The mushroom monster in front of me is deceptively strong. It looks almost cute with its mitten shaped hands and stubby body, but it nearly stabbed me in the chest with its last attack. I don't have enough space to spare a glance at my friends. I have to assume they're doing just fine.

  I raise my dagger and bring it down on the mushroom creature as it misses me with another stabbing attack. My dagger cleanly pierces the fungal flesh, hitting some unseen vital point and making the monster go slack. I quickly take stock of the situation, finding Teddy struggling to dispatch his foe. Will is pulling his axe out of the sliced remains of his opponent.

  Without hesitating I raise my bow. I nock an arrow and in one clean motion I fire. The mushroom fighting Teddy goes slack the moment my arrow pierces its head.

  "Thanks, Andy... Hard to use a spear in these close quarters."

  I nod, agreeing with him. Will interrupts our conversation with a peculiar comment.

  "Morel... Merul? Where did I get that name from?"

  "What did you say, Will?"

  "These things we're killing--I keep calling them merul in my head. Dunno why."

  My brows furrow as I consider the name he's come up with. It sounds exactly right, which is a bit strange. Why would merul be fitting as a name for these? Wouldn't mushy or something simply make more sense?

  The shout of someone at the back of the group draws our attention. We turn to see two merul have snuck up behind us. One of them is smacking the injured woman with its fists while the other is chasing after the cowardly man. The aforementioned man is running away, fleeing the group and moving toward the stairs down the corridor.

  "Damn it!" Bran swears as he moves to help.

  It doesn't take much to get the lone merul off the injured woman. The thrust of a spear is quick to kill it. Now the problem is the woman it was attacking. She's battered and bruised, her body looking seriously damaged from the scuffle.

  "Does anyone have a potion?" Bran asks through gritted teeth.

  The man who took potions from the study while with us doesn't speak up. I scowl in his direction while reaching for my belt for my own healing potion--Teddy beats me to it, offering his up to Bran and the battered woman.

  "You can use mine. You need it more than I do."

  "T-Thank you," The woman croaks out.

  Bran looks relieved as he watches his underling drink the potion. Her wounds mend rapidly, the bruises and swelling fading in seconds. The limp she was suffering from vanishes. She pockets the empty bottle with a sheepish smile.

  "What're we going to do about the deserter, Bran?"

  Teddy, Will, and I watch the exchange with some curiosity. While this doesn't directly affect us it could still be important. Bran hardly seems bothered by the issue of the runaway man and the merul that was chasing him. He waves his hand in a dismissive gesture, though his face is tight with clear anger.

  "Forget him. If he dies to that monster then it is his own damn fault, if he manages to escape then we don't want anything to do with him."

  "And if we find his body...?"

  "We take him home and bury him, of course. Even a coward deserves a proper burial."

  The rest of Bran's group nod in agreement. It is good to know Bran himself isn't as problematic as some of his minions. I'll be keeping my eye on the one hoarding his potions. Lying by omission is still lying.

  With the pressing issues taken care of, we begin to sweep the room. It is clearly some kind of living quarters. The bunk beds make that much obvious. There is a single chest in the room. Opening it, Teddy reveals a pile of silver dungeon coins, two healing potions, and a dungeon lantern. The haul from this room is far more lucrative than normal dungeon loot!

  "Potions and a lantern? This place might be worth the trouble..." Bran murmurs.

  Bran makes the executive decision to give Teddy one of the healing potions from the chest to replace the one he gave the previously injured woman. It is an admirable decision, and no one in his party voices any disagreement. Bran himself ties the dungeon lantern to his belt as a means of keeping it safe and providing extra light at the front of the group.

  Teddy is also pleased with the chest. This pile of silver coinage has to be worth something even if it isn't usable for regular trade. The deal to get all the coins in this temple might be better than any of us expected.

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  "Let's push on to where that monster went, the first one we saw patrolling these halls."

  We follow Bran's lead. He leads us back down the branching corridor and this time we take the straight path rather than the rightmost one. There are no traps, and so we soon arrive at the closed wooden door to the next room.

  "I'm going to crack the door and take a peek," Bran whispers.

  With bated breath, we watch Bran open the door slightly and peer inside. He does this for only a moment before quietly letting the door close. He turns to us, his face a bit pale as he clears his throat. Whatever he saw must have shocked him.

  "There are... Over ten of the little mushroom guys in there. I saw two big ones, too. They had wooden armor and proper weapons."

  More than ten of them all at once is way too much! We've been handling them well enough, but that many along with two larger monsters is likely to overwhelm us. Most of the others understand the inherent danger of this room, judging by their expressions. Teddy is one of the minority who don't look worried.

  "Can you describe what the room looks like, besides the monsters?" Teddy asks.

  "Sure. It's built like a church, lined with pews and a big mural at the front. Most of the merul are praying in the pews. The two big ones are guarding the mural up front."

  Teddy thinks for a moment. I can see gears turning in his head as he glances from me to the door. He grins, coming to some unspoken resolution.

  "I have an idea for how we can handle this, but it hinges on your, Andy."

  Sweat beads upon my brow as the group's success is placed on my shoulders.

  Hopefully Teddy's trust isn't misplaced.

  ~

  With the paladins retreating and the rain stopping the fire from spreading any further, I have the time to check back on the adventurers delving the forest temple. The group is loitering outside the worship hall on the second level of the temple, but there is a single man running from a merul in the upper level. How did that happen?

  My gaze follows the panic stricken man as he staggers down the corridor in hopes of running all the way back to the forest. The merul behind him has other ideas. With a strong overhead toss, the merul sends a chunk of stone debris hurtling toward the cowardly man. He lets out a yelp of shock right as the rock knocks him out cold.

  I don't watch the rest. The merul will kill him, and I don't enjoy watching an unconscious man slaughtered. Instead, I view what the main group of temple explorers is up to.

  The group has devised some sort of plan of action. The archer is tying strips of cloth around his arrows, making sure they're tightly affixed so as to not ruin the accuracy of his shots. Another adventurer is preparing a fire, burning bits of wooden debris from the bunk room alongside torn up pieces of the bedding.

  Fascinated, I watch as the group has their largest member push open the door to the worship hall. The interior gives some of the group pause, but they quickly focus as the merul within turn to look at them. The archer dips his arrow into the flames of the small fire before aiming at a pew close to the door. He fires, the burning arrow flying haphazardly before piercing the arm of a merul seated at the pew closest to the door.

  Chaos threatens to overwhelm the adventurers as the merul rise with fury in their beady eyes. Twelve merul and two biglete are bearing down on the human intruders. The archer steels himself and ignites a second fire arrow.

  This second arrow flies far across the chamber before stabbing a biglete in the stomach. The big fungal monster doesn't slow down even as the flames begin to engulf it. The archer doesn't hesitate this time, and quickly sends another burning arrow into the ranks of the fast approaching merul army. This time a pew is set alight.

  As the first few merul reach the archer they are cleaved apart by axe strikes from the largest of the adventurers, a boy named Will wielding an axe.

  "Back up and let the spears to the front! Switch to stage two!"

  Andy, the archer, backs up quickly to let two men and two women with spears to the front. Will covers his retreat whilst letting the spear wielders take point. Now the adventurers have created a choke point for the merul. Two men and two women with spears form a wall just inside the hallway. The merul are forced to approach the four impaling weapons with nothing to protect their soft flesh.

  The strategy works wonderfully, fire slowing down the merul attackers and the spears turning their squishy fungal bodies into pincushions. The adventurers' morale swells to an all time high as they've nearly won the battle.

  Then one of two biglete step into the corridor. The other biglete has already burned into charred mush, but this one is largely untouched. The spear wielders try the strategy that has worked on the little guys. Pointed tips are thrust at the biglete guard's body.

  Thunk! The spearheads stab uselessly against the biglete's wooden armor. The adventurers panic as they try to stab again and again. Most of their strikes wind up hitting wood, with a stringent few actually impaling the biglete's meaty body.

  The biglete raises its stone mace and brings it down hard on a man at the front of the line. The man's spear splinters into wooden fragments, and his arm is snapped askew by the impact of the biglete's stone mace.

  Strangled cries of pain are followed by the man being pummeled to the floor. The other adventurers work to save his life by attacking the biglete frantically. It is an arrow from Andy the archer that finally takes it down, the projectile piercing it through the eye.

  "S-Shit! He needs a potion!"

  "But if we use the potion we won't have much to sell-"

  "Give me the potion, damn it!"

  The spear wielder named Bran--the leader of the larger group--snatches a healing potion from his underling. He quickly pours the potion over the mangled man's wounds, but nothing happens. The pinkish red fluid drips uselessly of the man's wounds like water.

  Heavy silence permeates the room as they stare at the potion dripping off his brutalized body. Realization dawns on them as they see the man is not breathing, not moving in any way at all. The biglete killed him in its frenzied attack.

  Bran doesn't look so great. It is clear his group is having second thoughts about this whole trip, especially after a potion was wasted on the corpse of a man who died moments before he could be saved.

  "We should probably retreat for now, Boss."

  "Retreat? We... We'll search this room before we decide anything."

  The others exchange worried looks before nodding their assent. Hopefully nothing attacks them while they're looting this large chamber for anything of use.

  But first, they have to wait for the fire to die down.