Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 14

Tibs swung the knife, pushing against the hand on his head, holding him in place, as hard as he could. Pyan's back was arched, and that was enough to put her stomach out of reach of his blade.

She chuckled. "I get your point, well, more like it doesn't get me. In a direct attack, it's easy to stop you. But aren't all of you rogues about sneaking and catching people unaware? Carrying a sword at your hip is going to get in the way of that."

Tibs sheathed his knife as he stepped back. At least she hadn't dismissed him outright when he asked her to teach him sword fighting, but this demonstration wasn't going to be enough, it seemed.

"Not that I'm the kind of person who'll sneak and stab you in the back," he said, not bothering to mask his offense at her thinking every rogue was the same. "But in the dungeon, there aren't a lot of chances to fight like that. There's only two rooms with places to hide and sneak, and the rats make better use of the boulders than I could. I've tried throwing my knives, but Tandy can tell you how bad I am at it."

The rogue behind Pyan covered her smile with a hand, but nodded when her team leader looked over her shoulder.

Tibs tensed as Fedora walked behind Geoff at the same time, but she was attentive enough not to try to pick his pocket with someone looking in her direction. They were at the edge of the fighter's training field, so there was enough coming and going she didn't stand out too much as she kept walking behind the team, and assessing them. He was going to help her do that faster. Without him distracting them, they'd have noticed her at this point.

"That just means you need to practice more," Pyan said, focusing on him again.

"I don't think there's enough time in the year for him to improve significantly," Tandy said, chuckling.

"I am not that bad," he protested. He was, but she should be supporting him at least a little; they were both rogues, after all. "And until I do get better, there's still the problem of surviving."

She nodded. "True, but there's the problem of your strength. I don't know if you can get strong enough any faster. It might be best if you—"

Tibs quickly stepped forward and pulled the sword out of the scabbard at her hip, using earth essence to strengthen his arm, and raised it to her chest. He smiled and opened his mouth to make a point that he was stronger than he looked, but pain lanced through his arm as it cramped up and he dropped the sword.

"Tibs?" She hesitated while the rest of her team moved closer.

"I'm okay," he said between breaths. So long as he kept his arm cradled to his chest, and didn't jostle it, the pain was tolerable. "It's that damned corruption." It always passed, but would this time be minutes or hours?

He caught Fedora picking a coin out of Amid's robe and felt better. She was taking full advantage of the distraction he was inadvertently providing.

"From when you saved the dungeon," she said, awe in her voice. He glared at her. He endured it from strangers, people who weren't Runners, who didn't know him. But he knew she'd have done the same thing if she'd been the one Sto had called to. He was no different from any of them; just another Runner.

"I thought the clerics healed you."

"They weren't able to clear the corruption out entirely. They said it was because of how much there was." They were right, he thought, even if they didn't understand how it could happen. The corruption hadn't seeped into his essence immediately, only as more of it spilled out of the box and onto him. "A lot of it cleared out by itself afterward. It's not like what Don does. It's not poisoning me, it's just there, doing this—" he indicated his arm "—every so often."