"Humans broke through the first two floors." Reported one of the elves in a panic.
"Already?!" replied Vanril, turning towards the mage, his earls slumped in exhaustion.
"Yes, it seems the weapons they carry with them made light work of the dungeon monsters." Said the mage, grabbing his staff and holding it against his shoulder, the tip of the staff pointed towards Vanril, mirroring the way the invaders held their weapons.
"Do not worry, even iron-class adventurers breeze past the first few floors. It will only get harder for them the further they go." Vanril assured the mage, hiding his own rising fear.
"Sure hope so. It took 100 mages, the kingdom's finest, to construct this dungeon." Another of the elven soldiers joined in the conversation. "I would think victory to be impossible if these murder apes treated this place like an evening stroll." He adjusted his helm and straightened his posture, not letting the news shake his resolve.
"We've hired the aid of many adventurers, too. Along with all the various beasts this dungeon has to offer, the invaders will never see the last floor." Assured the mage.
"Don't you think the beasts will also target the adventurers we hired?" Vanril asked.
"That's a possibility. But not our problem, to be honest. They were paid upfront. Whatever happens to them now, that's their issue." The mage replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.
The elven soldier said nothing, simply sighed and turned to watch the massive door they were guarding. Behind them, in the centre of the last dungeon floor, stood a large portal gate, which the entire dungeon was constructed to protect from the invaders.
***
A party of adventurers situated on the fourth floor of the dungeon sat around their campfire, mortified by the loud banging coming from above. It's been well over an hour since they sent their Kobold rogue to check in on the progress of the invading Murder Apes. It should have been an easy task as the kobolds were known to be incredibly stealthy.
The dungeon they were hired for, along with countless other adventures of various ranks, started at the surface and extended downwards into the ground, like an upside-down tower. Each floor was teeming with various monsters, from goblins to massive serpents. Some of them were guarded by adventurers that the Vatur kingdom hired from various guilds across the land. Even higher-ranked adventurers, from gold to platinum, were present, as the pay that the elves offered was more than they could make anywhere else in such a short amount of time. The elves offered more coin than most adventurers had saved up for retirement throughout their lives.
A human woman, the leader of the party on the fourth floor, felt the most anxious out of all of her comrades. They were more mercenaries than they were adventurers. Being a mercenary meant taking jobs that you'd survive so you could collect payment. When she accepted the job that the elven kingdom of Vatur began recruiting for, no one from her party expected they'd end up in the situation they found themselves in.
They were, like all other adventurers that responded to the job offer, supposed to defend an artificial dungeon made by the elven mages from a group of humans that wanted something on the lowest floor. What the invaders wanted and what elves were trying to protect so fiercely that they offered her entire pension fund as payment; she had no idea what it was.
But it didn't matter anymore. The job was supposed to be easy, fend off some random schmucks, most likely a tribe of nomadic barbarians, as no other kingdom would try to attack and steal from the elves. That's what Amalia thought at first, that's what everyone who took the job thought as well.
Whatever they were up again, they couldn't possibly be human, let alone barbarians. She didn't know what was going on beyond the doors to the fourth floor, but based on the sounds from the other side, the invaders were making quick and loud progress through the upper floors.
"Hurry the fuck up, Grimzy. Get your scaly ass back and tell us what's going on out there." She tapped her foot nervously, waiting for the kobold to return, hoping he would return at all.
"Screw me! They made light work of the first two floors. The monsters are turned into meat chunks. Goblins are running back to their holes, heading to the lower levels!" Came a shrill voice from the shadows just beyond the campfire lights' reach.
"Grimzy! I TOLD you NOT to sneak up on us like that." Nattari, a massive panther woman, jumped from the rock she was sitting on, spear ready and pointed towards the rogue. She growled and lowered her weapon, sitting back down as the kobold stepped into the light, taking off his hood.
"How are they progressing through the third layer?" Asked the party leader.
"Without an issue. They have some sort…" Grimzy paused, trying to find the perfect word to describe what he saw. "A battering ram. On two legs. Like a golem, if golems were made out of solid metal. The goblins are already on the retreat, realizing their spears and arrows do fuck all against that thing." He exhaled loudly and took a swig from a flask he pulled out of his vest pocket.
"I don't know what kind of magic they are using, but they're dropping those green bastards like flies. They have odd weapons, like sticks that make noise and bursts of light." The Kobold continued.
"I think we should retreat down to the fifth layer and see to make a larger defence group with the adventurer groups situated there. The 5 of us wouldn't be able to do anything on our own. That's how I see it."
"I've heard they are immune to magic." Spoke the healer softly, drawing random symbols in the dirt with her staff, hoping to calm her nerves.
"That is not possible. No one is immune to magic!" Hissed the panther in response.
"If they have weapons that flash light, those must be magic. Maybe they are heavily armoured mages. And mages are usually bad at close combat. I just need to get close." She grinned.
"Where did you hear they are immune to magic? Do you know what we're up against?" Menzos, the only gnome in the entire dungeon and the party's healer, perked up when the young dryad spoke about their enemy.
Olya gently pushed aside the strand of green, moss-like hair that fell over her face and leaned on her staff. Her voice, like with all dryads, was soft, barely above a whisper. Her party often had to strain just to hear what she had to say.
"I overheard several gold adventurers talk amongst themselves before we began the descent. They say elves are trying to protect one of the portal gates from a group of people, that they have fought them before and failed each time because the group is apparently resistant to magic."
"Hogwash." Cackled Grimzy while taking another swing of wine from the flask.
"No one is immune to magic, like Nattari said. They probably just have some charms or talismans that give them spell protection."
"Yeah... that sounds more likely," Amalia said with a nod, as the noise outside got closer, the enemy clearing out any monsters or adventurers that remained. The party leader turned to Nattari.
"I agree, we should take them head on, before they even realise what's going on. The caverns are barely lit. If we get the jump on them, we have a decent chance."
"Put the fire out and let's get into position. We need to take out the Golem as soon as they breach the gate to floor 3." She said, putting on her helm, taking a swig from the Kobold's flask to take the edge off her nerves.
The rest of the party nodded in unison, getting into position, ready to jump the advancing force as soon as they walked through the gate. Their formation was air-tight, each member taking a spot that made use of the fourth-floor chamber. No room for errors; if they pulled this off, they would be sailing smoothly into early retirement.
***
"You alright, Clyde? See anything?" Chuckled one of the soldiers, patting the hulking behemoth in combat armour on the ass.
"Barely. I got so much goblin goo on me; I can't see two feet in front of me. Then again, if it's in front of me, it's not friendly anyway." Replied the behemoth with a laugh.
Clyde, the man in charge of the assault on the dungeon, was, simply put, a freak of nature. His voice was deep and loud, having his subordinates and comrades often questioning if the voice came from the armour or the man inside it. He towered over friend and foe alike, standing slightly above 7 feet when not wearing the servo-assisted combat armour. Inside the armour, he resembled an angry, solid wall with a gun rather than a person.
"I think the Goblins are mostly gone. If anything, they've retreated to the burrows on the lower levels, so this probably isn't the last we see of them." Another of the human soldiers said, checking something on a handheld monitor.
"Good. Still, keep your head on the swivel, if they decide to come from behind us." Clyde replied, pushing forward towards the gate that separated the floors, oblivious of the ambush on the other side.
"We've got movement." The soldier with the monitor said. The device he held was a motion detector, tracking movements even through several feet of rock and dirt, allowing the squad to have a full 360-degree view of what was going on in their surroundings.
"On the other side of the door. Probably an ambush."
"More goblins?" Asked another soldier, training his rifle on the door, while the others turned to cover the sides of the hallway and the ceiling for possible goblin breaches.
"Not sure, it's a very small group, like 5 of them. And they move in coordination, it seems, so they're probably something else." The one with the tracker replied.
"So, a breach charge on the gate, and then we rush in?" Clyde asked, walking over to the heavy wooden door and sticking a brick that said "Happy Birthday" on it to the door. The brick beeped, a red light turning green, signifying that the explosive was armed, as the mountain in armour stepped away to a safe distance, not that it mattered to him in the slightest.
"CLEAR!" He shouted; his booming voice carried through the hallway like a thunderous echo.
***
Menzos got into position, chanting and mumbling to himself, his simple, wooden staff starting to glow. The gnome mage cast spell after spell, providing buffs to each of his teammates, allowing them to fight without the hindrance of exhaustion, while hitting stronger, moving faster and being able to take more hits than without much repercussion.
Grimzy hid in the shadows nearby, his poison-throwing daggers at the ready. Nattarri lurked on the ceiling above the entrance gate, ready to pounce on the first soldier who walked through the door, her black fur and leather armour of the same colour allowing her to perfectly blend in the shadows.
Amalia, the party leader, waited by the gate, ready to charge from the side. Her sword was unsheathed, softly shining with a simple enchantment Menzo's had cast on it.
The only one who was away from the direct battle was Olya, the party's healer, standing near a stone pillar that supported the dungeon floor ceiling, next to Menzos.
Menzos finally finished his chants, raising a defensive magic barrier between the party and the dungeon floor entrance.
The air felt tense as the sound of heavy footsteps on the other side got closer. The party held their breath, waiting for the heavy door to slowly open.
"CLEAR!" Came the booming voice from the other side, as a short beep followed.
The door did not open. With an ear-piercing sound and blinding light, the wooden gate was turned to shrapnel, aimed at the party.
Olya jumped to cover behind a pillar, dragging Menzos with her before the wooden bits and the shockwave could hit him. The barrier shattered from the force as if it were made of glass. Nattarri screamed and fell off the ceiling, clutching her ears. She rolled on the floor, growling and screaming as her eardrums were ruptured by the loud explosion, her ears bleeding into her hands. The ringing mixed with pain made her skull throb so hard she couldn't even open her away.
Before the smoke even cleared, the lumbering metal golem walked in. His weapon was held at hip height with both arms, a strange belt attached from it to a large backpack on his back. It was unlike anything Amalia had ever seen before.
Grimzy leapt from the shadows, using the smoke as cover and began throwing poison daggers at the behemoth. Each dagger bounced off the armour without leaving so much as a scratch.
"Contact!" The golem bellowed, lifting the weapon and aiming its tip at the kobold before the latter even had a chance to land.
Noise filled the air, making Amalia immediately rush and duck behind cover, hoping that the stone pillar would keep her safe.
Nothing was left of Grimzy, the rogue, torn apart by the bullets instantaneously. His remaining daggers fell to the floor before whatever chunks of him remained could, their clatter drowned out by gunfire which fell silent immediately after.
Menzos quickly raised another barrier, shielding Nattari as she was writhing on the ground, and allowing Olya to come out from behind the pillar and cast a healing spell on the panther.
"Get up, Nattari! The barrier won't hold them forever." Yelled the dryad.
As a green light washed over the beast-folk woman, Clyde stepped forward, the barrier doing absolutely nothing to stop him. It crumbled as easily as it did the first time. Nattari swore in her native tongue, grabbing her spear and thrusting it where the armour seemed weakest, right at the golem's groin, where the armour protecting his thighs met the armour protecting his torso.
Her attempt was rewarded with a "clink", the horrendous sound of metal hitting metal and nothing more. The Golem moved before the spear could strike what Nattari assumed was a weak spot, causing her to strike right at the heavy armour plate that protected his thigh. The panther woman was surprised by how fast that thing moved, but before she could fully come to understand just how fast her foe was, his left hand was already holding her by the throat.
She hissed, spit flying from her mouth as she cursed in her native tongue, eyes bulging with murderous rage, fangs bared. She swung her claws, her weapon of last resort, at the golem. But the result was no different than what her spear achieved.
Amalia watched as the golem raised his weapon and pressed the tip of it between the panther woman's breasts. A click followed by another loud bang put a golf-sized hole through the beast-woman's chest. With ease and no respect for his opponent, Clyde threw Nattarri's lifeless body to the side.
With two of her teammates dead before they could even counter the invaders' attack, Amalia realised the only chance they had to survive was to try and escape deeper into the dungeon and group up with other adventurers.
"Menzos, we gotta flee!"
The gnome nodded, chanting a spell and stepping out of cover to cast it, while Amalia and Olya already began to move towards the other end of the floor. What the spell was, the invaders would not get a chance to find out, as a gunshot rang out from behind the golem as soon as Menzos so much as poked his head from behind cover.
His head whipped backwards as he fell to the ground. Olya rushed to him immediately, casting healing spell after healing spell, but the bullet hole in his forehead would not stop bleeding. All Amalia could do was stand and stare, struggling to come to terms with how fast her team met their demise.
When the armoured soldier turned his attention towards her, Amalia dropped her sword, losing all will to fight.
As her sword clanked against the floor, Clyde turned his attention to the healer.
The dryad woman was kneeling next to the body of her fellow mage, looking up at the ceiling with a vacant stare, arms hanging limply at her side, still mumbling a healing spell over and over again, as Menzos's blood pooled around him, soaking into her robes.
The sound of heavy footsteps seemed to snap her out of it, as she looked at the approaching behemoth in the combat armour. Coming face to face with the barrel of his machine gun, her bladder betrayed her.
The dryad went from looking shell-shocked to crying and screaming, begging in a language neither Clyde nor the rest of the squad could understand.
She threw her coin purse at his feet, tearing at her robes while crawling closer, offering everything she had, including herself, in return for her life.
"What's she saying?" Clyde asked, turning halfway to his comrades.
"Fuck if I know man." Jeremy, the soldier in charge of the motion detector, replied.
"Maybe she's chanting some sort of suicide explosion spell."
The rest of the squad chuckled a bit as Clyde looked around for something. He picked up the dryad's staff, placing it in her arms, before raising the gun barrel to her face. The woman screamed, shaking her head and throwing the staff away as if it were on fire.
"I think she's surrendering," Jeremy said.
"Yeah, I think so too. Put her in cuffs with the other chick and take them up to camp. The rest of us will make camp here for now, until the probes finish mapping out the rest of this floor."
The other man replied, lowering his gun and turning away from the healer, before sitting down on the ground, while the rest of the squad started moving the bodies away so they could make camp.