Three violet shards of crystal flew by my head. All three of them thwipped into the Swordsman’s torso, while a gout of flame emitting from Jinny’s hand held the other at bay. I had to smile at the sheer devastation of it. Another three shards followed the initial trio into the swordsman’s torso, all equally spaced, in what was probably an attempt to get as much coverage as possible in hopes of destroying the hivemind hiding within.

Fully confident Jinny could handle herself, I left her there and hustled to catch up with Nick.

Nick must have been digging deep into his reserves. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t have believed he’d already been fighting for some time. Unfortunately, his excess of energy seemed poorly spent. He was taking big, almost sloppy swings at the giant swarm, yelling epithets and mostly dull insults. Talia was drawing aggression from the nearby archer, baiting out his shots and dodging easily as she waited for Nick’s signal.

Every time the swarm’s axe landed, it was inches from doing serious damage to Nick. He seemed to be making a game out of dodging at the last second, even the blows with less force behind them that would have been much easier to block. Sweat poured down his forehead as he kept up the grueling pace.

No idea what he intended to do, but he's losing ground quickly. This isn't going to work.

My heart jumped into my throat as the swarm stabbed out with an uncharacteristically fast blow, aiming to catch Nick’s neck with the pointed edges at the top of the axe. At his current speed, if he attempted to dodge that rather than block it—

I blinked as Nick barely managed to get out of the way. It shouldn’t have been possible. He had gotten a burst of extra speed from somewhere.

No, that’s not what’s happening here—

Before I could fully form the thought, the large swarm roared, bringing the axe up and around in a brutal swing that I recognized all too well. It looked unblockable, and even if Nick dodged it, the resulting air-current would knock him off his feet, potentially landing him in an untenable position.

”Get ready.” I commanded Talia.

Only, Nick didn’t dodge. He just stood there, watching the strike rush down at him, entirely unbothered.

What the hell?

His shield came up at the last second, the sound of the impact an ear-shattering clang that made me flinch. When his shield lowered, it was glowing bright red, and Nick was grinning like a madman. “Take over!” He yelled at Talia, held his shield over his head and braced as the big wolf used it as a launchpad. As soon as she was airborne, Nick spun and charged the archer. I sprinted alongside him, staying slightly behind and off to the side, my mind finally coming around to what he was trying to do.

This wasn’t about trying to neutralize the big threat first.

I flanked the archer, held behind my back. A tiny golden speck sat near the archer’s shoulder, barely visible beyond all the gray.

“Try the top third, ribcage and above!” I called out to him.

The crackling red aura from Nick’s shield ran across his shoulders and back, feeding into his sword. Following a backswing that looked more at home on a baseball diamond than a battlefield, he struck out, his sword angled sideways. On a less permeable enemy, the attack would have likely hurt like hell but bounced off. In this case, it passed through the archer flat, taking up as much surface area as possible.

A small screaming sphere hurtled towards me and battered against my solar plexus hard enough to leave a bruise. I winced, managing to catch it before it flew away, and crushed it between my hands. Rancid goop dripped between my fingers.

“Get it?” Nick called over unnecessarily, as the archer swarm was already fading.

“Yup.”

“Nice.” He grinned. “Now we just have to do it three more times. Hey Tali, rotate!”

We fell into the rhythm easily, now that I knew what he was going for. The swarms were intelligent enough to mimic human behavior, but not so much that they picked up on tactics. Every time, Nick managed to goad the larger swarm into a big attack, which he used to sunder a lesser swarm, then returned to Sae if his buff was running low. Sometimes, it took more than one try. But every time he did make contact, he managed to launch the hive mind directly towards me.

The last part in particular seemed highly unlikely. Which, in turn, made me wonder what his title was, the nature of all the redacted portions of his character sheet. I had a skill that allowed me to turn random elements in my favor. But it took conscious thought and effort. Nick seemed to have something similar that worked for him automatically.

Once the two swordsmen were dead, everyone turned their focus to the giant swarm. Jinny cast an intimidating red spell that marked the swarm with a long gouge extending across its chest, and peppered it with crystal shards.

With Talia serving as a distraction, Sae froze it repeatedly with overcharged buffs.

My dagger wasn’t giving me any information—the swarm might have been too thick—but that hardly mattered. Nick and I repeatedly stabbed it from every angle, until Nick was breathing hard, and I felt like I was about to die from sheer exertion. Eventually, he drove his sword into the creature's knee, and looked at me excitedly when a pathetic mewling came from within.

The arena stopped rotating. My legs wobbled. It felt like I was on land for the first time in months, and still feeling phantom movements of the tide.

The other’s reactions looked as perplexed as my own, as we all navigated to read the description of the feat.

“It’s, uh, good to have?” Jinny looked up from her screens.

“Definitely helps on my end,” Nick observed.

The feat wasn’t the sort of thing I’d ever spend points for or rely on, but it was certainly a nice grab, considering we were getting it for free.

“Where’s the experience?” Sae swiped through her screens, annoyed. “That was way harder than half the fights we’ve been in. We should have at least gotten a level out of it.”

Though leveling was slowing down significantly for me, I wondered the same thing. The dungeon allowed leveling between floors. “Maybe the trial is withholding experience until the end?”

“For this level of effort, it better be more than just experience.” Sae looked annoyed. “Mid-tier threat my ass.”

I kept it to myself, but I agreed with her. This room would have easily killed me if I was solo. Going through something this grueling had better be worth it.

As if on cue, there was a heavy grinding noise coming from the central hole of the platform. I looked down through the hole and saw a platform rising from the abyss, laden with objects, and silver coins I was almost certain were selve.