From the masses, a special person comes forth.
An individual who can inspire others to rise against adversity.
A hero that heralds the dawn of a new age, reaching for ever-increasing heights of glory.
Pushing further and higher and cementing themselves into the annals of legend.
This is not a tale of such a hero.
Heavy footsteps reverberated along the dungeon floor as a lone humanoid figure charged at a trio of dog-headed monsters. With a sweep of a mace, one of the monsters had its head caved in. Before the other two could move, the return swing crashed against the snout of another one taking it out of the fight. The fighter spun around as the last monster lept at him, he caught the kobold bite at the jagged edge of his small shield ripping its mouth open. As the monster let out an anguished cry, the fighter pushed the monster off and it fell to the ground whereupon its face made contact with the steel-clad boot of the fighter. Pushing down on the kobold's face, a loud crunch was heard as its skull was crushed.
Hearing footsteps at his back, the fighter spun around and braced himself for contact. Cackling with glee, five green humanoid monsters recklessly charged at their lone opponent. One of the goblins was suddenly swept backward when a small handaxe blossomed on its face. Having thrown his left-hand weapon, the fighter sidestepped and quickly brought up a serrated shield attached to his left forearm that deflected and then sliced into one of the leaping goblins. With the same maneuver, he had positioned himself to attack one of the other ones with a broad sweep of the mace. The power from this blow crumpled the left side of another goblin. The figure pulled back the mace to defend against a swipe. He lept back as the remaining two goblins hurried forward. One of the goblins went down low to swipe at the fighter's legs, its claws scraping against the armor. The figure brought a knee up to the face of that goblin and the small spike that was protruding from the armor slashed into its face and pushed it back. The other one had to move aside to dodge its companion. This delay allowed the fighter to reposition and punch forward with the left arm shield. The jagged edge tore the throat out of the goblin. Then the mace flashed down and ended the life of the goblin with the torn face.
"That was eight just in one encounter. What is going on with this floor? It's crawling with monsters. I need to get out of this floor before I get overwhelmed." Jaxon thought to himself as he retrieved his weapon.
Moving quickly towards the main corridor towards the stairs going up to the 3rd floor of the dungeon. Jaxon heard the sound of battle and the screams of the combatants from a corridor to his right.
"Dammit Jax you need to leave this floor… Dammit!" He thought as he hesitated before turning towards his right and rapidly making his way towards the sounds of battle. He quickly came up on the backs of several goblins and kobolds arraigned along the end of the corridor as it opened up into a room.
Without a second thought, Jaxon charged at the back of the line and two of the little buggers were already down before the others knew what was happening. Four monsters turned towards him. Two jumped at him while two started to flank him. Jaxon jumped backward, and the two who hand lunged at him collided with each other and sprawled on the floor in front of him. Quickly, the mace head went up and down two times crushing their skulls. The third one that was attempting to flank him came in low to swipe at his left flank. The attack connected through a gap in his armor. Jaxon hisses at the pain as his flesh is scraped. His left arm swiped down and the serrated edge of the shield sawed into the kobold's shoulder and neck and it was down for the count. The fourth one had charged at him and attempted to bite him while he was occupied. He used the mace handle to deflect the monster's mouth, breaking teeth and pushing the head to one side, and then the axe bit into the angle of the neck ending its existence.
Jaxon strode forward into the opening. He saw a multitude of goblins and kobolds surrounding a group of six adventurers. By his estimation, Jaxon thought that there was more than a score of the enemy. One of the adventures was in the middle, holding his neck with his right hand trying to prevent blood from spilling through his fingers. A cat girl was busy chanting beside him and the other 4 were attacking the monsters haphazardly.
With a battle cry, Jaxon charged at one flank of the monsters. Both monster and adventurers looked at the charging figure before turning back to hack at each other. As he was charging and screaming out his battle cry, internally he was cussing at himself. "You dumb idiot! What did you get yourself into again?" He bashed one kobold to the side with the mace. He took a charge from two goblins, overpowered them, and forced them back to stumble to the floor. He twisted around and hit a kobold straight with the mace. That took down the monster as the two overpowered monsters scrambled to their feet. One got a boot straight into the body, and the other caught an axe straight into its neck a moment later. The one that got kicked flew straight to the front of one of the adventurers who stabbed it and ended its life. Jaxon called out to the other people. I'll take one flank to open up a path toward the corridor. Can you guys move? Let's get out of this death trap! The cat girl had finished her healing chant and the wounded dwarf could finally stand albeit leaning against the cat girl.
Jaxon started to his left to engage more of the enemy. The monsters lept at the chance to murder him, and a series of blows were exchanged between the combatants and several hits slipped past Jaxon's defenses damaging his armor, clothing, and skin. Hissing in pain, he retaliated with a flurry of blows that was able to take two of the monsters down. One of the monsters that slipped past him spun around and raked his back, shredding his shirt, and raking his skin but surprisingly doing minor damage. He pivoted on the ball of his foot and crashed an elbow straight into that kobold's snout, then followed up with a hack from the axe. He dodged a flying goblin and swiped at it as it sailed past. That strike hit the goblin's leg. He noted with satisfaction that his opponent could not stand on the leg when it landed. He threw the hand ax to another kobold, drew one of his throwing knives from his belt, and promptly threw it straight at another of the dog head monsters. The two monsters that were hit did not die right away but expired soon after with the follow-up hits from the maze.
Jaxon noticed that the way to the corridor was finally free. Calling on the others, he had them rush past him into the corridor as he started a tactical retreat backing into the corridor and fending off the monsters. Shouting for help in containing the monsters he was surprised when a woman's voice shouted back that the others had run ahead. Without taking his eyes off the monsters Jaxon called out. "Where are your friends?"
"They left us." said the cat girl.
"Some friends you have there!" cried Jaxon in frustration.
"They were from another familia. The bastards ran into us while being chased by the monsters!"
"Lexi, I cannot run but you still can. Leave me here and I will buy you guys time to run." said the male in a deep voice.
"Cain, I am not leaving you to die here alone." said the cat girl.
As he bashed the head of a goblin in, Jaxon seethed at his bad luck. "That's all sweet and mushy but can you guys fight and help me over here?"
"We lost our weapons when we got ambushed," said Cain. "Stranger, please take Lexi and make a run for it. I can slow them down a bit and maybe you can get away. There are too many to fight."
Dodging between two monster attacks, Jaxon parried then swiped with the mace and bashed a kobold down. "Here take these and defend yourselves! Keep on moving towards the stairwell. Don't stop for anything." He tossed them the axe and a spare long knife.
"But.."
"DON" T STOP FOR ANYTHING DAMMIT" roared the fighter. He lunged forward and bashed a goblin with a shield, reset himself then crushed another one's skull with a downward swipe with the mace.
Risking a glance backward, he saw the two hobble as fast as they could down the corridor with the dwarf still leaning on the cat girl. Then taking a deep breath, he readied himself for the attacks that were to come. Whenever a monster tried to swipe at him he would redirect the hit with the shield or weapon, launch a counter then immediately retreat a few steps. He was pacing himself and giving the other 2 people time to retreat. 3 kobolds ganged up on him. One got the mace to the hip and the other latched on the shield and pulled it down shredding its arms on the edge. The third one jumped at Jaxon and bit down on the left side of his neck. The teeth sank into flesh and the little monster was ecstatic at tasting blood.
With an enranged shout, Jaxon dropped his mace, grabbed the kobold, and ripped it from his neck. He tossed the monster to its brethren and then ducked down dodging a flying goblin while at the same time picking up his mace. He spun around and bashed the goblin to keep it down. Looking at the offending kobold. "Don't suck my blood you puny mosquito." He lunged forward and hammered the kobold to the floor and proceeded to whack at the other monsters with the mace nothing more than a blur. After his short blitz, Jaxon hightailed it out of the scrimmage to catch up with the other two adventurers. He caught up to them just as they were coming into the last room before the stairs. No more monsters were following Jaxon, but several cracks were forming in front of them as more monsters were being born from the dungeon wall. He saw the two take defensive stances. Jaxon charged past them and started hitting the monsters he could reach before they could come out of the wall. "Don't just stand there. Kill them before they pop out of the wall! Damn this dungeon!" With several plops, 6 goblins dropped to the floor. These were all that escaped his preemptive strike.
"Are you guys still with me?"
"Yeah, we still have a little fight in us," said Cain.
"Ok, just keep them occupied and defend yourselves." Jaxon drew throwing knives with his left hand and launched at three goblins in rapid succession. One found its mark and the creature was down. The other 2 were off. Jaxon mentally chastised himself and vowed to practice more throwing with his left hand. He lunged forward with the shield arm leading and crashed into 2 goblins. Five of the goblins attacked him directly and in short order his clothes were shredded from their claw. Jaxon punches back just as ferociously as the monsters. The shield shredded their flesh and the mace pulverized their bones. In short order, all five goblins were down and Jaxon looked like he was used as a scratch post by a very large feline. He turned to the other adventurer and saw them finish off the last of the goblins.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Jaxon gathered whatever weapons he could and led them up to the 3rd floor. From there they cautiously but quickly made their way up the dungeon floors, warning anyone they encountered that there was an irregularity on the 4th floor and to be careful.
It was on the 2nd floor of the dungeon where they encountered larger parties of adventurers. One of the adventurers peeled off from the main groups and approached them. Jaxon felt her aura as she came closer. The adventurer told them they were a suppression group from the Ganesha familia. The 4th-floor irregularity had been reported earlier by other adventurers and a strike team was dispatched. Jaxon thanked them and wished them luck. "They probably don't need luck. That person felt like a level 3."
The three continued their climb in silence. The two looked shocked and Jaxon was just bone tired. As they came out of the entrance of the dungeon and into the plaza above they finally turned to each other. "
The cat girl was the first one to speak. "Hey, we owe you big time. We would have died in there if it were not for you. I would heal you right now if I was not out of mind power. My name is Lexi and this is Cain. We are with the Aristaeus Familia. What's your name?"
"Jaxon, Jaxon Oslak. I'm with the Polus Familia"