Backwoods Dungeon

Chapter Fifty-Four

Storm the Gates

Rio

“Growwff!” Theo asked.

His growl was cut off by a scream as a demonic jailer’s sword smashed through one of the riot shields the cops were holding. Amazingly, the shield didn’t break, but the trooper’s arm did.

The shield was jerked outward, leaving an opening in the small shield wall the troopers held up. They were riot shields, which struck me as out of place somehow. All-out offense had been the name of the game for us.

The jailer wasted no time before breathing fire into the opening. Amazingly, the fire didn’t seem to burn the troopers overly much as the man’s broken arm quickly screwed itself back into place. A paladin aura protecting them and a cleric healing? I was too far away to see what blocked it.

The hole closed quickly, but that didn’t mean the shield wall was working. Even as they fired holes in the demonic jailer's open maw, we watched gorilla dogs climb on the high ceilings and walls in preparation to jump down and flank them.

Imps were everywhere, but they were mostly the casters, while all the regular ones seemed to be dead. They stood on different points of the walls like gargoyles, firing spells down at the small group of defenders. Fireballs and ice bolts seemed to ping harmlessly off a transparent shield that extended out beyond their actual shield wall. Had to be some sort of skill. It didn’t seem to affect the demons, though.

I only counted six troopers, but demons were pouring out of the open gates. Still, none of them were breaking or running.

“They seem like a pretty solid team,” I deduced as I watched them work. They didn’t seem to have much in the way of range beyond their obvious guns, but they worked well together and knew how to fight with one another. “I don’t think we should get in the way of that.”

Theo seemed to calm down, an idea striking him. He pointed one large claw at the gorilla creatures. As a bear, they must’ve seemed surprisingly small to him.

“We keep them from getting attacked from behind? Let them handle the stuff coming out of the gate?” I asked to confirm that I was translating properly.

Theo nodded.

“Sounds good,” I agreed. “Let’s just hope they don’t shoot at us.”

Privately, I wondered what in the hell I’d been thinking coming down here. The sheer number of bodies this team must've torn through would’ve overwhelmed us long ago if we’d had to face them on our own.

Then again… maybe not. I remembered Theo’s brutal efficiency when I’d first seen him down here, mowing through imps in an attempt to find me, and I’d been no slouch with those spiders. We’d torn through quite a few monsters ourselves to get to this point. Also, something was odd. I couldn't put my finger on it. Not yet.

Blood made the cave floor slippery as we advanced. Some weird notion of cleanliness had me attempting to step only on the dry spots even though I’d already been covered in grime. Poor Theo had it even worse with how he’d subdued the rock worm.

I was certain they noticed us, but they were too busy to do anything as Theo began throwing his totems, and I laid a few icebolt traps. With that, we went to work.

“Reinforcements? Now!?” I heard one of them shout.

“Is that a fucking bear?”

“Civvies!” another called.

“That’s just wonderful!”

I scowled at the sarcasm but figured I’d let my aim do the talking. I’d gotten another level with the rock worm and had elected to add that point to Eagle Eye. Multishot was well and good but the problem was that it split the shot like a fork. One bullet went slightly left and the other slightly to the right. If it kept doing that, then perhaps there would be one bullet in the center every time the skill produced an odd number of splits, but it was incredibly inaccurate for the moment. Right now, every shot needed to count.

I used my handgun and began to fire. Eagle eye hadn’t been all that effective against the spiders, but that was because their skin matched strangely well to the glowing moss, effectively camouflaging them.

The gorilla dogs were very distinct, their deep green underbellies and dark fur clashing with the glowing light from a dozen of the troopers' skills, hundreds of torches that the imps liked, and the light from Theo’s crown and my dagger. I could make them out perfectly, and they were massive targets.

Gorilla dogs began dropping like flies, their huge bodies tumbling into the cave floor between us and the troopers. I didn’t get a kill with every bullet, but I always hit at least a limb. When they were using those limbs to climb along stalactites and grooves in the ancient ceiling, that was enough to dislodge them. If the bullet didn’t get them, the landing or the bear did.

Theo charged between us. His healing aura was on because I could see it slowly charging the totems as they expended their charge, refilled, made slices at the steadily increasing number of enemies, and then repeated the process over the course of a few seconds.

Theo’s healing aura was so damn cool. I immediately realized why he’d charged out in front of me as he brought his aura into the trooper range, giving them the benefits while simultaneously covering openings with totems.

We slowly walked forward, the bear and me, as we closed in on where the troopers were still engaged with the horde of demonic jailers. Unlike the gorilla dogs, they didn’t seem nearly as easy to take down. Bullets were still effective, but where an imp could be killed easily by a single bullet, the demonic jailers were so big that it took several headshots to end them. All the while, they had the opportunity to spray their terrifying fire breath or swing those colossal swords.

They weren’t winning, though. Swords and muscles weren’t any match for a modern military's guns and body armor. Without that shield skill guarding them from every breath of fire, that might be different, though.

I didn’t dare shoot over their shoulders at the jailers. My aim was good, and Eagle Eye made it great, but I was not so confident that I’d avoid shooting them in the back on accident. Fortunately, with us watching their backs, they had the front well in hand.

Theo, out of enemies to fight in his bear form from close range, began reaching up his furred claws toward the prison. From the walls, inexplicable roots began grappling the spellcaster imps one by one, trapping them and making them easy pickings for the troopers who had a spare moment. The wall was much further than the gorilla dogs on the ceilings, but that changed rapidly as we moved forward.

I noticed something strange as we advanced, killing monster after monster. The ground was littered with imp bodies, yes, but it was also covered in guns. Lots of guns. Old ones, new ones, shiny ones. Pieces of guns and bullet casings. It wasn’t just guns either but paraphernalia of all sorts related to them. Gun cases, totes, little flags with images of guns on them, silencers, scopes, empty clips and magazines, moon clips, autoloaders, freaking bayonets. Anything that might’ve ever been related to a gun was here, strewn among the bodies of the imps.

Puzzled, I filed the fact away for later but noted that when I ran out of ammo, there was probably a weapon or two here for me to loot.

A trooper fell screaming, his shield skill a moment too slow to block a demonic flame breath. The flames curled around the soldier's riot shield and struck directly at him. The others were quick to protect him as he fell to the ground, bashing the offending demon back with their own shields and covering his flaming form with their own bodies.

To his credit, the soldier began rolling almost immediately, but it didn’t seem very effective against the infernal flame. I paused, considering grabbing my water from my bag, while doubting anything I had could snuff such a flame. I hadn’t been able to direct my ice bolts yet, but maybe here they would…

Wait…

Son of a bitch!

I immediately dashed forward, between Theo and the line of battle, before I dropped a Frostbite Trap. My mana plummeted, but that wasn’t a problem with all the gold and mana potions lying around here. I scooped up gold as fast as I could, waiting for the moment my mana would be high enough to throw out another one.

It should’ve been the first thing I used. I needed to get better at knowing the right weapon for each situation. Still, the effect was immediate. The ice nova surged forth, passing through our new allies and slamming into the demonic horde with the force of a bomb. Their limbs flash-froze, and many of them were left completely immobile. Those that weren’t had been slowed down so much that cutting them down with more bullets, or even the swords and axes some of the troopers carried, was trivial.

It did not seem to stop the fire burning the poor soldier who’d been unfortunate enough to take the flame breath attack. Fortunately, where my skills failed, Theo’s didn’t. He used his Gripping Vines skill to wrap the burning man in roots. I watched him scoop up a mana potion from the ground with his massive jaw and eat it, glass and all, never ceasing his repeated use of the ability. Wood encircled the man, slowly but surely snuffing the flames while the troopers eliminated the frozen wave of demons.

“Enough…” Came a horrifyingly familiar voice.

“Oh no,” I shuddered as I saw the familiar black armor of the demon knight standing imposingly at the prison’s entrance.