The tail of the broom whips to the side, the bristles scratching noisily against the stone wall of the dungeon as Fresh flies away as fast as she can.

The world rumbles, stones crack behind her as a gargantuan fist smashes into the spot where she just was. The dungeon shakes, rocks start to fall from above.

She lets out a panicked yelp, the broom zips down towards her lower-right, diving out of the way of a piece of falling rubble.

Wind presses against her cheek as she looks back behind herself at the fist of the massive, sub-boss stone-golem that has entirely pulverized the area where she was only a few seconds ago.

It turns its head, following her with massive, glowing eyes that shine with a soft, orange warmth.

Fresh Stone-Giant HP: 21/21 547/600 SOUL: +-^°#*+?/&&& 500/500 (Stone-Giant) has taken {9} DARK DMG {Malady}

A growl fills the air as the thing lurches back to movement, its lumbering body turning slowly towards the side, towards her as it arcs its arm back again and then swings once again.

Fresh yelps, shooting down towards the ground as the fist, which is the size of their house, smashes against the wall.

The dungeon shakes.

“Heeeeelp~!” she howls, just as a shadow looms over her head.

A dull spire of glass blasts her way, smashing the handle of the broom to the side, Fresh goes spiraling off towards the ground, barely missing the rock that was falling her way.

(Basil) uses: [Consecrated Ground]

One hand catches her, another hand catches her broom as she spirals straight into Shamrock. Basil’s shield lifts up behind her and falling debris cascade down against it. The priestess has one of Fresh’s shielding statues strapped to her bag and the two spriggans are running around her, topping them all up with health-points.

“Watch what the fuck you’re doing!” barks Jubilee at her. The titanous golem looms down over the shield, staring at it with dull, glowing eyes. “Shamrock!”

Shamrock nods, holding Fresh’s broom up and setting her onto it with his other hand. “Bye,” is all that man says.

Fresh blinks, looking at him with sad eyes. “…Huh?”

“Bye,” he repeats and then throws the broom with her on it out into the room as hard as he can. Fresh howls, blasting through the shield and back out into the fray. The shield falls, the golem turns to follow her, having chosen her as its point of fixation.

The fight continues.

Fresh opens the door to their house and then sighs, her head drooping as she steps inside, kicking off her boots.

Jubilee steps in after her and sighs too. Then Basil, sighing as she rubs her sore arms. Shamrock comes in, letting out a long, strenuous breath that Fresh can feel all the way at the front of the line.

“Pakew…” sigh both spriggans, coming in after them. The house spriggan closes the door.

Fresh flops down onto the floor of the store and sits there, leaning with her back against the counter.

“Get the hell off of the floor, you animal,” says Jubilee, before flopping down next to her.

Basil sits down and then so does Shamrock.

The four of them just sit there on the floor, leaning against the counter and then sigh collectively.

“What a fight,” says Basil.

“A fucking disaster,” says Jubilee. “Our party composition is fucked against stone monsters.”

“Mm…” nods Basil in agreement.

It’s a real problem, in a sense. Shamrock is a close-combat fighter with no abilities, Basil is a priestess, Jubilee has fragile glass-magic and Fresh’s curses are powerful, but extremely slow acting. As such, a high-defense, high health monster such as the stone giant is a real headache for them, as they have no real way to deal strong, consistent damage against it.

Given the slow wave of business lately, they had decided to take the day off to just go into the dungeon together, so that they could get past the boss on floor fifty-something that Shamrock had gotten stuck at by himself.

“I think we did good,” says Fresh.

“Are you fucked in the head?” asks Jubilee. “We barely managed,” they say, taking their mask off and rubbing the bridge of their nose. “What a mess.”

“But we made it,” notes Basil, sounding rather pleased nonetheless.

“I guess you can call it that,” says Jubilee, shaking their head.

The four of them sit there, more or less out of energy and just stay like that in quiet for a while. Even the spriggans are sitting there, leaning against each other and napping. It was a hard, long fight.

The growl of an empty stomach fills the room.

“Lunch?” asks Basil.

“Dinner,” says Jubilee. “I’m going to bed after we eat.”

“So lunch and a nap?” asks the priestess, forcing herself to get up. “I’m on board for that.”

Jubilee shakes their head, rising to their feet as Basil helps them get up. “No, I’m planning on sleeping until tomorrow. So that makes it dinner and bed.”

“What a life,” jokes the priestess.

“Let me have this, Basil,” replies Jubilee, waving the priestess off as they turn to go upstairs. “This is all I have.”

The priestess sighs. “What a tragic life we live.”

“Right?” asks Jubilee. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”

Fresh laughs, getting up by herself. She turns to look at Shamrock, who stares up her way. The man lifts a hand.

She blinks.

“I don’t know if I can help you up, Shamrock,” she says, grabbing his hand and pulling. The man doesn’t budge. Four small arms grab her legs as the spriggans join in and then all three of them pull together.

Fresh stares into the crystal-ball, her fingers hovering over its glossy, reflective surface. Her reflection is down on the other side of it, copying her.

Sure, that is perhaps a reflection’s job, but Fresh can’t help but feel like the reflection isn’t copying her because that’s what a reflection does, rather she feels like it’s copying her like a teasing sibling mimicking the other.

Fog swirls around in the crystal-ball, floating around inside of it. A vision begins to appear in the glass. It’s… her. Fresh narrows her eyes, staring at herself as she -

“BOO!”

“IAH!” Fresh yelps, jumping back and flailing her arms. The chair she’s sitting on rocks backwards and she falls down to the floor.

Fresh lays there for a while, staring up at the ceiling. “Rude.”

“Sorry,” says the girl in the reflection. “I get bored sometimes, you know?”

“Hmm…” Fresh thinks about it and then nods. “I guess I understand that.”

A thumping comes from the wall of the bedroom. “Stop talking to yourself, goo-brain!” barks Jubilee’s muffled voice.

Fresh sighs, getting back up and looking into the crystal-ball. The reflection shrugs and then gets back to its job. She looks around herself and decides to do the same. There is still a lot that needs to be done around the house.