When the door opens to the Floor One boss arena, it's immediately clear that something is different. The room still has the same basic shape; that of a large cavern leading the way to a smaller one towards the back, from whence the rabbitfolk boss usually appears and where the exit to Floor Two can be found. The torches that normally light the chamber are gone however, and instead only bioluminescent moss can be found, softly glowing on the ceiling and walls. Overall it means the room is far darker than normal, but the rabbity boss can still be seen standing at the opposite end of the arena. He also seems different in at least one respect - in previous fights the man had always fought with claw-like weapons attached to his hands, but today the rogue stands with a proper blade at the ready.

  Worried that attacking with too many people at once may cause the party members to get in each others way, Prince Thaddeus instead points out a handful of followers to assist him in the coming fight. "Lyman, Reed, cover my flanks. Hylii, give us a boost. The rest of you, hang back - this foe will hardly need all of us."

  Having apparently heard the prince's orders with his oversized ears, the waiting rogue laughs. "I'll admit, I'm not gonna claim I could take on a dozen of you at once. But just three? I almost feel insulted."

  Thaddeus gives the man the respect of an answer as he steps forward. "You may recall how easily I handled you the first time we met, yes? We've invoked no 'Challenge Mode', the dungeon cannot empower you as much as it would take to be a threat to us."

  "Mrmm, partially true." BB grins at his opponent. "But I am just the Floor One guardian. Xenia always held me back a few tiers to keep me from overpowering the Initiates, not to mention disallowing full access to her skill library. You might find that I'm not the man I used to be."

  "If so, then words will not display it. Show me!" Thaddeus dashes forward, his enchanted boots giving him a burst of speed that few mortals could ever hope to match - which makes it all the more shocking when BB meets him halfway, parrying his blade. The force of the impact tells the prince that the monster is still not quite as strong as him, but his speed? Thaddeus tests him a few more times, a swing and a thrust, and the rabbit dodges both with near-ease. One on hand, it makes a chill run up Thaddeus's spine to think that Worthy Dungeon may have been holding its cards even closer to its chest than he thought. On the other hand...he can't stop a smile from appearing on his face as he faces a swordsman who can actually almost challenge him.

  "Where was this speed before!? Surely a few 'tiers' could not have been hiding so much improvement!"

  BB has a grin on his own face as he dashes forward, nearly slicing Thaddeus's side before he has to pull back and fend off the Blairs for a few moments. "The last time you faced me, I possessed the skills of a simple Rabbit Rogue! ...And a Bard, but that's not particularly relevant. But now?" The guardian pauses his explanation to leap into the air, his blade parrying Lyman's while a foot kicks out to wallop Reed in the side of the head, sending the younger man sprawling. "Now you face a Leaping Blademaster - a Master of the rabbitkin arts!"

  Crowded up with the others at the arena's entrance, Violetta leans forward to shout out a question. "Sure you don't want us to zap him or something, prince?"

  "I am enjoying this fight, but we do have quite a fair bit left to go, so...Hylii, if you would?"

  "Was just waiting on your order, my liege." The Body Mage immediately gets to casting a spell, this time not one to improve the forms of his allies, but to weaken that of his foe. While most mages might have trouble hitting a target this agile, wasting mana on errant fireballs, Hylii's magic has a few special traits. Yes, it's stronger when he's touching his target. It's even better when the target isn't resisting his spells. But in general - if there's a body within his range, then it's easy prey for his magical domain. With a simple thought the dark elf casts a curse of weakness upon the blademaster, and it's to immediate effect as BB stumbles on his next landing.

  "Hey! Just when it was getting good! Well, I've still got something for cheaters - smoke bomb!" BB tosses a small sphere in Hylii's direction, and the mage almost feels tempted to taunt the monster about it. After all, he didn't need to see BB to cast the spell, he certainly doesn't need to see him in order to maintain it.

  Then the bomb explodes, and Hylii realizes the smoke contains more than just vision-impairing particulates. "Gah! This is - it's a stench bomb! How child-ergh..." For a moment the elf was about to discount the danger of such an attack, but that's before he feels his breakfast attempting to escape his stomach through his esophagus. As a Body Mage it's a relatively simple matter for him to get himself under control...but in the process he loses concentration on his curse spell.

  A moment is all BB needs as his speed returns without warning, allowing him to take Lyman by surprise as he dashes forward. His blow isn't a killing one, but the gash on the fencer's side is one that will surely need attention in the very near future. It's BB's turn to be surprised then when Lyman ignores his wound to grab on to the guardian's arm with his free hand. "I have him, lord! Now!"

  Having been hot on the rabbit's trail this entire time, Thaddeus hardly needs to be told twice to make a dash of his own, planting his sword solidly into BB's spine. The guardian seems poised to make one last taunt, but Thaddeus spoils that as well, retracting his blade only to quickly swing it again, this time removing the monster's head from his shoulders.

  The prince doesn't take any time to celebrate his victory, however. "Lyman! Are you badly hurt?"

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  "Frankly, yes. A potion should do me well, though, provided I don't need to do much heavy lifting during the platform ride up ahead."

  "Drink up, then. And Reed, not too injured, I hope?"

  The younger fencer presses a hand to the beginning of a bruise already forming on his temple. "Was a solid hit, sir, but nothing serious. I'll be fine."

  Thaddeus shakes his head. "Use a dab of potion anyhow - we don't want to let small injuries build up over the course of the day. Hylii, I assume you've regained control of yourself?"

  "Only had me for a moment, my lord." The dark elf looks much better now that he's standing outside of the range of the smoke bomb's effects, which Linda and Tizzy are currently blocking off in order to allow the rest of the party to pass safely. "Shall we collect our winnings? I imagine we'll have those tokens waiting for us at the least."

  "Indeed." The prince makes his way over to the newly-appeared chest, and finds the usual items waiting for them on the top of the pile. "Currency, a small mana potion, more rabbit feet charms...hold on, now." The man shifts the prizes back and forth, and frowns at what he finds at the bottom of the chest. Coins, bearing an image of a rabbit's head in profile on one side, and a swirl-covered orb on the other. "Only four tokens! Everyone's wearing their charms, yes?"

  The group looks around, examining each other, but everyone seems to have a rabbit foot of their own around their neck. Smirking slightly, Liani offers up a suggestion. "It did say something about 'defeats a Floor Guardian', yes? And only four of us actually took part in the fight, not counting spectators."

  "Dammit!" Thaddeus smacks the edge of the chest with a fist, although he can't deny the obvious logic. "I suppose we'll have to find a way to allow everyone to participate in the remaining guardian battles...and we've lost out on the opportunity for eight tokens. Fortunately we should still have margin enough...and we do have extra charms to wear now if we need them, as well. Very well, then...live and learn, this is but a minor hiccup. If everyone's ready, we'll move on to Floor Two."

  It doesn't take long for the group to make their way through the caverns and onto the platform at the top of the vertical 'floor', and so far at least everything seems to be normal. The platform is the same size, the lights are the same as ever, and Tizzy takes a look around at the walls and ceiling and finds no new additions that could indicate traps. There's simply the pressure plate on one wall which triggers the movement of the floor, and an impatient Tannis steps over to press it once Tizzy finishes her examination.

  "This whole floor is traps and ambushes, isn't it? I'm not looking forward to seeing what - " Whatever the elf was about to say is interrupted as the floor moves...but in a rather unexpected way.

  Which is to say that the ground directly in front of the pressure plate immediately collapses and takes Tannis with it, plummeting to the distant ground over a hundred meters below.

  There's nothing but silence for a moment as everyone stares in disbelief at the empty spot where a mage stood just a second before, but as usual Thaddeus is the first to react. "Tizzy! What did we miss!?"

  "I - the - " The nervous half-imp waves her hands in the direction of the trap, as if it will help her understand what just went wrong. "I didn't think it was a trap trigger because it was just out right in the open! Like it always is! I guess I didn't check the platform carefully enough for seams, but..."

  "If there were any, we missed them as well. But what now? The floor does at least still need to be triggered into moving, yes?"

  There's not much thought to taking time for mourning the lost elf, as instead the party turns to focus on - very carefully - giving the room a second looking-over. This time Tizzy does notice the change, however. "Wait, look - the pressure plate stayed pushed in after Tannis pressed it, and there's another one on the side of the hollow it made there! I guess we had to push the first one to get access to it, and we were just supposed to...jump out of the way really quickly, or something?"

  "Good eye - assuming that is in fact one which we wish to press." For a second Thaddeus considers ordering Tizzy to press it, as the group's scout, but he quickly remembers again that she's one of his more valuable followers. And on second thought, there's really no need to put anyone at any particular risk. "Linda, can you trigger the plate with a barrier spell?"

  The blonde mage eyes it and quickly nods. "It's not a finesse operation, so it won't be a problem, my lord."

  "Then do so - and do the same for the following switches we'll need to press, if that pattern remains. And...everyone stay light on your feet."

  When the Force Mage triggers the switch the platform begins its usual motion, although at least half of the party does actually jump a little at the slightest hint of movement. There's an exchange of awkward grins as the adventurers share in their embarrassment, but they are at least relieved to find that the floor becomes rather more normal after that. Well, at least mostly normal. The skeleton and spider ambushes which leap at the party at the platform's various stops are clearly upgraded in their strength, with the skeletons wearing better armor and the spiders being much faster and apparently far more venomous. The irony of facing venom after losing Tannis, their expert at toxins and poisons, isn't missed by anyone, but between Hylii and Violetta's spells and a few general-purpose antidote potions the group pulls through.

  There are more pitfalls to be found at each stop, but with the trick already revealed they don't manage to claim a second victim. To the dungeon's credit they aren't all as obvious as being directly in front of the switches, but as the floor moves Tizzy spends her spare time closely examining the floor with one of her perception-enhancing scout spells. After knowing what to look for, the remaining pitfalls are easy to mark out and avoid before they're triggered.

  It does leave the platform a little crowded by the end of the trip, riddled with holes as it is, but even with such a large crowd the space remains large enough for them all. The holes do pose one question however, which Norlash voices.

  "...Anyone wanna take a look for Tannis's charm?"

  To his relief, Liani quickly raises a hand. "Ah, I'll do it! Let's see, he was over on this side..." As the vampire leans into the space opened up by the first pitfall, no one else seems inclined to take a particularly close look at what remains of their lost companion. Mumbles from Liani about how the man's corpse is caught beneath the platform and needs a little 'disassembly' doesn't do much to encourage them either. Eventually, though, she raises a bloody rabbit's foot charm in triumph. "Found it! Still works, I think."

  Thaddeus pinches his eyes shut. "Certainly worked to give the man poor luck, at least. But moving on - the second guardian awaits us."

  Tizzy has a final warning to add on as well. "And, uh...definitely do not trigger the Challenge Mode. Just in case anyone was thinking of it..."