30.1 p͏a͏t͏r͏e͏o͏n͏.c͏o͏m͏/S͏t͏r͏a͏t͏o͏t͏h͏r͏a͏x͏A͏f͏t͏e͏r͏D͏a͏r͏k͏

Previously on Centaurus: The band made their way into a dungeon deep deep in the forest. intent on looting it. Unfortunately a mimic Queen had other ideas and the band found themselves tricked and knocked unconscious, that is, apart from Fey. The Queen's curiosity in Fey's "uniqueness" proving her downfall and after some 'ahem' heated moments Fey was able to escape and rescue the rest of the band.

Now, Chapter 30:

Breathe.

Fey tried to calm her jangling nerves after their desperate flight from the mimic nest, a frantic scramble through pitch black corridors and the cold damp silence of the tomb-like dungeon. It had not been pretty. She was certain she was going to have some unfortunate bruises from crashing into unseen walls in the dark.

They had only stopped because they had come across a source of light, the only source it seemed. They'd stumbled into a room that was filled with a soft multicoloured glow, not from some luminous cave mushroom or moss or anything like that, no, the room was filled with treasures, precious gems that glowed in the darkness, thrown light glittering across gold.

Ellaria wobbled as Flora placed her on the ground, only just recovering from the soporific smoke. She blinked in the gloom.

"This is… What is this?"

"I, ah, think it might belong to the mimics," said Fey. "They like to pretend to be things right? Well maybe they have to remove the things they are pretending to be sometimes."

"Mimics…" muttered Ellaria as she followed Fey's finger pointing to one side where a number of wooden chests lay broken and shattered, their contents spilt across the ground.

"This is all that stuff… I think?" said Fey.

"I see. I suppose that all does make some amount of sense." Ellaria lifted a hand and a trio of levitating orange-red fireballs ignited, illuminating the mess of jewels and gold casually strewn across the floor, rather a lot more than first appeared.

Magic Mog stared around at the treasure.

"Er, is this... success? We… did it?"

"I'm not sure I can believe this, isn't this what we came here for? Just sitting here, out in the open like it was just casually tossed aside?!"

Lily who was picking around near the back suddenly lifted a limp teddy bear. A teddy bear with a red scarf. "Uhm, I think Fey might be right about the monsters using this as a storage room."

Lily focused on the bear, applying her abilities, and it struggled to life. The bear looked at Lily holding it then raised its bear arms and embraced her, seemingly excessively relieved that she was alive. As it hugged her a dozen more bears stood up from the gold and jewels then came toward the otterkin and hugged her legs. Lily looked a little bemused at the core of the teddy bear hug pile.

"I don't believe this, where's the endless boring wandering through miles of dungeon before we find a single bloody coin?! This just ain't right."

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth Flora, especially after what just happened, we very nearly died. Speaking of which, how exactly did we get away?"

"Erm," said Fey, "I- I don't think that smoke worked very well on me? I woke up early, or-or something! And then I was able to free Flora, and then we escaped, y-yep! That's what happened!"

Ellaria squinted at the suspicious looking centaur nervously lifting and placing her hooves. "Hmm. for some reason I suspect there is more to that story."

"N-no…"

"In any case we have what we came for, it's time to leave. Now. Flora, if you would?"

Flora nodded and swept her hands across the room. Gold and jewels and jewellery and gems lifted up into the air and formed a stream that streamed into Ellaria's dimensional bag that she held wide, a river of glittering trinkets and baubles. It only took a moment to clean the room of everything of value.

Ellaria snapped the bag shut with a satisfied look. "I would have to estimate that this trip has been more than worth it and then some, how often do dungeon monsters conveniently gather all the loot together for you?"

"Hey, uhm, captain, doesn't that also mean those monsters know of this place? Like, might they check here?"

A scream of fury echoed down the distant dungeon corridors, just being heard where they were stood.

"Do you know what a jinx is Lily?" said Vivi.

"Wha- that's not my fault! That's not my fault! H-Hey!"

"Come, we're done here," said Ellaria, striding towards one of the exits.

"Totally a jinx," muttered Vivi.

"If you have time to complain Vivi you have time to move. Now move."

They left. The last to leave were Fey and Ellaria and a few momentary blush inducing words passed between them before they followed, Ellaria taking the lead.

The band quick walked, or in some cases quick floated after the elf, fleeing from the distant echoes, traversing the maze-like dungeon corridors. The teddy bears spread out ahead of them checking the path for traps. There were no traps to be caught in however, or at least none that were working. They passed by a half dozen broken traps, their bronze mechanisms filled with silt and dust, bronze spikes hanging wonky and bent from holes in walls, chopping pendulum blades snapped and strewn on the flagstones, a layer of dust built up on their verdigris surface.

There were no functional traps and there were no monsters to be found. It seemed they were free to leave.

Of course, leaving the dungeon was easier said than done. They had been taken somewhere without knowing how they had gotten there and that was a problem.

"We could be anywhere!" wailed an invisible Kayla after a half-hour of walking and getting absolutely nowhere in the endless dark "How are we supposed to get out like this!"

"Well we just go up, duh. Look there are some stairs."

Vivi was right, they had come across a set of stairs and they promptly followed them up a floor. Unfortunately the next floor was just as maze-like and endless as the previous one, every stone and step completely unfamiliar.

That wouldn't have been such a pressing problem except that the screaming snarling was following them. Nearer and nearer it drew, an animalistic howl of rage that echoed from corridor to corridor.

"This isn't working. We should knuckle down and prepare for whatever the fuck that is," said Flora as they emerged out into a hall. "It's-" Her words died on her lips as the thing that had been following suddenly bounded out from a shadowed tunnel to the side. There was scant time to react, a cry from Ellaria, and then it was on them. A vast three headed dog, coal black fur, tiger stripes of hellish red, its trio of fanged mouths lunged forward. A giant cerberus.

Unfortunately for Kayla the cerberus hadn't realised she was there and it ran straight into the invisible otterkin. A scream was heard and Kayla went bouncing across the hall as the cerberus stumbled in surprise.

Ellaria took the chance and a beam of flame roared from her held together palms, lancing out and striking the monster, fire spreading across its body as it burn-

"Stop! It's not working Ellaria!" cried Lily.

Ellaria pulled the beam away as the last of the flames were being absorbed into the three headed dog's skin in real-time, its luminous red eyes glowing brighter.

The cerberus shook its body as the last of the flames died. Then it turned and eyed Ellaria with interest.

"Well, now's a good as time as any I suppose. Flora! Would you kindly focus!"

Ellaria loosed the dimensional bag and a torrential torrent of crossbows and bolts roared out, a cone of the things that filled the air thick, already nocking and firing as the cloud formed up around the gnome, forming rings, accelerating.

The cerberus yelped as its body was peppered with bolts, what was at first a stinging pain as its tough skin halted each bolt became a painful agony as the patter of bolts became a stream of solidified force that shoved it up against the wall, its voice shifting to a panicked scream as it found it couldn't get away. The cerberus's skin began to shred apart exposing the muscle beneath and then began to dig through that, an expanding crater of gore that vaporised its arm and shoulder then dug deep into its rib cage, its lungs, its heart, more. The monster slumped dead even as the stream of bolts continued to pin it up against the wall through sheer brute force.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!

Ellaria waved at the gnome, her voice not reaching her over the roar of the crossbows in the enclosed space. Flora blinked as she noticed, her pure perfect focus breaking.

The bolts immediately cut off and what little was left of the cerberus, practically unrecognizable, collapsed to the ground in a lake of blood, shredded gore, and splintered bolts.

The band paused as they looked at the destruction.

"Huh. You think that thing would have killed us without this new crossbow trick?" said Flora.

"Perhaps. Being fireproof and physically strong is a troubling weakness of our composition."

"Well, I don't think it's going to be killing anyone now, or doing anything at all really."

The band shot glances at the mangled corpse as they slowly moved away, what was a genuinely terrifying monster just… dead.

Ellaria especially took a long hard look at the corpse before she turned.

"I'm... banning all of you from speaking about this technique to anybody. I dread to think how it could be used by a military if they worked out a way to recreate it, just imagine what that would do against a field of soldiers...We may have made a mistake showing Melly this, seeing it actually used on a living thing is… something else..."

The band glanced at the elf but remained silent, their agreement left unsaid as similar thoughts crossed their minds.

They made their way through the corridors in silence, coming out into a particularly long and straight corridor, a large door in the distance. It was so quiet now that Fey heard what sounded like a stifled sob. She turned to see who it was but there was no one there.

"Kayla?" she whispered.

A floating blue gem jerked still.

"Is everything okay?"

"N-no…"

"Are you injured?"

"No, it's not- it's not that, I'm just, I- was worse than useless, I g-got in the way…"

"Don't say that Kayla, you were fine, it wasn't your fault that it was-

"It was! I can't take it anymore I just- I can't feel like- I'm so- I'm so WEAK!!"

The blue gem was getting brighter as she spoke until it suddenly flashed a bright chromatic azure, the long corridor lit with a brilliant blue light.

Fey raised her hands to her eyes to protect from the brightness.

The light peaked and then faded, dropping back to nothing, the same as it had been.

Of course, things weren't quite the same as they had been.

A young human male was standing next to Kayla. A very surprised looking young human male.

"Oh, oh shit, wh-what have I done?!" exclaimed Kayla.

The human blinked and looked around in confusion. His eyes alighted on Ellaria's exceptional beauty and he froze up, his gaze moving up and down her perfect body. A glowing rectangle slipped from his limp fingers and clattered to the ground.

"H-holy shit, oh my god, is this actually happening?!"

Ellaria furrowed her brow, not sure if she liked the look that the young man was giving her.

"Yes, this is happening. If you are not aware it seems you have been summoned... Strange as you are not a monster which is what summoning stones are intended for. Where have you come from? I do not recognise your style of clothing."

"Earth!"

"...You have come from the ground?"

"Yes! No!" The young man was becoming distractedly excited now. "I can't believe it, this is really real! I'm in another world! Just like in my favourite portal stories! With elves and dragons and wizards! Oh my god, am I the main character? The hero?" He turned big round eyes on Ellaria suddenly. "Does that mean you're the hero's girl? Are you part of my harem? Oh my god oh my god oh my god!" The young man was practically hyperventilating as he bounced on the spot.

"I… don't understand what you are talking about…" said Ellaria, deflating a bit in her confusion.

"Don't you see! I'm here to save the world! Oh shit when do I get my super magic powers? Wait, do I already have them?" he held up his hands excitedly and looked between them as though expecting something to happen.

Vivi turned to Kayla. "Is that a stone for summoning insane humans or is this just a you thing?"

"N-no, at least I don't think so, I don't know what is happening… I don't even know how I made it work..."

"Calm down harem, I am here to fix things now. Ah, look, this is the moment where I shall prove my exceptional and unique power to you and you shall make me your leader because you are so impressed."

A snarl came from the dark and a trio of cerberus puppies prowled forward, each puppy the size of a large regular dog.

Vivi turned awkwardly to look at the puppies and in that moment the young man snatched her long sword from her belt.

"OIH! You little shit, that's mine!"

"Do not fear weird pregnant dog thingy, I am here to save you. You may become the servant of my harem yet, I may even allow you to wash the feet of my gorgeous elven wife as we bathe!"

Vivi's mouth flopped open in utter outrage as the human charged toward the puppies.

"I am here to save this world! Earthlings are always the heroes!" he cried, lifting the sword high over his head.

He ran up and swung the blade down.

He missed wildly and it clanged on the ground so hard it was jarred from his fingers, the blade clattering to the stone.

"Uhm." said the young man as the puppies blinked at him in surprise.

A puppy bit his hand off.

He stared at the bloody stump, not quite processing what had just happened. The puppies didn't pause to process however. Within so many seconds both his arms were just gone, bitten away, and then so was a leg, the bite of the cerberus's so horrifyingly strong that it was like they were biting through jelly and not living flesh and bone, a casual nip like a guillotine on his limbs.

He hopped backwards on one leg, clearly going into a state of shock, and then he collapsed to the ground... Unfortunately falling directly on top of the trigger of an unnoticed trap.

A row of three foot long bronze spikes punched up through his body, once, twice, thrice, and then a building-sized boulder fell on top of him and fully blocked off the corridor with a definitive BOOM! A trickle of blood rolled from beneath a hundred tons of stone.

The band stared at it.

"MY SWORD!" screamed Vivi slapping her paws to her head.

"What in the hell just happened…"

"It's an idiot summoning stone!"

"Nooooooo!" wailed Kayla.

They were interrupted from arguing further however as a distant voice drifted from a side passage.

"Horsey horsey horsey, come out, come out wherever you are!"

"Oh no no no! She woke up!" groaned Fey putting her hands to her cheeks in distress.

"Why do you- look never mind that, we need to get away from this location as soon as possible! Flora, grab Vivi!"

The vulpine had approached the building sized boulder and had her paws underneath, desperately trying to lift it, but to no avail, even with Wummy's help the boulder didn't budge an inch.

"My goddam swooooord! Do you even know how much I paid for that thing?! ARGGHHH!"

Flora grabbed hold of the vulpine and lifted her into the air. Vivi made her disagreement with this development very loud and very colourful. They fled down the corridor as a pile of what could only be described as liquified body horror poured from the side passage like a tidal wave, a wave of teeth and flesh from ceiling to floor, the mimics letting their shape shifting abilities fully loose.

Ellaria flicked a hand over her shoulder as they ran and a wall of flame rolled into the mimics causing them to scream in outrage. A skin of stone swiftly formed over their collective bodies and the fire splashed up against it before dissipating.

It only created a moment of distraction, but it was enough for the band to flee through the stone doors at the end of the long corridor. They slammed shut with a boom as Flora moved them and they stampeded up a spiralling stairs. After a while the steps became slippery, and then puddled with water. They passed by a gap in the stair, a great gouge in the wall overlooking a chasm where the water streaming down the steps turned and fell into the bottomless abyss.

"Hey, hey, isn't this stream...?"

"From the hall we first came through! Quickly now, up!"

The band rushed up the streaming stairs and exploded out into the very first hall they had entered in the dungeon. The sounds of furious mimics echoed up from beneath, hot on their heels.

They charged across the hall and fled up the spiral stairs they had originally entered through, behind the mimic storm poured through the stream stair and near instantly filled the vast and cavernous hall such was the sheer quantity of flesh. A hellish mass of endless meat and teeth and rending claw, a thing that just looking upon rapidly hewed away at sanity, a horror that gave nightmares their own nightmares.

"It's not going to stop! What do we do!" cried a panicking Lily as she desperately scrambled up the stairs with the help of her bears.

"The bricks! Flora! Tear them out!"

The wall they ran by was made from carefully crafted heavy stone blockwork, impossible for fingers or tools to reach between the near seamless gaps, but a power like Flora's?

The gnome flung out her hand and wrapped her power around several blocks, only needing a tiny space to take hold, then she heaved back. The blocks ripped from the wall and the earth and dirt and stones they had been holding back poured into the stairwell. Of course once all that pressure and weight started moving it just didn't stop. The earth pushed free more and more blocks of stone, the stairway behind them becoming a rumbling torrent of loose earth and stone that rolled back down the stairs, an underground landslide.

They breached the stone lip at the top steps as with a rumble the stair sealed shut behind them. The band didn't pause and ran for the dungeon entrance and into bright golden sunlight.