Oh yeah, the Ogre Priests could do magic. They could throw fireballs, heal and remove “curses”. Curses that included, unfortunately, my [Improved Blind]. Even as they came out of the gate, they started throwing cures at the remaining Ogrehulks. Some were heals, which was bad enough, but one broke a hulk’s blindness.

  Right. That’s just about enough of that.

  The problem was, with four of them, I couldn't just cast [Improved Blind] four times. The spell stopped sound, and they needed to chant, so it stopped that one from casting. But the three others would cure him. In the dungeon, they came in pairs, so it wasn’t as bad.

  I’d come up with a solution. I’d cleared it with Koenig beforehand, and he’d spread word of what I was doing around. He needed to because, without context, what I was doing would seem crazy and more than a little counterproductive.

  I cast [Greater Invisibility], and the first Ogre Priest disappeared.

  Not to me, of course, nor to himself. He didn’t notice that anything had happened and threw out his hands to cast a spell. I’m sure he was surprised when that didn’t work.

  The other priests looked surprised, I think. It was hard to tell on those faces, but they goggled at the space where their companion had been for long enough that I got to cast again.

  [Greater Invisibility]

  Even if they had figured out what was going on, I didn’t think they’d be able to do anything about it. Invisibility wasn’t a curse, and they couldn’t target someone they couldn’t see. I hoped.

  With their second companion gone, the remaining two seemed to remember they were in a fight. They cast some more cure spells on the ogres fighting in front.

  [Greater Invisibility]

  The first ogre priest seemed to realise his spells weren’t working and decided to switch to hand-to-hand. He started charging forward.

  That was… the main flaw in my plan, but there was only one left now. I canceled the first invisibility and cast [Improved Blind] on the one remaining. The defenders were startled by the sudden appearance of the ogre, but they would have been more startled by an invisible attacker.

  The two ogres that were still invisible seemed confused by the sudden reappearance of their friend. That bought me time to blind him. Seeing the sudden reversal of fortune for their pal, they wasted a round casting cures on him. That was another one blinded, and I cancelled his invisibility.

  The final unblinded one ran at the wall. His mouth was open, he was probably screaming. Once again, I cancelled the invisibility spell and blinded him when I got the chance.

  That was all four spellcasters… not neutralised; they were still quite capable of wreaking havoc in melee. Their combat effectiveness had been greatly reduced, though.

  Two of the priests were engaged at the wall, the other two were stumbling around blindly. They’d find their way there eventually, but a few of the Level Five archers were keeping them busy, trying to lead them around in circles.

  All in all, not a bad job. I think I’ll hold on to the rest of my mana.

  I watched as Cloridan savaged the arms of an Ogre Warrior, as Kyle took the blow of an Ogre Hulk on his shield, and as Felicia did what she did best. The crew here knew what they were doing. It took time to whittle down the monsters, but they demolished them in the end, slowly but surely.

  In the end, no one even died.

  It seemed this Dungeon Break didn’t rate a full-on event like the other ones did. The System must have known that we had it in hand. The special bonus confused me, but then I remembered that some dungeons gave a bonus for clearing a level. I made a note to ask Rhis if we did, and, if so, why.

  “Right!” I called out. “Fresh volunteers only for the raid!”

  Groans were heard all around, and someone called out, “Right now?”

  “Right now!” I gestured at the hole in the ground. “That dungeon is regenerating mana even as we speak. We need a small team to get in there and… ah, neutralize the Countess.”

  “We’re not taking everyone?” Koenig asked.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “This many people would be chaos going after one person,” I answered. “And in all the mess, it would be a lot easier to sneak up and pick off an unwary straggler. Plus, we don’t have protection amulets for everybody.”

  I gingerly jumped down to the ground inside the wall. I landed on an Orge Hulk, which made for surprisingly stable footing. Cloridan, Kyle and Felicia jumped down after me.

  “I dunno if you guys are fresh…” I hedged.

  “Shut up, we’re coming,” Cloridan said. “If anything, you shouldn’t be going.”

  Captain Guertin wasn’t here, so he couldn’t agree with that. He was back defending the town. This was adventurer business.

  “If you want something done right, do it yourself,” I said grimly. “At least I can scout with an Emissary that she can’t control. Felicia, you’ve got the highest Soul out of any of us, so I’m counting on you to resist her.”

  I looked up at the wall. “Therris and Aelira, you’re a part of this, so get down here.”

  The two priestesses reluctantly jumped down. Despite their robes and the rough footing, they landed gracefully.

  “Not me?” Tonet asked from the top of the wall. “Not that I'm not grateful.”

  I grimaced. “I need you to cleanse anyone who comes out of the dungeon,” I said. “And while we’re at it, we need to put some kind of barrier across the entrance. If she beats me, she might have me turn her invisible.”

  “Understood,” Tonet said. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

  “I’m coming,” Koenig said. “I may have fallen victim to her before, but there’s not many that can say they haven’t. You too, Nadine, we need another mage.”

  “That’s my line!” Janie said. “You can all rely on fire magic’s special counter against mind magic.”

  “And what would that be?” I asked. I was fairly certain she was joking, but she had made it through the occupation untouched.

  “If you’re on fire, you can’t do mind magic,” Janie said, completely seriously.

  I groaned. “I would complain, but I would quite like to see the Countess on fire,” I admitted. “You’re in.”

  No one else volunteered, and the party was starting to get unwieldy, so without further ado, we entered. As soon as we passed the threshold, I sent my Emissary out.

  The stairway went down a long way in the dark, a clear violation of Occupational Health and Safety rules. I was a little surprised that it hadn’t been made slippery. Maybe the dungeon was thinking ahead to the times when it Broke. Imagining the Ogre Hulks slipping down the stairs like a greased pig seemed both possible and funny.

  “So, Lady Rankin will be able to tell what floor we’re on,” I said. “If we were all on different floors, she might have trouble telling who was where, but we’re going to stick together so that won’t be an issue for her.”

  “She can’t just… see us?” Koenig asked.

  “No, the dungeon can, and she can ask, but… Rhis, at least, has a lot of trouble telling humans apart. He’s about right about gender about eighty percent of the time.”

  “We’ve started shielding you,” Therris announced. “In conjunction with the amulets, it might be enough.”

  “Let’s hope so,” I said, trying not to sound grim. My Emissary had reached the bottom and was headed across the first level.

  The Ogre Temple was a series of open-air levels, broken up by a maze of walls and buildings. You could find your way through the maze, killing ogrelings the whole way, or you could avoid them by climbing up and walking on the walls.

  Doing that let them see you, though. They’d throw things at you, which was annoying, but they’d also follow you. You would acquire a crowd of angry ogrelings, and at some point, your path would intersect.

  For some, this was simply a more efficient way to kill lots of ogrelings. For others, it was a deadly trap. Right now, for us, it was simply an easy obstacle course. My Emissary jumped lightly to the top of one of the six-foot walls and kept running. I was keeping an eye out for the Countess, but I didn’t expect to find her here. No, she’d be at the bottom level, waiting for us.

  The rest of us weren’t far behind. I marvelled at my ability to handle two sensoriums at once, my real self managing the uneven footing of the walls just as easily as my shadow had.

  “Oh, I might not have mentioned,” I said as we walked over the empty passageways. “The Countess might not be able to see through my illusions, but she has some sort of mind sense which tells her if a mind is there. So she can tell if she’s looking at a Phantasm.”

  “Unfortunate,” Nadine commented. “Can she recognise the mind that she sees?”

  “That didn’t come up, so I don’t know if she can do it with a glance,” I admitted. “But she can always read a mind if she’s uncertain.”

  “Then she can see invisible people?” Cloridan said with dismay. “Target invisible people?”

  “Probably,” I said. “And I don’t know if it's linked to her sight or if she just senses minds within a certain radius.”

  “That’ll make it hard to sneak up on her,” Cloridan grumbled.

  Janie laughed. “Fire magic’s looking better and better! Did you know you can’t be mind-controlled if you’re on fire?”

  “Yeah, nah,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I don’t think anyone’s going to take you up on that offer.”

  We pressed on. The Temple had a fairly simple floor layout. Each floor descended in giant steps, about 30 metres across and two deep. If you were following the passageways, there were tunnels that took you down a step, otherwise, you just had to jump.

  When you got to the bottom of a floor, you took a right to find yourself at the top of another, differently laid out, maze. The main difference was that the inhabitants changed. The pattern continued, descending like a giant spiral staircase.

  As we descended, the houses became relatively better built. They got bigger as well, to accommodate their larger residents. Two-story buildings became common, sticking up out of the maze and forcing us to go around, through or over them. The decisions would have been more fraught if a horde of ogres was chasing us.

  But they weren’t, so we picked our way past the dwelling of the Ogre Warriors, through the fighting pits where the hulks had fought, until we came to the end.

  The final floor was mostly empty, I guess so that we could appreciate the architecture of the massive edifice at the end of it. This was the Ogre Temple.

  The three entrances were set in a structure fifteen metres in height. The archways were ten meters from ground to top. One of the archways was a dead end and a trap. The dungeon switched them around from time to time. The other two entrances normally held two Ogre Priests and an Ogre Hulk. They hadn’t managed to respawn yet.

  I sent my Emissary through the middle entrance and it made it through unscathed. It walked into a huge chamber dominated by a statue ten metres tall. This was the supposed Ogre God. Twice the size of the biggest ogre, four arms and a ferocious, snarling expression.

  There was a betting pool running at the Guild for when the statue would come to life or get replaced by a live version. Today was not the day.

  “Middle door is clear,” I announced. “And… the Countess is there.”

  Characters!

  Tonet - Human priestess of Naldyna. Less than trustworthy, which is why she’s staying up top. No, of course, Kandis didn’t say that.

  Koenig - Good man to have in a scrap.

  Nadine - The sort of person that Koenig thinks is good to have in a scrap. He’s got the violence covered, thanks. He needs someone to take care of the thinking.

  Janie - Turns out, Fire Magic is the perfect counter to all forms of magic! Sign up and learn how!

  Captain Guertin - Sadly missed.