Chapter 40

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

The wildhounds took the lead into the dungeon. Halia held her sword, the blade humming slightly. She and the dwarves followed the wildhounds, the three werewolves surrounding them, all transformed into shaggy she-bitches fiercer than any dog. The quetzalcoatls and Baaghi took the rear.

Halia flicked her gaze around as the wildhounds moved down the stone hallway slowly. The only lights came from the lanterns the dwarves had dangling on their belts and the glow from Halia’s sword, shining in the darkness.

The walls were so much like Leo’s dungeon. The same texture. The same pattern. This could be her Lord’s dungeon, but it felt so much colder. She wasn’t welcomed here. The place hated her. Loathed her. Wanted to crush her.

“Trap,” Hela said, crouched low. She glanced up. “Earth trap. Ceiling tile falls.”

“Useful,” Vargi said as the party skirted around the trapped tile.

“Never thought I’d do it this way,” muttered Sarkz.

“Doesn’t feel right,” Hagza added, the mage walking behind Halia. “Not right at all.”

Halia bit back her retort. This was the prejudice she was here to overcome. Adventurers and monster girls working together to take down something dangerous. A rogue builder. A terrible calamity. A natural disaster, really.

Something that the world had to come together to tackle.

Bhediya growled low at Halia’s left, the werewolf stopping.

“What?” Halia asked. Her eyes flicked ahead. The wildhounds were all sniffing at the ground, moving in staggered pairs of two, their tails swishing back and forth as they padded along on all fours.

“Something,” she growled. “A whiff of a scent. Bright.”

Halia’s gaze slid around when the walls on either side of them melted away like the shimmer of a mirage. On either side of the group stood a pair of enemy monster girls. Two were glowing women with white, angelic wings. Choirs. Level 1 Light monster girls. The other two were made of gray stone with strias of white and black, imposing and busty women.

Rock elementals. Level 1 Earth monster girls.

The two choirs sang, light dancing around them then beams of light burst from them. Halia ducked one. It flashed over her head, leaving a blur of blue across her vision. The other struck Sarkz’s ax. He used his weapon to block it and broke into a charge.

“Fractured stone!” he roared.

The rock elemental guarding that choir moved to block Sarkz only for Vargi to be on his hills. Her mighty warhammer slammed into the rock elemental’s arm. Stone cracked. The enemy monster girl recoiled in pain, shards of her limb flying through the air.

Sarkz closed the distance on the choir. Her melodic voice sang again, the light coalescing into another beam. His ax flashed.

He hewed her body in half from shoulder to hip. She screamed then vanished in a dance of motes that rained across the ground. Vargi swung her warhammer again before the sparkles all melted into the shadows, her hammer crashing into the rock elemental and throwing her back.

“Na-Nir Uzu!” Hagza chanted, her skin becoming as gray as granite. “Usu Durah!”

She threw a punch as she chanted a third spell, thrusting her fist at the other choir. A stone hurtled across the distance and smashed into the choir’s head. Her face crumpled. She flew back from the blow, feathers bursting from her white wing before she vanished.

Halia leaped into action, rushing at the rock elemental, Bhediya at her side. A blast of lightning flashed from the back of the party, spat by one of the quetzalcoatl. It struck the rock elemental and rippled uselessly across her flesh.

Bhediya leaped before Halia. The werewolf snarled and bit into the rock elemental’s arm. Teeth scraped on stone, yanking back the rock elemental’s limb and throwing her off-balance. Halia lifted her sword. It hummed louder as she slashed.