Chapter 26: Chapter 25

“What’s the count?” Jackal asked Tibs.

“Four and eight coppers,” he answered without having to check, he’d wrapped each ten coins separately, letting him easily keep track. It felt strange that having so many coins in his pouch now felt normal. He could remember the day he’d seen his first whole copper coin, how unreal it had felt.

“You mean forty-eight,” Pyan said, and he felt his face heat up.

“He’s new to numbers higher than fifteen,” Jackal replied, “so let him count it the way he prefers.”

Tibs smiled at the fighter. “And this time there were ten silvers in the warrens. That gives us two silvers each and we can pay the guild’s cut with the coppers, then split what’s left.”

“We need to split first,” Geoff said. “I owe them for the leather chest.” He tapped his armor.

“That still leaves enough we each can pay with the coppers,” Carina said.

“How’s everyone feeling?” Jackal asked.

“I could use a breather,” Pyan said. “As much as I like the versatility of this armor, it’s heavy.”

“This went fast enough we can afford a break.”

This had been the smoothest run Tibs had been on. He had a scrape on his cheek, but that was from jumping out of the way from a rabbit and losing his helmet before he landed and slid on the floor. The strap had been chewed on by a rat on a previous run and he hadn’t thought to get it repaired. No one else had gotten hurt.

Geoff had the cache’s item, a Glove of the Archer. It gave his bow pull more strength and was the main reason they’d made it this far with no injuries, that, and his exploding arrows. He could make crystal arrows that exploded on impact; with a good aim he’d taken multiple rats out at the same time.

“What do you think of Carina?” Jackal asked Tibs, keeping his voice low. The sorceress was speaking with the archer.

“She hasn’t had much to do, but her air slice worked well against the rats and rabbits here.”

“I was thinking more about her helping you with your plan; like I did. After that, we’d just need to find someone for fire and you’ll have done them all.”

Tibs looked in her direction. Something she said made Geoff chuckle, and she smiled. “I’d have to tell her why; explain what I’m doing. If she’s not going to be on the team, she could tell someone.”

“Okay, but don’t you think needing her help is enough to have her join? She isn’t any worse than the other sorcerers I’ve run with.”

Tibs nodded. “Let’s see how she is with the last room.”

“Works for me.” Jackal turned to the other. “Rest over. Pyan, you have the key, so the door is yours. Geoff, get in position. If it behaves the way I’ve seen it do before, it’s going to turn to face the door as the light comes up. You’re going to have a clear shot, please don’t miss.”

The archer moved his gloved fingers. “With this, there is no missing that target. I think it does more than give my pull more strength.”

“Once it’s blinded, we charge. We still need to be careful once we’re in close combat since it’ll be able to tell where we are as we hit it.” He motioned to the door and Pyan removed the keyhole cover and inserted the key. Then she and Jackal pulled it open.

The inside of the room went from pitch black to fully lit as the golem turned to face them. It was the same height as before, much taller than Tibs, and seemed more massive this time, with its right arm ending in a black whip instead of a hand. While the eyes were the same stone as the rest of it, Tibs couldn’t help sense a maliciousness behind them.

Geoff’s arrow detonated on impact with enough force the golem staggered back.

“Now,” Jackal ordered. He ran in and was the first to reach it, slamming a fist into its chest before it backhanded him and Jackal flew away.

“Clear the space,” Geoff called. “I’m going to shoot it again.” Instead, he screamed as the golem took a step forward and the stone whip flew at him.

Tibs spun in place, looking for what made the hissing sound. It was like the scratching the rats made, but louder, closer. If there were rats in here on top of the golem, they were dead.

“I thought you said it couldn’t see?” Pyan yelled.

Tibs refocused on the fight in time to watch her jump out of the way of the whip.

“It couldn’t, I swear.” With a curse, Geoff rolled out of the way in the process of getting back up.

“Did the dungeon change how—” Jackal jumped, but the whip nicked his armor, opening a gash that exposed his earth skin.

“Quiet!” Tibs yelled before anyone could reply and jumped out of the way as the golem turned, took a step, and the whip flew at where he’d stood. He stayed low, watching it, as it stepped back in place.

“Tibs,” Carina called, only to shriek in fear, an air funnel forming around her, deflecting the whip. The golem struck at her again, and again. Each time moving in the same way then stepping back into its starting position.

“Hey, Rock face!” Jackal yelled as it readied for a fourth attack. Tibs barely heard him over the sound of the whirlwind protecting Carina, and the golem attacked her. Tibs motioned for Jackal to yell louder. He thought he had this.

The fighter yelled loudly, a wordless scream, outstripping the wind, as the golem repositioned itself, then turned in his direction. Tibs motioned to Carina, desperately trying to get her attention and have her end the wind.

Pyan yelled something Tibs didn’t make out before the golem faced Jackal, and it turned in her direction.

The lack of attack finally registered to the sorceress, and the winds died. As she opened her mouth, Tibs emphatically placed his finger over his lips. The whip hit the wall, then silence as they looked at each other. In the silence, the scratching like hiss came again and Tibs fought his fear a rat was close to him and focused on what the golem did, which was nothing.

Jackal looked at him, mouthing, “now what?”

Tibs shrugged, wondering why the golem hadn’t reacted to that hiss. Maybe its hearing wasn’t strong enough?

Geoff formed an arrow, aimed, and pulled the string. In the silence, it made a sound, or maybe it was the wood the bow was made of. The golem turned, took a step, and the whip flew. It was faster than Tibs expected. Faster than Geoff anticipated as the whip caught him in the arms before he could react.

Jackal and Pyan yelled, drawing the golem’s attention away from Geoff until he had his breathing under control and stopped making sounds, lying on the floor holding his bloody and broken arm. Silence fell again, and Carina stepped toward Geoff. The creak of her leather boots made the golem turn, but before it was ready, Jackal and Pyan were at it again, and it turned, trying to pick a target. Carina hurried by Geoff’s side, then stopped moving.

If walking was loud enough to get its attention, they needed someone able to do so without making any sound. He looked at his shoes and smiled. Now, what he needed was something to do with that ability.

He could retreat, and with one of them causing a distraction, the other three might be able to do so too, but Geoff was down and Tibs didn’t think even Jackal could get to him and carry him out without the golem hitting him. They’d have to bring the golem down literally, Tibs suspected, to manage to do it figuratively, if they wanted the whole team to leave this room.

He looked at Carina and nodded to the golem. She closed her eyes and shook her head after opening them. Too tired for an effective attack. That meant he was the only one able to reach it.

He took a step forward.

“Tibs,” Jackal whispered in alarm, then was on his side and Pyan had taken over distracting the golem away from the other fighter who was on the ground, gasping. Tibs looked at the fighter as he got his gasps under control. How badly was he hurt? He and Pyan were their heavy hitters. If the start of the plan he was getting had any chance of working, the two needed to be able to fight for all of them to get out of this.

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Jackal sat up and nodded to Tibs. He moved his arm off his stomach. There was another long gash, but underneath, the earth's skin looked intact.

Tibs took another step, then one more, and stopped. Was he close enough? He’d have to be. Any closer and he was within striking range. He couldn’t risk the golem having some way of telling when someone was close.

He placed a hand on the floor and spread his water toward the golem, nearly exhausting his reserve well before it was close enough for what he needed. He calmed himself and tried to sense the essence floating around him, but immediately he felt the sense of the water he’d spread lessen and he cursed silently. He couldn’t afford to let go of his water, and while holding it, he couldn’t draw in more.

He didn’t agree with Alistair that he couldn’t hold more essence right now, but without access to more, what he thought he could do didn’t matter. His choices were to get more water essence somehow, or get much closer to the golem.

The hissing-scratching came back and Tibs froze. No one reacted to it, not even the golem. Maybe Alistair was right and stress caused it. There was a strange cadence to it, something he almost recognized. In stories, it would be a spirit, there to encourage him, provide inspiration.

Unfortunately, neither did him any good, encouragement meant nothing when he had no reserve to work with.

Except.

As carefully as he could, he slipped a finger in the pouch and touched the amulet; felt the essence in it, the water essence. It felt exactly like his reserve. He pulled on the essence and it responded.

Yes! He could do this. The amulet shifted and he almost lost contact with it. He closed his fingers around it and felt one of the bundles of coins come undone and tumble over one another.

He looked at the golem, frozen in terror.

It didn’t move.

The coins made no sounds.

Of course. For the pouch to hide its content, people couldn’t be able to hear coins jingle in it. He grasped the amulet and breathed. Now to see if he could do this. He didn’t want to test his belief, not right now, when it would condemn four other people if he was wrong, so how to move the water in the amulet, without first having it go through his own reserve.

He pulled it over his hand. This was less sensing and manipulating at the same time, which he couldn’t do, but manipulating his essence when it was split into two, which Alistair had demonstrated, but Tibs’s so small reserve had made difficult to test. He shivered as it moved up his arm, his shoulder, neck, and down the other arm, to join the water already on the floor and spread around the golem, making a wide path between him and it.

He made the water into ice as slick as he could.

He looked at the golem’s back. “Hey!”

It turned, each step needed not stepping fully on the ice. Once it faced him, it stepped forward as it prepared to whip him. Its foot stepped fully on the ice as the whip came at him; and just as Jackal had done when Walter had covered the trap room’s floor with ice, the foot slid out from under it. The whip still hit Tibs in the side and the impact broke something as he was sent sliding back.

He watched Pyan and Jackal race to the golem as it tried to find its footing in the melting ice, then they were on it, pummeling it and hitting it with sword. Each time the golem threw one off, the other redoubled their effort until it was both of them on it again. Carina assisted with air slices when she could.

Tibs fought the pain and exhaustion to push himself sitting before he thought about the amulet in his hand and used it to refill his reserve, making the pain more tolerable by itself.

The fighting stopped, the golem no longer recognizable as such. The silence lasted a few seconds, during which Tibs heard the hissing again, and he tried to figure out what felt familiar about it.

“Yeah!” Jackal yelled, startling Tibs and making him double over from pain.

“Please tell me everyone’s alive,” Pyan said. “I don’t want to have gone through all this just to have to hand over the loot.”

“How much pain do I need to be in not to be alive anymore?" Geoff asked, then groaned.

“I’m good,” Tibs said, sounding anything but.

“How did you do it?” Carina asked, standing next to him. “After it heard me walking, I thought we were done for.” Tibs pointed to his shoes. Carina looked, frowned, then blushed. “I stopped looking too closely a while ago, too many people have dungeon wares now.”

Tibs nodded. He'd stopped looking when he was in town too.

She helped him to his feet and had to support him.

“What I’d like to know is where all that water came from,” Jackal asked. “I know it’s a lot more than you’re able to manage.”

Tibs opened his hand, and the amulet fell until the string he held stopped it and it swung in the air. “Walter.”

Jackal shook his head and chuckled, then groaned, holding his side. “I can’t believe we did it.”

Tibs motioned to the chest. “I don’t think I can unlock it.”

Jackal went to it and opened it. Grinning, he pulled a shield out of it. Flat at the top, going down straight until the middle, where it tapered to a point at the bottom.

Tibs had seen adventurers with shields like that, fighters. The shield was metal and once Jackal turned it to show them the front, they saw intricate carvings of a mountain with a setting sun behind it. There was silver on it and gemstones. And other kinds of metal Tibs didn’t know.

“That looks expensive,” Carina said.

Tibs focused, but nothing appeared. It had no magic.

“That’s something only a fighter can use,” Pyan said.

Jackal turned it over. The back had straps to slip an arm in. “You’re not getting it.”

“Jackal, only you and I can use it, and I’m metal, I can do a lot more with it than you can.”

“This is team loot,” he replied. “We defeated it.” He snorted. “Let’s be honest, Tibs defeated it. We just hit it hard. If you take it, none of us gets anything out of this. We’re going to sell it and divide the coins. It’s the only fair thing to do.”

“If we can find a merchant to buy it,” Geoff said, on his feet, leaning against the wall, holding his broken bow in his hand. “I’m not sure any of them expected to get something like this quite this early. I mean, this is an Omega level dungeon, right?”

“We’ll manage it,” Jackal said. “If it gets to that I might have someone. If that doesn’t pan out, we have a merchant appraise it and negotiate with the guild to get a good price for it. I don’t trust the guild to be honest about the value. Does that work for you, Pyan?”

She looked the shield over, then nodded. “I got excited. Whatever this brings us, my cut will be enough so I can get myself a decent shield.”

“We all did. Now, go help Geoff, and let’s get out of this place.”

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