Tier Three Dungeon: The Seared Wilds Tower (Floor Two)

  Objective: Complete Three of the following objectives:

  Objective: Defeat Ursa Prime (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat The Cosmos Unleashed (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat The Queen Tyrant (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat The G.O.A.T. (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat The Chthonic Abysslord (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat The Reversing Current (0/1)

  Completion: 20%

  Fragile Walls: This dungeon is close to breaking. Its inhabitants will be freed if a threshold of Delver deaths inside is reached.

  Break Counter: 0/5

  Sealed Environment: You cannot leave this dungeon until it is completed

  I’d expected more maze and more fire from the Seared Wilds Tower’s second floor.

  Instead, the stairwell opened into a wide room with a ceiling so tall I could barely see it. The black steel and mirrored windows seemed to gaze down on Tori and me disapprovingly, and I noted that it was odd they were facing inward now. Wild grass and bright flowers covered the floor up to my waist, and rolling hills blocked my view of the arena we’d just entered.

  Nothing jumped out to attack us, and I glanced Tori’s way. “What do you think?”

  “Some of these bosses are easier than others, right? Like, we probably can’t beat the Chthonic Abysslord, since we’re not prepped for an underwater fight at all, but we can fight Ursa Prime. I don’t know what the G.O.A.T. is, but it’s better than the Queen Tyrant—it’s got to be.” She paused, then stared out at the field. “This is lazy design work, though. A boss rush of previous bosses isn’t that compelling, really. Wonder why they set it up this way.”

  I didn’t have an answer. The Consortium felt both awe-inspiringly powerful and incredibly cheap at the same time—but figuring out what they were up to was the lowest thing on my priority list right now. I checked the timer for the end of Phase One.

  Time Limit: Two Days, Three Hours, Fifty-Five Minutes

  “Let’s just get moving. We’ll avoid any water, since the Abysslord will be there. Otherwise, any boss we find, we’ll fight.” I pulled the Spellcode Scroll Reader free from its spot and replaced it with the Bio-Electric Scanner. This was exactly the situation I’d imagined it being useful in, and when I fired it up, I wasn’t disappointed. Six dots appeared in my vision, all small and all out across the field from us. “That way.”

  Tori nodded seriously, and we headed out through the plains. The grass scratched at my unarmored arm, leaving tiny scrapes even though my Body points, but I smashed enough of a path for Tori to get through safely. Her eyebrow raised suspiciously, but she didn’t say anything. Still, I knew what she was thinking. I should have had a lot more Body points than I did, and she was starting to realize it.

  I still hadn’t told her I was basically dumping all my points into Charge. She was gonna be pissed that I’d found a single stat class; that had been her strategy early on. But now wasn’t the time.

  We hit the first orange dot on my vision after just a couple of minutes.

  It was, of course, Ursa Prime.

  Ursa Prime: Level Fifty Dungeon Boss

  Current Difficulty: Matched

  I didn’t bother reading its powers; I’d already seen them, and I knew what to expect. Sure, this one was a couple of levels stronger. But even so—even though its whole body was a weapon, and I knew the finish to the fight would be brutal—there was a huge difference between fighting it at Level Forty-Three and fighting it at Level Fifty-One and with a pile of Rank One stats. Not to mention, I’d tuned up my Creations quite a bit.

  “Tori, I’m going to fight this one solo,” I said. “I want you to start the fight, though, so you get full experience for it.”

  “Why?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “Because I want to push my Rank One upgrades a little, and I think I can handle it. If it gets bad before the boss goes Elite, jump in and help me. After it goes Elite, it’ll get bad no matter what.” I explained the boss’s attention mechanic and how she could take advantage of it until the second phase.

  “It’s an aggro swap and fixate,” she said.

  That was so much easier to say than what I’d been describing. “Yeah. So if I can’t handle it, be ready to swap.”

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  “Got it.”

  She didn’t waste any more time. The Pull grabbed the boss’s attention while we were still a good hundred yards out, and the hulking, gigantic bear roared. I suppressed a shiver as the gigantic mass of muscle and steel started charging up, then set up. The Trip-Hammer revved over my head, hammers slicing through the air in uppercut after uppercut.

  The boss closed the gap rapidly. Tori took a step back, then behind me as I signaled with my free hand. Then there wasn’t time anymore.

  I activated the Autoplate Pauldron as the boss’s dot flickered and vanished at the top of my vision. The Bio-Electric scanner had done its job. Now it was time to do mine.

  Ursa Prime didn’t rear back. It barely even noticed I was there; it’s legs churned the grass and dirt below it as it barreled toward Tori.

  It was perfect.

  Tori didn’t mean to shut her eyes.

  She wanted to watch the fight.

  But the bear was probably five tons of muscle and steel, and Hal was…a lot less. When they met, and the scream of metal and the boss’s roar drowned out even the Trip-Hammer’s revving engine, she couldn’t help but squeeze them shut and scream—just a little.

  Something hot and wet splashed across her face. Her eyes popped open, and every muscle in her body strained to cast Push. Ursa Prime loomed over both her and Hal, front legs over its head. It roared again.

  Then it tumbled backward, and Tori caught the massive dent in the bear’s silver steel armor, right across its chest. The damage was too big not to have broken bones—and Hal was still up.

  She sprinted away from the boss, just in case it fixated on her when it started its second phase—if it hadn’t already.

  With the amount of damage Hal was dealing, it was only a matter of time.

  I’d been confident I could beat Ursa Prime by myself.

  What I hadn’t expected was for it to be…easy.

  Not that the Trip-Hammer’s blows didn’t shake my arms so badly my shoulders ached after just a few swings—or that its attempts to fight back were futile. It was more that the boss simply couldn’t compete with my current strength.

  I’d expected more of a challenge. The Trip-Hammer tore through the bear’s helm and knocked the semi-truck’s weight of meat and metal aside. Its claws dug furrows in the field deep enough to plant corn in, and it flipped onto its stomach, then pushed itself onto three legs. Its back right limb flopped uselessly, trapped in the jagged wreckage of its massive greaves. Blood poured from the cuts as it charged yet again.

  Ursa Prime had been a serious fight the last time I’d fought it. But I was way stronger than it now.

  The Trip-Hammer tore through armor, and the bear’s throat opened, pouring blood and phlegm onto the grass as the two-spiked hammer shredded everything from jaw to mid-chest. Its body shimmered, then started flickering between red and white; I’d beaten the boss. Now I just had to wait it out.

  Ursa Prime: Level Fifty-Five Elite Dungeon Boss

  Current Difficulty: Challenging

  Juggernauting: This boss has been killed, but is enraged and temporarily indestructible. It will pursue its killer for thirty seconds.

  Time Remaining: 30 Seconds

  Elite - This monster moves faster and hits harder than a similarly powerful monster (thirty seconds remaining).

  Last time I’d fought Ursa Prime, I’d fled from it while it Juggernauted. Logically, that was the right decision here, too.

  Instead, I charged right at the boss.

  I had thirty seconds to test out my Creations—to push them to their limits. There was no way the final boss would be this…simple. I needed to learn just what I had.

  The Voltsmith’s Grasp sparked orange as I grabbed the bear’s head and fired a burst of Charge into the plate metal; I’d used this against Eddie and in a few other fights, but it had always felt like a last resort. This time, it felt more like a main attack—an alternative to the Trip-Hammer instead of a back-up. Sparks ripped across the bear’s skull, and it roared in agony. Blood sprayed from the mess I’d made of its throat.

  Stored Charge 14/19

  I didn’t expect the boss to falter, though—not while it was Juggernauting. And it didn’t disappoint.

  “Tori, I’m testing a few things,” I said. “Keep an eye out!”

  “For what?”

  “Anything strange.” I checked the boss’s nameplate for how much time I had.

  Time Remaining: 24 Seconds

  Ursa Prime’s paw crashed down toward me and I let the Autoplate Pauldron take the hit. It bowed, and my shoulder popped, but my arm stayed attached. I clenched my jaw against the pain and turned my attention fully toward the temporarily-immortal—but not indestructible—boss.

  For the next twenty seconds, I tested out the Autoplate Pauldron, attachments for the Voltsmith’s Grasp, and my improved Trip-Hammer. By the time the red and white flickering stopped and the boss finally died, blood and gore covered the field. It was missing a leg completely, its head was almost completely unrecognizable from a half-dozen rapid-fire impacts, and a thick coat of blood covered the ground around me.

  I’d never seen a boss in this shape. I’d never seen anything in this shape; most of the time, the System despawned enemies long before things got this ugly.

  At last, the boss shimmered and disappeared. I’d learned a lot, but my Voltsmith’s Grasp was out of Charge, and I’d need some time to get it up and running again.

  Level Up! Fifty-One to Fifty-Two.

  Dungeon Delvers who were not in the arena will receive fifty percent of your team’s experience.

  I put all four of my points into Charge and activated the Bio-Electric Scanner. Tori looted the handful of glowing blue items, and I pointed west. “Closest boss is that way. You’re up.”

  Time Limit: Nine Hours, Seven Minutes

  I-55 was lonely. Stalled and overgrown cars covered the road, left where they’d stopped when the Consortium terraformed the world. A few narrow paths had been cleared, but as far as Bobby could see, it was like this for miles. Thousands of cars, the wind howling between them, and no people.

  Without people, Bobby’s line of work wouldn’t work, and that was a problem.

  He sat on the hood of a Mustang for a good, long think.

  Hal could possibly handle the Crusade if he got out of his dungeon in time. Hal and Tori maybe could—and Museumtown could easily have three or four other Rank One Delvers. The twins were close to that powerful, but the Crusade was close to invading Chicago. They might even be there by now.

  The addition of a single Bobby Richards probably wouldn’t change anything. Museumtown could take care of itself, and if it couldn’t, it wasn’t worth investing in.

  Then again, those settlements he was heading toward Des Moines and Omaha might not be any different. They might even be worse off. And he’d already invested so much.

  “God dammit,” Bobby muttered. The System message about the Seared Wilds Tower’s second floor opening made Museumtown a ripe target, easy pickings for the Crusade. The strongest Delvers wouldn’t be home, and the writing was on the wall.

  But Bobby Richards was a gambling man, and it was time for him to do what he did best: manipulate the odds, trick people, and take those big risks to do what was best for everyone—and, not coincidentally, for him. If he could stall the Crusade at Museumtown’s gates, that might make a difference.

  He plastered a smile on his face, trying to hide his nerves from himself, and started walking east along I-55.

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