Suta moved faster than Owin had ever seen him move before. The familiar tackled Owin and embraced him in a tight hug that felt like it might crush his ribs.

“Okay,” Owin said. “Hi, Suta.”

“It appears I missed the boss fight,” Myrsvai said. He nodded to the Void Nexus heroes. “I apologize for my tardiness.”

Owin grabbed Suta and lifted the familiar while he stood. Suta let himself be picked up and just hung limp in the air. “I thought you were ahead. I was worried and then I found them in trouble and—”

“You don’t need to explain. We were worried about you. I saw the stone in your chest. By the time we made it back to check, you were gone.” Myrsvai gently tapped Owin with the butt of his staff. “I am glad you are unharmed.”

Owin set Suta on the ground. “Shade saved me.”

“I used so many health potions,” Shade said. “I really overdid it.”

Owin nodded.

“I was wondering where you were,” Siora said. “We’re getting Avani out.”

Myrsvai took a second to look at the knight. “I am happy to help. Is everyone ready to continue this adventure?”

“We’re ready,” Siora said.

“Are you ready?” Owin asked Codhyses.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

“I literally threw you. I don’t know if you should thank me.”

Suta ran over to Malacoe’s corpse, grabbed a leg, and dragged it out of the cloud of blood. More blood was still spilling from the gash across the lobster’s waist, but the movement caused loot to fall from the boss.

A few shining gems, a health potion, and a gray bone fell to the wooden ramp. Suta pushed the corpse back into the blood and pointed at the loot.

“I’ll take that,” Siora said, immediately grabbing the gems and the potion. “What is this?” she muttered as she tried to grab the gray bone. Her hand passed through it. She tried a few more times before sighing and looking up. “Is this one of your bullshit things?”

Owin grabbed the bone and tossed it to Shade.

“Oh, boy. This is an exciting day.” He poofed into a cloud of dust.

“Did he just die?” Codhyses asked.

“He’s already dead. Or undead.” Owin shrugged. “I don’t know what getting more bones will do. The last one gave him that scarf.”

“What?” Avani laughed. “How does a bone make a scarf?”

“I don’t know.”

Bone of the Withered Shade

5 of 50

Summon the Withered Shade

Shade reappeared beside Owin and thrust his arms out. “How do I look? Beautiful? Spectacular?”

Owin squinted. He even poked Shade a few times. “You look the exact same.”

Shade gasped. “What about . . .” He stuck his arms out. “Oh.” He used a single finger to scratch his arm bones. “I am less dusty.”

“Yeah, okay. I can see that.”

“Is this worth our time?” Siora asked.

Shade pointed at her. “Yes. What if I was resummoned and exploded like an alchemical bomb?”

“Can that happen?”

Shade shrugged. “Probably not.”

“Then I don’t really give a shit. I don’t know if these bosses can respawn, but I am not interested in finding out.” Siora grabbed Shade by the arm, dragged him away from the group, and angled him toward the gate. “We need to get to the top of the ramp.”

“Yes, I assumed so.”

“I need you to lead me there.” She pushed him forward.

“I am not some child that can be so easily convinced. No, I am an undead eternal being that can be very easily convinced! I would love to help. Okay, team! Follow me!” Shade waved everyone forward and started walking with a skip in his step.

“We’re not a team,” Nikoletta said.

“Team,” Suta said.

Nikoletta muttered something and hurried ahead. When Shade noticed her getting close, he stopped and tried chatting again, but a quick luminous mace to the head shut the skeleton up.

“Where were you?” Owin asked.

“Those small homes were open. After passing through the baths, I saw the opportunity to sleep. I figured you would check every building before continuing. You’re normally thorough.” Myrsvai poked Suta with his staff. “We both needed rest.”

“You’re okay? I was worried the grenades—”

“We are both fine. We were worried for you, but we couldn’t get back across.”

Shade managed to stay quiet as he led the way through the gate to continue up the ramp around the seamount. Nikoletta followed a few paces behind, and everyone else clumped together in the back. Despite walking nearby, Siora didn’t talk. She just watched and rolled her eyes a few times.

Shade stopped near the end of the ramp where it met with the seamount. A small group of grenadiers waited at the top of the ramp, watching. One rolled a grenade to Shade, who picked it up and threw it back, immediately killing the fish as the grenade detonated.

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“Uh.” He looked back. “I thought they wanted to play catch.”

Nikoletta pushed past the skeleton. “Nice throw.” She continued forward, bashing in another cetanthro’s head before it could even pull out a weapon.

“Did she compliment me?” Shade asked.

“Don’t get used to it.” Siora drew her sword and stopped on the edge of the seamount. “We have four smaller hovels and that central building.”

The central building was nearly identical to the metal structure at the beginning of the floor.

A cetanthro looked through the window of the nearest hovel. Nikoletta punched through the window, grabbed the fish, dragged it out, and murdered it.

“Oh, she is terrifying.” Shade stepped behind Owin. “Protect me.”

“You can’t die.”

“Protect me anyway.”

Owin stared at Nikoletta as she pulled cetanthro guts from her face. She spat into the water and continued. He hated Siora, but Nikoletta was somehow worse.

“She’s a monster,” he said.

“Is she? She looks quite human to me.” Shade squatted beside Owin. “Is it the angle? No, still human.”

“She acts like one, Shade. She’s already hit you, and she’s the first one that hunted me.”

Shade put his hand on Owin’s shoulder. His bony fingers tapped on the chitin pauldron. “And what is the best revenge?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten revenge before.”

“Ah, well, perhaps we need to practice.”

Nikoletta found another cetanthro, which she brutally killed. Siora walked to the edge of the seamount and pointed to the building holding the stairs far below. Myrsvai chatted with her, pointed to the lava where the fire elemental had been.

“Practice revenge?” Owin asked. “How?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“I can’t let them get to the top. People like Nikoletta shouldn’t have shards.”

“Plenty of worse people have climbed the towers before. And besides, how are you going to stop them when everything else is isolated? Well, the seventh isn’t, but you know, timing things out can be quite difficult. Impossible, some might say. Improbable is more likely the correct phrase, but I am not one to say one way or the other.”

Shade was right, although Owin would do his best never to admit it. The last half of the Ocean Dungeon was primarily isolated. If he wanted to stop them from getting shards . . . He grinned.

Avani groaned and leaned on Codhyses. “Are we near the end? I need to sit down.”

“We will get there soon. It should be inside this building,” Myrsvai said. “We will clear it quickly and get you to safety.”

Suta nodded and ran to the door of the metal building. “Twin?”

“Okay.” Owin joined him, only giving the hovels a quick glance. There was no chance of finding the secret on this floor. Not with everyone trying to hurry. Even if he could find it, would he want Nikoletta or Siora to know where it was?

“Are you going inside?” Nikoletta stepped between them and opened the door. “Let me lead.”

“It’d be better to let the skeleton go first,” Siora said.

“I’m not following that abomination anymore.” Nikoletta’s mace glowed brightly as she opened the door, quickly illuminating the inside of the dark building.

“Avani, please wait here. Siora or Codhyses, would you keep her safe?” Myrsvai asked.

“I can—” Avani quit halfway through and leaned on the metal wall. “I’ll wait here.”

Siora glanced at the door and sighed. “I’ll keep her safe. You need Cod’s magic in there.”

“I don’t wish to insult anyone, but I am also a magus,” Myrsvai said.

Codhyses smiled. “A famous one. I know. But I am a telekinetic focus. It helps with the grenades.”

“Ah, understood. I would love the assistance.”

“What do I do?” Shade asked.

Myrsvai used his staff to guide Shade toward the door. The skeleton let himself be pushed.

Owin held Suta back as Nikoletta ventured inside. He watched the humans talking and waited for Myrsvai and Codhyses to join them before stepping into the dark hallway.

Nikoletta had only walked to the end of the hall and stopped at the door, holding up her mace to cast light. “Enemies on the other side,” she said.

“The building like this below had a lot of grenades. We should be careful of explosions,” Owin said. He had seen enough explosions for a lifetime.

Nikoletta pressed her lips together, then stepped back and gestured to the door.

Nobody moved.

“Skeleton?”

Shade pressed his gloved hand to his chest. “Me?”

“We need to check for explosives.” Nikoletta’s face didn’t change. She looked annoyed even having to think about Shade leading.

“Here,” Owin pulled one of his last grenades from his bag and shoved it into Shade’s hands. “If there are grenades—”

“Kill everyone. I know the routine. I’ve mastered it by now, I think.” Shade walked to the door and knocked. “Hello?”

“Idiot,” Nikoletta hissed.

“You might want to back up.” Shade opened the door and was immediately smacked across the head by an iron pipe. He grabbed the cetanthro’s other hand and shook. “Great to meet you. My name is the Withered Shade. My friends call me Shade because they don’t know my real name, but that’s okay because I also don’t know my real name.” The fish hit him again. “Wow, that is a lot of grenades. And what are those sticks? Oh, also explosive from the looks of it.”

Shade forced himself into the room and closed the door behind him while the cetanthro continued smacking him across the head over and over. As soon as the door closed, the entire building shook. The door buckled slightly from the explosion and bits of bright light flashed into the cracks around the door.

After a few seconds, Nikoletta opened the door. The entire room was scorched with nothing identifiable left inside.

Summon the Withered Shade

“I have to say, storing all your explosives in boxes like that is not a very intelligent thing to do. How do you stop someone from doing that?” Shade leaned on Codhyses’s shoulder. “Isn’t it odd?”

“I don’t think Sloswen planned on you being here,” Owin said.

Shade’s eye sockets narrowed. “Don’t remind him. He’s probably watching now, ready to make me a Cursed. Oh, wait. I already am! What are you going to do about that now, Sloswen?”

Shade exploded into a cloud of gray dust.

“Uh.” Owin looked at Myrsvai, who had taken an involuntary step back.

Codhyses coughed and stepped out of the dust cloud. “What happened?”

“I believe Shade was just smited.” Myrsvai gathered abyssal flames in his staff. “Can you resummon him?”

Summon the Withered Shade

This spell is on a cooldown

175 seconds remaining

“It said the spell is on a cooldown.” Owin furrowed his brow. “I’ve never seen that.”

“Why are you waiting?” Nikoletta hurried through the scorched room and passed right into the next. Owin hurried after with Suta right at his side and the magi behind.

Owin would have preferred to send Shade in to help get rid of any explosions before they became an issue, but Nikoletta wasn’t going to wait a few minutes for Shade to be summoned again.

A cetanthro was crouched beside a pool of lava. It wore protective gear and held metal tools that it stuck into the pool. The whole room circled around the lava pool. With only two small cetanthro present, it looked less intimidating than any other enemies on the floor.

“Ah, and there you are.” Elstima stood before an anvil on the opposite side of the pool. He smashed the hammer against a piece of metal, held it up before his goggled eyes, and tossed it into a pile in the corner. All sorts of metal pieces, gears, and boxes were stuffed haphazardly into the corner of the room.

The nearby cetanthro scooped some lava out in a crucible and kept it covered, not letting the water cool it to obsidian. It brought it to a cauldron closer to Elstima and poured it inside.

Ocean Mob

Elstima the Crafter

Cetanthro Grenadier Master

Level 45

“Are you the boss?” Nikoletta asked.

“I am in charge of this entire operation. Every grenade you have seen has been manufactured by me, at least in part. Impressive, isn’t it?” Elstima scooped some lava from the cauldron, placed it on the anvil, and hammered it.

Nikoletta waited for the cetanthro worker to crouch beside the lava again. As soon as it did, she placed her foot on its back and shoved it right into the pool.

Elstima stopped hammering and lifted his goggles. “I see.”

Nikoletta flashed yellow as she leveled up. Her mace glowed brightly. “You’re next.”