Jake explained his plan and, after a few key changes, they all agreed that it was their best shot.

  Moving forward, they kept a loose formation as they approached the low bridge that would take them over the lava.

  Nepthys went first, though far more hesitantly than she had in the last floor, only to shrug and glance back as no snakes attacked her.

  Unsure what to do, Jake motioned for her to go a little closer. It was only when she was stood on the bridge, looking entirely ill at ease, that the rest of them moved up to join her.

  “What do we do?” Nepthys asked in a low hiss, glancing down at the lava that was slowly shifting below them.

  Jake glanced up at Moby, who was circling overhead, and got confirmation through their bond that there were definitely large shapes within the lava.

  Alan gasped and Jake whirled with his sword at the ready, only to see the edge of a long serpentine body as it broke through the surface of the lava for a moment.

  “They don’t seem to be interested in us,” Gargan said, frowning slightly. “This feels deliberate, we should expect them to attack at the worst possible moment in the future.”

  Jake nodded with a wince. This was a bad start to his plan, that was for sure. Hopefully, the rest would go somewhat smoother.

  Pushing on, they spread out along the bridge, trying to ensure that they would have room to move if one of them was attacked.

  Despite the worry gnawing at Jake’s gut, however, they crossed the bridge with no issue at all. Rather than reassuring him, though, that only made him worry more.

  Taking a deep breath, Jake steeled his nerve and steadied himself. “How close are the Lesser Drakes?”

  “They are clustered around the boulder, I don’t see any until the halfway point,” Alan said, using his Skill once more.

  “Right, let’s move a little closer and see if we can draw some out,” Jake said, his heart pounding as he walked through the short area of normal rock before entering the field of obsidian teeth.

  Testing a theory, Jake gave the closest piece, which was a twelve inch serrated spike jutting out at a forty-five degree angle, a heavy kick.

  Jake’s booted foot came down hard on the side of the spike, shattering it into two large pieces and a slew of small fragments.

  “Well, falling here would be painful, but at least you won’t get impaled,” Alan said, hesitating before nodding to the portion still jutting out of the ground. “At least, not quite as much.”

  “Should we could spend a few minutes clearing an area?” Aspen asked, glancing between the monsters and the glinting field of obsidian. “I’m not too eager to fight among all this, I must admit.”

  Jake considered the question for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I think it’s worth the effort. Let’s clear a space here for us to fight in. We’ll have to push forward to get them, but if we retreat, we’ll come here. That way, we won’t have the lava right at our backs.”

  The others nodded and they all quickly got to work, shattering the spikes and growths in a decent radius around that first one. By the time they were done, the ground was littered with shards, chunks and little needles of the dark mineral.

  Feeling a little more secure in what they were doing, Jake gathered the group back together and continued moving forward.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  They had to carefully pick their way through the obsidian once they’d left the cleared area, but thankfully, they didn’t go too far.

  Pausing at the halfway make to the closest Lesser Drake, Jake gave Alan the nod to proceed.

  Wyrd flashed in Alan’s eyes as he put his Abilities to good use and fired a single arrow that cut through the air to land directly in the eye of a slumbering monster that was at the edge of the group.

  A spray of gore and bone exploded from the monster’s head as Alan’s arrow all but shattered its skull. The monster was dead before it even knew what had happened, and none of its companions stirred from their own slumber.

  “Ah, right, I guess I didn’t need to infuse it while also hitting such a vital weakspot,” Alan said, giving them a sheepish smile as he drew out another arrow.

  “If you can do it again, then by all means go for it,” Jake said, shrugging as he waved aside Alan’s apology. “The more we kill now, the better.”

  Alan nodded, perking up as he picked another Lesser Drake that was somewhat isolated from the rest. Much like the first time, Alan’s arrow was able to kill the creature in a single hit.

  “The power of stacking Abilities,” Aspen said with a shake of his head and a wag of his finger at Alan. “Don’t go getting too good now, leave some for the rest of us!”

  Jake rolled his eyes at Aspen’s antics, watching instead as Alan killed another Lesser Drake while it slept. It was impossible that the creatures weren’t aware, the deaths weren’t exactly silent, after all.

  Jake had a feeling it was down to Dungeon interference. He wasn’t sure exactly why it would do this, and he knew for sure that it wasn’t playing favourite, no, this was something else.

  Thinking back to the other Dungeons they’d run, Jake remembered times when they’d been able to do something similar. Invariably, it seemed to be down to the monster being attacked.

  As if to highlight that though, Alan’s next arrow didn’t quite kill its target immediately. The impact was just as horrific as always, but while the monster was missing half its head, it still lived long enough to make a roar of surprise.

  As if released from bindings, every single Lesser Drake rose and charged at them, weaving between the obsidian with practiced ease.

  If Jake hadn’t suspected Dungeon interference in the behaviour of the monsters, the way that the monsters all ‘woke up’ at the same moment and knew exactly where they were cinched it.

  Now was hardly the time for theorising, though and Jake was quick to start back towards their cleared area. “Come on, fall back and hold the open space.”

  Jake had hoped that they’d be attacked by just a handful of Lesser Drakes at first, but that clearly wasn’t going to be the case.

  Backpedalling, Jake’s gaze flicked up from the charging monsters to the Drake on its huge boulder. With a shock, Jake realised that the Drake’s eyes were open, and it was watching them.

  Heart racing, Jake drew his wand and began to fire clusters of icicles into the oncoming monsters. Infusing the wand with more Wyrd and more ice, Jake focused his attention on the leading creatures. He needed to slow them down as best he could.

  Aspen reached the open area first and carried on a few feet into it before turning and bouncing on his toes, briefly flashing Jake a grin before turning serious once more.

  Taking up position to Aspen’s left as Nepthys went to the right, Jake maintained his barrage of attacks. With the extra Wyrd infusion his wand was able to pierce the hides of the Lesser Drakes, but the wide spread meant he was injuring them, not killing them.

  Moments before Jake would have to holster his wand and switch to his spear, Moby arrived.

  The slight metallic sheen to Moby’s feathers shimmered in the firelight of the spires above, giving the duck a majestic appearance as he rushed past Jake in a full stoop. A gust of wind followed along behind the fast moving duck and he went almost down to the ground itself before breaking off with powerful flaps of his wings. The wind from his descent, mixed with the sudden change in direction, kicked up a cloud of dust that was pushed by Moby’s beating wings right into the oncoming monsters.

  Moby was neither strong enough or large enough to effect all of the monsters, but a trio of Lesser Drakes charged right into that small billowing cloud of dust. Only, it wasn’t just dust.

  Small fragments and shards of obsidian were kicked up alongside the rock dust, striking right into the faces of the oncoming creatures.

  Hissing in pain, the monsters ducked away, blinking rapidly, one of them screeching as it blinked a shard of rock deeper into its eye. Anywhere else, the attack would have caused some further confusion, and that would have been it. Here, though, the dangerous field of obsidian punished the monsters for their erratic movements.

  Jake grinned as Moby dodged the fiery spit of several Lesser Drakes, leaving in his wake one partially blinded monster and two that were bleeding from cuts to their flanks.

  Not bad for a duck.

  Jake slipped his wand back into its holster and braced himself as the rest of the Lesser Drakes came charging in at them.