I activated the ring of jumping, blasting myself out of the way. The Tyrant’s blade hit the stone where I’d just been standing, and I hit him with a shockwave of force from the side.
He barely even seemed to notice it. His armor was unmarked.
Then Jin shot him in the back of the head.
I heard the ring of metal as I suddenly remembered that Jin was there, and the Tyrant fell forward a step.
Jin’s attunement was preventing both the Tyrant and me from noticing him sneaking up, I realized. Nice.
I couldn’t be too congratulatory, though, because the Tyrant backhanded Jin a moment later.
The Tyrant was still moving, and from what I could see when he spun around to swing his sword at Jin, he was probably unhurt.
This is ridiculous. We can’t beat him in a straight fight.
“Keep him busy!” I shouted.
I heard the sounds of gunfire pinging against metal in response.
I rushed for where Jin had dropped the key next to the box.
Should I keep trying to open the box and hope there’s something useful inside?
No, that could take ages for something that may be unrelated.
I picked up the key and rushed to the other door: the one leading to the fire statues.
I set the key in the lock. It fit. I didn’t turn it.
“Hey! Over here!” I blasted the Tyrant from behind.
“You fight without honor. I am quite disappointed.” He turned, ignoring Jin for the moment, to walk in my direction.
“You know, my father says the same thing all the time.” I waited for the Tyrant to get right in front of me — and thus, in front of the door. “So this is going to be cathartic.”
I turned the key, then immediately activated the ring of jumping to push myself out of the way.
The door opened.
The fire statues inside fired out a blast of incinerating flame, enveloping the Tyrant completely.
It was the same way Jin had been annihilated in the first test. Those flames were a powerful trap.
When the flames subsided, however, the Tyrant still stood.
“You are a fool if you think that—”
Jin hurled a knife.
It pieced the Tyrant right in the center of the chest, through his armor.
The Tyrant lifted a hand to the knife, mumbling in disbelief. “How…?”
“I’ve picked up a few new tricks, too.”
Jin’s second knife lodged in the Tyrant’s skull, just below the crown.
The Tyrant fell to a knee, his greatsword slipping from his fingers.
“Finish it, then.”
I raised a hand for Jin to wait, then walked closer to our injured enemy. “One thing first.”
The Tyrant turned his masked face toward me, but remained silent.
“This is for breaking my favorite nose.” I grabbed the crown off his head, then slammed the pommel of my sword into the knife that was already embedded in his forehead.
His head snapped back and he crumpled to the ground.
I kicked him one more time for good measure, then sheathed my sword.
I sat the crown on my head, then turned to Jin. “So, you want the greatsword?”
“A little gaudy for my tastes, but it might be useful.” He stepped over and picked up the huge weapon. “Surprisingly light. Shall I try it on the box, Sire?”
I shook my now magnificently adorned head. “Nay, good Sir Jin. Perhaps I should take a look at the runes, now that I’m a bit better versed with them.”
I inspected the box. After deciphering the runes, I came to a sad conclusion.
“It would appear that my time as a monarch has come to a swift end.” I took off the crown, rotated it, and found a rune on the back.
I pressed the rune to a matching one on the box.
The crown vanished, and the box clicked open.
“Tragic,” Jin muttered, completely deadpan.
Inside the box, I found another key — this one colored red. “This is probably for the flame room.”
Jin retrieved his knives from the Tyrant’s corpse. “Shall I fetch Sera, then?”
I nodded.
Jin rang the return bell and vanished.
Before Sera appeared, I heard a crashing noise coming from the direction of the Tyrant’s room…followed by a roar loud enough that it caused me to tremble.
I took a defensive stance, looking in that room’s direction, but there was no monster in evidence.
Just the room — and one wall in the back that was glowing under my attuned sight.
The false wall.
I’d remembered that it existed, but I hadn’t planned to make it a priority to investigate unless we couldn’t find the solutions within the Tyrant’s room. With the Tyrant beaten, it had seemed irrelevant, except…
When Sera appeared, I turned to her immediately. “Exactly how tough was that dragon?”
“Why?” She glanced around. “And is that a dead Tyrant? I thought you weren’t going to fight him?”
“I liked his hat.”
“Corin.” Sera folded her arms.
I chuckled. “He was already in the room as soon as we opened it this time. And, from that and some other clues…”
The sound of a roar interrupted me, almost as if on cue.
I continued, “I think the dragon is awake.”
Sera clenched her hands into fists. “Too tough to beat outright, I think. Marissa and Patrick are stronger now, but…”
That was all I needed to hear. “Then let’s go help them.”
She picked up the return bell from the floor, but I shook my head.
“Not like that. Got enough mana to make us levitate?”
Sera nodded, then pointed at our feet. “Float.”
I felt a slight pressure beneath my feet, but that was it. When I glanced down, though, sure enough I was no longer touching the floor. “Huh. Okay, let’s hurry.’
“Where?”
I tucked the red key away in my pouch. “There.” I pointed at the Tyrant’s room. “Follow me.”
I ran. Sera followed.
Just as we expected, the vines didn’t respond when we entered the room. They weren’t activated if we never touched the floor.
“Oh, the false wall, you think it leads—”
I nodded. “Ready?”
“Go.”
I tapped the glowing wall with my sword.
It vanished.
In front of us was a tremendous chamber, probably a hundred feet wide and long, and at least thirty feet tall.
In the center, atop a pile of treasure, was a dragon.
It was the first dragon I had ever seen. Dragons were broadly believed to be mythical offshoots of more conventional serpents like Seiryu and Mizuchi. Rather than having snake-like bodies, dragons were built more like gigantic lions with scales instead of fur.
Both dragons and serpents were usually winged, although some serpents were wingless and capable of flight through other means.
This dragon had bright red scales, indicating a strong association with fire.
More importantly, it was awake, aware, and angry.
As I watched, it took a breath, and exhaled a wave of flame that enveloped nearly a quarter of the room.
The next thing I saw was Marissa, flying upward above the fire, then soaring downward with a gleaming fist.
“Star descends from sky!”
Then she punched the dragon in the face.
The dragon staggered back at the impact of her fist.
That was an image I would not soon forget.
Marissa landed, launching a series of punches and kicks against the creature’s neck without pause. Then she jumped aside to avoid a swipe from one of the dragon’s claws.
A blast of lightning struck the dragon on its side, and it hissed and turned its head toward a new target — Patrick.