Max carefully pushed a raised plate down with the blade of his knife. He slowed, sweat rolling down his brow, as the resistance built. Finally, he let out a held breath as he heard a click. The metallic sound reverberated throughout the ice-like walls of the crystal tree, seeming to grow louder with each echo. Max froze as the color drained from his face.
The echoes faded to reveal only the beating of Max’s adrenaline-fueled heart.
Sighing in relief, he pushed himself to his feet, tossing his knife over one shoulder. As he finished standing, he turned sharply on his heel and gently plucked the plunging blade from the air with a single hand. He twirled it through his fingers as he walked back towards Nina and the tiny dragonling. Max could feel his cheeks growing warm as he failed to repress the growing smirk.
“I shouldn’t have doubted you,” Nina said with a half-hearted clap. “Now, are you done showing off?”
“I’m not —”
The floor began to shake, and long splinters of crystal rained down, shattering on the glowing floor. George roared, an adorable squeak really, and breathed a pencil-thin jet of fire into the air as Nina conjured a massive saber and held it above her head like a shield.
“What is this, Max!”
“I don’t know! This has never happened before. I mean … it’s just a spike trap not self-destruct button!”
“Run!” Nina bellowed, pulling George from her shoulder and sliding him into one of the pouches on her belt.
As they ran, Nina would casually swipe left and right with a blade that had grown to be larger than she was. The saber had a faint white glow that would erupt into dazzling sparks each time it cleaved one of the blue crystals.
The corridor they ran through was narrow and curved, the spiral growing tighter as it led further up the tree. The smooth, glass-slick surface was uneven due to crystallized roots that twisted across the glittering floor like frozen arteries. They peaked up like daggers and crooks to catch unaware feet. This made it difficult for Max to keep up with the armored woman, but she never pulled too far ahead.
More than once, she saved Max from being impaled as her blade shielded him from falling spikes and crystal boulders. Her saber would cut through the air like a gleaming blur, showering Max in dust before he had even seen the danger.
“I need to use Fade!” he yelled. “We’ll be safe in there.”
“Just wait! I’ve got this. I need you ready to use Fade when we defeat the Boss, and I don’t want to get tripped up by cooldowns and daily limits.”
“Fine,” Max yelled, as Nina pulled him out of the way of a descending spike. “Eve! Re-spec, allocate all available points into Reaction.”
“Re-Spec successful, all points allocated to Reaction: The user is granted the Acrobat role for the next 45 min, 27 sec.”
The world slowed as Max’s limbs seemed to grow a bit heavier. Everything felt cold and the light was dim and grey. He could feel the air move, causing him to instinctively pull back just as Nina’s saber appeared in front of his face.
Max could see the blade as it cut an arc through the air, rather than seeing only a blur as he had moments before. Nina had caught a large chunk of fractured crystal on the flat of her saber and Max turned his head to watch the translucent shard tumble across the cracking floor.
An instinct made him look up, where he could see a long root beginning to fracture and shake. He was diving to the side before it had even begun to break away from the ceiling, easily avoiding death as several long sections of the root fell around him like crystal spears.
Nina watched silently, slightly twisting her body to avoid the falling debris. Max accepted her hand, feeling her massive strength as she helped him to his feet.
“Don’t worry about me,” yelled Max, “I can take care of myself now.”
He dropped her hand, sprinting up the uneven surface. His legs were weaker having lost a point of Might, and yet he moved with a new grace that sped up his motions. No longer did he trip over protruding roots, and his feet no longer slid or felt unsteady when he rounded curves or was forced to suddenly stop or change directions.
Nina followed slightly behind him, despite Max’s certainty that she could have easily overtaken him. Her blade still slashed out regularly, though she no longer seemed concerned with keeping Max safe, even as he was forced to leap and spin to avoid falling crystal.
“Max,” she yelled, placing a hand on his shoulder as they reached the end of a long slope that opened into a wide cavern. “How much further is the door?”
Max stopped just as a rain of pebbles narrowly missed his face. He spun, pressing himself against the wall as he turned his head away from a cloud of dust. “We need to keep moving!”
“There’s something behind us,” Nina said, “I’m not sure how much longer we can outrun it.”
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Max couldn’t help but notice the subtle way the woman emphasized the world we. “Another minute,” he shrugged, “maybe more, maybe less.”
“Then go,” Nina said, pulling a pouch off her belt and thrusting it towards Max. “Take George and go. I’ll catch up when I can. If I’m not there within five minutes go in without me.”
“Nina I … I.”
“Just go, this isn’t a fucking funeral. Do you think I can’t take anything this dungeon can throw at me? Just go … and take George with you!”
Max nodded. He grabbed the pouch, and without another look back began charging into the open chamber. He paused as he heard something large slam into the wall at the bottom of the incline behind him. The floor shook, and a cloud of crystal particles filled the air as larger chunks rained down. Max was forced to leap and spin to avoid them.
He looked back towards Nina as the dust settled, but she was already charging downward — her oversized saber resting on one shoulder.
Max debated going after her, his feet already carrying him back when a familiar chirp stopped him. He looked down at the pouch still clutched in his hand where he found a black, scaly snout peeking above the rim. George’s nose quivered as he took a few experimental sniffs, his eyes and ears still hidden behind the folds of the pouch.
“Hey there little guy,” Max said, already turning away from Nina.
She could take care of herself, and someone had to keep George safe. Hell, until Max had used Re-spec he’d required Nina’s protection to avoid being crushed or impaled. He’d probably only slow her down and get in the way if he tried to help her now.
Max yelled as something sharp cut into his left hand, interrupting his thoughts. George was pulling away, blood still dripping from his needle-thin teeth.
“Look you … You little. Dammit.”
Max brought the hand to his mouth, sucking at the wound as he dove under a jagged chunk of crystal that was as large as a dinner table. He tucked the bag against his chest with his unwounded hand while his other fell down to guide his slide across the smooth floor. He ended in a dead sprint, barely losing momentum.
George was still looking up at him, his teeth bared. Smoke was pouring from the tiny lizard’s nostrils and faint sparks were beginning to appear around his mouth. His ears were flat against his skull and his eyes screamed anger.
“I’m not kidnapping you, okay? I’m just babysitting for a bit until Nina gets back.”
Max saw a pickup sized chunk of crystal descending towards him at breakneck speeds. He smiled as he sped up. Small splinters of crystal were flung outwards as the crystal smashed into the floor like a glass meteor.
Max was already in the air, placing a single hand on the top of the crystal as he flipped over it. He came down hard and felt a twinge of pain from his left knee, a numbing shock running up his back. Max slowed slightly, swaying as he lost his balance.
His fall turned into a momentum-saving roll, and Max was on his feet again with George still safely cradled against his chest. More of the dragonling’s body had emerged, a long, snaking head and a single wing appearing from a bag that was many sizes too small to contain them.
“Just trust me a bit longer, George. Nina will be back soon, I promise.”
George’s expression never softened but he was no longer spewing smoke or trying to bite Max’s hand, so he called it a win. Hopefully, Nina would join them quickly. He had no idea how to calm the child on his own.
A donut, maybe? Yeah, kids love sweets.
The rumbling was growing worse and Max could feel powerful vibrations reaching up through his legs as the door finally came into sight. It was three stories tall and perfectly round, with a colorful mural depicted on its stone surface.
A rune that slightly resembled a lopsided house with a circle drawn around it was depicted in the center of the door. The symbol had been carved into the stone in thick grooves as deep and wide as Max’s arm. At the base of the rune was another groove that ran straight to the bottom of the door, where a small pillar was located.
“This is it, George,” Max met the dragon’s black eyes. “Nina is supposed to meet us in less than five minutes.”
Max reached into his back pocket, yelling when he found it empty. He’d forgotten about Nina destroying his phone. He understood the reasoning, but it had seemed a moot point when the entire military and a goddamn Quad had descended on his grandfather’s home within an hour of arriving.
He found no sympathy from George, who watched Max’s reaction with unblinking eyes. The dragon had almost entirely retreated into the bag, his eyes and snout still peaking up like those of an alligator floating just below the surface.
“Alright,” Max said. “Eve, set a timer for four minutes, fifty-nine seconds.”
“Command confirmed. The user will be alerted in 4:57 … 4:56,” Eve answered with a transparent display.
Max conjured the command orb from the safety of his inventory and began walking towards the door. The pillar at its base was made of the same green stone as the door itself, and a series of wavelike grooves had been carved into the horizontal surface at the column’s top. In the center of this surface was a circular indent just large enough to hold the command orb.
“This is it, George. I’ve been trying to get past what is beyond this door for weeks now. My grandfather wanted me to do this. Charles, I mean, he never liked to be called anything else. I’m not sure why he trusted me, or why he took me in after my … after. I do know that I want to see him again. Need to.”
The dragon was still staring up at Max, and even though its expression was the same as it had been before, Max imagined that the tiny creature had begun to relax. Once Nina showed up, maybe he would even start trusting Max.
Yeah, right, he thought, and pigs will fly … or beautiful women and dragons will fall from the sky.
Max looked back towards Nina, willing her to appear. He knew he shouldn’t worry for her, but he also knew her arrogance wasn’t entirely justified. No matter how high level, any classer was vulnerable without their Quad.
“You have someone you want to see again too, don’t you buddy?”
George answered with a fiery chirp, his head rising from the bag slightly. His ears had straightened, and a tiny pink tongue hung from his mouth.
“Me too. If we can get through this, the three of us, I believe I’ll be able to see someone close to me again. Maybe get some answers. He might be able to help you too.”
The seconds slowly ticked down as Max and George waited in silence. The deep rumbling continued, but the vibrations seemed to have grown softer and the raining shards of crystal had slowed.
As Eve’s timer fell below one minute, Max raised his head to look into the empty cavern.
The low rumble of the crumbling dungeon was met by the sound of pebbles striking the hard crystal floor. Faint rays of blue light cut through the cloud of dust that hung over the crystal debris bathing everything in a swirling radiance.
Max shared a look with the tiny dragon before glancing again at the timer. Less than thirty seconds remained when Max reached into his pocket and withdrew a white orb, fitting it into the depression in the center of the stone pillar.
“Hurry up, Nina.”