“The Node Network?” said Nimbus, staring at the hooded figure in confusion. “If I’m not mistaken, isn’t that the whole reason why human Codexers and even Codex Beasts are supposed to discover and complete new dungeons? So the Node Network can be completed again?”

  The hooded figure turned his attention back to Nimbus. Though I still couldn’t see his face, I had the distinct impression that he was smiling at Nimbus in a rather predatory way. “What gives you the impression that I’m either a human or a Codex Beast, rabbit?”

  If the conversation had gone on any longer, it’s possible that we would have learned more about this mysterious hooded figure and his group and what they were trying to do to the Node Network and the Verdant Seal.

  But we had less than half an hour left before the timer ended.

  Coincidentally, I cut through the back of the glyphnet with my throwing knife at the exact same moment that the timer reached half an hour.

  I crashed out of the netting onto the muddy path, startling even Nimbus, who jumped backward before I could nd on him. Nimbus stared at me with wide, golden eyes, but I ignored him as I scrambled to my feet on the slippery, uneven surface and pointed my Codex stylus at the hooded figure. “Splinter Glyph!”

  This wasn’t just any version of Splinter Glyph that I unleashed, however. It was a modified version I had edited earlier to both expand its radius and increase its damage potential, and stored in my glyph reservoir for just this occasion.

  Now, there was actually a limit to how strong I could make a given spell. This limitation had nothing to do with my status as a Chapter One Inscriptionist, however, and had everything to do with the fact that Splinter Glyph was a Rank One spell. I had discovered this limitation shortly before we ran into the mana-touched deer earlier, as I had been experimenting with how to increase both the power and radius of Splinter Glyph to handle multiple enemies at once.

  But a Rank One Splinter Glyph with a 50 percent increase in damage and a ten percent increase in radius—originally designed to take out rge groups of enemies all at once—was definitely going to hurt no matter who it hit.

  And right now, it was heading directly toward the hooded figure.

  But one of those annoying Bleakfme Wisps floated in between the hooded figure and Splinter Glyph. It took the spell head-on and absorbed it just like Nimbus’s Arcane Pulse earlier, though it didn’t immediately fire the spell back at me. It glowed orange but appeared to be processing my spell, perhaps because it was stronger than Nimbus’s spell had been.

  Behind the hovering Bleakfme Wisp, the hooded figure folded his arms in front of his chest. “Clever of you to escape the glyphnet with that knife of yours, but I can tell you were not paying any kind of attention to your rabbit’s attempt to attack me earlier. You can hit me with all of your strongest spells and they will always be sent straight back to you. This will just be a much more painful way to die than the way I originally intended to kill you.”

  I shook my head. “Maybe that’s how it would have worked if I cast just one spell, my friend. But you yourself said it about my Discipline. It’s very annoying, and I’m starting to see why you think that.”

  As soon as those words left my mouth, the tip of my stylus glowed red again and a second Splinter Glyph instantly unched itself through the air at the Bleakfme Wisp without me even having to do anything.

  This time, the hooded figure’s white eyes expanded inside his hood to a comical size at the same time that his Bleakfme Wisp finally unleashed its absorbed Splinter Glyph.

  But the Bleakfme Wisp was much too slow, and my second Splinter Glyph—automatically cast thanks to the ECHO Protocol—smmed into the Bleakfme Wisp with even more force than the previous Splinter Glyph.

  Boom.

  The resulting explosion tore through the clearing like an ocean wave against the shore. The hooded figure went flying backward into the trees from the impact of the explosion, crashing through tree after tree as the bst sent him flying. I also thought I heard him cursing in a nguage I didn’t understand.

  But I didn’t pay attention to that because I quickly cast Minor Shield in front of me and Nimbus. Though I had expanded the radius of Splinter Glyph by only ten percent, it looked like the resulting explosion from two different Splinter Glyphs striking each other at the same time had more than doubled its original radius. Shining glyphs crashed into Minor Shield, though fortunately, they left only minor cracks because we were still on the edge of the spell’s radius.

  Once the explosion faded, I lowered my hand to get a good look at the damage.

  A smoking crater stood where the hooded figure and his Bleakfme Wisps had been hovering mere seconds ago, leaving nothing more than burnt earth and smoking fmes from the trees that had been in the vicinity of the attack when it went off. Even much of the fog had been burned away by the explosion, making it much easier to see our surroundings. The glyphnet continued to hang in the air before us, though I quickly added it to my inventory for ter, as I still thought it could be useful.

  Beside me, Nimbus poked his head around my legs, eyes big and round as he stared at the spot where the hooded figure had been. “What in the world was that?”

  I looked down at Nimbus and raised an eyebrow. “Which part confused you? Casting Splinter Glyph twice in a row or the Bleakfme Wisp exploding and taking out the boss with it?”

  Nimbus scratched his ear in confusion. “All of it, honestly, though I’m trying to figure out how we fought without it being a turn-based battle. At least, I didn’t see any notifications about entering a battle with him.”

  I opened my mouth to give my theory about that, but then I heard more rustling among the surrounding trees and something emerged from them again.

  It was the hooded figure—no longer wearing its hood. The bst from the explosion had seemingly burned it away entirely, allowing me to see his face.

  Or what was left of his face, anyway, after taking an exploding Bleakfme Wisp directly to it.

  If I had to guess, the hooded figure had probably had some kind of monkey-like face before the explosion ruined it. I could see the elongated jaw and the human-like nose and eyes that his face must have had before I ruined it.

  But now his face looked just like a demon straight from the depths of Sheol itself. Half his face had been blown away entirely, while the remainder was bckened and scarred. Foul yellow blood leaked from his skull onto the tattered robes clinging to his body. He wasn’t even hovering anymore. He was dragging himself across the burned, yet still somehow muddy earth with his hairy hands and cw-like fingers. He had only one white eye left, now tinged with red, gring at Nimbus and me with true hatred.

  A notification appeared in my vision just then:

  The Monkey Mage of the Arcane Gde has challenged you and the other members of your party to a battle! This is a boss battle. Winning the boss battle will freeze the timer entirely, allowing you and any other members of your party to take your time in completing this room. Losing, however, will result in instant death for everyone in your party. May the Logos guide you in everything!

  The Monkey Mage of the Arcane Gde? That must have been the original identity of the boss before the hooded man took it over somehow from the outside. How that was even possible, I didn’t know, but I would worry about that ter after the boss fight.

  Nimbus thumped his foot on the mud and disappeared and appeared on my shoulder, ears standing on end, his cws digging into my shoulder. “How the heck did he survive that? That should have killed him in one shot.”

  I didn’t have an expnation for that either, other than the boss must have been stronger than I originally anticipated. But before I could say that aloud, the hooded man—or the Monkey Mage, or whoever or whatever it was—spoke.

  “I… must… eliminate… the human…” the Monkey Mage gasped, still in the voice of the hooded man, though it sounded gargled and unclear thanks to the Monkey Mage’s mouth being mostly destroyed. “In the name of Eden, for the sake of Paradise… I must… we must… win the Codex Wars…”

  The sharp tips of a trident smmed into the back of the Monkey Mage’s head and smmed his face into the mud with a rather undignified spt.

  Party Captain Jonah Uri has eliminated the Monkey Mage of the Arcane Gde. The timer for the second room has now frozen!

  That was actually really convenient, because when I gnced at the timer again, I saw that we had less than five minutes left on the clock. It hadn’t felt like more than 45 minutes had passed since I st looked at the clock, but I also hadn’t been paying attention to the time very closely either.

  I looked at Jonah, who stood on the back of the dead Monkey Mage of the Arcane Gde, clutching his trident, which was embedded in the back of the Monkey Mage’s head. His silver armor was pitted and muddy, and his face was covered in dirt. He frowned impatiently before ripping his trident out of the Monkey Mage’s head and flipping it right side up again by his side.

  Resting the trident on his shoulder, Jonah looked at me and Nimbus and frowned even deeper. “Easiest boss battle ever.”