RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty - The Buck Stops Here

  It was hard.

  That’s pretty much the only way I could describe having to do what I had to.

  The others were looking to me to lead them. We’d never had a vote on it, we never sat down and delegated positions and such. Somehow I had just... ended up as the leader. Maybe it was because I g onto others, or because I’d sorta-jokingly takele of captain.

  It didn’t matter. I was the leader, and that meant that some things fell to me. This was one of them.

  I took a deep breath, eyes fixed on the ground. I’d never really looked at Emmanuel’s feet. Hooves, really, though he had these sorts of boots on atop them, a leather sheath c his legs up to the knee, with bits of metal worked into it.

  “Emmanuel,” I said. “I think it might be best if you go back.”

  It wasn’t what I wao say. I wao offer to help, to teach him, by example and word, how to be a better friend. He had potential, under all the silly ideas and the sometimes-rude behaviour. I could imagine him being a good friend. Everyone had that potential, and while it wasn’t right out on the surface with Emmanuel, it wasn’t buried that deep.

  But I couldn’t think just about myself.

  I was leading others, my friends. If what I wanted put others in dahen maybe I had to put that aside to make sure everyone would be safe first.

  It was like... brushing your teeth. Not fun to do, but you did it because it was less annoying than a toothache.

  Maybe that wasn’t a very good example.

  “We still be friends,” I said quickly. “Just, I don’t know if things are w out very well right now. So... yeah. It might be best for everyone if you return to the surface for now? We have a quest to plete, and it’ll be dangerous, and... yeah.”

  I gnced up, then away from Emmanuel’s face. His expression was flicted.

  My friends... Bastion o me, once. A show that he approved. Amaryllis still looked a bit peeved, and Awen looked like she was more ed about me than Emmanuel, which was nice, I suppose.

  “Because you don’t trust me?” Emmanuel asked.

  I held back a wince. “It’s... not just that. Well, actually, yes?”

  The cervid stomped one hoof down. “No, no, I see how it is. You, you...” he paused, his head falling. “You see me as some sort of failure.”

  “Not a failure,” I said. “Just not someone who’s ready to work as a team, and in this pce, that’s what we need most.”

  “Not a failure, a liability, then,” he muttered. “Thank you, I suppose that crifies things. So much for being a great hero.” The cervid stood up, his pride straightening his back. “In that case, I think I’ll go and find people who need my saving more.”

  “Alright,” I said. “That might actually be for the best. You learn and make friends, and practice being a hero?”

  Emmanuel’s jaw worked, and he looked to all of us in turn before stepping around and walking towards the exit. “Goodbye,” he said. I expected it to sound prideful, but he sounded sad instead.

  I sighed wheurhe er a out of sight.

  Awen came up behind me and gave me a hug, but it was Amaryllis who spoke up first. “That wasn’t easy for you, was it?”

  I shook my head.

  “Hmpf. ime, let me do the dismissing. I’ve fired a person or two before. It’s nothing too plicated.”

  “Thanks,” I said. She might have said that, but I could read what she meant under all of that. “It had to be me, I think.”

  Amaryllis took a deep breath. “No, but it might be better this way. I had lessons about leadership, you know? I was never very ied in them, but I’m sure some of it stuck. And one lesson is that you o learn how to delegate some things. You also o be able to make sacrifices. I think one leadership lesson a day is enough, though.”

  I smiled, and if it was a bit wry, she didn’t ent. “Thanks.”

  “Are you okay?” Awen asked.

  “I’m fine,” I said as I leaned bato the hug. Awen was getting good at hugging. Bet she’d get the skill soon, then she could use it to show off to Rose ter. “We should probably move on.”

  “We take a moment,” Bastion said.

  “And we grab the loot Jim dropped,” Howard said.

  I turowards the old fishman. “Loot?” I asked.

  That had us all perking up.

  “Nothing too special,” Howard said as he moved around the big stoable. “Ah, here it is!” He bent over double, then came back up with a hat in hand. A bck bowler hat.

  “Oh, that’s ,” I said. “What does it do?”

  “Provide shade to your head?” Howard said with a chuckle. “We’ve collected a few of these over the years. They help with iations.”

  He flicked the hat our way, and I caught it out of the air, then used Insightt on it.

  A Shrewdman’s Bowler. Helps ferret out secrets and find the right ao approach a iation.

  “Cool,” I said.

  “Not something I need help with,” Amaryllis said.

  “Broccoli should keep it,” Awen said. “She’s otiator.”

  I looked to Bastion, but he shrugged. “I’m not removing my helmet for a felt hat.”

  Shrugging, I wiggled my ears and pulled my turtle shell hat off and ha to Awen in exge for the bowler hat. As soon as I pced it between my ears, I felt the material shifting. “Oh! It’s ging shapes!” I said.

  “That’s normal,” Amaryllis said. “It’s still new.”

  Right, that had happened before.

  I raised the hat, then stared at the two, ly cut holes set in on the edges of the ‘bowl.’ “Huh,” I said. This time, I slipped it on, and my ears slid snuggly up and through it. “How do I look?”

  New Skill Acquired: iatingRank: D

  “Cute,” Awen said.

  “Like a ,” Amaryllis said.

  “Like you’re asking to have your head bashed in,” Bastion added. “The three of you aren’t what I would sider front-line fighters, but none of you are uo hold her own. Awen and Amaryllis both fight from a little further behind though. They afford to perhaps not have as much armour. You, oher hand, are always ihick of it. The helmet’s a better choice.”

  “Yeah,” I said as I took off the bowler hat. It was nice, but maybe I could use it when we weren’t about to go and face off against a dungeon boss. I took off my pad tucked the hat away. “Right, we should keep moving. Only one floor left, right?”

  “The boss,” Howard firmed. “It’s a tricky one, but I’m sure we’ll manage.”

  “You usually do it with just two people, right?” I asked.

  “Yup. There’s a trick to it. The boss is this great big monster. Weird eyes. Look into them and you’ll find yourself all fused. Anyway, the pce has a bunch of altars. Every time you break ohe boss weakens. Thehey’re all broken the ceiling caves in. Often-times that’ll pin the boss in pce.”

  “You’re making it sound easy.”

  “Oh, it isn’t,” Howard said. “If the ceiling doesn’t pin the big sucker, we often just leave and try again aime. And we haven’t had as much luck sihose roots started showing up a bit ago.”

  Bastion eyed Howard. “ you tell us more than that?”

  “Aye. The boss is about three buildings tall, with a squat sort of body. Thick skin too, like a whale. Plenty of tentacles, and the eyes I mentiohey’re quite rge, and they’re easy to take out. ht, the water.”

  “The water?” I asked.

  “You all know how to swim?”

  “I don’t,” Awen said.

  “I dislike it,” Amaryllis added.

  I hummed. “Normally, yeah, but not with a pad armour on.”

  “Going to o be fast then,” Howard said. “Each altar that breaks makes the room start filling with water. It only stops when the boss is dead. Theer goes back down. Plenty of levels around the outside of the room though,arranged like mezzanines with stairs betweehe miss should be fine if she keeps at range.”

  “Ah, alright,” Awen said.

  “Right,” I said. “Is that everything?”

  “Just about,” Howard said. “Focus oars first. The boss is fast initially, but he’ll get easier to fight as we break altars.”

  “I think we’ll split duties then,” Bastion said.

  I nodded. “I move pretty fast. I’ll do the altars. Awen help. Amaryllis, lightning at first, then stop when water es in.”

  “Because the electricity will travel, right,” Amaryllis said. “I switch out with Awen the her use her bow.”

  “That sounds fair. Bastion, do you think you distract it?”

  “I try,” the sylph said.

  “Awesome, in that case, Howard, you help Bastion, and if one of us falls ier, your first priority is to help.”

  “ do,” Howard said.

  I cpped my hands. “Okay the’s all gear up. The boss isn’t our objective, but it’s in our way. Um... you 't iate with this one, right?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Howard said. “Just a big mohat’ll attack as soon as it sees you.”

  “Alright then,” I said.

  Howard revealed a door that I’d missed earlier on my first iion of the room. A small passageway, right o the bigger doors Jim had used to enter. It led a ways through the castle, until the corridor came to an end and a familiar sort of cave began.

  As we started navigating through the cave with Amaryllis’ magic light guiding us, I couldn’t help but imagine Emmanuel returning back outside, all on his own. It must have been hard for him.

  Talons squeezed my shoulder, and I smiled even if my friends couldn’t see it.

  I was lucky, really really lucky.

  The narrow cavern opened up onto a wider path, ohat split, with a passage at a sharp angle behind the exit, and a more open, more inviting passage leading ahead.

  Howard didn’t eveate to tinue along the main path.

  The cave widehen narrowed once more before ing to a dead stop at a wall made of huge sbs of stone, each wider than my arm span. A door rested in the tre, with that strange symbol Howard had shown me carved all the way around it so that the signs overpped.

  “All ready?” Howard asked.

  “How much time do we have once we’re io get in position?” I asked.

  “The floor uhe boss will rise up until he’s standing above us all,” Howard said. “You attack him early, I suppose. Wouldn’t suggest it. Might fall into the pit the boss rises from.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Might want to start hitting the altars early, but that just makes the room fill faster in my experience, and the boss will fight harder from the start.”

  “So no starting early, then,” I said.

  “We’re not here to run this quickly,” Bastion said.

  Amaryllis nodded. “Leave the speedrunning to others.”

  “There’s speedrunning?” I asked.

  “It’s a sport in some pces,” Amaryllis said. “Who clear a city’s duhe fastest. They keep score and all, with prizes for the fastest delvers. It means gathering things more effitly, which is only good for a dungeon-based ey, and now you have me going on a ta.”

  “Sorry!”

  Howard chuckled and pressed a flipper-like palm against the door. Then he pushed his way in.

  It was time to face the st boss.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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