“Huh,” Heath said, staring at the dead end.

Mel looked over. “Legolas, what do your Ohio eyes see?”

Heath sighed and shook his head. “This isn’t normal ice.”

Mel struggled not to make another joke. “How so?”

“For one, it’s black.”

“Everything is black without light,” Mel told him.

He paused and turned toward her. “Wait, I just noticed that you’ve been walking beside me this whole time. How can you see?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Mel said.

“I have [Dark Vision]. It lets me see in the pitch darkness as if it were dimly lit. Full color and everything too, none of that black-and-white garbage from DND.”

“And that ice is black?” Mel asked.

He nodded. “The rest are varying shades of blue.”

Mel couldn’t tell colors unless they had to do with heat. To her, the barrier looked no different from any other cold chunk of ice.

“If you don’t have [Dark Vision], then…what sort of aspect skill are you using to see?”

“It’s like thermal vision. Everything’s kind of the same color,” Mel said, underplaying the detail she could actually perceive.

“Damn,” he whispered. “That sounds awesome.”

“It is,” Mel agreed. “Do you think you can get through the ice? You’ve got a whole shadow motif going on.”

“That’s hurtful. You’re stereotyping right now.”

“Your point?”

Heath mumbled something.

“What was that?” Mel asked.

“I can get through, but it’ll take some time.”

Mel looked up and down the tunnel. “The only danger we have is freezing to death, so you better hop to it.”

“I won’t be able to do anything else while I’m trying to break through,” Heath explained. “You’ll have to protect me.”

Again, Mel looked up and down the tunnel. The empty tunnel. “Yeah, I think I’ve got that covered. I’ll just go down here to the split and make sure nothing gets past me.”

She was certain he was afraid of being stabbed in the back. As she walked away, she glanced at him over her shoulder. He looked far more relaxed now that she was farther away from him.

Guy gets stabbed one time and suddenly it’s all he can think about, Mel chided him mentally. Did he ever ask if I was stabbed? No. I’ve been stabbed dozens of times and I turned out just fine.

Mel grumbled to herself for a while, mostly to keep her mind occupied. Then she began to wonder. After hitting Copper, her memories were coming back fast and hard. She still had more holes in her memories than an adulterer’s alibi, but they would fill in over time.

She remembered that she had gone to Aldim and joined up with a man named Hal, a Founder in desperate need of a friend. She had been integral in keeping the Founder and his dreams alive. Using the name of Mira, she became one of the leaders of Brightsong—and later Dalmanii and other cities—for crying out loud!

Not sure how I could forget that. How many years did I serve on that Council?

More importantly, she remembered things that she hadn’t shared with anybody on Aldim except Hal. She was from Earth. She was a student, a Magi, at Brookmoors Academy. A highly exclusive (and hidden) magical feeder school.

The question that was on her mind was: if she was here, then how many more Magi were in this competition? She should have remembered how she got here, and that was still a big blank. That could mean something devastating happened, or she was just suffering from both Realmwalking and an uplift simultaneously.

I don’t think anybody’s ever done them both at the same time, Mel thought.

Was it only that wolven viking and her? Mel didn’t recognize her, but she did wear the Magi insignia.

Maybe a fellow Magi would have some answers.

“I’m through!” Heath said several long minutes later. Minutes filled with absolutely zero monsters and no back stabbing of any kind.

“Can’t help but notice that you didn’t get stabbed,” Mel said as she came up to the broken hole in the wall of ice.

Heath was already on the other side. “The ice is reforming, I would hurry up,” he advised. “And I’ll thank you not to joke about my traumatic experience. A man never forgets the first time somebody else was inside him.”

Mel slipped through the tightening gap, was tempted to make a lewd comment, but stopped herself, then looked Heath up and down. “You came through on your end, so I’ll be nice.”

Heath stared agog at her. “This is you being nice?”

Mel leaned in. Even on this scrawny kid, she didn’t come up past his shoulder. “Sweet as poison pie.”

“Is that a thing?” Heath asked as she pushed past him. “Mel! Is that a thing here?”

She didn’t answer as she led the way forward. Her infravision allowed her to see a detailed view of the tunnel’s many features, including: ice, slightly wavy ice, subtly different ice, blue ice, frozen water, and of course everybody’s favorite, frost.

The sound of rushing water drew their attention. “Is that a waterfall?” Mel asked quietly.

“How would that be possible?”

Mel shrugged and slowed down so she wouldn’t be caught off guard as she rounded the next bend. The sound was louder here as the tunnel entered a large circular chamber with a lower floor.

The upper level of the chamber was broken in two places. On the left, a steaming waterfall made passage all but impossible. The right had suffered a collapse of some kind, piled high with rock and ice.

A small pool off to the side radiated oranges and reds to Mel’s eyes, filling the immediate area with warmth that quickly turned to ice. She watched as the tiny motes of heat cooled until they were turned to ice and fell to the ground.

She swept her gaze around the room, nodded to herself, and jumped down into the empty pit. About halfway there, Heath came around the bend and shouted at her.

Mel didn’t hear what he had to say, but there were only so many things somebody would be shouting. Mel immediately summoned her twinblade and dropped flat to the ground.

Something heavy and fast whooshed through the air right over her head. She rolled around and got her feet under her, but couldn’t see anything.

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The hell?

She immediately used [Hidden Mist] and dropped [Gaze of the Serpent] since it was useless. The mist spread out, though Mel could only tell because of her connection to the aspect.

Her eyes might as well have been shut. All she saw was infinite darkness.

A pair of daggers whistled over Mel’s head and hit something that sounded like a mix between a concrete wall and tile.

Carapace!

Mel would remember that sound no matter how long she lived. You didn’t forget the sound of a blade bouncing off a giant insectile (or worse, crab) shell.

She threw herself to the side but couldn’t dodge the swiping claw that crushed her ribs and sent her flying through the darkness. She hit the ice and slid to a stop.

“I can’t see through this fog!” Heath shouted. “Mel, are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Mel said, granting him the ability to see through the fog. “I hope your vision doesn’t get blown out from this!”

Mel hastily tried to replicate the effect with [Hidden Mist] that allowed her to limit who was able to see through the magical fog. Instead of the fog itself, she tried to limit the lighting to just her.

When Heath didn’t cry out, Mel figured it worked.

Either that, or his vision works differently than night vision goggles.

It was only then that Mel saw the sedan-sized scorpion, its hairy tail dripping with green poison as it hung overhead, ready to spear Heath.

She had to give the boy credit. He was fast on his feet. Despite being from the same boring Earth as her friends, he had fully committed to the adventurer lifestyle.

It would seem not everyone struggled to adapt.

Though he does complain about being stabbed a lot.

Still, she would take that over full-blown trauma. Being stabbed nearly to death sucked. Mel didn’t really blame him.

Now that she could see the scorpion’s blue carapace, Mel used [Omen Mark]. With [Hidden Mist] illuminating the immediate area, and her innate awareness of the scorpion, Mel was no longer fighting blind.

She spun her twinblade, a streak of fire brightening up the mist slightly as she charged the creature.

This is fun.

Heath looked up with two daggers in his fists, the blades sticking out past his knuckles.

Aspect Skill: [Fanning Ravens]

His hands blurred, and the weapons flew, followed by the shadowy phantoms of multiple knife-like ravens. Using that aspect skill, he effectively duplicated his throwing daggers.

Most bounced off the scorpion’s hide, but a couple of those ravens sunk in between the plates.

Mel raised her twinblade and slashed down hard at a joint, but the scorpion was faster than she anticipated and scuttled sideways right into her attack.

It couldn’t attack her, but it didn’t need to when its body was like a battering ram. Mel was thrown to the side. She twisted and turned, avoiding the eight skittering legs that tried to skewer her.

Something glinted in the chaos, and Mel realized it was a large metal wedge buried deep in the under carapace. It looked like the tip of a ballista bolt.

Mel twisted about and kicked it with one leg. The unexpected force sent her rocketing out from beneath it, which was a good thing because the creature went into a blind rage.

Letting out a noise that would haunt her dreams, the scorpion screeched and spun about while slashing with its claws and stabbing wildly with its tail in all directions.

A faint wind rose up all around it. The pressure in the room increased until Mel thought her ears would pop. Waves of strength rolled out from the scorpion, telling her in no uncertain terms that this foe was stronger than her.

It took all but a moment for Mel to shrug off the pressure. She focused on the creature in a similar way to examining an item.

Bingo.

[Frostbite Scorpion (High Copper Rank)]

Mel winced.

She didn’t even know there was a distinction between different levels of Copper. There had been nothing of the sort for Mundane.

The scorpion finished its thrashing once it realized it wasn’t being attacked anymore. When Mel looked over at Heath, the bottom out of her stomach dropped out.

He was on his knees, trembling from the might of the scorpion. She had to remind herself that this was his first time dealing with something like this. He wasn’t trained. He definitely wasn’t a born fighter.

Mel rushed over and shoulder checked him out of the way. It was the best way she knew how to knock him out of his stupor. He hit the icy ground hard and slid across the arena.

Using [Tempest Heart], Mel only had a few moments to decide what storm she wanted to invoke. [Rainstorm] would be the obvious choice. It boosted agility, stamina, and mana. [Firestorm] however, increased her strength, her fire affinity on her weapon, and most importantly reduced the effects of ice-based skills.

When she saw the frigid cone of air blasting from its mandibles, Mel knew precisely what to choose.

Monster Skill: [Frost Breath]

[Firestorm] flared around her like a tornado of flame. It swirled and raged, burning away her [Hidden Mist] with its heat until she reinforced the Mist skill with more mana.

Without using [Gaze of the Serpent], she could afford to use more of her mana. Plus, she had some mana potions as backup when needed.

Jumping with all her [Firestorm] infused strength, Mel leapt high above the cone of cold air and came down right on top of the scorpion’s body.

She barely had time to brace herself on its hairy, icy carapace before she threw up her twinblade to block the incoming tail strike.

Poison dripped from the tip, hitting her shoulder and burning her armor like acid. Mel gritted her teeth and shifted her grip to bring the twinblade up and around. Flames licked at the scorpion’s body and tail as they swirled around Mel.

Another gout of flame attacked the scorpion, this one coming from her twinblade. The strike caught between two sections of armored carapace entirely on accident. Unwilling to let such fortune go to waste, Mel shifted her feet and wrenched the twinblade with all she had.

The blade cut through the tough membrane of the joint and slipped into soft flesh beneath, scorching and burning as it went.

Its barbed tail twitched and spasmed as Mel sawed through it. The tail struck her awkwardly once, twice, three times before she managed to finish the job.

The tip of the scorpion’s stinger–the size of a ripe watermelon–fell free to the floor and immediately turned to ice before shattering.

Its wound iced over, stopping the blood loss.

Heath had recovered by then and used Mel’s distraction to maximum effect. He darted to the scorpion’s massive claw and slapped it like he was trying to spook a horse.

For a moment, all the colors of the room inverted. The hardened carapace under Mel’s feet suddenly felt soggy and squishy, like wet cardboard.

Aspect Skill: [Invert Red-Blue]

“Attack it! I don’t know how long this’ll last!” Heath screamed.

Mel didn’t need to be told twice.

She drove her twinblade down on top of the scorpion’s previously iron-hard shell like she was trying to drive a fence post into the ground.

The twinblade ripped through its shell without issue and the scorpion let out a hideous screech that would have ruptured Mel’s eardrums if she wasn’t Copper.

As the scorpion skittered about, she wrenched her twinblade this way and that. Daggers lashed out into the scorpion’s oddly softened hide.

In a matter of moments, they were able to deal substantial damage to it. Heath kept it occupied and enraged enough to avoid doing anything stupid like trying to flip onto its back, while Mel attacked with abandon. The creature’s legs gave out, and it crashed to the floor, never to move again.

You defeat the [Frostbite Scorpion (High Copper Rank)].

You gain extra runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, and Omen aspect experience.

You gain extra Battle Points.

The spear tip of the ballista bolt launched through the rest of its softened shell and nearly impaled Mel on top of it.

Mel hopped off to study their handiwork when the poison hit. “Damn, Heath. Good jerb–”

The world suddenly tilted sideways as Mel fell over.