Chpt. 12) Tier seven dungeon, level two

Gimble pulled her up and carried her over to a fallen tree that got knocked over during the battle, “Thanks,” Ford said as he set her down. Her legs started to get pins and needles in them after using, embrace the pain and all that force that came with it.

“Your welcome,” Gimble said with a smile.

“Everyone alive?” Ford asked over comms.

“Sure, we’re alive,” Lilly responded.

“So are we,” the Twins said.

“Uhhhhh, what happened?” Farah groaned as she awoke.

“Good, you’re awake,” Ford said, “now we can look at loot and such. Also, Benet, go gather up the Wolpertinger's bodies.”

“Why?”

“because I bet they’re delicious.”

“Speaking of loot and such,” Max interrupted, “I leveled up twice,” everyone else also confirmed that they leveled up.

Ford’s eyebrows raised, and she looked at her EXP bar; seven-hundred twenty-five/three-thousand one-hundred thirty-nine. “Damn. I didn’t level up.”

“Well, maybe next time,” Max said as she got close enough for Ford to hear her.

Ford grunted and dumped out her loot. Twenty-one blue and brown monster cores fall to the ground, one brighter than the others, and a massive sword with a crescent tip. It was a meter and a half long, and all along the silvery blade were four segmented lines. Ford grasped the golden hand and a half hilt and received a notification.

Item: Konda segmented blade; quality: rare; effect: by using mana, you may separate the five blades and extend them to a distance of five kilometers or control each blade independently at the cost of extra mana; can enchant each blade with essences cost of extra mana; effect: enchanted blades can be rebuilt; requirement: STR: twenty, INT: twenty; cost: one-hundred mana per meter, one-hundred mana per second per blade for control, two-hundred mana per essence per blade, four hundred mana per rebuilt blade.

Ford felt feeling return to her legs as she stood in amazement. She quickly pulled out one of her Bort diamonds and cut herself to make it into a crystal weapon storage for her claymore. Max walked up to her after she finished and asked, “What did you get?”

Ford made a wry smile and summoned the blade, “This is a Konda segmented blade, and I can control each blade separately,” to demonstrate, she put five hundred mana into the sword, and each blade separated one meter from each other. “Also,” she continued, “I can enchant them with any essence I have.”

“Can I have that sword?” Gimble asked.

“No.”

“Why not?” Gimble pleaded.

“because it requires twenty intelligence which you don’t have.”

“Aww,” Gimble sighed, “and I just got my intelligence up to twelve.”

Ford looked at him with surprise and said, “REALLY?! That’s great! Now you can pick your own skills.”

Gimble smiled at that and dumped out his loot bag. A pair of Greaves fell out, and he picked them up, reading the notification out loud, “Greaves of the mountain. Quality: rare; increases your strength by five points.”

“Those are perfect for you,” Max said with a smile.

“Agreed,” Ford said, “What did everyone else get?”

Lilly spoke up, sounding disappointed, “I got a pot.”

“Okay, what does the pot do?” Ford asked quizzically.

“It cooks food,” Lilly answered bitterly.

“Huh… I’ll take it.”

Lilly handed Ford a small hand pot and lid and said, “Go for it.”

Ford put the pot into her inventory and read the notification from it. Item: chef’s pot; quality: rare; effect: cook any food put into the pot to specifications in five minutes; effect: bottomless; cost: food and one hundred mana. ‘Interesting,’ Ford thought.

“Worthless,” Wrath whispered.

“I got a new shield,” Morgan announced, brandishing a thick metal shield with golden highlights, “It allows me to make a larger shield three meters wide and four meters tall at the cost of a hundred mana per second.”

“Good,” Ford said, “very useful.”

Benet spoke next, “I got a poison dagger. Five damage per second and the damage is doubled when the target has afflictions on them. Here’s the Wolpertingers.”

“Thanks,” Ford said, putting the twenty corpses into her inventory then looked at Kii, Mizu, Farah, and Max, “What about you four,”

“I got a rare bow,” Mizu said, “allows me to shoot a target from anywhere so long as I have enough mana and know what I’m shooting.”

“What do you mean, ‘have enough mana’?”

“If the target is on the other side of the world, it’s two-thousand mana per kilometer, and that is if the target isn’t moving,” Mizu explained.

“Oh, that’s like two mana a meter,” Ford thought out.

“Yeah, the close range it’s fine. Long-range is going to be a pain, though.”

“Well, I got a legendary,” Kii said, changing the subject.

“How did you get a legendary, and I didn’t?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. It can change into any launcher-type weapon, and I can change the trajectory of any projectile I fire,” Kii said as he changed it into the fifty caliber with a massive grin.

“How much mana does that cost?” Ford asked, crossing her arms.

Kii’s smile disappeared as he answered, “It’s two hundred mana per shift, two hundred per shot, and three-thousand per trajectory change.”

“That is expensive but worth the advantage,” Ford noted, “Also, since you no longer need your epic bow, can I have it?”

Kii looked up at Ford and then back at the sniper in his hands, then at Ford and back again. Then reluctantly, he put his legendary sniper on his back and handed over the epic sniper, “Take good care of her,” Kii said, tears welling up in his eyes, “she likes watching the sunset,” then he started to bawl his eyes out.

Ford took the sniper and said, “Thank you, don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her.”

Mizu walked over and consoled his brother while Ford cast crystal weapon storage on the sniper then shifted it into a minigun. It had four barrels and was a meter long, with no sights and a large drum mag underneath. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!” Kii exclaimed in horror at the bulky mess his once elegant sniper became.

“Huh, oh, this? This is a minigun. Two-thousand rounds a minute. So, if I fire it, I’ll go through my mana in about two minutes. One minute if I go three-thousand a minute,” Ford explained, then an evil thought occurred to her, and she added, “I’m going to name her Minami,” as she put the gun away.

Kii fell to the ground over dramatically and yelled, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

While he was doing that, Ford spoke over comms to Farah, “What did you get?”

“Don’t ignore my pain!”

“I got legendary shock knuckles. They grant immunity to electric attacks and store them for later use against enemies. The downside is it costs one thousand mana per attack, and I can only store five, and they only last one hour,” Farah answered, a little bitterly.

“You’re still ignoring my pain!”

“Pretty good weapons, though the cost is high. Why do you sound so bitter, though?” Ford asked.

Farah frowned and said, “Just feels like an insult from my God.”

Ford nodded and said, “That’s because it probably is,” she then turned, ignoring the look of anger from Fara, “How about you, Max?”

“I got this rare circlet,” she answered, pointing to a ring of silver on her head that Ford hadn’t even noticed, “it gives me plus five intelligence and charisma. How do I look?”

“Gorgeous,” Ford and Benet said together.

Max smiled, “Thanks. What should we do now?”

“Now, we prepare for the next fight and rest a moment,” as Ford said this, she drew her claymore and started to enchant the blades.

***

As Ford finished enchanting the blades and started practicing with her control, the others in the group allocated points to their stats and skills. When Ford finally got the hang of the blade control, she stopped and rested for a few minutes to let her mana recharge. She looked at the time and saw that forty-five minutes had passed since they’d entered the dungeon and was now seven twenty-five. ‘We need to get moving,’ Ford thought.

She sat up as her mana was full, and she said, “Alright, let’s go.” Everyone agreed and got up to follow Ford, and just like the last room, an archway built itself and filled with shadow. Sword at the ready, she walked through the portal.

The room they entered looked like a field of rolling hills, with one hill in the center significantly taller than the rest with a pedestal at the top. Ford walked over to the pedestal, and once everyone was in the circle, they received a quest. Quest received; King of the hill: hold the central ring for one hour or kill all seven waves of enemies; reward: two-hundred EXP or six-hundred EXP; start the quest by placing your hand on the pedestal.

Ford turned and looked at the surroundings; the hill they were on was steep but not steep enough to give them a clear advantage over any enemies. She then turned to Max, “Did you put points into the skill, wall?”

She looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Yes, why?”

“How many points?”

“I maxed it out. Now I can make any shape I want within four meters.”

Ford pointed down the hill and said, “Make a granite wall around the hill to give us cover, three meters high, then create two pillars that the twins can be in at the top of the hill. Make sure they have complete fields of view and cover,” Max nodded and got to work making the wall, “Farah, Morgan, we will be outside the wall fighting the enemies and making sure they stay dead. Gimble, Lilly, Max, you three remain in the wall and make sure nothing gets to the pedestal.”

“Question,” Kii said.

“Why are we stuck in towers?” Mizu asked.

“Like damsels in distress,” Kii finished.

“Stop it. You’ll be up there to take out stragglers and outliers or any that try to get over the wall or sneak past us.”

“Oh, okay,” The Twins said in unison.

“Anything else?” Ford asked.

“What do I do?” Benet asked.

Ford jumped at Benet’s sudden appearance, then looked at him and said, “Not going to lie, I forgot you existed.”

Benet nodded, “Yeah, that tends to happen.”

“Anyways, go where you're needed,” Ford said as Max finished making the pillars for the twins, looking extra tired. She walked over to Max and placed a hand on her shoulder, “You good to fight now?” Ford asked.

“Give me about five minutes, and I’ll be good,” Max panted, leaning on her staff.

“You got it. Rest up,” Ford then turned to the others, “Get ready! We start in five minutes!”

“Heard,” everyone responded as they got into position.

***

Once the five minutes were up, Ford gave Lilly the signal to touch the pedestal. She did, and a horn sounded in the room, booming across the gently rolling hills from the direction of where they came. Ford, Farah, and Morgan turned to face the sound. As the horn faded into silence, Ford could feel and hear the thundering of footsteps coming toward them.

Ford held her claymore out to her right side and extended it fifty meters. Once the blades reached their total distance, the enemies came into view. A company of goblins, eighty strong, each of them only half the size of Ford, only wearing brown loincloths and wielding wooden clubs, came charging at them. She swung her sword, and two of the blades cut a large swath of enemies in half. She then recalled the blades and charged at the goblins.

She then cast psychosis on the goblins and used five hundred mana on targeted slaughter, making a wall five meters wide in front of the goblins. The goblins in front ran into the wall and were immediately shredded in a shower of blood, and then the rest of them stopped and looked at each other in fear. Soon they started to fight amongst themselves, killing each other.

“Ha, if I knew, I could do that. I would… have,” the rest of what Ford was going to say was lost as her sword felt heavy and fell from her hand. She could feel her muscles give out as she collapsed and fell to the ground.

As she lay there, her eyes started to droop, and she had to fight to stay awake. ‘What’s happening?’ she thought, trying to use comms, but nobody responded.

“This is what happens when you use psychosis on more than one opponent. It knocks you out,” Wrath explained, popping into view and getting close to Ford's face, “but don’t worry. It’s just mental fatigue. When you’re out, I’ll take over and finish the fight for you,” Wraths voice took on a demonic menacing tone at the end, and Ford fought even harder to stay awake.

Then Ford felt strong hands lift her and carry her limp body over to the wall, and a healing spell was cast on her. She immediately sat up fully awake and full of energy. She looked to her right and saw Benet had cast a spell on her. “Good you’re awake,” Benet said.

Ford rubbed her eyes and said, “I didn’t sleep, but I was about to. What spell was that?”

“It’s a stamina recharge spell.”

Ford looked at her bars, and other than her HP bar, her mana was empty, and her stamina was half full. Luckily she had a high recharge rate, so her mana would be full in eight minutes and stamina in fifteen seconds. “Thanks,” she said, then looked for her claymore. It wasn’t with them; then she looked back at where she had fallen and didn’t see it there either. A little panicked, she asked, “Where’s my sword?”

“It dissolved when we moved you,” Morgan said, keeping his eyes on the battling goblins, who had lost half of their numbers.

Ford nodded and summoned her sword, it floated in front of her, and she grabbed the hilt and stood. She looked at the rest of the Goblins and watched as they widdled themselves down to two, “twins finish them,” she said over comms.

The last two Goblins fell to a single bullet shot by Kii, “That takes a lot of energy,” he said, “I’m switching to my hunting bow.”

“Heard,” Ford responded as another horn blasted from the opposite end of their defenses. “Farah, Morgan, go ahead and fight. I’ll catch up,” Ford said at the sound of the horn.

“On it,” Farah said as she darted off to the other side.

Morgan grumbled, “Dwarves aren’t meant for running,” and ran off after her almost as fast. Ford chuckled and looked at her bars; her stamina had maxed out, and her mana was at half and climbing. She took a deep breath and summoned her katana, and ran off after them to join the fight.

***

After six waves of the same Goblins attacking in increasing numbers, Ford was getting bored and just tried thinking ahead and predicting what the next room would hold. ‘If I were a God, what would I make as a dungeon boss?’ Ford thought as the last horn blasted behind her. She didn’t bother to turn around and just continued to be lost in thought, ‘I could make some horrendous monster that vomits acid or some shi-,’ the rest of her thoughts were lost as a massive club stuck her right side and sent her flying and crashed into the hill.

Ford’s HP dropped down to one-hundred. She looked down at her side and saw her flattened body regrow and reform within a minute. She then pulled herself from the hill and looked for what had struck her.

Three massive Goblin kings stood in full armor surrounded by a dozen Goblins wearing plate armor on giant wolves. “Lilly, what the fuck are those wolves?” Ford asked over comms.

“Those are Wargs. They’re a favori’ of Goblins.”

“Oh, great. This will be fun.”

“I dought it,” Farah responded.

“Sarcasm Farah. That was sarcasm.”

Morgan cracked his neck and said, “Enough banter, let’s get this over with so that we can eat. I’m starving.”

Everyone agreed, and the Warg riders charged. Ford ran at the kings ignoring the Wargs, “Farah, you and everyone else take care of the Wargs. I’ll get the kings.”

“Heard.”

“Let me kill them!”

As she got close to the three kings, the one closest to her turned and raised its massive club. Ford dispelled her katana in favor of her Konda and extended the blade five meters. The Goblin king made a mighty swing, and Ford dodged to her right and swung her sword at its arm, giving it a shallow cut with the crescent tip of the blade, which she enchanted with her blood essence. She then felt her sword become incredibly heavy, and she tried to lift it with both her arms.

As she did so, she saw the Goblin king do the same. Ford smiled as she realized what the essence did. She then made the Goblin king grab its massive club and swing it at the closest King. Startled by the sudden betrayal, the Goblin didn’t have time to react and got a club to the chest plate, severely denting it.

The king stumbled backward and fell to one knee. The last Goblin king saw what happened and brought its club down on the Goblin Ford was controlling, crushing its head. A shard of pain shot through Ford’s head, and she fell to one knee as the Goblin fell to the ground dead. ‘Of course, there would be that sort of backlash,’ she thought as she stood back up and grasped her sword with both hands.

As the First Goblin king fell, Ford ran forward and jumped onto its body while swinging her blade down to attack the other two Goblin kings. The one that had fallen backward was struck in the neck by the middle segment of her sword and was shocked by the lightning essence she enchanted it with; the blade severed the jugular vein as well, and the Goblin was soon dead.

The last Goblin slipped between the space, only receiving an ear-splitting screech from the metal chest plate as her blade scratched it. The Goblin King made a gurgling roar and charged forward, swinging his club that smashed into the corpse Ford was standing on as she dodged yet again by jumping backward and off the corpse. The club collided with a sickening crunch. As Ford fell back, she recalled her blades and impaled the Goblin King from behind.

With a squelch, the blades went through the last of the Goblin Kings, killing it instantly. Then a familiar scream rang through the rolling fields, and Ford turned to see two Wargs attacking a granite dome inside the wall as everyone else fought off the other Goblins and Wargs.

Ford instantly spoke over comms as she ran toward their defenses, “Max, are you alright!? Can you fight back!?”

“I’m trying! The spikes I make to attack are breaking too quickly, and I’m almost out of mana!”

“Kii, Mizu, can you help her!?”

“No, we can’t.”

“She’s over the pedestal.”

“Our one blind spot.”

“Can’t you shoot an arrow that never misses,” Ford said as she reached the high walls that she could barely reach the top of to get over.

“I need a clear image, and all the Wargs look the same.”

Ford got to the top of the wall and summoned her elemental bow, “Max, get ready for a loud noise.”

“Heard,” she responded, and Ford drew back her bow with fire and air essences, and she released the arrow. The arrow flew forward and landed just short of the Wargs releasing an explosion that threw either monster to the sides as the Twins quickly killed them. The Granite dome crumbled as the Wargs flew off, and Ford's heart stopped.

“MAX!!” Ford and Wrath yelled simultaneously. There was no response, and Ford's eye was drawn to lighting bolts that fried a Warg and their riders. As she looked in that direction, she saw the stat bars for everyone and saw that Max was still alive, but just barely. Her heart started to beat rapidly, and she spoke over comms again. “Lilly, get to Max!”

Lilly looked up and at the Twins’ pillars, “I’ll be right there. Gimble, I’ll need some help.”

“I’m a bit busy!” Gimble said as Two riderless Wargs were tearing apart his shields.

The Wargs were soon killed by two shots that blew apart their necks, “You’re welcome,” the Twins said in unison.

Gimble tossed aside his now worthless shields and ran toward the pile of rubble Max was lying in; Ford quickly ran past him and started digging as Morgan killed the last Warg. Ford ignored the notification that popped up and kept pulling off the stones till finally, she saw Max and pulled her out of the destroyed dome. Gimble was right behind her, and he cleared a spot for Ford to lay Max down.

Lilly arrived at her side and cast her healing spell, and Ford watched as Max’s HP slowly climbed up. After a few seconds, Max started to cough and gasp for air as she returned to consciousness.

Ford made a sigh of relief and said, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

Max chuckled and said weakly, “Good to be back.”

Then as if to ensure a moment doesn’t happen, Morgan walked up and said, “Now that that is settled can we get something to eat?”

Ford turned to him, and a loot bag landed on her head; she sighed and said, “Yeah, give me a minute,” She then stood and pulled out her chef’s pot, a few of the Wolpertingers, and started cleaning the carcasses.

***

“Tanashi,” Drake said, getting the other God's attention, “Are you ever going to stop throwing the loot bags at your champion?”

Tanashi thought for a moment, “Ummm, no.”

“You could at least let her dodge,” Samael suggested.

“Where would be the fun in that,” Tanashi countered.

“He has a point,” Zee agreed. Samael and Drake rolled their eyes and returned their attention to the screen.

***

While Ford ate some of the stew she had made, which tasted horrible because of the meat she had to use, she looked at her stats to distract herself after passing the pot to the next person to eat. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: thirteen. Abilities: STR: thirty; PER: twenty plus ten; END: thirty-one; INT: twenty-five plus ten; AGI: thirty-seven; CHR: thirty; LCK: twelve; WIS: twenty plus ten; SOL: twelve.

Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred-fifty kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. Skills: weapon mastery five/five, crystal heart five/five, blood controller five/five, crystal weapon storage five/five, void storage two/five, crystal battle music two/five, blood weapons five/five, regeneration five/five, embracing pain five/five, psychosis five/five, strategist one/one, party stats five/five, targeted slaughter five/five, self-repair five/five, battle control five/five.

HP: three-hundred forty-one; STM: three-thousand two-hundred sixty-four; MN: forty-thousand five-hundred seventy-six; EXP: nine-hundred twenty-five/three-thousand one-hundred thirty-nine. STM recharge: eighty-four per second; MN recharge: eighty-one per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent. Fifteen skill points are available.

‘Increase in intelligence and endurance. Nice. I should assign some of these skill points while I have time,’ Ford thought to herself.

“Agreed, you’re not the best at fighting large numbers of enemies,” Wrath stated.

Ford reluctantly agreed with that and opened up her skill menu. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Mage selected. Select class: Healer, Priest, Necromancer, Light, Dark, Space, Time, Creation, Destruction, Possesser. Destruction selected. Select route: DPS, AOE. AOE selected. Skill: essence ball; create a ball of essence in an area within fifty centimeters; requirements; INT: fifteen, WIS: ten; cost: X mana depending on size plus one-hundred mana per essence plus Y mana to throw depending on velocity; level: zero of five.

Skill: essence mine; create a one-meter diameter trap in an area within one meter; requirements: INT: fifteen, WIS: twelve; cost: two hundred mana per trap; level: zero of five.

Skill: essence mortar; create a ten-centimeter in diameter ball of essence that will launch in a random direction between one-hundred meters away and five hundred meters; requirements: INT: fifteen, WIS: ten; cost: one-hundred mana per mortar; level: zero of five.

Ford ignored the rest of the skills and put five points into essence ball and essence mortar; then read the skill’s new description. Skill: essence ball; create balls of essence in an area within fifty centimeters of yourself; requirements; INT: twenty-five, WIS: fifteen; cost: X mana depending on size plus one-hundred mana per essence plus one-hundred mana per ball plus Y mana to throw depending on velocity; level: five of five.

Skill: essence mortar; create a twenty-centimeter in diameter ball of essence that will launch in the direction of your choosing; range: one-hundred meters to seven kilometers; requirements: INT: twenty-five, WIS: fifteen, distance and angle of launch; cost: one-hundred mana per mortar plus one-hundred mana per hundred meters; level: five of five.

After that, she went into the destruction mage, DPS skills. Skill: essence thrower; shoot a stream of your chosen essence from your hands or a held staff; requirements: INT: fifteen; ten mana per second times two per essence; level: zero of five.

Skill: essence volley; launch one spear of essence per six seconds; summon spears within one meter; range: fifty meters; requirements: INT: fifteen; cost: one-hundred mana per spear per essence plus X mana depending on velocity; level: zero of five.

Ford ignored the rest of the skills and put three points into essence volley and two points into essence thrower; then read the skill descriptions. Skill: essence thrower; shoot a stream of your chosen essence from your hands or a held staff; requirements: INT: twenty; twenty mana per second times two per essence; level: two of five.

Skill: essence volley; launch three spears of essence per three seconds; summon spears within one meter; range: seventy-five meters; requirements: INT: twenty-five; cost: one-hundred mana per spear per essence plus X mana depending on velocity; level: three of five.

Satisfied with the skill choices, she then grabbed her loot bag and said, “Is everyone done eating?” Everyone nodded as Gimble scarfed down the rest of the stew from the pot. Ford opened up her bag and dumped out the contents. A flood of monster cores flowed out of the bag, and at the end, a massive claymore with a black blade and golden highlights landed on top of the rolling cores and rolled down to the wall Max had built.

Everyone got up and out of the way of the wave of monster cores rolling down the hill, and once all the cores stopped moving, everyone started laughing at what had just happened. Ford got up and went to the pile of cores, saying, “Max, why don’t you make a giant bowl to catch cores because I think Farah and Morgan will have the same thing happen to them.”

“Heard,” Max said through a laugh.

Ford quickly made it to her new claymore and admired it more closely. The hilt was thirty centimeters long, and the blade was one-hundred and fifty centimeters making the entire sword the same size as her. The blade had a slight curve at its end, and along the blade were lines that looked similar to her Konda blade, and it had only one edge like a katana; a massive oversized katana. At the base of the blade, the crossguard had a clock-like mechanism that ticked and away silently.

Ford bent over, picked it up, and read the notification. Item: Smite; quality: epic; effect: can store mana indefinitely; effect: can extend an additional one-hundred and fifty centimeters; effect: self-repair with mana in storage; effect: when you pour mana into the blade, the blade becomes electrified; requirements: STR: twenty-five, INT: twenty-five; cost; ten mana per second to electrify; one-hundred mana per second to melt through objects; one-thousand mana per second to cut through anything; ten-thousand mana per second will destroy the sword, the user, and anything within ten meters; one-hundred-thousand mana per second will destroy anything within ten kilometers; warning: one-thousand mana per second will damage the blade after thirty seconds.

Ford’s jaw dropped as she read this and lifted the sword resting it on her shoulder. She then cast crystal weapon storage on it and stored it away. Then she looked at the mess of monster cores on the ground and started to put them into her storage.

***

Seven hundred and fifty-one cores, three Goblin king cores, and two Warg cores later, she finally got all cores put away in her void storage. All the while, she listened to what everyone else got; Lilly got a gold mana storage bracelet and six monster cores; Benet got a legendary stealth cloak; Gimble got two new shields that shoot out a wave of mana; Kii and Mizu both got bracelets that increased mana recharge by five percent and ten percent and two monster cores; Max got a bow staff that increases mana capacity and recharge by ten percent and allows for ranged creations.

Farah and Morgan dumped their bags into the bowl Max made, one after the other. Ford added their monster cores into her void storage, bringing the total number to two-thousand two-hundred fifty-two monster cores, twelve Warg cores, and three Goblin king cores. As for their items, Farah got a pair of epic bracelets that turn into a small thin blade she can eject from her wrist; Morgan got a chest plate that creates a two-meter bubble shield.

‘All really good loot,’ Ford thought as Morgan showed off his chest plate.

“Never pegged you for a greedy person, Ford,” Wrath whispered into her ear.

Ford took a deep breath and thought, ‘Shut up.’

“It would be so easy to take the equipment from them.”

‘Shut up.’

“It would only take a few moments to take them.”

‘Shut up.’

“I’ll even offer my services. It’ll be quick and clean.”

‘SHUT UP!’ Ford roared in her mind to silence Wrath.

Wrath made a small charming chuckle, “Alright, so long as you know my offer stands.”

‘I won’t be needing it,’ Ford thought as she turned to address everyone, “Let’s get this boss battle finished. So we can get out of here.”

Everyone cheered, and Ford drew her new claymore, Smite, with both hands, poured half her mana into it in preparation for the upcoming fight and rested it on her shoulder. An archway built itself out of the granite pillars Max made, and everyone started to pile through. Except for Max, who grabbed Ford’s wrist, stopping her from going through the portal.

Ford turned and asked, “What’s up?”

“Are you alright?” Max asked, “You seem angry.”

Ford gave her a soft smile and said, “I’m fine. Wrath is just annoying. Besides, I still have my,” she reached into her pocket, then into her other pocket, and her soft smile turned into a frown, “oh no.”

“What? What is it?” Max asked.

“I left my battle music crystal in the last room,” Ford said with a bit of a whimper. Max rolled her eyes and went through the portal. “What?” Ford asked as she followed Max through the portal, “I liked that crystal.”

***

The room they entered looked like an emergency flood release tunnel sixty meters wide, seventy meters long, and twenty meters tall with six massive concrete pillars all around. Above them were metal I-beams crisscrossing the ceiling, and red and green crystals lined the room, flashing in an alternating pattern. Ford walked up to the twins and said, “Can you get up there?” pointing to the I-beams.

The Twins looked up and said, “I think we can.”

“Good, as soon as we start, get up there,” she ordered and walked over to the center of the room with everyone else behind her. As soon as she entered the center, she was blindsided by something and sent flying into the wall on the right side of the room.

As she was hit and impacted the wall, she could feel her left arm bend unnaturally, her right arm, rib cage, and lungs get crushed. The pain was unbearable, and she almost blacked out from the lack of oxygen. Stars danced across her vision as she landed on the floor and felt her body heal itself. She took a long gasp of air, and her vision cleared.

Loud crashes echoed through the room, along with the clanging of metal. As soon as her HP hit full, she spoke over comms, “What the fuck just happened?!”

“You got blindsided by a monster,” Benet said calmly.

Then the Twins alternated talking, “It.”

“Was.”

“Awesome.”

“Stop it!” Ford snapped as she stood up and looked at the monster that blindsided her.

It stood five meters tall, four meters wide, and six meters long. Its body looked like cancerous tumors on six legs covered with a long sinewy tail, silver armor, and puss oozing out from the cracks. From the round growths, tentacles sprouted from its body and whipped around wildly. The two heads of the beast looked like Oxen, and their horns were in a constant state of shifting fires and black eyes darker than any abys. Above the beast, Ford could see the HP bar and its name, Taurus.

Ford took a deep breath and resummoned her Claymore, Smite. Then thought better of it and switched to her katana. It was easier to use and faster. “Kii, Mizu, are you in position?”

“No, we are not.”

“That thing is faster than it looks.”

“Farah, Morgan, we will go in and grab its attention. Lilly, shoot it from afar and keep moving. Gimble, Max, help the twins get up top. Benet, get your afflictions ready,” Ford orders in quick secession.

“Heard,” was the unison response.

Ford poured three hundred mana into her sword and used four hundred mana to create a fireball with fire and air essence the size of her fist. The fireball started to burn her as it hovered over her hand. She shot the ball at Taurus, ignoring the pain in her hand, as the fireball connected with its body almost instantly; it created a loud bang that echoed through the room. Taurus didn’t even budge and instead turned its massive heads Toward her locking their abyssal eyes on Ford. When they did, Ford noticed that there was a red gem in between the heads of the Bull. However, she couldn’t contemplate this as the bull charged at her.

Ford ran to her right and got behind one of the concrete pillars just as the bull ran past and collided with the wall, getting its horns stuck. Ford didn’t look back as she ran down the pillar to the center row where Farah and Morgan were waiting.

“Now what?” Morgan asked.

Taurus pulled itself free and turned around to face the three of them, “Now we run,” Ford answered.

“Good idea,” Farah agreed, and they each went off in a different direction.

Ford ran across and along the far-left pillar to the corner as she said, “Kii, Mizu, are you up there yet?!”

“No,” one of them responded.

“We can’t climb it. There’s nothing to grab, and it’s too sheer.”

“And I can’t control the ground for some reason to lift them,” Max added.

“Do you have any points to spend on a new skill?”

“Way ahead of you, but the skill requires me to know what I’m manipulating.”

A loud stomp and scraping sound emanated from behind Ford, and she turned to see the massive Bull scraping its hooves against the ground, its heads down, ready to charge again. Ford cursed and ran back around the pillar as the Bull charged and skidded around the corner, chasing Ford.

As Ford ran, she spoke in comms, “It’s concrete. It’s concrete!” then she dived behind the pillar at the end of the room, only just avoiding being trampled by the Bull who got its horns stuck in the wall again. Ford wasted no time and started running again, creating another fireball; she threw it at the Bull without aiming and hoped she hit it. Ford then noticed that she was running toward Max, Gimble, and the Twins. A loud cracking sound came from behind her as Taurus pulled itself out of the wall and started to chase her again. Ford made sure the Bull knew where she was and ran down the middle of the room again.

“What’s concrete?!” Max asked.

“Concre’e is made of cement, wa’er, gravel, and stone,” Lilly answered.

“It’s not working!”

“Cement!” Ford said breathlessly, “You need to know cement! Farah! Morgan! Help me!”

Farah responded first, “Ah, you’re doing fine.”

“Now is not the time for jokes!”

“SHU’ UP YOU TWO,” Lilly yelled over comms, “Cemen’ is made of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron, and limestone!” after she said this, a volley of fire spears stuck and exploded against Taurus.

Ford used the distraction to get out of sight and look up at Taurus’s HP bar. It had only gone down one percent. They had thrown several massive explosions at it and hadn’t even made a dent. Then the Twins spoke on comms, “We’re up top.”

“Finally!” Ford exclaimed, “We need one of you to be on each side of the room. Your target is the gem between the heads, got it?”

“We don’t need them!!”

“Heard, splitting up.”

Ford looked back and saw Taurus swing its head around the corner and look at Ford. Ford groaned and said, “Why does this thing hate me?”

“Maybe, because ye look so cu’e,” Lilly suggested.

“Or maybe, because you pissed it off first,” Max suggested, as Taurus rounded the corner staring daggers at Ford, “though what Lilly said isn’t off the table.”

“Thanks for the compliments, you two. Now, how about some real help,” Ford said as she turned and started running again. She rounded the corner at the end of the pillar, closely followed by Taurus when she saw something fly over her. She turned and saw Morgan flying toward the Bull hammer in hand!

He swung his hammer down and stuck the gem between the Bull’s heads. The Bull roared in pain and struck Morgan with a tentacle, which he skillfully blocked with his shield and was sent flying backward and collided with Ford. She stumbled back a few steps and, without dropping him, ran back to the center of the room and collapsed as her stamina hit zero.

“Benet, I could use some stamina,” Ford said over comms, and within moments Benet was next to her and casting a stamina recharge spell, “Thanks,” she said as she stood up and looked at the HP bar again. It had gone down five percent since last time. “Morgan,” Ford said, getting his attention, “did you activate double impact yet?”

Taurus came around the corner, both heads snarling and shooting flames from their nostrils. Then Morgan's hammer lit up, and Taurus stumbled back a step, the HP bar going down an additional five percent. “Now, I have,” Morgan answered.

“Morgan, I need your hammer!” Ford said. The Dwarf didn’t hesitate for a moment as he handed off his hammer. Ford dispelled her sword and ran down the center of the room, “Kii, Mizu, I’m lining up a shot for you two, so be ready. Max, Lilly, slow it down. Do whatever you have to do. Gimble, Morgan, Farah get ready to jump in and draw its attention. Benet, can you lay on any afflictions?”

“Already have. It is a little slower now and takes more damage from Physical attacks, but not very much. It also seems to be immune to poison.”

Morgan ducked behind a pillar as Taurus came around the corner and locked eyes with Ford, “Good enough,” she responded as she got to the edge of the room.

Taurus scraped its hooves against the ground and charged; Ford charged forward as well. Once she was halfway to Taurus, she bit her tongue as hard as she could, filling her mouth with blood and activating embracing pain; five seconds. Ford put all her strength into her legs and prepared to jump as ice spears struck Taurus’s legs and made it stumble as it charged; four seconds. Ford jumped and brought the Warhammer back for a swing, and five consecutive arrows struck the gem; three seconds. Ford was just about to bring the hammer down when she was struck by one of the tentacles and sent flying to the right and collided with the wall feeling the all too familiar crunch of her bones; two, one, zero.

Ford fell to the floor gasping for air and said, “Distraction! Now!”

Loud crashes and explosions came from the direction of the fight, and Ford felt her body remake itself again. She looked up and saw her hat had fallen off. Once her stamina hit acceptable levels, she picked it up as she stood and placed it on her head, shifting it into a helmet that covered everything except her eyes. She looked in the direction of the fight and thought quickly, ‘Alright, what do we know about it. It’s big, surprisingly fast, and has a weak spot between its heads. It holds a grudge and learns quickly. Come on, think, think, think!’

“Would you like a suggestion?” Wrath asked, whispering in Ford’s left ear.

Ford turned to her and glowered, ‘I don’t need help from you,’ she thought as she turned her attention back to the fight at hand. ‘I can do this. I just need to,’ an idea occurred to her, and she ran to the other side of the middle pillar and saw Max and Benet hiding.

Ford ran up to them and tapped Max on the shoulder; she jumped and whorled on Ford, swinging her staff at Ford’s head and bounced off Ford’s helmet. Ford ignored the strike and spoke quickly, “Max, you can make stone spikes, right?” Max nodded, “Benet can you teleport more than just yourself?”

“No, not yet at least,” he answered.

Ford bit her lower lip under her helmet as she thought, then said, “Here, take this to Morgan,” she handed Benet the War hammer. Benet nodded and disappeared inside Ford’s shadow. Ford summoned, Smite and got into a running position. Looking around, she spotted Gimble protecting Lilly as tentacles whipped at them from Taurus’s backside. “Gimble, I need you to grab and hold onto its tail. Lilly, get on Gimbles back and freeze it,” Ford said.

“Wha’ good would tha’ do?” Lilly asked impatiently.

“It’ll buy us time.”

“Us!” Lilly and Max said in unison.

Ford gave Max a wink, “Us,” she said, “Max, follow me closely. I don’t think there will be a very big window of opportunity.”

Max’s eyes widened, and her knuckles went white as she tightened her grip on her staff and said, “O-okay.”

“Gimble, when you’re ready,” Ford said as Lilly climbed on top of Gimble.

“I think this is a bad idea,” Gimble said.

“Gimble, every idea that could be dangerous is a bad idea. But this is all we got.”

Gimble groaned and charged forward with his shields up, protecting his head and Lilly. Then he reached the massive tail of Taurus and jumped onto it, wrapping his arms around it. Noticing what happened, Taurus roared, as much as a Bull can roar, and started to buck, kicking Gimble’s right arm. Luckily Gimble was close enough that he didn’t take a lot of damage.

Lilly immediately started to use the essence thrower and shot a ray of ice at the tail, slowly starting to freeze it. As Taurus began to have trouble moving, Gimble’s HP was getting low; Ford yelled, “Lilly, that’s good enough, heal Gimble,” she then grabbed Max’s hand and ran underneath the Bull.

Once there, she hefted Smite and sent one-thousand mana per second into it. She swung the blade and gave Taurus a deep cut in its underbelly. Taurus roared started stumbling side to side, trying to crush whatever was underneath it. Ford and Max were able to dodge the giant hooves, and Ford pointed to the hole, “Send a massive spike up there and make sure to go all the way through!!” Max nodded and grasped her staff to steady herself; she still looked frightened, “Hey,” Ford said, getting Max’s attention, “You got this!”

Max smiled a little but still looked scared. She then took a deep breath and pounded the end of her staff into the ground. The ground beneath them shook, and a long cylindrical spike shot up from the ground and into the hole Ford made. The spike went all the way through the massive Bull, squiring it and making it roar in pain.

Ford dispelled Smite, grabbed Max around the waist, and ran out from under the Bull. Once they were out, she turned and looked at Taurus’s HP bar. It was slow but steadily dropping, and Ford spoke over comms, “Kii, Mizu, start pounding the crystal on its head.”

“Heard,” was the Twin’s unison response. A second later, a stream of arrows and a hail of bullets started to pound the crystal between the Bulls head. Till the HP bar finally hit zero and Taurus died.

Ford breathed a sigh of relief and fell to the ground, exhausted. “Next time, you’re being chased by the Bull,” Ford said, pointing at Farah, who was walking up to her and Max.

“Not a chance,” Farah responded with a slight smile.

Ford sat up and looked at her with concern, “I-is that a smile?!” Ford said in astonishment, “Isn’t that painful for you to do?” Farah’s smile disappeared and was replaced with a sneer and a middle finger directed at Ford, “That’s better,” Ford said as she leaned back to lay down. As Ford closed her eyes, the loot bags fell and hit her in the face. She sat back up, making the bag drop to the ground, “I fucking hate these bags.”