The Demon Centaur was the biggest problem.

The little monsters posed no problems after the exploders were taken care of. Most of the others had been weeded out, leaving the only threats as the three remaining bosses.

Penelope took off in a sprint as she ran towards where the Demon Centaur was flinging Tanks into the air. Unlike when she'd first seen it, the two upper hands now each wielded a large wooden hammer, taller than any person out there. The snake tail had been destroyed at the base, which left the slower-moving slug tail as the only danger near the back of the monster. The monster was bleeding from multiple large wounds, but the sheer size of the thing meant that each foot-long wound was just a scratch on the body that was over three people tall.

<Blinking> took mana, which she was trying to conserve. In the grand scheme of things, it was a trivial amount, but it also gave her time to assess the situation.

The Demon Centaur had fallen into the pitfall trenches, but the metal stakes inside had been little more than splinters to the giant creature. The caltrops that she'd worked so hard to perfect over the last two weeks had simply been smashed into the stone floor that they'd been scattered on.

Most of the Tanks were around the large monster, backed up by Allis's Casters and the Archers. Lois was fighting alongside Aly, using her shadow magic to lash out at the great monster's right arm.

The hammer in the left arm connected with a Tank's shield, sending their ally up into the air. Penelope flung one of her <Light Balls> forward, releasing a <Shadow Chain> once it was in range and catching the flying man, then gently setting him back on the ground. A green light wrapped around him as the Healers worked to fix any injuries.

"PEN!" Skylar ran over to her.

Penelope looked at the one-armed blonde. "What's the situation?" She looked around. "Where's Rae?"

"Gone." Skylar swallowed, then pointed her lone arm at the monster. "That thing broke the shieldwall and got to the Healers." A tear ran down the other woman's cheek. "She didn't make it."

"Patrick?" Penelope scanned the Tanks for the older man's armor.

"He's down, but not dead." Skylar pointed at the wall far behind them. "I had one of the Buffers drag him out of her. He was unconscious, but breathing." She hesitated for a moment. "Aly is trying to run things, but she is barely holding it together. I've got the Healers doing what they can, but…" Tears streamed down her face. "We can't find Freddy which means…" She swallowed. "We need you to take the lead."

Penelope mentally instructed one of her <Light Balls> to catch another flying Tank.

"We've got to take this thing down before it hurts more people." She scanned the area for Circe. Once she located her friend, she turned back to Skylar. "Get the Casters to dump everything they can on that thing's arms. We've got to get rid of those axes, then I want you to have the Buffers catching people, we can't let these Tanks get tossed around like this."

"What are you going to do?" Skylar wiped the tears from her face with the back of her glove.

"I'm going to see what I can do to end this." Penelope <Blinked> over to her friend.

"PEN!" Circe yelled. "ARE YOU SEEING THIS!"

"She can't hear well." Whitney looked over her shoulder. "Too close to the Pine Soldier explosion."

Penelope's heart sank. She tried not to think about how many other people hadn't been lucky enough to only lose their hearing. "We've got to take that thing down."

"WHAT!" Circe pointed at her ears. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"SHE'S GOT A PLAN!" Whitney screamed. The older woman blew a loose strand of blonde hair out of her face. "What's your plan?"

"Lock it down, then nuke it." Penelope pointed at Whitney. "You're going to have to coordinate things since she can't hear." She pointed at the monster. "I'm going to have that thing dosed with water first. Throw your biggest electric and ice abilities at it, then we're going to hit it with metal and earth and see what we can shatter off of it. After that, nature to bind it again and once Aly lets loose with fire, use whatever air abilities people have to increase that damage."

"What about the others?" Whitney looked around. "We don't have nature or water anymore either." Her face fell. "Kaden and Roy didn't make it."

Penelope closed her eyes. They'd been too confident in their traps and hadn't protected everyone else. There should have been a dedicated Tank and Healer with each group instead of breaking them up into specializations.

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"Live and learn." Jeru shook his head.

You knew this would happen. Penelope scowled at the blue Elf.

"Knew is a strong word." Jeru held up his hands. "But there's a reason the parties are structured this way. It provides balance and protection."

Just… Penelope sighed. I'm getting tired of having to remind you to be proactively helpful.

"Some lessons are best learned from experience." He shrugged and gestured at the giant Demon. "You take that thing down and you're basically done, then none of this matters because you're resetting back to the first floor before you go to the fourth."

"We've got three air people." Whitney offered, her voice taking on a meek tone.

"I'm not upset with you." Penelope sighed. "I'm just ready for this fighting to be over." She nodded at Whitney. "Get the air team ready and stoke the fire however you can." She gave Circe a smile, then <Blinked> away.

Allis was on top of one of the towers that hadn't been destroyed yet. Penelope took a deep breath as she approached the other Caster.

"We're getting slaughtered out there." Allis fumed as she pointed at the giant monster.

"We're over halfway through." Penelope forced her voice to remain calm. "Once that thing goes down, it's basically over."

"We've been throwing spells at it until we're running out of mana potions." Allis stomped her foot. "It's got to have a ridiculously high Recovery stat."

Penelope swallowed. "It does." She pointed over to where the Archers were getting ready. "I've got a plan to slow it down, then we can nuke it." She spun the <Light Balls> above her. "Did Skylar tell you—"

"She sent a messenger, but we've tried that." Allis huffed. "We can't hold it!"

"We do it in waves." Penelope pointed at the redhead beside the fire Caster. "Fae Anna, I need you to dose it. Don't worry about damage; just dunk it with all the water you can drop at once. I'll hit it with <Hail Storm> and we can have Virginia and Benedict help me freeze it while Tristan zaps it."

"Virginia's dead." Allis shook her head. "And what's that going to do? Give us a few moments break?" She pointed at the Demon. "That thing is as big as a house! And spells barely do anything to it!"

"Freezing it is to slow it down, then we bind it with as much nature as we can and once it's bound, you nuke it with fire." Penelope left out the part about shattering the ice. The Archers that she'd hoped would be able to do that were dead, so there was no reason to include that part of the plan anymore.

"It's not going to work." Allis grumbled. "But fine. If you want to sacrifice more people, let's do this."

"Anyone with a restricting spell or skill, try to lock it in place. Focus on one limb only and let's lock down those arms!" She looked at the other Casters and Buffers. "Pair up with anyone who has the same element so you don't cancel each other out and if you can, merge your spells together!"

"You can do that?" Fae Anna scrunched her brow.

"It's something we should have tried before now." Penelope didn't bother addressing Jeru because she had a feeling he would have used the same 'experience' argument as an answer. She looked at the Buffers. "Anyone who doesn't have a restricting spell, get down there and <Blink> the Tanks out of the line of fire and clear out anyone else who is too close.

A few of them nodded, then vanished.

"Let's go!" Penelope <Blinked> closer to the giant monster.

As soon as she was in range, she unleashed all eight of her <Light Balls> and directed them to target the monster's left wrist with <Shadow Chains>. Eight chains grabbed the appendage that was thicker than her body and pulled it away from the main body. Two of the <Light Balls> exploded under the strain as the Demon Chimera tried to swing the hammer down, but the rest of the chains held, forcing the arm to make a sudden stop and sending the wooden hammer tumbling out of the creature's hand.

The giant Demon roared, shaking the ground with its challenge as its central head turned to glare at the offending spells.

"GET CLEAR!" Penelope screamed at the Tanks who were remaining.

More spells grabbed at the giant monster, pulling on it and restraining limbs.

A huge deluge formed on top of the monster, growing larger and larger as the giant Demon struggled against the bonds to get out from under it. The water filled the area above the monster's head, then with a snap it dropped on top of the monster, forming a bubble around it.

Penelope downed a mana potion before she released the chains, then switched spells. Instead of hail, she crushed the frozen stones, putting a priority on it being frost and freezing the water.

Bubbles escaped from the monster's mouths as it struggled to get out of the water bubble. Ice slowed its movements down even more as a second stream of ice hit the bubble. A storm cloud formed overhead, sending bolts of lightning into the bubble.

More bubbles escaped the monster's mouth as it pushed to escape from the globe of water. Stone walls rose up into the water, blocking its path out, while more vines pulled on its legs, locking it in place.

Penelope moved her <Light Balls> in front of the monster, creating a wall of slush for the monster to push through. The moment her head began to hurt, she downed another mana potion so she could keep the stream of frost pointed at the monster.

Sweat poured off of her as she focused on maintaining the spell. The monster began to thrash, its movements sluggish in the thick water as crystals formed on its body.

Ding!

Experience +1

Penelope released her spell as the notification hit her. Her ears buzzed, but she could hear the cheering. They'd killed the big threat and hadn't even gone through the entire plan. She dropped into a sitting position as she tried to catch her breath. She hadn't even realized that she'd been breathing hard. But now the hard part was over. They just needed to clean up the rest of the monsters, then this floor would be done.

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