Sprinting down the hall, Daimona found herself in another ice cavern, this one less refined than the last. There was a wide, bottomless pit in front of her, with a door on another ledge all the way across the room. The only thing that connected the two platforms was a long, thickly braided rope swinging between the sides.

  “A test of balance,” Will said, reaching for the rope to feel it between his fingers. “Interesting…”

  Norok smirked, shouldering past Irina and Kell to stand before the canyon. “Please. I’ve got his.”

  “Wait, there might be--”

  “Irina, we’re floating,” Norok shouted over Will. The ground rumbled as Norok spread his hands out. Daimona felt her legs go limp, her body weightless under the effects of Norok’s magic. But something began to emerge from the depths of the cave as the squad floated up. It reached out on both sides of the swinging rope, a pair of rounded, nubby fingers as thick as the base of the black tower. The ginormous ice imp’s face was frozen in a gleeful smile as it floated up slowly.

  “Norok, drop it.” Kell urged, his back hitting the low ceiling of the cave.

  Norok squeezed his eyes shut, sweat beading around his furrowed brow. “I’m not holding it!”

  “Then crush it down,” Irina hissed, as the ice imp’s hands closed in. The imp boxed them in, and underneath it Daimona could see a rising stage of ice. The room was trying to collapse in on them, she realized. Daimona placed both her palms against the ceiling, bringing her knees into herself before launching down into the center of the palm. A hairline crack resulted from the impact, and now Daimona was stuck rising with the imp. She looked up to Will, placing her hands on her hips with a dissatisfied frown.

  Norok groaned. “I can’t make it stop!!”

  The ice imp’s face started to merge with the roof of the cave, Kell squeezing himself out of the way as the shoulders followed after.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Will dropped down, scaling the ice imp’s midsection carefully. “We’ll just have to go around it, then.”

  Daimona walked off the hand just before it met the roof of the cave. Norok’s magic caught her, floating her down to the ice imp’s belt buckle. She swung off of it, vaulting herself towards the final platform.

  Before she could make it to the other side, Daimona crashed into a sudden wall of ice. Her face stinging with the cold, she grimaced up to see the emergence of a second ice imp. This one was pointing upwards. She punched it in frustration, leaving her fist red and sore.

  “Great,” she huffed. “Now what?”

  “This is probably a puzzle, right?” Kell squeaked, tumbling over himself in the air between the two imps. “We just need to solve it.”

  “Yeah but where are the instructions?” Will replied. His eyes lit up as he pointed back at the entrance they had come out of. “There!”

  Daimona squinted. Scrawled onto the wall in half legible writing read the words, “FINISH PUZZLE LATER.”

  “Wow,” Daimona said, half impressed by Pultz’s simultaneous attention to detail and lack of interest. “That guy can’t commit to anything.”

  “Which means we’ll need to make an exit of our own,” Will sighed. “Kell!”

  “Yeah?”

  “Blast us out of here.”

  “What?!” Kell blubbered. Irina launched herself down, wrapping her arms around his chest from behind. Kell’s body lit up with red sparks.

  “Go Sparkboy,” she said with a devious smile. “I will arm you.”

  Flames shot out of Kell’s palms, sending him and Irina rocketing upwards. The torrent of fire caused beads of water to drip down the ice imps, until their bodies began to melt back down. The heat rose instantly, the domed walls of the cave deforming under Kell’s attack. Irina twisted Kell’s body around, nearly setting Norok and Will on fire as she angled him at the ceiling. A hole was formed, allowing the squad to carefully crawl out and slide down to the grass below.

  “Should we…” Kell panted, waving his hands as the last of the embers jumped out from his fingertips. “Should we try again?”

  “No need,” Will replied confidently. “I sort of figured Pultz would phone it in, so I have plenty of other team bonding exercises prepared for us back at the base.”

  Daimona bounced on her heels excitedly. “Woo! More competitions!”

  Will you be reading BLIGHT?