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The four red people, two men and two women, stood up at the same time. One of the women retreated to the back of the room and reached behind a book shelf, pulling out a wooden staff, while the other three people reached underneath the table and behind their chairs, equipping themselves with wooden weapons just in time to clash with Alice. A metal tower shield and a wooden buckler collided as Alice and one of the red men smashed into each other. With a grunt, Alice dug her heels into the ground and pushed outwards, but it felt like she was trying to shove down a wall. The red man pushed Alice back and swung his arm upwards, sending the diminutive guild master flying into Tafel, who was in the middle of casting a spell.

“Urk!” Tafel caught Alice before the guild master could hit the ground and righted her with a gentle push of her staff. “Careful.”

Alice snorted. “How does that make any sense? He used a buckler and I used a massive shield, yet I was the one sent flying?”

“That’s because you’re tiny,” Tafel said. “It’s physics.”

The red man with the shield puffed its chest out and pointed at Alice with its index finger before twisting its arm, retracting its finger and giving her a thumbs down with a wide smirk on its face. Alice’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head as she slammed the bottom of her shield against the ground and activated her awakening, her eyes turning yellow as claws made from aura sprang out of her hands and feet. A tail and a pair of lion-like ears appeared as well, adorning her head and bottom.

“Hey!” Tafel said as Alice charged in and clashed again with the red man, more evenly this time. Neither side budged as they both pushed, Alice grunting while the red man squelched. “Don’t fall for the tank’s provocation that easily!”

While Alice was distracted by the man with the shield, the red woman with the staff unleashed a salvo of bloody arrows that passed straight through her companions and pierced towards Alice and Tafel. Tafel waved her staff, and a wide portal stretched across the air, eating all the arrows. A moment later, the portal disappeared as Tafel pointed her staff’s end at the group of red people. The other man had finished arming himself with a pair of swords, while the other woman pointed a crossbow at Alice’s feet.

“Inferno!” Tafel shouted, channeling her mana into her staff, skipping the casting sequence of her spell as the jewel at the end of her weapon glowed with a red light. Flames roared out of the gem and engulfed the man and woman with the swords and crossbow, but a moment later, they stopped as Mr. Skelly struck the back of Tafel’s head, cutting her spell short. Tafel stumbled forward, nearly falling onto her face. She whirled around and glared at Mr. Skelly. “What the heck!?”

“Are you going to burn all the books?” Mr. Skelly asked, pointing at the bookshelf that the woman with the staff was standing by. “We came to the dungeon to gather the books! It counts as a loss if you destroy them even if you win against the blood people.”

Tafel groaned as she opened a portal beside herself and stuck her red staff inside. Then she pulled out a different staff made of black metal that had a blue gem embedded on its tip. “Then I’ll have to freeze them? At least Vur proved ice was effective on them earlier.”

Vur scratched his nose as Alice let out a roar and shoved aside the buckler-wielding man, knocking him to the ground. She pounced forward and whacked the crossbow out of the woman’s hand with her aura tail while blocking two swings from the sword-wielding man at the same time. “Should I be doing something?” Vur asked and tilted his head. The four elementals were still glowing around him, giving out buffs to the party.

“No, you stay right there,” Tafel said as she pointed her staff at buckler-wielding man, who was climbing back onto his feet. She gritted her teeth and ejected a massive icicle from her staff that impaled the bloody man, launching him back and pinning him to the wall. Before she could celebrate, the man lightly tapped the icicle with his buckler, and the ice disappeared. A wide smirk appeared on the man’s lips as he pointed at Tafel. Then, like he did to Alice, he gave Tafel a thumbs down. Tafel’s expression darkened. “I’m not going to fall for such cheap provocations.”

The man paused. A second later, he reached forward with his buckler-wielding hand as well and gave her two thumbs down with both his arms at once. Tafel’s expression darkened even further. “Like I said, I won’t—”

“You already fell for it by responding!” Mr. Skelly said, shoving Tafel to the side as wooden bolts flew towards her. They pierced through his armor, but as a skeleton, he took no damage from the blow. “You’re too relaxed. Pay attention! Do you think you can take it easy because Vur is here?”

Tafel bit her lower lip. If Mr. Skelly had been a being made of flesh, he would’ve suffered serious injuries to save her. “Sorry,” she said as her expression hardened. “You’re right; I was taking it easy. Alice! It might get a little chilly in a short while but bear with it. Mr. Skelly, defend me as I channel my spell!”

“What do I do?” Vur asked, pointing at himself.

“Nothing!”

Vur pouted. “This is boring.”

Tafel pulled Chi’Rururp out of a portal and planted it into the ground by her feet. “Dual cast blizzard with me, Chi’Rururp.”

Tafel and her sword chanted while Mr. Skelly went forward to engage the buckler-wielding man in battle. Alice slammed the man with the swords into the staff-wielding woman in the back, canceling out another salvo of bloody spells, before lunging towards the pair, whaling on them with her shield. The woman, who had the crossbow knocked out of her hands, ran to her weapon and retrieved it. She nocked an arrow and raised her head, looking for a suitable target to shoot. Alice was moving too fast amongst her comrades, and Tafel was partially shielded by a sword. The woman already knew arrows had no effect on Mr. Skelly from her earlier attack. That left Vur, who was sighing while staring up at the ceiling. A wooden crossbow bolt flew towards Vur and split into three midflight. One bolt struck him directly in the forehead, the other in the center of his chest, and the last on his thigh. All three arrows snapped in half upon impact as if she had shot a metal wall. The woman with the crossbow stared at Vur with a dumbstruck expression, not even reloading her weapon, as he rubbed his head and frowned at the broken projectiles by his feet.

Vur glared at the woman and stomped over. She tried to take a step back, but an overwhelming pressure locked her into place as a rune appeared on Vur’s forehead. He stopped right in front of her and snatched the crossbow out of the woman’s frozen hands. Then he bent his knees and undid the strap that was holding the woman’s quiver, taking her crossbow bolts as well. “These are mine now.”

The woman nodded with her mouth hanging open as Vur turned his back on her and walked back to his place near the entrance to the room, fiddling with the crossbow. Tafel’s voice increased in volume as she slammed the butt of her staff into the ground. “And on the thirteenth day, the world was consumed by ice and snow. Blizzard!”

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