Harva squatted down, watching us from above in the sky.

  Quin slung around Sern, hiding her from Harva. “Guys? Are we going to do something or—”

  “Harva!” Leo screamed, lunging into the air.

  Harva spun, stabbing a needle into his side. Leo caught it, twisting, slashing the end across her cheek.

  {Harva : Neurotoxin III : Refreshed (3:00)}

  Harva sighed, wiping blood off her cheek. “You really are durable, aren’t you?”

  “How’s she still moving?” I muttered. “Even if she’s hypnotized, she wouldn’t be able to run and move while paralyzed.”

  Throttle shrugged. “She shouldn’t be doing a lot of things, right now.”

  A beam of light cut through the air, followed by a sharp, almost hot tearing noise, like a snapping cord of steel.

  Harva flipped upside down, dangling by one foot and one arm, the others hanging uselessly to her side.

  Dexten aimed, then fired, creating another snap.

  Harva jerked again, dropping low, hanging by one shoulder.

  Quin made a series of befuddled gasping noises, clutching Sern to his chest. “WHAT IS GOING ON!?”

  Harva ignored her position, bent her head around to watch Sern. “What are you doing here?”

  She whimpered, pressing her head into Quin’s shirt.

  Harva chuckled. “Stupid adventures.”

  As she twisted, I noticed a glimmer of color in the air, warping around her body in the shape of threads.

  Then there were hundreds of beams, stretching and dangling around in an intricate web of muscles encasing Harva’s entire body.

  “She’s not moving,” I whispered.

  “Someone’s moving her,” Throttle hissed. “Sickos.”

  Where the threads had been severed, she dangled, helpless.

  “Took you long enough,” Harva laughed. She cut off, another arrow severing control severing most of the threads around her mouth, and the ones afterward dropping her headfirst to the ground

  Rock blasted out in plumes as Leo jumped from a wall, catching her before she connected with the rock. He groaned, scraping his side, but regen made short work of any real damage.

  There was a series of alien clicking, and most of the threads reappeared, streaming of Harva’s corpse. She ripped another needle from her side and stabbed Leo in the shoulder.

  “Who are you people?” Harva asked, one half of her mouth limp, the other frowning. “And you.” She glared at Dexten. “You’re annoying.”

  He shot another arrow, pinning the strands against the floor.

  Irion blinked. “That was a spell. I heard a monster casting a spell, right?”

  Eere made some vague gestures, which Quin translated. “It’s a puppeting spell. If we break the strands, then she drops free. But the Core can just use the spell again, if it has the mana. We need a way to stop the cords from taking hold.”

  “Oh that’s a lovely plan,” Harva chuckled. “And I’m quite interested to hear exactly how you plan to do such a—”

  A volley of arrows pierced through the rest of her strings, and Harva dropped.

  Dexten huffed, notching new arrows onto his bow. “She’s getting back up? How’s she getting back up?”

  Harva sighed, cracking her jaw. Her eyes and hands twitched springing back to life. “You’re very, very annoying. Good on you.” Her eyes glinted with energy. “Nice ability.”

  Then she was up, shooting across the room. The strands exploded with mana, becoming both easily visible, and thicker, moving Harva around faster than before, weaving the strands between Dexten’s arrows. At one point, she caught an arrow of light in her mouth, burning it but saving the strands behind her.

  “Don’t hurt her!” Leo shouted, pushing himself forward.

  She took the arrow out from her mouth, watching the light fade to reveal its conjured metal. core. Harva laughed. “These are really strong! You guys a ruthless!—”

  Leo tackled her, using his ridiculous strength to slam her against a wall.

  {Leo : Beast class : Mammoth : 2xStr 5xDur, then reverse effects (1:00)}

  “I could’ve gotten that ability,” I muttered. “But I got merchant.”

  Quin patted me on the shoulder. “I know, man. I know.”

  “What are you waiting around for?!” Leo screamed. His strength, now grazing against eight hundred, still struggled to keep her pinned against the wall. “DO SOMETHING!”

  “On it,” Dexten said, eyes closed.

  {Dexten : Archer class : Quickeye : gain a brief yet inhuman understanding of the battlefield}

  He flips into the air, feet on his bow, using both hands to draw an arrow of light larger than a bus, aiming toward the ceiling.

  Harva froze.

  The air exploded out from around it in a bar of red energy, piercing through stone, metal, and fog, blasting pressure over the dungeon.

  A smoking figure was launched from the sky, disappearing into another room.

  A figure shot back, ramming down from the sky into a nearby room.

  “Every puppet’s got a master,” Dexten chuckled. He dropped to his knees, slick with sweat. “All my mana and...I don’t think I really hurt it.”

  “I’ll hurt it for the both of us,” Leo muttered, Harva’s body in his hands.

  Once Dexten struck the Core, Harva dropped dead as a rock. Leo started shaking, clenching. “I-I’ll break that freak if it's the last thing I do.” He sobbed, pressing his head against Harva’s.

  {Harva}

  [-134 Hp 0 Str 0 Mana]

  [Neurotoxin III (0:54)]

  “What happened to her?” I asked. “All her stats are gone.”

  Bruce took some potions from the crate, handing them to Leo. “Drink.”

  “Leave me,” Leo muttered, his boost deflating.

  “Sorry fella,” Dexten chuckled. “If we did that, then we’d probably all die in a half hour. This place is rough.” He motioned for Harva. “Could I take a look at her?”

  Harva had been hurt a lot worse than it first appeared. Her muscles were shredded and several bones broken, likely a direct result of being pushed way beyond her limits by whatever magic the Core used.

  I let out a sigh.

  [Neurotoxin III (0:50)]

  “How’d the toxin take effect?” Throttle asked, picking her teeth with the edge of a serrated dagger. “It shouldn’t work on her if she’s dead.”

  “It just reapplied the effect,” Leo muttered.

  I blinked. “She’s had neurotoxin this entire time?”

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  “Yeah, otherwise she would’ve started rotting by now,” Leo said, with a sigh, rubbing his face with his hands. “Not that any of this matters.”

  “Neurotoxin preserves the body?” I asked.

  Throttle squinted. “You have an idea, don’t you?”

  I motioned to Bruce. “What’s the strongest potion we have?”

  “There’s one that heals a lethal blow,” Bruce muttered. “But it doesn't work on the dead.”

  “She’s not dead,” I said. “Not yet. If toxin is putting her into a sort of suspended animation, keeping the wounds fresh, which means there is a chance a potion like this could still work.”

  [Neurotoxin III (0:10)]

  “And if you’re wrong?” Leo asked, with weary eyes.

  “I refuse to be,” I stated.

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  I smirked, popping the cork of the bottle. “Call me relentlessly optimistic.”

  Then I tossed it back, swallowing the potion myself.

  [LethalGrace MCMXCVIII : indefinite]

  The rest of the party stared in shock.

  “What?” I asked, wiping my mouth. “Her jaw is broken. She can’t swallow anything.” I motioned to Eere. “Could you do that ability thing? I need Irion’s immunities too.”

  Gifted [Transfusion I : gained General Immunity II status effect]

  Giver : [Transfusion I : Gift all positive status effects from the giver to the chosen recipient]

  Mana dissolved into her skin, with a sound like hissing smoke. Then, like magic, strings of notifications rose into the air.

  [{Harva} has resisted {Neurotoxin III}]

  [{Neurotoxin III} has been removed]

  ~

  [{Harva} has resisted {Death’sBeckoning I}]

  [{Death’sBeckoning I} has been removed]

  ~

  [{Harva} has gained one instant of Lethal Grace MCMXCVIII]

  [{Harva} has resisted [Instant Death]]

  [Stats have been altered beyond acceptable limits.]

  [Stats have been forced back into acceptable limits.]

  [Lethal Grace has been consumed.]

  ~

  [Regen XXI applied]

  [(Passive) Magician-class MagicCarousel VI applied]

  ~

  {Harva}

  [ (+5) 5 Hp 0 Str]

  Slowly, Harva opened one eye, wincing.

  The wounds in her head sealed first, followed by bruising and scratching over her body, then severe damage to bones and muscle tissue. With the brunt of the healing done, the regen rapidly slowed down, polishing its work on her internal damage.

  Harva glanced at Leo. “Sup.”

  He embraced her, then broke down, sobbing and laughing at the same time.

  Harva blinked, deeply confused.

  “Should we give them a moment?” Quin asked.

  “That’s probably best.” I said.

  Harva tried talking, but since her mouth had been burned and her jaw was in bad shape, eventually she just stopped trying and leaned against Leo's side.

  Leo took a deep breath, collecting himself, and laid her on the ground as gently as he could. “Rest up, Harva. I need to go take care of some businesses.”

  Harva gave a little nod.

  “Quin,” Leo called, dropping his voice down to normal. “I need you to guard her with your life, understand? You too, Bruce.”

  “Now I’m supposed to fend for two helpless women?” Quin groaned. THis earned him a belting from Throttle until he stopped whining and helped Bruce carry Harva somewhere safe.

  The moment they were gone, Leo braced himself against the dungeon floor. Energy exploded off of him, baking into the stone.

  “Try and keep up.”

  He blurred, rocketing down the hallways, gaining momentum, never bothering to turn, instead ramming head first through the comparatively weak walls of the dungeon. By the time the rest of us managed to find him, he’d already found and started engaging with the core, within one of the dungeon’s vaults.

  Dungeon core bloated out in size, grabbing Leo by the shoulders.

  Leo used [Mammoth] again, met the dungeon in terms of power, then readily rammed his knee into the Core’s forehead.

  Dexten whistled. “Does he even need our help?”

  “If he wants to fight longer than a minute, yes,” I snapped.

  “On it,” he cackled, summoning a mana potion.

  Mall, Irion, Eere, and Dexten took up positions in the entrance to the chambers, while Me, Throttle, and Cierin made up the offensive charge.

  However, the moment I entered the room, the Core snapped toward me, and lunged.

  “What’s its issue with you?” Throttle asked.

  “I dunno,” I sighed. “There’s a lot about this that doesn’t make sense.”

  Since the monster wasn’t focused on Leo, he gritted his teeth and slammed the end of his elbows into the Core’s feeble husk, crunching it against the ground. “HA! Too weak to fight your own battles?”

  {Gauntlet of Stairs : //470 Str//}

  Leo swatted the next fist away and pierced his knee clean through the monster's body, shattering rock and metal alike.

  The Core screamed, ripping itself from the wall, plucking a series of fibers strung between large hunks of rock. Mana Strings enveloped the rubble within the chamber, and sprung to life, trapping Leo in a cocoon of debris.

  He flexed, and the cocoon exploded.

  The Core scratched his head, chittering unhappily.

  “That's all you got?” Leo asked. He summoned his broad sword, striking the Core across the chest, then back again.

  “I don’t get it.” Throttle frowned, pulling daggers from her inventory.

  “Get what?”

  She huffed. “This! It’s the dungeon of the stairs—”

  “Gauntlet of the stairs,” I corrected.

  “Whatever, dweeb,” Throttle huffed. “But I fail to see what neurotoxin and puppeteering have to do with stairs. Or absorbing stats, for that matter.”

  The Core suddenly lurched, raised a hand into Leo’s face. He grabbed it with his hands, and twisted, splitting the wrist off the monster's body.

  “That's all you got?!” Leo screamed, grabbing the Core by the throat and giving it a good bashing in the head.

  The Core stumbled, struggling to move now that most of rock the in its body had been reduced to dust.

  Eere waved her hands, pointing toward Leo.

  {Leo : Mammoth I : (0.10)}

  I sighed. “We need to finish this before it gets out of hand—”

  The Core raised its fist again, as a feint, sprung a new hand from its chest and pressed it against Leo’s face.

  The air exploded out in a cone, cracking Leo against a distant pillar.

  {Leo : (-230) 171 Hp}

  {Leo : Mammoth I : (0.00)}

  [Inflictions applied (1:00)]

  Leo didn’t immediately scream or shoot. He just sat up, eyes wide.

  “Looks like a hero over there figured something out,” Throttle muttered. “Should we ask?”

  “After this!” I shouted, jumping up and swinging, Crapshoveler flashing as it blasted rock and metal from the Core’s husk.

  Suddenly, Leo had me in his arms, knocking me away from the fight. “YOU IDIOTS!” He screamed. “LOOK!”

  The Core’s face split into a grin, tilting its head, and clicking.

  “Think, Grind, those abilities it’d been using…you’ve seen them already, haven’t you?” Leo asked, grabbing me by the shoulders.

  “Uh, sort of,” I said. “There was a pathetically weak core with neurotoxin, and another with some sort of doll ability, though it wasn’t this strong. But I haven’t seen the launching hand palm thing.”

  “Grind, that attack was Ardenidi’s.” Leo said, whispering. “ArcPalm. The heavier your opponent, the stronger the blast.”

  Like with the riding the gargoyles, it was an attack that used some element of an opponent's stats against them.

  I nodded. “That sounds incredibly good against Cores. So why would a Core have it?”

  Leo sighed. “I think our friend here can steal abilities. Grind, what do you think would happen if a Core learned to respawn and time travel around.”

  I swallowed.

  “Exactly,” Leo muttered. “Head back. Now. All of us dying is no longer the worst case scenario.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He scoffed. “No. But if by chance I’m right, then it’s worth the risk. NOW GO!”

  I started running without direction, trying my hardest to put as much distance between me and them as I could.

  We would survive this. We had to.

  A core that takes abilities—

  To get the abilities of other Cores…did it break into other dungeons?

  Shivers ran down my spine, and I almost sprinted straight into a stone pillar.

  No wonder the other cores were so terrified of this thing. Even a dead core can rebuild itself in its dungeon, given time, but this core was replacing their cores.

  What kind of a monster had we run into?

  I shook my head and kept running.