D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Gareth —

Gareth blinked a few times in the darkness hoping that his eyes would soon adjust but nothing seemed to be happening. Gareth frowned and looked to the sky for some sign of the moon or stars but there was nothing above him. Reaching out carefully with a gauntleted hand Gareth quickly made contact with a wall. He had a good idea of where he was. “Damn. Is ending up in a tunnel my punishment for taking so long to put on my armour?”

Gareth received no response. Or perhaps the Timmy did give some non-verbal gesture but the pitch black of the cave system didn’t leave any way for that message to actually get a cross. Gareth sighed and reached up to his neck. Digging a finger down into his armour he managed to make contact with his necklace and twisted. Mana started to be drained from him at a low level as the area exploded into light. Gareth himself was enveloped in a corona of light that made him hard to look at directly.

It also pissed off the local monster population, and it turned out Gareth was right next to a large pit filled with them. Half a dozen different monsters all screamed in unison a the intrusion of light upon their home. Some sprinted away, trying to get as far away from Gareth as quickly as possible. To flee back into the darkness that they called their home. Others were much more annoyed and charged Gareth, apparently deciding to be angry at him. Perhaps with a wish to kill him and extinguish the light that way.

The fastest set of monsters were eyeless green bats with giant bone spikes protruding from their wings and large mouths with slits in them almost like a set of shark’s gills. The bat monsters started to shriek as they got close and Gareth immediately sent some mana to his eardrums to reinforce them even as the cavern seemed to shake under the sonic attack. Not wanting this to go on for longer than necessary Gareth stepped forward, shield in hand and slammed the first bad into a second and third before crushing them against the wall, cutting the volume down with a sickening crunch.

The others weren’t just going to let that pass though. The remainder of the bats tried to claw at Gareth’s back and exposed arm as best they could but despite the size of their mouth’s they didn’t have the jaw strength to damage his armour and it was a simple matter to bring his weapon to bear on them. A few quick slashes, in through the roof of the mouth and into the brains of the bats put and end to them.

Gareth couldn’t just relax with that however, as more monsters were pouring towards him. The first was a dog-like monster that was also missing its eyes. Its nose was greatly enlarged and its front claws looked a bit like a mole’s. It leapt at him, clearly intending to crush his armour with the claws… so Gareth decided to sidestep the attack and slice along the thing’s stomach as it past by so that he could be in position to block the last two monsters coming for him.

They were both crab-like monsters with a boulder for a central shell. Their claws were large but they were much slower then the other monsters. The issue was that there was two of them and they filled the tunnel completely limiting Gareth’s ability to move anywhere other than back. The only reason they fit through the tunnel was their seemingly uncanny ability to avoid each other’s’ legs as they charged forward to attack him. Oh and these ones did actually have eyes, though how well they could see was hard to say.

Gareth scanned for obvious weak points and came up short. The body was just rock and his sword was tough but he had no idea just how thick that armour was. The joints might be another spot to go after but the crabs had enough limbs to attack him just about anywhere, especially with their claws which were likely a real threat to his armour. The eyes seemed like a weak point but they could obviously be moved around and from what little Gareth could get in those few moments, seemed like they could retract back into the rock armour to keep them safe. So, in that instant Gareth realised what his best plan was. Turning around and booking it.

Gareth sprinted away, not needing to look back at all as the crabs weren’t quiet. He could hear them stomping about behind him but judging from the similar rhythm to before the crabs were already at full speed and weren’t going to be catching up. Gareth kept his eyes focused out in front as he sprinted down the tunnels, looking for alternative pathways to make use of, or perhaps a spot to collapse the tunnel down onto them. Just something to either get away for good or get a bit of an edge in combat.

Gareth had no idea what happened to the Timmy that had been following but he expected the little guy would be able to keep up. *Hmm… can I ask Timmy to bring down the tunnel? I might still count as ‘in combat’ but I haven’t landed any hits on the crabs. Then again, I don’t know how to quickly and succinctly explain what I need to the little guy. If I just say ‘bring down the tunnel’ he might try to collapse the whole thing taking me with it.*

Just as Gareth rounded the next corner he slipped. Gareth had a moment of weightless surprise at this fact, before gravity caught up with him and he quickly realised why he’d lost his footing. His boots were enchanted to help with that, and his affinity for earth should mean that simply tripping over from slight lack of attention was impossible.

Of course, when the floor was falling away beneath you then that was a different matter. *SHIT* cursed Gareth mentally as his armoured form started to slide down the newly made ramp. It was too steep to properly climb and perhaps oiled to ensure that he’d travel swiftly to the bottom. Gareth considered using some magic to summon a platform but held off. Even if he wasn’t in the best position, this sort of drop should, theoretically be much worse for the crabs then for him.

Gareth continued his slide and swapped from a mostly uncontrolled fall into a more graceful, if still slightly awkward slide. Looking back behind him, Gareth could see the crabs just now rounding the corner and not bothering to pay attention to the ground. A few steps later and they were caught on the slide as well. The crab on the left snapped out with its pincer, breaking through the rock wall and attempting to hold itself up… only for the wall to prove to be the weak link, bits of stone falling down onto the slide in no small amounts and rapidly gaining speed.

Gareth cursed and tried to look ahead to see if he could plan for the end of the slide but his light just didn’t stretch that far. However close he was to the bottom needed to remain a mystery… and the various bits of debris were catching up to him, rolling swiftly down the hill and occasionally breaking apart the slide when the larger ones made contact.

*Hmmm… can I do something while we’re falling? They’re a bit far back… but perhaps not quite out of my range. I don’t have a lot of flexibility here so what can I do? Summon a block that smashes them into the ceiling? A few walls to slow them down and properly escape? No that’s going to be too easily broken by monsters of the strength these clearly possess.*

Gareth glanced at the cave walls to his side. They were completely slipper and gave no spot for him to grab on to. But… I could perhaps make a small spot for me to wait things out? The risk would be that the crabs snip at me as I fall but… Gareth glanced back and saw that the crabs hadn’t really managed to recover. One was sliding along on its ‘belly’ the rock scraping against the slide as they went while the other was spinning around. Its attempt to save itself doing far more harm than good.

*Ok, if I move to the side with the spinning crab… I think I’ll be safe. Though I suppose the question is… where do I go afterwards? I don’t have the mana to climb my way back up out of this thing and I have no idea where the ground is. Plus… I’m not sure I want to be behind the crabs. Sure I could get the drop on them that way… but frankly that might be more dangerous. They’re destroying the slide as they pass over it. Clearly it wasn’t designed with their weight in mind and coming down after them… no best just to keep going and hope I can do something at the end of this slide.*

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