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 ...Bottom Rung, Chapter 60
The dungeon's chuckle turned maniacal.
"You are doing this on purpose," Tibs said through clenched teeth while Carina made notes on the map.
"Me? It's just a few rats, they're not even upgrades from the first floor," Sto said, finally calming.
"You know how much I hate them."
"How would I—"
Tibs glared at the ceiling. "You can see and hear anything that happens in here. You know how I feel about rats."
"I'm trying to help you get over your fear of them?" Sto offered, snickering.
"I'm not afraid," Tibs snapped. "I hate them."
"Tibs?" Jackal asked. "We good?"
Tibs nodded and squared his shoulder. He'd show the dungeon that he wasn't afraid of rats. "I'm going to deal with the rats."
"That's a lot of them," Jackal said. "Are you sure?"
Tibs glared at the fighter who raised his hands. "Okay, you deal with the rats." He looked at the others. "Mez, Carina, do you think you can keep one of them busy each?"
"I can destroy one outright," Mez stated.
"But will you have anything left?"
The archer shook his head.
"Then I'd rather you keep one busy and maintain enough essence for the next room. We got lucky there last time." He turned to the cleric who spun his staff before him, trailing darkness at the ends.
"I will be more useful this time. This staff is attuned to my element. It was a fortunate find."
Sto snorted. "It's a good thing Ganny isn't here. I wouldn't hear the end of it."
Tibs didn't ask. He was too angry at the dungeon.
"Alright," Jackal said. "Mez, Carina, start us off."
As soon as the first explosion happened, Tibs ran into the room. He coated his knife with fire, then sliced the closest rat. He lost some of the essence, but the scream from the rat made up for it. He stabbed the next one, cut a third, a fourth.
"Tibs, down," Mez called, and he dropped. Something exploded, and he was up again, skewering the rat that had used the opportunity to climb on his arm. He flung it aside, threw the knife at one heading for Khumdar. Took his air knife and cut two rats with one swing. One landed on his back. A large one by the weight, and with a scream Tibs reached back, grabbed, and slammed it on the ground over and over until another rat ran at him and he had to focus on that one.
Tibs was panting, looking around for the next rat. He heard a snarl and realized it was him. He saw no rats, only copper coins all over the floor. The golems were rubble, and Carina pulled an amulet from under some.
"This is new," she said. "First time one of them gave us something other than coins."
"The others didn't give anything," Jackal said, sounding miffed as he searched among the rest.
"Tibs," Khumdar said, offering him his knife back, "are you well?"
He nodded, taking it. Were there more rats? There had to be more rats. There were always more rats. He shuddered, fragments of his nightmares coming to him.
"Maybe I went too far," Sto said, and Tibs snarled.
"Tibs?" Khumdar asked.
"I'm fine," he snapped.
"I want you to breathe, Tibs."
"I'm—" he realized his lungs hurt, and he took a deep breath. As he let it out, he found he was shaking. There had been so many rats. But he'd killed them. "I'm okay," he said, and he sounded better.