<02/12/1972 – 21:15 | Alpha Zero, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

  By the time the faint familiar scent of burnt carbon mesh dusted the air with a dark mass, Jane whipped both of her daggers out as a sign of vigilance. This was the entry to the dark zone, the same exact place she had traveled to before. While traveling with the entire lead units behind her, the General Army troops marched and spread out further behind them. Their bobbing metallic armor and metal shields made resonant noise in rear tow, though Jane's tough magical armor had much of the same properties. In just a matter of 50 seconds, the skies above everyone began to fade into a darker red color while the natural light of the setting sun vanished before sinking beneath the horizon. In its place was a deep red veil that managed to warp the very color of the sky and any residual clouds nearby, and the luminosity in the area was cut by about 70 percent. At the same time, the temperature that held at about 60 degrees rose up to about 80 on such short notice. Jane could feel her entire body beginning to sweat, though she knew this was only the beginning. Something about the dark zone changes the entire environment, which worsens when a person ventures deeper towards the source of the evil magic veil. This also meant that the zone was now vulnerable to random monster spawns and other nearby lurking dangers. In this very moment, the Leray veil of protection cannot reach a single one of them.

  It was rough to try and remember any specific landmarks in a zone that naturally has so little to offer but floor void of trees and big boulders. The path leading into the Outback has this property, but then the dark zone also has similar properties due to the damage of its environment. In those moments, it was hard to tell if this specific spot was the same location Jane made it to before, when she last entered the dark zone. It was spreading, but there isn't any way to prove it based on her eyes and the memory that has fooled her long since. The only type of landmarks that can survive here are large rocks and boulders, as well as deep sinks and hills between the mass; the ground is hardly flat all the way through. It much more resembles a valley in distress and wither. Jane stopped in her steps, bringing the entire army unit behind her to a halt before they could demand an explanation. Danny and Taylor clung close to each other and right behind Jane, glancing around for any signs of danger Jane might have sensed. But it was Mainne who stepped out of formation marching straight for Jane Venn.

  "Why are we stopping?" she questioned. Her breath felt as warm as the air around her, a very unnatural and creepy feeling that made her twitch inconspicuously. Wearing a different type of battle-gauge sphere suit similar to the one Jane used in the championship match, Mainne felt much more mobile compared to before, but she regretted not wearing a suit of unmelting ice with this level of heat expanding and rising before her every nerve.

  Before answering, Jane lifted her right hand, gripping tightly to her dagger while releasing a tiny amount of her Leray energy into the air above her. In just less than one second, a neon box faded into view projecting holographically to her will. Above her head, Jane activated her Leray energy scope, displaying the results in front of everybody. As a result of the unnatural phenomena, Mainne's own question had been answered remotely.

  The coloration of the energy scope was a bright green instead of default orange. For everybody who already knew the difference, it meant a lot of things. The entire General Army would of course understand the difference in coloration, as that detail is drilled into basic training for all soldiers and Leray experts. An energy scope colored in green means that the target is not currently protected by the Leray veil of protection, and is therefore vulnerable to real time damage. It shouldn't normally be possible to see a green energy scope however. Without the Leray veil enabling Leray magic, the process of displaying a magical energy scope projection would be impossible too. Since Alpha Zero has its own dark magical veil in effect, all magic is still possible, including energy scopes. Jane must be announcing the radical shift in the energy veils she was already able to sense.

  Jane briefly turned around to explain the situation, noticing just how different everything looked with only red light available. "We have now entered the effective range of Alpha Zero. From now on, monsters can come out of random summon glyphrings on the ground. Dark magic will have a higher power level, while Leray magic will have a weaker power level and effect. Everybody needs to remain on guard at all times." She projected to the crowd of soldiers, assuming they didn't know a single detail about the dark zone. But just by announcing their arrival in Alpha Zero, Jane designed herself to appear more self-aware than anyone on the team so far. As a response to her announcement to remain ready, Jane's entire team, including the leaders on the other combined teams began to enable their energy scopes. The boxes appearing everywhere provided a slight amount of extra light being that there were suddenly so many bright green neon colored boxes appearing in unison.

  Danny huffed from how warm it became. It wasn't like the weather gradually warmed itself up. Instead, the change was much more sudden, like walking into an entire chamber set to oven-baking temperatures. Though it was only around eighty degrees now, according to Jane's data from before, it would soon become much warmer than this. Danny reached for his supply sphere, and prepared to take out one of his many units of water bottles. Taylor and the others would probably be wanting some too.

  "Right. The operation starts now!" Mainne addressed everybody standing behind her, specifically the other soldier units who likely had no experience in this hazardous zone. "Jane's team and my team will take point out in front. Everyone else needs to stay back and form a larger party for rear protection. Don't be afraid to use magic if your guns suddenly seem ineffective." Despite sounding anti-optimistic, the soldiers listening to Mainne stomped their feet in formation, preparing to march at the pace they've been ordered to. From that, Jane's team took point in front, walking cautiously instead of running quickly.

  Mainne could feel her heart rate beating much harder than it did in her battle against Jane in Eldora Tower. This felt much more intense; her own life and others were on the line right now, but so far nothing bad has happened yet. The monster spawns weren't a problem for now. Instead, the dark zone was taunting them to walk in deeper, as if inviting them all to their ultimate doom, and Jane wasn't taking the speedy approach at all. That drew an even more severe conclusion about the power of the creatures in this zone. If Jane felt more comfortable walking so slowly just to remain armored and ready than to dash forward and reach the objective more quickly, then it really would be a fight to the death, even for one with such a strong symbol like Jane's. She drew this to also be the most likely reason Danton has not yet intervened in the current travel plans. He wanted to span out all units east and west, but all she asked of right now is to spread out slightly, forwards and backwards.

  For several long moments, nothing interesting happened. Danny and Taylor followed Jane closely behind, noticing that both Mainne and Krysta eventually eased their way closer to them as well. Perhaps they wanted to know firsthand how to properly handle a creature of Alpha Zero. Danny knew that he himself did not actually fight a creature either, and neither has Taylor. When they rescued Jane from this place, she wasn't all that far into the dark zone, and they were lucky enough not to encounter any of those monsters. Maybe they appear once people venture deeper into the zone, like they have some sort of effective summon range.

  Jane traced the barely visible dirt path still sunken into the wasteland. The path she followed on last time was still there like before, and she began to take note of some of the landmarks she remembered from the past after finally getting in further. She remembered more landmarks she didn't spot just yet, but it allowed her to estimate how far in they were. By this rate however, it was just barely at the 10% mark after moving for twenty-five or more minutes. As depressing as it may sound however, nobody encountered a single beast just yet. It's true that monsters spawn everywhere in here, but even the locations can be a bit randomized, so luck was currently on their side for now.

  Jane continued breathing, but as the air around them warmed up, the air itself became thick with particles of charred mist. She hadn't found any method of fixing the problem of the bad air quality or the heat in the past. Even in one of the battles she remembered from before, an attempt to change the weather using powerful magic also failed to work. Whatever the source of this magic is couldn't actually be just one person. It would drain the life of that person within less than a day before it could become that strong. But then what was professor Brightworth doing all this time? What the hell is the end goal to this pointless destruction? This couldn't be the work of another wild experiment, could it? Brightworth! Whatever this is, it stops tonight!

  Breaking the sound of the loud endured silence, a high pitch ping signaled the beginning of an unusual encounter. When all units came to a halt with the yelled order from Mainne, Jane took witness to the growing glyphring on their right flank. The glyphring was hanging in mid-air horizontally, appearing to be the size of a summoning glyphring with a dark grey coloration. It was hard enough to see in this haze, though the summon provided a fair amount of natural light. Jane called the situation as it was, preparing herself and the others for battle. "It's a natural summon! Everyone get ready."

  "All units prepare for battle!" As Mainne shouted the command aloud for everyone to hear, Danny and Taylor rushed in to take point next to Jane, forming a protective formation with Danny on the right of her and Taylor on the left. It wasn't exactly the same formation in the battle plan, but easy enough to adjust. Mainne too rushed towards Jane, eager to figure out a proper battling technique, while Krysta followed the same lead. Wherever Danton and the others were, they had to be in the back of the pack protecting the rear end of the hundreds of soldiers all bunched together.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  The roaring wail of the unknown creature of evil sent vibrations of shockwaves through the earth itself, nearly breaking everybody's eardrums momentarily. The dark colorless glyphring that the creature was summoning from opened up to allow the monster the ability to travel here in the real world. So far, the only thing that emerged was the creature's head and its oversized arm. The beast had some large teeth, but even sharper claws to its single hand. Jane waited for the creature to fully emerge, but instead, the glyphring remained open while the beast failed to pass through entirely, and it gave up trying to allow its full body to form. This didn't mean it gave up on its prey.

  Though Jane had never seen a spawn like this one before, she knew much more time was needed to study the creature's behavior. She held her arms outward at both angles to keep her friends behind her for protection. The monster could be of any level of danger as far as she knew. Did it get stuck crawling out of that dimension? Or did it simply not require its full body to make short work of the military brigade?

  "We need to attack it!" Mainne decided. She leveled aim at the creature, forming a small ice glyphring around her wrist, using Leray magic that best suited her entire style of battle. Before Jane could protest, Mainne launched an Ice Bolt attack aimed at the monster. As the bolt made contact with the black muscular body of the monster's chest only halfway in phase, the magic exploded violently to create a blast of frozen dust blasting the target and possibly causing some damage, but without an energy scope, the damage was yet to be known.

  Right in front of their eyes, the monster and its entire glyphring suddenly disappeared, and then faded back into reality just a second later. Only the position had changed significantly to the left flank. Teleportation! Jane knew it mimicked instantaneous transference much more than regular teleportation, but it described one of the monster's many traits and battle skills. However, the beast, even after teleporting away and back wasn't currently attacking them just yet. Most of the monsters she could remember were faster and stronger, battling against her just for the meal they would obtain out of this fight. This one is slower than the others. Though its defense is something else, the attack power on this species may be a bit lower than standard. It's the perfect candidate!

  "It can teleport!" Danny knew everybody could see what just happened in front, but he was surprised to see something like this for the first time. The only creatures of magic he ever laid any eyes on before were the Cran everybody fought in the Hix Ruins, and the summons people could learn. But even summons outside of Alpha Zero didn't behave like this. Without any master, the monsters here were bloodthirsty and wild. Though he could feel nervous surges going all around his body, the urge to protect himself, Jane, and Taylor resonated further.

  Jane telegraphed her next strategy to the team around her. "This one is slower than the others. I'll be able to show you how to battle against these monsters."

  "I'll draw out its energy scope," Mainne decided. She used a small amount of magic on the creature, forcing an energy scope to appear over the monster's strange body. The unknown species basically kept up with the still floating glyphring it was attached too, never revealing any more of its figure than it already had. With the new neon box above the creature's head, Mainne would be able to keep track of its stats, and calculate the damage level her first strike did to it before.

  Like any human, the coloration of the energy scopes also followed the same status pattern as any other, but the name of the monster failed to appear for some reason, miring the information about the beast into a state of the unknown. As for the damage, it seemed that Mainne's magic was hardly a match for the creature, but Jane just announced that things were going to be okay.

  Jane made sure the beast wasn't about to attack them any time soon, using her right hand to point and aim in case it would. At any moment, Jane would create a Farshield. "The monsters here are not identified by the official Leray database, so they won't show up on their own. For now, I'll create a code name for this specimen." Using little magic at all, Jane simply altered the identification data of the holographic text box that Mainne summoned above the target, while creating an additional smaller text box known as the action display center.

  "Code name is now Quantos. The ADC will let us know if an attack is imminent from the creature. But it won't work every time, so remain vigilant."

  How did Jane know so much about this already? Krysta already learned that Jane was the survivor of venturing deep into the dark zone and being ejected with some injury, but no other scout team has managed to get this information. Those who survived barely caught glimpses of these ravage beasts. As the creature floated through the air slightly, the energy scope struggled to keep up with the position. Everybody's energy scope in the army was currently engaged at the same time, which made them harder to read when bunched up so closely. But with the first part of Jane's tutorial explained, it was evident that her time to talk was now over.

  Hammer Swipe! That was the text showing up just now in the action display center, while the monster accelerated its speed in midair towards Jane's formation as it could fly effortlessly. "Here it comes!" Jane alerted. With her team bracing themselves for the attack, which could literally be anything, Jane prepared herself to dodge the attack rather than use a power shield against it. Unable to read the monster's mind, who knew what sort of magic it was about to use on them? When the creature came danger close to Jane and her friends standing too close behind her, Jane backed away a couple of steps before noticing the swinging motion of its arm with its claws brought out. It's a physical attack!

  Jane leaped backwards from her current position, expecting to land on Danny and Taylor. She instead managed to land on her feet without hitting anything, soon realizing that they too could see the Hammer Swipe attack coming. Everybody reacted as fast as Jane did this time, and got to see firsthand how Quantos executes one of its attacks. Using its massive arm, the beast swiped over the air in an attempt to slam its body part into the people on Jane's team, but as it missed his target, a slightly audible whooshing sound was the only thing Quantos managed to get out of his attack turn. Monsters like these don't normally take so long to act, especially in between other attacks, but as Jane pointed out before, this creature was much slower than the ones she used to encounter, probably a fresh species with no battle experience in the first place, and likely hindered by its inability or unwillingness to break itself fully out of its own summoning glyphring.

  With the attack failing to impact any particular person, it gave the army behind them enough reason to return fire immediately. Equipped with heavy rifles for long-range weaponry, they opened fire with as many precision rounds as possible. At the same time, Jane felt that now was the best time to counterattack. Creatures of the dark zone resist specific elemental damage against Leray magic as well as resisting Leray magic in general, but it was usually the case with fire based spells. Trusting her gut, Jane decided to aim her hand building up with magic towards the floating monster, and commence attack with the chant of her invocation. "Thunder Flare!" Jane quickly managed to create a large blue sphere of light encasing the large beast, and the sphere soon lit up brighter as electrical discharges inside of the magical aura unleashed a high voltage of hell against Quantos. The sphere engaged its attack design, electrocuting the monster where it was, the power of the attack amplified by Jane's powerful will to destroy the spawn of evil. By the time the electrical spell was over, Danny and Taylor took point and begun their attack from a distance as well, while Jane made sure to assess the damage to Quantos.

  It seemed that Jane's magic was a heavy hit to the monster. As the bullets continuously penetrated the skin of the monster from the General Army, they weren't helping one bit to deplete much of its HP, though it did eventually make the difference by one or two percent over a longer duration of time. Krysta decided to trust her gut with Jane's relentless spell cast pattern, and tried to perform the same trick with high tier magic. After aiming her hand at the monster still hit with the pain of Jane's powerful electrical attack, she released her own magic, certain it would do its damage. "Triple Fire!" The red glyphring around her wrist activated, launching three separate Fire Bolts each with their consecutive power level of a fiery explosion on impact with the target. The Fire Bolts each managed to lock on to Quantos in order to not miss the mark, but it wasn't as if the large beast made an attempt to dodge it in the first place. After the fiery dust from each of the three explosions faded, Krysta learned that her strategy though the same as Jane's had much less of an effect on the health status of Quantos.

  Just as Jane suspected. Creatures of the dark zone are for the most part highly resistant to fire elemental magic, which may be why the zone itself is so warm. The creatures here do specialize in heat-based spells and attacks after all. With fire magic this ineffective to damage, she needed to openly report this - making sure everybody understood it. After tracking down that the initial trajectory of all three Fire Bolts came from Krysta, Jane made the status update available for everybody. "Quantos is resistant to fire attacks. We should assume all creatures in Alpha Zero are the same."

  "We'll back you up!" Danny hollered. As he glanced to his side to see that Taylor was ready to fight in sync with his skills, Danny pulled out his Dynamon Hammer, leading Taylor to pull out her Marine Eagle magical bow. As Taylor prepared a strong magical arrow to fire off from the distance, Danny used his free hand to charge an electrical glyphring in front of him. Attacking with this hammer meant he had to get close, which wasn't the best idea right now. But with such a large weapon radius, he could use the end point of the device itself to block any incoming attack at the same time.

  With his magic prepared, Danny chanted his magic at the same time Taylor released her arrow from the bow. "Shock Wave!" Firing an improved sphere of magical electricity, Danny's power was put into one singular projectile traveling at a high rate of speed. As designed by Taylor's arrow, her weapon's fire speed was so much higher than any attack he could think of, and just as Taylor's arrow was about to strike the target of the monster, the beast immediately zoned out and faded from view. Danny's Shock Wave attack and Taylor's Bow Charge flew off into the distance, striking nothing in the end. By the time he could realize what just happened, Quantos reappeared once again on the right flank, using teleportation as a means to evade a deadlier spell that Danny and Taylor would have been able to execute.

  Mainne noticed how well prepared the defenses were on the creature, but it wasn't going to stop her from defeating this spawn of the dark zone. She was in a better line of sight towards the monster after its second teleportation. With her knowledge that fire magic doesn't do much, it would be easy for her to make use of other spells since ice and wind attacks were of her best specialty. Jane wasn't giving many orders anymore, only making appropriate suggestions based on her previous knowledge. Since this is a teamed battle, it means anybody can help out in the fight. "Now it's my turn," she prepared. Mainne charged more MP energy than usual into her personal aura, and then released it onto the battlefield while chanting the name of the spell to ensure she didn't screw it up. Normally she never would need to chant anything with how tough she was, but these monsters were something else entirely. "Rotation!"

  Enabling the well-known magical attack at the highest refinement for wind elemental spells, Mainne combined a tornado attack with higher level Leray magic, making it impossible for the creature to see through the spinning dust of damaging wind as it quickly approached the beast. Some of the dust blew towards Jane's team as well, but they weren't in any danger of friendly fire. By the time the Rotation spell engulfed Quantos, magical slashing damage was dealt to it immediately, wearing down the HP gauge over time. But the battle spell itself shrouded the visibility of the energy scope too, thus everyone had to simply wait for the Rotation attack to end before analyzing the situation once again.

  Just as the energy scope would have reported, the monster wasn't even stunned by the attack like it was with Jane's first electrical ability. Wind attacks were often ineffective as well, but that would have applied to any target in particular, and this monster has more tough and scaled skin making it that much more resistant to slashing damage. Only magic could pierce this thing so far, and quick magic at that.

  Just shortly after finding out that Mainne's Rotation spell was ineffective, the ADC lit up with another warning. Fiery Plume! It's the name of yet another type of spell, but this time, it belonged to an official Leray spell known even to Jane. One of the evil monsters fought from before knew of the same spell, further supporting her theory that the creatures here are well associated with fiery magic and resistance. This attack was going to be a full area attack too, making it impossible to dodge. Anyone hit from this will inflict second-degree burns while struggling to stay standing from the imminent earthquake infused into the same spell. Jane could see it coming before anybody else, but had no special ideas about how to protect everyone else around her either. As the MP levels on Quantos suddenly dropped, everybody was only one second away from a very powerful attack better avoided.

  There wasn't any way or time to save everybody from this powerful fire based attack. Jane knew already that the only way to protect everybody better was to make short work of this dangerous creature. Even if it is slower than the others, it knows Fiery Plume, and that's really bad news when traveling without Leray protection on her side. Reacting quickly, Jane fired magic through her right dagger aimed at the ground. "Mako Speed!" The gravity warping magic from the beam she fired into the ground sent Jane soaring into the air, just as the earthquake began to disrupt the area below her. Jane used her moment ascending up from the ground to come up with a powerful attack as quickly as she could, already surging the magical energy into her right hand again.

  The heat blew up fast even for Jane, as the fiery air and molten rock shot up from the ground in multiple locations. Jane was sure enough that several people were currently feeling as though they were getting burned to death. Without the Leray veil of protection, the natural pain and damage absorber is removed as well. With her body safe from harm at the moment, Jane proceeded to use her magic against the airborne creature after she ascended off the ground as well. After forming a dark grey glyphring around her wrist, Jane unleashed the refined powerful form of magic towards the monster without any hesitation, while the color of her glowing eyes shifted to a crimson red. "Dark Beam!"

  Though Jane was opposed to using dark magic in her life, now was the most appropriate time of any to give it a shot with the full intentions of slaying a mindless monster. Dark Beam, containing only a dark magical essence was a powerful magical skill rejecting the properties of normal Leray magic. Jane only learned of the spell from rumor, assuming the rest. Inside or outside of Alpha Zero, dark magic is super effective, but against creatures that use dark magic, the highest weak points they contain are virtually spiritual magic and dark magic itself. After the red glow from Jane's hand faded with the glyphring, she then noticed the red pulsing projectile of dark magical energy flying towards Quantos at a high rate of speed. Long before she began to descend back to the ground, the spell impact made short work of the health on the creature. Due to the properties of the spell itself, the impact of the projectile of magic also created a beam of dark energy slamming the creature from behind, as designed into the spell to perform a double hit for double damage should the projectile not miss its mark. Despite having her whole team beat up a little bit from the Fiery Plume that was now already fading away, Jane focused more on the energy scope of her enemy, hoping it was at least near critical condition.

  Krysta couldn't help but gasp in surprise. It was suddenly evident that Jane taught herself dark magic. After narrowly avoiding one of the fire plumes from below, she got to witness firsthand how elegantly Jane transitioned from a dodge straight into a dark magic attack from above. Quantos was far from critical condition, but often do energy scopes turn red anyway when reporting recent real time damage occurrences. It seems that creatures of dark magic are also weak against dark magic too, and Jane presented as much all in one instance. Of course, this monster still has a lot of health left. Looking around, everybody hit by its last attack was still reporting a green energy scope, but it would only take one more attack like that to start more permanent damage to the allied units. Danton should be nearby watching this, right? When will he step in to help? Or did he really think Jane was enough for now?

  Hammer Swipe! The same attack it used at first. Everybody saw this coming as the creature approached with physical distance, still ready to battle. Jane was in front as always, but some soldiers managed to step out in front of her and fire their weapons, though it didn't help the situation at all. Once the monster was in range to begin its physical attack, everybody had to brace themselves. Seeing no room to dodge or escape, Jane charged her energy into both of her arms and shrouded a blue power-shielding aura around herself by habit. Just as the shield encased her body, the monster swept its hand through the air with a high speed, blowing a powerful gust of wind from the ground up, as it also managed to hit a few of the soldiers, sending them flying high in the air to the right as they screamed helplessly.

  At the same time, Jane's shield completely blocked out the attack despite being in the dark zone, but it used up a small amount of her MP any time she kept it invoked. Small hexagons formed at the impact sight of Quantos's attack wave, but Jane focused more on the soldiers impacted by the swipe, as well as her friends behind her, who were also affected, though just with a small scratch. The men that were hit full force landed on the ground, their energy scopes turning a dark red color to indicate real time damage warnings. Jane had to let go of her power shield as soon as Quantos finished its attack pattern. In hind sight, Jane's defensive strategy only worked to show off to everybody that she has the unfair advantage against the enemy, further making her guilty of wearing such an unfair symbol that did this to her before even enabling the marking.

  After coming out of it okay, Danny and Taylor rushed up in front of Jane, and took aim at the creature just as it began to float away from the area at a slow speed, keeping its eyes on the prey. As Taylor suggested the next best strategy, she prepared her Leray magic in both hands, putting away her bow behind her back. The pain from the Hammer Swipe that came from the last attack Quantos used still stung on the front of her arms and legs despite her clothing designed to protect her skin as such. Taylor let go of any signs of fear and waited for the perfect moment to fight back while Jane recovered from using her power shield. "Let's all attack it together!"

  Jane noticed during her recovery how quickly the elites around them responded to the demand. Krysta, Mainne, Danny, Taylor, and a few of the other soldiers all took a new formation within two seconds, all of which prepared their magic and guns for a single synchronized attack that she likely wouldn't be a part of herself.

  Krysta unleashed her magic, thrusting her glowing right arm high into the air and then back down again, following the same exact hand motion she once observed from Jane Venn's style. "Photon Burst!" Invoking the spell that was just a step up above the level of Photon Blast, Photon Burst forms dozens of powerful photonic projectiles of non-elemental Leray magic into the air to crash down on the target from above with the radial effectiveness of an area attack. Because of the angle and speed difference, it used the same amount of magic as Photon Blast while dealing more damage than usual. As Krysta invoked this spell towards the sky to begin a strong area attack, her partner chanted and invoked the same exact spell just half a second after her.

  Performing the same hand motions and magical invocation, Mainne chanted the name "Photon Burst" alongside of Krysta, doubling up on a powerful spell designed to give the enemy hell. She watched after using up much of her MP energy as the photons slammed into the body of the creature floating in the air. The damage done for each individual hit was just enough to bring the enemy off its own balance, as the creature began to roar in its own pain and defeat. The health status declined rapidly as the rain of photons continued.

  This was just part of the team attack. Just as Mainne and Krysta invoked their own spells, Danny used some familiar magic himself to thrust the earth and rock towards the creature with a high force of velocity. "Earth Glave!" As he released his magic with the impact point close enough to the target, the ground beneath the enemy shot upwards with erecting pillars of rock, turning the earth into a dangerous zone. Though Quantos was floating in the air, Danny's earth spell shot up the stone pillars high enough to reach the monster, thrusting the rock and dirt chunks straight into the beast's chest while it was being pillaged with a double Photon Burst attack.

  Taylor had something in mind too, but she had to jump out in front of Jane after the Earth Glade left the area. If she ran out too soon, Danny's attack could have affected her instead of Quantos. As the Photon Burst was a bit lasting, Taylor had some time afterward to release all of her stored magic towards the direction of the monster above. Standing only thirty meters away from target Quantos, Taylor chanted the name of one of her own official spells, releasing a cold and powerful form of magical energy into the area in front of her. "Cold Spin!"

  Mainne and Krysta got to see one of Taylor's special skills firsthand, as Taylor combined a powerful Rotation attack with cold magic, enabling the area inside of the visible twister to reach sub-zero temperatures while dealing a multitude of damage types to the creature. It didn't take but two more seconds for the Cold Spin tornado to reach the location of Quantos. The area of effect had a very high vertical range too. Quantos became engulfed in the cold tornado before having the chance to teleport away, likely from getting stunned by the other three attacks that happened just a few seconds ago. As it happened, Taylor immediately grew confident that Quantos would be done for.

  Dealing a mass array of wind elemental damage, magical slashing damage, and ice elemental damage over a moderate period of time, it was certain doom for the creature after taking heavy hits just before that impact. By the time the tornado faded away, everybody got to see the spectacle that came after.

  As Quantos's HP was immediately reduced all the way to zero just as the twister disappeared and brought the creature into view again, its entire body quickly began to transition into a state of magical disintegration. The summoned glyphring being part of its current body began to fade away as well, and it was just one moment later until the monster burst into millions of tiny little fragments of radiant glassy sand. With that transition marking the death of the monster spawned by dark magic, the energy scope and action display center box immediately faded from view automatically. With that creature gone, the atmosphere here changed just as quickly. Everything went from intense to calm in just a few seconds, allowing the entire team to catch their breath in their own victory.

  It was a long silence for over seven seconds, with the only sound remaining to be everybody breathing rapidly as their adrenaline kicked in. It was a fight to the death with every monster here, and every unit knew as much. Some may even be afraid to move after seeing a creature so dangerous as that. Now that Quantos was gone, the teams had their chance to relax. The MP spent from everyone had to regenerate the hard way, so a mild wait was overdue.

  Mainne recovered herself and walked swiftly to Jane with a relaxed expression in her body. "What the hell was that thing anyway? You still have some explaining to do young lady!"

  Jane wondered what Mainne failed to expect in here. After all of the fighting they did so far, what else did Jane possibly leave out? Mainne could have been referring to her own personal use of dark magic. Other than the accidental learning of Dark Lite Jane used against Cleo in the championship, Jane knew of no dark magic. But after everything that happened in convincing Danton to take part in this battalion, Jane felt the need to learn additional dark magic just for this specific operation, at least one, and trained with it on the way here in secret. Jane went with that likely deduction and responded thoroughly to Mainne's fears. "I went ahead and tried using dark magic against the creature in my last attack. It was a quick decision because I thought everyone was in immediate danger."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "But I thought the plan was to avoid using dark magic at all costs," she expressed further.

  Jane nodded her head in denial. "I never said anything about which magic types not to use, except for fire elemental magic. For now, it seems that the monsters in here are always weak against non-elemental magic, spiritual damage, or dark magic. And I know it's illegal." Jane clenched her hands into fists, her thoughts turned violent quickly when thinking about the evil enemies in the dark zone. "But we need to save each other in this zone. If we hold back, we all die."

  Her voice could pierce the heavens. Jane didn't yell or shout, but her ability to project her voice through a long distance with a mild expression was astounding. Mainne on the other hand had but one more lesson to show. "If you keep relying on dark magic, it will consume your mind. You really didn't know?" How could nobody have explained this to Jane in times like this? "Dark magic can be very addicting to use. You were lucky that the invocation you used didn't screw you up!"

  Jane didn't know about this fact regarding dark magic. Perhaps this is another reason the involvement of which is so dangerous... Still, "Even if that is true, we have no choice but to give it all we've got."

  "She's right!" Danton remarked. After waltzing his way to the front of the line with his team and the other elites behind him, Danton joined in to determine the next phase of the plan, but not before making sure the rules were crystal clear. "Our enemy is using dark magic against us. There isn't a rule that says we can't use it back at them. If we were fighting actual people, then the use of dark magic would be strictly prohibited at all costs, but these are nothing more than bloodthirsty creatures without any soul. They don't deserve a fair fight."

  "And what happens if our team becomes converts?!"

  Mainne was referring to the situation long in the past yet again, but only Danton would remember anything about it. Still, the case was so unique that repeated data has yet to show the difference between mind alteration and a vile lust for power. "There is still no evidence to prove that using dark magic can cause this addiction you speak of, even for people besides Jane. However, I'm still going to encourage restraint on using that magic format for now. Jane? And everyone else? Only rely on that skill when nothing else works and you're backed into a corner."

  "Danton." Mainne put herself at attention, realizing that her boss was still in charge of the operation, one step above Jane. "We'll make sure to remember that."

  "And you Jane," Danton called. "Don't be shy about activating your symbol to save others either."

  Jane blushed slightly, still realizing that she barely had any control of her own special powers. "Um... sure. I'll have to make good use of it though. Once it activates, I only get a small window before it goes away again, and a longer window before I can reactivate it."

  "Such low confidence ill suits you Jane." Danton pulled out his Mega-Staff, the weapon he used in the championship aired live this morning. "The light I saw on your hand was too blurry to make out during our battle, after which you activated it again in a clear mode. If you were able to use that in order to defeat me and recover your power just as fast, then you of all people should be invincible on the battlefield tonight." His words brought another awkward pause, telling Danton that he was still capable of teaching even people who were stronger than himself. Jane certainly wasn't shy about letting anything sink into her mind. "But let us not forget the objective today. We will use whatever magic necessary to defeat the creatures that spawn here. The only data left to be collected is the average spawn rate and the density per square mile."

  Jane wanted to say more to him, but a sudden flash of red light that dimmed with a remaining luster distracted everybody. It showed up to the left flank again, despite half the team facing the other way for the moment. Danton therefore saw the formation first, a gigantic red glyphring hovering vertically in the air about twenty feet high, now blasting audible wind through the spinning disk first. It's another monster spawn!

  "Not again! All teams form up!" Krysta prepared for battle again, after taking some witness to the yet to be revealed creature of darkness being summoned by a giant red glyphring aimed at the ground. The glyphring itself completely differed from the last one that was seen. When the magical particles of dust formed a shape and structure for the monster being summoned, it was very clear that the type of creature was just as different too.

  Jane let her breath escape her quickly. The monster that had just summoned was composed of a black body like the others, but with two large unsymmetrical legs and arms with feet and claws attached to it. It almost seemed like a severely oversized humanoid, almost. The exact shape brought back a particular memory for Jane. The first time she was in the dark zone, she remembered battling against a large behemoth-like hound that was the size of a house, and the other creature she fought was very much the same as this one right here, the volatile Char monster. Jane called it a Char monster in her head because its skin seemed to be charred up by burnt carbon mesh, while its attack capabilities were exceptionally powerful in the fire department. For this creature, its potential was ranked much higher than a monster such as Quantos, four times as dangerous and twice as fast too.

  "Negative!" Danton hollered. He replied to Krysta giving an order to stay together. It went against the second phase of the plan, despite them still being stuck in first gear. "We're proceeding to the second phase right now," he offered. "It seems the fighting here has simply drawn more creatures to us. Things are about to get interesting."

  "In that case," Jane offered with her daggers drawn. "JDT will stay and fight this one. It must be destroyed!"

  "We'll begin splitting up now," Danton decided. "I want all teams to split up and form a circular perimeter. We'll keep enemies away from the main team while protecting the center at the same time. Double time it people!" Danton demanded he saw immediate action. All of the soldiers stayed with their teams, but made sure they were splitting up the groups as well. Cleo went with a bunch of soldiers in one direction. Brock took some soldiers the other direction. Krysta and Mainne had to do the same, while Danton remained a bit longer just to oversee the next step.

  A short-lived tremor in the ground marked the beginning of their next battle. Danton peaked behind him to see Jane holding up a Farshield wall against a Crush Wave attack. Like a Shadow Wave, it stuck to the ground, but the impact with Jane's external power shield wasn't enough to overcome her focus, instead sending all of that spent energy into the ground or the shield itself. Danny and Taylor reformed next to Jane in order to fight. It was now time to get started. Everybody had their remote communicators hiding in their ears, though they were only to be used in the event of a catastrophic emergency. The battle was only beginning now.

  Jane let the Farshield go after the Crush Wave spell ended, and her friends were ready to back her up. After noticing a significant decrease in the amount of people behind her team, it was clear Danton was leaving this battle to them for now, as the advancement north will continue shortly. She had to warn Danny and Taylor before starting the fight that this will not be an easy one. "I don't want to see a single mistake! This one won't be easy to defend against." Jane waved her hand forward, forcing a new energy scope to show up alongside the newly spawned creature. She automatically assigned a name at random, while activating the action display center as well.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  "Freya," Danny repeated softly. He prepared his hammer weapon from the back, enabling Taylor to do the same for her bow. Jane seemed just as prepared to fight as well. If anything, it was faster than the last creature, as the dark monster was already taking a few steps forward, infusing its massive arm cannon with a faint glow of potentially fatal magic. Its other arm was much skinner, and only seemed to be good for close-range attacks.

  Just as Jane sensed, Freya was about to use another spell, but the action display center wasn't reporting anything. Thus, Jane had no choice but to invoke a power shield around everyone. "Get close to me!" Jane commanded her friends with a fast and fiery voice. They did as she said, just like last time against a battle on Route 787. Jane has the power to protect all three of them, but with a higher cost to her own MP reserves. She waited for the right moment, which came shortly after. The monster Jane claimed as Freya decided to thrust its larger arm into the ground as if to use Crush Wave again, but the pattern wasn't exactly the same. Jane didn't care about the small details just yet, only focusing on an array of protection. With the sufficient energy already charged up, Jane let it all out, forming a protective power shield around herself, Danny, and Taylor all huddled up.

  The force to the ground created a Shadow Wave spell cast. Jane wasn't expecting the monster to go for something too weak and easy to evade, but the Shadow Wave wasn't nearly as tall, and in this darkness was practically invisible for more than half of its travel time. Just as the Shadow Wave came close to impact in just a second of time later, all of the magical essence shot upwards, and detonated into a bright and powerful barrage of explosions. Jane felt the shockwaves through the shield itself, and struggled to keep it together due to the damage level being so high against the protective aura. With hexagons making it even more difficult to see the outside world, she knew from that sense alone that Freya used something eight times more powerful than a simple Shadow Wave. The explosions were short lived, and brighter than ever being that they were designed to deal non-elemental magical damage in that form. Only the spell such as Prone Strike could have gone through all of that.

  Prone Strike acts as a Shadow Wave in the beginning, then turns into a high damage explosive barrage in the area short of impact, designed this way to confuse foes into making the wrong attempt to evade or block the spell. Freya being a complete mindless monster didn't understand the full capabilities of Leray magic, or that of Jane's potential, so it wouldn't necessarily be able to learn and adapt from her team coming out of this without a single scratch. When Jane dropped the shield after the explosions faded, she already felt weak and defenseless, even with her still high MP level. Danny and Taylor were totally fine, which was the purpose of having them encased in a power shield. Neither one of them were capable of defending against such a strong spell, and to take real time damage with that hostile ability would have led to some dire consequences.

  Danny quickly noticed that the monster was currently on the defensive after releasing much of its own energy, but Jane looked as though she had a lot sucked out of her, struggling to adjust her eyes. From there, he took over the next command. "Leave him to us for now!" Though Jane would have been quick to oppose, he didn't ask for permission, and hoped that Taylor would follow in his lead. As Danny pulled out his hammer and began charging energy into the blunt weapon, he chanted the name of an attack neither Jane nor Taylor recognized. "Midnight Strike!" He had to wait another second while invoking the full power of his magic, draining much of his MP energy immediately just before rushing in towards the beast on his feet. His heavy Dynamon Hammer made it a bit more intense to move around quickly, but he had so much magical aura inside of the device that it began glowing with a white radiance. Just as he got closer to the monster, all three of the jade color glyphrings he summoned in various places all took form, aiming at the Char monster.

  Taylor backed Danny up by preparing her bow. She winded up her arrow into the device, though would need more time after that to infuse her own magic into the weapon. Danny was in the way as well, right in the line of her own firing arc. She waited for Danny to unleash his close range attack before trying to use her own. "Electric Arrow!" Since it would take her some time as well just to activate a new magical aura around the casing of her arrow, Taylor simply held back and charged the electrical energy needed for the spell.

  The monster seemed like it could take a whack at him any second, but after being this close, he rushed in continuously without any hesitation. With one powerful swing, Danny put all of his muscle into forcing his hammer to side swipe the body of Freya, indenting a hit so powerful due to the back up of his magic, the blunt strike alone pushed the creature back, sliding in the dust as it lost most of its balance. Shortly after his hammer came into contact with the beast, all three of his glyphrings then unleashed Lightning Strikes against the same target. The health gauge depleted very quickly from his attack. Just after his glyphrings had enough, an arrow drilling through the air like a bullet penetrated Freya's chest, electrocuting the monster a step further from Taylor's well-timed attack. Danny knew then to begin taking his distance, reforming closer to Jane before attempting to read the energy scope of everyone.

  For the monster, serious damage was already done. For Jane's entire team, the only depleted stat was MP capacity for the most part. Jane, Danny, and Taylor had a little extra time left since Freya had to recover from the last hit her team delivered to it. As for Jane, she recovered her energy and focus as well, determined now that her two best friends were right here fighting alongside of her. Despite the danger, they were doing really well so far. Jane waited for the next move, giving the monster a chance to retaliate just to stay on a defensive strategy plan, while Danny and Taylor both seemed a bit eager to go at it.

  After Freya was up again and staring its prey down, it began to unleash another attack. Jane waited to see the name of the attack displayed on the action display center, but nothing came of the holographic text, further proving that it only works half the time on biological enemies. Designed to read the enemy's mind mid-invocation, it only works better for Leray creatures such as Cran or Leray summons. It was never intended to be used for dark magical monstrosities. When Freya was ready, Jane was left indecisive. Throwing its body into a flail, Freya released some more of its magic, creating a moderately sized Rotation attack.

  "Disperse!" Taylor and Danny ran in opposite directions of each other, left and right to avoid the path of the spinning tornado of wind elemental damage. After clearing their distance, Jane remained motionless. It was expected that she simply stand still and power shield again like last time, but that's not what she did. Jane simply stood there and let the Rotation spell engulf in in a series of strong damages.

  Taylor didn't panic or scream, but instead acted quickly by turning around and aiming both of her hands at the tornado itself. Since she was outside of the Rotation attack, she could use her own magic to manipulate the properties. After quick attempts to slow down the centripetal speed of the Rotation spell, the entire visible formation of the tornado faded from view gradually. After it was gone, Jane was left with a few visible red cuts and scratches in the few places her armor didn't cover, such as the back of her shoulder or the side of her elbow. The Rotation attack got her, and for whatever reason, Jane didn't make any attempt to avoid it. It was the most unusual thing she saw so far.

  Was she frozen with fear? Jane had faced death a dozen times by now, but it must still scare her. She seemed to be back into it right now, focused on the movements of the enemy, but it made no sense for her to stand there and take an attack. She slipped! Having seen this beast reappear also enabled her to imagine what it might do to her best friends, a fear so powerful, that she's just frozen.

  Jane can't believe she failed to come up with anything in time. Danny and Taylor simply fled in two different directions, since Rotation doesn't home in on targets. How could she be so stupid? Jane slapped herself in the face, forcing her nerves to remain active and disciplining herself to do better, and she knew she could start now. All monsters of the dark zone, summons, and other creatures alike need some time to recharge in order to unleash more magical attacks. That means the best time to hit Freya is right now. Not holding back, Jane decided to make up for her mistake with an easy area attack, hoping her team would still follow in her footsteps. "Aerial Plume!"

  "Ice Shots!" Used in sync with Jane's chant, Taylor attacked at the same time to help her out. She created four small blades, each falling into her free hands after putting away her bow. As soon as the explosive rain bombarded the ground near Freya from above, Taylor threw her chunks of frozen metal towards the monster. From this distance, she had to put every ounce of strength in each throw to make it effective at all. Jane's spell was far more powerful, though it also expended more of her energy at the same time too.

  As blasts of explosive magical damage bombarded the area around Freya, only less than half of each blast managed to detonate close enough to the Char monster to affect its health and stature. The creature roared in pain from the damage it took in both attacks, yet its health was still insanely high after all it was through, proving how well Jane knew the toughness of each enemy here. Freya is a monster with a higher level than others.

  The explosions from Jane's spell faded, and now it was Freya's turn to attack. Though with three targets now spread out, this would have been the perfect time to flank the enemy from the side it wasn't targeting. Danny was wide open for the opportunity, but decided to carefully maneuver back towards Jane instead of attacking. He ran out of ideas for the moment, choking almost the same way Jane did earlier. Coming up with strong spell ideas mid-battle is much harder than it looked, especially with higher steaks on the line.

  This time, the creature turned its body to target Taylor specifically. Freya used its big arm again to try and make an attack work. Only this time, the ADC lit up with the name of the predicted magical attack that was imminent. Crush Wave! As predicted, using its massive hammer like arm, Freya slammed its fist into the ground with intense pressure. Out from the impact came a brighter colored Shadow Wave that continued to advance in the ground towards Taylor's position.

  With no way to help her from this distance, Jane didn't know what to do in order to help Taylor protect herself. Instead, Danny took initiative, coming up with an unexpected idea that Jane couldn't read the entire time until after the mess was over with. "Taylor! Catch!" Danny threw his hammer far away from himself towards Taylor. He prayed she could catch the heavy device and not let it hit her in the face. It was a sudden call too, but if Taylor was just as synchronized in thoughts as he was, she could use that hammer to defuse part of the monster's advancing Crush Wave, a move he had seen before when battling someone else.

  With the loud noise of the ground being torn apart in front of her, there wasn't much more room to hear anything else. Taylor saw Danny's hammer flying towards her with a soft spin angle. It would be difficult to catch the handle instead of the massive metal brick, but Taylor only had less than two seconds before she would be completely defenseless against the monster's Crush Wave attack. With pinpoint accuracy in her eyes and her coordination, Taylor gripped the handle piece of the hammer mid-flight, taking control of its trajectory and weight distribution immediately. With no time to spare, Taylor used what traveling force the Dynamon Hammer had in it to her advantage to save time and the muscular energy she would have to spend in order to redirect its current flight path. Holding tightly to the handle of Danny's weapon, Taylor forced the hammer up high level to her face, then aimed the metal blunt section directly towards the ground. Then she stopped all of its horizontal movement, and brought herself with the hammer crashing down.

  Taylor's movement was quick thinking and intentional. When she slammed Danny's hammer into the ground in front of her, the impact occurred just milliseconds away from the imminent impact of Crush Wave. Instead of being blasted away with powerful earth based magic, Taylor used the hammer in front of her to partially block most of Freya's attack. The damage reduction actually worked as well. The wave pushed strongly against the hammer that had been planted into the ground, but the Crush Wave's speed and power was greatly reduced because the first point of contact was not Taylor to begin with. Though the hammer couldn't repel the entire attack for as long, Taylor only suffered a mild scrape and a bruise from flying chunks of the earth put into the Crush Wave. The Crush Wave ended early by the time she was in any real danger, and she was then able to lift the hammer off the ground, covered in burnt dirt. She felt as though a small rock was thrown at her left leg, and that was all. Even her energy scope change agreed with the decision, and it was something Danny had planned all along.

  Jane winced at how amazing that was, and how awesome it was for Danny to think of it first as well. After failing to plan an attack against Freya when his chance was open, he still managed to plan a defensive strategy for Taylor using his own weapon to block. Jane then realized that she could have used Farshield to protect Taylor, but it would have drained energy from her aura as well. This fight is harder than she assumed it would be. The last Char monster she battled wasn't half as good.

  "But now it's our turn," Jane declared. "Back me up Danny!" Jane prepared to give the enemy hell while it had time to wait out another spell to charge up. She decided to combine a close combat tactic with a long-range spell, the best strategy she knew. "Telepower!" With her feet and fists glowing blue in color, Jane began punching and kicking the air, though her force with magic was transferred all the way over towards Freya, and the beast began to feel the damage Jane was inflicting on it.

  Meanwhile, Danny had to go with a long-range attack, since he had not received his primary weapon back yet. Luckily, he learned of many more from his previous victories. "Creshendo!" To Danny's will, seven large rocky pillars half-phased formed all around the creature, sieging Freya in lock. While Jane was delivering her Telepower combination, Danny activated his spell, bringing all of the pillars out of phase and causing all seven of them to collide at the same fixed point where Freya was located. Luckily, since Freya was large and slow on its feet, his attack didn't come near missing, and the spell itself caused a high variety of damage, chipping down its HP below the halfway mark.

  While witnessing the monster take additional damage from Jane and Danny, Taylor noticed that this was a better opportunity to give Danny his hammer back. She called his name and tossed it back, but the distance it traveled was just a meter short of where Danny would have been, proving how heavy the weapon was in either one of their hands. Danny had to jump that direction to catch it in time, and he caught the weapon by the metal side instead of the handle by mistake. Though he didn't injure himself trying, Danny fumbled the hammer in his hand while waiting on Jane to come up with a new defensive strategy, now that it would be Freya's turn to attack again. That creature still has so much energy and health, despite being red zoned.

  Taylor felt herself charge up with an idea in mind to make use of an amazing spell, but she needed a lot of time. "Jane?" Taylor called to her right, demanding Jane's attention and focus. "Keep him off me for a moment!"

  "Yeah! I got it." Staring Freya down, Jane made certain to note any action of the monster. Though it seemed to still be targeting Taylor, Freya seemed to be changing the way it was moving. It crept up closer to Jane for a few steps, and then activated a magical spell, one that registered with the ADC.

  "Storm Echo!" Taylor's voice roared and echoed around the valley, shouting her spell name with fire as her MP slowly and gradually began to drain. It should become obvious to Jane any second now that Taylor's current ability has a long charging and invocation period.

  Jane never heard of the Storm Echo spell either, but Taylor must know what she is doing. For the moment, she and Danny had another problem to deal with. Wind Shear! Jane cringed at the thought. Wind Shear is a very powerful wind elemental slashing attack that is done from afar with multiple projectile like auras that travel very quickly. The last time she endured Wind Shear, Jane was alone, thus the area attack was able to be concentrated to herself. Wind Shear however has the potential to become an area attack by redirecting a portion of the attack simultaneously. Taylor needed more time, and Danny didn't know what to do either.

  Jane knew what she had to do, but dreaded the after result consequences she would have to face as well. Luckily Danny was standing very close to her, which helped a ton even though he had no idea what was about to happen. Just then, Freya unleashed its next attack, throwing visible curved lines of grey into the air flying up and down, over a dozen of them too. Half of them were heading for Jane, and the other half towards Taylor. Just as she suspected, Freya was targeting all of them. With energy already charged and her willingness heavy on her mind, Jane chanted her protective spell with a new twist, her right hand aimed in front with the left hand aimed just in front of Taylor's position. "Farshield!"

  Invoking the spell on chant, Jane managed to form two separate power shield walls at the same time, one in front of her and another in front of Taylor, which is part of her skill method she had never done before. Holding up two shield walls at once already had Jane sweating from her forehead down, as it demanded unparalleled concentration from her mind. The several impacts of Wind Shear were all absorbed into both of the shield walls Jane created, managing to protect Taylor and herself. Jane knew she could have taken the damage, but it would have broken her concentration too much to protect even just Taylor, thus leaving her with this only option. By the time the Wind Shear attack was over with, Jane dropped both shields, and let herself collapse to the ground on her hands and knees. Danny went down to make sure she was okay, but Jane felt too warm. Her heart rate had gone way up from using that much magic all at once. Her hands and legs were shaking and her head was spinning. Jane could only wait on herself to feel better, and for Taylor to do her thing.

  Danny was amazed to see that Jane's MP dropped from the high seventies to the base line of fifty-one percent. She used all of that energy so quickly, all just to protect Taylor and herself in the process. Storm Echo was actually unknown to him as well. Why did Taylor need so much time to use a spell she wasn't even familiar with in the first place? It's too dangerous to try that here!

  Though Taylor's hands were already glowing with a blue aura of Leray magic, it had been this way for a long time. When Taylor finally let the stable amount of energy reach the correct level, she released her spell with an audible exhale, quickly spawning jade color glyphrings in the air surrounding Freya on the spot. One glyphring formed after the other in various places, and Taylor's eyes were glowing blue as well due to the intense energy level of her own spell. Each glyphring was colored with an electrical affinity, and by the time there were twenty separate rings of magic all keeping their aim on Freya, the glyphrings activated one at a time. One Lightning Strike attack was accompanied by another, ending the cycle by starting another one. The used glyphrings faded afterwards, but Jane and Danny got to see the amazing show Taylor put on with lightning arcs endlessly zapping the monster over and over again as its HP drained with each and every hit.

  Danny caught a glimpse of Taylor's used energy, and was stunned to see that the spell she made up in this format required about 50% of her entire energy reserve. It took long to invoke though, but the end result was catastrophic to the monster she was targeting. Freya could only stand there, helplessly getting electrocuted every few seconds. By the time the final Lightning Strike hit the target, everybody assessed the damages to Freya, realizing that there was still a long way to go. Taylor should have tested for electrical resistances before trying that spell out for the first time.

  If Jane had time to do the math, every single hit of a Lightning Strike coming from Taylor that time only did one percent damage to Freya's HP. It wasn't a good investment overall, but there wasn't time to complain about it. If all of them just stand around, Freya will try more things to throw at them. Jane didn't feel as if she could perfect two solid shield walls at the same time again, but she was more than restored enough to throw additional powerful magic at the beast. Hoping the two would back her up, Jane went all in with her next spell, hand held in front.

  "Prism!" Using much of her own magic from memory and experience, Jane created a multi-colored glyphring in front of her standing firm. By the time she had enough Leray power to use all of the spell, Jane began her ranged multi-elemental attack. She began with two Fire Bolts, three Ice Bolts, six Thunderbolts, and switched from there randomly to make four more Ice Bolts. Though the pattern randomly selects from five Fire Bolts, four Ice Bolts, and six Thunderbolts, Jane held back on fire for obvious reasons, despite Prism having a more fixed design. By the time it was over, she was sad to see how little effect it had on Freya despite its HP getting low.

  After taking multiple elemental damages from randomized bolt projectiles coming from Jane's illuminated Prism glyphring, Freya seemed unfazed by the attack in general, and proceeded to walk forward towards all three of them. The action display center didn't function again, and Jane had to trust her instincts to give her the right moment to properly defend herself.

  Danny on the other hand hadn't delivered anything special lately, and tried to interrupt whatever the monster had on its current mind with his own attack. With his hammer back into his hands, he quickly surged magical auras into the device, and smashed it down into the ground after advancing in front of Jane. "Crush Wave!" Using the same type of spell with the force of his hammer to trigger, Danny created a Crush Wave attack with the same power contained by Freya, this time used against the creature. The Crush Waved moved quick enough to intercept the monster and deal a good amount of earth elemental magical damage.

  Even before his Crush Wave slammed the target, Jane was throwing some of her own attacks towards the beast's direction was well, combining two attacks one after the other, despite failing to first invoke Dualcasting. "Volley!" Jane let the sky rain sharp piercing arrows from above, which barely drained an ounce of her own magic. The arrows hit Freya just as Danny's Crush Wave hit its mark. When Freya seemed to keep its balance, Jane quickly delivered another attack she had kept charged just in case. "Quantum Beam!" Using both of her hands this time, Jane fired a high energy Quantum Beam that filled a large area with a flashy blue beam of magical light, slamming into the monster and pushing it back slightly, but even after that light faded, the creature still maintained the nerve to go on.

  While tilting its torso upwards, the beast opened its oddly shaped circular mouth towards the sky, and let out a searing wail that pierced everyone in range with its ultra-sonic scream of terror. The high-pitch noise shook the earth, forcing Jane and the others to cover their ears. The noise level was so loud and painful that it sent everyone to the ground in pure agony. Jane wasn't expecting an attack like this, and power shield would have actually helped to block some of the noise out as well. Her only thought right now was making the noise stop, not that she had any idea of how to do that.

  Freya kept its screaming wail up for five seconds. It was the longest five seconds Taylor had ever experienced in her life. The noise cut through her hands, drilling all the way inside of her head and inflicting her with a bad headache. When the screaming noise of agony was finally at its end, Taylor caught something showing up in the action display center, and could only brace herself by the time it was unleashed. Mega-Quake!

  Shortly after getting over the heavy noise that disoriented her entire team, Jane fell off balance again when a sudden earthquake was trigged, but it felt more massive than any regular quake. Chunks of rocks flew everywhere, hitting Jane in multiple locations. From the flashing corner of her eyes, she could see Danny on her right who had just as much trouble, being tossed around by the ground itself. Freya must have used that wail as a prelude to overdriving a massive quake attack. By the time it was over, she only had enough time to check the energy scope of one teammate, and that of her own.

  It was nearly too much. Though the overall damage wasn't as intense, Jane felt as though she had the wind knocked out of her from the force of the ground, long after the quake itself was over. Danny must feel the same way too, despite her own warnings of the enemy's power. Taylor...

  Crush Wave! That was the next action Freya was soon to take. Though some time passed after it used Mega-Quake, its last attack bumped everyone into the ground other than itself. It took a long time before anybody was able to stand back up and feel for the real world again, plenty of time for Freya to unleash another hostile spell, and this time it had Taylor locked on for another Crush Wave attack. After slamming its oversized fist into the floor again, another Crush Wave spell was activated on approach for the disoriented girl.

  Jane was able to see just as she was beginning to recover that a Crush Wave spell was on its way to Taylor, who didn't look at all like she could take it head on. Jane wanted to scream out her name, hoping to at least alert her that there was pending danger, but the previous damage caused some bruising to her chest as far as she could feel. It became hard enough to breathe, but impossible to get in enough of a breath to shout anything out at the moment. All Jane could do right now is watch the catastrophe.

  Before she knew it, Taylor saw a Crush Wave just moments away from her. She still felt incredibly disoriented from Freya's last move; there wasn't even time to jump out of the way or block it with anything she had. As a result, Taylor got to feel the full damaging effect of a Shadow Wave infused with earth elemental damage. It felt more like her skin was getting drilled into, as the spell did magical slashing damage and created cuts and abrasions in any vulnerable spot on her. Taylor was forced back on the ground, suffering a more intense attack that dealt a bad variety of physical blows. Though it didn't last long for a spell, it got the best of her before she could do anything about it.

  Jane clenched her teeth down and fought through the still lasting pain from the Mega-Quake attack used against her. Forcing herself up, she stood though dizzy and held out her hand between the monster and Taylor's position, preparing to use a Farshield should it attack her again. Jane didn't do anything just yet however; she waited for Danny to recover as well.

  But when Danny saw the state Taylor was in, and the report back from her energy scope that some real time damage was done to her, he recovered nine times as quickly as he planned to. "Taylor!"

  A lot of things hurt right now, and it was hard to overcome the damages dealt to her body. At this point, the fatigue finally set in, and Taylor just wanted to relax her entire muscles, letting the others take care of it, but after hearing Danny's clear panicked scream, she forced herself to focus. It didn't take as much as she thought it would to push herself back up, and keeping Freya in her sights at the same time wasn't as difficult either. The monster was only fifteen meters from her current position, still walking her way as if it were preparing to swallow Taylor for a snack in one gulp. To her side, she could see Danny and Jane preparing to attack. With the monster's HP not so high, a teamed attack was the best option.

  Though her chest hurt more than any other section, Taylor got over it for now to project her own voice to the others. "Team Tri-Attack!" If they heard, Taylor would only need to put in one third of the effort needed to take down Freya. Though the monster was only ten meters away and closing in on its legs, Taylor opened her hand, standing firm while preparing to blast the enemy into dust. With her version of a Tri-Attack, Taylor led off with a cold glyphring, a spell easy to her. "Ice Bolts!" Taylor fired five separate bolts of ice elemental projectiles into the monster. Though they weren't nearly as powerful as those coming from Mainne's ice attacks, they worked well enough to slow the enemy down.

  "Flamewheel!" Using a more powerful spell that drained most of his energy on the spot, Danny managed to form a horizontal vortex of Fire Balls in front of him, creating three dozens of small fire spheres of energy. Despite the enemy being resistant to fire, having over thirty-six hits should do more than nothing.

  Taylor got an idea in her head for later usage in the process. Danny was using Flamewheel, which creates an amazing horizontal vortex of Fire Balls designed for a unique area attack. She has never before seen one make use of an ice version of the same spell. Taylor could create her own Icewheel in the near future with more practice, or maybe even a voltage wheel, or a spiritual wheel too. She snapped herself out of a distracting thought to see if their attacks damaged Freya.

  Jane was throwing her all into the Tri-Attack as well, but this time she went with another Quantum Beam, concentrating harder than she did last time. Her green eyes turned into a cyan blue glowing color during her invocation of Quantum Beam, which didn't happen last time. During this invocation, Jane's Quantum Beam held a much higher power level than usual as it literally drilled through the body of her target. Combined with Danny's Flamewheel attack, Jane watched as the remaining HP above Freya finally disappeared.

  Chapter Theme Shift:

  Much like the last creature, Freya's entire body began lighting up as though a violent reaction were occurring inside of its burnt flesh body. In just a few seconds later, the beast let out a short-lived wail of pain while its entire structure crumbled into thick dark particles of magical dust, all floating downwards from the air after disintegration. Jane had to wait several long moments before she could believe it, before she could allow herself to relax. Danny and Taylor both felt the same way. By the time the creature's stats and energy scope faded away leaving behind no trace, they all felt so relieved.

  Taylor finally felt safe enough to drop her guard. She felt so tired after just that one match, and the scratches that were left behind lingered as well, which wasn't something she was used to during her entire stay in Sprawn Valley. Naturally, Danny and Jane both rushed towards her to check and see if she was really okay. The dizziness passed, and the sensation of getting the wind knocked out of her was gone too, but the stinging sensation from each small cut or abrasion didn't go away. Taylor felt they were too concerned, as the red energy scope was but a warning. With Freya gone, there wasn't a reason to worry anymore.

  "You're still okay right?"

  Jane butted Danny to the side. "Give her some space you!" She redirected her attention to Taylor, who of course was breathing as fast as she was, but seemed physically fine. "All you need right now is a healing orb."

  "But I thought they don't work here."

  Jane denied the claim with a nod. "They still work, just not nearly as well." She pulled one out, a spare she prepared in advance to use mid-battle just in case of an emergency. "Using these is still better than not using them at all."

  Taylor took the orb, activating it with her aura and using the device to heal herself. Jane was opening up her supply sphere to do the same thing, while giving one to Danny so he could use it. The orbs took longer to activate, and much longer to regenerate the lost health to everybody here. It was like Jane said before. Leray magic is essential to run everything that is also related to Leray magic, including the smaller devices.

  Aside from the others, Taylor saw what Jane meant by taking irrecoverable damage in a fight. Despite her health being high, the healing orb only did little to help her, and the warning message on her own energy scope remained there. The healing orb must be incapable of fixing the real time damage that was dealt to her, which explained why her health refused to push past 94%. But her MP stats were still climbing, as they would all the way to 100% as far as she knew. Even now, the orbs were still lighting up, but at this point only MP points were recovered over time. When the lights on all three went out, she left it to Jane to explain it to both of them.

  "You only suffered a minor scratch here and there," Jane expressed. "So long as you don't take any more hits like that, you'll be just fine."

  "So that's how it works!" Danny concluded. "In the Leray zone, no matter what, the only way you can take real time damage is if an enemy uses dark magic. But being a Leray zone, dark magic creatures like that don't spawn, so it has to be done by people sick enough to use it against others. Real time damage is just like taking damage in the world outside of Sprawn Valley. Like if I were to get cut by a kitchen knife or bang my head hard enough against the wall for blood to spill out. That's damage that magic can't fix!"

  "Exactly," Jane summarized. "If you suffer that type of damage, only your own body can heal those wounds, which takes a long time. If you take too much real time damage, and your HP drops to zero, it's lights out forever. But in the dark zone, dark magical damage is doubled in power, and the pain absorber set in from the protective veil is removed as well. A knife can go through your heart in the veil and you'll be just fine. The protection zone automatically and instantaneously heals that type of damage on the spot. But in here, the slightest critical hit can kill you."

  Taylor admitted they were right to be afraid, but she didn't let anyone forget the reason for being here in the first place. "I know it's dangerous, but imagine the dark zone spreading all the way around. It would be a disaster for everyone involved. And I want to stay and fight with Jane."

  "That's all fine, but I'm setting a new ground rule," Danny announced. "Jane? You can team up with Danton if this happens to you. But if Taylor's HP drops to thirty percent or below in the form of real time damage, she and I both are going back to Lennith."

  Jane angled her step to face him more closely, realizing the intelligence with that backup plan. "I'm fair with that rule." Danny has a good point. Protecting these two is hard enough when they can fight, but if they are lying on the ground and unable to move, protecting their bodies will be next to impossible. He's right to protect himself and his lover in the process of making sure everyone else is okay.

  Danny continued the breakdown of his new ground rule. "Taylor, I expect you to enforce this upon me as well should the need arise."

  "Then we better keep our health far above thirty percent."

  Jane elaborated one more key point. "If you two think you've felt real pain so far, think again. I suffered much worse the last time I was here. When your stats get low inside of the dark zone, or due to real time damage, fatigue will be the least of your problems. You could bleed out, faint, or be rendered incapacitated long before your health drops to zero. Thirty percent doesn't sound like a bad figure coming from Danny. But even at that point during our stay in the dark zone, it will be hard to walk, even harder to fight. Keep that in mind from now on."

  "I'll be okay," Taylor promised. The things Jane was saying sounded so harsh, but all of it was the truth. She remembered finding Jane's body around this spot not too long ago. She was sure Jane had died by how poor the condition her skin was in, burns and cuts marks everywhere, bruises in multiple locations. What creature was it in the dark zone that got the best of her? Being only ten percent on track towards the Den of Purity wasn't inspiring either. After all that, were they expected to fight nine more creatures? Couldn't Jane and Taylor just run towards the goal with no Siriean dome in place to stop them?

  "Come on." Jane started to head out again. There weren't any troops behind her like Danton said there would be. Jane didn't notice them prior to battle either, so they must have either gotten separated, or simply refused to be part of her team. In either case, Jane didn't want to run backwards in order to find them. If they have any sense in them left, they'll either survive, or return to Lennith for their own safety. Danton and the other teams should already be advancing forward, so maybe the area will be in a lower density of monsters by then. "We must keep moving."