doravg

Warning: Description of rape. Well, it happened off-screen. But, still. 

"You are not going in there alone. I have no idea how things went in the Firebolts, but the Try Hard Party leaves no one behind," Dorian snapped. They were in another huddle, and Jean had just suggested that he should scout ahead. In the dungeon, this time.

"What is the difference from me risking my hide on the outside of it and the inside of it?" Jean replied, slowly, as if asking a child. 

"Jean, you know how dungeons normally are. There is a swarm past that entrance," Morris pointed at the dark cave entrance. "It is better if we go in behind Leander's barrier."

"He has only four barriers in him, and I am an archer," Jean argued. Honestly, he was the perfect crowd control specialist in the party. They were all worrying over nothing.

"This cave is already mapped," Morris argued back. "It is not that big. And the core didn't have that much time to dig."

"Jean, if something happened to you, we won't forgive ourselves," lemon cake told him in a gentle voice. "You are a part of the party. And we want to see you healthy after a quest, not like..."

Leander grew silent and Jean got a far away look. Sure, Dorian had taken a risk with bashing the rocks earlier, but that was a calculated risk with the knowledge that Jean could get out of the way of the rocks in time and that Leander could catch them as they fell.

In contrast, Jean's own decision to go in alone was not as calculated. He had no idea if the dungeon was following the beaten path and putting a swarm on the first floor, which he could deal with easily. Or it had put the thing that needed a barrier to pass through pass the entrance.

Jean looked at each of his partners in turn. They were sending him pleading looks. It warmed him to know they cared. It was more than he deserved, after getting his old party out of commission.

"Dorian, you are the leader. You call the shots," Jean murmured, defeated.

"Then, here is the plan. Leander will use his second spell slot to get us through the entrance. Simple and clean," Dorian placed his hand in the middle, and they did their ritual.

The four walked to the entrance and, just as they were about to step through, Leander put up a barrier around them. The orange glow of the barrier illuminated the spikes with dripping acid from above. Jean rubbed the back of his head as a single drop fell on the barrier and began to cause the orange wall of mana to smoke.

"Ok, I am glad now that I didn't go in alone," they moved down the cavern, with the barrier becoming a spider web of cracks by the time they reached the entrance. Jean bent down and placed a barrier stone on the entrance of the second cavern. He received three questioning looks.

"If there is a swarm past that point, it would be best if we don't let anything go to the surrounding beach. I mean, there are tourists down there," his words hit them like a speeding buffalo, and they all grew green.

"Why was this area not closed off?" Leander asked, staring into the darkness of the second cavern.

"Maybe the entire situation with the dungeon cores escaping is played off as less important than it is? To avoid public panic?" Morris suggest and Dorian nodded.

"Yes, if I were duke Klorfiel, I wouldn't want for people to find out I couldn't keep hold on to such dangerous things as dungeon cores," Jean pulled out a mana flashlight and hit it on the wall twice, so it could light up.

They used the reminder of the barrier to make it halfway in the cavern. But they were uneasy. Nothing tried to attack them. This meant that there was something big lurking in the dark.

Jean was moving the flashlight this way and that, and he saw a snake tail in a corner. Jean tapped Dorian's shoulder and pointed at it.

"Rather big, no?" Jean mused and Dorian took off his shield. They approached the tail slowly. Only to find a Naga chained to the stone. The Naga was bleeding heavily, and his clothes were torn up.

But he was breathtakingly beautiful. All four stopped to stare at him.  He had such delicate features, that it was hard not to stare. A perfectly straight nose. Cheeks that were a bit sunken, but without a blemish. His lips were full and heart-shaped, but there was a nasty cut on the bottom one.

His body was lean and elegant, but with sculpted muscle. And his hair was the same yellow color as his tail. Jean thought how he liked lemon cake's better, but wouldn't say that the Naga's were unpleasant to look at. Not only that, but his eyes were an icy blue color.

"Is this the first mini-boss?" Morris asked, and the Naga's eyes snapped open.

"Run," the Naga crocked, and that confused the four.

"Are you working for this dungeon?" Dorian was not much concerned about the Naga attacking them. He was chained, after all.

"Run you fools! Or you will be captured, like me! The goblins will come and," the Naga let out a sob and began to shake. Suddenly, the wounds, the bite marks on his skin and the split lip all made sense.

They all felt sick at the realization. Sure, some goblins were good, but the majority were scumbags. They stole, pillaged and, yes, raped.

"We can't leave him like this," Leander looked at Dorian. "He has been through enough."

"I had no intention to leave him," Dorian took his shield, and brought it down on a chain. It broke, and the Naga moved his now free right hand closer to his body. Afraid of something, he could see behind the four.

"Look...more pretties," a guttural voice spoke behind them. What the Try Hard Party felt was not fear, it was boiling rage. Even Leander was out for blood. The healer placed a barrier over the Naga, and he and Jean prepared for a joined arrow barrage. It was better than the goblins deserved, but they had to get the Naga out of here as fast as possible. They couldn’t allow themselves the time to torture the green cretins.