The wolf didn’t wait for them to regroup before lunging the nearest person. That was Alyx, who parried with an aura-shrouded blade. Their blades locked for a moment while the gophers and snakes rushed back in around them.
“There’s a lot of ‘em down here,” Marco observed with the slash of his sword. He took down three gophers and pushed back another two.
A bolt of lightning raced into the circle. Cass directed it around her party and into the wolf. “Cover your ears!”
The wolf howled, a wave of dread filling them.
Pellen crumpled to her knees, entirely exhausted and unable to further handle the emotional weight of the wolf.
Alyx grit her teeth and shouted, “Stand tall! We can beat this!”
Cass felt the rush of her command fill her, chasing off the wolf’s dread.
Salos had slipped from Cass’s shoulder and had appeared behind the wolf. His claws racked through the soft cracks in its metal armor, dripping green ectoplasmic ichor with every strike.
“Aim for the chest!” Cass called to Alyx. In the meantime, she and Marco kept the gophers and snakes back, Cass redirecting the lightning bolts back into the crocodiles along the walls and into the wolf as opportunities arose.
Stamina: 25/126
Focus: 97/387
Health: 68/113
[Time Remaining: 2:00]
“Just two more minutes!” Cass yelled, unsure if Alyx and company would get the notification, having joined late.
Alyx’s sword impaled the wolf, just missing the core.
It howled again, rocking the combatants on both sides. An energy started building around it.
“What’s it doin’ now?” Marco muttered, slicing another snake in two.
“I don’t know,” Cass replied. “But that doesn’t look good.”
He grunted and slammed the edge of his shield into the ground. “Buy me a minute.”
Cass glanced at him. Energy was collecting around him too now. Cass shrugged and gathered another Wind Blade. With a spin, she sent it sweeping out around her, pushing everything back another step. She raced after the wind, stabbing and slashing as many off-balance enemies as she could reach.
[Time Remaining: 1:43]
Marco’s shield was glowing bright red. He turned and shouted, “Clear!”
Alyx leapt back, her sword raised in a guard.
Marco burst forward like rockets had been launched from his shield. He rammed into the wolf, knocking it over. It snarled, pushing the squat man off with ease.
But Alyx didn’t waste a moment. She was already back on top of the wolf, her sword sinking into its flesh. It glowed and a hundred Reverberating Strikes exploded across its flesh.
Still, the energy built.
“Brace!” Alyx shouted, her words again carrying the weight of command.
Marco slammed his shield down again, placing himself between Cass and the wolf. Alyx’s sword traced a complicated pattern in the air, trailing aura in a tangible weave of light. Salos dematerialized, slipping back into his necklace around Cass’s neck.
Pellen struggled back to her feet, just outside the shadow of Marco’s shield. Marco’s skill would not protect her.
Alyx’s command echoed in Cass’s head. She should stay put. She was safe behind Marco.
But Pellen wasn’t.
What are you doing? Salos asked. He could see where she was looking. He knew her well enough to answer his own question.
Cass darted from the shadow of Marco’s shield, pushing aside Salos’s rising complaints and Alyx’s combat command.
The wolf roared and a wave of pitch-black flames rolled off it, exploding in every direction. Alyx flickered as the wave rolled past her, momentarily insubstantial. She reappeared untouched and resumed her attack on the wolf.
The flames poured forward, burning up the remains of Pellen’s chalk runes and leaving a thick layer of soot over the floor.
Cass pulled Pellen to her feet. The flames burned closer.
Cass Sprinted back.
The flames swept over Marco. A ghost of his shield enveloped him, ten times larger than the shield he carried. It turned the flames aside, pushing them to either side with all their fury intact.
Cass pressed the Wind for all it was worth. She could feel the flame’s heat now. She threw Pellen into the shadow of Marco's shield.
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Cass jumped.
She skidded across the stone, rolling to a stop behind him.
The flames whooshed around them.
She’d made it.
Most of the other monsters, however, had not. The remaining monsters had been reduced to charred scrap metal, their soft ectoplasmic flesh melted away in the heat. It was just the five of them and the wolf.
Salos wasted no time, darting out to slice at the wolf’s ankles with his claws. Alyx drew another long slash across its chest, reverberation duplicating the wound across its body. Marco was up again, his sword shining in anticipation.
Pellen lay where Cass had thrown her, too tired to move. Cass wanted to do the same, but she didn’t have the luxury.
Cass summoned a Wind Blade on her staff and sent it flying between Alyx and Marco, burying it deep in the wolf’s shoulder.
Marco stabbed low. Alyx swung down from on high. Cass threw another Wind Blade, wrapping it around for its back. The wolf blocked Marco’s sword with its good arm. But its injured arm could not stop Alyx’s powerful downward chop. She pushed the sword out of the way with ease, continuing down well into its chest. Cass’s Wind Blade, unseen and unobstructed, sliced around the spine and through its core.
The wolf crumpled and the four stood ragged over the dissolving corpse.
[Trial Complete!
Time Remaining: 1:03
Claim Trove to accept reward.]
At the same time, the unnatural darkness dropped from the area, leaving just the room and the chest in the center.
Level Up!
+ 1 Dex
+ 1 End
+ 1 Wll
+ 1 Ala
+ 4 Free Points
Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 16.
Staff Mastery has increased to level 14.
Dodge has increased to level 17.
Stormstride Sprint has increased to level 11.
Stormstride Sprint has increased to level 12.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 18.
Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 19.
Wind Blade has increased to level 14.
Mana Sense has increased to level 8.
Mana Sense has increased to level 9.
Mana Sense has reached the First Step! Congratulations!
[Your mastery of this skill has awarded you the following stats:
+ 4 Per
+ 3 Wll
+ 2 Ala
+ 2 Res]
“We did it,” Cass said with a sigh. She collapsed to her knees, exhaustion warring with the elation of a level-up.
Stamina: 16/129
Focus: 56/405
Health: 69/114
She didn’t need to breathe, yet her lungs burned for sustenance. Her muscles ached. Her mind ached. But she’d done it.
They’d won.
She’d found a way through. A grin spread across her face despite the exhaustion.
“What the hell was all this?” Alyx snapped, turning on Cass with a glare.
Cass’s grin disappeared.
Did you not tell her? Cass asked Salos.
I told her what you told me.
“I—” Cass opened her mouth.
Alyx cut her off, storming up to her, pointing an accusing finger at her chest. “You got yourself separated and when we finally catch up with you, you’re neck deep in monsters over 5 levels over your own?”
“Only the wolf—” was that much higher, Cass tried to say.
“Did you even try to get back to us?” Alyx asked.
Cass opened her mouth to explain her logic, but Alyx blew through her before even the first syllable had made it out. “You have that wind movement skill. How did you even get separated? I shouldn’t have to worry about you falling! Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been about you? How worried Salos has been about you?”
Cass hung her head, waiting for Alyx to finish.
“Then when we get a cryptic request from Mister I’m-a-cat-I-definitely-don’t-talk,” she shot Salos a glare for good measure, “to duck into a side room and be prepared to fight a wolf. No warning about the floor dropping out on us. Or that we’d be falling into darkness. Or that there would be nine million other monsters also down there.”
Alyx shook her head, the energy leaving her body. Quieter, she said, “You can’t just run off on me. Please.”
Cass wanted to argue that nothing she’d done was that unreasonable. She’d had a solid reason for everything. If she had known which way was up, then perhaps she should have chosen to get back to Alyx sooner. If she’d known that killing monsters attracted Wolves, perhaps she would have chosen to sit tight where she’d landed. She hadn’t though, so she’d done her best with the information she had.
But now wasn’t the time to argue this. Alyx would not care if it was a harebrained scheme or a well-thought-out plan. That wasn’t what she was upset about.
“I’m sorry,” Cass said. “I’ll be more careful.”
Alyx nodded, her vulnerable face again hidden behind a disapproving scowl. “Good. I can’t stand to listen to that one worry about you again.” She nodded at Salos.
He bristled on Cass’s shoulder. “I was not worried. I certainly was not worrying aloud.”
“You finally told them you can talk?” Cass asked. Well, told Marco. Alyx already knew, of course.
He bristled further. “You hardly gave me much choice, did you? ‘Stay with them and protect them’ I think you said?” He snorted. “I should have just come back to you. Would have been smarter for sure than sticking with that woman.”
Cass rolled her eyes. “I’m glad you two get along so well.”
Marco chuckled. He patted Cass on the shoulder. “The two were quite worried for you.”
Cass nodded. She knew.
“Anyway, what’s this about completing a trial?” Alyx asked, changing the subject abruptly.
“Pellen and I found a trove,” Cass said, pointing at the treasure in the center of the room. “The wolf was one of the monsters guarding it.”
“Pellen?” Alyx asked, her eyes dropping to the fainted mage on the floor. “Where’d she come from?”
“She fell in the hole with me. Your brother hired her.” Cass summarized Pellen’s story for the others.
“Kohen hired a non-degreed mage?” Alyx’s eyebrow went up at the collapsed mage. “His budget must be tighter than he lets on.” She shook her head. “And I suppose you want me to recruit them too, since you’re telling me all this?”
Cass paused. What did she want? She rather liked the little mage after everything they’d been through. Did she want them to team up, though? What did she expect to happen next?
“We can’t leave her here,” Cass said finally. “We should take her with us until we get out or we can reunite her with your brother.”
Alyx frowned. “I’d rather not give him back his mage, all things said and done. She wants to fight the Obsidian Golem on the seventh floor? We can promise to do that on the way back up if we don’t run into one on the way down.”
“Will that be enough?” Cass asked.
“If she doesn’t like it, she can stay here,” Alyx said with a shrug.
Oh. Well, hopefully, Pellen would find that reasonable and Cass wouldn’t need to do any more negotiating.
“Let’s see this treasure,” Alyx said.
“Shouldn’t we wait until Pellen’s up again?”
Alyx grumbled.
“We did skip an entire floor,” Cass reminded her.
“Fine. Make us a camp then, rest and recover. But then we’re leaving as soon as we can after.”