"Come on, I already said I'm sorry." Reid said while gesturing wildly with his hands.
"It's fine. I'm sure you had plenty of fun with your cute new friend." Anna replied with a cold tone while refusing to look the boy in the eyes.
Across from the young adventurers stood their mentors, quietly assessing the situation in front of them.
"A lovers spat already? Should we interfere?" Ida whispered to his elven fiancé.
"Are you kidding me? This is just getting interesting!" Lena whispered back as she watched the young hunters with renewed focus.
"I wasn't having fun at all! You know how Amadeus gets with research. I was basically held hostage as the two of them talked about theories and technical mumbo jumbo." Reid said with growing desperation in his voice.
"Is that true?" Anna asked while turning to face the boy.
"Yes." He replied while staring deep into her eyes.
"Okay, then apology accepted… Sorry for being such a pain." She said while rubbing her palms together at her waist.
"It's fine. I'll try to ring in Amadeus a bit better next time." Reid said while his lips curled into a gentle smile.
The scene causes an old memory to float to the surface of Anna's mind.
'Big sis Mira, are you angry with big sis Cha?' A younger Anna asks a panther beastkin in front of her.
'I'm not angry with her, Anna. It's embarrassing to say this with a job like mine, but I suppose I'm a bit jealous of her.' Mira says while tussling the young girl's hair.
'I don't get it. Why are you jealous of her?' The young Anna asks.
'Do you see that man with her? Well big sis here wants him to look at me, and since he's looking at someone else, I'm feeling a bit angry. Do you understand?' Mira asks while looking at the young girl.
"Yes, but what should I do if I'm feeling jealous? I don't want any of you to be angry with me!' Young Anna says, as her eyes become watery.
'Oh sweety, none of us would get angry with you, we all love you!' She says while wrapping the girl in a warm hug. 'Our situation's a bit special, but for you, if you're ever feeling jealous that means you found someone you love.' Mira said while patting the girl on the back.
'Someone I love?'
'Yep! You found someone you love and are afraid of losing them. That's what it means to be jealous. So if you ever find yourself in that situation, you have to go on the offensive! Flirt with them, go on a date, whatever it takes. You have to make them yours before anyone else can!'
Anna's mind returns to the present as she stares at the boy in front of her. She bites her lip before she can build up the courage to speak.
"Reid." Anna says.
"What's up?" Reid replies casually.
"You agreed that you'd owe me, right?" She asks.
"Oh, yeah. I guess I did." He says.
"Then tomorrow, on our rest day, you're going to take me shopping!" Anna declared.
"Oh my, how bold!" Lena whispered to Ida.
"I guess that's fair since I made you do the parties shopping yesterday. There's sure to be a lot of interesting stuff around the city you'd want to buy for yourself, right?" Reid asked.
"Great!" Anna replies as a bright smile fills her lips. "It's a date." She whispers in a barely audible tone.
"Wait, did you j-" Reid stared but was interrupted.
"That's enough, we have business to attend to." Ida says.
Anna's cheeks turn bright red as she looks at the boy's incredibly perceptive ears.
"Today we're tackling the first two floors of the spirit dungeon. We'll let you go in blind for the first floor, but after that we'll give you advice on how to progress."
"Got it." Reid said as he started his final checks on his gear. While the boy was distracted, Lena winked and gave a thumbs up to the girl who was hiding her face from the boy next to her, while her tail was swishing about like an overclocked metronome.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
"This is very different." Reid noted as he examined the first floor of the spirit dungeon.
The floor in front of him was set up as a dimly lit colosseum. The walls around them eventually give way to a large seating area for some unseen audience to enjoy the coming battle. The only thing inside the large arena were three person sized spheres of rock.
"It's kind of intimidating to be honest." Anna said while looking toward the empty rows of seats.
"Yeah, it's like were the main event for some weird show." Reid agreed while readying his spear.
"Ready?" Anna asks.
"Of course. Ladies first." He speaks while giving a small bow.
"My, what a gentleman." She retorts as she leads the small party forward.
As they enter the arena, a heavy rumbling comes from the entrance. Anna and Reid turn to face the noise only to find stone descending from the ceiling of the gate they just passed through.
"What is that?" Anna asked.
"It's a final warning from the dungeon. It's asking if you're sure you're ready for the challenge ahead." Ida said.
"Pay it no mind. We'll wait here so you two should focus back on what's ahead." Lena said while pointing toward the center of the arena.
They followed her finger to find spheres had transformed into three armored warriors of significant build and stature. The two on the sides had a sword and shield equipped, while the one in the middle had a single two handed greatsword.
The transformed warriors wasted no time as they sprinted forward. The greatsword user led the way with the sword and shield users close on his heels.
In retaliation, Reid knelt down and placed one hand on the ground, creating a white rune that rushed forward. With a dazzling glow it ignited, transforming into a large sheet of ice directly in front of the approaching warriors.
Anna tightens the grip on her spear in anticipation of the approaching threat, but her eyes go wide as the warriors suddenly change course. Two warriors break right while one sword and shield user breaks left, all of them avoiding the slippery trap in its entirety.
"They didn't fall for it? What now?" Reid asks.
"Rush the solo fighter, try to take him out before the others can regroup." Amadeus issues a simple command to the young hunters.
"Got it!" Anna replies, tucking her spear close to her core before sprinting away. Reid was close on her heals after recovering from his spell casting.
Just a moment later the enemy was in front of Anna. Using her momentum, she thrust her spear forward, all the way to the end of its reach. Her spear rammed into the stone warriors shield before sliding off its angled surface with a high-pitched screech. With their momentum halted, the stone warrior looked to counterattack, but the reach of his shortsword was far too small to bridge the space between them. With her range established, Anna began attacking from all angles. She poked and prodded, looking for any opening to land a real hit.
Behind her, Reid stood awkwardly, searching in vain for any opening to assist Anna. The dance-like flowing movements of her style took up too much space for anyone to fight alongside her against such a small foe.
"Behind you!" Amadeus shouted to Reid.
Trusting the front to Anna, the boy shifted his focus to the foes behind him. As he turned his head he realized he only had seconds before the stone warriors would arrive and surround them. In a split-second decision, Reid chose to push forward and go on the offensive. A flare runic circle appears in front of the boy, shooting forth to signal the start of his own fight.
Hearing the combat starting behind her, Anna grows impatient with the stone warrior's solid defense. In the short time since their battle started, she had only been able to land a small cut on the shield and sword user. She struck again and again, trying every angle she could come up with, but nothing landed.
With growing frustration, she decided it was time to be bolder with her approach. Jumping back, just out of reach of shortsword range, she began to direct her spirit into her weapon. The stone warrior approached slowly, one step at a time while maintaining its formidable guard. With a deep breath, Anna completed her preparations.
Anna's golden hair fluttered behind her as she recklessly pushed forward into the enemies range. She swung her tightly tucked spear in a flat line aimed for the stone man's chest, only for it to be met with his shield instead. With the weapon blocked the warrior raised his shortsword, preparing for a devastating counterattack, but he was too slow. The blue spirit from Anna's weapon surged, pushing the shield to the side and leaving the warrior completely exposed. The girl's spear shot forward, now completely unblocked. It pierced the stone warriors head, blasting it to pieces, followed soon after by it's body which crumbled to dust.
With her foe defeated, Anna turned to help her ally. A short distance away, she could see Reid facing off against the stone soldiers. The sword and shield user was up front while the spear user was slightly behind at an off angle. Her heart sank as she saw blood fly from the boy's arm as a spear sliced his right bicep.
"Reid!" She shouted as she ran to him.
"RAAHHH!"
With a shout, Reid focused his spirit into his right hand and grabbed the enemies still extended spear. He lunged backwards, forcing the stone warrior to fall onto its knees as he stabbed with his own spear, piercing the expressionless stone face and causing it to crumble into sand. With the enemy's spear disappearing, he quickly slammed his right hand to the arena floor. The earth lance runic circle formed and activated in an instant, targeting the final enemy who was now charging the boy.
The powerful magic lance slammed into the stone warriors shield, shattering it and the limb it tried to protect. The warrior stumbled backward for a moment before regaining balance and preparing to strike at the kneeling boy. It raised it's sword high above its head as another spear suddenly slammed into its side.
"Nice save!" Reid shouted as the last stone warrior collapsed, defeated.
"Are you alright!" Anna shouted while running up to the boy.
"I'm okay! It's not as deep as it looked, Amadeus is already fixing it." He replied in a calm tone, despite the dangerous situation he had just found himself in.
As if to confirm his statement, green flecks of light began to wrap around the wound on his arm. Seconds later the lights disappeared, and along with them were any trace of a wound.
"Good. You had me worried there." She said as she grabbed his arm.
Anna looked at the bloody and torn shirt with a wince before reaching into a pouch on her belt. She took out a small white cloth and began to wipe away the blood.
"Hey, don't do that! It's going to get all dirty." He complained.
"If you don't want this rag getting dirty, then don't get stabbed in the first place. Until then let me clean you up." She said with a dangerous glint in her eyes that left no room for debate.
"Got it…" He replied meekly.
A heavy rumbling overtook the room as the exit and entrance gates lowered, giving them the choice to either leave or press on deeper into the dungeon.
"Not bad. A lot sloppier than your first go at the mana dungeon, but you did good regardless. Now that it's over, tell me, what do you think of the spirit dungeon?" Ida asked as he approached the young hunters.
"It feels a lot more dangerous than the other one." Reid replied.
"Why do you think that is?" Ida asked while gesturing for the boy to continue his thought.
"Maybe because they were a lot smarter? They didn't just rush forward onto the sheet of ice like the Bavalt's did." Reid said.
"Good answer. That's what most people notice the first time they take on a spirit dungeon, and this is just the first floor. In addition to getting stronger, the golems get smarter and use better tactics. I should also warn you that in higher level mana dungeons the creatures get a certain amount of intelligence as well. That goes for in the wild too. You shouldn't underestimate a monster's intelligence, or you might find yourself as the ones being hunted." Ida explained while giving the green hunters some advice.
"Got it." The boy replied with a nod.
"Now what did you think of the encounter Anna?" Ida asked.
After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she gave her answer. "Well, I think each of the stone warriors were stronger than anything we saw on the mana dungeons first floor."
"Good observation, most hunters tend to think of spirit dungeons as a short sprint while mana dungeons are a long run. Here, you don't need to be as worried about conserving resources. Use anything you can to win the fight and rest when you're done. Especially because the fights won't trigger on the way back." Ida said.
"They won't?" Anna asked in an excited tone.
"Nope, so no worries there. So Lena, want to explain what they did wrong?" Ida asked while turning to the elven archer patiently waiting at his side.
"First things first, you two were too reliant on your initial plan. The second it failed you began to panic. Those seconds you wasted could be the difference between life and death on the battlefield." Lena spoke in a calm but serious tone.
Reid and Anna cringed a bit at her harsh but fair criticism.
"I'm not telling you plans are wrong, but you need to be ready for when they don't work out. In my many years as a hunter, I've never seen a plan go exactly how we wanted it too. There are just too many variables for that kind of perfection, so it's better to stay flexible.
Next, you guys made a good call trying to finish off the isolated target, but you need to finish them off quicker. The last thing you want is to be surrounded. Anna, when you were fighting the golem, you took up too much space. There was nothing Reid could do to help you kill it faster. You were fighting it one on one when there were two of you, don't waste that advantage. In that situation I would recommend that you try to set up a flanking angle. As the lead you would go wide while Reid approaches head on, then no matter who the enemy focuses on, one of you will have an easy shot at their flank." Lena said.
"Got it…" Anna said as her fox tail tucked itself between her legs.
"Same goes for you Reid. If Anna is fighting them head on and you can't find an angle to jump in, don't just stand behind her, reposition yourself." Lena said.
"Yeah, sorry for freezing up like that… I felt really bad just sitting while she was fighting in front of me, but I just didn't know what I could do. I'll definitely remember that." The boy explained while scratching the back of his head.
"Don't worry, it happens to all of us at one point or another. The important thing is to accept you made a mistake and learn from it. In that regard, you're doing great. Now the final thing I want to point out is what you did after you turned to face the other two golems. You did good trying to distract them while Anna finished her opponent, but you were too aggressive. Your goal should have been to buy time until your parter back you up, instead you charged straight in. You got away with only a cut this time, but you might not be so lucky in the future." Lena said.
"Got it." Reid replied as his wolf ears fell to his head.
"Come on you two, don't look so depressed. As a hunter you need to have some thick skin. You can't let some criticism get you down." Lena said as she put her hands on her hips.
"She's right. Getting sad won't do anything to help you. Think about what we said and try to incorporate it into your next fight. Go ahead and collect the magic stones and get ready because you're going again." Ida said as a sadistic smile snuck it's way onto his face.
Reid's mouth hung open in shock before he was finally able to find his voice. "Wait, wait, wait! I thought you said that the fights won't trigger again?!?"
"Yes, but that only applies to when you enter a room from its exit, if we leave through the entrance, you can challenge the arena as many times as you like! So long as you let others pass and don't hog the arena." Ida says. He looks over the horrified expression of his trainees before bursting out laughing.
"Hahahaha. Did you think you were only going to have one fight and be done for the day? Cmon, what kind of training is that? It's all about repetition! Especially at these lower levels. Now hurry up, you got a lot more training to do today!" He said as his sadistic grin grew even wider.