Some time ago, back on the ground floor…

“Fuck!” Marcus yelled as he dodged to the side from falling ice, the walls crashing with the bridges above him.

“Marcus, behind me!” Fahrenheit shouted, the mound of ice running in front of his ally.

Turning back-to-back with the frost elemental, Marcus could feel the vibrations of attacks hitting his frosty friend, though he knew this was the plan, have the one immune to these attacks take them for him.

“What else is gonna go wrong here”, Marcus questioned aloud.

As if to answer him, an icebold came leaping at the devout with a raised shortsword. Swinging it down on the Devout had him block it with his staff, slide his leg forward, and push back. The icebold was thrown off-balance, though it was in the air so it lacked much of that anyways.

As the icebold fell into a backwards fall, Marcus spun his staff around and planted it harshly into the creature’s form, smashing it into the icy floor. Following up, Marcus stomped his foot on the icebold’s leg, causing it to wince in pain, before landing his hand on the creature.

“Gaia Grasp”, he chanted. The icebold had countless rocky shards bust outwards, splashing blood across the blue floor as it fell silent.

“Your flank, man!” Celsius yelled as he jumped on and grappled another icebold, steam coming off its body as it began to melt.

Swinging his staff, Marcus landed a solid blow into the creature’s legs and caused it to tumble to the floor. After kicking away its sword, Marcus left the monster to its melting fate underneath an elemental made of fire.

“Sire, we’re outnumbered with no backup”, Spark announced as he flew to Marcus’s side.

“The exit is there if we need it, but we’re fine for now”, Marcus replied as he stared at the four final icebolds, the fifth screaming in pain as it melted by his side. “C’mon, your friends are dead, don’t you want revenge?” Marcus taunted the monsters.

The icebolds let out high-pitch yells and cries, the quartet charging down the Devout.

Marcus smirked, they were all in a neat row. Kicking forward to meet the enemies head-on, Marcus dropped his staff to the floor.

Skidding to a halt in front of the ambitious icebolds, Marcus flew his left arm over the floor, and his right over the now low ceiling, commanding two of his new rings to activate. With these motions, the rocks within the ice started to tremble as two massive walls of dirt and stone erupted, crashing against one another, and crushing the four icebolds.

Their bodies let out loud crunching noises, though they tried to wiggle their way out of their earthy prison as it collapsed onto them. Marcus wasn’t entirely surprised they failed to survive. Drawing up his knife he stabbed each icebold, making sure they were all dead before the walls started to fall apart as his spells ended.

“A ‘solid’ plan right there, Marcus”, Celsius praised with a wide orange smile.

“May your mind tarry on our situation a bit more, brother”, Spark asked of Celsius.

“We’re split”, Fahrenheit added as he stomped over to Marcus.

“That may be, but, I got you lot for guard detail. Spark, you’re the extra, right?”

“Correct, I shall disappear on the morrow.”

“Those walls are probably another monster ability, maybe other yetis, they did something similar to us last time”, Marcus calculated as he looked upwards, translucent ice blocking his vision.

“Shit, if there are more yetis, we better hightail it out of here”, Celsius worried.

Marcus spun around slowly as he investigated the area, “We should be fine. If there are more, they are not here”, he then looked back at the ceiling, “Celsius, could you melt through that all?”

Celsius shifted his face upwards, though Marcus was unsure if he even needed to do that. “Hard to say, boss. Want me to give it a good go?”

“Yes, if we can regroup that easy, I’ll pray doubly tonight for that luck.”

“Roger!” Celsius replied, flying up to the ceiling that was just over 10’ high.

Placing his hands on the ceiling had it shine a bit brighter, and after a minute, some droplets started to fall down.

Marcus sighed, “So, not in any good time. Hard to say how thick it is. Fahrenheit, guesses?”

“Too thick”, the icy fiend replied, coldly.

“Well, at least the exit path is clear, just that icicle barrier at the very end. We could probably crash through it”, Marcus thought aloud as he rubbed his chin.

“What is our plan, Marcus?” Spark asked.

Marcus looked at the 4’11” mound of electricity, reflecting on the situation in the dazzling display of blue.

“I wager the others will be progressing into the dungeon. So we should do the same. These monsters weren’t insurmountable for us, so I would put my faith in the yetis being the biggest challenge this place has to offer until the end.”

“The strongest at the start?” Celsius yelled from above.

“Logan said it was a change, and these monsters were much weaker. They could have been put there to stop any weaker ones from getting killed. The naegren had their lord run to the entrance after we killed his allies.”

“How are your spells, Marcus?” Spark asked.

“I can quickcast another six first-level spells, one Gaia ring, and plenty of potions.”

“Shame you lack flames, you’d ‘burn’ through all these fellas”, Celsius chuckled up on high.

Marcus sighed again, “We have three corridors, not counting the exit. We’ll stick together because if you lot die then you won’t come back to me, and Logan has Koma to back him up.”

“Sure”, Fahrenheit replied.

“Guess we’ll start left to right. We’ll go till we find a chamber or junction then come back and see how far Celsius has got through that ceiling.”

“Wait, how long do you want me to do this?!”

“Just keep at it, you’re doing great”, Marcus replied sarcastically.

“I liked you better when you were weaker”, Celsius replied under his breath, if he had any.

“Is that wise, Marcus?” Spark asked.

“Celsius is great at melting foes, but not all that are in here are weak to it, nor can they all be grappled by him. While he is great in certain situations, I would like a fast route to our allies. As I said, though, we’ll come back at the first junction. If he has made no real progress we’ll drop that avenue”, Marcus explained.

“Damn slave driver that one”, Celsius spat against the ceiling sarcastically, “alright, see you soon, I guess”, he shouted at the party.

Picking up his staff, and swinging it around to remove the blood and ice, Marcus slung it over his back. “Alright, Fahrenheit, block the front, Spark at the back.”

The elementals moved into position as they followed Marcus’s command to head through the left corridor.

It didn’t take long for the trio to reach their first junction, this one splitting off into four other directions aside from where they came. Marcus let out a sigh, “Another maze, above save me.”

Picking the crossbow from his back, Marcus loaded a bolt into it and fired into each corridor beside the right one, keeping an ear trained on them to hear when they hit a wall. The left stopped around two hundred feet, the front hit the floor, the one right of that another couple hundred feet, while the rightmost corridor’s end could be easily seen from the junction.

Marcus waited for a good minute, looking into each corridor rhythmically to check for oncoming enemies. “All seem clear, Fahrenheit, charge the left corridor and come back when you reach the end.”

“Fine”, the hunk of ice replied.

Running off, Fahrenheit came back in a couple of minutes, no signs of danger following him. “There are no turns and no foes.”

“So, we have two choices, forward, or forward-right”, Marcus calculated as he looked to the ceiling, “I can’t crush the enemies to the ceiling, but”, he trailed off as he looked at the walls, “Fahrenheit, charge down the forward-right corridor and come back when you-”

“Hit the end, fine.”

Marcus gave a thumbs up as the elemental ran off yet again.

“How far do you think your spell reserves will take us, Marcus?” Spark asked.

“One fight, at least. I want to keep six spells just in case anything comes during our rest.”

“Quite the slow progression without Logan.”

“Once I can get Signature Spell, it’ll be easier on my own. But that will come about when you lot are gone.”

“Very well, you’ll have a fine position here regardless of our location”, Spark added.

“Incoming!” Fahrenheit yelled down the corridor as he came barreling down to the party.

“Not like we weren’t expecting company, Spark, ready yourself!” Marcus yelled as he began to load and fire his crossbow around Fahrenheit.

Bolts landed deftly into the blue skin of blue goblins, a foe Marcus remembered patrolling the exterior of the cave. He gave a short prayer in his head that these were what approached, as he knew them to be the weakest foe of the dungeon.

“Enhance Agility, Sustained”, Marcus chanted as he picked out another bolt, his body radiating a quick grey light

His reloading became slightly quicker, as well as how deadly his bolts became as they were loosed at his foes. Digging deeper than before, every so often he was able to bring down a goblin with a single bolt to the face.

Fahrenheit got to the maw of the corridor before skidding to his side, letting out a wide slam, and pushing some of the goblins away. Spark fired bolts of lightning around his ally, pelting the further back goblins.

It wasn’t long before Fahrenheit was grappled by the foes. They were a lower level than him, but had fiercer muscles behind them. Holding down the icy creation’s arms stopped his assault, as others jumped onto his chest and head, falling into a pile on the floor as they began to stab into his icy body.

Marcus aimed at the goblins atop the elemental, as well as Spark hastily trying to save his brother from a quick death.

“Fahrenheit, retreat back to Celsius!” Marcus yelled as he continued to fire into the corridor, backing up slightly.

Another goblin hit the floor, Fahrenheit rolling over and kicking off the floor into a sprint to the side of Marcus and past him.

Marcus threw his crossbow in the icy friend’s hands as he passed, kicking at the end of his staff to have it circle his shoulder into his hand, drawing a dagger with the other hand.

“Enhance Strength, Sustained“, he chanted, his body glowing grey again for a second as his muscles embiggened.

Swiping out his staff, he cracked the face of a leaping goblin as it smacked into the icy wall to his right. Piercing forwards with a dagger he cut through another’s chest and out the other side, drawing it back had the goblin slide to the floor.

Backstepping had Marcus dodge two mace slams into the floor, swinging his staff overhead and slamming it onto the goblin’s head causing the goblin to create a face-crater in the ice, blood splattering everywhere. Changing his dagger to a reverse grip, Marcus side-stepped and dug it deep into the head of a flanking goblin.

Spark continued his barrage of Bolts from afar, fleeing with his brother after Marcus motioned his head to retreat.

Countless goblins, Marcus wasn’t even sure how many he had killed at this point. His Enhancing had allowed his melee attacks to kill all of them in a single hit, but quantity won out against his group.

Twirling with his staff to hit another goblin to the floor, Marcus darted away with his allied elementals. Running side-by-side allowed Spark to continue firing Bolts at the chasing goblins without the worry of hitting his fellows, bringing down his foes with three hits each.

“Celsius, Ember Shard the corridor!” Marcus yelled as the party approached the exit back into the main chamber.

Spark and Fahrenheit dodged to the side as Marcus slid into a spin to face the corridor again, tufts of flames circling his body into the hallway of death.

What goblins could catch up to Marcus had their heads impaled with a dagger, or smashed in by a hunk of wood. But then came the opposing volley.

Shards of ice came hurtling from goblins who saw their approach getting halted by fire, electricity, or a determined Devout. Fahrenheit jumped in front of Marcus, blocking the dastardly icicles as they vibrated his form.

“Wish I could absorb those”, Marcus chuckled under his breath.

The goblins got close enough to pile on the ice elemental once more, though Marcus retaliated with dagger and staff, releasing his friend from their grasp. As if like a swarm of rats, the goblins flew out of the corridor in waves.

Kicking a goblin into the fray had a few tumble in the entrance to the corridor, slamming his staff horizontally pushing even more back. Dropping his dagger at his side, Marcus waved his hand up the side of the corridor, commanding his ring to activate.

The ice cracked all over as a massive stone and mud wall was erected from the frosty confines, connecting both sides of the walls. Bringing several goblins with it, they were all crushed against the right wall, blood and guts spewing onto both sides of the wall that blocked up most of the corridor.

Goblins began to crawl under and above the wall, not being a perfect plug, but this only allowed Marcus to kick up his dagger to his hand and slice upwards, slicing the throats of the goblins at the top. To deal with the lower goblins, he simply smashed the tip of his staff into the backs of their heads.

Marcus looked quite the exterminator, dealing with a pest that had overstayed its welcome, his body coated in the red delight of victory over foes that would have caused him issue only a few weeks ago.

It took a few seconds before the wall of stone and mud came tumbling down as the spell ended, falling apart atop the pile of corpses underneath and bringing with it further corpses above. Marcus backstepped quickly with his weapons aimed at the opening maw, waiting for more to add to the onslaught.

But nobody came.

Marcus held his position for a minute longer than he needed, his body tense and slightly vibrating as both magic and adrenaline surged around him. Finally, he gave out a heavy sigh as he loosened his stance, his staff’s end being placed on the floor as he lent on it slightly.

“This would be a lot easier with Logan letting me know that there were no more foes to face”, he spoke aloud.

“We can be sat with safer minds, knowing our immediate left has been cleared further beyond”, Spark calculated.

Marcus looked at the dazzling display of electricity, thinking of how to reply, but his eye was caught by Fahrenheit, his icy shifting slightly as he grew an inch taller.

“I have a safe mind knowing that Logan prepared a hunk of ice to block my assailants' attacks”, Marcus announced.

“Whatever”, Fahrenheit replied, staring down the corridor.

“We haven’t cleared the left corridor completely, Fahrenheit, did you reach the end of your one?”

“It ended at a large chamber, some holes in the walls. I do not believe there were other paths”, Fahrenheit replied, his gaze unmoving.

“Hopefully that final path led to an end. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us here”, Marcus spoke as he looked down the other two corridors. “I may have Enhanced myself, but I don’t like the idea of facing another horde without ample spells at my back, especially my spell rings.”

“They were easy, let me at ‘em”, Celsius said as he punched the air.

Marcus looked at the hole the fire elemental was working on, not much progress had been made. “That exit may be a lost cause, we gave you quite some time already. Work on it overnight, but if nothing comes about, we’ll leave it.”

“You mean to make camp now?” Spark asked.

“Yeah, if we’re lucky the others will find their way down here to group back up. If not, I’d like to save my potions for worst-case scenarios. We aren’t getting back to the city in any good time without Logan.”

“What of my short time remaining?” Spark questioned as he looked around.

“I would love to use you as a scout, however, if you rile up the monsters enough for them to start patrolling I worry they would come for us with our resources too low.”

“I shall stare down the corridors as you rest then.”

“Fahrenheit, you do the same. You and Celsius should stick around past midnight. I doubt Logan would change you out for different second-level spells.”

“It’ll be like when he hires us out to adventurers”, Celsius added

“Oh yeah? Where's my easy, low-rank, quests?” Marcus replied with a cheeky grin.

Standing tall, Marcus looked through his bag for the items he didn’t keep in his shared inventory with Logan. Pulling out from it with the usual hidden retrieval, Marcus took out an MP recovery vial to test if it still worked with the distance between the two.

“Let’s hope I can keep using this if he moves further away.”

Swinging his bag to the floor, Marcus sat with his back resting against it. Placing his fists near his stomach with the closed palms facing each other, a gap of a couple of inches between each fist. “Pondress, hear my prayer. Your folk are lost within the confines of a dungeon of Madamra. See your protected to their end and exit. Cure my steps as I return to my fellows.”

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