Aris's heart surged with relief when Anton and Zaphar staggered out of the darkness and into the ring of illumination from her light-stone. Well, Anton was moving normally, but Zaphar was staggering enough for the both of them.

  “You’re back!” she exclaimed.

  “I told you,” Kelsey said. “There’s nothing on this floor that can threaten Anton.”

  “Anyone can die on any level of a dungeon, if they don’t stay alert,” Anton said. He embraced Aris and she leaned into his warmth.

  “Also! Also, I am right here and I am not Anton!” Zaphar complained, glaring at Kelsey. “There is so, so, much that can threaten me!”

  “You did fine, Zaphar,” Anton said, his voice rumbling through Aris. “I didn’t have to step in once.”

  “I wish you had, you monster! I begged you to!” Zaphar railed. “It hurt so much!”

  “You look fine, though?” Aris said questioningly. While there were some holes in Zaphar’s armour, she couldn’t see any blood.

  “He needed to take a healing potion,” Anton confided. Aris winced.

  “It hurt, so, so, much,” Zaphar whined.

  But you’re here now!” Kelsey declared. “You did collect all the keys, right? Are you ready for the floor boss?”

  Zaphar groaned. “I’ve been fighting bosses. Nothing but bosses. And still no level.”

  “They were all under your level,” Anton told him. “You got more than I would have, but not that much.”

  “The next floor…” Aris said. Anton nodded.

  “The next floor you’ll be fighting at-level or above,” he said. “We’ll clear it out for the maximum gain. That’s where it will get tough.”

  He held out a handful of oddly shaped pieces. “Did you want to do the honours?”

  Aris shook her head. “It sounds like Zaphar did the work collecting them,” she said.

  “I don’t want to see, touch, hear or feel them again,” Zaphar groaned.

  “I would be honoured,” Tyla said. “Is it some kind of puzzle?”

  “They’re keys,” Anton said. “They go in a lock.”

  He jerked his thumb back in the direction he had come. “We actually ran into it on the way here,” he said. Of course, there was nothing but darkness in that direction.

  “The hill?” Kelsey asked. “We ran into that when we were clearing the area.”

  “Did we?” Aris asked. “I don’t remember a hill.”

  “We didn’t climb it, but it was there,” Kelsey assured her. “I should have known it was significant by the lack of monsters near it.”

  “There should be a stone slab clear of the vines,” Anton said. “If you didn’t see it, we’ll need to search.”

  They did search, but it wasn’t hard to find. At least it wasn’t for those who could see in the dark. For Aris, stumbling over roots with her light, the first sign of it was when they had already stopped.

  The slab of stone was there, with seven indentations. Anton gestured for Tyla to place the key stones. It took her a few moments of fumbling to find which stone went in which hole, but she soon worked out where each of them had to go. When she pressed the final key into place there was a moment, where nothing happened. Then—

  A rumble rolled through the cavern, deep and resonant, like the growl of some great beast waking from its slumber. Aris stiffened, fingers tightening around her lightstone. The warm, steady glow barely pushed back the darkness, illuminating only a five-meter bubble around her—just enough to see the rough stone beneath her boots and the creeping roots that slithered over its surface.

  “Well, that did something,” she muttered, stepping back as a tremor shook the ground. “What’s happening?”

  To her left, Anton adjusted his grip on his sword, eyes scanning the darkness beyond her light. “The whole hill is shifting. There’s something… peeling away.”

  Kelsey made an irritated noise. “Oh, fantastic. Collapsing floor? Rising walls? Someone, please tell me it’s not a pit of writhing horrors.”

  A sharp crack echoed from beneath them, and suddenly, light burst from the altar—not warm like her lightstone, but cold, eerie, and wrong. Pale blue lines, like veins of trapped lightning, crawled across the rock, tracing out long-dead symbols.

  Then came the crack of rock splitting.

  The rock around them tore open with the slow, grinding protest of stone giving way to some unseen force. Aris caught glimpses—jagged cracks widening into yawning fissures, roots snapping like tendons, something massive shifting in the unseen depths.

  Zaphar’s voice came from beyond the light. “The walls—the walls are moving!”

  Aris exhaled sharply, willing her heart to slow. “Someone please explain what is happening!”

  A new sound joined the shifting stone—a wet, organic slither. The sensation of something uncoiling in the dark, vast and ancient, sent an unwelcome shiver down her spine.

  Anton let out a quiet breath. “The cavern is opening up. There’s a platform inside… a big one. There’s something sitting on it.”

  Aris swallowed, gripping her revolver. The lightstone in her palm felt pitifully small against the crushing weight of the unknown pressing in. She couldn’t see it—not yet. But she could hear it.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  And worse, she could feel it watching her.

  Kelsey’s voice carried a grim edge. “There sure is. Let’s light it up.”

  She clicked her torch on and a beam of light shone out, illuminating the boss of the floor.

  Aris had grown up in a port town. She’d seen the tentacled horrors that kabimen would bring in from the depths. This was like those, only larger and more plant-like. Aris wasn’t sure if it was a plant.

  It did not move like one. Long, thick tentacles branched out from a central trunk, covered with thorns, and writhing.

  “I don’t know if this is going to be a good match-up for Aris,” Kelsey said thoughtfully. “Bullets aren’t great against plants.”

  “Give it a try,” Anton suggested. Aris shrugged and brought her pistol up. The range was a bit long, but it was a big target. Sure Shot aligned her pistol to target the centre of the writhing mass.

  The gun boomed. Aris couldn’t see a visible effect, but there was an immediate change.

  The monster screamed. Loud enough to cause damage. It didn’t affect three of the group, but Zaphar and Tyla curled up, pressing the mundane hearing protection that Kelsey had provided closer to their ears.

  “I don’t think it liked it,” Kelsey said once the screaming had stopped. “But it doesn’t seem unduly affected.”

  “That—that was loud,” Zaphar stammered. “Much louder than the gunfire.”

  “Oh!” Tyla said. “I just realised I can use magic to make myself not hear. That seems like a good idea.”

  “That’s fine honey,” Kelsey said. “Just wait until we’ve worked out a plan before you do.”

  “I can shoot it some more?” Aris said doubtfully. “It seems safe, aside from the noise and Kelsey isn’t going to run out of bullets.”

  “I feel that you’re abusing the revolutionary industrial paradigm I’m bringing to the table, here,” Kelsey complained. “But sure, fill the thing full of lead.”

  “I might have a better way,” Tyla said. “Destroying plants is easier than destroying… most things. I can kill it with a spell. But… I will have to touch it.”

  “That sounds like a terrible idea,” Aris said. “Those tentacles look dangerous.”

  “Invisibility doesn’t work on it, and it’s very accurate with those tentacles,” Anton said. “That was in the notes.”

  “If it’s a plant, it won’t have eyes,” Kelsey mused. “It must be targeting based on vibrations in the ground.”

  “Like a spider on its web?” Tyla asked. “I can step lightly, but not lightly enough. We could throw rocks to distract it, or…”

  She paused in thought. “Lady Aris, if you could shoot the ground, away from my approach, I believe that would cover the vibrations of my movement.”

  “Um, I guess I can do that,” Aris agreed.

  “Hold on, what about me?” Zaphar asked.

  Tyla frowned. “I don’t think your daggers are the optimal weapon in this case,” she said.

  “No, no, I mean when you start hurting it, it’s gonna scream, right? You’ve got your spell, all I got is these weird earmuffs.”

  “You don’t have to use them if you don’t want to,” Kelsey huffed. “I won’t get offended.”

  Zaphar glared at her. “You’re not, not even resistant to the sound, are you?” he asked. “You just don’t feel pain.”

  “Guilty!” Kelsey said. “And yeah, I suppose these things are for preventing hearing loss from long-term exposure, not for preventing damage from magical plant beasts.”

  “I can cast the spell on you as well,” Tyla said. “It will not last long, only a few minutes.”

  “You had better move—move fast, then,” Zaphar said. “Cause I don’t think it will die easy.”

  Tyla nodded and put her hand on the man’s forehead.

  “How will I—oh. Can the rest of you hear me?” Zaphar asked.

  Aris nodded, as Tyla didn’t wait for a response. She turned and moved silently towards the boss, coming in at an angle to avoid Kelsey’s light beam and also, Aris belatedly realised, the covering fire that she was supposed to be providing.

  She quickly raised her gun and took a shot at the ground near the monster's trunk. The tentacles snapped in close, defending the body. Aris took another shot further away.

  She kept firing at a slow, steady pace as Tyla drew near. Kelsey provided reloading services, taking the gun off her when it was empty and replacing it with a full one. Soon, Tyla was within reach of the monster.

  With just a touch, one of the tentacles started crumbling into dust.

  The monster screamed again and lashed out with its remaining limbs, but Tyla had already jumped back. Aris put another shot on the other side of the boss. Two tentacles slammed down where the shot had hit, and Tyla jumped in for another touch.

  With two tentacles gone, the screaming was unending, and the monster no longer reacted to her shots. It just flailed around wildly in all directions. Aris considered attacking the centre, but before she could, Tyla dashed in for another attack.

  She reached out again. This time, though, the thorny tentacle was moving, striking out at anything that might be within reach. It died even as it touched her, but Aris could see the impact fling Tyla’s arm out to the side. Something dark glittered in the air. Two more limbs swung in to attack. Tyla dodged, but not well enough.

  One of the tentacles hit her, sending her sprawling away from the monster. That limb died too, but the damage had been done.

  “Tyla!” Aris yelled, but the elf couldn’t hear her. Anton ran forward to see if she was okay, while the three remaining tentacles lashed and whirled about.

  Aris could see the monster's mouth, now. Not that a plant should have a mouth, but it was there, flesh-like lips drawn back to reveal jagged teeth. It seemed as good a target as any.

  Anton was keeping out of her line of fire, so she poured all six shots into the creature's mouth. There was something vital in there. It had already been screaming, but now the pitch rose, before the scream was choked off as it lost control of whatever it was that Aris was shooting.

  She changed guns again and moved forward, seeking a better shot. Anton was feeding Tyla a healing potion. The creature was just hissing now, its limbs limp. It was still making noise, though, so Aris shot it some more, walking the fire down the trunk from its mouth.

  Finally, finally, it died. Aris might have doubted the death if the chest hadn’t risen from the platform.

  “Nice work!” Kelsey said from behind her. “Time to loot!”

  The chest was quite large, the stone lid too heavy for Aris to lift until Kelsey gave her a hand. The reason it was so big was the sword it contained. The small pile of gold that accompanied it looked lost in the massive container.

  Kelsey examined the rapier that Aris pulled out. Her eye caught on the green leather wrapped around the hilt.

  “I think this one's for Zaphar,” she said.

  “I was just thinking we should get him a rapier,” Anton said. He was helping Tyla walk as she shook off the effects of the potion. Everyone turned to look at Zaphar.

  “What? What?” Zaphar said. Tyla waved her hand in his direction.

  “Oh! I can hear again. Why are you all looking at me?”

  “We were just thinking that you should upgrade to a rapier,” Kelsey said.

  Zaphar frowned. “Why? Why? Daggers are great, you can hide them.”

  “You can keep the daggers,” Kelsey assured him. “But a rapier is the weapon of a gentleman, and that’s the direction you’re headed.”

  Zaphar scowled, but he didn’t contradict her. “Is it magical?” he asked.

  “It is,” Anton answered. “Second Tier, I can tell that much.”

  “What does it do?” Zaphar asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Kelsey admitted. “Destroys… magic, but it's too weak to break spells… let me try something.”

  She took the sword off Aris and made it disappear.

  “Huh,” She said a moment later. “It’s slightly more effective at killing skeletons—it can slice through the magic that holds them together. That can’t be its main purpose, though. Hang on.”

  There was another pause as they all stood around awkwardly.

  “Ah.” Kelsey made the rapier appear again and handed it to Zaphar. “It cuts ghosts. It cuts other things as well, of course, but cutting ghosts is what makes it special.”

  “Ghosts?” Zaphar said, looking sceptically at the sword. “Do… do we fight ghosts?”

  “I’ve got some,” Kelsey said. “They don’t seem like this place’s thing, admittedly. But I’ve got a feeling that it will come in handy.”

  “For ghosts?” Zaphar repeated.

  “Maaaybee,” Kelsey said. “I can’t test it, but I think it could cut any magically immaterial being. Useful against shadow-walking assassins… and other things.”

  hobby. And I didn't dare do anything about it.