Crystal & Crown (Blood of The Boundless Book 3) by Wilson A. Bateman

Author:Wilson A. Bateman [Bateman, Wilson A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-03T22:00:00+00:00

Interlude

THE SORROW

The stories Shayla had been told didn’t do the dungeon justice. After all, how could a person explain what it felt like to have time itself ripple through them? The Samsonstone Guardians would charge, only to be slowed almost to a stop while Shayla and the heroes moved freely. Then, moments later, the constructs would rush forward at a comparatively breakneck speed, free from the timewave’s swell while Shayla and the others were bogged down in it.

Reymond and the other heroes had run the dungeon countless times before completing it though, and even years later they remembered the strategies they’d devised. The Shield took only a moment to fill the air at shin height with swirling particles of ice that glittered above the marble floors, and Shayla watched in fascination as the temporal ripples became perfectly visible. What had been unfathomable was now demarcated by an eerie, linear slowing to the swirl of the flecks of ice over the floor.

“Left,” Reymond announced, and Torgun nodded. Shayla watched them wait for the right moment—just after the timewave crested over them and the rest of the room had become a wild frenzy of ice—and then the two men dashed away in a pincer maneuver as the slowing effect faded. Shayla gritted her teeth in anticipation of the clash.

She needn’t have worried. The two men aligned themselves parallel to the oncoming timewave with the golem between them, which made it impossible for the construct to rush them off-sync. Instead, all three of them slowed together, then joined in a frenetic blur to Shayla’s eyes. Daida danced, sure to keep perpendicular to every wave and just far enough away that she would slow only when the others did. That way her healing spells wouldn’t be interrupted. In truth her job was harder than theirs, but she was the best of the best. After a few passes, Shayla caught the pattern and began following Daida from here to there while trying to keep out of the way.

Reymond’s sword and shield groaned and sang as blue ice met steel-gray rock, and somehow the enchanted weapons found purchase even against the samsonstone, leaving frozen scars behind where they cut. Shayla could feel the cold from a distance, even beyond what the ice particles had brought.

On the other side of the guardian, the Gardener King’s plants didn’t mind the cold—not if it meant they got to be with him. They sprung up around his wrists and ankles to ensnare the golem even while securing Torgun’s feet to the ground. While Reymond chipped away at the stone, Torgun’s vines and roots found every crevice, doing the work of any plant: growing against all odds.

Golem after golem fell in the same way until there was only the boss left.

Alone in a vast, marbled hall of its own, the Grand Guardian stood directly between the party and the far door.

The heroes didn’t pause, and Shayla once again stood impotently to the side. She’d played prissy princess with the other kids when she was younger, but she’d never enjoyed being the focus of the quest.

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