Dungeon Delvers POV:

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  Blood splattered, metal and stone roaring as they crashed against each other, yet for the three dungeon delvers left, they couldn’t see any of it. Willow burned through nearly all of their mana to create that show for them, working out in the end to hide Vulcan’s presence and effectively blind the remaining party. However, true to their experience, none of them panicked, as they were prepared for the ever-looming threat of death down in the dungeons. Salen, the mage, was the first to make his move.”

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  “Everyone! Around me!”

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  With that shout, the light swordsman and scout were still able to maneuver through their blindness to the sound of Salen’s shout. Pim, not missing this opportunity, dove towards the scout in a flyby, but the scout managed to evade a lethal strike at the last minute, suffering a long gash down his arm. Pim flew back up, into the shadows of the dungeon ceiling. Vulcan was still getting up, regenerating from the damage he endured to his cracked legs from the fall. Once Salen was sure the others were next to him, he cast a small dome of water around them, then froze it all to create a layer of protection. Rubbing their eyes, Manis, their light swordsman, spoke up, knowing that the stone golem could break the icy barrier once it recovered.

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  “Damnit, Salen, why couldn’t you tell what the spell was. I thought you said there weren’t any monsters that could use magic in this dungeon.”

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  “There isn’t supposed to be any. There are no records of any magic-wielding monsters here. And that magic wasn’t a spell, just mana. A monster would have to use a skill to do that; there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Why didn’t Gryn notice that stone golem and flying monster before it was too late?”

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  “Don’t blame me, bastard. Every single orb was giving off a hostile aura. You can’t expect me to tell the difference when the whole room screams danger. Shouldn’t you be able to sense monster mana? How’d you miss a stone golem!?”

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  “This whole room’s saturated with mana, and that golem was hiding its mana signature. Mana detection won’t work in these conditions. It’ll take me at least thirty minutes to clear away all that mana. What good are you if you can’t even detect a monster?”

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  “Why don’t I throw you at the stone golem and we’ll see who’s useless, you sack of-”

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  “Enough!” yelled Manis. “We don’t have time for this. We’re dealing with something that hasn’t been before in this dungeon, at least not his early, so we need to make it out of here and report it to the guild. Drevin is already dead, and that stone golem can smash through this barrier at a moment's notice. So, get it together and report your status. Salen!”

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  Cutting between their argument, Manis managed to bring his party member’s attention back to the situation at hand. Taking one last look at Gryn, Salen stated his current condition. He was uninjured, but he had used half of his mana to create a wall of water and freeze it. He wasn’t skilled enough to create a wall of ice yet, so he had to use a more inefficient method. As for Gryn, he had taken a serious slash across his leg, but he was nearly finished bandaging his leg, even through the arguing. He wouldn't be as fast, but he could still hold his ground with one good leg. Taking this all in, Manis had come to a decision. Without Drevin, their tank, they could only rely on Manis and Salen to deal damage. Gryn could defend himself, but he’d only get in the way with the current state of his leg.

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  “Okay, Gryn, you’ll stay back and focus on detection. I don’t want to be caught unaware again. Salen, I want you to support me. Shoot down whatever got Gryn while I focus on the stone golem. Gryn, can you detect the monsters right now?”

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  “Yeah, it seems like all of the orbs are gone now, but there are only three presences. Two of them are near the ceiling, and the stone golem’s still on the ground. No, wait, time’s up, it's moving toward us.”

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  “Alright, Salen, let the wall down, stick to your role, and we’ll live to fight another day. For Drevin.”

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  “For Drevin.”

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  “For Drevin”

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  With that, Salen melted the wall back into water, letting it fall down and washing away the blood of their fallen comrade. Vulcan, regenerated from his devastating crash, lumbered over towards the group, a club of solid stone now in hand. They knew their roles, so they launched their attack without hesitation. Manis, leaping forward, rained down as many blows as he could on Vulcan, sword biting into stone arms. Salen launched balls of water and shards of ice when Manis took a moment to breathe, Gryn keeping an eye out for Pim.

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  “Manis! Above!” Gryn, shouting out, had finally spotted Pim swooping down to make his attack, allowing Manis to dodge back and ready a counterattack. Pim immediately banked left and backed up as soon as he realized he’d been spotted, avoiding a direct clash. But, no matter how he moved, the scout’s eyes continued to follow his position, making any potential attack an opportunity for a counterattack. Unable to make a move, Vulcan was left to fend off Manis by himself. While Manis didn’t strike as hard as Leron could, their exchanges would eventually lead to a man triumphing over the monster. Salen’s specialty was crowd control, so he couldn’t really shine in a small-scale battle, but his defensive magics and ice spells allowed him to fend off Pim and chip at Vulcan’s health. The situation continued to deteriorate for the monsters, but there was still one more monster unaccounted for, the one responsible for the glowing orbs that had initially blinded them.

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  Willow, now taking his move, created about twenty orbs to fly throughout the room and in front of the dungeon delvers. Their mana had finally recovered after underestimating how much mana keeping dozens of glowing orbs activated at once took. Willow tried to blind each delver, but it was mostly ineffective as they each kept their eyes squinted in preparation for another blinding attack. At most, it allowed Vulcan to land a hit on Manis, a step in the right direction. Unfortunately for Gryn, Willow noticed he became unable to track Pim’s presence, so they pounced on that opportunity. Creating another six orbs, they were launched from the ceiling and dove straight down towards Gryn. Unable to discern the orbs from the monster, Gryn dove to the side, dodging each orb as they flew around him. Salen believed he was trying to dodge the mana itself, so he tried to give him his advice.

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  “Gryn, it’s just mana. It’s not an attack, they’re harmless.”

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  “I’m not worried about the mana! They all give off danger-!”

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  Sensing a hostile presence flying straight down from the ceiling, to the floor, and gliding as low as possible from behind, Gryn believed he had finally found the real imp. Turning around, ready to intercept with his daggers, all he saw was a glowing blue orb following a path reminiscent of one of Pim’s previous kills. So how was he to know that the one orb that was circling above him was actually Pim, waiting for this opening, dived down and threw his spear, impaling Gryn through the chest. Bleeding out from his wound, Gryn breathed his last in the dungeon, going limp as his strength finally left him. Flying down, Pim swooped in and yanked his spear out of the scout’s corpse, ice shards chasing his back as Salen tried to avenge his comrade.

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  Now there were two left, Manis and Salen, versus the monster trio. Losing one member of a party in a dungeon run is unfortunate, but losing two or more is a tragedy. They were supposed to be on the easiest floor of the dungeon, yet they had already lost two members. Informing the outside world of this change in the dungeon became a priority for these two dungeon delvers over victory. Knowing this, Manis resolved himself to do what he needed to do.

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  “Salen, get out of here! I’ll hold off the stone golem.”

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  “I don’t know where the imp is. It could stab me in the back at any moment.”

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  “Keep firing spells around you so it can’t pursue.”

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  “What if I hit you?”

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  “I’ll be fine, just go!”

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  Accepting his resolve, Salen readied himself to make a break for the entrance of the room, but before he could, Vulcan launched his club at Salen.

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  “Dodge!”

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  Trusting in his comrade, Salen listened and barely avoided the hunk of stone. Pieces of the shattered dungeon sprayed from the impact, and before it was done, large orbs of light, about four feet in diameter, formed in the space above and rained down on Salen. His first instinct was to dodge the new orbs of light, then he shot a spell through one of the orbs. Seeing it go straight through, he realized the orbs were the same as the ones from earlier, just larger. Knowing they were harmless, he began to run, letting the orbs phase through him. Across the room, he saw Manis going blow for blow with the stone golem as Vulcan had sped up without this club to slow him down, showing off his martial arts mastery.

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  “The orbs are just light. They’re not dangerou-.” Dangerous, his last words would have been they are not dangerous. But, hiding inside the light of one of those orbs was the small Pim. He had predicted the path Salen would run, diving down with his eyes closed and allowing Willow to engulf him in light. This tactic allowed him to drive his spear through soft flesh, pulling it back out and stabbing multiple times to ensure the job was finished, as he still couldn’t see.

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  That only left a lone swordsman, all alone to face off against an abnormal stone golem, an imp, and a mysterious monster responsible for all of the lights. Manis knew all of his comrades had met their fate, leaving him to face off against even greater odds. When Vulcan threw away his club, he thought he would have an easier time doing damage against the unarmed golem, but it just ended up getting faster, almost matching him in speed. If the imp joined in, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he fell. Tinged with loss, determination still roared in his heart as he turned on his heel and bolted for the entrance. When he was halfway, he watched as a blazing blue wall of light grew from the floor to cover the entrance. He saw Pim emerge from the light after he stabbed through Salen, so he prepared himself for the final monster to appear before him and jump through the wall of light. Holding his sword to his side, he slashed in an arc from left to right, cutting through the wall. But all he felt was air, as the wall was simply light, and the third monster would never materialize to attack him. Thrown off balance, he tried to right himself and take his chances going through the wall anyway, but before he could, arms made of solid, jagged stone wrapped around his chest. Lifting him off the ground, Vulcan squeezed the dungeon delver trapped between his arms, increasing the pressure as much as he could. Manis struggled, kicking his legs against the stone, feeling his bones break and muscles burst. As much as he tried, he wouldn’t be able to break his captor’s grasp. Defying his fate, he cursed the gods, insulting them for allowing the existence of monsters and dungeons. With one last push, he tried to break free, but his body gave out before his will, and he was crushed to death. There were no more dungeon delvers left to fight.

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  Descending from the ceiling of the dungeon room, Willow made their way down. But, there was something different. They were not glowing their usual pale, blue light, but rather a rainbow hue that got brighter and brighter, flame bulging and growing. Eventually, it reached its peak brightness, and its glow started to fade. Where Willow floated no longer held the monster known as a wisp, but rather, there now existed the first evolution of a wisp. Willow had evolved into the world’s first “Soullight Phantasm”.