It was hard to prep for an ambush when they had just finished dealing with yet another crazy demon. At least they were forewarned, though. Ray’s construct—as in, fake Sameer—informed them that they were basically dragging in three teams towards their location.

  Not altogether, of course. They were unfortunately not that foolish. One team was chasing right behind the construct, hammering away at it with their abilities that fake Sameer deftly avoided to the best of his abilities. But two more were further behind or arrayed out to one side. At least they were when the construct had last spotted them.

  “It’s likely they know they’re probably being lured someplace,” Ray said. “So they’ll be expecting some kind of trap.”

  “So how do we surprise them if they know what’s coming?” Eliza asked.

  “Easy,” Sameer said. His expression darkened. “They’re expecting to be led somewhere. Instead, why don’t we kill them on the way?”

  Then he promptly disappeared into one of his portals, presumably to attack their oncoming foes directly.

  “I didn’t hear a yes or a sure,” Marcus said, looking around with mild annoyance. “Anybody else hear a vocal agreement to his crazy plan?”

  Ray sighed. It was like working together with a cat. You didn’t get yeses and sures from a cat. So, he turned to Sameer’s teammates. “You think he can take them on his own?”

  “You want to go after the others?” Eliza asked.

  “Exactly.”

  They planned things out a bit there. How they were going to tackle their enemies, who would fight who, and so on.

  All the while, Ray could only wonder how many obstacles the other teams had gone through. If they had the time to chase after their targets, how many demons could they have actually fought? Were any of them heading straight for the centre of the dungeon while the rest took out their main opponents?

  Ray headed out to confront his enemies. His target was Sameer. Well, not really. His enemies were of course the other teams who wanted to take his and Sameer’s teams out.

  But there was one underlying fact they all agreed on.

  They couldn’t waste their time here fighting against opponents who didn’t even matter. So, while most of them fought back against their attackers, at least one of them had to go ahead and towards their main target—the boss room farther into the dungeon.

  Ray considered personally volunteering. The rest of them could stay behind and fight while he went on and secured the dungeon treasures. He wasn’t such an asshole that he would betray his newfound allies and keep all the treasures for himself, though he couldn’t say the same for his allies. It was kind of hypocritical to think that way, but hey, he was just trying to be certain.

  So, they had settled on a compromise. Ray would remain behind. He would fight. But the member who went on would be accompanied by one of Ray’s constructs.

  For some reason, they had all decided Sameer was going to be the person. Sameer, who had already gone ahead, not towards their main goal, but straight at the other teams. Stupid, fucking Sameer.

  Which was why Ray was flying straight where he could hear the loud explosions and bursts tearing through the dungeon. Things were crazy over there…

  His intuition turned out to be right. Sameer was holding nothing back. Dozens of portals had not only materialized all around the battlefield, but were also spewing everything from fireballs to lightning to noxious gas. There were even monsters stomping all over, which made him think back to the auction where Sameer had summoned a creature through his portals.

  Ray tried to take a few moments to identify the main threats. Besides Sameer himself, that was.

  The opposing team had one member who was using ice. Ray’s expression soured, recalling events on the Second Floor. Another man was moving around with incredible speed, his whole body and his weapons all flickering with electricity. Weirdly, he even had a glowing orange flower on his back, its petals spread like wings.

  It was the last member of the group that caught Ray’s attention the most. A woman who was obviously a caster. A cleric of sorts. Someone shielded by a golden aura not dissimilar from Marcus’s, who kept casting healing and other support spells for her companions.

  She was the most dangerous. Or rather, the one Ray had to take out first. Because if she fell, her companions would go down soon enough.

  Sameer had realized it too. He was trying to target her with his portals as well. A couple of rents popped up around the woman, throwing out large, spiky tentacles that whipped at her. But her companions were fast. The lightning-flower guy shot in and cut through the slimy, thorny tendrils, before sending out a shattering wave of lighting at Sameer.

  He avoided it easily by creating a portal around him. The lightning entered the rent, only to fall down from another rent that had popped up over the enemy.

  Flower guy staggered back, while the woman remained protected behind her shielding aura.

  Ray shook his head. He had seen enough. Time to kick Sameer’s ass out of there so they could make some actual progress in this dungeon.

  He created some constructs with Resurrect Recollect. Some were to distract. Well, most. They would rush in to attack the enemy. The last construct would need to stay behind.

  Ray would need a target to teleport back to once he reached wayward ally.

  Sameer was looking around at the other constructs swooping in to interfere in his battle. He had recognized them instantly, of course, and was now looking around for Ray. Whom he found before long.

  Ray was almost upon Sameer, except, a portal materialized before him. He almost went through too. Almost.

  “Sameer, you absolute cu—”

  Ray’s curse was cut off when one of the opposing team members attacked him. Annoying. The man with the ice powers sent stalactites and stalagmites crunching out of the ground and thin air to crush Ray like he was caught in the jaws of some icy dragon. It again reminded him of the Second Floor. Alright, just for that, he was taking out that asshole.

  The massive white draws crashed own with enormous icy crashes. But Ray simply disappeared with Temporal Passage, reappearing next to his construct. Where it had been, rather. He had sent the Windbane maw shooting at the cleric lady. An icy spear had destroyed it, but Temporal Passage only needed a spell to have been somewhere within the last minute.

  So, Ray now had a perfect opportunity to take out Ice Man. He aimed his hand at his target, crafting a monstrous dragon head with Aetheric Trace.

  Sadly, the man was part of a well-oiled team. While Ray was obscured from his target for the moment, the others spotted him in time. The way the man dodged without giving any indication that he knew Ray’s location meant only one thing. They were communicating quickly through the System Chat. This wasn’t going to be an easy team to beat.

  Sameer called up more of his portals. He was attempting to rip open a rent close to the zippy lightning guy, the portals shooting out those same arms that had torn apart the Demon of Pride. But his opponent was too fast.

  Ray scowled. His target had dodged his attack, so he turned his arm to aim the blast of blue flames closer to Sameer.

  Then he used Temporal Passage twice in quick succession, along with Resurrect Recollect. The first teleport took him to Sameer, whom he grabbed by the robe without any warning. As soon as he touched Sameer, the second teleport activated.

  Whisking them both away from the battlefield.

  “We don’t have much time,” Ray said as they reappeared. “The mimic constructs I left behind to fool them won’t last long.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Sameer pulled himself away from Ray with a mighty scowl. “Why must you be the most annoying piece of shit in existence?”

  Ray wanted to cry a little. “I’m trying to carry out a plan I discussed with your teammates, you damn—” He kept his invectives inside. It was already hard enough to make Sameer listen. “The plan is you need to go on ahead and get to the dungeon’s boss room. The rest of us will take care of this bullshit. Got it?”

  Sameer still looked really annoyed, but he now had a more calculating look alongside it. “Why didn’t you volunteer? Don’t you want to be the one to get the dungeon treasures all for yourself?”

  “Because I didn’t want to argue any longer. Just get going. Plus, I’ve got insurance. I’m going to send one of my constructs with you. The moment you find the boss room, I’m teleporting over.”

  Ray created the construct. A floating eyeball went to hover near Sameer, who swatted at it like it was some kind of fly.

  “It’s as ugly as you are,” Sameer said. “No surprise, I suppose.”

  Ray swallowed down his own returning insult. “Just don’t try to kill it, alright?”

  Sameer looked him straight in the eye. “And what if I did? What if I waited until the right moment, right before I reached the dungeon’s boss room, and then sent your little flying eyeball through one of my portals?”

  Ray didn’t hesitate with his answer. “Then I’ll just kill your teammates.”

  Sameer stared at him for a while, then nodded and took off. The Scouring Eyeball followed fast.

  Ray had figured the guy who hated bullies wouldn’t really be the kind of person who would give up on his companions, even if it would benefit him. With Sameer finally gone, Ray could get back and focus on the fight. He could only hope his constructs had survived till now.

  Temporal Passage took him back to the battlefield.

  He materialized right behind the fake version of him. The fake who was in the process of getting skewered on a giant icicle like it was cosplaying a frozen shish kebab. Icy guy standing a little farther back twitched in surprise as the real Ray appeared.

  Trying to capitalize on the shock, Ray aimed his hand forward. The draconic head drawn up by Aetheric Trace at the start of the battle was still on.

  Unfortunately, his target reacted quickly too. As the blast of flames nearly reached him, a wall of ice appeared. Ray’s nearly-lasering column of blue fire struck it like a combination of a missile and a battering ram. The wall exploded in flaming chunks.

  But his enemy was fine. Ray’s attack disappeared as it detonated, and he was pretty sure the bastard had skipped away after calling up the ice wall.

  Ray didn’t waste time pondering, of course. He cast Eternal Gravity to set a whirlpool of time drawing in chunks of all the energy and Mana being spent around them. Time Veil gave him a nice buff of several past versions of himself from the last few minutes. Sudden burning power raged through his body, making him feel like he had doused his soul in gasoline.

  With that done, he immediately rushed in to attack the cleric. As he had already decided, she was the lynchpin of this team. Once she was down—

  A series of lightning bolts slammed down near his location. Ray’s buffed speed with Soaring Wings on his back freed him from getting hit. But the worse problem was that he would now need to turn his attention to the other guy.

  At least he noted that the fake Sameer was still alive, somehow. The man hadn’t killed it yet, for whatever reason. And now he wouldn’t because Ray was his new target.

  “You have a lot of nerve creating fake copies of yourself to fight in your place, you coward,” he yelled as his body flashed with electricity as he drew closer.

  Ray laughed. “What does it say about you when you’re the guy dying to fakes?”

  He growled as he attacked. Fast. The man was fast. Ray tried shooting two draconic breaths from two Windbane maws. He was nowhere near hitting his target. Lightning-flower guy flashed at him with speed that emulated the sparking element that he had cloaked himself with.

  “I’m gonna cut you down so that your tongue gets sliced in half too, asshole,” he yelled.

  Then he swung the glaive he had enchanted with lightning too. Like his movements, his attacks were way too fast too.

  Ray’s reaction was more instinct than anything else. The two Windbane maws around his hands were still firing their blasts. All he did was angle them so that they were pointing more at each other. The twin flaming streams connected, sparked, and detonated.

  The fiery shockwave sent the both of them flying in different directions. Sure, Ray could have tried to teleport away, but he wouldn’t have gotten the bastard then.

  Ray rolled over the ground several times before he quickly pushed himself upright. He had been relying on Time Veil to have boosted his innate defence so as not to have taken too much damage from his own explosion. It seemed to have worked, though Ray really hated the bad sting on his chest. He’d live, though.

  More importantly, the explosion had thrown back his aggressive opponent.

  A bite of cold made the pain on his chest worse. What a friendly reminder that just because Ray had blown away one guy didn’t mean that he was now safe. The ice guy was still attacking.

  Ray cast Resurrect Recollect to create a couple of Windbanes to go after him. Extra Aeon Mana meant the heads started turning into full-fledged, ghostly blue wyverns. They roared, their mouths brimming with compressed navy flames. They ought to at least keep him busy. One of them, that is.

  The other Windbane swiftly changed direction to ram itself straight towards the cleric. Its flames weren’t getting past the golden barricade, but that was alright. Once the Windbane itself—

  The icy guy dashed in and created another snow-white barricade. It appeared the other Windbane had been dealt with. Ray didn’t get to see how well his second Windbane fared against that icy wall. His third opponent, the man with the lightning glaive was rushing back at him. This was getting frustrating.

  Het got in too close, too fast. Ray wasn’t as great at close combat. His reliance on spells meant that he was best at medium range. But this guy was getting right up in his face.

  Which spelled his demise.

  While Ray pretended to focus on the man’s teammates, lightning guy shot in close with the flower petals on his back spread like wings. He stabbed in his electrically enchanted polearm. Except, the glaive never hit Ray. It just disappeared within the portal that had appeared on his midsection.

  It was really nice that the fake Sameer mimic hadn’t been killed yet.

  The shock and surprise on lightning guy was just what Ray was looking for. Even then, the man tried slashing his glaive upwards, as though he could cut through Ray from within the portal somehow. All that led to was the glaive’s blade simply snapping off at the point where it struck the portal’s edge.

  Ray grinned, the thrust both hands at the man. Twin streams of compressed blue fires burst free from the Windbane heads around his hands. The man was instantly immolated, blasted backwards in the gout of flames.

  In seconds, all it left was a streak of ash and burned blood.

  One down, two more to go.

  Both his remaining enemies looked a little shocked at how quickly their companion had died.

  Ray turned to them. “There’s a reason I won the last dungeons and not you guys.”

  Icy guy wasn’t impressed. “If only killing others was what let you win dungeons.”

  “Like you can complain. You’re here to kill me too.”

  “Some things are worth killing for,” said the cleric farther behind. “We’re determined not to squander our chance to climb higher. To get to stronger Floors. That’s where real glory is, where we can get real power.” Even from the distance, Ray couldn’t mistake the feverish light in her eyes. “That’s where we can become Paragons too.”

  Ray’s expression hooded. “Some things are worth killing over…”

  He cast Resurrect Recollect a few more times. Several constructs came to life. Windbanes and Imitators.

  Distractions.

  Both of them were standing just where he needed them to be. All his constructs had to do was make sure they stayed that way. Which meant Ray needed to focus on overwhelming offence to keep them in place.

  So, he and his summoned constructs attacked. The Windbanes belched out their lasering breaths, the Imitators turned into versions of him to attack directly, while Ray even sent a wall of Mottling Aeonguard to keep them in one spot. They would have no choice but to defend themselves against the onslaught.

  Of course, Ray couldn’t just attack and get away with it. The icy guy was trying to counter even as he defended himself and his companion.

  It was functionally nothing. Ray had reserved some of the Aeonguard orbs closer to himself to defend against any sudden attacks. Now, they expanded near him, their glowing auras encasing the icy spears that flew in, halting and slowly disappearing them.

  The more important matter was the burst of detonations at the location where the man and the woman stood, where Ray’s attacks collided against their defence.

  It didn’t break through. Despite all of them landing together, they didn’t crush through their barriers and barricades to destroy them as Ray wished and hoped. But that was alright. The spot they were standing on was basically the spot where he had cast Eternal Gravity. All he had to do next was cast Momentous Domain.

  A blue glow morphed underneath them, lighting up all the powers that had appeared in the battlefield. All the energy that had been gathered in one location. All compressed to one point by the combination of Momentous Domain and Eternal Gravity.

  Creating a devastating, obliterating detonation that was far stronger than anything Ray could have thrown out on his own.

  Ray was once again knocked off his feet as the whole battlefield went up in a blistering blast of white. He didn’t truly mind though. The notifications were quite welcome.

  [Enemy Defeated—Ryous]

  Iceborne Sculptor [Tier 4] Human: [Level 55] x1

  Thundersage [Tier 5] Human: [Level 58] x1

  Lightbringer [Tier 4] Human: [Level 51] x1

  Essence: +35,700

  Knowledge: +9

  Mana Restored: +1,640

  Essence to Level 56: 116,500/312,000

  Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,560/3,500

  Satisfied as Ray felt at having taken out his enemies, he wasn’t about to waste time basking in glory. Instead, he rushed to where the rest of his teammates were.

  The rest of the battles appeared in piecemeal fashion. They had all spread out in the confusion and chaos. He spotted Marcus and Eliza fighting together against another team, while the Scouring Eyeball he sent scouting spotted Gritty standing over a fallen enemy Holdstar.

  Karkatrix was running away, though that was because he and the man he was fighting against were being swarmed by more monsters. More demons. Strange, smoky ones that made Ray frown.

  But the thing that caught his eye the most was the fact that their battle had finally sprawled out so much that they’d located an interesting, important member of an opposing team.

  Lent.

  The large, boulder-like alien was fighting against the demons too. So he was here. On his own, seemingly. Ray dashed in to join the fight.