“Should we be leaving him alive?” Frowned Holly as we moved on from the temple, leaving the horned man (whose name I still hadn’t bothered to learn) behind. “I mean, we killed all his friends, if he comes after us…”

Aside from not wanting to stain my victory with his blood after showing how easily I crushed someone at that level, I had my reasons for leaving him alive, though. “Nope. He’s not getting up for quite some time. Stashing him in the empty temple will make it more likely he gets through this alright, and I want to demonstrate our power.”

Chelsea nodded. “It’s not a bad idea. Showing we’re so much stronger than he is that we didn’t even need to hurt him to beat him is a hell of a statement.” She grimaced. “That wasn’t a pun.” She clarified. “Or not an intentional one.”

“Coward.” Sniffed Serah stoically. “Intend your puns.”

“Right.” My sister said blandly. “Anyway, by overpowering him and leaving him alive, we show dominance. Plus assuming he doesn’t wake up in time to follow us, outside the games he can’t do anything. We’re surrounded by powerful people, and trying to bring factions into it would be even stupider.”

Left unsaid was that he represented an S-rank bloodline, and it would be even stupider to piss off an S-ranker for no reason. Zeke couldn’t protect me from the Primal Pain Druid, and while I was sure my maternal grandfather would step in if an S-ranker was going to murder me and turn me into a screaming tree, I was equally sure most other people didn’t know that, so it probably wasn’t as big of a deterrent as I might hope.

Regardless, leaving him alive was the smart call. There were no real downsides, given he wouldn’t be able to catch up to us before this ended. Hell, leaving him alive was enough of a favor he might not even try. He didn’t strike me as one of those crazy prideful young master types like Pietro had been.

As we approached the next temple up, all of us stopped a little ways out. We’d learned our lesson before, and we needed to be careful going into a situation like this. “Hold on.” I said putting up a hand. “I have an idea.”

Reaching into my mind, I triggered an ability I hadn’t used in ages. Shadow Clone. Another version of me appeared right next to me, and I used Piece of Mind, dropping a version of my brain into it. I had it trigger Eye of Revelation, and grinned as I was able to perceive…some of what I wanted.

The clone was an old stored attack Callie had given me at either F or G-rank, and was therefore absurdly fragile. If Eye of Revelation had placed any burden on the body it would have collapsed.

It gave me a nod, then took off for the temple to do a lap around it, identifying any possible traps or ambushes, not to mention making sure we were alone.

Not for the first time I wished I could tap into Callie’s actual ability through the bond, but while Skills worked fine, ability sharing didn’t seem viable at the point we were at in our connection. I paid close attention to the clone, up until a squirrel noticed it creeping around and chucked an acorn at it.

An E-ranked squirrel, throwing an E-ranked acorn. The clone was pulverized, vanishing in a shower of dust. “Damn. It died.” I said with a grimace. “But it managed to get a decent look around. Nothing nearby, I say we open the door and then send another one in to scope out the inside.”

With a nod, we crept closer, and Holly moved in to lever the door open. I closed my eyes, repeating my clone process, and then sent my clone inside. “So…” Said Holly after we’d been waiting a minute. “That fight was pretty intense.”

Serah shook her head. “We had that fight in a temple. Not in tents.”

“Why are you so fixated on bad puns right now?” Snapped Holly. “I miss the damned knock knock jokes. Though admittedly, it wasn’t as bad as your mime phase. I don’t think mimes even count as comedy.”

The copper haired angel shrugged. “They make people laugh.” She said flatly.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“One, that’s a wildly optimistic take on mimes.” Said her sister. “And two, that’s a really broad definition of comedy. What’s next, puppetry?” Serah’s face seemed to somehow convey contemplation without changing her expression, and Holly closed her eyes in pained regret. “Oh, please don’t become a puppeteer.”

I raised my hand. “Seconded. I find puppets creepy for…personal reasons.” I shuddered at the memory of Saint Aiden and his creepy brainwashing operation. Heartrippers still creeped me out, even at E-rank. “Anyway, you were saying something about the fight Holly?”

“Oh, right.” She said, shaking her head to clear it. “I was just going to say maybe you’re not as weak as I expected. I’m sure you know candidates aren’t exactly known for personal power. You guys have a rep as being a liability without your hangers on. So…sorry.” She shrugged. “I may have had a small attitude when you first joined up, but we’re cool now.” She stuck out her hand.

I shook it, nodding my acceptance of the apology. “I get it. You didn’t leave me hanging in battle, so I don’t mind a little snapping at the start.” I froze. “One second, clone got something finally, and…now it's dead.”

“What was it?” Asked my sister in concern. “Did you get a good look?”

I chuckled. “Ironically, I almost didn’t specifically because of the type of clone I used. I caught a slight flash though. Some kind of shadow creature. The temple looked empty to start, so we’ll have to be careful. Even my Eye of Revelation didn’t catch it, though admittedly it doesn’t benefit from the crown when I’m not using it personally.”

“I’d wondered why you were wearing that.” Holly said with a laugh. “I kind of figured you just had a giant ego like the rest of the candidates.”

I snorted. “Ridiculous. I’m extremely humble. Perhaps the most humble person in the entire universe.” Serah gave a small snort, and I nodded at the comedian angel, happy to have my jokes appreciated. I’d try to laugh next time she told a bad pun.

“So how do we approach this?” I asked, gesturing to the temple. “Holly, your whole light thing might be able to weaken or even kill it. What are the limits on that?”

She shrugged. “I’m an angel of illumination. It’s…kind of a job? It’s complicated. Short answer, not many limitations under these circumstances. I can do more specific things that would drain me, but just shining really bright doesn’t take much effort. Hurting a creature made of shadows might take more, but I should be able to do it.”

“So to be clear.” Said Serah. “We should go in guns blazing?” I chuckled a bit, and Holly glared at me for encouraging her.

Chelsea just rolled her eyes. “Yes. Holly crank the voltage, I’ll hit the thing with purification flame. Shane, I don’t suppose your green fire form would work here? The output was nuts, and that might come in handy.”

“It would work on YOU.” I clarified. “But shadows aren’t corrupt or anything. Purification isn’t going to do much. The light of the flames might, but your white flame is probably better for that anyway. Zagan is completely support oriented, that’s why it’s so powerful. Your fire is much more versatile.”

She sighed. “Fine. Do your defense thing and cover Holly then. Serah’s copper flame will probably work too. We can both attack.”

I was dreadfully curious about exactly what Serah’s power was, but I didn’t bother to ask. We had a plan, I could question their abilities later. Chelsea obviously knew, and since she did I trusted her to decide if it would be helpful here.

With that in mind, I triggered Mornax, becoming a hyper durable stone edifice and stepped through the door first, taking slow steps to ensure my form didn’t break. Once I entered, there was no reaction for a moment, and then an unearthly screech erupted from the darkness around us.

Before whatever it was could attack, Holly stepped in and erupted in golden illumination, flames climbing her golden sword and spitting from her eyes. The blinding light shoved back the darkness, revealing the monster to us all.

I grimaced at the sight of it. It looked like some kind of freakish ape monster with a bat face and porcupine quills. Its eyes were blood red, and it bared a mouth full of FAR too many needle sharp teeth at us as it came into view. Before it could move though, a wave of white flame rolled across the chamber, coming from my sister, and consumed it.

Serah flapped her wings once and shot straight up, then used the elevation to dive bomb the monster as Chelsea pulled back her fire wave.

The…thing. Monkbatpine? Screamed at Chelsea, its eyes alight with rage (though unfortunately not with actual fire, it seemed to have only gotten superficial burns). It was so furious it missed Serah bringing her scythe down from above, hooking its point into the thing’s back and yanking forward, raking the edge through its flesh.

She backed off as it lashed out, slipping to the side and hooking its arm, pulling hard so the inner edge would lop off the limb before swiping at it to try to use the hook to disembowel the monster.

It was a bit too fast, but it was also very distracted, so it didn’t notice my sister circle around and unload a blistering combination of punches into its back, explosions of flame wracking its body as it screamed in hate and rage. It tried to spin, but Serah had seen the action and interposed her scythe, hooking it around the neck of the monster.

As it turned, it opened its own throat on the razor sharp copper weapon, so deep I could see bone. It stumbled back, Serah moving aside but sticking out a foot to trip it as it stumbled to the floor, clutching its heavily bleeding throat.

Brackish blood pumped out onto the floor, a sickly dark green color. Looking down at it almost sadly, Serah stabbed the butt end of her scythe into its eye, killing it.

Stepping forward, my sister searched its body clinically before withdrawing the key. “I think we’re getting the hang of this.” She said with a low sigh. “We should be able to get through this if we take our time. I just hope we make it to the top fast enough.” Glancing around, she shook her head. “Let’s move on. We can’t afford too many delays.”

We all agreed, and we set off again towards the top of the mountain. With my clones and our various damage abilities I was confident we could make good progress as long as we planned things out.

This game had just started though. There were plenty of other people in this thing, some from the same factions who were grouped up like we were.

Whatever was coming up, we’d be ready for it. As we advanced, I let my eyes trail over the various paths and the other temples in the distance. They all looked so imposing and mysterious. I wondered if the guardians would be as challenging and dangerous as they had been so far, or if this was just the beginning.

In the distance, I spotted movement, but it quickly faded before I could actually put my Perception to use. I tightened my grip on my staff as we approached the next temple. Then I called up another clone and inserted a piece of my mind. Like my sister had said, take it slow. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. We had to be the first ones to the top, but I wasn’t going to rush it.