“Tricks!” she cried.
Isra smirked, a playful, impish expression that was gone almost as soon as Alfric noticed it.
“We’ll be opening this door soon,” said Alfric. “When we do, there’s a good chance that something will come out. If it does, then I’ll cut it with my sword and try to draw it back so that Isra and Mizuki can get clear shots at it. If nothing comes out, we’ll be moving in slowly and cautiously, and I’ll be trying to bait out whatever lies beyond. Mizuki, you blast it the moment I’m free, but don’t be afraid to catch me as collateral damage if it comes to that. That’s what we have Hannah for.”
“I’ve got limits,” said Hannah. “Lots of limits, actually. Should have gone into it more on the way over, I s’pose.”
“Faster, please,” said Verity, who was still holding the song in her head.
Alfric nodded and pulled the door open with his off-hand, temporarily letting go of his shield’s handle.
The beast burst out almost at once, thrusting across the threshold and lunging straight for Alfric’s face. It was large, as thick around as a barrel, and long, like a snake, though it had a hundred small legs ending in cat’s claws and two enormous pincers on its front, which it was trying to close around Alfric’s skull. It was the same creamy color of a pale person’s flesh, with freckles no less, and when Alfric ducked beneath the pincers and stabbed it, its blood was very human too.
He backed up as he fought it, getting a grip on his shield and angling it more effectively. The rest of the party was behind him, and he whipped his head back toward them just once, to make sure that they were safe, as he’d said they would be. The beast opened its pincers wide and lunged at him once more, its sinuous body weaving back and forth to provide the propulsion. It got his shield and bore down on it, denting the metal, but while it was occupied with that, Alfric was thrusting his sword into its underbelly, which was exposed because of how it was lifting its forward section, and there wasn’t terribly much resistance. He quickly made a bloody mess.
There was a sudden and deafening blast, followed by an intense wave of heat, and the beast lurched to the side, losing its grip on the shield. Alfric moved forward and began stabbing it more, this time aiming for the head, but it wasn’t clear how much this was actually necessary, because the blast had torn out a sizable chunk of its midsection.
It took some time for the thing to finally die, and by the end of it, Alfric’s sword-arm was wet up to the elbow with its blood. He was breathing hard from exertion and took a moment to cool down. He looked down the hallway, tensed, then finally lowered his sword.
“Everyone okay?” he asked.
“What even is that?” asked Mizuki, looking down at the beast. Her hands were shaking.
“It’s a monster,” said Isra. She was outwardly calm, but she had a stillness to her that made her hard to read.
“You said we would be safe!” said Mizuki. “It could have killed us!”
“It didn’t,” said Alfric. “I didn’t even get hurt.”
“In what way was that like three raccoons!” shouted Mizuki.
“Your forehead is bleeding,” said Hannah. Alfric touched his scalp just below his hairline and looked at his fingers, which had come away bloody. “Here.” She approached him and laid two fingers on his temple, then muttered some words under her breath. The wound sizzled slightly, and the slight stinging pain evaporated completely.
“It probably looked worse than it was,” said Alfric, feeling sheepish. “Head wounds tend to bleed a lot.” He adjusted his helm, which had done less to protect him than he’d hoped it would. It was open in the face, the better to see, but that did mean that he had less protection. One of the pincers must have grazed him.
“We are not safe,” said Mizuki. “That wasn’t three raccoons.” Verity was still focusing on her song, but it was clear she agreed. For her part, Mizuki looked like she was in shock, but Verity had maintained her composure.
“Good job killing it though,” said Alfric, nodding at the hole in the monster. “My ears are still ringing.”
“I’ve never killed anything,” Mizuki said, staring down at the monster. “What if there had been two of them?” she asked. “This is nuts.”
“And lo they traveled the twisting ways,” sang Verity. “The monsters died to the righteous blaze, the songstress sang her burdensome song and lamented that talking should take so long.” She kept strumming her lute after that, keeping the song going, and humming as she did so.
“Are you seriously talking to us in rhyme?” asked Mizuki.
“She’s right, we should keep going,” said Alfric.
“Sorry, I didn’t have a shot,” said Isra, bowing her head slightly.
“It’s fine,” said Alfric. “I’m not sure how much arrows would have done against that. Archery is typically better against smaller things, so long as your aim is good.”
Isra nodded and said nothing more. The one Alfric was worried about was Mizuki, who seemed the most skittish about combat but was also the most necessary for being able to put down a bigger monster, maybe even more than him. Her powers were situational and limited, reliable for no more than one good spell a room, but that one spell was likely to be pretty powerful.
The monster had been worse than he’d been hoping for, though not outside expected variance, and Mizuki did have a point, which was that it was considerably more difficult to fight than three bloodlusted raccoons. That was why you came in with armor though, and a party of five, rather than trying to do everything yourself. The monster had been on the higher end of what might be found in a dungeon of second elevation. It was unfortunate that he wouldn’t be able to say the dungeon had been a breeze.
Alfric took a cloth from his pack, which was on the ground, and wiped his hand and grip clean of blood, so that his sword wouldn’t slip. He checked his shield over, grimacing at the dent that would have to be hammered out or possibly fixed by Hannah, then began dragging the corpse of the thing out of the way. Without a word, Isra moved to help, and between the two of them, they quickly got the hallway clear.
There was something grim about it, certainly, something disgusting and unpleasant. Alfric could acknowledge that. That he had won without too much damage to himself, that the team hadn’t fallen apart during the first frantic moment of battle, was heartening. The work itself, the killing of monsters, was something he’d done his best to adapt his mind to, and it was clear now that there was still quite a long way to go until he had his mother’s or father’s iron stomach.
When he finished, he saw Hannah speaking to Mizuki in a soft voice, with a hand on her shoulder, and as Hannah went on, some of the nerves seemed to leave the sorcerer.
Somehow, like a miracle, no one called it quits.
His light shone on two doors, one to the left and one to the right, and the base of some stairs that led up to the next level at the end of the corridor. The door on the left was open, while the one on the right was closed. Alfric glanced back at the party, checking that they were safe and following him, then moved forward to the open door. He didn’t like putting his back against the closed door, but there was no helping it. The open door led into a room filled with books, both stacked along a wall of shelves and in piles around the room, on top of the table, and on the chairs. Most of them were bound in leather, with a wide variety of different colors and sizes, some of them larger than others. Alfric glanced up at the ceiling, then down at the floor. He crouched so that he could see under the table. Still, he saw no monsters. This might have been where the hairless centipede creature had been living, but there were no signs of it.