Elis dashed at the frog in front, sword in hand, while Layna prepared her bow to support him. That left the twins to deal with the frog at the back.

  They didn’t hesitate.

  ““[Tricky Trail]!””

  They shot their glowing bombs at the nearest frog in unison, which instantly combined and continued their trajectory as one.

  The frog jumped out of the way.

  Crap.

  The resulting explosion still tore off one of its legs, but didn’t manage to finish it off. The beast hissed in pain and counterattacked by firing its tongue at Dusk, who nimbly danced out of the way.

  They gritted their teeth, frustrated that [Transfrogify] would likely be worthless for this as well, meaning that the only useful skill they had left would be…

  [Cliffhide Fist]

  Dawn crouched down as her visage blended in with the surrounding soil and then dashed around to flank the frog.

  Meanwhile, the frog used its remaining leg to leap at Dusk, intending to crush him under its weight. Dusk threw himself to the side with a yelp just as the beast crashed into the ground, sending droplets of dirt everywhere.

  An arrow of ice clinked off the frog’s back, making it turn toward the cat-eared annoyance. It distracted the beast long enough for Dawn to finally sneak up on it, clasp her hands together, and slam her fists into the beast in an overhead hammer blow.

  The metal on the frog’s back cracked and it let out another pained hiss as it stumbled while Dawn backed off toward Dusk.

  Another ice arrow swished through the air and managed to bury itself into the frog’s eye. The frog thrashed and hissed but they all knew it wouldn’t take long until it attacked again.

  Luckily, they had crippled the frog enough that before it could move again, their main skill re-sparked again.

  Double [Tricky Trail] left their hands again, combined mid-air, and then smashed into the frog, blowing it into smithereens.

  Layna went to support Elis while the twins took a breather to let their skills re-spark again. It seemed that he would be finished with his fight soon as well anyway.

  As they relaxed enough, an essence emerged from the dead frog, split in two, and forced itself into their hands.

  ◆Fortification◆

  A depiction of a small castle.

  And a glossy dark blue rim.

  Very Rare!

  Another purple flash illuminated the cavern, cutting their excitement short. It resulted in a deafening hiss of steam and a roar filled with wild fury. The Boss fired more minions into the air and the twins gritted their teeth at the sight.

  More of them coming.

  Out of skills.

  They had gotten lucky to face only one frog. No way they’d make it out unscathed if they had to face two or more.

  They clenched their fists.

  Make a new skill.

  They had a couple of essences now.

  The new ◆Fortification◆; then ◆Stomp◆ and ◆Extension◆; and Dusk still had ◆Crush◆ and ◆Camouflage◆.

  They had to make something quickly though – before more monsters landed.

  Dusk pulled out Crush and Extension essences, considering some kind of flail weapon, but unsure about the third component.

  Dawn in the meantime looked at their new Very Rare essence and wondered what she could make out of it.

  Their [Tricky trails] regained their spark again and they automatically pulled them into their hands, just as three more monsters landed nearby and zeroed in on them.

  But rather than using the skill, Dusk impulsively decided to slam the two Rare essences already in his hand into the Rare skill in hopes of creating something useful.

  Dawn then shoved the Stomp and Extension essences into the Fortification essence, thinking of creating a defensive skill to help them survive.

  The double headache slammed into them like a Behemoth and echoed between them in such an intensity that they crumpled to the ground.

  Shit.

  They saw the monsters from the corner of their spinning vision. Small metallic basilisks. Looked like smaller versions of the Boss.

  One of them also had their mouth open, ready to fire something at the vulnerable twins.

  A crackle of thunder reached their ears and the monster aiming at them soon got annihilated by a ball of lightning that immediately jumped to another monster. The ground shook as the Boss roared again.

  The twins scrambled to get up just as Elis turned back to his elf form and came rushing to them.

  “What happened?! Are you alright?!”

  “Y-Yeah… We just… crafted some skills.”

  His mildly worried expression turned to an annoyed frown.

  “What? Are you insane? Don’t craft skills in the middle of a battlefield!”

  They winced at his words, feeling extra ashamed since they hadn’t seen Elis this mad before.

  “Sorry…” they echoed. “We thought we needed something more to deal with… all of this.”

  Elis let out a breath through his nose and turned around to keep vigil.

  “What’s done is done. Just don’t do that again. I would hate for you to die under my watch.”

  “Right.”

  Another flash of purple light. Another rain of minions from the boss.

  The twins hurried to recover and looked at their new creations.

  First, Dawn’s new skill.

  [Branching Rampart]

  Very Rare.

  A picture of a featureless figure stomping the ground and a wildly-shaped wall erupting in front of them.

  A quick mental check confirmed this to be a toggle skill. Stomp to create a wall or retract the old one. A limit of one wall she could shape and extend in almost any way she wanted.

  Dusk winced at the realization that having upgraded [Tricky Trail] might mean that they couldn’t do their mega bomb combo anymore, but inspected the new skill anyway.

  [Tricky Flail]

  Very Rare.

  The art remained the same, except now a featureless figure held the glowing projectile’s trail, as if swinging it like a weapon.

  The monsters landed. Four hooved lizards this time.

  Unlike the ones they’d encountered in the rest of the rift, these had thinner builds, sharper jaws, and stripes of golden scales on their back.

  Elis quickly engaged two of them and Layna supported him with her ice arrows.

  The remaining two opened their mouths.

  Dawn stomped.

  Her new card turned into energy, shot to where her foot stomped, and then burst into a chaotic tree-like shape made of soil in front of the twins.

  Moments later, series of thunks resounded from the other side, closely followed by bursts of steam.

  The twins jumped back and Dawn landed with another stomp. The dirt barrier shimmered, crumbled into pieces, folded back into a skill card, and flew into Dawn’s waiting hand, ready to be used again.

  Dusk’s turn.

  He grabbed his new card and threw it at their adversaries, making it transform into the same old familiar skill.

  They dodged.

  But that didn’t matter.

  Because then he grabbed the trail of the skill, stopping its momentum, and heaved to swing the entire thing to the side.

  The ball of light slammed into one of the lizards like the end of a massive flail and burst into damaging light as it flung the beast into a nearby tree.

  But despite the explosion, the skill didn’t end yet.

  Dusk spun the thing in his hands behind himself, reversed directions, and then rammed it into the ground, causing another explosion.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Unfortunately, the remaining lizard dodged. Fortunately, it still gave the twins a moment to regroup.

  Dusk frowned.

  Now [Tricky Flail] went cold. Probably because he’d hit the ground with it, rather than continuing to swing it.

  Not out of tricks just yet, Dawn used her camouflage skill and ducked low while Dusk grabbed his frog skill, waiting for an opportunity to use it.

  Elis had already slashed through the two lizards on their side, but three more had come from further away in the meantime. Purple light flashed through the area once more.

  Seeing a chance, Dusk used his [Transfrogify] on one of the lizard sneaking up on Elis, buying the elf just enough time for him to dance out of the way and send out a slash that finished off the confused hooved frog.

  Seeing a chance, the lizard on their side turned to face Dusk and opened its jaws.

  Dusk croaked in alarm and prepared to jump away with his frog legs, but ended up turning back into geckin at the exact moment, causing him to stumble.

  “Shi–”

  A barrage of needles flew from the lizard’s mouth straight at Dusk. Dawn immediately stomped, aiming to snake the barrier forward and then spring it up to protect her twin.

  Unexpectedly, the stomp triggered her [Cliffhide Fist] as well, causing the forming dirt to immediately crumble and burst into pieces.

  “What?!”

  It still traveled close to the ground until the spot she’d wanted and then rose up, just in time to absorb the needles into it. But then the burst effect reached this part as well, making it explode and sending the needles back at the lizard who’d shot it.

  It roared as the needles stabbed into it and promptly burst into steam, scorching it all over. In the meantime [Branching Rampart] made its way back to Dawn again.

  “…Well, that worked!”

  They hadn’t known they could combine skills like that! What else could they combine? Could they transfer the crushing effect into [Tricky Trail]? Or create a barrier at range with it?

  The air shook as the Boss let out another roar, though this time much weaker, almost as if…

  “The Boss is going down! Hold the line!”

  The twins quickly refocused at the elf’s words.

  They still had Dawn’s [Transfrogify] and [Branching Rampart], but all of Dusk’s cards were dead weight in his hands.

  Good enough.

  With the lizards on their side dealt with, they ran back toward Layna. A lizard shot its needles at the catkin and Dawn quickly stomped, sending out her skill through the ground before popping up a barrier to protect their teammate. Layna gave Dawn a quick appreciative grin.

  As the three regrouped, the twins’ bomb skills re-sparked again.

  They didn’t hesitate.

  “[Tricky Flail]!”

  Dusk’s explosive flail manifested once more and he immediately swung it at one of the remaining monsters, careful not to hit Elis. The elf in question finished off a lizard with one last slash and then jumped back, giving Dusk free reign on the two others.

  One beast ducked under the flail while the other jumped over it. Dusk grit his teeth. Dawn released her own bomb skill at the one mid-air, hoping it wouldn’t have enough time to dodge.

  In the meantime, Dusk’s flail reversed directions and swung at the other foe, who once again somehow managed to dodge, this time by stepping back.

  That resulted in the flail hitting Dawn’s skill from the side. But instead of detonating on the spot, the [Tricky Trail] instead merged into [Tricky Flail], inflating it to be as big as Dusk himself.

  “Whoa! What?!”

  Dusk ignored Layna’s surprised yell and with a growing grin reversed the momentum of the flail again before slamming it into the ground between the two lizards.

  Even if they tried to dodge again, the resulting explosion of light engulfed them both and sent their corpses flying. One took down a tree in its path, while the other splattered on a jagged rock nearby.

  Neither one moved after then.

  The twins grinned, relieved that their super bomb combo not only still worked, but gave Dusk’s an incredibly powerful weapon. Sure, it could probably be dangerous if he accidentally hit someone with it, but with this, they didn’t need to cower in fear of the cultists finding them! They were powerful now!

  …Though probably still not enough.

  Their mood instantly soured and they noticed Elis looking at them with a frown.

  But before he could say anything, one last roar tore through the area and then died out. A moment later, the rift began to shake.

  The party stiffened and watched as the rift changed before their eyes. Several new tunnels carved themselves into the walls, the murky glass wall on the far left gradually sunk with a rumble, the trees around them thinned out, and the flow of steam of all pipes reversed to suck it up instead of spewing it out.

  The twins froze as Dusk’s eyes caught the grotesque figure of the Shepherd up in the pipes as it watched over the changing rift.

  After an agonizing minute of uncertainty, the steam pipes closed themselves shut, the glass wall finished retracting into the ground, and the rift calmed down again. Gone was the dense steamy jungle with its bad visibility. Now, the party found themselves in a mildly warm open forest with a clear way out and no monsters in sight.

  The Shepherd then ripped open reality around itself, stepped through the wound, and vanished – the air knitting shut in its wake.

  Finally… it was over.

  The rift had been conquered.

  The party relaxed with a varying amount of relief.

  The moment they did, the scattered monster corpses spat out essence cards and flew to the party in a flurry.

  The twins got four whole essences this time. Each one split in two, for a total of eight. They looked at their new cards in excitement.

  ◆Barrage◆

  Very Rare; A picture of a dozen small projectiles flying through the air.

  ◆Snipe◆

  Very Rare; One thin projectile hitting a featureless figure in the back of the head, while another figure could be seen far in the distance.

  ◆Steam◆

  Rare; A cloud of white gas.

  ◆Scorch◆

  Rare; A reddened hand flinching away from a glowing piece of rock.

  Awesome!

  Four Very Rare essences! They were gonna be rich!

  Though… should they really just sell them? It felt a little wrong after everything they had been through today. Why not craft skills with them instead? It would help if they ever had to fight for their lives again. They just had to be careful about not bloating their deck too much…

  Lost in their thoughts, they didn’t notice Elis and Layna approaching them. When they looked up, they saw the familiar contemplative frown on Elis’s face.

  Drat. Did he see the essences split?

  He clearly wanted to say something, but apparently decided against it.

  “Good job, everyone. We made it through.”

  “Uh, but we’re not out yet…?”

  Elis shook his head at Layna’s words.

  “Like I said before, conquered rifts are a lot safer and easier to navigate. We shouldn’t have any problems making it out of here now.”

  “Oh… Right.”

  “So, is that it? Are we disbanding the party?”

  They felt a little sad at that. Even though it hadn’t been long, they had grown attached to the two.

  Elis shrugged and began walking. The others followed.

  “We’ll stick together until we leave the rift. But this has always been a temporary arrangement. I have my own party I got separated from, after all.”

  “Ah… makes sense. Well, thanks for everything Elis. Really glad we ran into you two.”

  “Me too! I was so scared when the walls shifted and cut me off from everyone! If you weren’t there… Ugh, I don’t like thinking what would have happened…”

  “…This was of no concern. As the senior rift hunter, it is my duty to help those less experienced.”

  He may have said that, but the twins sensed pride in his tone. They really had lucked out running into him, hadn’t they? If he were as selfish as the cultists…

  With a much more relaxed atmosphere, the soon to be disbanded temporary party leisurely walked toward the very obvious exit lane. Well, at least Elis had said it was obvious. The twins couldn’t tell.

  On their way there, they met with two other parties and kept going as one.

  Not even half an hour later, they made it to the Gate.

  A disconcerting thing – a building-sized vertical tear in reality pooling the ground, and spilling cool air and dry dirt into the cavern. The tear itself hurt to look at, prompting most people to look at the ground instead.

  It hummed with power and the twins once again wondered just how these things even came to be.

  “This is where we part. Thanks for all your hard work.”

  “Thanks for your guidance! Good luck on your future hunts!”

  “Yeah! Thanks, Elis!”

  With a nod, Elis stepped past Dusk and murmured, “Try to hide it better. A skill that doubles essences will make you a target.”

  The twins froze as the elf walked into the Gate and it swallowed him like a vertical pool of water. Layna followed closely after him, and after a moment of trepidation, the twins did too.

  As soon as they touched the Gate’s surface, the space around them twisted, chewed them up, and then spat them on the other side.

  They stumbled out, feeling a little nauseous at the experience, but still hurried to move out of the way of all the other people leaving the rift.

  “Aah… Blessed cool air… We’re finally out…” Layna sighed in relief before turning to the twins with a bright smile. “You two! Make sure to come to my bakery! I’ll give you one… no, two free loaves as an apology for shooting you! It’s two blocks south from the Hunter’s Guild! Can’t miss it!”

  The twins brightened at that.

  “Well don’t mind if we do! We’ll definitely come!”

  “Yeah, don’t worry about it anymore! We forgive you!”

  With a smile and a nod, Layna exchanged her goodbyes with the twins and then disappeared into the crowd.

  Now alone again, they let out a slow sigh as they scanned the surroundings.

  It looked like the guild had already begun setting up a perimeter around the rift and they couldn’t see their original party anywhere. Probably haven’t made it out yet then.

  Well, they better get going before anyone began questioning why there were two of them now.

  “At least it doesn’t feel as weird anymore.”

  “Which is weird in and of itself. We’re still the same person, aren’t we?”

  “One person, two bodies…”

  “Maybe we could find a way to merge into one again…?”

  “But that would mean losing the two decks and essence splitting…”

  “Well, not like we’re gonna keep hunting rifts anyway. And with what Elis said…”

  “Yeah… But it still feels a bit wrong to try and get rid of this.”

  “Feels wrong to keep being two as well though.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?”

  They sighed again and looked into the distance.

  Across the barren plains of dry dirt, they could see Anxia, the corpse of a titan sculpted into a frontier city. Its black leathery hide forming the city walls reflected the setting Sun’s light, making this moment feel even grander.

  “Heh, Dusk…”

  “Poetic.”

  “Are we keeping this name?”

  They paused.

  “Yeah. For now, at least.”

  “Until we have to change it again…”

  They remembered Elis’ warning, but tried not to let it get to them too much.

  With two soft exhales, two bodies stepped toward the city as one.