Dungeon Runner

Breaking Step, Chapter 10

"I'm fine," Don muttered under his breath as Tibs look over the shallow cut along his arm. "It's not like you can do anything about it, so stop trying to be a hero."

The sorcerer's dark robes only had the base armor enchantment Sto put on the robes he handed out as loot. It hadn't proved effective against the golem person using void essence to blink from place to place, dodging attacks, until she were close enough to cut Don. It had put her within reach of the sorcerer, so he'd grabbed hold and pushed corruption in. She blinked away until she was done melting.

"We look after each other on this team," Tibs replied. "Even if it's the asshole who's hurt."

When Don didn't snap a protest, Tibs looked up from the arm. The sorcerer was looking away.

"Tell me you have more bandages," Mez asked Khumdar, who handed him a roll of linen. The archer glanced in Tibs and Don's direction as he wrapped his hand. "I hate that I forgot to being some."

"Traveling as I did," the cleric said, "I have discovered that bandages are something one never has too many of." He handed a roll to Tibs, who used it on the long cut. He made a splint with his essence at the same time to speed up the healing.

"Are you really a cleric?" Don asked.

"I do not care what you believe," Khumdar replied flatly, then walked away.

"I wasn't—" the sorcerer called, then closed his mouth. "Is he?" he asked Tibs.

"What do you care?"

"Don't you care that he might be lying to you and your team about what he is?"

"We're all lying about something," Tibs replied.

"I'm not." The words lit up, but Tibs already knew Don was a liar, so he didn't call him out on it.

"The only thing I care about is that Khumdar has our back; and he does." He secured the bandage and re-rolled the rest of the linen.

"I—" Don closed his mouth and look away.

Tibs was mildly curious as to what he'd intended to say, because there had been no light.

* * * * *

The last line of the boar's crest slid into place, completing the design, and the door raised up, revealing the uneven floor of the room.

Don whispered a curse.

"Wait here while I make sure the pattern is the same," Tibs instructed before stepping in.

"Pattern?" Don asked.

"There's an order to which column causes the others to move," Mez said as the one Tibs stepped on rose and others reacted.

"I never noticed that," Don replied, sounding awed.

"Did you even let your rogue try to work it out?" Jackal asked derisively.

"Jackal, that's not helping," Mez replied.

"He—"

"I agree with Mez," Khumdar cut Jackal off as Tibs looked the landscape over. He leaped to the next column and he crouch as it went up again, ready to jump off if it didn't stop when he expected it to.

"Didn't you walk away from him asking you a question?" the fighter demanded.

It stopped, with barely enough room for Tibs to stand. The other column also looked like what he expected.

"Yes, so the situation would not become aggravated."

Tibs climbed down, then, making sure Don was still distracted by the conversation, jumped, then leaped again on an Air disk to reach his target, which moved down as he landed on it.