Soul of the Warrior

Gulley stood in front of the entrance to the Dungeon with his squad lined up behind him. The Dungeon runs were going to take all morning just to get all of the squads through the entrance, so they were patiently waiting their turn. He had been only a little surprised to find that Teilon was the one who had been assigned to inspect their performance inside the Dungeon.

They weren’t in an official formation, so Gulley let his gaze roam. He looked over the edge of the cliff to the city sprawled below. There was a river coming from the north that split and formed a large island where the city had been built on. The edge of the river ran right up to the cliff leading to where the Dungeon was located at the top.

It was a good, solid drop down the sheer side of the cliff. It made for an amazing view, but Gulley imagined that someone would need the Vitality of a Tier 5 Classer to survive a fall from the top, even if one fell into the waters of the river.

Part of the evaluation was not only showcasing their ability to fight as a military unit but also to display their ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. This particular Dungeon was exclusive property of the Imperial Family and the Imperial Army. It wasn’t unheard of for Adventurers to gain access to a Dungeon Run with this Dungeon, but it wasn’t common, either.

It was tradition for the military for their members to always go in blind, so not providing the information about what they would find inside for the evaluation wasn’t much of a surprise. It was possible to find out what was inside from various sources on the outside, but it was very difficult.

The soldiers took pride in their tradition, so they were very unlikely to be a source of information. Likewise, the Adventurers Guild had a good relationship with the Imperial Family and Army, so they didn’t publicize the information to outsiders. Gulley was sure the info packet existed, but they probably had to show some sort of proof that they had already been inside at least once before they could purchase it.

The line continued to shorten steadily, nearing the time for Gulley and his squad to enter. He glanced at his assistant squad leader. The man took the hint and initiated a final double-check of everyone’s gear. They had laid everything out before leaving the barracks in the morning, but sometimes things could get lost in transit.

Luckily, nothing was accidentally misplaced on the way here. Everything was good to go. There was just one thing that kept Gulley a little on edge.

“Where is Teilon?” He muttered under his breath.

It was a rhetorical question. None of his men knew anything he didn’t know, but the ones standing next to him still perked up like they could sniff something out. He just shook his head and they relaxed.

It was eventually their turn to step forward. Gulley glanced around, but he still didn’t see Teilon anywhere. The guard in charge of monitoring the entrance motioned for them to proceed, growing a bit impatient as they hesitated.

“Maybe we should let the next squad go first?” Gulley asked the monitor. “Our inspector isn’t here, yet.”

The monitor gave Gulley a deadpan stare. He simply raised his hand and pointed. Gulley turned his neck to look beside him only to find Teilon standing right next to him.

What…? Gulley flinched at finding the man standing there grinning at him.

“How long have you been there?” Gulley asked incredulously.

“Since the monitor started waving you forward,” Teilon shrugged. “I’ve been moving about watching the other squads until it was close to time for us to head in.”

This man is dangerous… Gulley suppressed a frown. He took a quick peek at his one companion that had joined him in his squad. She noticed his look, but she just gave a slight shake of her head, indicating she hadn’t noticed anything, either.

“Squad! Advance!” Gulley didn’t hesitate any longer.

The members marched forward through two marble pillars flanking a disturbance floating in the air. It wasn’t the first time Gulley had entered a “portal” Dungeon, but he did notice Teilon eyeing it skeptically. It looked like a faint rainbow light-ball with the colors randomly swirling about in place. It didn’t actually emit any light, nor did it cause any kind of shadow.

Other than the obvious visual representation that there was something amiss, the only way to detect such Dungeon portals was through Mana Sense. It was quite obvious when one had a high enough Skill and knew what to look for.

From what Gulley understood of Teilon, the other man didn’t have experience with a wide variety of Dungeon types. That was typical, especially for people moving up in Regions instead of lateral or down. There were just not as many exploratory opportunities when one had to advance ahead in a linear path.

“Since you’re the inspector, were you given special dispensation and told what’s on the other side?” Gulley asked Teilon.

“Nope!” Teilon replied cheerfully. “I’m going in just as blind as you all. I have absolutely no idea what we’re about to get into.”

They crossed through the center of the pillars. If there was no visual representation of the or pillars indicating they had passed through a portal, it would be easy to not even realize it. There was no obvious change in the surroundings after having passed through, and for a moment, Gulley had no idea what the Dungeon was even going to entail.

Looking forward after passing through, there didn’t seem to be anything different at all. It was like they hadn’t entered a sub-space attached to the Realm.

It didn’t take long for Gulley to realize something was amiss, though. After a few steps forward, his intuition told him to look back the way they had come.

Gulley ordered the squad to halt with a simple hand gesture before turning to face the opposite direction. He was honestly surprised by what greeted him around the edges of the portal.

Just on the other side of the portal, where the ground fell away as a steep cliff to the river below in reality, there was no sign of the cliff. At all. Instead, Gulley intuitively understood they were atop a grand plateau. It stretched for miles in the distance.

That wasn’t the thing that surprised Gulley, though. Their squad wasn’t alone.

Atop the grand plateau, a huge army of tens of thousands of soldiers was arrayed in front of them. They were facing the opposite direction, though, and the few shadow-people who spotted the squad didn’t raise any kind of alarm. Gulley’s intuition told him they weren’t a hostile force.

A heavily armed and armored man strode up to Gulley with purposeful steps.

“What are you doing out of formation?!” He exclaimed with clear exasperation in his voice and face.

Gulley was intrigued by the level of emotion displayed by the shadow person. It wasn’t something that was normally seen inside a Dungeon. For the most part, shadow-people were just pale representations of long-forgotten people who had actually once existed. It wasn’t unheard of for them to have personality, and it was common knowledge that the higher Tier Dungeons could represent the shadow-people’s original personality better.

It was unusual for such an expressive, interactive shadow-person to exist in a Tier 4 Dungeon, though. Technically, Tier 4 was still in the bottom half of the power scale. When one took into consideration the exponential nature of Mana Density and Class Tier power, though, Tier 4 didn’t even breach 10% of the power possible found just two Tiers higher, much less the absolute power that could be found in a Tier 8 Region or Dungeon.

“Hurry, the battle could start any moment!” The shadow-person said. He grunted in disgust before turning and storming off somewhere else.

As soon as the man turned around, a System Message appeared in front of Gulley’s eyes. Unlike calling upon his own Notifications or System Pages, it appeared unprompted, and Gulley was unable to dismiss it.

It had a simple message, though the implications were anything but. Gulley quickly scanned the System Message.

Spectator Mode: Fall into formation with the “Hero’s” Companions.

There are no rewards.

Easy Mode: Fall into formation among the General’s Entourage.

Rewards are reduced to 25% of Standard.

Standard Mode: Fall into formation in the center of the army.

100% Rewards.

Hard Mode: Fall into formation in the Vanguard.

400% Rewards plus additional guaranteed Tier 5 Magical Items.

Epic Mode: ????

???? Rewards.

“Epic Mode?” Gulley heard Teilon whisper to himself.

Gulley was also surprised by the content of the System Message. Even he had never heard of an “Epic Mode” before. He thought Hard Mode was as difficult as it could get, and there were some Dungeons he knew of where the Hard Mode was downright impossible to survive.

If impossible odds are still “Hard Mode,” then what does this “Epic Mode” mean? Gulley idly thought.

He quickly dismissed his musings and made a decision based on the context of what he knew about the Dungeon, even though it was almost nothing.

He selected “Standard Mode” before ordering the rest of the squad to do the same.

“This is simple enough and quite convenient for me,” Teilon said with a chuckle. “I wasn’t going to get any rewards due to not participating anyway, so looks like I’ll be heading over to this ‘Hero’s’ Party, wherever that…”

Teilon stopped and looked about in surprise for a second.

“Nevermind, it’s double easy.”

Gulley instantly understood what he meant. There were ethereal line directing Gulley where he needed to go in order to join the center of the army. There were no indications from any of his Skills, so he understood it was tied to the System Message on a fundamental level. No amount of poking or prodding would allow him to meddle or alter the glowing lines in any way.

“Alright, Teilon, we’ll see you when this is over,” Gulley said.

“Sure. Good luck.”

Teilon sauntered off to the back of the army. Gulley spied the direction he was headed and saw a group of individuals in clearly different attire than the rest of the army. It was a group of seven people, three men and four women, and their gear was clearly several steps above the gear of the army.

And that was saying a lot, actually.

Upon closer inspection, Gulley made note that the thousands upon thousands of soldiers were uniformly decked out in exclusively Tier 4 Heavy Armor from head to toe. Their weapons were of equal caliber.

Gulley had never seen such a display of raw power that the gear alone invoked. It must also be understood that in order for one to properly use the full abilities of one’s gear, their Class Tier must match or exceed it.

From the flows of Mana Gulley was feeling from the army, they were all at least Tier 4 or higher. He couldn’t tell what the “Hero’s” Party consisted of, but he could guess it was at least Tier 6.

So we’re going to participate in some sort of large-scale battle, Gulley analyzed as he began following his own System arrows. But… where’s the enemy?

He looked out across the large, open plateau, but he couldn’t see anything other than the army they had suddenly joined. No matter where he looked, no matter how hard he strained his eyes, he couldn’t see any kind of adversary.

Strange, that first shadow-person said the battle could begin any moment…

Gulley once more shook off the thoughts and concentrated on his squad. They followed his lead as they jogged to the center of the army. The System arrows led them to the rear squad of a random platoon situated in the center.

The make-up of the platoons was different than what Gulley was used to. The consisted of ten rows of thirty soldiers. The platoon they were directed to only had nine rows.

Gulley positioned himself in the Squad Leader location, and as his squad took up their own positions, more shadow-people materialized out of nowhere to fill in the rest of the missing positions of their squad.

Hmm, it seems like we’re taking on the roles of people who were actually there, Gulley thought. If I came in solo, I’m guessing 29 other shadow-people would materialize, and I would bet that if, for some strange reason, we broke the rules and showed up with as many people as are in this platoon, there would have just been a huge empty space for us to occupy.

As soon as Gulley and his squad were in position and the other shadow-people filled in the slots, the ambient Mana instantly changed. The wind picked up and began to slowly increase in intensity. It didn’t blow from just one direction, though, and it constantly changed speed and direction.

Another System Message appeared before him.

Objective:

SURVIVE

Gulley could feel the Ambient Mana increase in density as they stood there in silence. It continued to ramp up unabated until he could see the Mana flows materialize to his naked eye even without the use of his Mana Sight Skill.

He felt a nervous energy from the depths of his being, and even the shadow-people decked out in their uniform Tier 4 army began fidgeting.

Finally, way in the distance, Gulley spotted what he assumed was going to be their adversary. In the sky, a great bird slowly materialized as it flew closer and closer to the army.

Is that some kind of Giant Eagle? He thought with a slight frown that he couldn’t contain.

The avian creature continued to enlarge as it got closer and closer. Gulley felt the shadow-soldiers in each of the giant platoons activate their Group Shield Skills. It was slightly different than any Group Shield Skill he had ever experienced, but it wasn’t so different that he couldn’t mimic it with his own and join with his squad and shadow-platoon.

Group Shield Skills weren’t omnipotent. There was a hard limit to how many people could join one. This variation of the Skill seemed to be able to hold the entirety of the 300-man squads, an amount much larger than he had ever seen in any contemporary armies. Typically, a powerful Group Shield Skill could hold 60 people before it simply refused to allow anymore people to join.

These Shields were holding five times that amount.

It wasn’t just that the Group Shield Skills were clearly superior to any he had ever seen, either. The platoons ahead of his location were even more potent. He surmised that the vanguard was made up of the grizzled veterans, even relative to the army he was witnessing.

The avian creature continued to grow larger.

Gulley didn’t have a good frame of reference for how far away the flying creature was. He couldn’t tell how large it was going to be when it finally arrived where the army was located. Upon closer look, though, he noticed that the features of the flying creature were more reptilian than giant bird.

Is it some sort of Great Wyvern?

He still didn’t know what they were going to be facing.

The creature continued to get larger and larger.

No, wyverns have two legs… That thing has four.

The name of a creature flitted across Gulley’s mind, but he was too shocked to accept it as reality. Everyone knew they were mythical beings that didn’t actually exist. The greatest scholars had never confirmed their existence in any time or place in the Realm. He didn’t even know how their mythology had even been created.

The creature continued to get larger and larger. Gulley was beginning to gain a frame of reference for the scale of the humongous being flying towards them.

It can’t be…

The creature was now large enough that Gulley could clearly make out what it was, though it was still incredibly far away. It was just so large, that even miles away, it took up a huge portion of the sky.

There was no denying what was in front of his eyes.

A Dragon?!

The mighty beast opened its maw and huge bellow escaped from its lungs. Gulley could see the shockwave of the roar race towards the waiting army. It was much faster than any sound had a right to be. The speed of sound was a well-known factor, but this was clearly some sort of Skill or Magic. It defied the normal laws of reality.

The sound of the bellow hit the army like an avalanche. The Group Shields suppressed the power, but it couldn’t diminish the sound level.

It was louder than anything Gulley thought could even exist. There was no sound other than the roar. Confirming his thoughts that it was Magical in nature, though, it didn’t blow out his eardrums.

There was no sound other than the roar. It encompassed his mind, and his legs began to shake from uncontrollable terror gripping him. Sweat poured down his back, and he had to muster every fiber of his being to not collapse on the spot.

The sensation of dread eventually passed, though not completely. He was still terrified of the creature looming towards them. There was nothing he could do about it at the moment, though, and none of the shadow-people had broken from the sound or aura emanating from the beast.

Gulley looked to his squad and found that he, other than the shadow-soldiers filling in the ranks, was the only member still standing on his feet. ,The others had collapsed to the ground and were twitching and shaking uncontrollably. Gulley spotted drool leaking from their open mouths, their eyes not registering any sights in front of them.

He frowned slightly as he looked to his companion who had also fallen. Her gaze suddenly focused, though, and as their eyes met, she winked at him before continuing to act as if she had been overcome by the terror.

Gulley didn’t waste any more time, and he kicked his assistant squad leader, hard. The man was brought out of his terror-induced seizure, and he quickly realized he was on the ground. He leapt to his feet and began following Gulley’s example by kicking the other down squad members.

A little bit of pain, a shock to their system, was enough to bring them out of their stupor now that they weren’t actively being assaulted by the Dragon’s aura and roar. They climbed to their feet and once more contributed to the Group Shield Skill.

The Dragon continued to get larger and larger as it got closer. All Gulley could see in the sky in front of him now was the Dragon. The roar had been timed impeccably to its speed. At the end of the tremendous roar, a terrifying energy appeared and quickly breached any threshold of power Gulley had ever experienced.

A tremendous bout of flame escaped from its mouth and inundated the first three rows of platoons across the entire width of the army. Screams of agony rose from the shadow-people caught in the inferno before quickly going silent once more.

Flesh and metal alike melted into pools of plasma within seconds. There were still another two rows of platoons in front of the platoon his squad had joined. Gulley could feel the heat of the flames even through the distance and the Group Shield Skill.

Like that, almost a quarter of the tens of thousands of soldiers in the army were instantly incinerated.

So much for Hard Mode, Gulley thought, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. More like Suicide Mode.

“Protect the Hero!” A defiant cry emerged from somewhere in the army. Gulley recognized the voice of the shadow-man who had addressed him and his squad.

A mighty roar emerged from the army as they struck out with their spears. Ethereal images of their weapons materialized and shot forward. It looked like an arrow-rain made of spears as the projectiles arced through the air toward the Dragon that was almost now upon them.

Gulley and his squad members weren’t able to duplicate the action, so they had to simply stand and watch. He had never felt so utterly powerless in his life.

He had some Magical Skills he could employ if he needed to, but there was nothing he could personally do to affect the battle against the Dragon at all. There was no reason to expose the cards in his hand in this situation, so he and his squad members simply stood there and watched.

The ethereal spears seemed less than tiny toothpicks against the dragon, and Gulley winced slightly as they all simply bounced off the scales of the Dragon. He quickly schooled his features, though, as he noticed that the barrage hadn’t been completely ineffectual.

Hundreds of scales followed the ethereal spears to the ground, though they had a shape and size that didn’t really make sense to Gulley considering the size of the massive Dragon.

A pulse of energy distracted Gulley from observing the falling scales and spears, though. A ripple of golden power rushed ahead to toward the Dragon from somewhere in the rear of the army formation. It was equally as powerful as the aura of the Dragon, and Gulley felt the last vestiges of terror escape him. He was filled with warmth and hope.

“AAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”

A golden meteor shot over the heads of the soldiers at an incomprehensible speed and collided with the Dragon, completely arresting its movements. Its magical nature ensured that it didn’t fall out of the sky, though. The golden meteor, likewise, didn’t fall out of the sky or disappear.

It suddenly morphed and took on the shape of a giant man, larger than any Gulley had ever seen or heard of. He was still miniscule in the face of the Dragon, but his aura was just as powerful.

The golden light surrounding the man prevented Gulley from making out any fine details, but he did note that he was wielding a greatsword. He was floating in the air, and after having initially rebuked the Dragon’s momentum, he once more shot forward to do battle in the sky.

Gulley felt his intuition once more grab his attention. He looked toward one of the falling dragon scales as it plummeted to the ground. It suddenly sprouted wings, arms, and legs, however, and took on the form a large humanoid-dragonling.

Ahh, I see, Gulley thought as he prepared to engage in combat. The Dragon didn’t actually lose any scales. It was carrying another force upon its back.

It looks like those are what we’re actually supposed to be fighting in this Dungeon.