Breaking Step, Draft 1, CH 62 (Patreon)

Tibs used Light to form the pattern. “Can you recreate this with your essence?” he asked the sorcerer.

Don studied it, then looked at the floor next to the column. “With that mess of essence?”

“Yes, but when I tell you. This is a twin trigger. I’ll be on the other side doing the same.”

“And they have to be with the same element?”

Tibs nodded. “That’s part of the mistake I made last time. I sent essence in here without care, so it triggered.”

“What are odds a team has two Runners with the same elements?” Mez asked. “This feels like something the dungeon set up to make sure we can’t win.”

“One person can do it,” Don said, looking around the column at the other one. “This is about strength and fineness. And focus. It’d be easy for one person to mess it up.”

“Which is why we’re going to cheat,” Tibs said.

“Won’t getting the timing right be impossible that way?” Jackal asked.

“We’ll prepare the pattern first,” Tibs answered, “then, on my signal, we’ll move it into the lock.”

“That seems on the simple side for this floor,” Don said, and Tibs stared at him.

“Do you have any idea what it took for me to work that out?”

“No, since you two were shrouded while you were talking, but I can work out from this how I would have eventually worked out the pattern and the way the two triggers are connected. It’s all about observation, being sensitive enough to make out the way my element’s essence is woven through all the rest, and finding the same pattern on the other side. None of that is complicated. Even a Rho rogue can work out that much in time. This is the third floor. After everything we went through to get here, this feels… easy.”

“I’ll take easy,” Mez said.

“Unless it’s a fight,” Jackal added. “I want to earn that win.”

“I’ll take an easy fight too,” Mez replied.

“Wimp.”

“We’re not all as thick headed as you.”

“You think I missed something?” Tibs sensed the weave again.

“I trust what you’re figuring out. I’m simply saying we need to stay alert, because the dungeon’s too smart not to have some trick ready.”

Tibs nodded. “Then we go step by step.” He moved to the other column. “Form the pattern.” He wove it out of corruption and set it above the floor, lined up with its match. Each element had its own shape.

“It’s in place,” Don said.

“I’ll count down from four. On zero, it needs to be in the weave.”

“Got it.”

“Four,” a beat, “three,” a beat, “two,” a beat, “one,” a beat, and he moved it, “zero”

“It’s in,” Don replied. “Something happening.”

Abyss. “You were right.” The essences were moving around the pattern. Tibs couldn’t tell what they were doing, but he could feel that letting go, or moving the pattern out, would trigger the trap and dump creatures on them.

“When I tell you,” Don called, “Turn the pattern left-ward.”

Tibs searched for what the sorcerer meant and noticed the way the corruption’s alignment was shifting within—

“Now.”

Tibs turned the pattern and stopped as it matched the new location, and Don called.

“Stop.”

“We’re not done.” The essence was still moving. “We need to…” he searched for the way to describe it.

“Rotate the pattern on an axis aligned with the floor and aimed toward the columns.”

Tibs didn’t understand all of that, but it meant Don had figured that part out. “We’re going to have to change the pattern as we turn it.”

“What do you… oh, I see it. That’s what the surrounding cloud of essence’s about. Clever dungeon, very clever. Doing this alone, I’d be so focused on one thing I’d miss the other. Of, and I apologize for not using names. There is something about knowing you have one that…”

“Makes it too much of a person?” Mez finished.

“Yeah. I can’t quite resolve that with what I’ve been told of dungeons.”

“It’s okay,” Sto replied. “Until Tibs, my opinion of Runners wasn’t particularly high.”

“He was complimenting me, you know,” Ganny said.

“Yes, but the name thing and them being more than things running inside me was never something you had a problem with.”

“That’s because—”

“Do you mind finishing this elsewhere?” Tibs asked. “We are working here, and I need to focus.” At least there were no set times in which they had to shift the pattern.

“Sorry,” Ganny and Sto said.

“Are you ready?” he asked Don, who was smiling at him. 

The sorcerer nodded. “In four, three, two, one, now.”

Tibs rotated the pattern, shifting it until it matched the new shape and location. It pulsed, then the essence dispersed as if by a breeze.

“You think we’re done?” Don asked.

Tibs sensed for any essence that might be camouflaged. “We’re done with this one. Two others to go.”

“Should one of the others do them?” Don asked, “as practice.”

“I’d rather keep my energy for fighting the dragon,” Jackal said.

“And unless you’re tired, I’d rather we do them, since we know what to expect and deal with the changes Ganny will have made to them.”

“On the next run, then. One of you will be working with Tibs.”

Jackal snorted. “On the next run, we’re going to be on the fourth floor.”

Tibs and Don disarmed the two sets. The first had two extra steps, while the last didn’t give them time to pause, nearly causing them to trigger it.

They stood before the dragon between the columns, catching their breath. Tibs sensed the activation line beyond it.

“Is that really what a dragon looks like?” Mez asks.

It was a lizard, large enough for its back, as it lay on the floor, reached halfway to the high ceiling. Its scaled skin was green with a golden sheen to them. The forelegs were thin and ended in three fingers with claws long enough to slice through half a column. The rear legs were powerfully built and reminded Tibs of those on the rabbits.

“It doesn’t have the wings. The one on the crest did,” Jackal pointed out.

“The few mentions of them I came across in my reading didn’t give entirely matching descriptions. Lizard like in body, scales with a sheen to them. Can blow fire from their maw, and long claws, were the only common things. Like all monsters, dragon are dungeon creatures, so the fact they are even that similar is surprising.”

“Dungeons can talk to each other.”

“I can?” Sto asked. “Ganny?” his tone turned suspicious.

“Then maybe not as surprising.”

“I don’t know where Tibs got that from,” she said.

“The purity dungeon. Val and Kraven talked about her having a conversation with another one before they went wild.”

“Val’s old,” Ganny mused. “When they talked, did they say anything about the relationship between the two of them?”

Tibs thought back and pieced together the conversation he remembered through his muddled memory. “Not really, but I got a sense they were… familiar? Like a family.”

“That would be it. Really old dungeons can send out a spark of themselves in the world, and if it ends up in a place that allows it, it will become a core. Because of the link, when that dungeon’s strong enough, they can talk.”

“Is that how I came about? Is there a dungeon out there I’ll be able to talk with at some point?”

“No Sto,” Ganny said, sounding amused. “You’re one of the special dungeons who came to be all by themselves.”

“How those rare?” Tibs asked.

“Quite,” Ganny replied. “But yes, Sto, you’re going to have to rely on me for information from the others.”

“Dungeons can only talk with their child.”

“Dungeons have children?” Don asked, incredulous.

“That’s how most dungeons come to be. Sto’s different. He didn’t need anyone.”

“Oh, now he’s going to be insufferable about that,” Ganny said. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Don’t worry, I will always need you.”

“Until I point out rules you are breaking.”

“Bending.”

“Breaking.”

“I’m learning to be gentle about it.”

“You do realize that it doesn’t matter how gently you don’t listen to my advice. Once the rule breaks, it is still broken.”

“Unless you don’t want us to get on with his fight,” Tibs said and ignored the horrified look from jackal. “I’m going to need you to take it elsewhere again.”

“We’ll pick this up later,” Ganny said. “I want to watch this.” Tibs heard glee in her tone and considered all the shadows clinging to the dragon.

“Ganny has tricks setup for this. We need to be careful.”

“We just need to hit it hard and fast.” Jackal ran to the dragon.

Tibs sighed as he followed the fighter. 

Arrows flew over their heads. “One day, he’d going to get himself killed with that attitude.”

“We tell Kroseph how he rushed a dragon,” Don replied, “And it might be today.” Balls of corruptions hit the scales and sent webs through them, only for the shimmering to push them back. “That shimmer’s a form of protection against essence based attack.”

“Then it is fortunate three of us are adept at using items that do not require enchantments to inflict damage.” Khumdar swung his staff as he approached.

Jackal was half to it when the dragon blew in his direction. The cloud of essence ignited and the ball of fire crashed over him. Tibs took hold of the fire and absorbed enough to replenish his reserve, then diverted the rest to hit the wall.

“Did you think that would hurt me?” Jackal asked. “Tibs burned me with fire hotter than that.” Jackal turned to face them, motioning to his intact clothing. “How great is this? I learned to give my clothing the—”

The large paw hit him leisurely, and the fighter hit the wall in the center of the burn the fireball had left. The dragon chuckled as it stood and stretched the way Tibs had seen cats do.

“Ow.” Jackal picked himself up, and the dragon motioned him close with a clawed finger. “Oh, you’re controlling that thing.” Jackal rubbed his hands. “This is going to be so fun.” He ran at it again.

“Controlling?” Don asks.

“Sto can enter his creatures and do the fighting. He’s hoping to kill Jackal that way.”

“Does that mean we should let the two of them go at it without interference?”

“No.” Tibs ran and sliced at the paw as he slipped under the swipe. The cut was thinner than he’d hoped. The extra cold and metal damage had been mostly negated by the shimmering.

The dragon’s legs were shorter than Tibs expected, only a little taller than Jackal, which allowed the fighter to lands punches on the dragon’s underbelly that it felt, judging by the anger in its golden eyes.

It stepped aside and around, then revealed a tail as it swept it across the floor, forcing Tibs and Khumdar back, although the cleric scored a hit that earned him a hiss.

Jackal ran under it, punching its underbelly and kicked a leg when it didn’t move it out of the way quickly enough. When the dragon finally connected, the fighter was sent flying again, and Tibs caught him in a wall of air, plopping him on the floor.

“How about we fight together this time?” Tibs glared.

“That works for—”

The roar made the walls shake and in its wake, Tibs felt the essence shift in the wall.

“Something’s about to happen!”

Doorways opened on each side, disgorging creatures of all kinds that ran at them. Tibs use water and air to deflect as many as he could away from him and his friends, but the number of them coming from both directions made it impossible to send all of them away. When a blow connected, Tibs was sent to the ground, his concentration broken, and his arm limp.

He bashed the within reach with an ice shield while wrapping his arm in an essence splint. He didn’t have the time to weave purity, and suffusing himself in it was out of the question right now.

He blasted those before him with an etched waved of water that left then pierced with shards of ice, but more crashed through them.

“We need to get out of this!” Jackal called, and Tibs looked for the dragon, then made his way back, blasting and bashing any creatures that followed.

“I’m glad to see you’re smart enough to know when you’re not going to win,” Mez said, covering them.

Jackal was in bad shape. The cracks in his stone body spread everywhere, and his essence was held in place by strands of stone. The fighter’s face had one large crack that gave it a crooked look.

The creatures didn’t follow them beyond a few steps away from the dragon, but glared. The dragon smirked and seated itself.

“Why aren’t they following you?” Mez asked.

“I am content with the fact they are not and will not question the reason,” Khumdar said. His robe was cut and bloody, and like Tibs, one of his arms was limp.

“Tibs?” Jackal pointed to his face.

Tibs suffused himself with purity, then made a large weave of it to apply against Jackal. While it worked, he made one for Khumdar, Mez, and Don.

“How did you get hurt?”

“They had a few archers of their own,” Mez said.

“As well as sorcerers.” Don looked thoughtful. “Their aim wasn’t great as they ran, but the numbers made it impossible to avoid everything.”

“So that horde took into account everyone,” Jackal said, working his arms and jaw while watching the horde protecting the dragon.

“It makes sense,” Don said. “We’re as much a danger to it as your three are.”

“Are we attacking again?” Tibs asked.

Jackal took his time replying. “No. Don’t be so shocked. They nearly broke me in half, and I don’t have enough left to hold myself together a second time. Mez, Don, how are your reserves?”

“I’m good,” Mez replied. “I was able to refill my bow from that fireball.”

“I am lower than I’d like for another attack. In fact, I’m not sure how useful I’ll be with the actual fighting against the dragon. Its resistance means I have to expend much more essence than I’m in a position to afford. I’d have to stay out of every other fight for even a chance of making an impact here.”

“You’ll have a way around that for the next run,” Tibs said.

“What do you mean?”

“Carina’s robe can hold a lot of essence.”

“Are you sure Tibs?” Jackal asked.

“It’s not helping anyone at the bottom of the chest. And she’d want our sorcerer to use it.” He paused. “Even Don.”

“How do you feel about grayish blue?” Mez asked.

“It’s not my preferred color, but if it comes with what it sounds like it does, I can see about getting it died.”

“That might be tough,” Jackal said. “It repairs itself, that might include things like dies.”

“Sto?”

“The enchantments I made it with cause it to return to the condition it was when I made it. But if you’re sure about letting him have it, changing its color to match him is something I can easily do.”

“Dyeing won’t work, but Sto can change the color for you.”

“Just like that?”

Tibs grinned. “He likes me.”

“Then why are they so determined to kill you along with us? They were not going easy on you during that rush.”

“I’m a Runner. If he doesn’t push me as hard as you, I’m not going to get stronger. If that means I die because I’m not strong enough.” He shrugged. “I’m a Runner.”

“He’s not going to die,” Jackal said. “He can’t. He’s the one who set the no dying rule.” He turned to the dragon. “Enjoy this victory. We will be back, and next time, you are getting broken.”