Dungeon Healer

Re-edited this story - all chapters, and have changed protagonist's name to Rui, as Raikka didn't roll off the tongue well. Also added new material and a new chapter.

‘Rawwrghhh!’

A writhing monster that looked like a cross between a demon and a bat raked the air in front of my face. Its black claws bounced off a shimmering wall; a translucent purple shield that surrounded me, protecting me from harm. I sobbed and held my head in my hands, crouching in the cold mud. How on earth had I stumbled into this terrifying situation? As the bat demon foamed at the mouth in frustration and attacked the shield with renewed vigour, I found myself thinking back on the events that had led me to this point.

***

‘I’m off; don’t stay too late, right?’

I tore my eyes away from the command shell I’d been squinting at and gave my coworker Malaika a bleak smile.

‘Yeah, I just have to kick off this upload and then I’ll check it once I get home.’

Malaika clucked her tongue. ‘They don’t pay you for that, you know.’ she told me acidly.

I shrugged and waved her away. ‘You’re one to talk, go on, or you’ll miss your bus.’

Unrepentant, Malaika hoisted her backpack with a grin and waved me goodbye as she left the office.

As soon as she was gone, I turned back to my work, sighing gloomily. It took nearly an hour to actually finish, and my eyes were sore and puffy by the time I emerged from our office building. It was already after 10pm, and the semi-industrial area I worked in was eerily quiet. Since it was the height of summer, the air was still warm, loaded with the scent of flowering bushes. Breathing deep, I felt myself slowly starting to relax after the stress of work.

Stretching my arms overhead, I yawned and gazed up at the night sky. Only a few stars showed through the light pollution of the city, and somehow that made me a little sad. Shaking off my melancholy I started the short walk home. I was lucky I lived close enough to do so; semi-industrial areas also make for cheap rent, and I liked not having to take transit. It was a bit nerve wracking since I wasn’t usually doing it alone at night though, so I clutched the self-defence baton hidden in my purse and kept myself on high alert.

In spite of my wariness, I was still lazy enough to risk the shortcut through my local mini-park, and this turned out to be a big mistake. I had just turned on to the gravel track, the sound of it crunching under my feet seeming horribly loud in the night silence. I was looking this way and that to scan for any signs of lurking danger, when a flash of blinding light appeared right in front of me. Startled, I over-balanced and almost fell into a circle of light in the middle of the gravel track. Thinking this must be a police helicopter beam or something similar, I squinted up into the beam, trying to see what was behind it in the dark sky.

At that moment I felt a strange tingling sensation in my fingers and toes. Glancing down I let out a yelp as I saw my fingers and then hands start to disintegrate into a cloud of shining particles. Before I knew it, the rest of my body came apart, and the brightness enveloped me completely.

I was still trying to register what had happened when the next blink replaced searing light with grey skies. I blinked again and looked around in confusion. Instead of a dark summer’s night, I stood under a cloudy sky dripping with thin rain. Shafts of sunlight shone through the gloom, and I took a step back when I saw what they touched. Ruined skyscrapers leaned like jagged teeth in the background, while the familiar park and surrounding low warehouses were now crumpled and flattened. Instead of grass and gravel, the ground of the park was churned mud, littered with dying vegetation.

‘What the?!’

I faltered, and fell backwards, splattering mud everywhere. I couldn’t even blink, I was so shocked by this sudden change of environment. Instead I sat there, staring at the broken cityscape. The feeling of squishy and cold mud was too intense for me to believe it was a dream, yet I had no idea how to deal with this situation. I’m not even sure how long I sat frozen, but eventually I was jerked out of my stupor by a loud screech above me. With the instinct of prey, I hunched my shoulders and looked up, ready to dash away.

Only a few metres over my head, a large winged creature was bearing down on me. I had a confusing impression of batlike wings and snarling fangs, but I was already scrambling away without looking back. I was too frightened to realise I was making a fatal mistake by turning my back on an enemy, until it was too late. Hot foetid breath swamped me, and I could almost feel the tips of claws in my flesh. I screamed and crouched down, trying to protect my head with my arms. There was a sudden zapping sound, and purple light burst from my body, expanding outwards. I looked up and saw that I was now surrounded by a bubble of purple. It looked almost like water, translucent and wavering, but when the winged monster tried to strike it, it gave off sparks that seemed to drive the creature away. I could see the monster in all its horrible glory now, and I shuddered at the sight of it. Tattered grey wings, dark grey pelt, and slavering fangs; it reminded me more of a demon than a beast. It attacked the purple shield furiously, but was repelled each time. The sparks from the shield seemed to burn the monster badly, and the sickening smell of seared fur filled the air. Snarling, it now retreated a few feet and glared at me.

This allowed me the breathing space to worry about how I could possibly deal with it if and when the shield failed. I sobbed and held my head in my hands, trying to force myself to think of what to do.

Suddenly a fiery beam flashed out of nowhere and ignited the unfortunate monster. It roared and howled as it went up like a torch, and within moments its smouldering corpse crashed to the ground. The stench of burning fur and flesh became overwhelming. Shaking with revulsion I looked over to where the arrow had come from, and saw a group of people approaching, outlandishly dressed.

There were eight of them, a mixed bag of race, age, and gender; from a tween girl of African extraction to a Scandinavian looking fellow who must’ve been in his late 60s. The only things which united them were that all carried some kind of weapon, and their clothes looked more suitable to a battlefield rather than an office.

One of them, an East Asian in his early 20s, was carrying a very glitzy golden bow over one shoulder, and now he came right up to my purple shield and reached out to touch it curiously.

‘Don’t!’ I yelled, worried that it would hurt him and the party would then attack me.

He stopped short and tilted his head, staring at me quizzically.

‘We won’t hurt you, you can release your shield.’ he told me reassuringly.

I shook my head. ‘That’s not it; it hurt the...’ here my voice quavered with leftover fear, ‘the monster.’

A tall woman with a flowing red ponytail and prominent freckles strode over. She looked sympathetic but stern.

‘Enough chatter; this is still a hot zone. Release your shield, and we’ll take you to safety.’ She turned abruptly and grinned at the rest of the group. ‘Should get a rescue reward for this!’

The old man with white hair and Nordic features scratched his chin. ‘There’s been no one to rescue in this zone for months; why are you here girl? Did your party abandon you?’

I wrung my hands, feeling pathetic and overwhelmed. They might as well have been talking gibberish for all I understood.

‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand.’ I stammered. ‘I was just going home from work and it was night, and then boom! Now it’s day and everything’s broken; like, what the hell is happening?! Was there an earthquake?’ Earthquakes wouldn’t explain man-sized bat monsters, but it was the only thing I could think of that seemed remotely realistic. I was clutching at mental straws by that point, desperate to believe that I would be able to return to my normal, boring life.

The entire group gave me a stunned look, and the knot further away murmured to each other. Then the young girl hooted with laughter and pointed at me.

‘What’s wrong with her, is she mental?’ She crowed.

A lanky East Indian man in early middle-age frowned and shushed her. He cut a grand figure; his long tunic was cloth of gold, and he carried a staff taller than himself, crowned with a blue globe.

Red ponytail scowled and waved her hand impatiently. ‘Just release the damn shield and let’s go, we can figure this all out once we’re in a safe zone.’

I gestured exasperatedly. ‘I don’t know how to do that! Are you sure it’s me doing it?’ I wanted to obey because these people scared me almost as much as the monster, but it seemed impossible.

Red ponytail gave me a murderous look, but her East Asian companion tapped her shoulder and smiled at me gently.

‘Just close your eyes and visualise the shield fading away, we’ll tell you when it’s gone.’

Obediently I followed his instructions. In spite of my fear, it was easier than I thought to imagine that purple light fading into darkness. It was a very strange feeling, almost like I was drawing it back into myself.

‘Ok, we’re good. Let’s get a move on.’ Red ponytail was waving forward the rest of the group as I opened my eyes. The shield that had protected me had now completely disappeared.

The archer handed me some kind of energy gel sachet to eat and covered my shoulders with a foil emergency blanket. I was too shell shocked to question where we were headed, and allowed him to propel me into the centre of the group. I guessed the rescue reward was worth enough for them to be serious about protecting me, but that didn’t mean they bothered to explain anything. In fact, they didn’t really talk at all, confining themselves to gestures. They all seemed wary and focused as we covered the broken ground.

And with good reason, for it wasn’t long before we heard a series of growls from the left. A large, bear-like man with brown hair and even brown armour, pushed me behind him and faced our attackers with mace and shield. These turned out to be a small group of five wolves given the demonic treatment, which meant they were as large as ponies and boasted horns as well as enlarged fangs. Their eyes glowed red, and one of them launched itself at the husky man, who pushed it away with his shield. His mace swung, connecting with a horrible meaty thwack, while the archer added fiery arrows to rain down on the hapless monsters. The wolf monsters squealed and died, either in gouts of blood and smashed bones, or burning fur and flesh. I covered my ears in horror, but bear-man, who I figured out later was the party’s frontline ‘tank’, and the archer, were already exchanging pleasantries and holstering their weapons.

‘Leave some for me!’ shouted the tween girl indignantly. The adults all rolled their eyes, as if this was a common occurrence. It seemed strange to me that someone as young as her was here at all, but she seemed to be an integral part of the group.

One of the remaining three of the party was a skinny boy in his mid-teens, with a very emo look and twin swords strapped to his back. He patted tween girl on the head condescendingly, and pulled her forward by her ear. She made a show of grumbling, but you could tell she didn’t really mind. They were all obviously pretty close, closer than regular co-workers.

’Tsk, I got bit.’ scowled the tank, looking down at a rather gruesome wound on his mace forearm. ‘Linally! Heals please!’

A thin woman with long dark hair and pale skin like marble stepped towards him. Her stretched-out hand started to glow with a golden light, which was echoed by the wound as it repaired itself, until finally there was no sign it had ever been there.

‘Thanks babe.’ grinned the tank. Linally flashed him a tense smile in return.

Red ponytail urged them on with a wave of her hand, and we all moved off again. They seemed a little more relaxed now, as it seemed we were nearing the border of the safe zone.

If they hadn’t already assumed I was in shock, it would’ve been hard for me to hide my bewilderment. Their idle conversation brought up the fact that the safe zone was Seoul in The Republic of Korea. This was on the other side of the world from my Canadian West Coast place of work, and yet I had been seemingly transported in an instant of blinding light. However, unless things had gone very wrong in the space of my work shift, even Seoul should not be a place of red zones and otherworldly monsters.

Regardless of where I was, the landscape here all looked disturbingly uniform, being all crumbling buildings and dead vegetation, along with the ocean of mud. We skirted a copse of dead trees and suddenly ahead of us loomed an immense doorlike gate of glowing green, resembling a forcefield out of a scifi movie. My companions walked into it with sighs of relief, and to my amazement, they disappeared. I could faintly see the same ruined landscape behind the forcefield, but the people were nowhere to be seen.