Nate had the flag; it was in his hands. Ignore the fact that it was in his hands, and he was running from a level 55 enemy called ‘Cyclops Captain,’ or that it had an Edict that made every step it took a small earthquake. Or that it was gaining on them.

  Sarah tried to keep her mind on the things that were going right.

  They were right at the hole. Julia was there, waiting.

  They reached the hole. Sarah rushed Nate through and then followed behind. All three of them were on the other side of the wall with the flag. Now, all Nate had to do was run back to the starting area; then, this would be over.

  Julia turned to face the hole after they ran through, doing her part. A thick seal of water covered the hole. It was her job to keep the entrance sealed from the enemy for as long as possible to get Nate to run to the end goal. It was a good plan. If it’d been anyone but a behemoth of a monster trailing behind them, Sarah hesitated as Nate kept going.

  Every second it took him to get to the exit was another second of risk for everyone, so like a good soldier, he was going to fulfill his mission.

  But Julia sat there, her barrier in place. A barrier that would do nothing.

  Sarah stopped.

  “Come on, let’s go!” She called to the girl.

  Then, Julia turned those dumb, wide eyes to her and looked annoyed, of all things.

  “I’ve got this.” She claimed.

  “No, you do not; the plan was for a regular cyclops—this is the boss. You cannot stop him. We need to run and fast.”

  “Listen. I don’t think you understand how this works. A protagonist overcomes obstacles. Just bring the flag back, it will be fine.” Julia waved her off and then returned her attention to the barrier of water sealing the monsters. Any second, the boss would arrive.

  Sarah’s jaw dropped.

  A second layer of water formed, doubling the strength of the barrier. This seemed to get Julia to focus harder. The girl leaned in, her face concentrated. The pounding movement of the earth on the other side of the wall closed it. Then, a fist smashed into the water.

  It held.

  To Sarah’s complete shock, the girl had managed to hold back a boss who was closer to double this girl’s level than not.

  “See?”

  Then, the fist slammed down again. This time, it didn’t hit the barrier but the wall. A massive crack appeared a thin black sheet that vined downward as the entire side of the wall shook. Julia’s eyes widened as the fist hammered into the wall again—and again—the fourth hit and rubble were falling from above, and it was painfully obvious where this would go.

  Julia threw on a third layer of water, sweat running down her face.

  “Run damnit!” Sarah tugged at her sleeve.

  “I’ve. Got. This.”

  The wall came down, the rubble flew, and Sarah threw herself in front of Julia to take any rubble as it came down. She couldn’t say why. Didn’t know. It just felt like the right thing to do. She covered her face, bits of rock and dirt crashing into her and tearing her skin; it stung. Pain stung, of course. But she weathered through it, and all the stat points tossed into endurance played their part in making it a bit more bearable. The dust stung her eyes. That was the worst.

  When it settled, she saw the dark shadow of the boss rising from the rubble.

  Between him and them were three layers of water, still about the size of the hole that had been in the wall. But of course, now there was no wall around it anymore. So… It wasn’t blocking much at all.

  The cyclops snorted.

  The cyclops stepped one step to the right.

  The cyclops went around the barrier.

  “Damn it, Julia, run!”

  “Quiet! God, I’m so done with people!” She screamed back.

  Then, with the Cyclops still facing them, the three layers of water compressed into one another formed a spear and slammed into the back of the cyclops.

  The big guy toppled to the ground, a shaft of water sticking out of his back; blood traveled through what had been crystal clear water, polluting the manifested weapon into a weird, cloudy-red version. Julia huffed next to Sarah; the attack had taken a toll.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “See? Monster slain. Quest finished.”

  The cyclops pushed itself up on its elbows and grinned a bloody smile at them.

  “No, it is not.” At this, Julia finally let herself be yanked away; water spiraled after them, probably trying to slow the monster as the girl started yelling hysterically.

  Sarah pulled her along anyway, heart hammering. Say what you will about how dumb this was, but now Nate had a clear lead to get to the exit without this monster chasing. Sarah gave it one last look as it got to its feet, grin wide as it moved to chase. A tendril of water splashed against its cheek, not doing much at all.

  Run fast. She yanked Julia after her and set off to do just that.

  ###

  Colt leaned over, hands on his thighs. Blood coated him, and his left arm was bruised. Near broken, probably. The muscle beneath it had to be damaged. But, among the corpses of eight cyclops, he couldn’t really complain about the injury. A price to be paid.

  ———

  You have leveled up!

  You have 6 Stat points to spend. You have gained 1 point of Dexterity and 1 point of Soul

  *Phantom’s Gambit* (Basic) has gained a level!

  ———

  The level was nice, and his new skill leveled up. Testing it in combat was interesting—these monsters didn’t exactly have a barrier for his cut to need to phase through, but he found, overall, it was more responsive and easier to weave in and out of combat with. A knife could vanish through one target and reappear on the other side to hit the enemy behind.

  A niche application, and he was sure there was more to it than that.

  Colt rolled his shoulders and looked over to his ally.

  Nick had it worse than Colt got. The guy’s face was broken, bruised, and bloody from the multiple hits the creatures got off on him. Nick limped over as he saw Colt looking and shook his head.

  “How were you able to do that?”

  Colt stared at his knife; now, with the improved Edict, he could halve these guys without too much of a problem. Their skin and flesh once more parted with ease.

  “Edicts,” Colt explained and worked his jaw. “If you want to get strong, you should focus on your refract. That’s my gut feeling. Out of everything in this system, the skills, the levels… These edicts are what give you the most control.”

  “You have two, right?”

  “Yeah. The first one…” Colt rolled his shoulders and then invested the stat points he’d gained from the last two levels. Two went to Soul, which put the stat at an even one hundred. The other four, he added back to the tried and true dexterity. For as much as Soul was his way of having firepower, the dexterity part is what kept him alive in the first place.

  Though, one day…

  “It’s what I used against these guys. Cut. The second one is the one you haven’t seen. I’ve been building my Soul to be able to handle it. If we survive this, I’m sure it will be used in the next game. Not all Edicts are equal, and that one is more difficult to use.” Where Cut felt attentive and wanted to respond to Colt, using movement was like fighting a wild animal for control.

  Still, even with Cut as it was now, listed as a ‘greater’ rank, it wasn’t in doubt that the other Edict was still more in raw power.

  Truth be told, he was eager to pull it out.

  Nick rubbed his neck. “Soul then, huh? What about my magic?”

  “Find an edict that ties to it, and do both at once. Maybe? I don’t know; my class didn’t give me access to it. I don’t even know what that system does,” Colt sighed and looked around. The rest of the monsters were in disarray. Killing their officer ruined what little coordination they had out here… During the fight, though… “Did you hear a bang during that?”

  “Yeah, it came from the fort.”

  Colt cracked his neck and moved in that direction; “Hang back here and heal. I’ll make sure things are going alright.”

  He got ten feet; then the night sky erupted into a white light; his heart kicked into second gear, thinking they had run out of time. With all of the fighting, it was possible. A cold denial of death ran through him, the grip on his knife tighter, expecting the pain. He weaved cut thick around his blade and readied to pull at the deeper, more ancient second Edict.

  The hammer didn’t drop.

  Instead, he found Nate near him. The ex-soldier was huffing, his face red and slick with sweat. He raised a salute to Colt.

  The man had done it.

  But…

  “Sarah?”

  “Over here!” Julia called—he flipped to see the two girls behind him. Sarah was on the ground, her head lying on the side. She had a massive bump on her head, and her legs were broken and torn at weird angles. Colt winced and hurried over, asking Julia to fill him in—the girl wasn’t much better, sporting a broken arm. In short, the girl messed up; they waited too long and fought a monster that was at a higher level than the officer. And they lost. Lost bad.

  They would've been dead if the game had gone on for another minute.

  Colt ran a hand through his hair and looked at the white void around them. Waiting.

  No owl came.

  “Apologies. It seems my servant has seen fit to stretch the definitions of what I’ve asked of her. Nike will not be here to prepare you for the next round. Nor will you receive any reprieve as punishment for the unintentional advantage you’ve gained. You’ll have to make do. I will grant you this: the final game is simple. A classic of this Colosseum. You must slay the beast.” Athena’s voice shook the world as it rang out through the void; Julia cried out in pain, and Nate went to his knee. Nick managed to stay standing, and this time, though it hurt, Colt shrugged off her commands.

  The Edicts she used were refined, thick, and far above his comprehension, but he had enough under his own belt to at least withstand her talking now.

  What a monster.

  With that, they were back to silence. And waiting. An endless wait as his heart hammered, and he watched Nate apply the emergency training he’d learned to try to help Sarah.

  He focused on what he could do, readying himself for the next battle.

  As the highest level, and with the most firepower, this next fight, their hardest fight from what Nike shared… It was on his shoulders and his alone. So Colt waited, keeping his head cool. Trying to stop his heart from hammering. When the white void vanished once more, he had to be ready. There was no choice otherwise.