“So, we do have a plan, right?” Preece yelled, circling around the cavern, trying to keep as much as possible to the shadows.

“Oh yeah,” Lowe replied, “an awesome one. All sorts of easy-to-follow practical steps, plenty of redundancy built in and a cool victory dance for when it’s all over. I’m really proud of it. One of my better ones.”

Preece cocked his head. “And are we following that plan right now?”

Lowe was spared answering via the medium of all the air being forced from his lungs by being slammed back against the wall. Unfortunately, without him being front and centre, the giant Octopus defending the Dungeon Core could focus its tentacles on Karolen. The barely dodged its attack in time, sprawling on the floor as multiple swishing blows flailed above her.

“Fuck’s sake, Lowe. Less chat, more tanking!”

“On it!”

Shaking his head to clear his blurred vision, Lowe stood and grabbed hold of a tentacle as it whipped passed him. He was jerked back off his feet but clung on, riding the momentum of the slash back to the centre of the cavern, where he landed a solid Slugger into the middle of the creature’s face. The impact momentarily stunned the monster, allowing Karolen to scramble back to her feet and begin pounding on it from behind again. It had been about half a bell since they’d begun engaging the guardian of the Dungeon Core, and – as far as Lowe could tell – they’d made very little progress thus far.

“Look, I’m all for a ‘if you don’t succeed, try, try again’ vibe, but are you sure this is the best approach?”

Lowe glanced over his shoulder at Preece, which was a mistake, as the guardian beast caught him with another crashing blow into the side that sent him flying again. “Do you have any other – motherfucker, that hurt – ideas? You’re supposed to be our resident Dungeon expert!”

Preece did his best to ignore the sight of Lowe’s broken arm snapping itself back into place. The click of the bone reconnecting was harder to miss. “Maybe. In a ‘normal’ Dungeon, we’d need to defeat the Big Bad in order to complete the quest line. But that’s not the case here, is it?”

“Lowe, will you fucking hold the aggro!” Karolen danced under and over tentacles in an entirely balletic and kick-arse way. "I can’t attack it and have to focus on staying alive at the same time!”

“Sorry! Preece, what are you getting at?”

“We don’t have a quest, do we? The Dungeon spawned around us, and we’ve not actually been given anything we’re supposed to be doing, have we? If you ask me, I’m not even sure if this encounter has even officially started.”

Lowe took another stinging, glancing blow to the face as he re-engaged the monster. “I don't know, mate. It’s feeling pretty fucking active right now!”

Karolen let out a shriek as she was dragged off her feet by a tentacle wrapping around her leg. Preece fired off a bolt from a looted crossbow and severed the squirming appendage, letting the retreat back again. “What are you suggesting we do?!” she called across the cavern.

“Let’s fall back to the entrance and see if it resets.”

“I’ve not got a better idea." Lowe absorbed another stinging flap to the face. "And this is all getting a bit old. After you, Karolen.”

“Damn straight 'after fucking me'. Seriously, Lowe, have you never tanked before?”

Lowe let that one slide, staggering back as the Octopus lashed out again. Preece was right, wasn’t he? This wasn't a normal Dungeon encounter. Not that he had all that much experience with such things. But there was no quest. No objective. Just this endless, maddening brawl with a creature that refused to go down. And that couldn’t be right. Could it?

Preece, crouched low and darting from shadow to shadow, waved them back towards the cavern entrance. "Come on! Fall back. It's time to bail, guys!"

Karolen didn’t need another invitation. She leapt over a final thrashing tentacle and sprinted for the entrance with Lowe following close behind, taking blow after blow on the back. His ribs repeatedly broke and reknitted back together, but the lingering pain gnawed at him as it always did. First Preece, then Karolen and finally Lowe skidded back into the corridor leading to the final encounter just as another tentacle shot toward them, slamming into the ground with a thud. However, once they were out of range, the creature let out a low, furious roar that echoed throughout the cavern and then settled itself back down again. Almost calm in repose.

"Well," Karolen said, breathing heavily, "that was... not ideal."

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Lowe leaned against the wall, wiping blood, sweat and tears from his brow and down the front of his shirt. Mylaf was going to be pissed. "No kidding. Okay, so we’re not going to get anywhere against that thing by brute force. Tell me you've got something better than running away and hoping it doesn't eat us, Preece."

The brow furrowed as he poked his head around the edge of the corridor, making sure the creature hadn’t tried to follow. His face was pale, but there was something of gleam in his eyes. "You know what? I actually think I do. Look, I’ve been wondering about this since Gral first told us about the Core. You see, I don’t believe completing this Dungeon is going to be about any sort of final Boss fight at all. It’s about the Dungeon itself. You’ve noticed how everything feels... off, right?"

"No shit!" Karolen said, pacing around to do something about all the adrenaline racing around her veins. "But it’s a Dungeon; they’re all a bit messed up. Olly in there isn’t exactly unusual!"

“Olly?” Lowe asked.

“The Octopus.”

“And you named him ‘Olly’?”

“I can call him fucking 'Kenneth' if it makes you happy.”

“No. Olly’s fine. It’s just some of us were a bit busy to come up with cutesy nicknames for the giant fucking monster trying to kill us.”

“Ah, is that what you were doing? Being busy. You should have said. It looked like a lot of lying around and getting stomped on.”

Preece cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt, but would you like me to continue to outline my theory, or are we done with that now?” Lowe gestured for him to go on. “From the very start, we’ve noticed that the Dungeon has sought to tailor itself to whoever is running it. It's a Level 26 Dungeon because that's the highest leve person in our party. And this boss—well, it feels like it's just there to keep us busy. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a distraction."

Lowe almost smiled at that. “A distraction? It’s a fucking effective one, then. What do you think it’s distracting us from?"

Preece gestured toward the swirling, shimmering globe of light just behind the beast. "The Core. I don’t actually think this Dungeon is designed to be beaten in the usual way. No quest, no objective to kill the big bad. No nothing. It’s all about the Core. I think, if we want to get out of here, we need to get to it without engaging the boss at all."

Karolen paused in her pacing."And how do you propose we do that? In case you missed it, every time we so much as blink near that thing, it goes full murderhobo."

"Exactly!" Preece said. "Every time we try. But I reckon it’s dialled in to react to threat levels. And it’s geared to Lowe’s strength."

Lowe’s mind raced as he processed the words. Preece was right, wasn’t he? From the very start the Dungeon was benchmarking to their levels, responding to the most powerful among them. But Preece . . . Preece was far lower levelled. Maybe low enough that the creature wouldn’t react to him . . . "Let’s cut to the chase. You think because you’re a lower level, you can sneak past it and claim the Core?" Lowe asked. "That’s a hell of a gamble."

Preece shrugged. "I’ve been getting power-levelled the whole way through here because I’m so much weaker than you. It’s worth a shot, at least."

Karolen was clearly unconvinced. "That’s a dangerous assumption, Preece. If you're wrong, that thing is going to turn you into paste the second you step foot in there."

"Yeah, well," Preece said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I’m not thrilled about the idea, but it’s better than getting nowhere. Look, we can’t beat this thing the normal way. It's too strong, too fast, and whatever we throw at it, it just adapts. This is the only shot we've got. Eventually, it’s going to wipe the pair of you, and then my outcome is going to be the same. If you look at it that way, we might as well roll the dice."

Lowe stared at the glowing orb visible just beyond the boss: the Dungeon Core. It shimmered like some kind of miniature universe suspended in space. He felt the pull of it, the same tug he had felt ever since they entered the place. That Core was the key to escaping from here. It always had been. And he felt the explanation for all the murders lay with it, too. But something else was bothering him. His brain was trying to bring forward a lingering worry that had been at the back of his mind ever since they had started this last fight.

"What about the Dreadnaught?" Karolen asked. "It’s supposed to be here, isn’t it? We’ve seen nothing—no necrotic slime, no trace of it. If that thing’s still out there..."

Preece shrugged. "We’ll deal with the Dreadnaught when we have to. For now, the Core’s the priority."

Karolen glanced back toward the cavern, her expression grim. "Maybe that’s why we’re not seeing the usual signs. The Dreadnaught might be tied to the Core in ways we don’t understand. But until we know more, we have to assume that getting to that Core is the only way to shut it down."

They all turned towards the space containing the Boss. The faint glimmer of the Core was barely visible behind the hulking form of the octopus-like beast. Lowe clenched his fists, staring down the long stretch of stone that separated them from their goal. Every instinct in him screamed that this was not the right way forward; that he was still missing something important. But, try as he might, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He sure could do with an Essence of Silent Thought, right now. However. as far as he could tell, Preece was right. And they had no other options.

"Alright," Lowe said finally. "Let’s do it. But Preece, you better be right about this, or you’re going to have a lot more than a tentacle to worry about. Die out there or I am going to be pissed!"

Preece grinned. "No pressure, then."

They gathered at the entrance of the boss chamber once more, their eyes trained on the beast as it shifted and writhed. It had reset entirely from their previous attack and wasn’t on full alert anymore. It was waiting. Almost frozen. However, once Lowe took a step into the chamber, the beast immediately reacted, its tentacles whipping up in the air in a defensive posture. He stopped. "Yep. Still very much awake." Karolen tried next, darting quickly across the floor. The creature’s eyes followed her instantly, its hulking mass shifting toward her direction: she quickly retreated back to the entrance.

Preece stepped forward, swallowing hard. "Well, I guess that’s our answer. It’s going to be down to me."