When they finally caught up with the Viper, it was just in time to see him vanish off the island onto another. They hurried after him. The next island had two minions plus the Viper; they were just in time for Serenity to see a third minion split off from the Viper like a shadow with a new light source. Once again, Zanzital set up his Death attack and Serenity ran into it; once again, the minions fell.
This time, Serenity was barely behind the Viper when he disappeared. He gave a moment for the Death spell to dissipate and the others to get close enough before he moved forward; with the teleporter delay, there was no reason to wait too long.
The next island had only one minion plus the Viper, and the Viper had to be the one that was close to Serenity. He moved forward quickly, without waiting for the others, but made sure to avoid the teleport traps.
The Viper watched Serenity instead of running; he didn’t even try to run until Serenity skipped around the trap. That was a huge advantage for Serenity; if the Viper had to see the trap to trigger it, avoiding the trap meant the Viper might delay in hope. Of course, he’d want to avoid the traps whether the Viper seemed to be slowing down and watching or not; not only could the Viper be faking him out, the Viper might well be capable of triggering the trap with a glance backwards at the right time.
The single minion threw a dagger at Serenity’s face. It was the first time he’d seen any of them throw at anything other than his center of mass, and it was a surprise. It wasn’t enough of a surprise to allow it to hit; he leaned out of the way and kept hurrying forward. It was probably trying to delay him and he couldn’t allow that.
He was two steps away from the Viper when another minion split off. There was no good way for him to tell them apart, but one of them spun to face him while the other turned slightly as he ran away. Serenity made the call that the one turning to attack was the minion and the runner was probably the Viper; a clever boss might do the opposite just to fool him, but he had to pick one and that seemed like the choice to make.
If the Viper got away, Serenity would carry Raz to the next teleporter! The odds were good that having two people go through at once would work but extend the time between teleports; it was certainly worth a try!
Serenity felt a Death spell land on top of him just before he caught up to the Viper; the Viper escaped through a teleporter and Serenity was right on his heels.
He expected to stand on the teleporter for eight or nine seconds, but it seemed that the teleporter didn’t have a delay after the Viper; he instantly vanished from the island he’d been on and reappeared on the next.
Within arms’ length of a clearly surprised Viper.
Serenity struck with his manablade without a moment’s thought. There was resistance from a shield, but the manablade parted it without too much difficulty. The Viper twisted and partially evaded and partially blocked the attack with his left arm. Serenity was satisfied with the result anyway; he’d cut enough of the muscle on the left arm that it should no longer be functional and the slice on the Viper’s chest, while shallow enough that it shouldn’t have done more than nick a rib or two, would be painful and somewhat debilitating.
He half-expected the Viper to run since that was all the boss had done so far, but he didn’t. Instead, the Viper rounded on him and stabbed with his own dagger. Serenity twisted his body to weaken the impact he couldn’t avoid and the knife slid on the scales of his armor-self.
He could feel the scales buckle under the force; he was suddenly extremely pleased that he didn’t have to worry about natural recovery. The broken scales dug into the flesh beneath them and would normally have to be removed, but they would probably fall off as they were replaced by new scales with his insanely fast healing. As it was, they ached even through his Pain Resistance.
The Viper’s attack left a small opening; it was obvious he’d trained against someone of his own Tier who used a real weapon. Serenity was able to bring his manablade around faster than the Viper expected and stab it into the man’s chest.
Once again, his shield blunted the blow but didn’t stop it; Serenity’s blow punched through and buried the manablade to the hilt. The strike was fatal, but possibly not quickly; he’d missed the heart but punctured the Viper’s left lung. It was close enough that Serenity could overcome that little issue with sheer force; he shoved additional mana down the manablade and dragged it through the Viper’s chest towards the heart until the Viper shuddered and lay still.
Serenity took the Viper’s head off, just in case. He was no death mage to revive as an undead, but Serenity had seen too many odd things to automatically assume a dead opponent would stay that way when they were as tricky as the Viper.
The Viper had a monster core. That made it very clear that this wasn’t the real Viper; it was simply a dungeonborn monster standing in for him. Serenity looked up and spoke to the dungeon. “A good fight; thank you.”
“You talk to dungeons?” Zanzital’s voice alerted Serenity that the others had arrived as he fought; he vaguely remembered noticing it but classifying the information as unimportant under the circumstances.
“Sometimes,” Serenity agreed. “This dungeon has been an interesting adaptation of events. Not particularly accurate on the specifics but certainly right on the general idea and an interesting challenge. A lot more involved than many dungeons, which are little more than monster dens.”
“What’s the point?” Zanzital persisted disdainfully. “It’s not like the dungeon can understand you anyway.”
Serenity shook his head slightly at Raz when he saw the draykin take a deep breath. Now wasn’t the time to defend Aki’s honor. “Some can. Whether or not this one can, it’s polite to tell it what it did well and what it did poorly. Why don’t we head farther in? I want to see if we can actually walk around the base and find what we want, but I have the feeling we need to finish the sequence the dungeon has in mind first.”
Zanzital snorted but didn’t protest again.
There was a lot more hallway after that. They never fought more than six Hollow Ones at a time, but several of the hallway fights did include reinforcements in the middle, extending the fight out to eight or ten, simply not all at once. By the time they reached the final door, Serenity estimated that they’d killed slightly over two hundred Hollow Ones.
The remaining Hollow Ones were all in the last room, which was clearly a modified version of the barracks they’d passed through. It was supposed to be a complicated fight, with hazards on the floor and attackers coming from all directions. Compared to the fight with the Viper and his duplicates, however, it was kind of a dud. While there were a lot of enemies, none were strong enough to actually stand up to more than one or two area spells from Zanzital or Serenity; even Blaze could generally take them out in two, while Raz had to focus on one at a time but could still manage them at a decent rate. The area spells completely trivialized the point of the room.
Serenity had the distinct feeling that the room would be overhauled before the next group of delvers arrived. There was a general feeling of dissatisfaction from the dungeon, though Serenity couldn’t identify why he thought that.
Past the barracks, the dungeon opened up into a copy of the original base, exactly as Serenity had hoped. They had to spend hours searching it; the papers Serenity wanted weren’t in the Viper’s room, not even the warded communication area, nor were they in either of the working rooms that had a lot of people pass through. Serenity had expected to find some sort of general orders or maybe a speech, but there was simply no sign in any of those places why the attackers were there.
The last of the warded rooms was the one where the Viper spent a lot of time; Serenity would have put it higher on the list, but he’d assumed that the knowledge of why they were on Asihanya would be well known, not kept as a secret.
That was where they finally hit paydirt.
To Lord Viper of the House of the Seventh Blossom, Greetings.
I have found a new entertainment; a slightly different one from the usual fare. This one is not a solo pleasure, but one for a group. I of course thought of my good friend when I heard of it; you have the perfect group to take advantage of this new entertainment.
As always, it is outside the Empire, but this time it is farther than usual. A planet in a far-off sector, rarely even visited by Imperial Agents, so far away and so unimportant that there may not even be one per planet. It is so minor that the planet’s Tier is poorly defined; I have records that state Tier Ten and records that state Tier Twelve.
Obviously, it would not be fun for anyone over the Tier of the planet. You will be the highest Tier person I contact; this should let you win the race, as you normally do. Should you like to gain your usual head start, the planet is named Asihanya. It has little to recommend it normally; it was devastated in some past war and has never recovered.
To ensure the best entertainment, we have procured some new-style flyers from the artisans on Ikiiit. They promise speed above all else so that you can reach the party in plenty of time, but have also designed a novel method to dispense party favors. Don’t be afraid to share the entertainment! I will include instructions on party favor construction as well as flyer operation. I understand that the flyers’ speed is limited, but the party venue will be within reach of the flyers or it would not have survived.
You will, of course, not be the only Lord searching for entertainment on the planet; however, should you be the first to find the venue, I believe that you will consider it well worth your while. Even the Emperor would envy you the pleasure!
You know the usual parameters for my entertainments; as always, they hold. This one is old and well-protected; I believe that it long predates the war that ruined the planet it resides on. It may even predate the Empire!
The rumors of the venue are starting to swirl; I have dropped your name in a few ears, so do not be surprised if there are other offers of entertainment. I clearly believe that mine is the best, but you always say that the entertainment is better with more playmates. I have avoided the more stodgy of our fellows, but I would not be surprised if there are some killjoys that want to stop the entertainment before it starts.
I have enclosed a key that should allow you to access the venue once you have found it. Have care even so; such an old venue may have fun surprises that I didn’t expect.
Lord C
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And it is pretty obvious they are talking about the repository.