I activated my anchor. With a thought, the sector keys shimmered into being, pulled from the bracer’s storage. They hovered in my palm.

  The two keys drifted together, metal edges grinding against the crystal key from floor one. They met with a resonant clang.

  The air split. A seam of brilliance tore open before us, widening into a swirling portal. Its edges rippled like molten glass, arcs of energy snapping outward, casting long shadows across the marble floor. The sound was a chorus of wind and thunder.

  Lawson’s voice carried through the roar, steady and certain. “See you on the other side.”

  Balt and I exchanged a final nod, then stepped forward. The portal transporting us to our next adventure.

  For a heartbeat, there was nothing but light. I felt weightless. The tunnel I was falling into seemed endless. The tunnel flickered. Then, the world slammed back into place.

  I stumbled out onto a dirt road. The air smelled of blood. Huge wagons surrounded us, and there were monsters I had never seen before inside the perimeter fighting with the humans.

  The clash of steel and the screams of the dying filled the air. Villagers and a mix of soldiers fought desperately against a tide of large ogres and the unknown monster type.

  The other creatures were four feet tall that looked like small lizard men. They darted in and out with spears, striking out at the villagers.

  I used my Identify...

  The ground shook as an ogre’s club smashed through a wagon. Splinters and supplies it had been carrying flew onto what was now a battlefield.

  A kobold darted past an ogre's large legs, spear flashing, only to be cut down by a human soldier’s spear.

  Balt raised his staff, eyes narrowing. I summoned Ember. “Alright, Floor Three. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Balt’s staff hummed with power as he swept it in a wide arc, the head cracking against a kobold’s skull with a wet crunch. I surged forward beside him, Ember’s flame licking along my blade as I cut through another. The kobold shrieked, scales splitting under the strike, revealing pink flesh, before dissolving into ash and smoke.

  They came at us in a swarm then, yipping, darting, stabbing with crude spears. Balt’s staff rotated in his hands, Force Jolt after Force Jolt knocking them back in bursts of magic. I carved a path through the pressing monsters, Ember’s fire leaving glowing trails of sapphire in the air. “Keep pushing!” I shouted, my grin wild as another kobold fell at my feet.

  Through the chaos, a soldier broke free of the melee and ran toward us. His armor was dented, his cheek streaked with blood, but his eyes burned with determination. “You!” he barked, voice hoarse. “Where in the hell did you come from? Are you from the Capitol?"

  Before I could answer, the battlefield shook.

  A roar split the air, deep, guttural, and furious. I looked over, and it was the biggest ogre I had ever seen.

  It wielded a massive club and was using it to smash through the wagon line. Its strikes had such force behind them that every wagon it hit turned to splinters.

  The beast loomed over the wreckage it had created, its tusked mouth dripping with saliva, eyes burning with rage.

  I glanced at Balt, then at the soldier. “I’ll be right back.” I Flash Stepped.

  The soldier’s eyes went wide. “What the hell? Where’s he going? We need every blade here! We must rally the soldiers if we’re going to take that thing down!”

  Balt only chuckled, spinning his staff and knocking another kobold sprawling. His grin was sharp, confident. “Don’t worry about Riven,” he said, planting his staff into the dirt and blasting a wave of force that sent three kobolds tumbling.

  “He’s got his own way of handling things. For now,” he raised his staff again, eyes gleaming, “let’s get to work.”

  I was in the ether and watched two villagers try to brace against the huge ogre's incoming strike with nothing but a pitchfork and a rusted spear. They had courage in their eyes as I passed them, but no chance of survival against such a strike.

  I came out of the ether, between them and the monster. Ember blazed as I swung upward with a Limit Slash, steel and blue flame colliding with the descending club.

  The impact when the weapons met cracked like thunder. The ogre’s club was knocked wide, splinters flying as the villagers stumbled back from the force. “Fall back!” I barked, my voice cutting through the chaos. “Get back! I’ve got this!”

  The ogre was still stumbling back from my Limit Slash. To my delight, it became off-balance, going to a knee with both hands on the ground trying to stabilize itself. Bloodshot eyes locked onto me. It bared its sharpened teeth and roared at me, a sound that rattled the surrounding wagons.

  "Fuck you too!" I roared my own challenge right back.

  The battlefield seemed to pause, with the clash of our voices. Then I vanished again, Flash Step Thrust.

  In an instant, I was at its head. Ember drove forward, piercing through scale, bone, and brain. I focused my aura, and my blade erupted in a surge of flames, detonating outward.

  The ogre’s skull burst apart in a spray of fire and gore. Its body still moving momentarily in its death throes. The huge ogre hit the ground like a felled tree, shaking the ground as it crashed into the dirt.

  I stood over the ruined corpse, Ember’s flames still burning bright, my chest heaving. “Floor three…” I whispered, lowering the blade. “Show me everything you’ve got.”

  With a thought, I Flash Stepped back into the fray to help everyone.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Balt was already in motion, staff whirling in a storm of strikes and bursts of force. I came out of the ether beside him, Ember blazing, and together we continued to carve through the kobold ranks.

  They repeatedly attempted to swarm us, darting in with spears and jagged blades, but we answered every step they took with fire and force.

  Balt’s magic cracked, sending bodies flying, his Force Jolts detonating in controlled bursts that lit the battlefield. I cut through their lines literally, Ember’s edge trailing arcs of sapphire and silver flame, each strike precise and final.

  The other ogres, seeing their champion fall, raged at us. There bellowing in frustration was music to my ears as we calmy took more of them down to join their champion.

  But even their rage cooled as we pressed forward. One by one, the few that remained broke off their assault and retreated, leaving their wounded and the kobolds to fend for themselves.

  The kobolds broke next. Their yips turned to shrieks of panic as they scattered, scrambling over wagons and corpses to flee. Balt and I didn’t let them go unpunished, we picked them off as they ran, cutting down stragglers. The soldiers had regrouped and had formed a protective line pulling their wounded behind it to keep them safe.

  When the last of them vanished into the treeline, the battlefield fell into a heavy silence. Smoke curled upward from the shattered wagons. The villagers huddled together, wide-eyed, staring at us as if we were something more than men.

  Balt leaned on his staff, grinning through the blood and sweat. “Not a bad entrance,” he said. I exhaled, Ember’s flames dimming to a steady glow. “Guess Floor Three wanted a show. I think we gave it one.”

  The battlefield was quiet now, save for the crackle of burning wood from the wagons and the groans of the injured. Smoke drifted low, curling around the broken bodies of kobolds and the hulking corpse of the ogre.

  The soldier we had first encountered approached, wiping blood from his brow with the back of his gauntlet. He was broad-shouldered, his armor battered but serviceable, and his right eye had a long scar. His face carried the weary sharpness of a man who had seen too much for his age.

  He jammed his spear into the dirt and nodded. “Name’s Sergeant Will. Blackfern Village contingent. About time the Capitol sent someone.”

  Balt leaned on his staff, still catching his breath. He shook his head slowly. “The Capitol didn’t send us.”

  Will blinked, confusion flashing across his face. “Then… how did you get here?”

  I met his gaze, Ember’s glow dimming as I sheathed the blade. I went with what was becoming my standard answer. “We were just passing through.”

  For a moment, Will just stared, as if weighing the truth of my words. His jaw tightened, and he let out a long breath. “God help the contingent we sent out a week ago then. When I saw you two step through that portal, I thought it meant they’d made it to the Capitol and the Master Magus had portaled you in to help us.”

  His voice cracked slightly, the weight of loss and hope colliding in his tone. He looked past us toward the villagers and soldiers gathering their wounded, and then back at us again.

  “For powerhouses like you two to appear," … He shook his head, a flicker of hope breaking through his exhaustion. “Means maybe the System has not given up on us yet.”

  His expression shifted, worry edging into his voice as he asked, “Will you come to the village and meet with our council?”

  He lowered his head slightly, almost as an apology. “We don’t have much, but what we do have, I’m sure they’ll find a way to compensate you for your help.”

  I exhaled. Trying to soften my expression as I looked at the worried man. I gave the Sgt. a small nod. “Okay,” I said, voice steady. “Let’s go to your village. But forget about compensation. I don't fight for credits.”

  I saw Balt’s mouth open, no doubt about to ruin my heroic moment, so I drove a sharp elbow into his ribs. “—oofff!” he wheezed, doubling slightly before blurting in a hurried breath, “Y-yeah, what I wanted to say was… we are happy to help with absolutely no expectation of reward.”

  The villager blinked at us, caught between gratitude and confusion, before nodding quickly and hurrying back to check on his people.

  As he left, I looked over the brief but brutal battlefield. Burnt wagons, dean monsters and men, the stink of blood clinging to the air. Soldiers moved among the wounded, binding gashes with trembling hands. Men cried quietly in the shadow of toppled wagons and carts.

  I dismissed Ember, its glow fading, and let the silence settle. The fight was over, but the weight of it clung to the survivors like a second skin. Me and Balt went and helped where we could. Burying the dead, and binding wounds.

  Once we helped consolidate the supplies and load the wounded onto the wagons.

  The wagon train began to move, and we fell into step beside the weary villagers, the road stretching long and silent except for the shuffle of wheels and the groans of the wounded.

  The terrain was open grassland as far as the eye could see. An hour passed traveling beneath a blue sky before a stocky farmer hurried up from the rear of the column toward me. His clothes were still stained with soot and blood, but his eyes shone with gratitude.

  “Thank you,” the man said, voice thick. “For saving me and my boy. We are in your debt.”

  I inclined my head; words caught somewhere between humility and the weight of expectation. I put what I hoped was a comforting arm on the old man. He flinched slightly, and I gave him a pat on his shoulder. “There is no debt between us. I am glad that you and your son are safe." The man bowed and went back to where he had come from. I smiled to myself, watching him fade to the back of the wagon train.

  I had climbed up to sit in the lead wagon with the Sgt. about to ask some questions. When the path began to curve upward, and as we crested a small hill, Will slowed the wagon. His posture eased for the first time since we’d met. “We’re almost there,” he said, a weary smile breaking through. “Just over this rise. Another mile, maybe.”

  Around us, the other villagers and soldiers straightened at his words. I could almost feel their spirits rise. A wounded soldier leaned harder on his spear, jaw set as if sheer willpower might carry him the last stretch. The wagon horses even seemed to walk quicker, ready to be home.

  Maybe tonight, at least, these people could breathe easy while me and Balt figure out what this floor's task is.

  The wind carried the smell of blood to my nostrils before we even crested the rise, and hope for the people to be safe for a while died in my chest.

  Will stopped the wagon at the very top of the hill, and I waved the rest of the wagons to stay put behind us.

  Below us sprawled not a sanctuary village, but a barely standing one, rooftops on fire from magic being launched from the horde below. Camps of monsters squatted outside the gates, their shrieks and howls so loud they carried on the wind to my ears.

  A seething tide battered the gate repeatedly, each slam of claw and steel ringing like a blacksmith's anvil. The huge metal gate was holding, but not for long if I was any judge.

  Will’s knuckles whitened on the reins, his voice breaking into a half?whisper, half?curse. “Oh… shit.”

  I swallowed hard. “Oh shit, indeed.” Is this the system telling me to "bring it" for goading its floor three? Well, as one of my secret favorite movies used to say. "It’s been brought!"

  The words hung between us, not as banter but as grim acknowledgment. Whatever waited down there wasn’t just another fight; it was going to be an all-out battle.

  “All able-bodied fighters to me, unload those wagons, now! If you want to save your village, move!” I hopped down. Balt appeared next to me. “Plan?”

  I breathed out a steady breath. “Yes, believe it or not. Let’s make the time we have left count. Help me unload these wagons. Balt, have you ever been fishing?”

  Every one of you from the bottom of my heart thank you for taking Rivens's journey with me.

  If you can find the time to rate the story (hopefully 5 stars lol). I would very much appreciate it. If not, I completely understand and thank you again for reading.