"It's time." Patrick announced.

Penelope tried looking with <Clairvoyance> one more time. Going in not at full mana was risky, but she hoped she could see something. Diagonally, Frederica's group was 400 feet away, so she couldn't see if they were going in or not.

Should I just reset this? Penelope bit her lip as Patrick stepped into the darkness.

"I've been telling you to do that for a while, but you're here now; you might as well go in." Jeru looked at the rest of her group as she touched the barrier. "Don't worry if they don't; there's a failsafe in place to keep you from fighting the bosses with less than a full team."

That helps a little. Penelope gave voice to the doubt in her mind. Is he going to keep his word?

"Who knows?" Jeru shrugged. "I've seen people be downright petty and sabotage the whole mission just because they felt jilted. But if he doesn't, that'll give you more motivation to not work with them on the next run."

I just have to remember not to let them get so much power when I do a full reset. Penelope pushed her doubts into the corner of her mind and stepped into the void.

It took a moment for her to make it all the way through. The square was flat and devoid of the walls that broke the rest of the floor into tunnels and rooms. At the back of the square, lined up in front of the portal to the next floor, were two lines of monsters surrounded by the usual translucent barrier.

"Looks like 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, and 19." Jeru commented while Penelope got her bearings.

The monsters from 13, 14, and 16 were lined up in front of the column of the other three groups.

From floor 13, the Terror Bug stood over the rest of the monsters. The boss had a wide, thick horn on the top of its head that resembled a hammerhead's face, but its eyes were in the normal place on its demonic face. Its body was covered in brown chitin, and even though it stood upright like a human, it had two insectoid legs and a thorax that almost dragged the ground as it walked. Its arms sprouted spikes on the outside edges, and its long fingers ended in sharp claws.

A Lady Mane led the monsters from floor 14. The horned, bird-faced Demon had a white mane of fur around its neck like a lion and bare, purple skin on its chest, arms, and legs. On its back was a red shell speckled with black dots. The shell split down the middle, revealing a pair of fibrous wings. It stood upright on a pair of scaled bird feet and pointed at the intruders with its clawed hands.

A Speckled Stalker was over the last of the front trio. The feline humanoid had a white-scaled chest, with the rest of its body covered in orange fur with brown spots. Curved horns arced out of its feline face and covered oversized, mouse-like ears. The naked tail was too long and twitched behind it with precision that warned of how easily it could be turned into a weapon. Not that it needed any more, considering its teeth and claws.

The back line sported the only quadruped of the leadership. The Inout sported two heads on its canine body. The Demon's back reached six feet high, and glowing yellow crystals lined its spine all the way down to the tip of its tail. The left head was shaped like a wolf, with black eyes and snapping teeth. The right head was in the shape of a toad. Its slitted eyes fixated on the gathering group of humans. The rest of its hairless, purple body resembled a canine.

The Breathless Death howled as it readied itself for battle. The wolf-faced monster fixated on Patrick as it flexed its black, chitin-covered arms. Long, white horsehair of a mane flowed from in between the curved horns on its head all the way down its back. It stood on a pair of insect legs and hunched over slightly, like it was a little top-heavy, which, considering it was almost completely covered in chitin, made sense.

The Vairfly fanned its yellow butterfly wings. The last boss monster could have passed for a yellow werewolf if it hadn't been for those wings. The yellow-furred wolfman flexed its clawed arms as it snubbed its snout at the humans.

"That's a lot of monsters…" Oakley whistled as he took in what they were up against.

"All the little ones are level twenty variants!" Penelope moved over to Frederica's group, who had all assembled. Out of hers, Skylar was the only one who hadn't come through yet.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You're telling me we have to fight thirty level twenty monsters with…" Patrick did a headcount. "ELEVEN! People?"

"We do twenty-four in the squares all the time." Penelope heard how hollow her words sounded as soon as she said them.

"This is two extra bosses, four more mobs, and we don't even have—" Patrick paused as Skylar walked in, her eyes widening behind her glasses as she saw what they were up against.

"Okay, now we have two full groups." The Tank huffed. "But that's still more monsters than we've ever fought at once." He made a rude gesture at the ceiling. "That stupid Elf who designed this place is an idiot!"

"Hey!" Penelope clamped her lips shut as she realized she'd exclaimed out loud.

"To be fair, they don't realize that I only brought them here." Jeru sighed. "It's okay. I didn't design this place, so you don't have to get offended for me. Plus, I've heard a lot worse." He chuckled. "There's this one person who keeps calling me a parasite."

And you love it. Penelope blushed as all eyes focused on her. "Sorry. I just thought it'd be better to focus on what we're going to be doing rather than blame the Elf for where we are."

"Oh, I blame him." Frederica seethed. "But you've got a point."

YES, TELL US YOUR STRATEGY FOR HOW YOU PLAN TO DIE!

The Vairfly's voice boomed from the other side of the square. The nearly thousand feet between them reduced to a mere number as the Demon's presence loomed over them as intensely as if it was standing beside them.

"Great, another one that talks." Frederica pointed her sword at the barriered section. "I'm not letting you get in our heads!"

LITTLE HUMAN, I'M ALREADY THERE.

The Vairfly bared its teeth, then let out an icy laugh. The other bosses joined in, creating a chorus of disruptive noises.

Skylar let out a hiccup as she hit her knees. She buried her face in her hands, but that didn't stop the tears from working their way out. A puddle leaked out from under her robes.

"Circe…" Penelope nodded towards the sobbing woman. Most of the others were too stunned to move.

AH, THE DELICIOUS SCENT OF FEAR! The Vairfly grinned impossibly wide.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who peed themselves." Oakley chuckled, earning himself a smack from Frederica. "What? We're all scared."

"Not helping." Frederica glanced over at the eastern side of the square, but Derek's group still hadn't shown up. She bit her lip as she looked back at the Demons. "Why aren't they attacking?"

"I'm guessing they can't cross the barrier." Patrick grumbled as he walked over to the barrier.

"Careful! You don't know if it'll let them through if you touch it!" Penelope yelled at him.

"It won't let him through. That barrier keeps things from passing both ways."

So we're just stuck here?

"Until the timer expires and both barriers come down, yes." Jeru sighed. "It's one of those ways that I was able to protect against things like this, but to do that, I had to give them protection as well."

It's going to take a while to clean up, but at least we'll have a better chance once the barrier comes down.

Patrick walked up to the barrier and ran his hand in front of it. A Hamark slammed its fist into the barrier, the hammerhead shark-man hissing at the human on the other side. The Tank touched the barrier, only for the translucent divider to refuse to give.

"Looks like it's holding us both in!" Patrick knocked on the hard, light wall. "How have they survived this long?"

"Patrick! Get back over here; you don't know how long that thing is going to keep them out!" Frederica began pacing, twirling her swords in her hands.

"What are we going to do?" Eldri motioned at the monsters. "What if we hit it with some of our skills?"

"The Demons use their skills on it all the time; all attacking it is going to do is waste our resources." Penelope watched Patrick walk back over to them.

"So what?" Fae-Anna pointed at the barrier. "We're just going to wait here for three days until the timer expires?"

Silence descended on the group as they realized they were ill-prepared to camp out for a few days.

We've got the water. Penelope glanced at Fae-Anna. The other redhead had plenty of water spells, so they'd be able to stay hydrated, but food was going to be an issue over three days.

"What are we going to do?" Skylar looked up at the others as she stood up and straightened her robe.

BEEP!

Penelope turned to look at the countdown on the barrier. The monsters on the other side cheered, roared, and hissed as the numbers on the barrier counted down from 60.

How?

The answer to her question didn't come from Jeru but from the moody young man on the other side of the square.

"I knew they weren't going to be dead yet!" Dawson fumed as he glared at them.

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