The warren grew larger, more complex. Different-sized burrows dotted the walls, kobold sleeping nests or storage alcoves. Some contained piles of refuse. Others held baskets of mushrooms, dried roots, or shaped stones.

  Brett leaned in to inspect one. "They farm inside the dungeon? Interesting."

  "Kobolds are far more organised than goblins," Carcan agreed. "This is a proper community, not a chaotic infestation."

  Perberos tapped a wall. "They’ve reinforced this section. Recently. Fresh tool marks."

  "Meaning more traffic?" Josh asked.

  "Meaning they’re wary. Possibly expecting adventurers." Perberos glanced back. "Be ready."

  Bhel raised his axe again, eager. "Aren’t we always?"

  The next chamber lay ahead, its entrance framed by stone teeth, stalagmites and stalactites shaped by chisels for an intimidating effect.

  Josh swallowed. "So this is the real start…"

  Perberos nodded once. "Welcome to Floor One."

  They stepped inside as distant footsteps scurried away through the dark, the first warning that the kobolds were gathering their strength.

  The tunnels of the first floor stretched ahead of them in a jagged network of rough?hewn passageways, each one smelling faintly of soil, stale breath, and the faint sulphur tang of kobold lantern fungus. As the party pushed deeper, Brett used his light spell, the new advanced version flaring, casting light further than it had previously.

  Their advances in levels had helped them no longer feel like they were in danger all the time, they were stronger, more confident than the novices who had cleared their first dungeon only weeks ago. Yet this place scratched at the edges of their nerves with a steady persistence, as if the Warren itself watched them navigate its domain.

  “Stay sharp,” Perberos murmured, crouched low as he moved. “Kobolds aren’t strong, but they’re sly little wretches. They’ll let you think you’re safe, then gut you when you blink.”

  “Comforting,” Brett muttered.

  Carcan gave him a soft smile. “Think of it as… motivation.”

  “Some people prefer positive thinking, you know,” Brett said. “You lot prefer fear.”

  Josh chuckled. “Fear keeps you alive.”

  “Beer keeps me alive,” Bhel corrected. “Fear is optional.”

  The passage narrowed until it felt less like a tunnel and more like a throat, the stone walls closing in until Bhel had to angle his axes to keep them from scraping constantly. Even so, steel grated against rock with a teeth-jarring rasp that echoed ahead of them. Josh led the way, shield raised high, breath slow and measured, every nerve screaming that they were being watched.

  A faint skitter reached his ears. Stone shifting. Pebbles tumbling where no one walked.

  Perberos’s voice cut through the tension in a sharp whisper. “Incoming!”

  The walls erupted.

  Crude spears punched out from narrow slits carved between stones, thrusting rather than thrown. Josh reacted on instinct, slamming his shield forward just as the first volley struck. Wood splintered. Iron rang. One spearhead skidded off the rim and screeched along the metal, sending sparks snapping into the dark.

  Bhel barked a laugh and brought his forearm up, knocking a spear aside with brute force. Brett ducked low as another shaft hissed past him, scoring a cut across his side.

  Then the kobolds came.

  Stone panels were yanked aside. Low crawlspaces vomited movement. From ceiling cracks and knee-high burrows, kobolds poured out in a shrieking tide, scrambling on all fours before surging upright. Their eyes burned amber in the fungus-light, pupils blown wide. Scales were mottled and greasy, patched with scars and soot. Their weapons were scavenged nightmares, bent spearheads lashed to sticks, jagged knives hacked from scrap, bone blades still yellowed with old marrow.

  Josh met them head-on.

  He slammed his shield into the first kobold with enough force to snap its snout sideways. Bone cracked wetly. The creature hit the wall and slid down, twitching. Josh followed through, blade flashing as he turned aside a rusted cleaver aimed for his ribs. Steel rang, the impact numbing his arm.

  Perberos was already firing.

  His arrows hissed through the tight space, striking throats, eye sockets, the soft gaps beneath arms. Each hit dropped a kobold mid-stride, bodies tangling underfoot as more clambered over them.

  Behind Josh, Carcan planted her staff and began to chant, voice calm and steady despite the chaos. Golden light flickered around them in brief pulses, sealing shallow cuts even as blood sprayed the stone.

  Bhel lost himself in it.

  The dwarf roared and surged forward, axes swinging in brutal, circular arcs that filled the tunnel with the sound of meat and bone being split apart. One kobold leapt from a wall niche, claws reaching for his face. Bhel caught it mid-air by the throat and smashed it bodily into the stone. The impact left a dark smear and a boneless slump that slid to the floor.

  Brett’s magic flared hot and sudden.

  A spark bloomed in his palm, swelling into a roaring orb of fire the size of a melon. He hurled it down the corridor. It detonated among the densest knot of kobolds, filling the tunnel with a blast of heat and screaming. Scales blistered. Cloth ignited. The air reeked of burnt flesh and singed hair.

  When the flames died, several kobolds lay blackened and writhing, claws scrabbling uselessly against the stone as they wailed. The rest broke.

  They fled the way they had come, vanishing into crawlspaces and cracks, dragging wounded companions with them or leaving them behind to die.

  Silence crashed down hard and sudden.

  Smoke drifted. Blood ran in thin rivulets along the grooves in the stone floor. Josh stood breathing heavily, shield slick and scarred, sword dripping dark.

  Bhel snorted and spat. “Now that was a greeting.”

  Josh didn’t lower his guard. He stared at the walls, at the slits and burrows and hidden panels. “They didn’t rush us, it felt like they just released themselves.”

  Perberos nodded grimly, already nocking another arrow. “Which means they chose the ground.”

  “Messy,” Josh said, breathing heavily.

  “Effective,” Brett corrected

  And somewhere deeper in the warren, claws were already scraping stone again..

  The next corridor was suspiciously clean. Too clean.

  Perberos halted abruptly, raising a hand and pressing against Josh’s shoulder to stop him. “Something’s wrong,” he murmured. “The kobolds avoided this path. Look.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Josh’s eyes followed the wall. Tiny scratch marks marred the stone, as if feet had slid backward, testing the ground before retreating. He tapped the floor cautiously.

  A soft, sinister click echoed beneath his boot.

  The floor vanished.

  Perberos' reflexes were instantaneous. He yanked Josh back by the shoulder strap just as the corridor’s edge crumbled, sending a cascade of stones tumbling into the darkness below.

  Beneath them, a pit yawned wide and merciless, jagged spikes jutting upward, the floor littered with cracked, yellowed skulls. A faint, metallic tang of old blood hung in the air, rising in ghostly wisps from the depths.

  Bhel leaned forward, peering down and whistled. “Them spikes look sharp.”

  “That is generally the idea,” Brett muttered dryly.

  Carcan knelt, eyes tracing faint, worn runes etched into the stones. “These aren’t fresh. Kobolds have been tending this trap for some time.”

  “Wonderful,” Josh muttered. “Legacy traps.”

  Perberos found the narrow lip along the corridor edge, guiding them carefully, one by one. Each step was deliberate, measured. Twice, Bhel nearly lost his footing, swearing loudly enough to startle the shadows. He recovered, muttering curses under his breath, while the rest pressed on with hearts hammering, every nerve taut. The clean floor had betrayed them, but they were still alive.

  Finally, they reached the far side, but the relief was brief.

  A low, open cavern yawned ahead, pale fungal growths casting an eerie, diffuse glow across piles of bones scattered on the floor. Some were kobold, others far larger, unmistakably adventurer remains. Shadows clung to every corner, dancing across the walls as the party stepped forward cautiously, aware that the trap had only been a taste of what lay deeper within the Warren.

  Josh tightened his grip on his shield, scanning the gloom. “Looks like we’re stepping into the real danger now.”

  Bhel and Brett exchanged a glance, both feeling the weight of the pit behind them, a reminder of how precise one misstep could be. The faint smell of damp earth mixed with decay, carrying an almost palpable sense of expectancy. The kobolds had built more than a dungeon, they had built a labyrinth designed to punish the careless.

  Brett swallowed. “This looks like a garden of nightmares.”

  Josh crouched beside one pile. “Some of these bones are fresh. Kobolds don’t waste food. Why leave these?”

  “Territory marking?” Carcan suggested.

  Perberos shook his head, nocking an arrow. “A warning.”

  The cavern ceiling was low, rough, and jagged. Loose stalactites hung threateningly above, some cracked from age, ready to snap if disturbed. The floor was uneven, littered with loose stone and the skeletons of previous intruders.

  A deep, rattling hiss echoed from the far end of the cavern. Shadows flickered unnaturally, cast by the faint phosphorescence of fungus along the walls. The shapes emerging were humanoid but grotesquely wrong. Limbs were overdeveloped, joints twisting at strange angles, muscles bulging in unnatural knots beneath mottled grey scales. Teeth too long for their jaws glinted, dripping with thick saliva. Their eyes burned with a feral, unthinking hunger.

  “I think they’re drudge kobolds,” Perberos whispered, voice low. “Overfed on dungeon mana. Strong. Stupid. Dangerous.”

  Brett swallowed, adjusting his grip on his staff. “Great. Gym rats… with fangs.”

  The creatures didn’t rush immediately. Instead, they slithered and stalked, their claws rasping along stone, leaving deep scratches in the cavern floor. They hunched low, tails flicking like vipers, heads swivelling independently as they studied the intruders. The guttural hiss rolled into a wet, clicking sound as one drudge craned its neck unnaturally, sniffing the air. The sound made Josh’s teeth clench.

  “They’re… circling us.” Josh muttered, shield up, scanning the darkness.

  Perberos crouched slightly, bow strung and ready. “They’re testing us. Smelling fear.”

  Bhel growled, muscles tensing. “I don’t like how they move.”

  The drudges pressed closer in a creeping, unnatural crawl, claws scratching the stone in uneven rhythms. One slithered almost like a lizard, forearms dragging, scaling crunching on stone. Another’s leg bent at a wrong angle, yet it ran with terrifying speed. They made no sound like normal creatures, only wet, rasping, predatory noises that echoed off the cavern walls.

  Brett’s mana flared, small sparks snapping in the gloom. “It’s like they’re… wrong,” he muttered. “Body’s bending like… like they’re fighting themselves.”

  Josh tightened his grip on his shield. “Yeah. This…” His words died in a hiss as one drudge slowly straightened, cocking its head unnervingly like a predator judging its prey.

  Then the charge came, sudden, brutal, and terrifying. The drudges hurled themselves forward with impossible strength, claws scraping stone, teeth snapping. The cavern floor shook under their weight.

  Josh slammed his shield against the first drudge, the impact reverberating through his arm as jagged claws dug into the edges of his armour. The creature’s teeth snapped just inches from his face. Josh spun his sword in a wide arc, slicing deep into the drudge’s side, hearing the sickening crunch of broken bone beneath the strike.

  Bhel didn’t hesitate, axes swinging in wide, brutal arcs. One drudge lunged, claws extended. The dwarf caught it mid-leap, swinging and sending it crashing into the cavern wall with a wet smack, leaving a smear of grey blood and mangled scales. Another tried to flank him, but Bhel’s other axe tore into its shoulder, hurling it sideways in a spray of ichor. Bhel roared in delight, spinning and hacking, axes biting into scales and limbs, tossing one drudge into the remnants of a broken stalactite that fell with a deafening crash, dust and rock raining over the party.

  Josh gritted his teeth as claws raked his arm, tearing through chainmail and muscle. He pivoted, slamming his sword into a drudge’s knee, bone snapping with a sickening crunch. The creature collapsed, kicking up loose stones that skittered across the floor.

  Brett darted sideways, fingers sparking with mana ad conjured a flame orb, hurling it into the cluster of drudges. The heat ignited loose debris and dried moss, sending a crackling fire across the ground. The creatures shrieked but didn’t falter, flames licking their mottled scales, smoke filling the cramped space. Brett stumbled backward, nearly tripping over a protruding rock.

  Carcan moved like a shadow, fingers tracing intricate patterns as threads of healing light and shields wove around Josh and Bhel to protect them at the most critical moments. She muttered a chant under her breath, eyes flicking to each drudge as they circled and struck, the metallic tang of blood filling her nose.

  The drudges weren’t just brute strength, they used the cavern, twisting over jagged rocks, slamming into walls to gain leverage, scraping against stalactites that rained tiny fragments down. One drudge charged up a slope of broken stone, smashing into Josh with enough force to knock him nearly off balance, sending shards of rock skittering into the shadows.

  Josh and Bhel were pushed to their limits. One drudge slammed into Josh with enough force to stagger him backward, shield rattling, sending him skidding against the cavern wall. Claws slashed across his arm, tearing through chainmail, biting into muscle. He gritted his teeth and drove his sword into its chest, steel sinking deep, blood and ichor spraying.

  Bhel’s axe found the knee of another, severing tendon and bone with a wet snap. The drudge collapsed in a convulsing heap, its claws raking at air uselessly. Another tried to leap onto Bhel’s back, he caught it mid-air, twisting it violently before hurling it into a wall, sending pieces of grey-scaled flesh splattering across stone.

  Perberos fired with precision, each arrow targeting soft underbelly or eye sockets, pinning drudges to stone. One jerked violently from an arrow through its jaw, convulsing before collapsing.

  Brett unleashed fire bolts in rapid succession, each orb sizzling against the thick scales, leaving blackened patches of flesh that shrieked in protest. The heat radiated, pressing against the party like an oppressive wall. One drudge staggered, flames curling along its back, but it didn’t stop, it shook off the pain and lunged again, a wet, coughing hiss escaping its jaws.

  Josh gritted his teeth, driving his sword deep into the chest of a lunging drudge. Steel sank through muscle and broke ribs with a sickening crunch. The creature’s claws scraped futilely along his armor as it collapsed, gurgling blood.

  The cavern became a cacophony of hissing, snarling, metal ringing on claws and teeth, the slap of flesh and scales on stone, and the roar of Bhel as he tore through another with pure brute force. Brett’s fire lit the shadows like daylight, flickering across the walls and highlighting every twist of muscle, every glint of fang.

  Finally, Josh and Bhel brought down the last two together, sword and axe biting deep, snapping vertebrae and tearing through muscle until the cavern fell silent. The air was thick with the smell of blood, singed moss, and wet stone. Jagged stalactites overhead shivered in the aftermath, fragments littering the uneven floor. Loose stones and broken stalagmites created treacherous footing, reminding the party that this cavern itself had been as much an enemy as the drudges.

  Silence pressed down on the cavern, broken only by the hiss of Brett’s cooling flames and the drip of blood onto stone. The floor was littered with grey scales, jagged bones, and viscera. The stench of sweat, blood, and burnt flesh lingered thickly.

  Bhel exhaled, wiping the blades of his axes across his armour, leaving crimson streaks. “Finally… proper targets.”

  Josh, panting, raised his shield slowly, scanning the shadows for any flicker of movement. “Barely a warm-up,” he muttered, flexing an arm streaked with blood.

  Brett lowered his staff, mana waning, whispering, “Gym rats… yeah, that about sums it up.”

  The party stood amidst the debris and carnage, aware that the cavern itself had tried to claim them as much as the drudges. Every shadow, every loose stone, every hanging stalactite promised danger if they let their guard down.

  Carcan hurried to Josh, hands glowing. “Hold still. That cut will fester if I don’t treat it.”

  Josh winced as healing magic knitted his flesh.

  “That was… unpleasant,” he muttered.