The Bombfly needed to die next.

  Penelope groaned as she watched the monsters tear apart the vine barrier that was meant to hold back the flying monsters. The stone pillars the vines had been attached to were knocked down, scattering rocks over the mulch that had been carefully laid around the boss square.

  Allis’s group of Caster were busy throwing spells at the monsters they could reach, while the Archers were providing what support they could, but the flying bosses had moved away from the ranged Humans and were working their way into 30D.

  They’d assumed that the Demons would charge straight for the exit to the second floor, so most of their traps were in the 29-column, with the majority of their defenders in 29E. The Buffers would be able to activate the traps in 29D to slow the monsters down, but the monsters would be largely unmolested by the Humans if they continued their charge towards the wall between 29D and 28D.

  Penelope made it onto the other side of the mulch line into 29E and hesitated. There were four flying bosses that were fairly close together and there was no way she could take all of them on at once.

  I wish Patrick had got the trebuchets to work. Penelope muttered as she tried to think of a way to deal with the bosses. Lois and Tristan were still at the tower where she’d started, harassing the little monsters that tried to enter the mulch, but without someone with a fire spell, there was no way that they could light it.

  Penelope looked behind her at the Demon Chimera and the lesser Demons. There were twelve groups instead of the normal nine, but that wasn’t much of a concern to her. If the Demon leaders went down, the little ones would be simple.

  The main question is, how do I handle that bomber? Penelope jogged towards where the flying group of bosses was coming around into 29D.

  “You can drag one of them to the ground.” Jeru offered.

  That means I need people there to kill it once it's down. She looked over at where Patrick had the rest of the melee fighters waiting to engage. He was shouting orders and motioning for people to move to intercept the bosses.

  They don’t need to get close until the Bombfly is dead. Penelope back to the tower she’d started at.

  “PEN!” Tristan jumped and pointed his wand at her. “You scared me!”

  “Are they okay?” Lois shivered as she looked away from the line of monsters coming towards them.

  “That thing got Macy.” Penelope pointed at the lumbering behemoth coming towards them. “And Stephen sacrificed himself to deal with the Ballisto.”

  “They…” Tristan sat down. “They’re dead?’

  “If you mourn now, more people die.” Penelope cleared her throat. “Pack it away and we can let it out once everyone is safe.” She looked between the two remaining Casters. “Can you do that?”

  “Hey!” Kingsley popped into place beside her.

  “AH!” This time a jolt of electricity arced off Tristan’s wand.

  Penelope dispelled it with a silent cast of

  “You guys have to stop doing that!” Tristan lowered his wand. “I thought you were a monster!”

  “We need to work on your threat assessment.” Penelope sighed. “Later.” She turned to Kingsley. “What did Pat say?’

  “He wants us to light up the mulch, then take down the exploders.” Kingsley looked around. “Where are the others?”

  “They died taking out one of the exploders.” Penelope took a deep breath, then continued before he could ask more questions. “I’ve got an idea for how to deal with the Bombfly, but I need you all to hit it from range…” She turned to Lois. “I need you to tell Aly to light the mulch, then grab whoever she can spare and come find us as soon as you can.”

  “Okay.” The older woman vanished as she away.

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  “Alright.” Penelope pointed at the group of flying monsters. “I’m going to use my and to grab that thing and drag it over in front of one of the log traps.” She looked at Tristan. “I need you to trigger that once I’ve got it pinned, then summon one of your on top of it and start blasting it.” She turned to the younger man. “King—”

  “The backups are manning the bigger traps.” Kingsley reminded her.

  Penelope paused. There were five Casters that weren’t officially part of one of the teams. Each had been brought up to level twenty-one by eating Shadow Essence, which allowed them to be able to fight the monsters, but mostly they’d been given levels so they could away if one of the monsters tried chasing them down.

  “I forgot about that.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, Tristan, let whoever is manning the log trap know what to do, then come help us.” She turned back to Kingsley. “I doubt the others are going to let me just pull the most dangerous monster left out of formation without attacking us. I need you to cover me the best you can.”

  “I can do that!” The younger man saluted.

  Penelope shook her head. I like his enthusiasm, but that’s way too serious. She took a deep breath. “Are you ready?”

  Both men nodded.

  She towards the monsters. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that the Bombfly was in front, but it made it easier to target it. She oriented herself and found the nearest log trap, pointed at it to let Tristan know where she was going, then turned back to the monsters.

  Eight shot towards the gigantic flying bug. The other three boss monsters spread out as they attempted to destroy the flying projectiles. The smooth-skinned Porsel opened its reptilian mouth and breathed arcs of electricity at all of the on her right. She fanned those three out but two of them winked out as the consumed them.

  The Prime Fly tried to lash at the three on the left with whips made out of thorny vines. This was easier to dodge and it only got one of them.

  Kingsley threw at the Stinkfly, forcing it to dodge away from the other three, which kept it from interfering with her.

  The Bombfly grabbed a pair of pinecones off its back and lobbed them at the oncoming , destroying both the ones in the center.

  Of the three remaining one, Penelope used one on each side to cast to grab the Bombfly’s arms, then cast another round of . The five spells each attached to the Bombfly, one on each wing, one around the neck, and the other two attaching to the waist. With seven anchors, she threw all of the spells to the ground in front of the nearest log trap.

  When they’d cleared off the trees in the five squares around the boss square, the stronger people had rolled the hewn logs up onto ramps, then the logs had been tied up with vines by a Caster or Buffer. That had led to dozens of places where there were people who knew waiting with a sword or axe to cut the vines holding the logs.

  The Bombfly crashed in front of the log trap. A few pine cones flew in various directions, causing explosions where they landed. One hit the logs and sent splinters showering the person hiding behind the stack.

  “NOW!” Penelope screamed as the other three dove out of the air to help their downed ally.

  The vines snapped as the person standing behind the logs cut through the vines holding them in place. The Bombfly roared in defiance as the logs rolled over it, burying it in a pile of debris.

  Most of her were destroyed by the logs, but the two that weren’t vomited up over the logs, further burying the monster.

  A storm cloud formed over the entombed monster, casting down on the ground where the Bombfly had been buried. Stone spikes rose up out of the mud in a chaotic pattern, stopping the other three large monsters from landing near the buried monster.

  Penelope recast twice. The two that had been buried under the eruption of mud had destroyed themselves to bury the monster. The mud dried quickly thanks to the lightning strikes, with fist-sized holes being blasted into the mound. She focused on casting through those openings, bombarding the trapped monster with spells.

  The other three bosses fled, content to leave their ally behind while they sought out easier prey. Penelope thought about chasing after them for a moment, but if the Bombfly got free, it could cause a lot of havoc and death. She needed to focus on making sure it was dead or at least close enough that the others could finish it off before she went after the next target.

  She kept expecting Lois and some of the other Casters to show up, but none did. Still, the three of them continued to hammer spells into whatever holes they could find. There was an occasional explosion, which would send a shower of dirt and splinters into the air, but nothing dangerous. It took far longer for the monster to die than what Penelope had been hoping for, but the moment they got the notification, she allowed herself a moment to breathe.

  The square was still chaotic. Penelope turned around to see what everyone else was doing. The Demon Chimera had made it through the burning fireline into the square and was pounding on multiple Tanks. The bull head on the right was missing, but the neck had been cauterized and considering the central reptilian head was breathing fire, it made sense that it had stopped the bleeding itself.

  The Prime Fly and Porsel were still flying around, which meant that either the Stinkfly had been dealt with or it had been grounded. There were various little monsters running around, but Penelope wasn’t worried about those.

  She checked her mana, which was down to the single digits. Reluctantly, she took a mana potion out of her pocket and downed the minty liquid.

  “What now?” Kingsley walked over to her.

  “Group up and finish off the bosses.” Penelope wiped sweat off her brow with the back of her sleeve. “Come on. We’ve got this.”

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