Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Breaking Step, Chapter 01

With a scream, wind ripped the crate apart. Broken wood flew in all directions, a plank shattering on the wall, partially embedding itself. Tibs kept screaming as he tried to keep the pieces within the whirlwind. When the last of it flew out, past his head, he dropped to his knees, panting as the wind died.

He wiped at his eyes and cursed himself for it. He didn't have time for tears or the pain of loss. He wanted to keep himself filled with ice so he wouldn't have to feel it, but he needed to train, and, for that, he had to channel the other elements. Water was good to fight and defend himself with, but if he was going to bring the guild down, he needed to master all his elements because they knew he had Water.

They had many adventurers of higher rank in that element, much older and with years more training than he had. His one advantage was his many elements. If he could figure out how to recreate what he'd seen other Runners and adventurers do with them.

He gritted his teeth and stood.

He'd seen Carina use Air to turn items into projectiles. He'd even sensed how she wove the essence to make it happen.

He recreated the weave and, as the wind picked up in the center of the abandoned warehouse, it was already frayed at the edges. He focussed, willed them back into place; added essence to increase the wind and fought to keep the weave from breaking under the added pressure.

Dirt rose off the floor into the whirlwind, along with smaller debris left over from the day's previous practice. There. That was how he should be. Now, all he needed to do was alter the weave so it would wrap ar—It unraveled, and the wind died, dropping what it had kept aloft.

"Why?" Tibs screamed. "Why can't I do this?"

No answer came. Air was probably too busy having fun to bother helping him avenge someone dedicated to her.

Killing Sebastian hadn't been enough.

He'd killed Carina, but only because the guild had let him do it. They hadn't upheld their part of the bargain with the people of Kragle Rock. With the Runners they had brought here to serve as food for the dungeon.

To indenture the survivors into the guild's service.

It was what Alistair had told him, using less harsh words. What Bardik showed him through his punishment. They were all here only to serve the guild.

It acted like the Runners were valuable, and yet had left them to fend for themselves when Sebastian tried to gain control of the town, then when he returned to destroy it.

To destroy Tibs.

Tibs screamed, unable to stop the memory of the man running a knife along Carina's throat. Of how he was kept from saving her life.

He wanted to feed his rage to Fire, but, as angry as he was, there would be nothing left of the building if he did; of the neighborhood. It was possible that all that would survive of the town was the guild building, and that was the opposite of what Tibs wanted.

He switched to Earth. Sent a wave of it out, made the ground ripple, then flattened it. He formed a weave through the dirt, used it to shape it, lift it in the air. It immediately frayed, but not as much, as if something about earth essence made it want to stay unchanged.

He moved the dirt around him, added more essence to get it to move faster. If he couldn't use Air to make the sand blast Carina had, maybe he could use Earth directly to make it happen.

Except that Earth didn't want to move fast.

He could make columns to slam into his opponents, cracked the ground open to crush them once they'd fallen in. He'd done some of that when Sebastian attacked the town, and adventurers could make it happen faster than he did, but he had seen none of them manage the sand blast.