Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 109

Tibs destroyed the wagon blocking the entrance to Sebastian's camp with a blast of water. He didn't bother shaping it using one of the two attacks he knew. He simply massed all the essence he could muster and sent it ahead of him into a chaotic wave. He felt a lot of it dissipate before hitting, but the nice thing about having such a deep reserve of an element so simple to refill was that there was enough only wet kindling and bodies were left by the time he crossed into the camp.

They were dry as he walked over them and he pulled the water back into his reserve, as well as that of anyone that came close enough to exchange blows with him. Tibs pushed the disgust he felt at how easy it was to turn them into husks. They chose the wrong side, now he made them pay.

Arrows stopped in the air, glistening with water, then fell. He sent the occasional attack to dissuade the archers, but began hording his essence. Sebastian wouldn't fall easily.

Finding the man proved easier than Tibs expected.

Too easy.

He sat on a wooden throne where the road ended at the new forest which had become the back of the camp. Sebastian wasn't cowering away after the display of power Tibs had shown. He sat there, in the large, ostentatious, had to be uncomfortable chair, with a crystal goblet in one hand and a smile on his lips.

Tibs stopped well away from the man, the muscular one standing to his left, and Carina, strung up on a contraption of metal, wood and ropes by that man who had a hand on the wooden wheel at the side of it. Tibs fought the urge to rush to her rescue. He couldn't sense her, but she looked to have only minor injuries.

He couldn't sense them through the odd sense in the air. It wasn't what Ganny did to the third floor, or what the block of green stone had caused, and it made Tibs cautious. Looking around for what caused it didn't reveal it, but it showed him that while Carina was restrained now, she'd caused damage before that. Fully loaded wagons that made walls to control movement with the camp were pushed away, the earth scratched with the motion. Bodies were littered under them, flayed by debris, from what Tibs could make out.

"Do you know what one way to deal with your kind is?" Sebastian called over the distance. "Exhaustion."

Tibs sensed his reserve, closed his eyes and suffused himself with Purity long enough to chase away any trace of that. Sebastian might think he knew everything there was to know about Tibs, but since the guild didn't, the man couldn't.

"It doesn't matter how powerful you are," he continued as if this was a conversation with a friend, instead of being yelled at a hated enemy, "you'll eventually run out of that, oh so, precious thing none of you can do anything without. Stamina. You might be able to call on that essence as long as you want, but if you can't muster the strength to move, well." He motioned to Carina casually. "I win."

"Let her go," Tibs growled.

"Or what?" Sebastian asked, amused. "You're going to blast me with water? You're going to use one of those trinkets the dungeon hands out and throw fire at me? Or muss my hair with wind?" he sipped his goblet. "Go ahead. Try something."

Tibs didn't. Learning to keep himself controlled while channeling fire had proved useful when he let it go. He could see Sebastian goading him into acting through his anger, demanding he do so. Which meant the man had protections in place. One of the green stone attached to his outfit would be from the shattered block, maybe all of them. They stopped all essence from affecting them, so Sebastian would see them as a great first line of defense against Tibs or any adventurers.

Tibs stepped forward. He didn't need essence to kill Sebastian. All he needed was a knife and to be within arm's reach. The man was overconfident enough to let that happen.