Chapter 87: Chapter 80 – Ice (Stage 3)

[Dungeon Party]

Serenity - Battle Adept - Melee Tank, Melee Damage, Self Healing

  Moira (Follower) - Mage - Ranged Damage (Magic)

Echo - Baffles - Ranged Damage (Magic), Scout

Lancaster - Steadfast - Melee Damage, Agility Tank

Rissa - Time’s Eye - Healing, Support

The seventh floor was cold and the walls were coated in ice.

So was the floor.

And the ceiling.

Light came through the ice above them. It was a pale bluish-white and made everything seem colder than it already was. The group stood in a huge cavern that seemed to be carved out of the ice. To the left was an old wooden sailing vessel that looked like it had run aground - run a-ice? Was that a thing?

It was slightly tilted and seemed coated in a thin layer of ice. Serenity could see where the ice extended into the smashed side of the ship.

Serenity hoped it was stage dressing. He didn’t want to try to walk on a sloping, icy floor - and he’d probably be better off than the rest of the party. As he walked, the claws on his feet dug a little into the ice, leaving his footing more secure than he’d expected.

His armor wouldn’t exactly keep his feet warm, but the enchantment on it would prevent the temperature from causing any actual damage.

It was still very cold to walk on ice in bare - well, scaled - feet.

To the right, the cavern’s roof lowered down towards an opening in the wall. Without saying anything, the group headed that way.

It led into a maze-like tunnel system that seemed to have been dug out of the ice by something bigger than Serenity wanted to fight right now. He was dreadfully chilled and hungry, but there wasn’t anything to do except press forward. The tunnels wound around each other and sometimes seemed to pass over or under each other with no apparent logic. It would be easy to get lost - easy enough that Serenity wasn’t entirely certain they weren’t lost.

Eventually, they found an exit to the cave system. It led to a large ice shelf, which was blindingly bright with reflected light. After a minute, they could see the shapes of about a dozen penguins, which seemed to be headed towards the group.

The penguins seemed cute, at first. They didn’t seem to be moving all that quickly; even though they were larger than they looked, they weren’t moving any faster than the walking speed for a human. Once they got close, though, it became obvious that they weren’t real penguins; they were taller than anyone in the group. Having ten massive birds who are almost certainly hostile coming towards you at a walking speed isn’t reassuring.

The distance gave the group time to thin the numbers at range. Only four of the birds made it into melee, and they were all injured. Serenity’s naginata proved its value, as the blade cut into the birds long before they could reach him.

He didn’t infuse it with Death energy. While that would probably be helpful, he didn’t want to use any energy he could avoid. Staying warm in the extreme cold was already bad enough.

The first of the four birds went down to Serenity’s strike. The second threw itself forward and slid on its belly towards Lancaster, who had to jump to avoid having the beak impale his ankle. While in the air, Lancaster stabbed down at the bird. It stopped moving, but Lancaster slipped when he landed and his sword skittered away from his hand.

Serenity moved to block the two remaining penguins. One went high, seeming to try to smack him on the head with its short, stubby wings. Serenity moved his blade to intercept it, and gave it a slice across the chest. One wing was injured enough that it started bleeding freely and stopped moving as much.

The last bird tried to imitate what the second had done, and threw itself on the ground, sliding towards Serenity. Serenity sidestepped it, smacking the bird to the side as he went with the butt of his naginata. It wouldn’t stop the bird, but it might slow it down.

The only standing penguin made a loud, almost braying sound. It wasn’t something Serenity had expected to hear from a bird. It brought its head down and stabbed its beak at his chest. Serenity sidestepped as he brought his weapon around, but couldn’t go as far as he wanted because of the penguin at his feet. The beak was only partially deflected by the armor and Serenity’s scales, but a slashed shoulder was better than a deep puncture.

Serenity smashed the penguin to one side. It fell to the ground, unmoving, and Serenity turned his attention to the last penguin right as it took a sonic bolt to the head and stopped moving itself.

It was a short fight, and the only injuries were relatively mild. Lancaster had a few bruises from his bad landing and a wrenched wrist that Rissa’s healing would quickly fix, while Serenity had a slashed shoulder that wasn’t healing.

You are reading story After the End: Serenity at novel35.com

It took Serenity a moment to realize that it wasn’t going to heal, either. He’d gotten used to his body healing his injuries without any added effort.

He made sure all the fake penguins weren’t going to move and that there weren’t any more on their way before heading over to Rissa for healing.

Rissa put her hand on the injury, muttered [Quick Heal], and Serenity felt a blazing pain through his shoulder. He hissed and pulled away from her. He knew that wasn’t right; healing shouldn’t cause pain beyond the injured area.

He pulled his armor down to see what happened, and both he and Rissa stared in shock at the handprint that showed on his arm. The cut was only partly healed, but where her hand had been, Serenity’s scales were gray and looked almost burnt. He brushed at them and the scales flaked away, showing reddened, inflamed skin.

“Oh no - I’m so sorry - what did I DO? I thought the quick heal would work better, it uses my energy instead of yours - I just did what I always do - “ Rissa’s hand hovered near Serenity’s shoulder, but didn’t quite touch it.

It took Serenity a moment to realize what had happened. “I should have thought of it. You’ve never healed anyone who isn’t human.”

“Why would that matter? It’s still healing energy. Blaze said anyone could heal anything, to concentrate on what was wrong and what it should be like … oh. You mean I was trying to … heal you into being human?” Rissa didn’t take her eyes off the bare patch as she spoke, and slowly brought her fingers to it to gently touch the reddened skin.

“It’s a guess. I know Healing works better if you know more, and that it has something to do with template matching, but I was never a healer. Maybe if you concentrate just on the injury?” Serenity wasn’t sure, but magic followed intent. It could be as simple as the fact that Rissa had never healed anyone who wasn’t human, so all she’d needed to learn was a human template.

Rissa nodded and muttered [Quick Heal] again. Serenity caught her as she sagged. “That was … that was a lot harder than it should have been. Than it always has been. How’s your arm?”

Serenity hadn’t noticed any pain when he caught her using the injured arm. He looked at it. The cut was gone, fully healed. The reddened area no longer looked inflamed, and he could see new scales forming. He turned Rissa so that she could see. “All better.”

“Not quite,” she muttered. “But I guess it’ll have to do ‘til I get some mana back.”

Serenity set her on her feet and pulled his armor back where it belonged. He’d be fine. And so would Rissa.

The ice shelf didn’t have an obvious path to continue forward. All of the edges of the shelf led to water. Fortunately, there weren’t any more penguins or other animals to contest the shelf.

They didn’t see the path forward until they turned around to head back into the ice cave. There was a small path that led up the mound of ice that formed the cave they’d emerged from. It wasn’t a good path; in fact, it wasn’t even a bad path. It was a terrible path, suitable only for mountain goats.

They took the path anyway. It had to lead somewhere, probably, and the cave was a mess. They looped a rope so that they could catch anyone who fell, and put Lancaster in the lead and Serenity in the rear.

Serenity already knew he wanted actual climbing gear before the next dungeon level.

The terrible path made sense half an hour later. The group was slowly and carefully making their way along a steep slope when there was a BAAAA BAAAA from uphill, followed by three wooly goats with horns that looked like shards of ice charging down the slope.

Serenity heard Echo and Moira start casting, but that wasn’t going to do much good. They needed to get out of the way. Getting knocked off the slope would be bad; it was a long way down to the freezing water. “Back up!”

The goats were headed straight for Lancaster.

Serenity took a couple steps back and dug the claws on his feet and left hand into the slope. He didn’t think he could hold if anyone was hit full force, but he might be able to hold against a glancing blow or a slip. Rissa and Moira were able to carefully move past him before the goats arrived, but Echo didn’t have time.

Lancaster timed it perfectly. He threw himself backwards once the goats were too committed to their charge to divert or stop. When they reached almost level with him, he was skidding against Echo’s feet but he still slashed his sword at the ice goats.

The ice goats were knocked sideways and lost their footing. The momentum of their charge carried them off the side of the cliff and into the water.

Serenity held on to the cliff side and the rope as best he could. Lancaster knocked Echo into his arms, so he released the rope to grab her and tried to grab the rope past where she was tied into it. It slipped through his fingers.

It was fortunate Lancaster had managed to throw himself mostly sideways and a little up. He skidded a bit, but Echo was able to grab him and keep him from sliding down the mountain, with Serenity holding her stable.

There had to be a better route than the goat path, but it was too late now.