“Move up,” I told Abby and Bertha. “Stick to the shadows, take a position behind the pillars a few strides from the corridor. Strike down any surviving pirates and force as many as you can back through. If they don’t trigger my traps now, then they will then.”
The half-troll took the left, and the elemental took the right, her blue mantle and pale skin bathed in the scarlet and azure light of our cores. My War Troll was silent, stalking like some feline predator, her darker skin a greater advantage when moving in the shadows. The two champions hovered behind a pair of pillars, and anticipation flickered as the Sand Pirates began to inch their way through the corridor, their eyes searching for other triggers.
But they didn’t see the Paralysis Rings.
Ralph stepped inside the first, and lightning lanced up into his feet, causing him to spasm and curse. Before the Storm trap could cause him to seize up entirely and step on a Wall Spike trigger, he lunged and planted a foot on the wall. With a burst of speed, he rocketed along the wall like some kind of speedy superhero. Even Bertha—her reflexes sharpened by her new form and her enchanted weapon—couldn’t stop him from blasting out of the corridor, sliding over the obsidian, and out of reach of her flashing poleaxe. The other adventurers followed Ralph with a slower and less flashy trick, using the walls to bypass my Paralysis Rings.
I was going to need to adapt to this - it wasn’t the game plan.
Abby’s hands crackled with lightning as she stepped out from her hiding place and caught a crossbowman in the chest. Electricity exploded from his body and hurled him back into the corridor. The hapless Sand Pirate triggered a trap as he bounced on the tiles, and a Wall Spike impaled him before he could bounce a second time.
I summoned Von Dominus, and he materialized out of the suddenly-liquid obsidian floor and stood before the grinning face of Lilith’s likeness. I transferred my consciousness to the elf and leaped off the dais, bare-chested and feeling the bloodlust building. My champions danced in sync, turning back into the shadows, racing around the pillars, and kiting the adventurers after them. Abby moved like lightning, her hair a halo of golden-brown and her eyes shimmering with blue energy. Her feet barely seemed to touch the ground. She was fast, faster even than Bertha. The champions came to my side, and before I could even ask her, my half-troll champion drew her dagger and tossed it to me.
My elvish reflexes had me catch it out of the air without so much as a thought. I spun the dagger into a reverse grip as the speed of the sigil flooded my body. Bertha’s poleaxe spun in her hands, a blur of troll steel and honeywood while Abby’s eyes blazed as the power of Ciryli crackled through her.
The pirate gathered in the centre of the First Floor, fanning out behind Ralph as he halted and laid his eyes on me. Hatred blazed through his gaze, fed by Infernal essence and the death of his men. But he didn’t sprint into battle, driven by grief and impotent rage as before. No, the kid at least had some sense of the gravity of the situation.
Excitement, anticipation, and trepidation swam through my blood. These adventurers were too cunning, too strong-willed to be swayed by my Enthrall ability. It’d been far too difficult to ensnare a half-idiot half-orc. These Sand Pirates could only be swayed by one thing - a hunger for Infernal Essence, and violent, bloody combat.
I could appreciate that.
“Abby,” I whispered. “How about you show them a little something?”
The Storm avatar smiled as a deafening boom erupted from her, and then her entire body was covered in lighting. The First Floor illuminated from her electric glow, and the carvings on the walls seemed even more sinister in the ethereal light.
“That’s definitely a Storm champion,” the mountain-man said in awe.
“I don’t care what it is,” Ralph said as we faced off. “We’ll take its essence.”
I took a step forward, relishing the tension, feeding on it. “I see you’ve made it to the First Floor, Chosen One.” A smile curled over my face and before my fangs while my smooth elvish voice echoed impressively through the pillars. “And, as our prior agreement dictated, you brought yet more willing and eager meals for me to consume.”
The Sand Pirates shifted uneasily at my words and glanced at their leader, but Ralph didn’t so much as blink. He stepped into the open, hate and essence blazing in his eyes. I spun my dagger easily in my hand, feeling its own power build as the space between us gradually lessened. But Ralph was taking his time, still wary of the champions at my back and of any traps I could’ve laid for him.
“Your reign ends here, Elf. Zagorath will fall with you.”
I cocked my head, my arrogant smirk widening. “Oh?”
“Your traps have failed. Your minions have fallen. You and your bluster is all for nought. I will absorb you essence and take what remains from your jewel. Tell me, Elf, how much resides in your core?” The question carried an erratic note, as though it was coming from an addict demanding the last ounce from his dealer.
My chuckle echoed through the chamber again, accompanied by the crackling of Abby’s lightning-charged fingertips.
“An ocean,” I answered him easily, and I saw the Sand Pirates’ faces snap toward the plinth where my dungeon heart resided glowing a deep red beside Abby’s.
The pirates only seemed to notice the presence of an additional core now, and they whispered among themselves greedily, too quiet for me to make out their words. My core, and now Abby’s jewel, was working as intended—an irresistible prize that would lead adventures ever deeper into my dungeon, unaware that they would be unable to snatch it. My Spring Trap beneath the
