His fists were up, clenched in front of him as he walked towards where she was standing. He snapped his tail at an even pace, causing the bells to crash in tempo.

“Polluted...” Guin repeated, looking back up at the wraiths trapped in watery prisons. “It took so long because the water was polluted... is it...” Whatever spell he cast, it was more than powerful—even with the cast time taken into consideration. All six of the wraiths were snuggled up in the wrapping water—and she saw that the balls were constricting as they spun, growing smaller and tighter the longer they were held. “What level are you, exactly?” she asked.

“He’s 18 now!” Tea told her proudly. “Isn’t he amazing? Undying are truly awesome!”

“Awesome, is it...” Guin stared back at Ibraxis, but he seemed to be ignoring her general distrust of his abilities.

“You did well,” he said. “I’m impressed you held out like that.”

“Thanks,” she answered as the wave of exhaustion she had been feeling caught up to her. “Why am I so tired?”

“You mana,” Ibraxis told her. “It’s depleted. There’s an exhaustion mechanic. I am guessing you do not carry mana potions?”

Guin shook her head. “I guess I’ve never needed to worry about it before,” she said.

“I can fix that!” Tea said, waving his hand and strumming his lute off-key. In moments and a little flash of blue, she felt the veil of sleepiness dragging her down lift away.

“Thanks,” she said, nodding at him. “So what happens now? Do they just... die?”

Ibraxis shrugged. “Depends on how much damage you did,” he told her. “This is more a crowd-control spell than anything else. The water will deal damage as it constricts, but they are not guaranteed kills.”

“Right, then,” she murmured. “Do all your spells take that long to cast?”

“Depends on the materials at hand,” he said shortly.

“Meaning?”

Ibraxis looked at her, brow twitching. She could tell that he was getting tired of explaining things, but luckily for them both, Tea piped up in excitement: “Undying commune with the spirits of nature!” he told her, then gave a nervous laugh. “But they have to purify spirits before they can use them, so sometimes he takes a really long time.”

“Ah,” Guin went. “Not the kind of guy to bring into a corrupted forest, then,” she chided.

Nudging his nose forward, he said, “You do not think the payoff is worth it?”

Chuckling, Guin pointed at the nearest collapsing ball. “How long is this going to take? Can I break one?”

“Another thirty seconds or so,” he told her. “You can break it, but once you do, the damage will stop, and the creature will be released.”

“Better to take it one at a time,” Guin mumbled, checking her health bar. Back at about 75% health, she felt it would be reasonably safe to take them on a one-on-one basis. “All right, guys, step back,” she directed, then approached the closest ball and took her stance.

With a straight, powerful thrust, Guin skewered the wraith through the chest. The moment that her spear touched the water, it burst, leaving both Guin and the spirit drenched in cold water. Free from its captivity, the wraith screamed, throwing its face as close to Guin’s as it could, fighting against the spear in its chest. Kicking it, she pulled her spear out and launched a [Wind Blade] at it.

Ibraxis’s spell had done its work. When the bolt of sharped air hit it, the wraith turned to ash. Payoff indeed, Guin noted, turning her attention to the next wraith, killing that one as quickly as she had the first. She’d have to try to stay on Ibraxis’s good side, for better or worse.

Simultaneously, the four remaining bubbles exploded, spilling water across the room. The four wraiths shrieked and rushed at Guin—but Guin shadow stepped into Ibraxis’s shadow and moved up next to him.

“Next plan?” she asked, resting her spear on her shoulder.

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Ibraxis twirled his sharpened bone drumsticks in his hands and answered: “Kill them.”

“Simple enough,” she shrugged and ran ahead, letting loose an arc of wind that cut through their attackers with ease, turning two to ash at once. With long, powerful strides, Ibraxis ran past her and leaped, tackling the wraith to their right with his feet, jabbing one drumstick through its shrouded skull and throwing the other to pierce the chest of the one behind it. The one he had landed on turned to dust, while Guin stepped in behind the further one and ended it with a [Backstab].

Sitting on a pile of wraith ash, the white garule nodded at her, his long serpentine tail calmly waving back and forth.

“I-Is it over?” Tea asked, peeking around Ibraxis. “Are the ghosts gone now? Did we win?”

“We did!” Guin told him. “Thank you guys for the support!”

Walking over to get the stick he threw, Ibraxis said, “What are you down here for, anyway? Spectral essences?”

“That and an inscription quest,” she said. “You guys wouldn’t have happened to have seen any glowing inscriptions around, would you? Or bones? I’d take some bones.”

“I haven’t,” Tea shook his head.

Ibraxis pointed down the hall. “They should just be a little further down that way,” he said. “You will run into a few more of these things before you get there, though. Where did your partner go?” Guin saw him frown as he looked to the side where the group avatars would have been on his screen.

“Oh crap!” Guin went, quickly pulling up a screen with BronzePaw. The bronze garule answered almost immediately, worry and confusion written on her face. “I’m so sorry, Paw!” Guin said. “I should have contacted you before! More of those things appeared!”

Relief spreading across her features, BronzePaw laughed and waved. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I saw that you had added another group and figured you were still fighting when your health bar kept changing.”

“We just finished,” Guin answered guiltily. “Where did you end up? Are you alright?”

“I’m not that far away,” BronzePaw shrugged. “I found a hall filled with rats, so I took care of them to pass the time. I did gain a level, though.”

“That’s good!” Guin said, glancing at her own experience bar. She was relatively close to her next level as well.

“Guin?” BronzePaw started with a frown. “Are you with two other garuli?”

“Yeah,” Guin affirmed, looking over at Ibraxis and Tea. Tea was trying very hard to get Ibraxis to play some sort of rock-paper-scissors kind of game. “They are friends from yesterday,” she explained. “One of them has been around here before, and he knows where the inscriptions are. Hopefully, we can get them and get out of here soon.”

“It’s hard to see the pictures,” BronzePaw murmured. “Is one of them... white?”

Guin blinked. “Y-Yeah,” she confirmed. “Ibraxis is. Why? I mean, I know he is a sutak but...” BronzePaw’s eyes went wide. Judging how they had talked about sutak before, Guin didn’t think that she would have an issue with that. Does she know him? Guin wondered.

“Is... something wrong?” Guin asked, a little deflated at the idea that BronzePaw would disapprove of her other garuli companions.

But the garule woman shook her head quickly. “You go ahead to see if you can finish that quest. It looks like some of the rats have respawned. Once I deal with them, I’ll go and meet up with you.

“All right,” Guin answered and closed the window.

Ibraxis tilted his head as he walked over to her. “Is everything okay?”

Though her concern lingered, she shook her head. “Yes,” she told him. “I think so. Are you guys doing quests?”

“Tea asked me to help him for a little bit,” Ibraxis said, looking at the little garule who was looking through treasure chests.

“I did it!” he exclaimed, jumping up and down. “That was the last of them!”

“The last of them?”

“For the gathering quest!” Tea grinned and jumped onto Ibraxis from behind. Guin laughed as the tall garule froze at the contact, then snapped his head around. “Thank you, Ibraxis! Guin!” The little garule wagged his tail, and Ibraxis, obviously resigned to be an object of the smaller garule’s affection, pat him on the head as awkwardly as ever. Letting go of his apparent idol, Tea turned to Guin. “I wish I could stay and help, but I have to log out now,” he said. “My wife’ll be really mad at me if I don’t have dinner ready by the time she gets home!”

Guin blinked. “Y-You’re married?” she asked in mild shock.

Tea laughed. “Yup!” he smiled broadly before a look of panic crossed his face. “Whoops—my last alarm just started going off. Good timing! Sorry guys! I gotta run! Message me later, and I’ll give you guys a hand on your quests!”

Tea ran to the hall door and dropped from the group before either of them could say goodbye.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Guin said, hands on her hips.

Ibraxis visibly shuttered. “I do not envy his wife,” he said, distastefully.

Guin snorted at him. “Oh, come on,” she teased. “You enjoy his company, or you wouldn’t help him!”

“Can it not just be because I’m a nice person?” he asked, but Guin shook her head. Ibraxis sighed and pointed down the other end of the hall. “You need those inscriptions, do you not? I can at least help you get there before I log out myself.”

“That would be a huge help,” she told him. “BronzePaw should be able to work her way to us as long as there are no more of those ghost things.”

Ibraxis scratched his chin, standing silent for a moment before he nodded. “Let us make our way, then.”