Chương 75: 75, Loop 2, Part 29

"Hey, Axe. The next time one of those orbs is about to hit you, why don't you swing at it?"

"Swing at it." He dipped his head forward as if practicing the swing.

"I can do that." The next platform was almost fifteen feet away, and Axe was still quite a few jumps ahead of us. But I had an idea. So getting across wasn't really the problem anymore. No, our problem was getting to him before one of those things knocked us into the water. The dungeon was probably grading all of this somehow. I genuinely didn't know whether using a golem as a lightning deflector counted as effort or as laziness. But unfortunately, my next was going to count as effort, and I hated myself for it.

I pointed my wand in front of us and cast." [Freeze]." White ice spread across the black water until I had a solid patch about six feet wide. It looked thick enough to stand on. Hopefully.

"Quick, get up," I said.

"We're gonna have to run." He looked at me like I'd grown a second head.

"You hate running."

"Definitely true. But I hate dying more." He got up, waited for a pause in their attacks, and canceled his ward. Against every principle I held near and dear to my heart, I went first. Because if I got hit from behind, I wanted Finn ready to save my ass from drowning again. There wasn't much space to get a real running start, but I tried my best and leapt off the edge. Almost immediately, the ice came up under my boots and I could feel myself start to slide.

I fought against it, got two more running steps, and leapt to the next normal platform. I landed on my hip, slid, and almost fell off. Finn, though, made it look so easy. He made both jumps without slipping—with the crank on his shoulder. The asshole landed on his feet in front of me like he'd rehearsed it. I cast [Freeze] again. Without the benefit of [Recursion], the spell cost full mana, which was part of the reason why we were having to do it this way. Who knew what we'd run into once we got to Flag?

And my mana was already in the yellow. Finn immediately recast his ward just as two more bolts slammed into it. The next five minutes went in this pattern on repeat. Point, [Freeze], run, jump, slide. Point, [Freeze], run, jump, fall. And every time we made it across to another platform, more of the things surfaced around us. By the time we were almost to the next dock, there were dozens spread across the water, taking turns throwing electrified rocks at us.

I landed on Axe's platform with a thump just as he finally figured things out. As an orb was about to reach him, he swung at it with the flat of his blade. The orb bounced back at twice the speed and hit the nearest bell with a thwack. Blue-white lightning burst from it as it hit the water. Translucent chunks slapped into the surface along with several rocks that, on the outside, hadn't seemed to be part of its body.

"Yes," he said.

"I like it. Send another to me." Just as I was wondering how we'd be able to survive the increasing number of the hordes, I laughed. The answer was so obvious. Finn recast his ward as we huddled behind Axe. If the monsters wanted to keep throwing those rocks at us, well… they were going to have to throw them at him first. [Wideview] gave me the unfortunate privilege of seeing what we actually looked like. I mean, honestly, we were the least dignified thing I had ever seen.

Two little baby-looking second-years crouched behind this giant-ass golem. We had a mauve-colored magic shield protecting us while spider jellyfish things threw electrified doom rocks at us. It was truly a sight of all time. But if something worked, it worked. And I was not one to complain about it. Especially when it required no effort on my part. I was practically giddy about that. The mindless bell-spiders kept throwing the rocks at us—which meant at Axe, really.

And he kept batting them back, one after another, until blue explosions were popping up all across the water. Things went so smoothly that Finn started nodding off behind the ward. His head dipped once and then again, his eyes staying closed longer each time. When Axe missed the next rock and it slammed into the shield, Finn jerked upright, as if he were finally alert. That definitely didn't make me worry any less.

"Dude." I echoed him.

"This is why you shouldn't have meditated. You're exhausted, and we barely have, like, seventeen hours left."

"I know, I know. We can rest after we rescue Flag." Resting was probably a good idea. Unfortunately, we still had a room full of monsters throwing rocks at us, preventing my ability to settle in for a nap. I mean, I could fall asleep anywhere, but the noise was gonna be a problem. Since Axe seemed to have the situation mostly under control, though, I decided we might as well eat. I cast [Ex Nihilo Caseum] twice and handed one to Finn. He set the crank down without dropping the ward and started eating.

Another rock hit our ward. And Axe finally spoke up. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Commander, I am sorry that hit you. I will do better."

"Dude, you're fine. Just keep deflecting and we'll be good." After Axe killed about fifteen of the things, there was a lull in the battle. I thought they were going to regroup and try a new tactic, but instead, the rest of the monsters slid backward across the water. Their thin legs barely disturbed the surface as they drifted away from us. One by one, they sank beneath the water. Within a minute, the entire room was quiet once again.

"Are they done?" Finn tilted his head to the side. It was clear he was as confused as I was.

"Yep. I think they're done."

"That's it? I feel like there should've been another phase or something to that fight." We waited a little while longer just to make sure it wasn't some weird sort of dungeon trick, but it didn't seem to be one. None of them resurfaced, the water stayed still, and the path to the dock remained free.

"Huh," Finn said.

"Go figure." We finished our breakfast. And then Finn dropped his ward, just as Axe shrunk down to his regular size. Had it already been three hours? God. Time flew when you were being tortured by a sadistic dungeon intent on grading you.

"You think they ran out of mana?" Finn said.

"Like, they can only produce so many rocks, and then that's it?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Or the dungeon decided we had finished the assignment or something." The last two jumps were the easiest thing all night, because… well, they weren't jumps at all. With the threat completely extinguished, I just made a nice bridge straight to the dock. And since I was casting so many spells, it barely even made a dent in my mana, with how [Recursion] worked. But when we finally made it to solid ground, I collapsed into a heap and lay there.

Finn stayed standing, but his eyes were red around the edges. Every time he blinked, he kept them closed just a moment too long.

"Look, Finn. I know I already slept three hours ago, but you clearly need a nap. When's the last time you even slept?" He just stared at me.

"As your best friend, I'm not going to let you suffer alone. We've got enough time. Two hours, maybe three, and then we'll finish this room, get the last key, kill whatever horrible thing is waiting at the end, and finally go home." I settled onto the dock and let my mind start to wander. There was no arguing with an already sleeping person.

"Axe, you're on guard," I heard Finn say as I finally drifted off. —- I had a nightmare about the Manafount, because of course I did. Apparently, almost drowning made my brain decide I needed the full horrifying redux. The school was underwater again. Mana beasts swept through the flooded grounds, dragging people below the surface, while other monsters trapped people underneath sheets of cloudy ice. Somehow, I was the only one trying to save anybody. Kate went under first. And then Finn.

And Sara, Corwen, Popo, and Malus. Every time I reached somebody, another hand disappeared beneath the water. Professors, students, people I knew and people I didn't. Dozens of them, all waiting for me to do something. I swam to Finn, but the surface was frozen over his head. He hit the underside of the ice with both hands, trying to break through. I tried to reach him, tried to break the ice, but my arms wouldn't move. Neither would my legs. I tried to say something, but I couldn't speak. And then he died.

A look of abject betrayal on his face. I woke with a start, my heart hammering hard enough that I could feel it in my throat. For a few seconds, I could still see him dying beneath the frozen water. Great. Apparently, almost drowning had unlocked a whole new brand of nightmares. I really needed to stop getting mixed up in this shit. Everyone was where I'd left them before I'd gone to sleep. Axe was on guard, facing the water, and Finn was meditating—though it was clear he had actually managed to get some sleep.

"Anything happen while we were asleep?"

"Nothing, Commander. I watched the water for signs of the monsters, but none surfaced. I believe they are cowards who have gone into hiding."

"Great report, Axe," I said.

"Very thorough." After talking to Axe, I checked my mana. With this second nap, it was almost full. Which was great news, given that we'd have to start [Spin] ning the crank again.

"How long were we out?" I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I talked to Finn.

"A little over three hours." Which meant we had just under fourteen hours left to clear the rest of the dungeon and kill whatever horrible thing was waiting at the end of it. Fine. Great. Wonderful. Then I was going to sleep for the rest of my natural life. The crank box was in the same place, on a dock that looked almost identical to the last two we'd been on. I walked over to the crank, frustrated that the anti- [Float] ward was still in effect. And I noticed Finn had already put the crank in place.

"You ready?" he asked.

"I'm waiting on you, aren't I?" He started [Spin] ning. The dock jerked upward along the four iron rails, just like before, and the water followed after us. At first, we could still see the platforms we'd crossed below, with the ice blocks between them. But then the rising black water swallowed everything, and a few minutes later, the entire second floor disappeared below us. Flag's tree continued beside us, seeming to never have an end. The trunk was enormous and just seemed to get wider the more we climbed.

Unless it was somehow natural, someone had spent a lot of time, effort, or mana covering the tree in the same weird square patterns Flag had described. I couldn't imagine the point, especially since they were carved in uneven, imperfect rows. Thankfully, Flag's tether still pointed upward, which meant we were heading in the right direction to find him. There was something odd about the tether, though. I couldn't quite put a name to it, other than to say that it was busier than it used to be.

Like more magic was moving through the tether than ever before. I kept watching it while Finn worked the crank. It wasn't exactly a useful way to spend my time, but neither was watching Finn cast [Spin] over and over again. Our dock climbed until the room below was nothing but dark water and the glow of my marble. And then the rails ended. The dock slammed into place with a heavy thunk, and after what felt like an entire night, we finally reached the top floor.

The first thing I noticed was the brick ceiling that completely enclosed Flag's tree. Which was how I knew we were at the top. There was definitely no way to get up there to the top of the tree. At least, not from this room. The second thing I noticed made me immediately look away from the ceiling because the implications were gonna drive me batty. The third thing I noticed was the monsters. There were at least thirty of them, all taller than me, with legs that bent in too many directions.

Their bodies had the same wet, glossy-black wood as the trees back in that first room. Except they looked like spiders.

"What's with this dungeon and fucking spiders?" Finn said, a bit upset.

"What, are you afraid of them?"

"No." I could tell he was lying. The final thing I noticed was that they were fighting something. And they were losing.