t see a way in,” Nivian said. “And I don’t think we want to try climbing that.”

Hiral activated Foundational Split while he looked around. Left and Right peeled off him, and he turned to them when they were fully formed. “You still have the food buffs?”

“We do,” Right said. “Though, personally, I would’ve added more salt.”

“I heard that,” Nivian said.

“You were supposed to,” Right responded.

“It looks like there are paths to either side of us,” Hiral said to avoid another food critique—am I that picky too? “Each one is leading into the fog, but we have options.”

“Or we could…” Yanily started.

“We’re not climbing it,” Seena said. “If we can find a way in around the sides, we’ll go in then.”

“Fine,” Yanily said. “Either way, the sooner we get to the dungeon interface, the sooner I can evolve to D-Rank, so let’s pick a direction and start the farming.”

“Hiral, can you see any differences between the routes?” Seena asked him.

“Honestly, I can barely tell they’re paths at all. So hard to make out with the fog, but the way the trees are spaced out… I’m pretty sure it’s a path.”

“You’re only saying that because you don’t have to go first,” Nivian said before looking at Seena. “Which way, boss?”

She turned her head in both directions, then finally seemed to settle on one, pointing to the right. “Let’s go that way. Hiral, you ready for your part in this?”

“Ready,” Hiral said, pushing energy into his Rune of Rejection and holding it there.

“Counting on you,” Nivian said.

He started in the direction Seena had pointed, while Wule hung back a few steps further than usual, Seena immediately behind him. Like Hiral, she was already gathering energy for her Spearing Roots, though she didn’t activate the ability. Then came Vix and Yanily, eyes peeled on both sides of the group for any sort of movement.

Left and Right stayed with Hiral to escort him. His concentration was entirely on Nivian’s surroundings.

They moved forward slowly, the water usually only up to their ankles, but often reaching up to their knees as they followed the apparent path between the trees. Every once in a while, Nivian would lash out with his whip to slap the still water. The splashes shattered the silence, and the infernal flames sizzled, but nothing else moved.

“Where are they?” Wule asked after they’d walked unmolested for almost five minutes, the fog thinning around them as they passed through the bank. “This dungeon can’t be empty, can it?”

“Better not be,” Yanily said. “I want the experience.”

“Just keep your eyes peeled,” Seena said softly, and the low-hanging mist off to her right shifted.

My imagination? No, there!

“Incoming!” Hiral shouted, thrusting out his arm and activating his Rune of Rejection at the same time a serpentine head erupted out of the fog.

The pre-charged pulse of Rejection shoved out like the palm of a giant hand. It pushed everything away from Hiral in a widening cone, creating a wave of water and fog that hit the lunging snake like a tsunami.

Shoved to the side, but too heavy to be carried away, the long body of the snake thumped to the ground, curved barbs digging through the soft ground, where it rolled once before righting itself. Its head shook in confusion, and then a thorned whip slapped into the side of its face, small purple flames dancing in the wound.

“Forget about me already?” Nivian shouted at the snake, catching it with another lash across its throat as it reared up and spread its jaws.

Though the ones they’d faced outside the dungeon had been almost forty feet long, this one was even bigger, easily approaching sixty feet, with fangs like curved swords and a maw that could swallow a man whole.

(Elite) Barbed Swamp Snake – High-E-Rank

“It’s Elite!” Hiral warned, though it didn’t change the fact they had to kill it.

“Wonderful news,” Nivian said, a pulse of solar energy making the twisting vines of the shield on his arm grow to the size of a tower shield.

Vix activated his blur ability and sprinted past Nivian, the misty effects of it making him half-vanish amidst the thin fog in the area, while Yanily went in the opposite direction. The plan was for Nivian to keep the snake’s attention—another lash across its face did just that—while Vix and Yanily prepared for an opening.

“It’s much bigger than we expected,” Hiral said to Left and Right, RHCs coming out in his hands at the same time. “They’re going to need your help. Go. I’ll support from back here and keep an eye out for more.”

“And what’ll you do if you find more?” Right asked.

“Improvise,” Hiral said. “Go on, it’s starting.”

The two doubles dashed forward—Right easily outpaced Left with his higher physical stats—at the same time the snake lunged forward. It hit Nivian’s shield like a battering ram, tearing apart the roots he’d wrapped around his feet and legs to drive him back in a splash of water. Somehow, the tank managed to stay on his feet, and he countered with a pair of lashing strikes as the snake retracted its head.

With fury practically sparkling in its eyes at the man in front of it, the snake reared up, tongue whipping side to side and its shadow spreading to encompass Nivian. Sitting there for a split second, it looked at him, like it wanted Nivian to know what was coming, and then it pounced down at him like a falling meteor. Scales and spines shot forward, practically whistling in the wind, and then Spearing Roots burst out of the ground in front of the tank, a spear-wall of purple-flaming spikes set to impale the charging snake.

Yes. Just like we planned!

Except the snake flexed its body, head jerking to the side then diving down to the surface of the water, before racing away and snapping around to charge behind the spikes from the side.

Not like we planned at all!

Seena couldn’t get another Spearing Roots out in time to block the lightning-fast snake, but Vix’s fists flashed out in a fury. Even from ten feet away, the flurry of blows thwacked along the snake’s body as it raced by, his ability to project the force of his punches making it so he didn’t have to worry about hitting the spikes. At the same time, Yanily dashed in at the serpent’s rear, his spear striking like it was made of rubber to tear through scales.

Between the two of them, they distracted the snake just enough for Nivian to leap to the side, though the snake still clipped his shield and sent him spinning into the water. And then it was past them all, whipping back around for another pass even as Left and Right got into range to join the fight.

We can do this. We just have to…

Movement off to Hiral’s right. The mist shifted like something was moving underneath—and heading right for a distracted Wule.

No time to warn him!

Hiral activated Eloquent and Enraged without hesitation, the double-helix pattern along his body flaring like the noonday sun, and the world practically slowed to a crawl as his Atnspiked. The movement of the water, the breeze on his skin, the way the scents carried through the air—he could feel each and every one, like all of his senses combined to become one super-sense.

And that sense told him a second snake swept just below the surface of the water.

Hiral’s hands tightened around his RHCs, and he launched himself forward, his modified Dex of 55 allowing his body to keep up with the sensory input flowing into his mind. In a heartbeat, he devoured the distance, feet barely touching the water as he ran across its surface, then pulled both triggers at the same instant the snake’s head burst free from the swamp.

Thuk thuk. The bolts of pure force slammed into the base of the serpent’s jaw, blowing off scales and flesh, and sent the creature careening to the side in pain and surprise. Maybe Wule noticed, maybe he moved, maybe he even said something, but Hiral ignored everything but the snake in front of him as he charged in.

Step, step, leap. Hiral kicked his legs up to cartwheel over the snake’s tail as it came whipping in from the side, pointing his RHCs straight down as if he hung frozen, upside-down. He fired both weapons, time snapping back to normal speed for his feet to slap back down to the water. With momentum pulling him onward, he dropped to his knees to skid across the surface of the water and kicked his left leg out, spinning him around while he slid backwards.

He shot off blast after blast at the snake; spines, scales, and chunks of flesh exploding with each hit.

Enrage and Eloquent must also be buffing the RHCs damage!

Finally, with the friction on the water slowing him, Hiral absorbed the last of the momentum by rolling over his shoulder backwards and getting his feet under him. No time to stand still. He dashed to the left, firing while the snake raised its front half into the air with blood leaking from its wounds.

Blast after blast smacked unerringly into the snake’s body, each and every shot a hit. The monster seemed to have had enough, bursting ahead with its jaws wide to intercept Hiral’s trajectory. Seeing, feeling, knowing it was coming, Hiral threw the RHC in his right hand into the air, and then leapt straight up, scissor-kicking his legs out to the sides.

The snake’s body roared by just inches below him, gravity already pulling him toward the spines rushing past, and he thrust his right hand down at the same time he ignited the power of his Rune of Rejection. Hiral shot up into the air, flipping as he went and swapping his RHC from his left hand to his right. Then, just as his upward movement came to a halt, upside-down once again, he threw out his left hand and activated his Rune of Attraction.

Slap. The second RHC hit his hand, and he took aim at the snake’s speeding back, then fired repeatedly. His bolts tore holes in the scaley flesh, while gravity dragged him back to the surface. His feet splashed into the water at the same time the snake’s head whipped around, and they launched themselves at each other once again.

The barbed spikes running the length of the snake’s body shifted, signaling the flexing of the muscles underneath, and suddenly, the great beast sprang forward like some kind of giant corkscrew. It twisted in the air, completely defying physics, around and around, filling the space in front of Hiral. He wouldn’t be jumping over this or leaping to the side in time; they were both moving too fast.

So, he did the only thing he could—he dove forward into the space left by the snake’s corkscrewing movement. Powerful jaws snapped shut like a trap just behind him, and only the perfect combination of his Dex and Atn let him find the small space he could fit through. Even then, the tips of the spikes tore painful gouges along the entire length of his body. But he wasn’t the only one taking damage from the exchange, as Hiral fired all the while.

In a second, maybe two, they were past each other, and Hiral hit the water to roll to his feet and spin while the snake crashed to the ground hard enough to throw up a huge wall of swamp muck.

He fired shot after shot into the water as it crashed back down, and not waiting for the snake to go back on the attack, he charged forward again. Out rolled a wave of water—Hiral vaulted it—and the snake struggled to rise just beyond, more shots tearing into its skin as it rose.

Then, already in close before the thing really knew where he was, Hiral swept in and around it, barrels at point-blank range as he pulled the triggers as quickly as he could. Chunk after chunk of the snake’s neck blew off with each blast, and the pain-addled thing made the mistake of trying to follow him as he strafed around it. By the time it realized it was just lining up his shots for him, it was already too late. White bone lay exposed, and blood gushed like a waterfall from its neck.

Rearing back, the snake spread its jaws, though they hung crooked from a broken hinge. Hiral held his ground, pouring power into a charged shot.

This is it!

The beast lunged forward, just like the other had against Nivian, and Hiral dove straight ahead, spinning in the air and aiming his weapons straight up. The wide mouth skimmed past, and as the grievous wound passed above him, he pulled both triggers, their shots exploding out like true cannons.

Without any muscle, scales, or spikes to protect it, the twinned blast punched through the spine like kindling, and then completely annihilated the flesh beyond. Torn in two, the snake’s head flipped end over end into the air, while its back half rose up to hang almost vertical before gravity pulled on it like a falling tree.

With no way to stop it, Hiral rolled to his feet to get out of the way, but then everything just… sort… of… slowed… down…

What… is… happening?

A yellow notification sprang up as the shadow of the serpent’s body fell.

Self-Buff: Enraged has ended.

All physical attributes reduced by 50% for 180 seconds.

Self-Buff: Eloquent has faded.

All mental attributes reduced by 50% for 180 seconds.

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