Three streams of flames washed out from Avery’s rapier, Roman’s gauntlets, and Rez’s wand. Mercer stood closely behind Rez playing his violin, sending ripples of mana out to the three of them, trying to keep their mana up for as long as he could.

Sweat rolled down their foreheads as they focused on the task before them. Their faces were strained from the focus they tried keeping.

Blair stood next to Avery while Artem was next to Roman and Anna next to Rez. The three of them held bottles of Weak Orange Stamina Potions and held them close to their teammates lips to let them drink without stopping their spells.

Ariyana stared at Mercer and noticed he was starting to strain while he kept playing his song. She knew that even though he was replenishing the others’ mana, his was draining.

No one wanted to attempt to feed him a mana potion in fear they would cause him to stop playing due to bumping in to him. However, she knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the mana expenditure he was going through to keep the others full.

Coming to a decision, she looked in her inventory and saw she still had three Weak Blueberry Mana Potions and two Blueberry Mana Potions they were saving for an emergency.

After grabbing a Weak Blueberry Mana Potion, Ariyana made her way over to Mercer.

Mercer raised a brow as he stared at her. He then noticed the vial in her hand and gave her a smile.

“You’re going to have to try and reach over from behind me if you want to feed it to me,” Mercer suggested.

Ariyana nodded and did as he suggested. After standing on her tippy toes, she reached her arm around the side his violin wasn’t on and angled it in a way that wouldn’t hinder his playing. After tipping the vial and allowing the liquid to slowly roll into his mouth she watched as the others who weren’t part of the plan stare out to the other side of the iced wall.

Firey explosions and trees suddenly sprouting within groups of undead monsters suddenly appeared.

They weren’t sure what was going on over there, but they knew something had changed.

After the last of the liquid was drank, Ariyana pulled her arm away.

“As dire as the situation is, I wouldn’t put it past him for coming up with some new power we didn’t know about,” Mercer stated.

“I wouldn’t put it past Jude either,” Mia suddenly said behind both of them.

“He is definitely an interesting guy,” Mercer agreed.

“He’s like a more violent version of Liam,” Ariyana commented remembering seeing him fight when she and Liam ran over to help them.

“I don’t know about that,” Mia started. “Even if he didn’t have all the power he has now, he was still pretty violent when we fought in the arena. Cunning too.”

Mercer let out a short laugh remembering that.

Before anyone can say anything else, Mia asked, “So how sure are you that this will work?”

“I don’t know,” Mercer answered. “There’s a low chance it will, but as long as there’s a chance I will try it.”

Mia studied Mercer from behind. She wasn’t one for taking chances, especially when the end results weren’t clear. She knew Mercer was the same. He didn’t like to partake in plans when the probability wasn’t higher than ninety percent. However, hearing him say this made her realize that he had changed since coming to this world. Whether it was good or bad, she didn’t know.

Before she could say anything a strange crack suddenly echoed on their side of the room.

Mercer scanned the area to see where it came from. He wasn’t the only one. Everyone else did as well.

After looking around and not finding anything he faced forward and focused on what he was doing.

Another cracking sound echoed.

Confused Mercer looked around again. Once more he didn’t see where it was coming from. Where is that coming fro… Mercer began to think while turning to face forward again. His thought came to a stop as he noticed something on the ice wall.

Right above where the flames were being blasted at, a thick line slowly rose.

Mercer smiled as he realized where the sound was coming from.

“Keep it up guys!” Mercer shouted.

Avery, Rez, and Roman grunted as they focused on their spells.

Mercer turned his head enough to glance at Mia and stated, “Get ready.”

Confused, Mia asked, “What do you mean? Why are you telling me to get…”

Mercer noticed the realization on her face as a light bulb clicked.

“Is it working?” Mia questioned.

Mercer nodded. “Start charging ten seconds after I charge mine.”

Mia nodded as she took a few steps back; away from him.

Mercer faced forward once more and stared at the line. He noticed several other cracks starting to spiderweb out to the left and right of it.

Ok, I think I should start charging myself. Mercer thought as he stopped playing his violin and switched it for his bow.

The other members of the group who were standing around noticed the music had stopped playing and turned their attention to Mercer.

Artem and Blair gave Mercer a grin as they felt him start to channel a lot of mana.

Ariyana understood what was going on as she saw Mercer start to channel his mana. She then yelled out, “Avery, Roman, Rez, go ahead and stop. Everyone get away from the area and get ready!”

Avery, Roman, and Rez released their spells and felt their bodies feel heavy. Artem, Blair, and Anna helped the three out of the way as they drank a few potions.

Mercer felt the mana he was channeling build up. It was heavy and dense as he tried to squeeze as much as he could. He looked at the spot where they had the Wave of Ignition spells repeatedly crashing and saw an indent in the wall with several cracks painted across it.

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He then focused his attention on the undead creature that was right behind the area where the biggest crack was. He took in a deep breath, gripped his bow string, and slowly pulled back on it.

As he pulled back on the bow string, a massive thick arrow started to form. The mana he had channeled started to condense around the arrow, lighting it up with a brilliant red and orange flame.

After letting all the mana he had channeled encase the arrow, he slowly released the air he brought in and said before releasing the bow string, “True Shot.”

Mercer watched as the arrow flew fast towards its target. He kept his eyes on it right up to the point it crashed right into the area where the biggest crack was. As soon as the thick fiery arrow collided into the wall a massive explosion erupted, letting out a shockwave as well as a loud boom upon impact.

The sound of solid objects smashing, and breaking echoed as dust covered the area he had struck.

Everyone watched and waited for the dust to settle to see if they had broken through the ice wall. A few seconds had passed dispersing the cloud that was blocking their view to reveal a hole big enough for three people to go through.

Not waiting to admire the work they had done, Mercer ran to his left and shouted, “Go for it Mia!”

Mia, who was standing a few feet away from him, narrowed her eyes to aim for a creature farthest away. She noticed a figure wearing a raven black cloak with cat ears and was confused at first who it could be. She was going to aim for him, but then noticed the Dryad female close to him. She then spotted an Elite Skeleton Soldier closer and aimed for it instead. After locking on to her target she released her arrow and repeated Mercer’s words, “True Shot.”

She watched as it sailed with much more speed than Mercer’s right through the sea of undead creatures. The arrow moved up a bit so not to collide with the other undead that weren’t her target. However, the heat radiating from the arrow as well as the speed, caught the Mummy Guards and Zombies on fire as well as knocked all the creatures off their feet.

With a smile she continued to watch her arrow until it collided into the Elite Skeleton Soldier and slammed him into the wall, shattering its form and killing it in an instant.

“Defenders!” Mercer yelled out. “Charge!”

A loud roar erupted from the defenders of all four groups right before they sprinted for the hole.

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Liam fell to his side after feeling the shockwave of the arrow crashing into the undead creature and slamming it into the wall.

“What the hell,” Liam groaned in complaint as he slowly got back to his feet.

“What the fuck was that?!” Inyis shouted.

Liam noticed that she too fell down.

“If I had to make a guess, I believe that was a True Shot attack,” Liam replied.

Inyis looked at him with a confused look and asked, “A True Shot attack?”

“It’s a Zodiac ability,” Liam replied before looking around their side of the battle field.

Many of the monsters that were in the line of the shot were moving around sporadically as flames danced around their bodies. As they moved around, more zombies and Mummy Guards close by them caught on fire as the ones covered in flames collided into them.

As Liam saw this, he noticed something else. Ghastly green orbs started to float above the heads of the creatures. They seemed to be escaping the groups of monsters.

Liam stared at one and tried assessing it. He was surprised when a notification appeared.

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“Common Soul Orb of Mummy Guard. Item Type – Crafting Material (Spirit).”

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Huh, a new crafting material. Liam thought as he stared at it. He was about to think about what exactly he could use it for until he noticed a couple of orbs started to float towards a certain area almost like they were being sucked away.

He followed where they went until his gaze landed upon the Lich who had his hand out gathering multiple orbs towards him.

Why is he… Liam started to think until realization appeared. He then muttered to himself, “He’s gathering the soul orbs for another attempt at summoning. Shit, we need to stop him.”

He was about to rush in the Lich’s direction until another thought came to mind. Watching the Lich suck the orbs towards him reminded him that he had an ability he received but hadn’t used yet.

Liam placed his Shadow Blade dagger into his left hip sheath and then looked at the weightless Spectral Lantern he had forgotten about. The fact it was weightless and didn’t hit his side as he moved made him completely forget it was there.

He gripped it and pulled it away from his hip and stared at the area where the Soul Orbs were starting to move away. He realized he wouldn’t be able to reach them due to how far they were.

He then judged the distance of the ones close to the moving orbs that were still floating around. They were barely in range, but he knew he could reach them. Without hesitation, he called out, “Soul Harvest.”

The Spectral Lantern lit up with the creepily ghastly green light that was inside. A glass section suddenly opened up on its own allowing the light to shine even brighter out from it.

Liam watched the closest orbs that were hovering around the area where dead creatures laid shudder. Then after a moment had passed the collective amount of orbs shot towards the lantern in one swift movement.

Without having to do anything, Liam saw all the orbs within the radius, given in the flavor text, fly right into the Spectral Lantern. Once when the last orb entered the lantern the glass door shut.

A slew of chimes echoed in Liam’s mind letting him know he’ll have even more notifications to look at later.

Before Liam could say or think anything, he heard a loud angry roar coming from the Lich’s direction.

“No! How dare you! Those are mine!” The Lich yelled out with much frustration.

“What’d you do Liam?” Jude shouted with a bit of confusion.

Liam gave him a grin as he replied, “I took away his crafting materials.”

Aranis, and Inyis whirled their heads to look at him and, just like Jude, gave him a very confused look.

“What?” Jude asked with furrowed brows.

“Long story short, I took away the souls he’s collecting to try another summoning,” Liam replied with a disappointed look.

“Oh,” Jude said while looking back at the monsters in front of him. He had cleared enough of them that there was some space around him. “Say that next time.”

Liam rolled his eyes.

Inyis and Aranis stared at Liam with an even more confused look than they had before as they tried processing what he said.

After a couple of seconds had passed, Jude blinked then looked back at Liam and shouted, “Wait, you did what?!”

Liam raised a brow. He then said with a nonchalant tone of voice, “I took away the souls that he was trying to collect.”

“How?” Inyis questioned. “How were you able to do that?”

“Did it have something to do with that lantern of yours?” Aranis inquired. “I saw some sort of light bright up from your direction but didn’t pay it any mind since it could have been a spell.”

“Yeah, it was an ability of mine,” Liam stated. “I can see the orbs without Mana Sight and collect them with an ability of mine.”

“That’s not freaky at all,” Jude commented.

“Says the guy that looks like his sweating flames every now and then,” Liam quipped.

“Fair point,” Jude said. “But I’m not sweating…”

“You said the Lich was collecting the souls of the monsters we’re killing?” Inyis cut in.

“Yeah, every time we kill monsters he pulls them towards his hand,” Liam stated. “We can’t let him continue to do it or he’ll be able to regain the amount he needs to do his summoning I think.”

“That’s not good,” Inyis said.

“I agree,” Liam nodded.

“Sounds like we’ll need to rethink our strategy then,” Aranis suggested.

“Anyone got an idea of what we can do?” Jude asked.

“We need to kill monsters close enough for Liam to collect them before the Lich can,” Aranis said.

“Can you move around while collecting the souls or are you stuck in one place?” Inyis inquired.

“I don’t know if I can move around while harvesting but I can try,” Liam answered.

“Alright then our next issue is the open doors,” Aranis stated. “I don’t know how many monsters there are, but it looks like more and more are piling in. We need to…”

Before Aranis could finish what he was saying they heard a couple people shout, “Stone Spike!”

The four turned to see four giant spikes made of stone shoot up by the door to their left.

Liam smiled as he commented, “Looks like they had the same idea.”

As Liam stared he noticed the willow trees Inyis had grown. They were standing strong even while the undead monsters around them swung their swords at their trunks.

An idea formed as he looked at them, but first tried looking for certain monsters around any of them.

He couldn’t see any Mummy Guards around the trees so he wasn’t sure if they would have any resistance to their magic. It would be a gamble, but if it worked and there weren’t any of those creatures left in the other hallway then they might be able to block it.

“Inyis, do you think you can block the other door with some of the willow trees you made earlier?” Liam asked as he looked at her.

Inyis looked at him and then at the door over to the right wall. “I might be able to grow a few to block and trap some of the monsters, but I’ll need to get closer to be able to reach that far.”

Jude gave a wicked grin as he said, “So what I’m hearing is, you need us to clear you a path.”