***

"Hey Ingrid, break time's over." Cecil observed as the monsters steadily gathered around them, Ingrid's extremely malicious aura was keeping them from pouncing, but their steadily rising numbers as they ambled into the large chamber was making them bolder.

"Give me the chair" Cecil said, poking a tendril outside of his Dialogue Window and tugging on the lawn chair that Ingrid was sitting on.

"If those guys want me..." Ingrid began, slowly getting up, the lawn chair she borrowed from Arek made a harsh scraping sound against the stone floor as Cecil pulled it into his Room. "...then they'll have to work for it."

"I should've known you'd do this," Cecil said with a hint of amusement as he pushed the chair further inside his room.

***

The grand chamber that Ingrid was in sported several narrow Escape Tunnels along its walls. It served many purposes; as a way for adventurers to retreat to when things were going poorly, for launching an ambush. and a way to quickly travel across the dungeon. They were too narrow for most of this floor's usual "inhabitants" to fit through, any of the smaller creatures that could slip into these usually ended up being attacked or eaten by the larger monsters before they had a chance.

Above these tunnels were the similarly-sized viewing ports of an observation deck, which also served as a way for others to provide supporting fire with their spells and other ranged weapons. Ingrid's team "The Whales" were huddled at this observation deck, with instructions to not intervene and focus on conserving their strength.

Siria, Ingrid's second-in-command of The Whales watched as a fountain of Corrupted Monsters spewed from the mob, launched into the air as Ingrid bull-rushed her way through. More and more were sent flying as various explosions of volatile Mana and Ether were set off.

She saw Ingrid leap up from the mob, but it wasn't to escape, but to dive headalong into the thickest of the fray. Her arm was pulled back, sheathed in a massive flow of Mana that was pulling in so much Ether around it it reminded her of a shooting star.

She struck the ground with her fist, creating a shockwave in all directions, some were sent flying, many wrapped in the fires of Mana Burn as Ingrid's attack stripped away their protective auras, resulting in the ambient Ether forcibly converting their life energies into something that fueled Ingrid.

"We've been with Ingrid longer but looking at this still breaks my brain." Kvaris remarked as he saw Ingrid swinging wildly away.

Frequently, she would punch or kick with so much momentum that it left her in postures that not only rendered her wide open and vulnerable, but would take some time to regain equilibrium, let alone react. But when it came to Ingrid she would inexplicably adjust herself and be in a position to counter attack or parry.

Her parrying also made no sense to her team, she'd perform some dramatic, stylized motion and for some reason it caused everything that was trying to hit her to suddenly react like their attacking appendage or biting snouts were bashed hard by a club-wielding giant, regardless of which direction their attack was coming from. Only a halo of energy erupting from her signified it was some sort of technique involving her Mana.

Other times Ingrid would dash over short distances, moving so fast she became a blur. But what was intriguing was the application; she never used it to retreat but rather to push forward or flank, seemingly becoming intangible as she did so and only employing this maneuver when her opponents were trying to hit her. As they hit nothing but thin air, there was a large concentration of energy around Ingrid which she channeled into a vicious strike that hit multiple opponents.

"Okay, that one's new," Kinu remarked as he saw Ingrid punch one monster. It was well away from striking range, but suddenly everything in a ten-foot radius around it was hammered from all directions with a storm of blows. Even more interesting was that it created a crushing vortex, dragging in more enemies and amplifying the barrage's impact. She repeated this technique on the others whenever they bunched up.

"I swear she got hit right there." Kvaris said as Ingrid launched herself upwards, her fist sending dozens of monsters upward in a geyser of bodies, many of them hitting the ceiling at lethal velocities, many them were out of her fists's striking range, but her attack went about uninterrupted and no sign of her taking any damage.

Still in mid-air Ingrid launched a series of energy blasts that reminded many of the viewers of a meteor descending from the sky; a melon-sized ball of destructive mana wreathed in wild wisps of volatile ether like a violent flame. The force of launching them halted Ingrid's descent and instead pushed her slightly upwards and back. In this manner Ingrid launched a barrage of azure fireballs.

One nimble humanoid creature leapt from shoulders of the mob and pounced on Ingrid, but she was far from taken by surprise, in a second she had maneuvered and twisted around so the monster was firmly held upside down, head pointing to the floor far below. With a burst of energy, Ingrid accelerated their descent, diving into the thick of a mob that was forming a pyramid of bodies. Another large explosion sent them flying everywhere and Ingrid rushed right back into the crowd.

***

"I'm surprised she hasn't really gotten tired at all" Kvaris said "This has been the third time we've emptied out this chamber."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"That's because Ingrid's been moving herself with her own Aura like she's a puppet." Siria explained, her eyes glowing with energy as tried to observe Ingrid with enhanced vision.

The two Kobold brothers' tails stopped wagging as they looked at Siria then at Ingrid with horror "She'll mangle her own body!"

"I don't know how, but her control is very precise!" Siria said "I can see it, there's spirals of Ether around her limbs and joints, pulled in by her Mana.. I mean, some warrior classes use this but never for the whole body and never for an extended period!"

"Ohhh, so it's like a muscle suit." Arek said, his mandibles clicking in a show of fascination.

"Muscle suit?" Siria asked

"I mean it's like a suit that enhances the strength of your movements" Arek explained but Siria shook her head.

"It does enhance her strength, sure, but she's also using this to move her own body. She's not exerting herself physically at all." the elf explained, her eyes glowing brighter to get a better look at Ingrid "it's dangerous because it's so easy to move your limbs past their normal point that most fighters reserve it only for striking techniques they've fully mastered."

"I'm sure she knews what she's doing" Arek said, he was too engrossed watching Ingrid's stylish action on how to explain exactly where Ingrid "learned" these techniques from.

***

Cecil's dialogue window stayed close to Ingrid as she fought. The proximity allowed him to draw from Ingrid's Mana Pool and the ambient Ether she had stabilized, in addition to using his own. This allowed him to channel the energies onto the submachine gun he was firing from his Room.

Unsurprisingly, Arek had a large stash of 9mm ammunition given how ubiquitous they were in the civilian and black markets. The enhanced shots tore through his targets easily as if he was operating a mounted heavy gun several calibers higher and shooting with greater force and velocities. This enhancement allowed Cecil to save the higher caliber rifles for the exceptionally tough targets.

The additional energy shrouding the bullets gave them additional properties; some struck with explosive force upon impact. Some shots used the enemies' aura to bounce off to the next target, the shots accruing and enhancing kinetic energy as it traveled through the air. Upon impact, the bullet slammed all of it's gathered energy onto the target and then using its aura it would slingshot itself towards the next, repeating the process.

Cecil's was on the floor of this room, cleared of any rugs or carpets, a set of guns laid out to one side and ammunition on the other. Being a slime, it was easy for Cecil to pull in the gun he needed and position it for immediate use, all while keeping an eye on the action. In one such quick motion Cecil had pulled a shotgun and blasted away at the middle of the mob as Ingrid performed her combos. She really didn't need the support fire but it definitely allowed them to clear up this room much more efficiently.

Cecil turned around and slid quickly to a .50 cal sniper rifle, releasing the other guns from his body. The dialogue window in his room followed his point of view so now he was pointing it towards the crowd of monsters. Two loud shots rang out and and tore through each with explosive force.

"Feels just like old times now, eh Cecil?" Ingrid said as she wrenched open the jaws of a thrashing wolf-like creature with too many eyes and too many legs. Cecil quickly grabbed the shotgun and fired point-blank into its gullet, the Ether hyper-accelerating the pellets and tearing through the monsters behind it.

"Feels much better than old times" her slime familiar said dryly. He turned his Window to where a large number of enemies had lined up and let out short bursts of fire from a hunting rifle that he felt needed some use. He squeezed the trigger and the Ether amplified the already powerful bullets, creating a deadly vortex that dragged in nearby enemies with the sharp tail wind it had generated.

"I couldn't put channel Mana into this because I had to help maintain your Raiment when you were still a Magical Girl." Cecil said, his voice still tinged with a bit of regret.

"Oh shut it! this is the coolest thing right now!" Ingrid said as Cecil rammed the shotgun again into another monster's mouth and fired.

Even the spent shells were weaponized. Cecil had placed a tendril over his guns' ejection ports to suck up the spent casings. The combination of his and Ingrid's Mana, and simple slingshot he crafted gave him additional ammo to work with. They hit much harder than he thought. He had a simple storage spell suck up the heat and noise every time he fired a round and he channeled some of them onto the shells. Passing through the Dialogue Window outside and thus Ingrid's energy, the imbued heat or sound was also amplified resulting in enemies either being set aflame or the sheer heat punching through several of them, or the stored noise creating a strong concussive force that did serious damage if they survived the shot.

"You know, you should've picked up some rocks." Ingrid said while she tore an abomination's arms off, using her foot on its back as leverage.

"I should" Cecil replied, feeling more elated when he saw the results.

"Here, you use this!" Ingrid tossed in a broken off claw of a monster. It was too big for the slingshot, but Cecil had a better one; his own slime body.

"STOP HITTING YOURSELF!" he yelled in glee as the claw pinned a monster to the wall.

"Save the bullets, Cecil! There's only a few of them left."

"Alright, alright. That's enough fun for me today." He said. He genuinely had fun and was happy to once again help Ingrid directly. That thought reminded him to be efficient and start reloading.

"I really hope Siria can help us with the ammunition" He called out as Ingrid was calmly outboxing another humanoid creature.

***

Siria led the rest of The Whales out of the narrow corridor. "Time to harvest the bodies, let's get to work!"

Due to Ingrid's spotty Storage Spell it was up to Siria to use her own Item Box. Despite what Arek, Ingrid and Cecil thought with all the manga they've read, It was neither permanent nor one that could be easily accessed at will. It lasted at most for a few days after which its contents would be deposited to some unknown location, with many believing some would never return to the world at all.

Opening and closing the Item Box required time and a considerable amount of Mana to pull off, but like how Ingrid mitigated cost with her use of Ether (which no one else could do), Item Box was one of the few spells in existence where most of the spent Mana could be cycled back, although it too took time to recuperate those. Not that long, but enough to make it infeasible to use in a combat situation.

Working quickly, the Kobolds and Arek got to work ensuring the monsters were truly dead before dragging them into the portal; the kobolds with their swords and Arek with a bayonet.

Ingrid spoke up, "let's regroup at Redoubt 5." referring to one of the many bunkers set up in the dungeon for adventurers to take refuge. There was no dissent.

"What about that one?" Kinu pointed at the sole surviving monster. It had its paws on Ingrid's shoulder as it was sniffing her hair.

"I guess we can take it with us, looks pretty tame." she said, giving it scratch to the ears.

Kvaris, Kinu and Siria looked at her with a combination of disgust and horror "That's dangerous!"

"It's friendly!" Ingrid countered, stooping down to scratch it as it lay on its back and showed its belly.

***