Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 29

Dungeons really were great distractions. Not once in the past forty minutes had Severance thought about anything else except survival. It was a refreshing change, if he was honest. If any more surprises happened today, he was sure his head would explode.

Right now, he braced himself against a giant boulder, the cold stone digging into his shoulder. Somewhere below, he heard the angry roars and felt the vibrations of the Boss going on a rampage.

"Come on, push!" That came from the slender girl beside him, similarly braced against the boulder.

He grunted, annoyed. "I am!"

"Well, push harder! It's almost over!"

"Aaagh!"

+1 Strength

You have unassigned skills.

A loud crash resounded in the room, followed by a maddened bugling cry. From his position on one of the four high ledges along the edge of the room, Severance sagged.

Hilarious. Even the game thinks I need more strength.

He was pretty sure Nilani Azareth had pushed the giant boulder over the edge herself. Last time he checked, he had a measly 4 points in the strength department. Compared to the high 20's in nearly all the other attributes, that was rather sad.

I'll do push-ups later, he vowed.

This dungeon run had been an insane whirlwind, for their tank—a stone-faced woman who never said more than two words the entire run—sprinted the entire way through. She went from one pack of mobs to another without pausing to catch her breath. And since this happened to be the Light path of the dungeon, there were far more critters to fight than there had been in the Dark Path.

At least Yohoho wasn't a terrible tank—she gathered everything up and used her defensive buffs while the rest of the team beat them down. But she didn't seem to care that Severance could barely keep up with the amount of damage she took or that Splishy Fishy, the oddball knightglaive, kept falling behind. The only person she ever paid attention to was her partner, A Pirate's Life.

And oh boy, were they two peas in a pod. A Pirate's Life was also a non-talkative guy, and he kept up the same brutal pace, slinging ice and blizzards wherever he went. He had zero self-preservation sense, and often stood next to the tank. Severance had a sneaking suspicion that both Yohoho and A Pirate's Life enjoyed living life on the edge.

The only good thing about this whole run was that he'd finally gained a point in Agility from all the running, and now he was level 33. There was even a new skill to choose, as evident by the annoying notifications, but he hadn't found even a single second of breathing room to check it out.

"Do you think that did it?" Nilani Azareth leaned over the edge. She had light brown hair, cropped short, and deep green eyes that glimmered with good humor. An old scar crossed her left cheek.

Severance peered down as well. Below them, a poor mockery of a rhinoceros shook itself, dust and pieces of rock sliding off its back. It took a few unsteady steps back, as if disoriented, then tossed its head. The long horn on its nose nearly impaled Yohoho, but she hastily jumped out of the way.

"Yeah," he said. "Looks like we got it."

"Great!" With that, Nilani Azareth held out a hand. A length of silver chain appeared in her grasp. Sharp metal teeth protruded from each link and the very tip of the chain itself was a narrow, double-bladed dagger. The whole thing looked like a chainsaw grew hungry and escaped from its confines so it could properly hunt its prey.