Isran the Great

Isran felt more at ease when Andreis left it wasn’t that she didn’t like the man, he seemed friendly enough. The issue was she hadn’t been around a lot of people like him since she arrived in Neos. Most of the people she had been involved in were much more reserved people. The whores included.

There was also a weird feeling in her gut the moment he sat down. Like something was warming her to be wary of the man, Red had also started brushing against her arm lightly.

The healer, Phaedra looked embarrassed at Elysi’s questioning. Elysi hadn’t complained much but Isran had picked up on her dislike for how much the other adventurers had been watching them. Isran had to admit she was very surprised they had been approached but that was a shortsighted way of thinking. She would never do it, didn’t mean others wouldn’t.

“I uh… I apologize if I caused any discomfort. I didn’t intend to make you uncomfortable.”

“You have been frowning at us for a while.”

Phaedra winced. Isran was starting to realize the woman was very expressive, she seemed to try to hide how she was feeling but her emotions displayed a bit too clearly on her face.

“I uh… was thinking about upsetting things. My anger wasn’t directed towards you or anyone else in this expedition for that matter.”

Isran could tell the woman probably just stared at them because she found them the most visually interesting. She had also been staring at other adventurers since the expedition had started, if she was asked why she would be floundering worse than Phaedra was.

Elysi hummed and continued to stare down the healer, the woman looked like she was going to bury her head in sand at any moment.

One of the cartographers in the expedition walked up to Phaedra a few seconds later.

“Uh miss, the miner is awake.”

Isran thought of the few miners that had been ambushed by low-level skeletons as Phaedra stood.

“Goodnight.” She mumbled and walked off with the cartographer.

“That was a little mean.” Isran laughed once they were out of earshot.

Elysi smiled up at her. “They were being rude, I just wanted them to feel a little bad.”

“I’m sure she feels more than a little bad now.” Isran laughed.

---

Two days later Isran found her gut feeling about Andries being dangerous very right. They had been on the second floor of the dungeon for a very short time, maybe two hours. Isran hadn’t made proper note of the time.

Their last encounter on the first floor had been with a large mob of skeletons and a difficult amount of green slime.

The entire expedition was tired and since there was only one healer a good number of the adventurers had wounds that were too surface level to waste mana or healing potions on but severe enough it made them move slower than usual.

They were on high alert but not for bandits, for dungeon monsters. Dungeon monsters on the first few floors were almost always less cunning, far less cunning than a group of bandits waiting for a chance to attack.

They had killed the two adventurers who were in charge of scouting the area ahead for traps and waited for the rest of the expedition to find the bodies.

As Isran ran from the two bandits chasing her she realized that the dead bodies had been a signal for Andreis to attack. He was not the only bandit in the expedition, four other men were attacking the group of about thirty adventurers.

“I knew that slimy piece of shit was not to be trusted.” Elysi growled as they ran. She was faster than Isran but kept up her girlfriend’s pace. Isran was slower not only because Elysi was just faster than her but also because she was carrying Phaedra.

The healer had been knocked out by Andries instead of getting stabbed like most of the rest of the expedition was subjected to. It seemed the bandits were planning to kidnap her. Elysi had told her that healers were a rare commodity for an adventuring group or even an expedition. It made sense that the bandits would try to kidnap her.

Isran wasn’t nearly strong enough to carry the woman and run properly, but Red had been boosting her stats since they entered the dungeon and her strength and speed stats had received minor boosts. She hadn’t really engaged in much combat but she could tell the boosts were more than previous.

Isran grunted when an arrow hit her amour and fell uselessly behind them, she would have to thank Jayn when they got back to Thalbrin, the armor was worth every penny.

Phaedra groaned as they got to the base of the stairs that would take them to the first floor of the dungeon, two green slime were hopping around.

“Fuck.” Elysi groaned as they skidded to a stop. There were two other adventurers with them, a gnome and an elf. The elf was bleeding and the gnome was looking more than a little scared.

Elysi pulled her bow from her back and removed an arrow from the quiver as the elf threw a dagger at one of the slime. Isran dove out of the way from the other slime, almost falling from the weight Phaedra added to her upper body.

Propping the healer to her feet, Isran tapped her cheeks lightly. “You need to wake up, please.”

“Isran!”

Isran pulled Phaedra in the direction Red strained against, she had learned after a few fights with the cape to trust its warnings. Through the gaps where her amour met, she felt the slime whizz pass, then two arrows followed close behind.

“Fuck!” A deep voice groaned. Isran princess carried Phaedra again and ran towards the stairs. Elysi and the gnome were already there.

“Wha—”

“Can you walk?” Isran panted from behind her helmet. Her energy was sapping rapidly with having to carry Phaedra and run. The stairs were not helping in any way.

An arrow hit her helmet, pushing her head forward lightly, Isran almost tripped on the step in front of her. She would never abandon full plate armor, she had been a little unhappy with how long it took her to put the armor on, but it was clearly more useful than inconvenient.

Elysi pushed through the door and held it open as Isran and the gnome in front of her stumbled through. She caught a glimpse of two men, one human and one orc at the bottom of the stairs fighting a green slime and a skeleton as Elysi slammed the door closed.