The burning skeleton appeared far more intelligent than any of the monsters Vivi had encountered prior. Its eyes weren’t merely black gaping holes; the ethereal globes had intent behind them. Its shoulders and upper body were protected by a layer of thick smoldering obsidian. The skeleton’s stance was good, resembling real swordsmanship.

“A good practice dummy,” Lucius said. “Let’s see how well you can fight without my claws.”

Vivi held her sword with two hands. Sword-to-sword combat was still her weakest and least confident style of fighting. Someone with any grasp of techniques at all could easily outmaneuver her.

But the skeleton wasn’t a practiced ether hunter. Vivi was confident in her strength and power. She initiated the battle by swinging at the skeleton’s sword with all her strength.

The skeleton blocked. It gripped its sword with one hand, using the other to push the blade from the tip. This gave him a lot of leverage; enough to overpower Vivi’s sword out of the way.

The skeleton thrust its blade forward.

Vivi panicked for a moment. The skeleton’s ethereal blade was about to pierce her stomach.

A few days ago, Vivi would have died. Today, however, her body was filled with ether. Her senses were sharp, and her movements were fast. She managed to redirect her sword, pushing off the skeleton’s lunge.

The exchange of weapons continued. The skeleton wasn’t fast or strong, but its technique was solid. It knew exactly where Vivi would swing. Each time, it calmly dealt with her attacks, throwing forth a solid attack of its own. Vivi struggled to defend despite her faster speed and power.

Its fiery aura was starting to become a problem. Vivi felt the heat burning her skin. Just standing close to the skeleton hurt. Lucius had to redirect a lot of ether just to keep Vivi’s skin from falling off.

There was no way Vivi could defeat the skeleton in an even battle. Without proper practice, Vivi would not outmaneuver it with swordsmanship. She could only use the one advantage she had.

Her runesword. Vivi swung as hard as she could, hitting the skeleton like a savage.

The skeleton’s ethereal blade withstood attacks, but its powers were running out. The ethereal sword used a stream of constant ether to stay active, drawing power from the skeleton’s core. After each swing, the sword became more disfigured and unstable.

In comparison, Vivi’s runesword barely lost ether at all. When ether inside the runesword’s veins got close to exhaustion, the wisps cycled back to Vivi’s body, where their remaining powers were spent to enhance her muscles. Throughout the fight, Vivi dimmed out a few dozen ether.

The skeleton must have lost hundreds. Its swings were becoming weaker, and its blade was losing its color.

That was Vivi’s sign to attack. She swung overhead, hitting the skeleton’s block head-on.

The skeleton’s sword disintegrated to ether. Vivi’s swing cut into the skeleton’s shoulder, where the strength rune’s powers slashed right through the smoldering obsidian. The skeleton crumbled, disintegrating into ether. Lucius collected 165 ether from its corpse.

Behind her, Lydi stood with her arms crossed, having watched the fight. Feni smiled, clapping.

“Impressive,” Aang said. “You exhausted the grievous skeleton in under a minute.”

Less than a minute? Vivi thought. That felt like ten minutes!

“I can see how you cut Rohan’s blade,” Aang said. “Is that a spirit blade? I hear the humans have invented a powerful new sword.”

“No, this is a runesword,” Vivi said with a slight smile. “We surface dwellers have also invented a new type of runesword.”

Aang raised his eyebrows. “That’s powerful. Where did you get such a weapon?”

“Um, I’ll tell you later,” Vivi said, sheathing the sword back to spatial storage.

Aang watched her expression for a moment before letting the topic go. “The skeleton knew how strong your sword was. It knew you’d pierce its shoulders. That’s why it raised its blade to block instead of counter-attacking. If the skeleton chose to trade its own life to attack you, you would have died.”

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“Uhm, yes…” Vivi said. “Sorry. I’m not good at swinging swords yet.”

“How long have you practiced?” Aang asked.

“I haven’t practiced,” Vivi said. “I know one swing and a basic stance to test swords. Otherwise, I started fighting less than a week ago.”

Aang raised his eyebrows. “You’ve been fighting for less than a week?”

“Yes?” Vivi said.

Aang let out a laugh. “Your inexperience shows. But less than a week? You’re insane. I’ve never seen someone fight as fearlessly as you.”

Vivi smiled awkwardly. Was that a compliment? “Thanks?”

“Rohan and Ven can teach you later,” Aang said. “Those two know their swords inside out. Before then, I’ll help you with the grievous skeletons. It’s not worth it to practice with your life on the line. Even if you’re confident in winning, forcefully cutting through monsters will only make you build bad habits.”

Vivi would have liked to argue, but Aang knew what he was talking about. For the rest of the descent, Vivi fought alongside Aang.

The ember level, whatever this part of the dungeon was called, grew hotter the deeper they went. Nothing grew here, of course, but luckily there was no lava. The level was still cave-like and fairly simple to navigate.

Lucius empowered Vivi’s boots with a slight amount of ether to protect the soles from sustaining damage. She still had to avoid stepping on the smoldering patches of ground. Eem didn’t like to touch the ground at all. She traveled on Feni’s back, having moved there to let Vivi fight without worrying about Eem on her shoulders.

With Aang’s help, the skeletons turned into a mild challenge, if even that. The gang leader protected Vivi’s blind spots, creating an opportunity for her to easily cut through the skeletons' defenses with her runesword.

The other monsters of the lava level were joke monsters. The group encountered a giant smoldering slug that moved as slow as a snail. The slug was protected by a thick layer of smoldering obsidian, even thicker than the skeletons’. Vivi believed she could have easily slashed the slug in half, but Aang sternly told her to not even try.

Apparently, the slugs’ intestines consisted of nasty slime-like substances that would ruin weapons and stain the whole place. Even the Stewards usually left the slugs alive, choosing to walk past. The slugs would only be a problem if their thick bodies blocked an entrance, in which case, Aang said, it was best to grab a thick stone and push the slug out of the way.

The demons moved swiftly and confidently. The lava level was just as familiar to Aang as the previous levels. He’d cleared this area countless times. To him, clearing the way to the boss was nothing more than routine.

Fifteen minutes later, Lucius’s reserves having risen to 3157 from the monsters, the group arrived at the gates of what Vivi could only assume was the boss room.

Ven, Rohan, and Alisa sat on rocks, waiting. All were maxed out with ether and clad in battle equipment. Rohan wore his armor, having found a new helmet. He wielded a regular asmite blade. Ven carried a basic outside-carved strength runesword. Alisa wore a rogue’s vest and light armor, wielding two runic adamantite daggers, one with a strength rune and one with a crush rune.

Crush was an interesting rune. Out of all power-based runes, crush offered the least amount of pure pressure and weight. The job of a crush rune was not to pierce a tough defense. Rather, a crush rune specialized in causing destruction. If a crush rune managed to pierce an enemy’s defense, the rune ensured that the target would suffer the largest wound possible.

Aang’s two-runed sword lay beside Ven. The classic mass and sharpness rune combination had the opposite effect. The mass rune made the sword as heavy and powerful as possible, while the sharpness rune ensured that the weight would cut through a monster instead of snapping the wielder’s arms.

Upon seeing Vivi and Aang, everyone stood. Preparations were ready, and the nearby rooms had been cleared of monsters. Ven tossed a sack full of ether containers to Aang. Vivi felt Lucius drooling at the sight of all the orbs. No, she told him.

Aang maxed out his ether reserves. Tons of ether were remaining. Enough to clear most of Vivi’s debt. What did the demons need so much ether for?

Lydi and Feni, it turned out, needed to be maxed out as well. The two divided the rest of the ether between each other. Then, Lydi tossed aside her alchemist’s robe, revealing her black mage’s robe beneath. A staff was strapped to her back.

Vivi lifted her eyebrows. Lydi’s staff used runes. The staff was made of stone, veins carved into its surface. The staff was lined with dozens of runes. The rune was everything, the same rune as an etherprint scanner used. An everything rune depicted a wisp of ether in its entirety. Everything was a pain to carve, and theoretically, the rune did nothing, but the rune had strange effects when applied to the correct items. Ether scientists and engineers—the people who built scanners, for example—were more knowledgeable about everything’s effects.

Lydi sensed Vivi’s look and asked, “What?”

“Ah, just curious,” Vivi said. “Can that staff cast magic?”

“I can shoot discharges of ether,” Lydi said. “That’s about it. They’re powerful if they hit, but without skills, I’m mostly useless. You’ll have to protect me.”

“Yes, that sounds like a good plan,” Aang said. “This is Vivi’s first time meeting the Ember Golem. It’s stupid to rush in and fight. Lydi knows how to avoid attacks, but she might need protection. Vivi will be most useful defending her.”

Lucius perked up. He wasn’t happy to hear that.

“Everything is ready, then,” Ven said. “What about the potions?”

Feni laid out the potion rack. “Everyone take one. We need to get at least one vial into the boss’s mouth.”

“Today, our goal is not to kill the boss quickly,” Aang said. “We will immobilize it before shoving as many potions as we can into its throat. If the potions work, we will wait for ether to strengthen the boss. If the potion fails, Feni and Lydi will study the effects while we keep it immobilized. Is everything clear?”

Everyone nodded, looking determined. Vivi joined up with Lydi and Feni. Eem stayed on Feni's shoulders.

Although, it seemed Vivi would be watching the fight today. And that was fine by her. She had yet to see how a team of professionals take down a boss monster.

If Aang’s team could be called professionals…