We walked into the next room in silence. John closed the door behind us once more and took position behind me. Another flash of light signalled the start of the second battle as a large group appeared before us.

This time there were six in total. Two swordsmen, two archers and two staff users. It wasn’t like the difficulty had merely doubled with the increased numbers, though. Each pair moved in unison as they approached.

Bryan dashed forwards and took the attention of the sword users. Before the archers could fire a shot, an arrow appeared in the centre of their foreheads before they turned to smoke. John had obliterated his targets in a single strike, which left the two Supporters for me to deal with.

Two versus one. Not fair, but John and Bryan didn’t intervene to balance out the numbers. The pair ran towards me in unison. As they approached they both shouted out a single word each.

“Strengthen!”

“Accelerate!”

The increased speed was noticeable, to say the least. The weird thing was that the one who didn’t use the speed increase actually reached me first, as though he had more effect than his partner. The slight difference in speed caught me off guard.

I blocked the first strike, but the second grazed my leg. It was lucky the blow had missed. If it had hit me directly, a broken leg would be the least of my concerns.

The one who had struck first pushed down on his staff in an attempt to limit my movement whilst the other moved to my other side. I dodged back and pulled my staff along behind me as the second man’s staff smashed into the ground where I had just stood. The second blow skimmed my nose as I stumbled away from the pair.

I was on the back foot, and they knew it.

They closed in for the kill. Their blows weren’t too accurate or too strong, but they were persistent. If they closed in again my fate would be sealed. There wasn’t any time to make space between us.

Luckily, I still had a plan.

My hands tightened on my staff before I swept it across the floor. It kicked up dust as it scraped towards their legs. My opponents saw the blow, but they didn’t retreat. Instead, they both leapt over the strike and continued their charge towards me.

Exactly as I had expected.

I planted my feet and pushed myself at the nearest Supporter with all my strength. My shoulder charge connected with a solid hit. As my strike had caught him whilst he was still in the air, the blow sent him cartwheeling into the distance.

Unfortunately, his companion didn’t let the opening go to waste.

His staff swung towards my open side and left no time for me to block or dodge effectively. It whistled through the air as time slowed to a crawl.

He had caught me at the perfect time. I managed to move my head aside, but the staff still crashed into my shoulder with a sharp crack. My armour flexed under the blow, but a sharp pain still shot through my arm as it dropped to my side powerlessly.

I could worry about my damaged shoulder later.

I used the momentum of his strike to dodge to the side whilst I thrust my staff at his legs. The blow missed perfectly as it threaded between his thighs, which would have been funny if the situation hadn’t been so dire. A moment of panic hit me before I tightened my grip on the staff and sprinted past him.

He tumbled to the floor and almost took me with him. It took several attempts to drag my staff from between his legs, but once it was free I raised it above my head and thrust it at the fallen man with my uninjured arm.

One hit, two hits, three hits. I worked into a rhythm as he tried and failed to defend. After the sixth hit, he dropped his staff and collapsed to the floor. Before it was possible for me to rejoice at the victory, his companion returned with a vengeance.

His staff caught me on the back of my legs, as though he had copied the move that had tricked him not so long ago. I tumbled to the floor and landed on my injured shoulder. Pain blanked my vision for a moment, but when it returned what I saw terrified me.

The other man had copied my earlier actions and was about to thrust his staff down at my head.

It was close, but I managed to deflect his first strike with an inch to spare. As he raised his staff to follow up, I rolled to the side and dodged his second blow. He didn’t let up in the slightest as he followed me across the floor.

I blocked the first hit and rolled out of the way of the second. My opponent didn’t let up as he followed a step behind. After two rolls I swung my staff out towards his leg.

If he could trip me, I could do the same to him.

Unfortunately, he saw through my plan. He caught my staff with one foot before I could build up any speed and swung his staff towards my face.

“Buffed strike!”

I pulled my staff with all my strength, amplified by my ability. The man lost his footing as my staff was dragged from under him, which sent him to the ground beside me. That gave me the chance to flip to my feet, like a martial artist in a movie. My muscles burned as they were stretched taut, but it was worth it.

Our positions had reversed once more.

Whilst he tried to regain his bearings I lifted my staff and swung it at his head. The blow knocked his skull into the floor and dazed him for several seconds. that gave me time to lift my weapon once more and send another blow.

And another.

And another.

The hits weren’t strong, but they were consistent. After he had been battered several times, the summoned enemy finally dropped to the ground and turned to smoke. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as my breath caught in my throat.

“Good job, Rook. You ready for the next one?”

A surge of vertigo slammed into my brain as I span around to glare at Bryan. He grinned across at me, but no more enemies could be seen. Two clouds of steam dissipated into the air behind him, which proved he had taken out his opponents.

“Not funny.” I said through clenched teeth. The pain in my shoulder assaulted me anew now the battle was over. Before I could pull out my last potion, a pale white light covered me.

A few seconds later and the pain had vanished.

“Ignore him, Rook.” John patted my injured shoulder. I winced instinctively, but no pain came from the heavy slap. “Any injuries are healed after the battle ends, as long as they were caused during the dungeon battle. Unless a serious accident happens, no one ever leaves injured from a created dungeon.”

I didn’t ask what he meant by ‘serious accident’. It felt as though my battle had been close to that level. At least now I knew what it felt like to be hit by a staff. My mind had been less wary of my chosen weapon than the bladed variety, but it was clear I had underestimated the danger massively.

A single blow had taken an entire side of my body out of commission. If my opponents had been a little more skilled, the end result of our little skirmish would have been completely different.

“Are we moving on?” I asked after I had regained my breath. There was one final room left, after which we would be able to return to the treatment centre. We had waited for five minutes, which was enough time for my mana to regenerate to full. Any further time spent in this place was another second that Claire and Susan were vulnerable to attack.

When we were together once more, I could safely tell my friends about the man and his threats. They would have a good counter to him, of that I was sure.

“Why are you in a rush?” John cocked his head to one side. “Do you hate spending time with us that much?”

“No! No.” I shook my head. “I’m enjoying this, but I have to get back to the guild today. I promised Karen I’d do some more processing.”

“Oh.” John nodded at me, but Bryan’s eyes narrowed for a moment before he turned away. We walked into the last room and shut the door behind us. Bryan looked me in the eye before he spoke in a serious tone.

“OK, this one has a time limit. We have fifteen minutes to beat it. Seeing as we are above the maximum level of twenty-five, we can’t receive any rewards for our completion speed.” Bryan patted my shoulder. “You can always try it again later, so don’t worry about it and just use it for practice.”

“Sure.” The rewards for a time didn’t matter much to me. If this enemy could serve as a grindstone for my skills in the future, that was enough.

“It will be tricky, though, so stay back and stay safe. You have Strengthen and Accelerate, right?”

“Yeah. Do you want both?”

“Use the group augment.” Bryan raised an eyebrow. “You have enough mana for that, right?”

“Group augment?”

Byran saw the obvious confusion on my face. He ignored John, who chuckled at me from behind as he explained his comment.

“Most abilities can be altered in a few ways. For example, buffs can be used on the user, or a specific target or on a group.” He smiled and shook his head. “Sorry, it feels odd to explain this. All you need to do is imagine the augment you want when you use the ability.”

“Strengthen.” I muttered the word self consciously. I saw the pair flex slightly as the buff came into effect.

It had worked, though I didn’t know how much of a boost it would be for them. The buff also affected me, but that was secondary right now.

“Accelerate.” I intoned the second buff and felt the increase. A moment later a sharp chill hit my brain like I had eaten ten icecreams in an instant.

“Low mana, be careful not to run out. You get a warning when you drop below fifty percent and another under twenty percent.” John said as he noticed my strained expression. I nodded in response as a flash of light lit up the room.

A single figure wandered out. Compared to the previous enemies, this one was far more intimidating. Its entire body was covered in a thick layer of armour and it held a huge, two-handed sword in its grip. One blow from that would cut me in two.

Maybe that's what he meant by ‘serious accident’?

Bryan drew his blades and moved forwards as I checked my mana. I saw the two buff icons for the increase in strength and speed under the remaining amount I had.

Forty mana.

The Buffed Strike ability cost five mana per usage, but the effectiveness of the ability was hidden. The book had hinted additional information would have to be understood by the user as abilities were used in combat, so now would be the perfect time to test it.

Seven uses would leave me with five mana, after which I would have to rely on my standard strikes until I recovered enough for another safe usage. Instinctively, I knew that reaching zero mana or lower would have a disastrous effect.

There was a fine line between going all out and overusing my power. I’d have to keep track of my mana at all times, and this fight would be a perfect test of my skill.