Mist of Shadows
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Taylor Hebert Dungeon Girl Part 14
🕑 Added 2018-06-26 07:04:19 +0000 UTC Amy snickered as she watched her sister enthusiastically hack apart the first group of demons with the silver sword Taylor had lent her. “You know, I could get used to this.”Taylor raised her elemental pistol and shot one of the demons that was on the far side of a pit of lava. “It would be easier if we didn’t have to worry about shooting her.”
“On the upside, we don’t have to backtrack to get the loot that’s on the other side of the lava.”
Victoria laughed as she hacked the last demon’s head off. “I win!”
Taylor had a feeling Amy’s sister would fit in, if she could keep her mouth shut. “Yeah, she might have a few issues.”
Amy whispered, “Pretty sure she has a subscription.”
Victoria picked up the book that dropped off one of the demons. “What’s with the book?”
”What’s the title say?”
“Town Portal.”
Taylor cut in quickly, “Yeah, don’t open that, come back and hand that to me, please.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to use it,” Taylor replied as she walked toward Victoria.
“I killed the demon that dropped it,” Victoria replied pouting.
“Yeah and I already gave you an entire suit of armor. Besides, you have a public identity and can fly, being able to put my costume on in a secure location then open a portal to the middle of town or the salvage yard would help me a lot.”
“You have a hoverboard,” she whined as she floated over, playing it up.
Taylor snorted. “Which is rather distinctive.”
“Do you have an answer for everything?” Victoria asked with a pout as she flew back over to the group.
“Just most things,” Taylor admitted.
Amy said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure something will drop that you can use.”
“Like the nifty sword that dropped?” Victoria asked as she handed the book to Neverland, and caressed her new favorite toy.
Amy shook her head as she watched her sister play with the silver sword they’d loaned her.
“Exactly.” Taylor opened the book and hit yes when it asked if she wanted to learn the town portal spell. She grinned as she realized she could make a portal to any familiar location within five miles then close it once she was through or leave it open until she made a new portal which meant that she could use it to get around the city a lot easier. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
Victoria twitched slightly as the book vanished. “What the hell?”
“Yeah, using the books destroys them,” Taylor replied as she walked over to the loot that had dropped off the pack of demons.
“What’s the range?” Amy asked curious how useful Taylor’s new ability was.
Taylor glanced at Victoria. “A couple of miles which lets me travel around Brockton Bay fairly well.”
“Dibs on the next copy.”
“Wait, that’s a thing?” Victoria asked surprised.
“Works for me,” Taylor replied as she picked up a broadsword. She glanced at the popup, “Knight’s sword of carnage, nice.”
“How is a... sword of carnage useful?” Victoria asked warily.
“It boosts your chance to hit and increases your damage. In other words, it’s better than the silver sword you’re using.” Taylor grabbed the sword by the guard and handed it to Victoria, handle first. “Have fun.”
“Cool, what do I do with the silver sword?” Victoria asked as she accepted the new sword.
“I’ll probably melt it down for material so that I can make something better.”
Victoria carefully handed Neverland the silver sword. “So, now what?”
“Considering that was only the first group of demons, we pick up the loot then continue on.”
Victoria glanced at the ‘gold’ coins on the ground where they’d dropped off the demons. “Is that real gold?”
“As far as I can tell yeah, we’ll split it up at the end of the run.” Taylor had a feeling she was going to have to convince Victoria not to spend too much at once.
“This is awesome!”
Taylor hid her amusement as she replied, “A little more shouting, I bet the demons didn’t hear you in Boston.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” Victoria flew down the tunnel that lead to the next chamber filled with lava and demons.
“It’s going better than I was expecting,” Amy whispered as she helped Taylor pick up the loot.
“Same,” Taylor replied as she started picking up the various coins the demons had dropped.
0o0o0
Taylor looked up as Victoria came flying back into the room with an arrow sticking out of her shoulder. “What happened?”
Victoria landed in front of Amy with a wince as her less than smooth landing jarred the arrow. “Bastard satyr got a lucky shot, fix it, please.” She closed her eyes waiting for the pain when her sister pulled the arrow out.
Amy ignored her sister’s theatrics as she reached up, grabbed the arrow with one hand and her sister’s chin with the other. “Just give me a second.” She used her power to numb her sister’s shoulder then carefully pulled the arrow out, healing the wound behind it as she went. She smiled at Taylor as she held up the barbed arrow. “On the count of three, three.”
“Three?” Victoria blinked then opened her eyes as she saw the arrow in Amy’s hand. “What happened to one or two?”
“Eh, it was already out.” Amy smirked at her sister.
“Thanks, that hurt worse than getting shot,” Vicky said shooting her a beaming smile.
“Some of the stuff in here is rather nasty.” Taylor was just glad that the satyr hadn’t hit Victoria in the face where the helmet didn’t cover.
“Did they follow you?” Amy asked warily.
Victoria shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I didn’t stick around to find out. I’m going to want a ranged weapon to deal with them or a distraction so I can get close. Makes me wish I had a decent source of grenades.”
“Vicky!” Amy complained.
“What? It would make this a lot easier, just sneak close then toss the grenade and run. Oni Lee has the right idea in this environment.”
Taylor reached into her pocket and pulled out her staff of fireballs. “I don’t have any grenades but I have a staff of fireballs which should work.”
“That would help,” Victoria agreed.
Amy resisted the urge to smile as she shook her head. “You shouldn’t encourage her.”
Victoria pouted. “They shot me.”
“Fair enough, we’ll sneak up and blast them,” Taylor replied as she headed toward the tunnel Victoria had flown out of.
Amy frowned slightly as she followed Taylor. “I don’t suppose you have any extra stealth books lying around?”
“A couple, I just forgot to grab them,” she admitted.
“Stealth books?” Victoria asked curiously, turning in the air to face them.
“They basically make you better at sneaking around,” Taylor explained.
Amy snickered. “Vicky smash, only puny Victoria sneak around.”
Victoria shivered slightly as she flashed back to the storm of arrows that had hit her earlier, if it hadn’t been for the armor she’d probably be dead or at least in a lot of pain. She wasn’t used to fighting groups of people willing to shoot the shit out of her without any hesitation. “Considering that almost got me killed, I wouldn’t mind picking up a few tricks.”
“She can be taught!” Amy exclaimed with a grin.
Victoria glared at Amy. “Hey!” and poked her lightly in the chest.
“Too much?” Amy asked innocently as they headed through the next cave where her sister had ripped through a group of lightning demons.
“Just a bit,” Victoria admitted, rolling her eyes at her sister’s antics.
“Where are the satyrs?” Taylor asked in a whisper.
“In the next cave, there are some rocks you could probably use for cover if you’re careful,” Victoria suggested floating closer to the ground rather than crouch down.
“In that case, wait here a minute, I want to know what I’m getting into.” Taylor focused on stealth and quietly advanced into the next room. Thankfully between her skill, the general level of darkness in the cave, the various rocks she had for cover and her shadow cloak, she managed to sneak up on the rather large group of satyr-like demons.
She studied the path they’d have to take to get to her. She was a little annoyed that she couldn’t see what they were guarding, thanks to the darkness, but the light coming off the ‘lava’ streams was enough to see the group of demons. ‘Okay, it’s probably going to take a couple fireballs to deal with the group.’
Taylor snuck back to Victoria and Amy. “Okay, you can probably get a bit closer then I’ll sneak back and fireball the shit out of their camp at which point they’ll probably charge us if they can’t shoot us. Once I toss the fireballs feel free to fly over to me and kill anything that tries to get into melee with me.”
Victoria smiled evilly as she pictured cutting the demons apart. “Works for me.”
Amy put her fire pistol back in her pocket and pulled her lightning pistol out. “I’m swapping to my lightning pistol so I can shoot through you.”
“Good idea, I’ll probably be blasting you with electricity once they’re close.” Taylor started creeping closer, there was a nice large rock out cropping she could park Amy in front of that should give her a decent amount of coverage and a place to shoot from.
“The armor should cover that, right?” Victoria asked warily.
“Easily,” Amy agreed in a whisper as she carefully followed Taylor into the cave where the satyrs were. She winced slightly as she stepped on a rock and it made a noise. ‘I really need to get the stealth book.’
Victoria sighed then followed the two crazy girls as quietly as she could, which was pretty damned quiet as she didn’t have to touch the ground.
Taylor stopped at the rock outcropping and gestured at Amy then held her hand up in a gesture for staying put. Amy nodded then moved so that she’d have cover and still be able to shoot any satyr demons that came to attack Taylor then gave her a thumbs up.
Taylor snuck forward until she came to the last decent spot of cover. She carefully pointed her staff of fireballs at the group of satyrs and rhino-like demons she could just barely make out on the island then blasted the group as quickly as she could. She managed to get three fireballs in the air before she had to duck behind the rock to avoid getting hit by a storm of arrows. “Get over here!”
Victoria hugged the ground as she flew toward Neverland’s position, hoping that the rocks would give her enough cover to avoid getting shot a second time.
Taylor raised the staff and blasted the area with a fourth fireball then swapped places with Victoria. She put her staff in her pocket and raised her hands as the first satyr ran around the corner.
Victoria twitched slightly as a beam of electricity shot past her head and hit the satyr like creature in the chest killing it. She brought her sword down on the next demon to charge around the rock outcropping and cut it in half.
Taylor unleashed a stream of lightning from her gloves at the group of satyrs trying to edge around the rocks without getting into melee range.
Victoria sighed in relief as the stream of electricity hit her and nothing happened. ‘Score another one for electrical resistance.’ She flew forward and worked on cutting the group of demons apart before they could break her shield.
Amy took a popshot as another satyr came into view. ‘At least the plan seems to be working.’
Taylor used Victoria’s distraction to step out from behind the rocks she’d been hiding behind and blast the remaining archer with a blast of lightning from her gloves finishing the already injured demons off.
Victoria hacked the last demon apart. “That went better than I was expecting.”
Taylor smiled. “Nothing like softening them up with a couple fireballs.”
Amy had a feeling that none of the gangs would enjoy messing with Taylor. “Let’s find out what they were guarding.”
Victoria flew over to the little island in the middle of the stream of ‘lava’. She frowned as she saw a half dozen dead rhino like demons scattered around the tiny island that she hadn’t seen the last time she’d came to investigate. “Looks like an anvil and a bunch of dead rhino demons.”
“Sweet,” Taylor exclaimed as she started making her way around the ‘lava’ and over to the anvil that she was hoping was the Anvil of Fury or at least something that she could get an enchant from.
Amy pulled a flashlight out of her pocket and followed Taylor. ‘I wish we could find some night vision enchants or something. That would make this a lot easier.’
Taylor frowned as she got close to the anvil and realized that it was large enough that she doubted she’d be able to move it. ‘So much for stealing it.’ She walked over and grabbed the anvil then looked at the popup. “Anvil of Fury, it’s basically a magical anvil that we can use while we’re here to make more impressive magical items.”
“Aren’t you supposed to haul it to the smith?” Amy asked absently as she studied the dead rhino-like demons.
“In the game, yeah,” Taylor replied as she walked over and picked up the smithing hammer one of the demons had dropped.
Victoria asked, “Are we going to haul it back?”
“I don’t think I can even move it,” Taylor admitted as she studied the annoyingly normal smithing hammer.
“It doesn’t look that heavy,” Victoria said with a shrug.
Taylor turned to look at Victoria. “For you. Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s part of the dungeon which means it would just vanish if we took it with us.”
“That sucks,” Victoria replied.
Amy glanced at the anvil then looked at Taylor. “Are you going to forge something?”
“I might as well test it,” Taylor agreed as she opened her weaponsmithing menu and looked through her available supplies and patterns.
“What are you going to make?” Victoria asked curious what Neverland was planning on making and how long it would take.
“A sword, we’ll see how good it is.” Taylor selected two green dungeon glass ingots and a strip of lightning leather then tapped the craft button. She smiled as she ‘blurred’ through the creation of the glass sword.
Amy grinned as she looked at the blue leather grip on the purple glass sword that had appeared in Taylor’s hand. “The blue adds a nice touch.”
Victoria shook her head. “It looks fragile.”
Taylor looked at the tooltip for her new purple glass sword. “It’s actually more durable than steel.”
“It’s glass,” Victoria complained.
Taylor shrugged. “It’s dungeon glass, I’m fairly sure it’s magic.”
“Right, tinkertech,” Victoria muttered.
Amy was fairly sure a lot of Taylor’s stuff counted as magic rather than tinkertech but she wasn’t going to argue the point. “What special abilities does it have?”
Taylor said, “1 to 10 points of fire and electrical damage, increased accuracy, quicker attack speed, it knocks your target back which might be a bit annoying, boosts your mana by 20 and drops your hitpoint cap by 20 while you’re using it.”
“Not exactly impressive,” Amy pointed out.
“Considering the only magical ingredients I put into it were the dungeon glass and the lightning elemental leather strip, it’s sort of neat.” Taylor swapped to her magical crafting tab then tossed the item in her salvage box and hit accept. “Let’s see what we get from salvaging it.” She grinned as she got several magical crystals and a dark purple ingot of a glass like substance for her trouble.
Victoria glanced at the strange crystals that had appeared out of thin air in Neverland’s hands. “What do those do?”
Taylor looked at the various tooltips. “One of them increases the speed you can swing the weapon, one of them lets me apply a small knockback effect to a weapon, the nice glowing crystal is basically a magical spice.”
“You eat it?” Victoria asked warily.
“I said like a magical spice. Basically it lets me use it while I’m crafting something to give the item the ability to boost the user’s mana by 20 points while it’s equipped.”
“In other words, like a video game?”
“Pretty much, yeah. The blue crystal lets me add lightning damage as a crafting ingredient which means I might be able to double up on the lightning damage.”
“And the purple glass ingot?” Amy asked curious about the new material.
Taylor grinned as she read the tooltip for the ‘glass’ ingot. “It’s exceptional dungeon glass that has been tinted purple, I’m not quite sure if the tinted property is cosmetic or not.”
Victoria glanced at the anvil then back at Neverland. “It looks pretty cool. Are going to make more swords or are we going to keep hunting demons?”
“I might as well use what I have on me just in case I can’t salvage the anvil and figure out how to replicate the effects.”
Amy spoke up, “Sounds like a plan, we’ll grab the loot while you’re making stuff.”
“On it.” Victoria grinned as she followed her sister to grab the loot.
“Sounds good.” Taylor selected more dungeon glass ingots and lightning leather and hit the accept button.
0o0o0
Amy glanced at the demonic looking forge as she asked, “Do we want to try to haul the anvil out on the off chance it doesn’t fade away?”
Taylor shook her head. “Nah, I’ve got a better idea. If Victoria can ‘help’ me pick it up, I might be able to sort of push it into my salvage box which would hopefully let me recreate a version of the anvil.”
“Weird power,” Victoria replied as she effortlessly picked up the anvil. “Where do you want it?”
Taylor stared at the large anvil that Victoria had lifted effortlessly. “If I push it, just go with it.” She opened her magical creation menu then angled her perception just right then pushed on the anvil so that it went into the box.
Victoria lurched slightly as the anvil vanished. “Did it work?”
Taylor hit accept and grinned as she looked at the new enchanting pattern. ‘+5 smithing, small chance of upgrading the material used and imbues each weapon with a vampiric property, nice, not exactly what the original did but I’ll take it.’ She smiled at Amy and Victoria. “My power basically ripped it apart in order to figure out how to create an enchanted anvil.”
“Sweet, what are you going to do with the rhino demons?”
“Skin them for leather so I can practice my leatherworking,” Taylor replied absently as she pulled out her skinning knife and headed toward the closest demon.
Victoria shivered as she remembered that she was wearing leather armor that Neverland had given her. “Are you telling me that my armor is made out of demons?”
Amy laughed. “Don’t worry about it, you’re not wearing demon skin leather.”
“Good… wait, where did the leather come from?” Victoria asked suspiciously.
“Dungeon monsters,” Taylor replied absently as she started skinning the demon.
Victoria sighed. “Right, forget I asked.”
Taylor blinked as she got a skull and horn in addition to a roll of demon leather. “Huh.” She looked at the tooltip for the skull. “Unnaturally durable demon skull, can be used in various crafting projects, great.”
“You could always make a throne out of them,” Amy suggested jokingly.
Victoria turned and looked at her sister in shock. “Amy!”
“What? It’s not like they’re people, they’re demons. Actually, they’re not even that, they’re weird stuff made by her power.”
“Still creepy as fuck and pretty much screams villain,” Victoria complained.
Amy resisted the urge to snicker at the fact that her sister had taken her suggestion even half seriously. “Probably not all that comfortable anyways.”
Victoria shivered slightly as she thought about her sister sitting on a throne made of skulls.
“I’m sure I’ll figure out something to use them for.” Taylor stuck the skull in her ingredients bag then looked at the tooltip for the horn. “The horns are also unnaturally durable and rather sharp.”
Amy said, “Ivory handles look nice.”
Victoria shook her head. “I have a feeling people would complain about using ivory in your stuff.”
“I’m fairly sure you can’t link them to any earth animal which means they’re probably not covered by any current law.”
“Technically they’re demon bone, not ivory.” Taylor doubted that would stop people from complaining but she should be in the clear legally, probably. “Once I finish skinning the demonic rhinos we’ll hit the next level then see which dungeon the guys want to hit.” She stuck the horn in her bag then walked over to the next demonic rhino and started skinning it.
0o0o0
Amy walked over to the door to let the guys into the garage while her sister helped Taylor haul the treasure chest they’d stashed most of their loot in away from the door to the supply closet. She unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door so the guys could come in. “Welcome to Neverland’s garage.”
“Neverland?” Randal asked in a whisper as he walked into the shop in front of Kevin.
“Yep, her and Alchemist go way back,” Amy replied with amusement.
“I see,” Randal replied as he glanced at Victoria. ‘At least she’s not screaming villain and charging us.’
Kevin glanced at the treasure chest next to Taylor. “Did you get anything decent?”
Taylor turned to look at Kevin as they walked over. “Depends on what you consider decent, we picked up a bunch of magical weapons and armor that I wouldn’t mind salvaging and Victoria helped me salvage the magical anvil we found which means I should be able to enchant an anvil to boost everything I make.”
“You found the Anvil of Fury?” Randal asked hoping that it was better than the version in the game.
“Yep, it was surrounded by lava, goat demons and evil rhinos.”
“Awesome, are we going back?!” Kevin asked excitedly.
Taylor shook her head. “Not right now, that part of the dungeon is random.”
“In that case, what are you thinking?” Kevin asked curious what Taylor was planning.
“I’m torn between seeing if Victoria can smash the lightning miniboss if I let her borrow my crown and trying to steal a feather out of the Final Fantasy dungeon using the drone and some tape.”
Victoria glanced between the two strangers. “Ignoring the fact that you haven’t introduced your friends for the moment, any reason I can’t just fly in and grab the feather?”
Taylor shook her head. “You might be able to but I wouldn’t want to bet on it, the film over the dungeon is black and there are twelve horse sized shadowy creatures guarding the feather.”
Kevin cut in before Randal could, “I’m Player One and he’s Player Two.”
“Player Two?” Randal muttered.
“Did you want to be Player 3?” Kevin asked absently as he turned to look at Taylor. “Can we lure some of them away from the group?”
Randal briefly considered arguing with his friend then decided it wasn’t worth it.
Amy had to resist the urge to snicker as she watched the conflicting emotions on her sister’s face. ‘Yeah, Player One and Two, it’s like you’re not even trying.’
Taylor said, “We should be able to, they patrol but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re most likely extremely durable and dangerous.”
“You could always open the dungeon and see if the door is black for Vicky,” Amy suggested, curious how her sister’s forcefield would stand up.
Kevin shrugged. “Worst case, we use some of the cord we found in the supply room and make a hook for the drone.”
Taylor walked over to the supply room door and opened the Final Fantasy dungeon. “What color is it?”
Victoria glanced at the dark red film over the entrance. “It’s dark red which probably means I need to stay the hell away from the boss and be careful what I pull. I’m willing to try if everyone else is.”
“I sent a drone in there earlier, I’m fairly sure the boss is based on Sephiroth.”
Randal blinked. “Shit! Yeah, you’re not going anyone near him.”
“Yeah, fuck that,” Kevin agreed.
Victoria glanced between the two guys as she asked, “Why not?”
Randal shivered as he considered fighting that particular Final Fantasy character. “If he’s anything like his game character, his sword will cut through concrete and his ranged attacks will level half the map. He’s also annoyingly fast.”
“He can also fly,” Taylor admitted with a touch of reluctance as she pulled the USB drive out of her pocket. “We should probably watch the video clip before we go rushing into the dungeon.”
“I’ll grab my laptop,” Kevin said as he turned and headed for the door.
Victoria frowned as she realized the tall guy had a point, her shield could only take so much before it shut down for a couple seconds to recharge. “Might as well.”
Taylor walked over to the chest and started salvaging everything she didn’t want to keep.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
It's certainly flowing well.
Alex Wierzbicki
Awesome you seem to on a roll with this story
