“Get out of the way now!”

A large pointed horn charged at us at incredible speeds. All of us dived to the side and avoided the deadly natural weapon of the matur. I slid against the chiseled stone and hurried back up to my feet before the beast could turn around once again. We were ready this time.

The matur turned around and once again charged at us, using its only horn as a lance. “Charliette, now!” Lio yelled at me, and I nodded my head. I understood the assignment.

As the monster approached us, Alurek and Kueler dove to the side like before. But I stepped to the frontline with Lio following behind. I pulled my tome out from its custom made holster and cracked it open. Then I made a circular motion with the book and boom! A water spell. “Waterwark!” I yelled.

A circular shield of pure translucent water appeared and protected us from the beast’s charge. The matur collided with the shield and was stopped in its tracks. Waterwark wasn’t strong enough to redirect the monster in the opposite direction, but it did stop it. Normally this spell didn’t work on physical attacks, but the matur was a special case due to their entire fur and body oozing with magic energy. It was a unique skill of theirs to give them resistance to magical attacks.

While the monster was halted, Lio stepped back and readied his staff. “Flame Spear!” He shot out a huge fire projectile at the matur’s face, causing it to knock back and stagger. I could smell its fur being charred by the fire. Lio’s spell was just too powerful to be resisted.

As one would guess, we were in the Beast Dungeon, already in combat not even thirty minutes after entering. Keeping in mind the aggressive nature of matur’s, who are native to this dungeon, it was not a surprise to me.

Almost immediately after finding Isla’s record, we all prepared within the rest of the day. I quickly ran to the tailor and picked up my mage robe, and Lio taught me something crucial that would help us survive in this perilous dungeon.

We were at my place, sitting on my couch and staring at a blank page of my tome. “Because we’re pressed for time, I’ll just do it for you, but next time I’ll promise to teach you thoroughly how to do it,” Lio told me, waving around a quill pen in his hand. Then he chanting an Accelerate spell on that pen, letting the magic guide his hand as he wrote something on the page. “Waterwark” it said in cursive.

“This was the method you were talking about? Minimizing the magic energy usage, right?”

“Mhm, if you write a spell in a tome, it gives the tome access to perform that spell just like a staff would. But by writing it through the use of Accelerate, it pours magic energy into it. So when you use that spell with the tome, it would use up the magic energy stored in the written spell before it begins to drain your energy. Neat, huh?”

It was. This was pretty much the only advantage the tome had over a staff as a magical tool, you could store magic energy in the spells you write down on it. Sure, the staff may be more accurate, but the tome is more energy efficient.

The best part was that I didn’t have to physically look at the written spell for the tome to work, I just had to open it up and perform the cantation ritual for that specific spell, and it would work!

After having that one spell packed with magic energy courtesy of Master Lio, we were all off. Of course, I had to buy a leather bag with a pocket big enough to holster my tome before leaving. So I lied, it wasn’t custom made.

And that’s what led us here. To the depths of the Beast dungeon with this formation lineup once again:

Eliott “Lio” Meyne

Formation Role: Main Rear/Front Ranged Attacker

Kueler

Formation Role: Vanguard

Alurek “Maturo” Kada

Formation Role: Rearguard

Charliette Glaciare (Me)

Formation Role: Middle Ranged Attacker/Defense Specialist

Because of my access to Waterwark, I now had the role of being the shield of the group. We knew Waterwark had the main purpose of redirecting spells, which made it ideal for combat against other mages, but we instead decided to use the spell as a traditional shield. I doubted spells would be thrown at us down there, anyway.

Another change we had made was that Lio was much more flexible in his formation position, now being prepared to jump to the rear or frontlines when needed. This was unorthodox, considering all mages are taught to keep a distance from enemies to be as effective as possible. It didn’t matter, we were an unorthodox bunch to begin with.

In the Treasure Dungeon, a major flaw we noticed in our formation was that it wasn’t prepared for attacks from the sides and above us. Waterwark would help protect us from attacks above us, but I was given the role to now prioritize defense of the sides. I was to fire off Accelerated knives given to me by Kueler at any foe trying to flank us. I was sure our formation was airtight this time.

All of that planning led to this very battle we were undergoing with a matur, which Master Lio had just injured severely. But it didn’t quit just yet.

All around us were stone floors and walls, the latter being completely covered in vines and other green flora. I’d never seen a dungeon with plants, life growing inside it. The Beast Dungeon was truly a special place indeed. But once Lio’s Flame Spear smashed onto the matur’s head, it exploded and fire rained all over. That gorgeous flora was scorched to oblivion.

The beast let out a mighty roar and stepped backwards, fear in its eyes. Despite the beast being way larger than Lio, it staggered backwards like a scared mouse. That was good news, for us at least. This all meant the beast wouldn’t put up much more of a resistance.

Master Lio held his staff firmly in front of him, chaneeling enough energy at its tip that it began to grow as bright as a star, and the matur’s eyes widened at the sight. Before Lio could even conjure up a spell, the matur turned around and fled. It really didn’t want to die today.

“Wait, don’t let it escape!” It was Alurek that took off after the beast with his sword cutlass swinging at his side. “I know these beasts like the back of my hand, they only flee like that when they’re sure they wouldn’t win alone.”

Win alone. He emphasized “alone.” Alone, meaning the beast was calling in backup to solve that. Just one of these monsters was enough to keep our hands full, but a whole herd of them coming our way would be very bad for us. We’d be torn to bits. I immediately sprinted towards Alurek, and the rest caught on and dashed after the beast. The chase was on.

Obviously, the matur ran way faster than any of us. It galloped like a horse down the large open corridors in search of allies, and we were tailing quite a distance away. We could use Stasis to freeze it in place to stop the chase entirely, but we needed to get in range to do that. We were still too far for that, so we had to think fast.

“Shit, what do we do?” Lio was wheezing hard between breaths and wiping the sweat off his forehead. It took every ounce of his stamina to keep up with the beast. I swear, one of these days I’ll train him to increase his endurance. I exercise daily, so if I was able to increase my stamina and keep up with everyone, I was sure he could eventually do so too. But that wasn’t important right now.

“You can’t fire a spell at it?” I asked, still running as fast as I could to atleast get within Stasis range. I was leading the pack with my incredible stamina and speed, go me!

He stared upwards towards the ceiling and bit his lower lip, then he shook his head. “The matur is heading into an area more densely packed with vegetation, shooting a fire spell would catch it all in fire and suffocate us with the smoke from it.”

Even though this dungeon was huge, it was still an isolated indoor environment. That meant smoke would have no way of escaping, thus stuffing the entire area with unbreathable fumes. It wasn’t an issue back there since there weren't too many plants to worry about it. But the area we were running into was looking more like a jungle, thick vines covering the walls.

Lio sucked up more air, speaking while running really made him more out of breath. He began slowing and slowing, falling behind us.

“C’mon, Magician. Keep up!” Kueler was right ahead of him, running a consistent pace even with his heavy armor and sword.

“I… I can’t… Too… much…”

I looked back at him and sighed again. If only the beast felt the same way, then we could easily finish it off. Either that, or if only there was a way to keep Lio from slowing us down.

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I was so stupid. There was a way, and it was right in front of our face. The Acceleration spell was the key. Most mages I knew, which weren’t a lot, solely used Accelerate on projectiles, since that was what made it deadly as a spell. Because of that, its intended purpose was overlooked. It can make people faster. Way faster, depending on how much magical energy is poured into it. None of us were specialized Displacement mages, so none of us caught onto this solution.

“Lio, do you know Accelerate?” I asked, surprised to see he was getting farther and farther behind. I slowed down to match his pace.

“W-what? Yes… of course… yes!” He was too winded to coherently speak to me.

“Great, use it on me. Put as much magic energy as you think you’ll need to make me go as fast as possible.”

“Huh…? Oh…” He caught on. That’s my master, we think alike.

I chose myself to be the runner, as I was clearly showing myself to be the fastest and having the best stamina when it came to cardio.

Sweat dribbled down his forehead and beaded against the staff he pointed at me. It glowed bright, I was ready.

“Okay… three…”

I narrowed my eyes and stared at the beast from afar. I was ready. That monster wasn’t going to escape us any longer.

“Two…”

I stuffed my tome back into its bag and threw my hands forward in a sprinting stance. No way was I going to let this opportunity go by. If I was going to stop this beast, it was going to happen right here and now. I pushed my legs to run faster, and the muscles burned and cried out in sorrow. I had to give it my all.

“One…”

I felt a surge of energy pour into my body, cooling the muscles in my legs and making them feel as light as feathers. My stamina felt restored, as if I had just begun my run. I felt amazing.

I zoomed right past Kueler and Alurek, and they cheered triumphantly. “Go get ‘em Magician!” Kueler pumped his fist.

With every stride I felt faster, a gazelle winding up into a max speed. The whistling of the wind brushed against my eardrums. This was the right choice.

I was rapidly closing the gap between the matur and myself. And I was feet away from getting within Stasis range, if not for my upcoming blunder.

The vines at the side of the walls grew extremely long at some points that they started extending onto the floor, and at one point the vines grew so long that they interconnected with the vines on the opposite walls. This created horrible vine knots on the floor. I was going so fast that I didn’t notice it, but my foot caught on one of the knots and tripped. The momentum I’d gathered sent me shooting forward and tumbling to the ground.

But I was in Stasis range now.

I kept my composure, even as I neared the hard floor where I’ll slam face first on. Before that could happen, I extended a hand as far as I could. “Stasis!” I yelled in between cries of pain, since I’d finally hit the floor and tumbled. My forearms were scraped and cut from just how far I skidded against the ground, but the job was done.

I looked up from the floor and saw the matur as still as a statue. No words were needed, I smiled and collapsed to the ground. Lio did the same right beside me when he caught up. I was scraped and bruised, and he was a soggy, sweaty mess.

“We… we… did it!” Lio turned to face me. His entire face was red, his hair was drenched in sweat, and his chest rose and fell with incredible speed. Up and down, up and down. He’ll live.

I smiled, then scooted closer to him. We both lay near one another, surrounded by the beautiful greenery that was tucked right under us. I wasn’t tired, yet my own face turned tomato red. I could feel it.

I could hear the rest of our party coming back from checking on the matur, stopping to stare at us, all without saying a word.

“You got any of those bandages, Master?” I held out both of my arms, which took the brunt of my fall. They began bleeding in various places, scrapped pretty bad. The wounds stung so bad, but much more bearable than the wound I received at the Treasure dungeon.

“Yeah, sure… Let me see.” He fished through his pocket and pulled out a roll of white bandages. This time he also took out a handkerchief and poured what looked like water onto it. “Hold still.”

He placed his gentle finger on my arms, then took the wet handkerchief and wiped over my entire arm. The moment it hit the wounds, a sharp sensation spread throughout my arm. I jerked it back on instinct. “Ow! Ow! What’d you use? It stings!”

“Disinfectant. I didn’t have any last time, so I was sure to be prepared this time.” He went back in and pulled my hand back. I just had to deal with it. I’m a big girl, I’ve been through worse.

He continued to drown the handkerchief with the disinfectant, then slapped it back onto my arms and wiped it all around my pale skin. This seething, burning sensation agonized my arms like little branding irons pressing against my body, and the sharpness of the pain only grew. I blinked in a wince, but then the sensation immediately ceased. I opened my eyes again and the wet cloth was already lifted off my forearms.

Lio and I sat up on our bottoms and stared at one another in silence. He threw aside the handkerchief now doused in my blood. “That wasn’t so bad… And done.” He held my arms with his soft fingers, and we drew even closer. Our thighs rubbed against each other every time he shifted in his spot. We were close enough that we could easily embrace one another, if we wanted to.

Just as quickly as he wiped my arms, he wrapped them with white bandages. I was entranced by the speed the roll of bandages went around my arm, like the spinning wheel of a carriage.

Right when he finished, a loud roar bounced off the walls and hit us smack dab in the faces. A fierce earthquake followed which rattled the floor violently.

I turned to see the matur had died, Alurek had finished it off with a swift strike to its eye socket with his cutlass. “Howdy, lovebirds! While y’all were flirting, we got the job done.” He shook the blood of that matur off his blade.

Was that flirting? I didn’t think it was, it was just Lio and I being ourselves, I guess… sort of. I wasn’t so sure anymore.

Lio shot to his feet. “We weren’t—” I could see the long strands of Lio’s chestnut hair veer in my direction, and he glared at me. He bit his tongue and sat right back down. We both were indecisive in such a matter. I didn’t understand this feeling myself, I just felt this paramount scale of warmness soothing my heart.

After that, we all continued onwards, both Lio and I with red flushed faces. There was nothing we could do about that, we still had a role to play in our formation. We had a goal to achieve, with the life of our friend on the line. There wasn’t time to think about that.

Usually, traps in this dungeon would have been a major issue, but with Alurek as a guide, we could use a route that completely avoided any sort of traps.

Alurek led us down the dark dungeon sprawling with wild plants and vines. I was almost certain these plants were the food sources of these beasts roaming in the shadows, although I’m not even sure if these monsters even need nutrients, considering that the dungeon master uses their magical influence to nourish them.

“Okay, we should be right on top of it now,” Alurek said while flipping the map he had in his hands. Unlike the Dungeon of the Dead or the Treasure Dungeon, this dungeon was well mapped out. Maps were finally useful for once. That location he was talking about was the hole where Isla fell in. He’d estimated its location based on what the healer’s account of that fateful day had detailed, which the healer mentioned walking down the dungeon’s linear corridors for about an hour. So all we had to do was walk an hour in the same direction, and we’d find the spot.

“I don’t see anything.” Kueler walked about and kicked up the grass and vines with his metal boots. They didn’t stand a chance

“Well, yeah, it's been three years since that hole had been made, so I’d bet it got covered by the overgrown vines.” After that remark, Alurek once again unsheathed his sword and started slashing at the thick vines that plastered the floor.

Instead of a dagger, I had a regular kitchen knife to take its place in its sheath at my waist, so I took it out and stooped down to chop at the vines. I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t sharp enough to even dent it. Lio and I just stood there and watched as they cut up flora with their weapons. Not much we could do

Fwooosh! Swoosh! Ding! Their swords were more chatty than I anticipated, making sounds as they cut through the air and dug deep into the thick jungle-like vines. We both just watched them as the labor continued.

“Say,” Lio swiveled his whole body my way and began speaking, “What would be the plan if we can’t get Isla to Fiar? What then?”

I never thought about that, I was always the type of person to just assume plan A would work. No need for B or C. Lio’s fixed face of concern made me question it though. “I don’t know. Do you even think that’s a possibility?

“It’s been three years, if she hadn’t become an undead by this point, then she’d be long decomposed.” He leaned forward and pressed his temples. He wasn’t staring at me anymore, but was rather observing carefully how our knights excavated the ground by slaughtering families of baby and adult vines. “I don’t know either. I just want us to be prepared for anything. Life doesn’t always hand out happy endings.”

I pursed my lips and thought long and hard about what he said. I didn’t like what he said one bit, but there wasn’t an ounce of fallacy in there. If there was only optimism, then how much suffering would one be in the one instance that things do go awry? I didn’t like it. I hated that way of thinking, simply because it encourages doubt. Don’t get me wrong, doubt isn’t bad, it's just that doubt chisels cracks in our plans. Had we all hesitated or doubted our ability to chase down the matur, we’d surely be in a worse spot now.

I was just mentally rambling at this point, I just didn’t want that mentality that it couldn’t be done. There will always be another way to solve a problem, we just have to be smart enough.

“I know that,” I said to Lio in my softest voice I could garner. “But even if things don’t have a happy ending, there’s always a way to make up for it and synthesize the endings to something better.”

“I hope you’re right.” Lio got to his feet and patted down his mage robe. I did the same.

He really left a lasting impression in my mind, food for thought if one may say so. “Can we really… no.” I shook my head. I knew Lio was right, everytime we head into a dungeon, one different circumstance could have led to very bad endings, all because we were sorely caught by surprise. We had one singular plan of action, and once that plan was compromised, we collapsed as a unified unit. But who said that two more backup plans would even make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things? If we just try our absolute hardest at the first plan and goal, then there wouldn’t be a need for the extras. That was due to failure not being an option.

I twirled my long black strands of hair as I followed after my master. However, as I made my way to him, I tripped on a vine. It was another one of those knots that looped itself around my foot. But this one felt different. It didn’t just cause you to slip, the floor under the vine was soft and indented in the ground.

When I knelt down to free my leg, it suddenly sunk deeper into the ground until I felt it punch through a thin layer of grass and now began dangling over nothing.

“Guys!” I hollered, “Look!” I realized something. I ripped off the grass layer and tugged the vines out of the way. The more I uncovered it, the more I realized it.

This was the hole we were looking for. Once everyone gathered and began removing all the plants from the hole, its size was in full sight to us. It was narrower than I thought, being as wide as a closet. Wasn’t too much, but it was very deep to the point that I couldn’t even see the bottom through the darkness.

How did Isla survive this fall? I got to my hands and feet at the edge by the hole, trying to stare through the shadowy abyss. It was in vain.

I nudged Lio, who was standing beside me, and asked him to make a small fireball and shoot it down the hole. He did.

A loud fwuuuush! ignited the flame, and he let it freefall all the way down. Then once it hit the bottom, I saw it.

That dead, grody light brown hair. Once silky and satiny, thriving with health.

Those lifeless black eyes. Once bursting with vivacious emerald hue.

The scary black liquid seeping from the cracked lips.

I found Isla, a husk of her former self.