The Charismatic Glass Cannon

We stood up and I took a look around the corner. At least ten pigeons were waddling towards us from down the hall. They looked mad. I don’t know how I could tell, but they were mad. We started running down the hall the opposite way. After a minute, they were still right on our tail and I was starting to slow down, having pushed my body to its physical limit. One jumped up, flapping its wings and pecked me on the back of the head. I went down to the stone ground. I had taken a point of damage from the peck, bringing me down to 1 HP. I could feel blood pouring down my neck. Jace turned, slicing the pigeon’s neck midair, taking it in his hand, quickly filleting it absentmindedly into two breasts, discarding the carcass with a toss. He did it blazingly quick. Jace would beat all the time trials on those cooking shows my wife loved to watch.

A few other pigeons flew overhead liquid pigeon poop splashing to the ground narrowly missing us, sizzling on the ground as smoke rose where the poop projectiles hit stone. Other pigeons were catching up now as I got back to my feet. Jace took the rear, punching another pigeon out of the air going for a peck. I opened my inventory and selected the bottle of health pills and threw one in my mouth. I put the bottle back, heading towards an upcoming 90-degree turn, a single wooden door to our right. As we turned down the hall, I was startled to see a band of four people. Four real people.

“Duck!” said a kid, his hands outstretched, electricity building between his fingertips.

We did as we were told and ducked as he thrust out his hands. Electricity crackled as a lightning bolt leaped through the air, zapping the pigeons, jumping from one to the next until they were all dead. All that remained was a collection of heavily roasted pigeons smoke rising from their bodies.

We watched the bird corpses sizzle and pop.

“I should make fried chicken,” Jace said.

I turned to look at the group. The lightning-wielding kid looked like he dressed up as Gandalf for Halloween. He was wearing cream-colored robes, a pointy wizard hat, cloak, and tall above the ankle boots. The three other guys behind him were wearing the same loin cloth as I was. They looked like they should be posing for a diversity campaign for a nerd-meets-caveman niche. The one dressed in the matching cream wizard outfit was a white guy. One of the kids was of African descent, another Asian, and there was another white guy.

“We owe you guys our lives,” Jace said. “They were gaining on us.”

“Don’t mention it,” said the cream-robed wizard kid. “You guys are the first living people we have seen, so we are glad to see other people that are alive down here. I’m Derk.”

“I’m Kevin,” said one of the kids, the Asian. Kevin was the only one that had a weapon. He had a knife in his hand that glowed green.

“I’m Jayden,” said the kid of African descent.

“I’m Chad. Burp,” said the last, the other white guy, finishing it with a burp. He was swaying slightly.

To my shock, a beer appeared in his hand. He punched a hole in the side with a piece of metal and popped open the top, shotgunning it. It looked like a Natty Ice can. After he was finished, Chad crushed the can in his hand and tossed it to the ground.

“He got some power-up beer,” Derk said, seeing our facial expressions. “It has a huge side effect that once he gets sober, he will get hit with a lot of negatives. He has been mostly intoxicated down here, but it gives him a big health boost. He’s been our tank.”

“Well, it’s not the weirdest tank class I ever heard of…” Jace said.

I noticed there were two bodies on the ground. One looked like a guy in his thirties and the other in his sixties. Their bodies were frozen like the bodies we had seen before. Both were wearing matching pants and shirts. White linen like you would see someone on the beach wearing. I would be jealous that they had clothes if not for my muscled physique. Their clothes were cemented in place gravity and wind no longer having power over them. The gravestones read:

[Sam Johnson]

[Denver, Colorado]

[Slain by enslaved orcs]

[Hank Johnson]

[Denver, Colorado]

[Slain by enslaved orcs]

“These enslaved orcs must be pretty tough. We have seen a few others slain by them,” I said.

“Us too. We just came across these two when we bumped into you guys,” the wizard Derk said.

“Where you guys from?” Jace asked.

“We go to DU. We were the ones from our group with no local family. Once everything was cut off, we made our way into the dungeon and have made our way here. You guys?”

“We are from the Denver area. We are sure glad to see some other real people down here,” Jace said.

The looks on their faces suggested that these college kids had seen some real fucked up shit down here so far. I noticed Kevin was holding his side. He was bleeding.

“You okay, man?” I said to Kevin.

“I got impaled by a vine earlier,” he said. “We ran out of health potions.”

“Here,” Jace said handing him over one of his health potions. “Take one of ours.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it,” Kevin said as he popped the stopper and chugged.

Within moments, he stood up straighter, no longer holding his side.

“The doors have started to open. More and more monsters are roaming around. Everything those doors locked inside are coming out. We have had some pretty rough encounters recently,” Derk said.

“Yeah, we were just kidnapped by a gang of frogs and barely escaped,” Jace said.

“Frogs?” Kevin said. “I hate frogs.”

“That is a pretty sweet spell you have with the electricity. How did you get that?” I asked Derk.

“I got a class from a gold loot box. We found this weird leprechaun guy that I ended up capturing, so I got the loot box. Got me the wizard class. It slaps. Came with a tome and I found another one. First one was chain electricity. It’s been pretty useful. Good with large groups,” he said. “I just got enough mana from my last level I can do it twice in a row now.”

“How much mana does it cost?” I asked, wondering just how different I was.

“With the wizard class, I get more mana. I have 126 mana, and the electricity blast costs 58 per cast. I got another spell from a library room we found earlier too,” he said.

“Hey, you guys are pretty cool. Would you want to, maybe, party up?” Derk asked.

I looked at Jace, and I could see the look of relief on his face. I didn’t have to ask. I felt the same way.

“Yeah, Derk, we would. It would be nice to have some friends out here.” I replied.

“Same, man,” Chad said. And then he belched one seriously impressive belch, and we laughed, all of us. It was the first good laugh I’d had since leaving my family at the doors of this nightmare.

Jace clapped and rubbed his hands with pleasure. “Such occasions are normally inaugurated with a feast, yes? Something hearty, that pairs well with a good, cheap bear. So how does Alpha Dire Pigeon sound to you boys–” he said being cut off.

The door next to us creaked, then exploded out. I shielded my face from the splinters. When I looked up, I saw what looked like a minotaur but with a wide set of pointy antlers charging towards the four kids. Before I could react, the minotaur scooped up the four kids in his antlers and pinned them to the wall. Derk was skewered right through the neck, his body limp. The other three looked pretty hurt, having just been impaled and slammed into the wall. The minotaur backed up, and Kevin, Jayden, and Chad fell from the antlers, getting to their feet. A bow materialized in Jayden’s hand, and he lifted it up to take a shot, but the minotaur slashed out a clawed hand. The bow was now snapped in two, and Jayden had large wounds across his chest and face.

Jace took out his cleaver, moving forward to strike the minotaur now between us and the college kids. Jace jumped towards the ground under the minotaur, trying to get under the creature. I presumed he was trying to go for a genital attack, or else what he was doing would make no sense. Jace was taken by surprise when a minotaur hoof kicked back, hitting him in the chest, sending him flying behind me and slamming him into a wall. By the time I looked back at the creature, having been focused on moving out of the way of Jace’s flying body, Kevin was being dropped from the minotaur’s grip, having had his neck snapped. Only Jayden and Chad remained alive, and Jayden was severely injured. Chad had a short sword and stabbed out, getting multiple strikes on the minotaur as it was focused on Jayden. The minotaur looked injured blood dripping from multiple areas.

I had to do something, and I had only one thing I could do. I sent out my orb, and it exploded, the brightness being turned up for a brief moment, even brighter than before. Jayden, Chad, and the minotaur dropped to the ground, holding their ears. I started forward, hoping to pull them out and away from the beast–whatever I could do with my scrawny body. But as I approached, after only like two freakin’ seconds, the minotaur shook his head and stood. He looked completely unfazed. Unlike Chad and Jayden.

Before I could even think of what to do next, the minotaur slashed out at Jayden and Chad, dropping them both to the ground. Sprays of blood dripped down the stone wall. The minotaur turned towards me and started heading closer. Blood dripped from numerous wounds as the creature limped in my direction. He looked like he was on his last few HP, but so was I. I was always on my last few HP. I glanced behind me, seeing Jace still slumped against the stone wall, looking unconscious. The minotaur was now within striking distance, and I was at a loss of what to do other than to turn and run.

A blue, crackling light shot out, causing the minotaur to suddenly tense and convulse in pain, a thin smoke rising from his singed fur. I looked over to see Derk, electricity pouring forth from his hand. Then the spell stopped. For a moment, Derk still held aloft one pale, shaking hand. He coughed once, a wet and bloody cough, before his body went limp and he fell. The minotaur collapsed right on top of me, sending me to the ground, my head clunking against the stone and pinning me down. My vision went dark.