20 Windy fields (1/2)

A thirty minute drive turned into an hour long expedition to get back home. Dustin was woken up by the bus driver at the end of the route, which put him no closer to where he needed to go then where he started.

When he pushed open the door to his home and face planted on the bed, he was ignorant to the breaking news playing around him.

Over ten thousand kilometers away, police surrounded a public toilet block, denying access to anyone. Despite the small facility, seventeen people had walked in, and none had come out. The phenomenon known as dungeons were still unknown, but it was highly suspected that the small concrete block was housing one.

It was difficult to deny its existence when a person had disappeared in front of their eyes. The dungeons influence covered a small area around the toilets, so even approaching them was enough to get sucked in.

There was little danger provided one did not approach the building, but that did not stop the police force from being anxious. The tension was broken when a military truck came thundering down the road, slamming on the brakes as they stopped just short of hitting a police car.

The back of the truck opened, and heavily armed soldiers stepped out, carrying assault rifles, shotguns, handguns. One of them even had a shoulder mounted missile launcher on their back.

The soldiers had already 'partied up', and were forming up in front of the toilet block. They were all level 1, as none of them had killed anything since the introduction of Dos. The information they had to go off was that which was gathered from an Australian investigative journalist.

There are monsters roaming around the dungeon, which will provide experience and Dos when killed. They are unlike anything found on earth, though some may be familiar.

A particularly large monster, known as a 'Boss', will be located somewhere inside the dungeon. To escape the dungeon, this boss must be eliminated. Once this is done, a blue shimmer in the air will act as a portal back out.

The soldiers had grim expressions as they stood in a straight line, stroking the guns in their hands. The captain of the squad came up to the front and whistled, leading the solemn walk into the unknown.

When the front of the line faded out of existence, those following up stopped abruptly. It was one thing to be told what was going to happen, but another to experience it.

An angry shout came from behind, forcing the men to push forward again, until all of them were gone. The captain at the front of the line tried to maintain his composure as the world fell away. He was still standing on solid ground, despite the lack of anything beneath him.

Since they were all in a party together, they could see each other as the dungeon formed. When the sky turned from grey to blue, and the world lit up around them, they could see the location they were placed in.

[Welcome to the Flitting Fields dungeon. Uploading current information to mini map.]

Massive fields of wheat sprawled out around them, with a central clearing in the middle that they were standing. What separated this from any normal farmlands, was the fact that the wheat fields suddenly dropped straight down. At a certain point they could no longer see land.

Captain Clint wasn't sure if the farms were placed on the edges of cliffs, or if their was an ocean beyond them. He immediately had his men cover all possible angles, watching the silent fields wave in the wind.

There was no sign of the civilians that had entered before them. Clint couldn't even find any of the monsters Sarah had warned about. If they hadn't been aware of what a dungeon was, Clint would have just assumed they had somehow been transported to a nearby wheat field.

Looking at the ground, they could see multiple human footprints that they had not left, and managed to track which direction they were heading in. The footprints led into the wheat fields south of them.

They took a dangerous stroll through the tall grains, watching their surroundings carefully. Something could be hiding in the field easily enough, and the Captain wanted to return without a single casualty.

He held his hand up suddenly and the group stopped. Clint squinted his eyes as he looked around, unable to knock the sound in his ear.

There was a quiet buzz, like a distant mosquito flying around. He stood perfectly still to listen closer, and realized that the sound was growing. His eyes shot to the sky as he watched the clouds rolling in.

Only, some of them weren't clouds.

”Incoming at 4 o'clock, in the air!”

The men swiveled around to look at the cloud, weapons raised. They didn't fire, but watched as the cloud rolled in. By now, they could all hear the buzzing, and the nature of the supposedly fluffy marshmellow in the sky was revealed.

The cloud was not made from moisture, but thousands of tightly packed insects. The collective buzzing made a droning sound that was alarmingly loud the closer it drew. Clint motioned for the soldier with the missile launcher to fire.

A sound rivalling that of the insects burst out, and a dangerous explosive was launched into the air. Clint had been expecting a wave of fire to consume the sky, but his plan completely failed. The cloud seemed to absorb the missile, without it exploding, and it popped out the other side harmlessly.

The insects had managed to move around the missile perfectly, and it sailed through without impact. Clint swore under his breath as the moving cloud was angered, dive bombing towards them.

”Fire!”

The soldiers knelt down and fired into the swarm, hitting plenty of bugs, but ultimately doing nothing to the thousand strong swarm bearing down on them. Guns were useless against insects. They were precision weapons, and against a thousand insects, it wasn't hard to miss.

Clint ducked down as the swarm swerved over their heads, actually managing to take chunks off of the soldiers helmets. He gulped down his saliva and pulled a hand grenade from his waist.

He pulled the pin, but did not throw it immediately. The swarm came back around to swoop them, and when he threw the grenade, they absorbed it again as they had the missile.

This time, however, it exploded in their mists, scattering the swarm as a torrent of bugs fell from the sky. He didn't celebrate the victory as the remaining bugs formed a smaller cloud, still deadly in their amount. The bullets were becoming increasingly useless as soldiers fought off the bugs with their hands.

The monstrous insects abandoned their form to attack the soldiers directly, stinging and biting. Clint was faced off by hundreds of locusts and wasps trying to attack any open area of his body. His body ached all over as he crouched down to cover his face.

The soldiers were too busy fighting off the insects to notice a person approaching them. The temperature suddenly dropped as the person blew out an impressive amount of air.

The insects starting dropping dead, giving some relief to the men under siege. Clint looked up to see one of the missing civilians beckoning him over. He could feel the cold air surrounding them, but thought nothing of it, not realizing it had been the cause of the insects dying.

”You're supposed to be here to save me, not the other way around.” The person hissed, waving the soldiers over. Clint approached cautiously, and was shocked to find a hidden entrance leading underground.