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    Chaney was wresting a wooden shield away from a squid when he heard a loud, commanding shout from behind him, near the dungeon exit. Chaney ignored the shout, since he was already busy with something. After a bit of back-and-forth, Chaney twisted the shield to tangle a few of the creature''s limbs, then stomped on its "head" between the eyes. The squid went limp and Chaney tore the shield free. He lifted his prize up off the ground with a satisfied cheer.


    *Thunk*


    The shield was knocked out of Chaney''s hands. He felt the breeze of something having moved very fast past his ear. He whirled around in surprise, not understanding what happened aside from its origin being behind. A handful of strangers stood between the harvesters and the dungeon exit. One of them held a contraption of wood and metal on which he was placing a stubby arrow. The man lifted the contraption and aimed it at Chaney. Chaney looked around and saw that the other harvesters were all kneeling on the ground. A body lay on the ground next to the dungeon exit, unmoving. Chaney dropped to his knees.


    The strangers all wore dirty clothing of a style that Chaney didn''t recognize. They all had mismatched pieces of armor and unusual weapons. The man with the contraption muttered something to a woman with a spear. She stepped forward and dragged a harvester out of the group. Chaney had a flash of panic that the woman was going to execute the harvester, but she just roughly searched the person and took their weapon. A third stranger dragged the harvester over to the side as the woman repeated the process with another harvester. Two other strangers spread out a bit to either side of the group.


    Chaney was the furthest back, almost to the middle of the dungeon floor, and so he had ample time to try and think of something to do. What are these people doing? He wondered. Why are they stealing from us? They could just harvest one of the other rotting dungeon floors and get the same things. Chaney hadn''t even brought his club with him to the dungeon for this harvest because he was training his Simple Strike skill.


    The other harvesters hadn''t brought much to the dungeon aside from weapons and empty baskets, and the thieves were getting visibly angrier with each harvester they robbed. Will they let us go after they''ve taken everything? Thank the elf queen that none of my sisters came today. Chaney''s heart pounded as he slowly looked between the two thieves who had weapons pointed at the remaining harvesters. The man with the contraption had moved to cover the already-robbed group. Chaney weighed his options.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    The guard-thieves both looked to the front of the group as the woman slapped a harvester who held on to some trinket or other instead of allowing it to be taken. Chaney clumsily rolled backwards over the shield he had dropped. He managed to get the shield up in time to block another stubby arrow shot from the thief with the contraption. Chaney was already unbalanced, so the strike on his shield knocked him on his back. "Teeth!" He swore. He scrambled to his feet as one of the guards shouted and raced towards him. Chaney didn''t try to get his arm in the shield properly, just grabbed one strap and ran to put the giant vines between himself and more arrows.


    Chaney did get behind one of the giant vines before being struck by a projectile, but the pursuing guard was close behind him. Chaney pushed himself to run straight ahead as fast as he could. Chaney''s panic rose with each step as the burning in his legs seemed to drag at him. He abandoned the shield, he couldn''t use it anyway and it was slowing him down. The shield dropped behind him and struck the leading foot of the guard. The guard stumbled, nearly falling on his face, but he recovered after only a second. Chaney''s breathing grew more difficult. He could hear the guard closing the gap between them. Chaney ran straight into a shadowy area far in the back of the dungeon floor. Legs burning and gasping for each breath, Chaney could hardly see even before everything went dark.


    Pebbles crunched under Chaney''s feet and he threw his arms out wildly, trying to slow down. He managed to catch onto a branch of the giant vine right as he slipped off the end of the patch of pebbles. His feet dangled over a mostly empty abyss while he gripped the branch with sweaty hands. Chaney felt like he was going to throw up, but he managed to get one elbow up over the branch and held tight. His eyes adjusted to the darkness just in time to see the guard step cautiously into the dark dungeon floor.


    Chaney tried to hold his breath, hoping the man wouldn''t see him. It didn''t work, the man looked right at him. The man raised a vicious metal hook and pointed at Chaney. He spoke some command, but Chaney didn''t understand a word. The guard growled and gestured "come here" with his free hand. Chaney shook his head and tried to scoot further away on the branch. He stopped moving when the branch began to sag under his weight. Chaney''s couldn''t catch his breath and his lungs felt like dry leather.


    The guard watched him for a few seconds, the laughed scornfully. The man stepped forward to the edge of the patch of pebbles and swung his hook at the base of Chaney''s branch. "No!" Chaney screamed. The angle for the guard was a bit awkward, and he adjusted his stance to better reach the branch. The hook bit into the branch and ripped some of the fibers as the guard pulled it back out. Chaney screamed wordlessly at the man but his mind was too paralyzed with fear to move. The guard laughed again and continued swinging his hook.