Drip-Fed

The party progressed through the second ring of the Dungeon. It was appropriately challenging for them, Semi-Sphinxes and physical riddles blocking the path. Sometimes they would stop so Apexus and Aclysia could inspect another wall painting. Reysha and Korith had an eye on how long those stops were.

After several days, they found yet another bend in the road. A vast, open gate that would bring them deeper than the second ring. Apexus eagerly strut towards it, quicker than the others managed to call out to him.

The humanoid’s chimera was locked in his interest at the table that stood in the middle of the massive chamber. It was thin, a crystal sheet as thick as a finger. Layers within the crystal gave the colours painted on them depth.

Apexus immediately began studying the image. Many-coloured lines, although predominantly silver, overlapped at the top of the image. They combined into a singular blue fruit (or was it an eye?), dripping into a vast darkness below.

“Uhm, Apexus? We have a problem!”

The Monk turned away from the tablet to see what Korith was talking about. Above them, under the ceiling, in a dome made of painted sandstone, hovered a black serpent. It was only as long as a child and of no impressive girth. Its scales were smooth and polished, glowing in the light of a cocoon of energy around it. Arcs of light rose from the table, feeding into the cocoon.

Despite its minute size and distance, power radiated from the serpent. It opened its eyes, deep green and malevolent, causing the three women of the party to take an involuntary step backwards. Then, the Serpent of Reason descended.

It hovered down in the cocoon at rapid speed, suspended within it like a foetus in an egg. Just a few centimetres in front of Reysha, the Serpent stopped. The redhead locked eyes with the creature. They widened further, to a degree that appeared impossible.

“Reysha!” Aclysia screamed and pulled her party member aside.

The tiger woman tasted blood in her throat. Red tears rolled from her eyes, tinging her entire field of view crimson when she blinked in confusion. “Huh?” she muttered, only to suddenly spit out a mouthful of blood, rising from ruptured membranes.

Korith swung at the Serpent. Her hammer struck the cocoon of energy and bounced off without any effect. The serpent regarded her with its malevolent gaze next. Instinctively averting her eyes, the kobold was spared from having her insides ruptured. The same force instead slammed into her front, sending her flying into one of the dozens of empty shelves that filled the circular chamber.

Aclysia used Sunray Mending to swiftly heal Reysha. The redhead spat out a little more blood, then pulled a throwing knife from one of the many holsters. Like the hammer before, the weapon bounced off the cocoon without effect.

“SMASH THAT TABLET!” the Rogue shouted.

Apexus had watched the fight, ready to intervene at an opportune moment. Hesitation filled him at Reysha’s demand. It was the obvious path to take. Even now, energy arcs connected the tablet to the Serpent’s cocoon. The visual implication was clear to all of them, as was the goal of the Dungeon: to cover the monster with temptation.

“…Delay it for just a bit!” Apexus pleaded and turned back to the tablet.

‘I’m gonna be gracious!’ Reysha thought to herself. ‘He’s earned himself a bit of selfishness, but I would prefer it if that meant I didn’t have to fight some sort of invulnerable psychic serpent!’ Drawing her Runeblade, the redhead submerged herself in the Shadowstep just as the snake’s eyes turned to her. A wave of force was unleashed, catching her mid-motion. She let it turn her around, focusing only on keeping her balance.

Apexus studied the tablet. What were the overlapping lines? Some were straight, others were forking like veins or branches. He spotted things standing on the lines, figures of minimal detail that he had previously thought to be part of the lines themselves. No two of them were alike. Some were bipedal, some quadrupedal, some were entirely made of limbs.

Aclysia clenched her eyes shut before the serpent could catch her gaze. The wave of force slammed into her just as it had the others. As a Priest, her resistance to magic was higher than that of her compatriots. The wave pushed her back, but left her on her feet.

The face of the snake twisted into a smirk. It was an unnervingly human expression on an animal’s skull. When Aclysia opened her eyes again, she did so to the sight of grey-feathered wings sprouting from the Serpent’s back. Green eyes sat amidst the feathers, flat things that appeared like shifting patterns on butterfly wings.

“It’s getting stronger!” Korith shouted.

Apexus clenched his teeth, pulled between trust, obligation and curiosity. He leaned down, inspected the bottom of the picture more clearly. There were waves atop the black, the ripples of a vast ocean. It gave birth to flowers and multicoloured soil. A star like a closed flower bulb descended into it.

Flaring its new wings, the Serpent of Reason unleashed a universal shockwave. All three of the fighting members of the Inevitable party had assumed purely defensive stances now, capable of withstanding the tornado-like impact.

They were forced to take a step forwards, the gust of force suddenly changing directions. Wooden shelves were torn apart, turned into fragments of two hands of psychic might that hovered left and right of the cocoon. A clenched fist of hardwood splinters swung for Korith, who leapt aside, and Aclysia, who scarcely managed to fly upwards. She looked up at the dome, then back down at the enemy – Right into its green eyes.

Aclysia felt as if her entire being was separated into three, then forcefully shoved back together. She coughed, a liquid form of mana emerging from her lips and eyes. It evaporated quickly into silver motes.

‘What does it mean?’ Apexus wanted to know. He grew frustrated at the obtuseness of the information and his own priorities. Behind him, the battle raged on and he was trying to solve why there was so little to this picture. He took a step to the left. His jaw clenched. The elements in the three-dimensional pictures shifted just enough to reveal new insights. From this point, the falling star looked more like a felted knot of roots, like a mycelium carpet.

Mending her own wounds, Aclysia flew around the monster, keeping her eyes focused on its arms instead. The wooden hands were slamming into the ground repeatedly, trying to hit Reysha and Korith as if they were overgrown flies. Every miss turned more of the shelves into splinters that were readily absorbed into the telekinetic limbs.

A second pair of wings sprouted below the first, this pair more insectoid in its entirety. The eye motif was present all the same, created by the overlapping of the black veins in the translucent membranes. Green, thick fluid dripped from the maw of the Serpent of Reason.

Reysha did not notice, too afraid of the psychic shockwaves to take such a close look at the maw of the creature. When it opened its maw and spat forth a torrent of acid, she only realized when it had already hit her. Sizzling, the droplets of fuming corrosion ate through the leather and the skin of the right side of her face.

“APEXUS!” Aclysia shouted.

“DAMMIT!” the humanoid chimera screamed. Knuckles turned into the light grey colour of iron as he pulled his fist back. His hand slammed into the only object that had ever offered him a definitive answer to his origin. The truth of what he was could not compare to what he needed to protect now.

The table shattered like a pane of glass, breaking into a myriad of pieces that could never be put back together. Turning his back, Apexus leapt into the fight.

The energy cocoon around the Serpent of Reason flickered, then faded. Turning to face the humanoid chimera, it caught Apexus midair with its psychic might, then hurled him across the room. More shelves broke, but the boss monster had no time to follow this up. Korith went on the offensive.

The Warrior bravely charged in first. Individual wooden splinters were launched at her, shattering on her armour and horns. Like a living battering ram, Korith continued forwards, picking up speed while her digitigrade legs pounded the stone floor. She leapt up, slamming her hammer into the hand that was raised into her path. She shattered the psychic limb, sending its parts flying outwards in a wave of splinters.

The Serpent was suddenly before her. Without the cocoon, it relied on its wings to fly, but it could fly all the same. Eyes locked with hers, the telekinetic impact rattled her skull and tore open the insides of her throat. Lungs contracted forcefully. A mouthful of blood was spat out involuntarily. Some of the crimson splattered on the monster’s face. Its forked tongue slithered out and tasted the blood.

The crushing force did not stop. The Serpent aimed to crush her organs for good while it had the chance. A total failure of lungs would suffice, to reduce the enemy of the Dungeon to a dead piece of meat.

Blinding light forced the Serpent to change its priorities. A Solar Lance came for its centre. The remaining wooden hand moved into place. It was scorched and blasted in the process, but blocked the attack all the same.

Reysha emerged from her Stealthing, Runeblade swinging. Panic made the Serpent rigid. Its eyes locked on the blade, forcing it still with psychic might. The serpent sought the eyes of its enemy, but found only the acid-melted lid. Reysha’s still intact eye stared at the floor. The scorching pain was nothing compared to what else she had endured.

The demonic arm pulsed under the cover of her leather armour. Hissing, the serpent committed more of its psychic might to keeping the downward swing at bay.

Reysha closed her right hand around the shaft handle of the dagger manifesting from her vambrace. Swiftly, she went for a stab. The eyes on the serpent’s wings caught the motion, constricting the arm and the rest of her with more of its invisible might. Trembling and contorting, Reysha was forced back. The monster’s might was crushing her from all directions, aiming to snap-

The Serpent dropped, both Reysha and itself. In falling, it narrowly avoided the grasping hand of the Monk that came for it. Elegantly, it slithered between the sharp stomps of Apexus’ heels. It rose back into the air, forcing Apexus back with another shockwave, then launching another breath of corrosive liquid. It was aimed at Aclysia, who had descended to heal Reysha of her ailments and struck the metal fairy.

The robe she wore was specifically made to resist this kind of attacks, absorbing much of the acid with barely any damage to it or her. That little break in the momentum was what they needed. Aclysia recognized it, launching a Sunlight Bolt into the opening the Serpent had not expected. It forced the monster to dodge again, this time in a hurry, without checking the direction.

Korith was in that direction. With aching bones and steadfast determination, the Warrior leapt into battle once more. No wooden limb stopped her this time. Only the psychic power of the Serpent of Reason could. The kobold was frozen midair. In doing so, she locked the direction the creature was looking.

Reysha attacked next. Aclysia had not yet healed her, but the redhead was throwing her all into it regardless. Another swing of her sword forced another response from the serpent.

That was when Apexus struck. Hard, fast, and without mercy, he charged in from behind the locked serpent. His hands gripped the base of its wings, ripping them off in a single tear. Screaming, the monster fell. Swift, Apexus grabbed both sides of the opened jaw, then ripped the entire monster apart from jaw to tip.

Korith and Reysha collapsed suddenly, the force they had pushed against gone. “Fuck!” Reysha shouted when she slammed her knee in the ground. “This is the worst!”

The kobold could not help it, she burst out laughing. “Half your face is melted and you think bumping your knee is bad!”

“It’s the worst!” Reysha repeated and turned onto her back. Aclysia was immediately there, to actually get to healing her.

All three of them were injured, substantially so. There were acid burns and the various internal injuries from the crushing and rupturing. “I apologize for my greed,” Apexus said, dropping the corpse of the Serpent.

“Ya should,” Reysha stated. “I understand it though… no hard feelings.”

“Yeah,” Korith agreed.

Apexus gave them a thankful nod. That was all he could muster as a reaction. Inside, he was still torn. He turned to look at the shattered remains of the tablet. Could he have gleaned its true meaning if they had held out a little longer without him? He would never know and that uncertainty was the worst part of it all.

Yet another avenue to answers that had granted him nothing.

“We could try to rerun this dungeon another time?” Korith suggested.

“That will not work,” Aclysia lamented, knowing how little her darling wanted to hear that. “These Dungeons will not tempt you with something that was resisted before. A different Dungeon on a different world might try again, but this one is sealed to us.”

“Was that the Boss or was that thing just really fucking strong?”

“It was the boss,” Apexus said and pointed at a staircase that was slowly rising where the tablet had been. A circular path upwards, disappearing into a hole that opened up in the dome.

“Unusual that there was no boss door,” Aclysia said. “I will have to include that in my notes. Also, quite the short one, for this Level bracket.”

Reysha ran a hand over the regenerated skin on her face. “Before you make your notes, fix Korith up. The loot goblin might go rushing to the chests with a broken arm.”

“My arm is not broken!” Korith circled her shoulders. A sting of sudden made her twinge. “I think.”

“The Loot will not run away,” Apexus said with as much mirth as he could muster. “Heal first. Then we see whether we truly were the first to clear this Dungeon.”