Backwoods Dungeon

Chapter Thirty-Four

Sacrificial Chamber

Rio

I wished we had better options, but after circling the outer rim of the prison once more, it became clear that the only chance for escape was walking down one of the glowing hallways. A determined acceptance had overtaken the group as we realized we’d have to fight through whatever trap they had set for us.

I spent the time reviewing my skills for anything that might help us get out of here. There were a lot of choices, but only two of them jumped out at me. “Eagle Eye” was a skill that improved my accuracy with all ranged weapons. That would be great if I had a gun or even a bow.

At least three quivers of arrows had been among the items dropped by the imps but no bows to use them with. Still, everyone who didn’t get one of the daggers or hatchets had picked up an arrow, just in case. Some of us used shoelaces to bind them into a slightly more sturdy grouping of three or four arrows. Hopefully, stabbing the little bastards would be enough if we got desperate.

Still, flimsy arrows were no replacement for actual weapons. Jody lamented his lack of a gun more than once while we prepared.

The other ability that intrigued me was called “Phase.” It, too, had kept its description.

Skill: Phase

Render yourself temporarily incorporeal.

Mana Cost: Low

Skill Level: 0

That seemed incredibly useful. All I needed was one more level to get the skill. Unfortunately, it seemed the rate of level-ups slowed after each progressive gong. I’d gained my first level when I killed a single imp. My second one had come from killing just one of the huge demons. But my traps had killed another one, and nothing had happened.

I was slightly worried that it wasn’t like a level-up system at all. Perhaps there was no hidden experience bar rising steadily as I killed more and more demons. Did I only gain skills and skill points whenever I killed a new type of monster?

I really, really hoped not.

Once we were all armed and ready, we finally decided to set off down the hallway closest to our original cell. However, we sure as hell weren’t walking into a trap without at least a little surprise of our own. If they were going to give us all the time in the world to come to them, then we would take advantage of that.

We didn’t have much to work with, but we did have a lot of cell doors. Cell doors on old hinges that were easy to lift off. They were heavy, but we had eighteen people. While none of us, except perhaps Todd and Jody, were in the best shape, we were all certainly motivated.

We tore off the outer planks to make a thin sort of table that could fit through any of the doors we’d seen in this place. Then we set the table on wheels made from old iron rods we used as axles and lumpy, rusted manacles. The thing clanked loudly enough to wake the dead because the rows of manacles didn’t make for very good wheels, but it was our only idea so far.

We carried it to avoid making too much noise. We were pretty sure they’d be ready for us whenever we got to the center of the prison, but I didn’t want to guarantee it.

I had Jody’s minion take the lead. It held the glowing staff while Todd, Cole, and another man and woman carried the cart. A good shove should at least make it roll into any rooms we found, and then we could pull it with attached ropes if the traps on board killed all their targets or fell out of range.

Of course, there was no door.

The red light grew brighter and brighter the further we walked down the corridor, even as the jail itself got hotter somehow. I finally realized what we were actually looking at when we were halfway down the hall.

A geyser of magma swelled up from below in a steady stream. A bubbling fountain of molten rock. The magma fell off the miniature volcano before pouring into rivulets, leading to hundreds of waist-high basins carved into the stone floor. Some were partially filled with the molten slag, but most were empty.

Waiting for new occupants…

Charred skeletons were tied to wooden stakes inside some of them, and I had a funny feeling I knew exactly what fate awaited us if we failed to escape.

“What… is this place?” I croaked, my throat dry as sweat covered my brow. The only silver lining in this otherwise horrifying hellscape was that there was an ancient crumbling staircase leading down.

“Awaken. Subdue the cursed. Kill the rest. They will join the armies of the dead,” came a sudden, chilling voice.

With those words, the eyes of the charred skeletons all began to glow as they awakened. Bones slipped through taught ropes in a way that human flesh never could as the army of skeletons freed itself. Some of them slipped into the pools of magma, but rather than turning to dust or melting, the skeletons just kept walking forward, their bones now burning with hellish flame.

Thirty. Fifty? Fuck I lost count as I began to tremble.

“Traps… Rio! Traps!” Came Jody’s frantic call.

“Right!” I shouted, returning to myself as I began throwing trap after trap onto the contraption we’d built. They sprung to life, and bolts of ice began pelting the nearest skeletons. The attack enraged them, and they charged us with quick taps of bone on bone.

Some of the skeletons held weapons, but most were unarmed. Even so, my turrets struck them with almost supernatural accuracy. Still, I realized immediately that we couldn't fight out in the open space of this room, with plenty of the basins to trip into.

“Back into the hallway! Lead them in!” I shouted. “Don’t let them surround us!”

I was surprised by the speed at which everyone obeyed. The ropes attached to the platform were pulled taut, and we dragged the mobile turrets back towards the hall we’d come from as a veritable army of skeletons charged us, mouths open, eyes burning in silent but deadly rage.

A line of men and women formed, but it broke almost immediately as a single ambitious skeleton crashed ahead of its peers, straight through the line of defenders. They leaped out of its way due to the fire that was more than hot enough to sear flesh.

I screamed as the skeleton reached out with a burning hand to grab me, targeting me over the people who hadn’t gained a class. Before it could reach me, though, Tessa was there, her fist glowing with crackling energy as she slammed it into the skeleton’s burning spine. It crumpled into a pile of bones, the fire fizzling out as it died. The girl seemed hell-bent on revenge and she slipped through the hole in the line of defenders to start wailing on the skeletons before they could reach the classless people.

Jody was fairing better than the rest of us, the wiry old man’s body hiding muscle and aptitude. He punched at skulls and spines, occasionally sending the skeletons toppling to the floor in inert piles, but he couldn’t do anything about the burning ones. That was remedied quickly as he began using a femur as a club, or just using his own power.

His demonic skeletal minion was perhaps even more effective than my traps. It swung the huge glowing staff we’d given it in a wide arc, simultaneously knocking down three or four of the burning skeletons with each swipe. I didn’t know if Jody was controlling it directly or if it was just following orders, but it seemed to go out of its way to engage the burning skeletons that could hurt the rest of us by mere proximity.

My turrets weren’t idle either as they spewed bolt after bolt of frozen energy. The bolts never seemed to hit any of us while they mowed down the approaching skeletons. One time I was almost certain I saw a bolt pass through one of us to hit a skeleton in front, but I might’ve imagined it.

Not everyone was brave enough to stand and fight skeletons with little daggers and hatchets, either. Carla had run back down the hall, screaming her head off, along with at least five others, Cutting our tiny army by a quarter in an instant.

A kernel of scorn developed in my chest as I swung my dagger of arrows at a skeletal skull before my turret finished it off. What right did they have to run while we were here fighting for our lives?

To my relief, I suddenly heard the gong of a level up and I desperately opened my skill tree to add a point to the phase ability. I wasn’t the only one gaining skills either, as I saw Emily throw a fireball at one of the skeletons. The skeleton seemed to shrug it off, and I cursed the girl for an idiot since we’d just talked about how these demons might be immune to fire. She’d clearly killed at least one of them and gained the Wizard class, though, so maybe she would be useful against other enemies.

If we survived.

“H-how are we doing?” Jody asked as we backed up, the army of skeletons seemingly growing thicker in the chamber beyond rather than thinner.

“Not good!” I said softly. I watched in horror as a skeleton holding a broadsword sliced a grievous wound on a man’s chest, only for a blast of light to send it and the skeletons behind it toppling back. Chester seemed to have an attack that was as effective as Emily’s fireballs were useless. The Cleric then directed his healing toward the sliced man while trying to drag him back.

Tessa was gone, somewhere in the deluge of bones well beyond our defensive line, but I knew she was still fighting due to periodic flashes of electricity that sent bones flying.

“We aren’t winning!” I said as I threw out still more turrets. I picked up a bunch of gold that we’d set up down the hallway, restoring most of my batteries before laying out a few more traps on the ground.

I looked up, about to rejoin the fight, only to see a pair of skeletal hands wrap around Cole’s head and twist.

The man fell to the floor in a crumpled heap before being swarmed by bony legs as we retreated ever further.

Jody hadn’t been idle himself, as he now had an army of three skeletons. The demonic one was far more powerful than the others, and it was difficult to tell them apart from our enemies. He had to keep raising more of them because our own people kept swinging at what they thought were easy targets.

Another neck snapped as we backed further away, our tiny army of thirteen thinning to eleven. Then ten, as a sharp scream was cut off.

Someone else started throwing out the same bursts of golden light that Chester was using, but I watched in horror as bony hands grabbed the new classer and hauled him back into the mass of bones before he died too.

Nine. Bile rose in my throat.

“Any ideas, boss lady!?” Jody shouted, even as a second gong sounded in my mind. They were dying easily enough, but there were far too many of them.

I didn’t have any solutions, though. My class was all about escapes and assassinations. Long-range wouldn’t help. I could try to get a trap, but I didn’t think it would be more effective than my ice traps already were. I got the feeling it would just make them stronger. I needed some sort of area ability.

Hoping against hope that I wasn’t being an idiot, I put a point into the Frostbite Trap and threw one of them out.

The drain was horrendous. My batteries were depleted instantly, but I could at least use one of them. The trap looked almost exactly the same as the regular ice traps. The glow was a tad brighter, an orb of neon blue rather than a candle.

The trap exploded as a nova of blue energy erupted out from it. All of the skeletons within five meters of the trap frost froze, stopping dead in their tracks. Those that didn’t merely stop crumbled instead, the unholy life they’d been given snuffed out instantly by the wave of frost.

The trap didn’t stop there, though. As more skeletons came, it released multiple bursts that froze them all, giving us a much-needed breather.

Chester, meanwhile, knelt down behind the cart and began pushing the new trap towards the oncoming horde. He could barely move the heavy door on his own, but Jody and another woman I didn’t know joined in, pushing the frost novas further into the horde.

I looked as far down the hallway as I could, spotting an end to the tide of skeletons. A glimmer of hope appeared in my heart. Bursts of electricity were still going off, proving that they hadn’t managed to subdue the surprisingly effective monk yet, but I didn’t think she could last forever in that tide of bones.

“They’re thinning! Push forward! Get to that staircase!” I shouted, and my words seemed to invigorate us as I joined in, pushing the Frostbite trap even further while picking up every stray coin I could find to get more mana. I needed to be nearly full in order to create that devastating trap, and I still needed a lot more gold to make another one.

Fortunately, the skeletons were free with the gold pieces, many of them dropping swords, gold, or potions for us to use. Our army greedily scooped up new items and used them as fast as they could.

I even saw Carla return to the fight, finding her courage after all now that the enemies were frozen solid. I was in no position to be picky, though, as I watched the woman swing a mace I knew we hadn’t had before this fight started. It crushed through frozen bones like a wrecking ball.

She backed away briefly before a surge of energy hit me like a fresh breeze. A wave of comforting blue light emanated from the woman as she returned to the fray, rage overtaking the terror she’d held before as she swung the blunt mace with wild fury. Some sort of aura ability?

I didn’t care as we charged through the line of skeletons, just as my nova trap fizzled and vanished, the cart rolling haphazardly over bones as we pushed. Tessa appeared suddenly, a manic gleam in her eyes as she kicked and punched like she’d been a martial artist all her life. Hell, maybe she had.

“Run!” I screamed, pointing towards the opening as I threw out two more normal ice traps. I didn’t have the energy for another Frostbite, but I slowed and snatched up as many coins as I could while tripping over the sea of bones the hallway had become.

Two more of us fell, their necks broken by the unholy skeletons, but Chester, Carla, Tessa, Jody, Emily, Todd, one other survivor, and myself all barreled through toward the breach in the wall of bones.

Surprisingly few remaining skeletons were in the sacrificial chamber, and the way to the staircase down was open. Even the fastest skeletons couldn’t keep up with us when we could fully sprint.

‘God, let it be a way out,’ I prayed as I reached the ornate stone steps just behind Jody and Tessa.