Once again, Nick found himself alone with his Soul Servants on the other side of the portal. He was now in a dark cavern, with Birdy and Jasper observing the surroundings.

“Just us three again, huh. Strange. I wonder if everyone else is by themselves.”

[Test of Teamwork. Your party has been separated, being placed in a challenging position. Fight and navigate the maze to rejoin your party, using your cunning and skills to escape from the chimera trying to devour you, specifically. Test will be considered complete when you reunite with your party successfully, without the chimera in range. Optional Heroic Test of Might: Defeat the Chimera for Substantial Reward.]

“Chimera? Shit.” Nick then groaned as he finished reading the prompt. “And, another Heroic Test.” He was getting a bit tired of how the Ordeal truly loved finding ways to send him curveballs, so he tried to look at the bright side. This Test would greatly reward him, and the rest of his party, making it quite the opportunity. A deadly one, but it was what he needed. “You know what? Bring it.”

Nick studied the cavern he was in. There were three branching paths around him, and he was surprised to see that one of the paths became rather narrow. He doubted that the chimera could possibly fit through.

So Nick would potentially have other avenues of escape besides just running–he could possibly hide, for a time. Still, he was unclear what the best route to take would be.

He sighed. “Would have been nice if they at least gave me my maid or butler. Oh, that’s right.” He closed his eyes, and did his best to sense Jasmine. “Looks like I have a cheat. Can feel where they are, and they’re all together.”

His party was already fighting off enemies, working their way through the caverns toward him–Jasmine and Eirwen each capable of locating him through their special connections.

Currently, the enemies they were facing had the reflective skins like the dogs on the fourth floor, so Kaya was needing to be careful with her new axe’s devastating attacks, or she might lose a limb.

This floor reminded him of the sixth floor a bit, where the party was split up. This time it wasn’t expected that he’d be able to lead, however, and instead, it was up to his party to have the skills needed to find and rescue him in time.

He would try to take on the chimera on his own, but he already knew they were bad news, thanks to Eirwen and Irene’s discussion. They were in the third stratum at a minimum, and would certainly be a challenge even for his elite party.

That was a Test of Might. It was a difficult challenge that only the best of the best could accomplish. The rewards for those were substantial, and in a way, it was often even harder than facing a boss. A rare opportunity, but also dangerous.

Jasper was sniffing the ground, and Nick wasn’t really sure which path to take. From watching his wives through his connection, he could tell the paths were winding and both rose and lowered in elevation. The one that headed closest to their direction wasn’t for sure going to take him to them. Now he kind of wished he had Winny’s Map skill.

“Well, Birdy, Jasper–where do you think the chimera is? Should we just wait here for them to get closer, first?”

It was as if the chimera itself wanted to answer the question because he both heard and felt a reverberating roar. It was coming from the opposite direction of his party, and it did feel like quite the distance away.

“Hope none of these take me to a dead end. Let’s move.”

Nick leaped on top of Jasper’s back, holding on to his fur behind Birdy. His Frost Warg began its trek through the caves, moving quickly despite the darkness.

Bats swarmed them suddenly from an adjacent cavern, but Birdy filled them with shards of ice with a mere wave of its staff and an angry chirp. Jasper hardly slowed his movement, and eventually some type of cat leaped down from above, Nick cleaving it with a Blade Wave before it had a chance to do so much as scratch them.

Other ambush predators and numerous creatures attempted to slow them down as they continued down the cavernous path. But Nick’s Blade Wave combined with Birdy had no trouble slaying any creatures that appeared or would attempt to trail them. He ignored the lost loot, knowing it was important to make the best time he could.

From watching the remainder of his party, they had it a lot more difficult. Perhaps because there was more of them, the number of enemies that barred their path were larger and more significant in number, or maybe it was because their section of the maze was just more challenging.

Kaya was a whirling dervish of axes, but some enemies were sturdy and managed to push even her back, given she was trying to save her Concept’s usage. Jasmine used her new spear combined with her weight to pierce thick shells, and then it wasn’t long before Kaya had elemental weapons granted to help her defeat their defenses.

Nick reached another branching path, only this time with more possible exits, and Nick sighed as he checked his connection once more. He was closer now, but they had a long ways to go.

Another roar echoed through the cavern, and it sounded closer. It was gaining on them, despite their speed.

“Damn, just how would someone else manage this? We gotta step up our game. Let’s see if we can watch for a narrow part of the passage, and block it off if we can.”

Jasper continued his run, picking the path heading in the direction of Nick’s party. Eventually, Nick saw a spot where a rock was near the entrance of a tunnel, so he directed Jasper to push it into the path. Then, Birdy froze it with ice, melding the rock with the path before continuing. This only took them a few seconds, and clawing out the boulder would take far longer, Nick imagined.

They continued on, fighting through various creatures that got in their way, but they were hardly a challenge. He only found one more location where sealing another path made sense to do. As they closed in on their allies, Nick didn’t really want to risk potentially closing off his path to freedom.

But a roar from the chimera, closer than ever, made him doubt his strategy. “Shit, it’s like we didn’t slow it down at all. Maybe it took better, alternate paths? Hurry it up, Jasper. Burn some essence and pick up the pace.”

Jasper howled, the monstrous essence within him building. He then launched himself, his speed much greater than before. The wolf certainly couldn’t keep this up forever, but it might buy them some more time.

Nick wondered just how hiding would even work for this damn thing. It felt like it knew right where he was, choosing the perfect path to catch him. Perhaps it was really tuned in order to Test him. Nick had many advantages, and in order to Test him, the challenge would need to be difficult to nearly impossible.

Watching his party through the connection, he saw they now split into two groups, to increase the likelihood that they found the right path. They were getting closer, and the number of enemies they faced were thinning, it appeared. It was likely they were arriving at his side of the maze of caves.

As Nick reached the next branching paths, the roar from the monster felt extremely near, the cavern shaking. Before Nick could even decide which path to take, the chimera bolted in from another corridor.

It looked as Nick knew of chimeras. It was a large lion or cat creature, the size of a smaller city bus. With a snake for a tail and a goat’s torso and head on its back, it matched the Greek mythological creature.

But his party was still a ways away. Jasmine had broken off and ran alone for speed now, but it’d take her some time. If this was meant to be a major challenge for his entire party, he probably wouldn’t last long on his own, even with Jasper and Birdy’s help.

So he’d just have to keep running.

He gave his orders. “Do your best to harass it and slow it down without getting taken out. It’s after me.”

Nick leaped up into the air off of Jasper’s back, and used Double Jump to arrive at the narrow path above.

With a roar, the chimera ran into the cavern toward him, before shooting a large ball of flame from the lion’s head. Nick tumbled and dashed into the small cave with a roll, the ball missing and striking the top of the cavern.

The ground shook from the explosion, and seeing that made it clear why their little blockage hadn’t worked very well–perhaps it simply blasted the ice away and pushed the rock in a mere moment.

With the smoke and dust clearing from the explosion, Nick walked and looked back to see what the creature might do, now that it couldn’t really fit and come after him. Was this how he was supposed to run from it? Just hide in these smaller pathways?

The chimera was much more interested in chasing Nick than his Soul Servants, even as they pelted it with ice. Jasper was sending lances of ice, while Birdy squawked in anger and sent countless blades of ice into the back of the creature as it began to approach the wall to climb.

It had some kind of special aura, and its effect was somewhat different from the strange force barrier from the golem he faced. The monster was in the third stratum, which meant that its power over its Concept would toughen it in ways that were difficult to predict.

In the third stratum, the body would start to become one with one’s concept, no matter what it was.

Ice seemed to be accumulating, but the creature was largely shrugging it off. With another roar as it spotted Nick at the top, the snake extended from its tail, elongating an impossible amount in pursuit of him.

“Shit!”

Drawing his shield from his back and using Harden Skin to be safe, he smacked it aside before slicing into the snake with his Soul Blade of white light. To his surprise, the snake’s head was cut off entirely, and it retracted its tail. The decapitated head tried to twist and bite him, but Nick pierced its skull, causing it to disperse into a smoky haze.

With how easy that was, perhaps it could regenerate rapidly.

The chimera began to climb up the wall of the cavern in an effort to get closer, but Birdy coated the wall with a thin layer of ice, sending it tumbling to the ground. Birdy laughed with a cawing sound, taunting the creature as it pumped its staff up and down triumphantly.

Rather than play or watch this game any longer, Nick retreated down the narrow tunnel. He could hear the chimera stomping through the tunnel, and Birdy and Jasper with their squawks and howls as they chased.

When he reached the other side, Nick groaned. It was like a shortcut to the next section, and it was how he could have gotten much further ahead, if he had ditched Jasper and Birdy. But how could he have known? Perhaps he should have sent them to harass it from the beginning.

He could still hear Jasper and Birdy harassing the chimera as it chased him, so he continued down the path most likely to reach his party. He felt that Jasmine was getting very close, having barreled through the cavern, ignoring all the enemies in her way.

And Nick was not slower than Jasper the Frostwarg in a sprint. With his essence chains, his body bulked up as he dashed through the corridors toward her.

Continuing down the paths, Nick slayed enemies effortlessly as he moved through rapidly. He used his essence while only holding back on his Concept, wanting to make sure he had enough in the tank for when they turned around and fought.

Reaching the next series of branching paths, Nick was happy to see Jasmine ready for him.

She smiled in triumph, as a webbing shot out from her wrist and landed on his chest. “Master! There you are. Yoink!”

The chimera had stormed into the room, spotting Nick–just as he got tugged away by Jasmine’s webbing, and into the next cavern. She blurred through the passage with him stuck to her back, even as creatures attempted to nip at her rock-covered legs.

She ignored them and rushed to the next cave, and he could tell she was even faster than Jasper was, her spider body traversing the diverse terrain effortlessly.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

When they arrived in the next branching cavern, his wives were all waiting, and arches rose from the ground.

[Test Complete. Continue to the next floor? Enter the portal and arrive in the Safe Zone, rejecting Heroic Test of Might.]

Fang banged her new spear against her shield. “We’re doing this, right? Let’s beat this jerky cat for trying to kill Boss!”

Kaya brandished her new axe. “It’ll be a tough battle, but if we win, the rewards will be significant.”

Nick said, “You girls really surprised me in that last Boss battle, beating the challenge effortlessly. We came here to be Tested, and the usual challenge is just not enough for us. Let’s do this.”

When the chimera stormed into the room, his party was spread out and ready.

Rebecca and Irene’s Light of Wisdom orbs were floating above them, along with Jasmine’s own orb of light. The three orbs shot out their blasts of light, and Sable and Eirwen shot their bows. Nick had donned his Cloak of Twilight, standing next to Fang and Jasmine at the front, with Kaya to his right and Luna to his left.

Luna’s totems pulsed, granting him the strength of the earth and a flaming barrier, ready to protect them from the chimera’s fiery breath.

The chimera roared in response, but rather than breathe flames, it slashed its paw out.

There was a blur around the creature’s paw, and it looked like there were a thousand cutting knives floating around it–like a river of knives. A wave of gray was released from the paw, and it slashed through the oncoming attacks before continuing toward Nick.

The wave had been reduced by the attacks, and Nick, Jasmine, and Fang held their shields together, each covered in essence. The river of blades struck and parted around, as Nick and the girls got knocked back slightly. A few blades managed to sneak by and strike their armors, but their essence protection was enough beyond a few minor cuts.

Their shields had all been cut with deep scratches–the sharpness of the creature’s Concept was powerful.

The goat on its back then bleated, its gaze turning to Nick, and the snake did the same move as before, stretching as it came for him as the chimera burst toward him.

“Looks like this thing still wants me.”

“You can’t have Boss!” Fang said, then she howled and rushed toward the chimera along with Jasmine.

Nick and Kaya were not far behind, and he could feel that Kaya was already building up toward her Charged Strike. Her new Convergence Skill which was like a whirlwind of her cutting essence likely wouldn’t be useful in this battle, but her Concept was deadly and direct.

He sent a few Blade Waves at the monster, but it dashed left and right in its approach, avoiding them as Jasmine and Fang reached it. Despite the monster’s large size, it was swift and nimble.

Jasmine’s polearm struck the monster first, drawing a small amount of blood. As the blade struck, however, Nick saw the stone which she grew around the tip had chipped off. It wasn’t the monster’s hardness, but this odd barrier that was surrounding the creature. Like it was protected by an invisible cutting edge.

The same thing happened to Fang’s spear a moment later, which sent shards of ice scattering around it. In retaliation, the chimera swiped at Jasmine, but she met its blow with her shield covered in stonelight, which somewhat blinded the creature. She got knocked back slightly from the chimera’s blow, but continued her attacks with her weapon.

When Nick reached the chimera, he could feel the oppressive weight of the monster’s Concepts. While it had a strange cutting one, there was more. A vile curse of some kind lied in wait, and its flames would burn with intense heat.

He slashed with his sword at the monster’s chest, its head above where he could reach from the ground. As his blade connected, he felt the resistance of the Concept. His blade still dug in, sending cold into its flesh, but the attack didn’t reach anything important–even without the cutting edge, the monster’s hide and muscle beneath it was thick and sturdy. Monsters often had stronger bodies, and ones with powerful bloodlines like this one were even more substantially so.

Nick’s Frost Aura was completely ignored, and he knew that even if he had chosen to use his will to enhance it, the effect would be minimal. The enemy was just that much stronger, each of its three Concepts above theirs.

The goat’s gaze landed on Nick, its eyes billowing with darkness and hate from above and behind the lion’s head. Eirwen was ready for this, it seemed, as an Omnibarrier glittering stardust surrounded him.

He covered himself with his white cloak with a flourish of his hand, before black light wrapped around him nearly instantly. This curse targeted his core being, at some level attacking the essence of him and his very soul.

Despite their efforts, Nick felt the effects of the curse as it burrowed its way through his defenses. He was drastically weakened, his body filled with lethargy, his vitality draining from him.

The snake then whipped wildly from the back of the lion, zigzagging around and between his nearby allies, and he could see the snake was covered by the same darkness. At this moment, he understood that these two attacks were linked. Those hit by the curse then bitten by the snake would surely die.

But Nick wasn’t weakened as much as he should have been, thanks to Eirwen and his Cloak’s efforts. Drawing out his Heroic Concept, his body was infused with power. His blade bisected the snake’s head with a strong swing.

The chimera howled in pain as it lost this creature’s head, and Nick could see the smoky haze returning to the back of the monster, to reform the snake’s head.

Sable and Eirwen’s arrows each struck the goat’s head, and a similar scene played out–the goat torso and head dispersing into a smoky haze. It looked like by keeping the creature’s heads destroyed, they could keep it from using its deadly combination. Alone, however, the snake or the goat weren’t difficult to manage.

He voiced his thoughts, “Keep the goat head dead if you can. If I’m hit by the curse and the snake, I don’t think I’ll live.”

The chimera then breathed a burst of flame at Nick, but Fang’s shield of frost appeared in front of him, taking the brunt of the blast as she stabbed into its nearby leg. Luna’s fiery barrier covered him through their connection, her Concept Fragment helping.

The barrier absorbed the remaining fiery energies after Fang’s ice barrier shattered, even as the Concept enhanced the flame, causing it to burn exceptionally hot.

The air in the cavern heated up, the air becoming too hot to even breathe, and it was definitely at or above the levels of the Lava Elemental they faced. Those forced to stay near in the melee protected themselves with their auras, able to stay in the fight.

Kaya’s axes each cut into the monster’s rear, cutting deeply into its hind leg with her Concept, as she swung and spun, her three tails adding onto her number of cuts to the monster. Jasper, with a very angry, squawking Birdy, barreled into its other leg, knocking it off balance. The pair finally caught up to the much faster chimera, ice spreading into its body.

“This thing’s hide is crazy strong, and it’s healing fast!” Kaya shouted from the other side, and Nick could see that she was right. The cuts Nick had managed were already healing over, the frost being repelled as well.

He tried to wrap his chains around the chimera, but found without his Concept, it was even worse than the force golem he faced–like sending them into a wood-chipper. The chains shattered into shards of ice nearly on contact. He would try to twist them together like he had learned, but he would save them for a critical moment.

Jasmine had fired some webbing around the large beast, but it didn’t seem her more physical webbing could latch on thanks to its aura.

The curse of weakness seemed to wear off not long after the goat had died, so Nick tried to do as much damage as he could in a short time, pushing his Concept, and continuing through the stanzas of his Ideal. His blade cut the flesh of the enemy, sending chilling energy through its body as he spun and twisted, slashing into it several times.

The party had the chimera surrounded, but its odd healing capabilities nearly kept up with the damage they were doing. It swung its claws wide as Nick dodged or parried using his sword and cloak, and the sea of knives aura was sent out in wide arcs, striking all but him.

Each of those near protected themselves with their essence as best they could, but cuts were scored along their armor. Rebecca and Irene kept to the outskirts of the battle, the two swooping near enough to reach them with their healing.

The chimera moved deftly, dashing between his allies and sending out bursts of flame toward Nick or trying to bite and claw him. Jasmine and Fang each met claw strikes with their shields as they continued to try to wound the sturdy beast, and Nick reached the fourth stanza of his Ideal, and the goat and snake finished materializing.

The chimera roared, and it felt like it wanted to take Nick down quickly. Surging forth, the chimera brought its claw down on Nick, once again covered in its dangerous sharpness. Nick’s Monstrous Blow triggered as he was covered in stardust from Eirwen’s arrow striking the goat, and Luna’s connection pulsed, his arms bulking to a near comical level–it appeared somehow, their abilities improving the effectiveness of his traits stacked.

With a shout, Nick’s swing backed by his Heroic Concept met the incoming paw, and sliced off several fingers at once and biting into its front paw, deflecting it to the side. It groaned in pain, before Jasmine crashed into it from the side, using all her weight and strength, her spear piercing deeply into its shoulder.

The light on the end of her spear brightened, sending piercing light into its body and Sable finished off the goat, before it could complete building up its unavoidable curse with a well-aimed shot of her bow, and Kaya cut off the snake’s tail.

The chimera roared and battered Jasmine away with its other paw, and leaped with its hind legs forward, clawing toward Nick. Fang had built up and then used her Convergence Skill, becoming a giant ball of ice and crashed into the monster, sending it to the side away from Nick. She then howled, shattering and sending as much ice from the surrounding area into the monster as she could, stabbing out with her long spear repeatedly into its flesh.

Birdy and Jasper added more ice in their attacks, the shards stabbing into the chimera’s back. Eirwen and Luna’s lances of ice pierced into the creature as well, and Sable had entered Nick’s shadow, getting ready for her deadly hunt. Wounds were now truly building up, frost spreading across its body from the party’s efforts.

And now, Rebecca and Irene’s Blessing arrived at Nick, filling him with Seraphara’s Faith. It joined the muscles in his body, already enhanced by his Cloak of Twilight and bursting with light and dark essence from his Concept and Ideal.

Everyone was doing all they could to wound this thing, so Nick channeled what he needed into his Soul Blade to trigger Essence Burst. He pushed some of his Heroic Concept inside, and found that some of it took, along with much of the faith energy and his wives’ devotion energy billowing inside him.

He raised his Soul Blade above his head, readying himself to use Blade Wave. Nick also added everything that was in his necklace, pushing his mental energy to the maximum.

Sensing the power behind Nick’s attack, the chimera roared as its weight on the world became heavier, its body billowing with essence and laced with its will. It then breathed out its powerful flames, which gathered into a sphere in front of it. It then slashed into the flames with its good paw, just as Nick swung down, releasing his Essence-Burst-Enhanced Blade Wave.

Flaming knives exploded out in an arc sending them at Nick’s party, and Jasmine sent out a glimmering curtain of stonelight, laced with something he hadn’t felt before.

His body was covered with goosebumps, and he felt like if he touched that curtain, he would be consumed, body and soul. A light that annihilated anything, reducing it to nothing but a soul, dust, or plasma–food for a monster, cooked and ready to be devoured.

Given that her Nexus Core didn’t shatter, he realized, while it was probably several Concepts of Light–perhaps Monstrous Light–all at once, she had still restricted things to their stratum in magnitude. That she had done it to protect his wives, rather than just eliminate the Boss, showed she was merely tipping the scales lightly with her action.

Like a mirror of Nick’s original downward swing, his attack met the chimera’s explosive fan of blades, Nick’s Essence Burst cutting through the core of the attack and striking the chimera’s chest. The area around its head had dense shards of knives and flames, so his blade of light did little more than scratch its face. The blade striking its chest down the center pierced deeply, however, the monster giving a pained wail as it was pushed back.

Meanwhile, Jasmine’s curtain caught a large portion of the flaming blades in a spread close to the creature. However, it didn’t catch them all. Many of these knives skirted the edge of the curtain, going wide. Flaming knives pierced into Nick’s allies that were on the outskirts of the battlefield, the girls giving off pained shouts, even as Irene’s bubbles from her new tome and Luna’s fiery shields protected them.

It seemed Irene had nearly got the worst of it, but Jeffrey was ready with his shields, protecting her from several knives stabbing into her. Birdy and Jasper had defended themselves, but continued blasting the chimera with freezing cold from behind.

Roaring as her body enlarged further from behind the chimera, Kaya released her Charged Strike, swinging her axe down powerfully from above the now prone lion. The feral essence infused with pure sharpness on her axe blasted through the creature’s shoulder, shearing off its arm and cutting deeply into its chest.

The monster’s Concepts were diminished now that it had expended them, and so now Nick’s twined chains could finally wrap around its heavily wounded body. His chains pinned the chimera’s hind legs together and to the ground, keeping the monster’s body prone to the ground as it was about to give an angry roar, flames gathering in its throat, and darkness was rising around where the goat and snake’s body were coalescing.

But then Sable used her skill, rising from the shadows behind the chimera, caused by Nick’s bright white light. Her spear coated in an immense amount of darkness and cold pierced through the monster’s wounded chest, destroying the monster’s Core. The light left its eyes, the monster defeated.

Nick looked warily at where the goat’s haze would gather, ready to blast it with a Frost Shock. But the shadows dispersed, and the body remained unmoving.

“Fuck. The one time I was ready, it didn’t have a die move, huh.”

The chimera truly defeated, Nick let out a pleased sigh as he put away his Soul Blade. Irene and Rebecca rushed over to those wounded by the chimera’s last attack, healing and removing the flames from their pierced bodies. The Concept from the chimera made the wounds difficult to heal, but thankfully the knife-like blades were relatively small and thin.

Still, Rebecca got some work with her Sacrificial Concept, erasing the blades and enabling her to heal them with ease. The Concept might have been born by her being willing to give her all to help Nick, but it was able to be used for other’s sake as well.

[Heroic Test of Might Completed. Party Reward: Enhanced DP Reward, Personal Reward: Minor Tempering and Trait Enhancement, Boss Essence. Bonus Safe Zone provided on the next floor on entry.]

While the reward for the climb of the Path of Kings was to pool the rewards for Exit, he had found that he was not allowed to tweak the Hero’s Path Ordeal at all. It gave the rewards when it felt like it, and the challenge was at the level that Orion decided.

Nick and his whole party were bathed in mysterious energies, a trait improved for each person. When that happened, several things seemed to occur at once. He felt a connection to his Soul Blade improved, but also his connection to Eirwen, and his Wolfen girls.

[Enhanced Soul Blade Connection Trait Improved to: Soul Blade Resonance, +2 Body, +5 Soul]

[Your connection to your Soul Blade has improved, to allow for even more malleability within the blade. It also allows you to perform light telekinesis and keep the blade powered away from your body, enabling you to throw it and return it to you. In addition, this trait allows a greater connection to your Soul Blade during Soulforging, extending this connection to the spirit inside the Focus.]

Nick fell to his knees, exhausted. They had won, and they had all become more as a result.