No one felt the surprise more deeply than Myles as Ashra jumped back into the fray. Her arms extended further than should have been possible. For just a moment, Ashra’s arms looked as though they would be twisted and turned into noodles before they snapped forwards and grabbed the matriarch’s head before they retracted like a noose and pulled, keeping the attention squarely on her as the rest formed up.

Myles didn’t need to be told to take the shot.

This fight was theirs.

“Take out the legs!”

From his team, he felt the same confidence as Lyna jumped at the opportunity, quite literally.

In her best impression of their returned Monsterkin, the Halfling took to the air in an inhuman leap that any Monsterkin would be glad to call their own. At the top of the arc, Lyna brandished her weapon of choice for the fight. In all its weighted glory, the war hammer she wielded crashed down from the peak of her arc.

Kendra wasn’t far behind, cursing with each step as red mist seeped from her eyes in gentle, but growing waves.

The crack that followed the two strikes was as sickening as it was satisfying.

The spider stumbled but did not fall as it began to violently shake its head in an attempt to free itself from capture. The actions were becoming more violent, more desperate as the markings on its body began to glow again, and it wouldn’t be long until it figured out a way to free itself.

Myles was ready to regroup, preparing a blob of dough to block the incoming flames until Will showed off another one of his tricks.

“Echoes return to show us what is still left to do.”

Myles looked at him, confused about what he was talking about, and was about to say as much when all became clear. Will’s hand rose and a strange circle formed in front of it, similar to the ones that appeared when he distorted the normal flow of things. There was something more this time. Even with his less-than-honed senses, Myles could practically feel the leaking mana like a physical force as the world twitched around their front-line fighters.

As if the world around them became fluid, Lyna and Kendra’s movements stuttered unnaturally. Then in the blink of an eye, they returned to their starting positions seconds before— Lyna at the top of her arc and Kendra pulling her blade back to strike. The spider, held in a chokehold by the Monsterkin, didn’t have time to respond as the moment repeated itself, following the same path as their last strikes and hitting once more with the original force.

This time, the solid mass was already cracked, and the force did more than just stumble the beast. Chitin shattered as joint and limb were exposed to the air with a splash of gore. The spider stumbled on its damaged legs but refused to fall, still standing and sputtering as the markings grew brighter until four, wispy daggers found homes in the fleshy muscle and pressurized system of the creature.

No one expected what happened next as the puncture wounds didn’t just bleed, they exploded like a [Hydromancer]’s Water Jet and the light died.

Foul-smelling liquid spewed from the body as the legs were punctured, and the entire muscle system of the creature began to give as the pressure of its own body trying to right itself failed. Purple, green, and red painted a three-color macabre rainbow of death as the air moved to take its place in the closed liquid system of the spider’s body. As the supporting ichor left its body, the spider cried out in an unintelligible, primal scream, shuddering heavily as more chitin cracked without the support of its lifeblood.

The head began shifting violently, unnaturally so as the mandibles tries to get at Ashra, whose hands had fused to form into some kind of harness, locking her in as it raged and screamed in its guttural language. Weaker light ignited, and jets of sickly flame erupted into the air one last time, floating gingerly on the breeze onto a wall before the body sank to the ground like a flatted soufflé.

But the fight still wasn’t over.

The creature was defeated, not dead. They still had the reaper’s work to do as they set to the grim task and carved into the exposed sinew of the thorax where Ashra had separated the armor from the soft flesh beneath.

The weakened creature couldn’t move despite Ashra removing herself from the neck, but it still attempted to fight back. Acid sprayed in an arch from its maw, but only seeped away from the angle. The creature’s legs twitched, trying to right itself but lacking the power and strength to do so, managing a weak half circle.

Magically reinforced dough, daggers, and the sound of crashing steel sang its death keel as the guardian fell to the Runners, and for a moment, they were able to breathe.

Until the quest updated, that is.

Quest Updated: The Webs We Weave

Multiphase Guardian Quest

Phase Two of Three - Kill the Matriarch

Phase Two: Kill the Matriarch

Completed.

Reward: Rare Class Variant Equipment (In Holding)

Bonus Failed: Escape without being poisoned or burned.

Phase Three has begun

Phase Three: Survive

Reward: All claimed rewards will be distributed.

That message wasn’t what Myles wanted to read.

His first instinct was to call out and find out who was poisoned or burned by the acid or flames of the eldritch abomination, but his common sense won out in the end as the last line of the creature’s description surged to the surface of his thoughts.

Upon death, the Nope has a fifty percent chance to trigger its own destruction sending out a searing wave of toxic smoke for X seconds, where X is equal to the volume of the necrotic poison left in its system.

His eyes bounced from member to member as the creature’s body began to glow a dangerous purple as the coin flip went in a direction Myles really didn’t want it to.

Ashra! Cut the webbing around the door!

“Consider it done.”

“Get to the door!” Myles yelled to the rest as the glowing grew brighter by the moment.

Boots hit the ground as the party scrambled to reach the end of the room where the webbing was already starting to weaken. It had gone from the thickness of a ship’s docking rope to that of a regular climbing rope, but there had still been so much that they would have never made it without Ashra’s shape-shifting abilities.

Her arms became like razors, slicing through the webbing as if it were paper. She was out before the group even reached the door and continued to run until she was well into the plaza the group have been sent to clear.

The others were slower, ducking behind the doorway and running opposite ways until the air cracked and stank like rotten eggs and death. From a safe distance, the group watched as the toxic-looking smoke billowed and then rolled like fog from the doorway of the building they’d once been in. It dissipated soon enough, but the stone sizzled as it passed. Myles didn’t want to imagine what it would have done to his flesh if they’d been only a few seconds slower.

Soon, the smoke cleared as the night air dispersed the damaging toxic mist and a new message appeared.

The Webs We Weave has been completed

Combat Analyzed - 2x Bonuses Awarded

Treasure Distribution has been set to Class-Specific due to the encounter restrictions

Assigned Treasure:

Myles Chase

Boots of the Web Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Lyna Hugea

Mandible Maul Horror’s Hand (Tiny) Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Tail

Trichobothria Wrappings Wyrmscale Poison Vial x5 Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Kendra Kessa

Gauntlets of the Matriarch Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Will Rigs

Silk Binder Wyrmscale Poison Antidote x5

Myles didn’t care as his responsibility as leader kicked in.

“Who got bit?”

No one responded.

“Burned?”

No one responded.

“Look over yourselves for bites,” Myles ordered. “We failed the bonus objective, so one of us might be in trouble.” When nothing turned up on any of them, Myles opened his inventory and downed one of the antidotes. The taste was as vile as the spider’s blood smelled before taking a second and offering it to Ashra. “Drink an antidote, everyone.”

No one argued and with no serious burns present, the group turned to their long-eared ally. It had only been two days, but it felt like an eternity since Myles had been close enough to feel their connection.

He smiled.

It’s good to see you.

She surprisingly smiled back.

“It’s good to be back.”

The Monsterkin looked over the group. Her ears hung slightly behind her head, her posture was more fluid, and the smile on her face didn’t leave as she began to speak. The way she held herself wasn’t the stance she’d kept before. It was relaxed almost like a different person. “I am sorry for my late arrival.”

“Any later and there wouldn’t have been one,” Lyna joked.

No one laughed.

“How’d you find us,” Kendra asked a few moments later. “Because if you were just guessing, you have the Pantheon’s luck behind you, Ashra.”

Ashra shrugged. “I can sense where Myles is, but my timing was more lucky than planned,” she explained, a bit of steel meeting her voice. “You were not supposed to fight without me.”

“You were getting help. We didn’t know what you’d be back.”

“And I still am,” she countered. “I will not miss out on fighting the Lord of the First Circle. It is a once in a lifetime chance, empowered or not.” Her hand shifted instantly into a longsword, then a whip, then a larger fist. As she did, Myles noticed her mass change, shifting from her legs, her ears, and her other arm to fuel the change in length and width. “I can fight with this body. For now, it is mine, and I have to come to terms with it enough to fight with you.”

Myles smiled, but for just a moment, his stomach turned at the memory. “We’re glad to have you.”

Kendra scoffed. “He just doesn’t want to fight anymore. Will’s been showing him up since you left.”

“Well, sorry I can’t warp reality to make my allies attack twice,” Myles scoffed before turning to Will. “How did you do that?”

Will was downing a mana potion and took a moment to answer. “Echo Strike,” he explained. “Takes nearly all my mana but it creates a distortion in reality that lets my allies repeat an action they’ve just taken without consuming resources. I’ve practiced it before with Kendra, but never with two people. Thought it would just double it.”

“It didn’t?”

“It did not,” Will reiterative, quaffing another potion. “Closer to tripped the cost and doubled the cooldown. I won’t be using it for at least four hours.”

Myles winced, but Will knew the risks as well as Myles did. Can’t save your Skills for moments that might never come. With Ashra’s return though, his confidence in their survival and their victory couldn’t have been stronger.

With the near-miss, the group decided to check out their new equipment and see if they could use anything without too much of a learning curve. Myles took out and quickly examined his newest piece of gear.

Boots of the Web

Value: 1,000

Clothing - Boots (Rare Variant - Baker)

Description: A pair of black boots with a deep purple trim and silver clasps.

Detail: Woven from void energy-infused spider silk, the Boots of the Web make the wearer more difficult to slow via magical effects. Additionally, the wearer of the boots can expend mana and durability of the boots to walk on walls at the rate of five mana per step. Boots will self-repair by using spider silk or appropriately enchanted bread dough.

Primary Effect: Have a 20% chance to resist negative movement effects.

Secondary Effect: Spend mana (5 standardized units per step) and some of the item’s durability to walk on walls. Durability used is based on the weight and speed of the wearer.

By the Pantheon above.

Those boots would be useful! Common sense was the only thing stopping him from putting them on right there and then. It was just too dangerous to use here without practice. Learning to use an item that might stop working mid-spell on the fly wasn’t a good idea since magic items stopped once the safe threshold was reached. A quick flash of him falling off the side of a building came to mind and the splat that followed made him put them back in the inventory.

That led him to something he’d completely forgotten he’d even owned…

What…

Gaze of the Hoard

Value: 1,010

Accessory - Eye (Rare)

Description: A singular, golden glass monocle in the shape of a wing.

Detail: Taken from the horde of a treasure collecting monster, the Gaze of the Hoard allows the user to see everything treasured by an individual. This varies by individual and can bypass some types of illusion, though some information is universally valued.

Primary Effect: View the name of an individual and their treasure

When had he…

The mimic in Silpha’s dungeon.

This was his loot from the dungeon run a week ago!

So much had happened that he’d never had a chance to test it out, let alone examine it. Since it wasn’t a combat item, there didn’t seem to be any harm in trying it now. There was no band or clip to hold it to his face, so it would have been pointless to try in combat anyway. So, Myles held it against his right eye. A moment later, he felt the feathers of the monocle grow slightly and press tightly against his forehead. Pulling his hand away, it stuck in place.

“What’s that?” Kendra asked, seeing the golden glint on the side of his head.

He looked up, and before he could answer, words and other information appeared next to and above her.

Kendra Kessa

Healthy

7P, 85G, 90S, 28C

Aether Attuned Watch

Myles didn’t answer for a moment, stunned by what he saw. Maybe the gaze had use in combat after all! He could see her health, her wealth, and what he assumed to be her most prized possession if the item description was accurate. The applications of that level of information wasn’t lost on him.

The power of the item wasn’t lost on him, but what it did made him feel slightly uncomfortable, but according to the information, it varied by person. Almost everyone valued their lives, so it made sense he could see a message about it, but what if it wasn’t the same for everyone?

He ignored Kendra for the moment and turned to face Lyna. He had to know if it was a fluke.

Lyna Hugea

Healthy

6P, 45G, 76S, 88C

Rocky

Rocky

No surprises there except for the double message about Rocky being Lyna’s most prized possession.

Will Rigs

Worn

Mana Rich

2P, 96G, 15S, 11C

Tallia Mistwalker

Frail

Mana Rich

Wrappings of the Hoard

That was interesting! Will and Tail…

Wait…

His throat caught, and he suddenly felt a familiar mix of being excited and violently sick at the same time as he stared at his Korgan ally.

Tallia Mistwalker, Tail, had never given him their true name before.

He knew full well it wasn’t their real name but never intended to ask about it. Sure, he had his assumptions from their story, but Tail had never been willing to share more than their history in general terms with only a few identifying details. It felt like a betrayal as he donned the item. He’d discovered something personal, something Tail hadn’t been ready to share yet, and he’d have to talk to them about it later even if he’d not meant anything by it.

Even still, it still gave him more data to use no matter how it made him feel.

Lyna and Kendra didn’t value their power, their mana, but Will and Tail did, and it was reflected in their information. More interestingly, Tail’s currency didn’t register, but their Wrappings of the Hoard did. Did Tail not care about money or was it something the wrappings did?

Taking a breath, Myles turned to the final member of the party, almost afraid of what he’d see.

Ashra Snowpelt

Extremely Healthy

Highly Resilient

Myles Chase

He didn’t know what to make of that, but it made him smile that she valued their connection so highly.

He didn’t get more time to think about it as colors flashed in front of his face.

“Myles?” Kendra asked, waving a hand in front of him as he turned back. “You home?”

He nodded, shaking off the information overload before turning to Tail. “We need to talk later, Tail.”

Kendra seemed slightly confused, but Tail simply nodded. “Of course, Myles.”

“Thanks.”

The party looked on, slightly confused, but Kendra persisted with her original question. “So, what is that?”

Myles’s mouth felt dry and tried to swallow. “It lets me see the name and health of someone, their coin, and the thing they value most that’s on them… I think.”

“You think?” Kendra asked, and he nodded in the affirmative. “Okay, what am I worth?”

Myles sighed as Lyna tried to signal something to Myles. “You have just under eight platinum in item value.”

Kendra opened her information, then called up another window, before nodding and closing it. “That seems to check out if you add everything I have together up. I have less than a platinum in coin, but if you add my loot, my bag, all the sket I’ve picked up in the past few weeks, my armor, and maybe the house… I’d say that’s probably right.”

So, it wasn’t just their coin, but everything they had ownership of at the time….

“What did it say I valued the most?”

“A watch,” he said simply, then reading the ethereal information out loud. “An aether attuned watch.”

She was quiet for a long while, considering what he said before shaking it off. “Interesting. Rocky for Lyna?”

“Do you have to ask?” Lyna said, slightly affronted. “Why wouldn’t Rocky be precious?”

Kendra stared hard at Lyna before shaking her head and turning back to Myles. “Where did you get that?”

“The slime dungeon.”

“And you’re just now using it?”

“Well between everything that happened and now, I sort of just realized it existed.”

Kendra sighed. “Gotta keep track of things, Bright Eyes. Otherwise, you’re going to get yourself killed, and I’ll have to step in again.”

Lyna groaned. “Don’t die, Myles. We can’t do that again.”

Kendra looked hurt, but Myles ignored the mock pain. “I don’t plan on it.”

“I think we’re getting off track,” Will said, rounding up the group once more. “Myles, you said that can see health?”

“As a condition,” Myles added. “It’s a value, just healthy or not.”

Will nodded. “Do you think—“

Will didn’t have a chance to finish his thought before a voice rang in the ears of everyone in the party.

Attention Ring Three! Report to the center of the raid area!

Look for the blue fire hanging in the air!

We need to finish this before it’s too late!

Myles looked to the others, to Ashra, and felt his heart race. Sindra was calling them in. The sounds of battle were still audible from their distance, but the message didn’t sound good. If the Runners were having trouble…

If they were losing…

His mind felt Ashra’s, and she for his he realized the moment their minds tried to converse.

No one’s going to die.

“We’re not going to lose anyone.”

Their thoughts were as one.

Myles steeled himself, letting his courage rise like it was baking bread. His awareness reached out, feeling for Top Off wrapped around Will and Medic around Kendra. He felt Ashra and the others as well, waiting for him to give them their marching orders.

They weren’t disappointed.

“We know what this is,” he began. “You don’t need me to say it, so stick together and keep an eye on each other.”

The stress and tension relaxed for a moment as no one argued.

He felt their determination as a physical force that reinforced his bones and gave his muscles new life. It was time to do what they’d come to do, what all Runners had to do.

Together, the Rising Stars turned and moved back to the main road as they had begun to walk the path of the gathering storm, and the thunder in the distance was only getting louder.

***

“We need to pull back and regroup, boss,” Mitchel said as the groups began to fragment and take cover rather than attack during the energy attack’s cooldown window. “We can’t win like this.”

Retreat?

Sindra looked over the battlefield carefully. Her Keen Eye took in everything as her Analyze Skill crunched the numbers with the information she already knew, and the answer to that question became clear as day.

Even if they wanted to, a retreat wasn’t an option.

If they all ran, enough Runners would die by the time they could regroup that they’d never complete the floor.

“We can’t do that, Mitchel,” She said as surely as if she knew the answer at the moment. “I’ve already called in the third line. I know we can do this. We have this fight if we keep pressing. We have the core in sight, and we have the numbers and magic power to take it down. But, we need to organize! If we pull back now or change our position, it’ll retreat to the desert or, Pantheon forbid, the ocean, and that will give it time to recover, rebuild, and become something worse. We have to finish this now or we never will.”

“There are worse things than spending the next few decades in a magic bubble we can—”

The air cracked, shattering Mitchel’s words as though they had been a pane of glass, and Sindra looked on in abject surprise as another woman stepped between their discussion.

“Micha! Stand down!”

Clad in still glistening plate armor, Micha Reese, [Paladin] of Talia, took to her role as Sindra’s left hand as rigidly as a week-old crust.

“I am sorry, Sindra, but he cannot be allowed to talk to you like that.” Her attention shot back to the shield wall without another thought of her actions. “Mitchel, it’s not our place to argue with Sindra’s plans. We have to defeat the Broken King, or we’ll all die here. Their sacrifices will be for nothing if we pull back.”

Mitchel starred as the searing beam burned a swath of destruction across the field, vaporizing stone and Runner remains alike. His anger was as cold as the attack was hot as he looked past Micha, past Sindra, and to the battlefield.

He said nothing.

He made no move to retaliate.

He was a [Shield Wall] not a sword, but his words could easily be forged into a weapon. At that moment, as he turned to glare at Micha, they were as serious as the steel that made up his soul.

“It’s my place to argue with Sindra when she’s being as thick as a brick,” he corrected, forging his words by the letter and letting his anger vent at the [Paladin] before turning to Sindra, addressing her and Micha in equal measures as he hammered his point home. “And, it is our place to worry about the people we’ve run with. It’s our place to protect people, not just reach the bottom floor! There’s no point if we lose half our Runners here!”

“Mitchel, we…”

He held up his hand to act as a shield against her words, preparing for whatever came next and stopping her words before they could strike a chord of reason. “If the next words out of your mouth aren’t, ‘we need to get out there and do something’ don’t say it. I know you’re the best at keeping us organized and directed, Sindra, but you couldn’t account for this. None of our plans account for this!” He motioned with his hands as the light died for a few moments before lumbering towards another target. “No one blames you.”

“I do,” Sindra said more to herself than him. “We have to finish this like Micha says. We can’t afford for it to break the Plaza.”

“We have to regroup, plaza or not.”

“We have to continue the fight!” Micha argued.

***

Myles and company reached the front line in record time, but all stopped short of taking the first steps into the ruined circle of stones and ash. It didn’t look like a battle had taken place.

“By Rani’s Moonkin…,” Tail spoke, the only member of the group able to put their surprise into words.

Buildings were razed to the ground, craters pitted the landscape, and the smell of burnt and cooked meat lingered in the air accompanied by gusts of whirling gray ash. The remains of their allies carried on the wind as their foe, as the Shardking, reigned in combat as chunks continually fell from its carapace.

There was no music anymore.

Silence had been slain long ago, but the music that filled the air had been replaced by the sounds of other things: crashing steel, grinding stone, battle plans, pain, and ultimately, death.

They’d all seen Shardking before. They’d seen the last recorded Runs. They’d seen what it could do, the damage it could cause, but that was all second hand. It was all a story until now.

A recording didn’t do the pure level and scale of the destruction it had wrought against the world the justice it deserved.

The Broken King was not just a force of nature; it was a force of magic, a force of destruction onto itself, destroying everything and everyone in its wake. And for the first time, the gravity of that hit home for Myles as its mere steps shook the world.

it was their job to stop it.

It was their first step forward as a team.

For a moment, the group took in the noise, the chaos, the scale of the battle and watched as their allies bombarded the creature with every spectrum of magic imaginable.

It barely slowed except to reach out and swipe at them.

Monster Lore Updated!

Shardking, The Broken King, Lord of the First Circle

Titles granted: The Forged Promise, the Enslaved One, Ender of Heroes, The Shattered One, Master of Pew

Dungeon Creature - Golem (Boss)

Rank A Threat level (Elite Adaptive - Stage Two)

Best trait - Strength, Durability

Diet: Pure Aether and Soul Energy

Preferred Method of Attack - Overwhelming Force

Speed of Attack: Medium/Fast

Special Attack: Etheric Light (Ranged Energy Attack), Stone Binder (Slow), Medusa’s Gaze (Slow), Shardstorm (Death)

Breeding Group: None

Known Drops: Varies based on Class

Weak point: Condensed Mana Core

Not Tamable

The Broken King is said to be a mistake caused by a conflict between the magics used to seal the dungeon in its time lock and the magics used to lock the first seal of the dungeon. Though its original name is lost, Standing nearly half the height of the dungeon itself, The Broken King was said to have been one of twelve such constructs created for the Grand Kessivan Dungeon’s construction. When the final attempt was made to seal the dungeon and create the Grand Dungeon as it is known today, the Broken King became corrupted with dungeon magic and slew its fellow golems. For its traitorous nature, The Broken King became part of the dungeon and regenerates each time the first floor seal is remade.

“This is it,” Myles said more to himself than the others, taking a deep breath and gripping the Twisted Breadstick until he could hear the shell crackle under his strength.

“It is,” Kendra replied.

“Surprised we made it this far honestly,” Lyna joked, cutting the tension a bit.

“We’ll make it farther.”

Myles’s words were met with a warm feeling of trust as Will put a hand on his shoulder. “You know what you’re doing, Myles. Make sure we get there in one piece, okay?”

He nodded turning to Tail. “Thoughts?”

“Bind a large enough illusion to us, climb up the body, and break the core before it has a chance to notice us.”

“You make it sound easy,” Myles laughed darkly.

“Isn’t it?” Tail countered.

His thoughts went back to his waiting boots, to his Monsterkin ally, and then back to his friends. It was that easy as long as the beam of light didn’t cook them alive.

As the group considered their next step, more teams began to appear from the other streets, stopping short as they had before moving to the rally point under the mote of glowing, blue fire. Myles recognized most of them in passing and steeled himself as names and values began to appear with each person.

He ignored them.

He didn’t need to know who was going to die tonight.

Not yet.

They all wouldn’t be there when this was over. He hoped for them with all the heart he could spare and turned back to those he had come to know as his new family. “When this is over, we’re going to have a feast.”

Their confidence and good humor surged, and Myles fed on it, letting his doubts wash away as Ashra touched his shoulder.

“If we die, it has been an honor, Myles Chase.”

We won’t die, but I appreciate it. I feel the same way.

Taking another breath, Myles took the first step onto the battlefield and his team fell into line as they approached the glowing blue fire of war.