Dante didn't have much time to worry about whatever was going on with Klara as he had to deal with the drunken patrons surrounding him. "All of this fighting over a card game?" Dante thought as he dodged another sloppy punch thrown at him. The man who had thrown the punch began to pitch forward, having overextended himself, allowing Dante to deliver a quick chop to his neck and sending him crashing to the floor unconscious. ["I can't really blame them for deciding to get drunk. After all, I would have probably done the same thing if I was in their position of being trapped here for days with seemingly no way out but this is still no way to behave. All this fighting solves nothing and solves nothing for their situation." Dante mused, shaking his head at the foolishness of the citizens.

You'd think that once they saw the magic knight cloaks that he and Lustian were wearing, the patrons would have been thankful for help arriving, but none of them had even reacted to their presence. Instead, they hadn't even gotten the chance to ask any questions to gather intelligence. The only upside to this was that all of these people were regular citizens and not trained knights so it didn't take much effort on their part to dispatch them and end the brawl before it could spread further and incite a wide-scale fight. "That ale must be something pretty strong to do that to these men. None of them look like lightweights." he thought before thinking over Lustian's words earlier. "He's probably right. These drinks were probably made with the man-beasts in mind and they probably have a better metabolism than the average human does."

As the last man went down, Dante breathed out a sigh of relief. The other members of his group were all safe and fine even though Klara continued to stand off to the side. The golden dawn member frowned at her actions wondering if she was still sulking over the reprimand that he had given her earlier in the desert section. If she planned to become a magic knight then she could end up dealing with far worse criticism from not only her fellow squad members but also from her captain as well. If she kept up this attitude, it would lead to disciplinary action or potentially even expulsion if someone got hurt or worse killed over something that she could have prevented. "This will definitely warrant a much deeper talk; once we get back to the Wilhelm estate of course. Dante was sure she'd be less open to hearing him out if he decided to do it in public again.

Sadly, it would seem as if their troubles weren't over just yet as screening voice echoed out in the silence over to his left. Glancing over, Dante noted some strange squid creature rising up, a noticeable stain on its robes that it tried and failed to dab out as it hurled abuse at Thaddeus. "This dungeon is full of so many strange creatures. Have they based off creatures that can actually be found or just randomly hopscotched together?" Dante attempted to move over to see if he could help smooth things over when the creature began to release some strange blue miasma into the building. "Poison? He's a squid though, they don't have any poison abilities though that doesn't mean he doesn't have access to magic." Dante thought, quickly moving to cover his nose and mouth to prevent any of the gas from seeping in. "Everyone cover your mouths! Don't breathe in whatever this is!"

Thankfully it didn't appear to have any sort of poisonous effects, at least not any that he could see anyway. The bad news though was that the mist seemed to have infected the other patrons, sending them into a mad frenzy as 8 of them rose up to attack the Wilhelms. "Here we go again" Dante said with a sigh as he blocked the first punch. Thaddeus meanwhile had managed to rose Klara out of her stupor, sending the younger gnome to defend the civilians that they had managed to save in the previous rooms of this dungeon. Thankfully, she didn't waste any time arguing back and gathered all the civilians into one spot leaving things easier for the rest of them to take out the mind-controlled bar patrons with ease with Lustian defeated the squid man and left him in an unconscious heap on the floor. "Please tell me that that was the last of them."

Sadly, Dante had spoken too soon as the sound of a crashing chair had Dante looking over to see that it had hit some strange half-bear half-man person who slowly rose from his seat. "What is with all the animal people in here?" Dante muttered under his breath before the hybrid man screeched out the words "Tavern Brawl!" sending the entire remainder of the patrons into yet another fight. "Oh come on! Aren't you all tired yet!?" Dante screamed out in frustration as Lustian vented his own frustrations at the man-bear who merely laughed at his statement before charging toward his cousin with a punch. "Lustian should be able to handle himself against that man-bear. With Klara hopefully looking after the citizens, that leaves me and Thaddeus to deal with the rest of the drunks."

Dante meanwhile began to lash out with punches and kicks to those around him, holding back just enough to ensure that he wasn't accidentally breaking any limbs while also venting his frustrations over how this mission was going. "This was just supposed to be an investigation mission! Why the fuck do we have to fight every single person in here!?" he angrily shouted out at the patrons. He didn't expect to get an answer from them as they were all clearly intoxicated to the point of barely being able to stand up which just served to irritate him even further as they were all choosing to act like such idiots. "Why couldn't you all be the happy drunks or the ones that pass out after drinking?"

Soon things quiet down once more as the last person aside from the dwarves fell unconscious on the floor leaving Dante to breathe a sigh of relief. "Now all we have to do is figure out how to get the hell out of here and how to bring all these drunks with us." Dante thought, glaring down at the bodies surrounding him. He was about to voice this aloud when the sound of steps drew his attention from behind the bar where an old woman stepped out declaring that things have gone on long enough. "I'm pretty sure that happened 10 minutes back when the squid guy decided to incite a riot old hag." Dante thought disparagingly, electing to keep his mouth shut. There was no need to insult her and cause another fight with what he assumed to be the owner of this establishment if it could be avoided.

The group didn't get much time to say anything to her though as once she finished her statement, the old woman waved her hand and Dante found himself standing on the outskirts of the forest surrounded by all the missing citizens and the rest of his family. "What the hell?" he blurted out before cries of joy sounded behind him as the townsfolk rushed forward, hugging their missing brothers, fathers, and sons content in the knowledge that they had been found safe and sound. At Lustian's words, Dante could only give his cousin a blank stare before shaking his head and walking off. He didn't want to admit that he was sort of right and felt that they deserved to at least get a drink of the ale after all the trouble they had gone through in that dungeon but as for right now he just wanted to go submit that report and forget about all the crap he just dealt with in that cabin. "I don't think anyone will believe us after this report."

[Exit]
WC: 1,374
TWC:5,008