A rhythmic thumping noise began to echo out from the deepest part of the cavern. With each new thud, a slight tremor reverberated through the ground.

“Sara’s gone. Without our lookout, we all need to pay more attention to our surroundings,” Chester said, turning away from where the Runic Scribe had disappeared. “And watch out for what’s above you.”

Sounds of scurried movement approached the group from the shadows, and it wasn’t long before a small wave of monsters rushed out from between the rock formations. A mix of armored spiders and lizards wielding an assortment of melee weapons.

“Get ready!” Chester yelled.

Another howl resounded from the shadows, and the monsters charged faster.

There was no order to them. No strategy in their movement. They were simply a mass of claws, fangs, and sharp edges racing their way to meet the group.

Chester, Rowan, and Alice each shifted closer to the incoming swarm. The Guardian took point while the other two spread out on either side.

A few steps behind, Jaiden began to channel her mana, and Dena raised her instrument.

“Thin them out a bit and leave the rest to me,” the Bard instructed. “It’ll give me a chance to practice with my skill upgrade before the boss reaches us.”

When the monsters were about fifty yards out, a Stone Bullet burst forward, smashing into the neck of one of the lizards and sending its body tumbling into a spider charging behind it. While they crashed into a tangle of limbs, the rest of the creatures ignored them.

At thirty yards, Rowan’s sword took on its familiar red glow. Chester lifted his shield to activate Guard on the Blade Warden, and the way he then looked across the rushing monsters made Dylan feel like he wanted to shout out and Taunt them. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited for Dena’s music to pass through the air, weaving its way around to attack the creatures.

Unlike in the past, there was now a harsh inflection overlaying the sound of the Bard’s violin. A dull buzz crawled through Dylan’s ears, and for a moment, he felt the beginnings of a headache. But then the music changed. It seemed to swim around and avoid him. Close enough to hear but not enough to touch.

Dylan assumed that Dena was beginning to get a handle on how to use her newly upgraded skill and had successfully included him in the scope of her protection.

The monsters weren’t so lucky. A series of pained yowls and screeches played a discordant accompaniment to the Bard’s performance.

The monsters all seemed to instinctively know what was hurting them and changed the course of their charge to rush toward Dena. Their slowed movement, distracting pain, and focus on the Bard made it easy for the other members of the group to pull away and kill a few of the creatures. The woman began to kite backward, trying to keep her distance to give the music more time work.

As the rest of the group continued to pick off and fight the strays around the edges of the dwindling horde of lizards and spiders, Dylan kept his attention on the thumping echo coming from the back of the cave.

Once it had begun, it had never stopped, and now it was clear that it was getting closer.

It sounded like the slow steps of a massive beast.

The boss, Dylan thought to himself.

When fewer than ten monsters remained, the shadows in the depths of the cavern shifted. The largest spider that Dylan had ever seen stepped into view.

“Boss incoming!” he shouted while summoning his deck.

Cards rotated around him, and he observed the monstrosity.

It looked like one of the armored spiders, but it had a thicker, rockier carapace. And it was bigger. Much bigger. Just its height alone reached up more than ten feet.

Its weight seemed to be even more than its size would suggest. Though it advanced with a slow, steady gait, each time one of the giant arachnid’s legs met the ground, the earth around it shook, and a familiar dull thud echoed across the cavern. The way it moved reminded Dylan of the sense of weight he’d felt coming off of the final spider he’d faced in the combat trial.

He’d been starting to think that he’d simply fought an enlarged version of one of the armored spiders, but now he was questioning whether or not it had actually been a scaled down version of the creature before him.

Dylan drew his opening hand. Basic Energy, Phantom Soldier, Phantom Rally, Mana Spike, Mana Surge.

He activated the soldier and looked up from the cards, seeing that the boss had now fully emerged from the shadows.

It wasn’t alone.

Dylan sent the phantom to join the battle around Dena, and then he began to observe the group of lizards he found on the spider’s back. He thought he could make out four archers, but they weren’t what truly caught his eye.

On the creature’s head was the monster that Rowan had described. The lizard had no weapons and wore nothing but the simplest loincloth, but that didn’t stop it from radiating danger.

The monster stood at least two feet taller than any of its kind that Dylan had ever seen, and it was covered in a layer of hardened, deep-blue scales that looked able to provide better protection than all but the heaviest of armors. Two pairs of well-muscled, elongated arms extended from its torso. They ended with claws that looker sharper than the swords and daggers carried by the creatures struggling in pain around Dena, and as its colossal mount moved forward, the lizard used its whip-like tail to shatter the end of a low-hanging stalactite blocking its vision.

When the creature observed the ongoing battle, it howled, thrusting one of its arms into the air above it. An almost tangible sound swept the cavern. Dylan felt his ears ringing and had to force himself not to take a step backward. While he stood firm, he couldn’t stop from turning his head to try to avoid the noise. His shifting line of sight was carried to the monsters encircling Dena, and he watched as every remaining lizard erupted with a burst of power. Breaking free from her debuff and rushing at the Bard.

Chester Taunted, but only the spiders were affected. Seeing the situation, Rowan sprinted forward, boots igniting with a flare of light, and decapitated one of the charging lizards.

At the same time, the giant spider reared back before smashing violently into the ground. Vibrations resounded through the earth and small stones began to rain down from the ceiling. Sara’s exit flashed through Dylan’s mind, driving him to look up. He’d been careful to avoid moving under any potentially precarious rock formations, but he couldn’t help but take a few moments to examine the area above him once again.

He was safe. But he had to rush to order his soldier to move out of the way of a new rockfall, just as he saw Chester and Alice dive out of the way of another.

Neither of those abilities are something a normal monster should have. Dylan’s eyes swept back and forth between the advanced lizard and the gargantuan spider it stood on. Both of them are bosses.

The lizard howled again. This time it didn’t produce the same wave of sound, but as the giant spider lumbered forward, a second wave of monsters charged out from the darkness.

Shit. Dylan quickly checked the battle and watched Rowan kill the last of the empowered lizards around Dena. The Bard looked a bit disheveled but was otherwise in control. She skillfully danced around the handful of remaining spiders, continuing to perform their slow deaths with her music.

Seeing she had no need for his phantom to continue assisting, Dylan ordered it to come back and guard in front of him, readying it to face the new wave of monsters.

He felt his mind split and, not knowing how long the battle would last, chose to generate before playing Mana Surge. He felt a refreshing current rush through his veins and checked the display in the corner of his vision.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

[Expenditure: 2.4 mana/min.]

[Mana: 48/108]

Twenty minutes.

Suddenly, the lizard boss stomped on the giant spider’s head. The creature screeched and then abandoned its steady pace to race forward. As it ran, the ground trembled. Dylan stumbled before catching himself.

When he found enough balance to look up again, the monster had closed more than half the distance to the group.

Like its size, its momentum was massive. It smashed the through smaller columns and stalagmites obstructing its path as if they didn’t exist. Almost any member of their group hit by that charge would be lucky to survive, and with the way the spider was shaking the cavern, dodging while in its path would prove difficult.

A Stone Bullet raced across the room and took out one of the archers on the creature’s back. Dylan turned to see Jaiden stably rooted in the earth as she began to take aim at another.

“Get back!” Chester shouted, stumbling forward. He raised his shield in front of him, and then his new vambrace ignited with a golden radiance. The light swept forward before projecting three massive copies of the Guardian’s shield in the air before the man. Drawn in the same golden hue as the glowing vambrace, they formed a rampart nearly twenty feet high and thirty feet wide.

Just before the giant beast crashed against Chester’s wall of shields, the lizard boss crouched down and sprung up, flipping through the air. Using its legs to catch itself on a rock column, its clawed feet dug into the stone before using it as a springboard to launch itself over the glowing barrier toward the back of the group.

Chester couldn’t move while maintaining the shields. “Rowan!” he yelled through gritted teeth, feet digging into rough earth as the spider’s impact sent him sliding a few inches backward.

While the Blade Warden rushed to intercept the airborne lizard, the enormous spider staggered to a halt, jostling the archers loose from their positions on its back. As they tumbled to the ground, the shields cracked, light leaking into the air. With the spider recovering and the rest of the horde rushing up just behind, its protection wouldn’t last long.

But it had been enough. Chester had managed to halt the charge, and without its rumbling energy, the tremors around the room came to a halt with it.

A new turn began, and Dylan drew a card. Intermediate Energy.

The spider stood and smashed its body against the barrier of light.

The cracks spread.

It attacked again and the shields on the left and right sides of the rampart collapsed.

Chester shouted and the light around his vambrace shattered. With it, the last shield exploded toward the spider and the wave of monsters arriving just behind it.

Shards of golden light knocked the small horde backward, directly killing the few that were closest to the blast, but the massive spider's carapace barely showed anything more than a scratch.

With the final shield gone, those monsters that had been damaged by Chester’s attack rushed to the Guardian; most of the rest were pulled away by Dena’s music.

The Bard continued to back up, and Alice joined her, prioritizing finding opportunities to attack the weakened and distracted lizards in the group.

Dylan assumed she wanted to eliminate anything the boss could potentially buff.

At the same time, Jaiden released a Stone Bullet at one of the remaining archers that had fallen from the spider’s back.

Dylan ordered his soldier to help guard against any monsters moving near him before the rest were corralled by Dena. When the situation began to stabilize, he sent the phantom to join Alice.

His mind split, and he chose to add a new card to his hand. Looking at it, he saw that it was a Draw. He could use it now if he played his Intermediate Energy, but he felt that would be a waste. Instead, he chose to wait for the next turn to generate.

Until then, he took over what was supposed to have been Sara’s role and monitored the surrounding battle.

Jaiden dealt with the last archer that had fallen from the spider before turning her attention to the few lizards carrying bows that had arrived in the new wave of monsters.

With the help of Alice and the Phantom Soldier, Dena had pulled further away from the two bosses before continuing to whittle down the smaller monsters. Dylan could already see a few armored spider corpses from the first wave that had died with no visible wounds. Played to death by the Bard’s music.

Chester worked to contain the giant arachnid while finishing off the last of the other monsters attacking him with a blast from his Retaliation skill. The rest was all defense. He couldn’t damage the behemoth in front of him and had to use all his experience to prevent himself from being damaged too much in return. It was all he could do to keep the beast from troubling anyone else.

Dylan turned to look at the other boss, hoping that Rowan would be able to use his experience facing a similar monster in his combat trial to make progress against this one. But the swordsman couldn’t.

Rowan was struggling. The boss was fast. Even with the increased speed granted by his boots, the man could barely keep up.

Heat radiated off his glowing sword as it caught two of the monster’s arms, but another tore down at the redhead’s face. He leaned back, escaping with a set of claw marks across his cheek, but the disruption to his vision the motion caused was enough for the lizard’s tail to whip past Rowan’s guard. With a loud cracking sound, the tail forced out a pained cough from the man and flung him into a rock column.

Chester, who could finally use his Taunt again, let out a shout. It didn’t work. While those monsters not pulled out of the skill’s range by Dena converged on the Guardian, the lizard boss just paused for a moment before shaking its head violently. It let out a howl and leaped toward the fallen Blade Warden.

Still, that brief pause was enough. Rowan regained his feet and dodged out of the way. As the fight continued, Dylan noticed the man’s sword glow brighter while waves of heat began to radiate from his entire body.

He remembered how Rowan had empowered himself when helping him after the fight with the shaman. And how drained the redhead had been after doing it.

The sword burst into flames, and the man wielding it burst into action. The ebb and flow of the fight evened out. Rowan was able to fend off most of the lizard’s attacks and even scored a scorching blow across the creature’s chest in return, but its combat ability was hardly affected.

Dylan was relieved the redhead was able to hold his own against the boss, but he began to worry about how long Rowan could maintain his current state. More importantly, he began to worry about what would happen to the man when it ended.

There was a tug at his consciousness, and Dylan chose to generate. He played Draw and pulled two new cards into his hand, and one of them made him excited. There was a Basic Energy as well as his new creation, Siphoning Veil.

If he could play it on Rowan, maybe the man could turn the fight to his advantage before he ran out of steam.

The only problem was that his soldier was about to disappear. He had a Phantom Rally that could extend its duration and the Intermediate Energy he’d need to pay for it, but if he did that, he’d never be able to afford Siphoning Veil. If he wanted to be able to activate the new card, he’d need to generate at the beginning of his next turn on top of getting all the energy his current hand could provide. There was no other way.

He had to choose to either protect Rowan or keep his soldier.

Glancing over to the phantom, he saw that it was working with Alice to help prevent Dena from being overwhelmed. He worried about how well the pair could handle the number of monsters they were facing without any additional backup.

He looked around, seeing both Chester and Rowan facing their respective bosses and Jaiden picking off the archers who might otherwise disrupt the rest of the group. No one was free to help. Once the soldier was gone, there was no way for anyone else to reinforce the pair of women and carry the pressure it was currently shouldering.

But, in the end, Dylan still chose Rowan.

If the man could no longer contain the lizard boss, they may as well all quit now. The monster was too fast for anyone else to deal with, was hardly affected by Dena’s deceleration, and couldn’t be controlled by Chester’s Taunt. It couldn’t be allowed to roam free; it would tear them all apart.

After a few more tense seconds of watching the fight, a new turn began, and Dylan’s phantom dissipated.

He generated and then played both the Basic and Intermediate Energy cards. As the familiar weight pressed down on him, he pulled Siphoning Veil into his hand and prepared to activate it.

He only had one shot at this. Although he wasn’t quite sure how to target the card, he calmed his mind and focused on the process he’d gone through when learning how to control Mana Bolt and Mana Spike back in the training room. Wait for the pull the card exerted against his mind and then pull back with his will to control it.

Dylan stepped forward.

First, he made sure to get as close as he could to Rowan without disrupting the fight or endangering himself. He didn’t know Siphoning Veil’s effective range and didn’t want to take any chances. Then, he played the card.

Even though it was his first time using it, the process of exerting control was the same as usual. He might not be able to achieve the finer manipulation repeated practice could produce, but the basics should be doable. As he used his will to direct the card’s effect to attach itself to Rowan, Dylan prayed that nothing would go wrong.

The card flashed and disappeared; the motes of light it became seemed to twist around themselves, taking on a greenish tint. They morphed into smoke and flowed across the cavern.

“Rowan, Veil!” Dylan shouted. It was the signal he’d agreed to call out when using the card on someone else during their group planning session.

The swordsman's eyes darted over for a fraction of a second before refocusing on the monster before him.

The veil drifted like the smoke it was made of, taking a few seconds to reach the man, but when it did, it quickly wrapped itself around his body, flowing along with the currents of heat rising from his skin.

As it settled, Dylan felt a connection in the back of his mind, and he knew that it’d worked. He watched the lizard’s arm rapidly slow as it attempted a strike at Rowan’s throat, and he somehow knew the power of the blow was almost enough to maintain the card’s effect for another turn.

The monster roared as its arm struggled against the smoke, and Rowan easily managed to dodge to the side.

At the same time, the creature’s tail reached around the swordsman, aiming to land a blow on the back of the man’s head. Being the monster’s most powerful means of attack, its speed was much faster than the claw strike. Though the veil wasn’t able to stop the lizard’s tail as effectively as its arm, it still managed to siphon enough power to add another turn and a half to its duration.

But more importantly, after Rowan dodged, the lizard couldn’t withdraw the appendage as quickly as it normally would. For the first time since their duel began, the swordsman had an unobstructed chance to counterattack against the monster’s deadliest weapon.

The flaming sword seemed to brighten before it screeched across the air. Incandescent blade met deep-blue scales and melted its way through. Cauterizing flesh sizzled, and half of the tail’s length fell to ground.

The boss let out a howl with a mixture of pain and rage.

Fighting past his own heaving breath, Rowan pressed forward.