The group relit their light gems before continuing on, as there were drawbacks to moving in the dark since there were Crimson that hunted better in it. As the party moved, Axel was glad that Rex had teamed his group up with Salmar, as even knowing every turn they took, Axel was having a headache making a mental map as they traveled.

It was long minutes later before they arrived at the next planned location. Inside were three insectoid-like Entities with sticklike bodies, large curved blade forelimbs, clear almost translucent wings, and eight thin legs that ended in blade points. Each was around seven feet long and stood at about eight feet when in a more upright posture.

Salmar stopped everyone just before the entrance and said, “These are fragile but deadly Crimson. They will cut through steel and most novice-grade equipment like it is nothing.”

“We will need me, Lyra, and Sky to keep their attention while Aria tries to land headshots,” Salmar then looked at Axel and said, “Axel, you can stay at the entrance as these are not the kind of enemies you are built to fight and would likely get torn apart if they hit you.”

“Sky, you keep a distance and use metal to distract them but watch out for the blast they can do with their wings as it can cause internal injuries by shaking your insides,” Salmar finished.

This annoyed Axel greatly, and he decided to speak up after a moment of pushing the anger back down.

“I think I can be useful and likely able to finish at least one quickly if given the chance,” Axel said in a deliberately neutral tone.

“Oh?” Salmar looked at Axel inquiringly and motioned for him to continue.

Axel loosened a trio of throwing knives from their holsters hidden at the small of his back and then whispered to Aria, “The one who kills the most gets to choose what we have for our celebration dinner after we leave the trial.”

“Aria is so going to win this!” Aria grinned at Axel.

Salmar just looked at the pair and shook his head, getting everyone into position, then signaled for them to rush in. As the group ran in, Axel threw one knife only for it to be deflected out of the air by a vibration, but blades two and three slammed into the Entity, sending it into the wall with a loud bang. Axel then turned to draw more blades, but the fight was already over. Aria had nailed hers in the head several times, but the last was minced by several bladed discs from Sky.

Salmar and Lyra just looked on at the now-vanishing Crimson as they halted their charges about halfway through the room. Axel then saw Aria’s pouty face and had to laugh at the situation.

“Well, I guess that is a draw,” Axel said while walking over to Aria and kissing her. “I guess we just both need to order a dish we want.”

Lyra walked over to Sky to get some beast gems and when Salmar was distracted, put the fiend orb into one and one of the Shatter orbs into the other while pocketing the last orb. Salmar took the last orb into a beast gem and tossed it to Sky as he did not need it, having gained two healing gems earlier. Due to standard loot rules, ad hoc groups like theirs would split the gems equally unless it was being used for their Cycle, then it was not counted.

This was followed by everyone as any arguments had to meet an Arbiter, which from everything Axel heard was not a fun time. As everyone was retrieving projectiles, Axel found that the knife that was deflected had cracks throughout it and would likely need to be recycled as repair looked like no option, but he would have to ask Sky later to see if there was something to do about it. The other two blades were in better condition and would need to have the tips repaired as they were blunted from the throw.

Axel went to see if Sky could do anything about the knives only to get a loud enthusiastic mental message of ‘YES!’

Sky then focused her power on the two blunted blades and Axel saw them return to their pre-thrown state. Sky then took the cracked blade and put it into one of her pouches, telling Axel that it would need a forge to have a chance to fix. With everything done and no one using a lot of power, the group packed up and began to move through the hallways again.

An hour later, they ran into another group, but this time it was the light gems that saved the group and not Aria’s hearing as strange shadow Entities tried to attack them but were repelled by the lights of the gems. These were Shades and gave the power to move through shadows and would grant the user the same ability, but they were very hard to pin down and after harassing the group, vanished back into the shadows again. No one knew if they were gone or stalking them.

Aria wanted to shoot them, but Salmar stopped her as you needed abilities that could hurt them, like a fire or light-based power, which no one in the group had. This got a grumble from Aria that if they had gone for her power first, they could, but this was shot down as it takes time to get used to a new power and no one wanted Aria to fire uncontrolled flames in a tight space.

Stolen novel; please report.

After that ambush, everyone was now nervous, but Salmar forced everyone to stop to eat and drink, trying to settle them down. After the short break, everyone kept moving when Aria heard the sound of ponderous steps down a right section of a T-junction. It was not the way they needed to go, but the party did not want something coming to their backs as they were near where the Thunder Stalkers lived for the lightning-based power could be gained.

The only issue was they could not do the same trick of shutting their light gems off as there was still the chance for one or more of the Shades still lurking around. The only thing to do was take this challenge head-on or run, but as the group tried to decide, the choice was taken as a pair of Thunder Stalkers came around the corner and saw them. Each looked much like a lizard on four legs but with scales of indigo and violet edges.

Each beast also had a set of jet-black spines along their back that sparked with arcs of blue lightning between them. Axel and Salmar charged down the hallway, hoping to limit the damage while an arrow and metal disc shot past between them. Both aimed at the same beast, killing it quickly, but not before the second one opened its fanged maw and let loose a blast hitting Axel in return. This blast caused Axel’s whole body to seize up, making him drop his weapon and blowing out his light gem.

Lyra and Salmar both kept going, trying to get the beast before it recharged for a second shot. Just when the forward pair got to the Stalker and Axel was feeling his limbs again, there was a terrible pain in his stomach as a shadowy hand shot out from below and was shoved right into his stomach, causing Axel to cough out blood as the Shade slammed its other hand into his chest.

Axel saw that he now had a punctured lung and several internal organs were damaged. Axel heard Aria yell something and three arrows go through the Shade along with a large metal dart, but none of the attacks had an effect. In desperation, Axel tried activating Berserking mode for the pain removal and clarity, but his system warned him that the ability was still in a dormant state from an earlier activation and Regeneration (lesser) was taking all available power for triage. Axel realized that he had never tried to use it multiple times in training as he was worried about what he would do under it.

As Axel felt the hand leave his stomach, pulling several intestines with it, Axel went for a desperate move and grabbed the old light gem that he had taken from his house the day he had to flee the village. He hoped that it still worked and was not damaged by the lightning blast. In the time he grabbed the best gem, though, he was stabbed three times and there were soft tissue alerts throughout his abdomen. Axel then slammed his hand into what he thought was the chest area and, riding the surge of adrenaline, clicked the stud while saying a prayer to the Goddess.

“Let there please be light!” The words were more gurgly than he wanted his last words to be, but as the light illuminated the inside of the Shade, it released a wordless scream of agony and shattered into motes of darkness illustrated by the light gem falling from Axel’s now limp hand. Then everything was blackness as his brain shut down from pain and other issues he no longer cared for.

Axel awoke to having his head on something soft while his back was on something cold and hard. Axel opened his eyes to see a red-eyed Aria above him and a wet sensation on his stomach began. With effort, Axel looked down to see that Lyra was cleaning the wounds, correct that, former wounds as his Journal stated that while still suffering from minor internal damage, he would be back to full strength within the hour if he ate food strong in iron to help replace what was lost with the blood.

Axel did wish to know how long he was out when a clock appeared over his sight showing him it had been about ten minutes of unconsciousness. Axel found that a little absurd recovery time until he noticed the pair of burnt-out beast gems on the ground next to his right arm. These must have been the ones holding the healing energy that the group gained from the Umbral Dolls earlier.

All of Axel’s movement alerted the distracted group to his wakefulness and Axel was nearly suffocated when Aria leaned down and hugged his face. Axel was struggling between the need for air and wanting it to keep going, but air won out as he forced himself to sit up.

“Hold on there!!” Salmar said, trying to stop him. “I know you just got healed from like twenty healing charges, but your body took a lot of damage there.”

“I am better now, but thanks,” was Axel’s reply. “I don’t have a strength cycle but a fixed-point regeneration one.”

Axel hated to admit that as it would cause questions, but that was the only thing his brain could cobble together for an answer at the moment.

“Ok…since I can already see the scar lines fading, I have to take your word, but I thought you were only on your first Cycle like the rest of your group,” Salmar replied with a look that he wanted more details.

“Sorry, but I can’t really go into it right now,” was Axel’s only reply, much to Salmar’s disappointed look. “Just treat me as if I have both and please leave it at that.”

“Fine, I won’t pry into it, but just know that I am glad you survived.” Salmar then tossed Axel the orb. “This is yours if you want it or you can gem it. Shade gems go for a lot on the market, but you have to sell it to the Vanguard or Storm as they are on the controlled list.”

“Let’s take a few more minutes of a break before we keep going.” Salmar finished and leaned against the wall only to slide down it, landing on his butt.

The break was much appreciated by Axel as he was bombarded by Aria on whether he was really okay. Axel did get in thanks to a pale-looking Lyra for getting his insides back inside. She did not laugh at the joke or even acknowledge it but just sat in quiet contemplation and looking like she was trying to recharge her core. Axel was almost fooled by that until he saw an orb in each of her closed hands letting off a faint light that was drowned out by the starlike light of several beast gems.