Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Serba had built an army of dogs as they entered the road leading to the city hall.

Tibs figured they still attacked because the Them couldn't stop them from roaming like they hadn't been able to fully control how they fought. Sto had set up this floor to resemble how he thought a city worked, with guards, and gangs, and occasional citizens. So he'd set dogs to wander around, alone or in pack. Sto had probably gotten the idea from runners talking about the other dogs in Kragle Rock.

The effect of the army was that Tibs hardly had to fight in the last battles. Serba sent the dogs to swarm the attackers nearly as soon as they stepped out of alleys.

And now, as the city hall became visible in the distance, the attacks stopped.

The Them knew this was where he was heading and had control over the guards. So why hadn't it set this road as a gauntlet? As much as he wanted to think this was Sto helping him, it didn't feel right.

He slowed.

This had the feel of a dungeon room. One bare of anything other than the boss loot at the other end, inviting the greedy to rush to open it.

"Tibs?" Serba asked.

"This is a trap."

What did the Them have to work with? If they could alter the buildings or the ground, they'd have tried to open it up, or crush him with them. They hadn't used doorways to drop golems on him, but was that because they couldn't, or because they were holding back until the right moment?

"Should we go around?"

"There's only one entrance. Even if we take the alleys to reach the road that goes along the building, the Them can still do something."

She whistled and, before Tibs could stop her, half a dozen dogs ran ahead.

They vanished outside his shortened range without anything happening. Was it because, as dungeon made creatures, they didn't trigger the traps the Them set? Or did they have to decide when the traps were sprung?

He carefully made in it one block, sensing for...anything. Then another, and a third.

He made out motion in the distance, well beyond his sense, just before a howl sounded.

"They're coming back," Serba said, smiling.

"All of them?"

"Dogs aren't smart enough to tell if one of them's gone and warn me. I've trained them to howl on the way back so I know it's them."

"The Them could have retaken control. Or replace them with its dogs. I can't sense them yet. Not that I'd be able to know that way. Dungeon creatures all feel the same to me."

"Can you sense me like that? How about anyone else?"

"Everyone has life essence in them," he answered, trying to push his sense and get earlier warning of...anything. "You and townsfolk are hard to tell apart in groups because it's thin and doesn't have an element to tint it so I can identify people."

She let out a series of shrill whistles not long after they'd entered Tibs's sense and they came to a stop. "I think they're still my dogs."

Or the Them was cunning. Either way, he had to go on. He stayed on guards as they reached them.

The dogs were oddly still, the way dungeon creatures didn't 'fidget' when they waited. They were like statues until they acted. Serba's dogs, the ones that had entered with them, raced ahead and sniffed the dungeon dogs, while the others walked in step with her, waiting for instructions.