Dee focused on the machine and brought up its stat view.

  Pretty strong. How are we going to beat it?

  “Really tough, no mana but lots of Force and Will. Looks like it’s more of a trap monster, very resistant.”

  “We can’t bash it to death. We need to identify its weakness, or stop this floor moving.” Tianna’s eyes shone with determination. She was in her element, commanding the team finally.

  Collapsed Ghouls trickled towards them. With his buff from Arjelica it was easy to dodge away from them, or slash with his sword. A few strikes were all it took to defeat them, and they would collapse into mushy earth and gravel. They seemed even slower to his senses now.

  I wish this could last for the whole dungeon.

  Yuri focused on the enemies around Emi. Her Witch Bolts lanced across the room, spattering the edges of the crowd around the Virtuoso. Ghouls fell apart under the force, their faces elongating and moaning until they faded into a muddy pile.

  Arjelica was already there. She leapt high into the air, slashing wildly with her axes as she came down, clearing an area around Emizra. Her weapons moved so fast Dee could hardly see them, she was supercharged with crest energy. Her golden hair flipped around her as she twisted, pushing back the weak enemies so that Emizra could find her feet. She hadn’t been touched by Arjelica’s Rousing Spring, her movements seemed sluggish and slow, even though she was moving with the same sensuous grace as always. She stood so much taller than Arjelica that she could strike over her head, swinging her chain and helping the Claw Stalker to clear a pathway out of the mass of undead.

  “We need options,” Tianna said. She turned her head to look at Dee.

  “Me?”

  “You’re a Games Master, give me tactics.”

  He felt useful, it was an unusual feeling. His brain was twice as fast now. This was a clock monster, something the PCs would have to fight against as they were dragged in every round. There were only two ways out. Stop the clock or outrun it.

  “We need to stop these belts. Or outrun them, get out of the room.”

  Arjelica and Emizra joined them. They made a strange looking crew, tall and voluptuous Oni besides the athletic Elf, slim and pale Mist Witch standing beside the squat and armoured Battle Priest. And him, an awkward human trying to fit in. But they felt like a team again.

  “Come on let’s go,” Tianna pointed the way for them to head.

  The floor juddered and flipped direction. Without his new agility and awareness, Dee would have fallen again, but he stayed upright. They were being dragged back again.

  “Kingfisher’s beak take your eyes!” Tianna cursed.

  “Of course.” It wouldn’t be much of a boss monster if you could just run away. No matter how they moved it would shift the floor, confusing and exhausting them until they were dragged into the hell-maw of its mouth. “Can we close the mouth?”

  He looked at them, like a GM asking his players to beat a puzzle.

  “None of us have a Metal Crest. Our Terrestrial Crests won’t be effective against a Metal Crest boss.” Tianna shot a reproving glance up at Yuri, who thankfully did not notice.

  This is a boss clock. How do players beat this? Can’t outrun the clock. Have to defeat the boss.

  There was another way. Memories of a clever solution surfaced. A flooding room, where players outside the room had broken a pipe leading into it.

  Or we stop the clock.

  “Can we stop the clock?”

  They all stared at him in confusion.

  “I mean—”

  A shockwave of heavy sound slammed into them. They crouched and clasped their ears. The floor beneath them jolted again.

  The belts entering the mouth had been cut, their rubbery ends curled into the air like frayed ends suffering under hot tongs. The whole floor stopped as the connection to the boss monster was cut. Rubber belts released from tension snapped up and tangled everywhere. Dee was slapped from multiple sides by the confusion of rubber. Not helping his mood.

  “A little trouble?” Dahk asked, a small smile on his face. Song Crest energy shimmered along the blade of his sword, rivulets of visible sound evaporating from the aftershock.

  Damn I hate this guy. He did my plan. With confidence. And smugness.

  Dahk twirled his sword and sheathed it with grace. “Dungeons are dangerous places.” He sauntered across the room, walking right in front of the churning mouth of the boss monster. Like he didn’t care. Or rather, like he wasn’t scared.

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  I really hate this guy.

  A collapsed ghoul hurtled towards Dahk, arms outstretched. He sidestepped it and thrust it into the fiery mouth of the boss, where it disappeared with a horrible crunching sound.

  “It’s best to concentrate one’s efforts on the weak point of a situation.”

  He waved, bowed, and then sauntered over to a mine-cart.

  “Onwards my dear companions,” Dahk cried out.

  Dee realised that Dahk’s party was also there. A Dwarf, Pook and Tempesti. All looking confident and poised, like a trained squad of fighters. Not like the random arguments of his team.

  “It was that easy?” Dee asked out loud. He wrestled a rubbery belt off his body, and stared at the broken belts. His whole plan had been stolen right in front of him, and the power of Arjelica’s Water Crest was wearing off. He felt clumsy and oafish again.

  The Collapsed Ghouls were petering out as well. One of Dahk’s teammates had done something to harden them, turning a whole bunch of them into statues blocking their tunnel. Dee should feel grateful, but cold shock was all he felt. He would have saved them with his clever plan, if he’d had the chance.

  “How did he get here so fast? Who told him about this dungeon?” Tianna stared up at Emizra.

  “Tianna, darling, who do you think I got the information from? I overhead them whispering about it. I find secrets, I don’t give them away.” Emizra fluttered her eyelashes and turned her head away.

  “Oh.” Tianna’s face fell. “But you could have told us.”

  “What difference would it have made?”

  “Well… I don’t know. But information is information.”

  “Let’s focus on getting after Dahk and his party,” Arjelica said.

  She grabbed Dee from his tangle of belts. Her eyes went wide as mana flowed between them. He was recharging her this time. Her blue eyes locked with his, surprise made them bright like cut gems. A moment of connection where he felt the energy of this universe flow through their connected skin. He remembered the moment of levelling-up, something familiar there. But then the connection was closed, he had recharged her and the moment ending.

  “This is what it feels like?” she said. She stood a little taller, looked fresher again.

  “Did you just recharge Arjelica? Where’s mine?” Yuri said.

  She nuzzled in for a kiss and then drew back, disappointed. “You used up all his mana, Arjy!” she wailed.

  “No time! We want that crest.” Tianna pointed towards Dahk.

  He was patting a mine-cart, waiting for his team to jump in. His whole party clambered into the mine cart, then he pushed it forwards. After a short run he leaped into it, gracefully of course. The mine cart trundled off down a sloped tunnel. It disappeared, leaving only the rattling sound of its metal wheels on the track.

  “Get after him.”

  Emizra and Arjelica grabbed a minecart that was on its side and pulled it up to the track. Yuri grabbed Dee’s hand and pulled him into the cart. The others rushed in. Tianna leapt up and scrambled over the edge, her legs waving in the air as she tumbled over the side. Emizra and Arjelica gave it a push, and then leapt in. Emizra stretched her legs out, her booted foot slid against the cart side, right against Dee’s head.

  “We’ll get to the dungeon heart before they do, I’m sure,” Yuri said, but her tone was unconvincing. She shifted and her robe fluttered around. Dee was leaning against the front of the cart, and she snuggled up with him.

  The cart juddered as it ran down centuries old tracks. Somewhere ahead of them, Dahk’s party was enjoying this same ride. Light from Yuri’s staff made wooden beams overhead turn purple as they passed below.

  “They know how to work together,” Tianna huffed. She was sitting in Emizra’s lap, arms crossed and a frown on her face.

  “I know how to work together. I just like to take the initiative,” Yuri said airily. “If some people didn’t steal my extra mana.” She hugged Dee possessively.

  “He’s not your extra mana. He’s an NPC with his own thoughts and feelings.” Arjelica said. She was perched on the back of the cart, her legs down behind Emizra’s back, so it looked like she was getting a shoulder ride from Emizra. She had her hands on the break lever, but left it open. They were careening down as fast as possible, in second place.

  They were on the verge of having a fight inside a mine cart. This is the worst place for an argument. They care that much about a Metal Crest?

  “But you’re my henchman, aren’t you? You like my magical powers.” Yuri stroked his face. “You want to recharge me because I have the most powerful spells?”

  “I want to stay alive.”

  The cart went over a shattered piece of track and lurched sideways. For a moment it seemed they would tip out. Tianna screamed and grabbed her feathered helm, Emizra wrapped her arms around the little Battle Priest to stop her flying out completely. Arjelica leaned the other way, her eyes fixed forwards on where they were going.

  Dee grabbed onto anything. His hand found Emizra’s calf. Beneath her leather armour it felt surprisingly muscly and firm. She winked at him, her amber eye twinkling like a gemstone in the dark. Yuri’s arms around him tightened and he gasped. On a different kind of day, some people would pay for this kind of treatment. But not in a high-speed minecart.

  They hit the next part of the track, sparks fluttered up outside as the wheels connected and they slammed back upright. They all sank back down into the cart, with sighs of relief.

  “Can we slow down?” Dee cried.

  “No!” the girls all shouted in unison.

  “You guys are crazy! If you want to beat this dungeon that much you should work together. Like Dahk’s team.” I hate to compliment that guy, but he’s got something going on.

  “Oh Dahk! If you love him so much, why don’t you join his team?” Yuri hissed. The minecart shuddered over bumpy tracks and his teeth chattered.

  “Don’t be so childish, Yuri.” Arjelica’s hair flowed out behind her as she perched on the back of the cart. She clung onto the brake lever like she wanted to wrench it off and start swinging. But still it was full open, no brakes, no stopping now. No stopping the cart, no stopping what she was burning to say.

  “I respect you, but you’re a mana-damned show-off. We made a pact to adventure together, because I trust you. Do you know how long I travelled alone, wondering if I would awake in the dark, with a knife at my throat or claws ripping in the night?

  “You know, because you lived like me. We’re the same. But we have to learn to work as a team. I’ll die beside you; I swore an oath. Even if it’s your own stupidity that kills us, I’ll die by your side.”

  Tianna and Emizra were silent. Emizra who would usually make a comment at a time like this was studying Yuri’s face, waiting for her response. Tianna’s face was more stony. She was annoyed with Yuri, but knew better than to pile on. Arjelica was in control of the cart and the conversation now.

  The silence was broken by a sudden drop, like a fracture had dropped the next part of track. Dee felt his stomach flip like a roller-coaster plunging, and he rose up into the air. Emizra had both feet jammed against his end of the cart, probably the most curvaceous safety belts in existence, which stopped him from flying out. Arjelica’s eye went wide, her legs slipped out from behind the Virtuoso. She was about to be left behind, when Emizra’s hand shot up. She grabbed it, then Tianna put her hands up to grab onto.

  It was quite a sight, Oni with one arm around the Minnikin the other stretched up like a safety rope for the Elf. And Tianna clinging onto Arjelica, her eyes wide in shock. If they had planned it, it couldn’t have been a better advert for team-work. And Yuri was clinging to Dee, who was holding on desperately to Emi’s legs.

  “We have to work together,” Arjelica said with earnest passion.

  “I don’t know how!” Yuri wailed.