Alex backed up until his shoulders pressed up against the wall behind him. It was too dark in the room for him to cover every angle, so cutting off one of them would go a long way.

Claire followed him — and their dim light source — back. She held her sword in a tight grip, but it was clear that she wasn’t in the best shape to fight. The wound Glint had left on her was still bleeding pretty badly and she’d just been smacked in the head with a pretty large rock. On top of that, now that they were closer, Alex picked up on a fair amount of dirt and marred spots on her clothes.

It looked like she’d been traveling for quite some time. While that lent quite a bit of credence to her claims of being from a different planet, it also meant she was probably quite tired.

“Why isn’t it attacking us?” Claire asked, waving her sword through the darkness. “Maybe we should head back out onto the street. It’s giving us a way out.”

Alex resisted the urge to glance at the door. It wasn’t too far from them… but he wasn’t so sure he believed that the Shade was just going to let them go. And, somewhere deep inside himself, he had to admit that wasn’t so sure he himself wanted to leave.

Fighting a City-Eating Centipede was impossible… but he’d beaten a Novice 2 Shaded Hauntling when he’d completely butchered the fight. If there was any realistic chance that he could come out on top against the Shade, he was going to take it.

“How much stronger is a Novice 4 than a Novice 1?” Alex asked.

“A good bit,” Claire muttered. She edged toward the door then jerked back with a hiss. Something flashed through the darkness, but she managed to pull herself out of the way just in time. She hurriedly backed up into the faint light cast by the match. “Shit. Okay. It might not be willing to let us go easily.”

Hardly a surprise. I haven’t met much here yet, but I’d be willing to take a bet that everything in the Mirrorlands wants to kill us.

“Can’t you see in the dark?” Alex asked. “Where’s the monster?”

“I can’t see in the dark. I can pick up strong heat signatures — and that bleeding thing doesn’t have one.”

They both scanned the shadows, but the Shade wasn’t making any more moves. Alex’s eyes flicked to the match. It was already halfway burned through. The monster was probably waiting for it to go out completely.

“How much stronger is a Novice 4 than a Novice 1 and a Novice 3 working together?”

“When the Novice 3 is half-dead? My money’s on the spook.”

I wish I still had Glint to work with. I need to get myself more summons as soon as possible.

“Great. I hate sides with good odds. The payout is always worse,” Alex said. “The Shade is scared of the fire. It can also put it out, but it’s not getting close enough to us to actually do that.”

“I’m a big believer of talking things out, but are you going anywhere with this?” Claire asked tersely. “Because that little match isn’t going to last much longer and I don’t have another one. You’d best get to the point.”

“I don’t have one! I’m just trying to list everything we know. Do you know if the monsters can understand us?”

“Never tried talking to them myself. I’ve got no bleeding idea. Probably not? Most of the ones back in my world couldn’t.”

“Great. Then it can’t figure out what we’re planning.”

“We don’t have a plan.”

“I just came up with one. You’re going to stab it.”

Claire snorted. “Great plan. And how are we going to do that?”

“I’m going to go for the door with my match. When it tries to stab me, I’ll duck out of the way — and you take that moment to cut at it.”

“And if it doesn’t try to go for you?”

“Then we just walk right on out of here,” Alex replied, starting to edge toward the door. He really wished that Claire had invested in some slightly higher quality matches. This one was already almost burned all the way through. He couldn’t complain, though — it wasn’t like he’d brought matches of his own.

The shadows shifted. Alex threw himself to the ground and something whooshed over his head. Claire swung her sword and a loud, otherworldly hiss of pain split the air in the room marking that her blow had been successful.

Alex scrambled back to his feet and tore off another piece of his shirt. Beside him, Claire ducked as a dark appendage whipped through the air where her head had been. The Shade was done waiting around.

I don’t know if the monster can actually hear us or not, but no reason to say everything I’m going to do out loud.

Alex pressed the remains of the match to the edge of the cloth scrap he’d torn off. Claire still had the monster’s attention, but she was losing ground quickly. Fortunately, the flame caught to his shirt quickly. Fire engulphed the makeshift rag in seconds.

Golden letters shimmered through the air as he stepped forward and thrust the flaming rag forward, revealing a flicker of the Shade. It was really more of an amorphous blob than a being with actual form, but it shrank back from the light with a hiss.

Claire pressed the brief advantage, diving forward and driving her sword into the Shade’s rippling black body. It bit deep into the shadows that made up the creature and it screamed in pain.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

And, in the brief moment that it was pinned in place, Alex lunged. He slammed the flaming rag right into the center of the monster’s body. The fire caught instantly, as if the Shade was made of tar. Alex pushed away from the monster, shaking his hand off as the fire singed it. A wave of heat washed over his face and he felt an arm snake around his neck, yanking him back an instant before the Shade erupted in a ball of flame.

He and Claire both staggered several steps back as fire roiled across the room and washed over the ceiling like a grease fire gone mad. It burned as quickly as it had started, and the room was plunged into darkness just seconds later.

A rush of cool energy flowed into Alex’s body and he drew in a sharp breath, stiffening in surprise and delight. It was the same sensation he’d gotten after killing the Shaded Haunting, and nothing quite compared to it. He couldn’t quite find a way to describe it other than the feeling he got when he looked in a mirror after going to the gym for a few months and realizing that he’d started to show a little muscle — but magnified by a thousandfold.

The darkness was broken by a tiny flicker of light. A purple-black flame curled up from where the monster had died at their feet.

Claire flopped to the ground behind Alex, letting out a groan. “Too close.”

She’d pulled him out of the way of the fire. If she’d been planning to betray him, that would have been the time to do it. It looked like she’d been honest.

Alex scooped the tiny flame off the ground and pulled Glint’s Spatial Mirror out, pressing the fire to it. With a tingle and a pop, the energy shot into it.

Spatial Mirror

Stored Energy:

Low Novice Grade (Shaded Hauntling) – 1

Low-Mid Novice Grade (Shade) - 1

Bonded Creature: Shardwalker (Regenerating)

Alex released the mirror and it transformed into a streamer of dark energy that shot back into the box at his side. He then edged over to the door and pulled it open a crack, allowing purple-red light to spill into the room.

“What are you doing?” Claire whispered. She’d gone back to trying to wrap her wound with the bandages.

“I can’t see,” Alex whispered back. “And as long as we’re quiet, we won’t draw anything’s attention. Do you need help with that?”

Claire glanced down, then grimaced. “Yeah. That might be nice. Thanks. If you could just hold the bleeding thing in place at the top of my shoulder I can do the rest.”

Alex walked over to her and crouched, doing as she’d asked. Claire wrapped the bandage around herself several times, then tucked it in on itself and let out a mixture between a sigh and a groan. “Thanks.”

“No problem. My monster was the one that cut you in the first place, so I’m partially responsible.”

Claire winced. “Ah. Yeah. Sorry again about your gopher.”

“I told you, it’s fine. He’ll be back soon enough.”

She sent him a doubtful look but didn’t press the matter. “You’re a summoner, then?”

“An Evoker,” Alex corrected, but it didn’t look like the difference meant anything to her. Now that he knew Claire wasn’t moments from betraying him, she was the best source of information he had. “Do you know anything about this place at all? How long have you been down here?”

“I’m not sure. A few days at least. It’s hard to keep track,” Claire admitted. She shifted onto her knees and then rose up to her feet. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“We’ll find a way out,” Alex said with more confidence than he felt. “Have you been down here alone this whole time? There isn’t anyone else?”

Claire’s expression tightened and she looked to the side. “Not anymore. I — it doesn’t matter, actually. There was someone else down here, but they died. It’s just me now. You’re the first new person I’ve seen.”

That wasn’t good news, but Alex didn’t let it hold him up. Information was just information. It was what they did with it that mattered. He clung to the trial that the System had given to him like a raft in a violent storm.

There was no point giving a trial if it was impossible to accomplish. He just had to find out where the escape was. And, in the meantime, he had to learn everything about the System that he could.

“Do you have a class?” Alex asked.

“Yeah. Everyone does,” Claire said with a sigh. “Mine is just kind of useless.”

“How so?”

“I’m a Dhampir Warrior,” Claire said dryly. “You saw when I took my bracelet off, didn’t you?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. What about it? I’ve never heard of it. What can you do? If we’re going to find a way out of here, it would help to know.”

“Here? Nothing. Literally nothing. Dhampirs are energy vampires.” Claire rubbed at her teeth and let out a huff. “The problem is I can’t eat any of the energy down here. Energy is stored in blood, and nothing down here has blood. I might as well not even have a class.”

“Wait. You’re telling me you were a vampire before the System showed up?”

“Dhampir,” Claire corrected, an affronted note in her voice. “And yes. Why? What’s wrong with that?”

“Er… nothing, I suppose. We just didn’t have anything like that on Earth.” He scratched at his chin. It wasn’t really all that much of a surprise if he thought about it. If there was magic in the universe, then it was perfectly realistic for there to be a world where both vampires — or Dhampirs — and matches existed. “No matter. Well… what can you tell me about the System? Anything useful?”

“Kill stuff,” Claire replied immediately. “It makes you stronger. Any challenge related to what you’re aiming for does, really. I’m far from an expert on it.”

That caught Alex’s attention. “Any challenge? What do you mean?”

“The System is a sadist or something,” Claire said with a snort. “The harder something you’re doing is, the better the reward. We figured that out pretty quickly when the easy monsters stopped giving us energy when we killed them.”

“So it’s measured by relative difficulty?” Alex asked, tilting his head to the side. He’d definitely gotten more energy from killing the Shade than he had from the Hauntling.

Claire nodded. “Yup. As far as I know, at least. The first few days of the System’s arrival were mostly a panicked blur. I really don’t have that much time on you. Honestly, I’m surprised you’re not a gibbering mess right now.”

“I’ll save that for once we’re out of here.” Alex chewed his lower lip and looked over his shoulder at the street behind them. “If it’s relative challenge… what would happen if you made a fight harder for yourself?”

“I don’t know. That sounds like a good way to get yourself killed. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we aren’t exactly in the right place to test that. The monsters here are nothing like they’re supposed to be. There’s something really bleeding wrong with them.”

“Yeah,” Alex muttered. “I’ve gathered that much.”

His thoughts were still on her answer to his question. If the only thing that mattered was challenge, then it would make logical sense that making a fight harder would result in better rewards. A grin pulled at the corner of his lips.

I can’t just not test this out.

“We should get moving,” Alex said. He poked his head out of the doorway and glanced around the street to check for monsters.

“To where?” Claire asked. “It’s screwed everywhere… unless you happen to have an idea as to how we can get out of this hellhole?”

Alex’s eyes caught on the mountain in the distance once more. It towered over the city, crackles of purple energy dancing at its peak —the exact same color as the portals that the City-Eater Centipedes had been going through.

“You know, I might just have an inkling.”