Everyone else came up to the floor where the dead mage was. Cherry walked over to Mathew and had a soft smile on her face. Neither of them said anything for now. Mathew rubbed at his head, wondering where those thoughts and ideas came from.

“We need to be careful as we continue together,” Mathew said to everyone. “If anyone has any weird thoughts, say something.”

Henderson raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”

“I don’t know. Just call it a weird feeling for now.” Mathew looked up at the staircase to the next floor. “For now we continue up. Does anyone need healing? Are we all ready to press forward?”

Everyone seemed fine, minus those that died. Their deaths could have been prevented if he just came up here with Henderson originally and killed the mage.

He was trying to come to terms with what he was thinking earlier. Cherry was right, but she shouldn’t have had to say anything. “I was all for moving as a group. I’ll need to be careful. There must be someone influencing my mind, which means anyone else could be targeted next.”

As the tanks moved forward up the stairs, Mathew grabbed Henderson's arm to pull her to the side. “Listen. Don’t say anything, but if you get any weird thoughts or anyone else does let me know. I’m thinking something is going on, but I don’t want to draw any attention to it yet.”

She gave Mathew a nod, “Was wondering what was with you earlier. If it’s another charmer or something then we absolutely need to be careful.” She looked at the group as they moved up the stairs. “Shit, I didn’t even think about this, but there could be a spy among us. Magic is real. People can pretend to be someone else. We should do a numbers count again before going too far.”

“I’ll let you take care of it. Cover it with counting how many died in that last fight.” Mathew suggested.

Henderson gave a thumbs up. “My exact thoughts. You cover our rear, make sure nobody tries to scurry away.”

Mathew watched as the rear guard started to move up the stairs. All of his summons stood next to him, already hearing the conversation he had with Captain Henderson. Cherry had a soft smile on her face that Mathew knew was from her wanting to say ‘I told you so’.

“It's not my fault something weird is going on.” Mathew thought to himself. He made sure from this point forward to stay aware of himself fully. The next time any weird thoughts came to him, he was going to flood his body with the Axiom of Resistance. Nobody messed with his mind, body, or soul. Those were his, and only he could control himself.

Mathew walked up the stairs following everyone. They went up five more flights of stairs before they were all stopped in an empty area. This floor had no branch exits, only the stairs going up and down.

He slowed down, staying by the staircase that led back down. He noticed Henderson and a few others were by the set of stairs that were going up. Once she saw Mathew she cupped her hands around her mouth to speak loudly.

“Okay, we are doing a damage report after that last fight. We lost ten people to that wind mage. Luckily she wasn’t deadly in outright damage, just had the home-field advantage of being on a giant tree. Thanks to Mathew coming back and helping me, I was able to take her out.” Henderson gestured toward him. Several people clapped and cheered. Mathew just smiled and nodded. No need to sour their morale.

Henderson waited for the claps to die down, “Everyone is doing good work. We are going to stay together and move forward from this point forward. Stay alert and we can get through this. Front lines move up to the next tree.”

She waved everyone through as she walked back toward Mathew. “I didn’t count any extra bodies, but that doesn’t rule the possibility out. Anyone could have been killed and replaced as well.”

Mathew didn’t say anything at first, just silently thinking to himself. “We need to be ready for anything else. There will be more forces to fight, and I think I need to start helping as well. Less people will die that way.”

“Are you sure? I imagine you used up a decent amount of mana in that one fight alone.”

“I did, especially the new spell, but I’ll be draining my staves as we move. That coupled with my ring will let me get to full so long as we don’t fight constantly on the way up. I saw the tree and noticed we are not even halfway up to the top.”

“I still think you splitting off wasn’t the worst idea, but I’m glad you are staying,” Henderson said. “Means a lot to these people seeing you stay behind. Not to mention that you saved my ass. Don’t think I will forget that.” She punched Mathew in the arm. “Since when could you teleport?”

“Today actually,” Mathew said with a smirk. “I’m a whole bag of tricks. Lord Luvenar won’t know what to expect when we come knocking on his door.”

“That’s if he’s still alive when I get my hands on him.” Henderson stared hard up at the stairs. “I hate assholes who think they can just take whatever they want because they are entitled. Don’t end up like him, Mathew. You won’t make it far by doing that.”

Mathew swapped out one of his staves to start draining more mana thanks to his [Staves] skill. He then put a hand on Cherry’s shoulder, “So long as I have people holding me accountable, I think that won’t ever happen.”

Lord Luvenar dismissed a servant that brought news of the invader's progress. He tapped the arm of his throne as he began to think of what to do now. “I could just let them march up here, but where is the fun in that? Calevey couldn’t even take out any of their more important fighters. I gave her a space made just for her and made it a choke point for any invaders. She couldn’t even blow away the annoying swordswoman.”

“If she was alive I would kill her for her failures. I suppose she got lucky then.” Lord Luvenar crossed his left leg over his right as he adjusted in his chair. “I only have two more key points before they get up here. What could I do to make things more…interesting.” He sang the last word.

The idea of fighting them all himself was thrilling. Yet, he was skeptical if they could do anything to him at all. The elves that returned from when Keith failed showed that they could stand up against the human's words of power. He himself was far more powerful, but he knew the one weakness of his ability.

That weakness could be discovered if they fight the next key defender in his tree dungeon. Then again, these were just stupid humans. Only one of them he truly thought was a worthy opponent.

“Mathew, why did you not come to me? It seemed you were almost foolish enough to leave your army, but you doubled back. Why? Why break off in the first place? Why double back after the dryad spoke to you?”

It was times like these that he wished his sister was here. Her clairvoyant abilities were a true rarity in the Feathered Halo clan. A blessing from The System. She could have listened to the conversation with no problems if she were here.

“I’m sure she is watching regardless. Though I wonder if her power is strong enough to pierce through the veil The System places over these dungeons.” He laughed at the thought. “If she could, The System would just kill her. It hates those who can find ways around or through its power.”

The Lord danced his fingers on the arm of his throne, thinking more of what he should do. An idea came to him suddenly and a large smile came to his face. “Oh Luvenar, you’ve done it again!”

He stood up and walked to the double doors that sat on the opposite side of his throne and opened them up. Guards were posted outside the doors and he pointed at one of them. “You. Go and tell Lady Vernus that I am telling her there is a change of plans.”

The clashing sounds of combat echoed off the tree. Mathew spun his spear in his hands before throwing it again and killing another elf archer. They were ambushed once they made it up another ten levels.

The surprise attack killed eight people instantly. In return, Mathew watched as several mages literally blew up half the ambush force. It was obvious they used their strongest attacks together, mimicking the attacks done to the wooden wall surrounding the city.

All that was left was being picked off one at a time by the Blue Oaks army. Agnox flew in a large arc as he spewed flames from his hands. A few acrobatic fighters were running up walls and jumping from platform to platform stabbing elves in the back or injuring them enough to not easily use their bows.

Henderson was currently in her agile form dancing with the elves that were fighting with swords. Their armor was impressive, able to withstand strong attacks for only being made of what seemed to be leathers and hides.

Mathew didn’t do any fancy attacks. He stuck with simple [Mana Bolts] or using his spear and summoning it back to his hand.

Jeffery and Cherry were on support duty. Jeffery was running interference for any elves that made it past the front lines. Meanwhile Cherry was going from injured person to injured person healing them with her [Pink Touch].

The Dryad was doing well with the large battle. Mathew knew it was thanks to her high intelligence and Wisdom stats that kept her level-headed and focused. She had grown a lot in the short time he’s had her. Putting her through deadly fights is what allowed her to not be as squeamish in battles.

Agnox was relishing the fight. His [Wrath Armor] was fully ablaze. Any elf that got too close was burned by it if not his single sword. He had to be careful that his wings didn’t get pierced by any magical arrows, but he was able to dodge and weave the attacks fairly well.

Wispy and Whis were not idle either. Blasting with their own unique attacks at any elf Mathew directed them toward. They were mostly autonomous, only changing targets when Mahtew noticed a more threatening one.

Mathew raised another two [Mana Shields] to protect two other mages' backs as arrows came at them from above. “Watch each other's backs! They are attacking from all angles, not just the front!” He shouted the warning to everyone.

Even with the surprise attack, the Blue Oaks army was able to kill off all the elves. It was a chaotic mess, especially with the dozens of dead bodies that littered the area once the fight ended.

“Anyone injured?” Cherry called out as she finished saving someone from a gruesome wound in their gut.

No hands were raised. She wasn’t alone in the healing department. A few others were glowing with magic as everyone worked together to keep themselves healed.

Henderson did a headcount, and in total twelve people died. It was a bad hit to morale, but nobody said anything aloud if it bothered them that much. Mathew was surprised he wasn’t as heavily focused on the fight.

He was ready to use his shields heavily, even prepared to use his daily instant ritual which would create a wall out of the ground for him. If the Lord was a powerful archer, he would need to save it for him. It’s why he didn’t even use it on the wind mage. His shields were only so strong. A physical wall would help protect him even more.

“How many damn floors do we have left to climb? I have a lot of Strength, but this is ridiculous.” Someone complained.

“As many as it takes,” Mathew said. “We’ve made it this far, and we are going to end this. Each step brings us closer to reaching the end. I doubt the Lord is at the very top of the tree itself, probably the top of the trunk.”

That seemed to quell any more complaints. They continued to climb up more and more flights of stairs. Every now and then the idea of taking one of the branches to explore was suggested, but one look outside proved nobody wanted to be outside. Any fall would be a deadly one. The wind mage gave everyone a fear of heights while in this dungeon at least.