Gus had a point. Ebba had mentioned the traps were spikes or poison gas. They didn’t have any protection against either type of trap. Max imagined making a hammer-shield would be stretching the card’s purpose too much. He cursed himself for not buying the Armor card when he had the chance.

Maybe they could set off the trap from a distance now that he knew where it was. Max plucked a nearby plant and threw it at the base of the flesh column. The alien plant rustled the trap and plopped to the ground, but didn’t trigger it.

“I bet my summons can trigger the trap,” Lily said. “We just gotta wait for the little guy to recharge. Every time he gets popped, it takes longer and longer for him to regenerate. I bet he’ll be ready in a half hour or so.”

Max nodded. They would have to wait for the hammers to recharge anyway. He chose a spot well away from the traps and sat down to think. If this didn’t work, they would need a backup plan. He could try throwing hammers or drills at the traps, but he had a feeling that inanimate objects wouldn’t set it off.

His other useful card was the gloves card. He had already stretched it into gauntlets, maybe he could make a glove-shield. A memory of Captain America popped into his head. During Infinity War, the superhero had Wakanda gauntlets that turned into an arrowhead shaped shield. Maybe he could make one of those.

Wikipedia didn’t have any pictures from the movie, but he did have a reference of a kite shield. He placed the eReader on the ground next to him and focused his mind on the idea of merging the two concepts together. After he was centered, he clicked that mental button in his soul.

The plants scattered into motes of light and reformed into something new. Max could see more of the magical process now, but he wasn’t any closer to understanding it. It was pretty though.

The resulting gloves weren’t shield gauntlets. They didn’t extend more than a half inch from the skin. Instead of gauntlets, they were gloves with metal filigree all around them. The pattern resembled the one on the kite shield he had been using as a reference. He dropped them in frustration. That was worse than the gauntlets he was wearing. He handed them over to Ashley. They wouldn’t fit her, but it was probably better than nothing.

He slumped back and knocked his head against the column. He was out of ideas and out of mana.

Lily’s mushroomantis was ready a short while later. She sent it for the door, right in between the two traps. It passed by without either trap triggering. She had the summon turn and walk right up to the trap. When it still didn’t trigger, she had it kick the plants. No reaction.

“Are you sure there is really a trap there?” Lily said.

“Absolutely. They’re glowing the same way as the other trap,” Max said.

Gus grunted and said, “I guess one of us will have to trigger it.” He turned to look at Ashley.

She just flipped him off.

James sat up. “Oh wait! I have an idea. The traps are actually defenses, right? They are designed to kill the parasites. How about we open the door and lure one of the parasites over? Two birds, one stone.”

Lily shrugged. “Worth a try.”

She looked over to Max for confirmation and he nodded. She sent her mushroomantis over to the door and had it press the button. It took a few stabs for it to trigger, but eventually the door irised open. This time there weren’t any monsters hanging out by the door.

Max grinned and yelled out, “Hey you guys!” He was quoting Goonies but he had a feeling only James caught the reference.

Two parasites came running, followed by a flying centibee. Lily had her mushroomantis run back their way so the monsters would follow. She unsummoned it as the monsters caught sight of the humans. The parasites certainly didn’t catch Max’s reference, but they did trigger the trap as they ran through the open door.

Dozens of organs swelled up and popped. They sent out a spray of long thin spikes into the air. Both traps triggered at the same time and filled the air with projectiles. The first two monsters were pincushioned and dead before they hit the ground. The centibee’s wings were shredded, but the spikes didn’t penetrate its chitin. It skittered forward, much slower than before.

Yang appeared and stabbed down between two plates. Her sword deflected off the chitin and she had to dance out of the way of a stinger counterattack. Max sprinted forward. His hammer wasn’t charged anymore, so he pulled out a drill from his pocket. He stabbed it down like a knife, activating the magic pierce as he did. A yellow light flashed out of the tip of the drill and a neat hole appeared in the monster’s skull. It chittered in pain and collapsed. It died a few moments later.

Max turned to James and said, “Fantastic idea, James! Using the traps against them made things so much easier. You just earned yourself MVP of the dungeon!” Max said.

James laughed and pushed him away. Yang gave him a nod of respect and Lily held out her hand for a high five. He focused and slapped her hand on the first try. Gus patted him on the shoulder.

Ashley ignored them and said, “Three more on their way.”

Max made a snap decision and said, “Lily, spray. Everyone else, hide behind a column. We wanna wait until the spray takes effect before we attack.”

Everyone was hidden a few seconds later. The next three monsters ran into the mist Lily had set up and stumbled across the bodies of their comrades. They jumped to their feet as one, but didn’t know where to run next.

Max waited and listened, hoping to hear the sound of cracking limbs. James was hiding behind the column next to him and leaned out to peek at the monsters. Max waved at him to get back behind cover, but of course he couldn’t see that.

He pointed his hand at each of the monsters and a tiny wave of distortion flew through the air. Decay. James slid back behind cover with a wide smile. Max shook his head at his friend. Gus was the next one to ignore Max. He leaned out and created two monster clones. The sounds of fighting soon filled the room.

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Max rolled his eyes and peeked out to see how they were doing. Surprisingly well. The clones were always weaker than the target monster, but they didn’t come with any of the status effects on the originals.

Two spry parasites fought three weakened and slowed parasites, almost an even fight. One monster died from the assault and a second was heavily injured before the clones dissipated back into mana.

Max gave up and said, “Alright, attack.”

Yang slipped out from behind a column and snuck up on the strongest one. She stabbed her sword into the sensory cluster and it dropped like its strings were cut. James and Ashley sent out their attacks at the weakened one. The light beam combined with its earlier injuries to send it off this mortal coil.

Max clapped his hands. “Perfect! This means we don’t have to wait for the hammers to recharge before we move on. How’s everyone doing for mana?”

“I’m tapped.” James said.

“Me too,” Gus added.

Max realized they had been using a lot of magic. He thought about how slowly they had been moving through the rooms. If they didn’t pick up the pace, they wouldn’t get out of here before Ebba left.

“We can’t afford to wait between every room. Next room we’ll use the hammers then take a break for lunch. We can let the hammers and your mana recharge while we eat,” Max said.

They walked through the next room and ensured that all of the monsters had already been killed in their trap. Just like last time, there were traps near the exit door. Four of them this time. Lily sent out her summon to open the door and Max yelled out.

This time five monsters barreled through the door as one. Three parasites and two centibees. The parasites got pulped by the spikes and the centibees were grounded. They skittered through the mist Lily had set up and ran for the humans. Max did his impression of a bullfighter and slid to the side as a centibee barreled past him. When it skidded to a stop, he slammed his hammer down on its head. The super strike did its work, but he must have missed the sweet spot. The monster wrapped four limbs around around Max’s left leg and pulled him close. It opened its mandibles wide to cut his leg off. Yang came to the rescue by stabbing it through the mouth.

Gus and James worked together to finish off the other centibee with their magic hammers. No sooner were the first five dead when another four ran through the door. Ashley yelled as they came close and Lily panicked and sprayed out a huge cloud of coagulant.

The thicker mist made the monsters pause and go around it. Two parasites ran towards Lily and Ashley and two centibees buzzed towards Gus and James. Max moved to support them, but fell to the ground. The dead centibees’s legs were still caught on his pant leg. Just like the parasites, the centibee’s legs were covered in barbs.

Yang ran to support the women while Max ripped the barbs out of his jeans. It was slow going. Four legs were wrapped tightly around his own and the barbs weren’t letting go.

A yell from James made him look up. Both of them were out of mana and didn’t have a charge in their hammers. They kept jumping out of the way, but things were getting rough. Gus had a line of blood down one leg and he was limping.

Max grabbed the last charged hammer from his backpack and threw it towards James. The hammer spun end over end while Max yelled his friend’s name. For a moment it looked like the hammer might hit the ground, but a blue hand appeared and caught it. The hand jerked it up to James’ gauntlet and held it fast. He didn’t waste a second and used the super strike to knock a centibee’s head off.

The remaining centibee buzzed back and forth, trying to get a good angle to sting James. Gus came at it from behind and slammed his hammer’s spike into its thorax. The strike disabled a wing and it spun to the ground. James was there to finish it off with his two hammers. By the time Max was free of the dead centibee, the women had finished off the parasites.

Max pulled out his first aid kit and patched up Gus and himself. It hurt to walk, but their mobility wasn’t too impaired. He cleaned up and said to everyone “Let’s take a break to recharge and see how everyone likes cassava root.”

They hated it. Max hadn’t learned how to make it tasty yet, and the resulting goop was only just barely edible. He promised to take cooking lessons in the next city. Once everyone was full of food and mana, they sent Lily’s summon up to open the exit door.

The next room was empty. There were the remains of a dozen parasites and half of the columns had been cut down. Max checked for traps. He thought he might have seen a few, but none of them were active. He did see something interesting on the floor though.

“What is this place? Do we just get a pass on this room or something?” Gus said.

Max pointed to one of the walls without a door. “Do you see those footprints and blood trails? They came from a room we’ve never visited. I think it’s the other team running the dungeon at the same time as us. This dungeon isn’t spatially expanded, so there is overlap when three teams try to run the same floor at once.”

“They were rather violent,” Yang murmured while she fingered the stub of a column. Most of the damage in the room looked like the warriors had done it instead of the monsters.

“I bet they are overleveled for this dungeon. Or at least stronger than is necessary for the first floor,” Max said.

They moved on to the next room. It was devoid of life as well. This one must have been run by Ebba because none of the columns had been cut down. The monsters were dead, lying across the floor where she ambushed them. Max tsked when he saw one of the ant-lobster guys was dead too.

“How much you wanna bet this guy was supposed to help us out?” Gus said and pointed to the body.

“No bet. It’s definitely easier when you play along with their scenario,” Max said and gestured towards the bladder Lily was holding.

To his surprise, the traps in front of the exit door were still active. They were confused about how she left without triggering them, but then realized she must have left out a different door.

They walked up to the exit door and used the still active defenses to set a trap for the monsters in the seventh room. Mushroomantis was bait again and a thin cloud of mist covered the area. Seven parasites rushed through the door at once.

Their trap was as effective as last time. Most monsters were killed, the rest were easy to finish off. With everyone at full mana, it was easy to keep the parasites off balance and the centibees grounded.

Another five monsters came out of the seventh room before it was completely cleared. For the first time, there was a trap in the center of the room. Max made sure everyone gave it a wide berth.

The eighth room should have been easy. It had the same number of monsters as last time and they were able to set up a good trap. Two of the monsters changed everything. A larger parasite and centibee, both level 12, were able to tank the spikes and keep walking. They eventually killed all of the monsters but it cost them all of their magic and Gus and Ashley picked up an injury each. They waited a full hour before they moved on.

The ninth room was a shock. It was completely different from the first eight rooms, inorganic except for the monsters inside. There were stacks of hexagonal plates, each one interlocking with the other like legos. Crystal dodecahedrons floated above each one.

Metal arms were attached to the ceiling, vaguely reminiscent of insect limbs. They focused on the monsters as they wandered by, pushing the holograms in their faces. The large parasites ignored the machines in the room and paced through the stacks while the centibees buzzed from stack to stack, like they were pacing.

There were five of them, each one at level 12. They stayed in the center of the room because all around the edges of the room were active defense platforms. Instead of the organic spikes, these ones were disc shooters. Max presumed that they tracked intruders because there were only six slots per emplacement.

The monsters saw their bait right away, but didn’t fall for it. Apparently, they were smart enough not to run into the traps in the room they had spawned in. Max yelled, but they didn’t do much more than growl at him. They couldn't enter the room without setting off the traps, and they couldn't convince the monsters to run into the traps either.

Gus scratched his butt and said, “Don’t worry. I got a plan.”