It took them a while to find the last group.

  The room on the right was empty, but they still spent the time to make sure that there weren't any monsters in the large circular room.

  They exited the room through the opening to the west. They followed that tunnel until it ended at the barrier separating the square they were in from the one in the next column. Their current order had Bradley in the rear and Oakley leading, with everyone else in between the two Tanks. As they retraced their steps, Bradley led the group since it was very awkward for the Tanks to get around people in the hall.

  The next set of rooms was much smaller. Oakley would go into a room with a over his head and Frederica behind him. Penelope followed next, with Circe at her side. Marlow stood guard in the doorway while Bradley watched over the others from the hall.

  Going room by room took time, and it wasn't until they reached the set of rooms in the southwest corner of the square that they found the last group of monsters.

  “Ahhh!” Oakley braced as a pair of blue-feathered monsters slashed at his shield.

  “Pea! Gimme a light!” Frederica shouted as she ducked around the monsters.

  A wall of stone stopped her movement as the Shadow Knight turned its focus on the blonde assassin.

  “It's another Tank!” Circe readied her . “I've got the little one!”

  Jeru, watch her. Penelope turned her focus to the leader. “Freddy! Back up! I've got the big one!”

  Ding!

  Experience +3

  “She got one of the bugs!” Jeru commented. “She’s got a bead on the other one.”

  The scratching of the bug's hairy legs sent chills down Penelope's arms. The sound made her feel like she had bugs crawling on her, but she couldn't focus on that.

  She touched the necklace that she'd looted from the Shadow Caster. It gave +2 Magic and a 5% increase to ice damage. It was exactly what she needed to make her favorite spell to use against the Shadow Knights stronger.

  “Hail Storm!” Inverting the spell still felt like throwing marbles out of a bag by punching the bottom of the sack. Penelope closed her eyes to counteract the vertigo. It was like she was upside down and rightside up at the same time.

  Ding!

  Experience +3

  “One Chom down! Circe is having trouble hitting that last Flou. She could use some more light.” Jeru cleared his throat. “And you're not hitting the Knight.”

  Penelope opened her eyes and canceled the spell. The Demon had made a wall over the area of her spell and backed away. Ice spears hung off of the diagonal stone, but it mainly served as a barrier between them and the other monster.

  “Here.” Penelope spread the four around the room. Her heart sank as she watched the Knight retreat through a doorway to the left while also seeing a doorway on the right.

  Ding!

  Experience +3

  Frederica decapitated the other waist-high bird Demon, leaving them with only the bug in the other room. She tapped her boytoy on the arm, and the pair took off after the Demon. “We need a light!” The older woman yelled as they entered the next room.

  “Bradley! That Flou is the last little one. Grab its attention! Eldri, you’re in charge of light for them. Marlow’s in charge.” Penelope paused as she moved her spells towards the doorway on the left. “You’ve got this.”

  “WE CAN’T SEE ANYTHING!”

  “Coming!” Penelope ran through the doorway with her lights above her.

  “It went that way!” Oakley pointed at the next doorway, offset just a little but still in front of them.

  “The rooms are circular.” Jeru motioned for her to hurry. There should be eight around an octagonal stone pillar.” He pointed behind her. “It’s lured you away from the weaker ones so it can loop around!”

  Should we backtrack? Penelope glanced behind her.

  “HURRY UP!” Frederica stopped at the doorway. “We can’t see anything if you don’t move your orbs!”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Just hurry! Even if it catches up to them, Brad can hold his own until you get there.” The blue Elf urged her.

  “Coming!” Penelope sprinted to catch up. Without the danger of other monsters, the group charged forward, running through the rooms in a circle. They had to go through five rooms before they caught up to the Demon. The system notified them that the other group killed the last lesser Demon while they were going through the fourth room.

  “Look At ME!” Oakley bellowed as he tucked himself behind his shield.

  The Shadow Knight skidded to a stop and slowly turned around. The axe in its right hand pointed at the other Tank. “MINE.”

  Frederica didn’t stop moving; her daggers aimed for the joints under the Demon’s arm. Her favorite target, the Demon’s neck, was protected by a metal collar, which kept her from decapitating the monster.

  The Shadow Knight rotated, pushing her back with its shield. Her blades bounced off the spiked metal, screeching as she hopped away.

  “Tornado Alley.” Penelope blocked off the doorway behind the monster. While the lower-leveled people could survive a few moments against the Tank, she didn’t want them getting in the way. While she could use to kill the Shadow Knight, that was only if it was locked in place.

  “I need you to knock it down!” Penelope looked around the forty-by-sixty room. It was too wide for her to focus her air spell to knock it down, so she focused on keeping the door blocked off.

  “I’m working on it!” Frederica slipped on the other side of the Demon. Its axe chopped through the space where she’d been. Before it could raise its hand, she slashed it with both of her blades, peeling the gauntlet off and knocking the weapon out of the Demon’s hand as she did.

  The Shadow Knight backhanded her, knocking the assassin away before bracing against its shield when Oakley crashed into it.

  Frederica wiped blood off her lips with the back of her sleeve as she watched the two Tanks smash their shields at each other. She bounced on her heels as she timed the attacks.

  Penelope stretched three of her into spears. With the shield occupied, she jammed a spear through each of the eyeslits in the Shadow Knight’s helmet. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but the damage staggered it.

  Frederica dashed in, jabbing her daggers under the chin of the Demon. She twisted the blades, then the armor fell in a pile as the Demon disintegrated.

  Ding!

  Experience +7

  Soft lights glowed along the base of the walls, signaling the barrier coming down and the square being cleared.

  “Well, that’ll make it easier to map out the the rooms…” Frederica nudged the pile of armor, then bent down and picked up the belt. “Worse than what you have, babe.” She tossed it to Penelope. “Give it to your Tank.”

  Penelope looked at the item in her hand as she canceled her spells.

  “The legendary belt he has will still be worth keeping even through the next floor.” Jeru commented. “Dimensional pockets are really useful, especially for people who can’t use the spell.”

  “Before the others get here, what do you think of the new ones?” Frederica glanced at the empty doorway.

  “They should be level three now.” Penelope did some math in her head. “They’re only going to be seven if they stay with us all the way to the border.”

  “How high are we going to get?” Frederica held up her hand and moved towards the doorway. “This room has been cleared! Head back to camp and let the others know!” She turned back to Penelope. “You can figure ours out, right?”

  “We’ll almost be level thirteen.” Penelope saw the wheels turning. “There’s no way that we could send that group into the next column with level ones!”

  “We need as many groups up to level as we can get.” Frederica snapped. “Right now that clock is ticking down, and we’re the only ones who can go into these things. How do you propose that we get them ready if they can’t level without us?”

  “We can get them to eleven if we clear the whole column with just these. Then we’ll have four teams that can tackle the twelfth column.” Penelope motioned to her left, towards the direction of the boss room, deeper in the Dungeon. “And once we beat one of those squares, I have a feeling we’ll be able to get four groups into a single square, which would make it safer for the groups.”

  “A feeling?” Oakley coughed.

  “If there’s four times as many monsters, then we should be able to put four times as many people in there. But if only two groups can get in through a single side, then once we open up the other sides, we should be able to get more groups in.”

  “That’s a lot of maybes.” Frederica stretched. “But it makes sense.” She pointed in front of her towards 11C, where they’d be going next. “How about we scout how we’re going to start the next one while they’re getting everyone?”

  “I’d love to do a scouting mission!” Circe chimed as she bounced into the room. She wrapped her arms around Penelope’s right arm. “Oh! Is that a belt for Bradley?”

  “Sounds good.” Penelope untangled herself from the enthusiastic brunette. “You can come, just..." She held up her hand. “No touching.”

  “But I’m a hugger.” Circe pouted. “What else am I supposed to do when I’m happy?”

  “Hug someone else.” Penelope shrugged, then looked at Frederica. “I’ll start on the south side if you want to go that way.” She nodded at the doorway Circe had burst through.

  “Let’s go, Oakie.” Frederica motioned for the Tank to follow her. “Meet back at the camp in thirty minutes, then we’ll do the next one before bed.”

  Penelope nodded and watched the pair walk away, then retraced their path to leave the octagon.

  “That wind tunnel was so cool!” Circe laughed as she filled Penelope. “I couldn’t get any arrows through it at all.

  Why do I always attract the clingy ones?

  “Puppy lovin’---”

  Don’t start that again! Penelope interrupted Jeru’s singing. She’s not like Judah.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll have a lot more fans before this is over.” The parasite teased. “Hey! We’ve talked about this!”

  You know you’re always going to be my parasite. Penelope pulled up her map. “Alright, let’s see how much of this we can get filled in in the next thirty minutes.”

  Rating, Review, Follow, Favorite, or Comment does wonders to boost my morale. If you want to help support my writing or check out advanced chapters, head over to my .

  Immersive Ink

  RR Writer's Guild