Dungeon Runner
The Tiger Writes
sciencefiction
sciencefiction
31K5
Tibs survived by picking pockets; until he's caught.
Instead of losing a hand, he's sent away and told he must now survive a dungeon.
How is a kid who knew nothing more than his ...Stepping Up, Chapter 95
The slash bit deep and the Gnoll fell away from Tibs. It dissolved and left behind two silver coins. He spun, searching for the next enemy, but only his friends were left stand—
"Tibs!" Mez yelled, kneeling next to Carina, who was on the ground, bleeding heavily from her side.
He let go of the sword along with Water as he ran to her. He had the weave of Purity formed by the time he was beside her, cursing the fraying edges. It still worked, but he figured it would work better if he could get the essence to behave.
He applied it to the wound and the bleeding immediately slowed, then stopped. The weave melted inside her, the Purity gathering around the most 'wrong' parts within her, which was how he saw the injuries when only looking at them through Purity. He kept weaving and adding essence until all her injuries were healing.
"Tibs," Jackal called. "When you're done, this one's yours."
A glance at the large shield on the wall at the end of the hall didn't tell him why his friend thought that. It was blue, with gold and brown. He returned his attention to Carina's injuries.
Once they all had Purity essence mixed within them, he joined Jackal, who had a hand on the shield and his eyes closed.
"There's a room behind this. Straight walls like the caches on this floor. Thirty paces or so wide, deeper than I can sense."
"You're getting better." Tibs studied the shield and pieces that made up its face. Up close they were squares, and he smiled as he found the square hole at the top.
"I think," Sto said as Tibs slid pieces around, using the empty one. "That you're making it too easy on him."
Quickly, he had the bottom of the lion's head recognizable.
Ganny sighed. "I was hoping he hadn't come across something like this before."
"Val used something like this," He said. And he realized this kind of puzzle was like the cylinder Cross had lent him. He proceeded quickly; until he was on the last row and two tiles were flipped. He stared at them, trying to remember how he'd resolved it on the one Val had given him.
He had been awake, hadn't he? So much of his time in the Purity dungeon was a blur. Tibs wasn't certain which puzzles he'd done half asleep or fully awake. But he had gotten through her version of this, so he should be able to figure it out even if he didn't remember the method.
"Looks like you have him stumped," Sto said.
He almost had it. He moved the tiles until he could use the hole above the shield to put them in the the right order, but now they were in the wrong place, and he'd flipped a set of tiles that had been fine before in the process.
He thought about just pulling the pieces off. There was enough play for him to slip ice under and dislodge them, but that was definitely cheating. Too much of it, even for him. There was a way, and he'd find it. It would be a pattern, a set of moves that put everything right after... After seemingly mixing them up.
That was the solution to the cube. He had to allow the pattern to mix everything up so that it would then get back into the order with the piece he'd been trying to adjust also properly placed. Here, he'd been trying to stay within the row of mix squares.
Once he allowed himself to undo some that were already in place, the chain of moves came quickly, and he had the face of the roaring lion. Once he slid the last piece from the position above the design into place, there was a click, a motion of essence, and the wall slid aside, revealing the room Jackal had sensed.
It was a large square, with tiles on the floor alternating between silver and ebony. Eight squares on each side. On the opposite stood five golem people, but instead of being at the back, each one stood on a square.