While they may have been feuding earlier, each accepted the other's back as they tried to make themselves as small as possible at the sights their bodies were turned to. Mathias was staring at obsidian-covered, bipedal oxen, that snorted fire and carried smouldering battleaxes. Each was no less than two meters tall, weighed three-hundred pounds of raw muscle, hide, and stone, and there was more than enough room for each to thrash about.

They smashed the marble walls without a care, stepping in pools of shallow lava, as embers and smoke covered the air. Between the smoke and ash, he could just barely make out a small, fist-sized orb.

In lava.

Lisanna's sight terrified her more. There was a pool leading into a crystal cove. Atop roaming chunks of ice, there were ten serpent-tailed humanoids, carrying a trident. Their blue-scales shone clearly only on their face and tails, as patches of white fur, dusted by snow and ice only adding to the effect, seemed impervious to the howling, frozen winds.

And under the surface, she saw more of them. As the patches of ice roamed, she saw a small glowing orb at its depths, guarded by two of the creatures. A dozen feet below an icy shell.

"... T-this...!?"

"Can be done with a good enough warrior, yes. Of course, you'll have the added benefit of magic you prepare earlier. Unless, of course, you are saying you're prepared already?"

"Absolutely not-!"

"N-!"

Once staring directly into Jenna's eyes, they saw her rapidly ascend - or, rather, they were falling. A trap-door opened underneath them and they felt their feet sink.

And sink.

And sink.

"What in the actual hell?!" Mathias gruffed as his entire torso was wrenched forward with the force of the fall, nearly submerging his face.

Mathias shouted as he belated grabbed his batons. He reformed it into a staff as he felt himself falling deeper into the mud. He was down to his knees as a dull pain appeared. He managed to pull himself up, but the second he tried to pull the water from the mud, he got no response.

"Let's... let's go... already!" Lisanna said, crawling towards a dry patch to her side.

She stabbed the sabre into the moist soil and pulled herself with it. It was already glowing scarlet.

"Then help me too!" He shouted, having no solid ground to work with.

The staff was fully extended into the ground which stopped his fall, but he could not move, lest he sink deeper.

Grabbing the solid ground, Lisanna pulled herself up. "Uh... Uhmm... I-I think... you, you should hurry up..."

Mathias finally concentrated on things happening above his waist.

Ten creatures appeared shambling out of the mud, their appearances were no different than gelatinous blobs with mud seeping from their pores. Wherever their pores might be. The only discernable features were two arms that hit the surface as they walked and a bloated nose that covered half their head.

"I'd love to, but...-"

Lisanna hurriedly looked around. "There, there isn't anything to grab onto, is there?!"

Mathias breathed in heavily as he gauged the distance. "If... if you're willing to get reach... just be careful!"

He shouted as he bit the bullet and unlocked the arms he was using to brace himself on the staff. His muddied waist become his navel as the staff finally burst through the viscous ground.

"Is, is that it?!"

The staff was rapidly straying from her reach as the first creature's dull stomp echoed a few meters behind her.

"Just... just grab it!"

Lisanna clenched her teeth and pressed her torso against the mud as she saw the wavering staff grow further away. Mathias was at his waist when she grabbed the end and howled.

"Th-this?! I-I hate you!" She screamed as she tried to force the pain from grabbing tightly with damp hands on a desolate frozen surface.

Her footing shook as she dragged the staff back. On account of the skin of palm freezing to it, she had no other choice at this point. He was pulled two feet before his feet finally hit something solid. He just got very unlucky.

"Behind you!"

One of the creatures was raising its muddied arms mechanically, with the next a dozen meters behind it.

"I know! Hurry up, you idiot!"

Lisanna's blade was still punched into the solid ground as she relied on that for support.

Mathias put all the force into his legs he could and pushed. He lurched forward, and with the added force of the pull, passed the foot-distance mark. And managed to fall back into an area without anything solid to stand on.

This was exactly were Lisanna fell back.

"Damn it! Hurry, hurry, hurry up!"

She pulled with all her might, now able to more leverage on the staff. He was suctioned in at first, but his body burst out as Lisanna screamed in pain. The skin on her palm was bright-red from the frost-bite and blood peppered her palm as the cold cut a little too deep. She landed straight on her back, looking up just in time to see the mud drip on her face from overhead.

Mathias stumbled the first step but raised his staff in time to pound it into the creature's shoulder. Mud scattered off, showing at least a four inches of the body was disposable mud as a dull brown skin appeared over a dull thump.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

It did not lower its arm. And it stopped for only a second before it just kept moving forward. It was a meter away.

Lisanna, underneath him and still on her back, shouted, "idiot, blunt attacks won't work!"

"S-shut up! I panicked!" The arm was suddenly dropping vertically overhead - a far cry from the shambling movements from before.

Mathias reformed the reinforced ice as quickly as he could to create a cutting-head, spear-point at the top. 'If it has four inches of armour on either side... then here!'

He struck fast and hard, piercing into the same spot as before. When the spear bite into skin, it twisted, was pushed further in, and the arm descended on him.

"Ahh!?"

He stepped back and felt his knee pushed into the ground. A fiery blade appeared from the corner of his eye, but he felt the sheer mass of the dismembered arm collapse on him.

The world was dyed brown for but a moment as there was a dull thump of something solid his aching back.

He looked down to see Lisanna covering her face with her hands, as his knee was forced just under her shoulder.

"..."

Their eyes met for a moment in a strange position, but Mathias pushed himself back up and stepped forward to puncture the other slow rise of the creature's arm.

If he had his father's greatsword (and the skill and strength to use it), the task would be easy. However, he could not build up the ice on his spear to a sufficient mass so there was little that could be done.

He pried off the other arm of the creature.

It fell a few inches from Lisanna's body, but she was already pulling herself up. Her hand screamed as she clenched the sabre, but she calmed her face as she saw the body still pushing forward.

"Go for its heart!"

"Where the hell is it though?!"

Mathias shouted as he repeatedly stabbed the creature.

He hit the head, chest, throat, the groin, and any other area he could think of to disable it, but there was no change.

"Screw it," Lisanna shouted, "we're running!"

"Thank God!"

Lisanna charged past the first creature as Mathias kept stabbing and preparing for his turn, but he saw the glow of the red-hot sabre stop in front.

"Uh, we're missing a path."

Rather, there were several islands of solid ground like the one they were on, but they were at least a meter apart, covered only a small area, and one needed to jump from one to the other to not chance not being trapped in the mud - with a definite possibility of suffocating before the creatures could make their way.

Mathias, losing solid ground as the seemingly impervious creature continued unabated, stabbed directly into the creature's neck repeatedly. It groaned when he found the core, and his repeated knicks helped when twisted the spear and popped the neck clean off.

It finally stopped.

The mud, however, collapsed from its body in a small landslide.

Mathias barely managed to stab into the solid ground as his feet were washed out from underneath him, and his face covered in the cascading mud. It seemed they housed a lot more mud than their figures suggested.

"... I don't know what is worse... this or sand," he groaned.

"... Uh, I know you want to celebrate right now," Lisanna started, "but the thing we need is that... right?"

There were ten more mud golems lazing around a green orb, precariously floating in what was all-but-likely deep mud. At their exterior, five slowly advanced ten meters away towards the two; with three coming from their sides, and one more in front.

"... Okay, it's your turn now, I think." Mathias pointed with his spear to the one that was currently walking on top of viscous mud.

"No! You take that one! I'll deal with the one on solid ground!"

"... You missed your shot. Now go, shoo, onwards to your next target."

He was very fortunate he had the habitual ice bracing his back or else the force would have easily put him out of commission. It reminded him of his irritation towards her, however.

Lisanna saw the expression, snorted, and turned to the side. "Whatever. I'll take half, you take half, and we'll deal with this thing, okay? Good luck with the fire section."

"Th-" He immediately thought she was able enough to accurately read that trial too. His concentration was solely on the one he feared the most. "Well, I hope you have fun on the water one."

She froze.

Both misunderstood the other's capabilities; and both were secretly hoping the other would call a cease-fire. Neither did.

"We-well, whatever! It'll be fine! Okay! We'll deal with these ones and then move on!"

"Sounds good to me."

Mathias turned his back to her as he took the left and she faced the right; it was the rules of the shoe locker, so he figured it applied here. Aside from an anatomical understanding, he still was unable to understand many things that did not interest him when there were more pressing things to be focusing on.

"... Uh... where's the path?" He muttered, seeing the clear lack of solid ground.

"... I told you, idiot."

"... Quiet."

The two whispered to each other hoarsely, unsure of what to do as one approach from the front-left and another from the right.

The creatures were already covering the once-clear islands with oozing mud as they passed.

Their backs pressed against one another again.

"..."

The first finally reached Mathias and he drove the spear into its throat before it could raise its arms. He felt a clean hit and it shuddered for a moment. A single second, but it stopped.

And the second pressed forward towards Lisanna, just barely stepping onto their small section of solid ground.

She hacked at the arm it chose to rise. Mud scattered off but with the distance, it did not cut deep enough. He heard the dull thump of mud slacking off of its body and saw Lisanna cut again.

It exposed grey skin but did not cut through flesh.

He jabbed again at his, striking the same spot for a test. It shuddered and the half-raised arm ceased. The sheer energy it took on his arms and back to pry the neck would be untenable in the long-run - if only on account of his back.

He begrudgingly stabbed it again, turned his back to it, and drove the spear into the throat of the golem behind him.

"What are you doing?!"

"Just kill it!"

Lisanna was already moving forward to take advantage. She finally managed to psyche herself to get into its reach and cut its head off its gelatinous shoulders. And by cut, it was more akin to flash-drying the mud, crushing it, and sawing off the rest.

Mathias, meanwhile, turned back to take a final thrust at the last golem. It took way too much energy to do it alone.

"..."

"..."

Both realized this.

Neither admitted it, nor vocalized their cooperation, but Mathias followed Lisanna onto her side of the arena as she jumped towards the golem. A spear thrust over her shoulder was rapidly retracted, and her red-hot blade hacked the head off with three rapid strikes of her sabre.

The next target was on his side. He took the lead and carefully stepped over the island covered in mud, firming his steps before pressing into one that little more than a meter either way. He caught Lisanna's shoulder and pulled her back from a golem that prematurely rose and dropped its arms.

The mud scattered with enough force to feel like they were being shot with rocks. The air was knocked from their lungs and Mathias, taking the brunt of the attack, wheezed as it shambled forward more quickly than the others.

Lisanna's stomach and chest groaned, but she jumped forward, using the opportunity to cut the golem's head from its shoulders as her feet slipped on the scattered mud.

Mathias, half-bent, lowered himself to steady her. And both were sent down from the cascading mud.

Lisanna landed on top.

"...?!"

And quickly pushed herself up.

"... I hate this place."

"... Tell me about it," Mathias added, receiving a smack on his back as he got up, half-disguised as her stabilizing herself.

He stifled the outburst as he saw the last one near their original island.

Lisanna held her ribs with one hand, her sword in the other as she jumped to the muddy island from a muddy island. It was no surprise when she fell. But Mathias' pursuit was less than graceful, too. They were completely covered in the dense mud at this point, skin and cloth camouflaged by the very environment's assault on them.

Both finally made it back to take out the last golem as the five approached the pair in unison.

"... You take all five and I'll take a breather, okay?" He would admit it was entertaining to watch her fall. Now he wasn't the only one whose face was covered in mud.

"... If you take the next ten, idiot."

"Why're you calling me an idiot anyway?"

"Many reasons," Lisanna said simply. "Shut up and stop whining."

Mathias sighed and looked for better land to fight on.

There wasn't any.