Behind the giants came several more chariots, and while I couldn’t tell who exactly crossed the line in what order, I was sure the System could. Glorp was jumping up and down, celebrating his victory, and who could blame him? I doubt we could’ve done better even if everyone was still up and ready to go. Hopefully, Elody had been able to do something about what the jesters had inflicted upon the others. I spotted Tomthy nodding at me from his chariot moments before I was back in the hallway with the others. I really needed to figure out what faction they were part of.

  “How are they doing?” I asked, switching to my life orb as I spoke.

  “I don’t know. I’ve done everything I can, but there’s something odd in their soul, almost like a tiny knot of energy, and I have no idea how to deal with that,” Elody answered. She looked completely drained. I wasn’t sure she had anything left to even help us on the next floor. I scanned them over with my own remote telemetry and learned even less, not surprising me at all. Elody was much more skilled at this than I was.

  “I can’t even detect the knot, but once we’re back home, I’ll play around more with my build, and we can talk to the others for more information. There has to be something we can do,” I said, noticing the door had opened.

  “The worst part about what Elody said is that I feel perfectly normal now,” Rabyn said as we exited the room. The fact that they all looked to be standing and even walking normally again was a testament to Elody’s abilities and a stomach-sinking worry about the part she couldn’t fix. I spotted Mel, his color having shifted dramatically, giving us a concerned look. I shrugged back, hoping he got the message, as Floor Master was already here again, leaving us no time to grab anything else or let Elody take even the smallest break.

  “My apologies. I would give you a break if I could, but I believe this is your last floor today,” Floor Master said.

  “It is, and we thank you for all your help,” I said back, mirroring some of Rabyn’s earlier politeness. The spider’s strict adherence to punctuality may have been annoying, but he had defended us alongside Mel, so he had earned my respect.

  “Your gratitude is appreciated, but it is my job. Please treat Rabyn well,” Floor Master replied before closing the door behind us for our final floor of this nightmare of a blitz. I could go my whole life without ever seeing one of those jester things again, and I wasn’t big on the other mantises either.

  “Based on what Mel told us, we need to just focus on the monster, whatever it is, and do everything to avoid friendly fire,” Elicec said, sounding entirely ready and willing to resume command.

  “That will be easier said than done. There are going to be a lot of morons running around and getting in everyone’s way, so we will need to take extra caution around them,” Rabyn added.

  “Okay, Dave, I want you to focus on healing other squads, get the points up that way, and send Corey to attack whatever we see. Connie, buff everyone as much as you can. Rabyn, Cecile, and I will focus on whatever the creature is. Glorp, keep Elody safe, she’s drained her core far more than she should have trying to help us,” Elicec said. While we all voiced our agreement, I flipped over to my shield and life orbs, noticing Rabyn giving me the same look yet again. I considered bringing it up this time, but the room vanished before I could.

  We appeared in the middle of a fight that had already started. There were dozens of people running in all directions, magic firing off nonstop, and at least four other songs that didn’t remotely harmonize together. All of this was happening because of the giant blobfish-like creature that was currently sucking in as many people as it could get its lips on. Each one it swallowed seemed to inflate it further.

  “Connie, get those other bards under control and see if you can’t put together a joint performance. Dave, get to work on the healing and get Corey swinging. Rabyn, let’s go!” Elicec yelled before charging forward, the orc following directly behind without a question. I didn’t argue either, as I pulled Corey from my storage. Elicec was clearly the standout for leading this squad.

  “Follow Elicec and do what he says,” I yelled over the noise of the battle, watching the mallet rapidly fly after the twinogs. I spared a glance behind me and caught Glorp casting something on Elody while she spoke guided instructions from the book floating in front of her face. I couldn’t make out the words. More importantly, I had also spotted several giants in need of healing. That was the perfect place to start, even if they didn’t look like the same faction as before.

  After a quick scan I threw several healing mana patches onto their body where they were needed. I received nods from several of the giants and felt one of them cast something on me that made my core regenerate my mana pool faster. How come it was only giants I seemed to get along with in the Arena? A System notification popped into my view as I was looking for others to heal.

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  I hadn’t realized it was possible to get the notifications in the middle of the floors, but I supposed it made some sense. Who knew how big these floors could end up being? There had to be some huge ones with their own built-in downtime. The messages themselves though, I was ecstatic to see. That meant more access to mana skills, and I was going to need that more than ever as this all continued. It was too bad I only had five notifications. The shield was already past the others, and I knew why imbuing didn’t rank up either. I had unslotted it for several battles.

  I switched my concentration back from the surprise message and ran toward the front line. The horrible noise of all the singers came to a screeching halt. The sound of a chaotic battlefield replaced it briefly before a strong beat alongside several instruments and a beautiful voice flared to life. Unlike before, this music was amazing. I had no idea how Connie had managed to form a band in the middle of this, but I certainly wouldn’t be complaining about it.

  Alongside the impromptu concert came several waves of enhancements. I was moving faster, my mana regeneration had managed to increase even further, all of my senses felt sharper, and I swore I could now see weak points on the creature. Several areas were highlighted in giant red targets.

  My hunch proved right as I heard Elicec’s booming voice the closer I came to the front lines. “Everyone listen up. Thanks to the musicians, we now have the creature’s weaknesses highlighted. Focus all your attention on those spots, and we can take it down!” His shouts were followed by cheers. The squads were happily listening as everything from guns to slingshots started firing at the targets, soon followed by heavily focused magic.

  The moment I was at the front lines, I switched my aether orb on and focused on the concept of the molecules inside the creature’s mouth. I had an idea. “Join together the gasses of nitrogen and oxygen and find a new, much more deadly form,” I heard myself yell. I was pretty sure that meant it had worked, and when the thing started to cough loudly, expelling several of the people it had swallowed, I was entirely sure it had. Its color quickly changed from pink to grey as it shrank, writhing in pain and expelling more of its previous victims.

  As the united attack continued, the creature's form started to shred until, finally, nothing of it was left. The cheers increased, growing substantially even louder at the monster's defeat, completely replacing the sounds of the former battle. Shockingly, I saw different factions shaking hands and yelling thanks to each other. It was a nice sight to see. I had been worried the giants were the aberrations, but it seemed most people weren’t actually horrible cutthroats here after all.

  So it looked like on cooperative floors, you got pretty big experience bonuses if you could keep all the squads alive. Was there more if you could keep every single person up and fighting? Those were questions for later as we were done with today’s goal. Seven floors were over, and we only had a couple of potential disasters to deal with. The door at the end of the hall opened for our final exit of the day.

  Some of the more impressive musically inclined classes try to synergize themselves with certain skills that can make their growth easier. One of the strangest skills I’ve seen put to extraordinarily good use was an improvisation skill that a group of bards used for spontaneous concerts. The effects they could produce on the spot were amazing, and I’ve never seen their like.

  Rare Skills & Their Value by Kongus Kingly

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