The cavern hummed, quiet, cold, indifferent.
The four did not.
They stood in a loose line at the threshold of the tunnel on the back end of the large cavern, weapons ready, bodies feeling so much stronger than the first time they came in here.
Feeling the effects of fight after fight, death after death… they were feeling more alive than ever.
Argent slowly rolled his shoulders. Ferric twisted each chain, feeling the weight. Ward pressed both shields together, lightning flickering.
Ryn drew a deep breath, this time she didn't put her hand to the ground. She stood there and focused on the ground beneath her feet. The stone answered.
A deep ripple of earth traveled outward from beneath her feet, the floor trembling as if in anticipation.
"Good," Argent said, his voice calm, centered. "We're ready."
Ryn nodded once. "This time… we're walking out."
Ward grinned. "Oh yeah. Let's break some bugs."
Ferric cracked his neck. "Make it loud."
The cavern went still... and then the skittering began.
A sound like fire racing through dry branches.
A sound like claws tapping glass.
A sound like something hungry enough to consume the dark itself.
Blue points of light appeared in the tunnel's black throat.
Then more.
Then dozens.
The swarm poured in, spiders crawling over each other in a frenzy of legs and jagged crystal.
Argent exhaled.
"Let's finish this."
He moved first, a blur more than a man.
Argent ran straight toward the swarm, shadows already rising across his boots, stretching up his legs like ink pooling over stone. His axe pulsed with dark energy; the tether was already connected, already hungry.
With a swing, he whipped the axe outward...
the shadow tether cracked like a whip...
and the axe spun through two spiders at once, slicing them in half.
The tether snapped back and the axe returned to his palm with a thud.
Argent smiled.
"Yeah… I can feel it now."
The shadows around him burst upward, coiling over his chest, arms, face, until his entire form shimmered in a half defined silhouette.
Then, he vanished.
The shadows swallowed him.
One blink he was gone, the next he erupted beside a spider and drove his dagger through its body, the blade glowing with stabbing white brilliance.
Light flared, slicing clean through the creature and shooting out the opposite side.
Then he vanished again.
Reappeared next to the tunnel wall.
Slashed a spider in half.
It dropped, he disappeared, appeared again behind Ferric's shoulder in front of a spider.
Another slash. Another burst of radiance.
He moved like a phantom, a streak of light and darkness weaving destruction through the swarm. Every time he stepped from shadow to shadow, a ripple of black mist followed, and every time he struck, light carved glowing wounds through crystalline spider armor.
A spider lunged from behind, and Argent dissolved, the creature biting into empty air before he reappeared above it and cleaved it in two with his axe as he fell down on it.
"Let's keep going!" he shouted, eyes blazing.
Ferric grabbed a spider with both chains and swung it overhead like a meteor.
"WARD! Ready?!"
Ward slammed one foot into the ground. "DO IT!"
Ferric hurled the spider toward him, and as it spun midair, the metal spikes forming across its crystalline surface spread like blossoming steel thorns.
Just before impact, Ferric ripped his chains back. They recoiled around his hands instantly.
The spider hit Ward's shield...
Lightning flooded through the creature in a blinding white surge. Ward roared and shoved with both shields, catapulting the now-overcharged spider back into the swarm behind it.
It hit the cluster... Lightning detonated like a bomb.
Ferric's metal spikes, loosened by the blast, shot outward like shrapnel, ripping through several more spiders at once.
Argent flashed into existence beside them, laughing. "Okay, that was insane!"
Ward grinned savagely. "We're just getting started!"
Ferric spun his chains, now alive in his hands, and sprinted forward. His strikes left grooves in spider bodies, tearing open gaps Ward then filled with lightning-charged shield bashes.
They moved in tandem, brutal, rhythmic, unstoppable.
Ward drove into a wall of spiders like a battering ram, lightning arcing over their bodies, Ferric leapt atop his shields, spring boarded, and smashed down into the swarm with a metal-laced punch that scattered crystal everywhere.
Ryn stood slightly behind the line, but she was no less devastating.
Stone arrows formed in her hands as fast as she could fire them. Every draw was smoother, every release sharper. Arrows pierced two, sometimes three spiders at once before shattering.
At times she switched, letting pure spirit gather on the bowstring until a translucent arrow of pale blue shot forward. Wherever it struck, spectral hands erupted from the earth, gripping spiders in place, holding them helpless for Ward's next lightning crash or Ferric's next metal punch.
Through these battles she had gained some control over her spirit element and it was showing.
When Argent flickered across the battlefield, she tracked him instinctively, sending earth-formed shots to clear whatever was coming for him from the blind side. He never asked. She made sure he could run wild.
A spider sprinted toward her, Ryn slammed her heel into the ground, and a stone wall erupted at an angle between them, diverting it off-course.
She slid behind it, drew, and fired through a gap.
The spirit arrow pierced the spider's head, burst into veins of pale-blue cracks, and it collapsed in a shimmering heap.
She whispered under her breath, "Next."
Another arrow formed instantly.
The swarm kept coming, but this time, it didn't overtake them.
Argent flickered in and out of sight, cutting down spiders faster than they could track.
Ward plowed through the center with unstoppable momentum, shields cracking crystal bodies like brittle shells.
Ferric's chains whipped out, pulled spiders toward his punches, and sent them flying into Ward's lightning bursts.
Ryn supported them all, walls rising, earth shifting under her feet for better aim, spirit arrows pinning enemies for execution.
Crystal bodies shattered.
Blue lights dimmed.
The skittering turned to silence.
Only the sound of breathing remained.
Hard.
Fast.
Victorious.
The last spider dropped, cleaved clean down the middle by Argent's axe as he reappeared in the dim cavern light.
Ward leaned forward on both shields, sweat rolling down his temple.
Ferric let his chains hang limp, chest heaving.
Ryn lowered her bow and exhaled shakily.
Argent lifted his hands filled with cracks of dark smoke and light.
"We… actually did it."
Ferric laughed breathlessly. "About damn time."
Ward nodded, still catching his breath. "I'd say that qualifies as progress."
Ryn smiled, tired but glowing. "A lot."
Around them were piles of shattered spider crystal, glittering like broken glass across the cavern floor.
Argent surveyed the carnage.
"Let's collect everything we can.
After that…
we're done here."
The others nodded.
***
Light hit them like a blessing as they stepped out of the dungeons' mouth, blinking at the sudden brightness. The cool breeze outside felt unreal after hours in the stale, moss-soaked dungeon air.
Ferric dragged a hand down his face. "I can't believe we had to leave that last pile behind."
Ward groaned dramatically. "It was beautiful. A mountain of pure profit. And we had no space."
Ryn shook her head, laughing softly. "We used every inch of the pouches. I didn't think we'd ever fill them."
Argent patted his pouch. "What got me was the weight shift. Living spiders feel like they're carved from mountains, but once the life goes out of them, the ore is so light you'd think it would blow away."
Argent stretched his arms, shadow still faintly curling around his boots before fading. "Well anyway, we did good. And… we've gotten a lot stronger."
Ferric rolled his shoulders, chains clinking. "My metal was singing down there. Actually listening to me."
Ward tapped one shield against the other, sending a crackle of lightning down the rim. "I could feel the charge. Didn't even need to force it."
"And my spirit arrows…" Ryn murmured, awe still in her voice. "They weren't accidents anymore."
Argent smirked. "See? Totally worth all the dying."
Ferric shot him a look. "Never say that sentence again."
They laughed, stepping fully out into the sunlight, and paused.
Five figures approached the dungeon entrance, the same five doomed newcomers from the battlefield. Their armor was scuffed, but polished to look presentable; cheap leather dressed up with new buckles. Familiar faces, nervous eyes.
Chris was at the front, the same poor soul who'd been launched across the battlefield last they saw him.
Behind him trailed the rest, bickering like tired siblings.
Jenna poked Chris in the back with the butt of her too-long spear. "Chris, tell me again why we're doing this? Because I swear this pit is glaring at me."
Talik rolled his eyes. "Ignore her, Chris. Jenna's scared of shadows with legs."
"I'm not scared," Jenna snapped. "Just… appropriately cautious."
Mia snorted, adjusting the grip on her battered mace. "Cautious? Jenna, you almost cried when that squirrel ran past us."
"IT WAS BIG," Jenna hissed.
Hobbes, clutching his staff like it might float away, muttered, "Guys… focus. Talik, you said that you heard this place has spiders that take actual chunks out of people..."
"Oh, that wasn't me," Talik said. "That was Mia's rumor."
Mia shrugged. "I was just repeating what someone told me. And honestly? It sounded believable."
Chris groaned and rubbed his temples. "We have to do something. We owe the Hollow Crown for this armor. I didn't even know owing merits was possible until we got into this mess."
"Yeah," Jenna said, "and 'he' said this dungeon was 'easy profit.'"
Talik scoffed. "He lied. Again."
Hobbes added quietly, "I can't believe we got ourselves into this mess…"
Then they noticed Argent, Ward, Ferric, and Ryn walking out smiling, relaxed, covered in dirt but laughing like they'd been at a festival rather than a death cave.
The five Hollow Crown newbies froze.
Argent paused, looked at them, and gave a tired-but-friendly wave.
"You all here for the dungeon?" he asked.
They nodded hesitantly.
Argent pointed behind him, into the cave. "Go in, go right at the first split. There's a big pile of crystalline ore from our run. Just grab it and leave."
Jenna blinked. "Seriously?"
Ferric nodded. "Yep. We had to leave some behind. Pouches got full."
Rossa looked suspicious. "What's the catch?"
Ward shrugged. "There isn't one. Take the win. Trust me."
Hobbes whispered, "Nothing comes free here…"
Ryn leaned in, lowering her voice gently. "This time it does."
The five stared at them, unsure, but slowly gratitude crept into their eyes.
Argent gave them one last nod. "Good luck."
And the four walked off, laughing again.
Ferric chuckled. "We should probably stop sounding so casual about all of this, you could tell how on edge they were."
Ward snorted. "Nah. It's our thing now."
Ryn sighed, smiling. "How many days have even passed? One? Two? Ten?"
Argent shrugged. "No idea. But I kind of miss Mugwort's stew…"