Leslie and Ghwan moved about the gathered bruisers, securing their colorful feathered armor into place and giving instructions.

Jakira looked incredible.

Multi-colored reds, blues, greens, oranges, and yellows cascaded across her dark body in a rainbow. Everything was form fitting, with no need for gaps at the waist or joints to allow movements. She sported dark leather pauldrons with mega-hound teeth jutting from the tops, protecting her from getting chomped. Around her waist and across her shoulders was a dark belt and holster for her club, as well as a pair of daggers. She had a few pouches around the belt that could store potions—which Rhen hadn’t managed to get.

An alchemist would be a post-raid problem. They had done what they could with the time they had, and Rhen was feeling pretty good about their chances. With four days left, they could make two attempts at the raid, but Rhen knew they’d only need one.

Everyone was decked to the teeth. They’d all been able to level cephaloshifter to Prima II, and Rhen unlocked a special ancilla I that allowed him to select a specific species he’d become before, or transform into something random. That, and the other two prima’s for amphibian lung and compbomb, they were ready to execute the master plan.

Rhen stood to address the crowd, half of them well-dressed in feathers. Everyone quieted, looking at him. He held each of their gazes for a fleeting moment, then spoke.

“These are the minutes before our greatest victory. There is no doubt in my mind that we will succeed, but that does not mean death isn’t waiting for us out there. Stay sharp, stick to your pod, communicate, and improvise. That is how we’ll win.

“Everyone made this possible, and we will all share in the wealth of its returns. A new realm… our lives will never be the same.”

Rhen pulled the parchment out of his pack and held the stack out to Jakira. “As a Dungeon Owner, I can make this promise that no matter what we find on the other side, everyone will get a share I feel is fair. Granted, we’ll also be sharing with the D.O.G. and the Imperial Kingdoms, so that’s why the number might, uh, seem a bit low.”

Everyone read over their contracts.

“What if I don’t want any of this?” Eli asked. As a fifteen-year-old boy, Rhen could understand him not wanting anything to do with owning his own land or dungeons. It was a lot as it was for Rhen just owning one dungeon.

“You can relinquish it to your father, sister, mother… you could sell it back to me. This contract states you own two-point-five percent of whatever we find there. It may be nothing, but it may be a new realm. It may be a new sapient populate realm, in which case we will get very little for many years as the D.O.G. representatives negotiate the terms of realm connection, broker infrastructure deals, and on and on.”

They all stared.

Joseph cleared his throat. “Forgive my frankness, but fluff the politics. I just want to delve. You’re a good dungeon owner, you treat us right. I know whatever we find over there, you’ll do with it the things we need to keep on living our best lives.”

“Here, here,” Wyland said, lifting his mug of brew.

“These contracts are to protect you.”

“But we trust you,” Leslie said.

Rhen sighed. “That’s great, but… you shouldn’t. Not about this. Please, sign the contracts.”

Wyland shook his head and whipped out a ball-point pen. “Boy don’t even know himself.” He scribbled a signature and pushed the page away, then passed his pen around.

Everyone signed, their mood dour. He knew he should’ve done the contracts sooner, but he hadn’t found the time to run an errand all the way back in Desedra. It wasn’t until wind really caught of his raid that a D.O.G. representative was sent to stay at the Bustling Brood for documentation of the find, giving him the opportunity to write up these contracts—and get Wyland a work order.

“Oh, the stew!” Jakira dashed toward the kitchen, trailed by Eli and Olliat. They returned with a huge bubbling pot of the rich, golden-brown stew, another pot of some pearl-like grain, fresh bread, and some place settings.

Everyone gathered around with their bowls and Jakira ladled out measured servings of the anima power boosting food. Wyland took a spot at Rhen’s table, digging in with vigor.

“Are you planning on coming with us?” Rhen asked.

“Me personally? Fluff no! Figure I could maybe send in some help. Got a coupla mechs I’ve been workin’ I think you’ll like, and I’ll be needin’ all the power I can get to operate em.”

Rhen smiled. “Then we’re grateful for the help.”

“Yeah, well I was grateful for all that anima. Got me enough to start up a shop in a respectable dungeon.”

“Oh… where at?” Rhen said, keenly interested.

“Here, stupid. I need a bigger workshop that’s not attached to the inn. I’ve been savin’ up these crystals for that modification, we can do it after the nexus raid.”

Rhen grinned. “Great. I can’t wait to see your designs.”

“We’ll need to expand Leslie and Barrek’s space too. They’re too cramped in there tryin’ to do woodworking and needlework in the same place.” He shifted uncomfortably. “And it’s nothin’ heartfelt or some nonsense like that. If I can’t get my wood and cloth materials in a timely manner, I can’t do my own work in a timely manner.”

“Okay, Wyland,” Rhen chuckled.

It was obvious in the way Wyland buried his face back in his bowl that he was embarrassed about his act of generosity. He didn’t use cloth or wood very often, and much of the multi-media crafting he did need, he could construct himself.

Pride swelled in him.

They’d made a great place.

“Eat up everyone! We’ll need to wait here for about fifteen minutes for the magic to take effect.”

“And then we’re gonna crush some fins!” Eli yelled, fist-pumping.

The group roared, everyone in battle-ready spirits.

When the bowls were emptied, the raid team left everything as it was, and headed down toward the beach. Wyland went to his workshop to get his mechs while Aki displayed his most accurate map to date in the shallows of the lake.

Rhen pulled out his dungeon owner’s map, just making sure for the hundredth time that it was there. Without that, the whole journey and battle would be for naught. He needed the dungeon owner’s map to register the nexus node and secure his find. If done improperly, the D.O.G. could seize his find, boot him from his own dungeon, and take over. Just like his id syntial documented everything Rhen was—almost everything—the dungeon map documented his dungeon.

They podded-up: Rhen with Aki, Jakira, Olliat, and Eli; Joseph leading Bort, Barrek and Leslie; and lastly Valine shepherded Gil, Pattie, and Caleb. Olliat and her lanky brother Eli waded into the shallows, and everyone followed. They dove under, triggering cephaloshifter. Their bodies exploded out in all directions, tentacles flying. Eli become a spiky-bodied octopus with pale skin and Olliat morphed into a spidery creature, each leg armored on the top with vicious stingers hidden inside her suckers.

Rhen and the rest of the raid triggered amphibian lung and dove under. Moving the cold water in and out of his modified lungs was laborious, but not painful. The raid grabbed onto anything they could of the massive cephalokids. Rhen latched his fingers between the armor plating on one of Olliat’s legs and laid himself flat against her. Jakira wrapped her arms and legs around a thinner tentacle, giving it a huge bear hug.

“Everyone is secured,” Aki reported.

Behind them in the shallows, four snake-like mech dove in. They were four feet long each with tiny retractable legs for walking. They slithered like eels, cutting a wake through the water.

“These will shine bright lights ahead, and upon our enemy as we fight. They may also deploy grappling hooks we can anchor into the walls. Wyland says he will be watching us from the comfort and safety of the inn.”

The group chuckled, a strange, dampened sound under water.

“Let’s go kill a boss monster.”

Eli zipped off over the edge of the precipice, losing Joseph in the process. Olliat accelerated slowly at first, then picked up speed, grabbing her father as she passed. They moved into the depths and the pressure on their bodies increased, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Yet the fear ebbing at the edge of Rhen’s consciousness remained. The deep water was dangerous.

But he was more dangerous.

The mecheels kept pace with the cephalokids easily. Their eyes glowed, projecting beams of light ahead sixty feet, illuminating their first combatant. It was a lone dreadshrimp, one of the spiny backed, many antennae having evil creeper. It curled in on itself, preparing its strong forelimbs to attack.

Olliat dodged left and the incoming shrimp’s punch missed by twenty feet. The speed of its punch made a vacuum, sending a shockwave of force rippling out against them. It shook Rhen’s eyeballs and made him a little sick, but was much happier he hadn’t been directly on the receiving end of that strike.

Eli rammed his spiked head into the monster’s underbelly, then wrapped his unoccupied tentacles around its back and squeezed, pinning it in place. Olliat captured the dreadshrimp’s punchy arm and ripped it free. She wrapped her tentacles over the monster’s face and stabbed with her needles.

The dreadshrimp flailed as black toxin leaked from Olliat’s needles. After a few seconds, it went still. Eli jerked his head around until the monster’s belly opened. Olliat tore into it and ripped free it’s core, a massive thing the diameter of a wagon wheel. Bort opened his canvas sack wide enough to get the core past the threshold where the enon syntial took over, shrinking it down for travel.

They moved forward with ruthless efficiency, killing anything that got in their path. Aki assumed when the battle with gigafish began, it would attract a lot of attention. While they had a plan for that, taking out any extra combatants beforehand could be a saving grace.

The black around them was crushing, the mecheels barely able to pierce it. Rhen looked up to see the crystals above sparkling like distant stars. A silhouette moved overhead, blotting out the crystals.

“Up!”

Rhen watched, horror-struck as the silhouette turned, revealing its four, talon-tipped mandibles. The mecheels turned, opening the panels behind their heads in a huge dish shape. They projected light upward, illuminating the horror that was gigafish.

Its armored flesh was bright red, blue, and yellow, while the thick looking plates were a mat black—reflecting no light at all. It had ten eyes in a semi-circle around the crown of its head, and two fat antenna that glowed yellow at the tip. It was a lure.

Olliat tried to dodge but the gigafish was moving so fast, propelled by two alternating tails. It snatched up two of her tentacles in its serrated mouth, shredding them. Olliat ripped free, carrying the delvers to safety while she bled out.

Oh gods, if she lost her tentacles, what happened when she transformed back? Would Olliat have to kill herself to prevent from being an amputee her whole life?

“Not now!” Aki barked and Rhen snapped out of it.

“Joseph, deploy transformation early!”

From the darkness, Rhen saw a huge beast explode into view. Twice the size of Olliat with a powerful blue glow emanating off him, Joseph lurched for gigafish’s tails. He snapped two tentacles around each and squeezed. There was a crackling sound and then one loud pop!

Gigafish roared and curled in on itself, snapping at Joseph’s tentacles. He unfurled a tentacle at high-speed, smacking the gigafish’s mouth away. The cephalokids dropped their delvers in a semicircle around the action. Olliat moved in to help Joseph while Eli made his toxink pass behind the monster, preventing intruders and escape.

The mecheels fired grappling pins into the wall at their back, then took aim at the squirming boss monster. They fired the attaching rounds, two striking true between the plates of armor while two bounced off. They reeled in their lines for another shot.

Gigafish twisted and curled, making Olliat’s body flop dangerously close to the monster’s mouth. Joseph constricted the tails harder, pulling them together.

“Compbomb the head!”

Rhen tried to target the gigafish’s eye, but it flailed so wildly his spell got water instead. He held it for a count of three until the creature’s head moved close to the spot. He released and the water bubbled, rippling out and smacking the beast in the eye. It didn’t seem to have an effect.

The mecheel fired their shots again, one of them hooking right into the boss’s neck—but it didn’t hold. Gigafish wriggled and ripped the anchor from the wall. Olliat lost her grip on the last flail and her body drifted too close. The gigafish got its clawed mandibles under her, then forced her head into its wide mouth.

It ground Olliat’s flesh back and forth, keeping its head still for just a few seconds. Rhen used compbomb again, getting one of its many forward-facing eyes. He held it for a second and released. The glossy black globe popped, spilling even more blood into the cloudy water.

Gigafish sucked in Olliat’s remains and swallowed. Twenty-feet down, Rhen saw a bright purple pulse of light wash over the cavern. The pulse hit gigafish and lit it up like a lightbulb.

Then, gigafish grew.