They continued with their slow exploration of the myriad of tunnels – or, at least, of their circle around the exit. The monsters, they had quickly discovered, were not all the same. They had either suffered some form of spooky convergent evolution, or had originated from the same ecosystem. It was almost certainly the latter that was the case. Each of the various types had hardened circulatory systems with shut-off valves and three hearts, as well as identical ugly hairless features with some patchy feathered sections.


    They were hideous. It was that exposed skin that did it. It was like they were suffering from terrible mange. The impression of alienness was far more heightened than it should have been, as their body plans resembled those from earth. In a practical sense, these creatures were more normal than most things he fought, but they didn’t feel that way. Being a quadruped with a single tail and warm-blooded didn’t matter in the face of how they looked, even if for most of the individuals species he could pick an Earth equivalent - cat, dog, honey badger, ferret or rat. All those distinct body shapes were there, and every one of them had the same mixture of strengths and weaknesses: some form of mind attack, and a body that, at least to people of his rank, made them as good as invulnerable physically, unless you targeted the head.


    “This is too much.” Kang cursed.


    Tom, still struggling to regain his breath, agreed:


    “They keep coming. Reminds me of a migratory loop.”


    “Like the one you and the heroes of humanity faced in the Underground?” Kang asked.


    “Yeah. These things are moving independently of us. It’s why there’s no letup.”


    “So, if we match their pace, they’ll never reach us,” Kang suggested, but they both knew the idea was wrong. They had trialled that already, and the steady drip of enemies finding them hadn’t changed. “We head back.” Kang declared. “I’m on the verge of skill exhaustion, and you must be too.”


    “Yeah,” Tom agreed grimly. “Hopefully, the trial is not hard-coded to stop us.”


    “Adam said it wasn’t.” Eloise reminded them.


    “Adam is limited by the rules he works under.” Kang explained. “He might be actively restricted from telling us something like that.”


    “If he is, we shouldn’t have walked so far.”


    “We haven’t,” Kang told her. “We’re less than ten minutes away from the exit. Tom’s been circling us around the same spot.”


    “Exactly.” He agreed. They had both noticed the way the dungeon had reacted to them, and had tried to stay as close to the exit as possible while travelling sufficiently quickly to prevent the monsters from grouping up on them. When they had attempted to hold a singular position, the beasts had descended upon them in a wave so large that they had struggled to beat it.


    The girls didn’t need to know how precarious their positioning had been through.


    Tom did the calculations and began to head back, but not in a direct line. It was important to avoid the corridors they had recently fought in, because the monsters scavenged their dead, and, if they ran into static enemies, those along with the mobile ones could overwhelm them. With a brisker walk than they had been using, he headed back along the newly plotted course.


    There was a loud hiss in front of them.


    That was another annoying factoid about the monster species. They didn’t bark, meow or squeak - it was always a hiss.


    “Contact ahead,” Kang said formally. Tom’s Spark-sensing domain was up, and he felt the girls shift appropriately to watch their back.


    Two ugly monsters were charging them - a honey badger and a slimmer, tailless creature that, while almost as large as the other monster, was anatomically closer to that of a rat. It had smaller legs and the annoying too-large of a head for its body shape. That was another quirk. They didn’t seem to differentiate between species. Usually, monsters of opposing types, especially those from the same ecosystem, would fight amongst themselves.


    Tom waited and hoped that they would launch a mind attack at him to make the fight easier. No strike was forthcoming; then Kang stiffened and fell to a knee.


    Internally, he cursed. Tom had been the closest to the monsters, but Kang’s verbal call-out must have drawn their attention. It was sloppy. He had spoken too loudly, and Tom should have closed a pace to attract their attention.


    Kang, being incapacitated was not a great start to the fight, but Tom didn’t panic. Even if he was on the verge of skill exhaustion, he still had his magic, not to mention that the trait Everlyn had gifted him was performing beautifully against this level of opponent. The ten-mana cap made them strong enough to impact most enemies, and it gave him, relatively speaking, a massive mana pool.


    There were simultaneous booms as lightning arced out and blasted the rat like monster away as though it had been hit by a cricket bat. The impact of Spark on the honey badger was less visually impressive, but was even more effective as electricity wreathed it in bright dynamic lines. Instantly, it lost control of its limbs. With both charges arrested, Kang would be able to recover, and, with Tom supporting him with the spear, they would be able to finish them relatively safely…


    “Help!”


    Eloise’s cry ruined his good mood. It meant trouble.


    He spun around and saw they were being flanked. From behind them, two of the rat-proportioned creatures were scampering toward them. Eloise had her spear up and looked like she intended to fight them head-on.


    “No, run,” he thundered.


    Thankfully, she reached the same conclusion and dropped her weapon before leaping straight up; at the apex of the jump, her searching foot found purchase mid-air, allowing her to push higher again.


    Tom ran forward to intercept.


    Briana had not spoiled for a fight - she had reacted as trained and had retreated to be level with Tom, basically crouched behind Kang. She was out of danger and was throwing her cup of water at the approaching monsters. It was like someone tossing a handful of gravel. The spread was too well defined to be natural, or, at least, not of liquid origin. He could see the magic of the razor water spell in its behaviour. He made a mental note to avoid it.


    His brain calculated trajectories, both those of the rats and that of the water. He refrained from cursing because of the presence of the girls. Eloise’s hesitation had cost them. He was too far away and too slow. He was going to have to draw on his already-depleted mana pool to save her. The two monsters were fixated on Eloise and if he did nothing, they would reach her, and, while she wore chest armour, she lacked the survival instincts to limit the impact of their attacks when they latched on to her.


    Spark took out the furthest one, but with the water hazard and Eloise’s own foot screening him, he lacked access to hit the other, and his spear was a fraction too slow. The creature’s leap had it on target to maul Eloise’s calf, as they were both suspended a metre off the ground.


    It looked like it only landed a glancing bite before his own blow struck it full on in the ribs. Without Power Strike to reinforce it, his weapon’s shaft shattered at the force of the impact, but not before the majority of the momentum he had imparted on it was delivered into the smaller rat’s body. The light monster went flying away, red dripping from its teeth.


    His own blow acted more like a blunt force strike, because the spear tip lacked the sharpness to penetrate the tough skin deeply enough to make it bleed.


    Tom cursed the weapon’s malfunction, and, at a thought, another spear appeared in his hand. This one, unlike the last, was not one he had primed to break. Eloise was falling, a look of pain and shock on her face. He was unable to tell whether it was a mind spike or the distraction caused by the shock of the bite that had made her miss her third force step.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    It didn’t matter, and he couldn’t take the time to protect her anymore.


    From his Spark pseudo-sensing domain, he could feel that Kang was back on his feet and battling the two creatures Tom had stunned at the start. With the opponents moving twice as fast as him, that fight would be touch and go, but Kang was talented enough to hold his own. His shadow edge spell at least was going to allow him to dish out proper punishment, unlike with Tom himself, who was going to have to do everything he could to avoid the need to use Power Strike.


    The second monster had been both stunned by his lightning and struck by Briana’s razor water spell. Its rubbery skin had absorbed most of the magic attack, and there were only thin lines of the dark blood visible on it – they looked similar to a scratch on a human. But them showing any blood at all told him that the cuts were deep. Briana’s spell, for all of how awkward it was to actually hit an equal ranked opponent, actually delivered significant damage for its mana cost. Tom’s unassisted spear couldn’t pierce the skin, no matter how clean the hit was. His tier-three knife could, but he didn’t want to bring it out unless the situation became critical.


    The rat was stirring, so Tom knew he was running out of time. While it was still immobilised, he shifted his grip into a double handed one and drove his spear down hard into a cut halfway along its body, as though he was trying to crack concrete with a crowbar. He put every iota of force he could into the blow. Even if taking advantage of the preexisting injury, there was no way he could turn this into a lethal wound, as the rate was still too tough for him. Luckily, that wasn’t what he was aiming for.


    The spear tip penetrated a good two centimetres.


    It was less than what he had been praying for, but hopefully it would be enough. It was time for the next step in his plan, which relied on his weapon being longer than the tunnel was wide. He shoved the still-stunned creature into the corner, and then brought the weapon sideways and down to wedge the butt of the spear into the other wall.


    The second rat, with its red mouth, had taken advantage of his supposed distraction to sneak up upon him, but a Spark infused with precognition mana struck it. Unfortunately, the stun component of the attack did not take effect, but he was not relying on it. The resulting explosion knocked it three metres back and got him the second he needed. Then he was jumping on the end of his weapon and driving it further down the wall. On the other side, the rat was squished against the stone more firmly as his spear jammed between the two walls. Pinned and without leverage, it was hopefully going to be stuck there long enough for them to take care of the others.


    Then he pushed off the weapon and landed in fighting distance from the red mouthed monster. A third spear appeared in his hands.


    It had fully recovered from the explosion, and the abrupt time dilation that hit Tom told him that he had its full focus. Tom felt a thrill of accomplishment. He had successfully taken its attention away from the prey it had tasted, which was always a dicey proposition with these types of creatures.


    He relaxed slightly. His aggressive approach had been for that singular aim. Even if the trapped rat got free, provided they both focused on him, he could keep the girls safe; that second one, after his spear trick would view him as its primary target.


    His spear tip flickered, and stopped the freed monster from advancing on him. It ran up the wall, but, while his body was significantly slower than the creature, his weapon with its length was much faster, provided he didn’t let it slip past his guard. His precise attack struck its foot and made it fall. Tom strategically retreated toward the girls and battered it away when it leapt at him. Only his impressive technique enabled him to counter its fearsome speed. The difference in weight between them was significant, and it showed in all their collisions - his latest counter had knocked it over a metre away, which allowed him to check on the others.


    Briana, bless her, had ignored the brawling Eloise and had poured a second cut of liquid over the head of the trapped rat. It was no longer moving, as the razor-sharp pieces of water had shredded its skull all the way to the brain.


    An injured Kang with a massive wound over his thigh was stumbling over to the girls. He was more hopping than walking, and every step left bloody footprints behind him.


    When he turned his attention back to the ongoing fight, the monster was already leaping toward him. He registered a sharp pressure on his mind and instantly changed his approach. Rather than trying to ward it away he instead side-stepped to let it fly past him. It was an educated gamble. If its mind spike didn’t disable it, then he was going to be in trouble. But every other one had been left stunned by a similar reflected attack, so he doubted this would be different.


    Thankfully, the monster went limp, and, when it slapped against his hip, because it had been moving too fast for Tom’s slower body to completely dodge, it didn’t lash out or grab hold of him. “Kang, now,” he commanded even as he used his spear more like a shovel than like a weapon to scoop up the floppy rat before he flung it toward the other boy.


    With clinical efficiency, the sort he had continuously shown, Kang didn’t hesitate. He threw himself into a swing with total disregard to anything but landing the strike. The damaged leg gave way, but he must have been factoring that weakness into the motion, because his axe, covered with black shadows, was unerring in its accuracy.


    The head of the creature went flying.


    Tom didn’t pause to celebrate.


    He immediately ran to his injured friend, who had fallen helplessly into the wall, too weakened to recover from his attack.


    “Are you critical?” he demanded to know even as he assessed his available resources. The brutal disorganised nature of the encounter meant that his mana was fully depleted, and he only had his free healing spells available to use.


    “I’ll live. Deal with her.” the other reincarnator groaned, and then flicked his eyes to the very distressed Eloise. A single glance told Tom that so little time had passed that she hadn’t even entered into shock. The entire fight had only taken a handful of seconds.


    Tom weighed his options. Kang was experienced enough that Tom was inclined to trust him, even if the pained expression on the boy’s face and the way both hands were thrust aggressively into the thigh muscle to stem the bleeding suggested otherwise. The bloody footprints, those pools of congealing red liquid, however, couldn’t be ignored, and nor could the relatively smaller puddle under the crying Eloise.


    As he passed Kang, he used the free Blood Replenish spell on him. The influx of blood was going to sustain him for a few seconds longer if an artery was cut, which was looking more and more likely as he considered the full wealth of evidence he could spot.


    He’d have to deal with that later. He skidded to a stop, standing over Eloise.


    “It bit me. It hurts!”


    Tom felt like he had no time, but in the context of what he had to do here, his time was unlimited. Saving Kang was going to come down to his regeneration of mana, so there was no need to rush his interaction with Eloise. He placed a hand on her leg just above the wound. It did not look like much, in his professional opinion. It was, at worst, an interrupted bite with a couple of deep puncture wounds that on Earth might have been problematic due to the threat of infection, but here was trivial to heal.


    “I’m dying.”


    “You’ll be okay,” Briana said positively. “Tom’s going to save you.”


    He glanced back at Kang. The boy, even with his dark skin tone, appeared paler.


    “I’ll be fine. Heal her.”


    “I only have one spell.”


    “It hurts. Fix me.”


    Tom didn’t break eye contact with the other reincarnator.


    “Listen to her. I’m not about to die, and I’ve suffered far worse than this. Fix her. She’s just a child.”


    Cursing inside and worried he was making the wrong choice, he triggered Touch Heal.


    Information flooded through the diagnosis spell. The wound was as minor as he had guessed. It was a superficial bite that had nicked a vein near the ankle, and so had generated, relatively speaking, a lot of blood. Ten mana was enough to remove all traces of the bite and also address some of the bruises forming on her bum from the fall, which actually represented the largest patch of damage.


    “Fixed,” he said curtly, seething at having to heal her over managing the more critical case.


    He quickly covered the two metres between her and Kang, pausing only to confirm that the four monsters that had attacked them were dead and no more enemies were sneaking up on them.


    “Briana, Eloise, you’re on watch.” He ordered.


    A single point of mana had regenerated, and he applied it to find out what was happening to his friend. “Shit, Kang, it clipped the artery.” He snapped, and then knocked the other boy’s hands away from the wound and used the precise anatomy knowledge he had just plundered to put pressure on exactly the right spot. Kang’s fingers had not been doing a good job. “Waving me off was the wrong call.”


    The other boy smiled wanly. “I said I’ll live, not that I’m uninjured.”


    “It’s not funny, Kang.”


    “Am I going to die?” He asked with a small smile.


    “If another monster comes, yes.” Tom told him brutally. “Next time, we get the people who can fight patched up first. She was not critical. She could have waited”


    “Tom, she’s just a kid.”


    “It was a little more than a scratch.”


    “It was not,” Briana protested. “Apart from you reincarnators, I’ve never seen such a large amount of blood from someone. It was a big cut, Eloise. You were very brave.”


    “And it hurt so much.”


    Tom bit back a sharp retort. Both he and Kang had suffered multiple injuries that had been significantly worse than what Eloise has had, and not only had they not complained, about it they had fought on in spite of them.


    “It was her first battle wound.” Kang said quietly.


    Another point of mana regenerated, and he pulled back his fingers as he sealed the pierced artery, and, in doing so, stopped the critical bleeding. Now, even without medical aid Kang was going to live, but there was still a lot to do in order to get him battle-fit.


    “And I’m going to live. So, no harm and no foul.”


    “I don’t blame Eloise. She’s a kid, and that would have hurt a lot, especially if you’re not used to it. But fixing her was a terrible strategic call,” Tom told him quietly. “The Touch Heal I burnt on her would have gotten you close to being able to fight. I won’t make that mistake again.”


    “And force her to suffer for an extra five minutes?”


    Tom knew exactly what he was saying. It had been hard listening to her whimpering. “It was the wrong choice.” He whispered, then raised his voice to make sure Eloise would hear. “But you’re correct, she deserved fast healing. She did the right thing and retreated. Good job, Eloise.”


    “It was so fast, and it leapt so high and it bit me. Did you see all the blood, Bri?”


    “You’re a warrior now,” Tom agreed with a laugh. In between each burst of healing, he was standing up and scanning the corridor in both directions. If they were undisturbed for another two minutes, they would get out of this safely.


    He wiped his brow. Given how often monsters found them, he gave that fifty percent chance of occurring. There was still hope. He hadn’t lost anyone yet.