As I approached the stage the girl abandoned her dance, grabbed a wicked looking polearm, jumped down onto the dance floor. Although I considered just rushing her, trying to ignore the oversized spider and overpower her with my speed and strength, I paused. If this wing of the dungeon was supposed to be all about puzzle solving there was no way this was going to be a straight up fight, so what was the trick?

“Hey boss, what's the hold up? The final boss is right there. All we need to do is step out there and crush her, just like the other ones. What’s the hold up?” Bob asked. The spider could apparently understand English, because it hissed at Bob as soon as he said that.

 

“It’s too easy,” I muttered. “What’s the trick?”

“I dunno,” the bear shrugged, “but if there’s one thing I’ve learned through the years, it's that the best way to trigger a trap is to walk into it!” Bob declared, striding forward.

 

After a couple steps the lights in the room dimmed, and the floor tiles around the stage lit up with a faint white light. As they did, an invisible force propelled me forward, forcing me to step on the closest glowing tile. I tried to back up, but when I did I found an invisible wall behind me, trapping us on the dance floor.

 

“Welcome to the Ballroom,” the arachnid woman said, throwing up her hands theatrically. “My name is Talia, the master of ceremonies here, and I’ve been looking forward to your visit.”

“I kind of doubt that,” I grumbled, turning to look at the girl. It looked like the dance floor had been split in two, the tiles in the middle of the area had collapsed, blocking Bob’s advance and giving Talia time to monologue.

 

“Oh, but I have,” Talia laughed. “I’ve watched every step you’ve made, and tried to adjust our defensive strategies to deal with you and your golems. Even though you’ve never seen the dungeon before you managed to get this far entirely based upon your instincts, and combat experience, it’s quite impressive! Most teams spend days studying the Manor, coming up with strategies to deal with our defenses before they make their first attempt, and many don’t even get through a single wing.”

 

“Sucks to be them,” I muttered. “So you’re the reason why our combat encounters got increasingly more frustrating as we progressed?”

 

“Guilty as charged. I had to try and get you to waste your ammo somehow, your team was tough enough to deal with without those absurd weapons of yours. We needed a way to slow you down,” Talia explained.

 

“Yeah, well, too bad for you I asked my team to be conservative early on. We had more than enough rounds to deal with Luther,” I said.

 

“And I made sure the Vampires targeted the last bear with ammunition, so you wouldn’t be able to do the same to me,” she smiled. “So we can have a fair fight.”

“I wouldn’t say that… you’ve got some trick up your sleeve, and I have no idea what to expect,” I said, creeping forward.

 

“You’re good at thinking on your feet, you’ll figure it out,” she replied, as she pranced back towards the edge of the stage. “Ready to start?”

“You know… I’m tired of people asking me that!” I growled, sprinting forward. Even though the rift in the middle of the dance floor was several meters across, which would be completely impassable for most people, I was able to jump in easily.

 

The briefest look of surprise passed over Talia’s face, only to be replaced by a wide smile a moment later. “Still full of surprises!”

 

She slammed the butt of her weapon down on the ground causing the tiles in the middle of the room to reappear, filling the rift, and the colors around all the tiles to change. The whites disappeared, replaced by greens, yellows, and reds.

 

I barely had enough time to register the change when the red tiles fell away, leaving new gaps in the floor.

 

“Fuck!” I screamed. I’d been standing on a seam between two tiles when the colors changed, and when the red tile fell away I nearly toppled straight into the pit. I just barely had enough time to kick off the side of the remaining tile, sending myself sailing over the pit to land on the tile on the other side.

 

“Ummm… what?” Bob muttered.

 

“Stay off the red tiles!” I shouted as I rolled to my feet. As I did the tiles began to flash to the music. Once, twice, three times, then they all changed color. Green became yellow, yellow became red, red fell away, and the previous gaps reset to green.

 

“This is a fucking rhythm game? Really? Fuck me!” I shouted.

 

As I glanced around, trying to map a fairly safe route I saw Talia prancing towards me, her spider bouncing around her. Despite the constantly shifting floors she moved confidently, she even stepped on the red tiles, as long as she could step away before they collapsed.

 

When the colors shifted, I made my move. Bouncing between safe tiles I rushed towards Talia, axe in hand. The girl just smiled, poking at me with her polearm to try and keep me at bay. She probably thought I’d try and parry with my axe, which would put me off balance and allow her to push me back, and herd me toward a pit. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

 

Instead, I grabbed the broken helmet off my belt and smashed it against the head of her polearm. It didn’t have anywhere near as much effect as I expected, she managed to keep a surprising amount of control of the weapon, and even almost managed to bring the blade back around and catch me before I got in close. Almost, but not quite.

The shaft of the polearm smashed into my shoulder as I brought my axe around in a vicious horizontal chop. I wanted to try and finish this quickly, before she could gain control of the battle, but that didn’t happen.

 

Talia’s arachnid legs shot out from behind her back, each one covered in a thick metallic bracer. Her left legs intercepted the Axe, while the right stabbed towards my unprotected left side. I was so surprised by the move that I nearly lost hold of the axe at the impact.

 

The attack had been sloppy, I’d never expected her to have a counter, but that sloppiness saved my life. Talia deflected the axehead away from herself, pushing it away from her body, and it took me with it. Her right legs scraped against my armor, but failed to penetrate.

 

Even though I managed to avoid the first blow I was off balance, and my back was wide open. It wouldn’t take much for her to finish me with another stab, and if I tried to back away I’d probably get that polearm in the back, so I needed another option.

 

I went on instinct, and using the momentum of the axe I spun on my heel and drove the butt of my axe into Talia’s chest as hard as I could. As she staggered back, winded, I slipped away.

 

“Bob, I could use a little help here!” I shouted.

 

“I’ll be there in a minute… almost done!” the bear replied.

 

I risked a quick glance over at him, and shook my head. The spider was making a fool out of him.

 

Bob’s left arm was webbed to his face, and there were strands of silk around his feet. I’m sure he would have flattened the creature if he landed a single good hit, but it was too fast for him. In addition the spider was ducking into the open gaps in the floor, only to skitter out from a different direction to continue its assault.

 

Talia had recovered, and was moving towards me again, so I bounced away from her while I tried to come up with a plan.

 

Normally I’d trust Bob to have my back, but it seemed like the spider was playing with him. When I saw it pop up behind him and slam its big front legs into Bob’s back for the third time, I got mad.

 

“Bob, enough playing around! Get rid of that spider, screw the collateral damage!”

 

“You want your pet golem to punch through the floor?” Talia asked. “I hope you know this entire complex is reinforced with magic. It would take an emenese…”

She was interrupted as Bob started rhythmically slamming the floors. Each blow caused tiles to shatter, and fall away. The spider panicked, and skittered towards the nearest gap, trying to disappear under the floor again. It just barely made it, and probably immediately regretted the move, because Bob put his fist straight through the panel a moment later.

 

“Gotcha! No more running you eight legged menace!” he declared.

 

The panels flashed, causing the one Bob was standing on, and had punched through, to go red.

 

“Bob get off there!” I shouted.

 

“Okie dokie, just let me…” I watched as he tried to retract his hand, but when he did the spider pulled back, yanking him downwards. “Uh oh.”

 

The tile flashed again, and swung open to the abyss below.

 

Bob and the spider hung there for a moment, locked together with the tile between them, when there was an audible crack. I just caught a brief glimpse of Bob’s surprised face as the hinges on the device gave way, and he and the spider disappeared into the darkness below.

 

“I guess we’re the only ones left,” Talia said, drawing my attention once again. “Shall we finish this?”

 

I tightened my grip on the axe in my hands. “Gladly.”