Only about four hundred yards separated the forest from the remains of the castle. Not a long distance, by any stretch of the imagination.

The issue was that the ground in between was covered in uprooted tree trunks, shrubs, dirt, and chunks of landing castle wall, all strewn around like they’d been part of a massive explosion.

Which was pretty close to reality, now that I thought about it. When whichever high-ranking demigod had shot that giant beam up at the castle, it’d thrown off the castle’s flight path. I wasn’t an expert on orbital physics, but I knew that making anything traveling fifteen times the speed of sound tumble end over end was never a good thing for survivability. We’d all watched the Landing Castle break apart, sending dazzling fireballs all over the planet.

People had even rejoiced at the time, believing we’d taken out the dungeon before it had even landed.

We hadn’t, of course. We’d had, however, stripped the thing of its outer layer of defenses. It was actually something of a miracle the dungeon itself had survived at all, considering the thing landed more like a meteor and less like a ship. Maybe its blobby nature helped it survive?

I imagined the bubbly black goop bouncing off the ground like jello, and quickly concluded that the sight was more terrifying than any horde of monsters, and shelved it.

Regardless, the impact had uprooted all the foliage and thrown off its shell, creating a large crater around ground zero. If it weren’t for the sphere hovering above, I’d say someone had dropped a bomb here.

The devastation was immense, and that meant slow going. Not ideal when we knew the enemy had regular patrols, but it did offer us a lot of places to hide, so I couldn’t exactly complain.

“One would think they would have cleared all this by now,” Aerion grumbled quietly as she vaulted over a log, making it look effortless despite the oversized rucksack on her back. We’d chosen to have the guards haul her pack instead of putting it in my inventory to fit more. Most of it was food and water, so the more we had, the better.

Less confident in my parkour skills, I chose to straddle it instead.

“Actually, I feel like this makes a pretty effective barrier, don’t you?” I replied in an equally low voice, barely more than a whisper, but that was all Aerion needed to hear me.

“Perhaps,” Aerion replied. “Though, by the looks of it, they are working to clear it out.”

The last fifty yards or so had, in fact, been cleared, though where the workers who’d worked on it had gone was a mystery to me. They must have returned through the dungeon’s portal.

The rules that surrounded these dungeons still weren't entirely clear to me. Only Foundation through Divergence ranked Blessed and Boonworthy could enter any dungeon. After that, you were restricted to dungeons and Trials at your level or higher, since C rank was supposedly where the first soul evolution happened. That was a whole can of worms shrouded in mysticism and superstition, so sussing out the facts had proven to be a chore.

The truth was, there were precious few people in the world at that level, and this world just didn’t have the same sort of information access mine did. Sinclair was my most knowledgeable source, and his time was limited. What I’d been able to determine was that something fundamental to one’s being shifted at Convergence Rank, which usually made the person more powerful.

It was usually accompanied by excruciating pain and mental trauma, so it wasn’t like it came for free. The stories about ascending closer to divinity and having the favor of the gods, I chose to ignore. There was definitely something there, though, and while it was a ways off, I was already getting excited.

As for Cataclysm Dungeons, it wasn’t like they just spewed out endless hordes the moment they landed. They always started small, and grew and grew if left unchecked. Whether they were actively creating monsters on the other side, or if the portals simply took time to support more throughput, nobody seemed to know.

“Honestly expected more monsters,” I said, ducking under an uprooted trunk. “You think the crash-landing killed them?”

“Likely,” Aerion replied, maneuvering around some vines. “‘Tis the only explanation I can think of.”

I nodded, and from there, we kept our silence. We were close now, and we didn’t want to tip off any nearby patrols until the last moment. Every step we took, though, just made the knot in the pit of my stomach tighten even further.

There was nothing that could be done about getting split up—that was a fact we simply had to deal with. We’d prepped for it as well as we could. We’d outfitted Aerion with as many supplies as she could hold, and we’d both progressed to the point where we could hold our own against most foes.

I realistically shouldn’t have worried… But we both knew the sort of curveballs reality could throw at us. Just a few hours ago, we’d been blindsided by an ambush we couldn’t possibly have seen coming. Preparations only went so far.

What we were doing was dangerous. I’d just have to accept that, and trust in Aerion’s skills.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Easier said than done.

After what felt like an eternity, the clearing finally appeared before us, looking a good deal longer than a measly fifty yards. Instinctively, we both stopped, looking at the crater in the distance. There really wasn’t a goal there. No obvious gate or portal to walk through. We’d just make our mad dash and hope we were sucked up into the dungeon.

That was, of course, not the part I was worried about.

“I’ll follow when you’re halfway there,” I said, knowing I was repeating myself. “Your pack is heavy and you’re smaller, so this will give you a head start.” We’d gone over the plan many times already. Aerion had to have been sick of hearing this by now, but to her credit, she refrained from rolling her eyes, at least.

“I am still not happy about that, but yes,” Aerion replied. “Once through, I’ll search for you.”

I nodded. “Find the largest structure in sight, and go to its base. If it’s too dangerous, leave a trail of notes with arrows pointing the way. I’ll do the same.”

We’d discussed all of this already, of course, including the sorts of features we might use to leave notes behind. Given we knew absolutely nothing about the interior of this dungeon, it was about the best we could do.

“And… We’re stalling,” I muttered.

“We are,” Aerion said. She glanced at me, and I saw fear in her eyes. Not for herself, but for me. I knew because I must have had that very same look in mine.

“We’ll be fine,” we both said at the same time, and smiled awkwardly after.

“Stay safe, yeah?” I mumbled.

“I’m more worried about you,” Aerion said with a wry smile. “Always getting yourself into trouble.”

I snorted. “You’re one to talk. Alright. Let’s do this. On three?”

“On three.”

“One. Two. Thr—”

Aerion bolted before I finished, and not for the first time, I had to marvel at how quickly she managed to move with such a large, ungainly pack clinging to her back.

She made a beeline for the dungeon, and a few seconds later, she’d reached the halfway mark, still undetected.

That was my cue, and I bolted out of the debris, following in her footsteps.

I, unfortunately, was not nearly as lucky. The guards—who’d been occupied by the process of changing shifts—might not have detected a quiet, diminutive elf, but they sure as heck saw me clanging along in my shining steel armor.

Shouts erupted, fingers pointed, and arrows soared through the air, forcing me to raise my shield in defense. The shield shuddered a few seconds later as several consecutive thumps impacted and pinged off.

Through it all, I never stopped running because at that moment, the arrows were the least of my concern. I was pretty sure my armor would’ve stopped them even without the shield. That wasn’t why I was running.

It was the dozen massive hyenas surging after me that kept my legs pumping. Hyenas with glowing green eyes, and from their aggression, I guessed these were not the scavenging type. They were hunters, and against a dozen? I didn’t stand a chance.

Yeah, no thanks!

Without stopping, I pointed my poleax in their general direction and fired [Skunky]. The ability wouldn’t do much of anything to harm them, but they didn’t know that. The inky cloud, whose range had grown thanks to its recent level ups, arced through the air and splashed down directly in their path.

The beasts circled around, forcing them to slow, and thus widening the gap between us.

I fired it again, and again, not bothering to aim. I was close now. I couldn’t have been more than twenty—

My blood ran cold.

Aerion.

I wasn’t the only one they’d fired arrows at. And unlike me, Aerion lacked both comprehensive armor and a shield.

I watched in horror as the rain of black darts descended from the sky. It was impossible to outrun—they’d predicted her path. She was about to run right into them.

“Aerion!” I roared, but before my next words left my mouth, something bizarre happened.

Two things, actually. The arrows… disappeared.

And so did Aerion.

It took my mind a moment to register that she’d gone through the portal… And so had the arrows.

Fuck!

If our enemies could follow us through…

The hyenas were barely thirty feet away at this point. They’d catch up in seconds.

I also happened to be just seconds away from where Aerion had disappeared. I just wasn’t close enough.

And so, I used my ace in the hole. My absolute last-ditch trump card.

I called it Spam ‘Em With Junk!

A pair of blue jeans and dirty sneakers materialized in thin air, flying away from me with considerable speed.

The jeans caught the lead hyena right in the face, blinding it, and making him howl in panic. It stopped and let out a sound halfway between a yell and a giggle as it desperately tried to throw the garment off.

Instead of successfully freeing itself from my soiled and smelly pants, it crashed into its buddy, which in turn caused something of a chain reaction, until half a dozen hyenas were tumbling end over end. The remaining half aborted their attack and circled back to their fallen brethren.

I doubted any were seriously injured. I doubted they’d be down for more than a few seconds.

Luckily, a few seconds was all I needed.

“Eat shit, fuckers!”

I flipped them the bird… and promptly crashed headfirst into a pile of ice-cold snow.

The hell?