<02/12/1972 – 23:12 | Alpha Zero, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

  Throughout the forty long minutes that passed, the team destroyed only the monsters that stood directly on their paths, while running away in retreat from the more powerful spawns appearing on the left or right flank. Jane had never been so exhausted during a never-ending battle like this, and the lack of breaks slowly wore out her entire team too.

  Some new creatures have spawned as well just to make the mission less possible to fulfill, the Neckron. Also given a name at random by Mainne, the Neckron were very similar to the Mikespurn, but with much more power and health in them. The creatures were at least half the size of a human, though equipped with six legs and a small head with four eyes to see targets. Jane and Mainne had to work together over the next hour destroying the multiple spawns of Neckron in the area, only suffering minor injuries along the way. Danny and Taylor provided excellent cover from the other sides.

  In the long-fought duration of non-stop sixty-minute combat rushing, Jane quit recognizing some of the landmarks a while ago, thus proving they were getting closer to the Den of Purity. Victory only seemed but a mile away, if only these squealing creatures would get out of the way!

  "Five more! Right Flank!" Taylor shot her warning right in front of her line of sight. Five large Neckron were quickly approaching, with Danny standing behind her facing the left side yet ready to jump in and assist. Taylor only got a quick glance at the approaching Neckron with their charred black bodies just before being hit with a blast of wind. The creatures in front of them used Aero Blast again; one of their favorite spells. The gust of heavy warm wind blew Taylor back enough to distort her vision by blowing some of the burnt dust into her eyes.

  "Rush Assault!" Danny, who avoided the sand in his eyes managed to use his sword and his readiness to jump ahead and bring himself the assistance of Leray energy in the form of a close combat combo attack. He slung his sword around in all directions after intentionally surrounding himself by the five Neckron, and slashed vigorously into their skin. He simultaneously switched from his sword strikes to kicks with his glowing feet and occasional Magical Blitz launches. In a short lived burst of quick speed and strength assisted by the Leray magic in his practiced spells, Danny made short work of the Neckron, piercing all of them until they burst into a bright light of shooting dust, the spawns defeated and fading away in their death.

  While all of that commotion was going on, Jane had to fend off the foes in front of the pack, as a dozen or more Neckron were crawling their way quickly. The number of Neckron tripled in the last second, now trying to surround her entire team. But Jane was more than prepared for all of them, and started her first attack sequence by stopping in her tracks. There wasn't going to be any more room to rush ahead of the creatures. They had to stand and fight just like the last time they ran into a bunch of Mikespurn. "Shotwhirl!" With her daggers glowing blue with her familiar Leray energy, Jane threw the blades in a crossed direction, using the spell she perfected before to create a Flying Guillotine attack that was soon to transform upon its first impact. After slicing up and defeating the first Neckron, the circular arc exploded into a burst of over forty dark photon spheres of non-elemental energy, flowing out in all directions as it decimated all of the Neckron nearby. In total, it drained only a small portion of Jane's energy, as she caught her blades back from their return, quickly swapping targets to defend vulnerable positions.

  "Ice Glave!" Mainne, the third elite of the Eldora Championship who had perfected the spell known as Ice Glave pitched in as well, hitting the left flank full of approaching Neckron with a powerful ice elemental spells. Spurts of frozen pillars shot up from the ground, spanning ten meters tall as the wave itself advanced in her forward direction. Heaps of Neckron in front were swallowed by the pillars and disintegrated on contact. Even after defeating so many enemies, Mainne noticed that the numbers of Neckron advancing from all sides had doubled in the last few seconds.

  She immediately switched tactics, battling just like she had before in the battle of Eldora Tower. With much of her magic glowing around her body to create an imminent aura, Mainne chanted another spell, following one on top of the other. "Sentinel!" Six glyphrings formed, immediately creating one of Mainne's special summons known as the Sentinel force. Small glowing spheres formed from each left behind glyphrings, all with their own color and unique energy scope. Each Sentinel was infused with a special elemental type of Leray magic and the intelligence to follow Mainne around and protect all of her surroundings with mixed magic. Shortly after creating those summons, Mainne also infused her blade with ice magic much like Danny was capable of using fire magic on his sword. "Frost Blade!" After covering her entire sword with frozen water that was stronger than normal frozen water by design, Mainne checked her surroundings again while her sentinels commenced rapid fire in all directions.

  Dark Surge! Jane prepared her daggers. She could read one of the ADC boxes of the Neckron targeting her from her front. As the Neckron fired off its magic, it used a glyphring to shoot three separate bolts of dark magical energy that reflected very little light and was thus hard to see. Since Jane knew using her shield wasn't going to work against dark magic of this caliber, she let her body follow her mind, drawing for herself the exact attack pattern she wanted to perform while aiming for the intended trajectory of each dark burst of flying energy. Jane used her daggers to slash the air right in front of the first dark energy bolt, diffusing its magic with pure slashing type damage. She switched her body and slashed again, doing the same to the second dark energy bolt. As for the third dark energy bolt, Jane only needed to dodge the attack by leaping out of the way, allowing the energy sphere to slam into the ground behind her instead. After she completely evaded that attack, it was now her turn to counter the skill.

  "Blast Wave!" Using the same hand motion Jane was used to trying with her Photon Burst attack, her expended magic created a sudden field of random explosions all over the area to her front, engulfing more than just the one Neckron that was directly attacking her. The explosions lasted for several seconds, as Jane rushed behind her position to offer additional assistance.

  Mainne was using her Frost Blade to violently and rapidly take out as many nearby Neckron as possible, assisted in her defense by the sentinels following her from above. The Neckron had trouble reaching that high up, and Mainne had an easy time with the enemy, but the constant attack she kept up was just as exhausting as it would seem.

  Fire Strike! The same Neckron exhibiting a spell name on its action display center leaped forward towards Danny, with one of its razor sharp legs out in front glowing with a fiery yellow aura. Danny instinctively used his sword to hold in front and block the attack as the fire slashing damage collided with his saber, exhibiting the same elemental properties after he infused his blade with the Crimson Blade spell. Just after blocking the attack that nearly would have swiped him at his throat, Danny pushed force into his sword to get the Neckron creature away from him, and immediately transitioned from that maneuver straight into a Summon Hell skill without the need to chant the spell. Slashing his blade in the empty air in front of him allowed the tip of the blade to shoot three crimson photon bolts straight into the target at the speed of light, triggering its immediate disintegration.

  "Laser Rain!" Taylor perfected another Laser Rain spell on one of the Neckron in front of her, but only succeeded in damaging one out of the three that were around her specific space. It wasn't a second longer after a barrage of lasers from above slammed into her target, but it was also long enough for the Neckron to attack her again.

  Red Thunder! Taylor didn't get to react in time after reading one of the action display centers, as the Neckron executed powerful dark magic to electrocute Taylor where she stood. She felt the pain of a Leray electrical attack before, but this was much different. The burn left after the red lightning bolt was potent, and the tingling sensation didn't help at all in passing that pain away.

  Taylor's health and energy scope took a dive after that dark magic attack inflicted some irreversible damage. It was just one more second until two Neckron would jump out and bite her, but Jane managed to see grasp sight of this. While Danny was protecting one area, Taylor was struggling in another. Even Mainne was still slashing her blade into more Neckron, and more were coming from the area she fought at last time. There's just too many of them, but Jane knew there would be more than enough time to buy if she tested all of her abilities. After infusing a ton of her energy into her personal aura, Jane let loose much of what she had remaining. "Zero Zone!"

  Shortly after using her spell, Jane witnessed how quickly time itself came to a complete and total stop. Everything in her visual field lost color until it was black and white, though it was hard enough to see in the area as it was. Jane noticed how far in trouble everyone was, herself included with Neckron frozen in midair as they were intending to pounce on all of her teammates. Jane immediately took action while she could, using her daggers to cut open all of the Neckron in record time. She infused magical energy into her feet and legs as well to give herself a speed boost while running, and she became a moving burst of light that destroyed all Neckron in the area. Jane shortly remembered that she could have allowed Danny, Taylor, and Mainne to work with her inside of her own Zero Zone aura, but only if she could touch them first, which wasn't a possibility yet.

  Well after tiring herself out and destroying over thirty Neckron from all directions, the color to the field began to return, and Jane's Zero Zone spell came to an end. Danny, Taylor, and Mainne were immediately confused after realizing they were suddenly out of danger, but Jane had to point out several more Neckron still advancing from all sides. At least this time it was the last wave. Jane didn't have any more Leray energy left to fight them.

  Mainne analyzed the situation quickly, and only acted upon the fact that more Neckron spawns were approaching from multiple directions. All of her sentinels above her were still functioning, currently idle since the approaching Neckron were still just out of range. With the sentinels all around her, an idea quickly came to mind. Mainne shoved her sword straight into the ground, preparing her energy while directing the flow to the Ethereal Sentinel. "It's time my protectors! Use Refraction!" As soon as she chanted the unknown spell, the sentinels all suddenly slammed into the purple Ethereal Sentinel, allowing it to glow with a bright light of radiant energy. Just after, the last sentinel that wasn't destroyed rotated around rapidly, shooting off hundreds of Spirit Bolts by the second.

  Jane and her friends ducked instinctively, watching as the purple bolts of spiritual magic flew everywhere, piercing Neckron from all directions with pinpoint accuracy. Jane had never seen that spell used before, likely because she never pressured Mainne enough into using her hidden weapon, but it was incredibly effective for this purpose. In a durational single spell, the sentinel fired more than enough Spirit Bolts to completely wipe out all of the Neckron from all directions, clearing the area just before self-destructing on impact. After it was over, everything immediately calmed down. There were no more Neckron, and Mainne's sentinels were gone too.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  Finally, he had a chance to breath. Danny willingly put away his sword after checking all sides for any sign of monsters, but the area in all directions was clear. He could still hear the gunshots however. The distant echoes illuminated the fact that other teams were being targeted by enemies as well, but Danton had not ordered any sort of reunion. They were likely trying to get away from any intense fighting like his own team has been.

  Jane and Mainne both seemed to be the most exhausted, after expending all of that energy and running around like lunatics just to protect everyone. Taylor had to trust and believe that she could return the favor at any moment's notice. But for now, they had to march on.

  Jane collected one of the two MP booster orbs that Mainne was holding out, healing both of their MP stats. Only Taylor took some minor damage from before, though the orb wouldn't help her in this situation. To top it off, Jane knew they still have a long way to go, but not certain of how much further. She knew asking the question was something she would regret. With a heavy heart of determination, Jane began walking forward, slowly transitioning into a jog to pace herself.

  Mainne kept up with Jane, Danny, and Taylor while running on the main road. She had to use a little bit of her magic to fire at approaching Neckron from the right and left paths, but there was such a low density of the monsters after the last intense battle they had to share. Mainne had never been this far into the dark zone before, and knew already why Jane called it such a dangerous place. Her only mission was to shut this zone down before it consumes the entire continent. Still, did this have to be the one and only plan? What would the casualty count come out to in the end, if even Jane and Mainne were having trouble against these things? Would Danton sustain injuries?

  A loud buzzing sound that made up an artificial alarm system echoed loudly twice in succession, forcing Jane to skid in the dirt on her feet to immediately stop her running. The alarm sound continued to trigger and echo for several more iterations. At first, she seemed as confused as the others were, and then worried a few seconds after.

  Jane stamped her feet into the ground, shouting at her team, "Everyone fall back! Get away from the field!" Though they turned around to run away without question, Jane and the others saw that she was much too late. From the center of the open area high in the air, a radiant red light formed above them, which quickly blasted a radial field of solid red energy around it, quickly forming a very large specialized energy dome similar in design to the Siriean dome. Only this dome shield was solid red in color and much more wide spread. The entire energy field itself appeared to show off shapes of hexagonal patterns large in size, but Jane recognized this field from before.

  Mainne panicked in confusion as the field of energy surrounded all of them from every direction. The dome was eleven times the usual size of a normal Siriean dome, which meant it could defiantly be seen by the other teams in a short study. The shield of energy looked to be indestructible, but Mainne had to face Jane for the answers.

  Jane answered the expected questions automatically, seeing as this was their first time in a dark magic dome like this one. "It's an energy dome! That means there are turrets nearby!"

  "Sentry turrets?" Danny guessed.

  A series of loud metal clinging noises followed by obvious movement on one of the shorter rocks in the form of a natural formation of a cliff revealed a turret rising from the ground. Jane should have known not to trust any high elevation areas of tall rock formations! The turret appeared to be heavily armored and completely weaponized from spinning rail guns and rocket attachments on both sides visible from their distance of one hundred meters away, while the dome shield itself was about 550 meters in diameter, much higher in height.

  "Sentry turret," Jane confirmed. So far there was only one of them, but one is still a lethal number! As the turret began to activate, she quickly gave all of them the simplest explanation. "This dome is designed to trap us in here until that turret's core is destroyed. The shield won't fade until we defeat that thing, or until it kills us."

  Jane's thesis immediately prompted both Danny and Taylor to pull out their weapons into their arms, Taylor sticking with the bow while Danny went with the Crimson Blade. Jane went to immediately summon the energy scope over the turret, but while she was focused on that, two large red glyphrings summoning more creatures suddenly formed within the same dome, making the obvious battle that much more challenging. Jane waited for the two additional creatures of monsters spawns to come forward, and upon formulating into monsters, Jane saw both creatures she recognized. The monster on four legs to the right side under the turret was a Behemoth, a monster Jane had yet to reencounter since her first visit, and another Char Monster with oversized arms and skinny legs, the same version of the creature she named Freya. Jane immediately sent more energy scope data to all of the other monsters, allowing her team to identify the threat.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  Jane was thankful there was only one sentry turret, but immediately heart sunken by having to fight two more dangerous creatures on top of the sentry turret. How did those creatures spawn inside of the shield dome? And why now did they have to face against her team while trapped in here? If the turret goes down, the shield dome around them will collapse, but the other monsters will only make it that much harder. Though the turret needed a bit more time to activate and pick the targets, Jane figured that the guns wouldn't attack dark magic spawns of hell. This wasn't a fight Jane was expecting anytime soon. Even Danny and Taylor were behind her panicking. They have reason to, since they cannot just run away like they have been from the previous Neckron spawns.

  "Jane?" Taylor whispered. "What's the plan here?"

  Lifting her daggers with a red aura of energy already showing on the blades, Jane replied, "I'll take the turret. You three concentrate on the monsters. Stay alive!" Jane rushed forward towards the monster she designated as Freya. Though she identified herself as the first strike leader of JDT, Jane didn't care what her team did at this point, as long as it was helpful. There wasn't any time to think long on new ideas. Take everything I've learned, and use it! Jane knew that this battle would mean adapt or die. She learned so much from everybody, it would be impossible to make a fatal mistake here.

  Eliza taught her how to properly focus her own energy. Claudia taught her how to be creative by making new effects from multiple spells upon much more. Alyssa gave her courage to fight for the right reasons. Jane taught herself to reject all emotion during battle. Taylor taught her to trust her own teammates to battle for all of them. And Danny helped keep everything together in focus. Every single battle Jane had ever fought before was going into this one. Every challenger helped forge her every new skill over time, giving her room to master her own style, while the championship decreased the time it took to react with such maneuvers.

  Her green eyes couldn't appear to be more determined than any other moment. Jane was fighting to survive, and furthermore to allow everyone else to live. No such monster was about to take that away from her no matter how vile. Jane lifted her daggers mid-sprint, approaching the Freya monster with the appearance to strike its chest in just another second. With her blades glowing red, Jane activated her auric spell, and entered another mode entirely. "Dark Strike!"

  Freya swung its arm forward as though to stop Jane in her tracks, but Jane disappeared completely just a split second before it would have hit her. Danny and Taylor couldn't keep constant track of where Jane was. She virtually transformed into a solid beam of light that lasted for a few milliseconds each time every fraction of a full second. It was her renewed dark strike spell, where Jane would enter another dimension at the speed of light using that speed with her magically infused dagger blades to bring a tremendous amount of forceful impact to any target at any distance without needing to fear any interception; they have seen Jane try it before only a couple of times.

  Jane kept her concentration on the sentry turret instead of the monster the entire time, flying in the air while slamming her blades through the metal armor of the turret, assisted in force with all of her magic placed into the same spell. With her fourth and final strike from higher above, Jane's daggers drilled into the armor plating with enough damage to cause the metal rim holding it up to bend until snapping off, taking with it a large chunk of protection with the turret. Jane finished her spell by teleporting back down behind Danny and Taylor.

  Almost a moment too late, the Behemoth was already running on all fours, the gigantic wolf approaching Danny and Taylor with its drooling fangs aimed out. Danny wasted no time in activating his idea of a defensive barrier. "Earth Glave!" The spell had no wait to activate, proving he used Earth Glave so many times that the invocation was at its most instantaneous point, as would be the power level of his particular Earth Glave spell. The ground shot upward right under the monster's belly, shoving it back into the air with a high amount of blunt based damage added on. Danny tracked the energy scopes of the monster and the turret that both took damage.

  Bullet Barrage! The action display center of the turret lit up with holographic text, forcing Jane to react to the situation by preparing a power shield. But as the bullets fired in Danny's direction only, Jane had to transform her spell into a Farshield, and projected her energy in front of Danny for his own sake. The turret can only target one person at a time, unless it tries to use those rockets for an area attack.

  Danny was suddenly standing behind a blue translucent shield wall, with hexagons forming everywhere in front of him. Through the shield he noticed the turrets barrels flashing constantly, meaning Jane was shielding him specifically from the attack. He sighed nervously, thankful that Jane had this encounter in the past. She's so quick against these foes, but he nearly just got bombarded by bullets.

  Lava Plume! The Char monster activated its own spell while Jane was in the middle of protecting Danny. Taylor could see it first, targeting Freya with her ice elemental glyphring. "Ice Shots!" As Taylor fired a short burst barrage of five frozen blades at the target from the center of her glyphring, she was suddenly bewildered to learn that Freya didn't mind the pain level of the attack one bit. While damage was done to Freya, its Lava Plume skill had activated, causing the ground to quake and lava spurts to burst from the ground up.

  While the sentry gun was still firing its bullet barrage over the long period of time it was designed to, Jane was suddenly splashed by molten lava straight on her left arm, causing her to jump and scream bloody murder at the same time. Naturally, this dropped the shield she used to protect Danny, and the bullets still coming from the turret penetrated his chest despite the ten rounds being the last few the turret had available to shoot. At the same time, Taylor was also splashed with lava, through the hot fiery liquid pounced on her from behind, burning holes into her skin and her dress sphere at the same time. She too went to the ground screaming, unable to track Danny's situation. Taylor noticed Danny being hit with a few bullets right before she took a hit from lava.

  Mainne was lucky. Only a tiny droplet of the painful fire hit her on the right arm and burned only for two seconds. The pain from that alone caused her to jump back in response, but it also let her know aside from their screaming alerts that Jane and Taylor were both on the ground suffering from powerful burns Freya decided to send off, and their health was draining dramatically.

  Mainne could make out the burnt flesh of their skin from here, realizing they were hit with a lot more than just a single drop of lava based in dark magic form. She quickly invoked one of her longer lasting spells, designed to help all of them out. "Blizzard!" Much of her MP was drained down to activate the spell. Though the dark zone didn't allow weather changes to work, all Mainne was doing was lowering the temperature of the general area, hopefully helping to sooth everybody's burns and possibly slow down the enemies.

  Taylor lifted herself up, totally ignoring the pain, and immediately used some of her energy to create a low MP costing powerful spell. "Icy Wind!" Taylor aimed her glowing arm at herself instead of the enemies, immediately using cold wind to cool down any hits of lava that affected her. Even with the amazing sensation of freezing air helping her damage, she could still feel the intense burning and stinging in all of the areas she was hit, mostly on her back legs, and at the right side of her hips. While this would help ease the pain slightly, her rapid cooling idea would cause blistering in the long run. Still, it was worth it to have this over being too disabled to fight.

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  By the time Taylor directed her Icy Wind gust at Jane, she was well aware of the chilling sensation, and quickly used that moment of less pain to bring herself back on her legs before something worse could happen. In that moment, the Behemoth decided to run in towards Jane, likely to try a simplistic attack as it was used to using. Jane simply waited for the right moment to invoke her power shield, shrouding herself in its aura and completely deflecting the claw that the Behemoth used to swipe at her. In that instance, the monster had to back off, giving them all another few seconds to think of a better plan.

  The short moment Jane used to shield herself totally blocked out the Icy Wind Taylor was trying to use on her, which brought the pain back. It still wasn't as intense as the first moment of being hit with Lava Plume, though the pain was severe enough to get the best of Jane's concentration. Her shield collapsed quickly without her ability to support the field.

  Rocketry! Jane clenched her teeth, realizing that the timing of the turret's rocket attack was horrifying to say the least. She would have no choice but to immediately shoot all of the rockets down before a single one hits her. "Cover me!" she commanded. Just as rockets fired with blasts out the base of the turret, Jane was left to count all of them before using the magic she currently built up into her personal aura. At the same time, a bone chilling rush of air hit Jane from all sides, though it felt so good compared to the intense heat of the dark zone.

  Mainne realized that her Blizzard spell finally kicked in, reducing the power of fire spells and increasing the effectiveness of ice spells so far. But what about all of those rockets flying towards them?

  "Telepower!" Jane counted ten rockets this time, which were a lot coming from only one turret. After her aura and spell activated, Jane began punching and kicking the air, aiming with her mind at the immediate trajectory paths of each and every missile, switching targets thereafter. With every single punch or kick she drew, one of the ten missiles would detonate early in the air long before reaching them, and Jane managed to get the last two missiles with the same spell active just two seconds away from hitting her directly.

  Danny had never seen such an amazing sight of defense before. Telepower can be used to shoot down rockets too! Those missiles probably detonate with just little force or impact at the tips of each warhead, and Jane transferred all of those kicks and punches to their active locations using her magic. Danny was also lucky not to be hit by the lava attack, though the bullets that were now faded away due to being spawned by magical essence still left heavy damage in his chest, which was still bleeding a small amount.

  Danny took up his sword, and while blocking out all of his pain to focus, he infused the metal with a fiery aura of Leray magic, after which he continued to charge more energy into the sword than what he was used to. "Summon Hell!" Danny slashed his sword in the air twice this time, aiming first for the behemoth, and again for the other monster. Jane would have no chance to do anything else until she could regain her energy back. Meanwhile, the crimson photons from Danny's blade slammed into the oversized hound and into Freya, knocking them both backwards though neither one lost balance completely.

  "Attack them together! Rotation!" Mainne initiated her version of Rotation, but couldn't change its properties due to her lower levels of remaining MP after first invoking the spell. She aimed for Freya and the Behemoth, whom immediately became caught up in the vortex of slashing wind damage, and Jane targeted the turret with the monsters both out of the way.

  "Return Fire!" Using only little MP with a high power level from the last type of attacks used against her, Jane ended up creating two glyphrings instead of one. The smaller glyphring just above her aimed at the sentry turret, shooting a barrage of six missiles designed from her own magic to fly towards the turret and impact on the metal frames protecting the device. The larger glyphring formed in the sky, imitating a generation glyphring aimed at the ground just below where the Rotation attack was still active. Jane's generation glyphring only turned into a wide area Meteor Strike spell, blasting the entire field with a haze of falling magical rocks that impacted the monsters multiple times.

  The Rotation and Meteor Strike both ended before the missiles slammed into the turret. The turret however tried to defend itself by using another bullet barrage attack with auto aim turned on. However, Jane's missiles were too fast to target, and only one of the six were shot down. The five explosions happening on top of the turret would have caused massive damage to the metal armor framework of the turret, and Jane was certain they had turned to the winning side before checking out the energy scope changes.

  Fire Blast! He underestimated the power of that one sentry gun. Danny was sure Jane had that thing destroyed in one shot, but now it was using magic somehow, creating a red glyphring at the tip of its primary rail cannon and aiming it at where Jane would be. As the Fire Bolt spell shot from the end of the rail cannon, Jane was soon to be hit in the face, when suddenly protected by a sword of solid ice.

  Mainne jumped in front of Jane and cut her Frost Blade straight into the incoming Fire Bolt, diffusing the attack without any repercussions. The turret fired again shortly after, this time aimed at Danny.

  Danny raised his Crimson Blade still infused with a fiery magical aura. As he proceeded to meet the blade with the Fire Bolt about to hit him in the face, his blade absorbed the energy instead of diffusing the Fire Bolt, making him well protected as well. With Blizzard still active, the cool air set in even stronger, giving Jane and Taylor their willpower back.

  Thunder Flare! Mainne read the ADC coming from the hazy field in front that finally began to clear up. The Behemoth and the Char monster were both still standing tall and ready to battle, but the Behemoth created a glyphring on the tip of the horn attached to its head, and activated the dark magic to create a red colored sphere of electrical energy surrounding herself and Jane. When the Thunder Flare spell activated, Mainne was helplessly zapped in place, the burning sensation finally getting to her and draining her health fast. As she watched Jane's HP drop with hers, there was a noticeable difference highlighting Jane's natural resistance to electrical elemental magical damage, despite being hit with dark magic at the same time.

  Jane snickered by how well she could handle electrical attacks at this point. She had been hit with so many that her natural resistance specific to electricity was bumped higher, especially with her armored dress sphere helping her with the same tactic. "That tickles," she challenged to the Behemoth. "I'll show you a real shocker! Voltage!"

  "Voltage?"

  Jane activated her spell with the charged MP energy in both of her hands while ignoring Mainne's curiosity. Jane's invocation of her customized Voltage spell created two red glyphrings floating in the sky hovering above the Behemoth creature. Jane recalled momentarily that this was the dark magic version of Lightning Strike that she developed in the dark zone her first run, as she accidentally used it against Cass confusing a Leray spell for the real deal. The creatures here were weak against dark magic too, and Jane was prepared to show no mercy. The glyphrings released their energy, shooting a constant hold of red lightning into the monster, and zapping away its HP faster than anything Mainne had ever seen. By the time it was over, the Behemoth's body was smoking, the wolf roaring, and its health in the red zone.

  Volcanic Mist! Jane's expression faded fast with the memory of that attack name. It's like Fiery Plume only in air format, and there was only her shield that could block the attack. "Everyone block it!" Jane couldn't prepare any idea to protect her friends for them this time, only the shield going around herself. As the Char monster unleashed its haze of hot air mixed in with flying activated ashes, her shield began to form hexagons all over the area in no time, and without any warning, a Fire Bolt exploded on her shield as well.

  Jane was okay with her shield up, but the turret was trying sneak attacks on the side, luckily targeting Jane's shield over anybody else. Mainne couldn't detect the location of the attack due to the invisibility of Freya's spell, but since Danny was the first one in front to take the attack, the pain was evident with his reaction to the mist.

  Danny ran backwards, rubbing his skin to use friction and draw away the external heat, while he cursed multiple times to himself. His dress sphere didn't protect his skin half as well as the other ones did. Danny's arms, legs, face, and the back of his neck received scaring and burns from the mist with his health in decline, burning so quickly due to the intense temperature. Taylor was hit by the blast too, but she deflected much of the heat with another Icy Wind spell to keep it off her, and Jane was simply shielding. Mainne already relocated her position far out of range from the mist before she could even sense danger from it. It was then that Mainne noticed how well Taylor mimicked her own battle style using ice and wind elemental attacks in battle. She's a natural, just like Jane suggested they were.

  Now wasn't the time to be impressed. As the Volcanic Mist subsided, so was Mainne's Blizzard effect fading as well. She needed to help them attack a target that was being left alone for too long, such as the turret far in the distance. Mainne took aim, remembering all of her training from back then, and aimed carefully towards the metal framework of the turret on the cliff top. "Power Shift!" Mainne's aura activated around her body, and changed color from green to blue, then from blue to purple in just a tenth of a second. Afterwards, Mainne fired from a glyphring in front of her four separate spheres of magic flying fast in the distance straight towards the turret.

  Unable to deflect in time, the sentry turret was slammed with all four bolts of multi-elemental energy. The green energy bolt that hit first electrified the metallic material in the turret, overloading some of the processes in the machine. The blue energy sphere simply passed by and drilled through an armor plate that it took with the same energy bolt, continuing to fly after breaking armor off until slamming into the red energy dome around them. The purple energy sphere that only deals spiritual damage did nothing at all against the turret, but the last white colored sphere blasted the entire area with white-hot light in a radial area, forcing a magical explosion to degrade the material of the turret at the same time. All of that put into one spell was very taxing on Mainne's remaining energy, though it did a number on the machine itself, bringing down its HP further into the red zone.

  After Taylor and Danny recovered from potential damage from the Volcanic Mist, the Behemoth charged in to tackle the both of them, and Mainne had no time to try anything else. "Ice Glave!" Taylor attempted to use up a fair amount of her magic to create an Ice Glave, despite knowing it failed last time. But as she released her energy, the ground shot up with a pillar of ice once, creating a large horizontal barrier between herself and the Behemoth. The Behemoth changed behavior quickly, realizing it wouldn't be able to smash through, but Taylor's attempt of Ice Glave was still incomplete, since the wave of ice should have continued to advance forward and failed.

  This however gave Jane the perfect chance to fire back at the monster while it was too distracted by Taylor to do anything. "Shotwhirl!" Jane threw her daggers forward again to create an explosive Flying Guillotine attack, impacting the Behemoth and cutting up the beast just before exploding over forty dark energy photons in all directions, which affected the Freya creature as well as the ice barrier Taylor erected from the ground. Jane was lucky that friendly fire didn't occur in the same situation, since it was a close call this time.

  Wind Shear! Jane recognized that spell from the Freya she fought before. While it was a relatively weaker spell, it could cause big problems in the dark zone. Freya launched its attack, throwing dozens of Wind Shears in all directions intending to hit everybody by splitting up its attack by fours. "Return!" Jane countered the skill by using both of her hands to try and telepathically take control of all the moving sharp projectiles before they hit their targets. Though it took a full two seconds of expending lots more MP energy, Jane successfully took full control, after which she redirected the projectiles to fly back at Freya and deal that type of damage to it.

  The wind magic that dug deep into Freya's skin barely bothered the creature, since it was somewhat resistant to slashing damage as well as blunt damage. Even with Jane's Return spell used to save her own team, her efforts nearly went to waste just based on the damage level alone.

  "Ice Glave!" Mainne approached closer to Jane and Taylor, proceeding with her Ice Glave attack and showing Taylor how it gets done. The sheets and pillar of ice advanced forward in bursts from the ground up, shooting directly into the Behemoth and Freya as well. The burst of ice launched both of the creatures into the air, giving them plenty of time to check the damage level.

  Railgun! Jane read the next attack name in the ADC description while studying the sentry turret at the same time. She quickly pulled Taylor's arm, and leaped back as far as she could without even saying anything. While flying back, only Jane saw the narrow blue energy beam strike the ground where she and Taylor were standing. The ground lit up in smoke, the blue laser drilling through the earth before switching off. Jane didn't need the flashback to remember how powerful a Railgun attack was. That turret is still causing problems.

  "Protect us Jane," Taylor demanded. "I'm going all in."

  "Taylor wait!" Jane noticed an aura already building around Taylor's entire body. It's too late to talk her out of wasting all of her MP. Jane did all she could to prepare a power shield for herself, but only Danny was wise enough to rush to her side to allow protection from Taylor's own spell. Mainne wasn't quick enough, and would have to think of a better way of shielding herself without Jane, having no time remaining.

  By the time Jane activated the shielding aura around herself and Danny, Mainne realized Taylor was using a full area attack of some sort, and took her own liberty to use ice magic to create a total spherical ball of frozen material to trap herself inside of. It wouldn't block out the damage completely, though it would protect her somewhat from danger. It was several long seconds before Taylor did anything though. Her MP levels were tanking down to the single digit levels.

  "Ultima!" Releasing all of the magic with her chant as loud as an explosion echoing onward, Taylor lit up the entire field with her magic, creating a light screen attack that covered everything inside of the entire dome. Magical damage was dealt in a heavy amount in every area, while Taylor herself was protected from her own spell. She had very little success with Ultima in the past, but was confident she could do it using up every last ounce of her MP energy. By the time the loud and bright blast of energy died down, everything in the field was smoking.

  Mainne's cocoon broke apart just as the Ultima spell was at its end, allowing Mainne's body to take some damage too, though not as much as she would have without that cocoon of ice. She quickly checked everybody's energy scope to see if they were okay after that full light screen blast.

  Noticing how close to death the Behemoth was, Jane took immediate action with her daggers and her magical infusion, jumping out a bit to use the spell. "Splice!" Jane crossed her blades, and created a crisscross shaped band of magical lines drilling down and into the Behemoth's skin. Before the splice spell even finished drilling out the other side, the Behemoth exploded into disintegrated dust flying all over the place, leaving the team with only two enemies.

  "Mize!" Mainne took no time to attack while they all had the chance to do so. She aimed her glyphring not yet visible to the eyes towards Freya, and fired her solid beam of orange energy. The beam was very thin, but fast and powerful as it drilled right through the skin of the remaining monster while dealing more pain to the beast than it did damage.

  Red dust was seeping slowly out of the impact site on Freya's arm, indicating heavy damage in that area, but the monster quickly turned its cannon arm back on, aiming at the glowing tip towards Mainne. The monster shot a massive ball of lava in the air, though it shot like an ordinary gravity based projectile with a curved arc. Before the impact to Mainne with no idea of how to deflect it, the sphere suddenly changed course and speed.

  Jane activated her Return spell again despite her lower MP level, taking control of the lava sphere she recognized before. Jane then threw the sphere further back so that it simply passed Mainne overhead to hit the ground far behind her, another bad enemy idea avoided.

  Danny closed in on where Jane and Taylor were from the right, no longer fearing from the threat of the behemoth, but as he got himself into position, Danny read the new text of the ADC far on the cliff. Laser Swipe! Though he had not seen the spell of that used before, he could tell that Jane and Taylor were both targets since they were not the ones paying direct attention. Jane had her back turned completely, but he had to choose which person to assist. "Watch out!" Danny instinctively grabbed Taylor by her shoulders and threw her behind him and out of the way. Though he was expecting to be able to deflect the unknown turret attack, Danny was suddenly changed when a solid red laser swept from left to right, drilling through his skin in less than a split second. Somehow Jane avoided the beam indirectly.

  Danny wanted to scream, but lost the breath he needed to do so. He examined his chest, noticing the solid line that was cut in from the laser. The red cut wasn't bleeding. The burning heat from the laser instantly sealed up the wound at the same time it was inflicted, but the bruised burning area immediately debilitated Danny, causing him to sink to the ground with a total loss in breath. Taylor was in front of his face in seconds, trying to yell at him for being stupid. The sensation on the wound was louder than anything he could hear or concentrate on.

  Taylor noticed the damage he sustained, and realized that whatever he took for her was too much for him to even keep himself together. "Jane!"

  Jane turned around immediately after the threat of the lava sphere was over, and noticed Danny on the ground holding his stomach in a panic. The sound of a high pitch Laser Swipe stained in her memory allowed her to quickly deduce what happened. With Danny in this much pain, that turret has to go down right now. Jane turned her head around once more. "Mainne! Help me with the turret. I need air!"

  Mainne had to think hard about Jane's little analogy before understanding what to do; her memory of the battle she fought against Jane in Eldora Tower quickly clicked with the current moment, using the top of the energy dome as a ceiling. Mainne charged the last of her remaining MP energy into one of her finest spells, and threw the magic as high as she could aim towards the top of the dome. "Stalagmite!"

  Frozen stalagmites formed from above, immediately falling down with the force of gravity. Jane infused some energy into her legs, allowing herself to super jump as high as she could at the right moment. Jane made sure she would land on the top of one of the falling stalagmites, and continued to jump to the next few after that, repeating the process while preserving her own MP energy. By the time she was as high as she could go, Jane leaped off the last stalagmite and turned to face the earth, immediately surprised by how high she got this time. She was nearly 200 meters in the air, near the top of the dome itself when beginning to feel the air on her face from free falling.

  Jane could make out the action below her. Mainne was using her blade to deflect a Laser Rain spell that Freya was using, while Taylor had just launched a Shadow Wave attack at Freya. But Jane's target was the turret on the cliff far below her. With her speed of fall increasing, Jane prepared the last of her energy into her personal aura, causing her body to glow as it came closer to the top of the turret. When the timing was right... "Quantum Beam!" Jane knew Mainne witnessed this when Jane used it against her. Using Quantum Beam while free falling with the speed of the beam placed into the spell doubles the attack power, and what better object to use than stalagmites for climbing up? Jane fired her auric beam into one concentrated area where the turret was sitting, watching as the blue light engulfed the entire weapon below her. Just as the light faded away completely, a large explosion followed right where the turret was sitting, blasting all of its metal chunks everywhere. In its place, the sentry gun was now totally absent, leaving only one more problem to deal with. But first, Jane needed to land safely using the Shining Bracer spell, which only needed the last 2% of her remaining MP reserves.

  Mainne made it to Danny and Taylor just in time, trying to keep her eyes forward at the enemy. After that flash of light from the cliffs, Mainne was sure enough she didn't need to worry about the sentry turret any longer, but the Char monster had it in for Danny and Taylor right now. The beast used its other arm to try and shoot off multiple Fire Bolts. Mainne used her sword to cut them all down at the right time, but with her MP energy spent, it was really difficult to focus and breathe normally. The heat in the area was rising back to its extraordinary high levels again. "Get up Danny! We've only got one more monster!"

  Danny could hear their voices, but the pain from the Laser Swipe was just too severe even after moments passed. It hurt him now as much as it did from the initial hit. Taylor thus went searching in her supply sphere for a healing orb, ignoring the large danger behind her.

  Several long moments passed between Mainne blocking attacks from Freya while Danny and Taylor were both down. Taylor was still searching through her sphere for orbs, panicking instead of keeping her focus on the enemy. Freya just then decided to raise its larger cannon arm, preparing to shoot off another lava bolt.

  Much to Mainne's surprise however, a small little rock bounced off the head of the creature, immediately distracting Freya. The monster lowered its arm and the light within, turning towards the original area in which it was thrown. Mainne checked it out too, watching as Jane snuck up from the side, glowing purple with a radiant aura that she didn't remember from any earlier spells.

  "You should be more careful where you aim that thing!" Jane was senselessly yelling at the monster, taunting the creature into aiming its cannon arm at her instead of the other three people to the side. Freya of course gave into her taunt, aiming high and launching the sphere of lava her direction. With Jane's MP already recovered from the Energy Cycle used long enough, she barely had enough left to try one last spell. After deactivating her Energy Cycle aura, Jane threw on a new one after chanting, "Light Strike!" As Jane's body became encased in a bright white aura of energy, her body slowly levitated off the ground. When the lava sphere impacted against the aura, the entire sphere was simply absorbed into the shield. By the time the spell was fully charged, Jane unleashed the attack potential stored inside, shooting off twenty randomly directed light photons that all homed in on the single target below her. Freya was suddenly bombarded with all photons of magic inducted with special light energy that drilled into its skin. In just a matter of seconds, it was finally over.

  Soon after Freya disintegrated into a field of red dust particles, Jane's bright aura faded, dropping her to the ground rather forcefully since she had no remaining energy to help her down in the aftermath. Mainne helped herself over to Jane to make sure she was okay, but felt impressed by how strong that single spell was. Just like that, the area was clear. Mainne was skeptical while the red energy dome failed to go away after the turret had done so, but the field was now much more transparent than before, flashing on and off as the unknown generator was failing with the lack of the protective sentry turret to signal the field active. Eventually, the force field around them slowly began to collapse.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  Jane was okay, but gladly accepted the healing orbs Mainne gave to her. Jane however tried to walk all the way over to Danny before using one on herself. Mainne didn't hesitate to heal herself for a single second.

  After Taylor forcefully used the healing orb on Danny long before fixing herself, the long pause of his silence was finally defeated. Danny could tell his vision wasn't blurry, nor was he actually dizzy to begin with. It was clear to him that he was far from fainting, though the Laser Swipe that dug into him was totally something he failed to prepare for. "Did we win?" His voice was low and faint, as if someone had kicked him in the stomach a second ago. The burning sensation across his stomach and chest was cut in half by that healing orb, but the scar still remained there, since it was an indication of real time damage.

  "Hit by a Laser Swipe," Jane concluded. "But I was hit by two last time I was here. You have to get over that kind of pain to fight monsters like that."

  Taylor recalled the way she found Jane's body the first time. There were burn marks all over, but two particular burns in a straight line. They had much similarity in her memory to the same mark Danny now has. That means Jane had to fight a turret all by herself on her first visit. How the hell did she live?

  Danny tried to stand up, and swallowed Jane's words carefully. She was hit by two of those things in her first visit. That's what she just said. How could she fight after a blast like that?

  "My symbol doesn't help me block out that pain either," Jane confessed. "You just have to try and get over it. Remember why we're here."

  "Enough!" Though he was clearly aggravated by her words, Danny didn't get in her face or tense up afterwards. "I'm not going back until we're done here. My health is still above thirty after all." In short, he made it clear he could still fight, and Jane didn't question him on it further.

  Jane checked out everybody's stats after the orbs were done doing all they could. The MP levels were rising only passively, allowing everybody to stay tired and worn out, but with the amount of distance they've probably traveled, it wasn't that bad. Somehow, Mainne took the least amount of damage so far, likely by playing it safe all the way. Jane also noticed that after the red energy dome faded away completely, the noise of static returned to the communication device in her ear. The shield must have been a direct source of interference between the other units. Maybe they went on ahead without them after all of the time it took to fight those monsters.

  "Is everyone okay?" Mainne wanted to confirm for certain one more time before rejoining the battle with the main force. It is now time that Danton executes phase three of the plan and converge all of their forces forward for one final sprint. According to the previous data Mainne had to look at on the primitive maps, they should be about 80% of the way there by now.

  "I'm good." Danny held the burned area, his breath sounded as if his lungs were getting crushed, and he dragged his sword and prepared to walk again.

  Taylor naturally helped him without getting too touchy, since Danny's pride seemed to take a hit too. Mainne had an interesting moment observing the two. Danny and Taylor are certainly interesting people, people who chose to be Jane's friends. Was it as random as it seemed? Still, both of them were using powerful spells of their own, which begs the question of how they could have learned such powerful skills being such a young age. Did Jane really show them those tricks?

  "Mainne! Jane! Status!"

  Jane answered the com before Mainne could. "This is Jane. We just finished a rough battle we couldn't run away from. Minor to moderate injuries taken. We're still okay over here."

  "Why couldn't you answer to report engagement?"

  Danton sounded pissed! Mainne knew the man better than Jane ever could, and held that fact with pride while taking over the conversation. "Mainne here. I think the energy dome blocked our ability to receive or transmit communications."

  "The creatures can create energy domes that trap you in?"

  "The sentry weapons are responsible for that," Jane responded. "Don't forget our briefing, anybody. If a red dome surrounds you, you can't destroy that shield unless you destroy the sentry turret guarding it, and the dome will always reveal itself first."

  "I think it's time to regroup Danton."

  "Of course Mainne. We'll commence phase three by proceeding to point B-207. All teams will rally and regroup at this position, then we'll almost be at the objective point. Please be ready to move out in 90 seconds."

  "Sure thing. Mainne out." After Mainne turned her comm device to idle, she opened her mouth once more to mutter. "What Neckron crawled up your ass?"

  "Huh?" Jane heard Mainne's breath, but didn't understand what she was talking about.

  Mainne simply nodded to tell Jane to ignore it as she proceeded to walk forward. "With Danny's mobility reduced, we should restrict our running speed by twenty percent."

  "I said I'm fine," Danny argued. Taylor was bit in the leg and still has a small wound, but she can suddenly move like the wind again. Just like her, Danny was certain he could heal from this, given more time.

  "Don't be an idiot." Jane barely got to convince Danny that he was still suffering when the communicators went off again.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  "This is team Cleo requesting all forces to our position. Mark B-108! It's killing everything! Reporting seven casualties!"

  "This is Danton! Fall back immediately! We're sending in other teams to assist. Jane!"

  "I heard it sir." Jane couldn't believe how wide spread the enemy was, but to have Cleo report seven casualties meant something bigger and stronger than Mikespurn or Neckron. Jane certainly didn't feel like fighting again after the last battle, but as long as she would have some help after arriving... "JDT will march there to assist."

  "As will all other teams. I'm changing the rally point. All teams are to converge on B-107 immediately. Join the battle as part of regrouping."

  "We're on our way." Mainne cut the communicator again, ready to move out though surprised that there is already another new threat. But as for the position of it... "B-107 is just six hundred meters to our west. It's very close!"

  "Let's get there and save Cleo's team. I told you I can run."

  "We'll jog." Jane had the final word on that. Danny did look okay as of now, but far from where he started before entering Alpha Zero. Mainne was the first to shift direction and move out, leaving Jane, Danny, and Taylor to follow behind. Jane could feel the intense heat of the dark zone rising a few degrees further, as if someone was using Blaze Storm in the area. But they were also getting closer to the Den of purity, located at mark A-102 on the grid map. They were really above the 80% line towards the Den of Purity. After defeating this last creature, they can sprint for the finish! But first, Jane knew she and the others would have to find and protect Cleo if he hasn't already dejected himself from battle.