TBATE - Strings of Fate

14 - The Dungeon

--TESSIA--

We readied ourselves in a standard formation. I was on the right of the formation, near the front. Arthur mirrored my position on the left, and in between us was Angela and Durden. Helen stood behind them, in the perfect position to view the whole battlefield so she could give better commands. Adam stood at the front, as the literal and metaphorical spearhead of our group, while Jasmine took up the rear, to make sure our backline was never compromised by a surprise attack from the rear.

I remembered this formation was called the "arrow" formation. I learned a bit about dungeoning formations in the years before coming to Xyrus. It was thought of as elementary knowledge that all people dungeoning should know, so my grandfather made sure I knew it before I left.

This formation was commonly known because it was well rounded and easy to implement. Close-range fighters gathered in a pointed formation in the front called the 'arrowhead'.

Ranged fighters gathered behind the arrowhead and were called the 'shaft'. If a ranged fighter was longer ranged, they could be placed farther back in the shaft.

Lastly, more close-range fighters were placed in the back, and called the 'fletching'. These fighters were normally ones that could move quickly to respond to attacks from any angle that was unprotected, and their fast, light nature was what inspired the name.

This formation had a known weakness to attacks from the side, but in cases where attacks from the side were expected, the arrow formation could be easily converted to a "shield" formation, which was a fancy name for surrounding the conjurers with a circle of augmenters.

It was easy to implement because it was simple. The people who fought at range went in the middle, whereas the people who fought in close quarters went on the outside. It was easily scalable for this reason as well. If there were more people, just widen the arrowhead and lengthen the shaft, while keeping enough people in the fletching to be safe.

As we entered the dungeon, I couldn't help but think about how dark it was. Angela and Durden held torches so the rest of us could see and quickly respond to threats, but being under the light of only two torches was much less light than I was used to having.

I realized this was probably one of the things that made dungeoning so dangerous: My ability to fight would be diminished in this low lighting, and it would be even worse if I ever fought a dungeon solo. Holding the torch and fighting would be extremely difficult for anyone, even the conjurers.

After traveling a while, we reached a part of the cave that opened and revealed a pack of monsters. Helen yelled at us.

"Get ready to fight. Snarlers ahead, eleven of them. Beware the claws and teeth. They have thick fur, so use more force than usual to fight them. Vitals in the neck and heart."

I readied my sword and raised my eyebrows. I was surprised at the efficiency she used to communicate all the information Arthur and I needed to fight. The snarlers saw us, and started coming at us, snarling.

"I guess that's why they're called snarlers, huh?" Arthur laughed at his own joke while drawing his sword. We all introduced our weapons of choice before the raid. He said that he was trained in hand-to-hand combat by his father, but he was found to be more talented with the sword.

Swords were preferable to using your hands in most situations anyways, so he defaulted to using one. Anything could be used to kill in the hands of an augmenter, including when there was nothing in their hands, but swords were generally more deadly than fists.

I heard Helen's voice from behind me. "11 are too many for the three of them to fight at once. Jasmine, come support them in the front. Angela and Durden, help me keep them from approaching all at once."