The three continued through the Dungeon after their first encounter. They'd been inside for four hours and were still going strong, albeit a little tired.

Damien and Alexa had started learning how to work together as a team, capitalizing on their respective strengths while covering each other's weaknesses. In simpler terms, Damien was the distraction while Alexa finished the beasts off.

Damien lead with his short sword out, using it as a two-handed blade. He'd gotten better at utilizing it for actual slicing, stabbing, and blocking rather than just brute swinging, though it didn't show much. It had been surprising to him how much progress he'd made but it made sense. What better way to improve the way you do something than to put the threat of death over your head if you don't do it right.

Alexa stayed in the back, engaging enemies with a broad range ice manipulation to slow and injure them. This attack wasn't anything more than extremely cold bouts of snow and ice propelled forward by wind magic, but it was effective at destroying mobility. Once the fight commenced in earnest, she'd begin throwing in spikes of ice or earth, aiming for vital spots whenever she could.

Alexa preferred to use fire but after their first fight the two bodies burned up pretty bad, causing the tunnels to get socked in with the disgusting smell of charred flesh, hair, and smoke. Since then, they'd decided fire was off limits inside and she'd been forced to stick to elements that didn't cause horrible aftermaths. Unfortunately, that meant she wasn't using what she was most practiced in, limiting her abilities greatly.

They'd not run into any packs much bigger than the first they had fought and most were only about four to five members large, aside from the occasional one that was nine-twelve members large. Sometimes those larger groups were two or three packs combined, made evident by multiple leaders with weapons in the group.

Sometimes their fight would attract another stray group nearby but Alexa blasting them with below-freezing temperatures always seemed to give them enough wiggle room to accommodate the newcomers.

The deeper in they went, the stronger and increasingly intelligent the Gnolls became, more and more of them using weapons and utilizing crude tactics. Unfortunately for the Gnolls, the two Mages were improving in coordination and teamwork themselves as they got further in, making the battles easier rather than more difficult.

They'd been at it for four hours but had only moved about a one hour walk from the front entrance due to the frequency of battles and how meticulously they were examining every nook of the cave.

Alexa and Damien were currently resting in a large cavern, sitting nearby the passageway they'd come in. The cavern was circular in general but had many spots where the wall flattened out or jutted inward. Many stalagmites had grown out of the ground, some no taller than a foot in height, others reaching the ceiling. They had broken two of the medium-sized ones to make seats while they rested.

"Why do you keep making us double back to scan each room we pass? Wouldn't it be fine just to go deeper?" Alexa asked, finally fed up with their slow pace. "We haven't found a single passageway that Gnolls were actually trying to use to flank us. It feels like a waste of time."

She'd deferred to him earlier when he had suggested clearing every room they came across, but it was taking them forever to get anywhere meaningful. They'd found about three secret tunnels leading around the Dungeon but none had anything hiding in them. They were all dusty and old, obviously forgotten by the ones who created them.

"Damien?" she asked, noticing he was staring off again.

He'd been doing it every so often during their breaks. It also seemed like he was getting tired more rapidly as they progressed, sighing more and becoming quieter.

"Sorry, what?" he asked.

"Are you... nevermind. Why do you keep making us double back to check all the rooms? Wouldn't it be fine to head in deeper?" she asked.

She'd ask him about it later. For now, it seemed he was trying to focus.

"Why do we need to go deeper? Our goal isn't to clear the Dungeon anyway, isn't it fine that we make sure to explore it all? What if we miss a treasure chest?" Damien responded matter-of-factly.

"Well yeah that's true, but we'd still get more mana and better training from the monsters further in and... wait, what did you say? A treasure chest?" Alexa asked, a look of confusion on her face. "Why would there be a treasure chest in a Dungeon?"

Damien paused, looked up from the knife he'd been playing with, and stared deadpan at her.

"There are no treasure chests in here?"

"No, the question is, why would there be a chest full of treasure in a Dungeon?" she asked, still bewildered by his peculiar understanding.

Damien's face and eyes immediately dropped as he processed that information, then asked another question after looking back up, "Do you mean there are none in this Dungeon or all Dungeons?"

"Why would there be a treasure chest in any Dungeon?" Alexa responded, exasperated. "Mana stones strengthen monsters, they don't just summon glittery jewels out of nowhere."

"Well, what's the point of this all then, for the dumb mana stone and that's it? Why would anyone want to clear a Dungeon anyway?" Damien asked, voice getting quieter and quieter. "There aren't any drops, no traps, no treasure..."

Alexa rolled her eyes then stared off into the distance. Her eyebrows scrunched together and within an instant, she whipped her head back to Damien with anger on her face and in her heart.

"Are you telling me we've been clearing this entire place, room by room, because you've been looking for treasure? For shiny stones?!" she shouted.

Looking away, Damien replied, "Well, what? That's what's supposed to be in Dungeons after all!"

"WHY WOULD THERE EVER BE SOMETHING LIKE GEMS IN A MONSTER DEN?! And who told you that?" she asked.

"I-"

"Outrageous. Just great," she interrupted. "And the scanning for hidden passageways, checking down random tunnels? Is that you trying to find more 'treasure'?" She asked mockingly, Damien's face getting visibly redder in the torchlight. "Here I was thinking you were being diligent when in fact, all you were doing was pretending like we were in a children's book! Sometimes I forget you're four, but then you do this, and it makes it painfully obvious."

"Well, since I'm only four, maybe you should question why I suggest we do certain things rather than just going along with it," he mumbled back. "Isn't it more embarrassing you just listen to me without thinking? I'm four; I'm supposed to want to search for childish things. You're nine, twice my age. You're supposed to make the plans, not me. It's stupid you always go along with what I say, maybe you shou-"

He got no further before she'd tackled him to the ground.

Emily watched, suppressing laughter, as her daughter leapt across the three-foot space in between her and her surprisingly childish son. Rarely did she get to see moments of complete embarrassment on his part, where he actually acted his age. In fact, the way he was getting more serious as the dungeon went on only seemed to make him age further in her eyes.

The girl collided with his stomach before he had even looked up, causing him to lose his breath and hit the ground in an instant. After that, Alexa had him flipped on his stomach and begging for mercy in a matter of seconds.

Shaking her head, Emily rechecked the surroundings. She was proud of how methodically they had been training and impressed by their progress, but the fact that they hadn't been challenged since their first fight was beginning to make this tedious and redundant. Perhaps it was time to head back. They could always return, maybe after insisting on handicaps. There was no point in training if it was easy. Unlike any regular group in existence, the further these two went in, the simpler it got. This was no longer a trial by fire but at least they were getting used to fighting and killing monsters.

She'd even tried drawing multiple packs together to give them a challenge but they'd never worked well together so it felt more like a drawn-out battle than anything. Sometimes they even fought each other.

She'd underestimated her children.

'What book made him think there would be treasure in a dungeon?' she thought, stifling another grin.

Thinking this, she stood up and began heading back over to them. They'd finished bickering and were sitting across from one another, talking again.

'At least they're whispering,' she thought.

As she got closer, her eye caught the sight of something... interesting. She wondered if she should interfere, the beast hadn't spotted her yet and Emily knew it never would. A Rogue skill she had learned had taught her how to hide her mana signature, making her invisible to lifeforms that relied on mana sensing as a way to detect enemies, which almost all Dungeon holders were.

In the end, she decided to watch it play out. If the creature's sneak attack would work and her son was going to be severely injured, she would intervene, but in the case that Alexa was passively scanning her surroundings or they noticed it by some other means, the fight would be very challenging for them. Her son wouldn't be able to brute force the creature into submission. Weak as the Dungeon was, the Holder was still a strong opponent for a fully grown man, given that said fully grown man wasn't very diligent in his training.

Either way, the monster had to die here. A Holder that did not stay in its chamber was dangerous. It could ambush parties that were training on weaker creatures and weren't strong enough to defeat it or worse, leave the Dungeon and attack civilians. Holders were much more violent than a typical beast, they did not stop fighting until it died or its prey was dead, and if its prey was an entire village that couldn't defend itself...

Villages have had to be erased from maps before.

There was one Holder that had even taken residence in the remains of the Village it had slaughtered and killed multiple scouting attempts to find the reason contact had been lost. Only after sending an extermination squad did they find out it was a tier four dungeon Holder gone rogue, creating its own kin from its magic and claiming the territory.

That was a bloody battle that was only started because of the negligence of the Village in reporting the finding of the Dungeon. They had been profiting off the mana-rich area and practically raising their children in the Dungeon, hoping they would grow into prodigies. The Holder had finally gotten strong enough to eradicate them all.

It was found in the ensuing battle that tiny mana stones would also drop from the stronger beasts and they had been collecting those to sell as well. A perfect example of why a dungeon must be reported and watched by those strong enough to kill the Holder by themselves.

Emily set down her torch and moved through the room stealthily and quick, placing wards her husband had created at the entrance to deter any passerby from peeking in. Damien would use mana if he knew what was best for his health, regardless of what she told him.

After all, learning when to disregard orders was as important as learning to obey them. You couldn't explain your reasoning for disobeying if you were dead.

Alexa looked up from her water flask at Damien. He'd been quiet again for a few minutes, but he'd shifted around and finally looked like he was about to talk.

Right when his mouth opened, she felt a presence step into the range of her mana sense. She had pushed it about twenty-five feet from herself and a creature the size of a Human male had just made its way inside it. The thing felt like an oversized Gnoll, having the same bone structure and hair as a smaller one, and it was advancing extremely slowly into position behind Damien.

"Alexa, what if we're-"

"Look at me," she blurted out, interrupting him with a severe but level whisper. "Don't make any sudden moves. Something is creeping up on us. It's moving slowly, but it'll be behind you in at least half a minute."

A look of surprise flit across Damien's face for a moment as he visibly struggled not to turn around before he replied, "What is it? A new monster? It's sneaking up on me?"

'Was that a tone of... excitement?'

Alexa shook her head, disregarding his weird attitude. How he enjoyed this was perplexing to her. The dark caverns, the constant fighting, the blood... killing things. It all scared her. Damien scared her. Why was he ok with all this? The killing she understood was necessary, but why was he so... comfortable with it? Or at least, why wasn't he as disturbed by having to fight as she was? She hadn't been enjoying herself at all and she made it very, very vocal that she'd wanted to return, yet he seemed to be going about his day like it was any other. In fact, the only time he seemed to liven up this whole trip was when they were fighting.

The creatures screamed when you hurt them. They felt pain. They didn't look afraid to die as they kept coming at you until you killed them, but they still felt pain. She had already thrown up twice after two particularly gruesome battles where she'd had blood splattered on her and he was almost always covered in it, barely letting her douse him with water to stop the smell. Plus, he was younger than her by five years. Why was he so...

She realized she'd not responded for a few moments and they were losing time. Taking a breath, she answered, "It's a Gnoll, it's just... bigger. Adult sized. It's almost on us. What... what do we do?"

'I asked him for a plan again, dammit!'

"Well, mom hasn't stopped it so she must think we can take it. Let's fight. Tell me when it's going to attack me and I'll jump to you, then you hit it with something."

Alexa nodded, slightly frustrated in herself at deferring to him again. His ideas were so quick. He almost immediately had something in mind when she asked, unlike her who panicked and became indecisive.

Shaking her head, she continued to focus on the monster with her mana. She followed it as it got right up behind Damien and blanched as it extended its claws, much more deadly looking than its younger counterparts. It brought its arm upward without warning when it was still two feet away.

"NOW!"

The creature hesitated at the loud sound before striking but Damien was already well away from it. Alexa shot a hastily crafted ice spike, catching it in the shoulder but not doing much damage. She had been aiming for its chest, but that would have to do.

Standing up and facing the monster, Damien circled in front of her and spoke, "Stay behind me and keep hitt-"

The monster let out an inhumanly loud roar, interrupting his battle planning and shaking the entire cavern. A moment later it pounced toward Damien and her. He barely lifted his sword up in time to catch the creature's teeth on it as it barreled into him and they both hit the ground, rolling past Alexa.

"Damien!" she yelled out while shooting another few ice spikes at the monster only to have them bounce off its hide.

It seemed if they weren't direct hits they wouldn't pierce into the monster's skin, only cut it slightly.

"FOCUS," Damien yelled back.

The Gnoll had its teeth caught on the blade as it tried to rip out Damien's throat, but its front claws were free. It balanced itself on its left paw and raked at the boy's side with his right, getting a shout of pain from its prey for its efforts.

The creature had scraped into his left rib cage, slashing bone. It stung, it was bleeding bad, and it HURT, but it didn't seem fatal.

Damien had caught the creatures bite with his sword set across his body, holding one end each with his hands, keeping it at bay. After groaning loudly in pain, he let go of the sword with his left hand while guiding the monsters now descending maw to the ground. With the sound of flesh slicing, the creature's mouth slid along the blade before a punch of his right pommel hand into its temple helped it along. The Gnoll's head and body crashed to the ground and with his now free left hand, he withdrew the shiv out of his sleeve and stabbed it into the stomach of the monster three times before it screeched in pain and jumped off him.

Standing, Damien took stock of his enemy, seeing two more spikes of ice protruding from the tops of its shoulders and more than a few cuts on its skull.

'So Alexa wasn't just letting me get mauled.'

The monster was far more intimidating than its lessers, crawling on all fours with a sinister look in its red glowing eyes. It backed away from them and moved behind some stalagmites for cover, disappearing into the dim lighting and shadows created by all the rock formations jutting from the floor.

"I'll keep an eye on our surroundings, you burn my wound closed," He said, moving next to Alexa and placing her hand on his side that was still leaking blood.

She had backed away from where they were initially standing, putting distance in between herself and where they'd landed when he was tackled. Luckily, she'd not hit him with any of those spikes.

He gathered his mana and sent it out, hoping Emily wouldn't take him down right then and there or stop the fight because of his injury or mana use. His blood flowed out over Alexa's fingers and was dripping down from her hand.

"What?!" she half yelled, half questioned.

"Healing would take too much mana and I'm losing blood, burning it closed makes the most sense," He responded, not in the mood for her hesitation right now but trying to keep a level head.

That thing could have just killed him if it hadn't jumped back when it did, perhaps he'd hit something vital in his stabbing.

"Please, Alexa. Just do i-."

A moment later, his mana sense was shattered as Alexa stepped towards him and a searing pain hit his left rib cage. The burning was gone as soon as it came, but the pain and smell remained. It seemed the monster didn't know it could have attacked right then.

The cavern got darker as Emily's torch, which had been propped up against a stalagmite, went out. Damien glanced over at his and Alexa's torches only to see something run them both over and step on them, crushing them out while its gleaming red eyes flitted behind another rock.

"It intends to hunt us..." He said, regretting his words as Alexa's face donned an expression of fear, "Keep hitting it while I distract it. It's strong, so we'll need to be on the defensive. Hopefully, we can outmaneuver it. Try to get its eyes or its ears," he said to her while scanning the cavern. "Put your sense back up too, mines weak."

"I- I could try setting it on fire," she suggested.

He turned to her to deny her suggestion but then paused. It would ruin their visibility and air quality in the long run, but it would hurt the creature badly, and it would become a beacon for where the thing was.

Smiling, he nodded at her, "Good idea, try it. If it doesn't work, stick to ice or earth. Is your sense-"

Alexa seemed to perk up a little at his praise and nodded, just as the creature crashed into her from the side, taking her to the ground and biting hard into her right wing while thrashing it about in its maw.

Damien took no time to gawk and lunged toward them with his sword while inwardly cursing at himself for letting his mind wander off again. He should have just demanded she put her sense up immediately.

His sword drove deep into the monster's upper left arm. He'd been aiming for its ribs, but that would have to do. The beast to howled in pain and leapt off Alexa, ripping Damien's sword out of his hands with it stuck in the wound.

The monster dislodged the sword and tossed it away, left arm hanging limp as it circled around them on three legs, looking for an opening.

Damien grabbed Alexa's hand and helped her up, putting her behind him while keeping the oversized Gnoll in his sight. He pulled out his dagger and shiv, holding both in a backward grip, knife edge along his arm. He didn't know how to use knives very well but at least this way he could still punch.

Alexa wasn't fairing too well. Physically she was mostly unharmed beside her wing which had been mangled and was hanging loosely, dragging on the ground, but mentally she looked destroyed. She was shaking and in obvious pain.

"Alexa I need you to listen to me ok?" he said, keeping an eye on the beast. "You need to shoot it with fire. Try to burn it. You don't have to do anything else and I won't let it get to you again, ok? Just shoot fire at it," He said, trying to soothe her mind by sticking close.

This was the first time she'd been hurt on this trip and it was apparent she was in immense shock.

"It... it hurts," the girl said, clutching to his arm tightly, not hiding the shaking and sobbing in her voice.

"I know it does, I got hit too remember? Try and get the stupid thing back. Focus on hitting it with fire. I won't let it touch you again, I promise."

She squeezed his arm tighter, still trembling. That would have to be good enough. He had to buy time for her to calm down or they wouldn't be able to do anything; the monster was too strong for him to fight alone. This was supposed to be a weak Dungeon yet they were getting their asses kicked by something entirely different from what they'd previously fought.

'If this is the Holder... no, mom wouldn't let us fight that... I hope,' he thought.

The more he pondered it though the more it made sense. It was way stronger than the other monsters in here. Only if this thing was the Holder would it make sense that it was this strong.

He'd have to give Emily a piece of his mind later.

"I'm going to go forw-"

"No!" she refuted, clutching him tighter. "What... what if there is more?"

"Relax, mom will protect you from anything unexpected and I promised that monster wouldn't touch you again," he stated, mentally begging his mom not to make him a liar.

With that, Alexa's hand slackened slightly and he moved closer to the beast. When he was far enough away from Alexa, he began shifting to keep it from circling them and getting behind her again.

Seeing that he wasn't going to give it an easy target, the creature once again bounded toward him, but this time he was ready. Instead of letting it bowl him over, Damien caught the Gnoll's teeth with the dagger in his right hand and sidestepped to the left, slicing the creature's mouth open as it went by and delivering his elbow to its face with the follow through. While it was passing, he stabbed his smaller shiv into the area he'd thought he previously stabbed on its stomach.

The Gnoll growled in pain and quickly jerked towards him, seemingly enraged and ignoring the other person in the room. It swung wildly at him with the claws on its right front paw while pushing against the ground with its back legs to try and stabilize its fast turn.

Damien was already trying to step back, expecting some form of retaliation, but the claws came faster than he'd thought. Barely having time to bring up the small shiv and his left arm, the four small knives met the blade of his weapon and smashed his arm into himself, throwing his body to the side and back toward Alexa.

He didn't go far as his right shoulder collided directly into a pillar where stalagmite had met stalactite. It cracked loud under the impact and Damien fell to the floor in pain.

The Gnoll tried to stabilize its momentum with its left arm but immediately cried out in pain and crashed to the ground. It didn't have enough power in its legs to gain its balance in time and the arm crumpled underneath its weight. After a brief moment, it shook its head and gathered itself, shoving its body up for another leap at him.

Before it could take off from the ground though and just in time, a ball of fire exploded in between it and Damien, causing it to jump back instead.

Lifting his aching frame up with a groan, Damien took stock of himself. Rotating his arms and fingers, he was surprised nothing was broken. He was sore but overall was in good condition, just breathing hard.

'The wonders of mana,' he thought, mentally rolling his eyes at himself.

With a push, he lifted his body off the ground to once again stand up and set himself in between the monster and Alexa, who looked to be in more anguish than he felt. She had managed to stay standing though and even shot at the beast. That's more than he could ever ask for from someone with her life experience.

The fire seemed to have brought the Gnoll back to its senses as it was once again wary of the girl he was protecting. Even with an arm not in use, it managed to retreat into the depths of the room quickly enough to get out of sight and avoid another hastily crafted ice spike that was flying towards it.

After rounding a few stalagmites, it sprinted out of the dim light towards Alexa, Damien sliding sideways to get in between them. It launched its body into the new target, tumbling them both towards Alexa this time who yelped and jumped away from the beast.

He wished he could have sidestepped or dodged but if he did that it might continue through and attack her. He had to destroy its momentum or it would get to her before she got an attack off and before he could get to it from behind.

Damien had repeated his earlier action, getting his dagger in the way of its gnashing teeth. Keeping his left upper arm to his side in case it swiped at him, he brought his forearm inward to try and shiv it. At the same moment, he felt an intense wave of heat pass by his right side. His arm swung inward and hit air as the Gnoll had already jumped off, retreating faster than he'd expected, scared of the flame.

Damien rolled to his feet, sensing the fatigue from the day and the few intense exchanges building up in his frame. The moment he steadied his balance, the monster bounded out from behind another collection of stalagmites further to the right and leapt towards the Celestial anew, taking another small spike into its left shoulder and slamming Damien's small body into the ground yet again after he'd gotten in its way.

They hit hard, bouncing slightly and ruining Damien's weak attempt at stabbing the creature while he held off its teeth. When he swung in for a second time, the third ball of fire shot wide of its target and the Gnoll had already left him lying there alone. He'd noticed it reacted a little slower to the fire this time, wary of being hit, but seeming to be understanding her aim was off or she refused to hit Damien as well.

'It's learning.'

"I need you... to do that... before he hits me," Damien huffed out, standing up fast again as the Gnoll rounded another pillar.

If it was really learning, this was going to get even worse from here on.

Like music to his skin, a wave of heat passed by just as he finished speaking, missing the beast by a smaller margin and causing it to jump back slightly before it charged again, giving Damien enough time to gather himself. Then, the fur, muscles, teeth, and claws once again collided with his body. Another light stab into its side, another plethora of scrapes to his skin from the rugged terrain.

Damien wished she'd just shoot the thing while it was on the ground with him, burnt skin be dammed, but each time it tackled him she hurried further back out of fear of being too close to it. When she finally shot her fire she missed again and the Gnoll disappeared behind the stones in the room.

When it rounded this time, it didn't hesitate even though another fireball headed for it. Damien cursed inwardly as it narrowly missed its mark and the creature hit him with more force while he was still standing up, this time barreling directly into him rather than aiming for Alexa. He'd barely gotten his arm up in time to avoid its teeth.

It jumped away from him again, taking a spike into its back as it rounded a corner.

"Dammit," he growled out, bones and muscles screaming in protest as he clambered to his feet faster.

The spikes weren't doing enough, even though they were hitting. On the smaller monsters, they'd been going in deep and slowing their movements but on this one, they hardly seemed to even phase it. Like an oversized pencil sticking out of its shoulders and back, not deep enough to do any real damage.

He mentally prepared himself to take another deep scrape into his side to try and injure the beasts front right arm. If he could take a wide swing with his full arm, he might be able to get the small blade deep enough to do something. He had to try to break this routine. His body was going to fail before the beasts at this rate and they'd be done for.

As he set his stance and saw the Gnoll bounding towards him a wall of fire shot out in between them, covering the ground lengthwise for a few feet and raising to the beast's height. Damien almost cried out in relief at the brief respite.

The monster stumbled, not expecting the thing it was so afraid of to cover an area on the ground before it. Its maw crunched into the stone floor as it slid to a stop right before the wall of flame, backing away quickly to get away from the heat.

Damien looked back and saw Alexa sweating, most likely running lower on mana. He gave her a weak smile and continued to survey where they were, looking past her.

To his dismay, the encounter had pushed them from their central break spot to a corner of the room almost thirty feet away. In another bout, if Damien had to roll across the ground backward again, Alexa would have her back to the wall after retreating. If it managed to attack again after that in the same manner, it would be close enough to leap from him to her without a chance she could get off a spell.

Damien shivered at the realization that the monster had planned this. Each time it appeared from a different side of the pillars, rounding more or less, was to get Damien to step to a side in between them and back them into a corner. It wasn't only learning, but planning as well.

Luckily, Alexa had stopped it from attacking again and it didn't seem keen on jumping towards them just yet. He could tell exactly where it was from the loud panting and footfalls while catching the occasional glint in its eyes, reflecting the glow from the lumphyta. The way it circled them made it seem it was exhausted as well and weighing its options.

Damien looked around the room for signs of his mom, having doubts she was even around. There had been a few moments where he would have been severely injured if Alexa hadn't managed to get her fire off in time or the monster had chosen to ignore it completely. If she was waiting to stop the fight, he'd hope those would have been the moments she'd choose.

He hobbled backward towards Alexa and looked up at her. She seemed to have calmed down to an extent, able to look back at him for a brief moment before once again scanning their surroundings.

Knowing they couldn't maintain the status quo, Damien decided to go for broke on a plan he'd come up with on the spot.

"I have an idea. You're not going to like it."

When she didn't respond, he glanced at her and saw an incredulous look on her face. It looked like she wanted to complain, yell, cry, and run all at the same time, but instead she nodded at him slightly. He smiled at her, glad that she hadn't chosen the easy way out.

That is, if the easy way out was an option. Emily hadn't shown herself in almost an hour.

He took a breath and began to explain, "I'll hold it down for a few moments. While I move in to do that, hit us with water. In fact, cover the entire area in water with half the mana you have left and make sure you are near a portion of it. Once you do that and I give the signal, shoot electricity into the water."

After the almost minute of time the Gnoll had given them, this was all he could come up with. He really, really didn't want to go with this plan but had no idea what else they could do. It was too fast for fire and too big for the small shards of ice or earth that Alexa could produce to do any substantial damage. It was stronger than him and was wearing him down.

If Alexa tried for a big area attack, the Gnoll would overwhelm him before she was finished, most likely injuring him greatly and even if he lived, he'd be in the area of her attack. In the event she missed, she'd be out of mana and they'd both be done for. The beast wasn't wary of water just yet and hopefully, all the wounds it had would give the electrical current complete access into its body. It, unfortunately, meant that he'd also take the hit since it wasn't his mana that was being used to fuel the attack.

He hoped he'd be able to cover himself with a charge to counter hers for long enough.

"Elec...tricity?"

"Lightning. Shoot lightning into the water," he corrected. "Body hurts so bad I can't even talk right," he joked after, laughing weakly.

This world had no word for electricity. It didn't exist as far as they were concerned so it wasn't surprising she didn't understand.

"How would that...? Water won't even slow it down for a moment if I don't hit it with a huge block. Ice at least is sharp," Alexa responded. "And... I don't want... I can't get close..." she trailed off.

Staring at her, Damien looked confused.

"Why would you need to get cl-" he started, before it dawned on him.

She didn't understand that lightning would travel through water and thought he wanted her to distract it and tackle it with lightning on her skin.

'Do people of this world really not understand how electricity and water interact? How could they... no, why would they know? Its seen as a weak element. It's dangerous to commune and it's easier to get strength in different ways... Why risk it? It's a waste, especially since they can repel an electrical shock by just creating their own. I've never seen someone use electricity for anything in this world except as a self-defense mechanism against physical contact and it never once bridges away from their body. If it's not general knowledge, then...'

"Damien," she said, grabbing his arm and interrupting him. "What do we-"

"Trust me," he stated, looking at her with as confident an expression as he could muster. "I need you to do exactly what I say. Exactly. It's easy: drench us in water, touch the water, use your lightning. The closer you are, the better."

"But-"

"The lightning will go through the water to us. Trust me," he demanded.

When she finally nodded after a moment of searching his eyes, Damien sighed in relief and smiled. Then, he looked back towards where the panting was getting quieter and flipped his dagger and shiv around in his palms, points extended outward instead of guarding his arms. If this was going to be his last effort, there was no point in having the daggers positioned for defense. Plus, with the metal tips buried inside the Gnoll, the electric current would have an even more natural way in to wreak havoc on the creature's insides.

After another minute, the sounds of the Gnoll's breathing disappeared entirely. Its footfalls still let them know exactly where it was though, as the beast was too injured to be completely silent.

Finally, it made its move. Appearing from behind yet another pillar that would shove the two further into the corner, the beast bounded forward on two legs toward Damien, snarling with hate.

He crouched in anticipation of hell to come, inching slightly back towards Alexa.

He felt bad getting closer to her but the smaller the gap between them, the stronger the current would be.

A fireball sailed towards the monster, unexpectedly on target, but the Gnoll was prepared and jumped to the side. After the dodge it continued toward Damien, grinning like a predator that had caught its prey. When it was within ten feet it suddenly dropped low, using its good front paw to hit the floor once before leaping off with its hind legs, propelling itself directly at its non-moving target while parallel to the ground.

Damien grit his teeth and relaxed his muscles, preparing for the impact. Right as it left the ground, Alexa's mana surged through the air and doused the creature, Damien, and the surrounding area in water, blinding the Gnoll and causing it to lose track of its target for an instant.

It had most likely prepared to leap through fire, not get blinded by water.

Damien used that moment to slide to the right slightly, still in the path of the monster while aiming for its lame arm. The two connected and Damien's almost limp frame moved with the Gnoll backward, falling to the floor and skidding towards Alexa with its body closer to her than his.

As painful as the collision was, he had managed to drive his shiv into the thing's stomach and after hitting the ground he drove the dagger into its ribs under the bad arm, screaming out the signal as a searing pain assaulted his left shoulder. A glance over while he was opening his mouth to yell showed a side profile similar to a wolf clamping down on his shoulder with its jaws.

"NOW!"

Within moments of shouting Damien's body locked up as hundreds of thousands of volts roamed freely throughout it as if it had always been there and knew every nook and cranny, igniting every pain receptor it could find. He wanted to cry out again as the pain from his shoulder intensified even more, the pressure from the bite increasing from the Gnoll convulsing, but there was no chance he was going to be able to open his mouth to even begin to scream.

Generating his own current as fast as he could, Damien covered his body in a veil of his own electricity for a brief respite, but it didn't last long. Alexa, even low on mana, plowed through his small reserve and the foreign voltage returned. The constant electricity fried his nerves and singed his hair. It caused his fingers to nearly break against his dagger and shiv as they clamped down. It made him feel as if his jaw and teeth were going to crack under the immense pressure his muscles were exerting upon them.

Hell on Eleria for Damien ended after what seemed like hours but was only seconds when Alexa stopped the surge. His muscles went limp, the Gnoll's jaw stopped clamping down, and the burning pain receded to be replaced by a dull soreness that covered his body.

How he was still conscious, he had no idea. Another few seconds and he felt he wouldn't have been. Perhaps strengthening his core also reduced the intensity of pain as well.

With as much effort as he could muster, he tried to move anything but his muscles wouldn't respond, only getting his eyelids to open once a minute had gone by. His head was luckily pointed up and to the back, just barely able to make out an unconscious Alexa on lying on the ground on the other side of the Gnoll, unmoving. It seemed she had completely exhausted her mana to generate all the energy and it had taken its toll on her.

Now and then he could hear his body twitch against the floor but couldn't feel it. The only receptors in him working were the painful ones; all else had gone numb.

After five minutes went by, feeling began to return slowly. He felt the Gnoll's weight on top of him and felt the cold sensation of water against his skin. Or was it blood? Or piss?

After ten minutes, movement finally graced his body and he could begin processing the smells. Horrible, horrible smells. He had crapped himself for the second time since coming to this world; there was no doubt. Or the beast had. Or they both had.

His hair was singed and the Gnoll was still burning in some places, completely hairless. He managed to tilt his head slightly sideways to see that at that same moment the Gnoll was shifting. It was tilting its head to its right, towards his throat, mouth open.

'Unbelievable,' Damien thought as he let his head fall back to the ground, moving it as far away from the monster as he could.

How unfair that, after all he'd been through, it wasn't enough. He might not be fatally injured, but he knew the Gnoll was. How it hadn't succumbed to its injuries yet was a miracle. It was even closer to the source of electricity. It should have been hit harder than he was. How bloodthirsty must it be to have enough willpower to keep fighting even when it was dying.

It was bleeding from every part of its body, lying at a right angle to Damien above his left shoulder. It had bowled over him and latched on with its jaws, hitting the ground and staying in contact even after the energy coursed through them.

He tried to move his arms to pull the dagger and shiv out, hoping to cause it pain and make it die faster, but they weren't responding. His fingers were twitching, but he couldn't pull yet. His legs were trapped under the Gnoll, but even if they weren't, they probably wouldn't be able to do anything. He tried to will mana into being but couldn't focus long enough to create anything, not that he could have. He'd never been able to mold mana into any shape without physical movement unless he was just scanning. He felt the Gnoll's breath on his neck a moment later and closed his eyes.

'Must be karma for the senseless killing,' he thought.