My body still aches from the rapid healing, so I stand up with a groan and head over to the rift. The frame has now been purged, and it has taken on a nice silver color instead of the black before. But the rift is still an eerie blood red.

  “Maka, heads up.” Stephen says and throws me a ration bar. I quickly open my helmet and inhale it. My body thanks me for providing it with nutrition. That medical stuff is no joke, but it takes a hit to the fat reserves for sure.

  “Alright, so what's the plan o great leader? Plenty of monsters for us to slay I hope? Lots of yummy experience too I hope.” I ask, standing next to Stephen as we gaze at the readings. We were able to send a probe into the rift to get a general scope of what we are facing.

  “Looks like there are three chambers. The first is full of a few higher levels. The second chamber is just tons of level 90 monsters. Then the last chamber is the queen and two of her guardians. I think they are Lava Hounds from the energy readings.”

  “Ha, those monsters don't stand a single chance against us. We are gonna slay their queen no problemo.” Liv seems very energetic and ready to do some slaying.

  “I got explosion.” Moxie adds. I thank her for healing me and pat her on the head. She seems to avoid me after that.

  “And I shall save all you idiots when you nearly die.” Violet says. She seems in high spirits, her scowl is not as deep as normal. Seems like even she can get excited when we are talking about slaying a queen.

  “And I shall be there to save Violet when she forgets to watch her flank!” I say with perhaps a bit too much freedom in my words.

  I duck just as a very sharp saber pokes the air where my head was. I get spared by mere milimeters. Violet sure is fast, I should remember not to make her angry or get on her bad side.

  We step through the rift and the atmosphere shifts. Gone is the normal air of the universe. We are back in the aether now. It is thick in the air, even more so than usual. It feels wrong, evil even.

  Maka, I don't like this place. Lemon says.

  I don't either. It feels wrong. Let's get rid of it as soon as possible.

  My power is at your disposal. Burn those monsters to a crisp.

  Of course, they don't stand a chance against us.

  I take a step forward into the chamber. The walls are made out of a black material. Not aetherium, it seems squishy, like flesh. I bet this place reeks, good thing my helmet is pressure sealed.

  “Alright crew, this place may be creepy, but we've got a job to do.” Stephen says, pointing us forward. There is a long corridor and after a few meters it turns to complete darkness. I can practically feel the horrors that must be lurking in the shadows. “Moxie, can we get some lights?”

  Moxie nods and steps forward. A bit of mana condenses in the air and we are surrounded by a bunch of sparkly lights. They brighten the room entirely. She sends a few into the corridor, which is empty as far as we can see.

  We walk down the corridor. Liv takes the lead, sword and shield at the ready. Her heavy boots clank against the floor, easily alerting anything that is lurking in front of us. The tunnel is quite cramped with all of us and our armor. It feels like something straight out of a horror story.

  We creep forward, taking it a bit slower so as to be cautious. We don't want to get injured now. Not when we still have to fight the queen. We exit the tunnel into a large chamber. It branches out into three other pathways.

  In one of the pathways, I see a pair of glowing black eyes.

  “Contact!” I roll to the side as a spike impales the spot where I was just standing.

  Within moments, the room is full of monsters. [Spike Hound Lvl 90], [Greater Hound Lvl 90], and even a single [Alpha Hound Lvl 100]. The alpha is large, easily twice as large as a normal hound. It has two long tusks jutting out of its mouth, and plenty of teeth to back them up.

  I grab Moxie and help her out of the way just as one of the spike hounds’ attacks almost spears her right through. The monsters can attack at range, this changes everything.

  I drop Moxie next to Liv, who is currently fending off three greater hounds. They are larger, faster and seem even meaner than normal. Truly horrifying. I Blink off to the side and stab a spike hound. It disintegrates, but then I am immediately beset by two more that launch deadly spines from their backs at me.

  I weave between the barrage and manage to take one of them out. But the other one nicks my calf with a spike. I nearly fall over as some sort of toxin rushes through my body. I activate Stealth and it loses track of me and I maneuver next to it and slay it.

  I Blink back to Moxie and she heals up my leg and gives me an anti-toxin. The pain is still there, but it has been dulled to manageable levels.

  I watch as Liv manages to deal with the greater hounds with some assistance from Stephen. So naturally, I then look around for Violet. Of course, she is fighting the one monster that screams ‘most deadly.’

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I move to assist her as she dodges its claws and pokes at its knees. She manages to break one of its kneecaps, only for it to immediately heal it and lunge for her.

  I Blink onto the side of its head, my dagger pierces its skull and I charge a massive fireball. I withdraw my dagger and point the fireball into the hole. I jump away as its head explodes into a brilliant blaze of glory.

  But the monster doesn't die. Its claws glance against my armor painfully. Luckily the damage is minimal.

  “Idiot” Violet says, deflecting a claw that was heading right for my neck with her dagger. “Why are you just standing there after blowing its head apart! Of course it will be mad.” She kicks me in the side, which hurts quite a lot. But I focus and get back to work.

  Its head has started to regenerate from the base, which is a disgusting sight. I jump onto its back and rip a giant hole in its side with my dagger. Then I cauterize it open with a wave of fire.

  Violet lunges into the air and I get out of the way as she slams into the hound’s back, her blade plunging deep into the monster.

  There is a cracking sound and the hound disintegrates in a shower of blood. Violet emerges completely soaked. “Why couldn't you land the finishing blow?” She wipes some blood off her faceplate, and I get a glimpse of her lovely smile.

  “Yours is longer, I couldn't reach inside that easily.” I smile back at her and offer her a high five. She ignores me and walks past to reunite with the others.

  Seems like Liv, Stephen and Moxie managed to clean up the other hounds. Moxie is busy patching up Liv, who seems to have more than a few large scratches. The perils of being a tank I suppose. She finishes up and then mends my own scratch and then chastises me to be more careful. I just pat her on the head and say I will – even though I know that's unlikely to be the case.

  “Alright, so where do we go next?” Liv walks up to the map that Stephen and I are standing around.

  Stephen points to one of the passages. “This one leads to the queen. According to what Tien said we need only focus on slaying the queen for assault type rifts.”

  “Sweet! Let's go cook us up a nice queen for dinner. Or wait, what time is it?”

  “It's dinner time.” Moxie joins us and smiles at Liv.

  “Sounds like roast queen is on the menu today then.” I say, then we take a very short break and proceed on to the next room.

  We enter into the chamber and are immediately beset by hounds. There are several dozen greater ones and a single spike one in the back. Luckily there isn't another alpha.

  I intercept several of the hounds as they move towards Liv. One of them manages to slam into my side, but I don't break anything this time. I quickly dispatch it with a close-range fireball. So close that I manage to burn myself just a bit, it hurts a tiny bit.

  After clearing several of the greater hounds to help Liv, I activate Stealth and glide through the other hounds. They don't notice me even as I pass centimeters away from them.

  I sneak up on the spike hound that is busy trying to hit Violet as she solo’s a bunch of hounds. You know, as she does, cause she is an absolute badass.

  I jump up on the hounds back just as my Stealth runs out. I create a bright flash of light to distract it as I shatter its core with relative ease.

  It is at this point I realize my mistake.

  See, I have no Stealth left and I am now behind the horde of very angry monsters. Generally not a very good situation to be in.

  I brace myself as one of the monsters charges at me. I parry its claws with my dagger and launch a fireball down its throat as it tries to swallow me whole. It dies, thankfully. But that doesn't stop the six others that turn around and rush towards me.

  I manage to fend off one of them, but another rams into me and sends me flying into the wall. My ribs barely resist breaking and choose to bruise instead, thankfully.

  Just as the hound is about to gore me, it disintegrates as a blade goes right through it.

  When I wipe my eyes off I see what can only be described as an angel. She has long white hair and beautiful blue eyes that seem to ask me for my very soul.

  “Idiot.” I feel a sharp pain against my face. Violet slapped me. It hurt even through the helmet. I blink my eyes and notice she is offering me her hand, which I grab – with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm.

  She pulls me onto my feet and I steady myself. Before I get the chance to thank her, she walks off and starts wrecking monsters again. She is so hot when she is being a badass, it's wonderful. Though I wish she would smile a bit more, her scowl is also cute.

  We make quick work of the rest of the monsters. Moxie even throws around a few flashier spells for a bit of extra explosiony fun. She really seems to like explosions, which is nice, since they are awesome.

  “Alright, all that is left is the queen.” Stephen says, motioning towards the one passageway leading out of the room. I can feel a lot of energy radiating from that general direction. The queen is definitely nearby.

  “Mhm, can't wait to have some nice roasted queen. I wonder what she will taste like.” Liv licks her lips, as if anticipating it. “Maybe it’ll be like chicken, or kangaroo.”

  “Wait, you've had kangaroo?” I ask, "Isn't that stuff super expensive and mega delicious?”

  She wraps her arm around my shoulder. “Oh, I must tell you about that time-” She then proceeds to tell me about a time she won a contest and got to try kangaroo, a true delicacy. How lucky of her.

  We resolve to take a short break before heading in to fight the queen. We must be at the top of our ability if we are to slay it. So naturally, I grab a nice package of rations and sit down against one of the walls. Which are in fact, squishy. It's kinda comfortable, in a horrifyingly disgusting way.

  [Scout has leveled up! Lvl 82 -> Lvl 90]

  [Mage has leveled up! Lvl 66 -> Lvl 78]

  [Average Level is now 84]

  [Gained 20 Unallocated Stat Points]

  [Lemon has leveled up! Lvl 35 -> Lvl 42]

  [Stealth has leveled up! Lvl 12 -> Lvl 15]

  [Blink has leveled up! Lvl 17 -> Lvl 18]

  [Magic Fundamentals has leveled up! Lvl 15 -> Lvl 17]

  [Dagger Proficiency has leveled up! Lvl 6 -> Lvl 8 (capped)]

  Next Chapter: Challenger

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