Redgar stood still as his lonely visage stared at the tomb he had created. He had already buried his old friend. Ezagon even gifted him a knife that was on his satchel, it was not a combat knife rather it was his favorite carving knife.

He plunged it mound of Ezagon’s final resting place. “I don’t need it my friend why did you give it to me…” his voice was ragged and a sense of empathy in his tone.

In solitude, he swung his head, catching sight of a solitary stone barely reaching knee height. It seemed a fitting perch. With deliberate movements, Redgar approached, brushing away the dust that clung to its surface. Settling upon it, he fixed his gaze upon the mound before him, with a knife pierced on it.

He shut his eyes, savoring a fleeting moment of liberation as he exhaled a deep sigh. Then, with a fluid motion, he extended his hands outward, palms facing down. With a subtle flick of his wrist, his knives stirred to life, rising gracefully from their sheaths at his waist. Seven gleaming blades hung suspended in the air, shimmering in the dim light. With a decisive sweep of his arms, he brought them down in a symphony of motion, each blade finding its mark upon the earth with impeccable precision, forming a line with uniform spacing between them.

Each knife bore the essence of a past conquest, a silent testament to the foes he had vanquished. Each blade hummed with its own unique magic, infused with properties drawn from the creatures it had once bested.

He paced himself in meditation as he slowly fell into the empty void state. He began relishing his past… the reason for his revenge.

<--->

Lenaya was beautiful, I stared at her back as we ran to the next floor. I couldn’t wait to hold her in my arms again.

“Redgar!! I can feel your stare!! Stop staring at my ass!!!”

She complained but I knew how she felt about me and I could see her ears blushing, it was giving it away.

“Get a room you two! Who could have thought that you two would become love birds… I don’t understand it!”

It was Tristana, already at her ripe age but didn’t understand how love works. It's just as she said, I usually quarreled with Lenaya when the first time we met but we grew to love each other.

“You could have chosen a better one, the staff member back in the guild stares at you.”

Alphecca glanced at me with a teasing smirk. “Someone who sleeps with swords wouldn’t understand… wait why am I acting like the strange one here?!” I retorted but with the wrong mindset.

The party laughed at me. That laugh quelled the urgency of our escape. I could see my Lenaya glaring at Alphecca and the man tried to brush it off by running faster.

The flight of stairs finally finished, we were temporarily out of danger but we could still not rest.

“Break!!!” Alphecca screamed.

I took a look at everyone and except for Alphecca everyone was losing their steam, even Lenaya, she was looking down caressing her hair behind her ears. I gulped as she sighed, she immediately felt me staring again.

“Idiot,” she complained but it seemed that she didn’t mind my gaze.

“We should drink stamina potion… combine it with the recovery potion…” Elway immediately suggested and the black hood took out a combination of potions in response.

One by one we took our share except for Alphecca.

“I don’t need it… I’m fine,” there was no doubt he still had a lot of gas on him. I could tell it from the magic I was feeling from him. He was a monster in his own right.

It would take a bit of time before the dungeon would correct itself. That meant that the blockade Elway made using the bombs would disappear. I haven’t heard of monsters going out of their levels but everything was possible.

I went to the Black Hood and took my potion then drank it. It was bitter, my throat scratched as it went down. I immediately felt the effect spreading into my body. I sat on the ground, I saw Lenaya raising her staff to change the cold protection into a weaker one.

“Wait… don’t include me just cast it to everyone else,” Alphecca said before Lenaya launched the magic.

“Alphecca, you are strong but you are a human, you have to rest your senses too,” Lenaya said with concern, I totally agree with her comment.

“You could never rest easy inside a dungeon you guys know that!” Alphecca was firm in his decision. He had been like that ever since we knew him.

“Take it easy pal-” and he only listened to Elway. The two glanced at each other after Elway began speaking “-We’ve got 30 minutes to an hour of assurance trust me,” Elway then sat on the icy ground to show his words.

“Okay… I understand,” Alphecca finally yielded and sat, the other followed suit while Lenaya remained as she cast the magic.

An orange light glittered down into the party. Lenaya didn’t need the chants, her intentions and imagination was enough to convey and shape the magic into its intended use.

I could feel the warmth inside of me wallowing from my skin to my bones, a respite from the harsh cold in the dungeon. The side effect of the spell though was to blind us in the perception of strong elementals.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The confidence of Elway came from the fact that we had already surveyed this whole level and found none.

We were probably the strongest party that had ever been created. To be included in that was a great honor. I bless my fate for knowing these faces, for meeting Lenaya.

But of course… it was still a dungeon and a dungeon did ever change. I stared forward without focus at all. I still felt restless, the feeling like there was a target on my head never left me.

<--->

Redgar opened his eyes. He could feel fate approaching, a palpable presence in the air. Outside, the rain began to fall, its rhythmic chimes echoing through the cave where he sat in meditation. In the silence, his reason for revenge grew clearer, like a light piercing through the darkness.

<--->

It might be his sixth sense that Alphecca couldn’t calm down. Staying on guard had been his mandate ever since he began his career in adventuring. Just relaxing while getting numbed from the cold didn’t sit well for him.

Constantly feeling the state of the dungeon, hot or cold, and getting senses attuned to the dungeon was a must for any adventurer to survive and detect properly. Any change caught could be a warning that could lead to a much worse outcome.

One mistake was the only mistake needed by the dungeon. Too bad it was this one time.

As the party silently rested, a few minutes passed since they calmed down.

The mist began crawling on the ground. A cold demise grasping the air in their surroundings. The group was oblivious to it… but the first one to notice was Tristana. She was the most attuned to the dungeon.

“Somethings happening,” She spoke to notify the party and everyone immediately stood up.

Everybody’s senses were on the edge. “We should move away from here!” Alphecca not even taking a minute decided. The team followed and they began running but…

They came out of the stairs again. “What is happening!” Lenaya said. She was the last one to come out of the stairs and she swore that she was running to get away from the place they were resting.

“We are caught in a loop,” Elway said, the obvious.

But the real problem had just begun showing up. They watched a mist floating up in a rotating manner. The mystical happening made the party stand still as they watched.

Lenaya was still aware of her surroundings. She rotated her sights even seeing the faces of her party. She was calm but the face of Alphecca surprised her. It was the first time he had seen the unmovable visage of the man distorted. For the first time, he saw fear on the face of probably one of the greatest heroes who ever walked the realm.

A large fox appeared on the same spot where they rested. The product of the mist that gathered. The surroundings also became enveloped with a wall mist at all sides except in their party’s direction, it made it look as if it was telling them to go closer, but they did know better.

“Is that a holy beast?” Elway asked.

“No,” “Probably not,” “No,” Tristana, Alphecca and the Black Hood spoke respectively. There was terror in their voice.

“But the magic it exudes is probably one of the greatest I’ve ever felt,” the hero of the era said as he drew his sword. “Elway, how about checking the path below?” Alphecca just wanted to make sure.

Elway nodded and he threw a bomb behind him. He heard the canister tumbling around and he began counting for the 30 seconds.

The manifestation of the fox finished, it had 6 tails. It stared at them. The mist that surrounded it flowed outwards creating a wall of mist.

“So we are going to fight it to get out of here,” Redgar waved his hands up and the knives floated directly into his hands.

“Any take Trist?” the Black Hood asked not even looking at her.

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. It was impossible to know something she had seen only the first time.

“Something is wrong… it's too strange… my skin is telling me something,” Alphecca said before launching an attack on the fox.

The tail of the fox glimmered and conjured icicles. With the growl of the fox it launched the icicles. Alphecca didn’t stop on his attack as he dodged the icicles with ease. He landed in front of the fox delivering a downward slash but the fox immediately went out of the way of the slash fading into the mist wall.

“You are not following?” Redgar asked.

“No… I won’t go into enemy territory!” Alphecca said it as a complaint.

From the mist, icicles began emerging. Alphecca began dodging. He was a god of it. Lenaya began casting magic and Redgar and Tristana stood beside her.

“There is no explosion!” Elway screamed but the information was not relevant. Elway was the brain of the team. As the third senior of the team, he knew how tolerant Alphecca was. He could dodge the icicles the whole day and still do it the next day.

He began rummaging in his backpack. His backpack was special, it had a large space inside and many things could fit inside. He finally found some Fire Stones.

“I will have to thank Blake for this!” he muttered a friend’s name. He got 34 pieces of it and he began throwing it into the mist. Elway was an expert at throwing things.

“The mist is spreading!!” Redgar warned and it was true. The mist flowed below them. As far as their concern was, this was really bad. As in bad of the bad.

In reaction Elway began throwing the Fire Stone below too not thinking how much they cost as long as it worked, it would be okay.

“Blazing Devastation… I evoke you… slay my foes… protect my friends!!” With the first word of her chant, Lenaya used her mastery of fire magic to control its target.

From her body, a large reddish magic emerged like a spirit and transformed into a blazing fire. Lenaya closed her eyes, her body burning with magic. When she opened them, her eyes glowed red, and she began directing the flames she had conjured.

Like solar flares, she guided the flames into the misty walls. Though the dungeon was cold, her magic did not waver. Despite the substantial drain on her magical power, its effect would undoubtedly be brutal.

Lenaya went down to her knees. She had never felt this cold in her life she began vomiting blood. Redgar who was near to her immediately went to her side and checked her. She was severely weakened.

“Something is wrong! It shouldn’t be like this!! The mist!! It's draining my powers!!” Lenaya complained.

Elway who was waiting for the explosion shuddered, the loud noise didn’t come, like the one he should have expected before. He checked his items, it was important to know how much he had since he worked like the artificer of the party. To his surprise, the canister he threw behind them was still there. He double-checked the Fire Stones and the same 34 count was still there.

“Alphecca!! We are in an illusion!!!” he screamed. But the state of Lenaya didn’t explain why she was vomiting blood. To that note how could he feel their presence and her magic depleting it was really weird.

On the dance of the dodging the icicle Alphecca heard it. “Tristana!!! You were in front of me when we sat right!!!?” he was trying to remember something.

“I don’t know?” she said then Icicles began emerging on the ground where the mist was too.

Redgar immediately took Lenaya in his arms to help her.

Alphecca closed his eyes. He was sure that Tristana was just in front of him when they rested. “Conjure a spear straight!!” he commanded, it was a demand.

“Are you crazy!! I’m also in an illusion!!” she said.

“You can find your center anywhere… illusion magic is my weakness, you are the only one who could break us free… start with me,” it was a very rare appreciation coming from the man.

“...I’m flattered… you ought to say that to me from time to time… prepare I will not hold back,” although the situation was dire, her lips curved. She glanced at Elway and he nodded, rummaging again in his bag he threw a clothes that began floating in the air.

Tristana flipped and stepped to it. It gave her the sweet time to close her eyes. Elway and the Black Hood proceeded to block any icicle shards that were aimed at the floating Tristana.

Tristana’s hand glowed “Grit your teeth Alphecca!!” and she conjured a spear and trusted it to the air.

(Note: The clothes work like Aladdin's magic carpet, it floats! But just for a few moments!)