Jay wandered over to the doors. On them was a outcropping of stone that looked like a giant doorknob. He grabbed it, twisting with all his might.

Slowly, it turned.

It stopped turning after a few seconds, a 'click' sounding from the doors, though it was more of a 'boom' given the volume and the fact he was underwater.

The doors opened, letting him into the complex. Jay confidently walked in, the water suddenly giving way to air, some kind of barrier keeping the water from entering. He was in a large hall, tapestries hung on the walls and golden items on tables. A podium raised itself in front of him with a couple words on it. 'Place your Metallic Emblem on this podium.'

Jay stepped around the podium, continuing. An alarm sounded as he walked right past it. Diamond's voice sounded in his ear. "You don't have any backup for this mission, so be careful. I'll only save you if you're about to die, as in you no longer have a head."

Jay didn't respond, continuing to walk. There were no ways out of the hall, so the exits must be hidden. The giant stone doors closed behind him. There was no knob on the inside. Part of the wall suddenly slid away. Someone stepped through, her hair frazzled, with a nosepiece made of a metal Jay didn't recognize. "Who forgot to put their Emblem on the podium?," she called out.

Jay grabbed the wall next to her with a Hook of Thought, pulling himself at insane speeds to her location. "Oh. There's an intru-," the woman managed to get out before he yanked her through the opening, tossing her into a wall.

He strode through the exit, so helpfully opened for him. Another hallway stood there, doors going to either side, all of them labeled with names. Jay ignored them, passing through the hallway into another one, with more doors, though there was an unlabeled one. He opened it, seeing a massive room that looked like it was a cafeteria. People worked in a kitchen, preparing food for, he assumed, the Metallic Council. He entered, seeing more doors he could explore in this room, when one of the cooks turned to him. "What metal are you?," the cook asked.

"I'm an intruder. Doesn't that mean people should be attacking me?," Jay asked.

The cook stumbled back. "INTRUDER!," He shouted, pressing a cleverly hidden button inside a flaming stove.

Louder alarms sounded, with a different tone and pattern. Jay nodded. "That's more like it."

Diamond's voice sounded once again beside his ear. "Why are you trying to get more people to attack you?"

"I want to beat them up."

Jay didn't receive a response as he grabbed one of the assistant chefs by the neck. "Which door do I take to the prisoners?"

The assistant grabbed a cleaver, slicing it at Jay. Amon generated a tendril that knocked it out of the cook's hand. "Tell me."

The assistant blanched at Jay's calm tone, pointing to a door. Jay dropped him, speeding towards that door. He threw a few words over his shoulder. "If you lied, I'll come back for you."

He ran through the door, not watching the man's reaction. It broke in front of him easily, letting him run without stopping. Soon, he approached a row of cells. Every single one of them was full, with most of the cells containing multiple prisoners. Jay skidded to a stop in front of the first cell, busting the door open. He repeated the process with the other ones, releasing all the captives. Portals appeared under them, transporting them out of the compound. Diamond's work, he assumed.

"I cannot sense the captives while the cage doors are closed, nor can I portal them. Interesting."

"Millie's not here."

"I guessed. Keep looking."

Jay grabbed a prisoner before he could fall through a portal. "Did you see a young girl in a cage of roots?"

The prisoner nodded fervently. "Thank you for saving us, sir, but rather than saving this girl, you should run. The Metallic Council controls this place."

Jay shook his head. "I'm not leaving her behind, and I'm not afraid of the Metallics. Where is she?"

The prisoner thought for a moment. "I was marched past her cage. Go down this hallway, then turn right at the end. There should be a couple traps down this way, you should be warned. Then you can go right, then left, then right again, all at the ends of hallways."

Jay nodded, dropping the prisoner through a new portal. He started running as soon as all the prisoners were gone. Amon, do you see any traps?

I haven't seen any. Want a shield?

Yes, please.

Silver liquid condensed into a shield, and with barely any room to look over the top, Jay rushed forth. Some kind of wire broke on his shield and Jay Summoned the Ocean, making the depth as far down as he could go, to provide the most cushioning of this next blow.

An explosion erupted in front of him, colliding with his domain. The impact was largely muffled through his domain, and yet pushed him back. A cloud of steam erupted and Jay kept running. In the next corridor, he had to deal with multiple axes swinging at his head, massive rocks falling from the ceiling, and pit traps, all of which were easily avoided at the speeds his Hook of Thought was pulling him down the corridor. It had taken him a little while to get that idea. The next corridor seemed to be free of traps, but contained members of the Council.

They stood, arrayed in front of him, in the middle of the hallway, which seemed to be expanding to provide a better place to battle. One of them shouted at Jay, "Stand down!"

She wore a fiery red crown which Jay assumed was her emblem. "What's that metal?," Jay asked.

The Councilor puffed up with pride. "Impencrest. Mined from the middle of a volcano-"

"Never heard of it. It must not be useful," Jay replied. "Bet that's why you got it."

Her eyes filled with rage as a massive warhammer appeared in her hands. "Only level ten? We didn't even need to come out for this one!"

She had apparently analyzed Jay, and might only be able to see his highest class' level. Jay charged forth, Amon's shield dissipating as a pair of daggers appeared in his hands, all the better for fighting in cramped quarters. He slid beneath a horizontal swing of the warhammer, attempting to cut through the back of Impencrest's leg. His dagger didn't penetrate. "Well, then," Jay said, stepping out of the way of a spear thrust.

Impencrest roared at him. Jay activated Collect their Weakness, Whispering to nearby Weakness spirits, asking them to aid him. He shot a water bullet at Impencrest. It splashed against her face, nothing but another tick of Collect their Weakness. He started dancing through the crowd, getting a few bloody furrows carved into him for his trouble, but managed to hit each of the members at least once.

Jay activated Seasonal Embrace: Summer, feeling his weapons finally start to dig into his enemies. Blood started to fly behind him. Jay activated a Hook of Thought he had planted in the ceiling earlier to avoid a sideways swing of the warhammer, watching as it slammed into a shield another Councilor seemed to have prepared for the purpose of stopping the strike before it devastated their own troops. Jay frowned. He would need to use more of his abilities.

Latched to the roof, he pulled himself to the side just in time to avoid a nasty-looking orb of fire, dropping to the ground in front of the group. By now, the corridor had widened into a full room, and he had Amon make a sword for him. "Well, here goes nothing," Jay said, activating Blade.

His ability covered his sword with a layer of Thought that he immediately attuned to water. It coated his blade, liquid yet refusing to fall off. Jay settled into the Form of Water, ready for his opponents' advance. Unsurprisingly, Impencrest attacked first.

She ran forward, jumping to slam her hammer onto him. He sidestepped, scoring a small gash on his strike, his blade cutting through her armor and skin. He felt Weakness spirits gather more power into her as a result of his strike. Her hammer hit the ground, and Jay stumbled as it rocked beneath him. Impencrest roared, an aura of flame covering her. The warhammer she wielded no longer moved slowly, speeding up and almost flickering as she waved it around like a toy. Only Jay's Form of Water let him stay alive as he dodged the strikes, though he didn't have an opportunity to attack.

Then, from behind him, a mage launched a bullet of acid as Impencrest raised her hammer to strike once more. He had two options. Take Impencrest's strike, or take the hit from the mage. Jay stepped into the mage's acid, which provoked a warning from Amon. This acid is not normal. This mage has spent the entire fight conjuring this. Take the strike.

Jay searched through his memories in an instant. The mage had indeed been spending his time creating this and doing nothing else. He lunged back into the strike, taking it instead. The warhammer bashed into Amon's protection, shoving him across the room, into a wall. He slowly slid down the wall, with a new crater made there.

Impencrest approached him as Jay slowly stood up, feeling his ribs broken. Impencrest laughed. "Now you see why you needed to stand down."

She raised her hammer. "Any last words?"

Jay looked directly into her eyes, channeling another Blade. "There's a saying. When you're on the brink of death, you've really just started fighting."

Impencrest blinked, letting her hammer descend, and Jay acted.

Eternity channeled itself through his blade.

Time stopped, for a brief moment, far less than a second. But enough.

Jay sidestepped the blow that was supposed to kill him, driving his sword forward. Impencrest's flames acted as armor, deflecting the blow. The group started attacking again, and Jay stopped trying to move normally. He trusted Amon to push him where he needed to go, and his Hooks of Thought to make him mobile enough to win. His arms worked without causing him pain, and so he would use those to win. If he attempted to walk, the many fractures in his legs would worsen and break, so standing was all he could do.

And dragging himself through the air on lines of Thought.

Another few ticks of Weakness collected on Impencrest as Amon slapped her with a few tentacles, just before Jay had to pull himself away from another hammer swing. He started focusing on the rest of the group, taking them out one by one. The acid mage went down pretty quickly, a single stroke from his sword all that was needed. The rest of the group took longer, but the Weakness built up on them made it so that Jay's attacks, with Summer behind them, won.

The small army slowly fell apart, cut to pieces by a single man, until only Impencrest stood. She threw her hammer at him, and Jay pulled himself out of the way, watching the hammer return to Impencrest's hand. "You may have killed those idiots, but I'm close to a promotion into the second tier of the Metallic Council. I can't lose to you."

Jay immediately checked in with Diamond. "You hear that?," he asked air.

Diamond's voice replied. "Yes, I did. The Metallic Council seems to be based on tiers. I'll look into this later."

Impencrest rushed Jay, more flames spewing out of her. He hesitantly reached out with his mind, touching them. They were created out of Will. The resource Jay was grabbing the last dregs of to pull himself around. Impencrest smiled. "What was that saying you had? When you're on the brink of death, you've really just started fighting?"

She coughed out blood. "Well, I'm truly on the brink of death now. I've just started fighting, apparently. You've been at the brink of death for a while. How much more energy do you have?"

Jay stared at Impencrest's face as her mouth curled into an insane grin. "I'm not going to die here. Why? Because I decided I'm not going to, and if I truly decide something's not happening, it isn't."

He smiled right back, his mouth filled with teeth that somehow looked sinister. Impencrest felt that she was provoking a predator, a sleeping beast she should let lie, but she didn't care. There was nothing to do but fight.