The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 1

Level 9/10

Heart 129600/129600

Experience 6800/32400

Workers 9/43

Monsters 1/45

Traps 59/99

Rooms 65

Food 2401

Timber 804

Iron 1134

Steel 605

Charcoal 0

Mana 44

Rock 2968

Gold 5305

Leather 402

Leather Sludge 300

Lava 100

Glass 800

Explosive Runes 5

Triggered Explosive Runes 0

Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5

Quest: Reach Tier 2

Quest: Get 10,000 gold

It was weird, but so long as everyone was in the library and just saying they were researching Timesink, Travis noticed the research time tick by even if they were discussing combat and recent events.

He'd been chatting with Tannyr while she dug, discussing what kind of rock he was filled with, when the wall in front of Tannyr collapsed into a huge cave. "Tannyr, run!"

One of your minions has uncovered a cave dragon nest.

Tannyr didn't seem to need a further invitation. Turning on her heel, she started to run and then a blast of sound slammed into her—knocking her to the ground. Something dark and wrapped in shadows even a kobold could barely see through rushed from the hole.

Through the darkness of it, Travis could sense wings, claws, a long neck and tail, as well as a scaled hide. The dragon arched its neck and seemed to aim its head at Tannyr—something vile and green leaking from the corners of its maw.

Reacting fast, especially when Tannyr didn't seem to get up and move right away, Travis dropped a fire wall in the gap right before the dragon's head. The spray of green stuff (that Travis assumed was either acid or poison) hit the flames and was halted, but the dragon wasn't completely stopped by that.

"Get up and run!"

The command echoed in Tannyr's head. She'd heard Travis ask her to do a lot of things, and she'd volunteered to do plenty more, but she'd never felt an aching need in every limb to stand up and run. Her limbs felt possessed, and before she knew what she was doing she was scrabbling on the tunnel floor and running down tunnels as fast as she could.

"What do I do? What do I do?" The command, more than the fear, drove her on. Down one tunnel, around a corner, then a few more of each and she was at the T intersection that led upward or into the twisting tunnels.

She was just about to turn up the stairs when the rock face before her crumbled as Penelope's pickaxe ripped through it. Tannyr didn't hesitate for a second. There was a pull of safety in the visage of the dungeon's boss that made her hum with excitement.

"Have any gone upstairs, Trav?" Penelope looked into the darkness of the tunnel and, at the far end, saw the dragon that had chased Tannyr. It was running toward them and she could feel a chill down her spine. "Wild? Brayden?"

"Nothing's upstairs. This is the first one to come out. It said there's a nest!" Travis said.

Slipping past Penelope, Wild drew his axes and stalked forward to meet the dragon halfway. Behind him was Brayden, who was already beseeching his god to offer protection to everyone around him.

"I'm coming too. You might want to send my brother up to get Fife and Jack to come down here." Katelyn stepped through the gap and, when Penelope nodded to her plan, waited for Robert to come through as well before she gestured at the gap and closed it up with rock. "Trav, we got this."

Wild reached the dragon first and dodged its snapping bite. His axes moved like snakes, striking against the thick hide of the creature—the first skidded along the scales but the second bit into its shoulder before he drew it back to keep his momentum up. "It's plenty long enough. If you can't get a clear shot here, aim for the back, Katelyn."

While they'd been researching, Katelyn, Wild, and Ludmiller had been discussing tactics, and this was one of the big ones. It was hard to keep her spells from harming Wild or Ludmiller if she launched them against the monster close by, but landing the spell at the back would make it safer—which is what Katelyn did. With a snap of her claws and a flare of power, an intense burst of flame blistered and burned the rear of the dragon, forcing it to try to get away from the attack and open itself to attacks from Wild.

Gleefully, Wild brought down both axes on the dragon's neck as the beast screamed and tried to run away from the searing heat. Opposite him, having moved with an enviable speed and grace, Penelope had to jump over the dragon as it passed while bringing her daggers down and into its spine.

Screaming, the dragon turned on Penelope as the last one that hit it and sank its teeth into her arm. Twisting, it threw her aside and turned to confront Wild next—only for a beam of searing fire to lance through it.

With the dragon crumpling beside him, Wild worked fast to slice through its neck and sever its head. "You alright?"

Brayden was already working, gesturing with his hand at Penelope, he whispered, "Brogdar, heal her." It was still such a surprise at the fierce amount of power his god was giving him. He let it flow into Penelope, and a searing green smoke boiled out of the wound a moment before it closed. "Poison."

Watching her skin finish knitting and her scales reassert themselves over the wound, Penelope stood up. "We need to guard this spot to stop them getting past us. When Fife and some more firepower get here, we can go down further."

While they waited, they were all tense. None of them were willing to put their weapons away in case another dragon surprised them.

Travis watched as everyone upstairs started marching down with Fife at the lead. Even Ludmiller joined them, leaving the boss room unguarded. "Fife had to be woken up. Jack and the other party are coming down. Luddy's coming too."

Stomping down the stairs, Fife looked around and spotted her friends. "I hear you have a problem with dragons?" She was well aware of all the relieved looks everyone gave her as she walked past them. Bumping her fist with Brayden, Penelope, and finally Wild, she rolled her shoulders and started forward. "Okay. Keep behind me. We have so much firepower that I don't want anyone but me going toe to toe with these things. Anyone recognize them?"

Shaking his head, Wild said, "They're definitely a dragon of some sort. Poisonous bite, scales that are hard to cut through, and Travis told us there were two different ranged attacks—one is concussive, the other is either acid or poison, he doesn't know which."

"Trav! I call dibs on the first adamantine shield you can make! You hear me?" Looking down the tunnel, Fife grunted. "And I need some more light. We all will. Pen, can you take care of that?"

It wasn't a surprise to hear her wanting such a shield. Travis had heard that adamantine equipment was nearly impervious to all damage. "Tell her she's got it. She'll also get to be a floor boss around then, too. Robert has some light sticks in the dungeon storage, you should be able to pull some out."

Pulling two such light sticks out, Penelope lit them both up in one hand and made sure they were pointed forward. "He says you got it, Fife, but you'll be getting your scales about then, too."

The march down the hallway was accomplished with some haste, but no small amount of care. Fife didn't want to trip or leave her support behind. When she reached the corner and peeked down, she had to wait for Penelope to move up behind her and point the light sticks around so she could see. "Crap. Back up!"

There was neither room nor time for Fife to back away from the corner before a dragon charged toward her. Bringing her shield up, she had barely a moment before it opened its mouth and screeched. Like Penelope and Wild just behind her, Fife snarled at the sound that threatened to shove her down and stun her.

The backline of the group would have fared far worse—if not for Ogmera's quick reaction. When she heard the call to back up, she figured exactly the kind of bunched-up situation Fife was trying to avoid. Thrusting her palm forward, she put up a wall of air just in front of Brayden.

When the dragon drew back and seemed ready to breathe again, Fife pushed forward and delivered her shield to its face with a resounding crunch sound. The dragon coughed and spat its poison instead of spraying it—which Fife caught on her shield and laughed away. "Come on, back up and give us some room ya big chicken!"

Travis was in awe of Fife. She bodied the dragon back down the tunnel, shoving her weight into it again and again to make room at the corner for her support to get around it. So effective was her bullying of the beast that she backed it all the way up to the intersection that led to its nest.

Katelyn, with two other fire wizards beside her, put together her best fire spell and unloaded it on the back of the dragon. Molten fire formed a huge ball that rolled over the dragon and lingered atop it. At the same time a pair of fire lances shot out, one from each of the wizards, to impale the dragon's wings and open gashes in the membranes.

Jack, without a good target to use his ice magic on, instead aimed right in front of Fife. When the dragon closed its mouth after snapping at Fife, he froze the thing's jaw closed.

The combined work was enough to get the dragon extinguished without any further problems—Fife didn't even take a single hit. "Alright, Pen, get me some light into this place."

That meant Penelope had to edge around Fife and slip in behind her at the same time Fife took up position in the tunnel that led down to the cave. There were no dragons in sight, but Penelope felt a great annoyance at the monsters being present—like she was meant to be the only dragon in the dungeon. In the distance, beyond what the light sticks could reveal, she watched two dragons move into sight and start coming down the tunnel. "Two more coming, Fife."

"Moving up!" Fife marched into the tunnel far enough to reach where the first two rooms joined it. "Brayden, are you still with me?"

"Yeah, Fife, you know I can't follow anyone else's ass into battle!" It was old, comfortable banter. It was also how Brayden reassured Fife that he would have her back if she needed his healing magic.

"Great. Keep watching. Wild, Luddy, check out these two rooms and tell me if there are any dragons in them. Pen, keep that light up for me." Fife waited, finally seeing the two dragons ahead of her looking down the tunnel toward her, both appearing less than eager to approach.

"Clear!" Wild said.

"Clear here, too!" Ludmiller said.

When both had stepped behind her, Fife started advancing again. "Okay. Ladies and fire mages, burn me some dragons!"

Just as Katelyn was getting ready to unleash, she felt Travis' mana spell wash over her. The staff in her hand practically exploded into sparks and, instead of the small concussive blast she'd planned, a huge ball of fire expanded to about three times the normal size it would have been, then evaporated to leave a hole in the air itself.

Fife knew she should have been terrified of what Katelyn had done, but the concussion of the mid-air cavitation actually blew the head off the second dragon and seemed to break the tail of the first one almost in half with the force. That it almost knocked Fife herself unconscious was a minor thing. "Ha! Give it to them!"

More blasts, though not from Katelyn, rained into the surviving dragon. The damage it had taken from the concussion had left it dazed and not fast to respond to further strikes. It did get up against Fife and snap at her, gouging at her shield with its fangs and the talons of one foreleg before it brought the other up and raked her shoulder.

Leaving her wound to Brayden, Fife braced behind her shield and drove it into the dragon's face, shoving the monster back and stunning it with the force of the impact. More fire spells lashed the beast, leaving it to drop at Fife's feet. "Another two rooms to check. Same again—Wild and Luddy!"

When the two side rooms were declared cleared too, being empty, Fife marched to the entrance of the cave. Inside was what looked like a mound of rock with an opening in it. A little light revealed it to be the exit of some kind of tunnel. "Okay. We have this nest thing ahead and to the left. Priority is dragons first, then the nest. I'm sure attacking it will have some more come out. Everyone ready?"

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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.