"You cheated," Bhel said, his voice echoing slightly in the narrow spiral of the ramp. He sounded delighted, though he was trying to hide it behind a grumble. "Admit it, lad. You looked that Dragon-Blood kobold in the eye, agreed to a sacred duel, and then shoved him out of his own house."

  "I didn't shove him out of his house," Josh corrected, keeping his eyes on the curving path ahead. "I shoved him out of the 'Circle of Honour'. There is a difference."

  "To the kobold, maybe," Brett chimed in, leaning on his staff as they descended. "To the System? You basically found a loophole in the fine print. The rules were pretty clear. The duel didn't end because you won; it ended because the 'Rite of Combat' was invalidated by unauthorised displacement. You made the boss break his own rule by forcing him over the line."

  Josh shrugged, the movement shifting the dented shield on his arm. "The runes on the floor meant I had to remain within the ring or forfeit the protection of the Rite. He thought that meant I couldn't run away. He didn't consider that I’d bull-rush him across the border. As soon as his tail crossed that line, it broke the rules. Like those old stories about viking fighting between sticks. Once he went over it I could get the support of my people.”

  Carcan shook her head, though a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "That is terrifyingly logical. You are beginning to think less like a warrior and more like a mage."

  Josh looked over his shoulder at Carcan with a horrified look on his face.

  "Effective," Perberos murmured from the rear guard. "Honour is a cage. You simply opened the door."

  "Aye, well," Bhel kicked a loose stone, watching it tumble into the darkness below. "As long as you don't start throwing me across borders to confuse the System, I’m happy."

  The banter died away as the atmosphere of the descent shifted. The ramp felt less like walking and more like being swallowed. The walls here were etched with runes that pulsed with a sickening, violet light, the exact same colour as the bruising on a corpse. The shadows in the spiral seemed to writhe, detaching themselves from the damp stone to snatch at the edges of their cloaks, testing their substance.

  At the bottom, the ramp opened into a circular chamber that smelled of ozone and stagnant blood.

  In the centre stood a crystal the size of a wagon, glowing with corrupted purple energy that hummed with a headache-inducing frequency. And tending to it was a figure that made the massive Bulwarks they had fought earlier look positively friendly.

  It was a Kobold, but warped beyond recognition. It floated a few inches off the ground, its toes dragging limply as if the legs were useless. Its robes were woven from living shadows that smoked and curled in the stagnant air, and its face was hidden behind a mask of bleached bone. In its hands, it held a staff topped with a shrunken skull that chattered silently.

  "Shadow Priest," Perberos identified instantly, his voice a tight rasp. "High priority target. Do not let it cast."

  The Priest turned. The eye sockets of the bone mask flared with purple fire, searching out the near silent whisper of Perberos’ voice. It raised its staff, and the shadows in the room surged like a rising tide.

  "Intruders..." The voice didn't come from the kobold. It came from the corners of the room, whispering directly into their inner ears, wet and intimate. "Must... serve..."

  "It talks," Bhel grunted, tightening his grip on his axe until the leather creaked. "I hate it talkin’. It makes me brain fuzzy.”

  The Priest slammed its staff down and the floor erupted.

  Tendrils of solid darkness lashed out from the ground like striking vipers, aiming to snare their ankles and crush bone.

  "Scatter" Josh shouted, the command tearing from his throat. "Keep moving! Don't let them grab you!"

  He sprinted forward, shield raised, aiming to close the distance before the caster could settle into a rhythm. A shadow tendril whipped at him, moving with the speed of a cracking whip. Josh slashed it with his sword; the blade passed through the smoke but met resistance like cutting through dense, wet muscle. The tendril recoiled, dissolving into acidic mist.

  The Priest gestured, a sharp, jerky motion, and a bolt of violet energy shot toward Josh.

  Josh raised his shield. The bolt hit. But instead of bouncing off with a metallic clang, it splashed against the enchanted shield like viscous acid. The white light of the shield’s barrier flickered and dimmed, the magical feedback sending a jolt of cold numbness up Josh's arm, what little mana he possessed being dragged out of him.

  "It drains mana!" Josh realised with a start as he felt the impact sap his stamina, leaving him feeling hollowed out. "Don't block the magic! Dodge it!"

  "Easier said than done!" Brett yelled, throwing himself into a combat roll under a lashing tendril that shattered the stone where his head had been a second before. He popped up, staff glowing, and fired a Firebolt.

  The Priest didn't move. It simply raised a withered hand, and a wall of shadow rose up to swallow the flame. The fire vanished without a sound, suffocated instantly.

  "He nullifies magic!" Brett cried out, panic edging into his voice. "Physical damage only! He’s eating my spells!"

  "Music to my ears!" Bhel roared. The dwarf had managed to weave through the thrashing tendrils, his low centre of gravity keeping him upright. He closed in on the flank, leaping with both axes raised for a killing blow.

  The Priest turned its masked head slowly. It pointed a single, skeletal finger at Bhel, who proceeded to stop mid-air. It was as if an invisible giant had swatted him out of the sky. He slammed into the ground with a sickening crunch, his armour screeching against the rock. The stone beneath him spiderwebbed, cracking under the sudden, immense pressure. The dwarf groaned, pinned to the floor, his face pressed into the grit.

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  "Bhel!" Carcan shouted. She raised her staff, the crystal blazing. A wave of golden light washed over the dwarf, fighting the purple gravity. The air shimmered with the conflict of energies before the gravity hold shattered.

  Bhel gasped, rolling free just as a spike of solid shadow erupted from the stone where his chest had been, missing him by a fraction of an inch.

  "I can't get close!" Josh shouted, ducking another violet bolt that singed his ear. "He has too much control! He’s zoning us out!"

  "We need to break his concentration," Perberos called out from the back, sending an arrow towards the kobold, only for a shadow to reach out and grab it from the air. The elf looked around the room before his eyes went narrow, then widening in realisation. "The crystal! He’s drawing power from it! Sever the link!"

  Josh looked at the massive purple crystal in the centre. A pulsating beam of energy connected it to the Priest’s back like an umbilical cord.

  "Smash the rock!" Josh ordered, his voice cracking with strain. "Bhel, switch targets! Hit the crystal!"

  "On it!" Bhel scrambled up, ignoring the bruises and the blood trickling from his nose. He charged the crystal instead of the boss, roaring a dwarven war cry.

  The Priest screeched, a horrible, layered sound of grinding tectonic plates and turned to stop the dwarf.

  "Oh no you don't!" Josh saw the opening, triggering his Dash skill. He crossed the remaining twenty feet in a blur of steel and leather. He slammed into the floating Priest, not with his weapon, but with his body weight. The collision was brutal.

  The impact didn't knock the Priest down, given its ability to float on the shadows around it, but was shoved sideways enough to break its line of sight with the crystal. The beam of energy connecting it to the crystal flickered and hissed.

  "Now, Bhel!"

  Bhel reached the crystal and planted his feet, twisted his hips, and unleashed an attack that utilised every ounce of his strength.

  "FOR KHAZAD!"

  The axe struck the crystal, with a sharp ringing clang.

  CRACK.

  The sound was like a gunshot in a library. A massive fracture appeared on the glowing surface, leaking violet smoke.

  The Priest howled in pain, clutching its chest as if it had taken the blow itself. The shadows in the room spasms, the tendrils flailing wildly and smashing into the walls.

  "Again!" Josh shouted, slashing at the Priest’s robes to keep it occupied. He dodged a claw swipe that left trails of black smoke in the air, the talons tearing furrows in his pauldron.

  Bhel swung again. And again. Metal rang against crystal, sparks flying.

  CRACK. CRACK. CRACK. SHATTER.

  The crystal exploded.

  Shards of purple glass rained down like hail. The beam of energy severed with a sound like a snapping cable.

  The Priest fell to the floor, gravity finally reclaiming it. Its shadow robes dissolved into tatters, revealing a withered, grey husk underneath. The bone mask cracked down the middle.

  "He’s vulnerable!" Brett shouted, his staff igniting. "Burn him!"

  With whatever was protecting the priest now gone, Brett didn't hold back. He unleashed a Firebolt, dumping as much of his remaining mana pool into the cast as he could

  The explosion engulfed the Priest. It screamed, a high, thin sound, thrashing in the flames as the magical fire consumed the shadows.

  Perberos ended it. He walked forward calmly, drew a single arrow with a broad, flat head, and put it through the crack in the Priest’s mask.

  The creature crumpled, black blood spraying across the floor. The purple fire in its eyes went out. The shadows in the room instantly reverted to normal. The oppressive weight lifted from their chests.

  Silence returned, heavy and absolute.

  Josh leaned against his shield, chest heaving. Sweat dripped from his nose onto the stone, mixing with the soot. "Everyone... alive?"

  "Define alive," Bhel groaned, pushing himself up to a sitting position. He checked his ribs, wincing. "I think I’m shorter than I was ten minutes ago. That gravity spell... felt like having a mountain sit on me."

  "Alive," Carcan confirmed, checking Bhel’s aura with a critical eye. "Severe bruising. Some mana burn. But whole."

  Brett walked over to the smoking remains of the Priest. He poked the robe with his staff, looking disgusted. "That was terrifying. Magic that eats magic? That shouldn't be allowed.”

  "Second floor," Josh reminded him breathlessly, sheathing his sword. "Rules change. We adapt."

  "Look," Perberos said, pointing to the ash pile. It was a singular item, resting on a scorched crystal and stone.

  It was a cloak. It looked like it was woven from the same living smoke the Priest had worn, shifting and swirling even when lying still on the ground.

  Brett leaned in, his brow furrowed as he squinted at the shifting fabric. “One of us needs to train and get the identify skill or whatever it is. Or can we get a tool for it, or a scroll?”

  "It’s usually a whole class, or subclass anyway." Carcan said, her voice firm. "Either way, none of us are putting that thing on until we know if it’s cursed. It might drain the wearer’s soul or just turn them into a shadow-puddle."

  Josh nodded, looking at the way the hem of the cloak seemed to bleed into the floor. "It’s definitely stealth-based, or shadow-attuned. But Carcan’s right. It stays in the bag until we get back to Lysa."

  Everyone agreed, but Perberos didn't move. He stood over the cloak, his eyes fixed on the way the smoke-silk moved without a breeze. He slowly reached down, his fingers hovering inches above the fabric. He could feel a faint, cool hum radiating from it, a sensation that whispered of hidden paths and silent footsteps.

  His hand trembled, a rare display of hesitation. The temptation to just... touch it, to feel if it would bond with his own shadow, was immense. It was an Assassin's dream.

  "Perberos?" Josh asked, his voice cautious.

  The ranger’s fingers twitched, a hair's breadth from the material. He knew the risks of unassigned dungeon loot, the sudden stat-drain, the permanent debuffs or worse… but the draw was like a physical pull on his heart.

  Finally, with a sharp, audible intake of breath, he pulled his hand back and balled it into a fist. "Yes. It stays in the bag. We wait for identification."

  He stepped back, though his gaze lingered on the item until Bhel reached down and stuffed it unceremoniously into the party's shared storage sack.

  "We also got the crystal shards," Bhel noted, scooping up the glowing purple fragments that littered the floor. "These look expensive. Arcane batteries?"

  "Mana crystals," Brett confirmed, picking one up and holding it to the light. "We can sell these to the Arcanum for a fortune. Or I can use them to overcharge spells apparently, though the risk of blowback is high."

  "Sell them," Josh said immediately. "We need better armour more than we need bigger explosions."

  "Spoilsport," Brett grinned, pocketing the shards.

  Josh looked around the room. There was a heavy iron door at the back of the chamber, currently barred from the inside.

  "That's the exit," Josh said. "Or the way deeper."

  "Let's assume it leads to a safe room," Carcan suggested, leaning heavily on her staff. "I am out of mana. Completely. If we fight a rat right now, we might lose."

  "Agreed," Josh said.

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