"Absolutely not," I said.

Dozens of emotions swirled inside my head. The biggest one was fury.

Some of it was directed at Zeke—no, at Ezekiel Elwood. He'd never been Zeke. But he had played me. He'd played the whole team, put my friends in danger, and for what? To have a private conversation?

But most of it was at myself. I'd been so stupid. I'd trusted this guy against my better judgment. I'd known he was up to something. He'd been up to something from the very beginning. But I'd invited him along even so. We'd needed a body, but an archer would have been infinitely better. Anyone would have been infinitely better.

"Why don't you unsummon that very mean-looking sword so we can have a nice, civil conversation. I'll make you a deal, Kade. You hear me out—not even say yes, just hear out my offer with an open mind—and I'll keep my full Power of Friendship on your allies, in healing mode. As long as I do, the only way they'll lose is if every one of them takes an immediately-lethal hit. Can you live with that?"

My fist clenched as Tallas's Dueling Sword disappeared. He had me beat, and I knew it. "Blackmail, huh? Fine. What's your offer?"

"Not blackmail. Friendship." Ezekiel grinned. First, I have a question for you. Why are you so special? The Portal Tyrant himself saw you step out of an S-Rank portal. No E-Ranker should be able to do that. He wants to know."

"Tell him to go fuck himself," I said before I could catch my tongue. I didn't make a habit of swearing. But I couldn't do anything else. Even though the battle trance—and the playground fury—were both pushing on me, I had to keep myself in check. If I attacked Zeke, my friends would lose their best chance at surviving this portal. I took a deep breath. "I can't tell you. I'm just another delver."

"Frankly, no, you're not. You're something special. I knew it before, but the Portal Tyrant had to see it to believe it. I've never seen Terrel so amped up. He couldn't explain it, but the moment you stepped out of that portal, you became the hottest commodity in Phoenix. With a year or two of proper training, he thinks you could be the equal of the Light of Dawn or Falcon's Eye. Maybe even stronger, in time. He wants you with the Portal Tyrants, and he's willing to pay to make it happen."

"Not interested," I said.

Zeke raised an eyebrow. "Not even for your sister? Terrel's willing to make the price a cure for her."

I almost told Zeke to tell his boss to screw himself again.

But this time, I held my tongue. Barely. I had no interest in the Portal Tyrants. They were almost as bad as the Roadrunners; they'd taken advantage of me to put me in a no-win situation, where any wrong move could result in Zeke killing my teammates. And I had no delusions about their ability to push through this without Zeke's skill. Something would kill one of them. Then another. And before I knew it, Jeff and Ellen would be dead.

However…Zeke had messed up. Or he'd given me leverage intentionally. He might be the best recruiter for the Portal Tyrants, but with that leverage, I had…something. "I'm not interested," I repeated. "Everyone from my friend Sophia to the Spark of Life has taken a crack at Jessie's problem. No one's found a solution. But…if you can cure her—really cure her, not just say that you can—then I'll gladly join you."

'Wonderful!" Zeke clapped his hands.

"I'll gladly join you after she's cured."

I expected Zeke to balk at that. But he didn't. "I can accept that, and so can Terrrel Young. I need your word that you won't join any of the other guilds in the meantime or reveal my secret, though. If the Tyrants are going to invest these kinds of resources in powering up an independent S-Ranker like the Spark of Life, Terrel wants to know that his investment has a good chance of paying off."

That was agreeable. The wording was something I could play around with—The Portal Tyrant didn't want me joining his rivals, but I wasn't planning on doing that. I was planning on creating my own guild. And that was a longer-term project. "I accept, under one condition. Neither of us owes the other anything once this portal is done. We go our separate ways, and you don't contact me under any circumstances. If your guild finds a cure, I want Terrel to call me. Not you. Not someone from the guild. Him. And if I join, I never want to see you in the same room as me."

Zeke couldn't possibly have the power to agree to that, but to my surprise, he stuck out a hand. "Agreed. Let's shake on it."

"This can't be right," Ellen said. She stared at the rusted iron portcullis in front of them; it hung open, but looked like the slightest touch would send it crashing down into the grooves in the stone floor. And it had to weigh three or four tons—more than even Jeff could lift. Behind it was nothing but darkness. Two separate paths led here, but this was obviously the end of the line for both of them.

"No, it is," Yasmin said. "Somehow, we found the portal's boss room."

"There's no way we can kill it, though, right?" Ellen asked.

Jeff shook his head. "I don't think so. Whatever's going on with our healing might give us a shot, but without Kade's damage, we're one mistake away from death against a C-Rank boss. There's just not enough wiggle room."

"So, what do we do?" Raul asked. He was still wincing and holding his chest any time he had to twist his body, but the fact that he was still fighting—or even upright—was inexplicable. He didn't have a healing skill, much less a full merge built around recovery. And his chainmail was absolutely wrecked. He should have been dead.

"We've got two options. We either go searching for Kade and Zeke, or we wait," Jeff said. "My vote is on waiting. Kade's solid. He'll find a way through to us."

Ellen sat down hard, still staring at the raised gate. "Waiting is the right call. He's got this."

"You're sure?" Raul asked. "He wasn't that impressive, and he's what? Low-D? I couldn't solo my way through here."

"First of all—" Ellen started, but a voice cut her off before she could finish.

"First of all, I wasn't soloing," I said as I jogged down the tunnel. My arm hurt—an Experiment had ripped my bicep down to the bone, and it hurt to move, but at least it had been my off-hand. I'd had worse. I couldn't remember when, but I'd had worse. And besides… "Zeke was with me, and his ridiculous power kept me going."

"Kade!" Ellen said. She stood up fast and gave him a quick side-hug. "Told you, Raul."

"And second, we avoided most of the fights we could. It took a lot longer, and half of the portal's still alive, so let's deal with this boss before that becomes an issue, yeah?" I checked my resources.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Stamina: 130/300, Mana: 124/400

I was hurting on Mana, but the boss needed killing either way. We couldn't let this portal sit for too long. Besides, I'd been avoiding fights as much as I could for almost two hours—and dragging Ezekiel through the portal wasn't any easier just because he was a hidden B-Rank. Most of his skills weren't built for delving.

The Experiment Seventeen I'd killed was proof of that. It had been a long slog, especially once it had shredded my arm. Ezekiel's healing helped, but even so, I couldn't imagine fighting two of them at a time by myself. I'd win. I knew I'd win, because I had to. But it would take everything I had, and I couldn't afford that.

"Alright, we're all here," Jeff said. "Let's get to it."

I stepped into the boss's room a half-step behind him.

Experiment One: C-Rank

It was massive. And horrific, but so was everything else in here. The Misbegotten Ogre and the Ossified Beast were the only monsters I'd fought that had been on this thing's scale. Dozens of human, elf, and orc heads hung from long, sagging necks spliced together into a single point at their bases. The bent and stitched-together body had no arms, but twenty or more short legs protruded from its base, below an equal number of bloated, stretched bellies stitched together with dark leather. They looked like they'd rupture the moment we touched them.

A single jet of bubbling bile and embalming fluid erupted from one head, arcing toward Jeff. He blocked it with his shield, and the whole monstrous, vivisected hydra lurched toward us. "Try not to stab or cut it," Jeff said as I flanked right. Then he seemed to realize how stupid that sounded. "Actually, Ellen, can you pop it?"

"On it," she said. I reversed course, getting a safe distance from Experiment One as it closed in on Jeff. He set his shield, and Ellen used Shadow Boxing.

Squares of darkness appeared across Experiment One's dozens of stomachs, digging into the flesh. Its skin ruptured, then popped like blisters.

Acid and embalming fluid covered the stone floor; there were grates spread over it, but they were nowhere near enough to drain the sheer volume of burning, acrid goop. It splattered against my face and washed against my shins and knees, turning my skin red and eating away at my boots and flesh.

"Zeke, healing!" Yasmin yelled from near the portcullis as her feet went under.

He shook his head. "I'm giving her everything I've got!"

"Bullshit! Give it more!" I dove at the boss, splashing acid behind me with every step. Drops landed on the back of my neck and burned away my hair. I ignored them and focused on the bloated boss in front of me.

Within the tattered, ruined stomachs sat a man. A man in a lab coat. For a moment, all I could do was stare; a tube extended from his stomach and connected him to the boss's body, but aside from that, he looked almost human, beard, balding head, and all. How had he survived inside the boss?

He said something. I couldn't understand his words. But it didn't matter; I ignored him and lunged, both hands on Tallas's Dueling Sword's grip. He was the monster's heart. If I could kill him—

Before my sword could land, one of the dozens of heads swooped down, and my blade caught it in the throat. It screamed as lightning surged up and down its neck, muscles convulsing. Then its jaw clamped shut hard enough to shatter its teeth. Three other heads swiveled toward me, circling inward as I wrenched my sword free. A single Lightning Charge orbited it.

I wanted to switch to Cyclone stance and double-cast Thunder Wave. That'd be the biggest single hit I could launch, but with Jeff and Raul in melee range and Zeke closing in with his oversized sword, I couldn't risk it. His healing aura was working overtime already; I couldn't risk hitting my own teammates.

And Howling Gale wasn't an option, either. The heads were irrelevant; worse, the neck injury was growing back. So were the stomachs; the boss's Health had kicked in, and the only thing that could really damage it was a blow to the man inside.

But I couldn't get through. Neither could Raul, and even Ellen's spells were intercepted by bile-vomiting heads. Their projectile acid had slowed to a trickle as the boss's stomachs emptied, but even so, the sludge they spat burned and stung as it dripped onto us.

We needed to thin the ranks. I cast Ariette's Razor, then checked my resources.

Stamina: 113/300, Mana: 81/400

The spell manifested as a razor of air, air rushing down across my pointer finger and thumb like a circle guard. It was flat-tipped and so sharp I couldn't see the blade; the antithesis of a rapier, a slashing weapon. With it in my off-hand, I was effectively locked out of Thunderbolt Forms, but I could still shift between Mistwalk and Cyclone.

I dashed toward the boss, dueling sword stabbing toward Experiment One's true body. A head ducked down to intercept. As it did, I parried, then sliced across its throat. Acid sprayed out at me, along with embalming fluid and bile.

I ignored the burning across my face and shoulders, the searing pain as skin sizzled. A spear punched through the monster's back; Raul had used a skill to drive it up into a neck, locking that head in place for a moment.

"Ellen, hit the heads!" I yelled. It wouldn't hurt the boss—not permanently—but we needed a window to attack the real enemy.

She cast. This time, an Orb of Darkness. It surged through the air, and two heads reached out to intercept it. They both fell apart as hungry shadows dug into them. The boss was using them as shields. Regenerating, infinite shields. But that was okay.

Jeff's sword flashed, tangled in shredded flaps of stitched-together flesh, then tore through it. The boss screamed, and another head intercepted his blow. Bile splashed into Jeff's face. He yelled in pain.

I locked in on the body within Experiment One's tattered flesh. I couldn't reach it—there was no way through—but I could force more of the flesh hydra's screaming, bile-dripping heads to defend it. Ariette's Razor flashed out toward the man. When a head moved to cut it off, I was ready with the dueling sword. I cut once, twice, then again. Bile spewed across my face. My shirt melted under the Stormsteel breastplate even as Ezekiel's Power of Friendship healed my wounds. It felt like being caught between a flamethrower and a blizzard.

But I severed the head, then whipped the Razor at another. It flew through the air, punched into the thing's throat, and erupted from the back of its skull. The screaming face cut off with a gurgle, but Health was already pouring into the wound.

Another head came loose as the dueling blade sliced into it. Raul skewered one to the main body's tatters with his spear, leaving the weapon in place and drawing his knife. Shadows rippled across the boss's neck.

Then Yasmin caught a full blast of bile right to the face. She cough-screamed as it went down her throat, and her eyes bulged. Her face went red, then purple. Zeke turned and ran toward her. So did Ellen.

The whole back line was out of the fight, just like that.

But I had a window. Enough heads had been disabled that I could get there. I summoned a handful of Ariette's Zephyrs and flung them at the remaining heads. Two more vomited bile toward me, and I dropped into a defensive stance as the injured heads rallied toward me.

I used Flashstep.

And just like that, I was on the undefended side of the boss.

Tallas's Dueling Sword snapped out. It was almost a slow, lazy attack; the swing telegraphed none of my desperate energy, or the battle trance. But it was faster than either of the three heads that tried to block it. The sword bit into the boss's neck. The correct, controlling neck. Blood—not bile, but blood—gushed out. He screamed. This time, it wasn't all of them. This time, it was only the one attached to the doctor's body.

The boss's head came off, and the entire abomination went berserk.

Every head stopped healing. It stopped defending itself or trying to attack us. Instead, some of the heads turned on their own necks while others ripped into their neighbors, the tattered stomachs, or anything else in range. I took advantage of the chaos to stab the inner body's chest—two quick thrusts between the ribs and its heart. Then a dagger ripped across a pair of throats, and Raul wrenched his spear free. "Back off! It's out of control!" he shouted.

I nodded, blocked a head as it snapped at me. , bile and acid dripping from its yellowed teeth, then stepped away. It took almost three minutes for the heads to kill each other as we danced away from the slow-moving, stitched-together creature. Then, when there was only one left, Ellen threw a single Orb of Darkness at it.

Portal Collapse in: 59:59

As it died, I watched the acid drip through the grates. My shoes were ruined, but my feet were mostly intact thanks to Zeke's aura. "Why don't you sign up as a healer?" Ellen asked.

"Because the role I perform best is support. You didn't get to take advantage of the damage buff much, but it's better than the healing one," he said. "And even though healers get picked up all the time, supports are pretty in demand, too. At least, that's what the people Dad and I talked to said."

I raised an eyebrow from behind Zeke. Ellen caught it—or if she didn't, it sure seemed like she understood, because she changed the subject pretty quickly. "Kade, can I come over tonight? I've got a few skills to rank up, plus my D-Rank trial, and I'd like to talk over your experiences first, just in case they can help me through mine."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.