I stood in front of the only path to get to Ferrisdae and kept vigil for any Avian threats to come from the stands. So far it had been quiet, but it was only a matter of time. If this story dungeon was as large as the first then it would be a slow process to reduce it.

Much of that time had already passed; I could see the sky beginning to darken, not just because Swiftfeather had made it evening but because the sky was literally disappearing after a certain point. Generally, a Dungeon Reduction wasn’t so ominous because most dungeons were anchored to the material plane instead of a dimensional one. Still, it was surreal, but I didn’t let it bother me.

Behind me, Ferrisdae still knelt where she had before. Moose and Cojisto had moved the Temporal Dire Chicken closer to her and shifted its wing to give her a very macabre shelter. To her credit, if it bothered her she didn’t let it show. With everything going on, taking cover under the corpse of a giant rooster was likely the least of her problems.

Cojisto stood on top of the bird. He had his hands on his hips, impatiently pacing. “How do we know they’re not just going to hole up under the arena, eh?” Cojisto said, trying to sound patient.

“I hope they do,” I replied as I heard Moose croak from the other side of the rooster. “Then we just make the dungeon smaller from the bottom and overcharge it. Would certainly make our jobs a lot easier.”

“Easy?” Cojisto huffed. “I don’t want easy, I want action! Excitement! Right, Moose?”

I heard Moose stamp his foot once. “Don’t encourage him, Moose,” I called back without looking away from my side of the arena.

“Don’t tell Moose not to encourage me! He’s the best friend I could have ever asked for. Maybe you should be the one who’s more supportive.”

“The point is moot, anyway,” Ferrisdae said from under the wing. “I already raised the dungeon’s floor. They won’t be able to hide down there. I didn’t think it would be possible to trap them.”

“That’s fine,” I replied. “With luck, more of the crew was hiding out down below and we’ve removed them from the picture.”

Cojisto began speaking, but I stopped listening to him as something in the seats caught my eye. “Get ready,” I interrupted, eyes darting back and forth as I tried to pick out what I saw.

With my eyes alone, I couldn’t see anything. I had seen a shimmer, some trick of the light, but that was it. Experience told me that something was there. While the spell Invisibility was restricted due to the ease at which illegal activities could be committed under its effects, something told me that Swiftfeather wouldn’t have any scruples against using it.

My attention snapped to an Avian who was suddenly standing in my line of sight. His blunderbuss was alight with a telltale glow, the very act of activating a martial art breaking the invisibility spell. I came to the conclusion that Razorbeak was going after Ferrisdae but couldn’t disturb the arena sand to do so.

“Martial art!” I yelled as I dashed back without taking my eyes off of the land pirate. Whatever he had planned had a long wind up, which meant it was going to be powerful. Cojisto jumped down behind me and unceremoniously picked me up. I was about to yell at him when a loud crack filled the arena.

Although I could barely see it, I still focused on the large object heading my way. Time seemed to slow down as I saw a cannonball hurtling directly at me. I could still raise my shield despite Cojisto holding me up, and I barely had to shift it to get it into position.

My arm buckled under the pressure, causing my shield to slam into my face. Cojisto and I were pushed backwards through the sand before he hit the wing and fell backwards. The cannonball, red from the heat, was redirected into the arena seats behind us before exploding in a great ball of flames once it came to a complete stop.

A quick glance at my shield showed that it had held up, but barely; the paint had been scratched off where the shot dented the center and surged upwards. That was the first time I had seen it damaged so badly, and I released a breath knowing we couldn’t let him do that again; my shield might not hold up a second time.

“Angle was wrong,” Cojisto explained as he set me down. “Had to lift you up.”

“Fine,” I growled before I began running towards Razorbeak. “Keep her safe and watch out for the mage!”

I heard Cojisto’s affirmative response as I ran, but didn’t reply to him. Razorbeak was fiddling with his blunderbuss, which glowed faintly of magic, before his eyes locked on me. Raising his weapon, he barely aimed at me as it shone with a green light before firing.

While it wasn’t the martial art that produced the cannonball, I was hesitant to take any of his attacks head on. I jumped to the side as he leveled his weapon at me, and a harpoon flew through the air where I had just been running. His weapon continued to shine with the martial art as harpoon after harpoon flew my way.

Though they were trailing behind me as I ran, picking up speed and no doubt running faster than he’d seen a Halfling run before, I kept a careful eye on his gun. He had been following me with his shots, and I realized he was leading me to the arena wall. I was getting closer and closer to it, but if I started running towards him then I would undoubtedly get struck by a harpoon. After the cannonball, I didn’t want to test if one of those could pierce my shield.

As I expected, Razorbeak didn’t shift his aim in front of me to catch me with one of his shots. However, I had caught his timing. Instead of running straight towards the part of the wall he was leading me to, I closed my shield and ran towards him. A harpoon came straight for my chest, exactly as I expected, and I reached out.

The tip pierced my jacket, tunic, and skin, but didn’t get deep. I had caught it in my hand, gripping the wooden handle tight, and kept it from skewering me. The skin on my palm and fingers felt burned from the action, but it had clearly caught the pirate off guard. Two more harpoons shot at the space where I would have been if I kept on the path, and I could see Razorbeak’s eyes widen in surprise. His gun stopped glowing, telling me that the martial art was over.

Spinning the harpoon in my hand, I threw it at the arena wall, aiming around halfway up. It stuck, piercing the stone and holding steady. There had been no way I was going to make the leap all the way up the twelve foot wall without the help Razorbeak had so graciously supplied.

As he fiddled with his blunderbuss again I leapt towards the harpoon and pulled myself up. My still flaming blade caught the wooden shaft of the harpoon on fire, but by then I had already scrambled up and was making my second jump.

For the briefest of moments, Razorbeak was out of sight. The wall was high, he was on top, and I was in the weaker position. I dropped my sword over the edge before grabbing the stone. Smacking my shield open, which caused it to groan due to the misshapen mess it had become, I pulled myself up and protected my head and hand.

Right on cue, a spread of shot struck my shield and the floor around it. I heard Razorbeak shout in irritation as I pulled myself up. He continued to fire in one second intervals without reloading, clipping my arm and legs as I tried to keep my vital areas safely behind cover. The wounds hurt, but not enough to slow me down.

“Land Pirate Raitheus Razorbeak,” I breathed through grit teeth. “You are being subjugated by direct order of the Department of Dungeons.”

“Save your breath, speck,” he swore between shots. “I don’t care what you’re here for, just that you’re in my world now.”

“Let the record show that the subject has hastened his death by refusing to hear me out,” I said.

“I’m looking forward to smashing that record, inspector,” Razorbeak retorted.

The buckshot stopped coming as I picked up my sword and looked at him through the one-way magical shield. He wore a grin on his beak but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring behind me. That wasn’t for me. Whatever was going on back there was for Moose and Cojisto to deal with. Ferrisdae, as well; the sky was closing faster and faster. While he was distracted, I lunged for him.

He wasn’t totally unaware of me, and the Avian lightly jumped backwards into the seats. The benches ascended the further back you got, and I started climbing by taking large leaps. Razorbeak was tall enough to step from bench to floor to bench, but the distance he could jump was admittedly impressive. It didn’t take long for me to make it to him, but he still had ample time to pull out the sword on his belt.

Like his blunderbuss, the leadcutter cutlass had the faint glow of magic power surrounding it. Several runes that I didn’t recognize floated across the metal blade, passing from one side to the other without disappearing. I didn’t dwell on it. The important thing was to not get hit, after all.

I jumped onto the bench and stabbed at Razorbeak from behind my raised shield. His leadcutter sizzled as it parried my flaming blade, the runes flowing towards the point of impact and I saw them take on a slight orange hue. My immediate guess was some sort of magic mimicry where it would slowly build up to having the same kind of enchantment as my weapon or perhaps an elemental attack.

The red hue was suppressed as both his leadcutter and blunderbuss glowed green. My eyes narrowed as I focused, and he began to slice at me with his sword. I kept my shield raised, but didn’t block his blade with it. Instead, I began parrying. An overhead slice turned into a quick series of jabs followed by a diagonal slash.

My focus was absolute, and the combo martial art required my full attention to counter. Playing it safe with my shield had been the right call as this one would have thrown me off balance if I had tried to block the whole thing. My Hilt of Holding shook violently in my hand as I parried the second jab as if it wanted to fly out of my hand. The third jab sliced through my side, causing damage but not catching anything vital, while I managed to deflect the last slash.

Razorbeak brought his blunderbuss up to my shield and I figured this was the last hit of the martial art. He pulled the trigger, sending me flying backwards from the impact. Eight harpoons pierced through my shield in a circular pattern, getting stuck halfway through. I was lucky one of them didn’t pierce my arm.

That last attack had been a big one. My shield was likely to break if it took any more hits whether it was from a martial art or not, and I didn’t want to risk it. Despite flying through the air, I tapped it against my chest, returning it to its buckler form and ejecting all of the harpoons onto the ground. Thumbing the rune to retract my sword, I shifted the dial on my Hilt of Holding to a new blade.

“Must be running out of tricks, Razorbeak!” I yelled as I I rolled to my feet.

“Still have more than enough for you, speck,” Razorbeak replied cockily, but I could see and hear his fear.

"While I'm still fresh?" I asked. "You really think so?"

He had thrown some of his most powerful attacks at me, and I had fended them off. In turn, all I had done so far was push aside his strikes. He hadn’t seen me cast magic or perform a martial art. Not against the Temporal Dire Chicken and not against him. The moment his doubt reached his eyes, I began running towards him.

An explosion rocked the world, causing me to stumble and stop while Razorbeak had to plant himself to keep from falling. The sand on the arena appeared to be covered with an ethereal blue fire with Swiftfeather floating over it, and I could see Cojisto diving into the flames to grab Ferrisdae. Somewhere below, Moose was surrounded by a divine healing glow as he scrambled to get on top of the Temporal Dire Chicken.

“Looks like your friends are-“

I didn’t give Razorbeak time to gloat. I ran towards him, thumbing the rune again to eject a thick black stone club from the hilt. The Avian turned to face me, and I smacked him straight in the beak uncontested as he brought up his sword and blunderbuss too slowly to make a difference.

“They’re fine, asshole,” I said as I gave him a predatory smile. His beak had been cracked by the blow, and I could see the rage in his eyes. I pointed the club at him. “You worry about me, you don’t have any time for anything more.”