“Three hells!” Boltar exclaimed as he tumbled backwards, almost falling over. He stumbled to a halt a few steps from the corner and watched as the flames winked out. The crackling and roaring stopped as abruptly as it started, leaving the heat on his face and hands as the only signs that anything had happened at all.

“You guys alright?” came Aldrick's voice.

“I’m fine.” Seraphina said, sounding disappointed in herself. “That was too close though. I should have spotted it earlier.”

“You got us away in time.” Boltar said. “No damage here either. Besides, a little fire wouldn’t be enough to take us out anyway.”

“That’s not what I’d call a ‘little’ fire. And losing health isn’t the only way to take damage from a flame, or do you think you’d look perfectly alright without any eyebrows, captain?” Waldemar said, letting some mirth seep into his voice now that he knew they were both unhurt.

“You would know all about that.” Tyree said.

“Hey, that was one time. And I got the Class we were going for, so it was worth it.”

“Whatever you say, nobrows.”

“Guys, focus.” Aldrick said. “We’re still in a Dungeon.”

“Aldrick’s right.” Boltar said. “Maintain a proper attitude at all times in the Dungeon.”

“Yes Captain.” Waldemar and Tyree said att he same time.

“Now, is it safe to continue?” Boltar turned to Seraphina, who tsked.

“Normally I’d say yes. But I would’ve said that before the trap triggered too.” She gestured towards the wall to their left, where the fire had come out of. “There wasn’t any reaction at all from my potion when we came in here. It looked just like all the other walls.”

“Which means?” Boltar asked.

Seraphina dragged a hand through her hair and said with a sigh. “It means we can’t rely on my sight to catch the traps, even with the potion. Sure it lit up like a beacon once the mana had reached it, but that’s actually after we could have reacted by just using our eyes. And if they’re hidden any better than a literal lever, the chances of us avoiding all of them are lower than I’d like.”

Boltar frowned in thought. This was a real problem. Traps were some of the most insidious and deadly parts of any Dungeon, as they were often an all or nothing type of threat. Many of them either kill you, or do absolutely nothing. Being able to avoid them is a key aspect of the Challenge, to the point where almost all Inquisitor parties had someone use one of their Skill slots to learn something to help them detect them easier. And those that didn’t had some other way to get a similar result, like Seraphina and her [Alchemical Priest] Class. And in the cases of that method not working, or even being less effective, the danger of the Challenge shot up. He shook his head. He wished Dungeon’s would just stick to monsters as defenders. They were almost always much simpler to deal with.

“We’ll just have to pay more attention to our surroundings.” He said. “All of us. Don’t just rely on Seraphina. Listen if she shouts a warning, but don’t assume it’s clear and rush ahead just because she hasn’t spoken.”

“Got it, Captain.” Tyree said.

“I’ll keep my eyes open.” Aldrick said. Waldemar and Mirielle just nodded.

“Then let’s keep going. We still have a lot of Floor to cover.” Boltar said.

They walked carefully up to and around the corner, but the trap didn’t activate a second time. In fact once they rounded the corner they found that even the lever itself had vanished, probably dissipating into motes of mana just like the monsters did. That fact let them all breathe out sighs of relief. Most traps were one time uses within the same Challenge, requiring the Dungeon to reset them manually in a way Boltar didn’t at all understand, beyond that they either were prevented from doing so during a Challenge or chose not to. Going from what he knew of Dungeon personalities they were equally likely, and the minutia didn’t really matter to him anyway. The important point was that, usually, as long as they managed to trigger a trap safely once, they wouldn’t need to worry about it for the rest of the Floor. And it looked like that was true here as well.

The rest of the hallway was dark and empty, and even with their slower pace it didn’t take them long to arrive at the entrance to a new room. This time there was even a door. Seraphina stepped up first and examined it closely, making sure to the best of her ability it wasn’t trapped. Once she was done she nodded to Boltar and took a few steps back along with the others, just in case. Once they were safely out of range Boltar pushed the door open and peered inside. He couldn’t see anything of course. Like the rest of the Floor the room was completely devoid of any light. He waved the rest of his squad over, and once Aldrick arrived with his glowing staff they made their way into the room. Seraphina and him in front.

Soon they came across the first sarcophagi, though this one remained still as they walked by. A few steps later a second one came into their sphere of illumination, and Boltar called for a halt and turned to Aldrick.

“There’s got to be a fight in here. We need more light.” He said.

Aldrick peered into the darkness in thought for a moment. “Using more light Skills will use up a lot of my focus, so I’d only be able to use simple Skills for the fight itself. But other than that there’d be no issues.”

Boltar thought for a moment and looked around, peering into the dark to try and discern anything helpful about the room's layout. Eventually he gave up, seeing nothing but blackness and vague outlines that would be more of a danger than a help, and turned back towards Aldrick.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“It’s worth it. Light up the room.”

“Got it Captain.” Aldrick said and focused. Soon three more lights floated up from his frame, hovered above him for a few seconds, then spread out in a triangle formation away from the squad. The further they traveled the more Boltar tensed. As more of the room got bathed in magical light, more and more sarcophagi appeared from where there used to be darkness. Two became four became eight, which became sixteen before they finally saw the other end of the room.

Then as one their lids exploded upwards and out with considerably more force than in the first room. Over a dozen skeletons jumped out, each clad in armor in addition to their sword and shield, yet still moving noticeably faster than their first enemies had done. So not only where they twice as many enemies as last time, they were also all higher level.

“Move to the back wall!” Cover Aldrick!” He yelled.

He raised his shield and activated all of his enhancement Skills one after the other while backing towards the closest wall. Him, Tyree, and Mirielle were the vanguard, with Seraphina Waldemar and Aldrick standing within their triangle of protection. This time he didn’t charge forward. This time the enemies were charging him.

He raised his shield to block the swing of the skeleton that got there first, then kicked out to trip the one to its left while intercepting a blow from the one to its right with his own blade. The clang of steel on steel rang loud, and he felt his muscles strain against the power of the blow even with his enhanced stats. He could feel he still had more strength than his opponents, but fighting off three at the same time and having to block strikes at bad angles meant it wasn’t as simple as comparing stat to stat. In fact he could tell if his strength hadn’t been so much higher his blockade would have folded right then. To the first attack.

Boltar pushed the middle skeleton off him with a quick [Shield Bash], then ducked under an incoming blow from the second right as a ball of fire came flying over his shoulder to crash into the skeleton, throwing it off balance temporarily, and making his dodge completely useless. He growled. He couldn’t afford to miss chances like that. An [Enhanced Strike] against the third skeleton was blocked by its shield, but the force of the blow still forced it to stumble backwards a few steps. He didn’t pursue; his job in this fight was defense, and a new skeleton took the old ones place almost instantly anyway, swinging towards Boltar's head. He brought his own blade back up to block, and the dance continued.

Skills flew from the clerics behind Boltar and crashed into the quickly amassing wall of skeletons. Swords met shields from both sides. Three skeletons had fallen trying to get through their defensive line. So far they had held, though not without injury. Boltar wasn’t sure how badly the others were hurt, but he had a gash in the side of his leg that burned with pain, even after he’d been healed back to full health. His mana had dropped to below half after he reapplied his suite of buffs. He stopped using any other Skills. This was going to be a grind, and he couldn’t waste the mana. Without his buffs he wouldn’t be fast or sturdy enough to keep the skeletons at bay.

A twang and a thunk in the stone above his head made the blood freeze in his veins for a moment before he forced his mind to focus on the fight. He scanned the room behind the skeletons, and found that one of them had dropped their sword and taken out a bow instead. Worse, two more seemed to be doing the same, raising their bows towards them as he watched.

“Archers!” he yelled. “Waldemar!”

“On it!” The [Priest of Fire] yelled back. “Going big!”

“Barrier!” Boltar called out, but Mirielle was already moving. She stepped back next to the clerics, and a bright yellow glow began to emanate from her, wisps of light rising like smoke towards the ceiling. The glow gradually intensified.

Boltar blocked a charging skeleton, parried a second, then cried out as a third pierced his side with a sword.

Tyree screamed as she too used one of her more costly Skills to keep her side in place and away from the casters.

Seraphina tossed a vial of purple liquid on the ground underneath the skeletons.

The arrows were loosed with a twang.

Seraphina cried out in pain.

“Ready!” Mirielle called out.

Waldemar raised his hands, and three balls of white flame flew out towards the archers. Boltar ducked as they passed overhead, but could still feel the heat they gave off from over a foot away. They hit and sank into their target without a sound, though Boltar as always thought he could hear something fizzing, like water on a hot fire.

At the same time the white glow spread out from Mirielle, a fog of light pushing the skeletons back as it expanded out to cover the whole squad.

The [Holy-fire Bombs] exploded like three deafening cracks of thunder, then the next instant everything went silent as Mirielle’s fog solidified to form a protective dome that blocked out everything, even light and sound, from passing through. It couldn’t last long though. It was extremely draining on mana and focus even in an ideal situation, and the skeletons' attacks combined with the force of the now silent explosions caused cracks to form in the glowing smog within seconds of it forming.

Waldemar gasped for breath, Seraphina rushing in to prop him up and feed him a [Magical Stamina Potion], then tossing a second to Aldrick who moved up towards Mirielle.

She groaned as the cracks in the walls spread faster and faster, before she was unable to maintain it anymore and it shattered into motes of light. She collapsed down to one knee as the sound of the skeletons was once more able to reach them. The three archers had exploded, along with a single other skeleton that had been unlucky enough to stand too close. Unfortunately the others didn’t seem to be that damaged. Blackened by soot, certainly, but they still seemed in fighting shape. Adding these four to the two that had they'd manage to take out before, that made six enemies that were either dead or downed. That meant there was still ten of them left. Ten skeletons in armor and equal to them in level, and they were down to pretty much three and a half members until the others could catch their breath.

“Tyree.” Boltar said, taking a deep breath. “I’ll go in. Hold the line against any who get past me.”

“Yes Captain.” Tyree said.

Boltar cracked his neck and put down his shield. His squad was in danger. Two of them had already used the most powerful Skills in their arsenal, something that left them drained and vulnerable to retaliation. And they hadn't even defeated half of their adversaries yet.

When he was younger Boltar had often cursed his Glyph-acquired Skill. It was base, primitive, and not suitable at all for the Order. He’d wished he could be a protector instead. Standing stalwart with shield raised and his chin held high.

But that wasn’t the way. The Bishop had made that clear. He’d explained that there were no such things as cursed Skills, even less so a cursed Glyph.

It was a tool for him to use, nothing more and nothing less. It was up to him to master it, and turn it into something suitable.

I’ll help you. The Bishop had said. I’ll guide you to the path. But you must walk down it on your own two feet.

And walk it he had. For over a decade he'd trained, harder than anyone he knew. Harder than people said he should. Until eventually he'd managed to do it. He'd reigned himself in. The day after that the Bishop had given him his Captain's title.

He looked back to Tyree, who nodded, faith shining in her eyes. Faith not only in the Lady, but in him. Belief that he’d remain in control. That he’d protect them.

He charged forward, leaping into the skeletons and activating [Berserker’s Fury].