“Damnit!” I managed to swear just before I splashed into the water again, much to the amusement of the onlookers. After seeing what I was up against in the dungeon, I decided to take a chance and test y skills at the agility course at the guild headquarters.

“You gotta pay attention!” A helpful rogue called down to me as she lazily walked across a swinging balance beam two levels above me. “Notice which stones seem solid, and which ones tremble at the slightest chance.”

“Thanks Pauline!” I called up sarcastically, slightly envious as she sauntered between the beams to complete the course.

“Anytime!” She called back with a chuckle as I pulled myself out of the water.

“Yo, there are easier ways to take a bath there Stars.” I looked up to see Dorian standing above me. I took his offered hand and he easily hauled me out of the water.

“Thanks Dorian. How are the new recruits coming along?”

“See for yourself.” He said, pointing over his shoulder. In one of the massive rings, I saw Belor facing off against six students in a tug of war, one that he was easily winning. “MIND YOUR FOOTWORK! SARAH, BRACE YOUR FRAME AND USE ROOT!” He yelled out, causing me to involuntarily cringe. “Sorry ‘bout that, they needed a reminder.”

“No worries.” I waved it off. “Still going over the basics?”

“Always a good idea.” He nodded. “But these kids need a bit of work on their foundation skills. Strengthen their bodies, learn the Root skill, or even better Immobile. Those six are going to be our front line, and will be breaking a lot of charges. The three in the back are looking to make arcane spearman.”

“Using magic to strike from behind with little risk to your friends, I like it. They using attack or support magic?”

“Little of both.” He shrugged. He hesitated before speaking, like something was troubling him.

“What’s wrong?” I prodded.

“Eh, nothing really. They use their magic well, but none of them have any out of the box thinking.” Sure enough, as we watched they went through the motions, using leadweight to help anchor their end of the line but that was it.

“Mind if I take a crack at it?” I asked.

“Go right ahead.” He grinned. I didn’t have the lung capacity of the brothers, so I cheated and used a bit of magic to boost my voice.

“YOU MAGES IN THE BACK! QUIT STANDING THERE WITH YOUR THUMBS UP YOUR ASSES AND USE YOUR SPELLS! WHO SAYS YOU CAN ONLY BUFF YOUR FRIENDS?” They all flinched and stared at me for a half second. “DON’T LOOK AT ME, FIND YOUR ENEMY! USE EARTH MAGIC TO TAKE AWAY HIS FOOTING! SOMEONE CAST FEATHERLIGHT SO THAT HE CAN’T THROW YOUR DEFENDERS AROUND SO MUCH! FLASH LIGHT IN HIS EYES, MAKE THE AIR AROUND HIM AS VISCOUS AS WATER! THERE’S A THOUSAND AND ONE THINGS YOU CAN BE DOING!” I strode confidently into the arena as all the mages were stuck on how to work together.

“TOO LONG! YOUR DEFENDERS ARE TIRED AND YOU’RE ALL GOING TO FAIL AT THIS RATE!” I shouted before turning. “Crumple earth! Featherlight!” Belor of course used the featherlight spell and the resulting tug from everyone to launch himself forward, but I had expected it. “Wind Wall!” A barrier of wind stopped him and kicked up enough dust that he couldn’t see very well. The reprieve allowed the shield wall to reform.

“That’s enough!” Dorian called out, and everyone relaxed. He sauntered into the ring and gave everyone a stern look. “Now. Let’s break this failure down so we can learn from it. Front line. You need to work on getting into formation quicker. Not only that, but practice different places. You won’t be able to get into the center of the formation every time. Back line, think outside of the box. Stars here showed you how to use some of your spells to not only buff your allies, but destabilize your enemies. This helps, but you have to react. Did everyone catch that Belor immediately adapted to Sean’s tactics?”

“Yeah, but he made a windwall to stop him from attacking.” One of the mages said.

“Exactly. Planning is fine and dandy, but you have to be willing to be flexible as well. Work among yourselves who is going to have what priorities. Buff allies, debuff enemies, counter your enemy’s counters, and even an occasional wildcard. Front line, what major mistake did Belor make after Sean cast featherlight?”

“Umm, he left his feet?” one replied after a few awkward moments.

“Exactly!” Dorian nearly shouted. “Once he leaves his feet, he is at your mercy. He can’t change directions, he can’t brace for a blow, he can’t strike from a new angle as effectively. Mason, I saw you bracing your shield at an angle while he was flying toward you. What was your plan?”

“Um, I was going to try and smash him backward, but I was worried about his momentum.”

“Good thought.” Dorian said. “Belor?”

“That would have worked better if I wasn’t coming at you feet first. Had I struck your shield, I was planning on flexing my knees to absorb the impact and allow me to grab the rim of your shield. That would let me launch myself into the back line to cause havoc.”

“Could we counter that with small spikes on our shields?” Mason asked Dorian.

“That could work, and an excellent idea. I’ll look into it.” Dorain nodded. “That’s enough for now. Go ahead and put on your weight packs, and take five laps around the yard. After that you are done for the day, but make sure that you keep thinking of tactics.”

“Yes sir!” They all chorused, before taking off.

“Thanks for the helping hand.” Belor said, coming up and slapping me on the back.

“No problem.” I grimaced.

“So why were you trying to flip about like a rogue?” Dorian asked.

“Ugh.” I groaned. “I’m trying to figure out a way to get through the lava lake on floor thirteen. That said, how do most groups get their tanks across?”

“Ah, that explains it.” Belor nodded. “Well, the easiest way is to get a rogue to cross first. As you can see, that’s what our training course is for. If they can cross all three levels, they should be able to walk across the stone platforms.”

“And the tanks?”

“Oh, once someone is across there is a control to extend the bridge. You still have to watch for the fish jumping and the birds diving at you, but a stone bridge 4 people wide makes it a lot easier to cross.”

“Oh. Well, I think I’m screwed then.” I groaned. “I’ll never be able to finish that course, especially with the trouble the lowest level is giving me.”

“No rogues in your party?” Belor asked.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “I’m solo diving for now. Maybe after I see how far I can get by myself. You said there are fish in the lava? Any chance they could capsize a boat?”

“Fairly easily.” Dorian said, leading us over to a seat. “Some are similar to those crocs from earlier, but the lava mako shark loves to smash things from underneath. Boats are too slow to cross.”

“Damn.” I groaned. “Maybe I can create a series of bridges to the fountain pedestals then.”

“What are you going to anchor them to?” Belor asked. “It has been tried before. You can’t force the lava to cool, it’ll shatter. If you wait for it to cool on its own, it will take you days to make one bridge.”

“This dungeon is a pain in the ass.” I muttered.

“Ha! Ain’t that the truth?” Dorian chuckled. “Pity you can’t float over the lava. That might let you get across.”

“Float?” I asked, getting a bit of inspiration. “Now, that might just be an idea! Gotta go fellas, but I’ll let you know how it works out!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“I got your number this time.” I said as I made my way down to the lava lake. Tests outside of the walls had been successful, but Elendria had stopped me from an ill-fated late afternoon run on the dungeon. She did have a point, but I was annoyed that I had to hold off for a day.

“Alright, let’s get this thing going.” I muttered, using a bit of mana manipulation to make a large force field. I started adding globs of lava to it, trying to balance the shaking. I needed enough to make sure there were no cracks in the product, but not enough that I forced out the gas in it. That gas was going to provide some important insulation. Once I had everything set up, I started slowly withdrawing heat from the rectangle. The trick was to do it slowly and evenly. Half an hour later I had a cooled pumice rectangle, roughly seven feet by five feet, with a one-foot diameter hole in the center and a slight ridge along the edges. The next portion was going to be rather mana intensive. The two longer sides of the rectangle got tungsten plates, extending down and raising the platform by two feet. The front and back parts got as fine of a tungsten weave as I could make, hopefully it was enough to keep the air inside. Just in case, I reinforced it with a bit of mana. “Oh damnit, I could have used mana the entire time and had it be guaranteed to be airtight.” I shook my head at my lack of foresight, but it just wouldn’t have looked right without the actual sides.

“Whatever. Time to see if this works.” I climbed onto my makeshift hovercraft, and held one hand over the central hole. Channeling a good bit of air mana, I sent it streaming into the gap. It took a minute or two, but slowly I felt the craft take to the air. A burst of air from my opposite hand sent it sliding sideways over the lava, where my hand immediately started heating up. A quick burst sent me back the other way, and as soon as I was certain I was back over solid ground I cut off all the mana.

“Ah damnit but that stings.” I swore, conjuring a cooling wind to blow over it. “All this blasted heat isn’t helping either.” I said, glaring at the lava lake. I shook my head at my stupidity, then sat down and let my mana recharge. Not quite a half hour later and I was good enough to be back in action. This time I had a plan for the heat. I made a small stovepipe for the hole. The heat would rise straight up and out, while the air input was at a slightly downward angle. This didn’t stop all the heat, but it would take care of most of it. “Let’s see what’s faster, a shark or a hovercraft.” I said with a grin. I took my position, checking to make sure that I was set to go. I couldn’t split the difference, as I would get rained on by slightly cooled lava. Instead I was aiming to shoot beneath the arch of one side of the fountains, and hope that if I couldn’t outrun a shark I could at least use some desperate gravity mana to make it to a safe platform. Backup plans were always good.

“Right, here goes nothing.” With a burst of air mana, I shot off over the lava. It took a Herculean effort to keep from screaming out in joy as the adrenaline flooded my system, but I had no idea how the sharks tracked their prey. Here I was, shooting across a pool of lava in a slapdash hovercraft in a dungeon! I could only pray that the pumice kept me insulated long enough to reach the other side, and that the lava couldn’t melt the tungsten holding the air pad beneath me. I couldn’t even rely on mana detection, as the lava played havoc on my ability.

Halfway there, and I could have sworn I felt something at the edges of my mana detection. Thirty yards left, and I definitely felt it speed up. Twenty yards, and it dove deep. “Fuuuuuuck.” I groaned, knowing what was going to happen. I sent my mana detection into a column directly below the craft, and as soon as I felt confident that I had something shooting toward me I stopped channeling air underneath the craft to give me a slight boost to speed by doubling the air propelling me forward.

“AAAAAAHHHH!!!” I screamed, as I felt a massive impact on the back end of the boat, and time seemed to slow down. I kept moving forward, and the hovercraft was lifted further into the air by the momentum of whatever smashed into it. As my arms pinwheeled, I created a series of gravity wells and forcefully pulled myself along. As soon as I neared them, I would dismiss it so that I could save mana as well as make sure that it didn’t slow me down as I passed. “HAHAAAAA-OOF!” My panicked laughter quickly turned to a grunt of pain. I had overshot and made it safely, only to slam against the dungeon wall.

“Ow.” I groaned, thankful that the mana shield from my equipment had managed to absorb any damage. Of course, it didn’t help any with the blunt force that I was sure was going to leave a bruise. I rolled over to see my hovercraft already sinking into the lava, and the shark that had capsized me nowhere to be seen.

Taking a minute to compose myself, I sat up and started looking more closely at my surroundings. This portion of the dungeon seemed a lot more, finished, than the rest so far. The back wall looked like it had been roughly shaped, and there was an obvious stone pillar in the middle of the landing platform. Walking over to it, and I saw it had two buttons. A bridge with an up arrow, and a bridge with a down arrow. Shaking my head at the simplicity, I turned and headed down. Let’s see what the next floor had in store for me.