“What room is Isabella Tavarez in?” Ethan demanded to the front desk.

“Kid, you’re not allowed to be in here,” the baffled middle-aged woman replied to him.

Following a brief conversation with Alex, Ethan took off for Wildcat House in order to find Bella while Alex attempted to locate Quin. The two of them figured that if they were going to have a chance at saving whoever was taken down to the fifth floor they would need the whole group.

The particular problem Ethan was having right now was that the girls’ dorms were off limits for boys. He really didn’t have time to jump through these hoops. He needed the whole diving club now because ever second that went by worked against whoever was trapped down on five.

“Please, this is an emergency,” Ethan replied pleading with the woman.

“What is your name?” she asked clearly annoyed.

“It’s Ethan, Ethan Russell,” Ethan answered automatically. “Please what is her room number, I really need to get in contact with her right away.”

“As I told you Ethan, you are not allowed in this building, now please leave,” she said motioning towards the door.

Letting out a howl of frustration Ethan turned and stormed out the front door startling a couple of girls lounging near a television. Why couldn’t that stupid woman understand he thought. Someone was going to die if they didn’t save them and without Bella that was far less likely to happen.

A situation like this would be a whole lot easier if both Bella and him had phones but as shippers it’s not like either of them could afford one. At least Alex was probably able to call Quin. He knew both of them had cell phones.

Upon exiting from the dorm Ethan tried to rack his brain for his next move. Should he just barge back in and go door to door inside until he found Bella? No that would take far too much time. Time that someone clearly didn’t have.

They might just have to do this without her. It wasn’t ideal but what choice did they have? As if to answer his frustrations he turned and saw Quin walking quickly toward him.

“What’s with that look?” she asked him.

“Quin,” he said never having felt as happy to see her as he was now. “We’ve got a--”

“I know,” she cut him off. “Alex called me. “It looks like you had some trouble locating Bella?”

“Yeah, they wouldn’t listen to me,” Ethan said.

“Wait here for a moment and I’ll get her,” Quin said walking past Ethan and opening the door.

She disappeared inside a moment later and Ethan was left again with an irritating wait. This time it wasn’t very long though. Quin came back out a couple minutes later leading a frazzled Bella behind her.

“Ethan,” Bella said breathing heavy and clearly out of breath. “Quin filled me in on the details. I assume we’re headed for Hinan Hall?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Ethan said turning and walking rapidly towards the academic building.

When they arrived in the dungeon room they found Alex already waiting for them with the elevator doors open.

“Sweet, Quin found you,” Alex said as they approached him. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get into Bella’s dorm or not.”

“I wasn’t,” Ethan admitted sourly. “Quin ended up locating Bella for me so good call on that.”

“Well come on, everyone in,” Alex said jerking his head towards the elevator. “We’ve got to clear four before we can even search five for this person.”

“What are we going to do if we can’t figure it out like the second floor?” Bella asked.

Pray that it’s not like the second floor, Ethan thought.

“Keep going until we beat it,” Quin said. “Can I see the poem?”

“Sure,” Ethan said handing her the poem as the doors closed.

“His face will turn blue,” Quin quoted. “What does that mean?”

“He’s probably either somewhere where he can’t breathe or that’s cold,” Alex replied. “That’s my best guess anyways.”

“What if the entire floor is just water?” Bella asked. “Each one of these floors has had an entirely different environment so it’s not out of the question.”

“If that’s the case,” Alex replied, “then not only is the person probably already dead, but we’ll be dead too when we get there.”

“I’m just saying that there has to be an area in the dungeon for Aki and creatures like him to live,” Bella said.

“Maybe a beach,” Alex suggested. “A beach might be a nice place to bring girls.

“Like you’ll ever have any girls to bring to a beach if we find one,” Quin replied with a knowing look. “You could always bring a spider though.”

“Oh shud--,” Alex began before Ethan cut him off with, “Focus guys. Someone out there is in serious trouble right now. We don’t have time for this nonsense.”

“Right, sorry,” Alex answered while Quin just shrugged.

The elevator finally came to a stop and the doors opened to reveal the dark inside of what appeared to be a temple or shrine. In fact it looked pretty much identical to the one located on floor one.

“Did you hit the right button?” Ethan asked climbing out and looking around the room.

“Yeah, I’m positive,” Alex responded following him. “Maybe we should look outside.”

Walking purposely they crossed the room to the large double temple doors and pushed them open. This revealed a similar shrine setup exactly the same as the first floor. Off in front of the gate though were flooded overgrown paddy fields fanning out in every direction until they hit mountains off in the distance. Elevated bamboo walkways snaked out from the bottom of the stone staircase at the gate in multiple directions allowing for people to walk the fields without having to wade through them.

“That settles that,” Alex said smugly. “Told you I hit the right button.”

“Are these rice fields?” Bella asked walking up behind the two boys. “That’s hardly what I would have expected.”

“This dungeon doesn’t play by normal rules if you haven’t noticed,” Ethan said dry. “The whole taking an elevator down from a basement only to find open skies still throws me off every time.”

“So we just choose one of these walkways and follow it?” Quin asked.

“Looks like it,” Alex responded. “Hopefully these walkways are in better shape than the fields. I’d really prefer not to get wet or muddy.”

“Only one way to find out,” Ethan said stepping past the gate and beginning to walk down the middle one.

The bamboo felt solid enough under his feet if a little weird. It was rounded instead of completely flat which kept him from feeling sure footed while he walked. The other three fell in behind him and as a group they deliberately moved away from the gate.

He wished there was something to indicate what to look for down here but the dungeon never worked like that. On the first three floors they’d simply stumbled through them until they found and defeated some awful monster. With Ethan’s luck there was probably some giant snake hiding in these muddy fields waiting to eat them all.

“So the Black must be watching you,” Bella said falling in beside Ethan.

“Yeah,” he replied. “It’s a comforting thought.”

“When you followed him back at the rivalry game, did you do anything to give away that you were marked by the dungeon?” she asked.

“I don’t think so, but maybe he saw me and did some digging,” Ethan said shrugging. “It’s not like my mark is hidden. My mom noticed it at Christmas. You should have heard that lecture.”

“I guess I’m lucky that mine is hidden behind my hair,” Bella said smiling. “Whoever the Black is, he must have his mark in a place that is hidden like mine.”

“Yeah,” Ethan agreed again. “I just don’t understand why he would take someone and then tell me about it. If he wants to feed the dungeon a person to make it grow wouldn’t it be better if he didn’t tell me about it?”

“Maybe this isn’t about growing the dungeon,” Bella said thoughtfully. “Since he sent you the note we have to assume he either wants something from you or is trying to eliminate you.”

“That makes sense,” Quin chimed in. “He probably sees you as a threat since you noticed him before.”

“I’m not much of a threat,” Ethan muttered sourly. “No matter how much we investigated I couldn’t find out anything about the Black.”

“He might not know that,” Bella said.

“If he ever saw Ethan play video games he’d know that,” Alex quipped.

“Oh shut up,” Ethan muttered rolling his eyes. “I doubt he cares how well I fight on the Playstation.”

“It’s not good,” Alex whispered loudly to Quin. “Last time I won in about five sec--AHHH.”

His tone changed from the mocking whisper to yell at the end causing Ethan to spin around where he found Alex being dragged backwards off of the walkway. A bald old man with one eye had emerged from the muddy water and grabbed Alex around one of his ankles causing him to fall over and was attempting to drag him off of the walkway and into the flood paddy field.

The grip was weird because it was only with three fingers but it was evidently strong enough that Alex was unable to break free of it. Quin was currently the only thing keeping him from getting completely dragged off of the walkway. She’d grabbed his arms and was now in a tug of war with the swamp man.

“Alex,” Ethan exclaimed moving toward the two of them.

“Get it off of me,” Alex yelled kicking the man in the face with his free leg.

The kick had absolutely no effect. The man didn’t even grunt he simply continued to pull. Worse yet more one-eyed swamp men were rising out of the waters on both sides of the walkway slowly stumbling towards them. If they didn’t do something quickly they were going to be completely surrounded.

Taking one look between Quin’s determined but struggling face and Alex’s terrified eyes Ethan made a decision.

“Try not to move your leg,” Ethan commanded Alex.

Allowing himself a deep breath to steady his nerves he leveled his sword and swung it down where it bit deep into the man’s arm. Surprisingly, the man showed no signs that he was aware that a sword was buried half in his arm.

Seriously? Ethan thought. What the hell kind of zombie apocalypse was this? He would have liked to have said that first cut was clean but it wasn’t and he just didn’t have the strength to cut through a man’s arm in one move no matter how sharp his spirit sword was. Instead he hacked at it before he broke through the arm.

The release in tension almost caused Quin to fall off the other side. As it was the only thing that kept her on the walkway was the fact that she was holding on to Alex. She pulled him a few inches before steadying herself.

“Alex we need you to get up,” Ethan snapped grabbing the other one of Alex’s arm. “Quin let’s pull him to his feet.”

“Hang on is that hand still on my ankle?” Alex asked.

It was gruesomely still attached to his ankle but they didn’t time to remove it at the moment.

“Just leave it for now,” Ethan snapped as Alex began fidgeting with it. “Quin pull.”

The two of them yanked hard and an unprepared Alex stumbled to his feet where he was held upright by both Quin and Ethan.

“They’re about to surround us,” Bella said watching the figures push their way through the water towards them.

“Run,” Ethan yelled pushing Alex and Quin in front of him.

The two of them responded and began running down the bamboo walkway followed by Bella. Ethan took off just as three fingered hands began clutching desperately at his legs. Somehow he managed to avoid them and was soon on Bella’s tail.

Bella was good at a great many things, but running was not one of them. Ethan soon found himself having to slow down just to make sure he didn’t run over her.

Up ahead Alex was frustrating Quin in his own right. It wasn’t even that Alex was that bad of a runner but Ethan could tell that Quin was annoyed at having to hold back so he could keep pace with her. It was an expression Ethan saw plenty of when he first started running with her. At least she didn’t have that look on her face anymore when they ran together.

If all of them survived this dungeon maybe they should start making Bella and Alex run as well. Fat chance of that, Ethan thought. The two of them didn’t agree on many things but he was pretty sure neither of them were too keen on exercise.

The pathway wound threw the paddy fields always moving towards the mountains on the other side of the valley. As they ran the fields began getting less muddy and less flooded. It was as if someone was actually taking care of these fields.

“Can we stop running?” Alex asked breathing hard and stopping which caused the other three to stop.

Quickly Ethan looked behind them but the swamp men as he liked to think of them were nowhere in sight.

“I suppose we can,” Ethan said, “but we should probably keep walking just in case.

“That’s fine,” Alex said bent over and looking like he was about to pass out.

Bella too was also struggling but Ethan felt absolutely fine. In an odd way the contrast between them and him made him feel good about all the work he put in to getting in shape. As if she picked up on this Quin seemed to give him a look that said you’re welcome.

“God how is that still on my ankle?” Alex asked bending down and prying the hand off of him and holding it out towards Quin. “Quiiincy Phillips I must feed on your braaains.”

“That’s disgusting,” Quin said glaring at him. “Throw that thing away.”

Alex did as he was instructed and then said, “Okay, let's walk,”

“This dungeon is going to be the death of me,” Bella muttered reluctantly following after Alex.

Quin waited for both of them to pass and for Ethan to catch up to her before she started moving as well.

“Do you think those things are the monsters we need to defeat to clear this floor?” she asked as the two of them walked much more comfortably than the first two.

“I doubt it,” Alex said shaking his head up ahead. “They didn’t seem to be as dangerous as the usual floor boss.”

“Floor boss?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah, I figured we needed a name for it and floor boss seems to fit,” Alex replied. “My mom always said video games would ruin my mind, little did she know they’d expand my vocabulary.”

“They seemed pretty dangerous to me,” Bella said, ignoring his second statement. “That first one could have drowned you.”

“Yeah that wouldn’t have been fun,” Alex admitted, “the bottom of my pants and shoes are soaked because of that jerk.”

“A phoenix-like bird, an invisible ghost, and Alex’s girlfriend,” Ethan listed, “what do you think is next?”

“If Alex’s wife is on this floor we’re doomed,” Quin said cracking a rare joke and causing both Bella and Ethan to laugh.

“I thought that was a girl in need,” Alex muttered between gritted teeth. “Besides I was the one who noticed something wasn’t right with her not the three of you.

“What was it that gave it away?” Ethan asked. “When you touched her did you notice that she had eight legs instead of two? Or that her mouth had mandibles instead of lips?”

“Imagine if he kissed that mouth,” Quin said flatly.

“Oh god stop,” Alex said shaking his head. “I’m going to be sick. As it is I keep having nightmares about that creature.”

“If she keeps visiting you in your dreams that’s love,” Ethan quipped unable to stop himself.

“If the boss of this floor is a spider you’re all on your own,” Alex replied. “I’d like to get a full night’s sleep at some point before I graduate high school.”

As they continued walking the thatched peaks of buildings took form in front of the mountains in the direction they were headed. The further they walked it became apparent there was a small village on the edge of the rice paddies.

“I assume those are Japanese again?” Ethan asked Alex.

“Yeah, they look like farmhouses straight out of medieval Japan,” Alex replied. “My family actually visited a preserved village like this on one of our trips. It was pretty cool actually.”

Why is everything in this dungeon Japanese? Ethan asked himself. This was California which was literally thousands of miles from Japan and had absolutely no history of ancient Japanese anything.

“It looks like the village is at least built on solid ground,” Quin said.

“About time, I’m sick of walking on this bamboo,” Alex replied.

“I think those of us who dropped our weapons should dismiss and resummon our armor so we have them,” Ethan said.

“Why are you worried about something?” Quin asked.

“Well were still in this dungeon, and even though this looks like a village, nothing in this dungeon has been friendly so far,” Ethan answered. “Probably best just to be prepared.”

Quin nodded her head and did as he instructed while Ethan and Alex did the same. He may not be the smartest person in the world but you couldn’t say he wasn’t learning.

“Do you think there’s people here?” Bella asked as they exited the walkway onto solid ground.

“If there are, they probably aren’t normal,” Ethan said to her.

As if to answer her question a door opened on the central and largest of the buildings in the village. Five teenage boys walked out all wearing identical light blue kimonos, clogs, and circular wide-brimmed straw hats.

“Uh hi there,” Alex said. “I assume this is your village?”

The boys didn’t answer. Instead they spread out and lined up in front of them.

“Can you speak?” Alex asked.

They gave no indication that they heard him but instead just stood there like statues.

“Maybe try Japanese,” Ethan suggested.

“For the last time,” Alex said sounding annoyed, “I don’t speak Japanese. I may have Japanese ancestry but that doesn’t mean I know the language. That would be like me expecting you to know whatever European country you’re descended from instead of Dumbass which is clearly the only language you’re fluent in.”

Anger flashed inside of Ethan and he was about to reply when the central boy finally spoke.

“You have come far, but will go no further,” he said softly. “All life demands sacrifice and the dungeon must feed to grow. Let the rain cleanse your soul before your end.”

What rain? Ethan started to think before he felt the trickle of droplets begin to hit his head. The soon turned from a couple drops into an all out downpour soaking him in a matter of seconds. Apparently the rain wasn’t harmful because it went right through his spirit armor.

The visibility around them dropped significantly but they could still easily see the five boys across from them who were now drawing rice sickles out of their kimonos. The short wicked looking blades were normally used for harvesting rice, which was appropriate considering the paddies near the village, but somehow Ethan didn’t think these boys were planning to use them for that.

“Quin shoot them,” Alex yelled holding his shield out defensively in front of him.

She unleashed an arrow just as the boys charged them, hitting the boy furthest on the left right in the heart. The green spirit arrow went straight through the soft kimono like it wasn’t there and caused him to vanish in black essence a moment later.

Unfortunately that was the only shot she managed to get off before the boys reached them. Alex easily managed to block the blows from the central boy with his shield. The rice sickles just weren’t big enough or long enough to either get through or get around the shield.

Ethan and Bella had a tougher time of it trying to fend of the attacks with a sword and axe respectively. The short sickles allowed them to get quick precise jabs in and more than once they managed to get past Ethan’s sword and jab him in the side with the blades. The only thing that saved him was the spirit armor which did it’s job and absorbed most of the attacks though some pain did get through.

Quin not having anything to block with was forced to roll sideways and dodge the attacks aimed at her. Luckily she was perhaps the most agile person Ethan knew so this wasn’t much trouble for her. The boy slashing at her was relentless though which kept her on the defensive unable to get in a counter attack.

The surprise of the fight came when Bella of all people, who was holding her ax sideways in an attempt to block shoved it forcefully up under the brim of the conical hat and into the face of the boy assaulting her. He stumbled backward, clearly dazed and she didn’t give him time to recover. Instead she surged forward gripping the handle of her yellow ax tightly and generating a great overhead swing before bringing the sharp end straight down into the top of the hat . It went right through straight down the center of the boy who dissolved into black essence before it reached the bottom.

Every small stab into his armor was making Ethan more and more irritated. He thought he was getting better with this sword but apparently that was wrong because he was doing a really lousy job of blocking.

Oh that is it Ethan thought as he felt the small jab of pain in his side again. This time instead of pulling backwards away from the strike like he had been doing he pushed forward into pushing the blade further into his spirit armor where it was breaking through and probably cutting his side. He grabbed the surprised boy’s wrist and held it in place while using the growing pain as fuel for his anger and adrenaline.

With his other arm he awkwardly swung the sword down into the boy catching in between his shoulder and neck. It took a few swings before the boy finally vanished, mostly because he couldn’t generate enough power one handed to get deep enough with one blow.

The pain in his side eased when the boy disappeared but didn’t completely vanish. Looking down he could see he was bleeding a bit but the cut didn’t look all that deep and he didn’t have time to worry about a wound now there was still an enemy out there to deal with first.

There was only one left because Alex had expertly fended off his attacker with his shield and then circled him backwards towards Bella once he realized she’d finished hers off. It didn’t take her long to figure out what he was doing and she soon chopped Alex’s attacker down from behind.

Quin was another story. She was simply running around in circles dodging blow after blow and looking increasingly frustrated. Knowing that Quin was usually all about offense and charging in whether it was in soccer, life, or the dungeon Ethan fully understood why she was frustrated. She simply wasn’t used to having to play nothing but defense.

Moving towards her, he tried to catch her eye. His plan was to try and have her move the unsuspecting boy into a position where Ethan could take him down from behind like Alex did with Bella.

Unfortunately the non-verbal communication between Ethan and Quin wasn’t nearly as good as it was between Alex and Bella apparently. Ethan did make eye contact with her which she seemed to acknowledge. He moved into position and thought Quin was going to lead the boy into position.

Instead she dodged straight into Ethan tripping him and falling on top of him. Luckily this caught the boy by as much surprise as it did Ethan because he tripped over Ethan legs and rolled over the top of both of them. Ethan was just about to quickly shove Quin off of the top of him when he saw the bottom of Alex’s shield slam into the boy’s undefended neck. It was blunt but a couple of blows from a heavy sheild was enough to break his neck and cause him to vanish in black essence like the rest.

“Great teamwork you two,” Alex said laughing down at where Ethan and Quin were still tangled together on the ground.

Ethan was just about to respond when the dungeon boomed, “congratulations, you have cleared the fourth floor by defeating the Amefurikozō. The fifth floor is now available to you.”

“Ugh, Quin can you get off of me?” Ethan asked. “I’m soaked, I’m bleeding, and we still have another stupid floor to go.”