“The Trial Guardian,” Aerion whispered. She’d nearly dropped her dagger in fright, and I didn’t blame her. How could I?
“Yeah, so,” I said. “How about we don’t fight that thing?”
Aerion nodded with vigor. “I think that would be for the best.”
“Still,” I said, forcing the words I knew I had to say but very much rather wouldn’t. “We need to get more intel on that thing. If my money’s right—and with our shitty luck, I’m betting it is—the Trial’s exit will be in the middle of that thing’s lair. Right where that giant beam of light is shining off into the sky.”
After picking everything clean from inside the subs—the pumps, the rope, and other metal odds and ends that might come in handy—we finally stopped procrastinating and made our way into the forest.
Our food and water would only last us so long, after all. After that, we’d be in full-on survival mode, and while I’d played my fair share of survival games, the most I’d ever done was some car camping with my dad. Since that was fifteen years ago, you can understand why I wasn’t too keen on lingering longer than we absolutely had to.
That said, rushing this was a great way to die. I wanted to scout the island—or whatever landmass we were on—to get a better understanding of where things were situated. Then we’d watch the dungeon boss, and with luck, sneak in when it wasn’t home.
For this excursion, I just wanted to get eyes on the boss—see what we were dealing with. Then Aerion and I could come up with some strategies.
I’d have loved a map, but considering we didn’t have anything to write with, I had to make do with the one in my head. That was okay, though. A lifetime of reading minimaps in games had left me with a pretty solid sense of spatial awareness. Maybe I couldn’t remember the exact degree heading things were at, but cardinal directions? That was well within my means.
The forest itself was a mix of new growth and old, and luckily wasn’t the hardest terrain I’d ever hiked through. The blackened trunks of the bigger trees told me there’d been a fire here at some point, which probably explained why the forest wasn’t denser than it was.
All the while, we kept our eyes peeled for the monster that had made the ear-shattering sound.
Maybe a bit foolhardy, but we hardly had a choice. There was only one way out. We did have one thing in our favor, though. Well, two.
For one, I’d brought along a Siege Bolt, so we had some firepower, should we need it. Also, whatever made that noise was huge. Not likely anything that’d fit inside a forest.
If it was coming, we’d hear it well before it heard us. Maybe. Hopefully.
Just when I was starting to get nervous about lacking enough landmarks to get back to our camp, the forest abruptly thinned, giving way to a field of cracked clay that stretched in front of us. In the distance was another forest, creating a sort of slit, giving us a decent vantage despite our low elevation.
A barren mountain peak rose up over the trees off to the left. The smoke above it told me it was volcanic and likely active. Oh, and that pillar of light? Yeah, it was right smack in the middle of all that.
I groaned, wondering if that Order stat really did represent my luck. For once, it’d have been nice to get a break. Maybe a nice portal in the middle of a nice field somewhere—I wasn’t asking for much.
But nope. It seemed we’d have to either climb up a mountain or find a way in underground.
That underground idea might’ve had some merit, because the mountain’s smooth slopes ran all the way down to the elevation we were at, except it didn’t look like they stopped there.
After walking into the clearing for a bit, we realized it didn’t—it continued down, forming a deep and wide ravine that split the land in two.
Edging up to the precipice, I whistled as I looked down.
“That’s scary as shit.” It was so deep that I couldn’t even make out the bottom. It was there, just that it was so dark I couldn’t see any of the details.
“It’s climbable,” Aerion said with confidence. “See the jagged edges? They make for good handholds and footholds.”
“Hey! Be careful!” I shouted in panic, backing away from the edge instinctively. Aerion had gone down on her knees and crawled right up to the edge.
“I’ll be fine,” Aerion said flatly, her eyes scanning the way down.
I suppressed a sigh. “You see a ledge like this and the first thing you think is that it’s climbable? Seriously? You’re one of those mountaineering types, aren’t you?”
A roar put our conversation on hold. A roar that was so close, the ground trembled.
“Back to the forest!” I shouted, sprinting for the safety of the trees.
Aerion didn’t need to be asked twice. She beat me to it. Without even looking back, we lunged into the brush and flattened ourselves against the ground.
Then I heard it. A strange sound that first made me think of a helicopter. Except, instead of the rapid oscillations of a helicopter’s rotor, this one was slow. Once every couple of seconds.
Wump. Wump. Wump.
We spotted it at the same time. From deep within the ravine, something rose. It was black. It was scaly, and it was massive.
“Oh, you have got to be shitting me,” I whispered.
The Obsidian Dragon opened its mouth and bellowed a roar so loud, so absolutely terrifying, my body froze. It was unlike anything I'd heard from a fantasy dragon, sounding far more like the T-Rexes I'd seen in movies. It wasn't just the voice, either. Its jaw resembled the maw of a Tyrannosaurus far more than it did a traditional dragon. It was by far the scariest thing I'd ever seen.
I couldn’t move. Hell, I couldn’t even breathe for a moment.
The massive beast flapped its wings, and it felt like I’d been pummeled by a hurricane. The trees shook, and gale-force wind assaulted us.
It rose into the air, roaring as it ascended, disappearing over the horizon.
For several moments after, neither of us said anything. We barely even breathed.
I finally broke through my fear and got a word out.
“I… guess we found the Trial Guardian…”
Aerion and I spent the next two days alternating between camping out just within the edge of the forest, observing the Obsidian Dragon’s movements, and scouting out the rest of the island.
It did actually end up being an island, and not an especially large one, at that. It was like the whole thing was designed to be a lair for the dragon… which didn’t surprise me in the least. Final boss battles often happened in locations like these.
We learned that while there was an abundance of mushrooms, there was nothing like the Sanctuary Safe Rooms on the previous floors, and the only water we’d found was the saltwater of the ocean. Undrinkable.
Which meant we were on a time crunch, and a pretty tight one at that. Most of the water we’d procured from the Sanctuary on the sixth floor was the miracle healing stuff, and I was loathe to use that for hydration.
We’d subsisted primarily off the humid moisture that coated the forest trees’ leaves, but we wasted a ton of time going around just to satiate our basic bodily needs. I was less worried about the food—we still had bread and fruit, and our bodies could go a lot longer without food than water.
As for shelter, I’d dug out a hole in the dirt with my wooden board shield and lined it with leaves and pine needles. It wasn’t much, but between that and the bed of leaves, we managed. Not well, but we survived.
Oh, yeah. It also helped that the sun never set. We learned that only a day in. I’d been wondering why the day felt so long, when I’d looked up to find the sun in the exact same position as when Aerion and I had first breached the ocean’s surface in our subs.
High in the sky.
The sun did not move here. If this were a real planet, I’d have lost my shit. As it was, though, I kinda just shrugged and accepted it. It meant we never got too cold, and that was one less thing to worry about.
So what had we learned after two days of observation?
The dragon was searching for something, and it certainly wasn’t us. It was the only explanation I could think of—the thing would leave for hours, returning for what I assumed was lunch, before heading out again. We’d started timing the days to the dragon’s sleep schedule. It seemed like as logical a system as any. Useful, too, considering our plan.
Which was insane. There was no other way to put it. Our plan was to climb down that incredibly treacherous and suicidal ravine and bolt for the dragon’s lair while it was gone.
Via extensive scouting, we’d learned that the dragon’s lair was likely under the volcano, where it was unsurprisingly hot. Aerion had climbed down part way and had spotted an enormous tunnel that led inside the volcano.
If she was right, we had our exit. If she was wrong… Well, we’d have to hightail it out of there and climb all the way back up before the dragon returned.
Let’s just say I was not keen on our chances.
“You got any other intel on that thing before we go in?” I asked, hoping Aerion might’ve heard something. We were currently in our camp, keeping an eye out for the dragon, who was probably still sleeping. The thing sure slept as much as all the dragons I’d heard of.
We planned to each take a Siege Bolt down with us—lashed to our backs with the rope from the subs—but it wasn’t like two of those things would be enough to down something that enormous. Assuming we even hit it, of course.
“You said the Trial Guardians cycle, right?” I asked. “I’m guessing it’s not always a new one, which means others would’ve faced it in the past.”
“Yes. It is not new. However, detailed information such as this must be bought—those who pass the Trial are few, and they hold their knowledge close to their hearts.”
“Figures,” I muttered. “I’m guessing some things are known, though?”
“Well, as with most monsters in the Trial, it is made of obsidian. I’ve heard that this particular Guardian is very dangerous… but also quite weak, relative to its size.”
“That’s good. Sounds like two hundred bolts ought to be enough to take that thing down. What kind of attacks does it have?”
We weren’t planning on fighting the thing, but knowledge was power, as they said.
“I believe it swipes with its tail and talons, and its breath is said to be disastrous.”
I froze. “Uh, Aerion?”
“Yes?”
“I think we just discovered the source of all those burned tree trunks.”
Aerion blanched.
After two days of scouting, my assessment had changed. We weren’t necessarily fucked. There was still hope. If every single step in this dangerous and incredibly unlikely plan went off without a hitch? Yeah, this was going to be great.
