Penelope went west to 1C.

  She had wanted to ask Jeru why this time she had received a point in Defense instead of Speed, but the old Elf didn’t seem to want to talk to her at the moment.

  She stashed her half-drunk soda and what was left of her peanuts in the corner like before and ran to the other corner of the room.

  “Light Ball!” Instead of a ball of light shooting out of her hand, the magic swirled in her palm, forming a ball of light the size of a baseball that inched away from her.

  “Huh, I guess I have to—”

  A blast of air knocked her arm back. The ball of light fell to the floor as tiny cuts crisscrossed her right arm where the arm had sliced into it.

  “AH!!!” Penelope moved back into the safe zone as another blast of wind shot at her.

  The Demon commander in this square had a flowing purple robe. Glowing orange eyes peeked out from under the hood that hid the rest of the Demon’s face. It had a spiked staff pointed at where she had been as it watched her from a safe distance away.

  Another difference with this square was that there were three Demonic Ants and two Ceiling Creepers. While she stared at the other Caster, the ants reached where she was and were biting at the barrier.

  Penelope wiped her cut arm on her green shirt. The wounds weren’t very deep, but it was like she had a dozen paper cuts on her arm, which wasn’t the most ideal way for her to cast spells.

  She stared at the monster for longer than it took her mana to recharge. Fighting a Caster felt like a bigger challenge, but if she could get her hands on that staff, she had a feeling that it would make her a lot stronger.

  The first thing that she needed to do was get rid of the simpler monsters. The Demonic Ants were the biggest problem: she was confident in her ability to kill the two demons on the ceiling while dodging the air blasts from the Caster.

  Should I drop a Light Ball through the barrier? No, that doesn’t work. I already saw that my magic can’t go through the barrier.

  She did have a method of killing them that had worked; she just had to be fast, which meant she couldn’t use her newest spell. Penelope ran back to the southern wall and stuck her hand through the barrier.

  “Light Arc! Light Arc! Li–-”

  Another air blast hit her left arm, but she’d been pulling her arm inside, so only her hand got cut. But even just three paper cuts on her hand were enough to distract her. Her second spell had missed as well since she had been keeping an eye on the other Caster.

  Penelope gritted her teeth and ran back to the other end and stuck her right arm into the square.

  “Light Arc!”

  DING!

  Experience +18

  “Light Arc!” That one went wide because she was pulling back through the barrier, so she didn’t get hit.

  The Shadow Caster growled as the blasts of air exploded against the barrier.

  “One at a time, it is. Though it looks like they die to two hits now.” Penelope ran to the south end of the barrier and stuck her left arm through. “Light Arc!”

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  Penelope grinned as the Demon’s spell hit the barrier that she was behind.

  ROAR!

  The lesser Demons froze as their commander yelled something at them. The wounded Demonic Ant kept coming towards Penelope, while the other one turned around and moved back towards the northern corner. The two Ceiling Creepers spread out in the middle of the barrier, putting all four of the smaller Demons along the barrier, which would make it difficult for Penelope to use the tactic that she’d been relying on.

  The Shadow Caster let out a hollow laugh as it kept its staff pointed at her. A red smile spread under the hood.

  “Really?” Penelope clenched her fist as she glared at the Demon. “Fine!” She ran to the northern side.

  The Demonic Ant chased her for a quarter of the distance, then stopped. It snapped its pincers in frustration as it watched her go farther than its commander had told it that it could move.

  Penelope looked up at the ceiling. The monsters up there were too slow to close the gap; she just had to hurry to keep from getting pulled into the square. She skidded to a stop and turned around, throwing her right arm through the barrier as she faced the wounded monster.

  “Light Arc!”

  DING!

  Experience +18

  Penelope pulled her arm back inside the barrier. “YES!” She pumped her fist in the air as blasts of wind crashed into the barrier.

  ROAR!

  “Wait your turn.” Penelope stuck her tongue out, then ran back south. When she reached the dead ant, she stopped, stuck her hand inside the barrier, and aimed at the closest Ceiling Crawler. “Light Arc!” She missed, but one shot was all that she dared.

  Again she had her arm back inside the safe zone before the slicing wind hit the barrier.

  ROAR!

  The Shadow Caster’s mouth split open wide enough that it could have fit around Penelope’s head. It stomped up to her and rested the tip of the staff against the barrier.

  “TRY!”

  The dare didn’t need any other context. The Shadow Demon was going to make sure that she couldn’t just stick her hand through the barrier again to kill the Demons without them being able to fight back.

  Penelope took a step back and folded her hands across her chest. “You just had to make this complicated.”

  The orange eyes in the hood narrowed.

  “TRY!”

  She turned around to look at the other group. Two barriers were down, and they were fighting in the next one. Despite her head start, the group of four was working their way through the squares faster than Penelope.

  She sighed and turned back to the Demon in front of her. The one advantage that she had was that she was faster than the Demons, so she was going to have to take advantage of that.

  Penelope took off towards the last Demonic Ant. The Shadow Demon was right behind her, but she was gaining just enough that she’d be able to use a single spell, though she wasn’t going to have long to aim it.

  There was one thing that she was curious about. The barrier blocked spells, but it only required her to have her hand on the other side to use the spell in the square. If she started the spell on this side and stuck her hand through, would the spell fizzle?

  Just before she reached the Demonic Ant, she started her spell. “Light…”

  Penelope jabbed her left hand through the barrier over the monster, palm down.

  “...Ball!”

  The ball of light formed in her palm and fell onto the Demonic Ant. Penelope jerked her hand back into the safe zone as the Shadow Demon blasted air over the top of the bug.

  The spell hit the monster’s outer shell and sizzled as it knocked the Demon down. Despite the victory, Penelope didn’t stop running. Now that the Shadow Caster had to move around the smaller Demon, she could make it to the end of the safe zone and turn around.

  “Light…” She stuck her hand through the barrier and pointed at the Demon that was struggling to get up. “...Arc!” Penelope pulled her hand back inside the barrier.

  DING!

  Experience +18

  There wasn’t an attack from the Shadow Caster, who had stopped on the other side of the dead Demon to glare at her.

  ROAR!

  The spiked staff came down on the monster’s corpse as the Shadow Demon took its frustration out on the dead minion.

  Penelope looked at her stats to check her mana. She had thirty-nine, which gave her twelve shots, thirteen if she waited long enough for her mana to recharge a single point. She would need four for the monsters on the ceiling, and judging by the last Shadow Demon, she’d need four for this one too. That meant she could miss five times.

  She took a deep breath, then ran into the square.

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