Mary had known Anna for less than two days, and she already hated her. She was rude, crass, flirtatious when she should be serious and cold when she should be warm, not to mention a battle-addicted maniac who Mary had genuinely thought would murder her multiple times. Sometimes she terrified her, and Mary only stuck with her because she felt safer knowing she was pointed at the enemy.

But damn did the woman know how to make a dramatic point.

One strong kick sent the big oak table—and both strangers—hurtling into the wall. Kun managed to half dodge and only got clipped on the shoulder, but Hou Zheng got slammed full-force against a solid wooden wall. Not that it mattered, because he started glowing with green light a moment later. He was a [Healer], specifically something called a Battle Mender. His heals were quick and efficient.

That was okay. They had learned more than a little fighting beside these two in the dungeon.

Mary raised her guns and unleashed a barrage of magical bolts on Kun, who had to duck behind a cabinet. She didn't use her real spells, just the basic bolts, channeled through her guns. They were cheap as dirt to use, and more importantly had no chance of doing major damage to the building. The whole place was made of wood. She might be more willing to drop a Pyro Shot if she thought that wouldn't catch the whole place on fire.

Anna spun her twinblade, grinned, and lunged. Her class, Undying Exile, was an Improved-tier [Defender] class, but not a standard one. It had far more in common with an [Attacker] class, and seemed to be based on the idea that the best way to defend people was if all their enemies were dead.

Kun disappeared in a burst of shadow and reappeared behind Anna, but they had seen this trick before. Anna spun her twinblade around her, while Mary tagged Kun with a Luxos Shot. It would prevent her from moving through the shadows for a few moments.

That wasn't her only trick, unfortunately. She spun and threw a knife at Mary with far more skill and precision than should be possible without magic. A technique, obviously, and one that was hard for her class to defend against.

Luckily, she still had the [Trick Shot] technique.

Most Archer techniques didn't apply to guns—at least not directly. Learning [Pyro Arrow] made it easier to learn [Pyro Shot]. Sometimes, however, there were techniques that could be used with multiple weapon types. It almost felt like an exploit, as though the System had forgotten to tag the ability as exclusive to one weapon.

So Mary shot the knife out of the air. Kun threw two more, and Mary wasn't confident in her ability to shoot them all, so she dodged. Easier on her stamina pool, too. Kun couldn't keep up her assault with Anna swinging a weapon at her, so she had to dodge away and break off her attack.

Before Mary could set up a bigger shot to do some real damage, she was slammed across the room by a blast of silver fire. It didn't kill her, or even burn her, really, but it was a big hot blast that knocked her off her game just as it knocked her ten feet across the room and into a wall.

“I am genuinely impressed by the both of you,” Hou Zheng said, sounding as calm as if he was strolling down the street. “But we both heavily out level you. I personally have more levels than the both of you combined, and I don't think that my companion is very far behind. Honestly, in other circumstances I'd be open to solving our problems with a simple duel, but I do not think it would be fair to you at the moment.”

Mary responded with an [Anemo Shot], boosted to maximum with her Power score.

It crashed into his shroud with no obvious effect. “I am still willing to negotiate,” he said blandly. “Honestly, you jumped to violence far too quickly.” He waved a hand, and another burst of silver fire rocketed at Anna. She cut it in half with her twinblade, and the flames dissipated harmlessly. “Is this some cultural error I was unaware of?”

Mary ground her teeth. “Stop. Talking.” She was done playing around.

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She unloaded [Vareo Shot] from both her guns.

It was still her most expensive spell, and she could barely afford to cast it twice, even with her careful bonuses and advantages from her class. It created a miniature black hole, or at least that's what it looked like to her. It crushed, ripped, and sheared anything within its area of effect with random gravity fluctuations. She didn't use it very much, and not just because of the mana cost. It created too much of a mess, and there wasn't much loot left over afterwards.

Hou Zheng's healing abilities were incredible, especially considering the fact that his class clearly focused more on speed than on raw power. But nothing was free, and enough damage would zero out his mana soon enough. She did, vaguely, hope that he survived, because she did have more questions for him. But she wouldn't lose any sleep if he died.

He teleported away, appearing on the opposite side of the room.

He teleported. As if it was the easiest thing in the world.

Mary stared for a moment, open-mouthed, as her spells tore up the wall behind where Hou Zheng had been standing. All that was left was a tiny crack in the air, like the world itself had broken. Even that disappeared in the space of two blinks.

She almost couldn't believe what she had seen. Even the appearance of teleportation was a rare ability. Rogues and related classes could get it pretty easily if you knew what you were doing, which was why she hadn't been surprised by Kun, but she had never even heard of a [Healer] class that granted teleportation.

She screamed in rage and refocused her attacks, but she had been distracted for a full second. In battle, that was as good as writing a letter to your enemy and inviting them to attack. Before she could even swing her guns around, Kun had disengaged from Anna, Hou Zheng took her place, and then Kun slashed a shadow blade straight at Mary.

It cut through Mary's shroud so fast she almost didn't realize it. The device on her wrist gave off a smell like burnt sugar, and she knew it was depleted. She backpedaled as she fired her guns, trying to put distance between herself and her opponent. But Kun disappeared into shadow; apparently Mary's Luxos Shot had worn off. She appeared behind Mary, knives raised—

And was hit by a hammer blow that sent her through two walls.

Ruth stood there, panting and sweating, the weakness in her limbs a sure sign that she had zeroed out her stamina with an overcharged attack. “You guys could have given us a little more warning!”

Mary plastered a grin on her face that she absolutely did not feel. “I think it's working out well enough, yeah?”

Behind Ruth, Darius scowled. “I'm just glad I upgraded Josh's shroud.”

Mary looked over and saw using his ax to trade blows with Hou Zheng, who had a big heavy mace. Anna struggled with herself, teeth clenched in pain. Mary could see fire twisting around under her skin.

“Oh, he can do curses,” Mary said, her tone like lead. “That's just brilliant.” She had never seen him use curses in the dungeon, but then she hadn't seen him throw around silver fireballs either. Clearly, everyone had been holding back during their fights. Still, the easiest way to break a curse was to kill the caster. She raised her guns and fired on Hou Zheng. Behind her, Ruth and Darius moved off to contain Kun.

Hou Zheng fought Josh and Anna together as if it was all part of a dance. Sure, Josh was in a non-combat class and Anna fought like an animal, but Josh was the most skilled fighter she had ever met, and Anna had the stats to back up her wild style. Hou Zheng was twice their level, bigger than even Josh, and he had real skill to back that up. A lesser fighter would have already been overwhelmed, level advantage or no.

Mary hoped her shots would tip that balance, but that didn't seem to be the case. Between his shroud and his healing spells, he could largely ignore her attacks, and she couldn't use anything bigger for fear of hitting her allies. She briefly considered trying anyway—they were both spry, they could dodge—before dismissing the notion. He would just teleport away again, and they'd be in the same situation. Assuming she didn't hit something more important this time.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the wall she had shot earlier finished collapsing with a groan. Half the room came down, though thankfully not the half anyone was fighting in, and choking dust billowed out. Everyone coughed and stumbled back, momentarily stunned.

Everyone except for Hou Zheng and Kun, who were wearing full body armor. Apparently this included at least some protection from dust.

Without any signal between them or parting remarks to their enemies, they both turned and leaped out the open hole in the wall. Mary hardly had time to see them sail through the air before they were gone, and she was still coughing too hard to even consider giving chase.

Mary ground her teeth and wiped bleary eyes. She blamed Anna for this.