Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 25

Tibs sliced up, and the Gnoll fell away. He blocked the other's attack with his ice shield and skewered it. The heat struck him in the back, unbalancing him, but the ice covering his armor minimized the damage. It wasn't the first time a Gnoll used fire essence on him, and each time, they were more clever about how they used it. Like now, distracting him with multiple attacks from the front so he'd forget one of them behind had fire.

If not for the fact Sto created them, Tibs could think they were training and learning new ways to use their essence from watching the Runners fight.

Tibs quickly etched water essence. Three lines to focus, a spiral to pull from around it, with Arcanus to hold and make the resulting attack harder. It shattered against the fireball the Gnoll threw. Tibs would have needed more time to ensure the etching was tight enough it could resist, but that hadn't been the goal.

Tibs leaped through the wall of steam the impact created, adding air for the extra height, then came down on the Gnoll, sword first; impaling it in the creature's head as it watched him.

He formed a new sword, turning and readying himself for another attack.

Jackal slammed his last Gnoll against the wall.

Khumdar had two in a cloud of shadows, a determined expression on his face. They dropped to a knee, then fells to the side, and after a few more seconds, crumbled and were absorbed into the floor. The cleric dropped to a knee too, using his staff for support and panting heavily. He had spent a lot of his essence defeating them.

Don was fighting three, sending cloudy jets of essence at them. One jumped out of the way, while another caught a jet in the chest and melted, and the third lost an arm. Tibs opened his mouth to warn the sorcerer of the one behind him, but Don raised a hand, a spearhead forming, and threw it as he turned. It splashed, instead of impaling the Gnoll, but the corruption melted through it.

Tibs scanned for Mez to see how—He ran at the archer who leaned against the wall, fumbling for his belt bag. The gash in his side was so deep Tibs saw the essence diminish as the life drained out of the archer.

He had an essence wrap over it before reaching Mez. Then he pulled the healing potion out of the pouch and helped him drink it.

"I miss the days I could just call out to you and you'd heal me," Mez whispered, resting his head against the wall. His breathing improved quickly as the wound closed and the potion replenished the life essence.

It was interesting to Tibs that, unlike the potions that refilled the reserves, the essence from healing potion didn't change into that of the person drinking it. It remained life essence. He expected it was why it was so effective at healing, but how did the potion know not to change the essence?

"It's a good thing we have potions." Tibs glanced at Don, who watched the last of his attacker writhe on the floor with a self-satisfied smirk reminiscent of the old Don.

"Only when I'm not so out of it to take one," Mez replied. "And we're going through them quickly. I only have two left. Hopefully, not too many of them will get in a lucky shot in the next fights. And yes, I know luck's not a thing," the archer added as Tibs opened his mouth. "But it's better than me admitting I wasn't paying attention to the Metal user because all it made for the entire fight were swords. Until I had a javelin ripping my side open. I still had an arrow in its eye through that pain, though."

"Are you okay?" Don asked.

Mez showed the empty potion bottle. "Pretty much all healed."

"Jackal," Don called. "Mez needs a new—" he stopped as Jackal narrowed his eyes. "I mean, he could use a replacement for the potion he drank."