Wyn fell to his knees in the portal room, hope drained from him. His and Arabelle’s chance of getting out from their debt early was gone. Lucy couldn’t keep her anger under control and attacked Mathias.

No. She killed him. A member of the Assembly. She was as good as dead, but so was he and his sister now that they were caught up in it. He was so stupid to trust her. Anger was her driving force, and she showed her hand again and again that she was too volatile.

“Why did she do that?” Tasha asked.

“Years of pent up anger unleashed at the worst possible time,” Cedric said. “Gods. They’re going to kill her.”

“She’ll be dead before then,” Marcy said. “She went in basically alone and the day is going to change in a few hours. I doubt she has a key on her, either.”

“We have our equipment still,” John said. “Maybe she has one we didn’t know about?”

Wyn looked at the blood stain on the floor in front of the portal. His mind raced with the consequences of Lucy’s actions. If she died, would he and his sister be free? He doubted it. The Assembly would probably come for them after their contact and Lucy disappeared. The truth, though, is that he had nothing to do with it. It was all Lucy. Would they believe him? Was that a risk he was willing to take?

“Damnit,” Wyn said. He stood up and took a deep breath.

It wasn’t worth risking his sister’s life. Not again. The Assembly would get their money and answers somehow, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way.

Which left one option.

“We need to go get her.”

“Wyn, are you crazy?” John said. “Just let her go! Honestly, this might work out for the best!”

“John!” Tasha said, surprised. “How can you say that?”

“Because then his problems just… go away? Right?”

“You know they won’t, John,” Wyn said. “If Lucy and Mathias don’t report back, they’ll be presumed to have run away or be missing. The Assembly will show up here for answers. And come to me and Arabelle first.”

“Shit,” Marcy said. “That’s not good.”

“No, it isn’t. Which is why we have to go get Lucy. We have keys, we can get her and convince her to come back.”

“We can’t convince her to do anything,” John said. “She’s crazier than you!”

Cedric pulled out his parchment. “Then we beat her down until she agrees or is unconscious and we drag her out. But we need to go now.”

“Why?” John asked.

Cedric held up his parchment. “We can see where party members are on our parchments. And she’s on the ninth floor.”

*****

To his credit, Mathias was a tough son of a bitch. He was still alive, despite having a dagger sticking out of his chest. Lucy was easily dragging him away from the portal in the massive temple. He wasn’t putting up a fight being dead weight, and her enhanced strength made it easy to move him.

Soon he’d be completely dead. And then so would she. She had no armor, no weapons, no desire to leave. Her miserable time was ready for its end. At least she’d see her sister soon.

She looked down at Mathias, who was sweating and white as a sheet. His breaths were slow and pitiful. He blinked slowly, and that was all he did. No words. No movements.

Lucy set him on the ground and stared at him. She wanted to be sure. She had to be.

A few seconds later, she took a deep breath after he took his last.

She was alone, now. Closing her eyes, she was ready for the end. It would be soon.

There was a soft whoosh behind her followed by footsteps. “Lucy,” a voice said.

“Godsdamnit,” Lucy whispered. She wanted to go on her terms. Why? Why did they have to interfere?

*****

“Come on,” Wyn said, stepping forward. “He’s gone. We can still leave.”

“I came here so I could leave,” Lucy said. “The way I want. On my terms, for once.”

“You don’t want that. You’re done with him, now. We can get you free of them, too.”

Lucy laughed. “You’re never really free from them, Wyn. Not for someone like me. You, maybe, since this was never your mess to begin with. But my life is forfeit.”

“This will be my mess if you don’t come back and explain what happened,” Wyn said. “If both you and Mathias disappear, me and my sister are next on their list to question. Do you think they’ll go easy on us? Or be thorough?”

Lucy paused, looking at him. Before she had the look of absolute conviction and pure terror. Wyn knew there was no stopping her. Now, though? Now she looked tired. Scared, even.

“We have to hurry,” Cedric said. “Monsters are constant on this floor, remember?”

“It’s why I came here,” Lucy said. “I’m tired of running away. I want to face the rest of my short life head on. I’m sorry, Wyn, but this is my choice.”

Tasha stepped forward, a key in her hand. Her climbing gear was on her, and her wand was in her other hand. “This choice doesn’t just affect you, so you can’t make it out of pure emotion. Come back, settle down, then we can figure it out. But we’re not leaving here without you. One way or another.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Lucy stood, defiant. Her usual angry demeanor showed itself for a moment, then slipped away again. She took a deep breath. “What happens if you carry me out, huh? Kill me and take my body? They’ll still want answers. Not for me, but for him. He wasn’t a slave like me. Mathias had value.”

“Come on, this isn’t the right time or place to be figuring this out,” John said. His shield was up and sword out.

“What would your sister want?” Wyn asked. “For you to condemn what’s left of another family? That’s what you’re doing now. Not helping us but slowly killing us.”

A tear fell down Lucy’s cheek. She looked remorseful. Still, though, she stood her ground.

“Last chance,” Marcy said. She half drew an arrow nocked on her bow. “I sense a small pack of monsters coming.”

The others spread out, readying themselves to fight. Each of them started their magical preparations - John with his Squire Aura, Tasha with Arcane Aura, and Marcy and Cedric with spells.

Wyn, however, kept his focus on Lucy. He stared at her and saw what he wanted to see in himself. Conviction. An absolute desire to do whatever it took to accomplish your goals. He felt strongly about his own sense of beliefs before, but now he was looking at a wall. Someone trapped who saw only one way out, and would push through whatever or whoever was in their way to escape. To be free.

He's been in that position only time before, and it was what brought him to Alestead to be a Climber. His road wasn't as trecherous as hers, though. She stood just as tall as he did, maybe even more so. Part of him envied her. But most of him pitied her.

It was then he realized no amount of talking would persuade Lucy. Not in the short time they had, at least. Whatever barrier was inside her shattered, and she was taking advantage of the opportunity. She was someone who respected actions. Not words. Over their time climbing together Wyn realized that, slowly, she was starting to see the rest of them for their true character based on how they acted, not what they said.

Above all, though, she was right. The Assembly would come for Wyn and Arabelle for the simple reason that Mathias was dead. That was the bottom line. Lucy had to come back. Alive. If she wanted to come to the ninth floor to meet her fate, well, then maybe she would.

Wyn hoped that her fate didn’t end here, though. For better or worse, she was entangled with him and his sister. And he was damn sure he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

He threw his pack at Lucy and extended his bracer to a shield. “You came here because you thought it was the end. It’s not. Not yet. You want to see your sister soon? Fine. I’ll kill you myself, if you want. But not until we clear up this mess with the Assembly because I'll be damned to let my sister down. So do one last good thing with your life and help me.”

Lucy opened the pack and then back at Wyn. “You’re serious?”

“Damn straight. We made a deal during the trials. How about we make another?”

Cedric launched a ball of electricity at snarling monsters that showed up on their right. The four quickly met them in combat, and Wyn was prepared to join them in a few seconds.

“We climb this floor as a team as we have the past month,” Wyn continued. “We get cornered or start losing, we’ll key out. You can come or not.”

“And if we don’t?” Lucy asked.

“If we make it to the end and finish, then you come back willingly and save me and my sister.” Wyn extended his dagger to a sword and moved to help John.

Lucy caught his arm as he stepped past her. His eyes shone with determination. A goal. One to succeed, to keep his sister safe and alive no matter the cost. To keep the rest of them safe and alive no matter the cost.

Lucy felt her own conviction waver in that moment pierced by the eyes of someone who had something to lose. Everything to lose.

She’d been there before. Her sister had been there before.

Maybe... maybe she could wait just a little longer if fate had different plans.

“Alright. Deal.”

*****

John stabbed another of the horrific monsters in the side, killing it. It was a smaller but quick beast, like a large black fox with a slender body and three bushy tails. Its long jaw was oddly filled with two rows jagged teeth and its paws had claws hooked like a bird’s talon. The monsters weren’t overly tough, at least not compared to other tier two monsters, but they were incredibly dangerous. They were quick, hitting fast and constantly, and came in a pack of over two dozen. John’s armor and shield held against them devently well, but he was concerned about the others.

He looked over to see Lucy carving through them like a woodsman hacking through paper logs. Each swing nearly bisected the monster she attacked, and she took out three in the time that John stood gawking. Beside her, Wyn was equally destructive, though in a different way. While Lucy showed incredible brute force he showed incredible speed. His weapon was currently a short sword, and he wielded it with precision and in quick strikes. The monsters were fast, but Wyn was able to dodge and roll around them without obvious difficulty.

Soon the pack was dead, their bodies rapidly decaying into black smoke.

“What now?” Cedric asked. He looked at Lucy and Wyn, who weren’t speaking. “Are you coming back with us or not?”

“That’s to be determined,” Wyn said. “We made a deal.”

“Which is?” Marcy asked.

“All or nothing. We clear the floor, she comes back with us. We don’t, needing to leave and key out, well…”

“Then I stay,” Lucy said. “Which I’m okay with.”

“That’s fucked up,” John said.

Tasha hit John on the arm. “Don’t say that!”

“It’s true, though! Who wants to do something like that?”

“I don’t expect you to understand,” Lucy said. “And frankly I don’t care. I need to keep going. I have more things to kill.” She started walking with purpose towards the orange glowing light at the far end of the outer temple.

Cedric looked around at the few piles of treasure dropped from the monsters. “Are you sure about this, Wyn?”

Wyn shook his lantern. The mushrooms inside bounced around before glowing a bright green. The effect was far more effective than before it was upgraded, and it lit up their area easily while not being too bright to be a distraction.

“I’m sure about needing her back. The last thing I want is to have the Assembly come interrogating me or Arabelle, and we need to figure out what to do. But we can’t do that unless she’s willingly with us. Alive.”

“Then we need to keep up,” Marcy said.

“And we will,” Wyn said. “No holding back. I can’t accept failure as an option.”

“We won’t fail,” Tasha said. “And John, you can’t loot everything. We have to move.”

John was bending down holding a handful of coins. “Well, shit.”

The group jogged to catch up to Lucy, who moved from a walk to a slow trot. It wouldn’t be long before another monster group found them and they needed to fight together.

Wyn was done holding back. Each step was a reminder of his situation. Lucy not returning would likely be disastrous. No matter what, he had to see the floor through.

They had the strength. They had the teamwork, skills, and ability. They just needed the confidence to push themselves.

Wyn mentally reviewed the types of monsters that showed up on the floor. They were all beast-like that attacked in packs, ranging from smaller in size with larger numbers - like the foxes - to larger sizes and less numbers like the deranged wolves they faced the first time they entered. None of them had an element or used magic, but they came in such relentless waves that the challenge was an endurance and resource management test. The further into the floor towards the end, the less time between waves. Nigel and his team mentioned that there was a stretch where there was no time between monster packs, and that they had to continue advancing while fighting the monsters until the boss. If they stood in one spot, it was a constant, unending flow of monsters that would cause either the climbers to break or the tower.

And the tower never broke.

The next wave came quickly, and this was another of the six possible types. It was a mixture of two types, one of which was a dozen flying creatures that looked like flying bat demons with pale skin, large ears, four legs and translucent wings. Their legs were disjointed and wrong, ending with hook claws the size of Wyn’s hands. The second type was huge scaly monsters that dwarfed bears, bulky and slow but carried powerful steps on each of its four legs. They had long faces and armored brown scales, with enough force behind their clawed paws to even knockback John on a direct hit. When they attacked, they stood on their hind legs and swiped with a ferocious force.

The new monsters required the group’s coordinated efforts immediately, but they fell into a familiar rhythm. Abilities and spells were quickly used, mostly focused on outright power rather than survival. Wyn avoided using his Wellspring and instead used Drain and Speed Up when able. Combined with John’s Aura, he was just as capable as the Squire. He decided to channel his same mindset he used when facing the individual portion of the guild trials, keeping Regen on himself to heal when needed while choosing to be less careful. His potential to kill the beast monsters increased as he ignored glancing blows and less serious hits though still dodged and rolled away from attacks when possible using his speed as an advantage.

Cedric and Marcy also pushed themselves, deciding to match Wyn's ferocity and not hold back. They had mana potions to replenish what they lost, and with Marcy’s new equipment mostly using magical arrows and upgraded spells, her effectiveness was better while she was using mana at a rate similar to Cedric.

Tasha continued her role from when she led the group, supporting the others as her primary objective while centering herself in the midst of the chaos. She blocked monsters when able with Shield and covered them during their rare moments of rest with Arcane Aura. She didn’t want to use a Calling until it was absolutely needed, and knew she needed to save at least one for the dragon boss at the end of the floor.

As they tore through another group of monsters, Wyn realized this was not going to be the same type of climb they previously experienced. Lucy was covered in blood, some hers and most not. As the monsters disappeared so did their blood, leaving some stains and streaks behind. Since her strength grew with her injuries, she was easily the most deadly in the group. Especially since she wasn’t trying to protect herself at all. Tasha started to heal her but a quick, harsh glance from Lucy stopped her.

The Barbarian turned towards the orange glowing light and began to run. The others reluctantly followed.

As they continued, a strange shimmer of magic towards the ceiling drew Wyn’s attention. His lantern continued coating the area in green light, and he stopped to look closer. There was a pocket of space about twenty feet high that shimmered with a brief appearance of runes but then disappeared nearly as fast as it came. Wyn wondered what kind of secrets the floor held that his lantern could show. Apparently these were too strong to be fully revealed.

“Come on,” John said, pulling Wyn.

Wyn paused for only a moment, hoping to see something else but nothing came. Whatever it was was now gone.

Wyn mentally righted himself and focused. He had work to do. And it was only going to get harder.