“It isn’t as serious as it sounds. We already scouted out another route back up to the first layer so we can make our exit that way. I’d recommend we stop trying to collect things and return another day, though. The dungeon is being extremely abnormal, even for apogee season. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a threshold boss making its way up this shallow, though I guess there wouldn’t be many survivors if it did.” Rod trailed off.

  “I don’t know Rod, the abnormal behavior makes this seem like it might be just as serious at it seems. You’re right though, we should head out.” Merrick put all of his tools back into his pack, along with a few parcels Mary and Rod handed him while they spoke, and hopped to his feet ready to go. The odd feeling of being watched had that had previously subsided started to return in force and he was convinced his anxiety now had a newly manifested symptom.

  Luckily, though he was careful to even think that word at this point, the second ascending exit from the chamber was unguarded. Merrick was mildly curious what a Poison Plantaconda would look like in person but was also extremely grateful he could continue relying on his imagination and bestiary entries. Thirty feet long, thicker than two men, and dark green covered with scales that looked like poison ivy leaves. Poison ivy leaves that were stronger than steel and caused instantaneous allergic reactions strong enough to kill. Just the kind of beast that should exist only within one’s imagination, Merrick thought to himself.

  The second ascending exit led to a tunnel much like the one they’d descended to get into the tunnel in the first place, but with large portions of the walls missing, leading to extremely steep declines that could almost be called bottomless holes. The inclines had to be nearly 75 degrees or roundabouts, Merrick estimated, and there was no visible end to the freefall. Although it wasn’t a 90 degree dead drop, he estimated there was just about no way anyone could survive the drop.

  “Careful with the edge, Merrick.” Mary muttered from the front of the group where she was channeling a spell to cause a glow from her hands. For some reason, the ever pervasive roots that grew the glowing mulberries seemed especially sparse in the tunnel and the few that were there only seemed to cast long shadows which caused misgivings due to the way they hid the pitfalls.

  The marching order for the tunnel went: Mary in the front with light, Rod behind Mary with his bow on his back and sword in hand, then Merrick behind Rod doing his best not to stumble, and finally James took up the rear with his weapon out, ready to fight the retreat if necessary.

  Due to the lighting conditions and overtly dangerous terrain, the group was moving much slower than they’d prefer. They maintained their march in silence for several minutes before hearing a noise from behind them.

  “Does that sound a bit like a massive broom to anyone else?” James muttered to himself as he threw a look over his shoulder. Almost all at once, the four of them came to the same conclusion. The threshold boss had followed them into the tunnel.

  “Run!”

  Merrick wasn’t sure if he was the one who shouted it, or if it was everyone at the same time, but his legs started pumping. Footing be damned, if he got caught by the boss creature he would be dead regardless.

  A few minutes later the group slowed, none of them used to maintaining a full sprint. Miraculously, nobody had fallen into any of the many pitfalls that still littered the hallway before they finally saw a glowing exit to the tunnel. Even as they slowed their sprint to a jog, they could hear noise from the tunnel behind them, though not as distinctly or loudly.

  “Dead ahead! There's another cave, it should have an exit, guaranteed!” Mary was reinvigorated by the idea of exiting the dungeon. Even though the room ahead was theoretically a landing zone, or the first room of a delve, it wouldn’t stop a creature they’d drawn aggression from following them on a normal day, let alone on a day where said creature seemed to have been actively hunting them in the first place.

  Mary and Rod were the first into the room, nearly twice as large as the room they’d first appeared in that day after entering the dungeon. The lighting was still very sparse in the room, but at the very least it appeared that the pitfalls weren’t prevalent there and every wall looked intact. Unfortunately, the exit stairway wasn’t plainly visible. The two of them moved out of the entry way to make space for Merrick and James when they caught up and began searching for the exit immediately.

  It did not take much time for Merrick and James to catch up either, only mere seconds later.

  “Exit! Where’s the exit?” James’ eyes were wide and his face covered with dust, only sparing two conspicuous streaks of clean skin that ran from his eyes to his chin. Not that anybody would fault the man for crying tears, whether out of fear or pain from physical exertion.

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  “We’re looking!” Rod shouted back. Unfortunately, the lack of glowing mulberries was just as bad if not worse in the room. None of the party had ever stopped to realize just how badly they’d taken the ambient lighting for granted until it was taken away. They hadn’t even realized that it was an odd thing to do as it was a well known fact that the dungeon was well lit until after the first threshold.

  “Damn! Merrick, watch the entrance and shout if the snake gets closer. I’m going to help them search.” James ran away from the hallway entrance and began hacking at the overgrown vines that covered the walls in the room with his blade. The weapon he’d been so instant on protecting against chips fighting bramblekin was now being used as a poor machete with sparks from the colliding metal and rocks in the wall shooting brief moments of light.

  “What good was watching the boss do? It is either going to catch up or it isn’t!” Merrick hissed back even as he stood still peer down the tunnel. The slithering was much harder to hear with all the noise James and the others were making with their search.

  “You can distract it for a few more seconds. Lots of beasts slow down when they see someone who seemingly doesn’t fear them, it triggers their instincts. Bluff it or something!” James growled as he continued moving.

  Merrick, knowing he was being used as bait, decided to play along. At the very least, he’d be able to see his death coming that way. He pulled a random vial off of his chest and peered down the tunnel. With the sparse lighting, he should still be able to see the creature coming once it got close. If it didn’t slow down, he figured he could dodge to the side and run down the tunnel behind it after it entered the room. It was a little crass, but he figured the snake eating his friends would give him time to escape.

  If only he could figure out how to tip off Rod and Mary to do the same. James was the only one he wouldn’t mourn if he was being honest with himself, which he tried to do at all times.

  “I found something! I need light!” Rod shouted from behind Merrick. He shot a look over his shoulder as Mary rushed over to the large man. The light cast by her spell made it inherently obvious to Merrick that what Rod found was not an exit so he turned his eyes forward once more. He’d hate to have to kick himself in the afterlife because he let himself get distracted and that led to his downfall.

  “The Church? Seriously? What the hell is their mark doing down here?” Rod spat aggressively. Merrick spared another glance over his shoulder to verify before returning his vision to the tunnel.

  In that brief moment, he’d seen what looked like a carving of stairs almost as if a child were drawing on the cobblestones with chalk. It was surrounded by a ring of runes he did not recognize, that he took enough time to decipher them anyways, and in the center of the image was the church’s symbol.

  A seven pointed star superimposed over a crescent moon.

  “It almost looks like a seal of sorts. Why would the exit be sealed? I've never heard of something like that.” Mary panicked as she realized their trip out of the dungeon might now be impossible. She closed her eyes and tried to use her sensory skill to feel out the runes. She knew it was futile, but at that point it was that or wait for death.

  “Ambush!” Mary yelled as soon as her senses, unable to latch onto the cold stone the runes were carved into, entered the vines growing down the wall next to the effigy and revealed to her several pewlips scattered across the room.

  Almost as if the plants realized they’d been sensed, they began spewing their parasitic payloads at rapid speeds. Barbed seeds shot out from their tulip shaped petals and the party found itself thankful for the warning as they were able to dodge or block most of the projectiles.

  Merrick managed to pull his traveler's pack off of his back and crouch behind it just as several thuds sounded out from the other side. Though the seeds were fast, unless they managed to sink their barbs into skin they were usually a nonissue. Granted if one got the drop on someone and one or two seeds did manage to impact skin, usually the face, hands, or a crease in armor, the barbs would rapidly increase in size as they absorbed blood.

  “We’re trapped! What now?” Mary shouted. She had a small barrier of leaves rapidly rotating around herself, intercepting the seeds that were aiming for herself and Rod as he returned fire with his bow. Even though he couldn’t see the floranids himself, he was able to track the trajectory of the ones shooting his direction and send an arrow back with great accuracy.

  Merrick shot a look over his shoulder and realized he could finally see the Poison Plantaconda. It was slithering toward them slowly, eyes locked onto Merrick’s, almost as if it knew that they would be unable to exit. As he watched the tongue, longer than his arm span and thicker than his thighs, flicker out of the snake’s mouth he wondered how it was moving so silently.

  “I’ve got an idea!” James shouted towards Mary and Rod, much closer to Merrick than he had expected. “I’m not sure if you’ll appreciate it very much though!”

  A tinkling noise sounded out from right behind Merrick as he found himself paralyzed with fear. ‘It must be part basilisk or something,’ he thought to himself, unwilling to accept that it was his own body preventing him from turning his head or fleeing.

  Then, suddenly, he found his body moving again and far more rapidly than he thought possible. He finally managed to turn as he pushed his backpack around in front of himself, only to see James’ face as he fell away.