Chpt. 14) Tier seven dungeon, level four

Parameters met. Evolving. Evolution complete. Skills acquired in Berserker class. Ford awoke to the sound of her Grimoire evolving. Slowly opening her eyes, she groaned in pain as her muscles ached and protested against her attempts to sit up.

“FORD!” Max and Lilly exclaimed as they rushed over to where she lay.

“Ford, can ye hear me?” Lilly asked, cradling Ford’s head in her lap.

“No,” She answered sarcastically in a weary voice, “your lap does an excellent job noise canceling.”

Lilly stood, letting Ford hit her head on the ground hard enough that she could have sworn she heard bells. “She’s fine,” Lilly announced to everyone else and met with weary cheers.

Max scooted over and came into Ford’s field of view, “Hey, you okay?”

“Not really,” Ford said, noticing her dry mouth, “my whole body hurts, and I’m dying of thirst. Got any water?”

“Yeah, give me a minute,” Max said, getting up and walking over to Lilly.

“See what I mean. That was a stupid plan!” Wrath said from somewhere behind Ford.

‘It was the only one I had,’ Ford defended.

“We had several plans! That happened to be the one that only put us in danger! What happens when our luck runs out? What happens to the team when our sacrifice doesn’t cut it!? What happens to Max!?”

“Shut up,” Ford mumbled to herself.

Max walked up with a bowl made of gems and full of water, “What did you say?” Max asked as she knelt to help Ford drink.

“Nothing,” Ford lied before Max lifted Ford’s head to drink.

“It’s. Not. NOTHING!” Wrath yelled, “You nearly died and killed us both! That is not ‘nothing’! There is more than just you and me at stake here! Look at her! Look at Max and the others and tell me you don’t want to see them succeed!”

Ford tried to ignore Wrath’s rant, but she was right. Ford was reckless, and it nearly cost her everything. ‘You’re right,’ Ford admitted once she finished drinking.

“And another- w-what?”

‘You’re right. Don’t rub it in.’

Wrath stopped and said, “Glad you noticed.”

Ford rolled her eyes and tried to sit up again; this time, she was met with success, but her body felt full of pins and needles. Max jumped and pushed her back down, which Ford couldn’t stop from happening. “That’s not a good idea right now,” Max said as she held Ford down.

“Why not?”

“Well, when you attacked, you, kinda sorta, destroyed your clothes. The good news is you didn’t get a full-body scar from the battle.”

Ford felt her face blush as she looked down at herself and saw fresh, clean martial arts robes laying over her like a blanket. “Did, umm,” Ford’s voice quivered, “did anything else get burned off?”

Max looked away, scratching her chin, “Umm, sorry to say, but everything but your hat, weapons storages, boots, and dagger got burned off. Gimble was kind enough to lay one of his massive shields over you before Benet or anyone else saw you.”

Ford felt her face get even hotter, “Why did you mention Benet specifically?” her voice got higher as she asked the question.

Max quickly stood and created a crystal wall around Ford, “Looks like you’re well enough to change. Why don’t you do that? Ha, ha, ha,” Max laughed nervously, and Ford felt like she would have rather died in the battle.

***

While Ford changed, she checked her stat screen for the new evolution but saw nothing new other than an increase in endurance, intelligence, and luck. Bringing them up to forty, twenty-eight plus ten, and fifteen. ‘I did get lucky,’ Ford noted as she read. Then she spoke over comms, “Max, do you have my weapon storage? Also, can you bring down this wall?”

“Gimble has your weapon storage, and no, I can’t.”

Ford Groaned and jumped to the top of the smooth wall, pulling herself up and over. She landed on the other side and looked over everyone; they all sported new gear and armor. Farah had greaves that shimmered with hundreds of little plates as though they were made of scales; Benet had goggles on his head for some reason.

However, the person who caught Ford’s eye was Lilly; she wore a robe much like Max’s, but it didn’t have open sleeves or shoulders; it also had a hood and dark green. “Beautiful robe,” Ford said as she walked up to sit next to her and Max.

Lilly chuckled and brushed a strand of burnt hair behind her long ear, “Thanks, it’s a healin’ robe. I can heal people just by bein’ near them.”

“Nice,” Ford said wearily, “what time-” the rest of what she was about to say was forgotten as she saw it was eleven-thirty. “I’ve been asleep for two hours!?” she asked, astonished.

“Aye, and ye’re the one with the food,” Lilly said, “So, get to cookin’. We’re starvin’.” Ford sighed and pulled out a few more Wolpertingers and got to work cooking.

***

The Wolpertinger stew tasted just as disgusting as last time, all stringy and smelly, but nobody complained as they ate in silence. Once they finished, Ford retrieved the weapon storage crystals from Gimble and thanked him for covering her with his shield. The big guy blushed and told her not to worry about it.

Then she opened up her loot bag and a replacement pair of underwear made of the same material and style as the other pair she had, and a couple of gloves also fell out. Ford quickly put the underwear into her storage, so nobody saw and picked up the gloves, reading the notification.

Item: splashback gloves; quality: rare; effect: receive no damage from casting destruction spells. Ford rolled her eyes at the notification and put on the leather gloves. Looking around at her exhausted party and at the time, noon, she spoke to everyone in comms, “We look fucking exhausted. Take let’s take an hour and recuperate. Then we go and finish this dungeon.”

Everyone agreed, and Ford got up and walked over to where all the destroyed Golems were last seen. She picked through the gems and picked up a few hand fulls of the Bort, Diamond, and Rubys, adding two new stacks of ten to her inventory. Then she found one of the gems' swords; she picked it up and received a notification.

Item: obsidian blade; quality: rare; effect: cut through almost anything; effect: self-repairing if in contact with obsidian. Ford’s eyebrows shot up, and she started to look for the other blades collecting four more. She then walked out of the shrapnel field and crossed her legs. Reaching for her necklace, which she just noticed wasn’t there anymore, she felt disappointment go through her.

She then looked around for anything that could be used as a bowl and found nothing. Biting the inside of her cheek, she got up, putting the swords in inventory, and went over to the wall Max had created and climbed back over it and into the bowl-like room that it made. She then pulled the underwear out of her inventory and put them on before placing her robes into inventory.

“Ford, what are you doing?” Max asked from the other side of the crystal wall.

“Enchanting some swords will only take about two minutes. Don’t worry; I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t you have to impale yourself to enchant swords?”

“Yes, well…ah details. I’ll be fine.”

Max groaned and walked away as Ford pulled out all five swords and placed four of them on her lap, and held the fifth one in her hands. She took a deep breath and drove the sword through her abdomen just above her navel and aortic artery. The bleeding icon popped up under her HP, and she saw she was losing ten HP per second and healing just as fast. Her blood poured out and covered the five swords, and she started the enchantment for all five of them simultaneously.

Her stamina went down one-hundred points, then back up one-hundred, and her mana ticked down one-hundred sixty-five a second. The two minutes passed by unbearably slowly as she sat there with a sword in her stomach. When the two minutes finally passed, she pulled the sword from her stomach and wiped the tears from her eyes. Testing the blades, she willed them above her and had them stay there.

She stood and noted the amount of blood had gone above her ankles. She took a moment to let her mana recharge before casting the essence thrower and washing herself off. Watching the water and blood level rise, she used the swords she had just acquired to cut a hole in the bottom of the crystal wall. The blades cut through the crystal like butter, and the water and blood quickly drained out.

Ford then dressed again and cut the wall apart with her swords, impressed with their strength and sturdiness. She then cast weapon storage on them and stored them in her sword crystal. She then walked over and sat next to Max. Lilly was taking a nap leaning against Gimble, and everyone else looked to be napping as well, but the twins were nowhere to be found. ‘Probably off looting,’ Ford thought, then looked at Max, who looked to be barely able to stay awake.

Ford tapped her shoulder, getting Max’s attention; Max looked at her and said, “huh, what?”

“If you want to sleep, you can. I’ll wake everyone in an hour.”

“No, I can’t sleep now. I just…umm… I just need to stay awake.”

“Max,” Ford said, wrapping her arms around her, “take a nap, and I will wake you.”

Max stared at Ford blankly, “Fine. Only because you asked me to.”

Ford chuckled and said, “Alright,” and to her surprise, Max rested her head on Ford’s lap.

After a moment, Max said, “Hey, Ford.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m…I’m glad you’re not dead.”

Ford chuckled, “Me too. Sorry for scaring you like that,” after that, Max soon drifted off to sleep, and Ford sat alone with her thoughts and Wrath, noting the gold and ruby flower now in Max’s hair.

***

Tanashi and the Gods stared at their screens in astonishment at the power Ford displayed and were silent for several minutes after the Totem Drake created was destroyed. Then everyone erupted in cheers and whoops as they realized that the battle was finished. “That was well-done, Drake,” Shurma exclaimed, “the use of nature and gems was truly inspired!”

Drake grunted, “It was a rush job, not the best work I’ve done. Though I thought it would take longer than that.”

“True,” Samael agreed, “but you forget that Ford is the one with the potential.”

“You’re just saying that because you enjoy being right,” Finn interjected.

“Also, true.”

“You seem quiet,” Guargen noticed, gesturing to Tanashi, “is something wrong?”

Tanashi’s tattoo drooped down to a flat line as he said, “Does it feel like the dungeons are taking too long?”

“No, feels just right,” Zee said lazily.

“Well, isn’t there supposed to be more interactions with the indigenous people? Isn’t that why we made the dungeons smaller, so they get through them faster?”

“Are you suggesting we made a change at this point in the game?!” Samael asked, astonished.

Tanashi rested his head on his hands and shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe. Just something to speed things up.”

Everyone thought about this for a moment, then Guargen spoke, “We could do fewer loot drops.”

“That would save on the time we spend on the cards but not speed up the game,” Zee countered.

Shurma shrugged, “It would help me out with fewer loot drops.”

“Agreed,” Samael said, “stitching is killing my fingers.”

“You’re immortal,” Tanashi said flatly.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t feel,” Samael defended, “Also, why don’t we decide the number of rooms at random with a D seven dice and a D twenty will decide who makes the bosses unless a seven is rolled. That way, the size of the dungeon will be up to fate, and we can’t gripe about it.”

Everyone thought for a moment. “Alright,” Finn said, “but how often for loot?”

“Boss drops,” Zee said, “or an enemy sufficiently higher level than them.”

Tanashi raised a hand, “I’m down for that. All in favor?” everyone grumbled and murmured amongst themselves, except for Samael and Zee, who raised their hands. Soon everyone raised their hands as well. “Excellent! Now should we keep this dungeon as is or shorten it?” Tanashi asked, gesturing to the dungeon the champions were within.

“Shorten it,” Guargen said, “My challenges and boss need more work than the time I have.”

“Sadly, I agree,” Shurma said, “Mine needs some fine-tuning as well, if only to make them a proper challenge for this group.”

“Let’s bring it down to my boss and your challenge and boss, Tanashi,” Zee said, “I want to see what Ford’s new abilities can do.”

“I agree,” Drake said, “she seems to be unique amongst even her kind.”

Tanashi clapped his hands and said, “Great, let’s make the improvements and get to work! Zee, you ready?!”

A broad smile spread across her face, and she spoke with a sinister laugh, “Obviously!”

***

The hour passed in complete blissful silence, which Ford took advantage of and looked into her soul. She had melted away a lot of it, and she began the slow process of pushing it outside herself and holding it there. Once she finished pushing it out, she opened her eyes and looked at her stat screen. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: fourteen. Abilities: STR: thirty plus five; PER: twenty plus ten; END: forty; INT: twenty-eight plus ten; AGI: thirty-seven plus ten; CHR: thirty; LCK: fifteen; WIS: twenty plus ten; SOL: sixteen.

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, essence manipulation one/one, essence enforcement five/five.

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

Ford gaped at the new numbers. An additional thirty-six for stamina recharge and a further twenty-eight for mana recharge from the last time she saw, not to mention the added fourteen-thousand mana added to capacity. She closed the window and looked at the time; it was thirteen ten. ‘I guess they won’t be upset about the extra ten minutes I gave them,’ Ford thought as she gently shook Max, barely containing her excitement at leveling her soul.

Max groaned and sat up, stretching out her arms and yawning with a little squeak, “Hey,” she said wearily.

“Hey, so while you were sleeping, I leveled my soul, and now I have insanely high numbers and can’t control my excitement. I’m going to wake the others,” Ford said excitedly.

Max stared blankly into space, “Good evening. Have a nice nap? Yes, I did. It was wonderful, thanks for asking. Oh, don’t mention it, so long as you slept well,” Max mumbled to herself.

“Did you say something?” Ford asked, hearing Max talk to herself.

“Nothing!” Max immediately responded.

Once Ford shook everyone awake, she spoke over comms, “Kii, Mizu, where are you? We’re heading out.”

“Do we have to?”

“We just found a gem the size of our heads!”

“Well, bring the gem with you, and yes, you have to.”

“We can’t bring the gem.”

“It’s too heavy.”

“Well, then leave the gem and come all the same.”

“NOOOO! Don’t you have a heart!”

“Yes, I do, and it was punctured in the first room. Now, get over here!”

“FIIIINNNEE,” the Twins relented in unison. After talking to the Twins, Ford began to feel aware of things. Like she could feel everyone’s emotions clearly as though they were being sent to her in a telepathic command. Ford shook her head and decided to bookmark the questions she had about it later and focused on keeping the emotions out of her. She was met with some success at ignoring the foreign feelings.

Soon the twins rejoined the group a little grumpy, and a portal opened for them. “I wonder what the challenge will be?” Ford asked no one in particular.

“Probably a tigh’ rope challenge,” Lilly guessed.

“Not out of the realm of possibility,” Farah agreed. Ford chuckled and walked through the portal into the next room.

***

The room they entered was more like a long hundred-meter chamber; the chamber looked like a metal tube with the floor being the only thing flat and had crystal strips along the top that flickered on and off ten meters above every so often. Ford felt a massive knot form in her stomach and immediately cast essence enforcement with fire, dark, and air essences, using three hundred mana and two-thousand stamina. The spell made Ford look like her hair was on fire and flowing in an invisible wind. She didn’t want a repeat of the last fight.

Benet noticed her cast the spell and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I got a bad feeling about this room.”

“How so?” Morgan asked.

Ford summoned her six swords and held them in the air. She grabbed her elemental blade and fed it two hundred mana. “I don’t know,” was her only response as she slowly walked forward.

Their footsteps echoed throughout the chamber till a low rumbling and hot air rushed down the chamber, and Ford could smell an ungodly stench coming from that direction. At the end of the tunnel, an HP bar came into existence with the name Frosty above it.

“Did we just wander into a boss fight?!” Max asked incredulously.

“I think we did,” Ford confirmed as a hulking red figure walked out from the end of the tunnel. Its massive blood-red body rippled with muscles as it walked toward them; it had legs like goats and huge rams horns that nearly brushed against the chamber ceiling. The yellow eyes stared them down like daggers that could puncture the hull of a battleship, full of hate and anger that could melt stone.

“What is that?” Gimble asked in a shaky voice.

“Uncle Frosty?!” The Twins exclaimed in unison.

The hulking figure stopped, and the air of intimidation left the room, cooling down the area. Then Frosty spoke in a deep calming voice; Ford felt like it should belong to Santa clause, “I know those voices! Kii, Mizu, is that you?”

Kii and Mizu ran out from behind the group and in front of Ford, “UNCLE FROSTY!!” they exclaimed simultaneously.

“KII, MIZU! It’s been far too long. How are your parents?”

“Oh, they’re doing fine.”

“Last we checked, at least.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t this a dungeon?”

“For monsters.”

“To be the bosses.”

“That we fight.”

“And kill.”

Ford rubbed her temples as Wrath sidled up to her and asked, “Do you want me to kill them now or later?”

‘Never. I get the privilege,’ Ford responded.

“Well, um, yeah, there are supposed to be monster bosses. But Zee, being the cleaver Goddess she is, used the fact that most races think of us demons as monsters. So she popped over and asked if I wanted a job. Win or lose, I get to spend the rest of my days on a resort world in the sun’s core, and I don’t die like everyone else,” Frosty began to laugh heartily.

“That’s-,” Ford was about to say impossible but thought better of it. They’re Gods, after all. She then spoke over comms, “Hey, so, can you get him to forfeit or something to avoid a fight?”

“No, he won’t go for it,” one of the Twins said, laughing along with their uncle.

“He most likely has a contract with the Goddess.”

“We take contracts very seriously.”

“So, if I make a contract with you to stop finishing each other’s sentences. You’ll do it?”

“No,” They said in unison, “not worth it.”

Ford sighed and said, “Fine, can we just get this fight going at least.”

“Sure,” one of them said. Then Kii spoke up over the laughter, “Hey, Uncle Frosty, let’s get this fight going so we can kick your ass.”

Frosty stopped laughing a second later and said, “Oh, ho, ho, aren’t we confident now. Alright, but first I demand a hug because one way or another, I won’t see you two for a very long time,” the Twins ran forward and tackled the devil-like demon in a hug and Frosty caught them and hugged back. He sighed and spoke in a low soothing voice, “I’ll miss you two.”

“We’ll miss you,” the Twins said in unison.

Ford fought back the tears that threatened to come spilling out, ‘Damnit, I do not want to deal with these feelings in the middle of a fight,’ Ford thought.

“Want me to do it?”

‘No! Shut up!’

“Ford,” Max said, “are you crying?”

“I’m not crying! You’re crying!!” Everyone laughed as Ford wiped the tears from her eyes, and the Twins finished their hug with their uncle.

Standing to his full height, Frosty placed his hands on his hips and said, “Now, give me a moment to redo my entrance,” He started to jog back to the end of the tunnel.

“He does know that the entrance moment is ruined, right?” Farah asked.

“Oh, trust us,” Kii and Mizu said, “He’ll fix it.”

Two seconds after Frosty disappeared at the end of the chamber, heat radiated from that direction in waves, and Ford felt a chill run down her spine and her muscles tensed. At the end of the tunnel, the metal began to glow red, then white-hot, and Frosty entered the room. The heat from the glowing metal made the air ripple around him, and the light cast shadows that made Frosty’s already intimidating stature seem even more terrifying. As he walked forward, the chamber's metal caught fire and began to melt, the light from the superheated metal casting even more shadows upon Frosty as it fell to the ground.

Ford’s heartbeat quickened, and she clenched the hilt of her sword even tighter, “You were right. He can fix it,” Ford said.

“Wha’s the plan?” Lilly asked.

Ford took a deep breath, “Lilly, Kii, Mizu, shoot ice and water attacks from a distance. Gimble, Morgan, upfront with mana shields. Stop his advance. Max, shoot off your stone volleys.”

“What about us?” Benet asked, gesturing to himself and Farah.

“Keep an eye on the heat,” Ford answered, “If you can get to him, do so.”

Gimble and Morgan planted their shields before everyone and braced themselves, “What will you be doing?”

“Getting something big going… but not as big as last time,” Ford said as she retreated, giving herself room from everyone.

“This is a better plan than last time,” Wrath noted.

“Thanks for noticing,” Ford mumbled to herself. “Lilly, what’re the essences for ice?”

“Wa’er and dark,” Lilly immediately responded.

Ford nodded and created a ball of water the size of her fist and then made it into ice. She then grew the ball till it was the same size as her and condensed it back down to the size of her fist. Her new gloves worked perfectly to protect her from the coldness of the ice ball; from the amount of pressure she had just created with the ball, she guessed that if she shot now, it would cost five-thousand mana. Ford added a touch of her light essence to get the ray she was looking for; the orb started to glow a pale blue, and ice accumulated on the walls around her. Then she added five-hundred mana. There was no dodging the ice beam she was creating.

“Get ready!” Ford announced, and everyone prepared their spells and got ready to attack. “Now,” Ford yelled as she released the built-up energy. The shining blue ray shot forward at an incredible speed and reached Frosty in the blink of an eye. He did nothing to stop the beam except lift a single hand. The beam connected with him, and cold steam obscured the area around Frosty, cooling the metal and solidifying it.

Ford sighed in disappointment and turned to the twins, “Sorry about your uncle.”

“Umm, Ford.”

“You might want to turn back around.”

Ford did so and saw Frosty emerge from the steam, unharmed. He brushed imaginary dust from his shoulder and spoke in a booming demonic voice unlike what Ford heard before, “That tickles.”

“FIRE AT HIM! FIRE! FIRE!” Ford yelled, and everyone reacted, shooting off spell after spell in rapid succession. Frosty continued to walk forward, unaffected by the barrage of attacks. Ford looked at the HP bar and cursed when it had only dropped one percent.

She clutched her sword in both hands and ran forward, saying, “Farah, Benet, let’s go,” as she ran past them. Ford sent her obsidian blades ahead and attacked Frosty’s legs with a swipe of her hand. The blades quickly shredded his left leg, and he roared in pain. Then got on all fours and charged at a speed that belies his size, smashing through Gimble and Morgan’s shields with ease and sending them flying.

As the massive demon charged, Ford did some quick math, ‘If my enforcement holds then I have times three strength, then if I add embracing pain, I would have times seven, right?’

“No, times three then times four after it,” Wrath clarified.

‘Even better,’ Ford thought as she bit her tongue as hard as possible, filling her mouth with blood. She activated embracing pain and blood weapons, she spat the blood out of her mouth and created a dagger with it; five seconds. Ford threw up her sword and let it trail behind her with the other five blades as she put every ounce of strength she had into running at full speed; four seconds. She closed the distance between her and Frosty in a blink of an eye and brought her fist down on his head; three seconds. When her fist connected, her arm exploded in a shower of blood and bone; she screamed in pain but decided it was worth the pain as Frosty faceplanted the ground and flipped over her at full speed; two seconds. Ford willed her swords to plant themselves into Frosty’s back just before he landed on them, driving them even deeper; one second, zero.

Ford smiled through the pain and looked at the puddle of blood she had growing in size. Willing her arm to grow back instantly, she watched as her HP quickly climbed up to four-hundred thirty. She sat up and looked at Frosty, who was getting back up with all her swords still in his back. Looking at her pool of blood, she created three spears out of it and sent them flying toward Frosty.

Farah and Benet both took the opportunity to attack his legs, creating long gashes and inflicting poison damage on him. Before Ford’s spears got close to Frosty, he spun, grabbing the three spears out of the air sent them flying back at Ford. She couldn’t think of the mental command to send them away from her, and they impaled her one after the other. Two in her abdomen and one through her heart.

She felt her heart stop, and she screamed as the pain grew in intensity. Ford tried to lift her arms and pull herself off the spears, but she couldn’t move. Fatigue spread through her body, and a bleed effect started to tick away at her HP faster than she could heal. Thinking quickly, she spoke through comms, “Farah, you’re in charge. Gimble, I need help.”

Farah quickly took command and got another volley of spells striking Frosty. Gimble was by Ford’s side within moments, and he pulled her off the spears. She quickly healed up to four-hundred HP, and she focused on the battle led by Farah.

Frosty had created a large sword out of ice and used it to attack Farah with incredible speed and agility; she was being pushed back to the Twins, Max, and Lilly. Ford took a deep breath and summoned Smite, and re-engaged her enforcement. “Gimble,” she said wearily, “how's your aim?”

“I think it’s alright. Why?”

“Get ready to send a shock wave through your shield and make sure I’m in a straight line.” Gimble nodded and held his shields up at an upward angle. Ford claimed onto them and faced Frosty. At that moment, Morgan came running past them, and Ford spoke over comms, “Morgan, get ready to hit my feet with a double impact.”

Morgan stopped a second and turned back, “Why would I do that?”

Ford smiled, “Trust me,” as she said this, she cast blood weapons again and created five more blood spears from the fresh pool of blood she had made. She took a deep breath and yelled, “Now!” in tandem, Ford jumped forward with all her strength, and Gimble sent a shock wave of mana that sent her flying even faster. Ford quickly gained on the Dwarf as he swung his Warhammer and struck the soles of her feet, adding more speed, and then activated double impact, which further increased her speed.

The eight bloody spears and blood dagger trailed behind her in a red blur; she sent one-thousand mana into her claymore as she flew forward. Frosty peeked over his shoulder and saw the glowing sword. He turned to face her, but Ford willed her blades to keep his back to her. He noticed the force emanating from his back and tried to pull the swords out but couldn’t reach the blades in the center of his back.

A second later, Ford drove Smite through Frosty’s body with such force that she created a hole in his torso, and she went flying out the other side. Canceling the mana to her sword, she flipped and impacted the wall legs first. Her legs created a loud snapping sound, and she fell to the ground in even more pain.

“Did we win?” Ford said through gritted teeth.

“Not quite,” an all too familiar demonic voice said.

Ford’s legs healed themselves a second later, and she stood to look at Frosty. The massive hole Ford created was ringed by the eight blood spears she had also made. Through that hole, Ford could see the health bar at twenty-five percent. Ford’s jaw dropped, “AWW, COME ON!!” she yelled in frustration.

“If you insist,” Frosty said as he appeared in front of Ford in a blink of an eye and swung his mighty sword at her. Ford had barely any time to react and dove between his legs and pulled all her weapons out of Frosty’s back.

Speaking as fast as she could over comms, she said, “If you could shoot it, do it now.”

That was all she could get out before de-summoning Smite and using her other fourteen weapons to block Frosty’s massive sword that moved at blinding speeds. Ford used them to attack at different angles, simultaneously as the others fired large volleys of bullets and spears at him. However, he was not fazed, and with the same incredible speed that allowed him to stay alive this long, he blocked and parried each of their attacks.

The only thing that got through his defenses was the twins' bullets shot. Ford took a moment and summoned her two versatile launchers and shaped them into miniguns. She spun them up and fired her volley at Frosty; within one minute, she was out of mana and de-summoned the guns collapsing to one knee. Closely followed by the loud bang of Frosty hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

He coughed up blood and said in his normal Santa-like voice, “Well, kids. You won.”

Ford looked back and saw the HP hit five percent and slowly fell to four, “Looks like…the poison will get you,” Ford panted.

The Twins ran past Ford, rolled their uncle over with his help, and sat next to his massive head. “Always wondered what a fight against you would be like,” Mizu said.

“You are, after all, the greatest spatial mage in existence,” Kii added, and Frosty began to shrink to the point he looked no bigger than an average human.

He turned to them and gave them a bloody smile, “Yep, and you won fair and square. You and those damned powerful weapons,” he chortled.

“You were also the greatest liar in the solar system,” Kii said with tears beginning to roll down his face, “You went easy on us, didn’t you?”

Ford froze and stammered, “W-what? W-wait, what about-”

“Did you really believe there would be a paradise in the sun’s center?” Kii snapped, cutting Ford off.

“That was just a fantasy Uncle Frosty dreamed up one night,” Mizu said, barely holding back his tears, “You always told the best stories and gave the best advice.”

Frosty chuckled and coughed up more blood, “You two were always too smart for your own good,” he then turned to his two nephews and, with a bloody hand, wiped the tears from their eyes, “That’s enough of that now. No need to cry over an old fool like me. Save the tears for those who will make you happy. Not on the people who will make you sad.”

Ford couldn’t help but let her tears roll down her cheeks as Kii and Mizu spoke in unison, “You’re not an old fool! You always made us happy! You’re the smartest man we know, and we-… we don’t want you to go!” tears began to pour from their eyes uncontrollably as they cried and wailed in sorrow.

A weak smile spread across his face as his HP hit one percent, “Hey, do me a favor,” he said weakly, “and make that…Paradise…for…me.” As he released his last breath, Frosty’s body went limp, and the light behind his yellow eyes went dark.

As the Twins cried, his body dissolved into dust in their arms, and Ford got up and stumbled over to them, embracing them in a hug as everyone else soon followed and joined the Twins in their grief. None of them noticed the pile of loot bags that materialized in the chamber’s center.

***

After about ten minutes sitting there with the Twins, they finally finished mourning the loss of their uncle. Mizu tapped Ford’s hand and said, “Alright, Ford, we’re done. You can let go of us now.”

Ford took in a sharp sobbing inhale, “But… I’m not done!”

“I’m sure Max-” Kii began to say something, but Ford hugged the Twins harder, “AH, Max! Help! Choking!” the Twins exclaimed under Ford’s strangling hug.

Max placed her hands on Ford’s back and whispered in a soothing tone, “Ford, that’s enough. They’re all hugged out.”

Ford realized what she was doing and let go of them, wiping the tears from her eyes. Then she got up and walked briskly away toward the chamber’s center. “From the way she was acting,” Kii began.

“You would think she just lost her uncle,” Mizu finished.

“SHUT UP!!” Ford cried as she reached the pile of loot bags. These bags were different in that they were all tagged with everyone’s name. Ford grabbed the bag labeled ‘Ford.’

She dumped the contents onto the ground a few paces past the pile. A long metal spear as tall as Ford hit the ground; the metal was red with veins of pale blue and two twenty-centimeter spikes on either end of it. Ford picked it up and wiped more tears from her eyes to read the notification. Item: Ice blood spear; quality: rare; effect: when you cut living beings, the cut will freeze a six-centimeter area, causing frostbite; effect: the more cuts, the larger the frozen area for the next cut; effect: indestructible.

After reading that description, Ford gripped the spear tightly as anger welled up inside her. “I am going to kill them one day,” Ford said to herself as she retrieved one of the Bort crystals Max made. Drawing her knife and taking off her gloves, she cut her hand and began making a crystal weapon storage for her spear. Then coating the spear in her blood casting blood possession. Once she finished, she stored her weapon, put her gloves on, and looked back at everyone.

They all had new equipment or weapons except for the Twins, who held their bags without opening them. Morgan walked over to Ford and held out a meter-long white Warhammer with gold veins running throughout its body. “I think you will get more out of this weapon for now than I,” Morgan said, placing the hammer in Ford’s hands.

Ford quickly read the notification. Item: Soul hammer; quality: legendary; effect: increase wielders strength by their SOL; effect: weightless; effect: indestructible. Ford closed the notification and looked at Morgan, “No, I-I can’t accept this.”

“I insist on you having it. I’m happy with my current Warhammer and don’t need to replace it anytime soon. Think of it this way, I don’t need the hammer, and I am allowing you to use it.”

Ford bit her lower lip then relented, “Fine, I’ll hold onto it for now,” she then cast weapon storage on it and stored it with her claymores. When she finished, she saw the Twins ask Gimble to store their loot bags. Gimble did so and placed the bags in his void storage.

Ford walked over to Max and Lilly, who sat with their backs against the left wall. Lilly leaned forward when Ford joined them, “Hey, you okay?” she asked in a low soothing voice.

Ford gave a half-hearted chuckled and an even weaker smile, “I am anything, but okay.”

“Do you need us to do anything for you?” Max asked.

“No,” Ford said quickly, “No, I don’t. Let’s just get out of this dungeon.”

Max and Lilly nodded and stood, Lilly, dawning a helmet made of metal leaves with golden veins. They both walked over to everyone else and quietly checked to see if they were ready to go. After a moment, Ford stood and dusted herself off.

Max approached her and said, “Everyone’s ready.”

Ford looked and saw everyone’s determined faces. Not trusting what she saw, she instinctively reached out with her soul. The feeling she felt from everyone was soul-crushing sadness. As though everyone had the same thought on their mind, ‘When will someone I love be on the chopping block.’

She cleared her throat and turned to face everyone, her back straight and poised for a quick speech, “I feel as though we all have the same question on our minds. When will someone I love be the next person I kill? If I’m right, stop thinking that right now. The moment we let the Gods game get us down. They win. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I refuse to lose to them, and I refuse to let them treat us like some playthings that they can discard at any time. We may have to play by their rules, but by the end of this fucking hellscape, we’ll take those rules and beat the living shit out of those Gods.” The Twins were the first to laugh and cheer over-enthusiastically, bringing smiles to everyone’s faces. Ford recharged her enforcement, setting her hair ablaze, and said, “Now! Let’s go kick this dungeon’s ass!”

Everyone else gave a few whoops and claps of encouragement as a portal opened behind Ford. Max jogged up next to Ford and said, “Nice speech.”

“What do you mean. That was a shitty speech. You all liked it because I have a higher charisma than everyone else,” Ford said as she walked through the portal and into the next challenge.

***

Ford walked into a well-lit chamber with blue fires all around. The room was only a few meters long, wide, and high, with a long table in the center with eight silver goblets upon it, and on the other side of the table was an all too familiar throne with an all too familiar smiling child sitting in it.

Rage boiled inside Ford, and she and Wrath yelled in unison, “TANASHI!!!” summoning her spear and swords, she sent them flying forward at an incredible speed and impaled the childlike God. Tanashi did nothing to stop the weapons and let them go through him.

He then looked at the back of his throne, and his body phased through the weapons as if he wasn’t there. Then he turned to Ford, “Well, that was unexpected. Nice to see you too. How’ve you been? Is that a new haircut? How’s the family? I heard about your uncle. I hope you’re not too choked up about it.” he said with mocking sarcasm evident in his voice.

Ford growled and de-summoned the swords and spear, “ERRR! You’re not actually here, are you!?”

“That is correct,” Tanashi answered with mocking sarcasm, “I am just a hologram with prerecorded responses.”

“Hologram, yes, prerecorded, no. You said yourself. You can’t see the future, so my attack was really unexpected.”

Tanashi froze for a moment and looked between her and the rest of the group, who had all frozen at the sight of seeing a God, “Yeah, okay, you got me. Take me away, ociffer. You caught me. Fair and-”

“Cut the bullshit and get to the point!! Why are you here!?”

Tanashi stopped messing around and sat up straight, “Fine. I’m here to deliver your next challenge.”

A quest appeared in everyone’s vision. Quest: CHEERS; one of the goblets is full of poison, six are full of sleeping potion, one with the best water you’ll ever taste; find the poison; one drink per person; reward: two-hundred EXP.

“Also, I should mention,” Tanashi continued when Ford closed the quest notification, “the poison cannot be cured by magic. It will be in anybody’s system till they die.”

“So,” Max stammered, “one of us will die, and we won’t know who till we drink.”

“That’s right!” Tanashi said, sounding proud of himself.

Lilly walked over to Ford and asked, “Wha’ should we do? I don’ have any healin’ herbs. If we did, I migh’ be able to cure the poison, but we don’.”

Ford closed her eyes and thought for a moment; then, an idea occurred to her. She pulled one of the rubies out from her void storage and drew her knife. She pulled off her gloves and cut her hand to cast crystal heart.

When she finished, she turned to Lilly and said, “I’m going to need your help here.”

“With wha’?”

Ford pulled off the top of her robe, revealing her muscular body, “With implanting the crystal heart.”

“Implan’in’, no, no, absolu’ely not. No.”

“Lilly!” Ford yelled as she sat on the ground; she locked eyes with Lilly, “I need you to do this for me. Please.”

Lilly bit her left index finger as she considered it. After a moment, she relented, “Fine. Wha’ do I have to do?”

Ford handed Lilly her dagger, “Cut along my obliques and abdomen,” Ford said, running a finger down her side indicating where to cut, “I heal fast, so you got to be faster. When you make the hole put this in there,” she handed Lilly the crystal heart, “Then we’re done.”

“Tha’s all I got to do?”

“That’s it. Gimble, Farah, hold my legs and arms down, so I don’t move.” They walked over, and Gimble got down and held Ford’s feet; Farah was about to grab Ford’s wrist but stopped when she held up a quick finger and put her leather gloves in her mouth. Ford spoke over comms and said, “When you’re ready?”

“Okay,” Was Lilly’s scared response.

She raised the dagger overhead like she was about to sacrifice Ford to the God Cthulhu, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Not like that!”

Lilly jumped when Ford yelled over comms, and she relaxed a little, “Well, how then?”

“Quick and deep, like you’re filleting a fish!”

“I don’ know how to fillet a fish!”

“Oh, to hell with it!” Max said, pulling the knife from Lilly’s grasp and shoving her aside. She cut down Ford’s side with quick surgical precision and shoved the crystal heart into her. Ford screamed into the gloves and clenched her fists as the pain shot through her body.

A few seconds later, the hole in her abdomen closed, leaving a long thin scar. Gimble and Farah released her, and she spat out her gloves, which now had bite marks. “Thanks,” Ford said.

“Why do all your skills require you to try and kill yourself!?” Max chastised.

“I don’t know. It just does,” Ford whined.

“So you’re into BDSM. Clearly, you’re the S,” Tanashi mocked.

Ford turned around and flipped off the little shit that sat on the throne. Then she turned to everyone else and said, “I’m going to drink first. Nobody drinks till I wake up. Got it. If I don’t die, then we go to plan B.”

“What’s plan B?” Benet asked hesitantly.

“You saw what they just did to me.”

Everyone was silent, then Morgan said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope you die.”

“Oh, thanks,” Ford said sarcastically, then she turned her attention to the goblets. Their contents were crystal clear like water, and they had no discernable smells from any of them. Where would I put the poison challis if I were the God of games? The sneaky spots would be on the edges, but everyone would be more likely to grab from the middle. Double, but he would know that I would put my life on the line before everyone else so the edges would be obvious, so the poison would be in the most obvious non-obvious spot. Ford grabbed the goblet in the very center of the line of goblets and chugged the contents.

The liquid was crisp, cool, and refreshing as it went down Ford’s sore throat. “THIS IS FUCKING WATER!!” Ford yelled as she threw the silver goblet at Tanashi’s hologram.

It went straight through him, and he didn’t even flinch, “Soooo, tell the truth. How was it?”

Ford bit her inner cheek and stared down the God, “IT WAS DELICIOUS!!” Ford yelled reluctantly.

“Do you want another?” Tanashi asked after a moment.

“NO!” Ford yelled in defiance. Tanashi raised his eyebrows, “Yes,” she finally relented, and the goblet Ford threw floated back up and refilled with water.

“Just this once,” Tanashi said.

“Fuck you.”

“Fine, but only once.” Ford downed the rest of the water and threw the challenge at Tanashi again.

***

Ford made crystal hearts out of Rubies for everyone for the next hour. Then began implanting them. To distract herself from the fact that she was about to cut her friends who had done nothing wrong to her, she just imagined that they were all Tanashi and inserted the crystal hearts a little too quickly. Almost cutting too deep when she worked on the Twins and Benet. Luckily, Lilly is a good healer

When she finished with the boys, she began implanting the crystals in the Girls. This time Ford couldn’t imagine Tanashi as the person she was cutting, except for when she cut Farah; Farah was easy. However, when she had to implant the crystal into Lilly, both she and Benet couldn’t help but stare at the Elf’s shapely body, distracted by the prominent pair of abdominal muscles.

“OI!!” Lilly yelled, blushing, “STOP STARIN’ AND GET THIS DONE!”

Ford shook her head and slapped Benet, making a satisfying smack. “Ow!” Benet protested.

“Sorry, had to wake myself up,” Ford said.

“Then shouldn’t I slap you?”

“PFFFFFFFFFFFT! Whaaaaat?! Nah, that’s not how it works.”

“Then should I slap you?” Max asked in a flirtatious tone.

“Uh, umm, uh. Would you judge me if I liked it?”

“If ye don’ finish plan’in’ tha’ crystal in me soon, I’ll slap you all!” Lilly yelled impatiently.

Ford froze and turned to Benet, “Should we wait a minute?”

“I think we should wait a minute,” he agreed.

“FORD!!”

“Implanting now!” Ford said as she quickly, yet carefully, placed the crystal into Lilly’s body. Lilly screamed the whole time till Benet administered first aid, and Lilly finished the healing a moment later.

Then it was Max’s turn, and again Ford was distracted by a shapely body and poked the small pair of abs, eliciting a squeak from Max, and she turned bright red, “Could you not do that please?” she asked.

“But you’re so-” whatever Ford was about to say next was beat out of her as Lilly smacked Ford upside the head with her staff. Ford quickly and carefully implanted the crystal.

Lilly healed Max and helped her up, and Ford locked eyes with Tanashi. “I just want you to know,” Ford said, pointing an accusatory finger at Tanashi, “I fucking hate you.”

“I know. Now since your preparations are finally done,” Tanashi said, an evil grin spreading across his already evil grin, “Shot! Shot! Shot! Shot!”

As Tanashi cheered, Ford said, “So, who wants to go first?”

Morgan walked up, took the chalice on the far left, raised it, said, “To your unfortunate health,” and chugged its contents. A second later, he wobbled back and forth then fell, and Ford caught him just in time, lowering him to the ground. She looked at his stats and saw a box with three Zs.

“He’s asleep,” Ford said.

Farah decided to drink next. She chose the goblet next to the one Morgan drank. She sat down and took a deep breath, “To your unfortunate health,” she said as she drank the chalice’s contents. She finished drinking, and a second later, she began coughing uncontrollably, and she threw the goblet at Tanashi, who was laughing uncontrollably.

“Farah, are you okay!?” Ford exclaimed.

“I-I found the poison!” Farah said through coughing fits.

“Okay, good. Also, not good. But don’t worry the crystal-”

“It’s hot sauce!!” Farah yelled after she finished coughing again, and she began to clutch her stomach with her claws.

“It’s what?” Ford flatly directed it at Tanashi, who was rolling in his throne laughing.

“YOU-HAHAHAHAHHHHH-YOU SHOULD’VE SEEN YOUR FACE! HAHAHAHAAAAAAA!! IT WAS PRICELESS!!!”

“The poison was hot sauce!!” Ford yelled at Tanashi, unbelieving. Lilly walked past Ford and healed Farah with a quick spell.

“Yeah. Haha huh. It’s a dragon pepper sauce that I made clear and fluid enough to be mistaken for water. It’ll burn a hole through anyone who ingests it except for dragons. Ha huh. You really should have seen your face.”

“I am going to-”

“Oh wait, you can,” Tanashi interrupted Ford and snapped his fingers. A screen appeared above the table with Ford on it. Her eyes opened wide, and her neck muscles tensed almost to the point of bursting.

Max stifled a laugh and was suddenly very interested in the blue flames when Ford turned to glower at her. Then she turned back to Tanashi, who had disappeared replaced with a portal at the far wall. Ford took a deep breath and spoke as calmly as possible while the completed quest notification came into view, “When I get the chance, I will shove a dragon pepper so far up his ass; he will be breathing fire.”