The stairs into Blackroot Hollow were too narrow for comfort.
Kai realized that immediately.
The stone steps descended in a crooked spiral, damp with moss and slick black roots that pushed through the cracks like veins. Every few steps, Ember’s wing brushed against the wall, and every time it happened, she made a low irritated sound in her throat.
“This place is badly shaped,” she muttered.
“It’s a dungeon,” Kai said. “I don’t think comfort was the goal.”
“It should be wider.”
“For dragons?”
“For me.”
Kai glanced back at her.
Her horns nearly scraped the ceiling.
“Yeah, fair.”
Ember’s tail was wrapped around his wrist again, loose enough that he could move, tight enough that she clearly had no intention of letting go. Her other hand trailed along the wall, claws cutting faint lines into the damp stone.
The system hovered in the corner of Kai’s vision.
[Dungeon: Blackroot Hollow]
[Floor 1]
[Objective: Retrieve the Forgotten Relic.]
[Warning: Exit sealed until floor guardian defeated.]
Kai tried not to think too hard about that last part.
Naturally, that made him think about it constantly.
After a few minutes, the stairs ended in a wide chamber covered in roots. Pale green light leaked from glowing fungus along the walls, barely enough to see by. The air smelled like wet earth, old leaves, and something faintly burned.
Ember stopped.
Kai almost walked into her.
“What?”
She lifted her head slightly, eyes narrowing.
“The heat is deeper.”
“Still the weird kind?”
“Yes.”
“Like something waiting to burn?”
Her gaze flicked to him.
“You remembered.”
“You said it very ominously.”
“It remains true.”
The moment Kai stepped fully into the chamber, the roots on the floor twitched.
He froze.
“Please tell me that was normal dungeon movement.”
The roots snapped upward.
Kai jumped back as three vine-like tendrils burst from the floor, whipping toward his face. Ember yanked him behind her with her tail and slashed one apart with her claws. The severed root writhed on the ground, leaking dark sap.
The system flashed.
[Enemy detected: Root Lashers.]
[Threat Level: Low.]
“Low?” Kai shouted as another root cracked against the wall beside his head.
Ember grabbed two tendrils at once and ripped them out of the ground.
“They are weak.”
“For you!”
A root lashed toward Kai’s ankles. He swung his blade down, cutting it in half before it could wrap around him. Another came from the side. He ducked, stumbled, and almost fell.
Ember’s wing snapped out behind him, catching his back and pushing him upright.
“Kai.”
“I know!”
“You nearly fell.”
“I was doing a tactical drop.”
“You were falling.”
“I said nearly.”
Ember tore the final root from the floor and crushed it under her foot.
The chamber went still.
Kai leaned on his weapon, breathing hard.
The system chimed.
[Combat completed.]
[Performance: Acceptable.]
Kai pointed at the screen.
“One day, I want better than acceptable.”
[Request noted.]
He waited.
Nothing else appeared.
“That’s it?”
[Yes.]
Ember stepped beside him and brushed a bit of dirt from his shoulder.
“You survived.”
“That’s a very low bar.”
“It is the most important bar.”
Kai could not argue with that.
They continued through a tunnel on the far side of the chamber. The dungeon twisted deeper underground, though somehow roots still filled every wall and ceiling. Some were thin as fingers. Others were thick as tree trunks, pulsing faintly with green light.
After a while, the tunnel opened into a room with a shallow black pool in the center.
Kai stopped at the edge.
“I hate this already.”
Ember looked into the water.
“It is shallow.”
“That’s what it wants us to think.”
“The water wants?”
“The dungeon wants.”
Ember considered this, then nodded once.
“That is more reasonable.”
Kai wasn’t sure it was, but he accepted the support.
A stone door stood on the opposite side of the pool. Three carved symbols glowed above it: a leaf, a flame, and an eye.
The system appeared.
[Puzzle Chamber Detected.]
Kai groaned.
“No.”
Ember tilted her head.
“What is a puzzle chamber?”
“It means the dungeon wants us to think.”
Ember’s expression darkened.
“Annoying.”
“Very.”
In front of the pool stood three stone pedestals, each marked with one of the same symbols.
Kai walked around them carefully.
“So probably we have to press them in the right order.”
Ember reached toward the flame symbol.
Kai grabbed her wrist.
“Wait.”
She looked down at his hand.
“What?”
“Don’t just press things.”
“Why?”
“Because traps.”
Ember stared at the pedestals.
Then at him.
“Then we destroy the traps.”
“That is not how puzzles work.”
“It should be.”
Kai looked at the symbols again.
Leaf. Flame. Eye.
The Forgotten Relic was somewhere deeper. Ember sensed heat below. The dungeon was forest-themed. Roots, vines, moss.
“Maybe it’s life cycle stuff,” Kai muttered.
Ember leaned closer, her wing brushing his back.
“Explain.”
“Leaf burns in flame. Flame reveals? Eye sees?”
“That is nonsense.”
“I’m thinking.”
“You look pained.”
“That’s how thinking feels sometimes.”
The system chimed.
[Observation available.]
Kai blinked.
“Oh, now you help?”
[The eye watches what survives.]
Kai stared.
“That is not help.”
Ember narrowed her eyes.
“The eye watches what survives,” she repeated.
Kai looked at the symbols again.
Leaf. Flame. Eye.
“What survives fire?”
Ember answered immediately.
“A dragon.”
Kai gave her a look.
“Besides dragons.”
“Stronger dragons.”
“Ember.”
She huffed.
Kai looked at the pool. In the black water, faint reflections moved. Not of him. Not of Ember.
A tree.
Burning.
Then green shoots growing from ash.
“Oh,” Kai said. “Leaf. Flame. Leaf again?”
“There is no second leaf.”
“Right.”
He looked at the symbols.
“Maybe leaf, flame, eye. Growth, destruction, witness?”
“That sounds made up.”
“It is.”
Kai pressed the leaf symbol.
The room trembled.
Then he pressed the flame.
The water in the pool began to steam.
“Good?” Kai asked.
Ember pulled him slightly behind her.
“Not sure.”
Kai pressed the eye.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the stone door rumbled open.
Kai let out a breath.
“Yes.”
Ember looked mildly disappointed.
“I expected more violence.”
“I’m thankful for less.”
The pool suddenly erupted.
A black tendril shot out of the water and wrapped around Kai’s leg.
He hit the ground hard.
“Less violence canceled!”
Ember snarled.
The tendril dragged Kai toward the pool. He stabbed at it, but the wet root was slick and tough.
Ember’s tail tightened around his wrist.
She dug her claws into the stone floor and pulled.
The tendril pulled back.
Kai was stretched between them.
“This is awful!”
Ember’s eyes flashed.
“You do not take him.”
With one brutal yank, she dragged Kai back and sliced through the tendril with her wing claw. The severed end snapped into the water, and the pool went still again.
Kai lay on the floor, breathing hard.
Ember crouched over him.
“You are hurt?”
“My pride mostly.”
“I will kill the pool.”
“Please don’t. I think the door’s open.”
She glared at the water for several seconds before helping him up.
They passed through the stone door into a long hall lined with old statues. Each statue was carved like a hooded figure holding a bowl of stone flame.
Kai did not like the statues.
Statues in dungeons were never just statues.
“Those are going to move,” he whispered.
Ember looked at them.
“Then I will break them.”
“Maybe don’t unless they move first.”
“Why?”
“Because maybe breaking them triggers something worse.”
Ember frowned.
“This place is cowardly.”
“Yeah. Dungeons do that.”
Halfway down the hall, the flames in the bowls lit green.
Kai stopped.
The statues turned their heads.
“I hate being right.”
Stone cracked as the first statue stepped from its pedestal.
Then another.
Then another.
The system flashed.
[Enemies detected: Hollow Wardens.]
[Threat Level: Moderate.]
The first warden swung its stone bowl like a hammer. Kai ducked, and the impact shattered the floor beside him.
Ember lunged forward, claws raking across its chest. Stone cracked, but the warden kept moving.
“They are harder than roots,” she said.
“Yeah, I noticed!”
Kai blocked another strike and felt the force rattle his arms. He slid back, boots scraping stone.
A green flame flared inside the warden’s bowl.
The system flashed.
[Dodge.]
Kai threw himself sideways as flame burst across the hall.
Heat washed over him.
Ember’s wing swept around him, shielding him from the worst of it.
The flame splashed across her wing membrane, and she snarled.
Kai’s eyes widened.
“Ember!”
“I am fine.”
“You got hit!”
“It was weak.”
Her eyes burned hotter than the green fire.
“My turn.”
She slammed both hands into the warden’s chest and drove it backward into another statue. Stone exploded. Kai used the opening to stab the glowing core inside the cracked chest.
The warden collapsed.
The next two attacked together.
Kai and Ember moved better this time. She drew their attention, brutal and direct, while Kai struck at exposed cores when their bodies cracked. It was messy. Loud. Terrifying.
But it worked.
When the final warden fell, Kai leaned against the wall, covered in stone dust.
The system chimed.
[Combat completed.]
[Team synchronization improved.]
[Dragon-form stability increased: 12%.]
Ember looked at the screen.
“Twelve.”
“That’s double six.”
“It is still not a dragon.”
“No, but it’s better.”
She flexed her wings, then glanced at Kai.
“You were not terrible.”
Kai smiled weakly.
“High praise.”
“It is.”
They continued deeper.
The heat Ember had sensed grew stronger.
Not hot exactly.
Alive.
Kai could feel it now too, a strange warmth under his skin, like standing near a fire hidden behind a wall.
The tunnel sloped downward until it opened into a massive chamber.
Roots covered the ceiling, twisting together around a glowing object suspended high above the center of the room. Kai could not make out what it was. It was wrapped in vines, pulsing faintly with orange-gold light.
The Forgotten Relic.
Probably.
Between them and it stood a creature made of bark, bone, and green flame.
It was huge.
Its body was shaped like a horned beast, but its ribs were exposed, filled with burning moss. One arm ended in claws. The other was a twisted mass of roots dragging across the floor.
The system window turned red again.
[Floor Guardian Detected.]
[Name: Blackroot Devourer.]
[Threat Level: High.]
[Warning: Secondary hostile presence detected.]
Kai barely had time to read the last line before the ceiling split.
A swarm of burning vine-spiders dropped from above, skittering toward the glowing relic.
Ember’s eyes snapped upward.
“They are going for it.”
Kai gripped his weapon.
“I’ll hold the big one.”
Ember looked at him like he had lost his mind.
“No.”
“We can’t let them take the relic!”
“Kai—”
“Go!”
For one second, Ember hesitated.
That was rare.
Then the spiders leapt toward the hanging roots.
Ember cursed in a language Kai did not understand and launched herself upward, wings beating hard as she tore into the swarm.
Kai turned back just in time to see the Blackroot Devourer charging.
“Oh,” he said.
The beast hit him like a falling tree.
Kai blocked, but the impact threw him across the chamber. He slammed into the ground, rolled, and barely got his weapon up before a root-claw smashed down.
Stone cracked around him.
The system flashed.
[Danger.]
“No kidding!”
Kai scrambled back.
Above him, Ember ripped through the vine-spiders, but more kept dropping from the ceiling. Her wings flashed in the orange light as she fought to keep them away from the relic.
“Kai!” she shouted.
“I’m fine!”
He was not fine.
The Devourer’s green-flame ribs flared. Roots burst from the floor around Kai, trapping his legs.
He slashed one apart.
Another wrapped around his waist.
The boss raised its massive claw.
Kai pulled hard, but the roots held.
The system window flashed red.
[Immediate evasion required.]
“I’m trying!”
Ember looked down from above.
Her eyes widened.
“Kai!”
The Devourer’s claw came down.
And Kai could not move.