Dungeon Hunter: Act I

By Any Other Name

She scowled, her grip on the gun tensing.

"We never married. It's Carrie. Just Carrie."

"Carrie," I began and then froze.

What was I supposed to say? "Sorry, we killed your daughter"? "Anna literally stabbed me in the back, and if I hadn't taken a huge gamble she would've taken my or Axel's life"? "Oh, my bad, Tam took everything Anna owned when she looted her corpse, hope there was nothing sentimental on it"?

"The longer you hesitate, the more suspicious you become," Carrie said, the furrow in her brow deepening, her finger curling a hair's width tighter around the trigger.

This hadn't been on my bingo card. Running into the mother of someone we'd killed wasn't even on my radar of things to consider. I had barely come to terms with the fact that our party would likely not survive and that we were essentially fighting a losing battle. Not that I was ready to admit defeat, but it was a dire situation that seemed practically hopeless.

It very much felt like we'd never win, but we'd die trying.

So it was understandable that my mind was reeling as I wondered how to explain anything.

"You been in a Dungeon yet?" Axel asked, putting himself between me and the gun.

He was buying me time to think. I could kiss him.

The older woman cocked an eyebrow up. "I have. I walked in and out of the CBD one. Anna was supposed to do the same in this one. To stop the itch."

"Why didn't she go into the CBD one, like you?" Wren asked, her voice curious but quiet.

Carrie shook her head, her face subtlety softening at the girl. "Group of upstarts surrounded it, demanding payment from anyone wanting to be let in. I was lucky to slip in and out before they set up their barricades. Only reason they've not put up one here is because of me."

Staring at her, standing there with her weapon, I had to acknowledge she was a formidable opponent.

Her gaze swept over the group. "I'd hazard a guess that you're Just Friends?"

We nodded.

"I'll ask again now that we've been properly introduced. Where's my daughter, and what did you do to her?"

The truth would kill us.

That was an undeniable fact.

And I didn't want to take the risk of someone in our group taking a full load of buckshot to the face.

Like some sort of Sherlock scene, the events seemed to play out before me. If either Gigi or I used [Focus], we could tank the hit and rely on [Stubborn] to survive it, I guess. Wait, no. That only worked in Dungeons. And add to that, if both of us activated [Focus] at the same time, we'd fuck things up, and without us having a suspicious exchange there was no way of relaying that information and selecting only one of us.

Sure, Axel might be able to dodge with [Swift-Footed] and, if she reacted in time, Tam might be able to transform and avoid the attack in her smaller form. But Wren and Jye were sitting ducks.

A single [Shield Wall] protecting them probably wouldn't be enough at this range either–and with the potential spread of buckshot, Gigi and I would have to instantly set up a wide array of the shields with at least two rows to eliminate all possible hits for them and us. And, again, there was no time or way to communicate any of this to xem without us immediately getting shot up as a result. I still had [Thick Hide] up from the Dungeon clear, so my mana was currently capped too.