“It is looking right at us,” Thea whispered in a hiss.

  Raith had to admit it certainly seemed that way. He had the idea that if they scaled the massive terraced pyramid at the center of the city that held the aethercore, they could sneak in through one of the many scattered windows and access the building unnoticed.

  He was wrong about two things.

  First of all, the structure was not multiple rooms like he had been expecting. It was one vast, wide-open space within. The other thing he had misjudged was not predicting that the final form of the dungeon creatures of Tarn put them at at least fifty feet tall. Raith couldn't be entirely sure, since there wasn't anything normally sized in there for reference.

  “We should have climbed higher,” Tolliver whispered, and Raith couldn’t help but agree.

  In spite of their stealth and tucking into the shadowed portion of an enormous window frame halfway up the building, the moment they poked their heads out where it could see, the massive shrike serpent whirled to stare at them. Directly at them.

  The creature now wore armor, fine chainmail accented by blood-red leather. A similar design to what he’d seen on the floor of the administrative building decorated the pauldrons and chest. Huge, magnificent white-feathered wings had replaced the serpentine leathery ones the lesser versions had borne.

  The bone horror was of a similar height, but absolutely massive. It stood as still as a statue, head to toe in jet-black plate armor with a massive shield on one arm and an axe held in the other. Raith couldn’t fathom how they could even begin to harm a creature like that. Disturbingly, the spectral wight was nowhere in sight. After much searching with [Hawksight] he began to suspect that the creature, at this last stage of evolution, was able to become invisible…which honestly just wasn’t fair that a creature of this size should have a power like that.

  “If we cannot remain undetected,” said Tolliver, “there’s no possible way we can get the aethercore.”

  Far below, in the direct center of the massive chamber and protected by a nearly transparent invisible shield, sat the white sphere crackling with energy.

  [Life in Staccato]

  Raith pondered the situation. Tolliver was correct, of course. This shrike serpent could see them before they even stepped foot in the chamber. Clearly sneaking past them, as he’d initially planned, wasn’t an option. To say nothing of the wight who they still hadn't been able to locate.

  He entered his library to pace, then turned to browse through his book collection for inspiration. Some idea from a hero's desperate gambit in ages past hidden within one of the stories he loved. Or perhaps a forgotten lesson from one of the many manuals on tactics or classes that he had overlooked.

  His eyes alighted upon Doriman’s Journey, and a gigantic grin spread over his face.

  Like him, Doriman had been a somewhat unconventional hero. But what he lacked in direct power, he made up for in cleverness. He primarily made his fame as a [Thief], but adventure thrust him into the role of hero more often than he liked. In one of his favorite tales the clever [Rouge] escaped certain death by pitting his enemies against each other.

  Raith set the world back in motion, moving back from the entrance to the pyramid and out of sight of the piercing gaze of that shrike serpent.

  “I need to talk to the giant-kin.”

  Thea looked at him with irritated bafflement.

  “So you’ve gone completely fucking crazy then.”

  Nyhm placed a hand on Raith’s arm.

  “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but talking to the formor is not a good idea.”

  Tolliver nodded in agreement.

  “Their power is beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”

  Raith did not dispute the [Mage]’s assertion.

  “Exactly. They have the power to defeat these things. And we have the one thing they came here for. I think I can come up with a bargain.”

  Thea glanced back toward the entrance, where the enormous creatures awaited them, and hung her head.

  “Alright, at least tell us what your plan is. Then we’ll decide whether it’s too crazy or not.”

  ***

  A short while and no small amount of bickering later, the Myth Seekers stood before the giant kin. Raith swallowed hard. This may not have been such a good idea after all.

  There were five of the formor, each more intimidating than the last. The obvious leader was a dakathi. A rare breed of four-armed giant-kin that were almost never seen outside of their kingdom. Raith had only read about them in tales. Considered the noblest of the formor, this one was draped in shining golden plate, held a magnificent shield on one arm and lofted an exquisitely forged sword in each of the other three arms. With long, flowing blond hair, his beauty was almost unearthly, marred only by the sneer on his face as he looked down upon these lesser beings.

  The shortest was about ten feet tall but nearly as wide. A hill giant, although they were no more true giants than the rest of the formor. This one carried a massive battle axe and had more corded muscle in one oversized bicep than Raith had in his entire body. It wore no armor, but Raith suspected the finest blade couldn’t easily pierce that skin.

  Except for the leader, they all looked a bit frayed around the edges, but the one Raith assumed was the [Rogue] looked quite worse for wear. Whatever had happened at the bank, it was obvious this slim giant-kin had barely survived it. What had once been fine leather armor was in tatters. A huge angry scar was on his thigh, and he shifted from leg to leg as though it hurt to put weight on the injured one.

  Raith was not happy to see there were two cyclops. One, whose robes and ornate staff gave him away instantly as a [Mage]. The other, clearly an [Archer], with a massive horned bow and a quiver full of the lightning arrows cyclops were famous for forging.

  “Which cyclops is the one the Earl mentioned?” Thea whispered.

  That was a good question, and may become vitally important in the very near future.

  “No idea. He didn’t say there were two."

  Upon careful examination, he saw that the one with the bow had a familiar looking ring of black wood.

  “It’s the archer.”

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  The formor watched them carefully but without fear, conferring among themselves. Tolliver had a translation pendant, so as the fomor spoke to themselves in their native tongue he translated for the team, passing it along with his new web of whispers spell.

  The leader called out to them.

  “Do you speak the noble tongue?” he said in Fomor.

  Raith stared at him blankly, not wanting to give away that Tolliver was eavesdropping for them.

  The giant turned to his companions and waved dismissively with one of his arms.

  “Of course these creatures do not have the intellect to master our language.”

  He turned back to them and spoke in flawless human tongue.

  “You do not speak Fomor?”

  “No, I do not.”

  The [Mage] next to the leader responded in Fomor.

  “It speaks the truth.”

  The dakathi gave a nod.

  “I assume it was you who have already looted this building?”

  “That’s right,” Raith said. “And recovered the key which you seek.”

  The massive hill giant swelled in size, quite literally, with each of the two steps it took toward them before being halted by a raised arm from their leader. He backed up to where he had been standing with the others and resumed his normal size.

  Weaver’s tits, that’s terrifying. How big can that guy get?

  The hill giant roared in frustration.

  “Let me tear these puny creatures limb from limb.”

  “You will have the chance soon enough. Let us find out where our prize is.”

  “I don’t have it on me,” Raith said, interrupting the exchange.

  The leader peered at him, and the [Mage] again confirmed that Raith was not lying. Before approaching the formor he had hidden the key along with the rest of their valuables in Thea’s secret dimensional space.

  “I know where it is and if you help us get the aethercore, I will tell you.”

  The [Mage] made a gesture, and all sound around the giant kin party vanished, although Raith could see their lips moving.

  “He’s erected a bubble of silence that I cannot penetrate,” Tolliver informed them. Raith cursed, not liking the idea that they were almost certainly plotting against his team.

  After a few moments and gesturing towards the party, the discussion was interrupted by a patrol of shrikes and bone horrors. Before the Myth Seekers could run for cover the archer blasted half of the shrikes down with lightning arrows while the mage cast blades of wind that Raith could see shimmering through the air toward the shrikes before severing wings and limbs, causing them to fall in pieces to the ground.

  The leader danced out into the pack of bone horrors, cleaving them asunder with seemingly effortless strikes. It was both awe inspiring and horrifying to watch the ease with which this [Warrior] single handedly slew foes their entire party couldn’t hope to defeat. It was over in seconds, and the dakathi returned his arrogant gaze to Raith.

  “Very well. I can see that you are no threat to us. Our primary mission here is the key. Our [Mage] shall bind us with an oath. You will tell us where the key is in exchange for our help defeating the core’s guardians.”

  “And allowing us to leave safely with the aethercore,” Raith said.

  The slight downturn at the corner of the leader’s mouth was the only indication of his possible duplicity, and Raith was glad for the time he had spent in the Earl’s castle learning to be on the lookout for such things.

  “Agreed.”

  The cyclops wove a spell between both teams, binding their words into an oath that would cripple any who broke it.

  ***

  When they arrived at the pyramid, Raith opened his mouth to brief them on his observations from the window above and the interior layout of the pyramid. But before he could do so, the [Rogue] blurred and was gone.

  Raith cursed, immediately recognizing the same, or very similar, [Divine Skill] to the one possessed by Farmer’s carrot-stealing nemesis. Whatever injury the fearsome [Rogue] had sustained to his leg, however, left him slightly slower. Perhaps it was also the aid of the [Hawksight], but Raith found he was able to track the formor’s progress as he sped into and around the building, scouting it out for his team.

  When the [Rogue] returned, he spoke in soft tones to their captain who nodded thoughtfully. Expecting some sort of briefing or plan on how they would approach the fight, Raith was surprised when the giant kin leader simply made a series of hand and arm gestures, and his team stormed into the enemies’ den without another word.

  Raith looked at his companions and shrugged.

  “Well, here we go, I guess.”

  Before he even cleared the doorway, the sounds of battle reached his ears.

  These guys sure don’t waste any time.

  He peeked around the corner before entering and saw that a fearsome melee was already underway.

  The spectral wight had finally appeared, and Raith’s guess that it had been invisible was correct. It faded in and out of visibility while the formor [Mage] tried to corral it with some sort of semi-transparent magical barriers.

  The hill giant had grown to match the size of the bone horror and was handily trading blows with the massive creature. The [Archer] assisted with streaking lightning arrows crashing against the thick black armor at well-timed intervals, while their leader and [Rogue] worked in concert to battle the shrike.

  The massive serpent was wickedly fast for its size, engaging them for a moment before creating distance with a fierce beat of its wings. It could now spit its poison, which Raith saw coating the floor in massive gobs in several places. He made a note to give those areas wide berth, imagining it would mean instant death to even get it on his skin.

  The Myth Seekers chipped in where could, although often with very little effect. The only exception was Raith. Although his dreamforged weapon wasn't nearly as effective as it had been against the lesser wights, it was still enough to wound the massive creature and elicit howls of agony. [Rippling Dreamstike] proved a devastating attack against the incorporeal creature, with every phantom blow becoming a strike in-truth instead of mere distraction. During one such attack, he met the eyes of their cyclops [Mage], who gave him the barest nod of respect.

  The hill giant and the archer were a match for the bone horror. It was going to take some time to penetrate the creature’s massive plates of armor, but it was obvious that outcome of their battle was inevitable.

  At this final stage of evolution, though, the shrike serpent proved to be deadly. It attacked with a pair of short swords, using its wings and incredible speed to dart in and out of striking range. Even the giant kin leader did not have the skill to keep it within fighting distance as it swooped in for an attack and darted back out again.

  Nyhm, Thea, and Tolliver did their best to strike around the edges. Barely even scratching the massive scales, but often providing enough of a distraction for the four-armed dakathi to dart in and land blows that slowly wore the creature down while the others frantically dodged, narrowly avoiding death on multiple occasions.

  After a quick consultation, Nyhm and Thea clamored up the thing’s back, focusing on a wing and inflicting as much damage as possible to the feathery limb in order to take away some of the creature’s mobility. It shook and spun madly to shake them loose, but Nyhm’s claws held firm and Thea had entwined her roots so thoroughly in the feathers that it could not shake them free. The giant-kin [Rogue] quickly copied the tactic and got to work on the other wing while the leader continued to engage from the front.

  Eventually, from countless small cuts, the trickle of blood added up to a torrent until the creature fell to the ground with a mighty thud. The wight soon followed, cleaved by a simultaneous strike from Raith’s rope dart and a wind blade cast by the [Mage].

  The bone horror was last to fall, for although it was not so deadly in comparison, it could endure for much, much longer. When the cacophony of clanking armor falling to the concrete floor finally ceased, Raith looked to see that the shimmering shield that had been guarding the aethercore blink out of existence.

  He held his breath for a moment, looking at the giant kin to see if they would be true to their word or snatch the prize from their grasp. The dakathi sheathed his weapons, but remained standing casually between the Myth Seekers and the aethercore while the other fomor gathered to his side.

  “Where is the key?”

  Raith cursed under his breath. They needed to get the core first or this plan wouldn’t work. He took a few minutes in [Staccato] to mull over the best way to approach the problem.

  “If I tell you before we claim our prize, it is possible you can defeat us even weakened from breaking the oath. I will say nothing until you allow me to take the aethercore.”

  It was the right balance of plausible logic and playing to the giant kin’s arrogance. The blond dakathi nodded and gestured for his team to step aside. Raith eagerly approached the core. According to Tolliver, it was perfectly safe to grab and shove into his pouch of holding, but the light and energy it gave off looked like it would burn him into a pile of dust the moment he touched it. He lightly poked it with a finger and quickly drew it back. Although he could feel the insane amount of aether pulsing within there was no pain.

  More confident now, he gathered the weightless sphere and placed it into his pouch. A distant hum echoed through the cavern as the energy that powered its defenses disappeared. Raith turned back to the waiting giant-kin.

  “Now where is the key,” the leader asked.

  “It’s in her pouch,” Raith said, pointing to Thea who was just dropping an empty potion bottle to the ground.

  She gave a smile and little wave, then took off running in a blur. The enraged leader whirled back towards Raith, who was just finishing off his own potion and speeding away in a dead sprint to follow Thea and Nyhm.

  “Get them!” the dakathi bellowed.