As tempted as Garble looked, he ignored the chests, at least for the moment. He stormed over to Spike. "Yo, you done? She alright? If you mess up--"
"Shut up," spat out Spike with uncharacteristic shortness. "Working."
Sandra came up beside Garble before looking towards the chests. "I don't mean to sound greedy, but there could be something in there that could help." She pointed at the great chests, waiting for them to plunder the contents of.
"Yeah?" Garble hiked a thumb at it. "Sis said I can't open the next one, remember? She'll be royally ticked if I go back on that now. Soon as Spike finishes doin' his stuff, she'll be all over me, complainin' and everything."
Sandra set herself down, no seats to be found in the arena. In fact, she looked around, the whole arena had fallen silent. There were a few monsters still filing out, and the other group was being ushered back to their circle by a couple small motes of light, which seemed to be urging them on.
Her eyes met the wizard’s eyes, who was dragging the bleeding body of the archer back to the circle the light was motioning them towards. They had another wounded, too, and their robed healer was looking over them with some panic. None of them looked like they were enjoying this, but shortly they were on the lift and sent away, their fate uncertain.
Garble, for his part, paced back and forth, smoke occasionally puffing out of his nostrils. He kept looking at Spike, who was still over Smolder, as she was now entirely enveloped in green magic.
But Sandra was consumed by something else entirely. She addressed her stoney friend. "You did good, especially since I couldn't even tell you anything." She nodded softly as if a response had come. "I can imagine. You were very brave. We only just met, I know… but I'm happy to have you." She paused as if listening. "Aw." She gently patted the top of her golem. "Go take a break, you earned it.
The creature of crystal and stone sank into the sand, returning to where her summons were when not at her side. Garble peered at the very spot. "That was… interesting. You do know it wasn't talking, right?"
"More--" Smolder coughed sharply, blood flecking her lips. "--than I was."
Sandra gasped, hurrying towards the sign of life, though not as quickly as Garble's scramble.
Spike's grave expression brightened by just a hair. "Stay still, stay… still. Stay with us, please."
Smolder aborted her attempt to push off the ground, not that her body approved of the idea anyway. "You look really…" Her breath was forced, her speech slow through obvious discomfort. "Did I get it… that bad?"
"Hey, Sis." Garble dropped into a squat beside his conscious sister, forgetting entirely about Sandra and her rock toy. "You missed us winning."
She smiled, and leaned her head back. “That’s pretty good. You’ll have to tell me about it.”
Garble smiled. “Okay, so we were--”
“Later, bro,” she said, an unamused tone creeping into her voice.
“Oh, yeah, sure.”
The four of them sat, waiting for Spike to finish his healing, and Sandra was staring at the blood on the ground. Monsters didn’t bleed. Well, that is, they did bleed, but once they were destroyed the blood disappeared. And even if they weren’t, the blood disappeared somewhat quickly anyway. But people… people bled. She swallowed roughly. People that might be dead now.
“Do you… do you think that archer is dead?”
Garble looked over, with what approached a disgusted snarl on his face. “What?”
“The archer… and that shadow woman… they were both still hurt as they were dragged out. They were… in bad shape,” Sandra said, still staring at the blood.
“Who cares?” Garble said, his voice raising, turning to her. “In case you forget, those bastards were trying to kill us too. Who cares if they die on the way back down?”
Sandra looked to Garble. “I-I mean,” she stammered. “I’ve never… I’ve never actually fought to kill someone, and they might be dead right now!”
“Who cares?!” Garble wasn’t really asking. “We’ve killed dozens of monsters and you wait for the time my sister almost dies to worry about it?”
“M-monsters don’t count! They’re not people they’re just magic… stuff that moves! People are different.”
Smolder sat up, to Spike's frown, but she propped herself up without immediately collapsing. "I didn't get a chance. Hey, what's that?" Her eyes were on the chests that rested in the center of the arena, clearly abandoned and waiting. "Winnings?"
Spike drew his staff back, the flow of green ebbing but not fading completely. "Yeah. It just kinda appeared once we won. How do you feel?"
Garble thrust a finger at Spike. "Unlike you, I bet she's already raring for another fight."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She slowly worked up to her feet and dared to reach out her hands. "I don't feel like I'm fading anymore, which is good! Thanks, Spike. I'd cook something up for myself, but it's hard to do that when you're bleeding buckets."
Sandra shook her head softly. "It's for the best we have two people then that can help with that, in case one of them needs the other. Now, I don't mean I'm sad we beat them, no, that's great. I just... would rather not be fighting other adventurers at all. I know they're not dragons, like you, but they're still thinking, feeling... people."
Spike lowered his staff and slung it on his back, patting Smolder on the shoulder. "I think I'm just about out for the moment, but you look way better than when I started, so totally worth it."
"Thanks, Bud." She returned the clap, patting him right back on the shoulder. "I feel it. I'll be back up to speed soon enough. Now, Gar Gar, you've been a good dragon."
Garble scowled at that. "Don't patronize me!"
Smolder smirked as she began to approach the chests, leaving footprints in the sand along the way. "You didn't open any chests and remembered what I said. I'm complimenting you. These chests look... bigger. Does that mean there's more in them?"
Sandra left the sight on the ground, the grim reminder of what they had just been fighting. "It could be. After bosses..." She frowned with her own struggle to remember. "The rules are different. We should just open them up. Things will spill out, or one great thing. It's keyed to the party, rather then the person opening it, so we can decide who gets what afterwards."
Spike lifted into the air, darting forward on his relatively small wings. "Well, in that case, let's get opening! We deserve a little reward time after that floor."
With a communal cheer for the loot before them, they descended upon the boxes, each getting their own to pull open. As if the contents were being held down in place by force, the moment the cover was swung open, they flew free, depositing an assortment of things on the ground around each of them. One bounced off Garble's face and he grabbed it with an angry huff, but the set of armor did not have feelings, or a response.
Spike's chest was the only one that didn't explode in a bomb of goodies, instead projecting a cone of light upwards that shone different colors in a rainbowish swirl before a great sword emerged from within, far too large to have actually fit in the chest.
Sandra suddenly laughed, slapping her right thigh. "The dungeon has spoken, Garble wins again. That's clearly yours. That has to be at least a rare drop, if not legendary... Almost a shame it's only on the third floor."
Smolder arched a brow at that. "I'm sorry, but you stopped making sense. Care to break that down a little?"
Spike turned away from the glowing blade, facing everyone else instead. "Oh, I get it!"
"You do?" echoed all his friends.
"It's like Ogres and Oubliettes, of course." He hiked a thumb back at the still floating sword. "It has a level, based on the floor we found it on, so it's a very good level 3 item. If we found something equally as good, but on a higher floor, it'd be even better. Right?"
A voice suddenly spoke in Spike's ear, "Are you alright?"
"Huh? Oh, hey, Twilight. We just finished a huge fight." He began to walk in a loose circle as he spoke with his sister. "It was tough, but we did it."
Garble peered at him as he wandered off. With a shrug he marched up and snatched the blade from the air. The light suddenly inverted, becoming a spotlight over him as triumphant music swelled. "Woah!" His entire form went tense as some strange power seemed to flow through him for just a moment before fading. "What was that?"
"Bind on pickup," advised Sandra. "That sword is now yours. None of us could use it even if we wanted to. Even if we swapped classes to something that would like it. No creature can ever wield it besides you. You could sell it, if you ever wanted. Trained smiths can smelt it down to parts that're useful for working with other magic items, but as a sword, it's yours forever."
Smolder was picking through the things scattered in the sand. "Hey, supplies." She began to gather up potions with a merry whistle. "Some of this stuff I have no idea what it is."
Sandra pointed to what looked like a beetle carapace. "Some of this is crafting material. Give this to someone who's good at it and they can make great stuff out of it." She was smiling, looking proud and in her element. "I've gotten some of it from the fields outside the city, but this is obviously way better."
"I'm being careful." Spike was looping back around, still conversing. "It was Smolder that got hurt." He suddenly winced and rubbed the side of his head. "No shouting, please. She's alright."
Smolder tucked her newfound collection of potions away as she turned to Spike. "Is that Twilight? Hey Twilight!"
"Huh? Yeah, that was her. See, fine." Spike waved lightly at Smolder even as he wandered right on past.
"Spike, your magic dipped," fretted Twilight. "And now you tell me Smolder was hurt! Were you hurt? I'm still looking into how to get you home, without... whatever it is you're doing."
"We're climbing that tower I told you about." He hopped up and perched on one of the already open chests. "We just cleared floor three. If we can get to ten, we can teleport back down and come back later. We're doing it."
"You're getting hurt." He could hear her deflating. "How do I even say, 'be careful' in a situation like that? Your magic's looking... a little better. Are you sure you're alright?"
Sandra inclined her head faintly. "Who is he talking to? He's really into that conversation."
"It's his pony princess." Garble rolled his eyes. "She can fight, but hates doing it. She isn't here though. Hey, Spike, is she getting us home or do we keep climbing?" he shouted towards the distracted smaller dragon. He swung the blade while waiting for an answer, admiring the crackling electricity the blade seemed to leave behind in the air with every motion. "I'm keeping this..."
Smolder shook her head. "Doubt it, or we'd all vanish, or maybe there'd be a hole or a door to walk into or something. Or she'd just appear, pop, out of nowhere." She smirked at the idea. "That'd be interesting. Right in the middle of a fight, Sudden Twilight." She spread her hands, fingers wriggling. "Ta da, surprise pony! You two, help me gather all this up."
Spike looked towards his party members as they gathered up all the treasure. As the last piece of each chest was picked up, that chest vanished. He fell suddenly to the sand, landing with a soft thump. "Shoulda saw that coming." All the treasure of his box had been gathered. "Twilight, it's time for us to push on. We're alright, promise."
"You literally can't promise that, Spike... Just... do your best. You're my #1 assistant, and best little brother... Don't forget that."