As Marigold and company moved on into the second room of the dungeon, she couldn’t help but notice a drastic increase in temperature. Truthfully the whole team felt it, but as the only one in metal armour she had the worst of it.

Just as she was about take a step into the room, however…

“STOP!” Vaati yelled, just before Marigold put her foot down. Immediately the entire party halted and she turned to the ranger with a single eyebrow raised.

“Trap or ambush?” Marigold asked, figuring that if Vaati was having them stop, it had to be one or the other, which was the reason why they always stopped when he called for it.

“Definitely a trap, maybe an ambush.” Vaati confirmed, pushing past Marigold to get a better look at the room. “See the floor there? It’s cracked in just the right places to reduce its ability to bear weight. If just one of us stepped on it we’d be fine, but two or more and the whole floor will collapse,” he explained, as he gave the room a thorough once over with his eyes alone. That’s when he spotted his foe.

Waiting patiently on the ceiling of the room was a single giant beetle, silently it clung there preparing to drop down on them when they passed beneath.

“And there’s the ambush.” Vaati drew and knocked an arrow as fast as he could, meanwhile the beetle must have realised they’d spotted it. The bug spread its wings and began buzzing down towards them, deciding to fly instead of dropping down, now the element of surprise had been lost.

The arrow cut through the air with both speed and ferocity, the point easily broke through the creature’s underbelly and lodged there firmly. The sudden pain caused the beetle to fall, temporarily losing control of its flight, due to the haze of agony that overcame it.

Before the beast could hit the floor Vaati drew another arrow, though this time instead of using his bow, he held the arrow in his hand and jammed the pointed end into the creature as it fell. The blow proved enough to finish it off, as the beetle let out a mournful chitter before it went limp.

With the immediate danger over, Vaati shoved the bug off to the side before examining the room once more, trying to figure out the best way to deal with the trap. Eventually he decided on a solution he was happy with and turned to his companions.

“We should sidle along the walls of the room,” he began. “The trap doesn’t cover the entire floor, just most of it. As long as we stick to the walls we should be safe.”

After getting back into proper formation, the Indigo raiders slowly made their way around the trap, pushing and sliding against and along the wall as much as they reasonably could.

“So… if it’s just a pitfall trap, why is this room so hot?” Bart asked dubiously as he kept casting spells to make the air cooler.

“It is most likely a lava pitfall trap,” both Vaati and Luna said at the same time. While Vaati stopped explaining there, Luna kept going. “The trap being filled with lava would explain both the increase in temperature, as well as how the fire mountain beetles can survive here, they must be eating the ambiant mana from the lava in the trap.”

Eventually the Indigo raiders reached the end of the room, Marigold took the opportunity to take a look into the third room, taking a head count of the monsters there before reporting it back to her team.

“Eight Fire mountain beetles, four on the ground and four on the ceiling.” She started talking about the monsters the way one might read down a shopping list. “Can’t see any of those worm things, but that doesn’t mean much, plus all of the bugs look like they’re staring right at the door. I think they’re waiting for us.” Marigold punctuated her last sentence by pounding a fist against her armour excitedly.

“Oh! Oh! Can I solo the room? Please please please please please!” Bart begged to his teammates. “It’s been so long since I got to explode a room!” He got on his knees and clasped his hands together in prayer, as his teammates watched on in exasperation.

“It should be fine,” Luna admitted. “As long as the rest of us stand by to assist, Bart should be more than capable of taking down the whole dungeon by himself. He is a branch class like the rest of us after all… Even if he doesn’t act like it.” Luna mumbled the last part to herself.

“Hey! it’s just one room in a new born dungeon, I’ll be fine!” Bart sprang to his feet and moved to the front of the party. “Alright, let me just get this ready…”

This time as Bart began to wave his wand, the motions he made were much faster and complex than any of those he’d used in the dungeon before. After a few seconds of preparing his spell, Bart walked into the third room, the rest of his comrades trailing behind as his magic weaving picked up speed.

As the mage entered their line of sight, all the beetles in the room turned to face him, just like the ones at the start of the dungeon did. Before they could do anymore however, Bart finished his final motion and with one final thrust he yelled.

“I CAST HEALING SPELL!” he roared at the top of his lungs.

There was a moment of silence after Bart’s declaration, just long enough for Vaati to groan in exasperation and Luna to roll her eyes.

Then the room exploded.

A pillar of force and flame surged in the centre of the room before combusting with great power in every single direction, except towards the corridor where Bart was standing.

The beetles sitting on the ceiling stood no chance, they were squashed against the hard stone by unrelenting force and died almost immediately. The ones on the floor fared slightly better, but even they were had all been incapacitated by either debilitating injury or fatal wounds.

Naturally, upon seeing the carnage he had wrought, Bart was feeling rather proud of himself. He turned to the rest of his team and happily took in Vaati’s scathing glare and Luna’s deadpan stare. It was however nice to see that Marigold also had a big grin on her face, clearly she also appreciated the destructive arts.

“You called it a healing spell,” Luna stated, her dry tone masking her emotions well enough that Bart couldn’t truly read her.

“Yes?” He did like where this was going though.

“That was not a healing spell.” She stated simply.

“Actually, it was a psychological healing spell,” Bart claimed, silently waiting for Luna’s inevitable question.

“…How?” she asked eventually, confusion and curiosity sprinkled in her voice with equal measure.

“I happen to find exploding monsters to be very therapeutic. I’m honestly surprised you don’t Luna,” Bart finished with a cheeky grin.

His efforts were reward by a silent glare from Luna and a much more audible groan of exasperation from Vaati.

Suddenly the ranger stiffened, his eyes swivelled left and right as his ears began picking up the sound of… something.

Something coming from beneath them.

Before he could warn his teammates however, the ground burst open as five of the stone worms leapt from the ground, all of them targeting the mage they had so foolishly thought would be safe in such a new-born dungeon.

Two worms flung themselves at his legs, their sheer weight causing his bones to break with a sickening crunch. Screaming in pain Bart fell to the floor, as the two worms clinging to his leg coiled around them and constricted, forcing immense pressure and pain on his already cracked bones.

The second he hit the floor, the remaining three worms sprang out of the ground on both of his sides and begin wrapping themselves around his chest, constricting tighter and tighter as they threatened to crush his ribcage right into his lungs.

The worms were not the only one’s moving however. Marigold charged forward swinging her sword in a deadly and precise cleave. The blade glowed a light gold as she brought it down, cutting through all three of the monsters that were crushing Bart’s chest in a single strike.

Vaati could only watch on as his comrades leapt to Bart’s aid, he was near powerless to help them. If he tried to fire his bow at the beasts he might accidently miss and harm the very person he was trying to help. So Vaati made himself as useful as he could, standing guard with bow armed and ready in case more monsters showed up.

Luna did not have the same problem, she ran forward and once more pushed mana into her staff. She brought her weapon around in a sweeping motion, before impaling the shining staff through both of the remaining worms simultaneously.

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Only a few seconds after the five worms had arrived, they had been easily dispatched, but the damage was already done.

None of three uninjured members of the Indigo raiders wasted any of their now vital time with words. Marigold and Vaati took up guard around Bart, who was still screaming in agony. Luna dropped down next to his head and placed the gem on the tip of her staff on his forehead.

Moving as fast as she dared, Luna began running her mana through her injured teammates body, the magical energy flowing with a gentleness that only came through years of practice. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch on forever, Luna finished the diagnostics portion of her healing.

The damage was by far the worst in the legs, bones smashed and crushed into unnatural and painful angles that tore through muscles and nerves alike. Up at the chest, the ribcage had held up better with far fewer signs of damage, but Luna knew that if the worms had been able to keep their assault up, the bones would have punctured the lungs only a few second later.

Entering a state of upmost concentration, Luna weaved much more mana through her staff and in to her patients battered body. Lines and circles of energy shifted and tied bone together, while rivers of power flowed through cells, encouraging and sometimes forcing growth and repair at an incredibly rapid rate.

In only a few minutes, the only visible evidence that remained of Bart’s injures were a few light scars along his legs. Luna took a deep breath as she stood up, only to nearly stumble as a bout of light-headedness hit her. It was a clear sign that she had spent too much mana in a very short amount of time, so now she needed to wait to recover enough to cast more spells.

With their injured comrade now stable, but also unconscious and their cleric needing a few minutes of well-deserved rest, Vaati and Marigold both contained to stand guard, their eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly as they listened closely for sounds that might give away the arrival of more attackers.

It only took a little while for the lack of communication between the three to become an awkward silence. None of the party members wishing to speak, due to the strong mixture of embarrassment and shame that hung over them.

“We were careless.” Luna’s statement broke through the stifling silence. “Our pride in our abilities and confidence in our superiority over the dungeon led to recklessness. If that ambush had played out differently there is a good chance we would be down one Bart right now.”

The blunt and brutal honesty in that statement caused both Vaati and Marigold to wince. It was unfortunately true that the ease with which they’d dispatched the dungeons monsters had gone to their head, so much so that not only had they let the physically weakest party member take on a room alone, they had been unable to respond quickly to the ambush that had nearly killed him.

“My… fault.” Bart’s hoarse voice spluttered out as he returned to consciousness, he tried to stand but Luna restrained him and forced him to lay down. “Thought I’d killed them all… forgot about the worms.”

“I wasn’t ready for them either.” Marigold argued. “It’s my job to protect you guys from getting beat up, if I hadn’t been caught off guard those monsters wouldn’t have gotten near you.” Her bitter voice reverberated around the chamber as she openly blamed herself.

Bart shook his head slowly, before responding in a condescending tone that one might use if they were explaining something to a particularly young child.

“My plan,”he shakily gestured to himself. “My wounds, my mistakes, my fault.” Bart spoke slowly, though whether he was doing so because of his injures or just to be even more condescending was very much up for debate.

“Should we turn back?” Vaati asked hesitantly. He wished to continue onwards, but knew that it would have to be a group decision whether they should continue or not.

The rest of the Indigo raiders paused in thought for a moment before shaking their heads in unanimous disagreement, between them however Luna was the only one to explain her reasoning.

“After a few more minutes of rest we should be well enough to venture onwards. The dungeon cannot be much larger, the end should only be a room or two ahead.” The other members of the party agreed with her assessment, so they simply waited.

After a few minutes with no new monster attacks, Bart was able to stand and walk around fairly well, the healing magic having done wonders to regenerate his body. Luna also looked better, with most signs of magical exhaustion having deserted her shortly after they arrived.

With the entire group now in good enough health to continue, they decided to press on into the next room.

The fourth room of the dungeon looked similar to all the others, the walls and all other surfaces were unnaturally smooth. The only noticeable difference with this chamber was that the ceiling seemed to be a couple of meters higher.

There was also the fact that said ceiling had a gargantuan titan of a beetle resting on it.

Before any of the Indigo raiders could act, the beetle dropped down and performed a rather impressive display of acrobatics so that it landed legs first. Then the beast reared back onto its hind legs, revealing it to be carrying two large swords each about the height of a small adult.

Now that the titan beetle was standing up, they could see that it stood to be only slightly shorter than two Bart’s stacked on top of each other. The creature’s large size combined with its crude blades made for an intimidating looking foe, even for these veteran adventurers.

“Boss monster!” Marigold yelled as the titan charged forward with a horrific screech. Its lumbering footsteps coming closer and closer as the beast brought one of its swords down for a clumsy sweep.

It was too slow though, before it could strike the adventurers with what would have been a powerful blow, Bart finished channelling energy through his wand and with a flick called forth his arcane power.

The beetle’s crude sword collided with a purple barrier that had not been there a moment ago. The sound of metal striking magic made a sound not unlike a gong, which reverberated around the chamber as the sword bounced off Bart’s shield.

The beast did not let up though, unwilling to give the adventures even a moment’s reprieve it swung again. This time it brought both of its swords to bear, wielding them like mighty clubs it tried to bludgeon the barrier into submission.

Once again the gong like sound rattled the chamber, though this time it was accompanied by a crackling sound as fractures and faults appeared on the shield. The mana construct flickered and wavered slightly from the damage before solidifying once again, though it was obviously weakened.

“MOVE!” Bart yelled as the beetle moved in for a third strike. A horrifying tearing sound emanated from the barrier as the blades dug into its surface. The shield shattered completely, offering no more resistance as the titan beetle’s swords continued their deadly motion down towards the now unshielded adventures.

Luckily the beetle was once again too slow, the Indigo raiders had already scattered, putting as much distance between themselves and the giant monster as they could, while spreading out around the chamber.

Making a snap decision and sacrificing strength for speed, Vaati fired an arrow at the beetles back, hoping to distract it. The shot flew well and true, it struck the titan beetle’s shining ruby red shell with a solid hit.

Unfortunately the arrow failed to penetrate the shell, its shaft snapped as the projectile fell away from its target harmlessly. The shot had certainly gained the beetles attention however, as it turned and scrapped its sword together menacingly before charging the ranger.

Seeing her comrade in danger, Luna barrelled towards the monster as fast as her legs could carry her. The titan beetle noticed her approach however and swung one of its swords in her general direction. The blade forced her to drop to the floor in a dodge, letting the weapon pass over her, the sword coming so close to her that she could feel the force of the air being displaced by the attack.

While her assault had failed to harm the beetle, Luna had succeed in distracting it long enough for Marigold to position herself between the beast and Vaati.

The monster saw this but was not deterred, once again one giant blade soared through the air, the beetle intending to take out both adventurers in a single strike.

Watching the attack with a practiced eye, Marigold saw her opportunity. Taking a combat stance that would allow the impact force to spread optimally around her body, she hefted her sword into the path of the much larger weapon.

The two blades collided with each other, Marigold grimaced in pain as the weight and power behind the blade tried to break her. Still she held her ground, the two metal swords grinding against each other with sparks flying everywhere.

Surprisingly between the two blades, it was her weapon that was holding up better. The titan beetle’s sword seemed to fall apart slightly, as bits of metal were carved off and the fractures caused by the blades crude nature grew larger. It was this surprising sight that gave Marigold an idea that was either going to work really well or go horribly wrong.

“Bart!” she yelled, as she disengaged and tried to put some space between her and the beetle. “Freeze the sword!” The monster had stumbled for a moment when its adversary suddenly backed away, but it would not be long until it struck again.

Choosing not to question his teammate’s idea, Bart threw a ball of magical frost at the beast. The ball hit one of its swords and exploded, spreading cold ice mana all over the blade.

While the titan beetle ignored the attack with ease, a layer of ice quickly cover the weapon that had been struck. Sheer cold seeped into the cracks and fractures in the metal, pushing at the weak spots in the destabilising blade.

Either ignorant or uncaring about what had just occurred, the monster tried to hit the heavily armoured fighter in front of it with the frozen sword.

This time though when Marigold blocked the blow, the beetle’s blade shattered in an instant. Pieces of frozen metal went flying everywhere, leaving the beast to stare in something akin to shock at the broken weapon hilt it was holding.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Luna leapt at the monster, her staff glowing with magical energy as she rammed it into the hand holding the other sword.

Like a finely sharpened spear, the staff pierced through the strange hand-like appendage. Screeching in pain the beetle dropped the sword, as blood and ichor flowed from the wound.

With their opponent disarmed and wounded, Vaati prepared a power shot while Marigold charged forward using her sword like a lance.

Marigold hit first, her blade burrowing into the beasts abdomen with a sickening squelched. As she withdrew the blade and the wound began to weep vital fluid, the titan beetle threw back its head and roared in a monstrous voice that screamed of pain and suffering.

That was when Vaati’s arrow struck the beast in its now exposed neck, the arrow finding purchase and cutting through the creature’s thick protective exoskeleton.

The monster’s roar was cut off as it turned into a horrendous choking sound, wounded well past the point it could handle. The beast stumbled slightly, before the weight of its shell combined with its pain and bloodless addled state sent it tumbling down onto its back, like a great tree being felled.

After only a few moments of panicked struggling, the monster’s hopeless flailing grew weaker and weaker.

Until finally, it stopped.

As the titan went limp, the group all breathed a sigh of relief.

They had won.

While the rest of the Indigo raiders looked themselves and their teammates over for signs of injury, Bart walked up to the massive corpse and gazed thoughtfully at it.

“Hey guys…” The other three looked at Bart as he spoke, wondering what he was about to say after such an intense battle.

“Does anyone feel like having beetle tonight?”

Exasperated groans and the sound of a palm meeting a forehead filled the dungeon.