A legion of imps marched proudly down a dim prison corridor. Their short stubby legs moved in synch, each one of their steps taking them the exact same distance. Aaron squinted; their uncanny precision was a match for even a North Korean marching band.

The imps and the other monsters that crossed through that fiery portal were different from the goblins. They had something the goblins lacked: intelligence, which made them infinitely more dangerous than a goblin ever could be. Their tightly packed patrol groups were proof of that. He was unsure of the purpose of their patrol. Maybe they’re protecting something. He frowned. Or maybe, they’re hunting us down for EXP.

In sharp contrast to the perfectly straight lines, the monsters walked in, Aaron, Jess, and Tony huddled around a corner soaking wet. They had almost walked directly into the imp’s backs, but Tony’s sharp hearing had saved them from that fate. Tony pulled them behind the corner before the monsters could see them. However, it was a close call - a second later, and the imps would have spotted them.

“Stop dripping on me,” Jess said in a harsh whisper. An imp twitched, but ultimately, it decided not to investigate the noise. Instead, it kept marching forward with the rest of its group.

Aaron made a mental note to himself: imps have a poor sense of sound. Now that he thought about it, the imps seemed to rely almost entirely on their vision. If they didn’t see something with their big white eyes, they would ignore it.

“You’re already wet; what does it matter?” Tony said thick beads of water dripped down from his orange jumpsuit onto Jessica. She glared at him then flicked some water back at Tony.

“Stop arguing; you’ll give away our position.”

“Fine.” She paused. “What should we do? Do you think we can beat them?”

Aaron counted eight imps marching away from them. “We’d have to split them up first. There are too many of them to fight all at once. Jess, how far can Mana Bolt reach?”

“About 100 feet.” He poked his head around the corner; the imps were about 70 feet away, near the limit of their effective range.

Aaron placed his hand on the wall and activated Explosive Mark. A timer began to count down in his head as the red markings engraved themselves upon the wall. Ten seconds was a long time in a fight. With the system the imps were most likely superhumanly fast; it was best to prepare the skill before the fighting started.

“Okay, that works. Hit them in the back with some Mana Bolts, and let’s see how they react. If they all come towards us, we run away. If they break off into a smaller group, we can stay and fight.”

The best part about being the one to make the plans was that he didn’t have to do the dangerous parts of a job. He could delegate them to others - in this case, Jessica. Of course, he’d never say that aloud. It would ruin the effect if she knew he was using her as glorified bait.

Jess nodded, then turned the corner and began rapidly firing Mana Bolts. An imp let out a scream of pain as her attack connected. A moment later, a ball of fire impacted the wall behind her. She cursed then dove to the side, dodging a barrage of fireballs.

Not content to hide behind the wall and do nothing, she stuck her hand out and fired off Mana Bolts without looking. The hallway flashed blue and red as the two groups exchanged attacks. The stalemate didn’t last for long. Jess was forced to abandon her position as a ball of fire exploded on the floor next to her.

Flames spread down the hallway, burning on nothing but mana. Despite the tongues of fire inching closer to him, he wasn’t concerned. He needed them to come closer if he wanted to kill them. The glowing red mark on the wall flashed once as the skills prep time finished. Aaron smiled sinisterly.

“Done.” The barrage of fire stopped. Without looking, he could tell that the imps were running towards them at full speed. Perfect.

Without any fanfare, they ran away. This wasn’t an honorable battle; the only way they could survive is if they used dirty tactics. He spared a glance over his shoulder, the first of the imps had rounded the corner. Its arm hung limp at its side, twisted at an unnatural angle. Even with its injury, it was plenty dangerous. It raised its good arm and summoned a ball of fire.

It arced through the air directly towards Aaron. He saw his life flash before his eyes; dodging it would be difficult. Before it could hit him, Tony threw his frying pan at the fireball, causing it to explode.

“Thanks.” Tony laughed.

Aaron pumped his arms to put some extra distance between him and the monsters. Without looking back, he activated Explosive Mark. The red dome of mana burst out behind him, catching a few imps in its grasp.

Congratulations! Explosive Mark has reached level 3. 2 Skill Points Awarded.

He closed the blue box and continued running. The explosion hadn’t killed all of the imps; he could still hear their feet beating against the ground behind him. A ball of fire soared over his shoulder, narrowly missing him. Some of them were definitely still alive, and they were angry.

“Give me your knives!” Tony yelled. Jess tossed them to the old man, almost skewering him in the process. Somehow, he managed to catch the knives without stabbing himself while running at full speed. Every time a ball of fire would come too close, Tony would throw a knife at it, causing it to explode before it could reach them.

Something within the spells programming or nature caused it to explode once it hit something solid. He wasn’t sure why it happened, but it was a fatal flaw in the skills design they could exploit.

Eventually, Jess caught onto the trick as well. It wasn’t easy, and it required a great amount of precision, but she was able to hit the fireballs midair with Mana Bolts. It wasn't as hard as it sounded either; the fireballs didn't move that quickly. Even still, they made countering the fireballs look easy. Things continued in this manner for almost a whole minute as they wove their way through the winding halls of the prison. The small monsters were equally matched with them in the speed department.

The situation quickly took a turn for the worse. Whether it was by the shockwave or some other means, another group of imps had found them. They joined up with the imps chasing them, bringing the monsters’ numbers up to 12.

Aaron stuck his arm behind him and blindly fired Mana Bolts as he turned a corner. They were getting close to their exit. They just had to run a couple hundred more feet, then they would reach the hole in the wall.

“I’m out of mana,” Jess said in between gasps for air.

“I’m out of knives,” Tony added helpfully.

At the far end of the hallway, another group of imps rounded the corner and joined in the pursuit. To escape, they would have to run towards the new group of imps. Luckily, they were far away - almost three hundred feet away from the hole in the wall. How did they find us so quickly? They must have a way of communicating over long distances.

With enemies on both sides, their only option was to push forward. A ball of fire exploded behind Aaron, knocking him to the ground and burning his sleeve off. He rolled to his feet. However, by the time he got up, Jess and Tony had pulled ahead of him.

As they got closer to the exit, fireballs began to fly at them from both directions, making dodging more difficult. It was impossible to look in two different directions at once. He had to randomly swerve side to side and leave if he dodged the attack or not to chance. He had to almost preemptively dodge to avoid their attacks.

As one would guess, this wasn’t a very effective evasion method, leading to Aaron getting caught in the blast radius of multiple fireballs. The injuries were mild, but they added up. On the bright side, the number of fireballs being flung at them sharply decreased; it seemed the imps didn’t want any friendly fire incidents.

Finally, his luck ran out. He took a quick glance back at the approaching monsters. That proved to be a fatal mistake. Without him noticing, a fireball cut through the air at most ten feet in front of him. Time seemed to slow down as he felt the fire's warm heat caress his face.

Jess was out of mana, and Tony had run out of knives. There was no one here to save him – not that there ever was. It was too close to properly dodge out of the way. Even if he somehow managed to throw himself to the side fast enough, the loss in momentum would allow the imps to catch up to him and finish him off. He clenched his jaw. The only way forward was through.

He fired two Mana Bolts in quick succession. The first missed, just barely flying over the top of the attack, but the second landed. The fireball exploded, violently forming a wall of flames. Aaron closed his eyes then ran through it. Searing pain burnt his nerves for a second. Then a blissful cold graced his skin. He patted out a small fire on his head and continued running, now only a couple seconds away from the exit. The frigid rain that marked his freedom was tantalizingly close.

Tony was the first one to escape out of the hole in the wall. Jess followed shortly behind him. However, his escape would not be so easy. An imp larger than the rest with a black scar running through one of its eyes slowly summoned a ball of blue fire in its hand. He didn’t even need to check the imp’s level to know that it was vastly stronger than the rest.

Adrenaline surged through his veins; he'd seen the attack too many times to let something as simple as a fireball catch him by surprise. He fired a barrage of Mana Bolts at the ball of fire in the imp’s hand, emptying his mana pool. Most of the Mana Bolts missed, but one slipped through its guard and touched the ball of fire. “Fuck you,” The imp chittered something back to him.

Aaron dove out of the hole in the wall, just barely avoiding the explosion of blue flames that burst out of the destabilized spell. Using his forward momentum, he rolled away from the prison, taking advantage of the natural downward slope of the landscape. He stopped rolling twenty feet away from the broken prison wall. It had been much harder than he thought it would, but somehow, they managed to escape.

His heart stopped as a pair of piercing white eyes peaked out of the hole in the wall. The large imp had survived the explosion without a scratch. It scanned the landscape for a second, then locked eyes with Aaron. It stuck its arm out of the hole in the wall then hissed in pain as the torrential rain hit it.

It smiled in a surprisingly human way then went back into the prison. As it was walking away, he caught a glimpse of the blue box over its head.

Imp Mage: Level 20

His heart raced faster than ever before, but not out of fear. He wasn’t afraid. He was angry. Angry at the unfairness of the situation, but most of all angry at how he had been treated. The way the monster smiled… it reminded him of the way the man who ruined his life smiled. It was an expression that only those who made a habit of trampling on the weak could wear. That midget was looking down on me.

He took a deep breath then climbed to his feet. The imps seemed to be repelled by the rain; they were safe for now. Getting angry now would be a waste of energy. Tony clapped him on the shoulder, causing him to wince in pain. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he could feel his body protest in pain at the actions he had put it through.

A glowing green light surrounded Tony’s hand as he used a skill on Aaron. “That was fun. It reminded me of when I had to climb a mountain while the Russian mob chased me with helicopters and messenger pigeons. Good times.”

“Speak for yourself; getting hit with fireballs isn’t very fun.”

Jess opened her mouth to say something but burst into laughter the moment she saw his face. “You don’t have eyebrows.”

He forced a laugh. “Very funny.” He patted his hair and found large patches of it missing. “I think I look pretty good for someone who just ran through a wall of fire.” He stopped himself from making a joke about her burnt appearance, and instead opened the blue boxes he had moved to the corner of his vision.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached level 11. 1 Skill Point Awarded. Level 10 Imp Mage Slain! 250 Exp Gained.

Level 10 Imp Mage Slain! 250 Exp Gained.

Level 9 Imp Mage Slain! 225 Exp Gained.

Level 10 Imp Mage Slain! 250 Exp Gained. Congratulations! Class: [Mage] has reached level 8. +2 Strength, +2 Endurance, +2 Recovery, +2 Defense, +4 Dexterity, +2 Agility, +4 Perception, +6 Mind, +6 Magic, +2 Spirit.

He was close to leveling before, so he wasn’t surprised that he had gained two levels. However, he was shocked to see how many levels he had gained in Mana Bolt. High pressure situations seemed to increase the leveling rate of skills. His body relaxed as the leveling-up process reforged his body. The warm feeling of leveling up was always enjoyable.

Attacking the imps had been risky, but it was worth it. He learned about their abilities and movement patterns and most importantly gained two levels. An earthquake ripped him out of his thoughts. The island shook but not as severely as the last time. He readjusted his glasses, then began to walk back towards the storage area, uncaring of the earthquake rampaging around him. This is my life now.