"My show," Kura signed, watching the bone abomination. She hurled one of her many knives to strike a wall, making noise, then used the distraction to creep ahead. She left Vonn hiding alone at the foot of the stairs, frozen as the bone monster crept by again on its seven or so legs. The spell charge on his gun faded over time and he waited until the beast was gone before restoring it, spending more of his Mana. He was recovering slowly but was still bruised from the crash, too:

[Health: 37/45, Mana: 36/45, Stamina: 45/55]

The information glowed in the corners of his vision when he called for it by reflex, like remembering a song. He glanced nervously up the crudely cut stairs, then peeked into the second-floor hall again. Just then, Kura appeared from an unexpected angle and beckoned him on. He crept toward her. She gestured for silence, then mimed a scuttling shape. The tapping of bony feet came closer, then paused. Vonn's built-in pelt of red fur prickled. Finally the creature's steps receded and Kura led him on again.

They came to a room where another skeleton lay broken. Kura whispered, "No luck at finding magicite yet."

"No prisoners, either?"

Kura shook her head. "So we wait for that monster to pass by once more, and then I look for more stairs." She pulled out a glass vial of inky liquid.

She left him to hide, again. Vonn kept watch, silently praying that the captive that was probably here, was still alive. He didn't dare mount a rescue operation on this trip. He was growing impatient when his ears flicked backwards and he heard a slurping noise.

He flattened against the wall and reflexively charged his gun with frost again. The sound wasn't growing closer. Probably. He started to regret not buying any enhancements to his Senses the way he'd upgraded things like Agility. With his attention focused on the strange sound, he didn't notice Kura beckoning for him until she took a risk and tapped on the stonework beside her. Vonn turned and nodded.

The slurping started up behind him. He hustled. When she ducked, he did too. She dumped out the vial she carried and left a black cloud in their wake. They went around a corner, clambered above a stone coffin that blocked the hall, and reached a downward ramp. An altar glowed dim blue at the bottom with a Human man's body sprawled across it, his throat cut. The floor was flooded by several inches of what he hoped was mostly water.

"What the hell," Vonn whispered. It was either fresh, or another decoration that the dungeon had put here to mimic things.

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

Kura shushed him and gestured to the walls, a question in her eyes. Vonn studied the path leading down and pointed out a suspicious discolored patch of floor. Kura crept ahead, avoiding the spot, then motioned for him.

Vonn went down to the sacrifice chamber. This world didn't use pentagrams as ritual symbols. But when he tore his attention away from the dead man he saw a dark design worked into the altar, like a fourfold labyrinth atop a crescent. Or maybe like a set of brass knuckles. In any case the design was abstract yet brutal.

Kura hissed. "Bastards."

"Onward?" Vonn said, trying to ignore the smell and the sloshing liquid around his boots and the fact that yet another passage led onward from here, deeper into the bowels of this corrupted place.

The room grew subtly brighter. Vonn turned toward the ramp they'd descended and saw a shape looming atop it, just darkness with a pair of sickly blue glowing eyes that didn't stay next to each other. His twitching tail froze. After a long moment the shape moved on and Kura felt it was safe enough to shine a small crystal around for a better look.

The mad altar's symbol was repeated a dozen times all over the walls.

Vonn took a step back and his right boot clinked against something. He stopped, whispering, "Check my foot. Did I trigger something?"

Kura crouched beside the altar. "Thank Winter! Move." She nudged Vonn aside and pointed out a crystal shard beneath the tainted water, creating the altar's glow. In this case it gave off an unfamiliar shade like a blue-black bruise. She knocked it free with a knife.

Vonn now noticed a second one growing on the opposite side. "May as well." He reluctantly used his own knife on it and wiped the gem dry on his pants. Staring into its sickly light caused the System to display, [Lesser magicite shard.] No comment labeling it as special. He put it into an empty pocket for fear of it contaminating his other pieces, and couldn't do more than pray it didn't directly hurt him either.

Kura made the gesture for "done", and he nodded. But then she turned slowly toward the deeper tunnel.

Down that way, someone was talking.

They started back up the ramp, narrowly avoiding the suspicious spot. They vaulted over the coffin. She took out a mirror and used it to peek around the next corner, then pulled back and signed for that bony scuttling thing. Wait.

People below were arguing. An arrogant Kobold lectured someone with an Elf or Human voice. Vonn couldn't make out the words but they were growing closer. He gritted his teeth and got Kura's attention.

She cursed quietly. Then she signed, You and me, run, in three. He nodded and tapped his gun and her club with another frost spell just in case.

They took off, feet thudding on the stone floor. Vonn lost track of what direction he was going. Hopefully Kura knew. Around one corner, down a hall, and right into the face of the seven-legged thing. Its jaws opened wide.

She whalloped it with her club, making its jaw crackle with ice. A few teeth flew off. Then, insanely, she leaped over and around it in the corridor. Vonn had no good choice but to follow. His jump took him onto one outstretched spidery leg and only his enhanced Balance ability kept him upright. Some bony appendage lashed out at him and knocked him down, but he landed behind the beast and Kura helped him up while it was trying to turn around.

Something slurped from not far off on his left.