The cavern still hummed faintly from their earlier fight, dust drifting lazily through shafts of crystal-blue light. Crystal fragments decorated the floor like fallen stars. The four stood at the edge of the tunnel, weapons ready, breath steady.
Argent exhaled.
Ward shifted his stance.
Ferric tightened the last loop of chain around his hand.
Ryn nocked an arrow.
No words needed.
They charged themselves, mentally, physically, and elementally, for what was about to come.
Ward stepped forward, lifted both heavy shields… and slammed them into the ground.
A shockwave rippled outward.
The cavern answered with skittering.
Soft at first, then rising. Blue light shimmering down the walls as shapes scuttled into view, eyes glimmering like shards of glass.
Twenty or more yet again.
Argent muttered, "Round two," and moved with the others.
The swarm hit.
Ward braced for the first impact. The spider's body smashed against his twin shields, but instead of knocking him back a little like before, he held firm, planted, immovable.
Lightning cracked along the shield rims, lingering longer than ever before. He shoved hard, sending the spider sliding back in a spray of crystal shards.
Behind him, Ferric darted into the opening Ward created. His movements were sharper now, more decisive.
The faint metal spikes forming along his chains were still small and brittle, but they were real this time, shaped, pointed. When he struck a spider's side, several spikes cracked… but others dug deep and stuck.
"Almost there," he grunted, ducking under a crystalline leg.
On the opposite flank, Argent slid across the cavern floor, dodging a lunging spider by inches. His dagger pulsed, light radiating four to five inches past the blade's edge. His swings carved glowing lines through the air, slicing the spider's foreleg clean off before the light faded away.
Another spider leapt; Argent hurled his axe. A tether of shadow shot from his hand, longer than before, but snapped just before reaching the handle. The axe still smashed into a spider's skull, cracking it halfway through.
Above them, Ryn fired rapidly. Earth-formed mallet heads crushed through crystal bodies. Spirit shimmer bled through each shot, the bowstring glowing faintly. One spider shattered completely; three others staggered and kept crawling.
She tried to raise the earth beneath her for a better vantage point, but all she could manage was a small lift of rough stone, a few feet at most.
The progress they were making was noticeable...
It still wasn't enough.
Ward blocked three at once but a fourth crawled over him.
Ferric took a hard hit to the ribs.
Argent was clipped from behind and spun.
Ryn shot until two spiders leapt her at once.
A cascade of crystal limbs, a rush of weight,
then blackness washed over everything.
***
Four bodies jerked awake on cold stone slabs.
Ward rubbed his face. "Okay. Vibrations definitely attract them."
Ferric snorted. "No kidding. We basically rang a dinner bell."
Ryn sighed. "Still… we did better."
Argent stood, already cracking his neck.
"Again?"
They all nodded.
***
This time, Ward didn't bother with the shields. He felt much stronger than before. each battle was pushing all of them past what they were capable of previously.
He just stomped, hard. Boot dug into the cavern floor.
Stone cracked.
The cavern trembled.
The spiders came faster.
Ward met them head-on. When the first spider slammed into him, he didn't move an inch. His increased power made him an anchor, unshakable. Lightning spread freely across both shields, branching through the first spider it hit then out towards a second spider before flickering out just short.
"Almost there…" he muttered.
Ferric surged to his left. His chain unraveled from his arm a little and lashed outward and wrapped perfectly around a spider's torso this time, no slip, no hesitation.
"Got you."
He jumped up into the air and pulled hard at the chain, it launched him toward the spider.
He smashed down with his other hand, every spike held this time, digging in and shattering the spiders head completely.
The chain slithered back around his hand on its own.
"Alright… that's new, but I am getting a feel for this now."
Argent moved like shadows dancing in the evening light, sliding, ducking, vaulting over attacks. With each motion, wisps of darkness curled around his shoes, his shadow element stirring, clinging to his legs.
His swings now sent trails of lingering light several inches beyond each cut; the energy traveled forward even after he finished the motion, slicing thin glowing cracks into spider bodies before fading.
He threw his axe, shadow swirling around it. The tether lashed out several feet, connected,
but as he tried to pull it back, the tether snapped.
"Close...."
Ryn anchored herself, bowstring glowing fiercely. Each shot now produced two arrows:
one coated in earth, heavy and brutal, and one of spirit, pale-blue and rippling with ethereal light.
Each trailing next to each other each time she let loose her bow.
The earth arrow cracked a spider's shell.
The spirit arrow seeped in, lighting fissures across its body.
Ryn gasped. "A second arrow trailing on the side of the first..."
When spiders swarmed her, she stamped the ground and a pillar of earth, grew beneath here and raised her six feet into the air, giving her a few extra seconds, but they climbed.
A rush of crystal legs, and darkness fell again.
***
All four gasped awake.
Ferric wiped his mouth. "Okay… that one hurt. In a good way."
Ward grinned. "Lightning nearly jumped to two of them."
Ryn held an arrow to her chest. "I am starting to get the hang of spirit a little… I can feel it growing."
Argent cracked his knuckles. "Then we go again?"
"Again," they echoed.
***
By the third return to the cavern, all four could feel the difference in their bodies.
The statue hadn't lied, every death, every clash, every frantic moment of survival had carved new strength into them.
Power scores rising.
Elements sharpening.
Bodies hardening.
Instincts tightening.
They weren't the same four who had stumbled into this dungeon the first time.
And now they stood side-by-side at the edge of the tunnel, silent, poised, breathing in perfect rhythm.
Ryn closed her eyes and pressed her palm to the floor.
A pulse of earth-energy rippled out beneath them, invisible, deep, alive.
The cavern vibrated in answer.
From the tunnel ahead, blue eyes bloomed in the darkness like a field of distant stars.
The swarm came yet again.
Argent was the first to move, gliding into the fray like a blade of moonlight.
He no longer had to think about his steps, his body simply flowed, sliding through gaps, spinning under legs, vaulting over strikes. His dagger pulsed even brighter now; the light that erupted from its point pierced spider bodies with snapping flashes.
He stabbed once, light fired straight through the spider, carving a glowing channel through crystal.
Shadow coiled around his boots as he moved, rising up his shins like living smoke, gathering when he leapt, thinning when he slid.
He hurled the axe, dark energy shimmering around its edge, and the tether of shadow snapped into place.
This time it held.
After crashing into the head of a spider, Argent pulled sharp at the tether, the axe whipped back to his palm, trailing wisps of blackness.
Ferric was a storm of metal and muscle.
He threw his right chain forward, it headed his call and wrapped around the body of a spider, and again he pulled at it.
Instead of dragging himself toward the spider, the spider launched toward him, helpless against his surge of power.
He punched it midair, metal spikes bursting through its crystal shell with a satisfying crack.
The left-hand spikes were solid now, dense, sharp, unyielding.
His movements were no longer clumsy or improvised.
They had rhythm.
A beat.
Strike, pull, smash.
Strike, weave, crush.
The chains danced for him, wrapped for him, returned to him as if bound to his heartbeat.
Ryn ran out of arrows within seconds of this fight, since she had been pulling them out of her pouch, she had forgotten just how many she had fired. But she didn't hesitate.
She simply made more.
The earth answered her call, shaping crude but deadly projectiles along her bow, each one heavy enough to rattle spider legs on impact. Her spirit arrows now flew beside them without hesitation, thin streaks of pale-blue light that dug into cracks in each spiders body and split them wider.
And when a spider lunged too close, she didn't retreat.
She threw up an earth wall, slid sideways, and fired around it, two arrows, two streaks, two hits.
The wall cracked under the spider's assault, but every second it bought was another arrow loosed, another body shattered.
Her voice was calm, steady, focused beyond fear.
Ward was no longer defending.
He was advancing.
Every impact of his shields sent spiders flying backwards.
Chunks of crystalline bodies scattered like snowfall.
Lightning coursed violently along his arms, leaping from the first spider he struck to a second, stunning both long enough for him to ram through them.
Each fight, each death he was in the front of this battle, so his power had ballooned with every return to the statue, and now he towered like a walking fortress of willpower and raw physical might.
Step.
Crash.
Flash.
Step.
Crash.
Flash.
Every movement was an earthquake.
Every strike a thunderclap.
The spiders kept coming, ten, fifteen, twenty, a living river of razor legs and clicking jaws.
But Ward held the line.
They fought as one.
Not coordinated by plan.
Coordinated by instinct.
By rhythm.
By trust.
Argent's axe swept through a flank.
Ferric's chains ripped apart another.
Ryn's dual arrows cracked open the crystal joints.
Ward smashed through the center, lightning dancing through the swarm.
They were rising, growing, evolving at a rate this world had yet to see.
But the spiders were relentless.
Slowly, inevitably, they began closing in.
Two slipped past Argent's flank.
Three overwhelmed one of Ryn's earth walls.
Four lunged from a high angle Ferric couldn't intercept.
The swarm converged, a crushing wave of crystal bodies and jagged legs.
Ryn disappeared first beneath the mass.
Ferric vanished beneath another wave.
Argent fought until his arms trembled and shadows flickered unsteadily…
but even he fell beneath sheer numbers.
Ward was the last to fall this time.
He roared, shields raised high, lightning exploding outward in a brilliant arc.
He shattered two spiders outright, stunned three more, and smashed deeper into the tide like a living battering ram.
But even mountains fall.
The swarm climbed him, weighed him down, pushed him to a knee,
and only when the last of the others had vanished beneath crystal limbs
did Ward finally stop moving.
The cavern dimmed.
***
All four sat upright on the stone slabs.
Breaths ragged.
Hearts pounding.
Eyes bright with the thrill of it, the progress of it.
Ward dragged a hand down his face. "Okay… we're getting close."
Ferric let out a rough laugh. "Close to what? Victory or insanity?"
Ryn exhaled softly but smiled. "Maybe both."
Argent stood, rolling his shoulders, energy humming through him like a second pulse. He could feel the difference now, power settling into his bones, his elements burning in his chest.
"Well," he said, grinning, "one more time?"
Ward raised an eyebrow. "One more?"
Argent nodded. "Yeah. One more run and our pouches should be full. After that… we're done here for now."
Ferric stretched his arms with a wince and smirked. "I am good with one more, each death is getting easier, which I am not sure is a good thing..."
Ryn chuckled under her breath. "At least it means we are better adapting to how this world works."
Argent stepped away from the slab, gaze sharpening as he thought ahead.
"When this is over," he said quietly, "we owe that smith a thank you. He left out some details, sure…" His grin returned, fierce and bright. "But without this dungeon? Without these fights? I don't think we'd be growing this fast."
The others nodded, because they all felt it.
The strength.
The momentum.
The hunger.
The four looked at one another, the unspoken thrill crackling in the air.
"Ready?" Argent asked.
And for the third time, in perfect unison, they answered,
"Again."