The platform reached the next floor, a well-lit floor with plain grey bricks.

“This seems unusually… normal,” Sandra noted as she stepped off the platform. With a flick of a hand, she bid her golem to rise before her.

A bright neon green 3 appeared above the door in front of them. An announcer called out, "Team 3 is preparing to enter the ring! This could turn the tides on 1 or 2."

Spike deflated a little. "Oh… Are we fighting other adventurers?"

Garble slammed his blade against the ground, frost left behind. "Good. We'll smash them to bits."

“Yeah, but… doesn’t it get messy?” Spike said. “We don’t have a reason to fight them, and it’s not like fighting monsters, who are just… like magic spells that move around.”

Garble gave a dubious look to Spike. “But we do have a reason to fight them. They’re in our way.”

Spike wrung his hands on his staff, recalling the tough fight and the uncertain fate of the bleeding enemies. He looked up to see Sandra seeming to have similar worries. She looked down and smiled a nervous smile, looking back up, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Spike matched her action, brandishing her staff.

Smolder slapped his back, having him yelp with a shock. “That’s more like it.” She pulled her knives out. “Let’s get going. I bet you a shiny coin they won't feel bad attacking us.”

"Ain't taking that up," grunted Garble as he advanced on the door, sword held even with the ground. "Alright, open up!"

"Team 3 is ready to enter! Here they come!"

The door vanished, leaving open space. They could see eight people in an intense battle just below them on a slight incline, two groups clashing with everything they had. One of them, dressed with billowing robes as befit a wizard, noticed the sudden new opening in the hillside. "Company!"

Garble charged out, Spike shortly behind. Smolder stayed back with Sandra. "By the way, since we didn't hear anything? Do these little matchups make bodies or not? Should I avoid cooking them?"

Sandra visibly winced. "I really don't want to find out. You'd better engage as a striker unless some monsters get involved. Forward!" She threw her hand forward and her golem broke into a lumbering charge, the ground vibrating with each heavy step.

The five of them ran forward, and the wizard rolled up a sleeve, pushing one hand up his other arm, as the light of magic gathered, and he shot a blast at them. Garble pulled himself to the side, as did Sandra, who was behind, but the blast, which was revealed as an icy blast. Spike lost his balance on a patch of ice created, slamming into the ground, his bones aching with the cold of the blast.

Smolder seemed to fare better, but was visibly shaken. She burst out a puff of smoke, pushing off against the ice under her claw.

Several melee fighters peeled off, forming an additional line between their respective parties. Garble clashed with one, a shielded person covered in heavy armor, who blocked all of Garble’s hits, as Garble chanted rhymes in his face. “Don’t be ashamed, my style’s untamed!” The shielded fighter seemed to always have his shield up for all of Garble’s strikes, though.

Spike blew fire against the ground, propelling himself up onto his feet and letting him land on warmed turf. "Yeah!" he declared proudly, even if he was panting from the effort.

Two warriors closed on Garble, one slice parried, the other smashing against his armor, knocking him back. As one pressed in to take advantage, he was sliced across the side, the other warrior not of the same team and owing no allegiance.

"What a wicked turnaround. Alliances are formed and dissolved in an instant," proclaimed the announcer. "But how long will any of them last? Will they be able to even face team four?!"

"There's a team four?!" echoed about half of the fighters on the field, including Smolder and Sandra.

The enemy spellcaster thrust a hand forward, a cone of frigid cold bursting forth. "No time to play around." Spike yelped as he was caught in it, becoming a blinking icicle.

"Damn you," grunted Garble, bringing down his sword at the mage, only to be caught against the shield of another fighter. "Get out of the way," he seethed, but his swings weren't as powerful as he'd like, the fighter swatting the heavy blade aside with a bash of his shield and bringing down his mace to smash Garble's feet with an uncomfortable sound of impact.

Sandra looked away from her golem, happy that it was, at least, holding its own. "Guys?" Smolder was darting and bobbing wildly with another striker, the two leaving marks on the other, but Smolder looked like she was taking the worse of the exchange. "Spike?" He was still frozen, and calling her phoenix meant her golem would vanish.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But there was one more trump card, and she shouted out, “Union!” her new ability having a new name, and ran at her elemental, who made its way to her. Upon touching her, there was a burst of rocky magic,and the union of Sandra and Crystal stood in front of them, the rock elemental taking more of a bulky feminine appearance, and also having a distinct facial structure and some kind of robe that seemed to have crystal trim. She darted up to Smolder, punching the ground, which created a jut of rock to split Smolder and her attacker.

Smolder looked over to Sandra, leaping herself back behind her. “Garble! Time to go!”

“What?!” Garble pulled himself up, wincing as he put pressure on his injured feet. “I have these guys on the ropes.” The armored assailant tilted his head, slowly, and raised up his mace, advancing. Garble instinctively scrambled back. “Okay okay let’s go.”

Sandra ran over to Spike, simply grabbing him, pulling him up from his place frozen to the ground. She turned around and ran with the rest of the party back to their room.

“Oh it looks like team three is taking the most elusive of maneuvers, a full on retreat! He who fights yadda yadda! With them out of the picture how will our tentative alliance fare.”

Almost immediately that warrior with his mace twisted, swinging the mace directly at the knee of his former ally, the other warrior crying out in pain as he was hobbled.

The four party members, for their part, reached the door they came in, which slammed closed behind them. Sandra-Golem placed Spike on the ground gingerly, and then the rocks crumbled, and Sandra was solely herself again. She stood for just a moment, and as she stepped forward, her legs buckled and she sank to the ground, panting.

Garble sank down against a wall too, and Smolder sputtered out flame to heat up and melt Spike.

“Well… crap,” Garble eloquently stated to break the silence.

Spike staggered forward, movement restored. He caught himself before he could do a proper fall. "Sorry about that."

"You should be," barked Garble in reply, sheathing his sword. "Hey, whoever you are. We can go back in on the next round, yeah?"

A different voice responded, male, not as full of showmanship, "Sorry, no can do. If you want another try, you'll have to leave and come back."

Smolder groaned, sinking against a plain wall. "We have go climb up, again." Her eyes suddenly widened before slamming shut. "We have to go through the ghosts, again…?"

Garble suddenly punched the exit door, his fist bouncing off of it to no effect. "Let us back in! We changed our minds."

But the door didn't open. They could hear the announcer going over the conflict that the fourth team had entered in on. It would have been exciting, if it wasn't simply salt in their wounds.

Sandra's hands fell at her sides. "I should have been using Aiden, throwing down more damage instead of being happy with keeping a few frontliners busy."

Garble snarled and stormed off, pacing around the room in angry motions.

Spike sat down next to Smolder. "Look, guys... I'm tired." All three looked to him. "What? We've been trying to get to the next boss literally all day. I'm tired, sore, and kinda down. Okay, really down. I want to not even look at this stupid tower."

Smolder slumped back, her hands resting on the ground, knives clattering from unclenched fingers. "I am very hearing that right now."

Garble drew his sword, leveling it at the door. "Enough of these stupid rules. Let us past."

But there was no reply. The announcer kept right on going as if they couldn't hear them, or were simply not paying attention to the complaints of a losing team.

Sandra reached for Garble's shoulder, but he stormed past her back for the door, slamming his sword in fits of sparks and snow, not that the door seemed to be showing much for the effort being put in. "Garble." Sandra kept with him, just a foot back. "It might be time for us all to take a step back."

"You take a step back!" he roared as he swung around with his sword, sending an arc of red as the blade caught their summoner and sent Sandra staggering back.

Spike sat up sharply, grabbing for his staff and directing it at Sandra. "What the hey?! I didn't even think we could hurt each other."

"I... didn't think so either," blurted Garble, suddenly awkward. "Ya... shouldn't have crowded me like that." Despite his tepid words of defiance, he had stopped swinging his sword.

The quieter second male voice returned, "You are still in a RvR area and normal damage restrictions are offline."

"That wasn't cool," grumbled Smolder, glaring at her brother. "Say yer sorry."

Sandra held up a hand, regaining her posture as the green magic banished her injury. "No, it's alright... It's... alright. Sorry, Garble. For holding you back, I mean."

Garble sheathed his sword with a grunt before shoving her shoulder. "Well we ain't going anywhere in here. Guess we have to go back down to 10."

"Then to 1?" finished Spike, standing then. "Then to bed?"

"Hell no." Garble pointed down. "We hop down to 10, smash our way back up here, and we don't mess up this time!"

Smolder's groan was powerful enough to shake the room. "Gargar, quit-it! I swear..." She pushed up to her feet and grumbled as she approached. "Do you think you can solo this now?"

"What? No. I didn't say that." He crossed his arms in obvious defiance, glaring at his sister.

Spike shrugged softly, slinging his staff on his back. "You may as well be. The rest of us are beat."

"I'll go," volunteered Sandra in a timid voice. "I won't hold you back."

"She gets it!" He clapped her on the shoulder, a big grin on his face. "C'mon, let's hop to 10. We have to do that either way."

Agreement had, of a sort, they began to glow, quickly vanishing away to just past the first boss. Spike threw up his hands. "I can feel all those monsters rushing back into position. All those ghosts."

"Don't remind me of ghosts," spat Smolder, idly kicking the pillar of light, not that it was very effective. "As fun as charging straight in is, I think I need to talk to my teacher."

"Huh, what for?" Spike looked towards Smolder with obvious curiosity. "You seem to have it down."

"The basics, sure, but that's all I ever asked for." She shrugged lightly. "There's more I don't know."

"Lucky you, I don't have a--"

"--So get one," cut in Garble, glaring at Spike. "Your class isn't that rare. Find one."

Sandra gestured at the pillar of light. "Does that mean we're withdrawing?"

"Ugh." Garble threw a hand up to the air. "If we have to."

Sandra sagged with a heavy sigh. "Thank goodness. I... didn't really want to try again right away."