Sweat ran in rivers down Valera’s skin, collecting in pools where her armor cinched. She stepped back, making some distance between herself and the Infernal Cyclops as the heat became too much to bear.

The monster bled from a mess of mangled flesh, pierced by innumerable weapons. Kala’s arrows punctured deep, creating a forest of wooden shafts that sprouted from its chest and arms. Crimson furrows cut through the meat of its thigh, dripping boiling red fluid. Yet, the most important target remained unharmed, carefully protected by the dangerous creature.

Its single eye, glowing a baleful orange. The light flared. The glow grew. With a quick shout, Erik threw himself in front of the party, holding his tower shield at the ready. It held its own glow, a sign of the copious mana that had gone into its creation, the blue-white light that it emanated competing with the orange of the monster.

Valera crouched behind him, joining Doran and Kala. A wave of superheated air splashed over them, great licks of flame pressing outward from the point of impact on Erik’s shield. Another round of sweat dripped down Valera’s skin. Her throat, victim of the extreme heat, scratched uncomfortably.

“We good, Erik?” she rasped painfully, forcing the words out.

“For a little while. Go,” he responded curtly.

Valera stepped out from behind the shield, moving towards the Infernal Cyclops quickly. Its pupil had shifted back from vertical to horizontal, a good sign for her future health; the glow had dimmed slightly, a portion of the monster’s mana consumed in creating the flames.

As she stepped forward, the air became sparse and cumbersome; her lungs fought against her, protesting the heat that filled them with each breath. The metal of her blades hissed as they pulled free of their sheathes, glowing with their own infusion of mana.

For a moment, she let herself regret that her weapons hadn’t been created with the mana of an Ice aspect Dungeon Core. It might have been useful against a creature of flame like the Cyclops. She quickly dismissed that thought. Orken hadn’t captured any powerful ice aspect Cores, not yet.

They were lucky to have at least found a middling-strength Earth Core. It didn’t lead to many flashy effects; most weapons they had created simply became harder. Sharper. A rare few had received more esoteric effects, but Valera hadn’t earned one yet.

Her simple blades would have to do.

The wind rushed by her in a blast of hot air she ducked under the swing of a heavy arm. Taking the opening that it provided, she pushed in further. Shining blades met the thick hide of its leg, slicing across it with mana-assisted ease.

She twisted with the motion, immediately flinging herself away from the monster’s reactionary kick. The dive came a bit too slow, thick-boned foot pressing into the plate of her armor. It dented slightly, leaving her gasping in pain and tumbling through the air in an uncontrolled whirl.

Before the Cyclops could fall upon her, the others stepped in. An abrupt thunk signalled another arrow finding its mark, joining the many others that already decorated the monster’s hide. Doran roared, bringing his giant battleaxe to bear.

Valera had made fun of the choice of weapon many a time, claiming that it would be the death of the large man someday. The caverns and tunnels of the World Dungeon were filled with obstructions and blockages, making smaller weapons more versatile.

Yet, against a creature like an Infernal Cyclops, nearly twice as tall as any human despite being slightly hunched, having a larger weapon at hand gave her a sense of relief.

Slowly but surely, they whittled the behemoth down. That was really the only way to do it, with monsters of a certain size. It was just fortunate that the monster was alone, far afield from whatever Fire aspect Dungeon Core had spawned it.

Finally, it fell. The floor of the tunnel vibrated as it touched down, shaking slightly under the impetus of the blow.

With the fight over, an involuntary shudder went through her. They had been lucky. An Infernal Cyclops was a difficult monster to fight, even outnumbering it as they had. If it had managed to find a vulnerable Dungeon Core and ascend…

She didn’t like to think of what might have happened.

The others, she could see, were the same. And yet, they distracted themselves with shouts of victory and congratulations, heedless of the way that their voices bounced off the tunnel walls and off into the distance.

“Valera, are you alright?” Doran asked, motioning towards her dented armor.

She gave him a reassuring smile. “I’ll be okay. Should have moved faster. Hurts a little, but the bruising will heal right up.”

He nodded at that, looking relieved. Erik and Kala joined them, shield and bow slung on their backs, before Doran continued. He echoed the same thoughts that all of them had. “That could have been bad. Well, worse than it was. That Time Core wasn’t too far from here. If it had wandered near it a few days ago, the Infernal Cyclops could have just smashed through the wall and taken it. Who knows how strong it would have been, then.”

Kala and Erik laughed at the mention of the strange Time aspect Dungeon Core. They had been split up when Valera and Doran found it, but had since reconnected. They had found stories of the strange Dungeon Core extremely amusing - especially one point in particular.

“Oh, are you sure?” Kala asked. “I bet the little snake could have fought him off. Pull the Core right out from under its nose, maybe.” She grinned, enjoying the opportunity to tease the duo.

Doran huffed with an abrupt exhale. “Don’t remind me. I’ll never live down losing such a rare Core like that. Would have been nice to be the one to bring it to the city’s nullwater.”

“Where do you think it went, anyway?” Valera interjected, to which Doran responded with a shrug.

“I can’t imagine it’s that far from here. Tiny little thing like that wouldn’t be able to get far, Ascended or not. Might never see it, though. There’s a bunch of little holes all across the World Dungeon for something its size to hide away in. Or who knows, maybe it started searching for a second Dungeon Core to consume. It’s not like it has a Core to defend anymore.”

For a time, they fell silent, rooting around the Infernal Cyclops’ corpse for spoils of war. More specifically, they cut into its eye, digging around for the mana core within. Valera had been careful to not volunteer for that particular duty.

With that done, they followed the behemoth’s chosen path, exploring the tunnel. It was wider than most - something which wasn’t entirely surprising, as the monster would have likely avoided tunnels that weren’t fit for its giant bulk.

Eventually, light spilled into the tunnel in a mixture of purple and shining blue. It emptied out into a wide cavern, festooned in glowing mushrooms and...corpses.

Spiders littered the floor, many of them gathered around the edge of a pool of water, glowing with the mana of the World Dungeon. Some of them twitched slightly, nerves firing in defiance of death. Others lay completely still, legs curled upon themselves.

They were small for Dungeon monsters, many of them young enough to crush under her steel-booted foot, but Valera remained wary. Poison could be a dangerous thing, and size was sometimes deceptive. Her mouth quirked at the thought, remembering the itching caused by the poison of the cute little snake, easily overcome by the enhancements of her body. Some poison was dangerous, at least.

The large pile of spiders, looking as if the monsters had all fallen down onto one another, shifted slightly. A spider tumbled from the top of the heap, landing with a light thud.

A flash of deep blue, standing out among the black fur of the spiders, glinted in the light. The pile shifted again, revealing small, bloody scales.

Valera gasped as a familiar little snake pulled itself out from underneath the pile, moving ponderously and leaving a trail of crimson behind it.

It slowly turned, meeting her disbelieving eyes.

“Hey, little cutie,” she whispered excitedly.

It hissed weakly, baring its teeth.

How cute!