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 61
The bunnylings were hard.
Tibs limped through the ratling village, helping Carina, who'd been hit by one in the head and now had difficulty standing.
Standing on two legs hadn't made the bunnies any weaker, it had just given them hands they could wield clubs with so that when they jumped at them, a near miss wasn't enough to avoid injuries anymore.
Khumdar had had to pull Jackal out when a bunny broke both his legs, and after that, it had only been a question of if they could leave the room before any of them died. Tibs didn't think they'd killed any of the bunnies.
He'd healed Jackal's legs and had considered Carina, but her injury was different. The essence flowing to her head became fuzzy, diffuse, and he had no idea how he could fix that. Breaks were simple, and the bruising Mez suffered only required him not pressing too hard. How did he fix fuzzy essence?
They reached the trap room with the pool, and Tibs stared at it. Could he freeze the water? Could they cross it? He had the essence, but he was exhausted.
"Tibs?" Jackal asked, leaning against the wall. The splint Tibs made didn't undo the damage, so walking wasn't without strain.
"I don't know," he replied. "I'll try, but I have trouble thinking."
"Maybe we can try the path," the fighter said. "Maybe it turned it off this time too?"
Tibs shook his head. "No, that was a one-time thing. He said he'd have something in place I'd have to work for the next time I left." He sat Carina down. She looked around but didn't seem to see anything. He headed for the edge of the pool. The freezing would be simple, it was changing the surface, so it wasn't too slick. That took focus.
"Tibs!" Jackal yelled.
He was down, pulling a knife and rolling on his back, ready for any attack, but if it was a rat, he was going to be really pissed. This was a trap room, there shouldn't be monsters.
When nothing jumped him, he sat. No monsters anywhere. Then why had Jackal yelled? He looked at the fighter.
"You said the dungeon would have something in place."
Tibs nodded.
"Something to turn off the traps?"
Tibs tried to recall what Sto had said. "I think so."
"Then maybe you should look for that?"
Tibs looked around. "I don't see it."
Khumdar chuckled, then groaned lightly. His injuries weren't severe, mostly bruising, but he'd gotten a lot of them. He could keep most of the bunnylings that attacked him from connecting, using his staff, and even those who got through hadn't hit hard as the result of deflecting the blows, but it had left him with a series of small injuries that had taken their toll, especially as he pulled Jackal out.
"The triggers are based on essence, right?" Mez said. "Wouldn't it make sense whatever this new thing is, it's like that too?"
Tibs nodded, but it took him a full second to understand what that meant. Then he put the knife away and stood. He needed to sense the room, or this side of it.
He walked along the wall, from the opening to the corner, then back, and felt nothing. He sensed on the floor and was about to give up when he caught something at the edge of his awareness.
He looked toward the wall and moved closer to the ledge. He sensed a pattern in essence there. Of course. Sto had been adamant they'd try the ledge. After all this time of only using the path, he'd make sure he was out of choice.