Breaking Step, Draft 1, CH 09 (Patreon)

“What?” the sorcerer asked, looking at them as if he was only now realizing where they were. He shook his head. “I’m not—”

“You know the game, don’t you?” Jackal asked. “King Killer is what you call it. That’s what Tibs said.”

Don looked at Tibs and for a second there was anger in those eyes, as if it had been a secret Don had shared when he’d mentioned the game. Then it was gone.

“I shouldn’t. I’m not in charge.”

“I’m in charge,” Jackal said. “You’ve pulled your weight in the fights, and now I want you to do the same here.” The fighter motioned. “How do we do this?”

Don hesitated, then stepped to the edge of the room. “The first thing we have to do it determine which piece each of us represents.”

“I’m the Lord,” Jackal stated.

“What? No.” Don replied, sounding more like his old self.

“Let me guess. You’re the lord?” Jackal said derisively.

“Of course not. Why would you want to have a King on the board?”

“Because without a Lord,” the fighter said, “we lose the game.”

“You lose a game, if it’s a standard match.” Don motioned to the room. “We lose the game if we die. Have you done this room before? How the fuck did you survive it?”

“They cheated,” Sto said.

“More like they exploited how I think,” Ganny said.

“Same thing,” Sto replied.

Jackal and Khumdar looked at one another.

“We got lucky,” the fighter said.

“Luck’s not a thing,” Tibs and Don said at the same time. Tibs reflexively, while Don sounded annoyed at having to point it out. They stared at each other in surprise, and the sorcerer shrunk in slightly.

“Don,” Jackal said, pointing to the room when the sorcerer remained quiet.

“Jackal and Tibs are Infantry.” He studied the placement of the five pieces. “Khumdar, you’ll be the Queen, Mezano, you’re the archer and I’m the sorcerer.” Then he indicated the square they were to stand on.

“Now what?” Mez asked once they were in place, bow at the ready.

“We wait for the dungeon to make its move,” the sorcerer replied.

“You think if I don’t do anything they’re going to lose patience and try something?” Ganny asked.

Tibs looked up and glared.

“What’s your thoughts on the dungeon, Don?” Mez asked.

“Maybe try that with another team,” Sto replied.

“I don’t have any.”

Ganny’s archer moved as Sto snorted.

“Okay, what did you do to him?” the dungeon asked. “He has more idea about what I am and how I think than anyone, even that noble sorcerer who said he had a whole library explaining all there was to know about us.”

“Jackal, one forward.”

“Don, you’re a sorcerer,” Mez said. “You have to have read something on dungeons. Carina had—”

For a few seconds, the silence in the room was complete.

“Sorry, Tibs,” Mez said softly.

Tibs nodded.

Don sighed. “According to treatise I was able to read, Dungeon evolved as a way to keep the flood of monsters and came from the World Rifts back in the Days of the Dawn. They are all of them, and that’s why nearly every dungeon has the same set of templates. Like those Gnolls. Because they all come from those original dungeons, they know what they knew, and as they grow, they can make more and more powerful types. Khumdar, three in diagonal to your right,” Don said after one of Ganny’s infantry moved forward.

“Would the Days of Dawn refer to the time Purity created the world?” Khumdar asked.

“Purity didn’t create—” the sorcerer looked at the cleric. “I didn’t think you were a believer of that.”

“I will not claim to believe,” Khumdar said, “but I have heard of how before there was more than the elements, Purity formed the world and then how the other elements took advantage of it to put what they wanted there, ruining the perfection Purity had created. I have heard other stories in my travels, so I understand how many kingdoms have their own beliefs about how the world came to be, but that one always felt… more credible.”

Don snorted. “The Elements came after the world, not before.”

“And how can that be known?” the cleric asked. “Something must have created the world. So the Elements must have been there before.”

“No. No one knows how the world came to be. The only thing we have is stories and beliefs and people arguing over who’s right. But no one has been able to establish what happened.”

“Then the Elements could have been there before the world, and Purity might—”

“Fine! Yes, maybe that’s what happened,” Don snapped. “We don’t know. So anything’s possible. If believing Purity made all this helps you keep going, good for you. It doesn’t help me.” He ran a hand over his face.

“Don?” Jackal asked, then motioned around them. “What’s the next move?” While he’d been talking, Ganny’s sorcerer had moved to the center of the floor, giving it many places it could go, but no one was endangered because of it.

“Okay, Next move is yours, Tibs. But after that, that sorcerer’s going after either Jackal or Mez. So be ready.” Don waited for them to acknowledge what he said. “Tibs take that infantry.”

Tibs formed ice swords as he stepped to the fire infantry, and it responded with blades of fire. He tested its skill, then went on the offensive. Dodging as he swung. Heat made it through his armor as he cut the infantry’s side and Tibs gritted his teeth at the pain. He kicked it away, then lunged and screamed as he slammed both swords into its chest. The fire blades went out and Tibs straightened. He looked at the cut in his side. Instead of the gaping hole in his armor it had felt like, the line was thin, and there was no blood. The fire had seared his flesh on contact.

“Mez,” Jackal said, and by the time Tibs turned, the archer jumped out of the way of a beam of light, firing fire arrow after fire arrow. Tibs stepped forward to help as Mez got to his feet, but couldn’t move past the edge of the square he stood in. 

The arrows splashed against a faint circle of light before the sorcerer.

“Can you see the shield?” Tibs asked.

“No,” Mez replied, quickly stepping aside from another beam of light. “But I’m getting a sense for it, with the way the fire’s curving around the edges.” He took an arrow from the quiver at his hip and fired that between two fire ones. The shields deflected it. “So much for that idea.”

The next arrow was lower, and the shield moved to intercept it.

Tibs reached for the light essence that made up the shield and attempted to grasp it. It resisted slipping away, and he focused.

“Okay,” Ganny said, “this is odd.”

Tibs mentally pushed as Mez loosed another arrow and the shield shifted enough part of the fire caught the sorcerer.

“What’s odd?” Sto asked.

The shield moved back into place, and Tibs adjusted his hold.

“Nothing,” she said, sounding annoyed. “Tibs’s found a way to help.”

“Go Tibs,” Sto said.

“Really?” she replied as Tibs felt the resistance increase.

“I mean, bad Tibs.” Sto didn’t sound convincing.

When the Sorcerer staggered, it caught both Tibs and Ganny by surprise. The arrow’s wooden shaft pierced its calf. Mez bounced another arrow off the floor and under the shield’s edge and its other calf was pierced. The sorcerer flayed as it fell to the side.

“Cover your eyes,” Mez called, as essence accumulated at the head of the next arrow.

The explosion left Tibs blinking spots away, but the pieces flying in all directions made it worthwhile. 

“Forgot he could do that,” Ganny mused.

“Tibs can manipulate essence away from him,” Sto said.

“I mean Mez, but yes, I also didn’t take that into account. I thought the interference I put on this floor would keep him from doing it. And he can’t tell me how it affected him either, not with Don here.”

“Jackal,” Don said. “Diagonal to your left. That archer might go for you, if the dungeon’s confident of the King’s position.”

The archer didn’t attack Jackal. The next series of moves seemed to be only about maneuvering the remaining pieces until Don was able to destroy the archer, which left the lord and another archer.

Three moves later and Khumdar fought the lord, which ended with his staff planted through its chest.

In the reward room, the pedestal had relatively ordinary items: a bow, metal gloves, another set of lock picks, a shield, and an amulet.