Rose and Parek stood next to the hourglass as Elsie whirled around the outside of the room, taking down the spawns.

  It had taken three attempts to get the second flame right – they’d decided to try and be systematic in their attempts. Since five had been wrong, Parek had tried pillar one, then pillar three, before finally trying pillar seven. That one had stayed lit, but the extra two failed attempts had taken another twenty seconds from the hourglass as well as increasing the mobs again. This last wave had one hundred and twenty-eight.

  Each time, new types of mobs came through – ogres, rocky giants, smaller elementals, trolls and even hobgoblins. The only saving grace was that they went for Elsie first. They seemed to know she was the biggest threat, but that didn’t stop them from swiping at Rose or Parek if they got too close.

  “Two fifty-six mobs if the hourglass resets,” Rose said, her heart pounding though she hadn’t done anything yet. Just watching Elsie sprint between the mobs, taking them out like a butcher in an abattoir, made her feel exhausted. She laughed bitterly inside, thinking back to how she had managed to end up here in the first place – having gone to Elliott’s place to kill him, but every time she saw Elsie work, she was reminded of just how far she needed to go.

  She was just glad Elsie was on her side.

  “Let’s try to think it through then,” Parek replied. The hourglass had just reset so they had just under forty seconds to the next wave. Not that they needed to concern themselves with it. Not while Elsie was here, but Rose recalled the slight weariness she saw in Elsie after the last room. Strong as she was, everyone had their limits, and she’d been hit a couple more times already. And each wave was getting that little bit stronger.

  Elsie sliced through the dark-green head of the last hobgoblin, before skipping back to them and pouncing on Rose’s shoulder, her round black eyes scanning for the next wave.

  “Okay. If we say eight was already lit. Then four. Then seven,” Rose said.

  “Maybe three?” Parek offered, glancing at the column directly to their left. “Then six, then two, then five, then one?”

  It was a decent guess as to a pattern. If there was a pattern. They had five options. They could get it wrong four times. But they would be facing a thousand mobs a second with four misses. And each reset would double that again. With the timer reducing each reset, they had at most two to three minutes before things got wildly out of hand. She glanced at Elsie on her shoulder.

  “By the time we figure it out, we might have thousands of mobs to deal with,” Rose said. She wasn’t sure how long Elsie could handle it. Elsie nodded at her with a smile and a wink. The little doll held up a thumbs up then pointed at Rose’s belt, at the orbs that Elliott had given her. The forest-green one to be exact. What did Elliott say it was called again? Rose wondered as she reached down to grab it.

  “The Horde?” she said, showing the orb to Elsie.

  Elsie nodded, then shrugged and made a gesture as if she were throwing something to the floor. Then she tilted her head to the side and rolled her eyes up like she was mimicking dying, before sitting up and tensing, her eyes changing to an empty white.

  “Use ‘The Horde’ and then if it gets too much, you’ll use more power?” Rose asked.

  Elsie nodded. Rose glanced at the purple orb that she still had – ‘The Demonic Tree’, but Elsie shook her head. Maybe it was too valuable to use except as a very last resort.

  The hourglass reset – thirty seconds to the next wave. The portals opened on the walls to left and right and a moment later, two hundred and fifty-six mobs – equally split between both portals – poured through on either side. Elsie was already on the move, conjured black pins whistling through the air to cause the first bit of damage on the ones stepping through to their left, before her pink and blue threads shot out and she whizzed through the air to the collection of rocky giants, ogres and frost elementals to the right. Rose and Parek quickly ran behind the hourglass, out of sight of the mobs running past them to engage Elsie.

  “Elsie says just go for it,” Rose whispered to Parek as a heavy foot slammed down on the floor beside her. A guttural roar cut off with a gurgle ahead of them, as Elsie sliced through an ogre’s neck, other pins flying through the air to hit the mobs running across the floor. “Once it starts getting too much, I’ll use this.” She held up the orb. “Just make sure to keep track of the order so we don’t make unnecessary mistakes.”

  Parek nodded as rubble crashed around them. An icy spear whistled through the air, landing by their side with a ding, the hand and arm of the elemental frost lord that had wielded it still attached. The rubble and spear disappeared a moment later. “So, which one to try first? Even if not three, odd seems like a good idea. It was eight, four, then seven?”

  “Let’s try three first, then six, then one, then two, then five?”

  Elsie was down to the final mob – an ogre that wasn’t sure whether it wanted to run or not, but felt compelled to attack. It disappeared as it hit the floor.

  Parek ran to flame three, scrambled up it, grabbing the torch and lighting the wick. It alighted and flared, then sputtered and died.

  The hourglass turned. Twenty seconds now.

  Portals opened. Five-hundred and twelve mobs. Rose was ready to press the button on the orb and throw it, but Elsie shook her head, even as she shot across the floor. She smashed into a rock giant’s face, pummelling it with her tiny mallets and as it fell, jumping to the next mob. She was fast – faster than Rose could actually make out, the only indication of her presence being each mob falling as she moved on to the next. She was incredible, dozens toppled within a second of emerging from the portals. The speed. The strength. Unfathomable.

  Still, Rose didn’t have time to admire. She ran across to pillar six, swinging around to its side and rushing up the ladder. She grabbed the torch and held it against the wick. It caught, the torch disappearing from her hand but she didn’t stay to watch, running back down the ladder and back to the hourglass, doing her best to stay out of sight of the mobs.

  “It’s holding,” Parek said. “Four, seven, six.”

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  “Try three again. Then one, then two, then five. Let’s just stay to the same order”

  Elsie had finished the mobs, but there was only five seconds left on the timer. Parek ran across to flame three but by the time he’d reached the top, the hourglass reset. One thousand and twenty-four mobs. Elsie was off immediately.

  Parek lit pillar three, scrambled down and ran towards pillar one, ducking behind it to keep out of sight of the mobs as he watched the flame on pillar three to see if it held. With the last reset, the hourglass was down to ten seconds. Rose had an eye on it but she was focused on the flame at the top of pillar three. It held. Four, seven, six, three. Three flames left.

  Parek was climbing pillar one when a thunderous crack echoed through the room. Rose barely had time to turn when Elsie shot backwards, smashing into the blueish-grey stone floor, tumbling several times before she put a hand out that latched onto the stone, her tiny legs digging into the stone behind her as she slid backwards. She looked up. Rose gasped. The little girl had a smile on her face. Elsie looked at Rose and nodded, before sprinting across the floor so fast, the air cracked.

  Rose pressed the button in the centre of the orb and threw it in the direction Elsie had run. The mobs were piling there and Rose caught a glimpse of the one that must have hit Elsie. It was almost the height of the room, clothed head-to-toe in gleaming black armour and a black helmet with small silver wings. It held a monstrous Warhammer, swinging wildly, not caring that it was killing several mobs in its yearning to kill Elsie. Elsie was using that carelessness to help take care of the mobs, somersaulting between them as the knight crashed its hammer against them.

  The orb fell in the middle of that madness, a shriek sounding as it exploded and out popped dozens upon dozens of green, leather-skinned goblins with long noses, pointed ears and snarling teeth. There were hundreds of the things in total, scrambling up the legs of the rocky giants and the ogres and the elementals, with clubs, axes and maces in their hands. They attacked with a wild frenzy and the screeches of feral animals.

  The hourglass reset. Two thousand and fifty-six mobs but among them, two more of the black knights. Elsie went to work, but Rose had no time.

  The flames had extinguished. Four, seven, six, three but not one next. She needed to try two.

  The hourglass reset again. It was down to one second, but it was no longer doubling. Just two thousand mobs every second, including two of the black knights. She couldn’t worry about that. She needed to trust Elsie and the goblins, but the numbers were insane. She felt mana crackle in the air. Even Elsie couldn’t rely on just her strength and speed for this one.

  Her heart pounding, her breathing fast, Rose [Blinked] across to pillar four to start over. Parek was already at pillar seven, waiting for Rose to light her one. As soon as she did, he lit seven as she [Blinked] to six and then he [Sprinted] to three.

  The hourglass reset seven times in the time it was taking them. There were so many mobs, it was impossible to avoid being seen – fifteen thousand of them, 9 black knights remaining. Soon, there wouldn’t even be room to move. Rose tried to see where Elsie was but she wasn’t even a blur. The goblins were doing a great job of taking out the lesser mobs as Elsie worked through the black knights, but every so often, thunder would crack through the air as Elsie was hit, slamming into the walls or the floor.

  Once Parek had lit pillar three, Rose was at pillar two. She was tiring now. Physical exertion wasn’t her thing, and she’d never expected to be in such an intense situation. She grabbed the torch at the side of the pillar and pressed against the wick on pillar two, jumping down as quick as she could.

  The fires extinguished.

  Dammit.

  “It has to be five,” Parek shouted across, swerving past the swinging mace of a fire elemental as goblins sprang onto its back. Suddenly, Elsie appeared at Rose’s side. All the mobs were on the far side of the room. Mana blossomed around them, rushing towards the little girl, her eyes glowing white as she drew on more mana than she had before. Rose could feel it charging through the air – something crackled across the ceiling. Then with a deafening snap, thousands upon thousands of lightning bolts slammed down into the blue stone, carving through the mobs and the allied goblins alike. Even the black knights groaned in pain as lightning sizzled over their armour. Only Parek and Rose escaped.

  Just like that, thousands of mobs killed in an instant, the black knights brought to their knees.

  But still the hourglass reset over and over – thousands more mobs streaming through along with several more of the massive black knights. Elsie shot across the room, drawing them to her, but even then, there were so many, several swung at Rose. She threw herself to the floor, scrambled away as goblins joined the fray to protect her.

  Rose ran to pillar four. She lit it, Parek lit seven, then Rose [Blinked] to pillar six. She lit that one, as Parek [Sprinted] to three. He lit that one, then ran to five and lit that one. Four, seven, six, three, five. Fifty-fifty on the last two. Rose [Blinked] to pillar two, as Parek [Sprinted] to pillar one.

  Elsie again reappeared at Rose’s side. Again, she drew mana at unfathomable levels. Rose was near to fainting just thinking about how much this tiny doll could draw, but from the corner of her eye, she could see it was taking its toll on Elsie.

  Concentrate.

  Parek was scrambling up to the top of pillar one, but Rose screamed out. “Wait!”

  Metal clashed around her as the air crackled with energy once more and thousands more lightning bolts slammed down into the mobs, the walls, the goblins, the black knights. Shards and chips of stone flew across the room. Several of the black knights exploded, black armour crashing against the walls with a thunk.

  Elsie stumbled, shook it off and sped off to the far end of the room, slicing across necks as she did so, heading straight for a black knight that was shakily getting to its feet.

  The hourglass reset. Then reset again.

  Rose scrambled up the ladder on pillar two, grabbing the torch. “I just have a feeling it’s this one,” she shouted across to Parek as she pressed the torch to the wick. The torch disappeared as the flame caught, licking at the air around it. It grew larger, wider, brighter, stronger as Rose jumped back down to the floor.

  A shadow loomed over her and she looked up to see one of the black knights – it had just stepped out of the portal and she was the first thing it had seen. Several of her goblins ran over, standing in front of her as others clambered on to its massive black-armoured boots but it had eyes only for her, bringing its large warhammer swinging through the air like it was playing golf. The hammerhead was the size of small house, sweeping the goblins to the side as it crashed into Rose, sending her flying.

  Air rushed out of her lungs as Elliott’s shield protected her once more, but she slammed her back halfway up the wall nonetheless, before crashing to the floor, her staff skittering away from her. As she stumbled to her feet, the knight stepped forwards, swinging its warhammer again. Rose’s eyes darted to her staff, several metres away.

  She had no choice.

  She drew on mana, as much and as quickly as she could – felt the molten, freezing river pour through the invisible channels as she held her hands out, drawing sigils at her feet. She was trying to cast [Blink], but the lines she drew were jagged, too thick in places, too thin in others. Streams of mana poured from her hands as she did the best she could, putting the last cursive in place. She hoped it worked.

  It didn’t.

  Rose gagged, coughing up blood as the mana used for the spell rebounded at her. Backlash – a failure to cast a spell already begun. Her eyes widened as the warhammer sped through the air towards her. She closed her eyes, bracing for the impact.

  The impact never came. Instead she heard a chime, like in the previous rooms.

  Gingerly, she opened her eyes and was met with a picture of serenity. Parek lay on his back on the floor at the base of pillar one, its flame blazing in glorious fury. Elsie was walking slowly back towards Rose from the other side of the room. She was missing her usual joyfulness, her black eyes a little dulled and her pink lips flat, though she tried to smile when she noticed Rose looking at her. The goblins that Rose had summoned were slowly disappearing, their forms becoming ethereal and wisping away like green ash caught in a breeze. There were no mobs to be seen.

  It was just the three of them.

  And the hand-sized key that had replaced the hourglass in the centre of the room.