Chpt. 13) Tier seven dungeon, level three

Ford shifted her helmet back into her red fedora and looked at the time; it just stuck nine in the morning, and every minute that passed meant the chances of the people of Banzzap’el finding the dungeon and waiting for them. Ford chewed on her lower lip nervously and opened up her loot bag. A pair of brown combat boots fell out, and a bundle of paracord.

Ford touched the boots and read the notification. Item: speed boots; quality: epic; effect: plus five to strength; effect: plus ten to agility; comes with paracord for replacing the laces. Ford smiled at the boots, enjoying the punny name, and looked down at the dress shoes she was wearing. They were almost completely worn out; the soles were smooth, and the leather was coming off them. She untied the shoes, took them off, and put on the new boots.

She looked up at everyone else and saw they were all in the Yggdras system, judging from the blank eyes they all have. Ford shrugged and did the same to look at the stat increase from her boots. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: thirteen. Abilities: STR: thirty plus five; PER: twenty plus ten; END: thirty-two; INT: twenty-five plus ten; AGI: thirty-seven plus ten; CHR: thirty; LCK: twelve; WIS: twenty plus ten; SOL: twelve.

Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred seventy-five 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, essence ball five/five, essence mortar five/five, essence thrower two/five, essence volley three/five.

HP: three-hundred fifty-two; STM: three-thousand two-hundred sixty-four; MN: forty-thousand five-hundred seventy-six; EXP: one-thousand six-hundred seventy-five/three-thousand one-hundred thirty-nine. STM recharge: ninety-eight per second; MN recharge: eighty-one per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent.

Her eyebrows shot up at seeing the increase in strength, agility, and endurance. Ford contemplated this for a moment and concluded that either all the running she had done increased endurance or the amount of pain she endured increased it. It was most likely the latter that increased her endurance.

Ford closed the window and looked around, seeing that everyone had opened up their loot bags and sporting new gear. Ford stood and said, “Is everyone ready to go?”

Farah, Lilly, and Max looked at her sidelong, “Do ye not want to know wha’ we got?” Lilly asked, perplexed.

Ford rubbed the back of her head and said, “I do want to know, but we need to get out of here before too long. The longer we take to get out of the dungeon, the higher the chance of being found.”

“But can’t we rest for a little longer?” Max asked.

Ford sighed and thought for a moment, “I don’t think we can,” she said honestly, “I know it’s hard to do and a lot to ask for, but… it has to be done this way.” Max’s eyes widened slightly, and she looked down at the gold necklace she had just received and the silvery monster core. She wanted so badly to go over and comfort her, but she needed to get everyone moving, “Alright, get up and let’s go.”

Everyone started to get up and check that their new items were ready for use. Gimble walked over to Ford and asked her to hold onto his old chest plate while he was using the new one. She agreed and put the chest plate into her void storage. After she did that, a portal appeared in the center of the room, and everyone went for it. Everyone except Max, who was still staring blankly at the necklace in her hands.

Ford stopped as she noticed this, then turned to Farah, “Hey, go on ahead, we’ll catch up.”

Farah looked back at Max, then Ford, “Okay, we’ll wait for you.”

She nodded and walked over to Max and sat next to her quietly. Once everyone was through the portal, Ford looked at Max sidelong and asked, “Are you okay?”

This seemed to snap Max out of her reverie as she clenched her fists, and her face contorted, looking as though she was about to yell or scream, “How can you just keep fighting so calmly?” Max asked in a level tone. The question caught Ford off guard, and before she could come up with an answer, Max continued, “I saw you get crushed three times in the last twenty minutes, and you’re still breathing. I nearly died twice in the same amount of time. So to answer your question, NO, I AM NOT OKAY!” Max’s voice rose to a yell by the end, and tears started rolling down her face.

Ford didn’t flinch at the answer, and she just watched for a moment before Wrath started whispering in her ear again, “We should just leave her. She’ll only slow us down or get us killed. I’m sure that a monster will be more than happy for the snack.” For a horrifying moment, she considered what Wrath had said. Then stood, walked over to the nearest pillar, and drove her fist into it with all the force she could muster. A sickening crack resonated through the room as her bones shattered. Ford’s eyes watered, and she gritted her teeth in pain, trying her best not to scream as she forced what Wrath had said out of her head.

Max jumped and turned around to see what had happened. Before she could say anything, Ford said, “What makes you think I’m calm?” she looked Max in the eyes and let her hand heal itself, “I’m getting impaled, crushed, and broken at every turn, and now I have a persistent voice in my head that’s telling me to kill everyone and everything that annoys or hurts me. If I stop fighting, I die; if I keep fighting, I die. But if I survive this, then I can fix everything. The only reason why I haven’t gone crazy yet is that I’m really fucking stubborn,” she chuckled a little at her joke, then continued, “If I don’t stay calm and keep my head up, then I know for a fact that I will drown in this death world in a sea of pain and suffering. That is why I’m still calm, and I’m sure that’s why everyone else is too.”

Max listened quietly, tears still in her eyes, “I…I…I’m…” Max was trying to say something, but Ford walked up to her and gently whipped the tears from her cheeks.

She knelt before Max and guided her gaze up, looking deep into her ocean eyes, and said, “As I just said, if I survive this, I can fix everything; if I do. You don’t have to be here for any of this,” Ford raised her voice as if talking to someone who was eavesdropping, “and I’m sure it’s not too late for her to turn back now, right?” As if in response, the portal that brought them into the room opened, and Ford looked at it a little surprised, but quickly composed herself and looked back to Max, “See. A way out for you. If you don’t want to join the quest, you can go through that portal there and live a long, happy life and forget about all of us. Or if you're going to see this through to the end, you just need to follow me.” Ford stood, put the monster core into her inventory, and walked past Max through the portal to the next room, leaving Max to decide her fate.

Lilly perked up and looked at Ford; then concern crossed her face when she didn’t see Max, “Where’s Max?” she asked.

Ford took a deep breath and said grimly, “She’s making a big decision right now,” then a notification came across her vision. Quest: serpents maze; even the best decisions could drag you down; complete the labyrinth in thirty minutes; reward: two-hundred EXP, if completed in ten minutes or less receive times twenty EXP, lose one times EXP per minute after ten minutes. Start the quest by placing a hand on the podium.

Ford closed the notification and looked around the room they were in; it was more like a tunnel just wide and tall enough for Gimble to stand comfortably. The tunnel was utterly smooth and baren of details, except the crystals that produced a white green light along the top of the ceiling and the podium a few steps from her. She then looked back at the portal and saw it was still open.

She took another deep breath and said, “When that portal closes, that’s when we will start the quest,” she sat down and crossed her legs with her back to the portal. She couldn’t stand to look at it, knowing that with every second that passed by ment that Max might not come with them.

The Twins looked at each other then to Ford, and Kii asked, “Aren’t we supposed to be getting through this dungeon-”

“as fast as we can?” Mizu finished.

Ford’s anger burst, and she snapped, turning on them in an instant, “THE NEXT TIME YOU TWO FINISH EACHOTHERS SENTENCES, I WILL RIP OUT YOUR TONGUES!”

“Whoa, calm down, Ford! It’s just a question,” Morgan said.

She turned on him next and caught herself before she yelled again. She took several deep breaths to calm herself and said, “S-sorry, that was uncalled for, it’s just annoying, and I’m feeling stressed right now. So again, I’m sorry.” She looked down and rested her head in her hands, covering her eyes, so she didn’t have to look at anybody.

“Ford,” Farah spoke up from just behind her.

“What?”

“She’s going to kill you.”

“turn around and show me your eyes.”

Ford looked up and turned toward Farah and was surprised when she saw a blade centimeters from her eye. Ford’s eyes widened, clearly showing everyone her violet and golden eyes. “I told you so,” Wrath whispered and then tried to take control of her body by force. Ford gritted her teeth and focused on keeping Wrath out of her head.

Farah sighed and retracted the blade, “Good, you’re not Wrath.”

Ford started to breathe heavily as Wrath’s assault on her mind intensified and sent pain raising through her head. She turned back from Farah and rested her head in her hands again, trying to suppress the pain she was in at that moment.

***

After what felt like an eternity of pain shooting through her head, Wrath finally stopped her assault on Ford’s mind, and she made a small sigh of relief as the pain subsided. Then she heard the portal behind them close, and her breath caught in her throat for a moment as she listened for any reactions from everyone else. Nobody reacted, and Ford’s chest tightened.

She stood and spoke in comms, “Alright, let’s move.” She took a step forward and reached for the podium when someone grabbed her from behind in a hug and buried their head into her back. Ford looked down at the small, fair arms wrapped around her waist. As realization dawned on her as to who was hugging her, the tightness in her chest vanished, and a gentle smile spread across her face.

“So, what made you want to join this merry band of adventurers?” Ford asked rhetorically.

“I have no idea. I even put points into wisdom and have a necklace that increases wisdom now,” Max answered, with her face still buried into Ford’s muscular back.

“Well, I’d say that was wise, but clearly, you’re here.”

Max let go of Ford and lightly slapped her, “That’s a horrible pun.”

“It was worth it!” Ford exclaimed with a smile. Then she slapped her hand down on the podium, and a thirty-minute timer started to tick down in the bottom left of her vision above the clock. “Run!” she yelled and started down the hall, with everyone soon following after.

The tunnel bent and turned in a winding pattern, and soon, they came across a three-way split in the tunnel. Ford stopped running and was nearly bulldozed by everyone else. A door blocked each of the tunnels; between each tunnel were dials, two in total, and above the three tunnels were three numbers; forty-eight, fifteen, five, and on the doors were sixty-eight, twenty-eight, and thirty-eight.

Ford hastily walked over to one of the doors and tested it, not surprised at all by the fact it was locked. “Damn, what’s this challenge again?”

“Serpents maze; even the best decisions could drag ye down,” Lilly said without hesitations.

Ford took a step back and looked at the numbers again, then at the dials. She walked over to the leftmost one and spun it easily, and it had three sides; a plus side, a minus side, and a blank side. “It’s a math equation,” Ford stated hastily, “We need to solve the equation to progress.”

“What’s the answer?” Benet asked hastily.

“Ummm,” was Ford’s only response as she thought as fast as she could.

“I got it,” Lilly said, running up to the first dial and changing it to minus and then doing the same to the other.

The middle door opened, and Ford considered it hesitantly, “Are you sure?”

“Not really, but it’s my best guess.”

“How do we know you’re right?” Farah asked.

“We don’ die.”

“Good enough for me,” Morgan said as he ran up the tunnel past everyone. Ford shrugged and followed closely.

After a few seconds of running, they came across another split tunnel, this time with a four-way split. The numbers above the doors were thirty, forty-two, seventy, and twenty-eight. The numbers on the doors were negative one-hundred ten, one-hundred seventy, negative twenty-six, and thirty.

“Which is it, Lilly?” Ford asked hastily.

“Let me think!” Lilly snapped.

Ford took a quick step back and gave her some space as she tried to solve the problem. A thought occurred to Ford, and she took off her hat and placed it on Lilly, backward, “Here,” She said, “this should help you out.”

Lilly ignored her and went up to the first dial, spun it to plus, the second dial to minus, and the third dial to plus. The door with the thirty unlocked, and Lilly said, “Thanks, tha’ helped a lot.” Then she started running down the hall closely followed by the rest of the party.

The two minutes had passed since the start of the challenge when they reached the next split with four options, and this time there were no numbers on the doors, and there were two extra dials on the outside of the furthest doors and with the original three dials, making a total of eleven dials. Ford walked up to one dial on the outside edge; they were both parentheses and didn’t move. The new dials were also parentheses, and the original dials had times and divided as well. This time the numbers were thirty-one, sixty-six, three, twenty-six.

“Damn it!” Lilly said as she rubbed her temples, trying to think.

Instead of asking what was wrong, Ford said, “Sunny! Where are you?” Sunny floated out from between her eyes, making Ford go crosseyed, and Max and the Twins laughed a little. Ford ignored them and said, “Sunny, go find the path through the dungeon and hurry!” Sunny flashed green and flew off down the hall, passing through the walls as though nothing was there.

“Do you think that will help?” Morgan asked.

“Better than nothing,” Ford responded.

Lilly knelt on the ground and started drawing in the thin layer of dust and dirt with her staff, trying to figure out all the possible answers. After righting out twelve different combinations, she walked up to the first dials and spun it to divide, parentheses, plus, parentheses, and plus. Then the far right door opened, and they all bolted through it.

Four minutes had passed since the start of the challenge once they reached the next split. This tunnel was the same as the last one with fifty-three, forty-five, fifty-nine, and thirty-nine. Lilly knelt and started writing in the dirt again. One minute ticked by, and she wrote down eight different answers, the last of which was eight. Lilly raced over to the first set of dials and put a plus. Then the next set were parentheses, minus, parentheses, finishing off the last set with plus.

The middle left door swung open, and they all went in through it. The next split had three tunnels with just as many dials, and the numbers were one, one, and one. Lilly froze and looked at the numbers, confused, and then looked at the dials. There was an extra dial with only two options, nothing, and an exclamation mark.

“Ahh,” Lilly yelled in frustration, “I don’ know this one!”

Ford jogged up next to her and looked at the dials, then at the numbers, “I know this equation!”

“Ye do?!” Lilly said, surprised, as Ford started to move the dials. She put in plus, divide, then the exclamation mark on the far right.

The right door opened, “The exclamation mark is Factorial. Since the answers have to be even, the only solutions were three, six, two, one, or seven-hundred twenty. I put the equation for two.”

After a moment of running, they came across another tunnel with seven doors leading in different directions. Before Ford could release her string of curses, Sunny came out of the center door and grew brighter to catch everyone’s attention. Ford smiled and summoned Smite; she raced over to the door Sunny was in front of and struck it with the blade and sending one thousand mana a second into the blade. She cut through the door as though it were made of air, crashed through it, and ran down the tunnel following Sunny, cutting off the flow of mana to her sword.

The next tunnel they entered looked like a massive room made of doors. Ford didn’t bother counting them as she followed Sunny to a door directly to the left, which she again cut through with ease. Turning to make sure everyone was following her, she then crashed through the door and followed, cutting off the flow of mana to her sword again.

Sunny led them to a podium in the center of a circle, and Ford de-summoned Smite and raced to the podium and placed her hand on it, receiving a notification. Quest complete: serpents maze; even the best decisions could drag you down; complete the labyrinth in thirty minutes; reward: two-hundred EXP, if completed in ten minutes or less receive times twenty EXP, lose one times EXP per minute after ten minutes. Time elapsed: six minutes; EXP times twenty rewarded.

Ford looked up at her EXP bar and saw it go up from one-thousand six-hundred seventy-five/three-thousand one-hundred thirty-nine. To five-thousand six-hundred seventy-five/three-thousand one-hundred thirty-nine. Ford laughed in relief and looked at everyone else, who seemed equally relieved and staring at their high EXP bars.

Lilly walked over and put Ford’s hat back on her and said, with a smile, “I see why ye like the hat?”

“Well, it’s a good hat. Let’s take a minute to look through stats and such,” Ford suggested as she slumped down to open her Yggdras system. Then a loot bag hit the back of her head.

***

Ford placed all her ability points into endurance, bringing it up to thirty-eight because as fun as it is to get crushed, she didn’t want to die that way. Then she opened up her skill window. Six skill points are available. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin. Mage selected. Select class: Healer, Priest, Necromancer, Light, Dark, Space, Time, Creation, Destruction, Possessor. Destruction selected. Select route: DPS, AOE. AOE selected. Ford began looking at the rest of the skills she had ignored.

Skill: essence manipulation: passive ability; manipulate essences when casting a spell to achieve different effects; level: zero of one.

Skill: essence shield; create a shield of essences around yourself; different essence combinations yield different results; requirements: INT: twenty, END: fifteen, skill: essence manipulation; cost: one-hundred mana per essence, fifty mana per second, one stamina per one kilogram of defense; level: zero of five.

“‘Their perfect,’” Ford and Wrath thought and said in unison. She then put one point into essence manipulation and five into essence shield. Before she could look at the essence shield level five, the screen glitched and shut off.

Parameters met. Evolving. One skill point is available. Skill: essence enforcement; by sending essence through your body, you create a protective shield and increase strength by times three; requirements: INT: twenty-five, END: thirty, STR: thirty, skill: essence manipulation; cost: one-hundred mana per essence, fifty mana per second, one stamina per one kilogram of defense; one-hundred stamina and one-hundred mana to recharge; level: five of five.

Ford read the skill with her jaw hanging loose, then she closed it and read through her skills, noting the changes. She still had lost the essence shield, and her embracing pain skill was now four of five. A little depressed by the outcome, she put her last skill point into embracing pain bringing it back to level five. She closed the window and dumped out a blue ball of metal the size of a marble.

She scowled at the ball and thought it was a piece of equipment or armor. She picked up the ball and read the subsequent notification. Item: Versatile launcher MKII; quality: epic; effect: can be made into any launcher type weapon; effect: can be used in various situations; requirements: imagination; cost: five mana per shot, three hundred mana per shift.

“Nice,” Ford said to herself as she read the notification then put it in her weapon storage for later. A loud bang resonated through the tunnel as Max built a granite wall around herself. Ford stood and walked over to the changing room Max made, “Uhhh, Max, what’s with the wall?” Ford asked.

“I’m changing. Give me a minute,” was Max’s only reply.

Ford felt like saying something sarcastic but thought better of it and instead turned to everyone else and awkwardly asked, “So, what loot did you get?”

“I thought you didn’t want to know about loot,” Farah said skeptically.

“I don’t but need to pass some time while we wait for Max. Let’s just keep it to the quality of the item this time. unless the ability is really good.”

Lilly spoke first, “I got a staff of destruction. An epic weapon with no mana cost for destruction spells.”

“Common shield. Good for scrap metal,” Morgan grumbled.

Gimble reached for it and asked, “Want me to hold it? I just unlocked void storage level five, so I can carry things.”

“Really? Nice!” Ford said gratefully.

Morgan handed the shield over to the smiling Gimble, “Thanks. Oh, I got rare boots,” Gimble said, pointing at a pair of leather boots on his feet, “plus five agility.”

“We got an uncommon necklace and a useless bow,” Kii said, throwing on a silver necklace and tossing aside a longbow; Mizu did the same.

“I got a legendary throwing knife,” Benet said happily, “locks on to targets so it won't miss.”

Farah pulled out a long sword from her loot bag and read the notification, “Rare claymore, can separate into two blades and is light as a feather,” she said as she tossed the bag aside and separated the blade into two, and swung them around herself, skillfully missing everyone and not cutting them.

“Nice,” Ford said, “I got-”

“No one cares,” everyone said at once.

Ford closed her mouth and looked down, “I got mean friends. That’s what I got,” Ford grumbled as she leaned against the wall of the changing room, making everyone laugh.

After a moment of laughter, the wall Ford was leaning against collapsed, and she was barely able to catch herself from falling. She turned to look back at the missing wall and saw Max standing there. She wore a beautiful red dress that crisscrossed her body and fell below her knees. The long sleeves exposed her shoulders a little, and they had wide openings at the end that came down and covered her hands. Combined with the golden heart necklace and the silver circlet on her head, she looked like a shrine maiden, and she was beautiful.

Ford took a step back with her mouth wide open, and everyone else perked up and craned their necks to see what Ford was seeing. Once they did, their jaws dropped as well, and Benet was so astonished he couldn’t say anything to compliment her for once.

Max fidgeted and covered her face with her sleeves and looked away, making her look even more beautiful, and said, “I knew it. I look weird in this, don’t I?”

Before Ford could say anything to the contrary, Lilly answered her, “Are you kiddin’ me?! Ye look gorgeous, Max!”

Max peaked her eyes over the sleeves and asked, “Do I really?” If Ford didn’t know better, she would have sworn her nose started to bleed, and all she and everyone else could do was nod vigorously. Max dropped her arms and smiled, “Thanks,” She said, then she seemed to realize something, “Oh, um, this is the legendary spell robes of Samael, gives me plus five charisma and wisdom, plus ten to intelligence, and other people or I can load spells into it for me to cast as many times as I need. The cooldown of the spells is five minutes each, and I have to meet the requirements for the spell. It’s also self-repairing given enough mana, but it’s still good, right?”

Ford was about to nod numbly again but caught herself, “Yes, yeah, it’s all good. Really…really good. Though I wouldn’t count on the intelligence boost to last forever.”

“Why?” Max and Lilly asked in unison.

“Because I’m pretty sure the dress just sucks the intelligence stat out of people near you. I could feel it drop my intelligence stat by twenty. Didn’t everyone else feel the same?” Benet, the Twins, Gimble, Morgan, and Farah nodded without saying anything.

Max gave a slight chuckle, “Thanks, guys. Now, don’t we have a dungeon boss to fight?”

“Hold on!” Ford said, holding out a hand, “let’s add a few spells before we go.”

***

As they entered the next room, Ford was blinded by the amount of light in the room. Once her eyes adjusted, she gasped at the sight before her. They stood atop a hill on a large island made of diamonds and other precious gems. Trees and plant life were visible across the island, and they too were made of jewels. All of them shining and sparkling in every hue of a rainbow that’s seen through a kaleidoscope. There were mounds of gold coins, artifacts, and gem-encrusted jewelry strewn across the ground.

Before anyone could do anything, Ford spun and grabbed the Twins by their arms and pulled them close to her, “Don’t touch anything…until we beat the boss then go crazy, but until then don’t touch anything.”

Kii and Mizu struck mirroring solutes and said, “Understood,” simultaneously.

“Good,” Ford said as she turned back around and walked down the hill to the center of the island. It took them less than ten minutes to reach the center of the island; once they did, Ford noticed a tall totem pole made of Jade, Bort, diamond, ruby, and a minty blue gem, Ford guessed was phosphophyllite; other than that, it had no details.

As soon as Ford stepped into the island's center, a health bar appeared in the air with the name Fukashin. ‘Fukashin? Why does that sound familiar,’ Ford thought, but she couldn’t think too long as her warning skill activated, and she looked down from the HP bar and saw five almost formless human-like creatures coming out from behind the gem trees around them.

The human-like creatures consisted of the same gems as the totem pole, and each of them had a long thin black sword. The creature’s bodies formed unevenly and looked incredibly rough and unpolished as though they seemed to have been mined out of the ground only recently. Morgan hefted his war hammer and spoke over comms, “Gem Golems. I’ve heard stories about them. They are exceedingly rare monsters, and if the rumors about them are to be believed, they will be tough to kill.”

“How do you kill them?” Ford asked, drawing her segmented blade.

“Not sure. Guess we’ll find out.”

“That’s comforting,” Ford replied sarcastically.

The Ruby Golem charged, and Ford barely had time to react as the blade of the Golem cut off Ford’s hands at the forearm. She screamed in pain as her HP dropped one hundred points. She then used an extra forty to grow her hands back as Morgan swung his hammer at the Golem, which nimbly dodged and jumped back. She quickly bent over and picked her blade back up as the Bort Golem leaped over all of them and brought its sword down on Gimble, barely able to block the strikes with his shields from the Golem.

Ford cursed and aimed her sword at the Bort Golem and extended it as fast as possible at the monster. The Golem jumped up thirty centimeters, and the five blades flew under it, missing by a fingers breadth. The Bort Golem fell and retreated as Ford retracted her blades. Cursing, she de-summoned her segmented blade and summoned her katana.

“Kii, Mizu, are you two in a good position?” Ford asked quickly.

“Almost,” One of the Twins answered.

“I’m in position. In a tree close by,” the other Twin said.

“I figured out why the name is so familiar,” Wrath interrupted.

“Fire a volley at them. Lilly, do the same.”

The moment Ford gave the order, the Jade and Diamond Golems charged at her while the Ruby and Bort circled to either side. Ford barely had time to block the Jade Golems sword, but the Diamond Golems sword went through her chest, and she felt herself cough up blood. She thought quickly, casting blood control on the weapon, pulled the sword out of herself, and attacked the Jade Golem.

The sword collided with the Golem’s body and cut through it like a hot knife through butter. The Golem fell, and Ford swung her blade, cutting off the arms of the Diamond with the help of a dark blade. Then used another dark blade to cut the Diamond down the middle. The Golem collapsed, and Ford turned to her right to attack the Ruby Golem.

Before she could take a step, she felt her Achilles tendon get severed, and she fell, face-first into the ground. Cursing, she turned to see the Jade Golem pull itself back together and stand; the Diamond Golem was doing the same.

‘Shit!’ she thought as her legs healed and she hastily got to her feet.

“HEY! Do you want to know what Fukashin means?!” Wrath insisted.

‘WHAT?!’ Ford mentally yelled.

“It’s Japanese unmovable, unbreakable, or unyielding,” she explained.

“Unmovable,” Ford said, as understanding dawned on her.

“What?” Max asked as she shot several balls of earth essence at the Ruby Golem, who nimbly dodged them.

“Unmovable,” Ford started to explain as she sent a quick volley of earth essence at the two Golems in front of her, “The name means unmovable, unbreakable, or unyielding. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that these Golems are breakable.”

“What’s your point?!” Farah asked impatiently as she fought the Bort Golem.

“The Golems are just minions! The real boss is the totem pole!”

“How can ye tell?!” Lilly asked, sending a volley at the Ruby Golem.

“Trust me! I’ll explain later. Morgan, Gimble, I need you to draw their attention.”

“Heard,” They said in unison as they both used war cries to gather the enemies’ attention. It worked; except for the Phosphophilliyt Golem, all the Golems ran towards the two shield barring tanks.

Ford retreated to Max and Lilly, “Kii, Mizu, Max, Lilly, fire at the totem pole with everything you got. Benet, support Morgan and Gimble. Farah, you and I will go straight for the base of the totem.”

“Heard,” everyone said in a uniform response.

Ford and Farah charged at the bottom of the totem where the Phos Golem stood. Ford and Farah swung their blades at the unmoving Golem as a volley of arrows, bullets, and spears flew above them. Just as everything almost connected, the Phos Golem shattered and expanded, intercepting all the projectiles and blocking the swords. Farah stumbled back, dropping her swords; Ford de-summoned her sword and grabbed Farah as she ran back and retreated.

Once they reached relative safety, she looked at Farah’s HP and saw it plummeting fast. “Lilly, Farah needs healing now!!” Ford yelled.

“On it, but then I need to rest a momen’,” Lilly explained as Farah’s HP shot back up and stopped falling.

Farah sat bolt upright, breathing heavily, “Easy, Farah, easy,” Ford said, placing a hand on her shoulder, “I think the Phos Golem poisoned you.”

“H-how? My helmet protects me from poison?” Farah asked, gesturing to her ornamental helmet wrapped around her horns.

“I think it only works if you have it over your face,” Ford explained, “but meanwhile, my plan failed, and we need a new one.”

Farah manipulated her helmet around her head and said, “I suggest we retreat and regroup then come up with a plan.”

Ford nodded, “Morgan, Gimble, Benet, how are you three doing? Can you hold out a little longer?”

“Gimble and I can,” Morgan answered, “but Benet is just about spent.”

“Heard. Max, Lilly, Benet, and Farah fall back to Kii and Mizu hiding. Morgan, Gimble, and I will regroup with you later,” Ford stood and ran toward the four Golems and used a blast of wind to push them all away from the two shield barring tanks.

“Thanks,” Gimble said, falling to one knee and facing the reconsolidating Golems.

At that moment, a thought occurred to Ford, and she turned to Morgan, “Don’t do it! It’s too risky!” Wrath warned.

“Morgan, we need a bubble shield now!”

Morgan didn’t hesitate and created a shield, “We have two minutes till this falls.”

Ford nodded, “Okay, get on Gimble’s shoulders. We need you off the ground now. If this shield falls before I’m ready, we’ll need a new one.”

Morgan jumped up onto Gimble’s shoulders and asked, “Why must I be up here?”

“Because,” Ford began to explain, creating a black fireball and slowly growing it, “I’m about to fill this place with poison, probably, and I need you and Gimble to have your heads as high as possible. So stand up, big guy.” When Ford finished, the black fireball was the same size as her, and the heat from it scorched her skin and burned her robes.

The Golems finished consolidating themselves and ran to the base of the Totem pole, creating a wall. Ford paid them no mind and condensed the ball of fire till it could fit in her palm, but the heat it emanated still burned her entire body. “You two might want to fall back,” Ford said through gritted teeth, fighting through the pain.

“We…can’t leave till the…shield drops,” Morgan said through labored breaths.

Ford added black fire to her ball again, making it hot enough that her skin felt like it started to turn to ash, her regeneration just keeping up with the damage. As she added even more black fire and compressed it again, her HP began to plummet twenty points per second, which means she had forty-two seconds till she died.

“The shield’s about to fall in twenty seconds!” Morgan yelled over the sound of heat being compressed.

Ford smiled and increased the power in the black fireball. The light created by the ball seemed to pull light in from every direction and darkened the world around them. Her HP began to drop twenty-five points a second; she began to keep a mental timer. ‘Eighteen… seventeen… sixteen… fifteen,’ she thought as HP hit two-hundred eighty-eight.

“TEN SECONDS!” Morgan yelled. Ford’s HP hit two-hundred eighteen; she added a little bit more heat and presser to her ball and took more damage. She brought the ball down and prepared to release it; quickly guesstimating the distance from her to the Totem at nine meters, she put two-hundred mana into velocity.

The shield dropped, and Ford unleashed the black fireball in a powerful black ray. The diameter of which matched Gimble in size. The beam was so incredibly loud that it canceled out all sound and muted the vibrant colors in the world. The force of the beam disintegrated Ford’s right arm while it fired for five seconds.

When it stopped, Ford stumbled backward and collapsed, utterly exhausted, and she looked at her HP and Mana bars; she had lost sixteen-thousand two-hundred mana and had only two HP left and climbing. While she could stay conscious, she looked at Morgan and Gimble’s HP and saw they had only lost half their HP.

Ford looked up at Fukashins HP and saw it had fallen to two percent. Slight panic entered her mind, and she sat up to see the Golems had been obliterated but slowly rebuilding themselves. “Kii, Mizu…” Ford said weakly, “finish…it.” A volley of projectiles flew overhead and struck the Totem, and the HP hit zero. Peace spread through Ford’s mind as darkness consumed her, and she fell into unconsciousness.