Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Tibs reached out and pulled the corruption out of Jackal even before dropping next to him. "I'm sorry," he repeated. While the sickly purple that spread over the fighter's left side was vanishing, some had already seeped into his essence and was out of Tibs's reach.

"What about?" Jackal asked, his voice weak.

"This." Tibs motioned around them. "If I hadn't lost control of the essence, Don wouldn't have had to do what he did and distract you and you wouldn't have gotten hit, and—"

Jackal laughed, then groaned, nearly doubling over.

"It's not funny." Tibs helped him lie back down and applied weaves of purity.

"Kinda is." Jackal panted. "The way you think I didn't mean to get hit."

"You don't get hit. You're too good of a fighter."

"I get hit plenty." His friend already sounded stronger as purity spread from injury to injury. "I couldn't think of a faster way to get away from the boss so Don could do what he was planning."

"It's still my fault. I tried something and—" he closed his mouth. "This wouldn't have happened, and—"

"You won us the fight," Jackal stated.

"Don did. He was able to get control of the essence. Without that—" he swallowed "—everyone would have died."

"I was able to control it," the sorcerer said, "but I'd couldn't throw that much corruption around. Any less, and it would have survived to continue fighting. So you were vital to winning." He studied the fighter. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm going to be sick for a while, aren't I?" Jackal asked, pushing himself sitting.

"Sorry. Once corruption mixes in with your life essence, I don't know how to—"

"I'll live," Jackal said. "That's the important part. And we're getting a lot of loot out of it." He motioned to the chest that hadn't been at the back of the room before the fight.

"I'll get it," Mez said. "Unless you feel you have to be the one pulling it out of the chest?"

"I think I can let you have that privilege, this one time."

Mez smirked as he headed for it.

"That wasn't how this was supposed to go," the Them grumbled.

"Don't come complaining to us after you cheated and they beat you," Sto replied angrily.

Tibs couldn't make out what the Them grumbled in reply, their voice growing softer as if they were moving away.

"I don't know what it is with the dungeon," Mez said, returning with a bulging bag in one hand and a ring in the other. "But the bag's filled with yet more ring."

"It's making us rich," Jackal replied. "Those gold rings are worth a lot, right Tibs?"

The archer frowned as he looked the ring over. "Those aren't—"

"Trust us," Jackal insisted. "We know our metals."

The archer looked up from the ring and exchange a look with Don and Khumdar, then shrugged. He handed the bag to the fighter, who put it in his pouch. "So, now what? We have time before we need to head out. Are we continuing to search for the floor's boss?"

"I hate to say this." Jackal got to his feet and Tibs readied himself to steady him. "But we're ending this run early. Without me in top form, you guys don't stand a chance."

"I don't know," Don replied, looking the fighter over. "We don't need you at your best to distract everything we come across so we can take them down."

"I take down more of them than you have," Jackal countered.