The wizards blew past the first levels pretty fast. The biggest problem they had was with the smell. Kelsey and Mel drifted past the dessicated remains of zombies, moving a little too fast for Kelsey to bother with pretending to walk.

  “Sucking the water out doesn’t kill them,” Kelsey explained. “But moist meat and rotting organs smell a lot less when they’re dried out. They must have sensitive stomachs.”

  Each dried corpse was next to a small puddle of water that slowly drained through what Kelsey called microchannels to her underground sea. Mel thought it was pretty neat that Kelsey could manage water like that. A lot of her other dungeons had often complained about the damp.

  “If that doesn’t kill them, then why are they dead?” Mel asked.

  “They’ve got other magics,” Kelsey replied. She pointed at one dead zombie, which had its head removed. “And that guy with a sword isn’t wearing it for show.”

  They caught up with the wizards on the third floor, the Skeleton Outpost. The rudimentary defensive structures and the faster-moving skeletons hadn’t stymied the wizards, but they had slowed the party down.

  Maris was at the back of the group, pointing out threats to watch out for.“Ugh,” she said when she caught sight of Kelsey and Mel. “I’d hoped your absence meant that we were to be spared your commentary.”

  “Nah,” Kelsey said. “Just not much to comment on for the first few floors. Now, if you’d gotten stuck on Tier one, that would be worth jeering at.”

  “Indeed. I understand that the first levels can’t be very challenging, but did you have to make them so disgusting?”

  Kelsey smiled. “I don’t take kindly to people coming to kill me, so I aim to make the experience as unpleasant as possible.”

  Maris grunted and returned her attention to the fight. Everyone maintained a grim silence as the three front-line mages cut and… blasted, Mel supposed the word was for that spell that turned skeletons to dust, their way through the floor.

  Kelsey kept her silence until the wizards came to the final redoubt. The exit to the floor was blocked by a heavy slab of stone, which the wizards lifted with magic. Underneath, a long stairway was revealed, descending into darkness.

  “Welcome to Skeletown,” Kelsey intoned.

  “Skeletown?” Maris groaned.

  “Sometimes I call it Skellington,” Kelsey admitted. “I’ve got plenty of time to think up names, down here.”

  “And yet, you chose those,” Maris complained.

  “Rude,” Kelsey declared. “In any case, get down there if you’re going in; you’re leaking mana all over the place.”

  “In due course,” Maris said. She looked down into the darkness, but Mel doubted that her eyes were telling her anything.

  “It’s clear down to the bottom,” she finally said. Kelsey just rolled her eyes.

  The wizards made it to the bottom without problems. Each of them had a small floating light that followed them and illuminated the ground ahead of them. When they got to the bottom, Maris stopped them.

  “It opens up here,” she said. “If the records are true, into a truly huge cavern. We would do well to get a view of what lies before us."

  “Well, I don’t want to boast about my size,” Kelsey said.

  “Very well,” Lucian said, with an irritated glance at Kelsey. “Any idea of how high the ceiling is?”

  “About thirty yards,” Maris answered.

  Lucian grunted in reply and cast a spell. A ball of light shot in an arc from his pointing finger and flew up into the air. When it reached the top of its trajectory, it slowed and burst into brilliance, hanging in the air and illuminating Skeletown.

  Mel had seen the town many times before, of course. Kelsey didn’t have any trouble with the dark, and so Mel didn’t either. She’d even seen it lit from above, as many human parties liked to see the lay of the land when they could. However, there had only been a few parties through since the changes, so Mel observed with interest how the slowly moving light created interesting patterns on the new textures and the now-ubiquitous vines.

  “I’m so glad you chose to do that,” Kelsey said. “I so rarely get a chance to show off my architectural skills, and—”

  “Ware!” Maris shouted, but there was no time to react. A fusillade of shots rang out, and wizards fell to the ground.

  To Mel’s disappointment, they were still alive. The pained and surprised cries they were making were gratifying, though. The light above winked out, either because Lucian had lost concentration or had deliberately tried to hide them.

  “How…” Cas wheezed from the ground. “We were—are—warded.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Yeah,” Kelsey said, kneeling next to him. “Those robes are pretty tough, eh? Looks like you took one shot on that breastplate and one in the shoulder. Looks like it might be broken?”

  “He doesn’t need your fake sympathy, monster,” Maris snapped. Her face was bloody, and she didn’t seem able to stand.

  “Oh, right, I forgot he can’t even hear me.” Kelsey laughed. “How are you doing? Looks like a bullet grazed you. So close. Everyone else was protected by enchanted robes, but I can’t expect a headshot at this distance.”

  “Lucian is dying, though!” Mel called out brightly. Kelsey glanced over at where she was hovering over the fallen wizard. He was barely conscious and coughing up blood.

  “Oooh, broken rib puncturing a lung! Ding ding ding! We have a winner! He’ll die, left untreated.” She smiled ruefully at Mel. “Don’t get your hopes up, though; wizards have healing.”

  “Can’t the skeletons finish them off while they’re down?” Mel asked.

  “We’ll see. I had to do this out of town, where there was no cover. It will take them a while to get here.”

  “We’re running out of time, Aurelia,” Maris snarled. “The skeletons are on their way. Hurry up.”

  Mel was confused as to who Aurelia was, but it was Aubey who answered the insistent mage.

  “I’m going as fast as I can,” she snapped. “It’s a lot harder to concentrate when it’s your—arghh—own bones being moved about.”

  “Cassian,” Maris addressed another stranger. “You need to get up and defend us against the skeletons.”

  “We’re still warded,” Cas groaned. “Bottom-tier-two skeletons can’t possibly touch us.”

  “Which would be comforting, if they hadn’t already nearly knocked us out!” Maris said in a kind of low-pitched yell.

  “There must be some kind of trick to it, they hit us with something…” Cas paused. “Maristella, is there any silver on the ground near you?”

  “I don’t know, it’s dark.”

  “You don’t have Eyes of the Cat?”

  “Why would I need Eyes of the Cat when we have light spells?” Maris snapped. “And I know for a fact that you can’t cast it either.”

  “It’s a cheap potion. Just detect metals then.”

  “Why? Fine… huh. There are lumps of silver scattered about.”

  “That’s your reward for this floor, by the way,” Kelsey said. “You turned up your nose at the copper coins before, but I expect my generosity to be recognised.”

  “Why is the silver there?” Maris asked Cas, who was chuckling ruefully.

  “That's how they got us,” Cas groaned. “Silver bullets.”

  Aubey got up and stumbled towards the sound of Lucian wheezing. Cas continued talking.

  “I warded us against wood and against metal,” he said. “Base metal. Iron, steel, copper and lead. Not the noble metals.”

  Maris groaned in understanding. “Because it’s harder.”

  “And because you can’t make a sword out of silver,” Cas said. “Never mind the cost, it’s too soft and too heavy. If you need it for a monster type, you coat it.”

  “Which wouldn’t work against the ward because the steel core is still there,” Maris said. “Can you ward against silver and gold?”

  “I can once my shoulder isn’t distracting me,” Cas said. “The skeletons that are coming are hand-to-hand types. They won’t have silver.”

  “It’s true,” Kelsey said sadly. “I barely had time to move my Special Silver Shooter Skeleton Squad into position before you got here.”

  “As if we’d take your word for it,” Maris muttered. “Are you done yet, Aurelia?”

  “Almost,” Aubey answered. “Just… there. You can move now,” she told her patient.

  “Thank you,” Lucian replied. “I thought I was going to die in this hole.”

  “Plenty of time for that,” Kelsey said. “Slowing you down here means more time for me to get more surprises in position.”

  Lucien glared at Kelsey. “I should take care of the skeletons, right?”

  “Not if you’re going to use fire,” Cas said. “You’ll just make yourself a target again.”

  “Here, let me see to that shoulder,” Aubey said.

  The skeletons were coming now. Too slow and too weak, Mel noted with dissatisfaction. They loomed out of the darkness quite gratifyingly, but neither their swords nor their grasping, bony hands could touch the mages. Lucian turned them into dust with only the faintest of glowing lights to see them by.

  “Kelsey, they’re going to be fine!” she complained as Aubey finished her healing. Cas recast his wards against metal, and the party resumed their descent.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Kelsey assured the fairy. “I never expected to stop them this early. We’re just testing and learning.”

  “But we almost killed them,” Mel whined.

  “And wasn’t that a shock,” Kelsey said, as much to Maris as it was to Mel. “But we learned about their robes, and while they adapted, there are still holes for us to slip through.”

  “For example,” she said to Maris, “You still aren’t scrying far enough ahead to spot my Silver Shooter Squad.”

  Maris scowled. “There’s no need while we’re in these twisting streets,” she stated. “And besides, we’ve negated that trick with the silver.”

  “If you say so,” Kelsey said.

  “And you can’t adapt until we get to the next floor,” Maris said. “Everybody knows that you can’t make changes or give new orders while we’re on a floor.”

  “True enough,” Kelsey agreed. “It’s a shame. If I could direct my squad, I’d have them ambush you. Instead, I have to rely on orders given before you arrived.”

  “It wouldn’t have worked,” Maris said smugly. “I can scry far enough ahead to see around corners at least.”

  “Yes, yes, you’re very capable,” Kelsey said.

  Maris scowled more furiously. Even Mel could tell that Kelsey was being condescending.

  The wizards made their way through the city without any more trouble. Mel had to admit that there was no way that a Level Eight skeleton could challenge a third-tier wizard—even physically. Cas was hitting the skeletons so hard that Mel thought he’d kill them even if he wasn’t using magic and a sword.

  No one said anything about it, but they must have used magic to get through the maze so quickly. It wasn’t long at all before they stood in front of the wide-open plaza that separated the castle from the city. Lit up with torches, the entrance was guarded by the strongest skeletons of the floor.

  Their speed and strength meant nothing to the Tier Threes that faced them, though. Cas cleaved through them just as easily as he had the others.

  “Get ready,” Maris warned. “The next floor is behind those doors; there is sure to be a surprise waiting for us.”

  “Exciting, isn’t it?” Kelsey declared. “The build of tension, the anticipation.”

  Maris didn’t respond, and Cas couldn’t even hear Kelsey. He readied his sword even as his magic took hold of the great stone door. At the moment it started to move, the crack of another shot rang out. Just a single one, louder than the others had been.

  Even as it sounded, everything was coated in red. Mel jerked in surprise as the bloodspray flew right through her, leaving her untouched. The wizards were not so lucky.

  Kelsey cackled with glee.

  “He did it, that magnificent bastard! He followed every one of my orders, and it all worked out the way I planned!”

  Aubey slumped to the ground, the entire front half of her torso missing, a jagged, bloody hole torn in the front of her robes. Kelsey grinned at the wizards, who were still starting to react to the attack.

  “He even ganked the healer first!”

  that. Those bullets are... tooled for a larger calibre? Is that the way to say it? I don't have anyone to talk engineering or gun stuff with.

  may derive amusement from their suffering. But I'm not an accountant.