I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

Felix kept his eyes on both serpents as they circled slowly around them, closing the distance an inch at a time. He pulled the stack of leftover cards from his pocket and gripped Dune’s shoulder tight with his left hand.

"On my signal." He kept his voice low.

Jackson nodded and pulled the cloth off his left hand. Small cuts marked the tip of each finger, blood beading up and dripping steady onto the dirt below.

Felix poured his Numen into the cards and threw them. They scattered wide in the air, then shot straight toward both serpents’ heads at once, cutting across their line of sight. Both snakes flinched back, shoving their heads down low against the ground.

"Now."

Jackson snapped his left hand forward. The blood on his fingers flew outward and curved through the air, gathering into a tight ring above each snake’s skull. He snapped his fingers once. The blood caught fire and went off in a string of small blasts, one after another, rocking both serpents back on their coils.

Felix used the opening to leap clear, landing just outside the ring the serpents had formed. He put a few more steps of distance between them before setting Dune down on the ground behind a fallen log. "Don’t move."

Jackson jumped clear as well, landing hard and driving straight back in with his spear, striking again and again at the nearest serpent’s flank. The tip barely left a mark against the stone-hard scales. Felix worked his hand through the air, guiding the cards in tight loops around both heads, never letting either snake settle long enough to focus on one target.

He broke into a sprint, cutting sideways until he came around in front of one serpent, then yanked the card away from its line of sight entirely. The snake’s head snapped up in confusion, jaw dropping open as it lunged down at him. Felix pulled the cards back at the last second and sent them straight into its open mouth instead.

The serpent’s head slammed into the ground, dust exploding up around the impact, loose stone kicking off in every direction. Felix ran straight up along its scales, flicking his wrist once, and a fresh card appeared between his fingers.

Inside the serpent’s mouth, the cards already lodged there began cutting through the soft flesh along the roof, working their way up until they caught and held against the upper jaw. Felix lifted his hand sharply, and the dozen cards buried inside drove forward all at once, tearing deep. The serpent’s head jerked straight up, a shrill scream tearing out of its throat.

The second serpent, still locked in combat with Jackson, snapped its head back toward the sound and turned fast, launching itself straight at the spot where Felix had been standing only a second before.

Felix threw himself sideways just in time. The serpent’s skull slammed into its own kin instead, and the moment it made contact, the cards buried deep in the first serpent’s mouth went off in one final blast. Both bodies shook violently under the force of it, scales cracking loose and raining down across the clearing.

Felix’s gaze snapped south, toward the direction the two serpents had come from. He held his breath, eyes locked in place. Jackson was already moving, spear raised, ready to press the attack.

"Stop!"

"What?" Jackson pulled up short and turned his head.

"There’s more coming."

"Where?" Jackson followed his gaze and saw nothing but trees, dark and still.

Felix directed the card out from the serpent’s mouth and pointed them at the ground, then swept his finger toward the cave mouth in the distance.

The cave shook, a deep tremor rolling out from inside it, strong enough that the ground beneath their feet trembled and the trees around them shuddered down to their roots. The two serpents lying wounded on the ground slowly lifted their heads, shaking them from side to side, letting out long, shrill cries.

"What now then?" Jackson walked toward him.

Felix glanced back at Dune, still lying where he’d left her, then to the cards drifting back toward his open hand. He adjusted the bag across his chest and said, "Set the forest on fire."

Jackson tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"Burn everything." Felix was already running toward Dune, scooping her up as the noise from inside the cave grew louder, closer.

"Fine by me." Jackson retracted his spear down to half its length and gripped it tight in his left hand, coating the metal in a fresh layer of blood. He snapped it forward, and it extended out from both ends at once. He planted his front foot hard into the dirt, switched the spear to his right hand, pulled back, and hurled it straight up into the sky.

The cave shook again, harder this time, and a Blackstone serpent’s head pushed out from the opening, already moving fast toward its wounded kin.

High above, the spear stopped and flattened out, spinning in place. Blood flung outward from its length in every direction, scattering down across the treetops below. The first drop landed on a low branch and caught instantly, a small flame licking up along the bark. A second drop hit the ground cover a few meters off and the dry brush went up just as fast. Within seconds the fire had jumped from branch to branch, climbing higher, spreading wide along the canopy until entire trees stood wrapped in flame, one after another, the whole tree line lighting up in a widening ring.

It happened everywhere at once, and the forest burned like hell. Five more serpents poured out from the cave mouth, moving fast through the smoke and rising heat. The two already wounded turned and dragged themselves toward the one that had fallen, circling its still body, letting out shrill, mournful cries as the fire closed in around them from every side.

Hours later, as the sun dropped toward the horizon and painted the town in orange, the fire in the forest finally died out. Dozens of city guards and knights had spent the afternoon working the tree line, cutting firebreaks and hauling water up from the creek to keep the flames from spreading toward the outer farms. Smoke still hung low over the charred ground, drifting in slow grey sheets between the blackened trunks. No one had figured out what started it.

Hakimi arrived on the minister’s orders, walking in through what used to be the tree line, boots crunching over ash and broken branches. The destruction spread wider than he’d expected. Fallen trees lay stacked against each other in every direction, some still smoldering at the base. Stone hills that had stood for longer than the town itself were shattered into loose rubble, scattered wide across the clearing. His gaze moved past all of it and settled on the center, where something massive lay still on the blackened ground.

"Blackstone serpent." He said it quiet, almost to himself. Around him, knights were already crouched over the body, prying loose scales free and turning them over in their hands, comparing notes under their breath.

He walked up beside it and crouched low, running his eyes along its length. Deep stab wounds tore through the stone scales in a dozen places, some shallow, most clustered thick along the underside of the jaw and just above the skull, far worse than anywhere else on the body. He stayed there a long moment, studying the wounds near the head. "Such force."

He straightened and turned toward the cave mouth, still dark against the smoke-grey sky. "Check inside. Be careful. One of its kin might still be lurking around."

Two knights broke off toward the cave without a word, spears raised. Hakimi turned back to the body and pressed his fingers flat against the scales, walking the length of it slowly, letting his hand drag along the ridges as he moved toward the tail. Partway down, his fingers caught on something. He stopped and looked closer. A small edge of white was wedged tight between two scales.

He pulled at it gently until he had pulled out a piece of paper into his hand. This piece of paper was charred around the edges, having been burnt down completely, except for one corner where there remained the letter J.

Hakimi scoffed and squeezed the paper into his hand. "That insect."

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