Dungeons Online

Both the Dungeons Online game and the Dungeons itself were great. With the potential to break far away from the physical limitations of the human body, there was hardly anything else one would ask from it. 

But there was one thing that annoyed Tom to no end. 

'They are getting bigger and bigger, huh?' he thought, throwing his spear only to do the swap and recall, as usual, effectively dancing around the battlefield. 

The monsters this time turned out to be a slightly bigger version of the hellhounds from just a few floors before. 

And it was this lack of originality that made Tom nearly lose his mind back in the days when he still considered the Dungeons to be just a game. 

'Hellhounds, demons and demonoids, slimes, spiders... Sure, there are many different species, but aren't they generally the same?' he thought, pulling the spear from another monster that threw itself at him. 

"Aren't you taking it a little too easy?" Cleo muttered in protest as her avatar continued to slightly hyperventilate. The material her androgynous and barely human body was made turned to a slightly brighter hue from all the mana she continued to move around with her spells. 

"What do you mean?" Tom broke free from the line of his thoughts, looking up at his childhood friend. 

"It's clear that your thoughts are elsewhere," Cleo said, slashing the head off another hellhound with a wide swing. Then, she changed her dominant leg and blocked a slashing attack of another monster's paw.

"You know me just too well," Tom replied back, feeling as if he was missing something. 'Right, how can she tune with me so perfectly well if we were separated ever since I left for the city?' Tom suddenly asked himself, shocked by the realization so much that he momentarily froze in place. 

Another attack forced Tom's thoughts back to reality. He made his spear disappear only to reappear in the same moment but in a different hold. Due to his mishap, the monster's claws were too close to swing the spear manually, forcing Tom to resort to this kind of untested tactic. 

"Are you okay?!" Cleo shouted in panic, noticing the small trouble Tom found himself in. 

The attack went through. For some reason, Tom's auto defense skill didn't activate, even though it still had a single charge left for the run. Rather than that, the sharp claws of the massive hellhound clashed with the strange material Tom's spear was made off, pushing it heavily against his side. 

"I'm alright!" Tom shouted once the momentum of the attack passed by. 'Dang, it hurt,' he thought, pushing his arm away from his side. While he didn't sustain any real injuries, his smashed shoulder was temporarily out of commission. 

Tom's weakness didn't stop the monsters from pressing the attack. With roughly seven enemies to go, Tom had no other choice but to throw his spear away. For a moment, he observed the approaching monsters. 

"I need to tag out for a moment," he said in a loud yet calm voice. 

"On it!" Claudia instantly replied, changing the path of her attack in order to make her way towards Tom. 

But the monsters were too close. The hellhound raised its paw. Its sharp claws reflected the little light there was in the corridor. 

'Swap,' Tom thought just as the attack was about to carve a huge chunk of meat from his body. 

His earlier throw didn't send the spear all that far. Given how he had to use his left hand, the spear flew for roughly a fewteen meters only. 

But in a place, as confined as the dungeon's corridor, this distance meant the difference between an active fighter and a wounded holding the back. 

The monster's attack slapped the spear away, sending it crashing towards the wall. 

'Recall,' Tom thought, once again using a combination of turning his spear into magic before reconstructing it in his hand. 

'Fuck!' Tom thought when the momentum of the spear transferred to his hand, straining his wrist as well. 'Bit by bit, I'm starting to get wounds,' Tom thought, holding back a groan of pain that desperately attempted to find a way out. 

Meanwhile, Claudia finally found her way towards a spot formerly occupied by Tom. From how energetic her moves were, it was clear that she was determined to achieve something. 

'Is she trying to look cool or what?' Tom thought, annoyed by the excessive waste of energy in the girl's performance. 'It's not like we are in any form of competition here,' he groaned in his thoughts as he started to move his arm around. 

With a strain like that, everything was in the place it was supposed to be. As long as Tom managed to cross a certain threshold of pain endurance, he could use his hand and shoulder just like before... But it held the risk of a permanent injury down the line. 

That's why, rather than jumping right back into action as soon as he could move his hand at all, Tom stood back. Because with the insane amount of mana roaming through his veins, he could already feel the magic slowly working its way out towards his wounds. 

"Just a few more," Tom shouted as he massaged the joint of his shoulder. Even without him at the front, the girls were making quick work of the remaining monsters.

In the end, before Tom could rejoin the fight, Cleo and Claudia happily took care of the rest of the enemies. But instead of a cheerful victory, what followed was closer to scolding. 

"I told you not to get distracted!" Cleo turned around as soon as the last monster fell and shouted at Tom. "How many times do I need to repeat it for you to listen?!" her voice, although loud and angered, held a whole lot of worry. 

'Right, with Marvin injured, she must be pretty sensitive towards seeing her close ones wounded,' Tom realized, hanging his head. "I'm sorry, it was my mistake," he apologized properly before raising his head and looking at the girls. "Thanks for taking care of this battle for me," he added, gracing the girl and the girl's avatar with a smile.