The light didn’t cover much of the large cavern. The floor was relatively flat, free of obstructions. No stalagmites growing up from the cavern floor. Or was it stalactite? I was pretty sure the ones that pointed up were stalagmites. Would think that after twenty-five years of Dungeon delving, I’d know which was which.

  The walls and ceiling were outside the reach of the light. I couldn’t see where the water was but I could hear it maybe twenty feet ahead. It was hard to get a good judge of distance with the way the sounds echoed through the space. I glanced up, Sunie lifting his staff higher, trying to find the boss. Couldn’t see a thing, but that’s when the five Stalkers rushed out at us.

  Cold spread out, the fog slipping around and under the Stalkers. Frost covered the cavern floor, ice spreading up the legs of three of the Stalkers. They didn’t cry out, the things still not making any sounds. I could see them straining at the ice, clawed hands swiping to break it up, but it kept crawling up higher and higher. The last three raced for me, two of them slowing as their feet skittered across the frost. The final one leapt, clawed hands in the lead.

  Stupid thing.

  I shifted to the side, letting it fly past me, where it landed on the ground in a roll, coming up to leap at my back but Sunie intercepted it, sword slashing at the beast. I lost sight of that battle as I focused on the two slowly approaching. They’d slowed down, moving cautiously, actually putting some distance between them. These two were smarter.

  Instead of letting them flank me, I charged at the closest. It caught them by surprise. The Stalker reared back, its rear leg slipping on the frost. I shot out a force lance at the other, driving it back, reaching for the flailing arms of the first. Grabbing one, I pulled it closer, twisting it down and punching it in the head.

  The thing managed to twist its head so I didn’t connect with a solid punch, but it did some damage. The Stalker staggered back a step, letting me dodge the other one that leapt at me. I kicked up, catching it in the chest, adding a bit of force. The kick and force knocked the thing into the air, where it flipped, landing on its back. I rushed over, stomping at the Stalker’s chest and then kicking it in the head. It stopped moving. The first Stalker recovered quickly, claws slashing across my back. I leaned forward, feeling the tips slice through my jacket and along my back, the cuts shallow, most of it blocked by my resistance essence and moving.

  I could have stopped all of that attack if I’d seen it coming. That was the one, and biggest, drawback of my kinetic field. I had to consciously control it.

  I landed on my hands, lowering my body and extending a leg. The Stalker twisted to avoid the kick, but moved right into my other leg that caught it in the chin, sending it backwards. I hopped up, twisted and kicked again. Bones cracked as the thing staggered. I followed up with a couple of punches before the Stalker’s neck snapped.

  “You okay?” Sunie asked, dropping his last.

  “Yeah, the thing got lucky.”

  Before I could say anything else, we heard a long and loud scraping noise, actually seeing sparks along the wall. The distance between the sparks was a foot or so, giving a good indication of the things size.

  I kicked the bodies out of the way, giving us some more room. One of them splashed into the water. I hoped it wouldn’t flow away, we hadn’t looted it yet.

  We shifted, giving some space between us as the thing finally came into the light. It was a Stalker, but three times the normal size. Long limbs bending at really awkward angles. The thing had multiple knees and elbows, or joints, whatever it was called when there was more than the normal pair of each. It was an odd gray color where all the others had been pale, the color that comes from no light. Unlike the others, where the eyes were pale white, this one had glowing eyes. A strange yellow.

  One leg came down onto the cavern floor, bending oddly. The body came down, one arm on the wall, a leg on the wall, one arm out over nothing. It leaned down close to the ground, the head looking from Sunie to me. The mouth was open but no sound came out.

  “That’s a big one,” I said, as the three of us waiting for someone to make the first move.

  “Wonder why it’s called Shadow Scorn,” Sunie asked.

  “Throw something at it and let’s find out.”

  “Can’t you spear it with that lance thing?”

  “It’s too far, it’d just be a pinprick.”

  “Fine, I’ll do it,” Sunie sighed.

  He lifted his arms, the staff in one of them, and activated one of his Essence Abilities. Snow formed in the air in front of him, rapidly turning to solid looking balls of ice. With a wave of his hand, they shot out, a dozen of them slamming into the giant Stalker. They exploded in little shards, the thing twisting out of the way.

  It’s head twisted back toward us, mouth open in a silent scream. Dark streaks of energy shout out from the Stalker, striking the ground and around us, Sunie blocking some with a shield. They exploded like lightning when they hit.

  “That’s a neat trick,” I said, jumping back from a bolt.

  It didn’t look like anything I wanted to get hit with.

  Sunie sent more iceballs at the Stalker, a hand slashing in front to block the attack. I rushed in, ducking under the arm and punching the Stalker in the side. It felt like hitting rock, the thing was all bone. Bone that didn’t snap or fracture under my hit. The big Stalker was tough.

  I rolled to the side, avoiding the weird twisting arm as the Stalker tried to smack me. I kicked out at a leg, making it twist to the side, but the thing didn’t break. Frost spread out on the ground around it, ice creeping up the leg. The stalker twisted its body, head almost upside down, as it looked at the ice. It started to lift a leg but I didn’t give it the chance, running forward and slamming a fist into its head. The head twisted to the side. I went to punch again, when the thing’s second arm slammed into me.

  It sent me flying, rolling across the cavern floor. I popped up, seeing the thing coming closer. It was so big, the legs and arms so long, that a single step crossed like ten feet. It was right on top of Sunie, a long arm striking the shield he’d conjured around himself. It was formed from a thin layer of ice that could take a lot of damage.

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  I’d seen him use it against the Bounders, the silly things bouncing off it. It didn’t look it, but the shield was strong. He just couldn’t make it very big or it would start to lose that strength.

  I sent a force lance at the Stalker, piercing the hide, drawing some blood, but the lance shattered when it hit the bone. It hurt the Stalker, making it turn toward me, getting an iceball to the face from Sunie. The head turned toward him, an arm reaching for me. I jumped up, grabbed the arm, bending it as I fell. Landing on the ground, I locked my feet in place by stealing the inertia. Holding the arm under a shoulder, I grabbed it with my other arm and started to twist. I heard bone snapping. Ice cracked as the Stalker lifted its leg, kicking out at me. I twisted the arm, using it to block the kick. The creature uttered a soundless scream, a blast of shadow lightning slamming into me.

  With my legs locked, I couldn’t roll with the blast. I was locked in place, taking the full blunt. When my legs are locked by turning off the inertia, they don’t move, but things like my ankles and knees still move. Normally my Resistance is able to keep the moving things from bending or snapping. Not this time.

  The lightning hit with force, and electricity. I could feel my nerves shaking as the energy rampaged through my body. The force pushed me to the side. I felt an ankle getting close to snapping and returned the inertia, letting my feet move. I fell to the ground, body spasming.

  I kept rolling, knowing that a foot or arm or something was going to slam down where I’d been.

  I was right.

  I could feel the wind pressure as the Stalker’s foot slammed down. My body shook as the energy coursed through me, lingering. It had to be pretty strong to get through my Resistance.

  Or not. I was basically a noob again, a low level in the Infinite Tower. I had a couple advantages that made me a little overpowered, but I had to remember that I wasn’t outleveling most of the stuff I’d be fighting.

  It’d been a long time since I’d really been challenged or hurt.

  I kept rolling, hearing the water coming closer. It flowed pretty quickly through the cavern. Before I got to the edge, I stopped myself with a little Motion essence and popped back up.

  The Stalker was looming over Sunie, pounding on the elf’s shield. The mouth opened and lightning shot out, spreading across the shield. Bolts curled around the edges, snapping at Sunie.

  The monster wasn’t even paying attention to me. I ran at the thing, cutting the friction between me and the ground, sliding across the distance. With a bit of kinetic energy to my legs, I leapt up and landed on the Stalkers back. It paid attention to that.

  An arm bent backwards at the elbow, reaching for me, the head turning almost completely around, the yellow eyes glaring at me. The mouth opened, and I slid off, lightning shooting by. The head snapped back around, trying to follow me. I landed on the ground and kicked out, connecting with the back of the knee.

  I yelped at the pain of hitting stone. The Stalker didn’t yelp as I snapped its knee.

  The thing leaned to the side, trying not to put weight on the wounded knee. I grabbed the leg, running forward with it, the Stalker twisting and trying to fight me. But I was pretty strong. I pulled the leg forward as I ran, yanking the Stalker off balance.

  It opened its mouth to shoot lightning but an iceball from Sunie struck it in the head, making it look another direction and the lightning striking the wall. Rocks exploded at impact, shards raining down. I used the Stalker’s leg to keep them off me. Shards pelted the monster’s back.

  More iceballs struck the monster. I got as far as the leg would go naturally but I kept going. The Stalker tried to fight me, pulling back with its mass and strength, I kept yanking, moving forward a step at a time. I could feel the icy fog spreading out, Sunie coating the floor under the Stalker’s one good leg. A hand reached out, grabbing at the wall, clawed fingers trying to get purchase, but I kept pulling.

  It slid across the ice. With one more good yank, I pulled the thing forward, leg flying out behind it. It landed hard on the ground, body twisted awkwardly. Letting the leg go, I turned and dashed for the head. I threw force and all the kinetic motion I’d stored into the one punch. I struck it right in the middle of the face, darting to the side to avoid any lightning attack. I felt bone breaking under the force of my hit. An iceball followed my punch, right in the thing’s eye.

  Standing at the side, I punched into the neck, leading with a force lance. The lance punctured the Stalker’s skin, my punch pushing the lance in deep. The mouth opened, a small spurt of lightning shooting out but blocked by a shield from Sunie.

  The head fell to the ground, the yellow glow leaving the Stalker’s eyes.

  I stepped away from the body, coming to stand next to Sunie. Neither of us relaxed yet.

  We watched it for a minute, waiting for it to move. It didn’t. Notifications appeared.

  YOU HAVE SLAIN THE SHADOW SCORN STALKER

  YOU HAVE GAINED +70 TUTORIAL POINTS AND +70 MULTIVERSAL POINTS

  YOU HAVE COMPLETED AN OBJECTIVE OF THE DARK STALKER RAVINE DUNGEON.

  DESTROY THE SHADOW SCORN STALKER 1/1

  YOU HAVE COMPLETED AN OBJECTIVE OF THE DARK STALKER RAVINE DUNGEON. DESTROY DARK STALKERS 40/40

  YOU HAVE COMPLETED AN OBJECTIVE OF THE DARK STALKER RAVINE DUNGEON. FIND THE LIGHT’S EDGE RING.

  YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE DARK STALKER RAVINE DUNGEON.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +5,000 TUTORIAL POINTS AND +5,000 MULTIVERSAL CREDITS

  YOU COMPLETED THE DARK STALKER RAVINE DUNGEON WITH 01:34:17 LEFT. YOU HAVE PLACED AS THE 76TH BEST TIME AT RUNNING THE DARK STALKER RAVINE DUNGEON WITH A SMALLER PARTY.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +9,500 TUTORIAL POINTS AND +9,500 MULTIVERSAL CREDITS

  “That’s a lot of points,” Sunie said. “I love running Dungeons with less people.”

  I chuckled, touching the body, making it disappear and the loot appear.

  There were a couple of Stalker Claws, Crystalized Shadow Lightning, a Shadow Essence, a Temperature Essence, Force Essence and a Level Shard. Like we’d done with everything else, I took it all into my inventory to divide up later.

  “I was kind of thinking shadow would mean it would hide in the shadows or something,” Sunie said, walking over to stand next to me as we looked down at the last item.

  “Me too,” I said, bending down and picking it up.

  It was a ring. Nothing fancy about it. Made out of a dark metal, it seemed to catch the little light in the cavern, reflecting it. The Tower called it the Light’s Edge Ring.

  “Wonder what this thing does,” I said, making it disappear into my inventory.