The fight went the same way.

  The Demonic Beetles started to charge the moment that she was all the way through the barrier.

  “Light Orb!” The globe of light moved forward, forcing the charging insects to arc their trajectory.

  “Light Bolt! Light Bolt!” Penelope began moving to her before one of the Demonic Beetles on that side died.

  “Light Blast!” The bat’s body flew over her shoulder. “Light Blast! Light Blast!”

  She blew a stray strand of red hair out of her face.

  ROAR!

  The Shadow Warrior started running at her, but it was too far away to be a threat.

  “Let’s see what this does. Light Beam!”

  DING!

  Experience +12

  The Demon’s head vanished as the beam shot out of the tip of the wand. The beam kept firing until Penelope made a mental push for it to stop.

  “Well, that was too easy compared to the last time.” She walked over to claim the loot. She added the potions to the correct pockets, then carried her growing pile over to the northwest corner of 2A. Once that was moved, she turned her attention to 2D.

  Ula’s group was in 2J. It was too far away for her to tell any more than that. By the time Penelope made it to the barrier between 2C and 2D, the other group had started the next room. Her mana was full, so she stepped into the next square.

  “Light Beam!” Penelope swept the beam of light over the beetles, moving on to the next one the moment that one died. Without the experience notification, it took her a second to realize that she’d killed the monster, but she was able to cut the three Demonic Beetles down before they got close to her.

  Penelope shut off the beam since the Shadow Knight and Demonic Bats were staying out of her reach. She checked her mana. “Half of it gone.” She clicked her tongue. “That’s more expensive than doing it the other way, but a lot faster.”

  The Demon was approaching her with its shield raised, drawing her attention back to the fight.

  “Light Bolt!” The light washed over the shield. “Light Bolt!”

  The double attack had been burning through the Demons defenses enough to kill them, but the Shadow Knight was still advancing. The metal shield was large enough that the only part of the Demon that she could see were the feet.

  “Light Bolt!” The streak of light shot between the Demon’s legs, leaving a scorch mark the size of a crayon behind.

  “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” Penelope stuck her wand in a loop on the robe’s belt.

  “Light Orb!” Penelope palmed the basketball-sized bundle of light magic in her right hand and ran at the Shadow Knight.

  Ten feet away, the scratch of claws against stone let her know the Demonic Bats had pushed off their perch.

  “Light Blast!” She fired the spell overhead with her left hand and threw herself to the right, throwing the orb at the exposed left foot while the Demon swung its sword at the place where she had been.

  The bundle of light magic detonated, hissing against the metal boot.

  ROAR!

  Penelope was up on her feet as the Shadow Knight dropped to its left knee. The Demon rested on the back of the shield as it tried to rotate to face her.

  She ran in an arc around the monster. The Shadow Knight tried to keep up, but it couldn’t rotate to the right as fast as she could run. It took her two full rotations, but on the third one there was enough space to get a spell through.

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  “Light Beam!”

  DING!

  Experience +12

  Penelope was breathing hard as she stopped, but not out of breath. “Jeru.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Tell me there is a better way to kill those things.”

  “There’s a better way to kill those things.” The blue Elf grinned as he appeared, undeterred by the glare on her face.

  “Is there a better way for me to kill those things that I can do or learn?”

  Jeru shrugged. “Fight with a party?”

  She glanced to the east, then turned back to the Elf. “Anything else?”

  “You have to learn control spells.” He thought for a moment. “Cirdor Pengall knows enough to teach you some, but he’s back at the pathmaker school in town.”

  “What about you?”

  Jeru raised an eyebrow. “What about me?”

  “You’re some kind of all-powerful time mage.” She folded her arms. “And you’ve probably seen every type of magic that is given here. So why can’t you teach me like some ghost mentor?

  “Almost every statement in that is wrong.” He sighed. “I’m not a ghost, but I’m not going to get into the magic of what I am. I’m also not a mentor.” He motioned in the air. “I doubt anyone could ever see all the magic that’s possible in this system…” His voice trailed off.

  “Actually, there’s one guy who probably knows about all the secret types, but I wouldn’t recommend talking to him.” Jeru eyed her. “Yeah, you’d have his full attention.” He waved his hands in front of him. “No, he’s not here, so there’s no point in asking who he is.”

  “And!” The blue Elf pointed his finger at her before she could speak. “I’m not ‘some kind of all-powerful time mage’.” Sorrow crossed over his face. “Do you have any idea how many of my friends died so that I’d have enough magic for this trip?”

  Penelope shook her head.

  “All of them.” He motioned around them. “The magic that made all of this possible? I couldn’t use a quarter of that in my time.” His voice quieted. “And I had ten times that when I started.”

  “That’s…” Penelope realized what he meant by that and couldn't find the words to console him. She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but her fingers went right through him.

  “It’s fine. We just have to fix this, and then none of it will have ever happened.” Jeru forced a smile. “So no, none of the opinions you have about me are correct. So if you’re done, I’m going to go.”

  He vanished before she could say anything. Not that he needed to be present for her to talk to him. He was always in her head.

  Penelope sighed and gathered up the items, but instead of taking them back to her stash, she carried them to the northern corner between 2D and 2E. It was almost half a mile to get back to her stash, and she wasn’t looking forward to the ten minutes that running back and forth would take. Not when she could just clear her way back up to it.

  She rubbed her wet hands together as she checked her mana. It was over half full, which was more than enough to finish the square. Before she could think about what had happened so many times inside, she stepped through the barrier.

  This square had the most Demonic Bats that she’d seen. There were three of them and two Demonic Beetles. The Shadow Caster was weaving its hands, casting a red glow over the Demonic Beetles. They moved faster than the others as they charged, but faster didn’t mean anything when her spells killed them faster.

  “Light Beam!” Penelope pointed the end of her wand at the closest table-sized monster. As soon as it went down, she turned her focus to the other one. She needed a lone hop to get out of the way of the crashing monsters.

  A pit formed in her stomach as Penelope charged the remaining monsters. Sweat flowed out of every pore as her stomach threatened to revolt. It might have been able to if she’d eaten anything.

  “Light Beam!” She aimed for the Shadow Caster’s head. Penelope had to grab the wand with both hands to steady it as the spell ate through her mana.

  Penelope swung the wand around like a sword when the Demonic Bats swooped down, slicing them apart with the beam of white light. She turned her attention back to the leader as soon as the third flier dropped.

  “Come on!” Penelope gritted her teeth, and then the headache started. She dismissed the spell as she fell down on her hands and knees.

  The Demon started cackling as it pulled a dagger out of its robe and walked towards her.

  “Not today.” The paler woman jabbed her hand in her right pocket and pulled out a Mana Potion. The Shadow Caster started running as she sat down and pulled the top off, then downed the metallic-tasting liquid.

  The headache vanished faster than any pain reliever back home could work. She got her left arm in front of the dagger, the blade going between the bones of her forearm. Penelope staggered as she got to her feet, but after grappling for a second with the Demon, she was able to grab it by the throat.

  “Light-”

  The Shadow Caster slammed its forehead against hers.

  “-BEAM!” She refused to let her spell get interrupted.

  Light began to burn out of her right palm, melting through the red throat. Nails clawed at her face as it tried to get past the flailing left arm that she was waving to ward them off. The struggles got weaker as it rammed her again.

  DING!

  Experience +12

  Penelope canceled the spell, which hadn’t cut all the way through. She let the body fall to the side, then fell back herself. The nausea began to ebb as she laid on her back. She allowed herself a few moments to rest.

  She’d cleared her half.

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