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Chapter 122: Lava time

Arwin skidded to a stop before the man, and a wave of blue light slammed into him as he went to swing his sword. His movements ground to a halt and Arwin moved out of the way, letting the blow pass by him harmlessly before swinging Verdant Blaze.

The large warrior leaned back, just barely managing to avoid the hammer as it whistled through the air. He took a step back and pressed a hand to his sword, sending black fire coursing along its surface.

“Back off,” the man snarled, thrusting the sword for Arwin. A shadow shot out, wrapping around his leg and pulling at it. He stumbled, thrown off balance, and Verdant Blaze slammed into his chest.

Whatever his armor was made of was definitely better than average, because it held up against the blow. He staggered back, coughing in surprise, a new dent in his chestplate. Gritting his teeth, the man charged Arwin again.

His companion pointed her staff at Arwin, preparing to cast magic, but quickly had to abandon the attempt and raise the staff defensively as Rodrick’s sword crashed down for her. It struck her staff violently, sending a tremor through her arms.

“Handle the big idiot,” Rodrick called. “I’ve got this one. Olive will back you up.”

“You’ll need more than one and a half people to kill me,” the large man growled as Olive ran over to join Arwin, her blade resting in a ready position at her side.

“I haven’t heard that one before,” Olive said, her words curt. “We’ll see how that plays out for you.”

The man snorted. He pounded a fist against his chest, sending a wave of black flame rolling across his body and curling up from his shoulders. Energy gathered around him and erupted forth in a brassy roar, slamming into Arwin like a hammer blow.

He staggered, his ears ringing as magical energy wormed its way into his head and took his balance. The world swam before him, and through what little he could tell of the spinning wourld around him, Olive didn’t look to be faring much better.

Even as the black armored man stepped forward and raised his sword to take advantage of their weakness, blue fragments of light fell away from Arwin and his head snapped back into clarity.

He stepped into the other man’s attack, meeting it with a [Scourge] empowered swing of Verdant Blaze. The hammer struck the sword at an angle. Metal rent with a loud shriek and the top half of his blade spun across the room, clattering as it skidded across the ground before coming to a stop against a wall.

A series of muted thuds rang out in the distance, but Arwin was too focused to turn his attention to them. Nobody was calling for his help yet, so they were probably doing fine.

The warrior stared at the smoldering remains of his sword in disbelief for just a second, but Arwin hadn’t stopped moving. He carried the momentum of his swing in a full circle, coming back around and sending Verdant Blaze hurtling for the man’s side.

It connected with a loud crack, driving into his chest and sending the larger man staggering. He definitely had some form of defensive skill keeping him alive, but it wasn’t enough to hold against Arwin forever.

His opponent clearly realized that too, because he dove forward and grabbed Verdant Blaze. Instead of keeping him from taking it, Arwin released the hammer. The man yanked it out of his grasp with a victorious laugh.

“Idiot,” he gloated, swinging Verdant Blaze – but the rest of his sentence was lost in a pained scream. White-hot flame erupted from Verdant Blaze, searing into his hands and melting the gauntlets holding it.

He let go, sending the hammer hurtling across the room. Arwin reared back and Verdant Blaze reformed in his grasp mid-swing. It struck the man in the side once more, activating [Shieldbreaker] and ripping through the armor to dig deep into flesh.

The man tumbled to the ground and skidded a foot, blood smearing beneath him. He wheezed, bracing a hand against the ground and pushing himself up – only for Olive’s foot to crash heel first into his helm and slam him back to the ground.

Her blade followed shortly afterward, driving straight through his eye hole and into the stone behind his head.

“Any last words?” Olive asked as she ripped the blade free.

Arwin spun toward Rodrick, but he needn’t have worried. His opponent was dangling upside down from a shadow. Her entire body was a painful-looking smear of blood – and about half of that blood was painted across the wall next to her.

Stolen novel; please report.

It looked like Lillia had been repeatedly swinging her face first against the stone.

That’s certainly one way to handle a mage. Barely even got a chance to figure out what kind of magic she had other than that first attack. Good. That’s how you deal with mages. If they’re getting time to set their full powers free, you’re doing it wrong.

Arwin took a second to study the rest of the room and make sure there wasn’t anyone else lurking in the darkness before sending a look at Olive. “You stole my lines.”

“Huh?” Olive asked.

“She asked me if I had any last words. That means I’m the one that gets to say that when I kill them.”

“Oh. Sorry. Felt appropriate. If you wanted to use them, you should have said them earlier.”

“Only an idiot taunts an opponent before they’re dead. That’s just asking to lose,” Arwin replied. “Is anyone injured?”

“No,” Rodrick said.

Lillia’s shadow dropped the woman and she landed on her head with a crunch – it hardly mattered. It didn’t look like she’d been alive for some time.

“Nobody important,” Lillia said. “You?”

“Reya took good care of us,” Arwin said, sending the girl an appreciative nod. “Good timing. You’ve gotten really good at that.”

“Does she have a way to remove negative effects?” Olive asked. “I saw you start moving while I was still counting stars, and then I could suddenly move again normally. That’s a great skill. Haven’t run with someone that can do that for others before.”

“Thanks,” Reya said, her cheeks reddening. “I’ve had time to practice. It’s pretty useful.”

“Hey, you can’t…” Arwin nodded vaguely in the direction of the dead adventurers. “You know. With your new ability?”

No point hiding it anymore. Olive has already seen it in the last fight and barely even brought it up.

Reya’s lips curled in distaste and she shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to find out. I have to really try when something dies. It’s kind of like scooping water with your hands. Except it’s your mind, so it isn’t really like your hands. And it’s nothing like water.”

Then that’s not a very good analogy, is it?

“That makes sense,” Olive said with an approving nod, somehow managing to decipher Reya’s words. “Probably for the best to avoid sticking your mental hands into other people’s souls. Great way to head down the wrong path.”

Arwin couldn’t argue with that. He walked over to the dead warrior and knelt beside him, prying the armor off his body and snapping the straps holding it in place with [Scourge]. He rifled through the man’s pockets and pulled out a pouch. There was nothing else on him, though his armor seemed like it was made from a pretty tough material. He opened the pouch to look inside it, only finding 32 gold. “Did the woman have anything on her? Any indication as to why they did this? Or was it just pure greed?”

“Nothing,” Lillia said. “Some gold as well, but not much.”

Arwin let out a huff. That didn’t make much sense, considering they’d literally stripped the man they’d left behind. It was possible that had somehow been yet another group, but he doubted it.

“Where’d the first guy’s equipment go?”

“Did they toss it into the lava?” Reya asked, walking toward the bubbling pool in the center of the room. She had to step carefully as she grew close to avoid plunging a foot into one of the thin streams of liquid rock flowing through the ground around it. Reya came to a stop a fair distance away from the center of the pool. “It looks like all the rivers flow out from here, but the pool isn’t completely full.”

Arwin’s eyes traced the rivers. Reya definitely had a point. There were grooves in the stone that had yet to be filled where the rivers had bubbled to a stop, lying in wait. And yet something felt like it was missing. It didn’t really make sense for someone to murder an ally just to throw their equipment into a pool of lava.

“Why wouldn’t they just toss the whole guy in?” Arwin asked. “Or the lady outside? It sounded like they were part of a team that betrayed the first bloke. The three of them were all probably in on it, but then these two betrayed the third one – that or they made her come down here and then left her at the door.”

“It does seem odd that they wouldn’t throw in as much mass as possible if that’s what they’re going for.” Rodrick scratched his chin. “Maybe they don’t want organics in the lava for some reason? It isn’t much of a reach, but I suspect their goal was opening this big hunking chest.”

“Which probably opens when the lava does something,” Arwin concluded as he walked over to join Rodrick. There were several rivers of lava running up to the chest that hadn’t been filled. “Honestly, when I walked in here they looked pretty confused. They were just staring at the chest. They might not have known what they were doing either… but if they decided that sticking armor into the pool was the right move, they must have had a reason why they didn’t put a body in.”

“Would have smelled bad,” Rodrick volunteered. “Could be as simple as that.”

“True,” Arwin said. “Well, I don’t see the reason of coming down here and doing all this shit if we don’t at least try to open the chest. My first thought is to start smashing the shit out of it with my hammer.”

“Of course it is,” Lillia said with a laugh. “Might even work. There aren’t any rules, but it could also damage something inside the chest. We should see if there’s a different way to go about things first.”

That was definitely preferrable. Arwin turned in a slow circle, letting his eyes drift along the room. He had a lot of questions that didn’t look like they were going to get answered.

Why is there a big ole workshop just sitting around in a dungeon? Why did that bloke have a key to enter it? The dungeon must not have just changed at random if he was holding that necklace. He knew it was here – or he had a way to make it show up here.

The answers had to be somewhere in the room – or possibly in the key itself. That was worth checking, but not before they finished looking around. Who knew what fiddling with the key would result in. Arwin didn’t want the room to seal itself shut on them.

He walked over to the pool in the center of the room, his brow furrowed in thought. The puzzle seemed to begin right here.

As Arwin stared down into the bubbling lava, something in his mind shimmered. A faint tingle of energy ran through his body and buzzed at his fingertips.

[Molten Novice] was responding to the lava.