Stiffly, Lynder climbed out of the Womb Tomb, the ordeal visibly aging him. He brushed flakes of stone dust from his robe, a frown settling on his face as he inspected his palms. An exhale, like someone who had spent too long underwater, escaped his lips. "I really do not like being down there. It feels like the world is moving too fast."
Focused instead on an oddly glinting object in his palm, Roy didn't even glance up. "Found this." He held out the Tortured Scale's ring, the dark band shimmering faintly under the dungeon's false starlight. "It dropped when the monster died. Want it?"
A brief stare, his face empty of recognition, was all Lynder offered. "No. I have closed that book."
"All right," Roy said, slipping it casually onto his finger. "Your loss." The ring settled neatly, snug against his skin, inert and quiet. He flexed his hand experimentally, frowned, then looked at Lynder. "How do I even activate magical items?"
Lynder's brows knitted together sharply. "You cannot be serious."
"Wait until you find out I am."
The old mage let out a long groan, closing his eyes briefly. "Intent. Push a little mana into it, boy. It should respond."
Roy scrutinized the ring, an eyebrow arcing high on his forehead as he focused his will. Mana surged, compliant and immediate, causing the air directly before him to ripple and tear. A slender, shimmering oval opened, a window into another space. He recoiled slightly, a surprised gasp catching in his throat as he gazed through the portal, finding himself staring at the unblemished, silent steel of one of the Nightshatter's main turrets, bathed in the sharp, distant brilliance of the sun.
"What is that?" Takara asked, stepping close, her voice pitched with curiosity rather than caution.
"Is that the ship?" Eryndra's tone sharpened, edged with interest.
"Why is it showing that?" Lynder asked, squinting skeptically.
Roy extended a cautious hand forward. His fingers passed through the ring's projection easily, feeling the cool air on the deck of the battleship. Encouraged, he stepped forward and promptly collided face-first with an invisible barrier. "What's going on here? I can reach right through, but I'm completely blocked from following. That hurt..."
A base-model Presidroid wandered into the turret's frame, paused, then faced Roy directly, looking bewildered. "Captain?" Without waiting, the Presidroid tried to step forward and immediately smacked into the same unseen obstruction. He recoiled slightly, confused. "What?"
Lynder leaned closer, fascination overtaking his annoyance. "Maybe it is not a portal at all."
From beyond the narrow portal came a faint but unmistakable sound that cut Roy's reply short. A sharp, heated argument, voices rising and falling. Words like "pool noodle" and "mine" drifted through clearly, muffled yet dreadfully distinct. Roy froze, eyes wide, as a sense of genuine dread flooded his gut.
"Oh no…" Roy whispered.
Roy tilted his head slightly, motioning the Presidroid closer. He spoke softly through barely parted lips, eyes fixed on the far side of the room. "Hey, c'mere. Uh, secret Thunder Rider business…yeah."
The Presidroid stepped in, tilting slightly. Roy leaned forward, voice reduced to a careful whisper. "Go. Stop the…'shower fiends' from being seen. ASAP."
The Presidroid nodded sharply and moved swiftly out of view. Roy stared after him, heart hammering as the distant voices grew louder, angrier. Panic jolted him, and he thrust out his hand, shaking the ring. "Portal, close." Nothing. The ring remained stubbornly anchored, resisting his futile attempts to twist and tug it off.
"I command you to turn off. Stop being a portal," Roy said, voice edged with rising frustration.
Lynder folded his arms and watched, mildly amused. "I don't think—"
Roy growled, cutting him off. "Then I'll break it." He drew his sidearm smoothly, and fired point-blank at the empty space in the ring's projection. The bullet punched cleanly through, sailing into the sky above the Nightshatter's turret. Roy's eyes widened in surprise which quickly turned to fear when a goose shaped slipper appeared at the base of the turret. Another round, hastily aimed lower, slammed into the goose slipper that undoubtedly belonged to Father Skeleton, just as the skeletal leg stepped into view.
Father Skeleton's horrified voice burst through clearly. "Goosey! How dare you hurt Goosey!"
Suddenly the slipper and leg were pulled away and disappeared from view. Roy exhaled sharply, eyes flickering between astonishment and calculation.
"So attacks can pass through," Roy said as he tapped the ring. "Serenity, take the ship out to sea. We have to test this."
The projection shifted smoothly as Serenity navigated to open waters. Roy stepped to the ledge overlooking the next dungeon floor, eyes narrowing at a distant monster, massive and lumbering. "Fire now."
The battleship's turrets thundered, unleashing a stream of shells toward the shimmering oval, yet the creature was unfazed. The heavy rounds simply ricocheted off its armored scales, scattering harmlessly like a downpour. Roy scowled. "Those aren't even making a dent. We need heavier firepower."
A new portal opened in front of the Nightshatter and it responded with its main guns, artillery rounds screamed through, only to detonate brilliantly and accomplish little to nothing. The monster shook itself and continued its slow advance.
Roy gritted his teeth. "Suicide drones! Now!"
Serenity released a swarm, sleek constructs diving through the ring projection like a formation of metallic birds, detonating against the monster's limbs. Again, negligible damage.
"Damn it," Roy hissed. "Missiles!"
A salvo erupted, trailing smoke, explosions blooming spectacularly across the monster's hide. Yet still, the beast emerged unscathed, merely irritated.
Finally, exasperation rising, Roy ordered, "Railgun. Hit it."
A solid tungsten round sliced through the portal, struck the monster's shoulder, and punched in effortlessly. The beast roared, staggering sideways, clearly injured for the first time.
Relief washed over Roy, but then he grimaced as the creature thrashed in anger, spraying mucus from its scales. Some of the disgusting discharge landed near his feet. He recoiled. "Ugh! Blind him!"
A subsequent portal materialized as the laser discharged two rapid, precisely aimed pulses, vaporizing the enormous monster's eyes and prompting its stumbling retreat amidst agonizing roars.
"Oh yeah, baby! The Thunder Rider is back!" Roy yelled before he looked down to admire the ring, noting a glowing band of ridges slowly shrinking with each portal opened. "The light band thingy is going down. It's limited?"
Lynder stepped closer and observed the dwindling gauge. "The ring appears to possess slightly over one hundred ridges. Ensure your shots are judiciously utilized."
"You counted all of them that quick?" Roy asked incredulously.
With a casual roll of his shoulders, Lynder replied, "I got to fifteen, then guessed the rest."
A gentle whirring sound preceded Truman leaning closer, optics briefly scanning the ring. "He is right. One hundred and thirteen ridges."
A self-satisfied grin spread across Lynder's face. "Ha, told you!"
Roy's expression went dry, unimpressed. "You stay calm after finally killing the monster you chased for a thousand years, but guessing the ridges on a random ring makes you beam like a kid?"
The mage offered another indifferent shrug before he walked down to the floor below.
As they crossed into a new sector, another large, indistinct mass stumbled out from the dungeon's wall. It was a shifting outline, a barely-there silhouette of something immense and unsettling. You couldn't quite focus on its form, the air around it seemed to waver, making it look like a smudge in the darkness, a heavy, stumbling shadow of a thing that shouldn't be.
"How horrifying! Let's runic rounds!" Roy ordered.
Once again, a portal formed in front of the Nightshatter. The runic engravings on the main guns began to glow as several Presidroids converged at the base to amplify their power. A single artillery shell was then fired, but instead of entering the portal, it immediately ricocheted off the surface and vanished over the horizon moments later.
"...well…hope that doesn't hurt anyone," Roy whispered as Eryndra blasted past him, stone faced as she drove through the monster with a single strike, tearing the shadow beast apart down the center.
Takara, still watching through the shimmering portal, tapped her comm gently. "Serenity, can you fabricate a drone with Roy's special bullets built into its frame? We could disassemble it afterward. Maybe that would allow them to pass through?"
"Aww," Roy cooed, "thanks for thinking of me!"
Serenity's sigh came back through the comm instantly after, tinged with exasperation. "The Presidroids have to engrave each pistol round individually as I build them in the fabricator. Now you want me to integrate them into a drone's critical structure at the same time?"
Takara winced slightly. "It was worth asking…"
After a brief wait, Serenity finally coughed up the drone, which was loaded with the runic-enhanced ammo as requested. It waited a moment, then zipped ahead, only to slam right into the invisible barrier. The drone went tumbling, wings bent and sparking all over the place.
Serenity's voice carried a resigned note of satisfaction. "As expected, your complicated idea has failed spectacularly. The runic rounds, even integrated, can't pass through."
Takara looked away sheepishly, and Roy shook his head, prodding the drone with his boot. "So the fancy rounds are unusable..."
He drew his pistol again, pointing it experimentally. The portal shifted, forming two matching apertures, one directly in front of his weapon, another far across the field, next to a distant target. Roy blinked, momentarily startled. "One here, one there. That makes sense."
Lynder's gaze was unimpressed. "You really just figured that out?" he asked, arms crossed.
Scowling, Roy lowered the pistol. "I'm running tests. I'm learning things!"
Lynder merely shook his head, surveying the ruined chamber as a faint echo of distant commotion washed over them. "We have lingered here too long," he stated. "The deeper we go, the worse the distractions get."
Before Roy could respond, the comms buzzed sharply. Serenity's voice, taut with urgency, immediately cut through. "Captain, we have an emergency. Something huge is moving underwater toward the city. Shall I engage?"
Seriousness washed over Lynder's features, and he turned slowly to face Roy, whose jaw was clenched. Taking a deep breath, Roy turned away, bracing himself against the rising tension. "Couldn't be at a worse time," he muttered. "Give me details."