“Monster up ahead, get ready!” Rabyn yelled after several minutes of running, causing everyone to skid to a stop. I spotted what he had already seen: there was a giant, blue blob-like creature sitting at the bottom of the path.

  “Maud, hit it with lightning. I’m going to do the same,” Elicec said before they both unleashed arcs of electricity into the creature, causing it to split into four separate smaller creatures that now looked a lot angrier—time for a different idea.

  Focusing on the center of the four creatures, I reversed the gravity at an angle, launching them from our path. It wouldn’t kill them, but it would at least get them out of our way for now, and considering how badly the first attack had gone, we didn’t have time to waste figuring out how not to multiply them further. “That good enough?” I asked, pretty sure it had been.

  “Probably going to be a problem in the future, but we can deal with that when it happens,” Elicec replied as we continued our sprint toward the screams below. Worried about that, I quickly pulled my chat window up as I ran.

  “Anyone have a guess on how much further? Elody just arrived, and they aren’t doing well,” I asked as I closed the window.

  “Space is hard to judge here; my tracking skills aren’t working correctly,” Elicec replied.

  “Yeah, I keep trying to whisper some words to Glorp, but they seem to get lost the moment they get a ways away from us. I’m pretty surprised your communication is still working, to be honest,” Connie added.

  “It’s likely because the mana channels are always there, so it’s not like I’m turning anything on, just sending more mana across it,” I replied. At least, I thought that was how that worked. I wasn’t entirely sure. I couldn’t wait until we had the tenth floor done and I had real time to start testing all of this.

  “That would make the most sense; there are magical items designed to function in much the same way. It helps to block fields designed to nullify long-range abilities,” Rabyn added.

  “There!” Cecile yelled first, and he was right; in the distance, I could finally see bright fires in the same place where the screams were loudest.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked.

  “First, we break through into the village. I want you to start healing anyone that’s down while we find Glorp and Elody. Send up a signal if you need help. At that point, we’ll hopefully be close enough that it isn’t lost in the chaos,” Elicec answered.

  Another minute of our all-out run and the enemy was finally in sight. Before us stood an army of one of the most terrifying creatures on Earth crossed with something that had a reputation for being unkillable. “I’m pretty sure taking their legs out will cripple them, but killing them is going to be difficult, so just focus on taking the fight out of them,” Elicec yelled as we charged toward dozens of hipporoaches.

  I focused on my aether orb and launched myself into the air with a gravity reversal, throwing up a shield as I did, raining fireballs down on the horrifying creatures as I passed overtop of them. They scattered from my attack, giving the squad an easy point to rush through. Rabyn’s knives and Cecile’s sickle cutting free enough legs that they started to crash into each other as some of them collapsed hard to the ground. I didn’t stay airborne long enough to see the entirety of it as my spell wore out, and I crashed into the ground, my shield taking the brunt of the blow.

  I stood up, quickly getting my bearings straight. There were several small creatures, maybe goblins, lying on the ground around me, moaning. I started checking the vitals and immediately went to work on the ones closest to death. As soon as I healed the first one, a new overlay popped up in my vision that I couldn’t dismiss.

  At least I knew how many were left alive, but I wished I didn’t have to have it sitting there as some grim reminder of every time we failed. I moved from goblin to goblin, quickly getting each of them back to their feet. “Do you guys have a safe house or somewhere you can hide?” I asked, not wanting them to just end up back on the ground near death in the immediate future.

  “We have the supply cellars; it’s where the women and children are, but we have to stay out here and defend them,” one of them answered.

  “Yeah that clearly isn’t working, but me and my friends are here now, so you get down to the cellars and guard them from there. We will handle it out there and see about saving any other villagers we can, okay?” I asked, hoping they understood the point. Once again, I found myself wondering just how real the things on these floors were.

  “They have the silver lady, too, and the weird, fast kid. We can’t do anything compared to them. Let’s just listen!” another one of them said. The one who had spoken to me first nodded his head, and the group ran off toward the center of their village, leaving me to hunt down any more wounded goblins.

  Instead I found Elody fighting a dozen of the monsters alone. In one hand, she held her book, the other the silvery sword I had first seen her in combat with. The noises of the battle were far too loud for me to make out the words she was speaking as she read, but the intent was clear as the sword exploded in flame, and her next swing of it severed the creatures in half. Apparently, that was something they couldn’t survive.

  “Are you doing okay?” I yelled once I was close enough. Four more of the creatures had died by the time that had happened. I was reasonably sure I knew the answer to my question already.

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  “Yes, now that I’ve figured out how to kill these beasts. Thank you for asking, though,” Elody said as she plunged her sword deep into the exoskeleton of another. It let out a weird whining, crunching sound as it died.

  “No problem. Going to go find more goblins then,” I said, looking back at her as I moved on. Strangely, I was reasonably sure I saw her grab one of a creature’s eyes as she released her sword for a split second.

  After a few more passes, I couldn’t find any more goblins that were alive enough to heal. Since the hipporoach forces were dwindling, I decided to find the rest of the squad and see how they were doing. The trail was obvious from the blasts of fire and random curses Connie shouted. I was glad to see Glorp was still standing, fighting with them, even if he looked a little tired. What confused me was the lack of Alpha, though. I quickly sent them a message.

  I closed the window as I met up with the others. “Elody is fine. She’s a one-woman army. How are you guys doing?” I asked.

  “It’s going better than it was at the start. we can kill them pretty reliably now,” Elicec answered just as Alpha flew into sight.

  “There’s something chasing your mallet, Dave!” Rabyn yelled.

  “One hour has passed, and over half the villagers remain. Phase two has started,” the earlier unseen voice said.

  “I think we know what’s chasing them!” I yelled back. Whatever phase two was, it was large.

  “Brace yourselves!” Elicec yelled as a giant blue monster came into view. It was the thing we had knocked off the path earlier, but now ten times the size it had been before the split and incredibly angry looking.

  Just as it reached us, Elody’s flaming sword crashed through the center of its bulk, somehow reducing its size by nearly half. “Penetrating fire!” her voice called after her sword, explaining what had just happened.

  “Dave, ignite my blades. I’ve doused them in cooking oil!” Rabyn yelled at me, and I quickly obliged his order as the pair of us turned into a rapid-fire, flaming knife team, launching a combination attack. Each hit knocked the creature further and further down in size.

  Maud and Elicec joined the onslaught, blasting shots of fire into every hole we managed to score. Glorp worked to retrieve each and every knife as it clattered to the ground, making sure we had a constant supply of ammunition. It was dead before it managed to get close enough to attack us. We had functioned as a well-oiled team at that moment.

  “Was that it?” Glorp asked, sounding exhausted as the scene disappeared, leaving us back in the usual black hallway that I was starting to suspect was some sort of loading area for the virtual reality we experienced. I had no idea how in-depth any scans it did in there were, but I believe that was how it managed to generate rooms we had chances at winning, even if remote. The door opened as the experience notification popped up, but I had managed to catch a glimpse of a smiling John before it obscured my vision.

  Airdancers are one of the many classes that specialize in flight. They primarily differentiate themselves in a few unique ways, one of them being how they tend to cross over strongly with acrobatic bard-type classes. They aren’t known for their speed but how difficult they are to actually land a strike on in combat. When these are paired with a mana orb that can reduce opponents’ visibility or hide themselves in some fashion, they can become some of the deadliest assassins on a battlefield, striking targets and disappearing before anyone knows what happened.

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