Elijah pressed his hand to a wound at his side as he strode towards the burning heap of the boss. Energy floated off it, splitting into three streamers and darting into them. Elijah missed a step as chilling energy filled his body.

The white and orange flame cast the arena in glowing light and shadows that danced along the walls. David groaned and rolled onto his back, clutching his bleeding stomach. Avery walked over to tend to him, a vial of cranberry juice in her hand.

The heat rolled off the pyre, washing over Elijah. His dagger was somewhere inside it. He mulled over his thoughts before turning and moving towards the other two. His dagger - and whatever treasure lay within the boss - would have to wait until the flames died down.

“How are you doing?” Elijah asked.

“Fantastic,” David said, cracking a smile. “Reminds me of the time I fell out of a tree and landed perfectly on my-”

“Tilt your head back,” Avery interrupted as she poured the healing potion into his mouth, cutting his words off in a strangled gargle.

David coughed, but kept the concoction down. The trio sat in silence for a while as the worst of the wounds on David started to pull themselves shut. His arm righted itself slightly, but the damage wasn’t fully healed by the time the potion’s effects seemed to wear off.

“Do you want to continue on with us?” Elijah asked. “I can only assume it will get worse.”

“I - you know, I think this might be just about it for me,” David said with a grimace. He nodded to his injured arm. “My arm’s pretty messed up. I could probably fix that with another healing potion, but I don’t think it’s worth it. I think I’ve just about hit the limit of what I’m going to be able to do. I got another level from this thing, but I just don’t think my skill is up to par. I need to train.”

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of there,” Avery said. “Survival is more important than victory.”

“I guess,” David said, gritting his teeth against the pain and rubbing the back of his head with his good hand. “But you two are going to keep going.”

“We are,” Elijah said. “I think we should be fine. Don’t worry about us.”

“You must have had some serious training,” David said with a sigh. “But I guess Beck had the right idea after all. I’ll head back then.”

“Will you be fine on the way out?” Elijah asked. “We’re in a red zone.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I can make it. That’s not a big deal,” David said. “Don’t worry about me. Even with my arm like this, I can still fend for myself. As long as there aren’t any more mini-bosses or giant frogs, it’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll meet Beck out there.”

“I’m sure you will,” Avery said, not missing a beat. “You remember the way out without the map?”

David nodded. He set his sword down for a moment as he pushed himself upright, carefully slinging his shield over his shoulder with his uninjured hand. Once it was secure, he picked his sword up and gave them a grin. “You two be safe. It was a pleasure working with you, and I hope we can meet again in the future. I’ll let you keep whatever the mini-boss dropped, I feel like you did a lot more to earn it than I did, and I already got my fair share of experience.”

“Take care on the way back,” Elijah said, raising his hand in farewell. “We’ll see you on the other side.”

“Take care,” Avery said.

David trudged out of the cavern, headed back for the entrance. He turned to give one last wave. Elijah and Avery watched him go as the fire slowly died out, casting the room back into darkness. Once it had finally burnt out, Elijah strode up to the smoldering ashes.

“Right. Let’s see what this stupid thing left us,” Elijah said, nudging through the boss’ remains on the ground. “It was supposed to drop something, right?”

“That seems to be what people implied would happen,” Avery said, helping Elijah shuffle through what was left of the monster.

They shuffled through the soot and ash for nearly ten minutes.

“Aha! I found it,” Elijah yelled.

“Found what? The core?” Avery said.

“No, my dagger.” Elijah said, putting back within its scabbard at his side.

Avery rolled her eyes.

The pair continued sifting through the boss’s remains. There was quite a bit of the tree still left to go through - it had been pretty large at the end, when it had died. Then, finally, embedded within a massive log, they found it.

It was the largest core either of them had seen yet. It was the size of Elijah’s hand and had both the texture and appearance of rough wood, with flickers of green energy pulsating within it.

“This is it? Seriously?” Elijah asked, wiping his stained hands off on his legs. “What a letdown.”

“Considering what the other cores went for, I’d imagine this is worth quite a bit of money,” Avery said. “And we don’t have to sell it. I’m sure we could do something with it as well.”

“It does look fancy,” Elijah admitted. “Weird core. Oh well. You hold onto it?”

Avery shrugged and took it from Elijah, squeezing it into one of the pouches at her waist. She took the map back out and studied it for a moment, filling in the path they’d taken and the location of the boss room.

“Are we actually planning to give that to the Goldwings?” Elijah asked.

“Of course not,” Avery replied with a smirk. “This was a set-up. Even with our limited knowledge, it’s pretty obvious this dungeon is too dangerous for people at our level. They’re just killing people in here. What I want to know-”

“Is why,” Elijah finished with a nod. “And maybe we can sell the map to someone else. There wasn’t anything about that in the contract, right?”

“Nothing,” Avery confirmed.

“Great,” Elijah said. “Let’s get a move on, then. I want to go stab whatever’s left and get out of this stupid place. It’s way too cramped for me.”