-Ira-

This was, surprisingly, a lot of fun.

Ira could see why Nova had been so caught up in this place, although she hoped the little magpie wouldn’t be back here again. The decorations were beautiful; glowing stars dusted every dark corner, and intricate statues of flowers and abstract patterns spewed forth water in web-like fountains. Dim lighting and constant mist gave it all a relaxing feel. Ira felt herself unwind as she twisted through the little spaces left between water and sharp, obsidian outcroppings. It had been too long since she’d had a proper stretch.

And, despite Celio claiming the opposite, the monsters weren’t too bad either.

The toothy little water-worms had learned their lesson earlier and became a lot more tactical about their approaches. They snapped at Celio and her from within the water, letting the magical current whisk them away from return blows.

Celio already had several cuts on his arms and legs. His lightning magic was too dangerous to use here, since they were both soaked, so he was left with brute force.

“Gah!” He flinched as they scored another sneak attack, this time on his shoulder. “I swear, it’s like they have a grudge against me!”

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Ira snickered. “Oh no, poor Celio. Now that he can’t use his magic, he’s getting whipped by a few low-level monsters.” She dodged around a nip from her own opponent, a chunky little guy who’d taken a liking to her.

Celio lashed out at one of the bigger worms, finally getting a hit in, but it slipped into one of the fountains still moving. Probably a higher leveled one—Ira had heard that dungeons could level their monsters a bit just from having them fight each other.

He’d still gained a bit of space, though, and took the moment to grumble quietly to himself. The taller man wasn’t suited to these narrow tunnels, especially since his system build wasn’t all that physical. “I hate this. I hate this so much.”

“You’ll probably gain a lot of levels, you know.”

Dodging another flurry of fanged attacks, Celio glared at her in frustration. “Ira, I’m a painter, a priest, and then a mage—not even a combat one! This is very outside my comfort zone!”

She was starting to pity him. Blood was tainting the water around their feet, and none of it was hers.

“Do you want to call it quits for now? We got a pretty good taste of it.” The little chunker came after her again, and Ira bopped it on the nose.

Celio scoffed. “No way.” He slapped a worm away from his face, getting it good enough to kill it. “This damned thing isn’t getting the best of me. I’m gonna get all the way to its core, stare it straight in its stony little face, and rub my superiority in its nose.”

Ira finally killed her chunky pursuer, bringing their opponents down to three, with one injured. Lacing her fingers together, she stretched out her hands with a happy groan.

“Aw, it’s been too long since I’ve had a good fight. Let’s go, then.”

Celio scowled. “You are way too cheerful.”

A worm took a bite of his butt.

“Ow!”