Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 25

"I still have two," the archer said, "and I doubt I'll have to use them in the next room, so I'll be fine facing whatever's on the other side of the dragon room."

"The boss room," the fighter said.

"It might be best to ensure you have more before entering this room." Khumdar drank an essence potion.

"It's just pushing walls," Mez said, then looked at Tibs. "Right?"

"I don't know," he replied. "A wall moved when if I push it, but we won't know if there's more until we explore it."

Mez pushed from the wall, and slowed after a couple of steps, pressing his arm against the not entirely healed injury. "Then let's find out. We're making good time, but if we stand around talking about what we should do, we won't reach the boss room."

The time shield was only half used up, and it was only the shifting floor room they had to cross. He knew the pattern now, so it was as quick as the others could jump and no one falling off. The game of conquest had been quick, too. Don knew the game, and Tibs had a sense Ganny used it more as a puzzle than how the game should be played, using the rules to constrain how they moved to complete it.

Of course, he couldn't ask Ganny if she was simply keeping the game simple, or they were all getting that good. No team running the third floor had lost a Runner since the latest schedule had been up.

Of course, once teams of Omega graduated, the second floor would take its toll on them. Tibs hoped the equipment would be here before that. And that they would accept his help. The urchin trusted even less easily than those who'd come here from the cells.

He finished the dragon shield marginally faster, he thought, then looked into the room. The hall was five large tiles deep, and knowing it was there, he could just make out the left turn at the end. He sensed the first tile, confirming there still were not triggers on it, then stepped in. The second was the same. He considered his team, waiting on the other side of the threshold.

Did he want to give Sto a chance to lock him in again? He could ask what their issue was with him filling himself with ice. He missed talking with Sto during the runs, having him comment on how they did.

"Step in and stay one tile behind me." He didn't have the time to waste on pointless conversations. "That way, we'll stay together if walls shift without notice."

"Or we end up crushed together," Jackal said, entering.

"That won't happen," Tibs said, and the others looked at each other before joining the fighter. "I'll make sure there are no triggers, then you can walk around."

There were none all the way to the turn. Three tiles in it, it turned to the right, then ended four tiles later.

"Did we take a wrong turn?" Jackal asked.

Tibs retraced his steps, looking for clues on how to proceed. Shifting the walls was part of it, but there were no signs as to which one would move, or what the result would be. That first one had been Sto cutting him off from the others, so Tibs didn't think he could base anything on that.

Once he reached the entrance, he decided that, like the shifting floor room, he'd have to work out the pattern through trial and error. He picked the fourth tile. "Get on my tile," he told the others as he studied the right wall. It was uncomfortably smooth to the touch, but not slick. It was as if just by the feel of the surface, he could tell there was something unnatural about the way the essence formed it.

He pressed, and when it didn't more, pushed harder. When it began moving, it was with a heavy grinding sound hinting at the weight. He stopped to study the side wall, but it kept grinding on, stopping only once it cleared three paces, forming a tile. So once a wall started moving, there was no stopping it.