Blinding light.

“Jeru!” Penelope yelled the moment she could speak. The buzzing of voices and whispers pressed on the thin woman as most of the eyes around her looked to see what she was yelling about.

Each pair of eyes felt like a drill on her skin. Her anger at dying again gave way to discomfort at being the center of attention.

To everyone except the large man to her left, who still backed into her.

“Hey!” The large man with a tattoo of a dragon climbing up his arm growled at her. “Watch where you’re going!”

His voice was like a gun going off. Her feet pushed as fast as she could get through the crowd towards the smoking building. She forced her way through the crowd as her heart beat faster and the sound of six hundred voices threatened to drown her. Despite all of this, her mind was running through ideas on how she could do better.

Penelope didn’t wait for Jeru to start giving his speech. The timer above the door hadn’t started counting down as she pushed her way into the door at the same time Jeru appeared above her.

On the other side of the portal, Penelope stopped and braced her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. She wasn’t out of shape, but the rush through the crowd had taken that much out of her.

“Jeru! Show yourself!”

“Jeru, do this. Jeru, do that.” Jeru complained as he appeared in front of her. “Wait, you’re not Nate. Who are you?”

“Don’t try that; you already told me that you remember all of the loopers!” Penelope's breathing sped up. She clenched her jaw and balled her fist, bursting the peanuts that she’d forgotten she’d been holding. “Why didn’t you tell me that I couldn’t walk back through the barrier!?” She unscrewed the lid of the soda and drained the caffeinated liquid from the bottle while she waited for his reply.

“It wouldn’t be a barrier if things could just move back and forth across it.” The blue Elf raised an eyebrow as he watched her drink. “Then it would just be a pretty wall of light.”

“That’s…!” Penelope gaped at him. “You also told me that I would just have to point and speak to use spells. How come I only hit one out of three shots!?”

“What, you wanted auto-targeting too?” Jeru clicked his tongue. “Next you’ll ask for auto-casting or even nukes!” He shook his head. “I miss Frank; he was a special kind of guy.”

“Fine!” Penelope turned around and touched the portal over the entrance, only to be met with the same amount of resistance as she had when she tried to get out of the square.

“Jeru, why can’t I leave?”

“It wouldn’t be a good seal if people could just walk out of here.” The blue Elf floated into the air.

“So you’re telling me that I’m trapped in here?” The barrier walls were over 500 feet away, yet Penelope felt them moving closer. Her heart sped up even faster as the stationary walls of magical energy threatened to crush her.

“Trapped is a bad word.” Jeru laid down on his side as he floated. “The barrier drops as soon as you defeat the demon that’s commanding this army.” He rolled over and waved his arm at the floor. “So you should make sure to clear the floor before you kill the boss.”

Penelope wasn’t worried about killing the boss. Her biggest concern at the moment was that she was trapped. She crouched down on the ground with her back against the barrier and put her hands over her ears as she hid her face in her knees.

“Just breathe.” Jeru’s voice wasn’t muted by her hands over her ears. “In through the nose, out through the mouth.”

Penelope turned her head to scowl at him. “You’re not helping.”

“It does.” He turned back right side up and touched down on the floor. “You’ve got about two minutes left on your panic attack before Oakley, Frederica, and Judah walk through that door.”

He must mean the group on the right that had just three people. Maybe I could warn…

Her panic escalated again at the thought of talking to strangers. The wall was no longer a barrier that could protect her back but a one-way door capable of disgorging strangers. She swallowed and took a nervous step to her left.

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“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Jeru forced the menu to open in front of her. “You haven’t chosen an affinity, so you don’t have any spells.” He hummed as he thought. “I mean, you could try casting the old-fashioned way, but raw magic isn’t going to do much at your level.”

Penelope looked at the menu and selected Light from the screen with a thought, then closed it with a wave of her hand, the motion helping her hold the intent needed to complete the action.

The monsters hadn’t reached the barrier yet, which meant once she walked through the wall of light, she’d have some space to fight them. Except she didn’t want to walk in. The thought of dying again terrified her even if she was resetting. Despite Jeru’s reassurance, it wasn’t something she was willing to trust, which meant she was going to experiment.

While she stood in front of the barrier, the sound of footsteps behind her alerted her that the first group had entered the Dungeon. She turned around and saw three people walk into the Dungeon.

Their names floated above their heads, just like on the monsters, letting her know the names of these people for the first time. In the lead was Oakley Dewey, a twenty-seven-year-old towering figure, who walked forward without a shred of hesitation. Every step was like he was doing something he’d done a thousand times before. His skin rippled gray under his rumpled clothes as if it was made of stone.

Behind him was Frederica Riddle, a forty-seven-year-old woman with skin paler than Penelope’s. Her polo shirt and tennis skirt offered no protection against the Demons fangs. Her feet were bare, yet she wasn’t making any noise as she moved. Her very person gave off a murderous aura as her eyes scanned the Dungeon.

Penelope made it through half a wave towards the other woman, but the gesture was ignored as she was given a dismissive glance. The measured look told her that she was seen neither as a threat nor a potential ally.

Last was Judah Argento, a twenty-nine-year-old slender man. He followed after the pair with a ball of fire rolling around in his right hand. He was the most unsuited for combat, wearing only sweatpants and an oversized attitude t-shirt with the Superman symbol on it.

None of them paid much attention to her, nor did they hesitate to march to the square on the right and step through.

“So much wasted potential.” Jeru clicked his tongue. “Well girlie, what're you waiting for?”

“Don’t rush me.” Penelope’s chest heaved as she let out the breath that she’d held the entire time the other group had been in the entrance room with her. She turned back to the approaching group of monsters.

Penelope stuck her hand through the barrier and then pulled it back out. There was no resistance as her hand came back into the entrance room. She turned her hand over to look at it, then looked at the Demonic Ants.

“Let’s try this.” She stuck her hand through the barrier and pointed at the closest monster. “Light Pulse!”

The magic went wide, a few inches to the side of the wolf-sized monster.

“UH!!!” She aimed again. “Light Pulse! Light Pulse!” She scored a hit, making the monster flinch. “Light Pulse!” Another hit. “Light Pulse!” Miss. “Light Pulse!” A hit but not on the monster she was aiming at.

The Demonic Ant that she’d hit the most fell behind the other three, and they were almost on her. Except Penelope already knew that she was faster than they were. She ran to the outside wall and stuck her left arm into the zone. She wasn’t as confident in her aiming, so she leaned her head inside too.

“Light Pulse!” Hit. “Light Pulse!” Miss. “Light Pulse!” Miss. “Light Pulse!” Hit

“You might want to stop for a bit.” Jeru tapped on her shoulder.

“Light Pulse! Ugh! You made me miss, you stupid..." Her head bobbled involuntarily, and she fell on her rear against the outer wall.

“Yeah, probably should have told you about that…” Jeru grimaced.

“Told me…?” The worst brain freeze Penelope had ever experienced strangled the rest of that question.

“You can’t just go firing off magic like it’s candy from a float at a parade.” The blue Elf brought up a screen, but her eyes were pinched too shut to read what he wanted to show her.

“I can’t read that, Jeru. The thought of opening my eyes is making my stomach do somersaults.” Penelope rubbed her temples. “Just read it to me.”

His voice took on a nasally tone. “Jeru is just a computer voice without feelings; there’s no need to say please or thank you to some computer.”

“Jeru.” Penelope shifted her hands just long enough to open her eyes for a moment. “Please.” That was all she could muster before she covered them again with her hands.

“It’s not real if you have to ask for it, but I’ll take it.” Jeru grumbled, then his voice took a more serious tone. “Basically, you have thirty-six maximum mana, and that spell of yours costs three mana each. You fired them off so fast that you were down to three mana when—”

ROAR

The shadow slammed their longsword against the barrier. The impact was like nails on a chalkboard as it dragged the blade across the surface.

“NO!!!” Penelope plugged her ears with her thumbs so she could keep her hands over her eyes.

“Wait your turn, hellspawn!” Jeru sighed. “Stupid things can’t even hear me. Anyway, you were about to fire off your twelfth one, which would have put you at zero mana.” He clicked his tongue but stopped before making the noise more than once because she winced. “Going into mana depletion is a lot worse than this and something only a few mages can stay conscious during. What you’re feeling is the warning system. You should start feeling better… now.”

A flood of relief washed over her as her body warmed like she was on the beach. The headache evaporated and her stomach settled down.

“Feeling better?” Jeru smiled in front of her as she opened her eyes. “Give yourself about twenty minutes, and you’ll be able to keep going.”

ROAR!

SCRITCH!

Penelope winced as the sword screeched against the barrier again. She looked up at the metal-clad Demon. “It’s going to feel so good when I kill you.”