Chapter 9: Down in the Dungeon Pt. 4
The electric watermelon was launched towards the heroes and as they ran away, the spell hit a stalagmite and exploded in a blue fury of electricity throughout the area. Alice was almost hit by an arc and Zoe rolled out of the way of another. Rose hid behind a rock, but it was blasted to pieces by some of the electricity. Markus blocked an arc with his buckler and Derek used his battle-axe to stop one of the larger arcs. Ian was the most unfortunate as he was hit in the ankle and fell face first next to a skeleton with a sword and shield. The skeleton looked down at him and tried to squash him with the shield. Ian quickly rolled out of the way and stood up.
'Man, that was close, that would have hurt a lot.'
Ian took a step forward, but flinched in pain as his left ankle, which had been hit by the arc of electricity, had gotten a little singed. It was difficult to walk on, so he kept his foot back and held his stick out in preparation for any incoming attack. The skeleton that tried to flatten Ian with its shield was the first to approach him. It swung its sword right at Ian's head, but was blocked by Ian. The situation became more complicated when Ian was surrounded by two more skeleton warriors and three skeleton bowmen.
Markus was barely able to see Ian from his position and went to help him, but he was cut off by six skeleton warriors and a bowman. He looked at his surroundings and saw that the others were surrounded as well. Zoe was surrounded by ten warriors and Markus by ten bowmen. Alice and Rose were surrounded by mostly warriors and a few bowmen. Ian was still trapped, and the mage was getting closer to him.
Markus was worried because everyone was occupied with their own problems and there didn't seem to be a way out of this situation. The mage charged up another spell and let it fly at Ian. It was a small sphere about the size of a golf ball, but once it was a couple of feet from Ian, it exploded and the green liquid that made it up went everywhere. The liquid splashed a little on Ian and some of it got on the skeletons, but it started to dissolve the ground of the cavern and parts of the armor of both Ian and the warriors. Ian was forced to remove his bracer and throw it away as the liquid was eating through faster the more time passed.
"Watch out for the green liquid, if I had to guess I'd say its acid. Don't let it touch your skin."
The others were nowhere near the mage, but Ian sharing this information could be invaluable in case the mage turns its attention towards them. One of the warriors ran up behind Ian and slashed at him with its sword. There was a mark on his armor, but nothing too bad. The other warriors that surrounded Ian all began to move in at an alarmingly quick pace. They all began to slash at him with their swords and were doing minimal damage individually, but together the damage was stacking up quickly. Ian couldn't block every attack and began to lose out against each individual skeleton. The final nail in the coffin was when the bowman shot an arrow through Ian's left Achilles tendon and crippled him indefinitely.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Derek heard Ian's cries and activated both of his skills: Intimidate and Rage. The activation of the Intimidate skill began to take effect immediately as the skeletons that surrounded Derek all began to back away and turn tail. Derek rushed over to Rose and Alice and began taking out the skeletons and because of the distance between the girls, some of the skeletons that surrounded Zoe were running off. Zoe started to attack the other skeletons and once she finished off the skeletons around her, she helped Derek finish off the remaining skeletons around Alice and Rose.
The small group of heroes rushed over to help Markus.
"Alice and Derek, provide cover. Zoe, you protect Rose while she heals Ian."
Derek and Alice cleared out the bowmen while Zoe protected Rose from the warriors. Markus kept his focus on the mage while Rose was able to provide healing to Ian. The mage began to chant again, and the staff began to glow with dark purple light. The skeleton mage hit its staff against the ground and the area got colder. The heroes felt something creep into their minds and their vision became a little cloudy.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
A loud scream rang through the cave as Zoe had cried out in utter horror. Rose was completely frozen in fear as it appeared that Ian had been completely eviscerated with his intestines hanging out and surrounded in a puddle of blood. Zoe's scream had drawn Derek's attention so, when he looked over, he lost control of his stomach and hurled everything he had eaten that day.
Ian looked around him and only saw black, twisted beings with mouths full of horribly, crooked and rotted teeth. The mage continued chanting the spell and kept its focus on the group. Alice was struck with terror, but then a sound rang in her head.
*Ding*
She looked at her status and saw a new skill: 'Fear Resistance (magical)'. Alice had forgotten her training when Gyrax had used the spell against her several times, the powerful mind spell Fear. Once she became free from the spell's effects, she launched a fire bolt at the mage. The fire bolt hit the mage in the shoulder which didn't harm it too much, but it did break its concentration. The effects of the spell began to wear off and the others started to regain their senses. Markus, Zoe and Derek turned their attention towards the mage while Rose continued healing Ian.
"Ian, how are you feeling?"
"Like shit, but I'll manage. We need to take out this mage now!"
The group all took their weapons and surrounded the mage who they started just wailing on. The mage couldn't handle all the melee attacks, so it broke down into a heap of bones.
"Let's take care of the skeletons, then we'll camp here for the night. It's been a long day and we could all use a rest."
The group all set out to hunt down the rest of the skeletons in the nearby caverns. There was a total of about 100 skeletons left as they had either run away from Derek and the group earlier or were off on their own.
Rose
Level: 1 Exp: 680/1000
Ian
Level: 1 Exp: 540/1000
Derek
Level: 1 Exp: 720/1000
Markus
Level: 1 Exp: 640/1000
Zoe
Level: 1 Exp: 660/1000
Alice
Level: 1 Exp: 500/1000
The skeletons were separated into 15 exp for the bowmen and 10 for the warriors. Rose defeated a decent number of both. Alice and Ian had the least because they were either ineffective against some enemies or incapacitated. Derek landed the finishing blow on the mage, which turned out to be a variant, and gained quite a lot of experience. Markus and Zoe had killed the most skeletons and were put that much closer to the next level.
Once the group had gathered up the weapons and gear, they set up a camp and began working on supper. The group had gotten somewhat accustomed to their new life, but things weren't all sunshine and fucking rainbows. Ian had been the closest to death and there had been a lot of cases where the group had been spread out away from each other.
"This is having been the hardest experience of my entire life. I don't think I've ever done something so difficult before. We should have tried harder to get back to our world."
Rose looked at Ian, who was clearly not himself anymore, and tried to comfort him.
"It's ok, I'm sure they are doing everything in their power to find us."
Back at the palace...
Gyrax had looked through hundreds of books and still had found nothing pertaining to what Ian's class might be. His only lead was the torn-out page from the book he had found about the past heroes. He could only hope that the heroes might be so fortunate to find the missing page on their travels.
The princess had also been thinking about Ian. He had proved that even without his class, if he had his friends beside him, he was able to overcome anything. She had been praying to the gods that Ian would be able to discover his class soon and be able to protect himself better.
Deep in the forest...
A Valkyrie with white wings that had been heavily damaged and stained with blood was sprinting through the forest. There were several various types of wild beasts chasing after her, but the sound of something cutting through the air broke through the sound of wild beasts. The arrow penetrated one of the smaller beast's left eye and it fell to the ground. The figure who shot the bow led the Valkyrie to a village. The cover of darkness and magic protected the village and the beasts were no longer able to chase them.
Night set on the world and while most things were asleep, there was something stirring, and it was ready to move.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Deltora
Deltora The group has been able to avoid death so far, but will they be able to keep it up?
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