For the first time since Alex met him, the implacable paladin seemed stuck. A big vein on his neck was straining like he couldn't breathe, his jaw clenched tight.

From the corner of his eyes, Alex could see Cedric battling the ten skeletons, giving ground reluctantly as they tried to swarm him. The rasping sound of metal on bone rang in the clearing every time their blades met.

He didn’t like the idea of going against so many level seven enemies, much less the Sage Treant. But Valerian didn’t seem the type to leave someone behind, and Alex suspected Daven was foolhardy enough to jump in to save Cedric, no matter how dire the situation got. And if Daven stayed, then so would Diana.

What a mess.

“What is it!?” Daven asked urgently. He looked frantic to help Cedric, eyes darting between Valerian and the crew leader.

Diana made to step closer to Valerian, her brow drawn in worry, but Alex’s voice stopped her.

“Valerian will go for the skeletons.” The words were out of their mouth before he realized. As soon as Alex said his name, Valerian snapped to attention like he’d been doused with cold water.

He looked at Alex for a flitting moment, eyes bloodshot and searching. Then he nodded.

When Alex turned, it was to see Daven and Diana waiting for him to go on. He’d never been much of a team player, much less a leader, but there was a first time for everything. And he didn’t like his odds of going back through the second stage of the dungeon by himself.

So Alex swallowed and continued, “We’ll help picking them off from a distance. That’ll free Cedric to deal with the S—the Enhanced.” He coughed to cover for his slip.

The others didn’t seem to notice, which he was thankful for. The last thing he needed now was to have to explain himself to them.

With the plan agreed on, they set out at once, skirting the mass of roots beside them. Alex’s heart pounded against his chest as he ran beside Diana and Daven. Despite how tired they looked, grim determination was stamped across their faces.

Too loyal, in his opinion. Too foolish.

The clearing was a flat, empty field beside a few patches of wildflowers and the pond from which the Sage Treant burst out of, and it didn’t take them long to cross the distance. As they reached the edge of the roots, Valerian gave them a nod and turned inward, cutting toward the direction of the pond. He would go straight at the problem to relieve Cedric, while the three of them would be a few yards back, keeping the two more experienced chasers and their skeleton friends in between them and the giant monster.

They had lost sight of Cedric for a second there, as the crew leader had been pushed back and was nearly pressed against the forest of roots. Luckily, the Sage Treant only seemed able to control one spell at a time, and with nine skeletons—Cedric had broken the spine of one—still in the field, the roots didn’t come alive to capture the crew leader.

Alex and the siblings slid to a stop by a higher stretch of ground just in time to see Valerian bowl through the flank of the monsters like a truck. One of the skeletons broke into glass and dust when its skull was shattered by the rim of the paladin’s shield, and two more were flung away by his charge. Their wooden bones rattled like chattering teeth as they crashed almost ten feet away.

Alex watched as Cedric jumped at the opportunity, cutting two skeletons in one slash in that moment of relief, and by then it was their turn to enter the fray. Diana’s spell shook the earth as she created a small stand of packed dirt they could hop on and have a better view of the battlefield in front of them.

Daven’s first shot flew in the air a second later, and two fire arrows followed after. Alex’s shots missed, but Daven's steel-tipped arrow nicked the skull of a skeleton just about to impale Valerian from the back, causing the monster to stumble.

The paladin didn’t even turn from fighting off two skeletons to bash the off-balanced monster in the face with his forearm, cracking its skull and turning it into dust. He and Cedric were fighting near each other now, almost back to back. Cedric was a storm against three skeletons, batting weapons aside, breaking wooden arms and legs. Monster crashed to the ground left and right.

Alex didn’t even bother firing another spell, while Daven took another pot shot that was dodged. Even as they were defeated, the Wooden Skeletons proved to be insanely fast for the hopefuls. Cedric cut the spine of the last skeleton as it still tried futilely to break through Valerian’s defense.

The crew leader turned to them, his hair sticking to his face with sweat. “Nice job you three,” he called, smiling widely.

Daven didn’t wait for them as he jumped over the earth wall and sprinted over the short distance to Cedric and Valerian. Shrugging, Alex followed after with Diana. The fight with the skeletons turned out easier than he expected. It made sense, in the end. Cedric and Valerian were second-rankers. The Wooden Skeletons, even numerous, shouldn’t be a problem for the two of them.

The Sage Treant on the other hand… Alex reckoned it would be a problem, even if Cedric didn’t want to admit it. The big monster stood there some twenty yards away from them; the earth directly around it seemed to be dead, the grass brown and dry, the ground cracked. It was as if the land had been sapped of life.

It watched them unblinking, almost with curiosity, as Daven ribbed Cedric for getting taken by surprise. It was as if the monster found the tiny little humans interesting.

“What about the Enhanced?” Valerian asked. He had his back to them, shield facing the Sage Treant. “Surely you see that we should retreat here.”

Cedric laughed. “Are you kidding? This is the most fun I’ve had in months.” He ran a hand through his hair, leaned on his spear. “Look Val, I appreciate the save and all, but the plan hasn’t changed. I’ll take down the bastard and we’ll find the flower. Then we’ll leave.”

As imprudent as he knew it was, Alex didn’t mind staying now that Cedric was fine. He wanted to see the limits of what a second-ranker could do—and even if he didn’t get the kill on the Sage Treant, the quest demanded the dungeon be pruned. He needed the damn flower to take back to the village, if only to make sure it counted.

“But…” Diana hesitated for a moment, then started again. “But none of the attacks worked. The arrow did nothing, and even your spear didn’t make it through that cloak.”

“Every monster has a weakness,” Cedric said, flashing her a winning smile. “Always remember that. I’ll just have to poke the bear until I find his.”

Daven nodded along like it was some grand wisdom. Valerian glanced back at the crew leader with disapproval, but it was a resigned sort of look. He would go along with Cedric, Alex knew.

By the pond, the Sage Treant finally decided to move. It stomped to the side, leaving the deadened area of ground behind. The wooden staff appeared from behind the fold of its cloak, green light gleaming at the top.

Alex felt his breath hitch. Beside him, the others had stopped too, looking to the Treant in a moment of frozen expectation. The tip of its staff paused in the air, pointing straight at them.

“Is it challenging me?” Cedric asked. He sounded delighted by the idea.

Then the monster slammed its staff on the ground again, opening new cracks on the earth that spewed skeleton after skeleton, one after the other, a dozen, then more and more, until they surged forth toward them like a wave of chattering bones.

Shit.

Alex let the power flow through him again, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. Beside him, the siblings stilled, faces pale. Alex didn’t blame them. That had to be more than double the skeletons from before.

Cedric clicked his tongue. “No honor for an old-fashioned duel with this bastard, is there?” He took hold of his spear and started forward as if going for a leisurely walk, only in the direction of a flood of armed skeletons.

“Take care of the ones who make it past us,” he said, flashing a confident smile back at the three of them. Valerian was already walking at his side, shoulders tight with purpose.

They only got some fifteen yards away. Just before the monsters came close enough to touch the two second-rankers, Valerian’s hard-light shield popped up in front of them, even wider this time. The skeletons crashed violently against the shield, antler-weapons and bones clattering, many of them being crushed by the weight of the monsters behind them.

Valerian grunted and took a step back, but he held firm. Black dust rose in the air from the first line of skeletons being squashed by their fellows. Like water, the Wooden Skeletons streamed to the sides, spilling around the shield in ones and twos when they noticed an easier way to get to their human prey.

Most skeletons that made it past went straight to Cedric’s side, as Valerian was smart enough to angle the shield in a way that pushed them toward the crew leader. In such low numbers, Cedric steamrolled through all of them in a single exchange. One parry, one swipe, and the skeleton was dust.

When the first few monsters started coming out of the other side, Alex grunted. “That’s us.” Fire came to his hands at the same time as Diana prepared her own air blade and Daven nocked an arrow.

The first skeleton on their side fell in a hail of traces from the three of them. Then the next and the next and the next. It was hard to miss when the three of them stood in a line behind the fighting and every monster that made it through seemed intent on taking out Valerian. If a skeleton dodged one trace, at least one of the two others were sure to tag him.

All the while, the main body of Wooden Skeletons still battered away at the golden shield. They used whatever they could, scratching with their weapons or thumping bony fists. Hell, Alex even saw one of the monsters bashing its skull against the surface of the shield, I Am Legend style.

Valerian’s trace still stood, but he saw hairline fractures spreading around its surface. It wouldn’t last long.

Frowning, Alex suddenly realized there were still too many of the monsters, despite the near dozen Cedric and the three of them had already dusted. He cast his gaze further ahead in the clearing, beyond the shield and the skeletons. The Sage Treant had moved again—in fact it was moving now, traipsing on the far side of the clearing.

Except it hadn’t stopped raising skeletons. Wherever it passed, the ground cracked open like an egg beneath its staff, Wooden Skeletons emerged like zombies rising out of graves, rushing to joining their cohorts.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“What?” Diana said without looking at him, her hand cutting the air as she sent another air trace out. She missed, but Daven’s follow-up arrow shattered the skull of the latest skeleton that appeared on their side.

Alex pointed. “The Enhanced hasn’t stopped raising more skeletons. If we don’t dust it—”

Just then, the sound of glass breaking. Alex turned. All of them did. A large crack had formed in the center of Valerian’s shield. The paladin took another step back and brought his empty right hand up as if to push on his own shield. The skeletons on the other side whipped up into a frenzy.

“Nothing we can do. Cedric’s got his hands full,” Daven said, nodding toward the crew leader.

Cedric was back to fighting almost seven skeletons at a time. But whenever he dusted one, cutting at their spine or bashing their skulls, another one took its place. More and more of the monsters were spilling out to his side from behind the shield, and Alex could see that some of the newly-raised ones bypassed the shield entirely. They weren’t very smart, obviously, but they were learning.

“Use one of your special arrows,” Diana said.

Another skeleton on their side stopped Daven’s reply, but it was quickly sniped by the three of them. They couldn’t even help Cedric, as the way he dashed in and out in the middle of the skeletons made it too likely for them to hit him with friendly fire.

“It’s not that easy, alright,” the archer said. The fingers of his right hand tapped incessantly against the side of his bow. “It won’t work either way. You saw it earlier.”

“Maybe because you and Cedric only got its cloak,” Alex cut in. “It regenerated, like it’s a living thing.”

Diana nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Try aiming for the head. Cedric said it had to have a weakness, no?”

Alex flinched as the shield suddenly cracked again, this one echoing a high keen in the clearing. Fractures spider-webbed across the entire surface. The hard-light construct looked like a broken windshield.

Three more skeletons came through on their side. Only instead of running at Valerian, they came at them, wooden bones clattering together. Daven made to raise his bow, but Alex pushed his arm away, so that the arrow was pointed to the distance. To the Sage Treant.

“Focus!” he hissed. “We got these.” Diana grunted her agreement beside him.

Alex didn’t look to see if Daven had complied. Two fireballs formed in his hands and promptly zipped toward the sprinting monsters. Fast as they were, the Wooden Skeletons had no problem ducking aside, even as the traces exploded behind them.

But he didn’t need to hit them, only distract them for a moment, then Diana’s air blade cut through the lead skeleton.

Two left.

The monsters stopped their mad dash for a second, as if surprised one of their own had been taken out. The two skeletons had the same weapons, some kind of antler-mace with a spike on top that reminded Alex of a giant femur.

“Use the fireballs again,” Diana said in that moment of respite. “Just aim it in front of them.”

Alex raised an eyebrow; but as the skeletons rushed toward them again, he didn’t bother asking. He brought fire to his hands again, wincing at the strained feeling of the pathways inside of him. The full day of casting had been rough on them.

With the fireballs crackling in his palms, he waited until the monsters were back at full speed again before he hurled them forward. Diana’s plan became evident when, instead of continuing using air, she dropped to the ground and placed her palms against the earth.

Just as the skeletons made to jump over the low-flying fireballs, a few inches of ground rose in front of them—an insignificant little barrier, smaller than the full step of a stair, but at their speed their feet crashed against the higher ground in the worst possible toe-crunching manner and they toppled forward, right on the path of the fireballs.

A roar of fire and clattering bones was the result. Before they even turned into dust, a zipping sound came from Alex’s side, and he turned just in time to see Daven’s scorching blue arrow fly away like a comet. It flashed over the shield, nearly scraping the top, and a second later caught a distracted Treant on the side of its mask, cracking it nearly in half.

The monster stumbled back, stunned; but only for a moment, as in the next, it threw its head back and roared, a deep, croaking sound, more anger than pain. Its mask looked much like Valerian’s shield, cracked but unbroken.

But it didn’t matter—the damage was there, and it wasn’t healing like the cloak.

“It worked,” Diana cheered, getting a surprised laugh from Daven.

Alex watched as, on the field, even the Wooden Skeletons paused for a moment, as if confused by what was happening. Cedric didn’t bother with fair play and slaughtered the monsters directly in front of him, his spear like a scythe cutting through wheat.