Blue light cast from the torches lined the exit into the next chamber. Cautiously, we marched into the chamber, ready for whatever the dungeon might throw at us next. Or so we hoped. It felt as if the dungeon had already thrown everything but the kitchen sink at us, to the point that I could almost swear there was a thinking mind somewhere on the other side of the dungeon laughing at us, at our struggles. It seemed unlikely, but I hated that I couldn't dismiss such an idea outright.

  One step, Nothing. Two steps, twice as much nothing, which was still nothing. We advanced into the room at a slow shuffle, taking in the surroundings. Unlike the previous chamber of the dungeon, this one was almost like an amphitheatre. If one were constructed out of ice and black rock. Though for all the ice and rock that filled the room, it seemed empty of actual occupants, but we had learned that lesson in the previous chamber. Just because it looked empty did not, in fact, mean that it was. No matter how empty it looked.

  No sooner had the last of our ragged team set foot in the chamber than the System, or the dungeon, decided we were due an additional challenge on this dungeon run beyond the usual.

  I stared at the System notification for several moments.

  "I hope it means monsters…" I muttered under my breath, my imagination had immediately filled with images of the chamber flooded with elemental waves, ice, water, or worse, acid and fire. There would be no surviving something like that for our group, not even the first wave, let alone four more. We just didn't have the tools or the Skills to be able to survive something like that. There might be a chance I could scale the walls in that type of worst case scenario, and hopefully drag the rest of the team along with me. I really didn't want to have to test that theory, since all that had to happen to render that idea moot was for the chamber to fill all the way.

  Sure, the System and the dungeons never did anything so outright lethal, according to every account ever that the Banner had access to. That did not, however, mean that it couldn't happen. Only that it hadn't so far.

  Fortunately, my worries were dispelled a moment later, when a couple of dozen Adult Akhlut came marching out of an icy tunnel on the opposite end of the room. The System even saw fit to announce their arrival to us.

  A glance at the monsters with [Analyze] told me they weren't any worse than what we'd already faced, just more of the same. That didn't mean we could lose respect for the risk they posed, but that being overly cautious was not necessary. I cast [Gaze of Bane] from my left eye. It was easy enough to get the entire pack of monsters from this distance since there were no range limits on [Gaze of Bane], just line of sight. From beside me, Signe also opened fire with her familiar green lightning as the entire pack of Akhlut started to howl in agony. The pack broke ranks and charged across the arena, for that was what this icy chamber had become.

  Half of them fell before they even reached us, either succumbing to the mounting stacks of [Bane] and its venomous damage, or falling to Signe's corrosive lightning. The rest were mowed down in short order by the hammer and blade of Angus and Kels. I managed to pick a few off with my dagger as well in the melee, marvelling at how much easier it was to use the short blade with the addition of the [Dagger Mastery] Skill. Briefly, I wondered if a mastery Skill could be gained through training and sparring. It might be worthwhile to do some sparring with Sean sometime in the future, both for him and me.

  The group of Akhlut went down with little ado.

  So little it was almost sad, really.

  The four of us waited for more, staring at the tunnel intently. For a moment, nothing came. Instead, another System notification appeared.

  Almost as if something had taken personal offence at our handling of the Akhlut, a dozen of the wraiths swept out, not from the tunnel but from the walls and floor of the icy chamber. Glassy bones were throwing long shadows that spider-webbed across the floor as they approached. It looked for a moment like some insane stage show—ghastly creatures dropping from the catwalk, all jaws and claws and cold. These ones weren't any weaker than the last of their kind we'd fought; the only difference this time was the numbers and the audacity. These wraiths weren't using the environment to their advantage. They were coming straight for us, crystalline bodies skimming just above the floor as they slithered through the air towards us.

  I risked a quick [Analyze], hoping for any sign of a break in the pattern. No, these were all [Dungeon-Born], uniformly high level, every one of them an assassin designed for this particular chamber. Or maybe it was the other way around, and this chamber was formed with the ice wraiths in mind. There was no way of knowing; they seemed just as at home here as they had in the tunnels, simply employing a different strategy.

  Rather than ready my dagger, I danced away from the rest of the team and changed from man to spider. I had absolutely no desire to close to grappling with these particular monsters again. My forelegs flashed out, striking a pair of wraiths, sending their crystal bones scattering across the icy ground. I took up the right flank of our group while the others organized around my left side as the rest of the wraiths approached. More of the wraiths emerged from the walls and floor, joining their comrades as they rushed towards us.

  My gaze roamed the room, inflicting stacks of [Bane] wherever it went. The wraiths crashed into me with less coordination than I'd expected, but more ferocity—like in death, they only wanted to drag down as much as possible. Their cold auras fought to slow my legs, but [Root Regeneration] and the remnant warmth from the vials kept my limbs moving, if a little stiff. My limbs were an enormous advantage here that I hadn't been able to leverage in the tunnels; for every wraith that tried to pass on my right, another limb caught and split them. While at the same time, I leveraged sheer mass to bulldoze a wedge between them and the rest of the group. The other advantage I was happy to discover was that hard chitin didn't stick and tear on ice the way human skin and muscle did. I was bitten and struck over and over by the wraiths but suffered little direct damage beyond the frost that slowly crept up my limbs.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Signe's lightning crackled wildly over the ice, illuminating the skulls of the dead in electric green. Angus—who looked half-frozen but every bit as determined—stepped into the melee with his warhammer, smashing any wraith that crept too close to himself or Signe. Kels was a patient machine, never overcommitting, always waiting for a wraith to extend itself, then bringing blade or shield around to strike with brutal efficiency.

  The wave began to feel like it would never end. Dozens of wraiths poured from the walls, as if the first wave had been only a mockery of what was coming. By the time the last wraith fell, all of us were covered in small wounds and coated liberally in the frost spread by the wraith's bites. My right foreleg crashed down on a wraith skull, sending crystalline chunks and slivers skittering across the ground.

  "That was only two waves?" Angus huffed out, putting into words what we were all thinking as we remembered that we were just barely halfway done. Technically. There was no time to commiserate with the big man; the next wave was already emerging from the tunnel.

  A horde of shambling humanoids slowly made their way out of the tunnel, with a staggering gait. Their desiccated grey skin was covered in plates of ice that vaguely resembled armour, empty eye sockets filled only with small dots of eerie blue flame. Their entrance was accompanied by a strange hissing moan that resonated through the icy chamber in a way that might have sent chills up my spine if I currently had one. Every Zombie, because that's what they were, some variety of frozen mummy zombie, carried a weapon that looked as if it had been carved from a block of ice. I triggered [Analyze]. I had questions that needed answers.

  Their stats varied a little up and down, but every single one of them had the same three Skills. Which was strange in and of itself. As monsters above level 30, they should have had 2 more Skills. That was concerning. Things like that didn't happen, according to both my own experiences and all the information I had access to in the Banner archives. Not unless there was something else at play here. The [Frozen Weapon Mastery] was an oddball Skill, but didn't seem out of place next to [Cold immunity] in the context of the icy zombies. The red flag here was the [Deathless] Skill. The name alone carried its own implications, both obvious and not so obvious.

  While I contemplated that the horde drew to a stuttering halt, the blue flames that took the place of their eyes flickered briefly before flaring brightly. As one of the horde's jaws snapped open and an unnatural howl ripped through the chamber. Gone was the shambling gait as the zombies charged; it was replaced by the one thing all gamers hated like nothing else.

  Fast zombies.

  The horde charged across the chamber, icy weapons held high, waving in the air. For a moment, we all just stared as the wave of zombies burst from a stumble into a full-out howling sprint. The words [Deathless] and [Frozen Weapon Mastery] pinwheeled in my brain, but there was no time for theory-crafting. The first rank of the horde was on us in seconds; the rime-armoured bodies crashed together with a grating, splintering sound that set every hair on end, even while in spider form.

  I met the first wave with brute force, front legs sweeping in tight arcs to smash aside the nearest two attackers. The blow should've shattered both, but even as frost and bone exploded off its chest, the zombie only reeled, righted itself, and brought its sword down in a diagonal hack. The blade glanced off my left foreleg, the impact sending up a puff of super cooled vapor and a sharp, numbing ache right through my chitinous shell. My legs lashed out again and again, zombies were knocked back, or dismembered in the wake of my razor-sharp appendages. It wasn't enough. I could see the zombies that had been sent reeling righting themselves, and the ones that lost limbs or even their heads simply reattached their missing parts. That had to be [Deathless] at work.

  Glancing around, I could see the others were having much the same experience. Every time they managed to strike down one of the revenants, it eventually rose again, to their growing concern and horror. The zombies pressed in against our group, largely ignoring the Spells Signe fired at them. The undead were only kept at bay by a combination of my striking limbs and the weapons of Angus and Kels. Hissing with frustration, I triggered [Analyze] once again, this time smashing aside all resistance. I was really beginning to appreciate my monstrous Charisma stat and the way it helped me when I needed more information.

  My senses exploded, sweeping over the entire chamber. The horde of revenants staggered under the force of my unleashed aura without a Charisma stat or anything else to shield them from it. I could see the faces of Kels and the team pale as they experienced my aura in full for the first time. It may have been a mistake to not get them used to it before now. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to be gentle about it right now. It took a moment, but I found what I was after.

  Waiting in the shadow of the tunnel was a creature antlered, immense, its breath pluming with freezing mist in the cold air. The guiltless blue of its eyes gleamed from the shadows, luminous and pitiless at once. Its massive crystalline antlers glowed ever so slightly in the shadow of the tunnel. Dozens of darker blue grey ice ornaments dangled from its antlers, ends carrying small blue flames at odds with the otherwise icy aesthetic of the stag. Until I glanced back at the horde of revenants and the blue flames that filled their eyes.

  Well, if I needed any further confirmation, there it is.

  Staring me in the face.

  I was sick and beyond tired of all the icy bullshit this dungeon continued to throw at us. On a whim and a guess, I switched my left eye from [Gaze of Bane] to [Edge Glare] and watched with extreme satisfaction as the force wedge flew out through the guts of the horde, leaving behind a mess of bisected zombies and took the stag in the neck before it could react.

  I let out a hissing laugh; it reminded me all too much of the Root nexus and the Rootmaw Queen from the Soul-Sheer. Everything they were was aligned towards making more progeny, without enough towards direct combat to save them from anything that could bypass their minions. The Stag had turned out to be exactly the same breed of monster. It had no Skills to save itself, and didn't have the stats to survive my [Edge Glare]. There weren't many things that could survive losing their head, at least not that I had encountered or read about.

  As the Stag's head tumbled to the floor, the lights in the eyes of the revenants winked out, mirroring the lights dangling from the stag's antlers rapidly winking out. The entire chamber froze for a heartbeat: Kels, Signe, Angus, myself, and the horde of now-limp revenants, all locked in tableau while the stag's head bounced twice, then came to a rest, antlers ringing faintly as they struck ice. The only movement was the slow collapse of a couple of dozen undead bodies going rigid and clattering to the floor as blue flame sputtered and died in their sockets.

  I let out a shaky, surprised breath, then looked sidelong at the others. Signe doubled over, bracing herself with a hand on her thigh as she wheezed with hysterical, exhausted laughter.

  “Oh, fuck you,” Signe grumbled breathlessly, not even looking at anyone in particular. “Just—fuck you, Stag. All that, for one spell.”

  I let out another hissing laugh. “To be fair, it’sss a pretty good Spell.”

  The mage glared at me, and I studiously chose to point all eight of my eyes elsewhere for a moment.