Brent screamed and tried to block the stabbing light, only it was already too late. His vision raged white and his eyes screamed at him. He could hear the target running away but with the echoing of the tunnels it was impossible to know where to. From experience he knew that there was only one way path a fleeing target would go. Out. They’ll find him. And then he’ll pay.

  “Goddammit, what are you two doing? Why didn’t you shoot him before he tossed whatever that was.” He could hear Helen and Hughbert groaning as well.

  “His hand was empty!” Helen said. “I didn’t see it until it had already hit the ground.”

  “Would have killed him,” Hughbert said. Which was true. Magic attacks like his tended to deal with explorers quite easily. Which wasn’t what they were after. Crafters were valuable and required for a guild to make any headway. Weapons, armor, potions, artifacts. Failing to capture is one thing, but killing a crafting target is worse.

  “What do we do now?” Helen asked. “I still can’t see. How was he able to move like that?”

  “Since he knew that it was coming he probably blocked his eyes,” Brent said. “I’ll gut him. Or make him wish that I did.”

  “Mind the hands,” Hughbert said. Which was true again. One of the other teams where hung out to dry after destroying a hand on one of their targets. Made the crafter useless.

  “I’m finally starting to be able to see,” Brent said. His vision was still white. But at least he could notice some shapes. “Alright. We give it enough time that we won’t get mauled and then chase after him. Helen, you track him, or at least do your best. We’ll need to move fast and skip combat if possible. And I don’t care about trains. If anyone takes aggro off of anything following us it’s their own fault.”

  Two sounds of agreement sounded out. “I’m so going to kill him,” Brent said once more as he rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palms.

  ***

  Alison was overjoyed when Sam finally got back to her, ‘Be there in 10 mins.’ She pumped her fist and caught the cheer before it sounded. She also cursed him for not telling her more. Was just Sam going to show up and give the new hire a write up? Or was he going to suplex him from the roof to make him regret ever screwing up her shift? She was already in over time for the day. Again.

  She walked out of the manager's office, into the lobby, and started working at one of the reception desks. That way she could make sure that no more trouble would happen. At least she hoped that nothing new would happen. There weren't enough explorers coming by that it was needed. But she wanted to make it at least a little harder for the party to escape from the Dungeon Center.

  When Sam finally showed up he was surrounded by a squad of heavily armored enforcers. She had only seen them before in the training documentation. Usually they would be deployed when a break happened. And this was a first that she heard of the enforcers moving for a human. A chill ran down her spine and her eyes snapped to Newt. He and the others must be from a red guild if they are bringing out the big guns.

  Newt saw them enter the lobby and made a lunge for his phone. One of the enforcers threw their hand forward and Newt slumped instead, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he started to slip backwards. Alison stepped forward and made sure that he wouldn’t fall and hit his head. He was a ragdoll in her hands which were shaking.

  “We’ll take it over from here Alison,” Sam said. He placed a hand on her shoulder before he started shooting out orders. A pair of the enforcers set up in the blind spot of the dungeon entrance. Another pair came in from outside, cuffed Newt’s hands, and clasped a collar around his neck. Then he was loaded onto a gurney and carted off into a van that sped off.

  Alison stood there not really sure what to do next. She was really just a bystander at that point. A ground of independent explorers appeared from the entrance and froze. They eyed the enforcers before throwing their hands up. Sam waved them over to the desk and shot a look at Alison.

  She was glad for something to do, to take her mind off of what was happening. And she stepped forward, checked them out, and processed their loot. “What’s going on?” One of them asked. The explorer had her hair cropped short and was dressed in brown leathers with a pair of daggers on her hips.

  Alison shook her head. “I’m not certain. Probably best not to dig too deeply.” It wasn’t true, but the less that others knew the better. Probably.

  “Think that it will be posted?” Since the Dungeon Centers were a government agency they needed to be transparent in their actions. Usually they would report deployments like the one currently happening.

  “I would assume so, but,” Alison said with a shrug. There was no telling how much information would be hidden. Even if the info was buried and the public found out there would be a half hearted excuse and people would forget about it sooner or later.

  Parties continued to filter out from the dungeon, each one panicking at the force arrayed in front of them. Before getting checked out and processed. And then finally the party in question exited the dungeon entrance. They looked worse for wear and the axeman had blood on his armor and running down his arm.

  The woman with the bow was the first to move. She had an arrow knocked and flying before she crumbled to the ground. An enforcer shrugged a shield into place and the arrow ricocheted into the room. The heavy set man in robes put his hands up and sunk to his knees. While the man with the axe started swinging it back and forth to hold off the enforcers in front of him. Which did nothing since the enforcers behind him tased him and the woman. At least Alison thought that it was a taser. They had several more lines than what she had seen before and even appeared to go through armor.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Sam stepped forward with the enforcers and they started frisking the two downed party members. “Where are your cards?” He asked the man on his knees.

  “Don’t got one,” the man said.

  “Alison, get the card tool. We’ll make these people some new ones.” While she busied herself with getting the tool she heard Sam asking the man questions. ‘Who are you?’, ‘What guild do you belong to?’, ‘What were you doing down there?’, ‘Why didn’t you check in?’.

  The taciturn man replied in short answers. ‘Explorers’, ‘None’, ‘hunting’, ‘We did’.

  “How could you check in if you didn’t have cards?” Sam said and took the card tool from Alison. He touched each of the explorers and printed out new cards for each of them. The man on his knees had started to tremble at one point and sweat was running down his brow. Sam handed the tool over to her as he walked past. And once behind the desk he started to scan the new cards.

  “First up the axeman, Brandon Gull, unaffiliated. Then the archer, Hera Risling, unaffiliated. And finally our mage friend here. Berton Graves. Guild…” Sam stopped speaking and turned to the man before he continued, “Bloody Field of Thorns. A red guild. Known for killing and stealing from other explorers.”

  Alison felt that the tension in the air rose significantly once Berton was identified. The enforcers who had been relaxed all raised their guns at the man at once. He paled at the sudden threat and started whispering, “Please don’t shoot me.” The two party members on the ground were collared, handcuffed and carted off with gurneys, each into different vans. As for Berton, he was collared, handcuffed, and walked out and into a fourth armored van that was waiting outside.

  The moment passed and the lobby was empty again except for Alison and Sam. “Boss, that was some intense shit. What the hell just happened?”

  “We can’t take any chances with red guilds. They are known for busting their own out. Or worse. Killing them before they can squeal. Each of them will be taken and questioned. We’ll find out why they were here and do what we can if something has already happened.”

  “We can check who’s still inside. But given the number of parties that come and go there might be quite the number still,” Alison said and moved to one of the consoles.

  “Ask anyone who comes out if they had any issues. I’ll be in the back dealing with the paperwork,” Sam said and locked the front doors. He turned around the ever present open sign to close. “If anyone bugs you about getting in just tell them that the dungeon is closed for now.”

  “Right Boss,” Alison said. She had already pulled up the checked in list to try and figure things out. But there were maybe 50 explorers still in the dungeon. Several in parties. Several solos. Who was it that the red guild was after?

  ***

  Richard leaned against the dungeon wall and tried to catch his breath. Only it wouldn’t come. Deep breath after deep breath came instead, each one faster than the last. His breathing wouldn’t slow down at all. It felt like he was drowning in the air. It took some effort on his part, but he was finally able to slow his breathing. Just a bit at first, but over time he was breathing normally again.

  The running had taken it out of him and he didn't know how much more he had in him. Moving his heavy body could be dealt with after he rested. And it was with trembling hands that Richard removed a canteen from his satchel and sipped water from it. The tepid drink whetted his thirst and somewhat helped with how he was feeling.

  One of the rules for entering the dungeon was to bring food and water. Something that they sold at high rates at the Dungeon Centers. He had bought into it once, and then kicked himself for not thinking and bringing it from home. Richard fished out an energy bar and started chewing it slowly. He couldn’t taste it, but knew that he needed it.

  As he was taking care of his bodily needs he took a look around. At first he started running back the way that they had come. But then he had the thought that they would just catch up with him. There was no way of telling how long the Flash Potion would have worked for. And they could have been on his heels after a moment or so.

  When he saw a dark tunnel going downwards he took that instead of the path back up. There were no monsters from what he could see and once he got beyond the first bend it wouldn't be possible for anyone to see him. It made sense to the panicked Richard of the time. But the current Richard wasn’t too pleased with it.

  There was no way to deny the fact that he had gone down to the third floor. A path that would have stunned the trio if they had known. At least Richard assumed it would. He had food and water for the moment. But what he didn't have was a good way to deal with the packs of monsters.

  On the second floor they started coming in twos, which was probably more than he could handle. And then there was the larger beetle which would be impossible without another hand to capitalize on the weakness that the beetle showed when it tried to crush people.

  How did the third floor differ? The monsters would be stronger than those on the second floor. He was able to see a slight difference in the light and felt that it was dimmer than the first and second floors. Would the monster packs come in 3s? Would there be more of the larger beetles? He had only entered the floor enough to hide from the entrance. Just in case they somehow guessed his route and found him again. But he was deep enough to cause himself no small amount of anxiety.

  There was a scraping on the ground coming down from where the entrance was. Did they find him? Or was it one of the wandering packs that was said to exist on the second floor?

  Richard pushed himself deeper into the shadows. He forced himself to take small breaths through his nose, and wished himself to be invisible. Unnoticeable by whatever was coming. The scraping noise grew louder as whatever it was came closer.

  There was a pause then. As if the unknown being had found something to interest itself. But then it started again. Richard stifled the scream that appeared in his heart as one of the large beetles walked around the corner. A weak glow pulsed slowly from its rear.

  It wasn’t possible for him to fight it. Was it possible for him to run? His body was still tired. But it might not chase him up the stairs. Could he get to the stairs? Richard closed his eyes tightly to try and calm his racing thoughts. He wasn’t able to slap his cheeks. It would tell the beetle where he was, if it didn’t know already.

  When he finally opened them again the beetle was right in front of him. Happily chewing on whatever it had found. Moving forward as if he wasn’t there. Did they have bad eyesight? No, if they did then their sense of smell or hearing would probably be higher to compensate for it. For whatever reason the beetle kept lumbering on and was soon out of sight.

  Richard let out the breath that he was holding all at once. He hadn't even realized that he had stopped breathing. And with a shaky body and the aid of the wall he stood from his hiding place. Only once he stepped around the corner he promptly bumped into someone.