His change in attire seemed to have been perfectly timed because, less than a minute later, they approached a large set of double doors. Unlike the others they had passed, these were well tended and showed no signs of neglect. The brass handles were well polished, and the ornate carvings of two lions staring at each other through red-jeweled eyes were immaculate. Most obviously, however, light also shone through the crack below the door—bright light.

“Think the jewels will sell?” Bonnie asked, pulling out her dagger with her left hand and getting ready to try prying one free.

“Don’t do that,” Lucas ordered, stopping her. “Leave the dungeon intact.”

“Fine, fine. But I get first dibs on whatever Kegan drops,” she grumbled. “Or you’re paying me extra.”

Lucas gripped the new staff that Nick had bought for him with one hand and balanced \Jason’s head in the crux of a bent elbow joint as he used his freed hand to reach for the door. “That’s fair,” Lucas agreed.

Bonnie stashed her torch, pulled out another dagger, and edged up beside him expectantly.

“Let’s do this!” Nick said excitedly. “Finally going to get to kill a dungeon boss.”

“What the heck did you think that spider was?” Bonnie asked.

“Miniboss. This one is the real deal though,” Nick said, grinning broadly. “He’s going to be way tougher.

Ignoring the exchange, Lucas twisted the handle and pushed open the door to reveal the room. The chamber was so large that it seemed like it made up half of the manor and was easily twice the size of Xun Guan’s entire dungeon. There was a solitary man standing in the center of the massive room, swinging a giant two-handed axe around wildly at statues of various people. His weapon carved through the life-like stone figures as easily as a lumberjack’s axe shaving off chunks off wood instead of marble. He had clearly been at it for a while as the ground was littered with broken bits of rock, chunks of stone, pools of semi-coagulated blood, and piles of what Lucas could only imagine were monster and wolf guts. There was a filthy brown rug dyed the color of dried blood, its ends frayed and tattered, and splinters of wood lay about where the throne should have been. Shattered panes of stained glass that had formerly filled the hall’s windows lined the sides of the room beneath large gashes that had been hacked into the walls. The only thing in the entire room that wasn’t marred with damage was the man’s weapon. Even he wore tattered clothes and sported a few deep, bright-red gashes from what looked like a fight with either a bear or a dire wolf.

“I’ve almost got two charges of Chain Lightning up,” Nick said under his breath. “If you get all three up too, we can blast this guy in one go. I think.”