Heather gasped as Jamie ripped the barbed needle from her arm, taking most of the muscle and sinew with it. The new hole in her body poured blood for a few seconds before healing, the stabbing pain fading to a dull ache as her body continued healing beneath her skin. She barely had time to compose herself before the next needle was ripped out, and she hissed through her teeth.

“That was stupid,” Paul commented, his hands idly working on polishing some of the equipment he was forging. From the looks of things, the equipment was pretty much complete; he was just finishing the final touches.

Heather winced, tightening her jaw as another needle was torn from her flesh. As much as she didn’t want to acknowledge it, she knew that Paul was right. This whole thing was her own fault, and nobody else’s.

Blasted giant porcupines. Of all things the things that could be on Floor 79, why did it have to be those? No, wait, who in their right mind thought that giant porcupines as fast as a speeding car were a good idea?

She choked down a scream, clenching her fists as Jamie ripped out another quill from right above her heart, scraping the organ in the process. The wound closed quickly, but it was still excruciating, even for her with her absurd pain tolerance.

Really, though, diving in front of Jamie to take the hit was a dumb move. Jamie’s VIT was high enough that it probably would’ve only been a mild inconvenience to her. Heather had no such protection.

Sighing, she shook out her arms as Jamie tossed the last of the needles to the side, trying to get the blood pumping again. Her body was mostly healed, but she could still feel some of the muscle knitting itself back together under her skin. That was mostly in her legs though.

“You gotta stop that,” Jamie told her. Her face was cloudy with emotion, and Heather felt her stomach drop, guilt washing through her.

“Alright,” she whispered, and Jamie’s eyes flashed as they studied her before turning away with a sharp nod.

Heather curled in on herself, unable to avoid the awful, stomach-wrenching pain clawing at her chest. Jamie had put up with her near suicidal tendencies for much longer than Heather deserved. She really needed to get a handle on her emotions.

Before she could sink any further into her thoughts, a moderate weight was placed in her lap, and Heather glanced up, wiping some tears from her eyes.

“Those are yours,” Paul said, his kind eyes—too kind, she doesn’t deserve anyone looking at her like that, there’s nothing she—gazing into hers. Tilting her head slightly in confusion, her eyes falling to the objects in her lap, she gasped.

A shining pair of greaves stared back at her, some forearm guards resting beneath them on a rough leather vest. The ensemble was a dark black that glistened in the low light of the corridor, her back against the door to the final boss. The flicker of the flames from the torches lining the door caused the armor to look like it had been sculpted from the night sky, flashes of light blazing across the dark surface.

She slipped on the forearm guards and greaves, marveling at how light they both felt. There was some slight discomfort initially, but that vanished quickly once she started fitting the equipment to her body. Finally, she slipped on the leather vest, feeling the coarse material rub against some of her bare skin.

“CLASS A? How were you even able to make armor with STATS this high?” Jamie asked, studying her own set of armor from Paul. It was nearly an exact match for Heather’s, although it was a dark forest green instead of Heather’s black, with the metal shining bright silver.

Paul chuckled, twirling his hammer in one hand while he deposited the polishing cloth in his inventory in another. “Wasn’t easy. Didn’t think I’d pull it off until we got a ton of nice drops yesterday, buncha EPICS and a LEGENDARY. That sealed the deal.”

“Well, I’m not complaining,” Jamie said, nodding to herself as she stretched. “It fits well.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I was a bit worried it wouldn’t.”

Heather ran her finger up some of the grooves carved in the metal, shaped like forked lightning. It was shocking that Paul had made such good armor, especially considering the small number of materials that he’d had access to. It didn’t help that he was the only one who could collect LOOT in their party, since there were no LOOT drops in Realistic mode.

The GRADE of armor and weapons was relatively simple in Leveled Plane, something that Heather appreciated. F, D, C, B, A, S, and EX. Each GRADE was better than the last, which also meant that it was much more complicated to make. There was a whole process to it, although she didn’t know anything about how it worked. She didn’t forge anything, after all.

LOOT drops were just as simple, with COMMON, RARE, EPIC, and LEGENDARY. There was a certain ratio of each that needed added to an item to give it a specific GRADE. Heather had no clue what it was, but Paul must’ve done something right.

Some shuffling from Jamie drew her out of her thoughts, and she groaned as she realized what Jamie was doing.

“A few more minutes? Is that too much to ask?” Even as she said that, she still pushed her aching body away from the wall, watching as Jamie’s eyes began to glitter with excitement. They flashed violet for a moment, and that was when Heather knew there was no getting out of this.

“Come onnnnnn, we’re so close though! I’m ready!” Grumbling under her breath, Heather moved aside as Jamie continued bouncing in place, wishing that her friend wasn’t so fickle sometimes.

Based on what she could see, she could maybe stall Jamie another twenty seconds or so before she barged into the final room. And that was if she was lucky. Sadly, the glance she shared with Paul made her remember that luck was never on her side.

“Here we go!” Jamie cried, throwing the door open as she charged into the room. “Bring it on!”

Feeling her emotions coiling away in that little ball in her chest, just like they always did after she used LIGHTNING, her exacerbation vanished as she stepped into the boss room. Sometimes she was convinced that the DARK DRUID side of Jamie was trying to get them all killed, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. They had things to do.

The room was bare save for the cracked stone pillars lining the walls, straight lines that led into a mist that shaded the far side of the room. There was no sign of the boss or the exit, but Heather knew that it was only a matter of time. No matter how realistic Leveled Plane could be, it was still a video game, and that meant bosses had ridiculously dramatic entrances.

Sure enough, the sound of something large scraping its way across the stone floor reached her ears, and she felt her muscles tense as she waited. Jamie was still bouncing in place, her staff held loosely in her grip in her excitement.

As per usual after she overexerted LIGHTNING, Heather felt the logical aspects of her mind begin firing on all cylinders as the mist parted in front of her. A large scaley tail whipped through the mist, shattering the ground beneath their feet and flinging them back towards the entrance. The tail itself was almost two Pauls in diameter, which was not a good sign.

Low hisses came from the mist, a large, barbed tongue flicking out of an absolutely enormous mouth to scent its surroundings. Giant slitted eyes gazed down at them, and Heather felt ice fill her veins as she recognized that they were prey, and the monster was the predator.

Before she could blink, the serpent was already lashing towards them, its jaws opened wide enough to swallow them whole. Its fangs glinted in the low lighting from the torches along the pillars, the fangs longer than Heather was tall.

Briefly, Heather thanked whatever had given her the BERSERKER CLASS that her emotions became suppressed after overexertion. It was the only reason she could still move as the serpent radiated waves of fear and terror that paralyzed her friends.

Slamming into Paul, Heather grabbed Jamie’s arm and wrenched them both out of the way as the serpent flew past. It tried to redirect itself, but it was moving too fast and needed to lose some of its momentum, which bought them a few seconds.

“Snap out of it!” she yelled, and Jamie’s cloudy eyes cleared as Heather smacked her across the face.

“Ah snickers, it’s got a fear debuff. Hate those,” Paul muttered, rolling away as the snake came by for another pass, barely missing his ankle. It hissed loudly in discontent, already beginning to bank towards them again.

“Thanks H! Shouldn’t get caught up in that again.” Heather nodded, watching as her friend’s eyes burned a dark violet color, Jamie’s malice and hatred focused entirely on the serpent.

With a clench of her fist, Jamie brought two of the pillars together, crushing the snake in between them. Letting out another violent hiss, the snake wrapped itself around the one pillar, squeezing tightly. Heather’s eyes widened as a mucus-like substance was secreted from its scales, the pillar smoking and starting to dissolve.

“That’s really not good,” she muttered, LIGHTNING flaring to life as she thought about their options. Jamie was the heavy hitter, Paul was the tank, and she was the tactician. That was the standard lineup for their party, and it had worked well on the previous floors of the TOWER.

She just needed to figure out what the weaknesses of this serpent were, and then they’d be able to exploit them. Sadly, that was easier said than done.

Narrowing her eyes, Heather realized that the scales of the serpent were still in pristine condition, even after Jamie had smashed them with the pillars. Considering the amount of power Jamie had put into that attack, as well as the velocity of the pillars…

This isn’t gonna be fun, she thought. Might be worse than the fight on Floor 10.

Only Jamie’s heaviest attacks would damage the serpent, and she wasn’t sure just how effective that would be. So, direct attacks to the body were out of the question.

That left attacks to the head, mainly in the eyes or the mouth. Heather grimaced mentally, knowing that targeting either of those locations was a tall order. With the speed that the boss could move at, it would be nearly impossible.

And then there was now the acid to deal with. She wasn’t sure how well Jamie’s VIT STAT protected her from acid, but knowing their luck, it would only do the bare minimum. Getting close to the snake’s body while it could secrete acid was also a no-go.

Color invaded the blue world as she let LIGHTNING fade, time setting back into motion. The pillar the snake was wrapped around shattered with a sharp crack, and it shot towards them, this time coming in at an angle.

“Up!” Jamie yelled, and they all jumped as the boss abruptly turned, sending its body lashing like an extremely thick whip directly below their feet. Heather swore, the words coming out as a jumbled mess of silverware utensils because the game was stupid.

“I have a plan, but it’s not great!” she screamed over the rushing wind, bounding off pillars as the serpent chased her, using LIGHTNING through her feet to keep herself balanced.

“Well, spit it out!”

“Paul, halt its advance once it stops spewing acid! Jay and I will go for the eyes and mouth if we can get to it!”

“Simple enough, but sounds goo- ACK!” He grunted as the snake slammed its tail into his chest, his energy shield flaring as he shot across the room. Heather had no time to worry about him, diving and rolling under the bulk of the monster as it destroyed the pillar she was aiming for.

It shifted directions, targeting Jamie as she fell through the air. Time seemed to slow as Heather breathed in deeply, forcefully unlocking the emotions in her chest as she prepared to break past the wall her STATS set on her AGI.

Luckily, she didn’t have to. Jamie swung her staff around, a blast of air knocking the snake’s head to the side as she kicked off nothing with her feet, flipping once or twice before landing in a crouch against one of the still standing pillars. Flying was hard for Jamie, but apparently skipping off air was a bit easier when utilizing WIND.

Paul came flying in, his hammer glowing a bright yellow as he raised it above his head. With a flash, it slammed into the snake’s head and sent it careening across the room, loudly hissing as it vanished in the mist.

He landed next to Heather, his energy shield flickering around him.

“This is gonna be tough,” he commented, his jaw set and his muscles tense. “I think I can only hold the thing for 10 seconds or so. That enough for ya?”

“We can work with it,” Heather said, palming the handles of her knives. It wasn’t time for those yet.

She lost track of time as they weaved around the serpent’s attacks, countering wherever they could as it began running low on its acid supply. It was a dangerous dance with death, and they all were pushed to the limits of their abilities as they avoided the snake’s blows.

“Shield’s back!” Paul yelled as she stumbled, barely managing to stagger out of the way of the boss. It came back around to attack again, and she and Jamie stood behind Paul as he squared his shoulders, preparing to face the serpent head-on.

Activating his energy shield at the last second, the snake staggered backwards, disoriented from the impact. Paul’s back was held up by a wall of rock Jamie erected, keeping him from being blown back. Blood leaked from scales that had broken along the snake’s snout, Paul’s energy shield reversing the damage and rebounding it back on the boss.

Heather and Jamie wasted no time. Drawing her knives, Heather pushed her speed to its limits, plunging one of her lightning-coated blades deep within the serpent’s eye. Twisting it violently, blood splattering across her new armor, she drew the knife out as the snake reeled back, opening its mouth to scream.

Jamie flew in from the side, her staff staggering the serpent and putting its other eye in the perfect position for Heather. Once again plunging her knife through its other eye, she retreated from the boss, waiting to see how it reacted to its newfound blindness.

Screeching and hissing, the boss slunk away into the mist, writhing about in pain. Jamie landed next to her, Paul rolling his shoulders as he groaned, coming to stand by her other side.

“It only lost a quarter of its health,” he said, and Jamie sighed, palming her face.

“Did that at least inflict BLEEDING?”

“I don’t think… wait, yes. Yes it did. It’s still taking damage, so we’ve got that at least.”

Heather hummed. “That’s good, but I don’t wanna know what the second phase'll be like. And my LIGHTNING didn’t seem to affect it much, which sucks. Any ideas?”

There was a pause as they pondered their options, listening to the boss screeching in the background. Jamie frowned, and Heather watched her face tighten out of the corner of her eye.

“H, I got something.” Heather immediately knew that she wasn’t going to like this idea.

“Just lemme have it,” she grumbled, watching as Jamie squirmed slightly.

“I… I think you should use your STEPS.”

Heather froze. The world burned red for a moment as her emotions surged to the surface, the hate and anger and rage and pain and everything else filling her to the brim. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes as she forced everything back into the little ball of flame in her chest. She needed to approach this logically.

And... sadly... Jamie was probably right. That was their best option. It was also the one that she really didn’t want to resort to.

“What’s that?” Paul asked, but Heather stayed quiet. She could hear the snake regaining its bearings, its thrashing subsiding as it began shifting in the dark mist. They didn’t have much longer to decide.

“Fine.” Pain and grief flashed across Jamie’s face as she heard Heather’s cold tone. She schooled her expression quickly, but they all saw it.

“Again, what is it?” Paul asked, and Heather’s shoulders slumped as she turned towards him.

“You’ve already seen me do it a few times. It’s what I use to break through my STATS. It’s… not fun.”

There was a loud crash from within the mist, and the serpent suddenly streaked out, throwing itself blindly in their direction. Heather dove away, her friends following behind her. The snake slowed as it banked towards them, flicking its tongue, scenting the air to deduce their positions.

Heather saw her chance. Breathing deeply, she unleashed the emotions within her chest, her vision tinting red and blue as she activated LIGHTNING. She could feel her strength increasing from BERSERKER, and the world slowed to a crawl.

Gripping her knives tightly in her hands, she let LIGHTNING flow throughout her body, forcing it through every single one of her nerves. The pain was indescribable, a constant, burning torment as her STATS dramatically spiked.

Carefully gaging the distance between herself and the serpent, she focused on its head. Then she closed her eyes, letting everything go.

One step. Her body overheated from the LIGHTNING running within her, the roiling energy pushing and pulling her muscles into position. Some of the blood vessels in her legs exploded violently. Her jaw was clamped shut against the violent wind, as were her eyes.

A second step. She could feel the air pushing against her, being forced out of the way as she moved. The blood vessels in her legs had already healed, her muscles tearing from the force of her foot driving into the ground. Applying even more force through the leg, she pushed off harder than before, shattering the bones in her left leg in the process.

A third step. She could feel the heat radiating from her boots as they caught fire, but compared to the way the rest of her body felt, it was negligible. The fractures had mostly healed in her left leg, but there were still a few areas that her regeneration hadn’t touched yet.

The fourth and final step. More than she’d ever managed. Her clothing was beginning to burn, the armor uncomfortably hot against her steaming skin, her left leg shattering again as she kicked off the floor into the air. The only sounds were the roaring of the wind in her ears and the crackle of electricity. She forced herself to move faster, fasterfasterfaster it’s not enough.

Spinning slightly, she brought her right leg around, feeling some resistance against it. Driving it down for all she was worth, most of the bones within nearly disintegrated as her leg began twisting unnaturally, unable to keep up with the forces being exerted on it. Whatever was beneath her leg also gave, though, and she twisted around to land on her back, rolling across the floor.

The world sped up again, LIGHTNING fading as everything caught back up to her. A wave of air rushed past her as a violent boom assaulted her eardrums. Pulling on the last dregs of LIGHTNING, she sent it through her body into the floor, using the new connection to bring her body to an abrupt halt.

Her organs splattered against her ribs, some of them exploding from the pressure, and she groaned. Somehow, she still retained enough awareness to turn around and view the results of her handiwork.

The serpent’s head had been completely obliterated. There was nothing left, only a bloody fountain as the rest of its body continued squirming. Jamie and Paul were leaning forward, bracing themselves as they fought against the shockwave left from her movement. Maybe three seconds had passed since the snake had begun its attack, and less than a second since Heather had begun her own.

Oh… Heather thought deliriously as she watched the fountain of blood stop, the snake’s flesh shifting and morphing as it began building a second head. Is that… a zombie? Must be…

Her vision blacked out for a moment, and she screamed as her body knit itself back together, making her shudder and squirm from the pain. There was another loud crash, a shriek, and then silence as her lungs finally started working again.

Heather opened her eyes—when did I close them—watching Jamie bounce off the floor behind the snake, her arms covered in bloody scratches and a shard of bone sticking out of her leg. Its tail wriggled helplessly as the blade of EARTH and WIND cut right through its tough scales, slicing its body in two.

Stunned silence surrounded their party for a moment, everyone tense as they watched the snake, waiting for its next move. Heather let out a sigh of relief once almost half a minute had passed with no change, forcing herself to her feet. Her body was already mostly healed, only a few smaller injuries still being tended to.

Jamie stayed slumped across the floor, panting heavily and wincing in pain. It would probably take her an hour or so to heal up completely, considering her injuries.

“So that’s STEPS,” Paul commented, laying a hand on her shoulder. She tensed for a moment before relaxing.

“Yeah.” She sighed, slumping as her exhaustion finally began catching up with her. A hole had opened in the pit of her stomach, a void that would usually be filled with energy from LIGHTNING. It seemed that she’d used up all her MP.

“Are you… gonna be alright? That looked bad, to say the least.”

Heather slowly nodded. “It is, but I’ll be good. There’s a reason I don’t do it much though.”

“Heh, yeah, wouldn’t be great ta have ya breaking the sound barrier all the time.” They both laughed, the tense atmosphere slowly fading as they began to relax.

There was some more idle chatter that flowed while they waited for Jamie to heal, but it wasn’t anything too important. It was mainly Heather asking Paul about his life and what he did while he wasn’t playing Leveled Plane.

With a low groan, Jamie eventually sat up, brushing some dirt and grime off her clothing and armor. Using her staff as a fulcrum, she forced herself to her feet, leaning heavily.

“Sorry about that,” she said, but they both waved away her concerns. After having to wait for Heather to heal from previous battles, it really wasn’t a big deal.

Huh, Heather realized, I healed much faster during my STEPS than I do normally. Maybe LIGHTNING has something to do with it?

A loud clang rang out from the center of the room, and Heather jumped, her thought process broken. Spinning in place, her eyes widened as she stared at the chest that had suddenly appeared.

“YES!” Jamie cheered, limping as she staggered towards the chest. “First clears get special LOOT!”

Heather watched as Paul eagerly followed behind Jamie, the two of them throwing the chest open as soon as possible to rummage through its contents. She was a bit confused, not really understanding their enthusiasm, but that changed the moment she saw Jamie pull a new staff from the chest.

It was a dark wood with a smooth lacquer finish, polished to the standards of a perfectionist. Runes were carved against the surface of the wood, and they glowed a florescent green as Jamie held it in her hands, whisps of wind swirling around her. Her eyes were glowing.

Paul lifted a hammer half his height from the chest, the metal a sterling white. Decorative black lines curled around the handle, and Heather could feel something shift in the air as he studied the weapon. It didn’t look too special, but looks could be deceptive, and this seemed to be one of those cases.

While her friends continued investigating their finds, Heather made her way over and reached into the dark space of the chest. Her hands closed around two synthetic grips, ones that were much more comfortable than she was used to.

Lifting the objects from the darkness, she gasped as she took in the black knives in her hands. They weren’t metal, and she wasn’t entirely sure what they were (maybe a gem of some sort), but they seemed much stronger than her current starter blades. Each one was the length of her forearm, a gray material forming the handles, three black lines circling around each grip.

There was a pulse from within her chest as the blades suddenly flared with light, coiling patterns of light blue flaring from within, sending a soft blue glow running through the shining black blades. The lines circling the grips filled with the same blue glow, and she once again felt LIGHTNING pulse within her as the knives finished bonding with her.

...At least, she assumed they were bonding. It certainly felt like some sort of bond had formed.

“Well,” Paul whispered, still staring at his weapon, “these all gotta be S CLASS at least. Might be EX, but LOOT from first clears doesn’t have an assigned CLASS, so there’s no way to really know.”

Heather was still too awestruck to add anything to that comment, enthralled with the weapons in her hands. She hadn’t realized just how weak and flimsy her steel knives were until this moment. There was no way she’d ever go back.

Suddenly, the room started shaking, the chest vanishing in a flash of light. Heather stumbled, falling to her knees as a dull roar filled her ears along with the clanking of a winch. She felt the floor slowly rising, the ceiling opening as sunlight spilled into the dark cavern they were in.

She squinted against the light, forcing her eyes to adjust as she struggled to regain her bearings. Jamie was yelling something to her left, and Paul was somewhere near them, but she couldn’t make out anything over the shaking and roaring.

Finally, with a violent, almost booming crash, the floor shuddered to a stop. Heather struggled to her feet, barely able to focus past the roaring that was only growing louder for some reason.

Someone grabbed her arm to steady her, and she blinked, everything finally snapping into focus. Paul stood next to her, his face set in a hard mask as he took in their surroundings. Jamie’s eyes were swirling with rage, a dark, sick violet glow emanating from them as they glared at something above them.

The roar grew louder still, and Heather forced herself to glance upwards. Her heart stopped.

“AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS! OUR FIRST CONTESTANTS! THE UNDERDOGS, THE CLEARERS OF THE TOWER! ARE YOU EXCITED? I KNOW I AM!”

The crowd roared their approval, Heather wincing from the volume. Far above her, the stands of the COLOSSEUM were full of other players, hundreds of thousands of them, each one creating a ruckus like their favorite football team had just won the super bowl. An energy shield separated the stands from the floor, crackling as someone enthusiastically pounded their fists against it.

This barely registered in the back of Heather’s mind as she studied the group of middle schoolers walking towards them. There were eight of them, one with a staff, a few with guns, and most of the others with melee weapons. They were smiling and chatting happily as they made their way to the middle of the ring, where Heather and her friends were.

Jamie had assumed that the COLOSSEUM would be full of monsters they needed to fight, not other players. This was a gross miscalculation.

A system message flashed in front of her face, startling her.

SURVIVE FOR THE NEXT 30 DAYS TO OPEN THE PATH TO THE ABYSS.

…A gross miscalculation, indeed.