Mo pushed Blaze and Alyss’s heads down, consequently making Alphonse and Hiro the targets of the strange mutant bat creature that came at them from the dungeon ceiling. Alphonse stepped in front of Hiro and pulled out his sword. The wind from the creature’s wings kicked up strands of his shaggy blond hair and with a mighty swing of his blade, Alphonse cut off one of those black, leathery wings.

The creature fell, screeching, to the ground. Hiro placed a hand on Alphonse’s cold armored shoulder and cast a strengthening spell before giving him a light push, leveling his sword to turn it straight through the beast. The beast screamed and thrashed when impaled, swatting at Alphonse, its claws bouncing uselessly off his armor, until Alphonse twisted his sword and it died.

Alphonse stepped back, pulling his sword from the monster’s chest and giving his sword a few harsh, jerky swings to fling the creature’s blood off. He looked at Alyss, who was straightening back up. With a smirk, he said, “And now I’ve killed the second monster all by myself. Do you think we really need you?”

Alyss bristled instantly, “You-!”

Hiro started to move in between them, already lifting his arms up to insert himself placatingly between them.

Suddenly, Mo pointed up at the ceiling. Hiro stopped moving and looked up, as did the others.

Dozens, maybe hundreds, more of the bat creatures lined the ceiling as far as the eye could see. One of them screeched and a whole colony of bats descended on them.

“Get down!” Blaze shouted. She threw her hands up and a blast of white-hot fire erupted from her hands. Alphonse pushed Hiro’s head down but the two could still feel the heat of the flames licking at their backs. When the eruption of flames ended, Alphonse gave Hiro a light shove, “Why can’t you do that?”

“I don’t know!”

Alyss took out a whip, “Look alive! There are still more coming!”

Hiro straightened up and spread out his hands, giving the staff in his right hand a little wave as he did so, casting a shield on the two half-parties.

A creature flew at them and Alyss’s whip wrapped around its neck and she flung it into another. With one mighty swing of their giant ax, Mo bisected two of them at once. But even though they took out the first wave with one or two attacks each, the bat creatures kept coming, getting a little stronger with each wave. Blaze didn’t seem to be able to do that column of flame again and could only throw small balls of flame and eventually just pulled out the sword at her waist. HIro tried to throw out a few Shock spells but soon the surrounding swarm was too much and he was forced to focus solely on maintaining his defensive spells and healing people when the creatures got through the shields.

Suddenly, a shining arrow of light pierced through the dark swarm. And another. And another. Everywhere the light of the arrows touched, creatures dissolved. A voice called out, echoing against the walls, “Most of them are illusions made from Darkness! Cast Light!”

Panting heavily, Hiro raised his staff above his head with both hands and cast Light with all the strength he could muster. The wide hallway filled with light and many of the creatures dissolved, leaving only three left. One of the arrows of light dispatched one of them and Alphonse and Blaze beheaded the other two in turn.

With the creatures gone and Hiro’s Light filling the hall, the makeshift party finally saw their mysterious savior archer. A smirking, androgynous person with tan skin and long, braided white hair.

Alyss and Blaze exclaimed as one, “Luce?!”

‘Luce’ put a hand on their hip and their smirk seemed to grow larger. “I knew you wouldn’t get far without me!”