"Hold still!" Tress's voice roared through the spiral as she yanked me by the hand.

  Dread had already made me grow cold as the darkness below opened its mouth to swallow me.

  The exact place I stepped on didn’t just fall to pieces into the void below—it pulled me as if gravity had suddenly increased.

  There was magic in those loosened steps, designed to make us fall.

  I extended my free hand and grabbed Tress’s other one as she pulled me back up.

  We all took a collective step back, hugging the wall, and breathed.

  "What do you guys think?" I asked, already having a pretty good hunch about what this place was.

  "It’s a minefield," Mary muttered. "It’s a trap to make us fall. It all depends on where we step."

  She pointed to the loosened ground, and it was a perfect square.

  It felt like I was in some old Indiana Jones movie, but she was right.

  "I’ll run a test," Mary added, stepping forward and stopping exactly where I’d almost fallen. She grabbed her shield with both hands and slammed it against the ground, but nothing happened.

  The black mass remained untouched.

  "Do you mind, Elk? You’ve got the best clothes for us to grab onto in case it pulls you," I offered with a grimace. I didn’t enjoy offering a friend as a sacrifice.

  "I never thought these clothes would be more than a show of my failure in the eyes of the other Arahaktars," he said, more to himself than to us, his voice carrying a strange emotion.

  There was so much to Elk that I didn’t know yet, but he gave me no chance to press further into it.

  "I’ll do it gladly. Just hold on firmly, please."

  I stepped behind him, gripping the fabric near his right shoulder with both hands while Tress took the other side.

  He stepped ahead.

  Nothing.

  We all breathed in relief.

  "Another one, pal," I muttered.

  "To where?" he asked, and I looked down at the ground.

  Now it became clear we had three options—left, middle, and right.

  We had no idea if just one of the blocks was safe or if two of them were. I had stepped on the right one when I almost fell and on the middle one now that Elk was safe.

  "Middle?" I offered, and he took the small leap quickly, not giving himself time to hesitate.

  He was pulled with a mighty force toward the void, and the fabric of his tunic started to tear beneath my fingers as I pulled back. But the pull would drag us with him.

  I had to use a small [Lightning Momentum] to pull myself in the other direction, and thankfully, that was enough for Tress and Elk to hold on to the left wall—proving, thankfully, that it was a safe one.

  "Okay, this is not going to work," Elk panted, his forehead soaked with sweat.

  "We need to figure out a different way to test the platforms." Tress's gaze was already distant, trying to piece it together.

  I stepped back to where Mary now sat and joined her.

  Not long after, we were sitting in a circle in the only small area of this third of the dungeon that was actually safe.

  Mary drank from the canteen we shared and passed it to Elk. By the time it was my turn, the thing was already empty.

  The devil shrugged at me, and I opened my shop.

  Refilling the canteen cost us 10 credits, but those were credits well spent.

  As I mentally pressed the Yes button, an idea came to mind.

  I remembered how Elk had dealt with the problem of the two female Arahaktars a day ago and decided to search for a rope.

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  Long Rope - 5 credits

  I bought three of them, and they magically appeared in my hands.

  "I guess someone has a plan," Tress said before drinking from the refilled canteen.

  "Mary’s shield is weightless unless someone tries to use it, right?" I asked. "What if someone tries to pull it from her?"

  Mary’s eyes widened, and she stood, already understanding the task. She extended her hand for me to give her the ropes.

  She quickly wrapped the three ropes around the handle of her shield, gave them to us, and sat atop her giant shield.

  "Now, try to pull me," she said with a smile, and we got to work.

  I counted down from three, gritted my teeth, and pulled with all the strength I could muster.

  She didn’t move an inch.

  We all grinned like we’d just won the lottery and decided to put it to the test.

  I wrapped the rope around my waist, and Tress tied a knot I’d never seen before. Then, I moved to the last platform we’d confirmed was secure, stepped onto the middle one—which we already knew was safe as well—and then jumped to the right one.

  The void tried to pull me in, but my fall was short-lived.

  It was exhausting to pull myself back up to the safe platform in the middle, but it was better than falling to my death.

  "Now, we just keep doing that until we reach the bottom," Elk said with a confident smile.

  "It’ll actually be fun trying to guess. Maybe we can count who gets the most right," Mary added, and I found it peculiar how she could find amusement in such a situation.

  "We can do that, but I think we should all jump on the three platforms. That’s why I bought three ropes."

  "But why? We just saw you struggling to climb back. Why would we tire ourselves out before fighting whatever's down there?" Elk asked.

  "Because defeating the boss is just the first task we need to complete to clear the dungeon—getting back up is another one. I know you don’t have movies back on your planet, but I’ve seen this before. Getting the prize is hard, but escaping is always a challenge, too. We better have a clear view of the way back when we need to climb up later."

  Elk seemed puzzled for a few seconds. I didn’t expect him to get the reference, but he understood the gist of it.

  The following thirty minutes weren’t pleasant, but we managed to get through it.

  We jumped from platform to platform, taking time to decide where to jump next after everyone was back on their feet.

  "Another point to Zach and Elk!" Mary shouted as Tress struggled to get back up.

  "What’s the score again?" the myriad asked, extending her hand and waiting for the canteen, which was in my inventory this time.

  "Zach 25, Elk 23, Tress 20," Mary said after counting in her head again.

  "Damn, is there math involved in this?" Tress asked between gulps.

  "Probably." I shrugged and laughed.

  The truth was, I had no idea. I’d studied just enough math to pass my exams after joining school late, and honestly, my friends did most of the work helping me with formulas before the actual tests. I spent most of my study time on history and social studies—the ones I deemed most important if I wanted to become a lawyer in the future.

  And now here I was, an intergalactic gladiator.

  I laughed at that too, looking at the path ahead. We were maybe twenty platforms away from reaching the end of the black zone of the crater.

  It was now clear the dungeon had three divisions. The first was the brown zone, where the golems had spawned to push us over the ledge. The second was this dark area filled with traps. And the third was the road leading to the boss.

  I genuinely hoped there wasn’t a third challenge before the boss, because we were freaking tired.

  "Keep counting," I called to Mary as we jumped.

  This time, I fell—but I was still ahead, so I was fine.

  "25, 23, 21. Is there an upset forming?" she said as if she were some kind of football commentator.

  And damn, there was an upset forming. I kept falling and falling on the next jumps.

  "25, 28, 26!" Mary called.

  I was the one trailing now, and Tress had managed to surpass me with just a few jumps. Frustration started building inside me.

  Can I be this competitive? I asked myself as I prepared for the next jump.

  When we reached the last jump, I realized I was way more competitive than I thought.

  "Zach is 38, Elk is 37, and Tress is 36!" Mary called, filled with excitement, now standing on her shield instead of sitting.

  "What’s that look on your face, Zach? You look like an Arahaktar before an arena duel. Isn’t this just to lighten the mood before the battle?" Elk asked, only half-joking.

  I shrugged.

  "I like to win, I guess."

  I had a 66% chance of winning, but if I fell, we’d tie, and there’d be no other platform to break it.

  "I’ll go middle," I called.

  "I’ll take the last one," Tress said with a smile, leaving the competition to me and Elk.

  "I guess you’ll fall, mate. Left is safe, I’m sure of it." Elk raised his hairless eyebrows in defiance and smirked.

  "Jump!" Mary called, and I jumped.

  The world didn’t fall from under my feet—Elk was the one falling.

  I crouched and extended a hand. He took it, already smiling.

  "All fun and games, right?" I said as he finally got up and shared the platform with me.

  "All fun and games, mate." He gave me one of his forearm shakes and looked ahead. "What now?"

  "We need to cross that veil, can’t you see it?" Tress pointed to the almost invisible curtain a few steps ahead of us, where no square platform waited.

  "Now that you say it..." Elk muttered as we watched Mary untying the ropes, storing them and her shield in her inventory, and jumping across the platforms to meet us.

  "I guess it’s time. Let’s go?" She stepped forward, placing one foot toward the veil.

  I looked down at the arena below. It wasn’t that far now. If we fell from here, we probably wouldn’t die, and yet, I still couldn’t make out what the monster down there looked like.

  A veil covered the rectangular arena, revealing only its silhouette.

  It was clearly a four-legged beast, but there was something about the way it moved—a strange, flowing motion.

  A shiver ran down my spine as we stepped toward the veil.

  As soon as we crossed it, a message popped up.

  Dungeon Boss Encountered - Shadow Drake - Rank F3