Sergeant Santos' heavy boots strain the wood beneath his feet as he steps across the incomplete bridge. The other soldiers carefully follow in his footsteps while he tests each plank for instability, yet not a single creak of strain has been heard in quiet chamber.

Faint creaking pulls Sergeant Santos back to reality as he turns to look at the men behind him. The soldiers are all standing completely still on their own respective boards while Private Feng is trembling slightly. Sergeant Santos nearly assumes Feng is afraid of heights, but realization dawns on him as he follows the private's gaze to see the board beneath his feet is cracking visibly. The man has both his feet on the bullet hole riddled plank, and his fate looks sealed.

"Private Feng!" Sergeant Hudson berates the trembling soldier.

There's a moment of tense silence wherein every soldier in front of Private Feng opens their mouth to shout at Hudson, but nobody's voice reaches the man in time as he steps off his own board onto the one Private Feng is standing on. There's a shift in the red faced man's demeanor as he realizes what's happening, but it is too late to pull back.

Sergeant Hudson's boot is crunching the cracked wood and his other foot is already off the stable board. He sees the tears welling up in Private Feng's eyes, and with a cracking sound the board beneath them breaks in half.

"Sergeant-!" Corporal Egrets shouts vainly.

Feng's body sails up and into the unsteady arms of Corporal Egrets while Sergeant Hudson's reddened face pales as a nasty array of bronze spikes spear him through from behind. Private Feng is trembling, and tears flow freely down the young man's face as he keeps his gaze ahead. None of them look at Sergeant Hudson for more than a moment, as grief threatens to overtake their conviction.

Hatred wells up in Sergeant Santos' heart as he glares at the bronze spikes below, while he promises he'll have this shithole bombed to hell. The man brings the men out of their thoughts with a firm shout, and the group makes their way around the broken section of the bridge with stoicism masking their despair.

~

Katia's mind is racing as she watches the delvers progress further into her dungeon. The feeling of helpless is immense, yet she isn't truly helpless. Even without her skills she can try to aid the delvers with her minions. Hopefully she can prevent further casualties by giving the soldiers a direct line to her reward room.

"Stupid! I'm a stupid, naive, monster!"

If she could scream, she would. She's pushing her racing thoughts to the side as she orders her rodent army to move to the puzzle room, and open the way to the next room for the soldiers. There's shooting, there's many rat deaths, but the Dire Rats manage to push the correct statue aside to reveal the well lit tunnel leading into the boss room.

Stolen novel; please report.

This obviously alarms and confuses the squad of delvers, but they quickly form up and move through the chute with climbing rope and plenty of safeguards. The boss room itself is completely empty, and the Rat King is actually hiding in the walls with his body nearly crushed by the tight limestone passages. Thankfully he's a loyal minion, and Katia can simply push him out with her other minions when the delvers are gone.

"Now please just leave..."

Katia watches them activate the mechanisms on her vault door with several rifles trained on the rat tunnels around the arena. They're a vigilant bunch, and the sudden lack of resistance is putting them on edge. Something dawns on Katia as she watches the door to her treasure room slowly swing open.

"I didn't make an exit!"

~

Sergeant Santos' rage is still simmering, yet he finds confusion and curiosity filling his mind in its place. The monsters appeared in a massive unending wave in the room before this one, albeit none of the rodents attacked the soldiers. They all just attempted to reach a specific statue in a set of four and eventually pushed it aside to reveal a passage.

The behavior of the monsters is odd enough, but the lack of a large monster in this circular room is downright anomalous. Every dungeon they've surveyed has contained a boss, treasure chests, and monsters. Some didn't have very good lighting while others had lots of climbing involved, but none of them has rooms lacking in monsters.

This dungeon had treasure in barrels and functioning doors which were unheard of in the previous dungeons. None of the veterans let it show, but Edison had definitely written a lot more notes than usual. This place felt strange, and he hated it, but it might have secrets worth studying. Secrets that might help prevent needless deaths like his comrades' own.

"Check for traps before you open those, Corporal." Staff Sergeant Edison warns.

Corporal Egrets nods stiffly before carefully scanning the chamber, platform, and chests themselves. There's nothing suspicious as far as he can tell. Egrets steps carefully up to the leftmost treasure chest and opens it with careful slow motions.

"There's... just a bunch of Rat Hide and Rat Jerky inside, Sir." Corporal Egrets says.

The scratching sound of Edison's writing mixes with the Egrets' quiet footsteps as the man opens the other two boxes with needlessly cautious movements. The treasure chests all contain the same items, and not a single trap is present in the room.

Sergeant Santos watches the door with his rifle at the ready, yet even as the Staff Sergeant and Corporal survey the contents of the dungeon's treasure nothing tries to enter the room. There's no sounds of scratching claws or snarling maws. There is only an uncomfortable silence.

"We're leaving." Staff Sergeant Edison suddenly says.

The others all turn to look at their leader with questioning looks before the man gives them a sharp glare in return. His tone held a seriousness which spoke volumes coming from a steely man such as him.

"But... shouldn't we do the usual sweep of the dungeon?" Sergeant Santos asks quietly.

"No talking. Get beside me." Edison growls.

The others all give him confused looks while shuffling over toward their Staff Sergeant. The awkwardly close huddle is quickly engulfed in a blinding white light before vanishing from the room without a trace.