Al looked down sadly, tears glistened in his eyes as he recounted their sorrows. “We lost Plvoer at the first turn. The spawns got him before we could mount a defense. Coach Liv . . . He . . . He saved me . . . I don’t . . . In the last fire gauntlet, he saved us all. By the time we turned back, he was gone, consumed by the flames. We tried to save him, but there was nothing we could do. It's all my fault. If only I had been quicker."

  "It's not your fault," Ben said, his heart sinking at the news and the thought of what they had endured, yet there was no time to grieve now if they were to live. "It's no one's fault, but we must go on. The rest of the team is still out there fighting that beast, and they need our help.” Al nodded, wiping away his tears and picking up his weapon.

  “They are too hurt,” Al said, gesturing towards Beau, Rober, and Sam. “One good blast of cold and they are as good as dead.”

  Ben shook his head. “I can get us through. I can see the path with my Magical Synesthesia skill. But they need to be up and moving.

  Beau shifted and opened his eyes to look at them, “I can move.” With a great effort, he pushed himself up to his feet. He was wobbly, but able.

  “And I can carry Sam,” Rober volunteered.

  Al didn’t look convinced. He looked at Ben hard, “Are you sure you know the way through?”

  The badgerman nodded. He was certain. He looked at the ice gauntlet and saw it was still weakened. He worried it would change on them mid-run.

  But there was nothing to do about it. “Okay, we move in two minutes, that’s when the path opens up. Follow me closely, move as I do.”

  No one argued, and minutes later, they were moving with only forty-five minutes left on the clock. They raced as quickly as the traps would allow, and only half an hour after that, they exited the gauntlet to find the blue monster dead and the rest of his team looking utterly exhausted.

  Barducci perked up as soon as he saw him and smiled. “You made it. Thank the gods. And I see you found the others.”

  Ben returned the smile in relief to see him and the others all alive and mostly well. Robin looked banged up, but Yui was tending to her. Han also looked fine, bruised in places, but fine. He was utterly relieved to see his team intact. He was jostled when Rober shouldered past him to rush to his sister’s side. He couldn’t blame him. Alphonse shouldering past next was more annoying. He was small enough that he could have dodged past him without bumping into him.

  Beau and Ben reluctantly told his Handler and the rest of the group everything that had happened in their gauntlet and the losses they had suffered. They solemnly listened, breathing a heavy sigh, and gasping when they told them about Coach Liv and Plvoer.

  “Let’s move everyone down to the next floor,” his Handler said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Assuming the lair follows the same pattern, the clock will stop once we’re down a floor.”

  Ben’s eyes focused on the pedestal with a reward chest and a stairway just beyond it. There was a stillness in the air, like everyone was scared to move forward after their losses.

  Barducci opened the chest and took six stones and a book out, quickly putting them in his bag and whispering that he'd distribute them once they'd stopped the clock. Nobody spoke. They were all too sad at the thought of Coach Liv and Plvoer to feel any excitement. They just wanted to get some rest.

  Chapter 53 – Press Forward

  They arrived in the safe room, and the clock stopped, changing to one hour. Apparently, this next floor decided how long they got from the moment the door opened. Thankfully, it was stopped for now.

  Ben passed around food while Alphonse and Yui worked on patching everyone up. It was decided that they wouldn’t be moving forward until everyone was in top condition physically. Mentally was yet to be determined.

  While everyone settled in, Barducci took out the stones and brought them over to Ben. “Mind using your Identify skill on these?”

  Ben took the stones and identified them one after another. “Three of them are for a skill called Fire Aura. A semi-passive that burns anyone you consider an enemy once activated. At higher ranks, it can be used to reduce fire-related damage to those considered an ally.”

  His Handler nodded, “We’ll give one to each of the fire element users. Let them decide if they want it or not.”

  Ben agreed, it would be a boon for both Rober and Robin. Sam would probably greatly enjoy it once he was conscious.

  “This is for a mystic skill called Slurry, it’s water and earth combination. I think this is meant for Han,” Ben said, handing over the next stone.

  Barducci nodded his agreement.

  “This one is for something called Masui. It’s meant to numb or block pain. I’m pretty sure this is meant for Yui,” Ben said, handing the last one over to the fox girl, who gave him a barely perceptible nod after taking it.

  “The last stone is a skill called Yin-Yang Bolt. It is a skill that combines two opposing element attacks into a single ranged spell. I think this one is meant for me.”

  “What is it?” His Handler asked with curiosity.

  “A skill called Yin-Yang Bolt. I need to learn Shadow Bolt and Light Bolt to learn it, but once I do, it creates a combined element skill,” he explained, having tried to learn it out of curiosity.

  His Handler’s eyes widened slightly before he spoke softly, “That is a very powerful skill. You are the only one here with opposing elements, so I won’t argue your decision to keep it, but do me a favor and keep it secret, yes? I don’t want anyone coming after you for it.”

  Ben agreed and slipped the stone into his belt pouch. His Handler was about to walk away with the four stones, but the badgerman stopped him with a question, “What was the book?”

  “Storm Attunement and Manipulation. I think we both know who that goes to,” Barducci said with a chuckle. “I wish him the best of luck in learning it. Combination element attunements are difficult, even when they are complementary elements. Robin and Rober, for example, both currently have Fire and are working on Earth. If they really push themselves, that can lead to a Metal Attunement. The best defender I ever, and I mean ever worked with, had a Metal Attunement. Or, if that doesn’t suit them, they could also push for a Lava Attunement which is more offensive. Han has Earth and Water Attunements; he could gain a Mud Attunement. Me, I only ever learned Shadow, I never had the talent for anything else, but that stays between us, yes?”

  Ben agreed. His Handler kept his secrets, those the wolfman knew of anyway. The least Ben could do was keep his secrets when Signore Barducci shared them with him . . . assuming that he wasn’t lying in the first place.

  “It’s too bad. I would have loved an Ice Attunement to go with it. Ice and Shadow make the Void Attunement possible. That is some powerful stuff right there,” his Handler said wistfully. “Anyway, get some rest. We won’t be moving for a while.”

  As Signore Barducci walked away, Ben finally pulled up the system message that had been blinking in his peripheral for a long while now.

  Congratulations! You have learned the Rare Skill Zhanmadao Fighting. The skill has been added to your list.

  That was . . . unexpected. Welcome, but unexpected. He certainly didn’t have any talent for the skill, but it was good to have. For as often as he seemed to create the extremely oversized weapon, it would come in handy.

  They rested for two days. Sam woke up after a day but he wasn’t the problem. Beau needed a lot more healing than the cattleman let on. He had ruptured internal organs that he damaged further when he ran the gauntlet. It took both Alphonse and Yui longer to heal than it did anyone else. Al lacked the experience and didn’t know the damage was there. He was lucky to have Yui there to teach him and help him advance his skills.

  When everyone was fully healed and rested, he could feel the mix of fear and anxiety from his team as they were about to get moving again. They’d already lost two of their team and some of them wanted payback. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be another gauntlet. With only an hour to reach the end, it was unlikely they’d survive another gauntlet.

  The Dubois siblings stood ready before the double doors with the rest of them arrayed behind them.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Professor Barducci said, giving the signal to start.

  Robin and Rober gave each other a nod and together they each reached forward and pulled the door open. Robin and Rober leapt through the open door and were met with a wall of ice and fifteen frost beasts. The creatures were a twisted array of limbs and teeth, with the biggest looming at the back. Its four insectoid legs held a hunched mutated kin body that seemed to vibrate with an icy aura.

  “Kill them all!” Alphonse barked, letting loose with lightning from two extended hands while Sam did the same with fire. Robin and Rober charged in, their bodies burning with hot embers that exploded outwards in a display of destruction. Ben’s knives flew in a flurry while Han hurled rocks with precision. Beau hurled his throwing axes and Signore Barducci's spear moved in a furious blur, shattering monsters left and right while Yui hurled throwing stars with deadly accuracy and was ready to heal any wounds.

  The room was alive with chaos, energy crackling in the air as the group fought against the onslaught of creatures. There was no room for failure as they knew lives were on the line, and together they fought bravely until all fifteen frost beasts lay broken before them.

  In less than two minutes, all but the last larger beast was down for the count, and it wasn’t in good shape. Within seconds, Rober’s mace crashed down on the monster’s head, ending the fight.

  They had no time to celebrate before the immense ice wall at the back of the massive room dropped, revealing a hoard of twenty-one menacing fire monsters. Despite being small in stature, their power was immense, with the last beast at the back standing larger than all the others combined. Their roars filled the air as they came charging towards them in a single unified force.

  “Press forward!” Barducci barked, then added an explanation, “It’s a race to the end. The groups will get larger with each successive wall that drops. So, again, press forward!”

  It turned into an all-out brawl. Robin's shield became an instrument of destruction as it slammed into one monster, and her brother's sword pierced its chest in one deft stroke.

  Alphonse was overwhelmed for a moment as six snapping monsters attacked him at once. A roar of pain from the dogboy was accompanied by a burst of electricity that stunned the creatures. Yui was beside him quickly protecting his injured side, and the two fought back to back. Al wielded his rapier with an electric fury as lightning danced along its blade, and Yui was a whirlwind as she cut down the creatures that had attacked Al.

  Han and Barducci fought side by side, the mancer blasting icy missiles while the wolfman brandished a dark blade that seemed to be made of shadow, cutting down the creatures that tried to kill the mage. Sam fell back, his fire magic useless against the foes. Time seemed to stand still as they battled with a ferocity born out of desperation.

  With Shadow Cloak to help Ben slip through the shadows of their enemies, he carved his way through them, slashing and stabbing the fiery creatures before they even had time to process what hit them. He ripped his Shadow Blade from the neck of a seventeen-legged flame monster and swiftly shifted it into a Zhanmadao, the extra weight granting him special momentum and power as he hacked through the mutated beast, barely failing to cleave it in two.

  He'd never done something like that before, shifting the blade from one form to another was new to him. He knew then the Shadow Blade skill had improved to Advanced. The knowledge that came with the advancement made him grin. He could throw the weapons he created now, and they wouldn't vanish for about five seconds. He formed a flechette just to see if he could, and a small shadowy dart formed in his hand.

  He couldn't admire it for long as the last of the fire beasts fell. The wall of flames dropped, and they now faced twenty-seven ice beasts, two of which were bigger than the others. The difficulty had increased. He glanced at the timer, the last group cost them six minutes, almost double the time of the first group. He really hoped that pattern wouldn't persist.

  Not wanting to waste mana, he threw the flechette, getting lucky and piercing the eye of the closest ice beast. It was the first time he'd ever done such damage to an ice creation. Usually, the hardened ice that made up their bodies was impenetrable to simple blades, even those created by magic.

  Robin and Rober charged past the badgerman, as fire and heat washed through the frozen room, and much like the first room, the ice rapidly melted under the barrage.

  Four minutes and seventeen seconds came off the timer by the time the last one dropped. He wanted to give his teammates some of the mana-rich food he carried, but there was no time between rooms to do any of that.

  The wall of ice dropped, and thirty-two fire mutants waited for them, and again, the last two in the room were the bigger versions.

  "Hold the line," Alphonse roared, unleashing a maelstrom of energy that filled the room with raging thunderclouds. Torrential rain suppressed the creatures' fire, and jagged lightning bolts fell, killing multiple soaked creatures with each strike, shredding through the fire monsters. His power had grown exponentially, surpassing even Ben's expectations as dogboy's spellcasting speed increased dangerously fast. With horror, Al sagged tiredly and watched the total destruction he caused.

  When there were only a few remaining enemies, Signore Barducci shouted out a new order, "Robin, Rober, try to pin one down without killing it. Burion, be ready to give out bread to anyone who uses a lot of mana. Al, on my signal, end the storm."

  No one said anything, but Ben could see Robin and Rober smacking the beasts back with their shields, forcing them back a step or two but not really doing any damage to them.

  “Now!” Signore Barducci yelled and Alphonse’s storm petered out. A few water jet strikes from Han ended the two larger beasts and a handful of attacks from the rest of them all but one of the beasts.

  Ben was already moving when the order came in from his Handler, “Burion, distribute food to everyone but give the spell casters extra. And be quick about it, the clock is running.”

  The badgerman gave everyone a mana regenerating roll then gave a second to Alphonse, Yui, and Sam, and then to Robin and Rober. The latter two took turns eating and controlling the last beast.

  “Eat faster!” Signore Barducci shouted, watching the clock tick down. As soon as the clock read forty-five minutes remaining, he shouted, “Kill it and press forward.”

  Robin’s mace fell, the last fire beast died, and the wall dropped revealing thirty-eight icy beasts, with three larger versions amongst them this time. The lair was escalating.

  Fire from Sam, Robin, and Rober flooded the room again and the icy beasts roared in pain as they were destroyed, one after another. With so much fire, Ben could only stand back and throw shadow-formed flechettes, doing limited damage.

  They all burned through mana to the point that they tried to leave one beast alive in every other room. It was their only opportunity to recoup as much mana as they could with the food he prepared for the lair.

  They cleared the room of four large ice beasts in five minutes. The following room of four large fire mutants in eight minutes. They were running out of time and had no idea how many more rooms were left. Then the wall crumbled, and they were confronted with a horde of fifty ice beasts. Each one was grotesquely twisted, their icy exteriors speckled with razor-sharp points. Their eyes glowed a deep, menacing blue. The five large beasts stood twice the size of them, their jagged claws twitching in anticipation of their demise. And at their helm, a giant ice beast with massive, jagged horns and beady, malevolent eyes that brimmed with power.

  “No holding back, burn it all!” Barducci yelled. Fire blazed into the room, scorching through the ranks of ice beasts.

  Ben looked at the time, and they had just over fifteen minutes left. He threw flechette after flechette, unable to engage more closely due to the fire Sam was channeling near-constantly. Lightning arced from Alphonse’s hands, flooding into the room. He worried that Alphonse was using too much mana but understood the push to end things before they ran out of time.

  “Press forward! Sam, push the fire deeper into the room!” Ben’s Handler barked, moving into the room but staying behind the line of fire that was now pressing forward. He was striking at beasts that were mostly already dead. He quickly joined him, as did Yui, Han, and Beau. “Al, save your mana for the next room.” And just like that, Alphonse was in line next to him, his rapier stabbing into the joints of the ice beasts, the piercing power of the rapier doing surprisingly well.

  The fire burned and mostly killed the beasts, and then the rest of the team cleaned up any that survived. It was exhausting. It took eight minutes to burn through all the ice creatures and the boss. Sam really proved his worth in that room. Unfortunately, it left the mancer completely mana depleted to the point where he collapsed again. The snakeboy was going to damage his mana pathways if he continued fighting to that point with any regularity.

  Then the wall dropped revealing a single fire beast waiting. The creature stood several stories tall and imposing in the center of the domed room. Its body was an abomination of mutated cattle-folk, with bulbous eyes that glowed red in the firelight. Its horns curved around its head, almost spiraling all the way to its back. Its body was a kaleidoscope of orange and yellow flames that illuminated the room in an eerie light and two of its four arms ending in deadly-looking pincers.

  Signore Barducci cursed. He took a deep breath then started barking orders. “Beau, Robin, Rober, keep it in place. Everyone else, kill it as fast as you can. We’ve got maybe five minutes to take this thing down. If you were ever going to push yourselves, now is the time.”

  Ben glanced over at Alphonse and couldn’t help but get in a quick jab, “Don’t suppose you’ve got something up your sleeve to deal with this thing?”

  Al hesitated, making Ben raise a curious eyebrow. “Al, if you’ve got a way to get us through this, now is the time.”