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    The boss bat fell through the top of the air bubble and out the bottom. Zdeska entered the air bubble a few seconds later and landed on the vine branch. Visibility out of the air bubbles was poor, so she pushed past the other bandits and raced to the edge to stick her face out. She watched the boss bat struggle to swim over to something hanging in the water just past the end of the vine branch. Something that brought hope back to Zdeska''s plans. A chest of gold.


    A cloud of red jellyfish rose between the air bubble and the chest of gold, herded by the smaller bats. Zdeska pulled her head back into the air bubble, grinning wildly. She composed herself and turned the grin into a look of smug assurance before turning and addressing the other bandits. "Back to camp. Be extra cautious between air bubbles, the bats can push you off with water jet attacks." She waved the other bandits back towards the dungeon floor portal. "I''ll take rear guard."


    "Queen Zdeska, did you win?" The thin bandit tempted fate with yet another stupid question. Zdeska glared at him, but decided to answer anyway.


    "The boss and I sparred a bit to see how we measured up. I obviously came out stronger overall, but it is more mobile in the water. With a bit of preparation, it stands no chance in our next encounter. Now move!" She said. The bandits jumped and moved quickly to the back of the air bubble and began swimming back along the vine. Blue bats harassed them between each air bubble on the way back, but were unable to dislodge or injure the bandits.


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    Violet was feeling grumpy. His talky-thinky device just wasn''t working. He slouched into the underworld workshop with a frown. He looked up to find Chaney and Yrryth bent over the workbench, looking at something. He thought about just turning around and heading back to the dungeon core, but a spark of curiosity pushed him to stay. He cleared his throat to get their attention.


    "Master fairy!" Chaney said. "I''m glad to see you are well. I knew you would be, but it''s good to be certain." Chaney had bit of strain in his smile.


    "Did we fool the bandits?" Violet asked.


    Chaney shook his head. "No, I accidentally set off one of my traps and I didn''t have enough time to hide it properly. The cat dragged one of them under some vines and I stole this, but they didn''t see me." Chaney held up a bag and reached in for something. "It had a bunch of these little yellow things. Do you know what it is?" Chaney held out a yellow pill.


    Violet squinted at the pill. "The mana inside looks like healing. Probably their world''s version of healing potions. I don''t know the exact usage for it, but you probably eat it." Violet pointed at a piece of paper on the workbench. "What are you two working on?"


    Yrryth grunted and held up the paper. A crude drawing of a moon cat dragging a person through bushes was scribbled on the paper. Chaney explained. "The moon cat and I couldn''t fight the bandits in the swamp. We picked the weakest one to drag in the bushes and kill, but it didn''t seem like we did much damage at all. You and I were talking about how to get rid of the bandit leader or all the bandits and I figure we might try to demoralize them." Chaney pointed at the person scribbled on the paper. "If I drop this somewhere a bandit will find it, maybe they will make fun of this person we attacked." Chaney sighed and shrugged. "I don''t know. It seems hopeless."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Violet took the paper and examined the drawing while he thought. He tapped his chin with the paper and paced back and forth for a few moments. He stopped pacing and faced the others. "I think we can aim higher. We can make embarrassing drawings of the bandit leader. They will make her look bad and she might think one of her people is drawing them, driving a wedge between them. I can translate something to go with the pictures like, um, ''she makes us do all the dirty work'' or something like that." Violet put the paper back on the workbench. "I''ll pull up the image of her right now so you can practice drawing her face so people recognize her." Violet created a new visual scanner over the bandit camp. He navigated the viewpoint into the bandit leader''s tent. The bandit woman was bandaging one of her hands. The other hand had clearly been burned by something. The woman''s leg and hip had scabbed over cuts. The goblin woman entered the tent. Violet quickly turned on the sound to hear what they were saying.


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    "I haven''t seen you this injured in a long time, Z." Sajaa said. Her eyes twinkled with amusement at some private joke. "Want a heal candy?"


    Zdeska shook her head but didn''t look up from wrapping her hands. "The cuts will heal quickly, and it would take more heal candies than we have to heal my hands. The boss had a strange white fire that ignored my defenses." She pulled a knot tight with her teeth before looking up at Sajaa. "The hands will heal more slowly."


    "Where''s the carcass? I could mount the head on a pole just outside for you." Sajaa said.


    Zdeska frowned. "The boss is still alive, Sajaa."


    Sajaa''s mouth fell open in astonishment, then closed into a disgusted sneer. "You left a monster alive? A monster from this pitiful little dungeon? You''re weak."


    Zdeska set her face in an arrogant and aloof expression. "Go and fight it yourself, then. Oh wait, you can''t swim."


    Sajaa flushed with embarrassment and the two women fell to arguing and insulting each other.


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    Violet rubbed his hands together. "Interesting!" He said. "I thought nothing in the dungeon could hold a candle to her." He grinned at Yrryth. "Looks like your blue brother managed to drive her off." His grin faded a bit. "We better check out the damages." He turned back to the visual scanner and shifted it to the underwater worldlet. He navigated to the chest of gold but didn''t see the boss bat. He pulled back to the nearest air bubble and found the bat laying across the giant vine. It''s left wing was injured and it''s body language said it was feeling dejected. Yrryth growled, low and angry.


    "What is that creature?" Chaney asked. "It''s a bat? How is it keeping the water from filling that air bubble?"


    Violet looked over to Chaney, but wasn''t really listening. "Oh, Chaney, give me one of those yellow pills. Three, give me three." He held out his hand and Chaney fumbled with the small bag. "Yrryth, draw a picture of the boss bat with wings spread wide over a crushed bandit leader. Paper!" Violet snatched the yellow pills from Chaney and grabbed the pen and a fresh piece of paper. along the bottom, he wrote, "Weaker than bats!" in the language of the bandits. The translation spell that Violet used moved the ink around after it left the pen, which made Chaney''s eyes cross. As he dashed out the door, Violet yelled back, "Make copies and spread them around the dungeon!"