The portal to Floor Ten opened into a cavern of fire and steel.
Massive spires jutted from molten earth like the ribs of some dead colossus. Lava rivers carved jagged veins across the blackened stone. The air shimmered with heat distortion. It was both cathedral and battlefield—vast, apocalyptic, and alive with tension.
The moment they stepped forward, the gate behind them sealed with a sound like cracking bone.
Roger's eyes swept the terrain. "No puzzles. No illusions. Just us and whatever's waiting."
From the far end of the arena, the floor trembled. A slab of obsidian shifted, splitting open.
The Floorwarden emerged.
It stood over thirty feet tall, plated in golden bone, wings made of jagged light and flame. A mask of stone covered its face, carved in the image of something both divine and monstrous. Eight arms. Four legs. A crown of horns and halos clad in rune-etched obsidian armor. Its skull-like helm pulsed with molten veins. Six of its eight arms unfolded, each wielding a different weapon: a spear, a hammer, dual scimitars, a whip of lightning, and a black-bladed sword that bled shadow. Behind it, a pair of wings—made of bone and flame—unfurled with a screech.
Roger raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's ugly."
"No way we're running," Kai muttered. "Not with that gate sealed."
"Then we finish this," Roger said, tightening the wrap on his knuckles.
Aria nodded, vanishing into mist.
The Floorwarden roared—and the fight began.
---
Phase One: Collision
Kai's fingers twitched, already beginning to weave runes in the air. "Let's try not to die in the first ten seconds."
The Floorwarden charged.
Roger met it head-on.
Its war hammer came down like a meteor. Roger sidestepped, pivoted, and slammed his fist—wreathed in flame—into the creature's kneecap. A shockwave burst outward.
The Floorwarden staggered—but didn't slow. Its whip lashed out. Roger raised his arm too late.
The lightning whip carved across his ribs, sending him flying.
Aria struck from the rear.
Mist solidified into form as her daggers plunged into the base of its spine. The creature bellowed and spun, dual scimitars flashing.
She twisted midair, narrowly avoiding decapitation.
Kai had already begun crafting.
Three runes: Destruction, Gravity Bind, Temporal Stall.
He flung them forward. The runes ignited, chaining together mid-flight. Time slowed. The Floorwarden's movement stuttered for 0.3 seconds.
It was enough.
Roger lunged, shoulder-checking it with the force of a charging bull. The armor cracked.
Aria appeared above the crack, her blade finding the weakened spot—piercing halfway through.
But the Floorwarden adapted. Its wings surged outward, releasing a concussive fire pulse that blasted all three of them away.
They hit the ground hard.
Roger rolled to his feet first. Blood soaked his side. "Phase one's over."
The Floorwarden raised its head. The runes on its helm glowed red.
"somethings different about it now." Kai whispered, eyes widening. "Incoming." He yelled!
---
Phase Two: Break the Pattern
The ground split open.
Lava poured into fresh crevices as pillars rose from the battlefield. The Floorwarden leapt to the top of one and extended all six arms. Each weapon began to glow with a different elemental rune.
"Shit," Aria whispered.
Roger barked, "Spread out!"
The first strike came instantly.
The whip snapped across the battlefield, hissing with plasma. Roger deflected it with a flame-coated punch, absorbing most of the impact—but it singed flesh to the bone.
Simultaneously, the spear launched with a sonic boom, impaling the ground where Kai had been.
He had just barely activated a Blink Rune in time—vanishing mid-dash and reappearing behind one of the spires.
"I need three seconds to cast something stronger!" Kai shouted.
"Buy him time!" Roger ordered.
Aria nodded, and mist spiraled out from her boots.
She launched herself at the Floorwarden again—appearing on one of the rising platforms mid-leap, slicing along its flank.
The black sword lashed out and nearly took her arm.
She used the cut momentum to dive downward, flipping into a crouch. "He's adapting again."
Roger jumped up after her, using a Self-Propulsion Rune on his boots to launch skyward.
He met the Floorwarden midair.
Their clash lit up the battlefield: hammer against fist, shadow blade against flame aura.
Then came Kai's moment.
He dropped to one knee, drawing three complex runes at once across a wide slate: Disruption Field, Reverse Polarity, and Chain Echo.
The floor glowed beneath the Floorwarden.
Suddenly, its weapons struck too late. Its swing patterns reversed. Its blade slammed into a pillar instead of Roger. The whip tangled around its own wings.
"NOW!" Kai yelled.
Roger roared. He ducked beneath the hammer swing, shoulder-charged the beast off the platform—and punched a Flame Spike Rune directly into its back.
It fell—hard—into the lava below.
Steam exploded. For a heartbeat, they all held still.
Then the lava exploded.
The Floorwarden rose again, its armor cracked, glowing from within. Its six arms bent backward unnaturally, rotating. Its weapons floated around it in a ring.
Phase Three.
---
Phase Three: Judgment Cycle
"again, its changing again?" Kai questioned, voice trembling.
The weapons moved on their own now—like orbiting satellites. The Floorwarden's core pulsed, and a ring of runes circled it, spelling something none of them could read.
It screamed—an unnatural sound—and then the battlefield began to shift.
A barrier sealed the edges of the arena.
No more escape.
The weapons launched.
Roger intercepted the hammer, parrying it mid-flight. The whip came from behind, but Aria caught it with a mist clone, pulling the trajectory just enough to miss Kai.
The black sword went for Kai's throat.
He activated Layered Shield—three stacked runes that barely stopped it.
His bracer cracked.
"I can't take another direct hit," he said through clenched teeth.
"Then don't," Aria whispered—appearing beside him, mist curling around her arms.
She vanished again, this time attacking the core.
Her blade dug into the exposed weak spot beneath the helm—but the creature turned too fast.
One of its arms grabbed her by the throat.
She choked, kicking wildly.
Roger charged. "Let her GO!"
He slammed into its arm, breaking the grip. Aria hit the ground, coughing.
"Five seconds!" Kai yelled. "Just hold it five seconds!"
Roger tanked the next three hits—blade, spear, whip. His body bled from half a dozen wounds.
Then Kai activated the Storm Grid.
A hundred micro-runes deployed across the battlefield.
Fire. Ice. Lightning. Gravity.
They detonated in a cascading net, each impact pushing the Floorwarden back.
Aria leapt into the air, used the force of a gravity rune Kai launched at her feet, and dove downward with all her weight and skill.
Her blade slammed into the creature's chest.
Roger was already there, fists glowing.
And Kai—
He activated one final rune:
Fracture: Temporal Overload.
Time stuttered.
Everything froze.
Then, in a single heartbeat, the three of them moved.
Roger slammed his fist into the first weak spot. Aria sliced the second. Kai's rune shattered the core in its chest.
The Floorwarden screamed—collapsing into itself.
And then it was gone.
Silence fell.
The battlefield flickered. The lava cooled. The weapons dissolved into smoke.
They stood there, panting. Bloody. Spent.
Kai fell to one knee. Aria dropped beside him.
Roger stood—barely—his chest heaving.
For thirty agonizing minutes, they fought the monster across the arena's span
At the far end of the arena, the gate opened.
Beside it, a rune flickered to life.
Kai approached and touched it. The words unfolded, glowing with the Director's familiar signature:
> "How are you feeling? Alive, I hope. That thing will respawn in exactly one hour. Best not to be around when it does."
"No rest yet. No easy floors from here on out. But you did well."
"Adapt. Evolve. Endure."
"We survive by moving forward."
They read the words in silence.
Roger cracked his knuckles.
"We fight it again."
Kai blinked. "You sure?"
"He thinks we'll just move on."
Aria smirked. "Let's be better than that."
The second battle began.
It was faster. The creature reacted to runes more quickly. It punched harder.
But they had adapted.
Roger absorbed blows, using gravity runes to anchor himself. Aria struck the knees, now knowing the timing. Kai warped space to pull Aria from danger mid-lunge, then replaced her with a fire rune explosion.
Twenty minutes.
Boss dead.
Respawn.
Again.
Fifteen minutes.
Again.
Ten minutes.
They weren't just surviving. They were refining.
Kai began prepping runes before the spawn. Timed detonations, pre-inscribed constructs. Roger adapted his temporal orb—freezing incoming strikes to bait counters. Aria developed new blade rhythms—twisting illusions within her mist.
By the tenth kill, it spawned and died in thirty seconds.
But on the 15 respawn it struck out, shattering Kai's shield. The three regrouped. Bloodied. Grinning.
It burst through Kai's rune field, surviving the initial trap with a roar.
And then—
A whisper of mist.
Aria reappeared behind it, blade gliding through the air. One clean strike. Decapitation.
The creature's head tumbled to the floor.
Dead. The creature crumpled for the final time. A pulse of energy surged from its corpse—and something new remained.
Where the body fell, three glowing artifacts pulsed.
Roger approached first. A black gauntlet lay among the ash.
Molten Gauntlet — Doubles user's body size and multiplies durability by five.
Kai found a shimmering cube lined with micro-runes.
Runecube — Stores up to five complex runes for future instant activation.
Aria lifted twin glassy boots, the surface rippling with mirrored light.
Miststep Boots — Grants perfect invisibility on command.
The three stood over the corpse. Around them, silence.
Roger: "We discovered something even the Director didn't expect."
Kai: "He said the Pit had runes—but never said how to find them. Maybe floors run dry if we push them far enough."
Aria looked toward the gate. "He probably didn't tell us to protect us. We would've never survived repeating a floor like the last one."
They all shuddered.
Roger touched the new glove. "But now we're more than survivors."
"We're ready," Aria said.
Kai looked up. "Let's see what Floor Eleven has to offer."
Together, they stepped forward.