It was a cold day when my lungs gave out. The blood I’d been coughing up came forward with a viciousness I hadn’t quite felt yet.

  Scraped raw and empty I turned away from the disgusting mess I’d made on the floor. Out of all my internal organs, I wasn’t even sure if these one was the worst abused, but they certainly had given up the ghost the fastest. My life ebbed as my body struggled to keep the blood in its designated pathways, cells turning blue as they strained to function without oxygen. I grabbed the health potion from the table and forced it down my throat. It was quite possibly the most difficult thing to get down I had ever drunk, the elixir trickling down a ruined oesophagus. I knew it would take a while to take effect, as it first had to do heavy work on my liver and kidneys before it could spread to the rest of my body. It was my last one, and my most potent.

  “Best till last." I muttered, bloody flecks spitting outward from my ruined mouth. I grunted in pain as everything started to pull into its right position. Flesh literally growing over and grasping holes in my skin closed, subtly misaligned bones like my jaw pulled back into proper position. A hot glow spread through my body as it was entirely mended, the totality of the damage causing gentle burning from my stomach to my toes. That hot feeling persisted for a moment, like the afterglow of three magically reinforced beers, and then it was gone, the excess healing energy fading. Perhaps it would boost my vitality some for a while, Gods know I needed it.

  When the pleasant feeling subsided I had to force myself to my feet. I stumbled as I set out on shaky legs, currently unused to having to walk anywhere. Most of my crippled life had been spent sitting down and drinking myself to sleep in one chair or another in fact. There wasn't much cause to walk anwhere, although there was a lot of leaning to grab the fuller bottles of booze lying around from whatever perch I was in that moment. It wasn’t as if my weeks had become so bleak as that, drinking myself to death everyday, the noxious fumes inside of me slowly killing me from the inside as I poured in poison from the out… But that was in effect exactly what my routine had become, no matter how I framed it to myself otherwise.

  All sorts of substances had raged their way through my body and it was only now with this last potion I had taken, I felt they had all been cleared again. I ran my hand through the thick hair I had grown atop my head and let my other hand unclench around the neck of the bottle I had reflexively grabbed off the nearby table. My mind felt clearer than it had in the longest time, and I was able to think as many sober thoughts as I wanted without a headache ravaging through me. My legs still felt unsteady however, unused to as I was to their responsiveness. It was weird how aligned my body felt, how comfortable it was to slouch and walk. A clear lack of chronic pain was within me, I doubted many could claim bodies as twisted as mine had been.

  Before long my hand was rested upon the wooden door knob that guarded the entrance of my domicile. I turned it to the right and stumbled out into the dew. I had half a mind to burn down the place behind me. I was sure it was a stinking mess by now, those rotted boards surely holding nothing of value in them. My strong steps quickly took me to the village town I lived by, the subtle noise of a living habitat greeting me. Dirt paths started to smooth the way, trodden passageways guiding me. A few people whispered in the streets as they saw me, grumbling about washed up adventures. A few more whispered about homeless vagrants with a similar lack of welcome. Wether they knew him or not it seemed there was a general feeling of derision towards him-and fair enough; He didn’t exactly look the friendliest, and he could bet he didn’t smell it either. He was bent unnaturally inwards and didn’t look unthreatening. The mass of hair obscuring his features also went far to prevent any from getting a good read on him. He walked past many wooden buildings without regard, most of them oversized shacks more than anything else, and eventually reached the delving supplies store he was looking for. His hand rested heavily against the door and he leaned against it to open it. He stepped inside with the gait of a man doing his best to catch himself, taking a split second to stand steadily before he said anything. “Do you have my equipment” He asked from over the top of the few rows of shelves in the room.

  “Of course Sir, It’s just in the corner there,”

  “I appreciate it if you’d hand me it then,”

  “of course” The same man responded, dropping the honorific this time. I stumbled to the countertop and waited as the man walked to the side, carefully bundling the sword and shield into his arms after swinging a stocked pack over his shoulders. I scanned my hands over my weapons. I could have simply kept them with myself, but it was much better to station them here. That way they could at least have some regular maintenance and they wouldn’t clog up space in my home. I swung the pack over my shoulder and grabbed the sword and shield from his hands. My scabbard was already attached to my belt, and belatedly I realise it would have been a good idea to leave it with him for easier sword storage. I gave a grunt as I inspected the weapons in my hand before I stowed them into their scabbard and back harness, the metal of the shield sliding down my padded back underneath my filled knapsack.

  “And take this with you man,” The store owner said to me. He threw something towards me and I caught the small pack of jerky out of the air. “You look like you could do with some sustenance.” I grunted in agreement and nodded in thanks towards him. Jerky wasn’t on the list I’d left, but this was also something I wasn’t going to complain about. I stuffed one of the sticks in my mouth as I left, before tying the pouch off to the side of me.

  I trudged through the streets on the way out, muttering from the townsfolk following me once again. The complaints were a bit quiet now though, on account of the weaponry at my side and back. I even got some nods of acknowledgement from others walking through the streets, a few brave townsfolk and adventures recognising me as one of their own. If they expected a nod back they were disappointed, as I was much too tired to lift my head in return. By the time I reached the entrance by the guard post I felt as if half the whole town had gotten a good look at me, and I was sure that those few people who lived here who actually knew who I was would be aware of my movements before too much time passed.

  The man at post at the gate practically jumped when he saw me, shuffling of his high chair to look at least half presentable in front of the vagabond who held some misguided plan to go die in his dungeon. “Halt there sir, Why do you seek to enter the dungeon?”

  I didn’t respond to the request, simply continuing my walk forward. The boy held a pole arm in his hand, doing his best to straighten his back alongside it. Fat lot of the good the weapon would do him, if someone wanted to sneak by him to get into the cave they’d be a lot closer than polearm length before he realized, and I doubted the man knew how to use the haft of the weapon good for anything. “I said halt sir, you need to show me your pass.” The boy stepped back and held the pole arm out straight infront of him, his lead and back leg bending as he prepared to lunge.

  “You’re not gonna stop me mate.” I told him as I continued closing the distance. Still stuck in terrible posture I shudder stepped forward, using my attributes to quickly step to the side of the pole arm. I pushed the weapon to the side by the haft and kept walking into the dungeon. “If you want to tell your supervisor about the homeless man wandering into the dungeon feel free.” The boys stunned face faded behind me as I walked in to the darkness of the cave, the lad probably unused to disgruntled adventures bullying past him in a sleepy town like this.

  The walls were a bit dank for my liking, and I felt a frown cross my features at the dampness. Looks like they hadn’t had a fire mage through in a while. I kept walking into the darkness of the cave until the boundary passed me. I felt the atmosphere shiver as the sudden presence of manna asserted itself, my passage through the dungeons zone and the outside world causing a disruption I was sure it felt. I marginally straightened myself at the change, aware that a certain degree of danger lay ahead. It wasn’t long before I heard the sounds of something approaching. My eyes strained a little to see in the darkness as I kept striding deeper into the construct. The floors were barren and rocky, and the walls were sloped into a tunnel in a way deliberate enough that made it clear they’d been carved out of the mountainside. The skittering I could hear was no doubt the sounds of a low level quadruped monster scrambling to kill me, their sharp claws scraping across the flat stone of the floor as they hurtled towards the dungeon invader. A thin carpet of loose dirt started to cover the way in some places and I assumed that this was the dungeons way of easing passage for whatever clawed menaces it had created.

  When the thing finally entered into view of my retinas I was almost disappointed by what I saw. A small yellow creature with more maw than face. Two antenna like spikes protruding from its furry face and a disorganized eruption of spikes following in a line down the length of its spine. Its back was hunched upwards as it threw itself forward down the hallway. No attempt at stealth was made by the creature, and I supposed the straight, open, one pathed nature of the tunnel necessitated that. Its four legs were all pointed forward and its four clawed feet ended in silvery points that seemed just a little too long to be practical. The result was certainly crude although functional, and when It reached the appropriate distance the monster executed its prepared attack, no planning or forethought present in its tiny brain. It was fast at least, that much it had going for it. It dived up at him through the air, small beady eyes locked on his throat. As it easily flew through the air, it’s hunched back having stretched out and snapped back like a spring to create that motion, it tilted it’s body forward, ensuring that if it’s bite missed its spines would get nicely lodged into my face in order to finish the job. It was not particularly lacking in viciousness, although aiming for the throat was perhaps not as good of a strategy as it thought. Still stepping forward I ducked underneath the incoming blow. My hand shot up with my sword and sliced into the monsters body, messily racking its side and just about slicing through its torso completely as it sailed by overhead. I spared a moment as it fell to check behind me, and satisfied with the lack of ambush I continued on. The tunnel curved a little up ahead but otherwise stayed quite constant and it wasn’t long before I heard the same sounds of skittering from up ahead. It looked like more of the same was due to follow.

  Sure enough, two of the yellow creatures ran down the hall next, the one on my right drawing just ahead of the other. Like before the creatures did not pause once, just kept charging forward until they saw me, two balls of unbridled aggression. The leading animal launched itself at my face again, and the lagging one aimed it self at my stomach. Both leaned forward again, aiming to catch me with as much of their spikes possible. Unperturbed I leaned forward into a free fall, letting my body go limp as my face headed towards the ground. I used the tops of my feet to launch my self forward, suddenly ironing my body straight as I passed between the two flying monsters perpendicularly. There was an almighty crack in the dungeon and I forced myself to repress the gross and pained shudder that racked me. My bent back was forcibly snapped into the right position and the subsequent echoing sound was far from pleasant. I impaled the top monster on my sword through its underbelly as I went, and as I rolled to my feet and sprang around I saw the other monster roll and do the same. It looked like I’d discovered the extent of their abilities at this point, as as soon as it was stable it launched itself towards me once again. I carefully manoeuvred my sword in its path, then I used the corpse of my previous foe to bludgeon it into the ground. I then shook its friend off my blade before treating it to a similar fate. As the sounds of more scampering filled the halls I sighed, resigned to this deathtraps apparent lack of creativity.

  A while later I heard the sounds of at least five different creatures hurtling down the tunnel toward me. Finally it seemed this segment of delving had come to an end. Sure enough, one of the monsters seemed a little bigger than the others, and it loped ahead of the pack with a certain mania in its eyes. It let out a sharp yipping bark as it reached optimum leaping range for it’s large form, but instead of launching straight away it hopped forwards a little and bled some momentum, allowing the others to catch up in order to launch itself at him all together. Sharp spines and slobbering mouths filled the tunnel as the yellow monsters all launched towards him. It was quite an intimidating sight, and quite an effective strategy to boot. With nowhere to doge, and the monster spines glimmering with an unsettling light, I danced back ward in the hallway, attempting to outrange the pack deadly leaps. I made it quite far before the lead monster landed, the others hitting the ground just a second before it. But despite my backpedaling, the boss creature was still quite too close for comfort. That point was definitively proven when it rolled into a ball like the other creatures were want to do. However, instead of slowing down, it seemed to almost speed up as it rolled forward, bouncing straight from the ball into another leap straight towards my torso. I was forced to doge to the side into as it sped off the ground to me, and doing so put me right in front of the lesser monsters who had launched just a second or so after their big boss man. I swung my sword at the lemming poised to impale me and twisted sideways with the motion to avoid his friend that was close to clipping my other side. My blade draw a shallow furrow as I kept stepping backwards, and I felt the sword’s face chip as it came in contact with the strap spines on its back. Regardless I had injured the beast and just avoided its slower leap to avoid damage myself apart from a few spines through my foot, a relatively minor injury all thing considered. As they all landed on the floor again from their leaps and untucked I danced back and speared forward, cursing Impaling the one who had just stuck my foot while it spread out of its ball shaped. My sword entered It’s back with deadly strength, finding a minuscule gap between its over lapping defenses, and as soon as I felt I’d pierced enough to kill it I dived headfirst down the tunnel once again.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I felt a whisper of air as the boss grazed past the soles of my shoes, and I heard the impact as the monster bounced of the world behind me, Rolling on close behind me as it’s underlings readied for another coordinated takeoff. I had a split second as I landed where the monsters again missed my diving form and made to re group. I used the break to charge the monster on the very edge of the corridors left, impalling it through the eye and shaking my sword free as I jumped over it. I felt the eyes of the monsters tracking my back as I attempted to dodge past them, their packs blood still dripping down my sword.

  I loped through their line as fast as I could, and sure enough the scrapping sounds of their leap was upon me all too fast. I dashed passed the small beasts but paused suddenly as the red one launched itself. The sudden drawing of myself to a halt saved me, my body shaking from the abrupt halt as a bristling ball of death flew by me, having come from the side to try stick me through. I dropped down flat to the floor as it hit the wall, the red blur rebounding in my direction for another pass. I gritted my teeth as I got up again, a bit frustrated with the time this was taken. Spinning as I stood I thrust one hand out and the creature about to pounce on me paused. Taking advantage of its hesitation I stepped forward and skewered it. I then ducked down over its body to doge its yellow breathing. The drawing on my mastery of the sword I spun once again and held it out as a spear. My eye narrowed onto the creatures red surface. Taking in the individual hairs on its hide I study the sprouting thorns on its back. Then pointing up into its downward spin I let it skewer itself on my blade, the tang of the weapon suddenly seeming as long and thick as a short spear. As I felt the beast slide down my weapon I retreated, not wanting it to slide far enough down the shaft to puncture me. Its momentum quickly bled on the point of my weapon and before long I drooped it to the ground dead. The remaining mobs suddenly seemed a lot less confident, and with their fewer numbers and more uncoordinated attacks it didn’t take long to finish them off.

  I didn’t spare time to survey the bodies of the monsters I’d defeated, not having much inclination to bring any of them with me. Im sure there was some sort of standing trophy earned from the bosses and valuable organs or spines to harvest but I wasn’t in the mood to skin anything. Nor was I in the position to fight with a bunch of bloody innards loosely tied to my back. It was better to simply get what I came for and leave, especially since I didn’t plan to spend much more time in the town anyways. Although I would miss the quiet little place. Moving on I felt the reward of the dungeon fill me. Very minor healing and a heavy feeling of rejuvenation filling me. Often times many adventures mistake this feeling as full restoration, when really it is not close. While the dungeons would often clear you of minor scrapes and bruises and take away the horrible fatigued feeling from your muscles and brain it didn’t really restore any deep damage within you. That was only ever reserved after you cleared the whole dungeon’s encounters, if it decided to be that generous-and even then you might get a full healing but it wasn’t as if you were even a new body and risen from the dead. You were tentatively restored and feeling back on cloud nine, you needed some time after that healing faded for the over time effects to fully push you past normal. After all, any proper dungeon diver knew that full was so much lesser than overfull. Getting those few buffer points in hp was the only way to feel as if you hadn’t been run through by a manticore tail 12 times in different places and dungeons that provided that experience could be counted with one or two fingers. Ones most humans knew about anyways.

  What followed after that deadly encounter was a riveting walk through trapped after trapped pathway. That was to say about a full half and hour of carefully checking every discoloration and crevice as tripwires and pressure plates covered the surface of the dungeons stone. Eventually through that section he felt the vibrations of a horde of creatures approaching. A dozen or so rat hybrids came out of a cave mouth to greet him. They wore patches of different clothes in some resemblance of a royal court. The impression was severely lacking but enough efforts was there to convey the theme the dungeon was going for, to an experienced adventure at least. After taking care of the enthusiastic crowd of beasts and ignoring their large teeth I came upon the main boss of the dungeon, seated on a large stone mound. The Smoot rock hill stood at the back of the cave almost in lieu of the throne, and the large rodent lay up top it certainly looked the part. While it lacked any of the identifying features of the others it had a clear indent of a collar around its neck where a binding once rested. As it rose to Its feet and started to prowl down its hill he saw it also had a golden gleam in it’s eye. The huge ratatrocity was half yellow spiked beast from before and half overdosed rodent. It had small spikes jutting out of it’s vulnerable underbelly and it’s hide was of the same sturdy state as the red min boss from earlier. Its four large feet were oversized and its rat body was large. Its mouth hid two massive teeth and its nose came to a fairly pointed end. It was a very streamlined creature. I quickly discovered what this was for as it launched itself at me from halfway down its perch on the hill. Its movement was explosive and fast, and I almost didn’t dodge away in time. The current of air as it pushed past was almost enough to make me stumble. Drawing a weak slice across its slide as it passed I was lucky to not get impaled as its large spike of a trailing tail.

  The shaking spike of bone in the rear didn’t appear to be controllable by the rat and yet it remained a promising weapon all the same. I would have to be weary in the case it was holding it for a surprise attack. It watched me with its beady eyes as it circled, quickly loping around me. Once it was in a good enough position it launched itself again, Whipping past me as I swayed in a dodge. I wasn’t in position to strike at its hide as it flew by and the next leap was dangerously close to impaling me from behind. Dancing across the room I dodged countless whipping impacts and drew my blade across its fur whenever I could manage to do so, but overall any damage I did was glancing. Eventually I was able to reach the mound upon which the rat originally rested upon, its displeasure at not bring able to murder me yet expressed through its threatening growl. Once I reached the top of the sculpted hill the attacks were much less frequent, the rat struggling to launch itself up the hill at me in a way that didn’t allow room for counter attacks.

  It quickly ceased the jumping attacks and instead crept up the hill instead, recognizing that if it couldn’t hit me out in the open it couldn’t hit me in this disadvantaged position. I had nothing to do but wave my sword around in the air, preparing it to close the distance. When the beast had prowled close enough its whole body tensed and it launched at me again from about ten feet away. My eyes were wide as I drooped to the floor, the claws of its foot carving a furrow in my shoulder as it passed. My armor was rent and a cut went shallow in my shoulder. Tearing up some muscle but stopping short of bone. My armor quickly began to pull itself back together, repairing itself and helping to seal the wound. I heard the sound of a crash as I tried to push my self up, one arm a lot weaker than the other. Looking behind me I saw the rat with its claws deep in the wall, malevolent eyes fixed on mine as it jumped from its horizontal perch to the top of the mound I rested on. Its spine covered underbelly seemed to shine as it traveled over to crush and impale me. I threw myself to the side from a push up position, my damaged shoulder loudly protesting. I scrambled for a handle hold as I rolled down the hill again, trying to halt my fall as the hill shook with the rats landing. I needed to get back to the high ground before it leaped at me again, harpooning me in mid tumble like a fisherman spearing a shark caught in their webbing.

  Its sniffling snout peaked over the hill as I charged up it, having found my footing again. As its large head pointed down the slope I was already in distance to strike. Leading with my good hand I guided a thrust to the left side of its face. I aimed to slide the sword deep in beside its snout, carving a deep line in its flesh and possible slash up and out, also bling its eye on the exit. Its flesh was thick as its hide though, and I struggled to dig my blade into its tough flesh as I took slowing steps past it. I left go of my blade for a second as I jumped into the air, dodging a swipe of its paw. Its whole body swung around as as I came down, its head jerking around as it sought to snap me up as a mid air snack. I leaned my whole body into its twisting torso, doing an awkward tumbled on my descent as I attempted to reposition. Leading with my feet as I swung out of the cluimst flip I managed to stomp down on my select target. My heavy foot came down hard on the hilt of my blade, all the weight of my landing, landing on the cross guard of my sword. As I sunk down to the floor so did the wooden handle of my weapon sink with me, sending the blade of the sword shooting upwards into the back of the rats face.

  As my feet slipped off the crossguard and onto the floor the rat reared up wards with a screech of pain, its impressive beastly body towering over my own. I pulled the sword from its wound as it reared back, the blade sliding easily from the wound, pointed almost straight up and out of the rat’s skin. I darted under its bristled under belly and came out its other side as swiftly as I could manage, my burst of speed just enough to avoid its slam attack. Mustering as must strength as I could I thrust again as deep into the thing as I could manage around where I imagined the top of the leg joint would be. I tore it out as fast as I could as it shrieked in pained outrage again and tried to loop around its turning backside as it spun to face me.

  Somehow sensing my spin, the rats curving body tensed, and suddenly whipped round to the other side. Its tail flexed and rotated as much as it could, somehow extending alongside the sudden reverse of momentum to impale me. Even having kept in mind the tails potential deadly effect I was surprised at its reach. My blade was readied as I kept dashing behind the creature, and as it swung out with its tail I parried its strike with a swift swing of my own. I let out a grunt of pain as doing so further strained my torn shoulder.

  Despite my parry of its tail the rats head kept turning toward me, not much of its momentum reduced. So using my strong arm I stepped towards its center mass and thrust my blade forward into the area where its skin was most bunching. As it continued to whip around it did most of the work of the attack for me, the rat impaling itself on my sword once again. As soon as its back legs kicked off the ground however my sword was left without much purchase. Unlike before the rat had launched the back half of its body around mid turn, its front claws dug into the ground pointing towards me. This anchored jump allowed it to complete its turn in a quite explosive fashion in about half the time, with my sword quickly slipping out of rat hide that no longer occupied the same physical space.

  With a certain amount of panic within me, I raised my sword in a cross guard across my body and leaped backwards, bracing my body for impact. The rat completed its breakneck turn at never before seen pace and lunged forward to try finally end me. My lead didn’t carry me out of range and time slowed as I saw its beady glinting eyes close on me, widening with perverse hunger at the idea of biting me in half.

  As its large maw started to open and its head tilt sideways in preparation to inhale my mid section I swung my sword forward to gently press against it fierce chompers, drawing upon the aspect of the staff to make it a more effective blocking manoeuvre. I then opened up my palm on the swords hilt, the one attached to my undamaged front limb. I slipped it over the pommel and prepared to exhale wind from it.

  Like before, I felt my spine and bones snap into position. My tired muscles righting and battered skin resting more smoothly. Mana fed all of my pathways enough, igniting my inner paths with the light of activity. Along with the blocked attack of the rat and my own backwards jump, the move was enough to get me safety away from the gnashing jaws of my opponent.

  The small puff of air saw to magnify my speed on top of all my prior movement, sending me hurtling into the wall behind me. The relative use of the word daft leg may have been a bit misleading. Thankfully my harshly tensed back took the bruise well, and the crater I left in the wall was small and would only cause, at the most, slight internal damages. Having been prepared for such an impact certainly saved me much of the loss I would have felt otherwise, as this wasn’t the first slam my back had taken to a dungeon wall. I ran forward once I slipped back to the ground soil.

  The enraged rat had trailed after me, and now the angry fur steam train was set to match my charge. Step for step, respect of each other capabilities grew, and I could tell we both began formulating very loose ‘plans’ for what to do in the inevitable event of our collision.

  Pumping my two human legs against it ratty four I somehow managed to keep pace, and as it jumped of the ground towards me I matched it with a similar leap. The difference between us however, was I wasn’t reliant on physicality alone. Already have an edge over it in speed. I used the residual excitement to my mana to convince the air to move in my favour. My twisting body was suddenly to the side of the rat, its glowing eyes witnessing as I exploded into perfect position.

  My much more impressive jump aligned my outreached blade right with golden point of light within its left eye. Touching on the concept of the spear just the tiniest amount I felt my sword slide in to its small brain. I released the sword once I felt the impact and rolled forward with much reduced momentum. As I came to stand I witness the death throes of the rat as it attempted to slam into me with its tail. The blades weapon ontop of its pink implement grotesquely rotated to attempted to impale me. And with my first feeling of panic since I’d entered into the dungeon I had to lean back with every muscle in my body at once. Just swaying back enough to only receive a small prick in the skin through my leathers. Rolled backwards and stood, looking down upon the neat hole in my chest covering, one that could of very well have gone through to my heart.

  Some steel entered my gaze as I looked at the walls of the dungeon, sensing the mana it must have used in that supernatural last attack. The creature shouldn’t have been able to carry out such a dangerous deathblow. Its mangled tail gave me all the proof I needed as to the true origin of the strike.

  I retrieved my blade from the rats’ eye cavity, stabbing deep into its brain once more for good measure. I then cleaned my blade in its fur before walking into the dark corner behind the mound of dirt throne at the back of the room. I Ignored the chest that was placed there and walked straight through the wall of the dungeon instead, solid dirt crumbing before me. I did not sheath my weapon.