All the class chosen were notified by Gene that Synexus would take longer than anyone else to do the trial because they wanted to use the time dilation for an important opportunity, so none of them were surprised when the first four days passed without any sign of them emerging. They all their jobs to do anyways which mainly was to help get the ship ready to set sail.

  Mipp was almost done with the last sail, and the second sail had been put up on the mast already. Both needed Synexus’ final modification and then they would be ready to go. Most of the class expected were already living aboard the ship and were loving how spacious it was compared to Windswept. It was incredible to be inside a vessel that was grown only a few weeks before.

  Kumo continued her patrols to clear monsters coming from the ocean onto the island and to her surprise, for some reason that number had gotten much higher in the past couple of days. She could handle the small groups by herself, and she liked doing so to do her part for the group.

  Vorin and Drackenn each took a shift watching the map for any new mana signatures or any that decided to come towards them. When it wasn’t their shift then they were working towards their progress like everyone else. The energy was different once you got out of the trial dungeon. It felt like a weight had been lifted off your advancement and that excitement for levelling was there all over again.

  Zuls and her bonded were running through the forest practicing different formations for attacking. Sometimes she would even split her bonded into two groups of random mixtures to attempt strengthening the bond they shared with each other too. All the bonded loved being out in the open with each other getting much needed exercise in.

  Prith continued his meditation and practiced his sword forms on top of the mansion. In between, he’d look out to the forest and catch a glimpse of Zuls practicing harder than she ever had before. He noticed a huge shift in her intensity ever since she passed her trial. His favorite days to watch were when she would pit herself against her bonded and they would go all out. Truly a sight to see.

  Shell, of course, liked to stay on the bow of the ship playing her ocarina. She was still trying to mix her old class with her new one to find how powerful the overlap was. So far, she had made the ocean around her flow with her music and to a small extent, she could control the waves with the notes. The class expected loved sitting on deck and listening to her melodic practice sessions.

  It wasn’t until a week after Synexus started his trial that things started to go badly. All beings on the island felt a powerful shift in the dungeon like something major had happened. There was no indication that they had emerged, but with the drop in the natural humming they had come to ignore, another massive spiderweb crack formed in the middle of the mountain range right behind the mansion and then a big portion of it shattered. Kumo was the first one there and watched as chunks of gemstone fell on the mansion and had been repelled by some sort of defensive enchantments that must have been put on the outside walls. At this point they didn’t care about the mansion since they doubted it would harm the dungeon room, however, something else had come from this portion of the mountain breaking.

  At first, it was just an ominous feeling, but a few days later more of the mountain broke as the dungeon mana shifted again and a powerful aura started leaking out. Checking the map on the ship they confirmed that a new powerful mana source had appeared right behind the mansion and then they started putting pieces together from the books they had read when trying to unlock the dungeon.

  Some of the texts had referred to an entity they were using to extract knowledge, but they all assumed it was talking about the dungeon itself. Now, they weren’t so sure. On top of the aura, the monster raids on the island started to increase as the density of atmospheric mana decreased. That’s when the class chosen became busier than ever since one group had to hold off any attacking monsters while another had to keep watch on the mountains and make sure whatever was there didn’t escape.

  Two weeks after Synexus started his trial, another plummet in the dungeon mana caused the mountains to shatter completely in a cacophony of earthquakes and glass hitting stone. Prith immediately stood up and was on guard when he finally saw what the aura was coming from.

  At the bottom of the crater where the middle of the mountain range stood, a figure stood on its four cat-like legs amongst the glistening rubble. Its fur was the color of dark blood, its feathers were a deep, ominous black, and a long whip-like tail cascaded from behind it before splitting into three and continuing for a few feet. Fearsome claws flexed like it wasn’t sure exactly where it was for a moment and then it looked up, and Prith met a feminine humanoid face except it had a beak instead of a mouth. Beneath her head was torso of naked flesh that seemed to fuse with the fur and feathers that made up her body. Her eyes locked onto him before her void black wings turned a burning red before bursting into bright flames. An instant later, she was behind him on the roof of the mansion.

  Kumo ran up when she started to feel the tremors and when she got out of the forest, she noticed a flaming bird attacking Prith on the roof. She immediately used her Cloud Walking ability to get up there and assist him. By the time she got up there, he had a bad gash on his leg that was bleeding profusely. She didn’t have time to make sure he was okay because a combination of wind and fire magic attacks started coming at her. With the magic attacks barraging her from all angles, she almost missed the barbed tails coming from below. A series of dodges kept her from the same wound that Prith had suffered.

  Prith’s movement was already compromised from the few seconds of the fight, but he continued to fight on. Kumo was taking most of the attention from the fearsome sphinx, but that still left the head for him. Her neck seemed to be able to stretch to any length and her beak felt indestructible. Every now and then small embers would sizzle against his skin. He knew they needed more help.

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  Relentless attacks kept both Prith and Kumo on the backfoot when suddenly it started snowing. Their enemy became distracted for an instant and Kumo knew it was her chance. With a strong gust of wind, she sent Prith over the backside of the mansion, and she jumped to follow him. Before they even landed, she used Cloud Walking along with strong breezes to start moving them around the corner to regroup with the other class chosen.

  Zuls stood in front of the mansion looking up at the creature before her. Her intensive research into the bestiary made it clear that this was a sphinx. Never in her life did she think she could meet one face to face. This was a creature that was more intelligent than most other living beings. Yet, it was ferociously attacking like it was purely being driven by anger. Her bonded stood with her as the sphinx teleported down to meet them face to face.

  “Why are you attacking us? We are not your enemy!”

  That was all she managed to get out before a growl of primal hatred came from the sphinx, and it started its attack once more except this time it was eleven with more on the way against one. Even with the odds it wouldn’t be an easy fight, but they would be able to manage.

  Whimper cloaked himself. Blink conjured up a noxious gas. Snowfall grew long ice claws and fangs. Gliya took to the sky to use the sun’s power. Fort activated shield around all of them. Element shifted the ground beneath the sphinx and started moving water towards it in a deadly stream. Sovereign created multiple illusions of herself. Ghost started to summon more ghostly tentacles. Claw got low to the ground and started making her way around the sphinx waiting for an opportunity. Siz stood next to Zuls and they both prepared massive jets of flames to shoot from their mouths.

  Intense, all-out combat ensued. The sphinx was able to negate the flames by absorbing them into her wings. Element’s stream of water evaporated to steam a few feet from their foe. Snowfall managed to engage the sphinx in combat and was even able to get a nice scratch on her leg when Ghost’s tentacles bound her for the briefest second. Kumo’s cloud cover activated overhead blocking the sphinx’s ability to see a dive from the wyvern coming. Sadly, their foe was much too fast, and the wyvern’s claw only took off one of the tails.

  Through the bond with Zuls, Gliya still knew where the sphinx was even with the dense cloud between her and the target. A deadly beam of sunlight shot down and made a hole in the cloud while hitting its mark. A pain-filled wail came from the sphinx as the beam hit and burnt its fur and feathers. It wasn’t enough to burn through the hide, however.

  An explosion of wind magic was released from the Sphinx blowing the cloud away while knocking everyone around it back. Whimper was about to strike the eyes when the explosion happened and now found herself colliding with a tree. Claw managed to hold her ground but was smacked away by a follow up swipe from the sphinx’s tail. The wings on her back flared up with a hotter flame and the ambient temperature rose quickly. Zuls and Snowfall got to work on fighting back with a cold aura. Kumo started creating a cooling breeze. Siz started trying to absorb the heat. Still, it wasn’t enough and soon the grass itself started to catch fire.

  Fire started to spin violently around the sphinx and a tornado of pure destruction formed. Class chosen and bonded alike had to back up to avoid being swallowed by the intensely strong magic. What was worse was that they were not obscured from each other. Zuls tried to make her way towards where Kumo was, but the radius of the fire vortex was growing too rapidly. She had to keep backing up which was when she realized what the Sphinx was doing. The wider the vortex got, the more of the forest was consumed and that gave her more fuel. That’s when a massive thunderstorm formed overhead courtesy of Kumo and rain started to fall.

  Kumo used her Stormcloud skill and summoned her living cloud armor. The rain started to wet the plants and prevent the vortex from continuing to grow. This obviously got the attention of the sphinx as she jumped from the vortex and started to engage her in a melee. Tails whipped out and struck nearly indestructible armor, but the impact still was enough to throw her off balance which let the sphinx land a few beak thrusts. Kumo started summoning cloud blades which started to make shallow cuts on her foe, but that didn’t slow down the onslaught of attacks. She summoned the strongest breeze she could which paused the sphinx for a brief second which was enough for a mana cannon to come from nowhere and blindside the beast.

  Drackenn ran from the ship when he started to feel a battle happening. As he got closer a great flaming vortex spawned, and he knew it was no ordinary enemy. When he caught a glimpse of the sphinx, it made him pause for a second. What would a sphinx want with them? They are known for their high intellect and mastery of magic. One hadn’t even been seen in a century. Then he saw Kumo knock the momentum of the sphinx away for a brief second and he decided to take the opening with a full blast mana cannon.

  When it hit, the sphinx flew with the blast and smacked into the side of the mansion nearly busting through whatever defense enchantments it had in the walls. It got up and shook of the damage like it was nothing even though most creatures would have died to that blast of power. Of course, the recovery was a little sluggish which gave Vorin his opening and he was able to use his new scythe to make a cut and deliver a potent plague on the front left leg of the sphinx before he pulled back. At the same time, a cloud of noxious gas hit the humanoid face. The combination was enough for the sphinx to strike out wildly in pain. Unfortunately, a tail connected with Blink and sent the chameleon flying backwards.

  Before the sphinx started its attack again, it used wind magic to get rid of the toxic cloud and then shot her own leg with a fire ball instantly igniting it to burn the plague away. When it looked up, it met the faces of all the class chosen and Zuls’ bonded. The flaming vortex still raged casting their shadows against the wall of the mansion. They thought the sphinx was backed into its final corner, but the beast was clever.

  Flaming whips lashed out from the vortex and wrapped around each of its foes searing their flesh as it pulled them into the vortex. Some were strong enough to resist the pull which is when the Sphinx blasted them with another wave of wind, and they lost their footing. All of them were being pulled helplessly into the giant flame tornado. Right before the first one hit, a wall of stone trees sprang up out of nowhere blocking the path to the flame. At the same time a mass of water flowed from seemingly nowhere to put out the flames.

  Enraged by the failed attack, the sphinx charged at the closest class chosen to take advantage of the confusion, but right when it leapt forward to attack, dozens of razorsteel binding vines emerged beneath the beast impaling it in dozens of places and then binding around its body twice over leaving only the head exposed. That’s when the invisibility faded and Synexus stepped from nowhere to meet the sphinx face to face.