With the puppet destroyed, Rylan took his time to seek a path through the cloud of platforms that didn't require the use of his Jumping Skill.

Once Arphin was done gushing about their successful takedown, he was actually quite helpful in determining a good route forward.

Finally, after a wobbly landing or two and what would have been a scraped knee if not for his Mana Shell, Rylan managed to get to the larger platform that seemed to form the boundary between the two sections.

Thankfully, the two puppets in the next section remained still even as he touched down. It seemed they wouldn't activate until he entered their cloud of platforms properly, like he'd hoped. Untensing a little, he decided to check his mana reserves, finding that his Mana Shell was down to 3.8 out of 5 mana, and his pool to 11.9 out of 13.

So far so good.

Of course, Arphin had also used about a full point of mana to Recall, which, after a moment of consideration, Rylan decided to replenish.

He might not have the time to do so halfway through the next section, and he didn't want to risk having to continue without Arphin. In fact, if he could avoid it, he wouldn't want to risk having Arphin fall down into the golden void at all, despite Tamina's assurances that the spiritgear would just be ejected from the Dungeon unharmed.

[I think that went well. Did you think it went—oh! Thanks for the top-up, Boss! So, what's the plan for the next part?]

Rylan sucked in a breath. "Well, there're two puppets there, but... you're right, it went pretty well, so I think trying to take them out fast is probably still our best bet."

[Awesome!]

"I just wish I had some cover..." Rylan muttered with a frown, rubbing his arm. He could already feel the bruise forming, and that from a bolt that his Mana Shell had deflected! "Jumping down to hide below that platform was a great idea. Maybe we should think about the right spot or platform to make our stand from..."

[Oh! What if we try to fight them over there?]

Rylan looked up in the direction Arphin indicated, his eyes widening as he spotted what the spiritgear had. "That... could work. Fog, I might actually be able to dodge there!"

Judging by the giant hourglass up above, finishing up the first section had only taken Rylan about ten minutes, so he took some time to map out a route to the area Arphin had found within the second section.

His main consideration was speed, as he didn't want to fend off two puppets from a disadvantageous position for too long. For that reason, he decided to try to skip as many stationary platforms as possible, bypassing them by directly jumping from one moving platform to another.

That made his route a little more complicated, as it meant the various loops he wanted to use would have to align, but Arphin once more proved very helpful.

It took them a bit, but eventually, they hammered out a plan. Rylan took deep, calming breaths as he waited for the loops to align, trying to stay focused on how he would get to their chosen battlefield, and not on everything that could go wrong before he got there.

Finally, the loops aligned again, and it was time.

The moment Rylan landed on the first moving platform, the puppets were off, starting to close in. For now, however, he let Arphin keep an eye on them, focusing on his route.

[Boss, incoming!]

The first shot came from quite a distance, providing Rylan just enough time to sidestep and regain his balance for the first jump. A platform was coming up alongside on his left, and a twang signalled the second shot right as he leapt towards it.

A shudder went down Rylan's spine as the bolt cracked the stone of the platform behind him.

Dodging became harder as the puppets closed in, and after Rylan took a glancing blow to the cheek, he saw himself forced to chuck one of his knives to force a puppet to temporarily back off so he could perform the next transition.

This time, he leapt onto a stationary platform and then, keeping his momentum, immediately jumped on towards a rising one.

[Our fated battleground is coming up on your left, Boss!]

Rylan didn't respond, just barely dodging another shot by swiftly dropping down, before scrambling up and finally leaping onto the section where they intended to make a stand.

The platform he landed on was one of six that were rotating in a tight circle, with gaps in between only as wide as the platforms themselves. Even better, there were a further six stationary platforms that formed a circle just ten feet below.

[Boss!]

Hearing Arphin's warning, Rylan jumped across the gap in the middle, landing on another one of the circling platforms. The bolt zipped past behind him harmlessly.

Nice! Now it was time to strike back.

Rylan drew Arphin, and started to charge his Knife-Throwing Skill, but quickly was forced to dodge again.

He had room to manoeuvre now, but he'd also stopped travelling, and the two puppets were taking advantage. Like the last one, they took the high ground, and started shooting down at Rylan from both sides as he spun in circles.

He faked a throw, causing one of the puppets to hop to safety along a predictable trajectory, but before he could take advantage, another shot came in from behind, forcing him to leap to the other side.

The bolt smashed into the stone of the platform he'd just occupied, leaving behind cracks.

Fog, come on; I just need one good shot!

Unfortunately, his next three attempts were hastily abandoned as well, each time losing him some mana. To make matters worse, the six platforms he was using to dodge were starting to crack more and more.

With his heart beating a mile a minute and his mind racing, Rylan made a decision.

He charged Arphin with about 0.5 points of mana, then faked another throw, causing one of the puppets to hop sideways towards another platform. Rapidly drawing back his arm again, he took aim at the top of its arc, hoping to hit the hexagonal weak spot on its chest.

[Boss!] Arphin called, sending along a sense of something rapidly moving towards his back.

Rylan ignored the warning, and threw anyway.

The bolt hit the centre of his back near the end of his throw, causing him to stumble forward. Arphin flew from his hand, but not quite as intended. He had to really wrench Arphin by the Skill to straighten out his flight, but that didn't solve the main issue. The sudden step forward had pulled his arm to the left.

Arphin still hit the puppet, but off-centre, at the shoulder joint.

The smooth blue stone shattered, and one of its arms flew off. However, despite the impact, the puppet still managed to land on its legs, calmly raising its remaining arm.

Fog! Rylan was forced to jump aside to another platform once more, even as Arphin Recalled into his hand.

[Boss, are you all right?! I tried to warn you!]

"I know, but we're running out of time," Rylan said through gritted teeth, his spine throbbing with another forming bruise. "At least we got one of its—"

The other puppet shot again, and Rylan reflexively leapt away. Unfortunately, the platform he landed on had seen better days. The moment his weight settled on the fissured surface, an ominous crack rang out. Rylan's eyes widened as the platform crumbled beneath his feet.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Flailing his arms in mid-air, he fell amidst a rain of blue stone... right onto the edge of one of the six stationary platforms below.

Great Spirits, that was close!

[Boss, incoming!]

Rylan scrambled to his feet, leaving Arphin lying at his feet for a moment so he could grab one of the larger chunks of smashed platform, and lift it just in time to deflect the bolt. The stone cracked in the process, and he let the pieces tumble, quickly snatching Arphin up again. All right, we're still in this!

Having six fresh platforms to jump around on—and only three puppet arms firing at him—gave Rylan some much-needed breathing room. Which he gratefully used to study the behaviour of his opponents.

From what he could tell, the five remaining platforms circling overhead were making things a little tougher for the puppets, as they still seemed to prefer to keep their high ground. While the gaps between the platforms were ostensibly big enough for them to shoot through—especially the one left behind by the crumbled platform—it was too easy for him to jump around and take shelter below. This resulted in the puppets moving around a lot so they could fire at him from the side he was at, often even jumping straight overhead.

Which gave Rylan an idea...

'Get ready, Arphin,' he sent through their connection, just in case the puppets were listening. 'I'm about to make a move.'

[Awesome! You got it, Boss!]

Charging both of his Skills at once was something Rylan had done before in training, but doing it while jumping between moving platforms to dodge crossbow bolts was a whole new level.

Still, he persevered, both Arphin and the soles of his boots lighting up with a white glow as he waited for the right opportunity.

Then, when the two-armed puppet was just about to shoot, Rylan jumped across to the other side. As expected, the twang of its crossbow arm was replaced by the creak of weird legs.

However, Rylan wasn't just hiding this time. Rather, the moment he landed on the opposite platform, he whirled around and activated Jump.

Rylan shot up ten feet, straight through the gap between two of the intact upper platforms. He emerged there with his hand already drawn back, facing the puppet as it came arcing overhead.

Though it was probably his imagination playing tricks on him, Rylan would have sworn the puppet's carved face looked surprised when—mid-air—he flung Arphin at its rapidly approaching chest point-blank.

The spiritgear smashed into its weak spot dead centre, and Rylan had only just landed on one of the upper platforms when he had to shield his head with his arms to avoid getting hit by the subsequent rain of rubble. Despite this, Rylan automatically opened his right hand to receive Arphin when the Spiritgear Recalled once more.

[Boss, that was awesome! Oh! I'm getting a little woozy... I can Recall one more time, but then you'll need to charge—incoming!]

Rylan dropped down to one of the lower platforms, thereby ducking the shot without too much trouble. He'd already been watching the final, one-armed puppet, and saw its attack coming a mile off. Frankly, it no longer posed much of a threat to him like this.

"Let's save your mana," he said, sheathing Arphin and drawing the boning knife from his strap instead. "We'll probably need it more in the next section..."

Rylan ended up requiring two knives to finish off the one-armed puppet, but at only 0.4 points of mana per blade, he considered that a steal. He really had charged Arphin too much for the first puppet; 0.4 was plenty to take one out on a good hit, perhaps even 0.3.

After making it to the larger hexagonal platform that demarked the border between the second and third clouds of moving platforms, he took stock of his situation.

He'd thrown four of the cooking knives from the strap across his chest, leaving him with three more, plus his letter opener, dagger, and Arphin. During the second fight, his Mana Shell had taken a few more grazes and a single direct hit, leaving him with 2.4 points of mana shimmering around his skin. Finally, Arphin was down to a single Recall's worth of mana, and his own pool was at... 7.8. Oof...

While 7.8 sounded like a decent amount still, he'd really prefer to recharge his Mana Shell and Arphin for the final battle. However, if he recharged both of them to full, that would leave him with... 3.2 points of mana for his Skills.

Rylan's heart sank. That's less than I used just now, fighting two of them... and this time they'll be shooting at me from three sides!

[What's the plan, Boss? How are we going to destroy these clodpuppets?]

Rylan kept his eyes locked on the cloud of platforms in front of him, frowning. "I'm... To be honest, I'm not sure if we should try, Arphin."

[What?! You can't give up now, Boss, we're so close!]

"No, I meant... we don't have to destroy them," Rylan said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "I just have to make it to the exit."

If I only recharge my Mana Shell, I'd have enough for five big Jumps... If I don't recharge my Mana Shell, I'd have enough for seven, maybe even eight!

He glanced up at the hourglass. It was still half-full. He had time to make a good plan.

[Oh! Well, you're the Boss, Boss. Just tell me what you need me to do!]

"Good, because I am going to need your help with this..."

[First big Jump coming up on your left in three, two—watch out!]

Alongside Arphin's words came an impression of a platform approaching them from high up, followed by not one, but two projectiles.

Fog!

The indicated platform was still a bit farther than he liked, but there was no time. Bending his knees, he pushed just a little more mana to the soles of his feet, then leapt, using the full charge to push himself off.

Aside from gaining the Overcharge Augmentation, Rylan had been focused on gaining more control over how he applied the Skill's mana. The Jumping Skill had a tendency to evenly split his mana between the launch and the landing, but with an effort of will, he could now shift that balance, which was quite useful when he wanted to jump up—or down.

Rylan shot off his platform like an arrow, his legs only barely withstanding the force as he launched himself with a full 1.2 points of mana. The two bolts whistled past behind him, crossing each other's paths but hitting nothing.

He arced through the air, compensating for his early jump by going a little higher than he'd originally planned. The platform slid underneath him, and he almost overshot it, ending up windmilling his arms on the ledge to keep his balance.

[Boss!]

Stumbling back, Rylan let himself drop onto his butt as a third bolt grazed his shoulder, causing his Mana Shell to flash white.

Cursing, he jumped up, warily glancing around at the three puppets rapidly closing in on him.

So far, the fast, upward route he'd plotted out with Arphin was panning out. He just needed to make one more transition before they reached the next big Jump.

After that, he would unfortunately have to hold out for a bit on a stationary platform, until the target of his third big Jump came close enough. That fast-moving platform should take him to his final platform, high up. From there, he would take one final big mana-powered leap, which should take him all the way to the exit platform.

He just had to make it there before his refilled Mana Shell gave out. Or the platform he was standing on.

Rylan twisted out of the way of one shot, before jumping over a second, the two bolts hitting near his feet, spreading cracks across the blue stone.

The platform creaked ominously as he touched back down on it.

"Arphin, where's that next platform?!" Rylan shouted.

[It's coming, Boss, hang on!]

Cursing, Rylan drew his paring knife, activated Knife-Throwing, and faked a throw at one of the three puppets, causing it to leap back to safety.

He whirled around to face another puppet to his right, and was only barely able to jump out of the way of its shot, taking a glancing blow to his inner thigh. That was below the belt, Ethereon!

At least the bolt hadn't hit his platform, but the next one did, sending shudders through the groaning blue stone.

[Next platform coming up on your right!]

Rylan scrambled to get off the crumbling platform and onto the next, another bolt whizzing right past his ear as he leapt, unaided by his Skill.

[Almost at the second big jump now!] Arphin warned, prompting Rylan to start charging his Jumping Skill to about 0.8 points of mana. [Straight up in 3, 2, 1...]

For once, the puppets were too busy reloading to interrupt Rylan as he leapt, and he landed on the higher, stationary platform... a mere fifteen feet from his nearest foe.

It fired. The point-blank shot smashed into Rylan's stomach, knocking the air out of him. The attack was immediately followed by a second bolt from another puppet, which painfully glanced off his knee.

[Come on, Boss, you gotta fight back!] Arphin urged [You've gotta stay on this platform for another twelve seconds!]

Gritting his teeth, Rylan lifted his chin and drew back the paring knife he was still clutching, charging it with the minimal 0.1 mana as he did.

He faked another throw at the nearby puppet, before twisting to the right and hurling it for real at a second one, which quickly jumped away to safety.

More bolts came flying at him in reply from the retreating puppets, which he did his best to dodge as well as he could while he drew his next knife.

Rylan's world narrowed to the small platform he was standing on, and the three foes engaging him. He dodged bolt after bolt, the missed shots pinging off the edges of the platform, and threw a knife whenever one of the puppets got too close for comfort.

He wasn't trying to hit them, not really, just keep them at bay.

Soon however, when he reached for the next handle, he found none on his chest. So he drew his dagger.

[Third big jump coming up, straight ah—Boss!]

Rylan tried to jerk his head back, but he was too late. He'd been dodging one shot when another came from the side, and smashed into the side of his head like the blow of a hammer. The world spun as, for a brief moment, he saw nothing but white. Then the light from his Mana Shell cleared again, and he blinked, finding himself standing on the very edge of the platform.

[Boss, the next platform!] Arphin urged, his voice piercing through the ringing in Rylan's ears. [It's about to make its closest approach; if you miss this chance, it'll take thirty seconds to swing back around!]

Shaking his head in an attempt to dispel his dizziness, Rylan hastily threw his dagger to scare off the nearest puppet, and started charging his Jumping Skill. The puppet leapt back and fired a bolt at him from the distance. Rylan swayed around it half-intentionally, causing it to just barely miss.

The puppet that had nailed him in the head moments before had retreated as well, to reload, giving him a much-needed moment of reprieve.

I'm almost there... Just two more big jumps!

If he made this first one, the next set of platforms would take him the rest of the way to his final launching spot.

However, just when Arphin initiated the countdown for the long, horizontal jump towards the fast-moving platform, the third and final puppet... hopped onto the very platform he was aiming at.

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