Penelope tripped backwards.

"NO!!!"

Frederica and Dawson's scream merged with the background. Her mind wasn't able to process what had just happened as a trio of magic crossbow bolts stabbed her in the face. She looked up at the man standing over her.

"Pathetic." Aiden brought the knife down.

Bright light washed over her.

Her ears buzzed as her heart rate increased. It helped block out the noise as she stood frozen in place while her mind tried to process what was happening.

Bright light washed over her as Aiden killed her again.

And again.

And again.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Jeru screamed in her face.

Penelope blinked her eyes as the ringing in her ears dulled to a buzzing noise instead as her heart slammed against her ribcage. Her body spasmed with confusion as it failed to mirror the turmoil that filled her mind.

She died before she could gather her thoughts.

Light bathed her as she started over. Penelope couldn't afford to balance the vertigo of being in a new place. She had seconds before Aiden would kill her.

She <Blinked> forward, throwing herself in between Frederica and Dawson.

"NO!!!" Frederica <Dashed> to Oakley's side.

"DIE!" Dawson pointed his gnarled staff at Penelope.

She <Countered> the spell he and Derek tried to cast.

"Why?!" Penelope steadied her breathing. "Derek, you're okay with this?"

"You've got too much power, Red." Derek shrugged. The blond man took a few steps back. "Isaiah! We're out of here!"

"I got the ring!" Their Tank pulled the item off the Demon and stumbled backwards.

"No, you don't!" Patrick charged at the other Tank, running past Frederica, who was on her knees cradling Oakley's head in her lap.

Tears flowed down Frederica's face as she removed his helmet and stroked his brown hair. His armor scraped against the stone floor as she pulled him closer into her lap.

"Get the gear and let's go!" Derek backed up and motioned to the other two men to go to their fallen teammates.

"You're not going anywhere!" Patrick tackled Isaiah, wrestling the other man to the ground. The armored pair slammed their fists into each other as they rolled around.

"We can take them!" Dawson pulled out a dagger and took a step towards Penelope. "I don't care if Dee wants you! If you don't stop canceling my spells, I'm going to gut you like a—"

Circe shackled his foot in place.

"You think that's going to hold me?" Dawson yanked his foot free. "I'm level twenty-five!"

"Daw, let's go!" Derek picked a necklace off of the Breathless Death. "We got what we wanted; now let's go!"

"I want it all!" Dawson pointed his dagger at Penelope. "She acts so superior, running off on her own to fight some half-baked monster like she's all that!" He pointed his weapon at Circe. "Once I finish with Penny, you're next." He snorted. "Nothing but a bunch of helpless women now that you don't have your men to hide behind."

Frederica hit him from behind, her daggers plunging into a green mist.

"You think it'd be that easy?" Dawon reappeared behind Skylar and Caleb. His dagger sliding into Caleb's back. "I'm Tier Two now!" A grin crossed his face as he grabbed Skylar by her blonde hair. "None of you are a match for me!"

"HELP—!" Skylar's scream vanished as he slit her throat.

Riva ran towards them, shadows rising out of the ground as Dawson blasted Nina with a clout of poison. He stepped through the shadowy tendrils like they weren't even there as he advanced on the other woman.

Sweat poured out of Penelope's brow as she tried to <Counter> his spells, but it was like she was trying to grab onto a greasy ball. Some of his spells she was able to stop, but most were slipping through her fingers. And now that he'd reached level 30, she was missing more than she was stopping.

A <Toxic Cloud> settled over them all, bathing them in a choking green mist.

"See!" Dawson spread his hands as he turned to the other men. "I told you I could do this! Free experience, just like the first one." His gaze settled on Nina. "It'd be poetic if I was able to level up off of you, like I did your mom, but—"

Penelope <Blinked> into him.

Stars covered her vision as her head rammed into his. She gagged as the gas around her grew thicker. Her eyes burned, but she held onto her rage as she ripped a <Tornado Alley> in half on top of her. The detonation blasted a lot of the cloud away from them, but her lungs were already full of the toxic fumes and both their Healers were dead.

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"You…" Penelope pointed at Dawson. "You killed Ula!"

Dawson cackled. "It was too easy! She was just lying there like a bag of experience waiting to be harvested!"

"AH!!!" Frederica charged at the man, only to get blasted off her feet by Derek's air spell. She rolled across the stone floor, stopping outside his spell's range.

"Aiden, get the one over there!" Dawson pointed over at where Fae-Anna was lying unconscious.

"What happened?" Raelyn ran into the square with both of their backup teams.

"More experience!" Dawson cackled as he turned his attention to the new group.

Reset it. Penelope dropped to her knees as the bloodthirsty man ran towards the group. She was too weak to continue with this run and she'd learned too much. They'd lost too much.

Bright light washed over her.

Penelope <Blinked> into Dawson, bowling the man over the moment he called for the others to die.

"NO!!!" Frederica ran to where Oakley was falling.

Penelope tussled with the young man, but he was stronger than her and rolled her over on her back. The moment he sat up, triumph over his face, Circe slapped him across the face with her bow.

The hit left a mark on his face, but it wasn't enough to knock him out.

Patrick slamming shield-first into him was.

Dawson bowled over, his eyes rolling back in his head before he hit the ground.

"Riva, Nina, Circe, stop them!" Patrick kicked the unconscious man in the head as he turned his attention to the fleeing men.

A <Barrier> blocked their retreat as Derek and the other three men ran towards the portal to the next floor. Beside the swirling blue portal was a yellow one. Above the blue portal was the expected information.

Third Floor

Day 15 - 2:46pm

Time Remaining 49:17:08:19

Above the yellow portal were the words Surface.

Derek paused at the portals, then pointed at the yellow one. He turned around as the other three vanished into the portal.

"We didn't have to be enemies!" His gaze turned to Penelope. "I didn't want it to be like this, Red."

He vanished into the portal, leaving the three women in the middle of the square as Raelyn's group walked through the doorways into the open square.

"What happened?" The brunette Healer looked at the carnage. She bent down to check on Fae-Anna, then, satisfied that the other woman would be okay, she checked on the other two.

"They attacked us." Penelope pushed herself up to all fours. She looked ahead at where Frederica was cradling Oakley's head in her lap.

Tears flowed freely down the other woman's cheeks, dripping onto the dead man's face.

Penelope closed her eyes as she stood up. When she opened them, Patrick was standing over Dawson with a pained look on his face as he took the gear off the man he'd worked with on the first floor.

"You can't strip his magic, can you?" The older man tossed the dagger into a pile over an arm's length away.

"No, and he's got a movement spell like I do, so we can't lock him up like we did to Kent." Penelope hung her head.

"HE did THIS?!?" Raelyn stomped over to them while her group collected the monsters and the bodies of Derek's men.

"Yeah." Patrick peeled the unconscious man out of his robe.

"He needs to pay!" Frederica got to her feet, her blades in her hands.

Penelope took a step towards her friend.

"Don't try to stop me!" Rage filled Frederica's eyes as her gaze met Penelope's. She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve as she waited for the other woman to make a move.

Penelope took a deep breath as she held the other woman's gaze. Her heart thundered in her ears as she held out a hand. Her fingers trembled as she took a timid step and touched the other woman's arm. Her whole body buzzed as she swallowed the lump in her throat and pulled Frederica into an embrace.

"I'm not going to stop you." Tears rolled down Penelope's cheek as she hugged the crying woman. "I'm sorry."

Circe ran towards the pair with open arms, only to get intercepted by Riva, who pinned the younger woman to the ground.

A groan from the prisoner broke the embrace as Penelope stepped out of Frederica's path.

"Wha—?"

Patrick hit Dawson on top of the head.

"Daw…" The rage from earlier had subsided, but in its place was a calm resolve. Frederica walked up to the dazed man and touched her sword to his neck. "You killed Oak." She sniffled. "I want to make you pay for what you did to him…" She looked over at Raelyn and took a deep breath, then turned back to the wobbling man. "You wanted to kill the rest of us, which makes you a threat." She swallowed. "Since we don't have anywhere that can hold you…" Her blade slipped into his throat, going all the way out the back of his neck.

There was no cheering as his body fell over. The pit in the bottom of Penelope's stomach doubled in size as Frederica dropped her weapon and fell to her knees.

Patrick and Raelyn walked over to console the sobbing woman. The emotions were too much, forcing Penelope to <Blink> away from everyone.

I don't know how many times I can redo that. Penelope closed her eyes as she dropped to the floor, leaning against the outer wall of the square.

"This was a tough one." Jeru sat down next to her.

How am I going to look at Dawson the same way again? Penelope buried her face in her hands. He killed Oakley! The lump in her throat grew as she remembered the gloating. He KILLED Ula!

"That's what he became." Jeru sighed. "This place changed people and he wasn't in a great place to begin with."

How did they do it? Penelope spread her fingers enough to look at the blue portal.

"Most didn't." The blue Elf put his arm around her. Even though he wasn't physically there, she still felt more comfort than unease at the gesture. "That's why you're the forty-second." He looked over at her. "Want to quit?"

No. Penelope took the emptiness and guilt and stuffed it into the recess of her mind. It's my burden now and I'm not going to make anyone else carry it. She looked back at the portal. I WILL finish this!

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