I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

Sabrina forced herself to stand up and move forward, each step exacting a price as she felt her very soul being ripped at the seams. Dune came barreling in, grabbing all three tentacles which were holding onto Sabrina. Dune pulled with enough force that the skin stretched until it released its hold on her.

The creature gave a hiss and sent two more tentacles toward Dune. Two cards landed on the creature’s head. The tentacles recoiled before reaching Dune and snapped back.

Behind the creature, Felix ducked to avoid getting hit by the tentacle before firing a card at the creature’s head. One tentacle from its mouth whipped out, knocking the card from midair.

Dune pulled harder, stretching the tentacles she was holding before she sank her teeth down and ripped the flesh right off of the creature. She did it again, and again, feral, relentless. Two more tentacles swung for her. Sabrina flew in ahead of it, taking the hit herself and thrown sideways through the air, steam rising from where it had struck.

Dune stopped her action and turned around, pulling the tentacles in the opposite direction. The creature staggered.

*Now is the time.* Felix leaned back, the tentacles brushing against his chest. He straightened up and drove forward.

The tentacles Dune had been pulling suddenly went slack, all resistance gone. She stumbled forward a step before catching herself.

*This bastard cut off its own limbs.* Felix caught the severed lengths falling loose from its mouth and closed the last of the distance, then cut sharply left and threw his cards for its head. It deflected them without effort.

Dune surged forward at full speed. The creature’s head snapped around, four tentacles lashing out, and they caught her across the skin before wrapping tight and slamming her into the wall.

Felix landed directly beneath it, scrambling up fast, its eye level with his own. He funneled the last of his Numen into his fist and swung.

The creature vanished the instant before impact. His fist met empty air, Numen scattering uselessly into the dark.

He looked down. "Seriously?"

It stared back, its severed legs already reattaching, the rest of its tentacles slithering back into place.

He drove his boot down. A tentacle caught it mid-strike and shoved him back. He stumbled, and four more wrapped around each of his limbs at once. The creature rose slowly, lifting him clean off the ground.

Sabrina came out of her daze, eyes flicking from Felix suspended in the air to Dune pushing herself up. She moved fast, crossing the distance and slipping straight into Dune’s body. Dune’s frame stiffened for a moment, and her left eye bled into emerald green.

She looked up at Felix, tentacles stretching his limbs in four directions while he cursed through gritted teeth.

"Are you just going to watch, or do something?’

Dune planted her feet and broke into a full sprint. The creature released Felix.

"No, no, catch me—"

She didn’t stop. He hit the ground, pain lighting up every part of him at once, and the tentacles snapped back as Dune came within striking range.

She drove a fist straight into its head. Tentacles blocked it, and a delayed shockwave detonated between them, forcing the creature half a step back, weaker this time than the last. She struck again. And again. Each hit sank into stretched, rubbery flesh, each one releasing another burst that pushed the thing back further. However, her strength was fading quickly, and breaths were coming raggedly with each swing.

The creature caught her hard in the side with a kick. She staggered, dropping to her knees. It closed the distance and stood over her, looking down.

Dune coughed blood and forced herself upright. The creature just watched, certain now that this was already over. She clenched her fist, drove it into its stomach one last time, Numen surging through her arm, the flesh stretching around the impact same as before. The shockwave that followed sent it flying clear across the room.

Dune slammed into the wall behind her and still pulled herself back up, sleeves torn apart, the cracks along her skin widening, one arm hanging useless at her side. A faint glow rose from beneath the skin and slowly began knitting the damage back together as she walked toward where the creature had landed.

It lay on the ground, stomach torn open, legs barely still attached, its round head and enormous eye still fixed on her as she closed in. Its tentacles thrashed weakly, trying and failing to hold her off.

Then a circle bloomed into existence around it, the same design Felix saw etched into Sabrina’s old room, glowing purple. The creature let out a scream as its wounds started closing on their own, tissue reforming, flesh reconnecting.

She kept moving forward, limping, stumbling, but moving nonetheless. The creature drew its tentacles back and stood up again, completely healed, as if nothing had occurred during the last few minutes.

Her foot caught on something. She stopped and looked down, found the orb Felix had dropped earlier, and picked it up, tossing it toward the creature’s feet. It rolled to a stop in front of it, and the thing tilted its head, studying the object.

Dune raised both hands as its tentacles lashed out toward her again.

She opened her mouth and spoke. "Lightbringer, descend."

A pillar of golden light crashed down over the creature, and the whole house shook once before falling still. Where it had stood, only a scorched hole remained, burned clean through the wooden floor.

"Whoa." Felix pushed himself upright, staring at the smoking hole in the floor. "What the hell was that?"

He walked over to where Dune sat cross-legged beside it, peering down into the dark. The hole went straight through every floor beneath them, clear to the ground.

"What was that?" He crouched next to her, following her gaze down. "You never told me you could do something like that."

Someone’s paying for this damage, and it sure as hell isn’t going to be me.

"The orb you gave me." Dune replied, "I only said what was written on it."

"That thing?" Felix stared at it. "I thought it was just for lighting up hallways." He rubbed his face. "I really should read the descriptions before I buy this stuff."

He snapped his head back and forth. "Where is Sabrina? And where are the children?"