Kat rolled to the side, a gust of air filled with glittering ice shards tracking her as the massive translucent spider unleashed another breath attack at her. In its wake, a half dozen or so smaller monsters burst out of the ice, birthed by the magic from their mother’s ability. They weren’t as large as the usual dungeon denizens, but the smaller ten-legged baby ice spiders were fast, and their fangs were heavily laden with a paralytic poison.

Kaleek’s trembling body in the corner of the room was a testament to the poison’s effectiveness. Early in the fight he had been swarmed by the juvenile spiders and taken out of the fight. Only by blasting him with a Water Jet and freezing the small monsters solid had Kat been able to save the desoph. From his hesitant movements and red glow it looked like Kaleek was burning through the venom in his system at a rapid rate, but Kat didn’t have much time to be worried about his physical state.

A pair of crystalline forelegs, their tips honed to a knife edge, whooshed through the air toward her, forcing Kat to cast Levitation and throw herself into the air a fraction of a second in front of their impact. Ice and stone cracked behind her, and the spider tracked her movements arc through the air with a massive cluster of inscrutable compound eyes.

“This is why you never claim that a battle will be easy!” Kat shouted at Dorrik. Flashes of energy highlighted the lokkel as they launched a flurry of psi abilities at the swarming ice-spider brood. “The minute you say that, you’re tempting fate. It’s like approaching the meanest and drunkest guy at the bar, putting your cigarette out on his forearm and daring him to do his worst.”

“That is nought but a superstition Miss Kat,” Dorrik called back, their twin blades blurring as they picked a pair of ice spiders that had avoided the psi blasts from the air. “Truly, it is strange to believe that my statements could somehow blur reality and make this battle harder than it was before. The boss simply evolved. It happens from time to time.”

The ice spider pulled its legs from the craters they had inflicted on the floor. Kat’s eyes widened as they flashed up and she quickly cut Levitation and replaced it with Gravity’s Grasp to speed her fall.

Its leg hit her in the chest, eyes tracking her descent with ease despite the rapid changes in gravity. Kat felt a good chunk of her mana disappear in a puff along with her breath as her armor absorbed the vast majority of the blow.

A second leg speared forward, trying to impale her, but the force of the previous attack was a small mercy, sending her flying across the chamber where she bounced off of the ice covered ground in a spray of sparks. It chittered angrily, lifting both of its sharp front legs up again before slamming them into the ground in a brief tantrum

Kat rolled over, groaning as her chest flared with pain. She didn’t need to look up to see that the boss was running toward her. The thunder as its rapid steps shook the floor told her everything she needed to know.

She rocked forward once, hissing with agony as a flare of pain stopped her from sitting up. Across the room, Dorrik was yelling something, but she didn’t have the time or mental capacity to parse what he was trying to say.

Levitation lightened her body, and Kat pushed off of the ground with all of her strength, sending herself skating sideways at high speeds just as the massive spider bashed into the wall behind where she had been laying.

Angrily, it battered the wall with its front legs, shaking the entire room as it crushed ice into snow and shattered rock. Kat used the moment of relief to stand up gingerly and mumble the words to Cure Wounds. Her hands began to glow gold and the ache of internal bleeding began to rapidly fade.

The boss’ legs clattered as it tap-danced in a tight circle, fixing its compound eyes on Kat once again. She sighed, spreading her legs a shoulder width and a half apart and dropping into a slight crouch.

“Hold on Miss Kat!” Dorrik shouted. “There are only one or two of the broodlings left. I’ll be able to help shortly!”

The spider took a deep breath in, obviously preparing another breath attack that would lead to yet more of the smaller monsters sprouting from the ice. In the corner, Kaleek was finally staggering unsteadily to his feet, but he wouldn’t be able to assist in time. It was on Kat to stop the huge monster from summoning reinforcements.

She broke into a sprint, silently cursing the unsteady and icy footing of the chamber. Halfway to the spider, it planted its feet and drew its face back only for a blast of slush from Water Jet to splash across its face.

Her spell only had to travel ten to fifteen paces, but the massive ice spider’s cold aura was strong enough that the water was already beginning to freeze and turn into the consistency of mud by the time it spattered the creature’s face and upper body where it immediately froze. A half second later, another Water Jet drenched its eyes and mouth.

It shook its head, breath attack forgotten as it tried to clear the second layer of slush and ice. The cold itself wasn’t doing any damage, but there was enough water flash freezing on the monster’s face to constrain and half blind it.

For good measure, Kat hit it a third time. The spider reached up with this forelegs, batting ineffectually at its face as she slipped in under its guard, stabbing repeatedly with her dagger at its underside.

The attacks didn’t do much damage, even with Penetrate active her dagger only sank deep enough into the creature’s defenses to find yet more crystalline armor. Still, they served their purpose, distracting the spider long enough for Kat to finish casting Scald.

Its face exploded into a cloud of mist and the spider screamed, a strange warbling chittering sound that seemed to assault Kat’s eardrums. The monster stumbled to the left, and she took that opportunity to dart to its right, stabbing her dagger deep into one of the joints on a leg and ripping it free on her way away from the downed monster.

Almost immediately the thick fog bank began to condense into snow and frost that coated the angry spider. The armor on its face was cracked and oozing ichor from the sudden changes in temperature as it glared angrily at Kat. It was clear that the attack had done some serious damage, but it was still upright and more than ready to ruin the rest of her day.

It screeched again and stood up, stumbling once as the leg she had injured gave out under it. The monster took a half second to re-distribute its weight, bobbing its head from side to side as it tried to regain complete control of its injured body.

Then Kaleek barreled into its side, his entire body glowing red as his shoulder smashed into the spider and knocked it off balance once more. A half second later, Dorrik sprinted past Kat, slashing with both of their swords into a V that cut through the armor on one of the boss monster’s forelegs and unleashing a spray of the slushy ichor.

Almost without thinking, Kat cast Overpressure, and the river of clear blood turned into a geyser, filling the room with its putrid smell as it gushed everywhere. Dorrik dodged to the side as another sharpened leg clawed futilely at where they had been.

Kat began jogging toward the downed monster, casting Crushing Fist on its mouth and throat as she moved. Unsurprisingly, the spell wasn’t enough to kill the creature outright, but as the gravity from the spell grew incrementally more intense, it wired the ice spider’s mouth shut, preventing it from spawning yet more of the broodlings.

Dorrik and Kaleek continued their grim work, blades glittering as they rose and fell, shattering crystalline armor and bruising the light purple organs underneath. Once the monster managed to swipe Kaleek with a leg, clanking the translucent but rock hard limb off of his armor.

The attack staggered the desoph for a second, but between his armor’s enchantments and the enervation caused by blood loss, it didn’t serve much purpose other than to force him back a step. Kat simply ducked over the weak and flailing attacks and drew close to the monster’s head.

It stared up at her with angry and malice filled eyes, but given the crippling damage to the rest of its body and the tightening vice of Crushing Fist on its mouth, there wasn’t much it could do. Kat stepped closer and it tried to jerk its head to the side, but even that movement was sluggish and unbalanced.

She lifted her blade high, activating Penetrate before she brought it down in the center of the spider’s eye cluster. The knife sank deep, passing through the monster’s ocular cavity with ease and sinking deep into its brain. It twitched, legs spasming as a final round of nerve impulses misfired, and finally Kat realized that she was elbow deep in monster corpse.

The smell and sensation were beyond gross. Kat recoiled, barely able to avoid retching as sticky gunk splattered everywhere. From the top of her head to her waist, blackish green goop covered her body sticking to her skin and hair like glue. More specifically, glue that smelled like a pig farm that hadn’t been shoveled clean for a month in july.

She directed a Water Jet at herself, not caring that the end result would be a sheathe of ice, but it didn’t do much good. Whatever the spider’s eyes and brain were made of, even a high pressure spray of water couldn’t clean it from her skin.

The water almost immediately began to harden on her skin, her hair freezing into a glittering helmet. Distantly, Kat heard Kaleek laughing at her discomfort and made a mental note to slip some corpseleaf in his next meal.

Despite the grease and gunk covering her skin, Kat’s hit points began to take slow but steady damage. She gritted her teeth as best she could under the mask of ice and slammed the hilt of her dagger against the side of her face.

Her eyes crossed for a second and Kat felt herself wobbling, but the dizziness fell away along with the shards of ice that broke off of her brow and nose. She shook her head, taking a deep breath as her airways cleared.

Kaleek walked over to her, slapping Kat on the back.

“Good fight,” Kaleek said happily. “At least this time you managed to leave some scraps for me to play with. I thought I was going to go crazy without something big I could go wild on. The little ones spend too much time dancing around the room. They don’t hold still long enough for you to really wind up and hit them.”

“Glad I could help,” Kat replied weakly. “Still, that was a bit closer than I would like.”

“True,” Kaleek agreed, “but it wouldn’t be fun if we breezed through all of our fights. The breath attack and the broodlings were an interesting twist. We won, and that means we can update the records that Clan Ahn has on this specific dungeon, but it’s good to remember that reports on a dungeon aren’t absolute. Strange things do happen and you need to be ready for them. Otherwise, you end up paralyzed in the corner struggling to breathe while your teammate solos one of the best bosses you’ve seen.”

“I don’t know,” Kat responded, looking past her furry friend toward where Dorrik was on one of their knees, carefully removing some of the oversized spider’s lavender organs. “I think I prefer easy fights over and over again. I could do with a little less adrenaline in my life. There’s enough of that when I’m awake.”

“Bah.” Kaleek slapped her on the back again while shaking his head. “Where is your spirit of adventure? Of excitement? At a very minimum living by the scruff of your neck is more fun than having Jaalin plan out every move. When she looks at me, it’s like she’s cataloging and assessing everything that I have done and that I’m capable of doing, and she finds me lacking.”If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Are you complaining again?” Dorrik asked, extracting something long and spindly from one of the ice spider’s joints. “I thought we established that Jaalin is a talented individual, and that getting me prepared for the coming of age ceremony without her help would be difficult bordering on impossible. Only with a full team helping me speed through dungeons do we stand a chance at finishing on time.”

Kat gave the room one last scan for spiders or broodlings before sliding her dagger back into her sheath while sighing to herself.

“They’re right Kaleek. Jaalin annoys me too, but if we’re going to make sure Dorrik is ready for his coming of age ceremony, we’re going to need her help. After all, if it’s just the three of us we have to spend so much time sneaking that we’re limited to only a handful of iron dungeons around our home base. With another three skilled fighters on our team, not only can we consistently bring down gliders without injury, but we can pick and choose which dungeons we tackle, meaning that we can maximize our specific skill set.”

“Agreed, Miss Kat,” Dorrik replied with a bob of their head and a rustle of their crest. “Jaalin will be out of both of your fur soon, but for now her assistance is necessary.”

“And you,” Kat continued, pointing an accusing finger at the lokkel. “Stop jinxing us. I swear, if you promise that the next dungeon will be easy, the three of us are going to find ourselves chased through a maze of draps by demon bees or something.”

“But-” Dorrik sputtered, only for Kat to cut him off.

“But nothing. It’s not just a superstition. We all know the Tower listens to what we’re saying to make sure forbidden information isn’t being passed on. More than that, the skills and dungeon awards are far too tailored for it to be an accident. Out of hundreds if not thousands of available skills, it doesn’t make sense that I am constantly getting abilities that track my growth and development as a player unless the Tower is keeping track of what I’m seeing and doing.”

“I suppose,” Dorrik said thoughtfully, their crest flattening as they pondered Kat’s words.

“It’s mostly just a superstition for me,” Kaleek said helpfully. “Of course, it all worked out this time. There were a couple bumps in the road, but I got to tackle a monster and batter my way through its armor while the two of you kept it distracted, so I consider that a win.”

The desoph began whistling to himself as he walked over to the dungeon altar and put his hand on it. A second later he disappeared in a stream of rainbow light, leaving Dorrik and Kat alone in the dungeon.

Silence reigned for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. Then they both burst out laughing. Kat wasn’t sure if Dorrik started and she followed or if it was the other way around, but regardless, the tension disappeared like smoke in a strong breeze.

“He certainly has a way with words, doesn’t he?” Kat asked, shaking her head as she began walking toward the altar.

“Truly a scholar,” Dorrik replied with a chuckle before cocking their head. “Now that I think about it, he probably actually does qualify as a scholar in the waking world, not that you could tell that from his actions here.”

She paused in front of the altar, her hand hovering just above the cool stone. Rather than pressing down, she closed it into a fist and turned back around.

“You know that we’re happy to help, right Dorrik?” Kat asked.

The lokkel looked rather taken aback, their crest stiffening as they blinked at her in confusion.

“Of course Miss Kat. I am very grateful that Kaleek and you are willing to put up with the bother of speeding up the leveling process and attending the ascension ceremony with-”

“That’s not really what I was saying,” Kat interjected. “We complain a lot, but Kaleek and I care about you. We realize that your Clan is asking more of you than it should, and we want to be there for you. Kaleek might whine and tell jokes, and I might give you a hard time about your statements creating bad luck, but underneath everything, we have your back. We’re just a cantankerous bunch. You could offer the two of us pie and a stack of marks and we’d find a way to complain about it.”

“I…” They began, pausing for a second to collect themselves before continuing. “I think I understand. I’m not sure that it needed to be said, after all of this time I think that the three of us understand each other fairly well. Still, I am glad that you said it.”

“Good,” Kat replied with a quick smile. “I just know that we were giving you a lot of guff on a mission that went sideways. It’s easy for a joke to get out of hand in a situation like that, and I wanted to make sure that all of the back and forth was all in fun.”

“It was quite fun,” Dorrik agreed, “although I will have to think on the theory you posited. There are many theories about the nature and role of the architects, but I haven’t heard anyone articulate the possibility of them being vaguely malevolent tricksters until now. Unfortunately, that explains a good many things.”

Kat shook her head, bemused smile still on her face as she turned back to the altar. Despite everything, Dorrik was still going to be Dorrik. They’d finish their tangent when they finished it. In the meantime, Kat pressed her hand to the stone to finish her stay in the dungeon.

Congratulations Adventurer!

You have completed the Iron Tier Level Eight Dungeon, Ice Caves of Raknos

Three of Three party members surviving. Good Job!

Assigning awards:

Agility + 1

Stamina + 3