The fighting went smoothly until they reached column 26.

  The morning of day 36, Penelope waited on top of the gate building Patrick had set up with the other ranged people. Allis and Judah were there, as well as Riva, Circe, and Whitney.

  “This is the fight to take us to thirty!” Circe cheered as they waited for the monsters to come to them.

  “I think we’re going to have to chase them.” Judah leaned against the ledge. “That’s what they’ve been making us do the last few days.” He turned to look at Penelope. “It’s easier to beat them in small groups, but it takes a lot longer.”

  “We’re still clearing three or four squares a morning.” Penelope looked out at the wooden barricades scattered throughout the square, each one with monsters hiding behind it. “At the rate we’re going, we’re going to have six days to rest up before the timer expires.”

  “Even so…” Judah looked at his menu, then back at Penelope. “We’ve been waiting here for ten minutes and nothing is coming at us. I think you need to call it.”

  “I’ll go talk to Ula.” Penelope in front of the opening below them.

  “PEN!” Patrick growled as he lowered his shield. “You’re supposed to come from the back. I could have hurt you!”

  Penelope eyed the fifteen feet between them. While the Tank had skills, only the taunts would reach that far, but she didn’t feel like pointing that out was going to be constructive.

  “Judah thinks the monsters aren’t going to come at us.” Penelope glanced behind her, but there was still no movement. “He wants to chase them down.”

  Ula stepped around the grumbling Tank. “Didn’t you say that the monsters in here have an explosion skill?”

  “Just the Cornmen, but yes.” Penelope moved to the side so Ula could walk out into the barren area between their wall and all the wooden barricades.

  “Can you deal with them before they blow up?” Ula turned to look at Penelope. “Because I have no idea what’s behind any of those walls.”

  “Those of us with can see what we’re up against before we get close enough hit them, but…” Penelope bit her lip. “I’m worried that their explosion is going to have a wider radius than our spells.”

  “You’ve got a plan for how to deal with them?” Patrick leaned against the opening of the building.

  “We have the Tanks stay in front and make an in front of them when there is a Cornman.” Penelope took a deep breath. “But after we’ve restrained it and lit it on fire.”

  “What about the close-ranged people?” Ula balanced her warhammer on her shoulder.

  “They’ll need to stay back closer to the Healers.” Penelope turned to look out at the other side of the square. “They still outnumber us three to one. If they decide to swarm us, then we’re going to get overrun while we’re trying to hold them back. We need to be able to fall back to a defensible position if that happens.”

  “They haven’t tried that since 23.” Patrick grumbled. “Why do you think they’d go back to something that they abandoned days ago?”

  “The explosion skill has me worried.” Penelope gestured at the barricades. “The main reason why they stopped trying to swarm us was because we could turtle in one of your buildings and shoot them from the roof.” Penelope shook her head. “But if their explosion is strong enough to blow a hole in your wall…”

  “We’d be in as much trouble as if there were diggers who could go under the wall.” Patrick snapped his fingers. “How about we go in with a single unit and have the other two hang back to back us up if there’s trouble?”

  “That can work.” Penelope nodded. “You, Riva, Circe, and the three Casters. If there’s trouble, we each grab one of you and back behind the other Tanks.”

  “Let’s try that.” Patrick picked up his shield and closed the visor on his helmet. “I’m getting tired of wasting time in this square.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Penelope back on top of the roof and relayed what they’d decided. She grabbed Circe and back down to the ground.

  With everyone on the ground, the six of them went straight for the closest barricade. Penelope had her floating prism overhead with attached to it so she could keep an eye on the battlefield. Four regular floated behind it, each one ready to unleash a down on the first monster that got in range.

  “Just a Shidek and Dasheer.” Penelope pointed at the nearest barricade. The shark-headed arachnid and winged rodent weren’t high on her list of threats.

  “I’ve got them.” Judah pointed his wands at the barricade, summoning an eruption of fire that engulfed it.

  Penelope ignored the dings from her notifications and moved to check out the next two.

  A Rapten, the yellow-feathered, dinosaur-shaped Speed monster, dashed around the barricade, running straight for them. By itself, it wasn’t much of a threat, considering it could be burned down before it reached them. What it was carrying was much more concerning.

  A Cornman was in its short arms.

  The walking corncob was almost as big as the horse-sized monster and carrying it was slowing the Rapten down, but that didn’t detract from how dangerous the charging pair was.

  “WALL!” Penelope yelled as she turned her attention to the speeding monster.

  Riva lashed the Rapten in place with , which sent the Corman tumbling forward as the raptor monster crashed into the dirt.

  Two more cormen carrying Raptens dashed out from around barricades and charged at the group.

  “BLINK!” Penelope touched Circe’s arm and pulled her friend back towards the other two groups. Allis and Judah grabbed the other two and followed behind her, but that only put a little distance between them and the explosion of rocks that rained down on them.

  The other two Tanks got up after the initial explosion of gravel and the Healers turned their attention to the cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

  Penelope loosed a casting of at the Cornmen, but like a gunshot at a race, all the monsters in the square raced towards them.

  “WE NEED TO GET BACK TO THE GATE!” Penelope fired another burst of fire spells at the wave of monsters. Another explosion took out a chunk of one of the walls. Her ears rang as noises became muffled.

  We need high ground so the others can see to slow the exploders down!

  A second explosion knocked her off her feet. She switched over to and rained balls of fire down on the battlefield.

  They never did this in the last loop. Why are they using this technique right off the bat?

  “You weren’t as organized or as thorough in the last loop.” Jeru shook his head. “There was infighting last time and you weren’t prioritizing stats, so even though you had good fighters, you didn’t have the efficiency. The Shadows moved to stall tactics sooner and that led to them thinking of ways to throw you off balance.”

  Is anyone dead? Penelope shook her head, but the ringing was still there.

  “You’re going to need a break for the rest of the day because they’re so pretty serious…” Another explosion shook the ground. “Yeah, you lost Archer and Emory doesn’t look good.”

  Reset it. Penelope pounded her fist in the dirt as bright light washed over her. She had two weeks to think about how to handle this situation and there was also the trouble with the coins.

  Another explosion shook her before she snapped back to the second floor. She dropped to her knees as everyone cheered for their victory over the second-floor bosses.

  Penelope glanced over at the tunnel where Derek was watching them Is there a way to handle him without making him my enemy?

  “Remove his heart?” Jeru chuckled but stopped when Penelope didn’t join in. “Honestly? He’s going to do what he does every run. Even with him on the third floor, Circe’s dad continues those policies as much as he can to spread their influence.”

  Penelope sighed as Derek winked at her, then turned and walked back down the tunnel.

  I need to figure out a better system than just the coins before Patrick decides to implement them. She headed towards the portal to the surface. I’ve got some ideas for how to slow the Cornmen down, but I’m going to have to see what spells I can get from other people.

  “You’re going to focus on paper this time?” Jeru gestured down the alley to their right, where the parking lot held rows of the blue-leafed trees.

  Yeah. I’m still going to have to get the jewelry building set up, but if I’m going to be able to get us a win—

  “Remember that you have allies.” Jeru interrupted her. “You can’t be in both groups at once, so the other group is going to need to be able to replicate whatever you do.”

  I know. Penelope walked down the alley and looked at the trees. Which is why I’m going to need a lot of paper.

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