Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

"Are you sure about this?" Tibs asked Jackal, as he lit a lantern. The light hinted at a large space.

The fighter shrugged. "As much as I can be without a network in town anymore. My father's people might have been more trouble than they were worth in the end; but at least I could get them to do stuff for me."

"I mean having you and Kroseph here." Tibs stepped into the darkness, using the metal he sensed to find the next lantern. "We don't know how I'm going to be when I channel Metal. At the very least, I'm going to sharp and pointy." He could sense all of them, and have lit them from the entrance, but he needed to do something while he worked up courage to start.

"I'm not worried," Kroseph said, as Tibs lit another lantern. "You aren't going to hurt us."

"And if you try," Jackal said, smirking. "I'll stop you."

Was that him admitting he had survived Tibs's attempt at killing him by careful planning? He should stop worrying himself sick over it and ask. But what if it was just Jackal's usual, not always justified, bravado?

It would be simple to replace a reserve in his bracer with metal essence and limit himself to that. It gave him enough to deal with any problem if he couldn't just pull the essence from around him. And he had so many elements to use, to master the use of. He could focus on them before this one.

"Tibs?" Kroseph asked.

He nodded and moved away from the lantern he'd stood before, unmoving, and continued lighting them until he stood in a space that was now more shadows instead of darkness. He could fill it with light, but he didn't know how to have that remain without constantly thinking about it. There had to be Arcanus that let that happen, maybe even a simple weave. Making a light that stayed had to be one of the first thing a Runner with light as their element learned.

Yet one more thing he needed to work on. He stepped into the middle of the room. But for now, it was metal.

He nodded again, and Jackal stoned up.

Tibs let out a breath and channeled metal; then waited for something to happen.

"How do you feel?" Kroseph asked in the stretching silence.

"Fine." Tibs tried to find a difference in how he thought.

"Nothing's changed?" Jackal asked, his tone suspicious, and on guard.

Of course, he was wary. Tibs had tried to fool them when he'd channeled Corruption.

"Nothing that I can feel. Maybe I already think like metal?"

"I doubt it," the fighter replied, not relaxing. "You channeled it in the dungeon, and you were more...intense."

"It was in the middle of a fight," Tibs replied dismissively, "and I didn't know what I'd done."

"No, Tibs. It wasn't the same kind of intensity as when you fight, it was—"

"It was," Tibs snapped, fixing his gaze on Jackal. "I know how I feel better than you, don't you think?"

"There it is."

Tibs rolled his eyes. Jackal knew nothing. Well, nothing about this.

He pushed essence over his hand and sensed the cloud; then, he made a blade from it. He ground his teeth as what he produced was similar to his ice sword, in that it was spiked and jagged, but where with ice it looked like they grew out of the weapon, this looked like broken piece put together without reason.

He didn't mind the jaggedness; considered it sort of his thing at this point, but this was ugly. This wasn't a sword, just something broken he'd picked up. He undid it and tried again. This was a new element, and he'd worked out that what he did with one didn't necessarily produce the same result with another.