With the kraken dead, we could take a few hours to rest. I sliced up the kraken, and we spent a bit of time cooking it, eating to regain energy. After a few minutes of devouring the delicious sushi, our wounds began to close, and our vitality was restored. We slept for an hour, and then we were ready to move on.

I led the way up to the broken door, and stepped through into the third room of the dungeon. We were on a balcony, in a vast cylinder of a room (much like the previous, only bigger). The floor was a few meters below, and full of spikes. Dotted about the room in a haphazard ascending trail were circular platforms, discs made of some white stone, several of which were just floating in the air.

Four of the platforms had thin grey monoliths on them, with lightning arcing around them, and a beam of lightning stretching away to another part of the room. Tracing the beams, I saw that all four led to a door at the top of the room, which was covered in lightning. Obviously, we’d have to disable the lightning rods to unlock the door.

Of course, there was the problem of getting to each. I gathered the darkness about me, and tried to fly, but once more it failed. “Okay, this is annoying. I can’t fly in this room, so how do we reach those lightning rod things, to unlock the door?”

Clary pointed to something at the end of the balcony, and said, “What about that?” She was gesturing at what looked to be a miniature cyclone of wind, standing in place. I tilted my head at it quizzically, then walked forward and extended my senses. It seemed to be a magical construct, designed to do… something. It looked to be Air magic, of which my knowledge extended only to flight, seeing as my flight spell was based off an Air spell.

I took a deep breath, stepped into the cyclone, and was rocketed into the air, the wind rushing past. Before I could get my bearings, I landed on one of the discs, above the balcony I’d started on, where the others were staring in awe. I steadied myself and cheered. “Now that was a rush! Come on, we should probably move quickly, and go disable those monoliths.”

Wabbit went first, calmly stepping into the cyclone. As he flew through the air, he lost his composure and landed on the platform as a pile of ruffled fur. He shook himself and began settling his fur. This entire dungeon hates me.

Malk stepped forward next, landing at the platform on the wrong foot and tripping forward, reaching out and clutching my shoulder to keep from falling. I smirked at him. “It’s unlike you to be so forward, dear Malk.”

He coughed awkwardly and quickly moved to the side. “My apologies.” He took a look at the cyclone and murmured, “It makes me want to paint just looking at it… I wish I’d brought my brushes.”

Clary was last, and after a few nervous glances at us she steeled herself and ran into the cyclone with forced glee, which became genuine as she twirled through the air, continuing to spin once she landed on the platform. She twirled into me and leaned, coming to rest in a comfortable position. Her face was flush with excitement, and she cheerfully declared, “That was awesome!” Then, she blinked at my closeness and stumbled to the side, blushing even more. “You’re a, um, you’ve, you’re a very good support, Shadow.”

I chuckled at her. “Onward, fellows. We still have the rest of the cylinder to traverse.” Now that we were all on the disc, I started looking around. This platform had two cyclones; one cyclone was where we landed from the balcony, and the second had to lead somewhere else. Shrugging, I walked into the gust of wind and whooshed through the air.

This time, I was prepared, and I landed gracefully in that action pose where you have one knee and one hand on the ground. I’d always wanted to do that. Looking around, I saw that this platform was only a little above the first platform in terms of elevation, but was on the opposite side of the room.

The others followed, this time a little steadier than their first landings, and I started looking around the room for the lightning rod thingies. Now, which of these is closest… I blinked in confusion when I noticed something strange; a bit of crackling lightning appeared to be moving, and getting closer to us. I focused on it and realized it wasn’t lightning.

It was a storm wisp.

Wisps are strange creatures, sort of related to elementals. See, elementals embody their element in a big way, but we all still maintain similar forms. We’ve all got skin, and hair, and we’re all sapient. But wisps seem to be more different. More disorderly, for one thing, and made of a pure element. A fire wisp would be something made entirely of flame, roaring across the wilderness and setting things ablaze. A dark wisp might be a living shadow, oozing through the dark places or hiding behind someone before consuming them.

Note to self, I should really figure out ways to manipulate my own shadow. Like, create living shadows of myself that can travel across walls and stuff and kill people by attacking their shadows. Or maybe have a second shadow, and do stuff with that? Something to think about.

Anyways, storm wisps are basically living pieces of lightning, rain and wind. Some, like this one, were less like storm clouds and more like lightning with a bit of wind. I alerted my friends. “Storm wisp is coming towards us. Probably more, I’d wager they’re summoned by those monoliths. Kind of obvious in hindsight, every room has to have some sort of obstacle.”

They nodded and prepared for a fight. Malk readied his sword, Wabbit his claws, and Clary nervously stood there. The wisp was still a ways off though, so I stepped into the next cyclone and was brought to another platform. This time, we were a lot higher up but only a meter to the right of the previous disc. The storm wisp was much closer now, and a bolt of lightning blasted towards us, originating from the creature. I casually waved my hand, catching the lightning and deflecting it into the walls.

I calmly entered the next cyclone and was deposited on the other side of the chamber, this time only about a meter higher, and far from the storm wisp which was harassing Malk and Clary, who were taking a few extra moments to enter the cyclone. Clary got hit by the edge of a blast just as she entered the cyclone. Once she arrived, I asked, “You okay?” She nodded, and I dashed to the next gust of wind.

I came out on a platform level with the lowest monolith but in a different area of the chamber. On the lightning rod disc, I saw two more storm wisps fly out of the monolith and begin making their way towards me. The one below rose swiftly to join them, propelling itself upward at impressive speeds. The descending wisps seemed almost slow in comparison. That’s odd.

Malk, Clary and Wabbit reached my platform a second later. “Okay, so those storm wisps are going to keep shooting at us while we try and reach the monoliths so we need to thin the herd now, before there are too many of them. They’re going to try to stop us from reaching the lightning rods, and if we get bogged down trying to fight them it will be a losing battle. Clary, Wabbit, try to hit them with projectiles. Malk, do what you can. I’ll be focusing on the things summoning them.”

They nodded and I stepped into the next cyclone, bringing my lower down but closer to the monolith disc. A new storm wisp was close enough to attack, sending a blast of lightning. I retaliated with a bolt of darkness and while we both took hits, it got off worse. I sent two more bolts and it backed off as I stepped into the next cyclone, not waiting for my friends.

I landed on a disc above the lightning rod but closer to it, and snarled at all the time this was taking. Ignoring the cyclones, I just jumped down to the monolith. I took a quick glance at the others. Malk was fighting a single wisp back on the platform where I’d given them instructions, swinging wildly any time it came close enough, while Clary was throwing darkness at the storm wisp by the platform immediately after Malk’s. Wabbit was right behind me on the previous platform, sending slivers of darkness at the third storm wisp and the wounded one. I sent a quick blast of darkness at each wisp, and then turned to the monolith.

The monolith was covered in shallow carvings of runes, and as I took a step towards it the thing crackled with lightning and ejected two storms that blasted me with lightning too quickly for me to react. I fell back towards the edge, and the moment I recovered I sent shadows surging at the wisps. They shook off the attack as I flipped into the air and landed behind them, bringing my sword out and slicing into the left wisp with a darkness-infused strike. It dissipated at my attack and I was left facing only one.

The last wisp sent a bolt of lightning that I deflected with my sword, and I changed the thing. It blasted past me as lightning, slamming into the ground on the other side of the platform and reforming. I ignored the now-weak wisp, and turned to the monolith. I sent bolts of darkness at the structure, each one cracking it, and then swung with my sword, shattering it, the lightning fading. As it did so, it unleashed one last wisp. I snarled, and threw darkness at it, but that was intercepted by a bolt of lightning sent by the wisp I’d left on the other side of the disc.

I directed tendrils of energy at the new wisp before turning back to the original one. To my pleasant surprise, my friends had arrived, having apparently beaten the wisps they’d been fighting. Wabbit went to harass the new wisp while Malk and Clary rushed to my aid, and we quickly dispatched the wisps. We ran to the next cyclone and continued the ascent.

We went through a few more platforms, traveling from cyclone to cyclone, and I noticed an increasing number of storm wisps coming toward us, from all three lightning rods. When we were by my estimation a few platforms from the lightning rod, the storm wisps struck, raining lightning and wind and rain. Buffeted by the storm, I called out, “Keep moving! We can deal with these ones after we’ve reduced the output of wisps.”

“By destroying the monolith?” asked Malk.

“No, by asking them nicely to stop. Of course by destroying the stupid monolith!” I answered.

We ran through the cyclones and reached the next lightning rod. I blasted it quickly and took a head count. There were twelve storm wisps chasing us now, and they were fast. “Clary, Wabbit, hold them off. You two are better at fighting them than Malk, so hold off the bulk while Malk I get to the next monolith.”

“Why can’t we just keep running and smash the monoliths, then deal with them?” inquired Clary.

“Wisps get dangerous in large numbers. Malk, you’ve studied them, right?”

“I have. Wisps are basically energy, and when there are enough of them in one place they can reach critical mass and combine to become pure incarnations of their element. There are only two instances of wisps doing this, and both times resulted in the destruction of entire armies. There were no survivors able to communicate what happened, so we don’t even know what gets created, just that it is very, very bad.” He stopped for a moment and pointed to the wisps that had reached out platform. I put up a quick wall of darkness to deter them, and then motioned for him to continue. “These monoliths… from what I’ve seen, it looks like they have enough energy, enough wisps stored, to reach critical mass. We need to move quickly to stop that.”

Clary paled and nodded. “Okay. Wabbit and I will fight them.”

I grinned and said, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun!” I grabbed Malk’s arm and dashed through the next cyclone, and the next, trying to get through the platforms as quickly as possible. At one point I caught a glimpse of Wabbit and Clary, fighting nine wisps with more on the way. I focused on the objective and we kept running.

After what seemed like ages we reached the third monolith, but to my extreme annoyance it was using different tactics, what almost seemed like an adaptation to my quick destruction of the others.

This one had no active wisps, but was instead funneling its energy into a massive wall of wind and lightning around the monolith. I prepared to attack it, and was surprised further by a blast of storm sent straight at me, which I barely stopped by summoning a shield. I pressed my hand against the wall of wind and started funneling darkness into it, but another blast emerged and I changed tactics.

I began circling the monolith at fast speeds, sending bolt after bolt at its shield while it did the same to me. Just as I managed to break through its shield, it sent a final bolt, this at Malk! Caught by surprise, he was sent flying off the platform, and I stroked my chin as I considered the dilemma; help Malk, or destroy the monolith.

On the one hand, Malk was useful, and one of my only two friends.

On the other hand, if I let the monolith recharge, it could do the same thing when we got back up to it. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure I could actually do anything to save Malk.

What if…

An idea came to me. I’d spent at least a few seconds thinking this over, which was a little longer than it usually took me to debate an idea. I placed my hand on the monolith and sent energy surging through it, shattering it in moments. Then, I dived off the platform, the air rushing past my face in an exhilarating surge.

As I raced towards Malk, the platforms and walls blurring into a mesh of monotone, I noticed cracks in the floor between spikes. Evidence accrues for my theory.

I fell for what could have been seconds or hours before reaching Malk. I quickly spread my arms and legs to increase air resistance and grabbed onto him. “Sup, Malk?”

“S-shadow? What are you doing? You said you can’t fly here!”

“I can’t fly, but I can…”

I snapped my fingers and darkness exploded from my back, quickly forming into wings that spread out and caught the air. “…glide! Haha, this is fun!”

I opened my sense, found what I was looking for, and glided towards it. Once I got there we flew higher into the air and I was able to glide over to where Clary and Wabbit were still fighting wisps. Malk stared at me in shock and asked, “Uh, Shadow, do you know how to land… wings?”

“Not a clue!” I screamed in happiness as we crashed into the platform, and I giggled, moving my hair out of my face. “That was awesome!” I sent a few blasts to help Clary and Wabbit finish off the latest batch of storm wisps, and got up. Clary looked at me, then at my wings, then at Malk still on the floor.

“What.”

“This, dear Clary, is what happens when I have an idea. Now, we need to get to the final monolith, and I know how to do that quickly, thanks to the power of science!”

Clary blinked in confusion.

“See, I had a suspicion about the wisps, since they seemed to be able to ascend quickly but descend slowly, and so I took a look when I was falling and confirmed my theory. They’re using thermal columns. They cause… well, I guess you could call it ‘rising air’. Birds use it to glide and catch an easy ride, and I discovered it coming from the floor in different areas. “

“Okay… and the wings?”

“I’ve been working on them from time to time. I thought it would be cool. Kind of like bat wings but not exactly. They’re fun and probably could freak some people out, frighten them. And it seems this chamber doesn’t have a counter for them.”

“They are pretty cool. But, uh, I doubt you can carry us all up to the final platform. We’ll still have to fight through wisps.”

Malk spoke up, climbing to his feet. “Actually, I don’t see any more wisps.” We looked up, and saw that he was right.

“Well that’s strange…” I muttered. “Whatever. So, I can’t carry all of you, but I can give Malk wings for a few minutes. He can carry Clary, I’ll take Wabbit. Come on, let’s go!”

I snapped my fingers, and Clary started staring at her new wings while I grabbed Wabbit and dived off the platform. I hit a thermal column at a perfect angle and rose swiftly through the air, past the third monolith and up to the platform right before the final monolith, which was on a balcony like the entrance. I dissolved my wings, done with them.

Clary landed a few moments later, crashing. The two sprawled on the ground, and quickly got up, dusting themselves off. “That was… actually kind of fun!” mentioned Clary.

I bowed and said, “I must thank my wonderful assistant Malk for nearly getting himself killed and thus inspiring me to put my wing plan into effect. Now, let’s go through this last cyclone and destroy that monolith. And possibly figure out why it isn’t sending any storm wisps. I mean, not that the wisps have been very good at hurting us, but still.”

“Maybe it doesn’t produce any by default. Or it stopped the same time the third monolith did.”

Clary frowned at Malk’s suggestion. “No, I saw wisps coming out of it even after you broke the lightning rod.”

I shrugged, and we stepped into the cyclone. The monolith seemed… dormant. “I guess we just blast it?” The others shrugged, but as I gathered darkness I saw a faint crackle. “Wait, it’s doing something. Let’s watch, I’m actually a bit curious about these things.”

Wind rustled, and lightning began to crackle. Then, I saw some of it come from below. I looked over the edge of the platform to see the cylinder full of wisp energy being drawn upwards. “Uh, that doesn’t look good. That really does not look good! Malk, is that enough wisps to create a critical mass event? And how are they still around, I thought we destroyed them!”

“I-I don’t know! I don’t think it’s enough… they don’t look like full wisps, I think our attacks managed to disperse the energy, destroy their cohesion and weaken their power, but some of the energy stuck around. It… it probably isn’t enough to reach critical mass but I don’t like the look of them either way.”

“Well, it would probably be better if we just destroyed the monolith then.” I turned to it, and then blinked in confusion. “Well, that doesn’t bode well… the thing’s dormant again. Whatever it did, it’s too late to stop it now.” I sent a quick few blasts to shatter it, and then turned to watch the energy rise.

As the storm gathered, it began to pour into one spot, and assume a shape. A… very familiar shape. We all stared in astonishment as the storm took the form of an elemental, sort of. It was shaped like one, but it seemed to have lightning in the place of hair and dense grey gas in the place of skin. It extended one arm, and in its hand formed a staff of lightning.

It took a step forward, and flickered, a bit of itself briefly falling apart and reforming. It snarled. “Looks like the thing didn’t get nearly enough energy. I’d bet it’s leagues away from a critical energy event. Let’s kill it.” I grinned, and gathered the darkness.

The amalgamation of wisps pointed its staff at me, and sent a blast of lightning I easily ducked under, running towards him and cutting upwards with my sword. The creature crackled and dissipated before I hit, reappearing elsewhere. Malk and Wabbit charged it while Clary flung a bolt of darkness. It extended the staff and send a flurry of wind cutting at them, shoving them back while it flickered and flowed to the other side of the disc.

As the creature sent another blast of lightning I sent darkness to meet it, and we fought with twin beams of energy. I proved stronger and dashed forward, the darkness pooling around the staff and shattering it back into energy. The collection of wisps (wisp-person?) reformed its weapon into a sword and shield, and charged with the shield raised. I flipped over it and put my hand on its back, sending darkness into it and shoving it forward.

The creature turned to face me and Malk struck, slicing into it. It sent a bolt of lightning at me, and then shoved its shield into Malk’s face. I retaliated with a blast of darkness and it rolled to the side, coming up next to Clary and slicing through her illusory form. The real Clary smirked at it a few meters away and sent a blast of shadows into its shield. Wabbit came in and slashed, and it turned to wind and rushed to the side, reappearing near me.

It stabbed at me, again moving too slowly, and I sent a bolt of darkness that shattered its shield. Its faceless head rippled, and its arm temporarily flickered out of existence. It recovered its exposure and tore its sword apart, forming the blade into a bow. It began firing lightning arrows rapidly, which I twirled past. As I got closer, it shifted its foot and a gust of wind knocked me into the next arrow.

I snarled, and jumped at it, shoving through the thing. It reformed right behind me and turned its bow into a dagger, stabbing it into my back. Before it could take the dagger out I grabbed its arm and flooded the thing with dark energy, turning the arm black and purple. Then, it collapsed, and the creature fell to the side, churning and roiling.

When it finally reformed, it was much wispier and gaseous. I darted towards the amalgamation and gathered the darkness. As I ran through it I left the shadows behind and they wrapped around the creature, trapping it. For a brief moment, it formed a screaming, anguished face, and then I closed the darkness in, killing it. As the last wisps dissipated, I smiled. “I’m starting to love the fights in this dungeon. There’s actual risk…” I spared a second to heal my wounds, and pulled out a bit of food from my pocket, quickly munching it down.

I leaned against a wall and gestured for the others to rest before heading to meet the next challenge, whatever it would be.

Personally, I was hoping it would be something with a little less running.