The Fireball blasted from my weapon and punched into the stone tile before bouncing off, rolling over the bridge, and skipping across the lava. A loud click sounded, and a cleaver dropped from the chamber ceiling and swung across the bridge, at exactly the position of the triggered trap.

Behind me, the second ape had also gotten free from my Ensnare. The two apes rushed up to my Force Barrier and pounded on the rear of the protective dome. Each strike of their flaming fists left tiny cracks and little embers.

I swallowed back another mouthful of the mana potion and reinforced the barrier where they were striking it. A quick shake of the flask told me that I had probably five or six more mouthfuls until it was empty.

I continued firing at the stone tiles that separated my current position from the platform at the end of the bridge. Whenever my mana got low, I swigged on the mana potion. It wasn’t long before I made a discovery. Every third tile that was struck with a spell triggered a trap. The pattern was clear.

All right. Assuming there wasn’t anything else here that I hadn’t thought of, I should be able to make it to the core without dying horribly. I’d figured out the position of the hidden cleaver traps, so I could probably release my Force Barrier and sprint to the dungeon core without triggering them. But I wouldn’t be able to get there before the apes caught me.

Unless. . .

A plan formed in my mind, and I inhaled deeply to calm myself.

Alright. I was ready.

I got to my feet and lowered myself into a sprinter’s stance. The apes slammed into the back of my barrier, no longer using their fists but flinging their whole bodies into it. I waited until just the right moment before I dispelled my Force Barrier.

One of the apes rushed the barrier just as it dropped. The creature’s momentum carried it out of control and over the edge of the bridge. There was a loud splash, but I didn’t risk looking down—I was sprinting as fast as I could toward the platform, my hand outstretched toward the dungeon core.

The heat of the ape who was still on the bridge behind me grew more intense, and I sidestepped to slam my foot onto the first pressure trigger. I dove forward as the cleaver came down from the ceiling.

I rolled over and caught a glimpse of flashing steel as the bladed trap cut through the ape. The monster had been sliced in half, almost a perfect cut down the center of its whole body. The two symmetrical halves parted in a spray of lava-like blood.