Floor 9 became a threshold for the party.
The air was fiery hotter, The walls were lava flows frozen mid-cascade, rippling with heat shimmers. The portal to Floor 10: the boss chamber, the Pyre Wyrm, the goal they'd been climbing toward, pulsed at the far end, tantalizingly close.
Three Elite Magma Centipedes stood between them and the portal.
Massive, each longer than the Alpha from Floor 5, segmented bodies armored in black plates, legs ending in scythe-like points. They moved with horrible, fluid coordination, antennae twitching in unison. Cores hidden deep within, protected by layers of dense armor. No obvious weak points. No easy targets.
