“Why isn’t there a time shield in this room?” Jackal asked, as he gathered the loot the dissolving bodies had left behind. “It’d be nice to know how long we have left until we need to leave.”

Tibs exited the corridor into the hallway and tested the walls there.

“I don’t think the dungeon can do that here,” Don said. “With how the walls move against each other, they’d either be destroyed, or tell us which walls won’t move no matter what we do.”

They were silent as Tibs went over every section of the walls he hadn’t tested before, leaving him with only one in the main hall. The one that led to the switch to exit.

“You have to stop taking risks with the others,” Don said.

“This isn’t a risk,” Tibs replied.

“What if one of them had moved and closed the corridor we were in?”

“The first push of any walls doesn’t trigger anything,” Tibs said. “The dungeon doesn’t want me to see what’ll happen, so he’s forcing me to step in for the second push.”

“You can’t know it’s always doing to be like that. It makes changes, remember?”

Tibs shrugged as he pushed the wall, and there were no distant groans of stone against stone. He looked at Don. “It hasn’t happened.”

“Yet,” the sorcerer stated. “We haven’t gone far enough in this puzzle to be sure of anything we’ve seen. You need to be more careful with the team.”

Tibs shrugged.

“Of you friends,” Don added, and Tibs stared at him. How was that different?

“The armor looks to be ordinary,” Jackal said, joining them. “The sword’s edge shimmered, so it’s probably enchanted. We have coins, and these.” He handed Don and Tibs two bottles of the yellow liquid that replenished essence.

“I’m okay,” Tibs said as Don stored his in the hard pouch where he kept all the bottles and vials they came across.

“This is for later,” Jackal said. “You know, when we have to use everything we have, and more, to defeat the boss creature?”

“I’m not going to run out.” Why was Jackal bothering him with that? He knew his reserve was so vast he never needed to drink those.

“Keep the rest for Don,” Mez said. “He can make use of them when he’s training. Draining himself is what’s limiting how much time he puts into that.”

“Mez, I don’t share my problems so you can tell everyone.”

Tibs pushed the wall again.

“I’m not everyone,” Jackal stated. “I’m the team leader.”

“And the stronger you get,” Mez added, “the better it is for the team.”

Tibs reached the switch, and tested the other two walls.

“Keep one,” Don said. “I don’t want to learn to depend on them when I’m running out. Part of what I’m training is figuring out how to be more efficient with what I have. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of what we are taught can be accomplished by throwing a lot of essence at it, instead of being precise.”

The one opposite the switch moved, and didn’t have an accompanying groaning.

“Tibs has mentioned that fact at one point,” Khumdar replied.

“It’s why some of the adventurers forget how difficult what we learn is,” Tibs said. “They get used to throwing ever more essence at what they do.” He stepped to the wall, and the others hurried to join him. It moved, and another one did so elsewhere in the room.

“It is often how things go,” the cleric said. “The overuse of one thing will often lead to the results that can be achieved by following the correct way.”

“Nothing visible moved,” Mez said, returning.

“If you don’t care what gets broken in the process,” Jackal added, as Tibs pushed again. No corresponding groaning, but there was one with the next push.

“A lot like if you over saturate yourself with essence,” Don said. “It could have unintended consequences.”

The wall didn’t go further, and it was the left one that moved. Four times and it revealed an opening on the right. Every other push came with a distant groaning.

“Yes!” Jackal exclaimed at the chest in the middle of the large room, then he walked in to the wall of hard water Tibs blocked the entrance with. Fey was simple to form into a filigree and slip into the etching. “Ow,” Jackal stated, looked at Tibs, and then rubbed his nose as if it had hurt.

“You go in after I’ve checked it for traps.”

Don tapped the water, then peered through it. “How advanced is your training?”

Tibs shrugged. He pulled the filigree out and Don jumped as the water fell to the floor.

“You did that on purpose,” he snapped, looking his robe over for wet spots.

“Yes.” Tibs pulled the drops out of the robe and joined them to the water on the floor as he spread it. “I’m using it to check the floor for traps.” He added more water. The room was four tiles on each side of the entrance and nine deep. “And there are.” He felt for where the triggers were. Distance wasn’t always easy to determine through water. Something about how it flows made it imprecise as a measuring tool.

“You could have warned me,” Don said.

“Afraid of water?” Jackal asked.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I don’t want my robe getting wet. This fabric isn’t one what does well with water.”

“But it’s fine with getting ripped and bloody?” the fighter asked.

Don sighed. “Yes, it’s not rational. But this was expensive. I’d like to try and not have it needlessly damaged.”

“Jackal,” Mez said. “Maybe now we could?”

“Tibs, what do you think?”

He shrugged. Whatever they were talking about wasn’t as important as working out if turning the water to ice within the trigger would prevent it from activating, or the opposite.

“I guess it can wait,” Jackal said.

“Something else you aren’t telling me?” Don asked sharply.

“Just as there is much you are not telling us, is there not?” Khumdar countered.

“Oh, like you’re so forthcoming with information,” the sorcerer replied.

“We all have secrets,” Jackal said with finality. “Believe it or not, we are used to that.”

Tibs smiled. Ganny was clever, but not clever enough. All he needed to do was ice part of the trigger to jam it. “The room’s safe.” He absorbed the water. “I’m going to check the chest.”

Halfway to it, the essence above him shifted.

“Trap!” He yelled, forming a sword and shield. He’d worry about what he’d missed after.

“Someone’s getting overconfident,” Ganny cackled as Gnolls dropped through the doorway in the ceiling.

The ice cracked at her tone and he turned his anger at the closest creature, snarling as he slashed it before it touched the ground. More cracks and he slammed his shield in another Gnoll, the spikes on it bursting through and causing it to stagger away.

These were tougher than usual.

More fell around him.

“That’s it?” Ganny mocked. “Where’s the usual Tibs? All cool and collected as he dispatches everything me and Sto send at him?”

He yelled as he cut a Gnoll, and cracks spread. He killed another. And understanding of what she was doing only caused more cracks in the ice.

“Is this all it’s going to take to bring down the mighty Tibs Light Fingers? Hero of the Dungeon? I really thought you had more essence in you. How about you actually do something, Tibs?”

He elongated the blade, and it cracked as he also tried to fill in the cracks. He cursed. He couldn’t afford to split this attention. He hardened his sword, swept an arc to give himself space to breathe, to think, but more Gnoll dropped to replace those that fell.

She couldn’t be seriously looking to kill him, could she? They were friends.

He added metal to his armor.

Well, he and Sto were friends. She’d never liked what Sto did because of their friendship.

A club to his shoulder dropped him to a knee and he stretch his shield over his head to blocks the following blows. His essence was intact, so the armor had taken the hit.

He needed to do something, but from this position, his swings did little more than graze the Gnolls surrounding him.

Staying on the defensive wasn’t going to work. He envisioned an etching, but the strain of the hits broke his focus. He cursed. He needed something easy to fight back with. Something raw.

Something to teach Ganny she shouldn’t have messed with him like this.

He reached for fire.

The angry roar accompanied the crash through the Gnolls, then someone was beside him, filled with earth, and pushing the attacks away.

“I’m here,” Jackal snarled. “What the fuck are you up to?” He yelled as he sent Gnolls flying.

Finally able to breathe, Tibs realized what he’d been about to do. He filled the cracks, iced them even harder and stood. He flung water with Fel throughout it and where it hit the Gnolls; it slowed them, kept them from pulling their limbs up to swing.

The heat of fire spread as arrows cut down the creatures on the outside. He caught glimpse of someone dark slipping between the Gnolls as if there was more space there than Tibs saw, striking them with his staff, and more screamed as they melted under a purple goo.

He threw the ice knife at the Gnoll readying itself to strike Khumdar in the back. The pommel hit it, but it was enough of a distraction the cleric became aware and dispatched it.

The save cost him a serrated bone sword in the side and Tibs locked eyes with that Gnoll as he filled it with water, iced that, and shattered it.

Then he proceeded on helping his team exterminate all of them.

* * * * *

“What was that?” Jackal yelled at the ceiling once it was only the five of them alive, if not all standing.

Khumdar was on his back, catching his breath. Mez and Don were seated against the wall, an empty healing potion next to each.

“It’s okay,” Tibs said. “I know what she was trying to do. She failed.”

“That makes one of us,” Don said. “That was nothing like the previous fights. Is it going back to eating everyone?” He sounded scared.

“No,” Tibs stated.

“Are…are there going to be more attacks like that?” Don asked.

“I don’t know,” Tibs said when Ganny remained silent.

“Maybe we should call this run done,” Mez said. “The dungeon is clearly in—”

“No.” Tibs headed for the chest. “I am not letting her get away with this.” He coated it with water, pushing it into every gap. He added filigrees of Fey and pulled in all directions.

The chest resisted.

“Tibs, stop!” Sto yelled, as the chest broke apart and—

* * * * *

Tibs groaned.

“Oh, you’re alive.” Sto said calmly.

“What happened?” He mumbled. He filled the crack in his ice as he pushed to his side, then sitting. Now wasn’t the time to lose control.

“I think,” Don said, “that you might have broken the dungeon.”

“It takes more than that to break me,” Sto replied. “But it did hurt.”

He forced an eye open, then the other snapped as he stared at the hole in the wall on the opposite side of the room. It was six of the tiles wide. A bowl that reached three, maybe four of them deep. Part of the floor and the ceiling were gone too.

“How?” He asked.

“You broke the chest open,” Sto replied, “and shattered the weave that formed it.”

“I think,” Don said, sounding uncertain, “that you gave us a demonstration of what happens when void essence is exposed to the rest of the world without control.”

Tibs stared at the sorcerer. “That doesn’t happen when the Attendants use void essence.”

“That’s controlled use. Void isn’t an essence that’s found…” He motioned around them. “I don’t know why. I’ve yet to come across a book that touches on that. I did read one containing the summary of an experiment where the sorcerers were going to create a point of void, then simply let go of it.”

“What happened?” Jackal asked when the sorcerer didn’t continue.

Don shrugged. “I don’t know. The only thing added to the summary is a list of material and their price. Looking at that, I guess it’s what was needed to rebuild that section of the academy. I doubt anyone close enough to witness what happened survived.”

“Then how are we still alive?” Mez asked. “That thing just threw us across the room hard enough to knock me out.”

“I don’t know,” Don said, sounding at a loss. “The experiment dealt exclusively with void, while the chest would be a weave of it and other elements. There was no description of what the destruction looked like, so maybe those sorcerers were also thrown away, but since they were in a building instead of a dungeon, the other floors crashing down on them is what killed them. I’m just glad we had potions, because I’m not sure any of us would have gotten up from that anytime soon without healing.”

“You knew this would happen,” Tibs stated, standing.

“How?” Don protested. “I didn’t even know it was possible to break one of those.”

“I’ve been experimenting with essence, Tibs,” Sto said. “But I’m with Don. I didn’t think you could break one of them open.”

“And you want me to let go of ice?” he accused.

“Sorry?” Don looked at the others. “Am I missing something?”

“So much,” Jackal replied.

“If you don’t let go willingly,” Sto said, “and somewhere able to take the resulting damage, Tibs. What’s going to happen when you’re pushed too far and you break?”

“I believe this demonstration gave us much to think about,” Khumdar said. “As to the… consequences of what you are doing.”

Jackal sighed, looking the room over. “That’s going to be it for the run. Hopefully, the switch still works, otherwise we’re going to find out what the dungeon’s like overnight.” He looked around again. “And I hope that’s repaired when the next team’s on this floor tomorrow, because I don’t want the guild to come asking what we did when they report about broken rooms.”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” Sto said with a chuckle. “This is easy to repair.”

Tibs studied the damage that one chest had caused. How difficult would it be to sneak one of them into the guild and cause it to break with Marger standing next to it?

He turned to exit, and Jackal was studying him intently.