Smolder walked up to the glowing pillar of light, peering over to it, but putting her hand up to it. It was surprisingly solid for being made apparently of light, and a little magic tingle shook through her as she glowed. Garble walked straight up and pressed his hand to it as well.
Spike, however, was still looking at the man, who took notice and turned to look at him, but saying nothing.
“What are you waiting for?” Garble said. “Afraid to get a little magic on you or what?”
Smolder rolled her eyes, but looked to Spike with equal bewilderment.
"Hello again." Spike wriggled a few fingers at the mysterious person. "Will you answer a few questions this time?"
"If I answer that, you will feel slighted, so I won't. You have one question. Perhaps I'll answer another when you reach the next." He looked beyond Spike to his friends. "I advise speed, your friends grow concerned."
Sandra wriggled her fingers as she turned away from the column of light. "Now we can hop back down in a flash, and come back up just as quickly. We can even do it right in the middle of--"
Spike’s mind raced. He hadn’t thought up what he wanted to ask! Would he only get one question per ten floors? He had to make sure to spend them wisely. But what if he asks an irrelevant question, or gets a frustrating answer?
“Come on, twerp!” Garble was becoming irate.
Spike snapped at the only question he could think of. “What’s your name?”
The man smiled. “Oh, you remembered your question. Good. My name is Logue.”
Spike blinked. “... I don’t get it. What does that mean?”
The man’s finger came up, waggling. “Ah ah ah. Your question is up.” He began to turn into light, the same shade as the pillar, which was bleeding upward. “I’ll see you around, young dragon.”
"--fighting, but it takes ten or twenty seconds or so of you mostly not doing anything more than a slow walk, so be careful about that," finished Sandra, spewing her helpful advice.
Spike, somewhat slowly, turned around and walked back to his party, putting his hand on the pillar too but hardly seeming to pay attention to the glow it put in him. “Okay, uh… sorry about that.”
Smolder slapped down a hand on his shoulder. "You alright there, Spike? It isn't too late to go back to the restroom."
"Wrong answer." Garble stomped towards the door. "We got a boss to pummel. C'mon!"
Garble and Smolder took point, both pushing on one of the doors each, as the heavy doors creaked open, bit by bit. Spike shook his head, no time for worrying about the useless answer, and he pulled his staff out, getting in a ready stance.
The doors crept open, but finally they began to give way, Garble and Smolder getting some momentum behind them. The doors flew open with a tremendous echoing thud.
Fog clung thick to the floor, rolling as if it were a living thing. Some of it gusted out from an actually living thing, its nostrils flaring. Across the way they could see a challenger, or was that a defender. A great canine-like creature, its tail low and even with the ground, its ears pricked towards its next fight. It had great claws and dug easily through the solid floor of the ground as if it was nothing but loose gravel. It was perfectly still, watching them, daring them to enter the room.
Garble looked the thing over. "That's all, a dog?"
Spike pointed to the spikes that jutted from the ground. "Uh…" Each spike was exactly the same size, protruding upwards about fifteen feet.
The boss was near one, taller than it. Its apparent lack of size was only a property of the distance between them. "Oh," allowed Garble. "So it's a big dog… alright." He grabbed his sword, unsheathing it slowly, staring down the wolf as he did, discarding the sheath near the doorway.
Smolder drew her daggers, and Spike readied himself too, and only Sandra felt herself starting to sweat. No, she admonished herself. She had summons to help. She just had to keep calm, and tell them what to do… maybe cast a spell. She didn’t need to get face to face with it or anything. She nodded wordlessly to herself.
Garble stepped out first, a toothy smirk on his face, and began to run across the arena.
“H-hey!” Smolder called out, and started running behind. Shortly all three of them were running into the arena, with Sandra following behind.
The wolf snarled, and broke into a full charge, Garble bellowing a hoot. “Don’t be dismayed--” He brought his sword above him, bringing it down. “When you taste my blade!” The blade crackled with lightning which blasted out in response to his rhyme, striking the wolf straight in it’s muzzle. “Ha!” Garble cried out.
The wolf twitched with the lightning strike, and instead of going straight for Garble went to the side, its massive paw colliding with him, powerful enough to knock him right off his feet, tumbling on the ground.
“Garble!” Smolder shouted, heading up the rear, slashing at the side of the monster, which left a red line, but it’s size rendered them, well, small. The wolf growled, bending it’s knees and sending its side to Smolder, side checking her, knocking her back as well.
Spike caught up, and immediately sent his glowing healing onto Garble, who was already pulling himself up off the ground, groaning. "I'll focus on defense." That thing hit way too hard to be distracted, he decided silently, spreading out his sympathetic magic across his friends, accepting their future pains to banish them as best he could.
The great furry beast wasn't made of stone. "Aiden!" Sandra gestured forward in a sharp sweep, a flare of heat and light signaling the arrival of her spirit friend. "Show it who's boss!" A loud screech was the reply, soaring towards the great canine. Flames rained down and around it in a carpet bombing, but the guardian of the floor shook most of it away as if it were falling bits of snow instead of flaming doom.
The guardian wheeled around, it’s jaws chomping at Garble, who was glanced and forced back, only managing to chop some of the guardian’s fur off. Garble leapt back, holding his sword out, but the guardian turned its attention instantly to Smolder, swiping at her and catching her arm with the sharp points of its claws.
Despite the obvious hits, they were unharmed save for being shoved. Spike endured the pain for them even as he worked feverishly to banish the hurts from his own small form. Smolder slashed back at the guardian, who backed out, right into Garble’s range, who scored a good hit on his other side.
Renewed fire pelted the guardian, and it flinched with a low growl. It threw its upper body upwards, howling with a tremendous din. Spike put his hands to his ears, the pain was hard to bear, and when he was done he noticed a cloud of mist had been thrown up, descending around them.
The guardian growled, more mist pouring out of the sides of his mouth, and he roared forward, a huge burst of pale mist shooting out at Spike, hitting him nearly as hard as any club would, knocking him right off of his feet.
It raised its claw, and the mist congealed around it, forming a larger pale claw, and the misty claw came crashing through Garble, the real claw slashing, and the mist blasting him back as it made smaller cuts across his armor and scales. Garble tumbled across the ground, coming to a stop. He groaned as he lay there in pain. At least, he did until a large shadow appeared over him, and he pulled himself up just in time to roll away from a pair of fangs chomping down on him.
Sandra watched from a distance, Aiden pelting the guardian with small tufts of fire. Smolder was slashing at it and Spike was pulling himself over to Garble to help, but it was not going well. She had to think of something… “Aiden, we need something bigger! As big as you can make it!” The spirit crowed, flying in a tight upwards spiral and his wings began to flare up as he flapped them vigorously.
"I couldn't see you," hurriedly explained Spike. "No see, no taking your hits and I was--"
"--Yeah yeah, got it. Garble brought down his heavy blade just in time to turn away the swat that would have caught Spike's undefended back. "Focus." It was as close to an active moment of caring as he'd get at the time. "We got a big dog to train."
The fog suddenly withdrew, heat and light replacing it as Aiden exploded like a brilliant display of fireworks, smaller explosions rocking the area, banishing the fog with each loud percussion. The dog howled and took a step back, cowed for just a moment before it turned its angry eyes on Sandra, somehow aware that she was the responsible party.
It broke away from the other three, barreling at Sandra, mist streaming behind it.
“A-Aiden!” Sandra shouted, only for no response to come. She desperately searched her magic, trying to call him out, and he was there, but there was nothing behind him now.
And she looked up at the guardian approaching her, jaws and teeth first. Magic mist streamed from the corners of its mouth, and it’s teeth practically glistened with drool. Sandra stared at it, her mouth gaping open, frozen in place as the monster closed on her and slammed it’s jaws on her, those fangs digging into her abdomen. She cried out in pain.
The dragons were hot on the guardian’s heel, Spike shouting at the top of his lungs, “Smite!” His staff glowing with golden runes, slamming into the side of the creature, causing it to lose its grip on Sandra.
Garble followed up, calling out as normal, “Lightning Lace!” slashing with his crackling katana and Smolder, silent as always, quickly cut with flaming daggers. All three hits landed, and the guardian actually made a yelping noise, which quickly changed to a growl.
The three dragons stood over Sandra, brandishing their weapons, glaring down the mist wolf creature, and it glared back at them, but stepped back, and howled again. This time it wasn’t piercing, but almost as soon as it started, it was joined by other howls, until a cacophony of them was heard.
Smolder grit her teeth. “Now what?”
Spike said nothing, and turned down, his magic flowing from his staff to Sandra on the ground, who cracked an eye. The three of them came for her. She couldn’t… she couldn’t stay down. If she could help she needs to help.
The mist surrounded the party, and inside it, ghostly forms in the shape of wolves, made of mist themselves, appeared, howling alongside the guardian. One by one they stopped, their forms turning to the party.
Two of them stepped up, and quickly, with a howl, they blasted toward the party from two sides. Smolder and Garble tried to dodge out of the way, but the wolves were much much faster, less like wolves darting out and more like misty spirits fired from a cannon, their spectral fangs tearing at each other.
With more howls, three more wolves appeared, and Garble and Smolder immediately moved, but the third wolf was pointed directly at where Spike stood over Sandra. He grit his teeth. “Sandra can’t move yet!” He brandished his staff, and just as it rushed at him tried to bat it away, but it was too fast, slicing at him and grazing Sandra.
In a moment’s reprieve, Spike frantically resumed healing Sandra, closing the wounds, and she stirred, wrenching herself up off the ground.
But with only another moment, there were more howls. The wolves shot out from the mist, and Spike wrenched himself aside, feeling the wind of the wolf careening just past him. The howls continued, the spirits beginning to attack relentlessly, and Spike had to leap out of the way, trying to minimize the damage futilely as something still hit him.
The wolves began to attack relentlessly, spirits coming from all angles, slicing and cutting the party.
Then, finally, the attacks came to a stop. The four adventurers, blood dripping from their wounds looked around. The wolves appeared to surround them, all the former spirits growing and glaring down, with the guardian looming over them.
Spike knew they were about to surge in. One big final attack, and nobody here was looking too well… But there was a chance, maybe… just one to make sure they lived. He raised his staff, the pleasant green aura emanating from it.
Sandra and Smolder both looked at Spike’s glowing staff, and looked back at each other, their eyes widening. Smolder opened her mouth to speak, “Wai--”
The wolves collapsed on the party, the ring crashing into them, and Spike was hit like a truck. Dozens of cuts appeared on him all at once, slashing at his scales and armor. Spike tried to scream, but all that came out was a guttural gurgling noise and a cough.
He started to fall, but put his staff out, and caught himself, still holding on to consciousness. The rest of the party looked back and Garble suddenly grabbed Spike. "We're leaving."