The second engagement went much like the first, a single warg attempting to ambush them and being summarily slain without difficulty. Seeing another level 1 monster just rush them and get killed, Astrid couldn't help but ask, "I was told that monsters are stupid, even if they're smart. Is this what people meant by that?"
"Yeah, it's a common enough saying." Grom replied. "They can work together and use tactics, they're dangerous, but even if they're going to use tactics, an uninjured monster will always attack a person they come across. Doesn't matter if they're human, Barbarian, Kin, Walkers, or Hiveguards. Monsters know when something isn't from the Dungeon, and they hate it. Somehow, they know if something isn't able to get a Class, though, and they don't hate animals as much as they hate all people."
Astrid nodded in response as they continued walking. It was rather boring but still tense to stalk through the strange colorless forest, watching for any monster that could appear. They didn't have any luck, but she fought to keep her guard up. Looking around and listening, nothing showed up, and, if Astrid's internal judgment of the time was correct, then it'd been an hour since they'd entered. Only two monsters in that whole time? Her plans about how quickly she and her party would have gotten levels were way off base, and she understood how it was that Grom took so long to reach Iron.
Looking ahead, there was only limitless forest, and Astrid couldn't tell how far the first floor in this part of the Dungeon expanded. With nothing better to do, she asked, "How big is this floor? I'm told there's four floors in this entrance, but I don't know how much it spreads."
"It's a rough circle, and six kilometers across." Grom answered, offering nothing else.
Astrid resigned herself to walking in silence as Grom made it apparent he wasn't going to be talking a whole lot while in the Dungeon. Taking that as criticism, she focused on the sounds around them. A breeze went through the black trees, and that nearly hid the sound of something approaching. Two somethings.
"One on the left, one in front!" Astrid declared. She'd need to draw them both in without allowing them to set in on Grom. The warg before her leapt out directly at her. She raised her shield and pushed it back with a grunt. Unlike the others she'd fought, this one pushed her back half a step and she called out, "This one's strong!"
As before, Astrid swung out with her hammer to make it dodge back, which worked. Instead of continuing to just stand between it and her "Ranger", though, she looked at the other bursting through the brush at Grom. It came in low, looking to hobble the man. It was a perfect opportunity for her shield. Raising it high, she punched down and smashed the long edge of the shield into the creature's spine. Bone cracked as it dropped limply to the ground, and Astrid turned her attention back to the stronger one in front.
"Fire when ready!" she said as it charged back towards her. Quicker than before, it snapped at her ankles. She only managed to get her foot back far enough for its teeth to scrape into the thick iron of her greaves. While it was down there, she swung her hammer at its head, though, again, it was much faster than the others she'd fought today. Even so, Astrid didn't worry. With Grom as backup, she'd be able to—
Grom screamed for help from behind her. Astrid brandished her hammer forward again close enough to the warg to get it to retreat. Now that she'd gained a tiny bit of space, she looked behind herself.
The Shieldmaster was on his back on the ground, his forearm caught in the jaws of another, third warg. It yanked him back and forth, slobber flying everywhere. If this was something strong enough to threaten him then she was probably about to die. Even so, her best chance of survival was to distract the creature as best as she could to allow Grom to do battle against it in earnest.
Taking two steps forward, Astrid swung her hammer into the warg's shoulder with a roar of challenge. To her amazement, bone pulverized as it was thrown away. It smashed into a nearby tree with a weak whimper and slumped to the ground as its ugly face screwed up in an emotion she couldn't understand. Even confused as she was, Astrid still had the third warg to deal with. Facing the fastest, strongest of their number, Astrid braced herself.
She was too slow.
The warg she had turned her back on smashed into her right side and, despite her obvious size and weight advantage, was knocked prone. She grunted in surprise and pain as she fell to the ground. With her hammer stuck under the beast and her left arm trapped under her while still strapped in her shield, Astrid couldn't hit the creature back as its fangs dug into her right shoulder, even through the pauldron and chain mail. No blood was drawn, but it hurt as its supernaturally strong jaws continued gnashing on her.
Astrid screamed in anger as she released her grip on her hammer. Then, as she twisted her body to toss off the creature, she raised her right arm. Her fist found the beast's throat and it gagged as it pulled back. It lunged towards her face, but she slugged it in the nose first. It pulled back, and With as good an opportunity as this before her, Astrid rolled to her feet.
"C'mon!" She shouted as it charged towards her again. Knowing just how strong the monster was, Astrid braced her shoulder behind her shield as she smashed it into the warg's nose. Or, she tried. Instead, it sidestepped the worst of her attack, going to flank her. That was when it was clobbered by a fist-sized rock in its head. The wolflike monster staggered, obviously stunned, and Astrid didn't need any further instruction. With her shield raised high, she pulverized its skull.
Warg slain. 7 Experience gained, split among party.
A level 3, then. But she didn't pay attention to that. Instead, a little confused, Astrid turned to look at Grom, who had a wide smile on his face.
"Well done there, lass. That was impressive."
As she fought to catch her breath, Astrid's mind caught up from the confusion of the fight. "You weren't in danger?"
"Nope." Grom shrugged. "I said I'd be fine in here, and I meant it. Most people don't think too hard about it when I start screaming for help, and my job is to see what you do from there."
"Did I react appropriately?" Astrid asked as she gathered her hammer and ignored the ache in her shoulder. That'd bruise, though Quick Recovery could take care of that. In fact, with how long it'd been since they'd come down into the Dungeon, it might be for the best if she did use it. A wash of cool energy flowed through her and as she rolled her shoulder, Astrid grunted in relief as she walked towards the other two crippled monsters.
"About as good as a brand new Bronze could have." Grom nodded. "You good?"
"Yeah. Just making sure I don't get too stiff from that hit I took." Then, with two quick swings, she dispatched the other wargs.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
"Well, I'd say you can be a damn good frontliner. No scouting Skill, but that's unsurprising. Quick reactions, willing to stand and fight, to prioritize others. Since you're level 1, I'd say your Acumen's only 6, so having that third one take you by surprise is normal. If you'd like, we can call it there and I'll wholeheartedly recommend you as an outstanding frontliner, and able to deal more damage than most."
"Really?" Astrid asked, surprised.
"Yeah. You took on a level 3 as a level 1. Those level differences aren't nearly so impactful at higher levels, but like this? Its attributes are way higher than yours, and you dealt with it basically perfectly. Combined with the fact that wargs are among the hardest monsters to be a frontliner for, yeah, I'd say you did impressively."
"What makes them hard?" Astrid asked, somewhat confused. "They're not too strong or big, so what's the problem?"
"They don't engage directly. Orcs, Trolls, Bearmoose, things like that? They're direct. They let you know where they're coming from and where they're going. There isn't much you need to think about just keep your shield up and don't die. They'll never pull that trick the level 3 did with you. They'll just keep on attacking until you or they are dead. Until a frontliner has a Skill to make things focus on them, it can be dangerous to deal with agile enemies. You're quick on your feet, so… yeah. That's enough compliments from me, though."
"Wow. Thanks! But I still want to try out the bruiser and finisher roles, if I can."
"That's probably good. I think you'll be better at them than at the frontliner."
Astrid nodded, feeling a faint flush creep up her neck. How weak to praise was she? She'd trained until she puked for years for this, there wasn't any reason to start feeling like she was something special because of just a couple of words!
"So, how are we going to do this next part?" Astrid asked. "Have you go on the front line and do what I was doing? Or did you have something else in mind?"
Grom grinned and pulled his shields out. Both flashed with a faint brown light before growing to the size of a regular round shield. Then, he said, "Get ready. We won't be waiting nearly so long this time."
Before she could ask exactly what he meant by that, Grom threw his head back and roared a somehow bestial roar into the sky. As the sound shook the leaves all around, Astrid heard an answering cry from a dozen wargs within a kilometer.
"Get ready." Grom smiled. Astrid wasn't sure if she should regret using her Skill so early, but even if she did, there was nothing that she could do about it now. She checked the strap on her shield and her right shoulder's pauldron. Then, seeing she was as ready as she could conceivably be, Astrid took a couple deep breaths and got ready to deal with the incoming battle.
It wasn't more than a minute before the first warg crashed through the branches and threw itself directly at Grom. It approached from the far side of the small clearing they were in and didn't have eyes for Astrid. That was its last mistake. As the monster scrabbled at the large shield, Astrid raised her hammer and smashed it into its head. With the opportunity to prepare herself and deal the blow, the kill was immediate.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
With her getting the kill every time, Astrid was getting the extra experience, and she was already at 32/1,000 experience. But she couldn't think about that any longer, and instead she flicked the blood and brain matter from her hammer as she focused on the next sounds approaching. This time, two arrived at the same time and from different sides. The one closest to her did look at her, but it seemed it couldn't resist throwing itself directly at Grom. As the Shieldmaster protected himself on both sides at the same time, he seemed completely unconcerned.
Taking that as an invitation, Astrid strode forward and dealt a crippling blow to the closest monster. As before, she aimed to kill it in one blow, but even though it was forced to attack only the man hidden behind his shields, it could still dodge. Instead of its neck, all the bones in its shoulder and neck broke with her attack, though it didn't die. The same moment it was attacked, it resisted Grom's Skill that kept it entirely focused on him and snarled weakly at her. With its neck mostly broken, the monster's legs didn't listen to it any more. Dealing the killing blow wasn't difficult, and Astrid didn't pay it any further attention, except to notice that it was level 2.
35/1,000
Another pair of blows to kill the warg on the other side.
38/1,000
Three more burst through the brush, and, knowing how they'd be able to attack her once she'd hit them, Astrid took her time to lay out a killing or at least crippling blow on every one before she made her first attack. Two level 1's and a level 2.
47/1,000
Another two wargs came out of the brush, and Astrid was feeling the burn. Putting her whole strength into every blow was something she trained, but it was still exhausting. Before she could kill the first, two more appeared, and four wargs snapped at Grom from every direction. He shifted in his position just enough to ensure that each one only got a hold of his shield instead of his flesh.
"Where were these before!" She shouted as she got into position to kill another.
"These are the last." Grom answered a question she didn't even ask. With that reassurance, though, Astrid breathed deep and hit one in the neck where its shoulders joined with its spine. What would have been a crippling or killing blow on another instead bounced off. The warg, something Astrid was feeling almost casual in killing, whipped around so quickly that it knocked her hammer into another one of the monsters, which also turned towards her. The high level monster threw itself at her. Astrid was ready and raised her shield to protect herself.
It was far from enough.
The warg's blow knocked her from her feet and into the air. She tried to land on her feet, but Astrid was so surprised that she stumbled and fell a couple meters away from where she'd been hit. The air whooshed from her lungs, and she fought to sit up. Even with all her training and strength, heavy armor was just that, and as she struggled to get into a safer position, the high level warg flashed forward with jaws gaping.
Astrid's eyes widened as the warg's jaws opened wide in front of her and she felt, deep in her bones, that she was about to die. A small part of her whispered to use her talisman, and she tried to push her mana through the leather to make it happen. There wasn't enough time, and her control over her mana faltered. She threw herself back to avoid the jaws for another fraction of a second.
Warg slain. 9 Experience gained, split among party.
Without a sound or movement, the warg dropped dead as it menaced her. Its spine was cleanly severed right behind its shoulders. Grom stood behind it, the brown energy dancing along the edge of his shield. The magically strengthened shield flashed, and he almost gently pushed the other warg back away from her.
"Sorry about that," he said, "I can tell you that I've never seen a level 5 around here, so I didn't expect that. You ok to continue, or do you need me to kill the others?"
Astrid nodded and forced herself to her feet. Then, with her hands shaking and her breath unsteady, she turned her attention to the other warg. It was ready for her, and instead of a simple killing blow, she needed to engage in some level of back and forth with it. With the adrenaline and fear pumping through her, Astrid foolishly rushed forward, not trusting in the strength of her armor or training. Instead, she swung wildly, and the monster took advantage of that and ducked under the hammer. As her right arm swung wide, the warg jumped into the exposed space in front of her. Its jaws found her thigh, in a place where the greaves couldn't completely cover her. For the first time today, Astrid took a real hit, and the fire of pain that flashed down her leg made her cry out.
While the monster was there, though, she took the opportunity to score a deadly blow on its spine. The body fell, limp, as it was crippled. Astrid panted as she tried to control the pain and fear. Her blood wetted her armor and her head went woozy.
"No!" She growled aloud to herself. "This isn't enough." The downed monster got a hit from her hammer.
Warg slain. 6 Experience gained, split among party.
Astrid turned to deal with the other two wargs, but two more death notifications answered her.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
"We're done, Astrid. You're ok. Let's get out of here, if you're not bleeding too bad. If you need me to, I can bandage you right here."
There were a couple tears in her eyes as she shook her head. "No. I'll be ok. I'm bleeding, but I'll be fine until we're out of the Dungeon, at least."
"Be honest, Astrid. Are you ok?" Grom looked her in the face.
"For now. It might just be the adrenaline, but I'm fine."
"If you faint, it'll be worse. I'm not letting you die today."
"Yes, sir." Astrid tried to inject some positivity into her words, but she couldn't manage it. Instead, she pulled her belt knife out and set about cutting the ears from the wargs. Each movement and step was agony, but she continued moving. Her legs chafed against each other as she moved, and the pain of the greaves rubbing her thigh made the tears in her eyes well up again. She'd been hurt before, but this was the first injury she'd sustained. After a couple minutes, she was done, dropped the severed ears in her pouch, and turned to Grom, who nodded.
"You sure you can make it out?"
"For now, yeah." She reassured him, and, without further ado, they left from Astrid's real first fight in the Dungeon.