The Ruby Magician

"No way in the all of the hells am I going to fight those things," Nigel said.

Wyn sighed. The man wasn't being very helpful. The leaders of the guild had gathered around to discuss the bosses and if they wanted to proceed. Oren was voicing his desire to leave along with Nigel, while Wyn and Faye wanted to stay and fight. They needed to make a decision, as Wyn didn't want to wait around doing nothing much longer.

They had an even split, and had been arguing for several minutes. During that time several more monster groups attacked them, though were fended off easily enough by the rest of the guild.

Wyn was ready to decide, and by all means he had the authority to make the final decision as the guild leader. But he had another idea.

Walking over to the guild who were all waiting impatiently, Wyn quietly gathered their attention.

"We're split on whether to proceed or leave," Wyn said, being candid. "Faye and myself are voting to fight, while Nigel and Oren want to leave. But, since all of us are involved, what do you all say?"

The Climbers all looked at each other for a few seconds hesitantly. Wyn hoped they would be cordial, but his hopes weren't needed.

A laugh came from the group, and everyone turned to see Caryn holding his sides. He shook his head as he calmed himself down. "I swear, no one can still get anything done. I won't lie, Wyn, I don't miss these times."

"Very helpful, Caryn," Faye said, her voice flat.

Caryn shrugged with a smirk. "I'm sorry. I vote to fight. Undead dragons? Seriously? How often can you say you fought fucking undead dragons and lived to tell the tale? That's amazing!"

"Again, not helpful," Faye replied.

"No, that is helpful," John said. "He's right. We have four groups, and there are three dragons. The odds are with us!"

"But they're dragons!" Nigel said, his voice rising. "Dealing with one is hard enough, but add two others and this size of a group in the mix? That's chaos and an accident guaranteed to happen!"

"Not necessarily," Tasha said. "Why don't we load them up with divine magic? Since they're undead, it should be quick."

Cedric stepped forward. "It's not quite that easy. They're more resistant to magic than other creatures. While divine magic will still hurt them, it'll be just as effective as other forms of offensive magic. So not quite the advantage you're thinking."

"But it's still something. Why can't we all focus our attacks on one, overwhelm it, then both take down the remaining two?"

Wyn had to admit, Tasha had a point. If they could throw a bevy of attacks at one of the dragons and kill it before the fight started, they'd be in a far better position. Two groups each attacking one dragon would be relatively easy.

Caryn snapped his fingers while pointing at Tasha. "I knew I liked you. I'm with her and that plan."

"Me, too," Wyn said. "If we decide to fight, that is. We still need to vote."

"I'll give two hundred crowns to anyone who votes we fight," Caryn said without hesitation.

Wyn stared at the man, along with everyone else, dumbfounded.

They didn't have anyone say no then. Even Oren and Nigel.

Settled on the decision to fight, Wyn quickly created a plan of action. Moving into formation a few minutes later, everyone was set.

Then the preparations started with the support Climbers again placing buffs on the melee combatants and the magical Climbers taking potions. Once ready, the ranged Climbers started to slowly move as a unit to the left most dragon. They moved slow like a hunter stalking its prey, led by Marcy to carefully get into position.

When they were settled, Marcy drew her bow, signaling everyone to ready their attacks. The dragons were still barely moving, not aware of the Climbers moving into an advantageous position. They seemed asleep more than anything.

Waiting a few seconds for the casters to ready their spells, Marcy then unleashed her arrow on the resting dragon, who only just lifted its head from the launched attack. The monster noticed far too late, however, as it was bombarded with over a dozen attacks, a quarter of which were divine healing magic.

In a pained cry in the middle of multiple elements surrounding its body as well as white glowing auras, the dragon unfurled its wings as it fell to dust.

The Climbers cheered their success at killing a dragon so easily, though quickly stopped as the other two dragons moved with a surprising speed to their feet. Their wings spread out beside them and loud roars escaped giant maws.

"Split!" Wyn yelled, giving the guild their orders.

Running to position, Faye and her group moved to the closest dragon along with Nigel and his team. Several thick barriers of magic erupted between the Climbers and the dragons as black blobs of energy were launched from both dragon's mouths, three in slow succession from each dragon. The blobs hit and stuck to the barrier for a second before slowly oozing down, corroding and breaking the magic quickly. The third and final globs took down the last barriers without effort.

The dragon's attacks didn't reach the Climbers, but their barriers didn't hold, either.

Wyn moved ahead with John and Cal, while Arabelle, Adam, Brianna, and Penny all moved in a semi-circle around the three Climbers, basking in the Auras and gaining their benefits.

Wyn cast Feeble on the way to the dragon, though the spell didn't take hold. The skull appeared above the monster then snuffed out almost right away. Immediately after, he started attacking it with Silence Attack to try and reduce its stout defenses. He knew it would have a strong hide despite its decrepit appearance. Ability Link empowered his skill instead of duplicating it, and he applied it to his weapon that was in the shape of a hammer to try and break up the scales.

To his surprise, scales started sloughing off after just the second hit, exposing sickly green and brown flesh underneath. The smell nearly made Wyn gag, as it seemed like the dragon was literally decaying before his very eyes.

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Unfortunately, the dragon was balanced in its power. While its defenses seemed weak, it had greater offensive power than the last dragon he fought when advancing into the third tier. At least comparatively with it being only the seventh floor. The dragon swiped at him with a quick flush of its back leg, and Wyn felt claws drag across his magical armor while knocking him to the ground.

The sheer force from the attack was enough to send him rolling on the ground as he tried to move with the hit rather than absorb it. Recovering, he frighteningly realized his ethereal armor from Tasha's spell was gone at his side, and his jacket was torn. His side hurt from likely bruising, though it could have been far worse without the multiple layers of protection.

Watching the dragon for a moment, Wyn saw how it attacked with a ferocity that was unlike any other monster. It was faster than John and Cal, and its dense black aura was slowly eroding their own auras.

Realizing the fight needed to be over sooner rather than later, Wyn cast Shield to protect his allies from another errant claw swipe, then an empowered Regen on the monster itself. The barrier shattered seemingly without much effort on the dragon's part, but Cal was able to completely block the hit with his shield boosted with its own layers of magic. Wyn hoped his spell helped in some way. The white aura from his healing spell looked pitiful layered on top of the deep black aura of its own necrotic ability, but it still seemed to effect the dragon.

Carefully eyeing the monster, Wyn placed a Siphon at its feet as it was locked in place by the surrounding Climbers. A half dozen people were hitting the dragon in various areas, and several more were attacking it from range. Even Tasha was casting healing spells on it, which were more potent than Wyn's, creating actual areas of decay on its body that seemed to be slowing it down.

It wouldn't take long before the monster would succumb to the overwhelming force the Climbers presented. But how would it retaliate in the meantime?

A large sweep of its tail knocked down several of the other group's Climbers, though Oren was already behind them healing them as able. Wyn didn't see any major concerns with them. A noise that sounded like high-pitched screaming came from the dragon's mouth, and Wyn turned in horror to see the monster shooting a thick black liquid from its mouth directly over John and Cal.

The liquid was stopped by a barrier from Tasha, which surprisingly held for several seconds. Wyn dashed behind it to try and reach them but they were completely covered, making him unable to do anything except hope they were fine. Then the barrier popped, and the liquid splashed down over the Climbers as the dragon whined in pain and fell over to the ground.

Both John and Cal joined the dragon in their own screams, as the black liquid coated them from head to toe and sizzled on their bodies. Their screams turned to quiet yells of pain as they fell to their hands and knees, dropping their weapons.

"Cedric, clean them off!" Wyn yelled.

Cedric immediately cast a water spell that engulfed the pair in a torrent, knocking them off balance and onto the ground. They were spluttering from the magical force but had the black substance mostly washed away.

Wyn cast Regen on the pair, duplicating the spell, as he watched in horror as their exposed skin started to rapidly redden and blister.

Tasha was on them next, cradling John's head as she cast her own spell to heal them. Wyn noticed her mark beneath her had a third circle around it.

She wasn't holding anything back, and he didn't blame her. Based on how they were gasping for air, he figured their throats had been burned and were now healing. But while Wyn's spell coated them in a white light, Tasha's created an aura that was so dense and white it was nearly blinding just to look at.

"What in the hells was that?" Marcy asked, kneeling beside Cal.

Cal slowly shook his head as his face started to lighten to a more normal color. Several large blisters on his face started to recede, and he only pointed to his throat.

Marcy nodded, holding his chest with one hand. "Right. Can't speak. Just rest, you have massive healing auras on you. If you need more my salve will take care of it."

Wyn knelt down to both Climbers, making sure they weren't more seriously injured. They both gave him reassuring signs with calmer breathing and less erratic jerks.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Wyn stood back up. Both Tasha and Marcy were caring for the pair, and there was another group that fought alongside them.

"Is everyone okay?" Arabelle asked, running up beside Wyn. She gasped seeing John and Cal on the ground.

"We will be," Wyn said. "That was a terrible magical attack, though."

"Let's just hope we don't find more dragons on the higher floors," Cedric said, patting Wyn on the shoulder. "Let's see about the others."

"Don't you want to check on your teammates?" Arabelle asked, her eyes wide in shock.

Wyn looked at his group, then to his sister. "They're all our teammates right now. And my teammates are being cared for with more capable hands. How's your team?"

Arabelle glanced past Wyn but took a deep breath. "Penny and Adam took some big hits that rattled them, but nothing major. I can't believe we fought a damn dragon. On the seventh floor, no less!"

"I know," Wyn said, looking to the other half of their guild. They were already picking through the pile that was left by their dragon, and everyone was up and walking around. "It doesn't bode well for what future floors will -"

Marcy abruptly stood up from inspecting Cal and drew an arrow onto her bow. Wyn caught sight of her and was immediately on guard. She then swirled around and fired behind her.

The arrow sailed straight like a small beam of light, impacting a zombie in the chest and sending it to the ground. Around it was an entire group of armored zombies similar to the ones that had been harassing them throughout the entire floor.

In a fit of post-boss rage, Wyn did several things at once. He activated Sprint, summoned his weapon as a long sword, and ran past Arabelle's group straight at the monsters.

When he arrived in front of them, he cast Flash, blinding nearly half of the monsters. They instantly recoiled and stopped their own running, staggering on their feet. He then cast Frostsnap and chose to duplicate the spell with his ability.

The spell pulsed out of him in quick succession as he ran through the group, both pulses coating all of the monsters in dense snow and ice. Only a handful of them were frozen, but the rest visibly slowed with their movements as they tried to push through the magical cold.

They were no match for Wyn's heightened speed, and he tore through them in seconds.

"Damnit," Wyn said, kicking one of the dead zombies before its body disappeared. Despite the dragon bosses dying monsters were still coming. What kind of insane tier did they stumble into? What kind of ridiculous season was this going to be?

Frustrated, Wyn walked back to the rest of the guild, who were fortunately gathered somewhat together. "Everyone, collect whatever rewards you can find. That's enough for today. Thank you for your help, but we need rest. Return to the city and enjoy what spoils you've been able to earn."

The other two teams left after a brief report of their fight, which seemed to have gone better than Wyn's and Arabelle's. Wyn knew they would have had an easier time, but he personally wanted to make sure his sister was better protected. He didn't regret that choice.

After everyone started leaving through the floor portal, Wyn conferred with his team. "Let's take the rest of the day and do whatever you'd like. We can meet back tonight after dinner and talk about what to do for the rest of the week."

No one objected, even John who was being supported by Tasha. He seemed okay, but Wyn knew he had suffered a lot along with Cal. He couldn't imagine being burned by magical acid like that, only for it to be healed so suddenly after.

As the guild started leaving, Wyn walked over to the portal and stared at it for a moment. They wouldn't know what the rest of the floors would have until they either explored them personally or met with the other guilds during the guild meeting in a week. That was too long to wait, so he had a clear mind about what to do next.

Then he followed his group stepping through the portal. Only he didn't return to the base of Alistair.

Stepping from the portal to the eighth floor felt familiar, but the environment was completely different. Instead of being outside, he was surrounded by black stone. The portal released him in what appeared to be some spacious room, with a massive ceiling overhead and only two open doorways at the far end of the chamber. There were only a few small piles of candles on sconces scattered about the room, providing a meager amount of light. Wyn couldn't tell if it was supposed to be an empty dining hall, or large foyer, or some other open room, but the size was so big it could have easily been an empty, large church hall.

Regardless, the point was clear - the next floor was inside the castle.

An ominous feeling washed over him, and he did not want to wait around to see what was lurking in the corridors beyond. Being alone, Wyn didn't have to think too hard of a dozen scenarios that could be disastrous for him.

He didn't even bother taking a step further, but instead checked his parchment while using a portal key to leave.

*****

Arabelle had to blink away the harsh contrast of the nearly too-white portal room, but the familiar tapping of her boots on the polished stone floor was more than welcome.

She and her team, along with the rest of Dawn's Light, had made it past the sixth and seventh floor.

That was a feat worth celebrating, and she knew that Brianna would already have a few ideas in mind.

"We did it!" Brianna yelled, grabbing Arabelle and jumping around. "I can't believe we just crossed two floors in the second tier on the same day! And ones so damn difficult at that!"

The others in her team crowded around and showed equal excitement, while the other teams of the guild were also celebrating with themselves.

Except for Wyn's group, which Arabelle noticed almost right away.

Letting go of her teammates, Arabelle walked over to Wyn's team, who were quietly standing near the portal with somber looks on their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Wyn isn't here," Tasha said.

"That bastard went to the eighth floor!" Marcy said, nearly yelling the words while looking at her parchment.

The other teams quieted at that, all watching.

Then Wyn stepped through a new portal, casually folding his own parchment into the inside of his jacket as though he was just out for a stroll.

Arabelle immediately ran up and smacked him on the arm. "What in the great hells are you doing going to another floor alone?"

Wyn held his hands up pleadingly. "Easy! I was only needing to make sure of something."

"What was so important that you just had to go without telling us?" Marcy asked.

Wyn patted his jacket, where his parchment was folded securely. "Checking that, which is good news for us! The raid secondary quest is gone!"