Rick could now see Penny. Only that small fraction of his domain was visible to him. Still, he couldn’t speak to her.

He fought a battle between pushing to reach Penny and holding onto Energy. Other things were happening within his domain that he couldn’t see, yet he still felt them — like an itch in the middle of his back that he couldn’t reach.

Rick thought about Billy, Luca, and all of his minions. They were a part of him now. If he was hurting, they surely were too. While they suffered at the hands of the Challengers, he couldn’t let them suffer by his failings. They were probably scared and confused. He pushed with all he had, letting go of the Energy and grasping onto Penny’s presence.

Something else was blocking him.

Penny was a shining light in the darkness, but beyond her was a malevolent presence that threatened to drown him.

She seemed to understand Rick’s panicked emotions and pushed her light out, fighting the darkness. It appeared effortless for her, but Rick could sense the struggle.

This is the curse, Rick realized. Somehow, Marv’s curse had wormed its way into his domain and took on a life of its own without its master to control it.

“Not in my fuckin’ house,” Rick tried to yell – still muted. The curse was trying to take over his domain while he was in his weakened state.

He attempted to use Resource Burn on the curse, even though there was no solid source to focus on. The curse reacted immediately, dancing back as he burned it. Penny’s light rushed the areas it had retreated from. Rick gained Energy, but most slipped out. A quick check showed that he managed to hold onto a meager 17 Energy.

Reinvigorated, Rick continued to burn at the malevolent presence. After a few minutes, he had regained a hold of most of the Treasure Room, but now the curse didn’t retreat as readily. It fought back at Penny’s light while trying to dance out of the way of Rick’s attacks.

What followed was a game of give and take. Like sumo wrestlers jockeying for position and trying to oust the other out.

— — —

Atrono saw the shift in Billy’s eyes before the gunslinger even knew what happened and ran to the clinic.

“Let me in! It’s Atrono,” he shouted

The door cracked open and Jimmy looked out, hastily ushering Atrono in before slamming it again.

“Where are the children?” Atrono asked.

“Below. There’s a secret hatch. I was the bait, but it looks like we both are now,” Jimmy said with a wink.

Atrono straightened his back and nodded, “I’ll stand at the far end with my bow ready.”

Jimmy gave a curt nod, “I’ll hold the door as long as I can.”

A blue bullet blasted through the door, narrowly missing Jimmy.

“Shit, never mind. We’re fish in a goddamn barrel right now.”

Another bullet passed through the wall on Atrono’s side, grazing his arm. The centaur yelped and Jimmy fell to the floor.

“Get down!” Jimmy yelled.

Atrono clacked around the clinic, trying to find space to lie down, “I can’t lie down the same way you can.”

Jimmy got to his knee, nodding to Atrono’s bow, and said, “Get ready to shoot those little daisy sticks.”

Before Atrono could retort, Jimmy got up and rushed out of the door like an angry bull, shouting for Billy. The act erased all of the Broadcaster’s thoughts about the Dungeon Attendant. Rick had indeed picked a worthy man. Promising not to fail Jimmy for this heroic deed, Atrono readied an arrow, searching for the floor boss.

— — —

Jimmy’s heart raced as he ran. If his immunity was truly gone while Rick was recovering, Billy may very well kill him.

A gunshot rang out and Jimmy felt a jolt in his leg, followed by crippling pain that brought him down face-first, answering his question of immunity. He rolled over, not yet daring to look at his leg, but searched for Billy. What he saw made him huff out a laugh despite the pain.

Billy still stood, wobbling with an arrow embedded in his head. The front of the arrow was sticking out of one side of his head while the butt of the arrow was sticking out of the other side of his head. Jimmy had an old Halloween costume prop that did the same thing.

Atrono raced forward and kicked Billy’s corpse to the ground before reaching Jimmy and pouring a healing potion on his leg.

The two men looked at each other with newfound respect.

Unfortunately, their victory celebration was cut short by the howls of five wolves.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

—- — —

Rick and Penny had tag-teamed the curse to fully take the Treasure Room back. Something had also happened outside that weakened the curse, helping him push through to the door of the Auxiliary Room.

The Ceaseless Wolves were howling in agony but quieted to a whimper as they felt their master’s presence.

“Calm down, I’ll get us through this. Just rest here, pups,” Rick soothed the wolves.

Rick smelled blood in the air near the wolves and his worry ticked up a notch, but there was no time to dwell. He needed to keep attacking the curse.

Just as he had the thought, a tiny dark ball shot forward and into one of the wolves. Infecting one was the same as infecting all. Rick fervently tracked it down and found it circulating through one of them. Wisps of the curse flooded into the other, attempting to create their little globs of consuming death. He refused to allow it to take root, not caring about the side effects of burning it within the wolves.

The condensed ball of the curse magic fought to flee its new host but Rick was too persistent. His core flooded with Energy as he destroyed it, ignoring the wolves’ yelps. Their insides burned along with the curse. The only thing keeping the Ceaseless Wolves alive was their shared health pool.

The darkness became more transparent and Rick could see shadows and shapes within the Auxiliary Room. He flooded the area with his Energy before it could escape his core, making it war with the curse.

Penny left Rick’s core for the first time and bounded into the auxiliary room, bursting with light, soothing the writhing wolves at her feet.

As Rick continued to burn through the curse, not letting it condense as it curled through the air, he saw one of the black dots inside one of the buildings, searching for a host. That’s the clinic, he realized. Dane and Danny were below with barely enough room between them and the Kaiju Egg. If either they or the egg became cursed, he’d never forgive himself.

This bead of curse magic felt heavier compared to the others despite its small size. It sucked up more of the ambient curse as it traveled.

Rick burned a straight line through the curse and into the clinic, pushing both Energy and his skill into the building and grabbing hold of the dark spot. He burned it with all he had. This little spot was stronger — more mature.

The condensed curse abandoned the building and shot forward toward Penny as if it were alive and knew it was in danger. Its last course of action appeared to be doing as much damage as possible.

Rick continued to burn it and push his Energy. He’d never used his Energy this way and felt his control of it strengthen. The constant influx and outflux created a vortex of Energy and he could feel it repairing the fracture in his core.

The curse wavered, frozen in the air by Rick and Penny. Rather than shrinking, it expanded, losing its condensed form. Rick thought he was winning the battle, but it kept expanding, blanketing the room in blackness. Tendrils wreathed out, reaching for Penny and the wolves.

Penny’s light grew brighter, shielding the wolves in a corona. The curse tendrils slammed against it while Rick attacked its center.

His vortex of Energy spun faster and faster. His Energy condensed and his burn ability became stronger.

Finally, Rick destroyed it and feared that the Energy injection would shatter his core, but it did the opposite. He leveled up — multiple times.

The fracture was completely repaired as a result. Rick maintained the vortex and mimicked the curse. Rather than letting it dissipate, he continued to rotate his Energy, attempting to condense it.

Rick’s focus was interrupted as he felt his domain return to him. Remnants of the curse littered the first floor and the bodies of his minions.

Finn had the worst of it. His evolved frame was a thick web of the curse, despite being dead. Rick surmised that the glob of the curse had come from him as he noticed an empty, rotted spot in the wolf’s head.

Before checking on anyone such as Jimmy, the boys, or Atrono – Rick ensured his domain was rid of the curse. He quickly found that once the curse had been eliminated from the minions and the air, their respawn timers began.

Poor Elza had been a difficult task to cleanse. Pieces of her had been inside of Yosk and Finn. He could only hope that her mind didn’t suffer any lasting damage. Perhaps she had already been dead when it happened. That opened a whole other can of worms regarding Yosk and Finn. Would they remember their deeds while cursed? Would the others remember? He hoped for their sake that they didn’t, but only time would tell.

Finally, he was able to check in on his friends.

The boys had come out of their hiding spots. Atrono supported Jimmy who favored a leg.

“Hi, Jim. What’s with your leg?” Rick asked.

Jimmy’s eyes welled up, “It’s good to hear you, Rick. I… I wasn’t sure if you were with us.”

“I can’t take another blubbery Jimmy moment,” Rick heckled. “So I’ll ask again – what happened to your leg?”

“Your stupid, idiot, moron minion, Billy. He shot me. Atrono saved the day by doming him with an arrow and putting a health potion on my wound,” Jimmy explained. “It’s all better, but there’s a phantom pain that’ll hit every couple of minutes. I wonder if the Challengers get this shit,” he shuddered.

“Huh. Good question. I have a better question though,” Rick said.

“What’s that?”

“Why. The. Fuck… didn’t you use that protection ability you had on me?” Rick asked. “The one with the long-ass cooldown. This would have been a good time to use it.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened.

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

“No. I mean, yeah - but,” he stammered.

Rick wanted to scream at him but knew that it wouldn’t do any good. “I’m glad you’re okay, bud.”

“Rick – I’m sorry. I should just go. All I do is fuck up.”

A different voice piped up, surprising Rick. “That is most certainly not the case,” Atrono said. “Jimmy is a hero. Without him, I would be dead. The young gentlemen, Dane and Danny, would also be dead. He saved us all through selfless effort.”

Rick stared at the centaur for a moment, waiting for the punchline – it never came. Atrono stood with a straight back, defending the man who he’d butted heads with from the beginning.

Atrono gave Rick the recap of Jimmy taking care of the boys and putting himself in harm's way to distract Billy. “And he did all of that knowing that he may not be immune to the minions due to your condition,” Atrono finished.

Rick was dumbfounded initially. Jimmy had done all of that?

“Damn – Good job, Jimmy,” Rick said after a few moments. “And don’t do that shit again. If you die, I’ll kill you.”

Jimmy laughed, “You’ll kill me if I die?”

“Yeah. Us dungeons know some shit.”

As they bantered for a few more minutes, Rick realized that something was missing. “Wait – where are the Snatchers?”

Both Atrono and Jimmy groaned.