They doubled how many squares they did a day.

  The promise of recreation drove most of the people on the third floor to push for the increased fighting. Patrick hadn’t liked it because he was exhausted by the end of the day and hadn’t felt like tending to his tinkering.

  They finished 24A first thing in the morning and the other team still had 24J to do, which gave Patrick the time he needed to organize the harvesting team while Rae’s teams finished her side.

  Patrick gave the briefing about the monsters while they ate lunch, and then the main team got ready to start on 25E.

  Penelope tugged on the collar of the Yellow Robe. She’d lost two points of Recovery for the three points of Magic that the new robe offered. Patrick had insisted that those able to hit the next level of their class needed to do so, which had resulted in a lot of gear redistribution the night before. She looked at her new stats and sighed.

  “Yes, but now you can control another spell, which is a good thing!” Jeru made the motion of throwing things. “You were smiting things left and right this morning!”

  I know. Penelope took a deep breath as Patrick headed into the square. Let’s get this done as quickly as possible.

  While she could keep two sets of active now while using , she was cutting through things faster by letting herself target things with . She in front of Patrick as he set up the bunker for the others to gather in, then sent her cluster of floating magic forward as she dealt with the hopping Tanks.

  The blue-skinned Blurps resembled a smooth-skinned frog, but with oversized ears that fell over most of their body when they jumped into the air. They had two different immunities thanks to the passives and , which made them very dangerous for the burn squad and the people with hammers and other blunt smashing weapons.

  Five knives the length of her hands materialized in front of her, then shot at the closest monster. Three of the blades stuck into a , but she managed to correct the flight path of the other two and lodge them into her target. She felt resistance as the blades sank inside the Blurp as a green aura covered it. Penelope gave it one more push to resist the healing effect, then cast the spell from above through her four .

  Twenty knives rained down on the Tank.

  Ding!

  Experience +0.66

  A pair of tongues shot out at her as the other Blurps closed the distance, but her job wasn’t to thin out the charging monsters, so she deeper into enemy lines.

  As soon as she oriented herself, she scanned for the Shadow Assassin. Her had spotted it during the recon and they’d decided that with her ability to pop around the square, she was the best one to hunt it down and take care of it while the others dealt with the monsters. The last thing they wanted was for Frederica to end up with a knife in her back while she hunted down the Shadow Poisoner.

  Penelope spared a glance at her friend, just to make sure that her target wasn’t in that direction. Frederica was moving through the shadows straight for the purple-robed Demon that was barking orders at the lioness-sized felines around it.

  The Toxunks had feline bodies, but their coloring was all black with a single white stripe down their backs. A pair of short horns poked out of the Magic monster’s foreheads, just above their ears, as they sent a spray of green gas towards the left-side group. The smell was bad enough to make Penelope gag even from this distance and she was glad that she hadn’t been assigned to deal with the owners of those fumes.

  “MOVE!”

  Penelope into the air. It was the safest way to get away from trouble. Using the spell to move in any direction other than up might cause her to run into a tree and the moment it took to reorient herself was less time than it would take for her to fall back to the ground. She a second time to get her feet back on solid ground, then looked at the danger Jeru had warned her about.

  A Montis slowly pivoted to look at where she was standing nearly a hundred feet away. The monster stood on four legs that all came out of a central body, which allowed it to move in any direction rapidly. The green torso was thin, barely thicker than one of the brown legs. It had large bug eyes locked onto her, while a pair of antennae on top of its head twitched. It slashed the scythes at the end of its arms together before it screamed and ran after her.

  Penelope ignored the Power monster. It wasn’t her target and it was going to take too long to reach her.

  Ding!

  Experience +2

  Someone got one of the big ones. Penelope looked over at Jeru. Do you have eyes on the Assassin?

  “It’s trying to get behind the right group.” Jeru pointed behind her.

  Penelope turned around and in that direction.

  “You’ve got company.”

  A bolt of dark energy hit her in the back, knocking her forward. Penelope stumbled, then into the air to dodge the other two arrows that followed after the first.

  I really need a defensive spell. Penelope closer to the owner of the attacks. You think I can outrun this thing?

  “It’s dark. Just nuke it.”

  The black-clad Shadow Sniper pulled back on its bow as it readied another shot. A black arrow appeared above and below the one that the Demon had notched.

  “I’m not your prey.” Penelope let the she had behind her vanish as she recast , but this time she didn’t bother to attach to it since she could see the target in front of her. She flattened the balls out into shields as she cast a second one, then a third. Each one layering her with more protection.

  “You really want a defensive spell when you can do this?” Jeru teased.

  Three of the shields shattered like glass as the hit them.

  I’m trying to focus. Penelope sighed as a pair of Fluture landed in between her and the Demon. The crow-like monsters were the size of turkeys and were the Healers of the column. Well, this isn’t going to go well. She let loose with from the nine remaining floating barriers. Another three shattered, allowing her to replace four of them and unleashing another round of .

  Ding!

  Experience +0.66

  The third barrage took out one of the Fluture, then two more finished off the second one. Penelope downed a Mana Potion before blasting the Demon, which went down in a single hit.

  Ding!

  Experience +2

  You are now Level Twenty Nine

  Stats increased: Speed +1, Magic +1

  You have learned: Light Torrent T2

  Someone has been killing things. Penelope noted that there were unread notifications, but she dismissed them as she turned her attention back towards the Assassin.

  “They made it to the bunker before it reached them.” Jeru clicked his tongue. “You should have used to take care of the Healers. It would have been faster.” He pointed at the invisible Demon that was stalking the structure. “You got lucky this time.”

  I know. Penelope sighed as she realized how much she would have had to redo if the Demon had reached the other group while she was busy taking care of this group.

  “If it helps, the moment the Flutures showed up, you should have run instead of engaging.” Jeru sighed. “Healers aren’t what you’re supposed to go after.”

  I know. Penelope towards the structure, then recast her orbital spells.

  Circe was busy shooting at the Wood Wasps flying around the stone building. Along with the burn squad and Whitney, they were keeping the flying monsters away, but that was taking away from their ability to clear out the monsters on the ground.

  The Debuffer monsters in this square had shiny green carapaces and wings. Their spell, , allowed them to break the stone that the building was made out of but required them to physically touch the surface that they were destroying. allowed the dog-sized bugs to zip around, which allowed them to dodge most of the spells and arrows, but didn’t make them fast enough to actually land on the stone walls.

  The last monster in the square was the Speed one. The Fanged Apes sported sleek black hides as well as bodies that would make a gorilla look small. The stone walls of the structure were in need of constant repair as they unleashed on the walls. With the ranged people on top of the building occupied with the bugs, that allowed the monster around it to beat on it undeterred.

  “Finish off the Assassin, then you can work your way through the bugs up top.” Jeru pointed at the Montis. “Those things can jump, by the way.”

  I’m on it. Penelope on top of the structure.

  “Nice of you to join us!” Circe swore as she missed another Wood Wasp. “These stupid things are too fast!”

  “I’ve got it.” Penelope cast three times. She downed another Mana Potion as she arranged the in a circle around the building. “Get ready!”

  She cast through all twelve.

  Nausea punched her in the stomach and her head spun as her mana went from full to almost zero with a single spell. Penelope dropped down to her hands and knees. Each cast of cost 15 mana and channeling that through twelve had drained her to 10 mana at once.

  None of the monsters around the building were able to get away. The Wood Wasps struggled to free themselves from the sticky mud while Flutures moved into range of the Archers as green glows wrapped around some of the monsters.

  “Pen!” Circe dropped her bow and knelt down next to her friend.

  “I’m okay!” Penelope dug into her right pocket and pulled out another Mana Potion. The weakness faded as the minty liquid washed down her throat. She jabbed her finger at the edge of the roof. “Shoot them before they get up!”

  Circe paused for a moment, then grabbed her bow and joined the others as they picked off the monsters that were stuck like bugs on fly tape.

  “You should do this every time!” Whitney cackled as she zapped a monster with a charged arrow.

  “It’s too expensive.” Penelope laid on her back as she steadied her breathing. “And now that they’ve seen me do it, they’re not going to swarm us again.”

  “Sadness.” Aly sniffed. “Because this is too easy!”

  Penelope ignored the experience notifications as she sat up. As much as she wanted to rest, she still had a Demon to find. She sighed as she let the fall, then recast the spell, this time with attached. Everything that hadn’t been caught in the mud had scattered, which meant the Demons had decided this square was lost and they were going to try to run out as much of the timer as they could by hiding or running.

  Penelope picked up her wands, then stood up and stretched. “It’s going to be a long day…”

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