***** Amandine’s POV 11:30 PM *****

The six hours of rest and relaxation had passed far faster than any of us expected, yet were far more effective than they should have been. When the time finally came to fight the Slaver Queen, we were ready.

The second door opened into a space that was roughly the same size as the Room of Nine Keys, except instead of being a cube with four entrances and little else, this was a circular-ish room with a multitude of passageways leading off of it. There were even ramps and three different levels from which to exit the room, which we had been warned to expect. They also said something about limiting air loss in the event of an emergency, which didn't really make sense to me, but they seemed to take seriously for some reason.

Regardless of the reason why it meant that there was a rabbit warren of passageways to fight our way through in order to get to the boss. Fortunately, we had enough of a map to figure out where we were supposed to go.

“Alright people, it's time to move out! We got some Slaver bugs to squish!” I yelled. “It may only be some fantasy of the dungeon, but for the first time in years, we're going into a fight we can be proud of at the end of the day. For the Light! For the Truth! For the Glory of the Lord!”

“For the Light! For the Truth! For the Glory of the Lord!” they echoed back to me.

“Move out!”

“Left!... Left!... Left! Right! Left!... Your other left Billodon!” called Stan good-naturedly.

“But sir, that would be backwards!”

And so, for the first time since we were cursed, we went marching into battle with smiles on our faces and laughter in our hearts.

After going through the door, the front of our formation started to split again, one third, the spear kobold, and Doskan heading for the Security Control Center, while the other two-thirds of us escorted the first kobold towards the heart of the warren where the Slaver Queen awaits. It was annoying that I’m the only one who had a chance of hurting the Queen other than the first kobold, who’s weapon could kill her in one shot – after ten minutes of charging.

“Hey lady, you’ve got that thing charging yeah?”

“Yup! Nine minutes and fifty seconds until full charge.”

“Good. We should be coming up on the first choke-point momentarily. Potion catchers, be ready!”

“Yes Ma’am!” they chorused.

Sure enough, a few moments later the hallway narrowed significantly, forcing us into a two abreast formation before abruptly opening back up into a killing zone. As soon as Billodon and one of our other tanks stepped across the line, a volley of crossbow bolts attempted to cut them down.

This is why we sent them in first – only one of the bolts even came close to penetrating their armor, and that was mostly because the shot glanced off of the eyebrow of Billodon’s helmet. We had used the preparation time wisely and had Doskan switch out the enchantments on our armor for anti-bolt enchantments, once again proving the value of his modular enchantments. They might not be quite as effective as a straight-up enchantment in any given configuration, but the ability to change them on the fly more than made up for it.

The second volley of bolts a second and a half later wasn’t any more effective than the first.

Ten seconds into the fight, when the tanks had claimed enough of the killing zone for the mages to start filtering in, a metal orb came flying over the middle of the room, only to be caught by one of the potion catchers and returned to sender, stunning a hole in the middle of the enemy line.

Not that said hole was necessary.

As soon as the next volley of bolts landed, everyone in front of one of our fire mages dropped to the floor, allowing him to cast a fire blade over their heads. This was a paper-thin arc of blue-white fire that cut through the barriers defending the far side of the room and, hopefully, the defenders behind it.

As soon as the blade passed, the tanks were back on their feet, with their shields ready. Turns out, the spell was sufficient to render the defender’s weapons useless after cutting the barrier down, even if most of the defenders themselves were still standing.

They weren’t standing for long as the tanks opened their line to let damage dealers charge through and reduce the remaining defenders to scrap before they could retreat.

“Good work people! Any discrepancies in the enemy’s gear?”

“No ma’am! Everything is consistent with the low-level Royal Guards, just as the dungeon said they would be.”

“Good. Then let’s form up and move out. We’ve got three more choke-points to clear and one vault door to pass through once Doskan gets it open, then we have to get little Ms. Kobold somewhere that she can take her shot. Let’s move!”

***** Doskan’s POV *****

Having to separate myself from my wife again after such a short time of being back together annoyed me to no end, but it needed to be done. I was the only one who could maybe stand a chance at opening the vault door, and unfortunately, the controls were in a completely different location to the door. Why, I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense to me, but that’s the way it is, so I have to deal with it.

When we arrived at the door to the Security Control Center, the door was closed and the lock ripped apart in much the same fashion as the doors I’d come across in the puzzle rooms. It took me all of thirty seconds to reassemble the lock properly and get all of the runes back into their circuits.

Why this dungeon is so concerned with circuits I still don’t understand. It makes the runes more complicated, requiring more power and more precision, and you have to make sure that they don’t interfere with each other. However, every circuit I’d seen so far somehow works far better than they should, even if the runes it is using are rather odd.

Even while I was lost in my mental grumbling about the runic oddities of the dungeon, I stood and stepped away from the door, allowing my escorts to sweep the room for threats before I stepped inside.

“Clear! Man, this room is a mess!”

“Yes, it is,” I replied as I scanned the room. It was a rectangular room about five meters by ten meters with what I assume are workstations scattered around the room, each and every one chock full of circuits that needed to be repaired according to the rules that I’d been taught by the puzzles. The difference is that this time all of the circuits were linked together and making a mistake with one could very easily cause a cascading failure across all of them.

However, there was a surprise in store for me in the form of a golem that was wrecked and shattered on the floor with its arms and legs mangled beyond repair. Its torso, neck, and head seemed to be mostly intact, and it was wearing the same kind of uniform as the kobolds did, except this one had some different decorations on its chest and shoulders. Most of them didn’t make sense to me, but two patches stood out to me – one said “Security Chief” and the other said “Circuitry Warfare Division.” He even had a hole in his uniform at the base of his neck exposing a hideously complicated rune that took the wires coming out of his head and connecting them to the rat’s nest that went into the rest of his body.

I may not have been able to understand this rune or how it did what it did, but I recognized the section of the rune where power was supposed to be supplied. Shrugging, I pulled the appropriate splicing tools out of one of the many pockets on my vest and reconnected the power wires.

The golem came to life with a jerk, looking around frantically before settling on my face.

“You’re not a slaver.”

“No, I’m not. I am Doskan, and I’m here to get the Vault door open so the rest of my party can escort a kobold in there and kill the Slaver Queen.”

“You tell the truth. Good. Prop me up and I will tell you what needs to be done to get this room functional again.”

“What about your arms? Wouldn’t it be faster to finish fixing you so you can fix this room?”

“No, my arms and legs need to be completely replaced. It’s a matter of shattered bones and shredded actuators, not just disconnected circuits. I appreciate your concern, but we do not have time for that.”

“Alrighty then. What do I need to do?”