"Of course, it's your fault. You're the one who said this was easy," Hera put up another stone barrier between her and the battalion on the other side of the room, "Yes, it is… yes, it is. Stop giving me lip and toss something at them."

Hera was using her wind feathers trying to stop the attacks, but it was hard to use that spell while trying to avoid killing them. She still felt weird about killing people inside a dungeon or a place like this but beating the crap out of them was completely fine, especially after what they did to Fitz. She considered using poison, but she never tried using that spell to do something nonlethal. Even the targets that weren't killed by her poison would be so severely affected that it was hard to imagine them surviving for an extended period after the fight.

"For fuck… I'm not telling you to stop protecting Fitz. Just toss a spell or something at them. Anything to give us some breathing room. Why are you being like that now?" Hera sighed.

Daskka tossed a few mist blades, but just like Hera, she was too used to killing her targets. When trying to pull her punches, the spells ended up being too weak to actually do anything.

Hera glanced at Daskka, understanding why she was struggling so much. She created another stone barrier since the one she just made had almost collapsed. Thinking quickly, Hera considered her options. Going back shouldn't work. Whoever was attacking them had a home-field advantage. They should be used to traveling around those twisting corridors, and if she ended up in a dead-end, things would go south fast.

Pushing forward didn't seem like an option either. There were too many people near the door, and more seemed to come out every second, or they were just swapping places. Hera could barely make the shapes in the entrance, much less understand their actual strategy. The best option would be to find a place to hide. But just staying under a bed was a sure way to get caught. Suddenly an idea popped into her mind. Maybe her memory filter could work. She quickly pushed that idea aside. There were too many variables for the spell to work, not to mention she would need to cast in all three of them and somehow make it so that it wouldn't affect each other.

Instead, Hera decided to go back to the basics. What was the best way to push people away? A very sturdy wall. She slammed her hands on the ground and focused on making a five-meter wide wall that would cover the entire room. It took her around 4 thousand mana to make it, and that was only because she added some defensive properties to the structure. The next step of her plan was to find another exit or just an adjacent room. Moving quickly, she opened the walls on both sides of the room, using her stone shape spell to create holes in the stone. On the right, she only found more rock. It seemed like this place was built using the terrain to its advantage. On the left, however, she found another room. It seemed like a storage area for the kitchen. There were some crates of food racks with pans and other utensils. Seeing that there was another door here, Hera moved towards it. It was open, and there was a kitchen on the other side, with another exit.

"Come here. Daskka, bring Fitz over. Go to the kitchen and let me know if anyone shows up," as Hera spoke, she rushed to the large dormitory again. Using another chunk of her mana, she pushed the stone wall she created forward. She wanted to make a mess out of everything to make her escape less apparent. While the wall was heading forward, Hera created another dozen walls all around her to make it seem like she had gone out of control. Not that she ever heard of anyone losing control of their magic like that aside from Amanda in the moon dungeon, but it was worth a shot.

After pushing the wall to the entrance, Hera jumped back to the storage and closed it with her stone wall in hopes that the people who were coming wouldn't notice the difference between her wall and the structure of the area.

"Did you see anyone?" Hera asked as she reached the kitchen. She didn't realize it before, but some of the pots in the stoves were boiling with some soup, which meant it shouldn't take long for someone to come here.

"We didn't, but there was some noise coming from the other room," Fitz replied, not wanting to be excluded from the conversion again.

"Ok, we are going to hide again, but if we see anyone, we knock them out before anything. Some of them might be friendly, but I'm not taking any chances," people would always be the most complicated enemy. They could lie, trick, and cheat their way out of any situation, and with Fitz's freedom in the line, she wasn't going to give them that chance.

Moving close to the ground, they started walking away from the kitchen. On the other side of the door, there were a few people, probably the chef and her staff. With her [Hide] activated, Hera continued walking by the kitchen, trying to reach the other exit. One of her steps ended up making too much noise, and that caused two of the five people in the room to look up and start to get closer to the explorer. Hera glanced at the kitchen and, through the small opening in the door, she saw the large soup pot. With a flick of her writs, she tossed a wind feather at the pot, hoping that the noise would be enough to distract them. Magic was weird in a way. It would take a lot for her to miss a stationary target. Almost like the spell understood what her target was.

The wind feather flew through the air, almost invisible, and slammed against the pot, causing a large banging noise, but it did little more than just make the chef look up from the table. However, the noise didn't stop there. Hera's spell ricocheted in the pot and started banging other utensils until hitting the bottom of a cabinet, which caused a number of plates to fall to the ground. That secondary noise was enough to grab everyone's attention, making the chef and all her staff run towards the kitchen and start yelling. Hera didn't even bother trying to understand what they were saying and just bolted out of the dining area—finding herself in another corridor with two guards patrolling the area.

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Daskka jumped at one of them, wrapping mist around their neck and trying to get them into something similar to a chokehold. At the same time, Hera tossed a pair of paralyzing bolts and a spore cloud around both of them. Someone sneezing wasn't going to be an issue, but if they called for backup, that would be a problem. With the attacks, one of the guards went out cold, while the second one was paralyzed. Daskka let go of one of the guard's neck and jumped to the next, doing the same chokehold she did before. Hera moved over and slammed the back of her handaxe in the guard's head, speeding up the process of knocking them out.

"This was… surprisingly well done," Fitz said while they were still in the cloud of mist.

"What, you expected us to mess up?"

"Not quite, but considering how you two seem to bicker, I expected your attacks to be less of a well-oiled machine."

Hera and Daskka looked at each other and smiled, "Messing with each other like that is new. But we work great together. Now let's keep going. You can tell how awesome we are later."

Moving through the rest of the corridor, Hera was trying to find the corner room. Someplace that would divide the inside and the outside. As long as they get there, she should be able to open a hole to run away from whatever this place is. They kept going through the corridor, running as fast as they could not to let the army that was in the dorm reach them. Not that they heard any noise, but it was just a matter of time before they figured out Hera's hidden exit. They followed the turns in the corridors for about a minute when Hera bumped into someone. It was another guard. This one was wearing full plate armor and had what looked like a golden hawk-themed helmet. Whoever this was, it seemed like he had a higher standing among the people in here.

"Who are you?" the guard asked, but his expression changed as soon as Daskka and Fitz appeared from the corner.

Hera had no idea what the meaning of that change was, and she wasn't about to wait to figure it out. She pulled her handaxe and slammed the back of it on the guard's stomach, denting the metal. At the same time, she pulled a stone wall from the ceiling to come down on top of his head. She wanted to use the impact to knock them out, just like what she did with the other guards, but the stone just broke, and the guard didn't even flinch. Instead, he pulled a dagger and stabbed Hera. The movement was too quick for her to avoid. The dagger slammed against her armor, protecting her from the blade, but the force was still strong enough to push her back. Seeing that, Dasska created her mist trail and attacked the guard repeatedly. Hera was having some trouble catching her breath, but she wasn't going to let her pet fight alone. She threw a paralyzing bolt and a few wind feathers while she managed to get her bearings. The guard attacked Daskka, trying to stab her with his dagger. On his back, there was a large spear, but it was too big for him to pull it out in these narrow hallways.

Daskka was doing her best to avoid the attacks, but it was clear that she was losing the fight. A couple of the strikes even managed to slash her body. Unlike it would be with a real snake, each cut just revealed the light of her mana inside her form. Seeing that, Hera was enraged. Not only did the people of this place torture Fitz, but they were also attacking Dasska like that. She triggered her boots again and started sprinting around the guard, leaving a trail of red mist behind her as she slammed her handaxe on the back of Daskka's attacker.

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[All in] effects activated, the cooldown will now start

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The blade of her weapon sunk deep into the guard's armor, and when Hera pulled it away, a trail of blood followed her handaxe. Her target fell to the ground, motionless, be it because he was dead or because he was now paralyzed due to a severed spine. Hera didn't know. While she was still seeing red, a noise coming from the back of this corridor caught her attention. Another guard was coming, and Hera bull rushed her without even a second thought. Raising her axe, she was ready to cut that person's neck when the rage subsided. Instead, she just slammed the handle on her head to knock her out.

Daskka and Fitz came right behind her, and the guide had a worried expression, but they didn't say anything. This next room was very small. There was a small window by the ceiling and a wooden seat with a hole in the middle. Only then was Hera hit by the smell.

"OK, I pity whoever has to clean this up," Hera felt her nose burning, but she used her stone shape to make a hole right under the window. This led to the outside, and it seemed like they were on the ground floor. Fitz's eyes began to water as they looked to the sky. It's been a long time since they could see that shade of blue.

Hera didn't allow him to enjoy the view for long. She kept running with Daskka following close by. More and more of the snake's mana was leaking from the wounds. It wouldn't be the first time the construct was destroyed in combat, but that wasn't something Hera liked. Daskka was her friend, and she had to protect her.

Sprinting through this field, Hera could tell they were inside a keep. And, to her luck, there was a gate close by to the right. Without a second thought, Hera turned in that direction and kept going at full speed. Her hope was that Fitz would tell her that the interference was gone when they crossed the gate, and she could try calling Peaches. Halfway through the area, she heard some yelling. The people who were in the dorm room were now spilling out of the building, and they were all running towards her, with spells already forming above them. Hera tossed a spore field and a few stone walls to stop them and to serve as cover.

Some of the fireballs and other incoming spells blasted the area. Hera was hit not only by shrapnel but also by some of the attacks. Each impact seemed to strike harder than she was expecting. A stone shard flew through the air and pierced her shoulder, where her armor was thinner to allow for a better movement.

Daskka turned around to attack whoever hit Hera, but the explorer stopped her, "We need to keep going!"

The snake hissed but continued her path, making sure to dodge all attacks and not to allow Fitz to get hit. They continued running until they crossed the gate. However, the moment Hera stepped through the gate, she was no longer in this keep. Instead, she was back in the private room.

"Well done, kid. I was rooting for you," Peaches said with a large smile.

"What. Where is Fitz?" Hera looked around, trying to see what happened with the guide.

"They were just a part of the test. Fitz was never real. That being said, what happened to him was close to what happened to the guide who got trapped. Anyhow, this was a special test that the guides agreed to give you, and now. We have a gift for you," as Peaches finished talking, a notification appeared in front of Hera.