The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (read me like a book .txt) 📖

less than a second, severing its spinal cord in the process.  Behind the others, more Cohort seemed to materialize out of thin air, directing their own attacks at the armored Gnolls.  Most were successful, but one pair had gotten into position late, and the monster – after seeing what happened to its fellows – immediately swung its sword around in an arc, blindly slicing the air.

Two Cohort members suddenly appeared, their throats slit cleanly through from the attack.  They collapsed to their knees, one hand dropping to their bottomless bags to grab a Potion, while the other attempted to stem the flow of blood.  Marvus knew there was no hope for them, though; not because of the Gnoll, which had been quickly swarmed by the other Cohort members that had appeared, but because they wouldn’t be able to drink the Potion itself.

Gerthin, their resident Assassin, told him once that without a Healer-Class to help them, slit throats were the worst type of wound and usually meant death.  Even if they splashed some of the Healing Potion on their wounds, regardless of its strength, all it would do was close up the external portion of the wound.  It would continue bleeding inside, and it was a very rare person that could swallow liquid at that point, especially when their windpipe had been severed – as these two had been.

Within seconds, the two had bled out so much that there was no hope of saving them, even if they had the means.  However, the danger in the room had been eliminated, including the Kitsune up above, as a half dozen Cohort had managed to climb up and dispatch them all.  Sadly, one of them got a point-blank shot from an arrow into his eye, killing him instantly, so they ended up losing a total of 3 in their endeavors.

It wasn’t the first time Marvus wished they had some Melee and Casters in their Cohort, but they were few and far between.  There were some much higher-Level members of different Classes in their Raider sub-group, but none that were willing to work under Marvus – he’d have to work under them, which was something he’d rather avoid.  Still, it would’ve helped a lot during this battle, because spell-casting was much more effective in taking out ranged-based monsters, and having someone other than him hold the attention of the Gnolls would’ve prevented him from losing the attention of the one that had killed two of his crew.

Looking around at his now 14-strong Cohort, he saw that morale had taken a big hit because of the deaths.  “Nice execution, everyone.  If I’m correct – which I think I am, based on how close our payday feels – this next room should be the Boss of this dungeon.  Once that’s dead, we can collect our spoils!”

Ragged cheers rang out, not quite enthusiastic, but determined, nonetheless.  Greed – it’s always a great motivator.  With that, they collected the loot from the slain Gnolls and Kitsune – which included a few much-needed Minor Healing Potions and 25 silver coins – as well as their own dead, and moved on.

Nothing can stop us now.

Chapter 10

This isn’t good.

The Boss Room appeared innocuous enough, even though it was quite dark.  Just a bunch of trees – what could be scary about that?  A quick look up into the branches revealed no Kitsune waiting to rain death down on them, and there didn’t seem to be any of those annoying foxes hidden in the tree roots.  There were a few traps that they had identified, though it took Derf and a few others that had higher Disarm Trap skills to eliminate them.  After that…nothing.

At least until they ventured near the middle of the room – or so he estimated – which was when the howling started.  A deep-rooted instinct of Marvus, some primal warning, took hold and caused him to freeze in his tracks involuntarily.  Moving just his eyes, he could also see that everyone else with him had frozen as well, a few of them actually shivering – and he couldn’t blame them.  The sound of a hundred howls coming at them from every side was deafening, and all he wanted to do was cover his ears and curl up in a ball on the ground.

NO!  These are just wolves!

Marvus shook himself out of his frozen state, his knees feeling like jelly after being locked into rigidity.  When he caught his balance and recovered, he immediately slapped Gerthin across the face, hard enough to leave a mark but not actually injure him.  The Assassin’s eyes cleared and he looked at Marvus, nodding his head.

The next moment, the Cohort leader and Gerthin were slapping the faces of the rest of the crew, snapping them out of their sudden fear.  None of them said anything – though they all acknowledged their thanks with a nod of their head or by mouthing the words – mainly because the howls were so loud that Marvus could barely hear his own thoughts.

Abruptly, as if they were waiting for them to all recover from their initial fear, the howling stopped.  Strangely, the sudden silence was even more frightening than the deafening howls.

“Get ready, I think they’re co—”

The first of the wolves entered the ring of light around the Cohort crew – which was created by their Amulets of Illumination – and immediately attacked, jumping or charging ahead, teeth bared in snarls of hungry anticipation.  One of them hopped straight for Marvus, and he turned to the side to avoid its snapping jaws, slicing with his long dagger in one swift movement.  The fur and flesh parted easily, cutting the side and even the bones of the wolf with remarkable effectiveness.  In fact, by the amount of damage he had done, he would say that these wolves were weaker than the ones they had fought…6 rooms ago?  8?  He had lost