Rissa hurried towards the purple dragon. Serenity was growling in the back of her mind, not making any sense. She was much farther from the dragon than the knights, so she watched their attacks as she closed in. Perhaps she’d see something that would help her plan her strategy.

Kay seemed to be getting up slowly; he acted like it hurt but he was not badly injured. Rissa could only hope that the dragon’s damage was as impermanent as it had been in the Disney animation, but she doubted she was that lucky. This was a dungeon, even if it was also a story.

As she ran, Rissa watched the knights attack Mim-the-dragon.

One of the other knights’ swords hit the purple dragon and bounced, not doing any damage. That wasn’t a good sign.

Ector brought his sword down in a huge overhand blow, putting his shoulders into the effort. It hit, but like the first knight, his sword bounced without drawing blood. She couldn’t tell if it’d damaged any of the scales or not, but if it had, she doubted Mim would let him do that again.

Mim didn’t react to either blow.

The last knight saw his partner’s attack bounce and tried to thrust his sword into the dragon’s hide. Despite all the strength he put into his attack, his blade barely penetrated the flesh between two of Mim’s scales. Mim roared and he pulled the sword out, showing that he’d penetrated little more than the depth of a nasty scratch.

Even so, Mim turned away from Rissa to breathe fire at the knight. “INSECT! You have DARED to harm ME!”

Rissa didn’t have any magic to fight the dragon with, and she certainly didn’t have the capacity to turn herself into a germ, the way Merlin beat the dragon in the animation. It was all going to come down to Serenity’s magic blade.

Mim’s tail whipped in front of Rissa; it set itself on the ground right in front of her. Rissa wasn’t going to look that gift in the mouth; this was the perfect time to see if Serenity was any better at cutting through dragonscale than a normal sword was. Rissa took an awkward stance, then slashed down with the sword, nearly missing the tail and only barely missing her foot when the sword cut right through the tip of the dragon’s tail and into the ground.

Mim roared in pain and blew fire towards the knight in front of her; Rissa couldn’t see if he’d gotten out of the way.

Serenity yelled in the back of Rissa’s mind. Apparently her stance was all wrong and more a danger to herself than to her enemy. Serenity’s voice went from upset to calm while he lectured her, but Rissa’s emotions did the opposite.

“Well if you think you can do better, why don’t you do it!?!” Rissa didn’t care that she was shouting out loud at Serenity; it was the middle of a fight. If she’d been thinking, she’d have known that there was no way anyone would hear about it, but she wasn’t thinking that well.

:As you wish.:

Rissa felt the same half-there sensation of being guided that she had during practice. She dove to one side and rolled; it wasn’t until she was rising from the roll that she noticed Mim breathing fire on the spot she’d stood in a moment before.

Serenity cut into Mim’s flank. It wasn’t a wound meant to kill; it was a wound meant to injure and bleed, shallow but painful.

Mim swatted at Rissa, but she was always a step ahead of Mim’s movements. Serenity kept carving flesh wounds into her sides as he danced around her. It was a little sad, in a way; Mim simply wouldn’t keep up with Serenity’s skill, even when it was expressed through an untrained youth’s body.

It wasn’t until one of the knights stabbed Mim in one of the spots Serenity had opened that Rissa realized what he was doing: the knights couldn’t get through the scales, but Serenity could. Serenity couldn’t make a deep strike since he had to move too often to avoid Mim, but Mim was mostly ignoring the knights, thinking they couldn’t hurt her.

Once Serenity stripped some of her scales out of the way, the knights could hurt her. Mim thrashed, uncertain of which direction to concentrate on.

Rissa’s body dodged another fiery attack as Mim seemed to decide which threat to concentrate on: Rissa. This time, Mim committed to the attack; her head followed the roll and attempted to bite Rissa.

Serenity clearly knew the bite was coming; Serenity-the-sword was in exactly the right spot so that instead of closing on Rissa’s head or shoulder, Mim’s mouth closed on the sword’s blade.

Serenity shoved the blade up, deeper into Mim’s mouth, then rotated it, pushing the hilt below Mim’s lower jaw. The tip of the blade emerged from the back of the dragon’s skull.

Serenity pulled his corporeal form towards Rissa’s, leaving a slice through Mim’s skull and brain. The dragon collapsed to the ground.

Moments later, so did Rissa. She wasn’t injured, but she was exhausted and all of her muscles ached. She was pretty sure she was bruised down both of her arms and in a cross on her back from the rolls out of the way of the dragonfire. She knelt on the ground, breathing heavily and aching.

The scene around her seemed to shimmer before it disappeared and Rissa found herself kneeling in front of the maple tree she’d touched to enter the dungeon.

[Dungeon: A Well-Told Tale completed]

[Reward: 1x Dragon Core]

[Your experiences have been Noticed]

[Dungeon Entrance Limit: 1 year]

Serenity was standing next to her; he looked like he hadn’t moved since they started, but she was certain he had. “What’s a Dungeon Entrance Limit? And why isn’t there experience?”

Serenity turned slowly to look at her. “It’s how long before you can re-enter this dungeon. They’re common for story dungeons, pretty unusual for other types at low Tiers. They get more common later. As for experience … if you check your Status, you probably got some. The Voice simply doesn’t note it if it’s not providing it. Most dungeons outside the Tutorial only give what you gain inside. It’s why the Tutorial is such a good place to grow. I’m pretty sure the Voice is supplementing ours since the planet’s still in the Tutorial phase.”

Rissa nodded. “I had fun, but I think I’d rather run through a normal dungeon.”

“There are times when a story dungeon is useful; it’s a way to shape your growth, since it will let you do things you otherwise couldn’t. With that said, I agree. Definitely no more story dungeons.” Serenity sounded firm, but he seemed to radiate a feeling of uncertainty.

Serenity shook himself. Coming back to being more or less human after being a sword was strange. He didn’t think he liked it. If he’d known that was how it would work, he wouldn’t have suggested they tackle it while Jacob was teaching.

Serenity scooped up the dungeon’s reward. What time -

It was 6:23 PM on Tuesday.

He was definitely not at all used to that yet.

“Do you think Jacob’s made enough dinner to share?” Serenity looked at Rissa. He wanted to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and dinner was the best way to do that.

Rissa nodded. “I’m sure he will, once we tell him we’re on our way.”

Normal was overrated.

Two days had passed since they left the story dungeon and Serenity hadn’t gotten anything done.

While that wasn’t quite true, it certainly felt that way. Serenity had made himself available for several long conversations about the possibilities inherent in magic and he’d kept shielding Jacob twice a day, but other than that, all he’d been able to accomplish was a couple of Tutorials and some practice with his Affinities.

The Tutorials could be done anywhere and the magical practice wasn’t going to show results any time soon. Improving Affinities was a matter of years, not hours.

Serenity realized he was pacing the room impatiently when Rissa confronted him about it. “What’s got you so tense, Serenity?”

“I feel useless. This isn’t where I need to be. I should be on the front lines, facing some of the invasions, not here. Family comes first, but I can’t even help Jacob!” Serenity realized his hands were clenched and carefully relaxed them.

Why was two days suddenly such a long time to him? He’d been able to pass weeks in the Tutorial with less stress than this. For that matter, when he’d been in the Tutorial today, he’d felt less stressed.

“You are helping Jacob,” Rissa objected. “I can’t manage a shield around someone else the way you are. Huh. Y’know, that’s exactly how Jacob’s feeling.”

“What?” Serenity didn’t follow.

“Useless. Like he should be doing more to help, but he doesn’t know how or can’t. And you’re maintaining a shield around his mind, preventing other thoughts from getting to him. Is it possible you’re getting that from him?”

Serenity stared at Rissa. It didn’t seem likely, but he was using the mind-shield spell in a way he never had before, and new magic often had strange implications. It was one of the reasons many people only used spells the way they were known to work.

It wasn’t the primary reason - that was because many people didn’t know they could be altered a little and still work - but it was definitely one of the reasons. Magical researchers tended to have strange things happen to them. Both Vengeance and the Final Reaper had dealt with the fallout of experiments.

Sometimes even his own experiments.

“It’s possible. I wouldn’t expect it, since the spell’s not being continuously maintained, but it’s possible.” Serenity doublechecked the spell formation he was using. It was designed for personal protection; had he missed adding a section to protect himself from the person the shield was around? That seemed the most likely reason.

No, the section was there.

Serenity didn’t take the time to debug the spell more; he wanted to pay attention to Rissa instead. He’d expected her to reassure him that what he was doing was useful, which wouldn’t have helped, but he hadn’t even thought of leakage as a possible contributor. Of course, he hadn’t spent the weekend with Jacob; she had.

Rissa was nodding. “Right, then. Two things; you can stop shielding Jacob. I was going to have you stop for Monday anyway; I need to see how Jacob’s doing on his own. I’d planned that to be after another remote practice session, but it can be before.”

“I can make it til then,” Serenity interjected. “That’s only one more day. You’ll be heading out Friday night, right?”

Rissa nodded. “If you’re sure. Okay, then. Second, Echo’s been wanting you to come visit. This seems like a good time. Doyle will be reaching out to me tomorrow anyway; they don’t have reception wherever they are. I’ll set it up with him. It should be useful; Echo hasn’t said why she wants you to come, but she’s said it’s important.”

Serenity started to protest that he wanted to do something more useful than visiting friends, but stopped himself. What was he thinking? Echo wouldn’t tell Rissa it was important that he visit unless it was; for a sixteen-year-old kid, she had a good grasp of what was important and what wasn’t.