Sean was able to make an opening just long enough for Maya to move towards the stone bandit. The stone bandit was in pursuit of Josh, but Maya was able to use her enhanced speed to stop him from moving further. As she blocked his path, she came down with her axe. The bandit managed to block the axe with one of his stone arms, but was shocked to see that it was able to slice into him. The wound was not deep, but she still managed to do more damage than Josh did.

  “I guess I’ll have to try again,” Maya said as she pulled the axe back from the bandit’s arm.

  “You seem tougher than that boy,” the bandit smiled. “Good! I grew bored without a good fight!”

  The bandit then threw himself into a shoulder tackle. Maya was shocked to see how fast he moved. He seemed to move the rest of the time slowly, but moving in a straight attack must not have slowed him as much as other movements. She was forced to bring her axe up to block the attack. While the bandit was not terribly fast, his new speed caught her off guard. The bandit’s shoulder slammed into the flat of Maya’s axe. As she tried to hold her ground, his tremendous weight pushed her further back until she was cornered between a tree and the bandit.

  As Maya slammed into the tree, the bandit pulled backward. Before she could do anything, he started to pull back his arm. Then he threw his fist forward with all his force. Maya desperately ducked underneath the fist and watched as it crashed through the tree. A gaping hole was left in the tree as the bandit tore his arm free.

  Maya knew that it was only a matter of time before the bandit would get her with an attack. She was faster than he, but he was physically stronger. She sent a surge of Essence into her axe before the bandit could follow up. Her training over the last few months had given her better control of its effects, even if she still lost a little of her sanity. The Essence she sent into the axe reverberated back through her. Her muscles bulged as the intense power of the Essence flowed into her.

  Another swing of the bandit’s fist came towards Maya, but she did not dodge out of the way. Instead, she grabbed the fist with her hand and wrapped her claws around it. As the bandit’s eyes widened with shock, Maya threw her head forward into his head. The bandit staggered backward in a daze at the force of her attack.

  Now that Maya had some room, she brought her axe forward in a horizontal arc. The bandit moved his arm in the way of the attack. His arm was chopped clean off as the axe ran through it. His attempt at a block was enough to at least stop the momentum of the axe from hitting the rest of his body.

  Maya was not slowed by the block, though. She followed the momentum of the axe and spun in a circle. With the momentum of her spin, the axe blade came stronger and faster. The bandit stumbled backward as the blade came at him, but he was too slow. The axe dug deep into the side of the bandit.

  The bandit gritted his teeth as the axe dug into his stone body. He forced himself to ignore the pain and brought his remaining fist downward towards Maya’s head. Maya let go of her axe as the fist came down and dodged backward. As the fist swung in front of Maya, she twisted around and kicked the handle of the axe. The force of her kick sent the axe further into the bandit. This time, he could not grit through the pain and reeled backward.

  Maya smiled at the result of her attack. She just needed to push the advantage. She spun around and sent her leg into the axe once more. She continued to repeat the process, and the axe went further and further into the bandit. As the axe dug further into the bandit, his body finally could not handle it anymore. His body slammed into the ground.

  Maya let out a sigh of relief as the bandit hit the ground. She was definitely a better match-up than Josh, but it was not an easy win. The fur around her body started to shrink back into her, and she tore the axe out of the bandit’s body. Then she collapsed to the ground as she allowed herself to take a moment to breathe.

  ***

  Water tendrils came at Josh from all angles. In his anger, the bandit did not let up his attack for a moment. Josh constantly had to keep on the move to avoid the strikes. Each time he dodged an attack, it struck the ground with a powerful crack. The ground around the two had been completely beaten down from the repeated strikes.

  “This is what you get!” The bandit laughed maniacally as he swung his tendrils wildly. “I’ll rip you apart for daring to hurt me!”

  Josh could not help but chuckle to himself at the bandit. While the bandit did not let up on his attacks, none of them were hitting. Josh realized that the bandit must have paid that little attention in his anger. All Josh had to do was keep up his defense, and he could get an attack in at some point.

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  As the tendrils continued to smack around Josh, he weaved through them effortlessly. The tendrils became easy to predict. It was like a wild animal charging versus a trained fighter. Except that the wild animal usually had the advantage of being stronger. That was definitely not the case in this scenario.

  With a leap, Josh completely escaped the range of the tendrils. Then he threw his hand forward, and tiny blades of wind shot out at the bandit. The bandit was able to realize that the blades were coming and brought his tendrils to block the attack. The block was completely fruitless, though, as the blades tore through the tendrils and into the bandit.

  The tendrils had turned into stubs at Josh’s assault. The bandit sent a wave of Essence through them to try to restore them to their original state. He was too slow, though; Josh had already moved in to finish off the bandit. Before the tendrils could restore themselves, Josh swung at the bandit with his sword. The bandit was forced to stop the use of his technique and dodge backward. Even with his dodge, the blade still managed to scrape the bandit.

  Josh did not let up as the bandit dodged his attack. He moved in with another quick slash of his sword, which the bandit stepped away from. Josh continued to slash with his sword with successive attacks. Each attack the bandit stepped backward and managed to dodge. Until the bandit could no longer step back. The bandit’s eyes grew wide as he felt his back hit a nearby tree.

  Josh knew that victory was now in his grasp. As the bandit realized his fate, Josh quickly slashed at his neck. With nowhere to escape, the blade went clean through the bandit and sent his head flying to the ground. As the bandit’s body fell to the ground, Josh quickly turned away from him and flicked his blade to the side.

  ***

  Sean immediately hit the fire-using bandit with a blast of water. One of his birds crashed into the bandit at high speed, and the resulting explosion of water threw the bandit backward. As the bandit stood up, Sean noticed that the flames around his arms were still holding strong.

  “Well, that’s just not right. You should at least follow RPG rules and take extra damage from my water attack,” Sean said out loud, but mostly he was talking to himself. “I guess I’ll try again.”

  “What are you even talking about?” The bandit asked in anger.

  “The rules of RPGs,” Sean reiterated louder. “Water beats fire. Your flames should be out.”

  “That’s really dumb,” the bandit said. “My flames are Essence-powered. Why would they just go out like that?”

  Sean lifted his finger up like he was going to further argue the point, but he decided against it. There was no point in arguing. That was just the way things were. Even though it was incredibly frustrating that Essence did not follow the rules of elemental advantage. It did not really matter. Sean would defeat this opponent with ease, regardless.

  The bandit charged forward towards Sean. Before the bandit could even reach him, another bird crashed into the bandit. Water sprayed everywhere as the force of the bird sent the bandit flying backward. Sean did not even bother to reconstruct the bird. He had one left, and that was all he needed.

  The bandit stood back up and was now breathing heavily. Before the bandit could charge again, Sean casually waved his hand. With the wave of his hand, the final bird crashed into the bandit and sent him flying back to the ground. This time, the bandit’s flames went out, and he could not even push himself back up to stand.

  “Much better,” Sean said. “I made the rules work.”

  Sean walked over to the bandit with his sword held low. Once he approached the bandit, he saw the bandit look up at him in fear. Sean felt indifferent as he looked down on the bandit. He quickly brought his sword up and stabbed into the bandit’s chest.

  “You know, if this was a RPG, you wouldn’t have even been worth experience points,” Sean said as he pulled the blade out of the bandit.

  ***

  Austin watched as the group finished off their opponents. By the time Austin finished off the leader, they had all switched who they fought. Once they switched, they seemed to handle themselves well, and Austin saw no reason to intervene. Instead, he was proud to see how each of them grew in their skills.

  Different colors of Aether rose into the air like dust as the bodies of the bandits each disintegrated. While the dust filled the area, Austin heard a familiar chime from his phone. Austin opened it to see another text message without a phone number.

  “Excellent job and good show! Your skills are nothing to be scoffed at! Thank you for the enjoyable fights! I’m also very impressed by your approach in defending the farmers. Stopping the bandits before they even arrived was an excellent idea!

  “You will be transported to the next area in a moment. Your next task will be simple: defeat your enemies. Please continue to give me a good show and good luck!”

  Austin closed his phone and approached the rest of the group. As they finished reading their phones, they each stood and took deep breaths. It was as if they were mentally preparing for the next task.

  “Well, looks like this task is done,” Austin said to the group with a smile. “That wasn’t too bad.”

  “We had a couple of bumps, but overall-“ Maya responded before she was cut off by a flash of light.

  Blue light surrounded the group, and they could no longer hear or see each other. The ruler of the tower did say they would be transported in a moment. Austin just did not expect the moment to be so quick.