Chapter 52: Gareth’s Team vs The Basilisk (Part 1)

Gareth’s party continued through Floor 2 for another twenty minutes, checking every side passage they came across and slowing whenever the corridor widened enough to hide another route.

Mara was especially thorough, occasionally crouching to inspect cracks in the stone or running one hand along the wall as if the hidden cache might reveal itself if she looked hard enough.

The slimes caused little trouble this time.

Whenever one dropped from the ceiling, Gareth either intercepted it with his shield or Mara moved aside long enough for Elias to burn it down with another small fire spell. June rarely needed to heal anyone at all, and after watching them clear another chamber without taking a single meaningful hit, Zion had to admit they were handling the floor much better than they had during their first attempt.

Even so, the hidden cache remained hidden.

Eventually, the party returned to a corridor they had already searched. Mara stopped in the middle of it and looked down one of the side passages.

"We already checked that one, didn’t we?"

"Twice," Elias replied. He leaned against his staff for a moment and glanced back toward the path behind them.

June turned in the opposite direction. "What about the one near the yellow pool?"

"You checked it," Gareth said.

"Oh."

Mara’s shoulders lowered slightly.

Zion almost felt bad for them. The hidden cache had spawned in one of the less obvious recesses farther back. They had passed within a few dozen feet of it at least twice without realizing it.

Gareth eventually adjusted the strap around his shield and looked at the others.

"That’s enough. We’re going to the boss."

Mara looked disappointed, but she did not argue this time. Elias and June seemed equally reluctant to give up the search, but all three followed when Gareth turned back toward the main route.

They had already spent longer searching than they intended. Continuing now would only wear them down before the real fight.

When they finally reached the large stone doors leading into the boss room, Gareth stopped before touching them.

His eyes moved over the group once before settling on Elias.

"Drink a mana potion."

Elias blinked. "What?"

"Check your mana."

Elias frowned, but his expression changed the moment he did.

His grip tightened around his staff as he looked down at one hand.

"That doesn’t make sense."

June turned toward him. "How low are you?"

"Too low." Elias shook his head. "I used nothing but Tier 1 fire spells this entire time. I should have plenty left."

June immediately checked her own mana. Her brows pulled together a moment later. "Mine is low too."

It was not as bad as Elias’s, but still much lower than it should have been.

For a moment, no one spoke.

"There must be something on this floor that saps mana," June said quietly as she looked back down the corridor.

Mara followed her gaze. "Like what?"

"I don’t know."

The four of them looked around, but nothing obvious stood out. The corridor looked the same as the others they had passed through. Yellow stone. Dark cracks. Sulfur clinging to the walls.

Elias stepped toward one side of the passage and studied the crystals embedded there, but even then he did not seem to make the connection.

Zion watched with interest. They were close. Just not close enough.

Gareth glanced back toward the routes they had already explored, then reached into his pack and pulled out two small glass bottles filled with blue liquid.

"If we keep looking for that chest, both of you will be even lower by the time we reach the boss."

Mara opened her mouth, but closed it again without arguing.

He was right.

Gareth tossed one potion toward Elias and the second toward June.

"Drink them. And from now on, keep an eye on your mana. If it starts dropping faster than it should, say something."

Elias caught the bottle against his chest and nodded. June turned hers once between her fingers before removing the stopper.

Both drank the potions in a single go.

After giving them another minute to recover, Gareth placed one hand against the boss doors and looked back at the others.

"Ready?"

Mara drew both daggers. June rolled her shoulders once and flexed her fingers. Elias lifted his staff.

Gareth pushed the doors open.

The damp heat of the chamber hit them first.

Steam drifted over several shallow pools scattered through the cavern, thick enough in places to blur the opposite wall. Water ran constantly somewhere deeper inside, echoing against the stone and making it difficult to tell exactly where the sound came from.

The party slowed as they entered.

Mara’s eyes moved from one pool to the next. "Where is it?"

A ripple moved through the water to their left. Gareth raised his shield immediately.

The Tidepool Basilisk erupted from the pool. Its jaws snapped toward him, and Gareth barely managed to turn the shield in time. The impact threw him backward several feet before his boots caught against the wet stone.

"Gareth!" June shouted.

A pale glow spread over him before he had even regained his footing.

The basilisk landed low to the ground, claws scraping against the floor before it twisted toward Mara.

She jumped back.

Its tail swept through the place where she had been standing a moment earlier.

Elias raised his staff. "Move!"

Mara ducked aside.

A fireball crossed the chamber and struck the basilisk along its ribs. The flames burst outward then vanished. The creature barely reacted.

Elias stared at it for half a second.

"Oh."

The basilisk lunged toward him. Gareth intercepted it before its jaws could close. His shield caught the creature across the snout and forced its head away.

"Fire doesn’t work," Elias said as he backed up.

"I noticed," Gareth grunted.

The basilisk pulled away from him and sprinted toward the nearest pool, disappearing beneath the surface before anyone could stop it.

The chamber became quiet again. Mara turned slowly in place, tightening her grip on both daggers.

"Great, what now?"

Ripples spread across three different pools at once. June moved closer to Gareth. "Which one?"

No one answered.

The basilisk exploded from the water behind them.

Gareth turned but it was too late. Its claws struck his armor and sent him stumbling forward. June immediately began healing him, but by the time he recovered, the creature had already vanished back into the water.

Zion leaned forward on his throne. This was what he had wanted to see.

The party had handled Floor 1 easily and adapted well to the slimes, but the basilisk was different. It refused to stay where Gareth could control it, and the pools gave it too many places to attack from.

For the first several minutes, they barely managed to defend themselves.

Whenever the basilisk appeared, Gareth moved between it and the others. June healed whatever damage slipped through, while Elias tested another spell, this time a sharp burst of wind that forced the creature sideways but did little else.

Mara tried getting close twice. Both attempts ended with her retreating before the basilisk could catch her. Then she stopped reaching for her daggers.

Zion watched her closely.

Mara backed away from the nearest pool and pulled the pack from one shoulder.

Elias glanced toward her. "What are you doing?"

"Trying something."

She dropped the pack to the ground and reached behind it. A folded bow was strapped along the side.

Zion tilted his skull. He had never seen her use that before.

Mara snapped the bow open and locked the limbs into place before pulling a small bundle of arrows from her pack.

The basilisk surfaced again. Gareth raised his shield, holding it out to protect the rest of the group behind him.

Mara did not fire right away. Instead, she studied its movements closely.

The creature struck Gareth once, then climbed rapidly along the wall before disappearing into the darker stone above.

Zion already knew what it was doing.

The basilisk clung to the ceiling and prepared for another breath attack. That was when Mara slowly raised the bow.

She closed her eyes.

Zion leaned forward a little farther.

A faint glow spread across her fingers as the bowstring tightened. For several seconds, she did not move.

The basilisk crawled silently across the ceiling above them.

Then Mara turned. Her eyes remained closed.

She released the string of the bow, causing the arrow to shoot upward and strike the basilisk beneath one foreleg.

The creature screeched. Its claws lost their grip, and it fell from the ceiling hard enough to shake the stone floor.

Zion nearly stood up from his throne.

"She hit it!"