Chapter 54: Chapter Fifty-Four: Watch Your Step

We grabbed our gear and headed to the stairwell. It only took a minute to climb down to the next level. The landing led out into another short corridor and before we stepped into the next room, Siofra stopped the party.

“We’ll need to make some preparations before we step inside. This is the most dangerous room yet.” She explained.

“What happens in there?” Asked Serin.

“If it hasn’t changed, then from the moment you step inside, the floor tiles start falling away at random. One falls every ten seconds until there are none left.”

“What’s underneath?”

“A deep pit. I’ve no idea if the fall is survivable.”

“What’s your suggestion to get across?” Lillia asked.

“I think it’s best if we rope up. It will slow us down a little, but only one tile falls at a time. At least this way if someone doesn’t make it off the tile in time they won’t fall to their death. Not everyone here is that agile.” Siofra said setting out her plan.

I had a feeling that it was probably just me that would be the problem. But at least even if this slowed everyone down, it still gave the others a safety net in case anything went wrong.

“Okay, that makes sense.” Agreed Lillia. “Then what, we just try to cross as quickly as possible?”

“Yes. I’d suggest we spread out as much as possible and then run for the exit. I think it’s our best chance as long as nothing has changed since before.”

“We’ll have to hope it hasn’t. That trap doesn’t give us the option of slowly crossing to check for any others.” Altria added.

“No, it doesn’t.” Siofra said agreeing with Altria.

Serin rummaged in her bag and produced a length of rope.

“Here, we can use this. It’s strong enough to take our weight.”

We ran the rope out along the corridor to see what we were working with, before tying it around each of our waists.

“Are you all ready?” Lillia asked once everyone was tied together.

There were nods and yeses from the whole party.

“Okay. We’re going to hit the room running. Line up in the corridor and when I give the signal to go, we all run in. Let’s set a pace we can all keep. As soon as the whole party is in the room we spread out as much as we can.”

As soon as Lillia had spoken we lined up in the corridor, ready to make a break for it across the room. Altria was going to take the lead, following her was Siofra, then Lillia, then me and Serin would take up the rear. Lillia took one final look at us before giving the signal.

“Let’s move.”

The whole party started to run, completely in sync. We were following the pace that Altria set, it was quick, but I knew it was nowhere near her top speed. Once we were all inside, we spread out, running across the room like a horizontal line. Tiles were already beginning to fall, with each one dropping with a sliding and scraping noise. Several seconds passed before I could make out the faint sound of them crashing into the floor down below. It was a long drop, and I had no doubt that it was a fall that I wouldn’t survive.

I looked ahead trying to focus on our destination, the doorway at the far end of the room. I had little time to take in my surroundings, only glancing side to side, to check on my companions’ progress. I heard a tile slip out up ahead. It had fallen directly from under Altria’s feet, but she barely changed her stride to make it to the next tile.

We were halfway across and there were now many holes that had opened in my path. I was filled with nerves at the thought that the floor could fall from under my feet at any moment. I doubted that I would be able to take it my stride like Altria had.

We were now within touching distance of the exit. Altria was just about to step out of the room when the tile under Lillia’s feet fell. Unlike Altria she dropped with the tile. She was able to swing her staff and a loud clank rang out as it caught on the tiles to either side. By the time I reached her to give her a hand she was already halfway out. I grabbed her arm and pulled her up the final distance.

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By now Serin had caught us both up and as we started running once again Altria and Siofra had already cleared the room. Two steps later and Lillia was out. Then the thing I had been dreading happened. The tile under my feet fell. The first I knew about it was the feeling weightlessness. I didn’t have time to react before the rope pulled tight and I came to sharp stop.

My gut stung with pain from the sudden stop and every ounce of air seemed to have been forced from my body. I could hear Serin sliding over the tile above my head as she held my weight. Then another fell. I fell a few feet more, the tile under Serin had collapsed as well. A second later and the rope shook violently as Serin came to halt. We dangled there for a few moments before the three that had made it out the room safely begun to pull us up.

By the time I had been pulled up back to the floor level I had just about recovered enough from being winded to try and pull myself out. Another thirty seconds later and I crawled to safety and out of the room. There was no time to relax before I begun to help with pulling Serin back out. It only took the four of us a few moments before her head appeared above the tiles and a few seconds later the entire party was safely out and resting in the corridor the exited the room.

“I’m glad that we went with the rope plan!” Serin said with a chuckle as soon as she was safely out.

“Are you both okay?” Lillia asked showing a little concern.

“I’m fine, just got a big dose of adrenalin is all.” I replied.

“I’m fine, thanks Lillia. The tiles fell so quickly, it was just a bit of a shock.” Answered Serin.

“That’s good. Let’s give it a moment to catch your breath, then we head on.”

“I must say, I’m surprised that it caught you out Serin. I expected you to easily hop off just like Altria did.” I told her.

“Well, I’m flattered that you think I could react that quickly. I’m fast but remember I’m human just like you. There’s no way I could be as fleet of foot as one of the catkin or an elf.” Serin explained.

“I had no idea that the variance in race made such a difference.”

“It does. There’s no reason that we can’t move as quickly as them, but when it comes to pure agility and reaction times, they definitely have us beat.”

“But when I’ve seen you fight you just seem so fast and nothing seems to phase you.”

“Thanks… But that is down to practice and training. I guess you could call it the difference between skill and innate ability. You won’t ever see me leaping up a tree like Altria does.”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“Okay everyone, get ready to move again. Siofra, what’s up ahead?” Asked Lillia.

“This corridor takes a left turn about fifty meters up ahead and then it travels down to the next level of the dungeon. That’s where things start to become a little different. The corridor leads into the cave system that they’ve made use of here.” Siofra replied.

“Hmm, so we’re nearly where it moves into the cave system. What can we expect to find there as we move forward?”

“Well, it was mainly monster spawns, but I don’t want to rule anything out. It’s like a maze down there. The system runs on for miles in every direction. It still follows a floor pattern like the upper levels and there is a small safe area in between each level where monsters don’t seem to spawn. I think if we keep up the same pace that we’ve made so far, we should be able to make the second safe zone by nightfall. It’s probably our best bet for making camp for the night.”

“Then we should get going.”

“There’s one more thing… Once we reach the second safe zone, we’ve reached the furthest point I’ve explored in the dungeon. After that we’re heading into the unknown.”

“Then if that’s the case we should ensure we reach the second safe zone today. I’d like to start on the unexplored area as fresh as possible.”

We set off down the corridor straight away. It was just as Siofra had explained, after about fifty meters the corridor took a sharp turn to the left. It started sloping downwards and took us an entire hundred and eighty degrees around. It continued to travel further down until the corridor opened up into a giant cavern.

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