Patrick traded Nina for Aly permanently.

The younger woman hit level twenty in the 18 column, which made her just as effective as any other damage dealer. Plus, when all four groups were together, she was on their team anyway.

"Nervous?" Circe glanced over at their newest member.

Nina swallowed. "I've heard the forward team is dangerous." She tightened her grip on the shaft of her hammer. "But I think we make a pretty good team."

"This one should be easy." Patrick grumbled as they waited in front of the barrier to 20A for the Dungeon to whistle. "Pen and I mapped it out this morning and got a feel for the monsters." He tapped his shield on the ground. "No Healers."

"Lots of birds though." Penelope added. "And a Tank."

"Let me handle the Tank." Patrick motioned for the others to follow him as the Dungeon whistled.

The tunnel split as soon as they were inside the barrier. The branch on their left headed diagonally towards the interior of the square while the path to their right dead-ended into the barrier between 20A and 20B 150 feet away.

Patrick pointed to his right as soon as he started down the left tunnel. "There's a big room over there. Let's make sure it's empty so we don't get hit from the rear."

"There's a group in there, and they're coming out!" Penelope switched off her <Clairvoyance> as soon as she triggered it so she could fight. A 400-lb gray-feathered bird ran through the door, followed by a second one.

SQUAWK!

The Tank monster resembled a large chicken, minus a comb or waddles. Both the Gresia's eyes glowed red as they charged the distance between them and kicked at Patrick's shield, stirring up air gusts as their talons connected.

"I've got the back!" Nina moved into the other tunnel and squared her stance. The tunnels were six feet wide, which didn't leave a lot of room for a melee person to fight beside the Tank. She had proven capable of being the off-tank when needed during the previous columns, and her Defense was high enough that she could take a few hits.

"The Demon has a bow!" Penelope cast <Light Torrent> and aimed for the door as more monsters rushed into the walkway.

The first was a large bull. The Vobeum took a deep breath, then belted a stream of air out of its mouth at the group. The feathers on the large birds flipped up as the magical attack hit Patrick's shield, pushing him down the tunnel a few feet. Riva braced against him as Penelope countered the spell. The Gresia were so wide that they were smooshed together to stand side-by-side in the tunnel, which made them easy to target, but they weren't the biggest threat at the moment.

"I've got it!" Penelope shot her <Light Balls> down the tunnel only for them to wink out as the Shadow Sniper shot them out of the air.

The yellow-clad Demon strutted into the tunnel with a pair of human-sized, brown-feathered birds behind it. The Demon was wrapped in leather from head to toe, and if there wasn't a nameplate over it that read Shadow Sniper, then Penelope wouldn't have known that it was a Demon and not another person.

The Aergles, as the six-foot-tall brown birds were labeled, were thin, but with broad wings that couldn't spread out all the way because they were longer than the width of the tunnel. They sliced their wings towards the group, shooting a pair of <Air Blades> each.

Penelope canceled the spells, but by that time, the Vobeum was readying another <Air Beam>.

"Shoot them!" Penelope countered the spell, then another one from one of the Aergles, but the third spell sliced down the side of the tunnel. She stepped behind Riva, who was busy supporting Patrick. It was taking both of them to withstand the attacks by the large birds. "I can only lock down two of them at a time unless you want us to fight in the dark!"

Electricity crackled on the bow of the Shadow Sniper before it fired a crackling bolt at Patrick's shield. The large man screamed as his armor tensed up.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I've got him!" Skylar pointed her wand at their Tank, white light covering the man. "I can take over the light!"

"Circe!" Penelope canceled her spell, and for a moment they were in total darkness. While the others couldn't see, her passive from her necklace kicked in, allowing her vision to remain unaffected by the dark.

"I'm shooting as fast as I can!" The brunette screamed as she released another shot. "I don't want to exhaust myself again when we can just take this—"

The moment the lights went back on, one of the Gresia clawed at the top of the shield, tipping it over on top of the man who hadn't regained his footing yet.

"MOVE!" Nina shouldered into Penelope, throwing her into the wall of the tunnel. The tanned woman didn't wait for Riva to get out of the way; she just swung her hammer up like a golf club, bouncing the large bird off the ceiling. She reversed her grip and brought the hammer down on the monster's head.

"Still not dead!" Penelope released a pair of <Light Bolts> from each of her wands to finish it off.

Air sliced into them as all three of the Caster monsters were able to get their spells off.

"I've got this!" Nina picked up Patrick's shield as Riva helped the recovering man to his feet.

Penelope countered the spells building as Skylar swished her wand in each of their directions.

"These stupid things have hides like they're made of stone, not air!" Circe fired another pair of arrows.

"Switch!" Nina grunted as the Shadow Sniper hit the shield with a <Paralyzing Shot>. Her arms tensed up, but she didn't fall over like Patrick had.

"GOT IT!" Circe pumped her fist in the air as the Aergle on the left went down.

Penelope thrust out her left hand, shooting a <Light Bolt> out of the tip. The streak of light sought out the Shadow Sniper, burning through a bolt of electricity to slam into the Demon's chest.

"HIT THE FACE!" Patrick wheezed as he pushed back against the Tank in front of him. "We don't need to have to fix a hole in its gear!"

Penelope countered the spells the other two were preparing and loosed another <Light Bolt>, striking the Demon on the nose. She turned to the struggling man as the Shadow Demon melted into a pile of the items it had been wearing.

"Good enough?"

"Not while there's still monsters alive!" Patrick braced against the Gresia as it slammed into his shield.

With the main Demon dead, there was nothing to stop her projectiles, so Penelope cast <Light Torrent> while making sure to cancel a spell from either of the ranged monsters the moment she felt one building. She dropped all four into the Gresia, then had to use a full set on both the Aergle and the Vobeum.

"Is everyone okay?" Penelope activated <Clairvoyance> to make sure there was nothing sneaking up on them. "Frederica's group is heading our way." She canceled the spell, content that nothing else was close enough for her to see.

"My fingers still tingle." Patrick wiggled his gloved digits.

"You didn't get shocked like Patrick." Skylar looked over Nina as Frederica's group came into view.

"Electric status effects won't affect someone with an electric affinity." Jeru reminded Penelope. "Like petrification doesn't work on Patrick, and Fear didn't work on Riva and Circe."

"Electric status effects don't work on her." Penelope motioned at Riva. "Like Fear didn't work on them."

Skylar's brow scrunched. "Oh…"

"You weren't there for that." Circe put her arm around the Healer. "The nasty status effects don't work on people of the same element."

"Okay." Skylar swallowed. "Does anyone need any more healing?"

"Nope!" Circe released the other woman and ran over to the item pile. "Really? I just got a hood!" She trudged back over to the group, tossing the hood to Riva. "Here you go."

"At least it's not something bulky like a mace or metal armor." The older woman stuffed it into the bag over her shoulder.

"You didn't get the potions or the essence." Patrick scowled as he stomped over to the pile of items and retrieved the other important things.

"I didn't have an empty vial." Circe stuck out her tongue as she grimaced. "I can't stand touching those slimy things."

"And yet you eat bug jerky." Skylar shivered.

Circe grinned as she shrugged.

"Any trouble?" Frederica shot an annoyed look at Circe as the leader got close enough to hear their conversation.

"No." Patrick grabbed the Vobeum by the horns and lifted the monster's head up. "Looks like steak and chicken will be on the menu again!"

"Any bugs your way?" Penelope looked at her friend.

"We had two of those big fireflies." Frederica jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at Fae-Anna. "They're really weak to spells."

The Fudom were human-sized bugs that looked a lot like wasps, except they had glowing red stingers at the end of their abdomens.

I was hoping we'd run into more of those than the Aergles. Penelope smiled and nodded.

"Let's find the rest of the monsters in here and finish up this column." Frederica sighed. "I'm not looking forward to seeing those guys again."

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