“Roots! Shit! Leah, Roots!” Miguel shrieked in terror as an ape like yeti barreled towards him on all fours, throwing up clouds of snow. Blood was pouring out of a wound the size of a baseball in his chest, staining the pure white snow crimson.

“I can’t sheep!” Sam yelled, throwing boots of black and purple shadow at the white furred monster. His attempts at pulling Yeti's attention to him proved ineffective.

“I… I got it!” Leahs’s voice shook as energy coursed through her Druidic tattoos. Vines thrashed wildly a step behind the rampaging yeti, her spells missing.

“Get your crystal ready!” Ethan called out as he leapt at the monster. It would take a couple of seconds of cast time before Miguel disappeared back to the safety of the entrance to the Tower, Ethan needed to distract the yeti for just a moment and Miguel would be safe.

“No! I’ve got this!” Leah’s voice rang out through the snow covered canyon. “If he teleports back, we waste more time getting him to catch up!”

Ethan barely heard her as he sailed through the air, the frozen wind howled and stung his ears. He landed a few feet in front of the crazed yeti and slammed his flame enchanted seaxes into the ground. Burning black stalagmites erupted from the snow covered floor, steaming and sizzling as they shot forward in a line.

“AROOOO!” The yeti howled as Ethan’s Earthen Spikes launched it into the air. The monster landed with a thud in the snow, throwing up a cloud of white powder.

Thick green and brown roots sprang from the snow and wrapped around the fallen yeti.

“Ack! Ack! Ack! Erahhhh!” The monster howled and screeched as Leah’s spell restrained it.

“Told you I had it!” Leah’s voice sounded angry coming from behind Ethan.

He ignored her as he charged towards the restrained yeti. He could see David and Alera fighting two more of the ape-like beasts. Golden flashes of light lit the dim canyon as David’s shield ricocheted between the two yetis and returned to his hand. Alera blinked between the monsters in electric blue light, slashing and stabbing with her katars in rapid attacks.

The yeti that had been attacking Miguel had been attacked to the sound of its companions screams. Leah was supposed to have been on crowd control, but had somehow missed the incoming add, which had naturally aggroed onto Miguel.

“Ethan!” David shouted between slashes with his sword. “I can’t hold out forever with no heals!” He dodged a massive claw of one of the yetis and raised his shield to stop the horns of the other. “We need to call it!”

Ethan hesitated over the thrashing and howling yeti ensnared before him, the tips of his burning seaxes melting the snow where they hung towards the ground. Fuck. He thought as he scanned the area.

Miguel was gone, his teleport crystal would have delivered him safely to the entrance of the Tower. Leah and Sam were attacking the two yetis at range, flashes of orange exploded as the pair of them used any fire spells they had.

“David wants you to call it,” Alera said, suddenly appearing in a flash of blue light. Her arms hung limp at her sides and her breath was coming out ragged. A large, bloody gash ran down her face and rent her leather shoulder armor.

“I heard him,” Ethan fumbled into his inventory for a healing potion. “Are you okay?” He asked, holding out the small crystal vial.

“Are we calling it?” She ignored his question, but took the potion and quickly downed it. The gash on her face knit back together as the skin healed, leaving only a red mark where the wound hadn’t completely faded.

“Get the word to Sam and Leah,” Ethan grunted, shaking his head. “Make sure she tops off David and me, and then all three of you get out of here.”

“You’ll be behind us?” Alera looked up at him, her eyebrows raised in concern.

“As soon as David and I get free, we’ll be back at the entrance.”

“See you there,” she nodded and blinked away.

Ethan saw her reappear next to Sam as he sprinted to join David. Sam nodded as she said something Ethan couldn’t hear over the roar of the wind and then backed away from the fight. Blue energy surrounded him and by the time Ethan reached the yetis, he was gone.

He gripped the handles of his seaxes and focused on the element of water. The flames on his blades dissipated as ice crystals coated the metal. The yetis would most likely be resistant to the bonus ice damage, but he hoped that they could still be affected by the slow of the enchantment.

“What are you doing?” David shouted, dodging more attacks from the angry yeti as a green mist enveloped him. Ethan turned his head and saw Leah and Alera disappear in a double explosion of blue light and energy as their Escape Crystals finished toasting.

“Trying to give you more time,” Ethan slashed into the snow monsters, hoping that the freeze effect of his weapon’s enchantment would activate.

The monsters howled in anger, but did not shift their focus off of David. They continued scratching as his shield and armor. He grunted as their blows forced him backwards.

“No,” David grunted as he pushed back against the attacking yetis with his shield. “You go too, I’ll be fine!” An arc of golden light slashed through the air as his axe bit into the massive shoulder of one of the monsters. He jerked it free in a spray of crimson blood and swung into the side of the other yeti.

Ethan thrust his seaxes into the opposite side of yeti David had just hit, ripped them back out and slashed it across the back. Still no ice formed over the wounds.

The yeti roared and turned to attack him instead of David. He dropped down to one knee in the snow and dodged the clawed, maul sized fist.

“Are you sure?” He took a step back and retrieved his escape crystal.

“Yeah,” David dodged another clawed swipe from a yeti and partied with his axe. “Just go!”

Ethan gritted his teeth and concentrated on the red crystal in his hand. Blue light glowed from between his leather clad fingers and surrounded his entire body. He wrenched his eyes shut at the blinding light and held his breath.

Two seconds a later, the howl of the wind in the canyon was gone, replaced by the calm, quiet of the entrance to the Tower.

Ethan blinked rapidly, his eyes adjusting to the torchlit room, much darker than the Snow White canyon he’d just left. When his eyes cleared, he looked quickly around the room to make sure the rest of his party had arrived.

Alera had her hand on Leah’s shoulder, who looked like she’d been crying. Miguel and Sam were talking near the floor selection pedestal. He saw Miguel jerk his chin in his direction and Sam turned back to look at him.

“Took you long enough,” Sam sneered at him and turned back to Miguel. His familiar kept its glowing red eyes focused on Ethan.

Oh good, Ethan chewed on his cheek and ignored Sam’s comment as he walked over to Alera and Leah. Sam’s in a pissy mood.

“Hey boss man,” Alera smiled at him and rubbed his arm. “Took you long enough to get back to us.”

“Yeah,” he grinned at her touch. “David was stubborn about me leaving him alone out there.”

“Is he okay? Ethan I’m so sorry,” Leah’s face was pale as she nervously twisted the end of her thick braid. “I don’t know why my roots didn’t take. And then I just kept missing.”

“Hey, hey,” he grabbed her gently by the shoulders. “David’s fine, he practically forced me to come back. He’ll be here any minute.”

“I just,” Leah took an exaggerated deep breath “I’m sorry Ethan.”

“You’re all good love,” Alera rubbed Leah's lower back. “It happens to everyone. You’re going through a lot, more than anyone else.”

“But David, if he goes down we won’t be able to continue while we wait for him to level,” Leah’s eyes frantically darted between Ethan and Alera as she panicked. “It’s my fault we owe all the gold anyway!”

“Hey, hey, easy,” Ethan reassured her, without releasing his gentle grip. “David’s going to be fine. He’ll be back any second, well reset and then get going again.”

Leah looked up at him expectantly, tears forming in her eyes and her mouth open to say something. But Sam’s voice echoed in the small chamber behind him.

“Ethan, I need you for a second.”

“I’ll be right back,” he tried to force a smile for Leah and nodded to Alera before turning back to Sam and Miguel.

“What’s up?” He sighed as he approached the floor selection pedestal next to Sam and Miguel.

Miguel was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, not making eye contact with him. Sam, however, stood fist clenched as he glared at Ethan.

“Where is David?” Purple energy emanated from the scars on Sam’s scalp as he barked out his question.

“He’ll be here soon,” Ethan sighed again and turned his head to look back at Leah and Alera. “Kind of dealing with another situation right now, Sam.” He turned back to the Warlock and lowered his voice. “If you haven’t noticed, Leah is dealing with some shit. I need to help Alera with her.”

“No, you’re not,” Sam whispered angrily and grabbed Ethan’s arm roughly to stop him. “You’re more concerned about your new girlfriend than anything else right now!”

“Let go of my arm, Sam,” Ethan growled through clenched teeth, as his other hand involuntarily reached for the hilt of the seax at his waist.

“Guys, calm down,” Miguel stepped between them and pushed them apart. “This isn’t helping anything.”

Before Ethan or Sam could say anything else, blue light filled the room. David materialized on the floor with a pained groan. His gleaming armor was bent and damaged from the yetis’ brutal assault. A large gash on his forehead covered his face in blood

“Someone wants to toss me a heal?” He coughed, blood flew out of his mouth.

“Oh fuck!” Miguel shouted beside Ethan, his hands already glowing with holy energy.

“David!” Ethan rushed to his fallen friend to help him to his feet. Three golden balls of light zigzagged past him reaching David before him.

The wound on his forehead knitted back together as Miguel’s spell restored and renewed him.

“Thank,” David coughed again, sending one last glob of bloody phlegm to the ground as he attempted to push himself to his knees.

“I got you,” Ethan knelt down and helped David back to his feet. “What happened to your helm?”

“Ugh,” David shook his head in disgust as another flash of golden light from Miguel topped off his hit points. “Shield ricocheted badly and pulled the rooted yeti. Monster managed to break it and slashed my face. Lost my shield, too.”

“Fuck!” Sam shouted in frustration.

“We’ll get you new ones,” Ethan ignored Sam’s outburst. “But that’s it for the day,” he looked around the room, his stomach knotting at the disappointed looks on his friend’s faces. “We’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Fuck this,” Sam scowled as he stormed out of the exit to the Tower.

“What’s his problem?” David jerked his head toward where Sam had just left as he stretched his freshly healed limbs.

“He’s pissed off,” Ethan frowned and shook his head, watching Miguel, Leah and Alera leave. “He said in more concerned with Alera than anything else at the moment.”

“Well,” David scratched the back of his head, “he’s not completely wrong.”

“Dude, what the hell?” Ethan questioned his friend with a look of disbelief.

“Calm down, I don’t mean it in a necessarily bad way,” he put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “There’s a lot going on, you’re in a new relationship, it’s no wonder you’re trying to hold onto the only thing going good for you.”

“I’m focused on getting Tae-Won back before anything else,” Ethan pushed David’s hand away and started to leave.

“Ethan,” David grabbed his hand firmly to stop him. “How much gold do we have so far?”

“What?”

“To pay the fine,” David dropped his hand, “how much do we have?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan shrugged angrily. “Like, forty five hundred? Miguel is handling that.”

“Five thousand, six hundred and eighty two,” David crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you know how much we made off the sales on the last floor?”’

“A thousand?” Ethan said, feeling guilty he didn’t know the exact number.

“Zero,” David frowned, “it was a trick question. Nothing has sold yet.”

“Okay, so I don’t know all the details of our current gold count,” Ethan threw his hands up in frustration. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not focused on everything else!”

"Have you talked to your sister again?”

“No, last time she said it might take a little while,” Ethan shook his head. “But it’s only been a week and a half and we’ve been in the Tower the entire time!” He tried to defend himself, even as he knew it was a weak defense at best.

“Sam’s been out every night trying to find out anything he can about Paul’s guild,” David frowned again.

“What do you want me to say, David?” He kicked at a pebble on the ground. “I’m exhausted when we get out of here and I just want to sleep.”

“And I’m telling you there’s nothing wrong with that,” David gripped his neck gently. “Since we’ve been here, you’ve taken everything on yourself. If you’re happy with this new relationship, you aren’t undeserving of that. Just remember that we have other things to focus on too.”

“I-I’ll do better,” Ethan sighed as he realized his friend was right.

“It’s not about just doing better,” David shook his head. “You always do this, get laser focused on something and everything else kind of falls to the wayside.” He sighed, “All I’m saying, is don’t let Alera be your only focus. Even if, right now, this isn’t an “Ethan is in charge” type situation, just pull your weight. Go talk to your sister.”

“Alright,” Ethan felt a hole growing in the pit of his stomach. “Tomorrow, while you’re replacing your gear, I’ll go see Arianna.”