The team’s trip into the abandoned lab had started out well. It had been built with a party like them in mind, so none of the challenges were insurmountable to them. Defeating various robots and traps made them feel confident and almost comfortable with the level of danger around them.

That was before the bio lab. They'd been pinned down and swarmed by a dozen slow but tough robots. That much had been expected. It had been a tough fight, but they'd come out on top. That was the level of challenge that they'd been prepared for.

But the robots released something that had been left in the lab. Something that was now chasing the team through the corridors. They hadn't gotten a good look at it yet; all they knew was that it had glowing red eyes and ran on at least four legs. No one was turning around to inspect the details.

They turned a corner and Circe came to a halt, throwing her weight against the others to send them all crashing into the wall beside them. She shushed them and pressed the group closer to the wall and the beast drew closer.

There wasn't time to untangle themselves, so they had to trust Circe. Just as the creature neared the corner, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The air all around the team took on a mirage-like haze and the team all held their breath.

The monster came scrambling around the corner, sharp claws digging into the concrete as it moved. It was covered in deep red and purple scales that glistened in the light. A pair of glowing red eyes took in the scene from a wolflike head that also sported rows of razor sharp teeth and glowing orange spittle that sprayed all around as it moved.

It barely slowed as it turned the corner and continued at a dead sprint away from them. Its spittle must have been acidic, because it left a trail of smoking divots in the floor behind it. The team all breathed a sigh of relief as it left.

Circe nodded at the ranged combatants and motioned down the hallway. As one, she stepped out alongside Sunbird and Cannoneer as the illusion fell away. All three unleashed their attacks, which went screaming down the wide corridor towards the running creature. The attacks closed in rapidly, and the thing didn't seem to notice.

But then, at the last moment, the creature leaped into the air and twisted, easily avoiding both Circes' birds and Cannoneer's grenade. It took a glancing blow from the golden beam of energy, but nothing more. It landed on the wall, digging claws into the surface to hold itself up.

With an ear-splitting roar, the monster tore into the wall and streaked back towards the group. It moved just as quickly on the wall as it did on the floor. They continued to shoot at it, which was how they learned that it could also run on the ceiling if it so chose. It leaped and bounced between every available surface as it moved, making it all but impossible to aim at it.

It didn't avoid every attack; the team was filling the air with too many for that to be possible. Lightforge had even joined in with his daggers, reasoning that his slow hammer would never be able to touch something so fast. But they were doing token damage at most.

It closed the distance and released a powerful spray of acid at the team. Gray Guardian leaped into the attack, raising their barrier just in time to keep the others safe. The acid hissed and sparked as it vaporized against the glowing shield, and the energy construct quickly began to blink as it continued to take damage. The spray petered out moments before the barrier came down.

For just one moment, the beast was still. That was the critical moment. Now at point blank range, Lightforge lashed out with his dagger, catching the creature in the leg. It roared in pain and tried to strike back, but Circe sent a spray of stone birds at it which forced it to dodge instead.

Lightforge tried to strike again, and Cannoneer swung awkwardly with his bazooka. The scaled beast dodged the knife, but it sunk its claws into the weapon and heaved. Cannoneer yelped in surprise as he was picked up off the ground and tossed down the corridor. His weapon was ripped from his hands and went spinning even further down. With one attacker taken care of, the beast backed away to give itself space.

The monster was limping now, and watched the humans cautiously. Without its blistering speed, the fight should be much more even. On the other hand, it still had claws, teeth, and acid on its side. It was dangerous, and there was a lot of apprehension in the air.

The opposing sides stared at one another, and a silence fell over the fight. It might have been a moment, or it could have been an hour. All were still, alert for even the slightest movement. That was all it would take to start the fight anew. Lightforge didn't even dare to breathe as he watched the creature. They were in a stalemate.

The staring contest was broken by an explosion that rocked the passageway from behind the humans. Everyone whipped around to look, and their mouths dropped open. The creature saw their distraction and launched itself forward.

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It was intercepted in midair by a streak of color that crashed into it at nearly impossible speeds. The humans watched as Cannoneer used himself as a projectile to divert the monster, aiming his weapon backwards and using another explosion to propel him and the beast further away.

They crashed hard into the concrete nearly 100 feet away, and the creature audibly yelped in pain as they hit. Cannoneer rolled away and brought his weapon to bear again. As the beast tried to scramble to its feet, it was struck by a grenade at nearly point blank range.

The scaled thing was flung backwards and skidded across the concrete before coming to a stop. Scales had been knocked free and now littered the ground. There was smoke rising from its body as it lay still. It didn't so much as twitch.

The humans lost their minds. All at once they started to scream and point at what they'd seen. They swarmed around Cannoneer to slap him on the back and congratulate him on the impressive display. He grinned and quietly accepted the praise. He was bruised and looked unsteady on his feet, but he couldn't stop smiling.

It took a few minutes before the excitement subsided and the team began to split apart and calm down. It had been a couple of trying fights back to back, and it felt good to have come out victorious.

Circe was the one to bring the mood back down when she asked, "Where did the thing go?"

They all turned and, sure enough, the creature was gone. Given the nature of the world, Lightforge wanted to believe that it had simply vanished the way that video game enemies did. But he hadn't seen that happen so far in this world so it seemed unlikely.

As the group approached the news grew worse. A trail of scratches and scorched concrete led away from where the creature had been, heading off into the maze that surrounded them.

"Well, [BLEEP]," said Sunbird, "how was that thing not dead? It took a grenade to the face!"

Cannoneer just shook his head and said, "I don't know. But since it ran, it must have been injured pretty badly."

"Good point, let's go get it."

"Let's leave it." Gray Guardian's voice was quiet, which was normal for them. But it was also firm and unrelenting; they hadn't been making a suggestion. They turned to face the others each in turn and made that fact abundantly clear.

Then they said, "If it were designed to fight to the death, it would have. It's a wild animal, not another robot. It won't bother us again if it thinks that it will lose. We should focus on recovering from the fights and continuing through the dungeon. We shouldn't be far from the end by now."

Reluctantly, the rest of the team agreed. As nice as it might have been to chase the creature down and finish it off, they weren’t in great shape. They’d been using their skills liberally throughout the fights and none of them could avoid all the attacks that the dungeon had thrown at them.

They were tired and battered. They needed to find a place to rest and prepare. An enemy like the bio lab beast was a sign that they were going the right direction; they had to be close to the boss’s lair.

This was both good news and bad news. Being close to the boss fight meant that any enemies they came across would likely be tough and dangerous. But it also meant that there would be places to rest and prepare for the final challenges. These dungeons were meant to test a team’s abilities and preparations, and it simply wasn’t fun to get slowly worn down until you were too worn out to give the boss a proper fight.

Slowly they began to advance, senses primed to detect anything that might provide a clue to the next trap that they were going to run into. They inspected doors and forking hallways, checking each one carefully to look for traps and other dangers. They decided on a new rule; if a door was locked, they simply walked away. They weren’t in a position to face too many more surprise dangers.

As they made their way through the dungeon, Lightforge was thinking about the different machines that they’d seen. His inventory sported quite a number of new components and assemblies to analyze once they’d beaten the boss. Just seeing the technology present in this place had his mind spinning with ideas for items that he could attempt to construct.

His hands itched to dig into the crafting system. Even without the mission rewards for clearing the place out, this expedition had been well worth the effort. Given the wealth of technology that they’d found, he suspected that he would be digging through this dungeon on a regular basis whenever he needed more parts.

While the possibilities were nearly limitless, he knew what his first creation was going to be. He hated being blind to the details of the things around him. There had to be a way to see at least names and levels of the people around him; that had always been a part of the game’s user interface. Here it was simply missing.

That information would make a lot of things easier for him. Simply knowing the names and levels of the people and enemies that he encountered would dramatically shift the way that he fought and moved through the world. And, even better, he was sure that others would be willing to pay for access to such information.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Circe waved the group over to a door at the end of a hallway. She looked tired but pleased as she pointed at it and headed inside. It looked like they’d found their place of respite for the moment. Just a little longer and they would be in for the big fight, the one that really mattered.

They would need every drop of health and energy that they could get in order to come out victorious. And this was where they would recover and strategize. In all honesty, Lightforge would have loved to collapse inside the room and take a long nap, but he knew that wouldn’t be wise, assuming it was even possible.

No, this would be a short rest and nothing more. It would have to be enough.