Environmental Damage

Selere glanced back at him, one eyebrow lifting slightly. “You have that look again.”

Kyle smirked faintly, shifting his weight against the rough stone wall. “Yeah? What kind of look is that?”

“The kind where you are about to say something incredibly stupid,” she replied calmly, turning just enough for the faint blue glow of Alistair’s staff to trace along her sharp cheekbones and the smooth line of her jaw.

Kyle opened his mouth, paused for a second as if reconsidering his life choices, then shrugged.

Alistair stepped closer, his staff held a bit tighter than before, the light flickering slightly with his unease. “If you have an idea, now would be the time,” he said, his voice low but steady.

Kyle let out a slow breath and pointed upward. “See that cluster there? The one hanging over the middle of the camp.”

Selere followed his gesture immediately, her gaze tracking the formation before drifting down to the goblins moving beneath it. The faint smirk on her lips deepened just slightly. “You want to bring it down on them,” she said, her tone more amused than surprised.

Kyle grinned. “Yeah. Saves us the trouble of running in there and getting swarmed.”

Alistair frowned, clearly still processing. “Those stones are massive. They will not fall for hundreds of years.”

Kyle glanced at him, then at the glowing staff in his hands, then back again. “Good thing we have a guy with a magic stick then?”

Selere’s smirk sharpened instantly, her eyes flicking down, before returning to his face. “Careful,” she murmured, voice low with amusement. “You seem quite confident in your… magic stick.”

There was a pause.

Alistair cleared his throat. “I believe he means my magic staff.”

“Yeah,” Kyle said quickly, waving a hand like he could physically erase the implication. “That. Definitely that.”

Selere’s expression didn’t change, but the corner of her lips twitched just enough to make it worse.

Kyle coughed lightly, forcing himself back on track. “Point is—break the ceiling. Hit the weak spots. We let gravity do the rest. If it doesn’t work - we run.”

Selere’s lips curved again, just a touch more this time. “A practical plan. I approve.”

They repositioned carefully, moving along the cavern wall until Kyle found a better angle. The ground here was uneven, scattered with loose fragments of stone that shifted underfoot if he wasn’t careful. His leg still complained with every step, a dull, persistent reminder that he wasn’t exactly operating at full capacity, but it held. That was enough for now.

Alistair came to a stop beside him, raising his staff slightly as he followed Kyle’s line of sight. The blue glow intensified, casting sharper light across the ceiling and making the cracks stand out more clearly.

“There,” Kyle said quietly, pointing again. “That one’s doing most of the work. Hit it near the edge, where the crack is already spreading.”

Selere remained silent now, watching both of them with that same calm, predatory focus, as if she were just as interested in seeing whether Kyle’s idea would work as she was in the result itself.

Alistair exhaled slowly, steadying his stance. The staff hummed faintly, energy gathering at its tip until the light became almost blinding against the dark stone.

Then he fired.

The bolt struck the rock with a sharp, echoing crack that rang through the cavern. For a moment, nothing happened, and Kyle felt a brief, sinking sense of doubt creeping in.

Then a thin fracture spread outward from the point of impact, splitting across the surface like a spiderweb. Dust trickled down in a steady stream, catching the blue light as it fell.

Selere tilted her head slightly. “Again,” she said.

Alistair didn’t hesitate this time. The second shot followed quickly, striking just beside the first.

The effect was immediate. The crack widened, deepened, and then the entire slab shifted with a low, grinding sound that Kyle felt more than heard. The stone tilted forward just enough to break whatever fragile balance had been holding it in place.

“Yeah… there we go,” Kyle muttered under his breath.

The slab dropped. It hit the ground with a **** that sent a shockwave through the cavern, the impact echoing in a deafening burst. Goblins scattered in every direction, their shrill cries cutting through the noise as they tried to react.

A second rock followed, then a third, each impact triggering another shift above. The cracks spread rapidly now, branching outward and connecting, turning a single weak point into a cascading failure.

Kyle grabbed onto the rock beside him as the ceiling began to give way in chunks, stone crashing down in uneven waves across the camp. The ground trembled beneath his feet, smaller debris skittering and bouncing around them as dust exploded upward in thick clouds.

Through the chaos, he caught a brief glimpse of the goblin chief rising from its throne, its massive frame turning toward the collapse just in time for a huge slab of stone to come crashing down directly over it.

“That’s rough,” Kyle muttered, squinting through the dust.

The noise didn’t stop immediately. It rolled on in a series of heavy impacts, each one slightly smaller than the last, until the entire center of the cavern had been reduced to broken stone and scattered debris.

Then, finally, it went quiet.

Alistair lowered his staff, staring out at the destruction with a stunned expression. “I… did not expect that to work so well,” he admitted.

Kyle shrugged, though there was a satisfied grin tugging his lips. “Honestly, me neither. But I’ve played enough games to recognize a weak ceiling when I see one.”

Selere stepped forward, her movements smooth and deliberate, violet eyes scanning the ruins before settling back on him. “You are either very clever,” she said, voice soft with something unreadable, “or very lucky.”

Kyle smirked. “Why not both?”

“It is one or the other,” she replied, though this time her lips curved faintly as she held his gaze. Then, deliberately, she gave a small wink and caught her lower lip between her teeth for just a second.

Kyle’s breath hitched. Heat crept up his neck, and he quickly looked away, very aware of the way his pants suddenly felt a bit tighter in a very inconvenient place.

Seriously? Now? During the goblin cleanup phase?

He **** his attention back to the rubble, jaw tightening slightly as he focused on literally anything else. Broken stone. Dust. Dead goblins. Great distractions. Fantastic, even.

Yeah… never thought I’d be using corpses as a cooldown mechanic, but here we are.

He adjusted his grip on his sword, clearing his throat. “Right. Let’s not hang around long enough for round two.”