The green rock pillar was about to hit Hera. Her eyes were closed before it broke, and the moment she saw the stone falling towards her, there was a brief moment of shock. That hesitation was enough to take away her chance to dodge the impact.

Hera’s arms were moving up in an effort to at least protect her head from the impact, but even that movement wouldn’t be fast enough. She was about to feel the blow when something pushed into the side of her torso. Hera flew to the side, tumbling on the floor with another body on top of her.

"Are you ok?" Alex was the one who tackled her, saving Hera from the falling rock. She was now on top of Hera, blocking some of the light coming from the sprite.

"I am, how about y..." Before Hera could finish the question, one of the tentacles came crashing down on Alex, slamming the two of them into the ground.

"Shit," Hera coughed as she helped Alex tumble to the side and looked up to see Blue pulling the sprite away, lightly burning her hands in the process even with Runir's barrier.

Hera got up and sent a fire arrow at the monster, worried that using poison could trigger another weird reaction.

"Hera..." Alex mumbled.

"Blue, lead it to the middle. We don't want another pillar falling," Runir said while maintaining the barrier.

Hera grabbed her chakram and tossed it once more, aiming at the side of the monster. Before it was far enough away, one of the tentacles lashed out at her. Hera rose her handaxe blocking the limb. As the blade sank into the glowing appendage, a sliver of red liquid shone with the light. The creature retracted its tentacle in pain while Hera stared at her handaxe, trying to understand how her weapon got smeared with blood if the sprites didn't bleed.

"Hera.." Alex mumbled once more.

Hera looked back and saw Alex holding the side of her stomach, a small puddle of red forming under her.

"RUNIR!" Hera yelled as she moved towards the assassin, helping her apply pressure to the wound.

"What's wrong?" Runir started moving towards them, maintaining the barriers on Blue's hands.

"Alex is hurt. She's bleeding."

"What happened?" Blue asked. She was worried about her friend, but the monster didn't allow her to move away.

"I don't know. She was fine after saving me from the pillar. Then the monster hit us, and then..." Hera started mumbling. She could feel her eyes beginning to water.

"Hera, forget this folly. We must defeat the beast. Only then can we focus on giving first aid to our brethren." Tom said as he helped Blue control the sprite.

"Say it in fucking English, Tom!" Hera snapped at him.

"Help Alex. Kill monster. Cry later," Tom replied.

Runir finally reached the two and jumped to the side. He asked Hera to carry Alex towards the chamber entrance while he worked to stop the bleeding. Hera obeyed and did her best not to shake Alex too much, knowing that any movement could make the situation worse. Runir grabbed a small bottle from his pouch and drank the powder blue liquid inside it. Tossing the vial back into his pocket and returning to heal Alex.

She placed her friend on the ground outside the area, in a place where they weren't able to see the giant sprite. Runir tossed some water on the wound to clean it and kept using his spells to trigger the regeneration. Hera could see in Alex's stomach a familiar shape. The same type of cut that her handaxe would make against the monsters. The blade must have sunk into her when the tentacle hit them.

That thing made Hera hurt her friend. She gritted her teeth and turned to Runir, "You got this?"

He nodded, "Yeah, go help them."

Hera got up and rushed back inside. She rubbed her eyes against her armor, scratching the sides of her face with the scales, but it was enough to clear her vision. She pushed the headache aside. All the pain turning into anger. That thing made her hurt Alex. It made her hurt someone dear to her.

That monster had to die.

Hera rushed back inside and saw the sprite in the middle of the room. Blue and Tom were flanking, trying to attack, but the two were having trouble dealing damage while evading six tentacles each. Taking advantage of the monster's distractions, Hera ran under it while tossing her chakram up. When she passed through the sprite, she activated her poison reinforcement on both her weapons, slashing upwards with her handaxe while making the chakram jump towards the monster.

The sprite shook violently and dropped down, making Hera's axe carve deeper into its body. It tried to pull up, but Blue, with her electric buff and the cloud sleeves active, pulled two of the tentacles and held the monster down, giving a chance for Thomas and Hera to wail at the creature.

Their attack was relentless, even as the tentacles tried to hit them. The three dodged around, Blue making as few movements as she could, and kept striking the monster in various locations. Tom stabbed around one of the tentacles until he managed to cut it, leaving a large gash in the sprite's body that leaked a milky liquid that reflected a rainbow of colors.

"Hera, aim here!" Tom said as he stepped to the side.

Blue was screaming in pain. The heat had finally broken through the barrier. Hera pumped all her mana in a grease fire spell and shoved her hand inside the monster's open wound. Oddly enough, only the outer layer was scorching. Inside, the creature was hot, but not enough to burn her. The liquid fire spread inside the monster, which started shivering. The liquid that came out of it mirrored the glow that came from its owner.

"Blue, let go!" Tom shouted.

She hit the sprite with a punch and jumped back. The three moved away from the center of the chamber. They hid behind the pillars while the monster thrashed around wildly. Hera kept a close eye on the base of the column she was near. The fear of one of them crashing on top of her was able to break through her anger. This time the impact wasn't enough to crack the stones once more. Until finally, the monster stopped its trashing.

"Kill it!" Blue yelled, dashing towards the sprite.

Hera and Tom followed her in just a moment, getting their weapons ready. Hera was out of mana, but Blue and Tom still had their spell active. They started their attack once more. The grease fire still seemed to burn inside the monster's body, not just that, but its size was now considerably smaller.

Hera avoided attacking the bottom of the monster since it would lead to more thrashing. Blue triggered her electric buff and the cloud sleeves and tried to hold the sprite in its place so Hera and Tom could kill it. The buffs did help with the heat, but without Runir's barrier, it was clear that she wouldn't last long. Thomas stood still for a few moments, gathering his energy into the sword. One of his spells was able to increase his damage, and the more mana he put into the spell, the more the damage would increase. The one restriction was that he wasn't able to move while gathering the energy, and his next movement had to be an attack, or the power would dissipate.

Hera kept dashing around, using the wire trap style to hit the areas far away from her. Every time she got close to the base of a tentacle, she aimed a strike at it, trying to carve the appendage away just like Tom. Having to face one less limb made things much more manageable.

The battle dragged on, and the sprite grew smaller with each attack it received. Runir and Alex were still nowhere to be seen, making Hera more worried by the second. She had to finish it soon and take Alex back to the city to have the proper care. When one of the tentacles reached out to her, Hera blocked it with her armguards. Unlike Blue, she could barely feel the heat through her armor. The sprite was starting to move faster, and Tom was still gathering energy. If she wanted to finish this soon, his attack was the best option.

"Tom, tell me when. I'll make sure you can hit it," Hera ducked under one of the tentacles, cutting it off as a response to the attack.

Tom nodded and waited a few more moments. He had already faced this monster a few times and knew how much mana he had to fuel to the spell to make it deadly. It was an attack he could only do with people he could trust to keep the creature at bay, and after the rampage, he knew these people fit the bill.

Hera cut another two tentacles, leaving the monster with only eight, and now the sprite had the circumference of a hula hoop. After the monster lost its fourth limb, Tom shouted, "Hold it down!"

Blue grabbed two of the tentacles and pulled down, while Hera gave the monster a bear hug, making sure to keep her hands from touching it. The sprite tried to move but to no avail. It wasn't strong enough to push back against the two. Tom closed his eye, taking a deep breath, and lunged forward, stabbing his rapier in the middle of the creature. The attack impacted with a bang, creating even a shock wave that almost pushed Hera and Blue off the sprite. The monster now had a large hole in the middle of its body, about the size of a bowling ball, going all the way through the other side.

The monster fell to the ground and dissolved, leaving behind a pure white pair of pants. Hera ignored the drop and the notification that appeared in front of her and headed outside the chamber.

Runir was still using his healing spells on Alex. Five empty bottles were on the ground beside him. Hera could see that he managed to stop the bleeding, but Alex was still pale and seemed in pain. Some bandages around her waist still had some red in them. At least she was sleeping.

"How is she?" Hera kneeled beside Runir.

"Stable...ish, she lost a lot of blood, but the cut didn't go too deep. As far as I can tell, there were some superficial cuts to her small intestines. Kind of like a paper cut, but since the intestinal wall is very thin, it can still be dangerous. That's why I'm focusing the healing on the inside after I stopped the bleeding."

"Can we move her?"

"Give me two more minutes. Then someone needs to carry her, but it won't be good if we keep switching who carries, so whoever picks her up has to bring her back to the guild."

"I'll do it," Blue said as she arrived.

"What's your strength?" Hera asked.

"17."

"Tom, and you?" Hera saw him approaching after Blue.

"Mine is at 29," he replied.

"Can you do it? You are stronger than all of us, and your stamina is better."

Tom nodded, "Fear not, we shall give our brethren all the aid possible," he kneeled by Alex, "Runir. How should I take her?"

"Ideally on a stretcher. But since we don't have that, we need to keep the wound steady. If you do a princess carry, the wound would be too low. Can you carry her on your back? That way, the blood can keep flowing to the legs, and hopefully, it won't press on the wound."

Thomas nodded and asked for some help from the group. Alex woke up while placing her on Tom's back just enough to help them adjust her well. Since she wouldn't be able to hold on, Runir took some bandages and wrapped the two together at the height of Alex's chest, hoping that it would somehow help to keep her steady.

The group moved back to the entrance of the dungeon. Blue rushed back to grab the drop from the boss, and they walked together. Runir was by Alex's side, continuously applying his healing spells. They had at least two hours before reaching the guild, two hours with Alex in this state. Hera could only hope that her friend could hold on.

She had to hold on.