This is not how I ever pictured a dungeon dive! This is the 4 hells!

Kamar bounds down the tunnel, and I have to grip tightly to not be thrown off from his back. The Iron katra constructs on his hands clang noisily as they smash into the stone, pulzering it as he swiftly moves down the tunnel.

I look back, the enraged screechs of the umber hulk piercing my eardrums. I can see a blue glow about 20 feet behind us.

At this rate, we aren’t going to make it!

I wonder idly how the spores managed to get down here. No time for that. Think! We need something to slow them down.

I look up at the roof of the tunnel, considering the quakes, it must be rather sturdy. So it would be hard to collapse.

Ideas on how to do it frantically flash through my mind. I could use a lightning bolt.

But I know that if I did that, I might not survive. I’d need some kind of apparatus to safely use lightning. But there’s no time for that!

I my mind flashes back to that experiment with my katra that I did on the rock. It turned to dust!

“Kamar, I need you to get me within arms reach of a wall!” I shout over the rush of wind.

He starts strafing to the right, and i reach out my right hand, spreading my black wrapped fingers wide. My fingertips brush up against the surface of the tunnel wal, and I grab a fist full of my katra mentally, shoving it into my broken channels. I force it to travel through them and down into my arm.

The blue glow behind is getting more and more bright, and the pinging sound louder and louder.

Kamar shifts a little too far from the wall, and my fingers are no longer on the stone. I reach out, gritting my teeth in desperation, clawing with my fingers. No!

Then the spores hit us from behind.

I gasp, my breath escaping my lungs as shocks run up my body, the spores colliding with my back. Sharp smell of ozone, burnt hair and cooked flesh fill my nostrils, and I shut my eyes tightly closed.

I can feel Kamar collapse under me, and I am thrown from his grasp, my muscles spasming. Bouncing off the floor, I land in a heap, blue spores zapping me.

From between the cracks in my eyes I can see the dark shape of Kamar.

Oddly enough, they zap me and move on, swarming the asper. He bellows in pain and rage, getting to his knees and swatting futilely at the spores.

I grit my teeth, my jaw locked. This is nothing!

I look at Kamar, his massive hands crushing spores left and right, but there are just to many.

They all creep along his form, zapping and moving down toward his second pair of hands. A big mound of spores has concentrated itself around the blue jar that is in his left second hands grasp.

They’re going for the jar!

I force out between my locked teeth, “The...Jar!”

I can see Kamar’s eyes looking at me, and he is still roaring in pain, writhing on the ground.

I scream even louder, “DROP-JAR!”

It takes a few seconds, but I can see what I am saying register in Kamar’s eyes.

He lets out one last, booming roar of rage that makes my ear drums rumble.

Then he tosses the jar down the way we came. It skits off the stone, bouncing and flipping. It shatters into shards of glass, tinking as they land scattered along the floor, the blue fungus inside pulsing with neon blue light.

The cloud of spores immediately rushes over to the blue fungus, shrouding it in a blanket of blue.

They move off from my skin, no longer burning me and Kamar’s form is revealed from under the mass of spores that had been clinging to him.

He stumbles to his feet, batting at few spores that are clinging to his clothes, quickly grabbing the pack and me. He grunts as he throws me over his shoulder, and starts swiftly moving away from the mound of spores.

His movement is stilted and rigid, I can tell he is in immense pain.

For me, my flesh feels like it has been lit on fire, and my mind is still in a daze of pain. I watch the mound of shifting spores receding into the distance.

Kamar’s shoulder digs painful into my stomach, but I don’t tell him.

We move down the tunnel swiftly, and eventually Kamar comes to a huffing, slow stop.

We’re alive!

Kamar sets me done, leaning me against the wall. Then he proceeds to fall onto his back, breathing heavily. We shouldn’t stop for too long. There’s still the umber hulk to worry about.

I can’t hear it anymore, but I am pretty sure that with its thick chitin exoskeleton, it will be relatively unharmed.

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My skin itches and burns, and I can see the red welts starting to puff up all over my skin. I groan a little at the pain. Just when I am nearly healed too!

I close my eyes, channeling some of my katra to where my exposed skin was hit. Whatever those spores are, they definitely use some kind of lightning katra.

They must be some kind of Sacred Plant, one that cultivates lightning to zap people, hence the reason it glows. And whether it was intentional or not, that jar the thri-kreen gave us nearly got us killed.

I look over to Kamar, who has sat up. He looks at me in a haze of pain, rumbling out, “We need to move.”

Nodding, I shakily get to my feet, my knees wobbling a little. I lean on the wall, looking to where Kamar has strapped the bag to his chest.

He glances at me, his movements stiff, “Can you walk fast?”

I consider it for a second, and almost say that I will be fine. But if I don’t have to focus on walking, then I can focus on getting the last of the bone fractures and my skin healed. Plus, I’m definitely not as fast as Kamar.

“I’m nearly healed, I just need a bit more time.” I say, shifting my weight away from the wall and standing straight.

Kamar nods, turning away from me and offering his back. I walk over on shaky feet, working my muscles. Grabbing him around the shoulders, I heave myself up and slide my arms around his neck.

The asper grunts and starts speedily moving down the tunnel.

***

Venel wiped at his aching eyes, his hands shaky. He licks his dry lips, every inhalation of the hot air making his throat more and more parched.

He looks out at the land, and the two massive shapes dancing around each other. The very air ripples with heat waves, that from Adrize’s katra and from the Fire katra that the tarrasque is creating.

Large swaths of the sandy dunes have melted and been blackened, molten glass smoking and hardening.

Venel’s mother is sitting down, cross legged, dark energy streaming from here and curving into a protective dome around here. Her forehead glitters with beads of sweat, her eyes closed and face twisted in concentration.

Drazen stands next to his son, gazing at the spectacle that is the fight between the black dragon and the tarrasque.

Despite the fact that Adrize is one third the size of the tarrasque, the dragon still has the upper hand. In fact, if Venel had to describe it, he was playing with the tarrasque.

The Walking Calamity, was seemingly backed into a corner, using massive amounts of some form of Fire aspect katra, blasting at the black dragon. Adrize makes sure to move around the tarrasque’s hits, not letting any of the flame even lick his scales.

The tarrasque is using massive amounts of fire katra, but has yet to land a solid hit on Adrize. Its superior size let it take many of the blows the black dragon lands on it, but each one makes it stumble. Its hard scales are covered in scorch marks from the beams of sun fire Adrize throws every once and awhile, many more having become cracked.

It was most definitely on the defensive.

Venel glances at his father, whose jaw is firmly locked, his expression neutral.

The boy looks back out from the hazy dome of darkness, at the scorched desert. Around the perimeter of the dome, the sand is blackened and hardened shards of glass have formed from the massive amount of heat.

He can make out the two wavy shapes of Adrize and the tarrasque, at least a mile off. The heat though, is still too intense for them to survive without the barrier of cooler shadows.

Venel blinks, his eyes burning from the dryness. When he looks back to the two fighting shapes, the smaller black one is gone.

His eyes shoot around, trying to locate it.

The tarrasque looks just as confused, and defensive.

Then the black shape of Adrize appears above the tarrasque, plunging downwards.

Venel can still hear the booming voice of Adrize in his mind, ‘Torrid Cloak.’

He can make out the orangish-yellow flames of Adrize’s katra, his entire form bursting into the scorching light of the sun.

‘Scorch.’

The dragon crashes into the tarrasque back, the ground shaking.

Venel’s eyes widen at the massive explosion that mushrooms out from where the two Sacred Beasts had collided.

He gaps as the sand is kicked up in a ring, moving fast across the dunes. It collides with the dome, and all the occupants are thrown back.

Venel can feel the air in his longs escape in a wheeze, feeling like he was slugged in the diaphragm, his ears popping and his vision blurring.

Blinking the dust sand from his eyes and hacking, taking deep breaths of air, Venel looks up at where the battle was.

In its place is a massive, blackened crater. A large charred mound of what Venel can only assume was the tarrasque rests in the center, Adrize looming over it. He stands there, holding himself high in a regal pose, his tail whipping in the air slowly behind him. His black scales glint flawlessly in the sunlight, the heat distortions making it hard to focus on him.

Drazen stands up, helping his son and wife to their feet. The family of three looks over to the aftermath of the battle.

“What’s it doing?” Venel asks, looking at Adrize, who stands still, looking at the pile of mangled and charred flesh.

Adrize moves slowly, his serpentine body moving forwards and his left clawed hand reaching out. It plunges into the pile, and Venel watches as a good portion of that pile crumbles to ash.

The Destroyer of Kingdoms routes around in the body some more, before pulling out what appears to be a orange and red Core. He holds it in his hand, staring at it with his piercing purple eyes.

His voice rumbles inside Venel’s mind, ‘A decent fight. This shall marginally help.’

The dragon’s clawed hand tightens around the core, putting more and more pressure on it. The surface of the large core cracks, Fire aspect leaking out.

Then it shatters in a burst of flame, the Fire Aspect katra quickly melding into Adrize’s scaled arm and vanishing.

The dragon turns to look at Drazen, Sanja and Venel. He slowly makes his way over to them, the burning, melted and hardened sand crunching beneath his weight.

Venel stares in awe at the dragon, and the aftermath of the battle. He looks at Adrize, the air rippling around him with heat distortions, the orb between his horns glowing like a miniature sun.

A Sun God. Is the first thought that comes to mind when he stares upon the approaching dragon, and all its powerful glory.

The dragon stops a ways from them, craning its neck and looming over them. ‘Now, why have you come?’

Drazen hesitant steps forward, “We have come to investigate a interdimensional breach. We have also been tasked with asking you for assistance.”

The dragon nods slowly, its gaze flickering over the three of them, ‘Then I take it that Cereus is requesting my aid.’

Drazen looks uncomfortable, but nods, “Yes.”

The dragon lets out a throaty growl, nodding, ‘Then I suppose that he still intends to keep our bargain in place?’

Drazen glances at his wife and son, but turns back to the dragon quickly. “I would assume so, yes.”

Adrize closes his purple eyes for a second, ‘Then so be it. I shall aid him one last time.’

All three of the family seems to deflate a little, and Venel lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

The dragon looks at them with its piercing eyes, ‘Now, what is this about a Breach?’