Dungeon Sniper

"Hold that thought, kid. It looks like the floor needs some fixing before we can all go on dancing."

Benedikt scratched his head as he kicked the dead Goblin Crawler by the hive entrance.

"The problem is, I didn't know about these New Types when I planned this through. Life-sign trackers are useless. So are the heat detectors," grumbled Benedikt as he threw away the portable scanner onto the ground.

"The plan stands. We go down, eliminate the Queen, and save the world," I said coolly.

"Yeah? Who knows how many of these heartless bastards are lurking down there?"

"How many does the tracker pick up? The ones with the heart at least?"

Benedikt clicked his tongue and went back to the c.o.c.kpit of the Dwarfighter. He came back after checking the screen.

"A thousand, give or take a couple."

"What about the Sand Crystalites?" asked Elysia abruptly.

"What about them?" grunted Benedikt.

"You said that the so-called New Types can't regulate their body temperature. I guess we could estimate their number by counting the crystals, right? Because they must be nesting around them for warmth."

Benedikt thought for a second.

"That may work if I knew how much heat-dependent these things are. But I don't know anything about them. You saw its movement just minutes ago. I've never seen a Goblin move so fast. How much energy does it need to move like that? Was that its maximum speed? Would they be sluggish in the colder areas away from the sun and the crystals? I damn hope so," muttered Benedikt, pacing around in a circle, thinking and assessing the limited information through his genius brain.

"The Reptils," I said abruptly.

"What now?" frowned Benedikt.

"The Reptils move faster in the hotter, sunnier regions. They can't regulate their body temperature either, just like reptiles."

"And the Humans procreate openly and freely just like monkeys. What's your point?"

When I first heard Elysia's suggestion to estimate the number of the New Types that would be cowered next to the Sand Crystalites, I had already been forming a different plan, and from experience.

A cloudy, partially vivid image flashed across my mind. A younger Benedikt, still old but younger than now, and a younger Mataki with smooth, vibrant skin were crouching across a guarded fortress, using their undersized stature to the best advantage. Benedikt and Mataki nodded at each other before unfastening from their backs what looked like the rudimentary version of the Boom-Booms that I used to know, different only in that each had a liquid tube attached on the surface. Then they ignited the modified Boom-Booms and threw it over the wall... before covering themselves in the thick fur cloak as they braced for the upcoming impact.

"... Ben, my friend, do you remember that time we threw a giant freeze bomb into the Reptil sorcerers' hideout? We gave the lizards an early hibernation."

Benedikt was about to snap at being called by a nickname, but he realized that he was being addressed by a friend. A friend inside me.

"Son a bitch, I forget how smart the Goblins once were before all this madness. Good point, Mataki."

"Will you be able to create one, right here?"

"So we're talking about an actual freeze bomb? That's not a metaphor or anything?" asked Elysia confusedly.

"Oh, it's real, lassie. Very real, and true to the name."

Benedikt looked around the still aflame battlefield and stared long and hard at his sons, the Dwarones.

"Each Dwarone has 'liquid cooler' that stops it from getting overheated. Now, it won't be the same as the one we saw half a century ago, not without the genuine 'vaporsilver,' but if I take them apart and scr.a.p.e them, I might get just enough for a decent freeze bomb."

"So we're improvising, as if we have all the time in the world, right over the enemy hive?" said Elysia worriedly.

"This is the only way. Detonating the Bang-Bangs traditionally will do minimal damage with how tortuous the underground tunnels are, not to mention the negation of blast upon contacting with the soil. In lieu of any other viable option, we are turning even time against us, as another enemy in surplus of the ones down below," I, or Mataki, said thoughtfully.

"... I get that, but do you have to talk like that?" frowned

"In what manner am I speaking?"

Okay, I heard that too.

"Like a Goblin?"

"You have to bear with me for a while. It takes some time getting the whole soul merging thing stable."

Meanwhile, Benedikt was already onto his job. And it did not seem as if it was going to take a lot of time as Elysia had worried. The Dwarones helped each other detach the parts and collect the liquid cooler near the core engines. Benedikt used the Dwarfighter like a crane to gather the resources into one place.

I watched the mastersmith turn scrap junk into a bigger, funkier junk before my own eyes.

"How are we going to get... this thing off?"

This thing was a giant ball of a thousand Bang-Bangs covered with gooey Sand Crystalites in the form of glue with two hundred or so liquid cooler containers plastered on the outside.

"I wish I could just roll it off the hole, but it's not going to work that way," sighed Benedikt in satisfaction over his latest work.

"I think it can fit the hole, even just barely."

"Of course the bomb can go through the hole. Can't you see the beautiful perfection I managed in just ten minutes?" breathed Benedikt indignantly.

"I wouldn't say beautiful..."

If anything, it looked monstrous, and also dangerous. Perfectly dangerous. It could have been the cold air from the two hundred liquid cooler containers stacked against each other in one place, but I definitely got the chill standing on a hot, sandy desert open field.

"More like bestial," I concluded, shivering a little inadvertently.

"I like that, the Beast," said Benedikt, savoring the name in his mouth with sparkling eyes fixed on the hideous bomb.

"I wasn't trying to name the thing—"

"But no, I've decided already. It's called 'Dwarfreezer!'"

... Of course.

.

.

.

The remaining half-dozen Dwarones rolled the Dwarfreezer and disappeared into the hole. Benedikt was going to time the detonation himself, unless one of the Dwarones became unstable and exploded before they reached the optimal position inside the labyrinthine hive.

It was not as exciting as watching an entire battlefield set ablaze with thousands of Bang-Bangs erupting all at once. The three of us watched flickering dots going deeper into the ground—and stopping at one point.

"Why do you think the Queen's letting us into her hive so easily?" blinked Elysia, feeling uneasy that things were going so smoothly.

"Maybe she's being cautious. And can you blame her? She just lost nine-tenths of her army to my brilliant tactic," shrugged Benedikt, but he did not seem as triumphant as he wanted to sound either.

"... Perhaps she is inviting us to come. To face her."

Benedikt and Elysia turned to me incredulously.

"Was that Mataki, or was that just another of your stupid remark, kid?"

"You think she wants to surrender?" asked Elysia as logically as she could support my thought.

"They're tools, right? These Goblins, they're not the Queen's children. If they were, the Queen couldn't be this calm. She should have come out to the battlefield herself."

"Or she is biding her time, turning her anger into something she can use to ensure her victory," said Elysia unconvincingly.

"Come on. You're both feeling it too. I've been lured into a trap before. And I swore never to make the same mistake ever again."

My eyes met Elysia's for a second. I searched for any remnant feeling inside her regarding her traitor ex-lover, but I was not sure what I found was sadness or regret... maybe both.

"What's your point, kid? You want to bring the freeze bomb back out and just 'waltz' our way to see the Queen? Seek the audience of Her Highness?"

"... Shouldn't it be Her Lowness since she's bunkered down deep?"

"I'm not going to go along with your jokes now. Make up your mind, kid. The bomb has reached its destination."

Benedikt pointed to the screen. The flickering dots remained in one spot, waiting for just a push of the button.

I was not sure what was stopping me. Was it my Survival Guts? Or was it the new Perk Mataki gifted me through his de-existence?

"... If we're going to march down to see the Queen, it wouldn't hurt to know that no heartless monster would leap at you out of every corner," I said finally.

"That's what I thought."

Benedikt pushed the detonation button with a defiant hmph.

.

.

.

The Dwarfreezer was not lethal, but it was thorough. The freeze bomb successfully covered every tunnel we walked down with thin ice and frost.

We had all agreed that it would be better for us to ride inside the Dwarfighter as we explored the hive, both for protection and emergencies. But upon reaching the deeper part, the tunnels became too narrow for the Dwarfighter to pass through, so we had to get out of the c.o.c.kpits (Elysia and I were cozily coddled inside the tight c.o.c.kpit, and I was pretty sure she had felt 'two' control sticks prodding her at one point) and walk on foot while the mech transformed into a more compact driller vehicle (and in the process, the upper c.o.c.kpit disappeared into the interior, leaving only one driver's seat in the front) and drove slowly behind our trails, lighting the road ahead.

"Look at this, I didn't expect this to happen, but somehow the Sand Crystalites reacted compatibly with the liquid cooler."

Benedikt pointed to one of the crystal ore veins we passed. The once warm heat source had somehow turned into an ice chunk, and the Goblin Crawlers that had been clung to the natural fireplace had frozen to death on the spot.

"So many things to learn for me, still," murmured Benedikt humbly as he surveyed the area with an undying light of erudition.

Elysia and I walked alongside and close to each other, mostly for warmth in the chilly, insulated underground tunnels. The stealth suit was great, but it was not built to withstand the cold. It was built for desert operation, naturally. I certainly had not imagined this morning that I would be walking down an icy aisle to see a defeated Queen by the afternoon.

I had expected the Queen to emerge from her 'palace' and face us on the surface. Not necessarily after the catastrophic deaths of her million soldiers. Anytime would have sufficed.

Yet the Queen did not budge. So we had to come down and bring ourselves before her, in her own home and amidst her blindly, brainless (and heartless) minions. Sure, waiting patiently for her demise in her throne felt very queenly, but the question was whether she really surrendered or was planning an ambush.

If my experience taught me anything, it was never to let my guard down.

We had passed countless frozen Goblin bodies when Benedikt stopped abruptly

"We're here," swallowed Benedikt as he looked up from the scanner and turned to us in the back.

I looked around. The tunnel was a dead-end. There was nothing.

"It's right below us," Benedikt pointed below our feet.

"You want me to dig our way through?" I asked, blinking a little anti-climactically. I had expected a large, impressive hall bright with all the Sand Crystalites the Queen had hoarded and the million Goblin eggs hanging by the ceiling grotesquely.

"No. Save your stamina. We don't know what's going to happen."

So Benedikt, too, was being cautious despite his half-hearted bravado over the victorious tactic he had pulled off.

The old mastersmith walked to the Dwarfigheter - Driller Mode and got into the c.o.c.kpit-turned-driver's seat. He operated the arms-turned-drill downward and bore through. The ground and the ceiling shook but not alarmingly. The hive, as I had noticed, was built quite stably.

"I will pave a gradual decline. Follow the vehicle once the dust settles," came Benedikt's voice through the communication as he disappeared into a hole.

Elysia and I waited silently. The tunnels were surprisingly bright with the scant Sand Crystalite lighting up every few feet on the ground, ceiling, and the wall. It was not bright enough to check what kind of face Elysia was making (other than beautiful, of course), but it felt ambient enough to feel cozy while holding hands with the girl of my dreams.

Only if we were some hundred feet down to face the mother of all the monster carcasses lying around everywhere.

Elysia shivered a little, either from cold or apprehension.

"Should we hug, for warmth?" I offered eagerly.

"And feel that thing poke me again? No thanks," scoffed Elysia.

So she knew.

"That was Tolliver, the handgun," I said, slightly fl.u.s.tered.

"The fabric of the suit is thin as it is. I can tell a difference between a metal and... something softer."

"That's not true. I'm hard as a rock."

"Is this really the time?"

She was right. I was making small talk to keep me distracted from coming up with the worst possible scenario. Meanwhile, I had not let my guard against any approaching foes, although I could not sense a single alive being in the fifty-yard radius of me.

"Maybe you should use your hand and see if you really can tell difference that way."

"For Velonis's sake, Beta—"

"You know I can still hear you guys. Stop being a pervert, kid," snapped Benedikt through communication.

I could not cut the comm (nor did I know how to), so I kept quiet for a few seconds when Benedikt's voice buzzed in again.

"... Unbelievable."

"I didn't say anything!" I protested.

"... You better come down, kids. Some weird shit is going on."

Benedikt's voice did not sound pleasant. Elysia and I exchanged glances in the dim light and hurried down the makeshift tunnel.

The tunnel led out to a wall, not a ceiling. Benedikt made sure that neither he nor we dropped down dead from a high point.

The large hall was exactly as I had imagined. Full of brightly lit Sand Crystals and, of course, the hanging, grotesque reddish eggs all over the place. All in all, it was an exotic, surreal sight, with a repulsive touch.

But the most surreal thing was standing in the middle of the hall, in front of the stunned Benedikt.

My heart thumped. Or rather, Mataki's did.

An individual tall enough to be an average twelve-year-old girl, dressed in smart leather tunic that suit the lean, athletic build of the wearer, who had a healthy red skin, a pleasantly feminine feature, a moderately aquiline nose, two symmetrical little horns on the forehead, and dark, silky hair tied back in a playful ponytail.

The first thing that came to my numb mind was that a female Goblin looked nothing like the males. She looked pretty, in a petite, youthful way, but there were undeniable confidence and toughness in her seasoned, prudent eyes.

But she was not just any other female Goblin. She was 'the' female Goblin, the last one remaining, and the most beautiful and powerful of all.

There was the Queen, but not as a giant ant monster that Mataki had seen for the last of her.

The Queen, in her past Goblin form, and as beautiful as once was, just as Mataki had remembered and dreamed for decades, stood alone and carefreely in the middle of her royal court.

"Olothi."

I-Mataki g.r.o.a.n.e.d weakly.

The Queen lifted her gaze from Benedikt and locked eyes with mine-Mataki's. She then smiled backed tantalizingly as she raised her hand gracefully in front of her.

"Now, did someone say 'dancing,' or are you going to leave me hanging forever?"

I thought Mataki moved my body against my will. But it was actually my knees bucking and giving away, making me look as if kneeling on one leg... succ.u.mbing to the sweet nightmare in front of me.