by TJ Reynolds
The tunnel widened the further in they went, until it was nearly forty feet across. Then, ahead of them, lit with an all too familiar blue glow, they spotted a vast chamber.
Kai was a young man, little more than a boy, but he didn’t have to be told that if there was a final boss in this dungeon, it lay directly ahead.
He fought to suppress his instincts, screaming at him to run far away, as they traipsed into a chamber big enough for all of Mindonne to fit inside.
At the far end, another waterfall dropped from the ceiling, which loomed more than sixty feet over their heads.
The pool was much smaller than the lake they'd first encountered. Considering how the water fell in heavy sheets, there must have been some unseen drain below.
It wasn’t the size of the room, nor the bright, permeating ethereal light that was so striking, it was the chamber’s endless black walls. Every surface, from the spanning floor, up the walls and across the ceiling, was made of a glimmering onyx-like substance.
Kai knew little about rocks. He wished Ban was there to tell him what type of stone or mineral it was.
Black as deepest night, it looked wet, almost metallic. The slick-looking surface served to amplify the blue light that emanated from the single source of light in the center of the room.
There, at the center of a small island in the middle of the pool, were the remains of the Earth Core. The shattered fragments lay clustered together on a pedestal made of the same black stone.
It was much larger than Ban’s had been. Even from this distance, Kai knew the Core must once have been as large as a spring melon.
This was where a boss lived, no doubt. But nowhere in the vast chamber could they detect any beast or monster. No baliska stirred. The only sounds came from the ever-churning waters of the great falls. Tall piles of the black stone lay scattered in the corners of the room, some nearly as tall as the ceiling itself, yet none appeared to have a cave or burrow tucked within.
The thought of marching forward, swimming out to the platform in the center of the pool, and restoring the Earth Core then and there was a tempting idea.
If the dungeon were conscious, who knows what aid it might lend them, even if every baliska poured into the room to kill them as soon as it was done.
They walked into the room and turned toward the great waterfall. Kai saw that not one, but many spouts fell from the ceiling, each aimed downward at an angle from some clever opening above. Again the water formed a spiral, joining together in a single stream before plunging into the pool with such force that the water around the island was a frothing mass of white foam, even at its edges.
It made for quite a stark contrast, with the black stone all around.
Kai stopped, and tugging on Rhona’s shirt, started to tell her his plan. If he could survive the swim, for who knew what kind of current the pool contained, this whole adventure might be over in a few moments.
Before he could speak, though, a great hissing issued from the back of the chamber.
Grating and clanking noises made an ear-splitting racket that left them clutching their ears. Then, at the far end of the room, they saw, rising out of a pile of the black stone, a creature draped and decked in the same material.
It had the shape of a dragon, but no wings adorned its back. The creature’s form was difficult to discern. The shifting plates of onyx reflected blue light back at them, making the creature resemble a glittering pile of animated stone.
Kai froze in horror, the sheer size of the beast terrifying. It was twenty feet tall at the shoulder, and its eyes burned a brilliant blue. The situation went from bad to worse, though, as a passage opened in the side of the chamber and dozens of baliska poured out.
Before they could form a plan, run, or even scream, the beast spoke in a voice deeper than the dungeon itself.
41
Stolen Heart, Fallen Sky
Rhona
“You’re the ones who’ve slain so many of my spawn.” Each word came out in a grating rumble, a sound almost like stone groaning or steel screaming in lament. “I’m impressed you managed so much, with so few to aid your cause.”
This beast, this terror before them, was so much more than they could handle.
Rhona focused, stomping down the panic that rose within her.
Retreat was the only sound tactic left to them, but the tunnel entrance was too far away. Even if they reached it, already three dozen huge baliska soldiers had filed in, some sprinting on all fours to cut off their retreat.
“And for what cause, might that be?” the beast hissed. “Surely, you aren’t here for death’s embrace? Dare I say that is what you shall receive despite your best efforts. Why have you come here and disturbed me so?”
The beast shifted, slowly moving forward and revealing itself.
What Rhona saw made her wish she’d heeded the bunyips’ warning.
More like a lizard than a snake, the monster’s tail was blunt compared to its lithe torso and long neck. Flat plates of onyx stone marched down its spine and armored the sides of its face and legs. Everywhere the rocky protrusions didn’t erupt from its body, a sleek expanse of rippling black skin stretched seamlessly.
Rhona still hadn’t thought to speak. Their words would do nothing to avoid this battle. She instead examined the boss in her Interface and hoped some idea or plan might present itself.
Terrinore
Elder Basilisk
Emerald 3
Emerald 3! How in the burning pits of the seventh hell can we kill an Emerald 3 ascended creature? The idea of them even trying was absurd. Once, during a demonstration, and shortly after Rhona had first ascended to Golden, she had sparred with an Emerald ascended officer. The experience was both confusing and terrifying, as the man deftly avoided her every attack, ending the bout in a matter of seconds.
“Answer my question or I’ll let these few soldiers kill you now!” the basilisk roared. Honor neighed from behind her and she spun to see the horse surrounded by spear-wielding baliska.
Rhona called the horse down, who appeared ready to charge. “Heel, Honor. Heel!” At once, the disciplined beast stilled, though the muscles on his flank and back rippled with anticipation. Facing the great beast once more, Rhona couldn’t find anything to say that might aid them.
She was surprised when Kai’s voice rose to answer the demand. “Too long have the shivvered dungeons been left alone in torment. We’ve come to heal the Earth Core that rests between us.”
“Impossible! Earth Cores cannot be returned to their former glory,” the beast sneered, “nor would I allow you to, were it possible.”
Somehow, Kai responded again, and Rhona felt a deeper level of respect for the young man. In no better way could he have displayed the strength of his will or the depths of his courage, than to trade words with so potent a being. But demonstrate it he did, answering back in a voice steady and calm, if not bold.
“I’ve done so once before. I healed the dungeon called Bancroft that lives west of here. Please,” he pleaded, somehow finding the strength to take a step towards the basilisk. “It’s for the good of this world if you but let me complete my task. Or if you believe it impossible, at least to try.”
The basilisk came to rest near the pool, glancing down at the shining splinters of the Earth Core. A quaking rattle filled the air that made Rhona flinch in pain. Even a few of the baliska winced from the sound. The monster before them was laughing.
“No, I’ll not let you try. This Earth Core, fragmented as it is, serves me now. I’ve fed off of its energy for years. But tell me then, what kind of creature are you that can heal a shivvered core? I can see you’re no god. You’re barely strong enough to kill my spawn.”
“I am half dragon,” he began, “the last we know of. If you would just allow me t—”
The basilisk hissed, cutting Kai off. Then in a slow and deliberate voice, it commanded, “Baliska. Guard the exit. I will be killing a dragon this day.” Turning back to Kai, it continued, �
��Thank you for your honesty. Dragons and basilisks are ancient foes. They called us egg-stealers and pretenders, but we are as exalted as they ever were. Look at the power I’ve attained with but the shards of an Earth Core. Had we the power to make them ourselves, the dragons would never have been able to spurn us so.”
Baliska soldiers filled the tunnel, quashing any hope of escape. Rhona noted that their eyes burned with the same ether-blue glow as Terrinore’s. The way they moved, their mindless obedience, revealed the beasts were firmly under their master’s control.
They were little more than thralls.
The group surrounding Honor prodded the beast, hedging him back toward the chamber’s entrance. Once again, she calmed the horse with a few steadying words. In this fight, there was little Honor could do to turn the tide.
Rhona prepared herself for a desperate battle. They had few options, but the least she could do was to unbalance their foe.
“It seems the power to create Earth Cores is but one of the ways in which dragons are and were superior to your kind,” she sneered. “Honestly, I’ve never heard of a basilisk before, not in my entire life. I doubt you’re half as potent as you claim, lizard.”
The last of her words had scarcely left her mouth when the huge creature lifted up one of his front paws and struck the ground. Spears of stone erupted toward Rhona, chunks of onyx exploding in all directions.
She dodged the obsidian shards, though only just. The skill was immensely powerful, but thankfully, took some time to complete. The final fragment tore free from the ground behind her, and she laughed, forcing her spike of fear into a display of bravado.
Kai threw her a worried glance, but she just winked at him, and continued her taunting. “How am I supposed to fear or respect you, if you don’t even have wings?”
The barb must have sunk deep, and she’d apparently succeeded in baiting the beast’s anger. The basilisk roared, his eyes burning with rage. “Twenty of you, attack the dragonling. Bring me his head.”
As soon as the ranks of baliska shifted to follow their master’s command, Rhona fell into a fighting stance.
Glancing at Kai, she saw he’d begun casting Confounded Core. The spell pooled mana around his hands. In the last moment before everything fell into the splintered frenzy of battle, Rhona inspected the encroaching foes.
Elite Guards
Baliska
Golden 1
Hells, they are each nearly as strong as I am. And there’s 20 of them!
She wanted to panic, but instead, held her ground. As the first of the beasts began striding toward them, Kai released his spell. Unlike the last time he’d used it, however, Confounded Core tore through the air with greater velocity, and when it struck the huge baliska, the ball of mana splashed off its target and hit two others.
After the second it took for the spell to manifest, three of the twenty guards turned and began cutting down their fellows.
Rhona didn’t hesitate, but darted forward, lashing out and dropping baliska as quickly as they came. In this huge chamber, she fought more easily than in the confines of the dungeon corridors, using her speed and the space about her efficiently.
Kai threw three Flame Darts in the faces of a group of guards, then charged and slashed their throats with his glaive.
In moments, instead of twenty, there were only nine. Of the guards who still stood, two remained under Kai’s spell.
He watched as these two jumped forward, swords erupting through their backs as they fell on top of two other baliska. His single Confounded Core spell had directly and indirectly killed over a half dozen of the beasts.
One guard’s weapon sliced into Rhona’s shoulder, and she bit back a scream, but when another blade flashed toward her head, the monk dodged and landed two devastating punches. The final group of baliska fell to another flurry of Flame Darts and Kai’s vengeful glaive.
The two intruders stood panting, back to back, the bodies of twenty baliska elite guards crumpled in heaps around them. Terrinore growled with impatient frustration and charged forward, all hesitation gone in his fit of rage.
Though a monster of immense violent capability pounded towards her, Rhona was pleased to have succeeded in achieving her first goal. He had targeted her. Kai could not handle such an opponent.
Rhona wasn’t sure she could, either, but as the basilisk ran toward her, she stood her ground, waiting for the right moment. As he got closer, putting her within range of his deadly powerful jaws, she activated Spirit Surge. She felt her hard-earned Progression begin to drain away and suddenly, the basilisk seemed to be barely moving, as if caught in a glob of tree sap.
She side-stepped away from his lunging snout, but when she let time flow normally once more, she let one of the horn-like, onyx protrusions around his face glance off of her. Blunting the attack with Wall of Stone, Rhona grunted from the impact nonetheless.
She’d allowed the attack to touch her. She was expecting it. Yet still, the force was nearly too much. She tumbled back across the floor of the chamber, her skin sliced open in a dozen places from razor-sharp obsidian.
The basilisk didn’t stop his charge, but veered toward her and snapped out again, determined to finish the fight quickly.
Again, she snapped into her time bubble, time slowing to a crawl as she flipped to her feet. For a moment, she considered her target and where she might do the most damage. Her fists thrummed with ethereal potential, and she had ample time to strike wherever she wanted.
The basilisk’s temple was a possibility, but a thick plate of onyx covered either cheek, curving back into a crest over the crown of its skull. She considered the forehead, but too much stone shielded that weak spot as well. Anywhere on the body would be a waste of time entirely.
Below each of the beast’s glowing blue eyes, however, lay a flat expanse of black skin. Perhaps she could strike him there. If Rhona could direct her ether deep enough, she might impact part of his brain or at least damage his eye.
Without wasting another second or the precious Progression in her dwindling stores, Rhona sprinted forward.
With a two-fisted blow, normally meant to block the full strength of an opponent’s powerful kick, her knuckles slammed into the beast. The ether exploded from her body, driving beneath the beast’s skin.
To her delight, she heard the cracking of breaking bone.
Rhona retreated, kicking off of the same spot she’d struck. When she was at a safe distance, she allowed time to flow again. She watched as the basilisk’s head rocked back from the force of her blow, and for a moment, he appeared to be dazed.
Glancing over at Kai, she saw his face register surprise as well as hope. She felt it too. A shower of stone chips fell away as the impact of her strike rippled through the bones of the basilisk’s face, shattering the tip of one of his face spikes.
He growled in pain and shook his head groggily. Then, a black aura surrounded the beast and Rhona watched in horror as his face not only appeared to heal, but additional onyx plates grew around his head and across his body.
“A potent strike, youngling,” Terrinore mocked, “but I’ll put an end to that, soon enough.”
Rhona spared a trickle of ether to heal her battered body. She reinforced her bones and skin, preparing for the beast’s next strike. Instead of charging, though, this time the basilisk reared back on his hind legs, his head reaching more than halfway to the chamber’s ceiling.
Looming over them, the beast crashed down on his stout front legs.
Where he landed, two trails of black spikes rippled outward, streaking toward Rhona.
She tried to dodge them, but even after she’d slipped into the hyper-slow reality of her skill, she noted in horror how each spike grew up from the ground before bursting.
She avoided the main attack easily enough, and brought up both of her arms and blocked using Wall of Stone once more.
Despite her best efforts, dozens of onyx shards cut into her body.
She sprinted away and sl
ipped back into real time. Kai tried launching a volley of Flame Darts at the basilisk, but Terrinore only laughed at him. “You’re no dragon! You are barely a hatchling!” Then he turned on Kai, eager to kill something. The young man dodged a swipe of the huge beast’s outstretched claws but tumbled to the ground as the basilisk activated some other skill.
The entire dungeon quaked.
Great, Rhona cursed, now he can cause earthquakes!
Rhona ran across the room in a second, watching as massive claws lashed out towards Kai’s terrified face. She noticed the deadpan faces of the baliska guarding the tunnel, a few fragments of stone still glinting in the air, and the slow shake of the ground beneath them. Sped up as she was again, she remained unaffected by the skill.
She lifted Kai over her shoulder and ran with him to the edge of the pool, well away from the basilisk.
Terrinore’s paw slammed into the ground where Kai had just stood. The beast whipped his head around, finally locating his target at the other end of the chamber. He roared with frustration, tired of cat-and-mouse.
As Rhona watched, several black orbs of power grew at the end of the beast’s claws. She started to move even as the beast flung his crackling balls of midnight at them. A single hit from such an attack would be the end for either of them, she knew, with her health so badly depleted.
Rhona could not afford to keep taking hit after hit, even if her attacks had done some damage. There had to be some other way. She looked up, her eyes following the torrent of water up to the ceiling, to nine streams that fell from holes in the ceiling, forming a circle.
She remembered the disc of faintly glowing lights at the bottom of the lake where they’d nearly died earlier. She’d barely caught a glimpse of them before she’d been forced to escape.
Now she understood what they’d been. That was her answer. Picking up the young man once more, she saw to her amusement a look of profound confusion slowly cross his features.
