They fell, and they fell, and they fell.

Each second stretched into an eternity as Austin felt the wind whip through his hair.

He had no idea how long they had been falling, or any idea how long they would be falling. The dungeon was a whole other plane of reality, and in addition to that, Austin had never heard of anyone breaking through from one floor to another when exploring a Door.

"Whatever the situation, though, I have to get out of here." Austin thought to himself.

“Mr. Anderson!” Austin yelled, to be heard over the wind whipping through all of their ears. “I have an idea to get us safely on the ground!”

“What’s your idea, kid.” Anderson responded, his big smile still on his face, but looking a lot more strained now.

“Mr. Scout, since you have sharper perception than the rest of us, I need you to keep an eye out and tell us when the ground is in sight. After that,” he indicated the two mages of the group, “You two need to cast AoE wind magic and use the recoil to slow our fall.”

Everyone was nodding, after all, this plan might be their only shot at surviving.

The mage in the red coat spoke up,

“I can’t use wind magic, it’s only fire for me, and I'd risk burning you guys if I try with that.”

“Wait a second.” a timid voice spoke up. “I can reinforce the whole party with fire resistance, so burns shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Alright everyone!” Anderson boomed, his genuine smile back in full force. “We’re going with the kid’s plan.”

He reached out his arm and pulled Austin closer to him.

“Even with the fire resistance, you’re still quite a bit weaker than us, so I’ll shield you from the damage.” Anderson said.

“Heads up, ground approaching!” the green hooded scout called.

The healer began muttering under his breath, and that same golden light enveloped the group. The other tank moved and grabbed on to the support Crawler, to shield him in the same way as Anderson was shielding Austin.

The two mages started pushing a wall of flames from their hands, and as it escaped their hands, a noticeable force could be felt by the party. They jerked hard, like someone slammed the brakes on their momentum.

As they moved away from terminal velocity, and closer to a more manageable speed, the ground rushed up to embrace the unwilling skydivers.

Anderson, holding Austin, and the other tank holding their healer, hit the ground and rolled, coming to a stop. The red hooded mage did the same, however the other one was not so lucky. While his descent was slowed by his own flames, when he hit the ground a sickening crunch was heard.

The mage cried out in pain, now sitting on the ground holding an obviously broken leg.

“Hurry up and heal him.” Anderson called over to the supporter.

“I used up all of my mana between the ants and that trick during the fall.” he said, a dejected look on his face.

“We should look for an exit, there’s no way you guys can fight a floor boss in this condition.” Austin said.

“The kid is right,” the red hooded mage responded, “I’m also out of juice, and it doesn’t look like Brian can walk.”

“Smith, can you carry him?” Anderson called out to the other tank.

“Easy.” Smith responded, brimming with confidence despite their predicament.

“Alright then, let’s get moving and try and find our way out of here.” Anderson said.

Smith bent down and picked up the crippled mage, and the group began to walk in a slightly shrunk version of their spearhead formation from earlier.

“This place is huge, that means the mana reading on the Door probably wasn’t right. Those machines can probably only read mana on the same damn floor as the door, but I’ve never heard of a multi-floored dungeon before…” The red hooded girl mused aloud to herself.

“I’ve never heard of it either.” The scout at the front of the formation called out. “I hope we can find our way back to the entrance.”

As if on cue, they heard the same sound that they had earlier, before the first wave of ants attacked. This time however, it was coming from behind them, rather than all around.

“We can’t afford a fight right now, run!” Anderson ordered, as he scooped up Austin and began to run. “Sorry, kid, but you won’t make it if I leave you on your own.”

“Thanks” Austin murmered, knowing that Anderson was right. His physical attributes couldn’t measure up to even the mage class Crawlers of the group due to his near human stats.

As they ran, a tidal wave of ants approached them from behind. There were quite a few more in this group than the one they defeated earlier.

They were running with all their might, but Smith, carrying a fully grown person, was lagging behind the group.

“Drop me you idiot, I'm not worth it.” The crippled mage begged the tank who was about to be swallowed up by the oncoming tide of monsters.

“Screw that!” Smith roared, the ants nipping at his heels.

As he was about to be swallowed up, another golden aura enveloped Smith, and he surged forward with new strength in his muscles.

“I thought you said you were out of mana?” Austin said, turning to look at the healer, but the words caught in his throat.

As Smith surged ahead, the spell invigorating him, the healer who had saved them a few times on this raid dropped to the ground, a smile on his face before being overtaken by the roiling mass of monsters.

The red hooded mage yelled something, but Austin couldn't hear it over the scuttling of the ants and the clanking of Anderson's armor in his ears.

“Damnit, damnit, damnit.” Austin heard from above him. He looked up only to see Anderson’s trademarked smile gone without a trace.

As the sea of ants stayed behind to tend to their fallen comrade, the group entered a small antechamber.

"At least, we’ll be safe for a minute, since lesser monsters won’t enter the room before a boss. Though thats a small consolation." Austin thought to himself, slightly relieved.

“Listen up.” Anderson began, trying to maintain his calm. “It looks like we have no way out of here other than through whatever boss controls this floor.” he said gravely. “We’re going to rest here until our magic is replenished, and then we are going to take on that bastard. Cooper, you know some support spells, right?” Anderson said, indicating the crippled mage that Smith had set on the ground.

“Yeah, but it’s not my specialty.” He said, thinking back to the man who just sacrificed himself to save their lives.

“We’ve gotta try, you stay at the back and support us with whatever you can.” Anderson responded.

An hour or so passed before the two remaining casters informed everyone that their mana had returned.

“Let’s do this.” Anderson said, all traces of the jubilance he showed at the start gone.

The group entered the boss room, and the door to the antechamber they were in disappeared when Austin, the “rear guard” so to speak, stepped through it holding up the crippled mage.

At the center of the large room was a single, humanoid figure standing on an ornate dais.

“It’s not an ant?” the green hooded scout mused aloud, as he rushed forward to analyze their opponent.

As if it was waiting for him to enter a certain range, as soon as he got close the thing snapped towards them. It was then that Austin got a good, terrifying look at what was to be their opponent.

It had the general look of an ant, but it was like a large human wearing an ant’s exoskeleton. This ant was also white rather than the black or red of the rest of the population.

Before the green hooded scout could get any closer to it, the ant was suddenly in front of him.

"It’s moving faster than I can see!" Austin thought, recalling the scout's own movement from earlier.

Before the scout even had time to react, the white ant extended its blade like arms towards him and cleanly separated his body from his head.

The body continued its forward momentum and stumbled to the ground while the head landed near the rest of the party, still at the door, a look of disbelief on his face.

“How the hell are we supposed to take on something that fast…” The red hooded mage grumbled in disbelief.

As fast as it appeared before the scout, the ant returned to its original position, as if it had never left. Just then, an ear piercing shriek resounded throughout the room.

“Humans, why have you disturbed a realm in which you do not belong!?”

“Is that thing, talking!?” Smith said, fear written plainly on his face.

“I will remove you, so you will not trouble my family any longer.” the creature said, before disappearing from it’s dais and reappearing in front of Anderson, poised to strike.