Chapter 8 - The Thunderdome

For a while, when she’d been trapped in the darkness, Lillia was convinced time had been slipping away. She’d told herself that maybe she hadn’t been down there as long as she’d thought. She’d told herself hours were minutes and minutes were seconds.
Lillia didn’t have a way to tell time underground, but she’d been living through minutes and seconds for her entire life. She’d eaten. Tried to practice with the sword until she got hungry. Finished the second ration. Tried and failed to take a nap. Walked around in circles. ‘Trained’ with the sword again. Got hungry.
The Hunting Lodge door still said it would reset tomorrow. She didn’t want to open Havoc’s door to confirm what that meant. But it had certainly been more than a day since he’d made her—everything had happened.
More than two, probably, since she’d had a proper bath. Many more before she’d get one again.
Whatever tomorrow meant in the dungeon, it wasn’t a sunrise and a sunset. First, there was no sun down here. Second, Lillia was starting to think those doors would speak of tomorrow until the end of time.
Tomorrow meant something else, She needed to figure out what.
The princess had stolen another stick from the fire to act as a makeshift torch. She had it in one hand and Vianaffir in the other as she stared from the landing down to the darkness of the second floor.
Lillia needed more rations. She could either wait and see if the chitterpede came back before she was desperate, or she could explore further into the dungeon. She wasn’t confident, but she knew what the dungeon wanted her to do.
At least she thought she knew.
Venture downstairs by choice, or be forced downstairs when she was hungrier and weaker. There wasn’t a winning play, but when had there been so far?
Lillia jumped twice in place to hype herself up. Her dress clattered and echoed around the stairway before she took the first step down.
Light erupted from a set of torches on either wall, illuminating the steps from the first to the second empty landing. Lillia dropped her stick. At least there was light.
There were at least a hundred steps between Lillia and the dungeon’s “second floor.” The first several were the same cold flagstone as the cathedral and the first platform, but over time they changed to smooth glassy black obsidian. At first it was only a handful of stones on each step, then mostly obsidian, then full black.
If nothing else, Lillia needed to admit that the craftsmanship was impressive. The transition was tasteful. If—When she made it back to the castle, she’d have to remember that patterning for when they redid the ballroom.
Of course, in the ballroom it would transition from slate to white marble, but they could use the design.
Lillia looked back to Sir Nobody. He was still dead. She took his silence as permission and headed further into the depths of the Five Point Fall. Her steps echoed louder as she continued down the stairs, the sound carrying past the darkness beyond the second level but never echoing back toward her.
The princess wanted to close her eyes as she descended. She wanted to do anything to fight the feeling that this was stupid and dangerous, but she kept her head high and her eyes forward. She had to do this. Letting fear win wouldn’t help.
She’d conquered the floor above. Killed one monster. Made one friend. How much worse could the second floor be? She was fine, completely fine. Lillia the brave.
The temperature dropped on the second landing. Each of the princess’s breaths came with fog as she checked each door. They were identical. Identically black. Identically wide. Identically foreboding.
Lillia tightened her grip on Vianaffir and tossed her matted hair out of her face before shaking her head. Once. Twice. Between each shake she’d try to choose a door. Instead she just kept looking back and forth between them.
The stiff ache of lingering winter set in. She wasn’t dressed for this.
If she chose wrong, Lillia was almost assuredly going to die. People said things like that all the time. People talked about dying for the king. For the queen. For her. Talking about death wasn’t really thinking about it. It was compartmentalizing it. It was lying about being fine with it.
“Well. Maybe I was dead as soon as I came down here.”
Lillia chose door number two, the one on the same side as the chitterpede’s Hunting Lodge. She was going to open it, but she paused with her palm against the smooth metal.
Compartmentalize. She was fine with it. Move on.
Sweat dripped down the back of Lillia’s neck. It was cold.
Lillia was fine with it. Whatever happened, happened. She was stuck here either way.
Her breathing shallowed like a dying river. She balled her hand against the door into a tight fist. The torches crackled above her.
It was her duty. To the kingdom. To the throne. To her parents.… to herself?
Lillia’s knees buckled. She was a princess. What did she know of duty? What did she know of death? What did she know of anything? She wasn’t supposed to be here.
Yet here she was.
The metal swung inward easily, as if freshly oiled, and Lillia’s shove sent it slamming into the inner wall with a resounding clang that echoed out into the darkness of the room beyond the stairway.
Nothing leapt out at her. There were no eyes in the darkness. There was no horror beyond her sight.
Lillia grabbed the makeshift torch she’d discarded earlier and held it out into the darkness. The light shone off the glassy black stonework and pushed back the shadow.
In the centre of the room stood something Lillia could only describe as an altar, but it was wrong. She knew what altars of the Triplicate looked like—the castle was lousy with them—but this one had none of the right etchings and was made of the same cold black stone as the floor.
Lillia jumped forward to avoid getting smacked by the door; but it didn’t slam behind her as the ones on the floor above did. The door stayed wide open, letting the light of the stairway spill into the room beyond. The princess took another step and checked back to ensure that it was going to stay open.
The air warmed as Lillia approached the altar. First she simply couldn’t see her breath, but by the time she was within reach she could feel heat pressing on the back of her throat, like breathing in flame without the smoke.
In the middle of the altar, there was an inlay for a hand. Lillia’s hand never would have filled the whole thing. Each of the fingers was nearly as large as two of hers.
Either way, one didn’t just go sticking one’s hand into strange altars without checking other options first. Even Lillia understood that much.
Lillia’s torch sputtered as she made her way around the room, first by returning to the door and then circling the place. The room was rounded, like the base of a tower, but Lillia couldn’t see the ceiling through the shadows, nor was there any evidence of stairs.
The room was just a circle. A basement that they’d forgotten to make interesting.
Eventually, Lillia was back at the altar. She sighed. Welp.
The hole was bigger than Lillia’s hand, but as she placed her palm into the inlay, her fingers filled more of each slot than she expected. That couldn’t be right. Lillia had dainty little hands. She was small. Thin and—
The ground shook and the room blazed to life. Crystal-blue light erupted from the walls as strange symbols etched themselves into the black stone. Lillia tried to read, or at least understand, whatever was happening around her but jumped as the altar in front of her cracked down the middle with a resounding snap.
Across the room, the door slammed. Text formed in front of Lillia.
[Challenge Started]
“Challenge?” Lillia asked. She spun, trying to make sense of the runes appearing on the walls. They had stretched from floor to ceiling at this point and were starting to bleed past the edge.The altar cracked again before fading into the same fine dust the chitin had.
“How was I supposed to know about a challenge?!”
[Lillia used ‘Indignance - Level 1’ - There was no target!]
Lillia huffed and threw the torch away for the second time in the past few minutes. It clattered along the clean black stone, scattering ash as she took Vianaffir in both hands. She tried to copy the footing she’d seen knights use in the tournaments. Pulling one foot back felt sturdier than standing upright.
The light stopped climbing the walls once it had crept a few feet onto the ceiling. The dozen light sources danced off Lillia’s armour. Reflective glints surrounded her and smothered the myriad shadows she cast.
The room was quiet. Which was good, right? There was no such thing as too quiet. As Lillia waited, she realized the smell of the burning stone was gone. The replacement was hard to place, almost like rain that hadn’t arrived.
Lillia turned to check behind her. Still nothing. Just the runes. Lillia could feel sweat on her palms as she gripped the sword too tight.
Over the next few seconds, she lowered Vianaffir. Maybe she was supposed to figure out something with the runes. Dungeons had puzzles, didn’t they? She could figure this out.
Something moved behind Lillia. The princess spun.
Between her and the door was a small…creature. It had the same two arms and legs as a person. It was as tall as a child but too wrongly proportioned to be one. The massive hat it wore was electric yellow so wide-brimmed that it drooped down and almost covered the creature’s matching coloured eyes. Apart of the hat the creature was so black it looked as if it were carved from shadow.
Unlike the chitterpede, it didn’t try to pounce on her right away. Lillia allowed Vianaffir to fall to her side.
“Hey little guy.” She held out a hand to it, like she was trying to calm down a horse. “I’m Lillia and you—”
The creature reared back its head and a piercing cackle filled the room from every direction. Without looking back to Lillia, it pointed towards her, something glowed on the end of its black finger.
Lillia’s hair stood on end. She dove to the side before she processed that she needed to move.
A small bolt of lightning shot across the room, zapping inches past Lillia’s face as she sat up. The cackle returned. Lillia leapt to her feet. The thing pointed again.
“Oh. Shit.”
Lillia dove, slamming her knee into the ground. Pain shot through her bones as static ripped through the air. The laugh returned. It was laughing at her.
“You can’t keep doing that. It’s not fair!”
The creature raised its free hand and small runes appeared in its palm. There was a flash. Sparks flew through the air its the hat almost flew off its head as wind gusted around the thing.
[Lillia used ‘Indignance - Level 1’ - Thunder Spellmite Countered]
“A Spell—”
The princess scrambled back to her feet. She was barely finding her balance with the blade when her hair stood on end. Lillia jumped to the side, barely getting out of the way before another white flash of lightning.
“Stop it!”
More sparks. More wind. Useless.
[Lillia used ‘Indignance - Level 1’ - Thunder Spellmite Countered]
A bolt. Lillia dropped down and rolled . The lightning crashed into the black tile and erupted into a brilliant array of sparks.
It just kept going. It wasn’t going to stop. Lillia could already feel her legs struggling with the pace of diving and getting back up. How was she supposed to—
Back to her feet. Back to the side to avoid another shot.
How was she supposed to get close to it to hit it with her sword? This wasn’t fair at all.
Lillia rolled to the side again. Lightning on tile.
The chitterpede armor let her block two hits. She only needed it to stop one. She had a sword and it didn’t. If she got close, she won.
Lillia sprang back to her feet and pulled Vianaffir to her side, winding up her victory strike. She kicked off and took the first steps forward. The creature raised its finger to her and cackled. Lillia squeezed her eyes shut as light coalesced in front of her.
Static climbed up Lillia’s neck. Her hair stood on end. The crackle of a storm hovered above her skin. She felt the kiss of thunder on her lips. She just needed to—
Lightning crashed into Lillia’s chest like a horse kicking a frail princess. That same frail princess went flying backward flailing through the air before crashing down onto the black tile of the room with a resounding crack. All of Lillia’s muscles seized at once. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t do anything.
She had to. She had to move. Please, just move. Just enough to…
Lillia managed to roll to the side as the lightning smashed into the tile beside her. Sparks landed across her back. She felt them singe her hair.
Why hadn’t that worked? Why couldn’t she—
Another blast. Lillia found strength she didn’t know she had and surged to her feet, jumping over the lightning that had been aimed at her prone body.
“I’m having a moment!” Lillia wheezed. She had the passion, but not the air in her lungs.
[Lillia tried ‘Indignance - Level 1’ - Failed to cast]
Great. Lillia tried to find her footing but stumbled. Her vision flickered for a moment. Her fingers were numb, like they were too far away for Lillia to use them properly.
She couldn’t charge the thing. She couldn’t keep running forever. She had to find a way to skewer that little yellow gremlin laughing at her. Lillia used Vianaffir as a cane and pushed herself the rest of the way up.
Another shot. Lillia slipped to the side. She maintained her footing this time, which let her move a little closer. The spellmite stayed in place. It wasn’t even trying.
If it was going to kill her, Lillia was at least going to make it work for it.
The princess charged again. The clattering of her battle gown echoed through the room in a metallic cacophony. Light shimmered off her in every direction as she sprinted at the spellmite.
The creature lowered its hand. Static filled the air. Lillia felt the lightning in her teeth.
A blinding flash. Lillia swung. Vianaffir found something solid within the bolt and bit into it. The beam split down the blade, spraying around Lillia in a cascade of sparks. There was silence as Lillia finished her swing, followed by a resounding boom.
No laughter.
Lillia panted as she righted the blade and pointed it at the spellmite. It was already running away.
“I’ve got you now you little—”
It pointed over its shoulder, and lightning shot toward Lillia. She yelped, barely getting the blade in the way of the beam. A second shower of sparks. It was less triumphant than the last as Lillia stumbled backward.
“Just stay still!” Lillia yelled as she took off after the spellmite. It ran jauntily, like it was making fun of her the entire time, firing shots backward over its shoulder. Lillia found the rhythm between her steps and her swings, almost steadier while slashing on the move than she had been during practice.
The pair lapped the room the first time. Lillia felt a burn in her shoulder each time she swung her sword. She couldn’t keep this up forever.
“Come on! What am I supposed to do?”
The spellmite stopped in place and raised its non-blasting hand. A rune appeared as it faced Lillia.
[Lillia used ‘Indignance - Level 1’ - Thunder Spellmite Countered]
Lillia slashed Vianaffir through the shower of sparks left behind by the counter. Her sword never needed to bite into the spellmite. It cut through it as if through air. The strike only stopped when the steel crashed against the smooth black tile.
The princess blinked. Had she just—She was just following the rhythm of the lightning and…
[Lightning Spellmite defeated! Yay!]
[Gained - 1 x Thundermite Cloth]
[Gained - 1 x Spellmite Cap: Lightning]
The yellow hat fluttered to the ground. It was over-slow, almost like it was disappointed.
Lillia bent down and picked up the hat. The fabric was flimsy in her hands but as she turned it over, Lillia realized it was closer to her size than it had been on the spellmite in the first place. Was this her reward? What was it supposed to…
[Equipment: Spellmite Cap: Lightning - Your Class has limited use of this item!]
[ A common hat once worn by powerful wizards. Stolen by the spellmites at the dawn of the new age. None are the original. None are copies.]
[ The Princess class gains limited benefit from this item as it is not Headwear Type - Tiara, Crown or Noble.]
Lillia sighed as she put the hat on and shoved her gross hair into the conical cap. If nothing else, it would help hide how gross she was.
“Am I supposed to find a tiara down here?”
There was no one in the room to answer her, so Lillia allowed her hands to flop to her sides after she shoved Vianaffir away. Then she paused.
“Hey.”
She snatched the hem of her dress. As she pulled it up, the smell of burning chitin filled her throat.
“Why didn’t you work! What the hell?”
As she held the gown, the text changed in her vision.
[Provides a minor defensive bonus against slashing and piercing damage. The first [0/2] instances of damage the Princess would receive are instead absorbed by the armour.]
“Hey! Don’t those come back? Are those gone forever?”
[Charges reset: Tomorrow]
“When is tomorrow?”
The text didn’t change.
“HELLO?”
[Lillia used ’Indignance…]
Lillia stared past the text instead of letting it chide her. As she looked up, she saw that stairs had appeared on the wall furthest from her. A second instance of text hovered above.
[Climb to Continue the Challenge]