The preparations had been completed, or as complete as we could make it. The elves of Slyvanport had tried their best, but not even the Records could give any information on the Core, or its dungeon. It had been heard citing “Outside my Parameters” when asked about it. Whatever that meant, asking about the Depths and yielded better results, however.

The information had come in only a day after the request was sent, and to call it a potential hellhole was an understatement. The creatures down there were primarily Insectoids, though there was also a fair share of Beasts, Monstrosities and Elementals and even a few Aberrations. All of them had one thing in common, they were all abhorrently dangerous and far stronger than what would be considered “normal” for a second floor. Even in a Raid Dungeon.

We would not get through this unscathed even with an Expanded Party. To top it off, taking an Expanded Party into the first floor Maze was a potential hazard due to the confined space. So, I could not with any good conscious request a further expansion. But even so, I would not be deterred. I would reclaim my honor and capture the Core in the name of my Guild this day, or die trying.

I tightened my right hand into a fist, and took a deep breath, a ritual I always did prior to an expedition. This time, victory would be ours. With those thoughts in mind, I left my tent. The dungeon was just an hour’s march from our location; We had pitched camp yesterday to ensure as much time as possible prior to nightfall to finish the raid. We could not afford to linger in the dungeon long enough for bosses to respawn. It would be the doom of us.

The camp was a scurry of activity as the other members were making ready, “Have you contacted the scout?” I asked Mordred, “Alessa gave the “All Clear” signal, no movement from the dungeon, although there is one complication she mentioned” I looked at Mordred “What complication?” “The stone fences we vaulted over have become literal walls, far too high and far too many to climb in full gear. The other adventurers have also noted the ground is unusually rocky, the surface area might have been expanded recently”.

Dammit, that would cost time we didn’t have. “Tell everyone to gear up we are leaving earlier than anticipated” Mordred just smirked “Way ahead of you, why do you think there is so much noise?” Mordred knew me too well. “Good man, now let’s finish prepping too. It wouldn’t do to be the ones calling for premature departure yet be the one slowing everyone down.” Mordred laughed before jogging off to grab his gear.

We arrived at the outer maze. The walls of stone had grown to nearly eight meters in height. And they were almost as thick as a man. It would take a small army of mages to bust through that. And even then that would not work in the long run since the maze would repair itself. Guess there was no choice but to try to find our way. I had originally planned to have Alessa guide us from afar, but the sheer height of these walls made that unfeasible. She would not be able to see us at all.

The next hour and a half was nothing short of a nightmare of cramped and increasingly warm spaces. We had taken multiple wrong turns and due to the heat, sweat had been constantly getting in your eyes. On top of it all, this was taking too long, which obviously was the entire point. It served to lower the amount of time intruders could spend in the dungeon itself without bringing with them camping gear.

I seriously hoped we did not have to turn back to fetch camping gear. Because I somehow doubted that the Core would be silly enough to have such a hidey hole in a spot that could also be easily accessed by adventurers. And if it had such a spot, the place was probably trapped to hell and back to make us regret picking that spot.

Finally, the entrance to the dungeon revealed itself. The frustration that had been mounting finally had an outlet as we stepped into the far cooler stairwell and into the dungeon itself. “What in Rubolg’s name, the tunnels have shifted.” Miriam sounded frustrated. “Are you seriously surprised, Miriam? It would not surprise me if this floor has Magical Labyrinth as an environmental trap. Given the clear guile of the Core.” Erem said as he put a supporting hand on her shoulder. Miriam nodded, the grip on her staff tightening. She clearly remembered last time just as well as I did.

“Erem, Fylm and Balun, start detecting your agreed upon monsters. Tarash, start to use Truesense, we cannot take any chances here, this entire floor is an instant death kill maze. Everything here can and will instantly kill you if you give it the chance. Rogues up front, trap check twice each. Maze traps can get really nasty.” On my command, the group started to work like a well-oiled machine. The rogues immediately found and disarmed a Magic Mine. If that thing had been given a delay timer with the right duration it could have killed half the party.

The Core was seriously not messing around. That was some heavy ordnance right here. “Black Oozes incoming, mind their Cooperation skill.” “Healers Ward of Life, fellow tanks get ready to pull aggression. Mages, no damaging spells. We do not need a repeat of last time.”

The first assault was beaten back soundly, there were only two of them. And they did not have the element of surprise or shock and awe this time. We were prepared. When they showed themselves, we hit them hard. The archers unleashed a barrage of explosive arrows on them. This inflicted massive amounts of concussive and fire damage, the Ooze that survived the barrage made itself scarce before the archers could resume their attack.

We continued on; The rogues did their job well. The only trap they didn’t find was a single Mishap Teleport that teleported one of said rogues a meter forwards when it went off. A lucky break for us, seeing as that could have ended really badly for him. He could have been teleported practically anywhere in the dungeon except the core room. And being alone in this place was certain death.

The next obstacle came when Erem sensed Typhoid rats and far more than before. At least four swarms of the deadly vermin, and they were accompanied by Oozes. What was curious though was that they apparently were below our feet. That didn’t add up. “Check walls and floor, be ready for any-” I spotted it just in time and slammed my shield down. The impact of my tower shield crushed one rat and trapped the others inside the little hallway they had been navigating. That damnable Core was even craftier than I gave it credit for. “CRAWL SPACES!”

The party reacted immediately and fanned out, looking for them. The mages used “Wall of Stone” to seal the exits shut with Soapstone. It would take the rats’ hours to gnaw through that. And the oozes couldn’t even harm it. This was why I liked working with fellow professionals. They knew what was expected of them.

We continued on and the further in we got, the more worried I became. Where were the Depths Worms? We knew there was at least one on this floor and most likely way more than that. As we were rounding a corner, that’s when the core pulled out its next scheme. The Maze shook, but not because of Depths Worms; the walls were shifting, altering the layout of the maze itself, changing it with us still inside it. And to my horror, one of the moving walls was in the process of splitting the party.

Me, Mendel, Riham and Sango immediately slammed our shields against the moving wall and triggered Immovable. It rendered us immune to push and knockback effects. It bought us precious time for the party to pass through the closing wall, before we slowly extracted ourselves. That was far too close. Not to mention we were spending far more resources than intended. Immovable had a long Cooldown and half the tanks had to spend it to keep the wall from closing and dividing the party. Not to mention the mana spent on closing crawlspaces was a luxury we could ill afford. But we could not afford to not do it, not unless we wanted rats and oozes in our midst killing us all.

This Core was clever, far too clever. It had done all it could to make this delve into a living nightmare. And even we, the best of the best in our branch of the guild, were feeling the pressure right now. Just how in the world had the core gained this experience while still being so young, it made no sense.

Finally, after another 3 hours of slow and methodical, mind-numbing searching, we were finally walking down the last hallway in front of us, the stair room leading down. In that time none of us were uninjured anymore, and the jovial thought of a breeze through the first floor had been utterly crushed. Twice had we been denied the stairs due to Magical Labyrinth, and twice more had we barely escaped being separated due to a well-timed trigger of that ability. And no less than 4 times had the path ahead been obscured behind illusory walls, forcing us to burn through dispels to get past them.

There was also something else, something in the crawl spaces. What it was we didn’t know, as whatever it was had been deliberately not coming out when we were close. But more than once when we had to backtrack, a trap we thought disarmed had suddenly sprung on us. And the only evidence or rearming was that a crawl space had been reopened by use of small tools. This wasn’t a nightmare, this was hell itself.

The Core wasn’t trying to overpower us with force; it was fighting smart, draining our resources, stalling for time. Not to mention this was all too well organized, this was planned. I was certain of it, but how in the blazes could the Core know?

As we headed down the hallway, the tell-tale tremors of Magical Labyrinth started once again, but this time we would not be denied. "We had prepared, Me, Mendel, Riham and Sango had all been hasted in preparation for this. And now we rushed ahead and used Immovable to stop the walls dead as the rest of the party rushed past. It was a tight squeeze to get out as the last tank, but we had made it. The only thing between us and the second floor was a few simple stairs.

Entering The Depths was nerve-wracking. What would we find down there? The answer came in the form of a spike embedding itself in Lahman’s left shoulder, causing him to fall over. His arms and legs were twitching a bit, paralysis, great. Another spike narrowly missed me and embedded itself in Mordred’s cloak. Lahman, now back on his feet after receiving some curative magic, sent a firebolt up towards the roof. Five flying Insectoids, flanked by ten smaller ones, were revealed by the bolt before darkness covered them once more. If I remembered correctly those were called Striders.

So, that’s why the dungeon was so obsessed with draining our resources. The boss of this floor was a Strider Queen of some form. Meaning it would be a battle of attrition between us and them, hmm no, there had to be more to it. The Dungeon had basically done the equivalent of a military lockdown on the first floor. There is no way we would only be dealing with Striders and their variants.

As we pushed further into the depths, we realized what a daunting task this would be. Whereas the first floor had been cramped and ordered, this was wide open and chaotic. There was precious little cover here, and the darkness allowed the flying Striders to stay outside of the detection range of our spells. This in turn allowed them to pepper us from the air with their paralytic spines with impunity. After being paralyzed for the fifth time, the floor was really starting to get on my nerves. But because of the ever present sound of rushing water from some nearby waterfalls, we had no way of hearing the damn things approach. And we could not afford to cast light spells up into the darkness all the time. In the end we made a turtle formation with what items we could to shield ourselves from the aerial assault.

Finally, some relief from those incessant pests. That’s when the grounded one’s hit us from a nearby ledge. Most of the spikes bounced off our armor or fell short, but one hit Sango in the shoulder, hard. Ugh, more paralysis, no doubt. But no, Sango seemed fine, no paralysis, seeing as there was no effect showing we healed the wound and continued on.

Meanwhile, Pavol was now frantically flipping through his book, trying to find the notes he had taken on Striders. “Oh dear, um, Sango Ma’am, I must insist you take an antidote right this instant. You see, the grounded one’s shoot venomous spines rather than paralytic ones!” He looked at Sango with a pleading expression. Sango looked at him, shrugged, and popped an antidote. She managed to get down a mouthful before she staggered and nearly collapsed.

For once, Pavol’s damned book had done something useful before shit hit the fan. The mouthful Sango managed to drink saved her life as the healers started to cast purification and healing on her. But they only got her back on her feet by a hair. One more second, one single second without an antidote and the poison would have killed her.

I changed my mind. The first floor was purgatory, THIS was hell, the dungeon was deliberately made to- FOOSH, by Rubolgs accursed axe that hurt! I staggered back from the jet of flame that had just seared my face. Great, first traps, now natural hazards AND traps. “Gah, keep an eye for vents on the floor, probably more of them.” Erem did me a solid and healed the burn. It wasn’t dangerous, but the pain would distract me, and distractions were something we could not afford right now.

Tomol, our group’s sole Ranger, offered to take point. He had training in spotting natural hazards and together with the rogues up front and covered by a tank on each side. With raised shields we pressed deeper into the cavernous chambers and myriad of hallways of this dark and dangerous place. It took me about an hour to realize I had lost all sense of direction. There was so much open ground and so many hallways and more importantly just so much pressing darkness all around us. I had read that the sheer size of a depth biome would be confusing to those who were not used to subterranean life, but this was ridiculous.

Had it not been for the fact that our group had three dwarves in it, I doubt we would ever have reached the boss chamber. It was obvious it was a boss, due to the telltale membrane-like magical mist indicating an inactive Boss Barrier. Was this the last hurdle finally? Quaffing our first set of potions and talking a quick rest, we strengthened our resolve and prepared ourselves for the fight ahead.

The first thing we noticed was the room’s layout. We were on the top of a slope spiraling downwards, with thick pillars supporting the roof and floor. Aside from that, the room seemed somewhat unremarkable. Tomol led the way, and poor misfortune was that for him. The moment he passed the third pillar, a baleful light fell from the sky directly on him. Right before our eyes Tomol turned to stone. Then it descended into view, the biggest Evil Eye I had ever seen. A normal Evil Eye was about twice the size of a man in diameter. This one, six times that maybe seven, a giant among its kind and far more deadly with its gaze, if Tomols fate had been any indication. The poor sap hadn’t even looked at the damn thing. The rest of us were thankfully still outside of its view thanks to the wall that had hidden it from our entry point.

“Pavol what in Rubolgs name is that monstrosity?”

Pavol didn’t answer. He was far too busy leafing through his book, shortly after he looked up at the party, with a pale and serious expression. “It’s an Abyssal Eye, this thing is an army killer, Boss. It sees you and you will be inflicted with a random status ailment. This is a constant effect while you are inside its line of sight. So, you will be hit with practically every conceivable ailment under the sun, just for being in its sight for a quick moment.” That explained Tomols demise. “What about weaknesses?” “It’s weak to holy magic, but only while its eye is exposed due to surprise or rage. If surprised, its Full Status Immunity also falls off for a brief moment. This will allow us to blind it, but that’s a brief window.” “So, hack and slash and hope it doesn’t see you?” Pavol nodded.

I was strengthened in my belief that this indeed was hell itself at that moment. But it was not like we had a choice, we had to defeat the thing to move on. Our only other option was to Recall, and we were not going to Recall now, not after pushing through the lesser hell above.

“Drai, see if you can distract it with a flare shot. It won’t blind it or anything. But it should allow some of us to get behind the pillars without being seen.” Drai did as instructed. The Eye immediately homed in on the flare, transfixed by the light. I sent three of our best ranged attackers down, then we did it again and again until we had the thing surrounded.

Then it stopped working, for no apparent reason it just stopped. Miriam, Lahman and Sango were right in its line of sight as it kept its eye fixed on the pathway rather than the arrow. Sango turned into a toad, then died, having likely been poisoned as well. Miriam started to laugh hysterically, then started to dance around in its gaze, completely unconcerned with the statuses she was accumulating, before she too was petrified. I could only surmise she had gotten confused. Lahman managed to get behind the pillar, but he was not doing great. His movements were slow, painfully so, Torpor and Slow on him eh, poor bastard. He would have to stay put for a while.

Luckily we now had the edge we needed, as Garana cast a resurrection on Sango. Meanwhile, Erem was casting Mass Purification, which would purge all status ailments for the entire party. Both were casting from the safety of one of the pillars. Meanwhile, Oran, our resident Shaman was preparing a ritual that would guard us against status by immediately curing all inflictions while it was running, rather than attempting to prevent them.

Miriam had been using a sash that was supposed to guard against petrification. Meaning prevention wouldn’t work. It was Tarad, his brother’s job to guard him while he performed it. The two dwarves worked well together, as dwarves usually did. Dally, Tarad’s girlfriend, twirled her hammer and ginned wildly as she stood beside Tarad. This was the sort of stuff she enjoyed, a genuine challenge.

I only wished it would not be such a draining one. Erem and Garana’s spells finished simultaneously and were timed to perfectly coincide with the start of the ritual. Sango came back to life and was returned to her original form. Miriam and Tomol slowly turned back to normal, and Miriam was no longer behaving like a lunatic. Lahman could move normally again, too. Well, now we could actually fight this thing.

Erem opened up with a Holy Smite. The Eye took the hit dead on and grunted, clearly more annoyed than hurt. Then responded with some lightning shocks cast by its eye stalks. Each eye was casting a separate spell, meanwhile one of the larger stalks swallowed its eye, turning its tip into a maw in the process. Then this new stalk started to move strangely. That was when I noticed the portal that had formed under Tomol, who was still a bit unsteady from the sudden petrification mere moments before. The jawed stalk shot through the portal like an arrow from a bow string. To his credit, he managed to dodge out of the way before he got eaten alive. But if his scream of pain and the stream of blood was any indication, he had not gotten out of that one unscathed.

Then stalks started to pop out all over the place slinging low to medium evocation spells our way these didn’t have any gaze effect it seemed. But the spells were dangerous enough that we had to work hard to avoid them. More concerning was that the smaller eyes were clearly working as spotters for the big eyeless tendril. As it now went after Erem, who should have been hidden from sight. Erem set up a blade barrier and started to move from behind his cover immediately. The tendril erupted, and the eye roared in pain as the barrier started to cut the tendril to ribbons.

The strange purple film surrounding the giant eyeball of the eye shimmered and disappeared. The Eye It was exposed! Again, I was reminded about how good it was to be working with professionals. Every caster that could attack at that moment had immediately delivered a spell to the exposed eyeball. The impacts had sent the thing reeling back. That had obviously done some serious damage. The light shining from the giant eye changed from purple to red. That could not be good.

The eye focused on the wall the dwarves were standing behind. Then it started to, out of lack of a better term, drain what little light was in the room into its eyeball, decidedly not good! I turned towards the dwarves, who were oblivious to this new threat. “MOVE!!!” The dwarves didn’t hesitate but moved forwards immediately and not a moment too soon because no sooner had they moved away from the nook, before it ceased to exist.

All that remained was a bit of melted stone, barely clinging to the wall. Rubolgs accursed axe. If that hit you, you were just going to die. No spell or item I knew of would allow you to survive that. No wonder Pavol called it an army killer. If that attack had any duration on it then we would all be dead in moments.

Rushing away from its gaze, the mages and archers kept pelting it. Causing it to make pained noises. They were decidedly dealing damage. It would seem it could not raise its protection while using that skill.

Pavol ran up next to me as we jogged down the incline side by side. “It’s the Abyssal Eye’s “Eye Cannon” it only uses it if it’s enraged. If it hits you, you’re done for. It ignores all resistance, immunities and armor, however we have a problem.” What now “Stop being theatrical Pavol, it’s a life and death situation!” I yelled, trying to be heard over the clamor of the enraged Eye. “We are running out of space to run, its herding us.” “Pavol…” “Deadly Poison Breath, it leaves behind a mist that deals incrementally increasing ticks of damage. The mist lasts two minutes and the breath itself will be able to fill the entire bottom of the room with it by my calculations.”

That was not good news at all. “EVERYONE, KILL THAT THING NOW! NO HOLDING BACK, FULL POWER OR WE ARE ALL DEAD!!” The reaction from my party was immediate. They knew I never yelled like that unless it was either do or die. The others were only a split second slower on the uptake when they saw who was running next to me and the baleful red light right behind us.

The previous barrage of medium evocations exploded into a cacophony of high tier spells. They practically buried the eye in fiery explosions, bolts of lighting, lances of ice, clouds of darkness and piercing motes of light. And all manner of explosive and elemental ammunition, as well. They were following my order to the letter, even if I doomed us all later on.

The light behind us disappeared as the mangled husk of the eye fell to the floor. It let out a pained roar, then went still, but the boss room mist was not clearing. The thing was still alive, even after all that. We hurried down into the bottom set on finishing the thing. Then four portals opened up and some smaller Eyes appeared. The damn thing had called for backup while it recovered.

To the smaller eyes’ credit, they gave us a momentary halt. But now that the Melee users could finally do something, we would be damned if we let the big guy back into the sky. We fell on the smaller Eyes like a pack of rampaging Wargs. So fueled by adrenaline and fear that they didn’t stand a chance. Then we went for the big one, cutting and hacking into the gigantic Eye for a while even after the boss mist cleared. Just to be sure it was dead.

We had done it; the boss was down. Now then, that meant that the core room was next, right? Never before in my life had the sight of a lake driven me to the knees in despair. Frustration and anger, but the realization that that THING was just the stop-gap measure. Another hurdle to exhaust us and our resources. It filled me with such anguish I seriously contemplated forsaking this venture right then and there.

But no, that would not do, not now, not ever. We had a job to do. “Get a short rest, eat some food, rehydrate, then we move on, we still had a job to do.” I knew perfectly well that the party felt like I did. This was torture. The Core was torturing us, trying to break our spirits so that we would leave. The worst part was that it was working. Our morale was at an absolute low.

Barely five minutes into our rest the next set of grievous news appeared, the Eyes respawned. We killed them again. Five minutes later they were back again. What in the world was going on? I had Pavol scour his book for an explanation. Once he found it, his expression bordered on utter despair.

It would seem like the damn Eye had the last laugh. It might be dead. But for the next twenty-four hours those four Evil Eyes would hound us relentlessly, never giving us time to rest. That meant that to recover our stamina we would have no choice but to go for our stamina potions, our precious limited potions. If we all got back out of this alive now, it would be a miracle.

We soldiered on, with ever more Striders showing up, as well as Striders that were different. They had this yellow substance around their mouths and their attacks pierced armor and shield like it was paper; I learned that the hard way when I suddenly found myself lying on the ground. A spike had gone through my shield, through my helmet and by extension, through my skull. Before it embedded itself in the shoulder of Lahman who was behind me at the time… another trick from the core no doubt.

Not a single member of our group was smiling anymore by this point. Even the dwarves, battle loving as they were, had been serious and quiet for a while now. Then in the distance light, four lights were slowly getting closer. There, coming across the lake, were four beautiful moths. Their elegant approach seemed to soothe every nerve in my body. It was as if all the pain, all the effort was worth it just for that sight. Then I got slapped hard, the spell was broken, and I realized I had moved towards the shore without realizing it. Two more steps and I would have been sinking into the lake, the depth of which I could not even imagine. Then Miriam shot an Ice Spike at one of them.

That changed the nature of our approach drastically. Whereas before the Striders had used hit-and-run and harassment tactics, they were now becoming suicidal in their aggressiveness. The small ones were even more aggressive, leaping at us with no regard for their lives at all. It would seem Miriam’s penchant for doing the worst thing possible in any situation continued. It wasn’t even the poor girl’s fault.

It became a slog, but we were slowly making progress. Soon we came to an overhang that allowed us reprieve from the flying Striders and allowed us to focus on the grounded ones. Which sped up our approach to what Tomol claimed was another boss door. If the ever-increasing number of Striders was an indication. As well as the ever more indignant attacks from the sky, we were getting close to the Hive itself.

Then we saw her, standing on an elevated platform leading into the boss room. The Core, regal and calm as she surveyed the battle we were participating in. She cut an impressive figure as she looked down on us. The next moment I was staring into the giant eyeball of an Evil Eye and everything slowed to a crawl.

That would have been the end of me if Drai hadn’t shot the thing in the eye as it readied to bite my head off. Breaking the gaze and freeing me from whatever spell its gaze had me under. Luckily, the other Tanks had picked up on my slack. “Forru gys let my guard dwon at the sight of the Core” my mouth was still not completely out of it, it seemed. The others actually smirked slightly before it was back to killing again.

We made our way slowly but surely towards the boss room; the Striders dying in droves. Yet they just kept coming without fear and without hesitation. Pavol had mentioned sometime in the melee that Striders operated as a hive mind. With the Queen being the only one with an actual mind while the others were drones capable only of following orders. The only exception to this was if a Princess variant was born, which would then set up another hive at another part of the floor. Though that required a massive floor for that to happen.

Pointless conjecture aside, we fought our way into the Boss Room, expecting a reprieve. We never got one. The Striders poured through the now solid boss barrier as if it wasn’t even there. And that wasn’t the only entrance either. From the left and right and even behind the queen, more of them entered. The room had been designed to maximize the number of Striders that could enter during the fight. While preventing us from plugging the sea of reinforcements, due to the location of the entrances.

There was no time to rest, no time to hesitate, we went all out from the get-go, anything else would have been the end of us. We could kill the Striders for days, but there were just so many of them. They just kept coming, and on top of that, the damn Evil Eyes showed up too. We could not afford to dawdle. There would be no end to the reinforcements. We had to kill the Queen NOW.

The rest of the party clearly followed my line of thinking. The spells started to be more centered on the queen as we slowly fought our way through the wall of bodies. Taking hits and getting healed in rapid succession as we did. This wasn’t a dungeon delve anymore, it was a war. A war where our only hope of survival was the death of the queen with enough energy left over to deal with the Core.

The queen herself had now joined the melee, but we could see she was hurt. We had too much juice left, we even had a few spare potions left if we needed them. The light at the end of the tunnel. Then Miriam suddenly pointed her staff at me and hit me point-blank with a fireball. Our formation was disrupted in the ensuing confusion. The queen made her move on me at that moment. And I barely got out of the way of her massive scythe-like talon as it threatened to take my head off.

The Striders were now ignoring Miriam, who was casting again. Her eyes glassy and stared into nothingness, and she had a strange, a distant smile on her face. I recognized the symptoms that the scouting party had described of Indella when the core had turned the tables on her; The Core had joined the fray by making Miriam its puppet.

I did the only thing I could. I hit Miriam on the head with the pommel of my sword. Knocking her out and interrupting her cast. It wouldn’t do to have our allies mind controlled. “Watch out everyone! The Core has started to make its move. Watch out for allies that it has taken control of.”

There are enemies are in front of you. There were enemies in front of me. Strike them down. I would be a fool not to strike them down. I lifted my sword. Suddenly my vision cleared and what had been a trio of Striders was now Mordred, Sango and Erem. I hadn’t even felt her attempt to take control of me.

Meanwhile, Mordred was scanning the room, looking for something. Then I saw what he was looking for, a hallway behind the queen. Outside of the barrier the Core was watching us, impassively and aloof. Then she too stepped through the barrier. Her rule of the dungeon so absolutely not even the barrier within could stop her. Then again, in this room it seemed to be worth jack shit for keeping enemies out.

The queen tried to take advantage of my distraction. But two explosive arrows had her reeling. Two more, and she finally fell over dead. Finally, only us and the Core… And the Striders that just kept coming even with the Queen dead. “But there is a Queen in this room, Rael. You are looking at her, I rule this dungeon, obviously my Striders will continue to come to my support.” It had never even occurred to me that the mindless Striders could easily be herded and controlled by the Core. It was probably even easier for her than the actual Queen herself.

The first attack in this renewed battle came from the newly reawakened Miriam. She seemed none too happy about being used as the Cores puppet. She sent a fireball the Core way, but the Core didn’t dodge it; She slapped it aside with her paw, the same way I would slap aside an annoying fly. I had never seen that before, note to self, fireballs could be deflected if hit the right way.

Sango and I were next as we charged the Core. Sango took the lead, since I was still rather heavily singed by Miriam’s fireball, whereas Sango’s fire resistant armor had blocked most of the damage. The core slapped Sango out of the way and caught my sword with her other paw. Her strength was incredible, but right behind me was Dally and Tarad. Who whooped as they threw themselves at the Core, inflicting some heavy hits that matted her fur with blood.

She let go of my sword as she roared in pain, then roared again, only this roar was somehow different. The roar hurt, it hurt a lot. My ears were ringing as I staggered backwards. Dally was not as lucky as I had been, as her eardrums had clearly been blasted out, and Tarad was barely doing better. The rest of the party meanwhile had now started to focus more on the Core as well, as an acid bolt hit her side. With a pained roar she started to retreat, then dissolved herself and reappeared next to the pillar. Miriam chucked a fireball at her through the hallway. This time there was no space to bat it away. And it exploded right next to the Core, sending her flying and causing the object next to her to clatter off to the side and land face down.

I walked over to the hallway. The core room was close, but I did not like the look of this hallway at all. “Mordred, Flight spell.” A moment later, I lifted off and flew down the hallway. The Core shot me an expression that almost seemed like she felt cheated. As ridiculous as that was, the Core was in no state to fight. The fireball had clearly done extensive damage and had sent the embedded acid arrow further into her side.

We had won, I took an exhausted step towards the pillar. “No, don’t you… Dare.” Another slow step. “I… warn… You.” A third. Suddenly, there was a strange sensation as an invisible force yanked me out of the core room and back into the queen’s chamber. Sending me skidding across the floor, even as the Core screamed in pain.