Well that fight went pretty much the way we thought it would. It lasted maybe thirty minutes or so, thanks to our analyzing it beforehand and then adapting to things on the fly. We found out early on that the four greater elites were not tied to the levers in some strange mechanic; instead, about every one and a half minutes, some little rascal would pop out and try to pull one of them from a random location. Ariana had frozen the levers successfully though, so all we had to do was take the thing out and refocus our attention on the main fight.

The minion monsters went down within the first ten minutes of the battle, and then we proceeded to take down the elites one by one. Not that it really mattered, we thought, but better safe than sorry. Then we got a little cozy and started to ignore the levers, only to find out the little mobs going after the levers were flame-lizards who would try to melt the ice Ariana had used so that the lever would move. Ari herself just barely noticed in time, and so we had to redouble our vigilance there.

And then we discovered that, upon nearing the end of their life, the greater elites would enact a suicide spell on us. We managed to finish the first one off before it could do its thing, but on the second one we got distracted by the increasing number of flame-lizards going after levers. Our enemy detonated itself as a poison-bomb, and the vaporous death began filling the room. Healina quickly strengthened her wards and placed a few heal-over-time effects on us, while summoning up a few creatures that could handle poison before returning to her healing skills.

Once we had figured all this out we quickly reestablished a battle pattern, focusing on the minions until the elites were almost dead and then burning them down before they could poison us. By the time the fight was over we felt as if we really should have won the dungeon on account of it.

“And now we face the boss? Really?” Lizzy groaned as the door to the last chamber unlocked.

“I'm not gonna say anything in case I jinx it.” I sighed as I made my way to the door, checking to see if any loot had dropped. “Oh, nice, some charms and a couple skill tomes!”

“Nice!” Ari said as she looked too. “Oh, perfect! But this other one should go to Heali; and maybe that third to Maryn...” she mused, looking them over.

“Hmm? 'Summoner Tome: Serpent Friend'... eek!” Healina read with a yelp.

“Calm down, calm down.” Lizzy said, patting her shoulder.

“What's this?” Maryn wondered as I gave her the third. “Oh, I see! Very nice!” she then said.

“Hmm?” Lizzy looked over at us.

“A shield skill of some sort, I guess.” I shrugged.

“This one's 'Venomous Retaliation',” Maryn grinned.

“Oh, perfect!” Lizzy said with a grin. “Not that we dare hope it will work in here, but who knows.”

“Exactly.” Maryn nodded.

“Right... last door; we all ready?” I then said, looking around at them.

“Right with you, partner!” Ari told me.

“Let's go!” Lizzy added, and the other two nodded. We turned to the door at the other end of the room, and entered it.

***

A corridor that was maybe five meters long led into a large chamber not unlike the one we had just left, with an inner rampart that ran around the room. There were ten levers this time instead of eight, but no apertures from where a troublesome little lizard might emerge. And dead center in the room was a great serpent.

It was bigger than even the two we had seen outside, and its status bar gave me to know that it was even deadlier.

“Five-hundred thousand health...” I murmured in disbelief as I looked it over.

“Bad elemental resistance though.” Ariana noted.

“But terrific physical resist,” I grimaced.

“That looks like a very strange cobra-python hybrid,” Maryn said as she looked it over. “I'm sure it has poison-slash-venom attacks that are much stronger than all the others.”

“Probably has some mesmerize or hypnosis attacks as well.” Lizzy added.

“There's got to be some sort of--” I started, and then looked around again; what were the levers tied to? “Shadow Vision.” I intoned, looking again; the levers seemed to be tied to these huge spikes that could come out of the walls, the floor, or the ceiling.

“Lana?” Ari wondered.

“Oh, I get it,” I said as I snapped my fingers. “These levers are here to help us for a change, I think. We can probably lure the boss to certain spots and then pull them to do massive damage to it.”

“Nice!”

“Well done!” Lizzy and Maryn said at once.

“That makes things a lot easier.” Healina smiled.

“Definitely!” Ari said, looking confidently towards our enemy.

“There could be some sort of special order for them as well; some games do that.” I said.

“Like they might get a bonus to their damage at certain points in the fight,” Lizzy nodded back.

“Yep.”

“We'll have you and Ariana keep an eye out, but let's try using them in a clockwise pattern from nine.” Maryn said, pointing to one of the spots..

“Will do!”

“You got it!” the two of us replied.

“We're still good on potions and stuff; let's hope we get this in one shot!” Healina said.

“Here we go!” I then said, and we made our way inside.

As soon as the fight started, the boss--named Wyrdslither, by the way--let out a guttural hiss that was almost a roar. Maryn taunted it right away, and it focused its attacks on her while Healina kept her and us healed up, placing a few wards and buffs on us. Ariana added a few of hers, and while she and I stayed on the edges to deal some ranged damage Lizzy went with Maryn to attack it up close, as did Sallymander.

Yeah, I know she's an okay tank when it counts, but she really shines with heavy damage, I thought to myself as I saw that halberd going around like a possessed carnival ride. Maryn was no slouch with her sword, either. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing a couple times when the boss' head came towards her, only to be bashed in the face by that tower-shield. The thing would reel back dizzily, its eyes doing loops like the cartoons; but it would simply resume its attacks a moment later, keeping us on guard.

Slowly we dragged it towards the first trap we intended to use. None of the spots had glowed or shown any other kind of sign that they were asking to be used, so we were operating under the assumption that it didn't particularly matter. When we were near our first spot, I let loose one last arrow, Fanged Vengeance, and then took off for the lever on the upper level.

“Lana, now!” Lizzy's voice called up as I reached it. I pulled it, and a series of huge spikes shot out from the wall and stabbed into the boss. It gurgled angrily and painfully, and we had the satisfaction of seeing its health dwindle by around twelve percent or so.

“Yes!” Ariana cheered, and then decided to join me on the platforms above.

“Probably safer, and we can get the levers quicker!” I said to her as she nodded back to me, heading for the other side.

“Exactly!” she replied with a wink.

“You're on your own -- can't quite reach you up there!” Healina called.

“We should be fine!” I returned as I let loose another arrow.

“Taking it to the ten-thirty!” Maryn said.

“Watch that one! The spikes were in the floor!” I warned them.

“Got it!” the reply came. Our friends on the ground masterfully moved Wyrdslither to the next spot; the lever for this one was still on my side. “Ready!” Maryn called.

“Jump back!” I said as I pulled it, and as they did another bunch of great spikes came rushing up to knock about another ten-percent off of our enemy's health.

“Yeep! That was close!” Maryn exclaimed with a laugh.

“Right?” Lizzy replied to her.

“Next!” our shield-user seemed to smile back, dragging Wyrdslither to the next spot.

Daang it, you really do look happier here, I thought to myself as the fight continued. One by one, we continued using the spike-traps on the boss; when the levers were done on my side, Ari began to pull hers. A couple times we were slowed down a bit by this poisonous breath attack it used, and we found out that it could also use hypnosis if we weren't paying attention, but other than that it was going great -- until we got to the last spot. Then it became untauntable like its friends outside, and it started heading straight for the one doing the most damage to it.

If you guessed me, you guessed wrong. It was Ari. Elemental damage, remember?

“I can't get it back!” Maryn called to her.

“Ari! Over here!” I said to her.

“But the lever!” she protested.

“I'll worry about the lever, you bait it over here to where the trap is!” I said, as I ran over towards where she was, and she nodded, heading to where I had been.

“Watch out!” Healina called up to us; Wyrdslither was about to do a strike attack.

Snap!! I thought to myself as it got into pouncing position.

“Hyah!” Maryn's voice called out, and the tower-shield bashed our enemy in the face one last time, stopping the attack. “Go!” she said to us. Ariana got into position; Wyrdslither eagerly made its way towards her, sliding on to the trap; I pulled the lever, and the last set of spikes silently thundered down from the ceiling.

The last of its HP went down, and then the boss went ka-poof in a shower of shards. As we sighed in relief a key popped up in my inventory; it was a Skull-key.

“Well, go figure.” I quipped to myself.

“What's next?” Lizzy asked as the six of us regrouped.

“The Skull Temple, it seems,” I said, showing them the key.

“Heh, backtracking a bit,” our halberdier sighed.

“Do we have time?” Maryn wondered.

“Ehh...” I wondered. It had taken a bit longer than we thought to get through this one, after all.

“I don't really have any problem staying up later,” Lizzy shrugged, “Neither does Heali, really; what about you three?”

“I mean, it's not like we have to get off at ten real-time; it just seemed an appropriate cut-off.” I replied.

“We've gone later on weekends and still gotten up just fine; and we've been good about keeping up with real life stuff, too. I say we make eleven our new cut-off.” Ariana said, looking at me with a searching expression.

“I mean, that's true... and Ty doesn't seem to be the worse for staying up late here himself; sure, let's go another real hour.” I agreed, and she smiled back, nodding at me.

“I can do that, too.” Maryn said. “Let's hurry on, then!” she added eagerly.

“Maybe we can get a third done tonight as well!” Healina said cheerfully.

“May-be!” Lizzy returned.

“Well then we're gonna have to run again; remember what's out there,” I reminded them as we gathered the rest of the loot we had won before heading out.

“Ugh. Right.” Healina said with a hint of disgust.

“Come on, hurry!” Ariana said as we made our way up a flight of stairs to exit the Serpent Temple and hasten on our way north to our next destination.

***

Thanks to our first encounter, we made our way past the impossible-to-beat monster snakes still slithering around without attracting notice, and then scurried towards the Skull Temple. At least that place was straight-forward. As you might expect, there were skeletal monsters and a few more flesh-covered undead (gyeck!) lumbering about, along with some bats and crawling arms.

“Elite at the door!” Ariana called out as we got nearer.

“Ugh, wouldn't you know it's a lich...” I grumbled as I finished slashing a couple skeletons, bringing up the ID on the monster in question.

“Just poof and assassinate him already!” Lizzy retorted as she swung her halberd through a second group.

“Even I can't one-shot that thing!” I complained.

“We don't need a one-shot, just take him down as much as you can.” Maryn said calmly, bashing one of the walking-corpses with her shield.

“Lana, there's more gathering!” Ari said to me.

“Heh?” I looked back; there were a couple weaker monsters gathering around the elite at the door.

“I'll distract them for a moment,” Ari continued, “But you should probably go now.” she said with a grin.

“Gotcha,” I nodded back, vanishing from sight as Ari cast a few spells at the minions.

I can still *technically* do some major damage to this guy, but still, his resistances are weirdly high for a lich... I grumbled inwardly as I raced towards the elite. I queued up a couple of critical and damage boosters, and then struck with Holy Crescent Flash before darting away again. Just a third or so, huh?

“Good enough!” Lizzy said as she finished with another wave of skeletons and barreled towards the lich with a yell. She opened up with Thurian Stomp, dazing it and finishing off its minions, and then Maryn joined in as I returned to attack with Heart Stinger. Her shield-bash smacked it in the face just as my attack and another from Ari reached it, and then the reflective ward placed on us by Healina went off and did some more damage to it.

“Almost!” I said as I watched the bar drop to fifteen-percent.

“Again!” Maryn said, and the two of us struck with our weapons while Lizzy brought her halberd down on its head. It died with a groan of rage and a shower of pixels, leaving behind a ring for our troubles.

“Heh?” I said as I caught it, looking it over. “Hm, hm... a summoner ring.” I remarked as I looked over its stats: +15 to Vitality, Wisdom, and Charisma and a skill to summon undead minions. I tossed it towards Healina, who caught it and inspected it for herself.

“Oh, nice!” she said with a smile, equipping it to a finger.

“Good thing we can wear more than a few rings in this game, unlike normal games.” Lizzy grinned as we made our way to the door.

“Right?” I agreed. “Though I wonder if some items might cancel or hinder each other...”

“Ahh, good thought--we'll have to watch what we equip from now on.” our smith nodded back to me.

“Hmm? Oh, our friend wandered off finally,” Healina suddenly noticed.

“Huh?” I wondered, looking back. Our Sallymander had gone. “Ah... oh well. I'm sure we'll run into something--”

“Oh, there he is!” Ariana then remarked; sure enough, that dog-like lizard came trotting towards me.

“H-heh?” I wondered, looking down at it as the creature gazed up at me. “Whaddaya want, a reward? Stay and help us fight next time, then.” I huffed, ignoring the smiles of the other four. Sallymander licked his lips, and I shrugged. “Come on, then.” I said as I unlocked the temple, and the six of us made our way inside.

I was suddenly reminded of Molek as we walked inside; the dankness of the interior, the old moldy stones, the foreboding of undead monsters lurking around every corner, it made me wonder why I hadn't experienced the feeling in the other temples.

Suddenly it struck me that this place was very similar to the level in that game with the traitorous monk-turned-bloodmage. Eerily so, almost. I took a look around with Shadow Vision, and Ariana used her Mystic Vision as well. Both of us took a few moments to examine the place before reporting on what we saw.

“We can probably breeze through it if there's no traps,” Ari remarked, looking over at me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I don't think there are any,” I shook my head. Our lizard friend began scuttling on ahead for some reason; as I took a closer look with my skill once more I noticed he was chowing down on rodents.

“He's... eating rats?” Ari said as she also took a look.

“Pretty much,” I nodded.

“We can probably leave him to it.” Lizzy shrugged. “Might be helpful somehow; who knows, the rats might have a debuff or two.”

“Right... let's get going, then.” I said, and we set off, weapons at the ready.

The Skull Temple was almost a cathedral of sorts; unlike the other dungeons, it didn't really have separate levels, it just had corridors and stairwells that kept leading down. We made our way through them at a good pace, slicing, bashing, whacking, incinerating, or otherwise busting through the undead monsters that got in our way. In addition to the kinds we had fought outside, there were also spectral ones, including marsh-ghouls and accursed-souls. A couple of times we ran into some skeletal pygmies, and there were more than a few elites lurking around at odd corners, but nothing we couldn't handle.

In this dungeon we also found several books, including a few skill books that we could use, Ari and Heali especially. We came across some resources as well, gathering them up and storing them away as we passed through the moldy corridors filled with the risen dead.

“Think we'll ever get to the boss?” Lizzy quipped as we finished getting down another long staircase.

“It's been about an hour and a half in Panarena time, hasn't it?” Maryn wondered as we readied ourselves for whatever was waiting up ahead. “At this rate extending your play-time may be for nothing!” she said to Ariana and myself.

“Foolish heroes,” a deep voice said before either of us could make a reply. “Thou hast come here to mine own abode, seeking treasure and glory; yea, thou hast thy fair share and more, but thinkest thou that mine temple wouldst be so easily ransacked by such vagabonds as thou seemst to be?” it continued, and the area around us was suddenly lit up by nine braziers of green or blue fire. At the fair end of the now-illuminated room was a figure in black robes holding a black staff with a venomous-red gem at its top.

“The Skull Lord,” I read as I brought up his ID.

“Major magical and elemental resistance, but average on physical.” Maryn noted.

“Fairly average health, too, for a boss.” Lizzy said.

“Looks like Ari and Heali will be focusing mostly on support this time.” I said with a wry grin.

“No worries!” Ariana smiled back.

“I guess our pet will be helping us back here with the rats,” Healina remarked as she looked over towards Sallymander, who was obliviously eating them up.

“Dang it, that guy can eat,” I remarked with surprise.

“Dost thou ignore my words, O foolish ones?” our enemy taunted us.

“Ahh--right, him.” I then said, and with a nod the three of us who were attacking rushed him.

As soon as we struck him we were knocked back, Lizzy and I more so than Maryn, who was only knocked back half the distance we were. She then activated a skill and rushed him again. This time the Skull Lord was staggered a bit, and he began casting spells to heal himself.

“Oh no you don't!” Lizzy shouted, using her interrupt on him.

“Tch!” I grumbled to myself. “We'll have to watch for that, and we may have to keep an eye out for that one rude mechanic...”

“Right!” Lizzy nodded back.

“What's that?” Maryn asked.

“Where they activate a skill that heals them if we attack,” I told her, and she frowned.

“You're right, that is a rude mechanic,” she remarked.

“Come, my vermin, come and feast!” the Skull Lord said; nothing happened. We looked around at each other and laughed.

“Niiiice.” I remarked. The vermin--the rats--had been more or less wiped out by our hungry lizard. And they didn't get reinforcements, it seemed.

“So beyond the self-heals it's just a tank-and-spank.” Lizzy said, flashing a smile.

“And the knockbacks,” Maryn nodded.

“Time for round two!” I called out, and we rushed him again.

It didn't take us much longer to figure out that the knockback had an induction which couldn't be interrupted, but we could avoid it by jumping back out of its range. As for his self heals, they were always obvious, but we couldn't always interrupt him. Then Ariana figured out she could uses telekinesis on random objects and hurl them at the boss to interrupt him as well, which was a huge help.

Basically, we thrashed him before a half hour of Panarena time had gone by; and then we ended up with the Jaguar-key. We claimed our loot, and headed on out of the Skull Temple to make our way east by southeast.

“Man, we really lucked out with Healina's taming tonight,” Lizzy remarked as Sallymander waddled alongside us.

“Right?” Ari grinned.

“I don't even want to think about what those rats might have done to us,” Maryn said with a look of amusement.

“I wonder how he'll do against these cats?” Healina wondered as we approached the area where the Jaguar Temple sat.

“I wonder what the heck is in the final dungeon for this quest...” I suddenly thought out loud.

“It's got to be something totally annoying at this rate.” our smith remarked. “Oh, we got to fifty-three... or I did, anyway.”

“Same!” Healina returned, and Maryn nodded.

“Jumped up to it from fifty-one thanks to you guys.” she smiled.

“Now we're pretty much together!” Ari smiled back.

“Let's sort that out, then, before we go on,” I said, and when we had done this we resumed what was left of our trek to the fifth temple.

“W-wait... if this is the fifth, then that m-means the s-s-sixth...” Healina stammered as we got to the entrance, and the rest of us looked around at each other sheepishly.

“Don't worry about it yet!” Lizzy patted her on the head. She let out a worried sigh, but nodded her head.

All of a sudden I heard something practically galloping towards us. I looked around, and then my eyes alighted on a house-sized saber-toothed cat barreling towards us. Instinctively sensing that this was no different than the giant serpents around the temple to the west of us, I grabbed Ariana's hand and began dashing for the door.

“Run! Run! Run!!” I cried out, and the rest of them began hurrying after me, Lizzy taking a peek back.

“Whoa!!” she practically yelped, and burst ahead of us to the door. “Key! Key! Quick the key!” she chattered at me, and as soon as I got to the door I put the key in; a moment later we were transported inside, just as the monstrous-sized cat came skidding to a halt before us. We found ourselves in a hall build of standstone, with a subtly Ancient Egyptian style in architecture.

“Good grief!” Maryn remarked as we caught our breath.

“We've been spoiled by the Aldholt,” Lizzy grumbled. “I guess we'll have to watch for that sort of thing around dungeons from now on... yeesh.” she remarked, shaking her head. Our pet began wandering off again; this time I had no clue what it was after, and no real inclination to find out.

“So long as he's doing his thing we can do ours,” I remarked as Ari and I activated our vision skills.

The architectural motif we had noticed continued all throughout our current dungeon; it was uncannily similar to the ancient tombs a sea and a continent away in real life. Jaguar statues and wall-paintings were in many places about the dusty halls, and there were many prominent lines of Hoh'mateca symbols on pillars or intertwined with or underneath the paintings. When I thought about it, I found it weird that a cat from the Americas was motif'ed in an Egyptian-style temple, but then it is a fantasy game. Then again the other temples were more “new world” in style... what was with this oddity?

“According to the lore, this is the most ancient of the six temples, built in a time before the marshes were marshes. The later temple builders had different materials, and they also had their own aesthetics, despite building their own temples in a similar fashion to this one. The keys and the doors were also crafted by them.” Ariana recounted as she scanned the passages of the temple.

“Heh...?” I remarked with interest. “Then either they broke in to this one back then or the place was door-less until they made one.”

“Probably,” she nodded back.

“Why is fantastical history always more interesting than real history?” Lizzy quipped.

“I wouldn't go too far with that assertion, but I see your point.” Healina returned.

“It's probably because we don't have tests for the fantasy-lore.” Maryn grinned.

“There you go!” Lizzy smiled, and we all laughed. “Well, kiddos, what's out there?” she then asked us.

“Statues, writing, and cats.” Ari replied.

“I feel like some of those statues could possibly come to life as we go by,” I added, and Ari nodded in agreement.

“True, they do look suspicious.”

“Not that I hate cats or anything, but they are very sneaky critters.” I added, and she giggled.

“How many cats are we talking?” Lizzy asked then.

“Ehh...” I pondered, looking around again to be more certain.

“With the statues? I'd say it's mostly elites or champions; not many minions around. We should get through at a good pace and have time to puzzle out the boss at the end.” Ariana said.

“What she said.” I nodded.

“No traps?” Maryn wonderd.

“Not that I can see.”

“Since it's the oldest temple, let's be cautious just in case.” she suggested, and we agreed to this.

“Let's get going,” I said, and we headed on down into the Jaguar Temple. It was as we did so that I realized I hadn't seen our little friend scurrying around, and Ari hadn't seemed to have noticed him either with her skill; where had he gotten to, and what was he up to?

Well, no immediate answer of any sort came to that question as we proceeded quietly through the halls. Moreso than the others, this temple had an overpowering silence to it; only Maryn and Elizasmith really made any sort of sound, and that was because of their heavier armor. Not even a breeze wafted through the corridors, although a couple times there were these really mysterious and intangible whispers that flitted by.

We stepped cautiously, anxiously looking around in the dimly-lit temple for any sign that enemies were lurking or preparing to pounce. I realized after a long few minutes that I couldn't even detect the sound of Sallymander padding around. I made a motion to Ari, wondering if she should hear our lizard ally; she shook her head.

I guess if she and Healina can't hear that thing, he's either dead or really far along... I thought to myself as we slowly rounded a corner, myself as the vanguard, bow drawn and arrow nocked.

There were cat statues lining the walls. I don't mean the cutesy kind, or even the ones that are ceremonial in some way or even the more austere or abstract kind. I mean fierce looking. As if they could suddenly come to life and impale you with their weapon or rip your face off with a hefty paw. Most of them did resemble jaguars, but a couple of them were definitely tigerish. These last two were the most suspicious to me. As the rest of the gang came around the corner to follow me, I pointed them out. Maryn nodded, drawing her sword and readying her shield.

“Best keep an eye on the middle ranks as well, and the ones on this side; they may turn as we pass through.” she said as she advanced down the hall, and I nodded back. Lizzy took out her halberd, readying it for a Thurian Stomp if needed. I went with our two mages in the middle, ready to fire a shot at the first sign of trouble.

We were almost through the hall; none of the cat-statues had moved yet, but that didn't mean they wouldn't. Something tickled my memory. Why did this feel familiar? Was it a mechanic from another game, or some sort of trope that I had seen in a movie or--

“A television show...” I said as I stared at the magnificent trident-wielding jaguar on my left.

“Hmm?” Ariana wondered.

“Wasn't there some show where statue-monsters couldn't move so long as you looked at them?” I softly asked.

“Was there something like that?” Lizzy remarked.

“I think so -- some old English thing, wasn't it?” Healina said.

“That sounds familiar now,” I nodded back.

“But then--before, when we couldn't see them...” Lizzy rightly pointed out, and we thought about it for a moment more.

“Maybe it's a bit different here,” Heali suggested. “Lana, Ari, you two are probably the best suited for this; can the two of you walk backwards as we go through this corridor and watch them? I think the mechanic might only work in this hallway.”

“And if we get through it without goofing up they won't do anything,” I returned, and she nodded back.

“And if we do goof up our high damage will give the rest of you time to flip around and help,” Ariana added. “Nice thinking, Heali!”

“Only if it works!” our Sea Elf smiled back.

Ari and I then maneuvered to the rear, keeping our eyes on the statues around us. We then began walking backwards as the others continued on ahead of us. This time I could almost feel a menace from the statues. I was suddenly reminded that cats were sometimes notorious for not blinking for long periods of time. That's a random thought to have right now, but it also kind of makes sense, I mused to myself.

“I wonder if this particular mechanic is a 'theme' of the dungeon here,” I said as I kept my eyes on our targets, ensuring they didn't come after us.

“Could be,” Maryn agreed. “It'd be the first time I've heard of something like this in a game, though.”

“It's usually reversed, more or less; stay out of something's vision or it'll pounce.” Lizzy noted.

“True,” I returned. “There could be something like that further along as well.”

“Lovely,” the flat reply came.

“I didn't make the game.” I retorted, a wry smile on my face, and Ari smirked.

“We're almost to the turn.” Maryn told us.

Another few anxious moments passed us by, and then Ariana and I carefully slipped around the corner in a way that kept our focus on the statues until we sidestepped into the new corridor, where we breathed sighs of relief after a moment had gone by. Just to be sure I used Shadow Vision; the statues had not moved.

“So we know that works in certain areas,” I said with a grin.

“Maybe we can even get past the boss this way, so long as there aren't any moon-tiles around.” Lizzy said with a mischievous smile.

“Like you would have done better, thunderfoot.” I said to her with a mock glare.

“Ruuuude!” she returned, sticking her tongue out.

“Who opens nearly every fight with Thurian Stomp?” I shot back with a smirk.

“G'hyek!” our smith gulped sheepishly as Healina giggled.

“Now now, children, let's get along.” Maryn smiled gently, nodding for me to take the lead again. I gave Lizzy a pat on the shoulder and she smiled at me, shaking her head.

The quiet of the temple had been ominous before; now it became eerie. Instead of the mumbling whispers that had slithered by, there were now deep-throated groans or rumbles that seemed to reverberate from below. Or were they growls? Given that this is the Jaguar Temple, they could be growls...

“Ahh--” I suddenly stopped, looking around at the room the corridor had emptied into. The others had similar reactions. Before us was a literal army of great cat statues, and on the far end of the room there was a massive one in the likeness of a jaguar with a crown upon its head, seated upon a throne. It was situated at the top of a flight of steps that led up to its exalted dais.

“How do we get past all these...?” Maryn wondered blankly.

“And how are we supposed to fight that?” Lizzy remarked. “I bet it's another kill-all boss like that one outside; but I don't see any spikes for him!”

I looked around, examining the room more closely this time. No doubt I had missed something important with my first hasty glance and reaction. Ariana searched around with Mystic Vision, carefully scrutinizing the place.

“It'd be really handy if we could combine your Shadow Vision with my Seeing Eye,” she remarked as she scanned the room.

“That might be a little too overpowered for the developers' liking.” I shrugged, and then I alighted on something. “Cats... open eyes... shadows... light...” I mused aloud to myself, looking around. Ari looked over at me, and then began seeing what I had noticed.

“Back in the hall!” she said at once, and we jumped back just as a beam of light scanned the place we had been. I looked around quickly; above the throne there was a floating cat-head of stone with glowing eyes, slowly moving around the room as it looked for intruders.

“Nice catch,” I said to Ariana.

“Only because you were close to solving it,” she smiled back.

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Oh, I get it... is there more than one of those out there?” I suddenly wondered, and she activated her Mystic Vision-Seeing Eye combo to look again.

“Hmm... there's three.” she reported as we watched with her.

“Tricky.” Lizzy remarked.

“There should be a pattern to their scanning the room,” Maryn noted. “And maybe some are looking around faster than the others.”

“The one around the throne nearly reached us about thirty seconds or so after we got in, and the other two... hmm.” I said as I kept an eye on them.

“That first one is making a full rotation every minute,” Healina nodded after we observed them for a while longer. “The other two--that one on the back-left is swiveling every fifteen seconds or so I think, and the one on the back-right looks more random...”

“Isn't it making like a figure-eight search pattern?” Lizzy scratched her head.

“Sort of?” Heali replied, looking at it more thoughtfully.

“That was three loops, like a clover... or the rough outline of a jaguar's face.” Maryn said after another examination. “Each loop is about twenty-five seconds.”

“Ugh.” Lizzy sighed.

“Still, we can do this if we time it right.” Ariana said.

“Only Lana could get through that fast enough though,” Healina remarked. “They're set so that slow players like the rest of us would get caught.”

“Maybe this time claiming the treasure without getting caught will keep them asleep,” Ariana said with a hopeful smile on her face.

“That'd be nice,” the other girl agreed.

“Or maybe there's something to stop those cat-heads up there as well,” Maryn remarked.

“Heh, I'll hope for one of those two options.” our smith agreed.

“On to you then, Lana.” Ariana told me.

“Here we go again,” I said, steeling myself to make a dash for it and observing the patterns closely. “I bet those lights nullify stealth as well; looks like I'm going to use that skill again.” I added with a faint smile and a wink to Ari, who gave me an uneasy smile.

“Y-you have fun with that!” she giggled back nervously.

“Hmm? Oh.” Lizzy grinned. We had told her and Heali about our escapade with the ladder in the Hallowed Pagoda, and she had cackled and cackled, much to Ari's dismay.

“Wait!” Ari then said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “The paw; the king's paw. It's empty.

“Hmm? Oh! It does look like its hand is supposed to be holding something, doesn't it?” I noticed as her words caught my attention. “I wonder if there's--” I pondered for a moment, and then my eyes alighted on something else. “Sallymander!” I said with surprise; there was our crazy and helpful little pal, carrying a scepter in its mouth as it waddled without fear towards our position.

“How is he not getting caught by the lights? Oh, I get it... the pets-don't-count rule.” Lizzy said. “Hmph -- no fair!”

“Considering how things are generally different in this VR game compared to older ones, I have to agree... that seems bugged.” I mused as our little pal reached us. “But right now let's just get the quest done before it's noticed!” I then said, taking the scepter from our pet and once more readying myself for a sprint.

“The trick is that it's possible the lights could hit you at two crucial moments; once at the bottom of the stairs, and once right next to the king on his throne,” Maryn said; she must have been watching Ari's projection this whole time, making sure our plan would work.

“Any good hints on when to go?” I asked, making sure of my route as I crouched into a springing position to take off. Maryn watched for a moment more.

“Go between the two closer divisions on the left, then around the far-left division, and then sprint for then up the stairs to the king...” she advised me. I nodded back. “Now!” she said, and I took off like a rocket.

I was just barely missed as I got to my first checkpoint, but I kept cool and sprinted along between the rows of silent cat statues, then made a hard left to circle around the next group to the right, narrowly avoiding a beam again. When I got to the far side I quickly aligned myself for a straight shot to the stairs and ran even faster this time. I could see the eyes of the back-right and the throne guardians heading for my current position. I shut them out and focused on running; just as I dashed up the stairs I was narrowly missed for a third time, and then I practically flew up the stairs and did a front-flip to gain the last few steps before quickly sliding the scepter into the outstretched hand of the jaguar king.

A moment passed by; the eyes of the three guardians dimmed and shut as they rotated into a final position, each of them gazing towards the center. I let out a sigh of relief, and then the sixth key appeared for me to claim.

“Ah-heh... oh boy...” I said with a sheepish grin as I looked over the spider-key. The others came over to me without incident, including our salamander, and Healina gulped when she saw the key in my hand.

“Come to think of it, how the heck did this crazy pet know how and where to get that scepter?” Lizzy suddenly wondered.

“He's gotta be bugged or something.” I said as I patted its head. “I changed my mind; let's not report him--for now.”

“I guess the taming effect will wear off tomorrow,” Healina said with a faint smile. “We'll have to find a safe spot to get off for the night.”

“Let's head back to our little hideaway for that,” Lizzy said.

“Good idea,” I agreed.

“Seconded!” Ariana nodded.

“Third!” Maryn smiled.

“Let's do!” Heali agreed as well, and, after finding a chest with some loot in it, we departed the Jaguar Temple and returned to our abandoned manor on the hill, where we said good-bye to Sallymander and logged out for the night.

The last thing that ran through my head before I fell asleep was an echo of Ellie/Lizzy's words only a few moments ago; where and how did that glitched critter find the scepter?