Smolder wandered towards the edge of the hallay, peering down and over the side. "This isn't the only way, not by far."

Garble shrugged towards the large door. "But it is the way in front of us, so are we going or not?"

Spike strode to the fore and placed a hand on the door. "Open?"

As it turned out, the door did as asked, swinging inwards with nary a sound to its silky parting of its two sides. Beyond it was a room with a great network of channels that glowed in various colors. Spike clapped his hands together almost instantly. "Sweet, a riddle."

Sandra blinked softly. "While I think I agree, how did you figure that out so quickly?"

Smolder smirked softly. "Spike loves a good brain teaser. I blame his pony sister." She moved to nudge him good-naturedly. "You already solve it?"

"Oh, no… So that goes…" He began tracing through the air where one color met the next, what they became and broke out into, trying to discern the pattern. "I wouldn't try to cross until we figure it out though."

Garble snorted and put his sword back in the sheath, slinging it over his shoulder. “Great, just some more waiting.”

Sandra wandered over towards where Smolder had been peering. "You know... I'm not sure we can solve this one just waiting for Spike."

"Finally." Garble threw a hand up with sour relief. "Someone gets it. Waiting all day sounds boring."

"I meant that I think we have to do more than one track to finish it." She pointed down to another level they could see. "And not one by one."

Smolder hiked a brow. "Seriously? Puzzles for everyone? Fine." Her wings unfurled wide. "Need a ride?"

Garble snorted a gust of billowing smoke. "This is like the opposite of… Whatever." He suddenly grabbed Sandra by the scruff of her shirt. "You're with me."

"Wait wha--" Off the edge they went, rising up to another floor of the multi-level puzzle corridor they had started.

Smolder blinked at the space that once held her brother. "Subtle, bro."

"Wha?" Spike was already proceeding into the room, deflecting a beam with his shield. "Where'd everyone else go?"

"Doing their own puzzles. I better get going too. Meet you at the end, alright?"

“Um--” Spike began, but Smolder was already leaving. “... Okay.” He turned his attention back to the puzzle and it’s channels of color. He mentally traced the colors. There were a variety of colored nodes with colors coming from them, so maybe the ones of the same color needed to be connected… It looked like the red ones all had handholds, but without figuring it out Spike didn’t want to touch them. Haphazard movements could make it harder.

But just as he was thinking about it, the static looking connections started shifting. “What?!” Spike said aloud. “Why is it changi--” Oh. His claw hit his face.

His party members were shifting things in their places. Spike snorted. Well so much for not haphazardly shifting the connections, he thought, and began rotating one of the nodes he could.

It was maddening as he rotated, he’d rotate something to a place he thought would work, only for the other nodes to rotate on their own. He snarled. “Hey! I’m tryin to work here!” But there was no response. They could not hear him. He went back to trying to figure it out, the chaotic mess of nodes and channels shifting.

It felt less like puzzle solving and more like trying stuff at random.

Then he saw it! The chance to connect two nodes at the edges. It had been left out. He quickly rotated his red node and connected a series. The nodes glowed brightly, brighter and brighter, until with a noise like spak all the nodes burst, their lights going out.

“Was that… what was supposed to happen?” Spike wondered aloud, and he heard some grinding, as a hole appeared in the ceiling, depositing a hunched over bipedal beast with large claws, who roared and charged at Spike.

The magic shield went up almost as an instinct, the clawed monster bouncing off, and Spike cursed his luck. The monster clawed at the shield, cracks appearing where it clawed. It would make it through in time.

Spike grit his teeth. How was he supposed to deal with a monster like this? His class was a protector! A supporter! It wasn’t intended to be used solo like this.

Probably.

Unlike his other party members, he hadn’t seen anyone with his actual class. No mentor or anything.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

And he was now wearing heavy armor, and while he chose a staff with the shield and damage sharing spells… he didn’t have only one staff. He suddenly remembered the last time he was alone with a great beast. "I haven't lost it…" He leaped into the air, wings carrying him over the reaching claws as he grabbed for his staff, his metal shield vanishing in the act. "I just got better."

The monster's eyes shone with deadly intent, but soon something far more pressing, beams of energy lancing out and crashing into Spike's magic bubble. He squeaked and dodged to the left, allowing it to pass and dig into the ceiling behind him. "Alright, you have some ranged moves, good, wouldn't want it to be… boring, right?"

He thrust his staff at it, not the gentle waving bobbing of healing motions but a violent invocation, strange words coming with it as he marshalled the life magic he had learned and hurled it in a tight ball, smashing into the thing's snout with a faint trickle of blood.

It roared in fury at being hurt as if insulted by the very idea. Grabbing the wall, it scrambled up towards Spike, eyes flaring with fresh beams of death, sending the dragon swirling and bobbing out of the way.

And just as Spike was focusing on dodging, it leapt in, closing the gap effortlessly, catching a glancing blow at Spike’s armor, knocking him back. Spike scrambled to get back on his feet as the clawed beast pressed at him, and he swung his staff at the monster to bat it away. The hit rang true, but it did very little but knock the beast back a bit.

But Spike felt a tickle when he did it. A little tickle he was familiar with now of magic trying to be drawn. It wanted to be drawn. When the monster bore down on him, he swung it again, pressing all the magic he could at it, and instead of a small thwack like before, a big magic aura, looking very much like the shield he could summon appeared and smashed into the monster.

The blow sent it flying back several feet and tumbling to the ground, surprised at the force suddenly brought against it. "I am the divine lord," growled Spike as he scrambled to his feet. "Come get some." Sure he didn't feel nearly as brave as his words, but he gave himself a few points for coming up with the line in the heat of the moment.

He was a front line combatant, he silently reminded himself. Fighting things head on was what he could do, whether to keep them away from his friends, or tangle with them himself. "You can do this," he whispered, clenching his staff firmly. "Let's do this."

The creature rolled up to its feet, drool and blood dripping from it’s face, and it bellowed, digging furrows with its claws as it charged.

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“What is taking you so long?!” Garble shouted, sitting up from his chosen post laying down on the ground. “Didn’t you make progress or something?”

“I dunno…” Sandra said, looking at the board. “The red ones went out, which I think was right, but then the red nodes stopped moving. They need to be twisted if I’m gonna connect my green ones.”

Garble just groaned and went back to lay down.

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The beast’s eyes glowed and it shot its lasers at Spike, and followed up with a charge. Spike half dodged the lasers and brought his staff down onto the monster, being rewarded with his own glancing blow as the magic scraped across the monster’s arm.

The monster was unabated as it pressed forward, slashing ferociously at Spike, digging deep into Spike’s arm, causing him to cry out, but Spike also smashed his staff into the beast’s side, the bright golden runes and magic slamming it away in a skidding sort of scramble, not quite knocking it off its feet.

As it recovered, Spike immediately pointed the staff out and shouted the words, firing the somewhat small burst of vitaemancer blast at it, which hit the monster square between the eyes, sprawling it back on it’s back.

It didn’t get back up.

Spike breathed a sigh of relief, the stinging in his arm hurting, but at least the fight was over. As he cast the heal spell on himself, he opened up his guildchain, looking at his class and its abilities. Right underneath his other new spells, Pain Funnel and Divine Shield, was his third new ability, Smite. Spike smiled to himself, and looked back at the puzzle screen, the other green and blue nodes were still moving on their own, and Spike came back over to help them solve the puzzle.

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Smolder threw a dagger sharply. It slammed into the side of one of the nodes and turned it to the right until it clicked. "I got this." She twirled and flung a second, manipulating the workings of the room without moving. "Spike thinks he's the pro at this." She smirked with growing confidence. "But this is a friendship puzzle and I bet he doesn't even realize it."

She could see the other colors of the other rooms moving around and simply focused on them, trying her best to support them towards solutions. "I bet mine will be easy to fix once they're through." There was a chance hers would automatically end at that point. It was a wager she was willing to bet on.

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Sandra reached out an arm, Aiden appearing without being vocally called. "You're getting better at knowing when I want you." The owl tilted his head at her silently. "Get that node over there just as I turn this one." She pointed over to the thing that looked almost like a spigot.

Aiden lifted and flew with only noise when he flapped to a stop, landing on the spigot, eyes on Sandra. When she gave a heaving turn, Aiden turned the same way with a flurry of flaps and flaming feathers, the two grinding them to the next position. The colors changed dramatically and their line reached the other side of the room. "Score!"

"That mean you got it?" asked Garble, not even watching them. "'Bout time."

Aiden flew back to Sandra, perching lightly on her head. Fortunately, he had almost no weight when he didn't want to, and she accepted her strange new hat. "The door's opening." She pointed the way. "Thanks for the help."

"When you have something that needs hitting, I'll be there." He flexed his right arm as he began to stalk forward. "Maybe there'll be something worth the trouble after this."

They walked through the doorway, and descended a flight of stairs to exit where they saw Smolder and Spike both coming out of two other doorways, from the middle and bottom respectively. “Oh good, we’re back together,” said Sandra.

“Yeah, it was surprising when they dropped those beasts on us, having to handle them alone.” Spike hiked a thumb back at where his battle took place.

Sandra blinked. “Beasts? We didn’t have to fight any beasts.”

“You mean get to fight any beasts,” Garble said. “That woulda been way better than watching you mess with a panel for like an hour.”

Smolder rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t that long, Gar Gar.”

“My boredom thought it was that long,” Garble said, walking ahead to the door all of their passages led to. “Hopefully the runt didn’t take all the fun.”

“We’re in a dungeon full of monsters, Garble.” Smolder rolled her eyes. “There will be more fights.”

Garble pushed open the door, his face lighting up. “Well maybe this wasn’t a waste after all.”