The woman on the bed below him didn’t react when he whispered her name. He doubted his own eyes for a moment but then he felt his soul reaching out like it had the first time they met. This must be her!
However, his soul received no more response than his voice. It seemed like she was in some kind of catatonic state, probably a reaction to what she had been going through. Putting all other thoughts aside for the moment, Alan unlocked the manacles holding her to the bed and flung them off.
The other girl rushed over and started shaking her in an effort to get her responsive again. Alan was having a hard time watching what was going on, as his internal conscience told him to look away due to the ladies' compromised clothing. A thought occurred to him, and he sent his awareness into his newfound storage device.
This time he paid more attention to the contents. There was a small collection of weapons, a mound of fancy food, an impressive pile of money, and a healthy sized wardrobe. Alan selected two robes and pulled them out before tossing them on the bed.
“Here, put these on. I’ll wait in the other room, but you must hurry. We could be spotted at any time.”
Alan stepped into the entry room again and hurried over to the outside door. Not only did he want to give them privacy, but he couldn’t take the feeling of his soul reaching out and falling on its face over and over. A little physical separation would be good.
Slowly he leaned his head out to check on things outside. The kobolds across the street were still not paying them any attention, and no others seemed to be wandering around the area. It appeared they were still ok for the moment.
While Alan didn’t mind their seemingly good luck, it did make him curious. Since coming over the wall it had been more than ten minutes. In that entire time he hadn’t seen anyone walk by this area of the town.
Based on his observations of other sections of the settlement, and based on the activity outside the walls and in the tunnels, there should have been a lot more traffic. Was this some kind of dungeon fudging going on to make this mission possible? If so, he appreciated the help, because this whole thing would get much harder once they were spotted.
The two women eventually made their way out of the back room. The robes were meant for a much taller individual and they had somehow managed to tie the bottoms up so that they weren’t dragging on the ground. The new girl had a much easier time since she was about the same height as Alan, but the shorter Cassidy’s robes looked kind of silly. It was a strange thought in the moment, but his mind was clearly trying to distract him from their trauma. Putting that aside, it was time to get going.
“Thank you for hurrying. I hate to ask anymore of you, but if you bear with me, we can hopefully get out of here and back to the mining camp. We are going to have to run back to the prisoner area. I have a friend there and we can get over the wall and back into the tunnels. What’s your name by the way?” He already knew Cassidy’s name, but it would be good to have a name for the other one. Also, it might help reassure them, since he probably wouldn’t ask for their name if he was just going to kill them.
The taller girl was the one to answer. “My name is Parina and this is Cassidy. I’m not sure how fast we’ll be able to go, but we’ll do our best.”
Alan knew what she was talking about. He had noticed as they came out that Parina was supporting and almost pushing Cassidy along. While she was up and moving, it was almost like she was sleep walking. Her mind had clearly not recovered yet. He almost offered to help, but was worried how they would react to his close proximity. This kind of trauma wasn’t one Alan focused on as a doctor, but it had occasionally come up and he knew that triggers were varied and reactions were often violent.
“Ok, on my signal, you ladies go first. I’ll wait a little bit before following. Head over behind the prisoner cages and you’ll see the ladders. Don’t try and climb them yet, just run over to them,” Alan explained.
Giving the signal, Parina gave Cassidy a push and they started moving. Exiting the relatively dim house and entering the red tinted town seemed to wake her up some. Cassidy started moving faster, and while it wasn’t running, it was still getting them out of sight quicker than before. Alan waited till they were halfway and made another check of the still empty streets before dashing after them.
Because of his higher speed, he managed to pass them and arrive at the ladder just before they did. Thadrick and his friend Bodvar were still there, but the rest of the prisoners were gone. Parina seemed to recognize Bodvar and gave a sigh of relief. She must have still been harboring lingering doubts about Alan’s motives. Did he really seem that creepy? Changing his facial expression, he tried to exude an aura of helpfulness instead.
Thadrick gave them a quick update. “The last of the prisoner’s are out and should be waiting in the tunnel by now. We are good to make our own escape in about thirty seconds. Is everyone ready?”
They all nodded, except Cassidy who continued to stare into space, and then got ready. Alan took a short sword out of his new storage and passed it over to Bodvar. Most of the weapons they had collected previously went to the gnomes, who were hopefully already on their way home. Of the prisoners who were taken from the mining camp, only a few of that first group over the wall had weapons. The dead elf’s collection would help outfit the more capable fighters of the group when they met up.
All too soon it was time and Alan was the first one over the wall. He held position halfway to the tunnel exit and let the rest of the group catch up. Thadrick left the ladders behind, not bothering to take the time to store them. It wouldn’t matter if they were found since the missing cages would have already alerted the kobolds by then.
Once they were in the tunnel they found the others waiting for them. In total there were thirty-eight in their party. After a quick discussion, Alan passed out the various weapons to those who were chosen as the best fighters and in the best condition. While all would be expected to carry their own weight, almost half of them were barely holding on. Poor nutrition and ill treatment had left their mark. Because the dungeon moved at a different speed than his normal reality, he was unsure how long they had been in captivity.
Once more the dead drow would help them out. Reaching into his storage again, he passed out all the food inside. Alan cautioned them to eat slowly, and to stop eating before they felt full. They shouldn’t have been without food long enough to truly disrupt their system, but he didn’t want anyone’s excess to make them end up sicker. He also passed out more of the elf’s wardrobe to the non-dwarves in the group. Unfortunately they were too big for the short statured dwarves.
As he moved through the group he did his best to seem confident and helpful. Anything he could do to sooth the newly freed prisoners would not only make their escape easier, but it would hopefully help them heal from the awful experience.
His necklace was noticeably less full after his donations to the cause. Other than the money there was only a couple of outfits and a few scraps of food. There were a few other items scattered around but he didn’t immediately recognize most of them so they were ignored for now. Having miraculously pulled off the first part of the plan, it was now time for the much trickier portion, getting home.
Thadrick led the way with Bodvar at his side. The entire group set out as one, and began the long trek back to their camp. Hopefully they would get a large enough head start that they would be able to connect with the following force that Kespar had sent, before the kobolds found them. Alan didn’t think it was all that likely to work out that way, unless the dungeon really was looking out for them.
Originally, Alan’s job was to follow and minimize the signs of their passage. And he tried, but this many people just left too many tracks to do anything about. Instead, he switched to helping a few of the more injured to keep up. He occasionally threw in a healing spell which seemed to deal with more than just physical injuries. Exhaustion and weakness fled before the cooling energy. He never let his mana pool drop below half in case the kobolds found them, but he was able to help the worst cases. By the time the enemy did catch up, no one needed a splint anymore and they were all able to move at a steady hike.
In their planning they thought that the group of fighters from the mining camp should be about two hours away when they made their escape. The idea was to meet them halfway leaving them exposed for only an hour or so. It turned out that their guesses were surprisingly accurate, but unfortunately the kobolds caught up to them after only forty-five minutes.
With Thadrick and his miner friend at the front of the line, and the enemy town to their rear, most of the other fighters had been positioned towards the back. There were some armed members scattered throughout, in case there was an attack while passing an intersection, but this left only eight other combatants to help Alan when their luck ran out.
The first assault was a group of perhaps twenty kobolds that came around a bend in the tunnel and charged the prisoners. Many had nets and prepared to throw them when they got close enough. This was good news since it meant they were looking to take prisoners and might hold back in their attacks, whereas the defenders had no such restrictions. He would take any advantage they could get.
Alan burned a good chunk of his mana when they got close enough to release their nets, casting four prismatic orbs. The kobolds in the front were dazzled and unable to properly aim their throws. The cave was currently wide enough for two or three people to stand shoulder to shoulder, and in the chaos, three of the nets were wasted and one ended up trapping another kobold. As it fell to the ground another tripped over it before the rest trampled them in their haste to get at the group. None of the other nets had the distance to reach the defenders, especially when a magical gust of wind suddenly blew back toward the kobolds. Alan’s mana pool was already under half and the fight had just started. He didn’t begrudge the expenditure if it would keep these poor people safe.
A heavily muscled dwarf named Kunok was beside him as the dragonkin swarmed them. The next several minutes were a dizzying display of flashing blades, sprays of blood, and occasional bolts of fire punctuated by shouts and screams.
Alan maintained his position for most of the fight. With allies behind him, ready to step up, he wasn’t holding back to preserve his stamina. However, his reserves held out long enough that he only had to allow another to fight in his place when most of the kobolds had been killed already. Kunok took a blade to the gut early on, and was replaced by another who also took a nasty slash on his arm, and was replaced in turn. Fortunately those were the only two who suffered injury in that first attack.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Using one of the spare bandages with healing herbs on it, he wrapped the injured arm, but Alan was forced to use a healing spell on Kunok. It meant another hit to his slowly recovering mana pool, but he didn’t care. He would get these people home, and not just because of some quest, but because it was who he was. The Green Berets didn’t take just anyone. They had a moment to recover after cutting down the last kobold, but he was soon to need everything he had because that was only the first of many assaults.
In the next twenty minutes, before they found reinforcements, they faced two more attacks. The second had been of a similar size to the first, but the third had upwards of forty kobolds. Some of these actually had armor and other weapons. A pair in the front had small buckler style shields and several of the others used small bows.
Those were a nasty surprise for the beleaguered prisoners, and the two dwarves currently guarding their rear both went down with several arrows in them. Alan and a beastkin prisoner, some kind of cow or bison person, stepped over their fallen companions and held off the charge. While mostly playing defense with the kobolds in close quarters, Alan was sending out fire bolts to take out the ranged attackers, and did his best to ignore the groans of the injured fighters behind him.
He had long ago passed off his supply of bandages to a few of the non-combatants who were currently doing what they could to treat the pincushioned warriors. Luckily the inferior bows the kobolds were using didn’t penetrate much, and the injuries were mostly flesh wounds.
Alan managed to last two minutes before he had to switch out. In that time he had managed to hit all of the bow wielders. As a bonus the flames had also set their bows on fire so no other kobolds could pick them up.
The other fighters he had here at the back were not able to hold on as long as he could, so he was back to fighting after only another two minutes. When he started to fatigue after that there was no one ready to relieve him. With lower stamina pools also came slower regeneration. Alan could feel something building inside of him, his anger at the situation and his need for everyone to be safe were mixing together and he felt something shift. He didn’t have time to think about emotions, there were people to protect and enemies to eliminate.
In those first five minutes of fighting they had killed about half of the attackers. That left twenty kobolds to Alan and an exhausted Kunok, who was back in the fighting thanks to Alan’s healing. Kobolds were not the strongest creatures but they had some martial talent. In the past he had been able to handle groups of four to eight without too much trouble. However, Alan was usually working with full mana and stamina pools. Already, his mana was below fifty and his stamina was under half. There were also a lot more than eight and his partner in the fight was about to have a stamina crash. Alan was honestly surprised Kunok had held on this long.
He told himself, this is the moment when heroes rise and cowards falter. To get a little breathing room he used his cone of steam for the first time in combat. He angled it across the front line of the little monsters and around ten of them were hit with the spray. It didn’t deal much damage, as expected, but it was apparently very painful and they fell back a few meters. Alan gestured for Kunok to move backwards and then stepped forward to move into the enemy. He would not let them be overrun now. Not after how far they had come.
If this had been his first day in the tutorial he would have fallen almost immediately. There were too many threats around him, and knives, while a weapon he had trained with throughout his time in the Army, were not his specialty. Give him an M4 or even a SCAR and he would make short work of these little dragons. Thankfully, though, this wasn’t his first day. All those fights against the tiny goats, squirrels, and others had given him comfort with his weapons. Also his growing stats gave him increased perception and an ability to almost sense attacks coming from every angle.
Reversing the grip on his seax, he laid the flat edge of the blade against the bracer on his forearm and used it to block incoming attacks while occasionally pushing out to slash an incautious attacker. The pugio, while occasionally knocking aside a thrust, was used to punch out and stab at every opportunity. It was a reversal for him to lead with what used to be his off hand, but all of his two handed fighting had led to that distinction being less meaningful. He also was trying to use shorter, more controlled motions, because it would be too easy to leave him exposed otherwise.
Rather than staying still and letting them come to him, he moved into the enemy. After an indeterminate time, he was momentarily disoriented when he arrived at the back of the pack and found empty tunnel ahead of him. He was almost angry that there were no more foes.
Spinning around, he moved into them once again, oblivious to the numerous cuts on his arms and body. The health indicator was showing yellow all over, but he paid it no mind. Instead of the blood loss slowing him, he found his strikes speeding up. If he was angry before, he was furious now that he had enemies to strike again. He was spinning and pivoting, thrusting and slicing, faster and faster. His stamina should have run out by now, but instead it was holding steady. Halfway back to his group, he had already killed almost half of the kobolds who once stood against him. That proved to be his undoing.
While focusing on the attackers all around him, Alan wasn’t paying as much attention to his footwork. His perception wasn’t high enough to see everything. He slipped in a pile of guts and his foot got caught under a body. While unbalanced, he blocked a particularly forceful blow with his seax and it caused him to trip. He went down on all fours and felt a blade stab into the side of his back. It luckily missed his major organs but his chest went red and he screamed in agony.
He brought his head up just enough to see another kobold rear back to deliver a fatal blow. Knowing he was about to die, Alan still refused to back down. He felt something explode from his aura and he started to pour his mana into an overpowered fire bolt, but suddenly the kobold dropped his sword. No, it didn’t drop it, the whole arm had somehow been separated from its shoulder. Blood was spraying up into the ceiling.
A swarm of dwarves was suddenly there hacking into the dragonkin with swords and axes, or crushing skulls with large hammers. Alan brought the mana for the firebolt back into his pool, and instead repurposed it for a healing spell. All of the energy was directed into his chest and it turned a reassuring yellow instead of the flashing red of critical damage.
Strong, rough hands gripped him under his arms and lifted him to his feet. The swarm of dwarves ended up being only ten, but it was plenty to finish off this latest attack. The reinforcements from Kespar had arrived. There were only twenty-five fighters in total, but all of them had at least one class and were armed and armored. If they had been there for this attack from the start, Alan would have never had to go on his berserker rush.
Five of them were placed at the front and ten more were scattered throughout. The remaining ten took up the resistance for the back of their march and let the others rest. The mood of the former prisoners had improved immensely. When Alan was helped back into the column, he saw backs straighten and a fire burn in the former captives’ eyes.
They originally had all been excited when being freed, but there had been a slight lowering of their spirits when they realized the long, lonely march that was ahead of them. Without knowing for certain that they would meet reinforcements, Alan and Thadrick hadn’t told anyone about the possibility, so as not to get their hopes up. When they did show up, the former prisoners seemed to feel like there was now a real chance for all of them to make it home. Sadly that feeling of invincibility didn’t survive all the way to camp, and neither did all of the prisoners.
For the next two hours the rearguard had all of the work. Every fifteen or twenty minutes another attack would come. Most of the time now it was forty or fifty kobolds, but one assault of over sixty had led to their first casualty.
Alan had already had two turns at the front line for that assault, and was taking a breather behind the current defenders when the fight turned. There had been some cuts and bruises throughout their retreat, but two of the newcomers were healers and they allowed Alan to save his mana for more offensive purposes. While restoring his stamina, he was also using his mana pool to send fire bolts into the mass of kobolds, often taking out two at a time.
These larger groups always included some ranged attackers, but Alan was constantly on the lookout for those. He would pick them off using his firebolt before they could release more than a shot or two. The armor of the reinforcements was easily able to deal with a few underpowered arrows, so they hadn’t faced a serious challenge yet. This latest group had a surprise for them, though. Hiding in the crowd was something new, a kobold priest.
He was dressed similarly to the others, but after the fight they searched his body and found a necklace with a dragon figurine around his neck. It must have been some kind of holy symbol. Their first hint that there was a new danger was when the red light in the tunnel suddenly dimmed.
The escapees had long left the sections of the tunnel that were constantly lit, but they had brought a plethora of the red crystals with them when they ran. Most of the former prisoners were dwarves and didn’t really need it, but there were humans and a few other races mixed in that needed the light.
Even the darkvision of the dwarves didn’t pierce this new shadow that descended when the priest made his move. It wasn’t true darkness, more like what you would experience during a solar eclipse. But as quickly as it came, it then condensed into a ball and passed into one of the dwarves currently fighting. He clutched his chest in agony, but he must have been tough, because he didn’t collapse. Well, not until one of the kobolds he was facing took advantage of his momentary weakness and put a sword through his neck.
He was the first to fall, but not the last. The next few hours were spent in constant battle. Alan’s section in the rear was continuously under assault, and the only rest they got now was while one of their brothers was holding the line in their place. Originally the reinforcements had tried to keep any of the captives from joining the fight now that they were here. However, as the fighting dragged on, they were forced to let others join in. Some of the fighters in the front had even been rotated with those in the back but they were all weary from the constant fighting.
They also couldn’t move everyone to the rear, since they had been attacked at intersections twice already. Thankfully those attacks came after they had already started to pass by, and as yet the kobolds had not managed to get in front of them. If they did it would most likely mean their march had come to an end, stuck between two seemingly endless forces while they were ground down and overrun.
At some point Alan had picked up a buckler from one of the fallen kobolds. He was a more deadly fighter using his two long knives, but it was a real stamina drain. Using the buckler to defend while only attacking with the one hand allowed him to stay on the battlefront twice as long as before. Switching to his new gladius also gave him more reach.
Not as many kobolds fell as when he had two blades out, but that didn’t seem to matter anymore. Every one they killed was replaced by another appearing at the end of the tunnel. At this point it was simply a matter of keeping the group moving while preventing the attackers from breaking through to the former captives in the middle. At this rate they would be fighting every step they took until they were back behind the walls of their camp.
If he had known how bad it was going to get, he would have changed into his dirty dungeon clothes. As it was, his formerly clean outfit was now covered in gore. Other than the many slices in them, the tunic and pants were at least still structurally sound.
It had been around seven hours since the prisoners had first started their slog home through the tunnels when the fight took a drastic turn. The kobolds briefly pulled back, leaving perhaps ten meters between the two groups. At the same time a pair of taller figures could be seen making their way through them from the back.
As they neared the front Alan could tell they were dark elves like the one he had killed in the stone house. Unlike the first one, these weren’t naked. They had black leather armor covering their torsos, with similar black leather bracers and shin guards. They also were carrying shining longswords. They weren’t shiny, they were literally glowing with an inner light. It wasn’t the same kind of light that his mana infused weapons gave off, but there was definitely some kind of enchantment on those blades.
When they were first spotted, Alan was a couple of rows from the fighting, taking a breather. Suddenly the entire group's forward progress was halted. Behind them the dark elves had taken their place at the front of the kobolds. Word came down from those leading the prisoners’ group. Thadrick had spotted the abandoned village they had passed by earlier, but then the entrance to it was filled with a horde of kobolds led by two more of the drow. They were trapped!
