Vraxious- Whispering Grotto- Second Floor

  All four of them stood in stunned awe just a few strides inside the second floor of the dungeon. Vrax was holding the mostly limp, very overfull Spriggan, who kept making creaking sounds and trying to halfheartedly steal his canteen. Jonathan was cursing darkly under his breath, and Torvald had the biggest shit-eating grin of his life. Stereos simply stood silently beside Vrax, taking in the view.

  They stood on a jagged outcropping of stone that jutted out over a veritable abyss. Five strides ahead and slightly below them sat a floating island, a thirty-stride-wide microcosm of thin bamboo-like shoots that had gently curved thorns as long as a man's arm, surrounding a geyser of water that sprayed up above the island every few seconds. Past that and below, more islands floated like transcendent stepping stones all the way into the darkness below and presumably to the next floor.

  Each one of the islands they could see was offset from the others to create a gently curving staircase into the darkness. Different hues of vegetation and luminescence dotted each of them. Off the left side of the outcrop they stood on, another path wound around the edge of the cave, descending downward. Just above and beside the spiraling islands. Making jumping from one to the other possible with the right skills or stat increases.

  The path was a rapidly widening, treacherously steep slope of moist, smooth rocks covered in a deep green moss that seemed to deepen the shadows around it. Sections of it were obscured by sudden drops and tangles of spiderwebs laid over gently glowing crimson trees. The kicker to all of it was the small sign posted on the edge of the outcropping from the dungeon.

  It read, “Welcome to the second floor! This is where I stop babying you! Be aware from here on out there will regularly be threats that are meant to be avoided or outrun rather than beaten down with pointy sticks and magic!” In a glowing verdant green script after the main message, a small addendum was added: “PS Feed me more paladins; you pricks aren’t going to win this pissing match.”

  “Oh goddammit, that asshole is still antagonizing them.” Vrax blurted out, breaking the relative calm and causing the Spriggan to jump slightly.

  Jonathan looked from the slippery slope to the island below them, squinting at serpentine figures darting through the sky near the floating landmass. He sighed deeply. “Slippery-ass rock and spiders? Or a chasm of doom and…flying snakes?” he finished, unsure what he was looking at.

  “Not the spiders.” Vrax said with zero hesitation.

  “Not really worried about the fall…” Torvald said smugly, lifting a few feet off the ground with a flap of his horrid wings.

  “I would rather risk the cruel mistress that is gravity than the depredation of eight-legged horrors that would have best been left in the mind of a dark god rather than unleashed upon the poor mortals of this realm,” Stereos said definitively.

  Everyone looked at stereos with raised eyebrows. “I...don’t enjoy spiders…” He clarified meekly.

  “Okay! Islands it is!” Vrax said, "He managed to stuff the Spriggan back into his garden before taking a few steps back, getting ready to leap from the outcropping to the island below."

  “Come hug Uncle Torvald, my cute little flightless birds,” Torvald said, gesturing to Jonathan and Stereos. Stereos shuffled over without complaint.

  “Should have stayed in the fucking fields,” Johnathan grumbled to himself, but he also shuffled over to catch a ride.

  Vrax leapt, aiming for the densest stand of bamboo; the world was a weightless blur for a heartbeat and another before he crashed smoothly into the thin stands. They bent like welcoming hands, slowing his descent as he slipped free into a light roll on the ground next to the geyser. Vrax slid to a stop, one hand still on the ground, scanning the area around him for threats. The only things around him were green shoots of bamboo and sodden ground.

  Torvald landed lightly next to him, releasing his grumbling cargo. They scouted the small island briefly, but for now it seemed safe. They were just starting to peek over the edge toward the next island when Jonathan let out a huff and pointed next to the geyser.

  “How the fuck did we miss a treasure chest?” He said in disbelief, pointing at a small rock.

  “The fuck are you talking about? That’s a goddamn roast pig!” Torvald said happily, taking half a step forward. Vrax slapped a hand across his chest, holding him back as he looked around. There was the slightest glimmer, almost like a rip in the air above where Jonathan had pointed.

  “No one move a fucking inch that way! I see a beautiful plant dragon of some kind, and I'm not going to lie, I was about to run my ass over there too. That is one hundred percent some kind of bullshit lure. Torvald, get them to the next island. I’m going to jump too; be ready to fight. There is something flying around the next one.” Torvald didn’t question Vrax’s judgment, scooping the others up and leaping off the edge with a quick nod. Vrax saw something in the rip shift impossibly and leapt after Torvald.

  The next island was a simple affair. A massive slate boulder in the center with staircases carved up the sides was surrounded by thick rosebushes that dripped down under the sheer quantity of white flowers dotting them. Vrax landed square into a rosebush less gracefully than normal; it cushioned his fall but also snagged him during his tumble. Torvald was nice enough to quickly haul him out by a leg.

  Jonathan was posted up in front of Stereos, Stereos had both hands moving in slow, almost hypnotic gestures that only he could understand. Red and black mana was whirling around him almost sedately. Immediately Vrax saw why as Torvald batted something from the sky with a herculean swing that sent detached wings drifting into the abyss below.

  A dozen serpentine creatures with silver and blue scales sinuously danced through the air above them. They each had barracuda-like snouts and jutting fangs. The body had a pair of six near-transparent wings evenly spaced along its length that seemed to make the creature's form quiver like a mirage with every beat. Vrax could see slightly below them on the other pathway another adventuring party fighting a swirling school of the creatures as well. He posted up next to Stereos defensively and focused on the new threat. [Masquerade Skyfang Tier-1](lvl40)[Threat: Moderate]

  Oh shit, this might be a bit sketchy; there are a lot of them… But I mean, Torvald already pasted one, so...probably magic nonsense, not much in the way of overpowering physicality…I hope.

  Stereos spoke without slowing his hand gestures. “Keep them occupied, please, and I can clear the sky.”

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  Vrax nodded and got a stupid but fun idea seeing the elusive forms darting back and forth, shifting between visible and not with each wing beat. They were going to be a nightmare to pin down and catch unless they came “Willingly” The bushes nearest to him shriveled in on themselves before breaking into dry husks, and the Thresher burst forth with a curious warble. Vrax leapt onto it and pointed to the top of the boulder. “Hup! Let's go fishing! We're the lure.” The Thresher leapt onto the side of the boulder, scrambling to the top with its powerful legs. “There were stairs…” Vrax grumbled to himself, hanging on for dear life.

  Torvald was swinging his hammer wildly at a pair of the skyfangs; they were deceptive foes attacking in strafing runs, where right before they got within striking range, a smattering of illusions would spiral from them, obfuscating the real attacker. That was in addition to it and its illusions turning invisible on and off constantly. Torvald was having a bad time; he had taken to the air to fight them and was explosively charging around flailing through illusion after illusion while accruing small cuts all across his body. He wasn’t in existential danger at the moment, but he also certainly wasn’t winning.

  Vrax’s brows furrowed as he noticed another small gleaming rip in the air above the island and a scintillating jellyfish floating around it beautifully. He really wanted to grab it to adapt it; it would be perfect for a living decoration in his capitol. Fuck, that's definitely another lure. As if to confirm his theory, one of the skyfangs pulled up from a strafing run at Jonathan towards the “jellyfish.”

  The skyfang made it to just below the slightly glimmering tear in space. Something massive came from absolutely nowhere, simply apparating into reality behind the Skyfang. It was composed of impossible angles and fins twisting and bending in a violent mockery of swimming. Its unfathomable jaws closed over its prey with the buzz you feel before lightning strikes. It passed straight into the tear in the sky and was gone. So was the tear; not a scrap of proof remained behind of what it was or where it went. UUUHHHH, I think I know what this floor’s “environmental hazard” is. What the fuck, dungeon?

  Vrax’s attention was pulled back to his excitedly shivering mount; it had caught the eyes of a hunting pair of skyfangs, and they were slowly fluttering from the sky down to its eagerly quivering claws. Its talons reached up as if in greeting while they were still a few strides away. Vrax nearly fell off his mount as dozens of small, horrific retrievers launched like evil streamers into the sky. The retrievers cascaded across and around the Skyfang's body, skittering across scaled flesh until the umbilicals had an inescapable cutting grip.

  The retrievers slowly began being reeled back to the threshers' waiting maw. The Skyfangs limply drifted downward, unbothered by the awaiting predator or the cords slowly dicing them. That gaze ability is actually absurd... I think giving it even more reach was a terrifying idea.

  Vrax fought from atop the thresher for the next minute, warding off the striking foes with wide waves of his smite. One by one the thresher lured in and then devoured skyfangs; they weren’t terribly large, the size of a hunting dog, but they were tough. It was a gristly affair, the thresher and its retrievers gnawing and pulling at the eyes and neck to get to the vitals underneath, all the while the creature just gently flapped until something vital was eaten. Then the thresher would drop its half-eaten prey down the side of the boulder and attract another.

  Jonathan below was at his absolute limit fighting at least five of the beasts; he was a maelstrom of warding blows. Just doing what he had to do to divert them from Stereos. He lunged side to side, dancing around the still casting mage, his halberd always in motion and the bladed whips on his potted plant snapping out endlessly. Very suddenly Stereos’s mana audibly focused with the sound of breaking glass.

  Stereos pushed both his hands out, palm toward the ground. Then abruptly he flipped them, and every single skyfang still in the area had its wings solidify into useless bloody slabs. All around them the skyfangs rained from the sky, some landing on the island, with most of them plummeting down into the abyss below. With one last flourish, Stereos pulled a javelin of blood from the eye of the nearest skyfang and flung it across the island into the last still-struggling enemy near Torvald.

  “Ahh, that should do it!” Stereos said with noticeable cheer in his exhausted voice.

  “Holy shit! I thought I was going to die,” Jonathan huffed out before simply laying down, arms spread wide onto the floating island. He was mostly unharmed; a few slices on his arms and one painful-looking bite across his halberd hand were the worst of his injuries.

  “Those enemies were utter bullshit!” Torvald raged, thudding his hammer down into a few of the wingless bodies just to make himself feel better. He looked like he had rolled around in a field of razor blades and fangs. Other than that first lucky hit he had gotten off, he hadn’t managed to kill a single other creature.

  Vrax was still staring at stereos with even more newfound respect. “God’s people should be afraid of you, not me.” He said and looked at the shattered bodies dotted across the island.

  Stereos nodded slowly. “Given time and protection, I am imminently dangerous to most living beings, but unlike you, if I am slain, it will probably not result in a dimensional rupture that spills horrors that could end most civilized countries in the world.” Vrax raised a finger to refute the backhanded comment but put it back down. Yeah, no, that's fair. If I die with a garden full of Duchess, daisies, and dandelions, there's a fair chance wherever they spill out is pretty fucked.

  Vrax spent a few minutes using his cisterns to drain the island's rosebushes and push healing energy into his party members, sealing the myriad of cuts and healing all but the deepest of bites. One of the rosebushes was obscuring a small, easily missable lever near the boulder. Torvald pulled it the second he saw it.

  A slight grinding noise attracted everyone’s attention. The staircase in the boulder slowly slid up and out of the way, revealing a short downward staircase. That led to a massive cathedral-like room. Vrax paused for a moment in confusion and pulled up the achievement the dungeon had given them on their first visit.

  [Godsbane Dungeon Pass]

  I am so old and so bored that when someone outside the mold like you two comes along, I invite them to the real game, the real challenges I have toiled over for a millennium. Get a bit stronger—well, a lot—so you don’t immediately turn inside out; that would be no fun after all. Then delve to the second floor of the whispering grotto; there you can find a way to the real fun. Fight the guardian, and this little achievement will open a hidden way. Come meet with me in the place I have been building since the gods broke Elysium. (Note for Vraxious and Torvald, Red may be an insufferable prick, but he didn’t abandon you. Go get him unstuck from my trap. P.S. You can’t talk about this achievement with anyone who doesn’t ’have it. The whole secret dungeon club wouldn’t be any fun if any idiot could wander in and get eaten.)

  Vrax chuckled for a moment at the memory of Red entranced by a dream slug and trying to seduce the air. “Soooo who wants to bet that a guardian mighhhttt lurk in the hidden giant room in the center of a floating island?” Vrax said cautiously.

  “One way to fucking find out!” Torvald said confidently, stepping down the stairs.

  “Guardian?” Jonathan groaned from his heap on the ground.

  “Ehhh, can’t talk about it yet...just, uhh, follow us and enjoy the essence gains.” Vrax said quickly, skirting down the stairs to get ahead of Torvald and scout for a moment before Muscles just charged whatever was there without a plan. Holy shit, this ought to be good.

  The staircase led to an impossibly large chamber, far larger than the volume of the island it hid within; streamers of light poured through golden stained glass windows, and marble columns lined the golden etched floor. Tracing rays of light far above them to a vaulted ceiling that would rival any of the great churches...wow, okay...dimensional bullshit, got it.

  Torvald had slowed to a creep behind Vrax. Vrax’s hearing picked up heavy, smooth breaths far ahead of them and the shifting of scales on stone as something massive slid from its shadowed perch on the ceiling at the far end of the rectangular room. Everyone stopped looking up aghast.

  “Oh fuck, I think I need Duchess...” Vrax said in terrified awe.

  “Well...that...uhh...holy fuck.” Torvald stammered, tightening his grip on his hammer.

  Jonathan walked up behind them, curiously peeking up at what had made them stop. He went utterly rigid and raised his halberd defensively. “IS THAT A FUCKING DRAGON?” Jonathan shout-whispered in a shrill, panicked tone.