There was nothing I could really do, as I waited for Dawnbreaker’s appearance. It made me feel like an errand boy or something. Wait until the boss shows up.

There weren’t even many monsters that made it up this far towards me—Petrov and Vasilia had likely killed everything approaching me in the tunnel.

Petrov hadn’t given me any inkling as to when Dawnbreaker would arrive.

I couldn’t help but pace nervously. I hadn’t seen Dawnbreaker in person since Lord Ignatius’ death. Dawnbreaker had seemed suspicious of me, after Lord Ignatius’ death. She probably wasn’t happy that I had participated in wrecking her home.

I felt the teleportation stone glow in my hand, and I immediately put it down on the ground.

I had no idea how these stones worked, and I wouldn’t want to be holding Dawnbreaker, when she appeared.

Four figures appeared in a flash of light.

Alex, wearing grey Sorcerer’s Robes, holding her tome that was practically glowing with mana.

Next to Alex was Dawnbreaker. Dawnbreaker’s aura drew my eyes directly to her, almost making me want to kneel in her presence. She looked like an angel. Not the cute, beautiful kind of angels. She looked like an angel of wrath. Her silver suit of armor covered every inch of her except for her eyes, but the armor clung to her tightly enough that I could still see the focused expression on her face.

The real reason, though, that she looked like an angel were the textured wings made of the same silver armor that were currently folding in towards her, rippling away and shrinking into the rest of her armor.

“This is as far as I can take you.” The voice caused me to turn my head away from Dawnbreaker to the third figure that had appeared in the crowded tunnel. It was the same teleportation mage that had taken my team to fight the Shade, and the Manticore. “Good luck.”

“Thanks Mal,” Alex said.

Then I heard a crunch behind me.

I spun immediately, raising my sword high.

Just a foot away from me was a giant worm, about five feet in diameter and at least ten yards long.

It’s wide maw was already open, revealing disturbingly sharp and numerous teeth less than a foot away from me.

I was about to plunge my sword into the creature’s mouth, when one of Dawnbreaker’s suit’s tentacles wrapped around my right wrist, locking my arm in place.

“It’s friendly,” Dawnbreaker said. “Cy, stop it.”

Even though it didn’t have much of a face at all, the giant worm somehow managed to look abashed.

“What do you know?” Dawnbreaker asked, finally releasing my wrist.

“A Gravity Leech has three main skills,” I said, repeating what Samantha told me. “Gravity Field, Gravity Shield, and Gravity Nullification. The leech is likely the size of a semi-truck. It’s probably 20 yards or so past this Gravity Shield.”

Dawnbreaker turned to Alex. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Alex flipped a page in her tome, and began chanting. I felt the ambient mana gathering around us, and I forced myself to relax and wait.

Alex nodded to Dawnbreaker, and then Dawnbreaker struck.

It was clearly a sword skill, similar to what Abelino had used to take down Fayette City’s walls.

But this strike had no warning, no buildup, and incredible power.

Dawnbreaker’s sword glowed golden, and a massive bolt of golden energy traveled from her blade towards the rocks ahead of us and the Gravity Shield hidden behind the rocks.

As quickly as the golden light had appeared, it vanished, and as my eyes adjusted, I saw a perfectly cylindrical tunnel in front of us. Six feet in diameter. Even the bottom of the tunnel was curved, perfectly smooth.

Dawnbreaker was already rushing down the tunnel she had made, and I followed suit, Alex and Cy’s worm following behind me.

There was no resistance from the Gravity Shield as we ran forward—it seemed Dawnbreaker had broken it with a single attack.

Just a few seconds in to our approach, the rocks around us began to shift.

The path in front of us collapsed in on itself, and the path behind us collapsed, as well.

I saw the walls around us buckle in, and then push back outwards again, and Alex’s chanting grew even louder, every syllable ringing off the walls around us.

The ground and rocks around us continued to press in against us. I could see the dense mana that Alex had gathered forming a perfectly spherical cocoon around us, and as a result, the earth and dirt and stones trapped us completely in that cocoon.

The worm behind me frantically coiled itself up, so as to not be left out of the small bubble of space that Alex was claiming as ours.

I saw a bead of sweat drip down Alex’s cheek.

I couldn’t imagine the pressure she was fighting against. Dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of tons of earth pressing down against whatever shield she had put in place.

“Which way, Jarek.” Dawnbreaker asked. “Cy, carry her. We have to move faster this time.”

I reached out with Mana Sensing, and found a dense cluster of mana fleeing deeper into the mountain.

I pointed—part forward, part down.

Dawnbreaker stepped forward, raised her sword, and the world went golden again.

I put my floating points into Agility, and I needed them.

Dawnbreaker practically flew down the cave and I ran as fast as I could.

Somehow, the giant worm that Cy was controlling was able to keep pace.

Just a second after we started moving, the walls started closing in on us again.

“Point me,” Dawnbreaker said.

I did.

Another flash of golden light. Shouldn’t that skill have a cooldown?

As we rushed forwards, I could finally catch a glimpse of the Gravity Leech—a giant, black blob—before the tunnel collapsed again.

But Dawnbreaker, it seemed, had also seen it.

She immediately sent another golden light beam, and I heard an ungodly screech that pierced my eardrums.

I felt the world shift around me in a disorienting manner, and I felt a sudden force pushing us backwards, and also crushing us to the ground.

The ground disappeared from underneath us with a tremble, revealing an endless, gaping hole through which I could see a tiny prick of light that led to the outside world, and a thousand foot fall.

Even as we started to fall, and as I scrambled to dig my daggers in to the sides of the wall to slow my descent, a silvery web of a platform appeared well below our feet, interlacing itself against the rocks to our left and right.

The silvery web, of course, originated from Dawnbreaker’s unisuit.

“Let go!” Dawnbreaker called.

I saw that the worm had somehow bitten into the wall as well, and it was supporting Alex near me.

The moment Dawnbreaker called, the worm released the wall.

I did, as well.

I fell, increasingly rapidly, adding some points to Physical Defense, and I hit the web platform that Dawnbreaker had made.

To my surprise, I felt the platform give way, sinking and stretching.

Then, like a slingshot or a rubberband, it snapped back up, launching us directly up the way we had come, towards the still-open tunnel that led towards where we had last seen the Gravity Leech.

Just as our upward momentum reached its peak, Dawnbreaker created another platform for us, this time, something that was clearly sturdy enough for us to stand on normally.

“Which way?” Dawnbreaker asked.

The Gravity Leech had used the opportunity to put quite the distance between us.

“Time?” Dawnbreaker asked, turning to Alex.

I realized, to my shock, that Alex had never once stopped chanting.

Not when she was in free-fall. Not when she was hanging upside down, clinging frantically to the worm.

Alex continued chanting, and held up one finger, bent half-way at the knuckle.

Dawnbreaker sighed. “I’ll go ahead. Follow at Cy’s speed. Jarek, if you follow, don’t count on me to protect you. Jarek, give me the updated position. I want a direct line to the creature.”

Dawnbreaker raised her sword, and I pointed.

The golden light shone from her sword. So broken, I thought.

Samantha said.

Another perfectly round tunnel appeared, and this time, I had to pour another fifty mana into Agility just to keep up with Dawnbreaker.

At the end of the tunnel, I could see the Gravity Leech.

We were already running uphill, but the closer we got to the Gravity Leech, the harder it became to take another step.

I found myself flagging, but Dawnbreaker was undeterred. With another stab of her sword, the familiar golden energy burst forth, blazing through the Gravity Leech’s last shield and burning a six-foot wide hole in the creature’s body.

Black ichor rushed out of the hole Dawnbreaker had made, and the creature screeched again.

Then, the world spun, and I felt the stones and dirt around me start to swallow me whole.