Getting into the room I can see a wide expanse of more snow and hills, but it’s different from the previous two rooms. Two slopes converged into the middle of the room in a massive, steep, dip.

What am I supposed to do here?

After a second I notice a sled and start walking over there, only to be stopped by Drifa’s slow feet.

“Can we just take a quick break first?”

“No, you ate the jerky right?”

After watching her nod, I pull her along, which she tries to resist this time instead of going slowly.

“I don’t think I can keep up this pace, and I don’t see any danger around us.” She says gesturing around the bland landscape.

“Well, there will be in two minutes if we're not careful. I have a plan, so don’t worry about that. Just make it through the room and you’ll have the rest you want.”

We do need to get moving, I don’t see any monsters around.

Sitting on the front of the wooden toboggan I lightly hold the string in front of me while Drifa sits down and finds her handles which are on either side of her. Looking to the other side I can see that there’s another toboggan that has a tall rabbit in a cloak holding a large jousting staff made of ice with three dashes decorating it.

Odd… Wait.

Pulling out my sword, I hold it with my right side that’s more or less okay.

“Drifa push the sled forward and make sure you’re centred so we don’t turn by accident.”

She didn’t respond, but we were moving forward and that was confirmation enough. Right before I nosedived down the hill a weight returned to the back of the toboggan. After a few more seconds we tipped over the edge and gravity took full force and tried to push me back.

Instead of losing my position, I leaned forward as much as possible with my weapon pointed directly at the incoming… whatever it was that we were jousting on the other side of the canyon. Behind me, I could hear Drifa screaming bloody murder about ‘not liking roller coasters’, whatever those were. My hair was whipping in the wind, my eyes were going dry, and my shirt was ballooning from all the speed. The levelled ground was right at our doorstep and I had seconds to straighten and aim my sword.

Wham!

The two sleds nick each other and go spinning in opposite directions. Drifa’s head rammed into my back as she was flung out of the sled. I, on the other hand, quickly put my sword away in my box and jumped out. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that I was able to stab the heart of a single monster… which was one of three stacked monsters.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

A muffled voice from the ground says, “That’s so cliche.”

After executing the other two rabbits I turn to Drifa, “What?”

Waving me off she gets shakily to her feet and gets a hold of her surroundings.

With weaponless monsters rushing down the hill on toboggans, Drifa retrieves one and proceeds to use it as a shield.

I jog to each of the monsters as they arrive, putting my sword in front of them and letting gravity spray the blood.

They were only increasing and I was starting to get overwhelmed.

The door on the other side still looks locked from that big beam. Do we Joust again? may as well give it a shot, we’ll at least have the high ground and I doubt they can get up our side of the hill with speed alone.

At this point Drifa’s breathing was increasing with everything else, it was getting too fast.

“Calm down, we're going up the hill again. If you breathe too fast that’ll make you worse for wear.”

Nodding mutely, she started for the hill, but I could see that carrying her ‘shield’ was going to be too cumbersome.

Reaching out I grab the toboggan, “I’ll take care of that, you just worry about getting up.”

It wasn’t all that heavy, so I was able to carry it with my left arm without too much worry of further injury. Besides, I needed to be able to use my sword.

Drifa was able to make it a few steps up the hill, but at a certain point it was too steep for her and she was panicking.

after killing some more monsters as they got closer I told her, “Let me show you…”

Stepping further up the hill I let myself sink a bit so I can kick and stomp grooves into the snow that I can go up. After a few steps, I motion for her to take the lead again.

“We don’t have all day. Come on.”

After some trial and error, she seemed to have figured it out while I stepped back to keep hacking away.

As we go up Drifa ends up needing breaks where she just sits there and pants, putting more pressure on me as I fend off the monsters. Thankfully, the further we go up the hill the easier it is to get rid of any monsters because of how far up we were and the time it took them to get up the dense snow.

While Drifa goes up she doesn’t seem to notice what's happening around her all that much, for which I’m thankful.

If she notices that my left side is having issues, I think she’ll lose it.

Watching her go up, I occasionally look behind me and get a bit nervous from how steep the drop is, it was practically vertical.

Just don’t tell Drifa to not look back, she will. If I aim ourselves a bit better we probably won’t get hurt as much. Maybe we could go straight up the other hill for a bit before we even out. Seems less risky and less likely we’ll get a concussion or something.

Grabbing one of the straggler rabbits I get Drifa’s attention and hand it to her.

“You know what to do?”

“Mhm… Do you think we could rest up here for a bit? We don’t have to worry about the two-minute timer now.”

“No. There’s probably something important about the rabbits we joust and we have to kill them or something before we can move on. I’d rather not have to find them if we don’t have to. And yes, I do have a plan so that we can get a break. Be patient.”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with somebody in this situation who was tired. But I figured that it’s best if I don’t draw attention to it.

The system gives Drifa an alarm for when to cut the monster.

> {ENERGY IS LOW! If you wish, wish, wish… for this then you won’t be able to have hint’s in the future, replenish reserves by killing monsters and defeating dungeons!}

Sheesh! That red is a bad sign. Didn’t I just kill a bunch of monsters for it?

> {A-a-affirmative, it’s be-e-een used to further Drifa’s Body points as usual. System is currently, currently, currently running a deficit. Please kill more monsters and defeat more dungeons.}

Ah… Okay then.

> {…System will now hibernate while it’s reserves are being filled. It will still serve passive functions such as keeping track of events and upgrades. However those upgrades will be delayed until further notice and you will be unable to open status screens for now. This message has been broadcast to all users.}

What… just happened?

Turning back to me with fearful eyes Drifa asks, “What do we do now?”

“Keep marching up the hill! We can’t stop! It’s temporary and we’re going to fix it by killing more of these monsters here. Just count aloud.”

Nodding sheepishly, she reaches the top of the hill with me tagging behind her while she’s mumbling to herself.

Upon arrival, Drifa just lays down in the snow while clamping the monster under her grip. After I’m done setting up the toboggan the way I want I call her over. Cracking the bloody rabbit's neck and wincing at the sight she tiredly tossed it down the hill which seemed infinite on both sides.

I had taken advantage of that and made sure we were planted far away from where we originally went down because I was particularly fond of sledding into a pile of corpses.

“Ready?