Xyver gathered the group together at the top of the stairs. “Caren, what was that?”

The Runeknight glared at his tank. “I wanted to kill that angry wax man fast. What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Xyver’s eyes flashed. “How am I supposed to hold aggro, eh? You could have gotten yourself killed.”

Zaria nudged Penara.

Penara ran her fingers through her hair.

Zaria grumbled.

Penara giggled.

That felt like a fair compromise, so she commanded the mimics in the next room to do that. Rav was in this room, which gave Zaria a pang of concern.

Penara furrowed her forehead.

Glad she’d thought to ask, Zaria did as Penara suggested, spinning up the new heart in preparation. Just in time, too. While talking to Penara, the group had resolved their little spat, with Caren promising not to overdo it, and they headed to the next room.

This time, Xyver entered carefully, opening the door by pressing his shields against it. This room contained an obvious candleman and an obvious crate mimic, both watching and waiting. It also contained a lit candelabra and three other crates. The crates were all just mundane items, but the candelabra was a second candleman.

Zaria had been deliberate here - the group was watching the crate and had not yet seen the stealthed form of a candleman. They’d have no reason to suspect the light source.

Xyver didn’t step into the room. “Olennah?” he said, pointing to the three mundane crates.

Olennah fired three arrows, one after another, into those three boxes. Each one struck home. For good measure, she added an arrow to the Oven in the back of the room - this one clanging harmlessly off the iron surface.

They were learning to be careful. Good. Zaria was pleased to see that. It wouldn’t help them here, but it was nice.

Zaria said to Penara.

Penara said, but she paused afterwards, her lips silently working over the problem. She studied the room for a moment.

Zaria said. entirely useless. They’re just terrible for clearing up any ambiguity.>

Xyver squinted at the room a moment longer, then raised his shields. “If we get ambushed again,” he said to the group, “burn one rune each again. Don’t wait, just do it. Let’s try to avoid another near miss.”

Then he charged.

The first portion of this fight went much like the fight in Zaria’s second room had - which made sense, since it was against a crate and a candleman once again. This time, the group was going slower and steadier with their damage, making sure not to pull aggro away from Xyver. The two mobs were putting up a good show, but overall were not posing much of a challenge.

Then the candleman at the back of the room surged forward, going for Olennah. The archer barely had a chance to shout. Instead of biting into her, like Zaria had expected, the candleman’s wax flowed around the archer, wrapping around her face. Only then, once she was muffled, did the mimic bite into her hip.

The reaction from the group was immediate, but also hesitant. This new form of grapple meant it was difficult for them to get in a strike that would injure the candleman but not harm Olennah. She struggled against her attacker, trying to scrape away the wax, as her brother ran to her side and activated another one of his sword runes. His slash took the candleman’s head cleanly off its shoulder, freezing the wax solid in the process. However, the candleman stored nothing important in its head, so at best, this was a minor nuisance for the mob.

It did, however, free Olennah to breathe. She knocked an arrow. One of the runes on her bow flared. Then, instead of drawing the bow, Olennah pulled the arrow free and stabbed the mimic with it directly.

Flames erupted from the injury, melting a significant portion of the mimic’s wax and allowing Olennah to break free.

Zaria asked Penara.

The wisp just nodded, then motioned for Zaria to be quiet so she could watch the battle. Perfect timing, too. The next part of this fight was going to be fun.

Zaria had given these candlemen a separate command from the first two. Now that the fight was turning against them, they activated the ability the one had used against Vysala just the other day - both of them sped up dramatically as their wax bodies dripped from the sudden surge in heat.

The change in tides turned the fight against the adventurers almost immediately. Adding to the chaos, Rav sank his teeth into Xyver’s thigh. This time, the mimic wasn’t hampered by Zaria’s order, but the cultivator’s tank abilities shone through. In spite of the immense force behind Rav’s bite, Xyver managed to mostly hold on to his limb.

Mostly. Xyver lost a chunk of flesh from the bite, and Rav dropped to the ground, swallowing happily.

“All out!” Xyver shouted.

Every single member of the party, save Xyver, activated a rune. Olennah’s next arrow punched through the first candleman, then turned mid air to strike its target from behind, streaking through the wax to come back for a third blow. Caren activated a rune on each of his swords, turning on Rav and striking the mimic from above with two frost-laced blows that froze the mimic solid. Bryna let loose with a lightning bolt that tore a chunk out of the mimic Olennah had targeted, and as a final blow, Vandra sliced the remaining candleman in half with a single beam of light.

Zaria was practically chortling. That was a total of three runes from Caren in this fight alone, two from Olennah, and one each from Bryna and Vandra. The healer had to spend another two runes on Olennah and Xyver, smacking them both back to health before their wounds could knock either unconscious.

The group sat there for a moment, breathing heavily, before Bryna clapped her hands together. “So. Who's ready for the boss?”

Xyver shot her a sideways glance. “Caren has spent half his prepared runes. You and Olennah are both down three. Vandra’s spent six.”

“I’ve only spent two,” Vandra said. It placated Zaria some to see the party was a shocked as she was. “The healing whack rune is my Copper permanent. Although it’s almost drained of energy - I probably have three, maybe four uses left on it before it needs to recharge. Depends on how much of you the dungeon eats.”

“You did not just call it-” Xyver said, but Caren stepped in.

“I didn’t spend half. I go for ten prepared, two free. So I’ve got six strikes left.”

Xyver shot the Runeknight a glare, then looked at Olennah. “Surely you have more sense here?”

“Nope, I’m dumb as a rock.” Olennah flashed him a grin, then turned serious. “There’s only one more room in this place. It’s the boss fight. So why not go in, try it out, and be ready to fall back?”

“Because we might die?” Xyver looked incredulous. “You all are serious.”

“Look, I’ve been very good,” Bryna said. “I haven’t fired off any runes for humor yet.”

“We all have more than half our runes left,” Caren said, his amicable demeanor changing to something more sincere. “And we’ve done well enough, given this is a brand new dungeon for us.”

Xyver took a deep breath.

“You can say no,” Vandra said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You are the tank. And I promise I’ll only tease you some. But… I’ve been doing this since Tin. Trust me when I say this is still within our limits.”

Xyver sighed. “Fine. But if we die, I’m going to haunt all of your ghosts. A ghost haunting other ghosts. You understand that, right?”

“Oh, come on,” Olennah said. “We will haunt the dungeon. Together.”

Xyver snorted.

Zaria asked Penara, glad that the group wasn’t going to give up before Maw.

Penara waved the thought away.

Zaria noted that implied they could haunt elsewhere, but there wasn’t time to pry into the nature of hauntings. Not when the group had gathered the loot and was heading to Maw’s room.

Xyver opened the door carefully, then swore.

“What’s wrong?” Caren said, then stepped to look for himself. “Oh. Oh yeah, I see the problem here.”

Zaria cackled.

Maw’s boss room was set up like a storage shed. Rows and rows of crates lined one wall. The back wall was a collection of candelabras leaning against the wall and framing the window. Against the remaining wall were three large chests, the two inanimate ones perfect imitations of the boss.

Xyver glanced at Olennah, who shook her head before he could speak. “I’ll run out of arrows before I run out of targets.”

“So anything in here could be the boss,” Xyver said.

“Or it could be a boss with multiple bodies,” Vandra said brightly. “So it could be five of those crates collectively are the boss.”

“Ooh, or maybe they’ll merge together to form a crate-man,” Bryna said, her eyes shining with excitement at the thought.

“Well, I’m open to suggestions for what we do here,” Xyver said. “I really don’t like the idea of getting in melee range of them and-”

Bryna stepped forward. “Leave that to me.” She twisted the handle of her broom, then brushed it along the floor of Zaria’s dungeon. Ink dribbled down between the bristles, released by some mechanism in the broom. “Didn’t think I’d get space to do an improvised rune. Damage will be low, but still be ready with your taunt, okay?” She pointed her broomstick through the doorframe. “I’m about to aggro the fuck out of this room.”

Xyver raised his shields and nodded for her to go ahead.

Bryna took a deep breath and put a finishing touch on the rune before she shouted. “Tah-Nymot!”

The rune exploded in light, and a ball of lightning shot out of the floor and raced into the room. It travelled forward just a bit, then unleashed a series of smaller bolts that struck everything in the room - the crates, the candelabras, and, of course, the chests.

Maw leapt to his foot and giggled, standing nearly two feet taller than the tallest member of the party. His lid popped open, revealing rows of teeth and a hungry mouth.

Then he charged at Bryna.

Xyver stepped up, letting lose his weird shout. Maw turned just enough to move right towards the cultivator. Xyver dropped into a crouch, preparing to defend himself, but Maw stopped a few feet from Xyver and let loose a stream of acid.

Xyver was fast, but the attack caught him off guard. He blocked much of the strike with his shields, but some of the acid splashed through, burning his arms and chest.

A quick whack of Vandra’s staff repaired the damage - just in time for Maw to lunge in and reach for Xyver. The cultivator didn’t block the attacks like Zaria had expected - instead he rolled forward, ducking between the mimic’s arms. He slammed the mimic in the ankle with his shield as he passed, then came up behind Maw, forcing the mimic to pivot to face him.

Zaria could respect the move. It made Xyver harder to heal, but made sure the rest of his party was clear of any more acid sprays for the rest of the fight. “Don’t burn all at once!” Xyver shouted. In a single fluid motion, he came up from his roll in a leap, kicked off the back wall of the room, and used the height he gained from that to bring both shields down in an overhead blow on Maw’s lid.

The party surged forward, a runic arrow from Olennah and a bolt of lightning from Bryna racing ahead of Caren to strike the mimic in the backside. Moments later, the Runeknight closed the gap and slashed at Maw’s leg with a sword that glowed with frost - but didn’t activate a rune on the other blade.

Zaria asked Penara.

The wisp nodded quickly.

Maw balled his hands into fists and swung wildly at Xyver. The cultivator had to move fast to block the blows as they came from both directions, driving him further back, until he was almost touching the wall. For a moment, it looked like he’d hold up against every single one of the boss’s blows.

Then Maw’s tongue lanced out and wrapped around the tank’s waist. Xyver’s eyes went wide, and Maw pulled him in.

Penara looked horrified.

Zaria chuckled. The party was frozen in horror for a moment as Maw chewed on their tank. Then Bryna screamed and let loose a stream of acid. That was a signal to the rest of the party to unleash as well, blasting into the Mimic with everything they had.

Maw shook himself and spat Xyver out on the ground. The tank rolled to a stop, looking dazed. He was covered in tiny cuts and spotted with acidic burns, but alive. The party let out a mixture of excited whoops and warnings for him to move.

Maw giggled and belched loud and long. The sound wasn’t just for show. Noxious gas rose from the mimic’s mouth, flooding the room and darkening all sight for a bit.

Zaria waited eagerly as Maw did as she’d instructed. As the party coughed and sputtered, Maw grabbed the two chests and moved them into the center of the room with him - then went into stealth. A quick command from Zaria opened the windows, and natural airflow expelled Maw’s cloud.

The party took deep breaths and looked around. “Over there!” Caren said, pointing to where the chests had stood. The two inanimate chests had hidden things Zaria had left on the wall. One just had text that read: “Pick well or deal with the contents - you’ll find them unpleasant.” The other had papers that were dropping every second, revealing the paper below. It was on the number 20 right now, and as they watched, that number fell away to reveal a 19.

It was Penara’s turn to send a wordless question.

Penara said.

Zaria grinned.

“This is the only one with acid burns!” Bryna shouted, pointing at Maw. “Right here!”

A moment too late. Xyver took a step forward, and Zaria dropped the number 1 to reveal a single word on the last sheet of paper.

Boom.

Zaria sent a surge of mana into both of the mob hearts, and they exploded in spectacular fashion, showering the party with splinters and shrapnel. A nail struck Bryna in the hand, getting a scream from the Witch. Another went straight through Caren’s leg, dropping him to one knee.

But the worst happened to Xyver. The tank took a nail directly to the cheek, and it embedded itself in the bone.

Maw stood up from among the wreckage, giggling in that disturbing fashion of his, and reached for the Tank, holding up Xyver to drop into the boss’s gaping lid.

Vandra stepped forward and activated three runes on her staff with a rapid series of creative swears. Three beams of light leapt forward, striking Maw in the back of the leg - and pushing the healer to the top of the aggro list. “Run,” she said to the party.

Maw hurled Xyver to the side and lunged for the Copper healer, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her up. To her credit, Vandra didn’t scream or panic - instead letting loose blast after blast into Maw’s open mouth.

The party, to their credit, didn’t run immediately. Olennah and Bryna unleashed their ranged rune attacks without hesitation. Caren lunged forward on his good leg, activating all the runes on his swords at once, and slashed for Maw.

Maw dropped Vandra into his jaw and snapped shut. The sound was sickening. Moments later, the last of Olennah’s arrows and Bryna’s spells struck home. Maw teetered to the side before collapsing, dead.

Vandra rolled out of the mimic’s mouth, blood flowing from her stomach and back. She was alive - but barely.

Xyver, half blind with pain, grabbed her staff and smacked Vandra atop her head with it. Two blows spent the remaining power in her healing rune. It slowed the flow of blood, but Vandra’s injuries were deep, impacting multiple organs.

Without hesitation, Xyver dropped his shields and scooped her up, then leapt out the still open window. On the ground, Zaria could see his leg snap from the landing, getting another howl of pain from the monk and sending him collapsing to the dirt, right in front of Rahana.

The high level witch flicked her broom, and healing energy washed over the two.

Inside of Zaria, Bryna had dragged herself to the window and looked outside. She cheered when Rahana healed the tank and healer, and a moment later, the other two members of the party joined her exuberance.

Zaria shared in their excitement. Words had just appeared in her vision.

Congratulations! You have reached Tin 9. Please ensure you have a Capstone selected to prepare for Copper advancement!

Bryna wasn’t finished yet. She walked over to Maw’s body, holding the broom in her good hand, and Zaria could see there was a single rune left on the broomstick. Bryna pushed Maw’s lid mostly closed, then pressed the rune against Maw’s tongue, activating it. Electricity coursed through the appendage, making Maw’s tongue waggle up and down. At the same time, electric contractions forced Maw to expel the last of the air trapped in his body.

The result was an electrified corpse blowing the largest raspberry possible.

“Now that,” Bryna said. “Was a good use of the humor rune.”

Then, without another word, she collapsed, unconscious.