Before Halp could make it more than half a step towards the chest, Tage moved first. Her sword appeared in her hand, but this time it wasn’t the mage who received the flat of a sword blade over their head. It was Halp. The death djinni whimpered, ducking down to the ground and cradling his head in his hands as the metal struck against his skull. "Taaage. What was that for?"
"Honestly." Tage replied, returning her sword to its sheath. "You've walked into this guy's traps three times now. Are you really so masochistic that you want to make it a fourth?"
"A trap?"
"Yes, Halp, a trap. T-R-A-P. How long have you been playing games again?" Still keeping one eye on her friend to make sure that he didn't decide to ignore her advice and open the chest anyways, Tage returned to the mage, hoisting him to his feet. Tage slowly but surely forced the bound Djinni over towards the chest. "We'll make him open it."
The mage's eyes darted towards the chest. "And how am I supposed to do that when you have so thoroughly fettered me?"
"Fettered?" Tage repeated, her tone mocking. However, a moment later and she leaned in closer, drawing her dagger in a fluid motion and placing it against the man's back. "I don’t know. You’ll just have to improvise."
"What do you expect me to do, hit it open with my head?"
"Hmm, interesting idea." Tage removed the dagger from his back, but kept her other hand firmly on his bound wrists. With a motion, she gestured Halp over.
The other Djinni seemed to instantly get what Tage wanted from him, and came to stand in front of the mage. With a quick motion Tage kicked the man's feet out from underneath him, sending him toppling forward towards the larger Halp. Hap caught his upper body, and Tage grabbed on to his legs, and together the two of them began to walk him towards the chest. The mage certainly wasn't making it easy for them with his struggling and screaming, but between the ropes and Halp's strong grip the mage was making no progress towards escaping.
Tage came to a halt in front of the chest. "One." They swung the mage backwards and forwards slightly, building up momentum. "Two..." They began to swing him backwards again. "Thr..."
"Alright!" the mage screamed. Tage and Halp promptly dropped him, and he landed with a heavy thump on the ground.
"As scared as you are," Tage began, kneeling on top of the mage's back, "I'd say there's some pretty nasty spell on that trunk. Now, here's the thing. I'm personally inclined to just throw you at that chest and see what kind of spell gets triggered, but Halp has a thing for the baker. He'd rather simply kill the queen and get rid of the nest.”
Tage paused for a moment, for dramatic effect, drawing her dagger and twirling it in one hand. She couldn’t help the smile that was already spreading across her face. “So, here are your options. You can tell our wizard exactly how to open the cage and kill the queen, and we will march you back to the city, nice and easy, for trial. Or, you can remain silent, try to trick us, or do any number of other things, and I'll simply throw you at the chest and leave the beginners to clear out this cave indefinitely. Up to you!" She grinned widely then, as though these were the most delightful options in the world, and as though she didn't realize that the mage was face-down in the dirt and unable to see anything at all. She simply couldn't help it. If there was one thing Tage really loved, it was theatrics.
The mage pushed himself slightly upward with obvious effort, managing to separate his face just enough from the ground to gasp out a few words. "Okay, okay! The master rune... it's the f-fourth rune above the lock, on the inner side of the b-bar." If the gasping and stuttering was any indication, the mage really wasn’t able to breathe too well with part of Tage's weight on his ribs, but that didn’t bother the woman in the least.
Tage glanced over to Ripley, who was still near the cage. “That mean something to you?” she asked.
Ripley glanced up from his study of the cage, before nodding once. Tage and Halp watched over the Djinni as he found the spot the void mage had described, and traced a counter-rune in the air with one finger.
There was a soft click as the cage unlocked, before an ominous crackle filled the air. Before any of them had a chance to react, a blast of purple energy discharged from the bars, striking Ripley full in the chest and flinging him halfway across the room.
Tage let out a yelp of surprise, almost falling off the mage’s back at the shockwave of air that followed the magical attack. Had… had Ripley just walked into a trap? Had he done it on purpose? That didn’t seem likely. The idea that the AI wouldn’t know what in this quest was trapped was almost as much of a shocker to her as the trap springing had been.
“Are you alright?” she quickly yelled across the room, catching her balance.
"I'm okay." Ripley wheezed back weakly, unenthusiastically, before slowly pushing his way back to his feet.
Hearing Ripley’s response, Halp let out a loud laugh, clearly pleased that he now wasn’t the only one to have walked into a trap. However, before he could get off more than the first guffaw, the Weevil Queen came bursting out of her cage, bodily slamming Halp into the ground.
At almost the exact same moment, the mage bucked under Tage, fully unbalancing her and causing her to tumble backwards off of him. He pushed his way to his feet, grinning broadly as a crackle of purple energy broke the rope that was binding his hands.
Tage repositioned her grip on her dagger, quickly glancing over at Halp. The weevils might have been low enough level that the three adventurers could play casually with them, but their queen was slightly more dangerous. If she got a good bite on Halp, she could do some real damage. Just as she was about to fling herself into the battle to help out, a blast of fire struck her swollen body. Tage glanced back, to see a shaky Ripley clinging to his flaming staff, purple sparks still arcing around him.
Confident that Ripley had Halp’s back, Tage flung herself towards the enemy mage. Her action clearly took him by surprise, as his eyes went wide, and Tage’s shoulder caught him in the gut, causing him to let out an “Omph!” of pain and interrupting the spell he’d been trying to cast.
Tage quickly toppled him back in the ground, one hand swinging back to punch him in the face. She followed that up with two more blows, before a series of pained squeaks drew her attention back to the rest of the battle. The Weevil Queen and Halp had changed positions, the overgrown rodent demon now trapped under Halp as the former grappled with her on the ground, dodging claws and teeth.
Tage reached down, grabbing a handful of purple hair before slamming the void Djinni’s head back into the ground.
"Hey, hey," she said to the mage. "That was really stupid. I warned you. No traps. Now... now you'll have to be punished." An evil grin crossed over her face, and the nearly unconscious mage whimpered. Tage had made a promise, after all.
“But I’ve got a much better idea than throwing you at that chest now.” Tage pulled her dagger back, quickly tracing a small rune, which transformed into a crackling ball of golden light.
"Oi, queenie!" Tage shouted, hurling the small ball of conjured frost in the weevil’s direction. Halp disengaged, trusting that Tage had a reason for getting the queen's attention, and a plan behind it. "Dinner time~"
