There’s two other packs of wolves before we encounter the next trap, but we have range on them this time, and we don’t underestimate them. When they reach the midpoint, Helen leaves absolutely nothing of them other than ashes.

  In spite of being careful, a straight tunnel with nothing in it as far as our magical vision will let us see screams ‘trap’, it still nearly gets me. I hardly feel the stone under my foot give, and it’s only fear of falling into a hole that makes me jump back as a metal spear crosses the space I was standing in. It’s unadorned, but would still have skewered me. It doesn’t pull back, so I don’t know if they would have been able to cut me off and heal me.

  We don’t have anyone with skills at locating the triggers, so we move at crawl, me using my sheathed sword to test the floor before me and I learn by almost being caught a second time that the only way I can apply enough force to trigger one is by pressing straight down, which puts me too close for my comfort, but it’s the only way we have to get across.

  I am utterly exhausted by the time the tunnel turn and a pack of wolves waits for us.

  Helen doesn’t bother asking for my opinion. She incinerates them. I don’t compin.

  A stamina potion takes care of my exhaustion. And we return to following the right wall. The next pack is a mix of wolves and wolf-people like creatures. Hunched over things that can stand on two legs and look capable of grabbing tools.

  Six wolves, two wolf-people.

  Those two are going to be tougher, I expect.

  Our tactics are rendered invalid when, well before they the seven still alive reach the midpoint, one of the wolf-people leaps from where they are to in front of me before we can react. It gets in one good swipe that takes out a fifth of my health as I switch weapons, then I give as good as I get. I’m down to half by the time it’s dead, then I have to deal with a pair of wolves.

  I risk a gnce back to confirm Helen and Silver are alive. She’s fighting the other wolf-people, letting out fshes of fire it dodges, but keeps it from getting too close while Silver’s bashing wolves with her violin cases. Neither are calling for help, or look to be about to die, so I focus on my wolves.

  I hardly lose health to them, then go help Silver. She’s killed one already, and only got a few scratches from the others. We’re down to the st one when Helen lets out an angry cry. I’m heading in her direction before the fact she’s on her back, the wolf-people on top of her registers. Then I’m blinded and heat washes over me. The magical vision returns to normal quickly, and all I see is Helen and ashes drifting to the floor.

  I turn to help Silver, but she bashes the wolf’s head in.

  “I hate,” Helen snarls, “melee fighting.” She pushes herself to her feet.

  “I thought it was going to hurt you, when I saw you were down.”

  She snorts. “I let it shove me down. Only way it was going to stand still long enough I could hit it.”

  “You let it get to you?” Silver asks, panting, awe in her voice I appreciate.

  “Brandon would be—”

  “Don’t you dare bring my brother into this,” Helen warns me. I shut up, but can’t stop from smiling. What she did is pure Brandon.

  We get three healing potions off the corpses, as well as an ornamental dagger Helen says is magical, but she doesn’t have the spell to determine what is it and is in no mood to try something when Silver suggests it.

  The way she snaps is a sign we need a serious rest, but a tunnel is too open, so we press on.

  I walk by it, barely registering the straight lines in the wall and the concentric circles. My attention is ahead for whatever the dungeon will put in our way.

  “Dennis,” Helen calls. “I think this is important.”

  I sigh as I come to a stop, ready to point out that the only thing that matters is getting to the bottom of the dungeon, but her, standing before the circles, gets me to pay attention and okay, something this organized has to mean something.

  Also, if I was ready to snap, I also need a break.

  “I need to see it properly,” she says, and it’s the only warning we get before the world turns pitch bck. There’s a few words that refuse to stick to my mind, then the glow of a reading mp raises up from Helen’s palm.

  We are definitely looking at a door, the way the rectangle is outlined by a frame. As for the circles? I’m not surprised there’s thirteen of them, the smallest divided into four, each quadrant with a symbol that means nothing to me. Each circle doubles the number of division and has more symbols. There are repeats, but without an order I can make out.

  “Those are alchemy symbols, aren’t then?” Silver asks.

  Helen pces a finger on a ring and turns it. “Yes. And I’m guessing this is a combination lock of some sort.” She turns another ring until two circles with horns are next to each other.

  “I don’t think we have the time to try all the possibilities,” I tell her, “and hope to randomly come across the correct one.”

  She turns the next ring. “Alchemy’s never random.”

  “We still don’t—”

  “Dennis, we all need a break. Sit down, eat something, rest and give me an hour or two to figure this out.”

  I’m about to point out I’m the team leader, but Silver pulls me to the other side of the tunnel, where she has me sit.

  “Whatever’s behind it might be important,” she says. “At it always is in stories.”

  “This isn’t a story, Silver.” But I take jerky and a waterskin from my inventory. I am so done with jerky.

  “But it’s a dungeon. I don’t think they put puzzles like that without there being something important behind them.”

  I try to recall if anyone mentioned puzzles when talking about the dungeon expeditions, but nothing comes.

  When I finish the jerky, I rest my head back. Half an hour. That’s how long I’m giving her, then we’re continuing.

  * * * * *

  “Ah ha!”

  I jerk awake, equipping my sword and shield and look around, searching for the threat. Silver’s curled up on the floor, and my heart skips before I notice her breathing’s steady. She’s sleeping.

  Stone grinds on stone, and Helen stands before part of a wall moving away from her.

  Right. The door. The puzzle.

  “How long did I sleep?” My stamina bar’s full, but I have a ‘fitful sleep’ debuff. Minus one on my skills, but no idea how much, or how little I need to sleep for that to take effect.

  “Long enough for me to work out the combination was the alchemical formu for a regrowth potion.”

  “You know alchemy?” I nudge Silver awake before standing.

  “It helps to know what other intellectuals talk about when we gather to impress each other.” Her sigh has me hurry to join her.

  I curse.

  In the center of the room, toward the back, is a pack of wolf-people snacking on something, their backs to us. Even with the noise the opening door made, they haven’t noticed us. I count six tails, five of which are a brown-bck, and one a copper colored. That matches the fur of the one who looks to be rger than the others.

  I focus on them as it registers that the room is lit.

  Wolfing Level 16

  Wolfings are a lupine evolution of the wolf, faster, stronger, and able to make rudimentary uses of tools.

  Perception Check failed

  It takes a few tries, but I manage to focus on the copper furred one

  Wolfing Pack Leader Level 17

  The Wolfing Pack Leader is the wolfing who has fought its way to the top, becoming stronger, more agile, and more adapted to fighting against unexpected threat to its pack.

  Perception Check failed

  “I think we’re better off not risking this,” I say.

  “There’s a door on the other side,” Silver whispers.

  “More importantly,” Helen says. “This is a room with controlled access. If we can close this door again, it’s even better. We can sleep without worrying about attacks in the night.”

  “Five level sixteen, one level seventeen leader with unknown abilities, unless you succeeded your perception checks.”

  They both shake their heads.

  “I don’t like those odds. Two of them gave us trouble st time.”

  “We gave them an opening,” Helen counters. “I can burn them upfront.”

  “Can you be certain they’re all going to die with one spell?”

  “No, I’d have to target one of them for that. They’re more resistant to magic than the wolves. But I can guarantee I can bring all their health down. Silver too.”

  “I don’t know. My song didn’t seem to hurt the Wolfing from earlier the way they did the wolves.”

  “You’re the boss, Dennis. It’s your decision.” Even without looking, I can hear the smile.

  “Silver, can you do something about the fitful sleep debuff? We’re not doing this if we can’t be at our best.”

  “I have a song for that,” she says.

  I keep watching the Wolfings as she pys, but they don’t react to the music anymore than they did to the grinding of stone. Maybe the threshold keeps the sounds out? Except the door opened in.

  Maybe it’s just how dungeons work. Creatures only notice people who step into their territory, or something. Brandon would probably know. I gnce at the team window. He’s still there. His health hasn’t dropped noticeably since checking before we entered the dungeon. He’s still well above the three-quarter mark.

  When she finishes pying, the debuff is gone and I feel refreshed.

  “Helen, do you think you can cast your spell from outside the room and affect them, or will whatever keeps them from hearing us protect them?”

  “No way to know until I try it. Step away.”

  I hate magic words and the way they just slip between my thoughts. At least Silver’s magic comes across as…well, normal music.

  The heat washes over me again, and I can’t see anything in the room. When I do, I run ahead, sending my bow to my inventory and equipping my sword and shield. “Focus on the big one,” I order Helen. And hack at the burning Wolfing that’s nearly at the entrance.

  I get the first hit, then I’m sent flying from the back paw I block with my shield. I’m on my feet and with better footing to take it when it reaches me. I slide, instead of flying off. Then I have my sword in its throat.

  Fshes of fire and heat punctuate the next Wolfing’s attack, and it gets around my defenses enough I lose a fifth of my health before I chop off a paw and gain the advantage.

  “Dennis!” Silver yells, scared. “It’s not working!”

  I look around the Wolfing. Fire hits the copper furred Wolfing, but, unlike the others, it’s not even smoking.

  Fuck, fire resistant? That’s what the system meant by more adapted to the unexpected?

  “We’re switching!” I yell back. “Helen, bst the brown ones. I’ll take care of Copper over there.”

  When the Wolfing lunges at me, I jump over it and run at Copper as hard as I can. I have to hope I can pick up enough speed, because I’m going to need the Bob and Weave bonus if I want any chance of surviving this.

  I side step a Wolfing trying to cw me, losing some speed and then it’s too te to hope.

  My sword bites in Copper’s side as I run by it, leaving a deep cut, and it roars after me. At least I’ve confirmed it’s not resistant to being cut. A look over my shoulder tells me it’s chasing me.

  Good.

  Well, no, but at least Helen can burn the rest now and all I need to do is soften it up, and not get killed.

  Yeah. That should be doable.

  I lose all my speed keeping from running into it as it nds in front of me, turning, and cws dig into my side. My wild swing bites into it, then I’m off my feet and sliding.

  Oh, that hurt.

  I down a healing potion as it runs at me.

  No time to wait for it to be done healing. I raise my shield and the fist over hand blow nearly breaks my legs, or it feels that way. No debuffs, so I should be okay.

  Well, not if I stay there.

  I stab, and it steps away.

  Music pys and the Strength of the Underdog buff appears.

  I’ll take all the help I can get.

  I run at it, then duck under its swing, cutting at its legs. Then I’m in the air, half the health I have left gone from the impact on my back. I roll and am nowhere near as fast as I need to be; the foot doesn’t crush me, but its cws cut more of my health away. Then it staggers as tornado like wind erupts around us. I down another healing potion.

  I hope Helen can work out something that hurts it, because I don’t think there’s enough healing potions in existence that will keep me in this fight.

  When the wind dies down, I get to my feet, my health’s not even at half, and that’s with the buff. It rushes me before I can get another potion out and I jump out of the way.

  When the wind picks up, it cuts me and immediately dies out.

  “Sorry!”

  No time to reply. I dodge, cut it, then I’m in the air again. Not the pn, never the pn to lose so much health, but at least I’m not in her way.

  I nd and down a stamina potion because that’s the threat now.

  I get to my feet, and instead of being cut to pieces by the wind, Helen’s cursing, and Copper’s shifting its attention to her.

  I down a healing potion as I run. I am so going to regret this.

  But I’m going to regret not doing anything more.

  The bastards turn in my direction as I raise my sword and I swear to the system it’s grinning. I barely dodged under that swing, but miss my chance to hurt it. Knowing it can jump ahead of me, I don’t bother running; stopping, turning, and rushing it. I duck under the swing and pnt my sword in its stomach. Then I’m thrown off my feet as it rears and my sword moves with it instead of coming out.

  The fist comes down and I barely roll out of the way. Then I’m hit hard enough I think all my health fshes away but there’s a sliver left, so I have—

  The buff fades away, and so do—

  My head’s raised; I nearly choke on the liquid.

  “Dennis?”

  I grab the bottle and chugs it all as my health slowly climbs. I throw it away, grin at her, then I kiss Silver hard, and don’t give a fuck there’s still a battle going on somewhere in the room.

  Kindar

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