Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The two surviving insectoids did not attack.

Siv found them hiding beneath a collapsed bridge three streets from the sunken court. One had lost an arm. The other pressed fragments of cloth against a wound in its side. Neither carried a seal, and neither made any effort to follow Varkesh.

The quickling returned without revealing herself to the insects.

"They are finished." She told Aderic. "Alive, but not fighting."

That left one enemy team.

Max’s elites occupied a former transit court near the center of the ruined city. Four streets entered the broad rectangular space. Broken walkways crossed overhead, connecting buildings that no longer possessed complete upper floors. A dry fountain filled the middle. Beneath its cracked basin, Dagna found the remains of a control network that once operated doors throughout the district.

The doors were gone.

Their channels remained.

The runesmith and ward mage worked together while the others prepared. They could not restore the old system, but they could make parts of it respond once. A slab beneath the eastern walkway could be dropped. Two damaged walls could be encouraged to fall outward. A line of dormant lamps could produce enough light to blind anyone approaching from the dark southern street.

None of the measures would defeat Varkesh.

They would separate his team for seconds.

Seconds were enough when everyone understood how to use them.

Aderic reviewed the enemy’s remaining force. Varkesh still had himself, the beastkin healer, two reptilian fighters, two gnolls, and one wounded harpy. Seven against ten.

Numbers did not make the fight safe. The team had seen the minotaur turn negotiation into an ambush and a losing position into an opening. He would not enter the court merely because Siv left an obvious trail.

So the quickling left several.

One suggested Max’s team had split while searching for the insectoid survivors. Another showed the field healer moving toward a building on the northern side. A third indicated the seal carrier had crossed the southern approach.

Every trail contained something true.

None revealed the entire position.

The orc bulwark stood inside the southern entrance with his shield fixed to his uninjured arm. The field healer had restored the other well enough for movement but not for another direct contest of strength. The dwarf shieldthane waited behind the dry fountain. The ranger occupied a broken walkway with a clear view of the sky. Siv disappeared into the western building.

Aderic carried two seals. The bulwark carried the other two.

They did not hide that fact once Varkesh’s harpy passed above the court.

The wounded scout circled twice and withdrew.

Varkesh came fifteen minutes later.

One reptilian fighter appeared in the northern street. A gnoll crossed a rooftop to the east. The harpy remained out of sight. Varkesh himself approached from the south with the healer and the second reptilian fighter.

The minotaur stopped outside the court.

"You chose an open place." He called.

Aderic stood beside the fountain. "You wanted to find us."

"I wanted to avoid wasting more lives. We have three seals. You have four. There is no reason every remaining fighter must die."

The insectoid bodies in the sunken court made the appeal worthless. Varkesh had offered cooperation to every team only when it placed him in control.

"Place your seals on the ground and withdraw." Aderic said. "Your surviving team leaves the dungeon alive."

Varkesh laughed once. "You offer mercy because you cannot take them."

"I offer it because you cannot keep them."

The minotaur looked beyond Aderic, counting visible defenders and measuring the routes between them. He saw the shieldthane near the fountain. He saw the bulwark in the southern entrance and the spellblade beside the western wall. He did not see the ranger, Siv, Dagna, or the ward mage.

He knew they were present.

His healer carried the reinforced seal case beneath a heavy cloak. She remained far enough behind him to flee if the opening attack failed.

Varkesh drew his axe.

The gnoll on the eastern roof moved at the same time.

He crossed the broken walkway toward the northern building, following the trail Siv left for the field healer. The first reptilian fighter entered from the north. The wounded harpy dropped from above the western roof while the second gnoll emerged behind the bulwark.

Varkesh had again committed from every direction.

Aderic lowered one hand.

Dagna activated the old channels.

The eastern walkway collapsed beneath the gnoll. Stone and rotten timber carried him into an enclosed room below. The southern lamps flashed. Varkesh turned his head from the sudden light, while the second gnoll lost sight of the bulwark for half a breath.

The orc used that half breath to strike.

His shield caught the gnoll squarely and threw him into the street. The spellblade intercepted the reptilian fighter entering from the north. Siv appeared behind the creature only long enough to cut the strap securing its shield before disappearing into the building again.

The ranger’s arrow struck the harpy through the already damaged wing.

She fell onto the western walkway.

Varkesh charged the fountain.

Aderic did not meet the minotaur alone. The dwarf shieldthane came from the right while the orc shaman sent a ridge of broken stone through Varkesh’s path. The minotaur broke the ridge with the lower edge of his axe and turned the same movement into a strike at Aderic.

The commander’s shield caught it at an angle.

The force drove him across the square.

Varkesh followed, leaving the healer exposed in the southern street.

That was what Aderic wanted him to believe.

The second reptilian fighter waited beside her beneath concealment magic. It attacked when Siv entered the street.

The quickling vanished before its blade reached her.

Not speed. A ward.

The beastkin healer had prepared a false image of the seal case and positioned it where the team would see it. The real case remained somewhere else.

"Healer is a decoy." Siv called.

Varkesh smiled as his axe battered Aderic’s shield again.

The gnoll trapped beneath the walkway broke through the weakened wall. A reinforced case was tied across his back.

He ran west.

The elf ranger changed targets. His first arrow struck the case and deflected. The second hit the gnoll’s thigh. The creature stumbled without falling.

The ward mage raised a barrier across the western exit.

The gnoll collided with it and turned toward the nearest building. Siv met him inside the doorway. She could not overpower him. She drove him back into the court where the ranger retained a clear shot.

Varkesh abandoned Aderic and turned toward the seal carrier.

The orc bulwark blocked his path.

The minotaur’s first strike hit the shield hard enough to bend its rim. The orc gave ground. The second opened a crack through the reinforced center. The healer’s warning had been clear: the injured arm could not absorb another direct contest.

The bulwark held anyway.

Behind him, Siv cut the seal case free. Dagna dragged it across the ground with a line attached to one of her tools. The gnoll tried to follow and received an arrow beneath the jaw.

Varkesh roared and swung a third time.

The bulwark shifted his damaged shield around the axe head.

Instead of resisting the force, he locked both arms around the weapon.

Varkesh pulled.

The orc went with him.

The minotaur drove one of his horn into the bulwark’s chest and lifted him from the ground. Armor folded. The orc did not release the axe. He forced his failing weight against the haft, holding the weapon across Varkesh’s body.

Aderic reached them first.

His sword entered beneath the minotaur’s raised arm. The shieldthane struck Varkesh behind the knee. The minotaur dropped to one leg but tore the axe free with enough force to throw the dying orc aside.

The bulwark hit the ground.

His body began to dissolve before the field healer reached him.

There was no resurrection within the challenge. His Eternal Soul returned to Max’s dungeon, leaving empty armor and a broken shield behind.

The team did not stop.

The shieldthane took the bulwark’s position against Varkesh. Aderic changed the formation with two gestures. The shaman turned his attention from the southern fighter to the minotaur. Stone closed around one of Varkesh’s feet.

The beastkin healer attempted to reach him.

The ward mage separated them with a barrier.

Siv and the ranger dealt with the wounded harpy before she could rise. The spellblade killed the northern reptilian fighter after Dagna’s damaged lamp network blinded it a second time. The remaining gnoll abandoned the eastern building and ran for the southern street.

He found the healer’s decoy fighter already dead and the exit blocked by falling masonry.

Varkesh fought after his team began collapsing around him.

He broke the shieldthane’s first shield. He wounded Aderic along the ribs. He tore free of the shaman’s stone and nearly reached Dagna before the spellblade returned from the northern street.

What he could not do was force the remaining elites to fight as individuals.

Every attack met two positions. Every retreat closed another route. When he turned toward the healer, the ranger forced her away. When he pursued Aderic, the shieldthane took his side. When he tried to regain open ground, the shaman broke the street beneath him.

Varkesh died beside the dry fountain.

The beastkin healer saw him fall and threw down her staff.

"The seals for passage." She said. "You offered it."

Aderic looked toward the place where the orc bulwark’s armor remained.

"Before you attacked."

The healer reached for hidden magic instead of surrendering fully. The ward mage felt it gather. Her barrier closed before the spell could touch the seal case.

The ranger’s arrow ended the attempt.

The last gnoll and reptilian fighter died trying to escape through separate streets. Neither reached the edge of the court.

When the noise ended, no member of Varkesh’s team remained alive.

Dagna opened the reinforced case.

Three bronze seals lay inside.

She placed them beside the four Max’s team already carried. Light moved across all seven disks. Thin lines connected their edges, forming a map of the ruined city. A bright route led toward the platform where the challenge began.

The final gate waited there.

The field healer knelt beside the bulwark’s empty armor even though there was nothing he could treat. He picked up the broken shield and strapped it across his own pack.

"He will be alive when we return." The shieldthane said.

They secured the seven seals in three separate places. Aderic carried three, Dagna carried two, and the shieldthane carried two beneath his armor.

Siv checked the streets. She found signs that the insectoid survivors had watched part of the battle, but their trail led away from the transit court.

Nine elites left the chosen ground.

The path of light appeared beneath their feet.

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