In the dead of night, we sulk through the shadows. Tall buildings loom over us like curious giants. Each window represents a set of eyes that could be watching us flee.

Nevasca scouts ahead, looking for any potential traps or complications. With her guidance, our progress toward the Dungeon goes unhindered. Despite our progress, my body thrums with adrenaline. I peer into each dark shadow we pass, afraid of the evil that may lurk inside.

I pause at a particularly deep shadow. The sort of shadow a man hunting his wife’s lover might hide in. I open my hand to create an ice spear. Just in case ya know? A little stab in the dark never hurt anyone. A sharp tug distracts me, causing a handful of snow to flutter to the ground.

“Come on, we have to hurry,” Quinn pulls me forward, her hand clasped in mine.

“I still don’t see why we can’t bring Mordai and Honey with us,” I protest. Say what you will about that dynamic duo, but so far they’ve been useful in a fight.

“Honey was paid by the Guild to train you and Mordai... Mordai is asexual deviant! We can’t trust them,” Quinn replies in a sharp tone. Almost as an afterthought she mumbles another reason. “Besides, I can only hide so many people at the same time and you have two familiars. They would be a liability.”

“You’re saying that Honey could paid off by the Guild to spy on me?” I scoff, but then I consider it. Honey has always been cold and distant. I thought is just who she is, but what if she is keeping her distance because she is planning to betray me? She is already on the Guild payroll so it isn’t too much of a stretch. I can’t say I like it though. Being paranoid isn’t my thing.

I don't argue with her about Mordai. No avoiding the facts.

“I mean, I guess I don’t know her that well…” I say after a moment, before changing the subject. “Could you go over the plan one more time? I was half asleep the first time.”

“Fine.” Quinn peaks around the corner at the end of the alley. “I stole a map from the Guildmaster’s office that has a secret sub-dungeon. According to the map that sub-dungeon is one of 15 that leads to a whole different dimension. The plan is to sneak through the Dungeon to the sub-dungeon and hide there until we get strong enough to Rank Up and get through the Dungeon the normal way.”

“Okay, but how do we know he won’t find us in the sub-dungeon?” I murmur doubtfully. “They’re going to notice the missing map.”

“Snowflake, I’ll explain everything when I get a chance.,” Quinn stops moving forward and grabs my other hand. The clouds overhead split, causing a beam of moonlight to fall from the sky and frame her face. The light illuminates her golden hair and pure white wings. She looks at me, her eyes not wavering from mine. Both of our hands entwined, she whispers with an earnest expression. “Right now, we just need to go. You have to trust me, okay? I promise I won’t let him hurt you.”

Confidence swirling through her aura, Quinn pronounces her sweeping declaration to keep me safe. The thought I need protecting rankles, but I still feel touched. I stop my questioning and commit to trusting her. Her confidence helps a lot, honestly. She knows him a lot better than I do and if she thinks we can be safe, then we will be.

“Okay,” I pull her into my embrace, savoring the warmth of her body against mine. We stand there, frozen time for a moment. But all too soon the moment passes and we are on our way. Before long we are crouching outside the Dungeon, hidden behind Quinn’s light distortion.

“We have a couple options,” she whispers to me, peeking at the guards. “Do you think we should try to sneak past them or just kill them all before they can raise the alarm?”

“Sneak past,” I respond immediately. Despite becoming physically and emotionally closer to a monster, I’m not a cold-hearted killer. I’ll kill someone in a straight up fight, but murdering innocents isn’t my thing. I still feel guilty about the goblin village, honestly. Most people see them as just vermin, but that doesn’t make it okay to slaughter them. Especially when they weren’t doing anything wrong.

In the same strain of thought, these guards aren’t doing anything wrong either. They’re Awakened, just like me, trying to earn some money by working for the Guild.

Okay, maybe I'm assuming some facts, but they aren’t actively going against us. They are just doing their job.

“We need a distraction, got any ideas?” Quinn accepts my decision without argument.

“Yeah, are you ready to go?”

“I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Wisp, circle around to the left and make yourself known. Be as big and threatening as you can, but don’t kill anyone. When you’re done return to me,” I summon the five swirling orbs of fire that make up Wisp, speaking to them as they hover above my hand.

“Yes, Master,” Wisp crackles in that strange echoing voice before slipping away.

My heart pounds in my chest as I wait. I can hear Quinn’s nervous breathing beside me, a distant sound compared to the thundering of my breath in my ears. Nevasca crouches at my side, tails lashing. Her body is tense like a spring, ready to go into action. Kandra lounges lazily off to the side, her cat form adding to her air of boredom. She must think all this sneaking around is beneath her, given her Queenly disposition.

I try to calm my breathing. Quinn can hide us from sight, but sounds are a different beast entirely. I wonder if there is a sound elemental magic? If there is light elemental magic it would make sense, right?

Hmmm… Maybe it would be less than that? If I remember correctly that anatomy book said humans speak by vibrating their vocal cords together and using their mouths to shape the sounds. Following that logic, if you could create magical vibrations and shape them, you could create sound.

If Quinn could create sound with her light magic, she could create more convincing illusions. Hell, just creating loud sounds could rupture eardrums. Hmmm, if she could create a bright light to blind them, then that could be an even better technique then creating distracting illusions. If an opponent can’t hear or see, they’re basically crippled.

I wonder why sound can rupture eardrums. Sound is just vibrations. Can vibrations through air break something? Hmmm, if I recall correctly... Yes. If I didn’t know for a fact it could happen, I would hesitate to accept it. But there were these undead in my old world that used their voices to attack, so it works. Banshees I think. Their screams were rumored to be able to shatter metal. How though? Vibrations...

Oh man, my thoughts are wandering. Gotta focus. Letting my mind wander can lead to dangerous realms of thought. There are certain trains of thought I avoid with all my being. I’d hate to accidentally think about one during a moment of crisis. Thoughts like what?

Oh, what crippling trains of thought could someone who came to realize their entire existence is fictional possibly have?

Focus.

I bring my mind back to the moment.

Wisp should make a move any moment now… A few seconds go by... In an alley to the left a deep red fire bursts into life. The fire swells, grabbing the guard’s attention. The flames converge and form into a behemoth chimera.

Flames spew from its mouths as it postures and roars in a strange echoing roar, like multiple smaller roars layered over each other.

The chimera claws its paw against the ground, like a bull about to charge. Flames wisp from its mouth, illuminating the grim expressions of the guards lining up to face the threat. The chimera makes a great show of its aggression. Its tail knocks against builds, lighting them on fire. The goat head breaths flames into the air, drawing as much attention as possible. With both sides posed to strike, no one is paying attention to the Dungeon’s entrance.

Quinn and I rush forward, the pattering of our feet drowned out by the roars of Wisp and the clanking of the guards. We rush past the abandoned outpost unmolested and dash up the stairs to the door. The light distortion around us shimmers as I take the stairs two at a time. With each leap Quinn flaps her wings to give her a little boost, forcing me to struggle to keep up.

At the top of the stairs we reach the staging platform. It's deathly quiet up here.

The moon shines down on to the space. A mural I didn't notice before catches the light of the moon and draws my eye. My steps slow. Warring dragons lay before me, their violence laid out with artistic beauty.

The massive door to the Dungeon lays cracked open, beckoning us forward. Quinn puts a steady hand on my chest to keep me from rushing forward.

“Careful,” she says. “That was too easy. This could be a trap.”

With bated breath, we creep forward. Nevasca stalks alongside us, tails poised to strike. On the opposite side Kandra expands her form to a more battle appropriate size, but stays in the shape of a cat.

We advance slowly. The moon and the fires cast long shadows. Flickering flames behind us give the mural an illusion of movement.

In the middle of the platform, halfway to the door, the trap springs. Red lights flash. A long siren whirrs. Runes light up the ground in front and behind us, blocking our escape. I pay no attention to the runes behind us. Our only option is forward.

The runes in front of us are arranged in a layered series of circles. The circles glow and rotate, opening a portal of flickering light in the ground.

From the center of the runes a figure rises. Wings outstretched, the hideous creature faces us. Its features seem designed to strike fear into our hearts. Cruel, distorted features examine the surrounding space. The craggy stone of its skin twists in displeasure when it sees nothing in front of it.

“Trespassers!” the gargoyle roars, its tail smashing the ground behind it. “Show yourselves and face punishment!”

Without hesitation, Nevasca rushes forward. A storm of feathers flies from our area of invisibility to smash against the gargoyle. Powdered stone raises a small dust cloud around it as the feathers chip away at its exposed skin.

“Insolence!” It howls, pulling a pair of broad double-bladed axes from a pouch at its waist.

Unfortunately, the gargoyle wasn’t fast enough to defend itself. Nevasca reaches out with a long tail, wrapping it around the gargoyle's wrist.

Using her momentum, Nevasca leaps into the air and swings around the gargoyle, her latched tail acting as an anchor.

Now behind the off-balance creature, Nevasca wraps her other two tails around its remaining arm as well as its tail. The gargoyle tries to wrestle away flapping its heavy wings, but Nevasca has leverage. My familiar uses her advantages to prolong the strugle. Every second the gargoyle is trapped is another second that Nevasca is clawing away at its back.

Not to be outdone, Kandra unleashes a flurry of blows on the struggling gargoyle. As far as I can tell each attack does no damage. I start to think I made a mistake in choosing my second familiar, but then Kandra unleashes a final blow. Her last strike rocks back the gargoyle, leaving a small crater in its chest. It’s almost as if the energy from all those strikes was contained in that final one? Kinetic magic? I’ll figure it out later. I have bigger fish to fry.

“Wisp return!” I shout into the air, willing the command as much as saying it. By the time Wisp gets back, the gargoyle should be dealt with.

With a thought, I form a sharp edged shield, a spear, and a thick pair of boots out of ice. Disregarding the sound, I create several explosions of wind and fire beneath my boots. I made the boots extra thick this time. It hurts, but it doesn’t break skin. The explosions send me flying forward far faster than I could run. I tuck my entire body behind my shield, using it to break the wind. With my spear leading the way, I crash into the gargoyle. The spear drives into the stone creature, but shatters. Maybe my magic is too weak? Maybe the gargoyle's defense is too strong? Who knows?

Its probably my magic.

My forward momentum unabated, I crash into it shield first.

Between Nevasca’s pulling and my charge, the gargoyle is knocked on to its back. Its stone skin is marred with cuts, craters, and one long gouge caused by yours truly. Other than that, it looks unharmed, albeit stunned.

Staggering back from the force of the blow, I grasp my sharp-edged ice shield with both hands. I have to act fast. I raise the shield high above my head and bring it crashing down. With an arm numbing blow, I cut into its waist, severing its belt. Using my best stat (dexterity), I grab the belt.

Boom. Got the loot without killing the creature. This guy has one of those spacial storage bags. If I’m lucky, there will be good stuff in there. If not, I still want the bag.

“Legion, leave a bit of yourself to possess this creature,” I command while I shackle the gargoyle to the ground with ice. It struggles, but Kandra and Nevasca keep it distracted while I work. “Keep anyone from pursuing us for as long as you can.”

Like a spark on dry wood, dark flames burst from my hands to cover the gargoyle. It roars with fury, but that just makes the flames spread faster. Problem solved. Being in touch with your emotions for the win.

“Good job girls,” I address my familiars, sending Nevasca some images of how proud I am of her.

“You did good too,” Quinn sneaks up behind me and plants a kiss on my cheek. “But now we have to go. Your flame thing can catch up, right?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Both Legion and Wisp can take care of themselves.”

Hand in hand we slip into the Dungeon, flames illuminating the city spread out behind us.