I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

Outside the cave, Jackson and Dune sat waiting on the loose dirt, backs against a fallen log. Something about her had struck Jackson as odd the entire time, she hadn’t said a single word since they’d first been introduced.

"Ephraim sure is taking his sweet time in there." Jackson mused out loud.

Dune looked his way without saying anything.

He blew out a breath. "Let me guess, he asked you to shut your mouth around me. Said that I lie and don’t believe a thing I say, huh?"

Nothing.

"Alright then. Maybe I should introduce myself properly," he leaned back on his hands, gazing at the canopy above. "We’ve known each other long enough. Back when I was with Robert and Sara, two more guys on our team, I first met him as a kid. Probably ten years old, if not less." He shook his head. "That little boy he used to be and the man he is now are two very different beings."

"How?" Dune snapped her head, voice cutting off any reply. "And why do you call him by that name, when he hates it so much? And tell me how Robert and Sara died?"

"Ah, we’re getting somewhere, now," he laughed softly. "Seems like you’re interested in his past."

"Yes."

He looked down at the spear lying across his lap, giving it a twist. "Have you met Anthony?"

"He visited us last week, wanted to take Felix to the capital with him. But Felix refused."

"Sounded just like him," Jackson agreed nodding to himself. "When he first came to join us on the adventures, he was brave. Very reckless; would charge straight ahead without any hesitation. And got himself injured plenty of times because of that. Back then he was hungry."

He didn’t give her a chance to interrupt him again. "But to answer your question on why I still call him Ephraim, I guess I could say that’s because I know him differently. Better. Because he wasn’t Felix back then. Felix came later."

She fell into contemplation, her lips moving quietly as she worked on whatever came to mind.

Then the ground shuddered beneath them, a low tremor rolling out from the cave mouth, loose stone and dust sifting down from the entrance overhead. Jackson’s head snapped toward it instantly. He shoved himself up off the ground, already reaching for his spear.

"Help! Help!"

The shout tore through the trees before Felix even came into view, sprinting flat out, the Blackstone serpent surging close behind him. It reared its head high and lunged, jaws snapping wide. Felix cut hard to the left, throwing himself out of range as the snake’s skull crashed into the rock wall beside him, debris raining down and the ground trembling with the force of it. He staggered, barely keeping his footing under him, and finally caught sight of Jackson and Dune standing at the cave mouth ahead.

"Don’t look! Just run! Run for your damn life!"

Jackson glanced sideways at Dune. "Guess I’ll finish the story another time." He planted his boots and broke into a sprint away from the cave without hesitation. However, unlike Jackson, Dune stayed put and watched Felix approach her with worried eyes.

"What are you doing?" Felix’s voice cracked, breath ragged, as he closed the last of the distance and grabbed her hand hard, hauling her into a run beside him.

The Blackstone serpent shot out of the cave after them, lowered its head, and went sharply to the right in order to tear itself through the line of trees until it stopped in front of them, blocking the entire way ahead. Dune and Felix froze in place at once.

"Alright. Now what," Felix breathed, staring right at it, at the beast’s head that stood about four meters above them. "This thing is at least twice the size that it normally is."

Felix shoved Dune behind him and stripped his bag off his shoulders with one movement. "You take that and get somewhere safe."

"I should help."

"Yes, I know, I know. But like I taught you, you wait for the right moment. Not before."

"I understand."

"On my signal, we—" The head of the snake shot downward before he completed his sentence.

Felix flung himself to the side as Dune darted to the left, the impact between the two making them both fall into the earth. The head shot back upwards and lunged straight for Dune.

"Stay away from her, you bastard." Felix turned again, beginning to pull its attention away.

Then came an explosion that ripped through the air above where the snake’s neck was, making its head snap backwards violently. A second one came after, much bigger than the first, almost flattening the head into the earth.

Jackson came charging from behind the serpent, his spear in his right hand and driving it all the way to the head of the beast. The sharp tip pierced right through the hard scales and sank deeply into the meat underneath.

The tail of the serpent lashed out violently, causing trees to shatter as it hit them, and let out an ear-piercing shriek as its entire body shook violently. Jackson held onto the spear through the worst of it, then yanked it free at the last second and leapt clear, driving the point into the trunk of the nearest tree to anchor himself. He hung there a moment, watching the serpent’s thrashing slow, its movements growing sluggish, before the spear’s ends contracted back down to their original length and he dropped lightly to the ground.

"Any idea how this thing got so damn big?" Felix backed away another step, eyes still tracking the serpent’s convulsing body.

"No idea." Jackson approached slowly, studying the scales. "Never seen a Blackstone this size in my life. Could be some kind of Numen inflation building up nearby over the last few months."

Felix went quiet for a second, thinking it through.

Dune could be part of it, though she was almost dry and she was the dungeon. Still feels a little too convenient to just brush off.

He nodded. "Yeah, could be. Every other monster around here’s already thinned out. Maybe all that extra Numen just funneled straight into her instead."

Jackson pressed his palm flat against the scales and channeled a thread of Numen through it. Fire spread instantly across the surface, racing outward in both directions like a lit fuse. "You gonna do something, or just stand there watching?"

The serpent’s head snapped back violently, its whole body seizing and thrashing under the sudden heat.

Felix scrambled backward, throwing both hands up defensively. "I’m weak."

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