The sensation was agony, but the Monster began to lift off the ground, floating 12 feet from the floor. Dane was filled with cosmic energy, and his MP was restored. Siphoning the Mana from the gravity chains that held the Bear down was like trying to overfill a water balloon. Something had to give, and Dane felt something snap inside of him. He could already feel his mana channels start to rupture, but something else washed down that he didn't really know how to describe. The huge Bear floated slightly above the ground, roaring and flailing about.

  "Ada, wmm dimm hpm uuuu da lie war," he tried to admonish Ada for not using lifeward, but it didn't come out right. The Mana rope he used to puppet his mana-starved body was second nature at this point, but he was still lacking in the fine motor skills section, which included speech.

  Ada was too stunned to speak. Her master was lying on the ground, and if he died, she was bound to the same fate. He had done some stupid things in the past, but attempting a one-shot spell and becoming useless mid-fight was the next level of ridiculous. After this was all over, she was going to clobber him, but until then, she needed to buy some time. She used disorientation and saw the beast frantically thrashing about, knocking down the pine trees it could still reach, like something out of those old kaiju movies.

  "Think quick, what else do I have available for this guy?" Ada asked herself; she knew that the Monster was thrashing about, and at most, she had bought another two minutes. She opened up her system display and looked for anything useful. She hovered above the new skill she had gotten from the Armor Lifedrain. It was one of the only attack spells that she had. Ada was still garbed in the slave clothing she used to fool the prissy elf. The skill was greyed out, meaning unavailable; she would need to change into the witch's wedding dress if she even wanted to attempt using the new spell.

  "I can't believe I'm doing a clothing change mid-fight, like I'm Sailor Moon," she said with disgust at having to strip down again. At this point, her clothing changes were becoming on par with superheroes going into a phone booth, so she easily slipped into the new armor. She activated the spell and watched a red energy stream come to her from the Bear. She felt connected to the Bear. Dane began to hold his hand out, casting something, but it was hard to see it. Dane's mana sight could see every piece of magic, but hers was only linked to life mana. She could see his mana channels were enormous, with what seemed like an overflow issue common for people who wanted to overcharge a spell.

  Dane used the Time Affinity to speed up the clock up the area directly under the Bear. He threw every ounce of Mana into the gravity chains, increasing their pull, slamming the floating Monster down. The Bear plummeted to the earth and landed in the pitfall trap he had set up. Two mechanical arms began to creak, and the beast rolled hard to its left, the silver metal front arm of the Monster fractured and split in two. Just then, he heard a scream from Ada; her arm was bent the wrong way.

  Dane didn't even see the blow that hit her. Were they being attacked by something different? At that moment, Danes' mana-sight picked up on a faint stream of sanguine energy flowing from his partner to the Monster they were fighting. Fuck she had somehow linked herself to the beast, and now she was feeling the pain that was inflicted on it. There was no way to kill it without Ada coming to harm. The Mana from siphoning the chains was still coming in, and he needed an outlet to not explode with the influx of MP.

  "yuu neee to cantle the spell!" Dane shouted, but his tongue was still not cooperating with him. Having no other option, he cast time magic on himself for the first time. He remembered the feeling of being rewound after meeting with Dia. I need to rewind 20 minutes, Dane thought to himself. He pictured where he was before the Bear had slashed him outside of the make-shift tent. The blissful feeling of sleeping after a hard, stressful day. He started to channel the time affinity. He wasn't sure it would work, but Moogu would eventually get up, and when that happened, he was sure that all three of them would be dead.

  The familiar feeling of his arm snapping and popping back into place was excruciating. He felt the sensation return to his limbs and body, a jolt of electricity that made all his muscles cramp. He forgot to turn off the mana ropes and felt the Mana directly fuse into his nervous system, which began firing. He could feel power beyond what his muscles should have been capable of. Dane looked at his system screen and saw the timer on his Mana-starved state slowly fade off the interface, and a new buff took its place, boosted. A large Cheshire grin spread across his face. It worked, and now he could move freely again. Several notifications rang out, and his grin slowly faded into horror and shock.

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  Achievement Gained (Time thief): Wow, you are terrific at magic and now a big shot timey whimy wizard. However, all things must have balance, and your recent strides have unbalanced the game. Time magic no longer pulls from your mana reserves and instead draws from your personal cosmic energy pool.

  Achievement Gained (Hybrid human): You have taken the first step in becoming a monster, Mana infusing your muscles; you can now infuse your body with Mana. Be careful; Mana will eventually dull your senses, and you will ultimately succumb to its more corrupting effects.

  Even with Mana's invigorating boost, his muscles began to weaken. He still had the system screen up and saw his Exp bar slowly start to drain. Rewinding his body 20 minutes had cost him 20 levels.

  "Are you fucking kidding me! Personal cosmic energy is Exp. If I ever met you in person, I'm going to smash you." Dane shouted to no one in particular, looking like an absolute lunatic, talking to himself in the middle of a fight.

  I look forward to our eventual meeting, Baron McAlister.

  The sudden realization that the system had responded to his outburst was enough to send chills down his spine. He knew that the system had often been snarky and seemed intelligent rather than a mindless computer, but now he understood why the elves worshipped this thing like a god. There wasn't an old, crusty elf sitting on the throne in the empire's capital, giving access to a computer program as he thought; it was the system they called the Emperor. He thought back to the promise he had made when he bonded with Dia. He told her that he was going to kill the Emperor. He didn't regret making that declaration, but this thing had such a profound hold over him that he wasn't sure if he would ever achieve his goals. It didn't matter. Everyone died eventually.

  Dane lost 500 stats, and his body was shocked by that sudden development. He went to Ada, picked her up, and slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Sprinting, he fled from Moogu. Sometimes getting away is the only winning you get to do. I really need to start training more. Dane thought to himself.

  "Can you stop jostling me around so much. My arm is on fire right now." Ada said, annoyed.

  "Can you please shut the fuck up while I save your life?" Dane responded in kind.

  They both began to laugh. Moogu finally stood back up, letting out a ferocious roar that sounded like an old clunky boat motor. Moogu stood on his hind legs and began to stomp on the ground, each step sending force through the ground and into Dane's chest. With each crushing blow from the Bears' shockwave attack, his breath was knocked out. But the ground underneath the Monster was still eroded from his earlier spell. He saw the floor open up, and the Robo bear fell through. Before they could take a breath in relief, the cracks from the hole in the floor began to spider out.

  He couldn't let Ada die here; she would not survive a fall to another floor. Dane barely had enough Mana but still opened up a portal to the only place he could think of: the meet-up spot.

  ** Amelia Tudor, Lorma Forest Barracks

  Amelia was on the run. Doing exactly as she was asked, she snuck into the dungeon team's resupply chest. Everything she would need for a team of adventurers to venture into the dungeon was sitting, waiting for the team. She stuffed the spatial bag her father had given her before leaving home, but was not expecting to set off an alarm. That was a new feature. She made a beeline for her room to grab the necklace that was a keepsake from her kind grandmother. An alarm sounded and red lights flashed in the halls. Shit, they're coming, Amelia thought.

  When she got to her room she reached under her bed and found the lockbox that was under her bed. She took the necklace off her neck and opened it, revealing a key and a picture. Amelia placed the key in the lock and exchanged the beautiful opal necklace for the locket. The picture inside was of her and her betrothed. Keeping a picture in a locket was an Earthbound custom. It was silly, but she humored the man her father picked out for her.

  "Amelia, there has been a breach in security. I have received word from the commander to be on the lookout for a human wearing your brother's armor." Stopping mid-sentence, he saw her bag. His heart sank low in his chest. "So it's you...." The young warrior trailed off. He knew that if she were caught, she wouldn't even be given a trial; most crimes committed in the dungeon were dealt with swiftly and with frontier justice. She was deserting. He didn't know what would force her to leave, but she committed treason by stealing supplies set for the dungeon team. She would be labeled a war hero, and her death story would be fabricated to bring honor to the Arcane Warriors. "Get out of here, Ames. I'll buy you a little time." He gave her a wink and exited the hall, shouting for backup. "Quick, I saw Amelia with the supply cache, she is running towards the Mess hall!"

  The rest of her unit quickly suited up and ran down the hallway to the right, heading to the other side of the building. Amelia didn't know why, but when she saw Kevin leave, a tear rolled down the left side of her face. She looked back at the locket in the box and wiped the wet stream off her face.

  Amelia had a rendezvous to catch and Earthbound to give an earful to.