Modern science says: 'The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.' From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.

-Nikola Tesla

==Zidaun==

“Who wants to bet on this being another pseudo-boss encounter?” Inda asked dryly.

I chuckled, but there were no takers.

“Not going to be any of the bosses we have encountered so far,” I said. “The arena wouldn’t work for any of them.”

The others just nodded. It probably didn’t even need to be said, but repetition and caution was how we survived.

We walked slowly forward, Gurek in the lead, as each of us prepared to fight.

As we started to walk on the bridge, the turbulent waters by the waterfall spread. The water quickly began to shift as something large moved through the water creating a protrusion in the water’s surface.

Finally it came into view enough for me to analyze it.

Silver Stream Striker

Level 11

“Level eleven,” I shouted.

The fish was large, at least a dozen feet long, with delicately gauzy fins. The whole fish was a shimmering silver, with the underside glimmering a slightly lighter color. Several large scales on top of its head were pointed and sharp.

The bridge wasn’t wide enough for Gurek to completely stand at the front, but his skin glimmered in activated power and Inda stood behind him, while Firi was shielded behind me.

Stone from the bridge moved upward and formed a shield over my left arm, while a spear formed in my right hand.

It was likely I would need better range for whatever was coming.

The fish finally breached the surface, still some twenty-five feet away, and immediately I felt mana coalesce around it.

“Mana!” I shouted.

I hunkered down, my shield in front of me, though Gurek got the first strike. A wide stream of water poured out from the fish, hitting Gurek’s armored chest. He grunted, but only slipped back a little bit, the water blasting off him to get us all wet again.

Inda threw out a knife, not wasting to opportunity.

The knife soared through the air and sank into the side of the fish with a splash of water.

The fish twitched as it was hit, then dove deeper beneath the surface. Leaving only diminishing ripples and a faint smear of crimson behind.

We kept a wary watch, and soon enough ripples began to disturb the water on the other side of the bridge.

We turned to face them, reorienting to move back into position.

The same fish emerged, and struck with another stream of water, this time striking my shield. I was forced to use the stone beneath me to brace my feet, the force reasonably powerful.

Inda tried to strike it with a knife again, but a lash of water rose up and made it go off course, creating only a grazing wound along the fish’s side.

Unfazed, the fish tried again.

This time pulses of water emerged, each aimed at Gurek and I, and I was forced to reposition my shield for each strike, while Gurek used his swords to help redirect the force, when he couldn’t ensure they would hit a properly armored spot.

We continued the fight, but the fish never showed off a new attack method.

So, in the end, we finished it off with little fuss, and it dissolved away.

I had never even used my spear.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Gurek said, while a small chest appeared at the end of the bridge.

We walked toward it, and I did my usual check.

The chest contained a small silver token, with a picture of the fish we had just defeated. In addition, the chest contained the daggers Inda had thrown into the pond, whether they had hit the fish or not.

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“Thank the gods,” Inda muttered. “I was not looking forward to diving in to get these out.”

“What you didn’t want to get even wetter?” Gurek said with a laugh.

She gave him a flat look, but didn’t bother to reply, and only drew out a heat stone and activated it, placing it into one of the pockets of her armor meant for that purpose.

“Some enchanter is going to make a lot of money off this dungeon,” Firi rumbled.

I turned to him was a smile.

“Certainly going to need heat stones.” I said.

He shook his head.

“No,” he said, “that’s not what I meant. I mean, yes, I am sure they will sell heat stones, too. However, if the dungeon is all like this.” He waved his hand in an absent gesture toward the surroundings. “If it is all different environments, then people will need to be prepared for a lot of different things. Something to repel water would be essential for anyone caught in a more intense storm than we experienced.”

“If it would dry me off.” Inda said, “I would buy one just for that.”

We all chuckled, and Firi continued.

“Yeah, there is that, but the environments will probably get more extreme. The dungeon already tested how we did against heat. Who knows what else we will need to deal with. We might eventually need a whole range of specialized tools.”

I nodded. It was true, after all. We really didn’t know what to expect.

We continued on after a few minutes, each of us making sure our gear was still fine after being soaked yet again.

The rest of the meadows were mostly the same. The levels of the normal monsters had increased slightly, but overall the format was about the same.

Path, poorly concealed pitfalls, more monsters, and some giant packs of monsters visible in the difference.

I was pretty sure those giant packs of monsters were just a test of basic common sense. If you didn’t have a good way to deal with a horde, then even low level monsters could be dangerous.

We decided to take out one of the hordes, but didn’t take any chances.

“Okay, so full restriction measures?” I questioned the others.

“Yeah, not that I can do much,” Gurek muttered.

Inda and Firi nodded before Firi chimed in.

“Want me to finish them?”

“That would probably be best,” I said.

The odds were good that any one of us could handle the entire horde ourselves, but it was best to be careful in case there was some kind of trick.

This horde was made of a large collection of plate-rats. Dozens of them formed a churning mass as they crept over and around one of the hillsides off to the right.

We walked closer as a group, Gurek leading the way.

Once we got close enough one of the rats noticed us and let out a shrill scream. The others joined in, and a horde of screaming rats charged at us.

I accessed the earth, investing my power into it and stone flowed like quicksand beneath them, trapping them as they tried to approach.

The trapped rats were soon buried by the bodies of their fellows as they climbed over top of each other in their desperate rage. There was no thought here, no plans, merely a horde of beasts that were consumed by their desire to destroy us.

Inda’s powers spread over the rats, pushing them down, reducing their speed to a crawl, and the stone grabbed them until they were all immobilized.

I walked around the edge of the rats, carefully observing each of them.

“They are all the same, nothing special here.” I yelled over the screams of the rats as I walked back.

Once I had reached the others, Firi spoke.

“Ready?” he said.

I nodded, “Yeah, go ahead.”

Mana burst forth from his skin, gathering in swirls around him as he chanted, and light, sharp and bright and cold, burst forth around him. It cast the world in monochromes of silver and shadows. Finally he spoke the last word and the light burst forward. Silver light streaked out, trailing cold fog as it curved and split through the air. Then, the light scattered into a shower of tiny sparkling lights, the cold sparks mingling with a freezing fog.

Suddenly, the rats were silent.

As the fog faded, the bodies of the rats could be seen. They were frozen solid, each one a frost laden statue of their former selves. They began to dissolve, the dungeon clearing the defeated monsters away, leaving behind only frozen grass and pockmarked stone.

We tensed for a moment, waiting to see if something happened when the horde was defeated, but nothing emerged, and we gradually relaxed.

“Okay,” I said. “Looks like it was just a simple horde. Still more than most people would handle well at the levels this area is aimed for.”

“I’ll note them down as wandering hazards.” Inda said, drawing on her map. “Put the danger level as extreme. If we say they are a dungeon puzzle where the dungeon is testing your intelligence in avoiding them, hopefully less people will act stupidly.”

“Ha,” Gurek muttered, “that’ll be the day.”

Inda smiled sweetly at him. “You’re just grouchy because we took out the horde without you.”

Gurek glared at her, but didn’t bother to reply.

We turned back to the path and kept walking.

Eventually, the path lead to a large circular stone building. A tree grew out of it from somewhere, the base invisible from where we stood. The tree towered up above us, growing up hundreds of feet, casting the building into shadows and dappled glimmers of light spearing between the leaves.

We could see the other paths from here. Each one lead into an archway set into the building. Ahead of us, an identical archway waited for us.

It was almost certainly another boss arena.

We walked forward, heading toward the archway. It quickly passed overhead and we were swallowed by the cool stone, the light a dim companion in the echoing hall. Small sconces on the wall held small flames, providing just enough light to make the area traversable. At the end of the hall, was a doorway.

Set into the door was a small indentation.

As we approached, the door stayed shut.

“Hey Gurek, you have the token from the fish, right?” I said.

“Yeah, its probably meant for that.” He said. “We could try the one we got from the millipede boss first.”

Inda’s hand went to her chest, her face an exaggerated display of shock with an open mouth and wide eyes.

“That might actually be a smart idea.” She said mockingly. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright Gurek?”

“Ha… ha… ha…” Gurek said, drawing out the laugh with flat tones. “So funny.”

I interrupted before things devolved into another bickering session.

“Yes,” I said. “Best to try and see if it will accept any of the prior bosses as valid.”

Gurek rummaged through his pack, finally pulling out the token from the prior boss encounter.

“Okay, everyone ready?” He said.

Reflexively I checked over my gear, while the others did the same. I could feel the brief pulses of mana as we each touched our respective skills, making sure everything was ready.

After a second, we each provided an affirmative, and Gurek placed the token against the door’s indent.

The token dissolved away, and the door began to open, letting in the light of the sun.