Dungeon Runner

Bottom Rung, Chapter 09

Tibs looked into the room and shuddered. "More rats." The whine escaped him as he saw the line of them in the middle of the large room.

"But the rabbits are missing," the archer said.

"Rabbits?" Ariana asked.

"There was a line of stone rabbits behind the rats the last time I was here. They decimated us; I barely made it out."

"You went in the room?" the fighter asked.

"There were still three of us by the time we got here, and they were bunnies; how hard can bunnies be, right?" he asked her, then shuddered. "I'm never going to look at bunnies the same way."

"I'm hoping to never see rabbits made of stone outside of this place," the fighter said, "but if they're gone, it's a good thing."

"I don't think the dungeon makes any changes so that things will be easier for us," the sorceress said.

Tibs pushed his fear back and crouches, studying the room. No holes in the wall, so no spears to kill them. He noticed the way the stone tiles were mostly even, except for two dozen larger ones. What caught his attention was the way they were different from the others in exactly the same way. Rectangular and slightly angled, as if one side was about to tip in. If they weren't triggers for a trap, what were they for?

"They're in the floor," he said, realizing it. "If the dungeon took the rabbits away to make things harder, then not knowing where they'll come from does that." He pointed. "Some of the tiles look like they're tipping. It's probably to make it easier for the rabbits to jump out of them."

"As if it wasn't hard enough before." The archer cursed. "Now they can ambush us?"

"At least there's five of us," the sorceress said, "and because of Ariana, none of us are hurt badly. We can clear the room easily enough. Although I'm not sure what's supposed to happen after that. I don't see a corridor."

"If this is the last room," the fighter said, "we get bragging right since no one's cleared it yet."

"Don't count your victories yet," the archer told her. "Those things are fast."

"How many rabbits were there?" Ariana asked. "I count twelve rats."

The archer was silent for a few seconds. "Eight, maybe ten. I was too busy trying to survive to get a precise count."

The fighter turned to look at them. "Alright, we've been told what to expect and that it's going to be a hard fight. So what do you want to do?" she asked. "We can turn around now. We're not required to finish this."

"I'm not leaving," the sorceress said. "I'm not letting a few rats and rabbits scare me off."

"I'm not that suicidal," the archer said, "because I've seen what they can do, but I would like to be able to say I was part of the first team to clear the room."

"Do we have enough arrows, though?" Ariana asked, counting those in her quiver. "Half my arrows broke shooting the rats in the other room. This equipment is crap."

"They don't want us to survive, so they aren't going to give us anything good," the archer said. "I have eight." He smiled, "I guess I'm a better shot than you."

The fighter looked at the sorceress. "How are you for power?"

She placed a hand over her amulet and closed her eyes. "I'm not used to this, but at a guess, I'd say six, maybe seven shots. This thing doesn't seem to recharge the way the books I read said they should."

"So this is going to be a risk," Ariana said. She squared her shouldered and placed an arrow against the bowstring. "But yeah, I'd love to claim the title of first to clear the room."