All's Well That Ends Well

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 38, Post Number 933

-The Haunted Guild, 11:00 P.M.-

Clad in her green, white, and gold outfit with bike shorts underneath the skirt, Argent Gloves on her hands, Ses Revanche in her right boot, and Silver Longsword on her left hip along with her new and larger backpack of supplies on her back, Leona walked up to the Haunted Guild and paused, then turned southwest to look for a well.

A young woman from Hargeon Town named Elaine Walker had hired Leona to find her younger sister Rebecca, a mage who had gone to a dry well that was supposedly located 50 meters southwest of the Haunted Guild. Her sister had traveled there to investigate rumors that the well was once the lair of a long-dead dark mage named Hannibal West, a mage who was rumored to have conducted unethical experiments on draining life from others to extend one's own lifespan. These tests had been conducted on numerous unwilling human subjects. Elaine had not heard back from her sister and feared that Rebecca had either gotten hurt or had been captured by someone looking to replicate West's experiments.

Standing outside of the building that made for a convenient landmark, Leona then proceeded to walk 50 meters to the southwest of the Haunted Guild in order to find the well. She was only three meters away from the front door when she heard a piercing female scream and paused in place. Leona drew her Silver Longsword and spun around to face the source of the scream but saw nothing in the dark windows, not even a shadow. She had been here once before with the Order of Lightbringers mage Amanda to hunt down and destroy some scrolls of demon lore, but that adventure was almost two years ago. According to what she had read about the place, the Haunted Guild was infamous for screaming sounds with no physical source, paranormal activity which was an echo of whatever had happened to the building to make it the "Haunted" Guild.

Realizing that there was nothing that could be done for the screaming person since they had died many years ago, Leona put away her Silver Longsword and resumed walking southwest until she located the well she was sent to find.

-50 Meters southwest of the Haunted Guild, 11:10 P.M.-

However she had gotten it, Elaine Walker's information was right... there was a dry well 50 meters away from the Haunted Guild. Leona stood outside of it and wondered how she was going to get into the well when she saw what looked like a metal ladder on the inside that led down. Leona took a deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to do. She was about to go into a deep, dark well that was once home to a Dark mage and explore his lair. Leona knew that she had to rescue Regina before it was too late, but she was still hesitant to go into the darkness. She had no idea about what was down there and whether Rebecca was still alive, but this kind of situation was exactly why the Wizard Saint of Courage had been hired.

Leona was hired to go into the unknown and rescue people from situations that would make ordinary mages take a step back. With her goal in mind, Leona walked over to the dry well, carefully got onto the ladder, and climbed down while her natural night vision lit the way. She could feel an oppressive atmosphere from the top of the ladder and it only got worse as she climbed deeper into the well. Leona was not looking forward to this adventure.

-At the bottom of the well-

Once she was safely at the bottom of the well Leona turned around from the ladder and found a rusting metal grate with a door that was approximately six feet high and wide enough for one person to enter. Leona felt the oppressive presence even more strongly now that she was standing outside its source. Leona took one last deep breath of night air and opened the door, stepping inside the late necromancer's lair.

-Inside Hannibal West's lair-

Leona had just shut the door behind her when she smelled the unmistakable stench of death and decay hit her in the face. There were no bodies in the 100-meter long corridor, but she could smell it. The stench looked like it was coming from a hole in the back wall that was just big enough for Leona to crawl through if she took off her backpack and got on her stomach. Leona did not like the idea of crawling through the hole, but she had no choice but to do so if she wanted to progress deeper into the necromancer's lair.

Leona slowly walked towards the hole until she was a meter away from it, then paused and took off her backpack. She would have to wrap a strap around her ankle and drag it behind her since she would need both hands to crawl forward. She thought of just leaving her backpack behind, but knowing her luck someone would come along and steal it, so the Wizard Saint would just carry it with her despite how inconvenient it could be. The supplies inside might come in handy at some point... even the Urban Nights Glowstick contained within could serve as a portable light source that could fit into small spaces like the one she was about to go through. Leona opened her backpack and grabbed the Glowstick, then gently bent it to make it glow blue.

Holding the activated Glowstick in her left hand, Leona groaned as she got on her hands and knees, then lowered herself to her stomach. She would be crawling on the stone floor, but she did not know what had been walking or crawling on the stone floor. Part of her did not want to find out. Wrapping the left strap of her backpack around her left ankle, Leona crawled forward and began to crawl through the hole while the stench of death and decay got stronger with each "step" into the lair. She was dreading what she would find on the other side, but she was the Wizard Saint of Courage, so she had to go through with this mission no matter how intense her personal discomfort was. Still, no amount of noble thoughts about duty and responsibility could take the edge off of how uncomfortable Leona felt about going into a necromancer's lair by herself.

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-On the other side of the wall-

After crawling on her stomach for roughly twenty meters, Leona reached a place where she could stand up again. Leona stood up and looked around the space she was standing in. Her night vision cut through the gloom and she saw that the space was a large square chamber filled with skeletons lying on the floor and sitting against the wall, but the most disturbing part was the numerous dried splotches of dark brown on the stone floor suggesting long-dried bloodstains. There were even stretched-out bloodstains on the floor suggesting that some bodies had been dragged to their current resting places, where they rotted and became the skeletons Leona saw all around the room. Ignoring the skeletons, Leona looked around and noticed three doors in the room.

One was to the left. The second was in front of her. The third and final door was to her right. Whether it was by design or by coincidence, all three doors were 50 meters from her present location. Perhaps Hannibal West was a big fan of symmetry. At any rate, she saw that the only way to progress was through a door. Opting to go left, Leona drew her Silver Longsword and walked slowly and carefully through the room until she reached the door.

Leona twisted the doorknob left and got nothing. She twisted it right and the door remained shut. It was locked, so she would need to find a key somewhere. But where?

Leona turned away from the door and walked towards the door on the central wall. After a short walk where she thought she heard screaming coming from behind the door... or was it coming from the center of the room? Leona had no idea. She reached the center door and tried it to find that it too was locked. With only one other door in the room, Leona went right.

Leona tried the right doorknob and found that it turned without resistance. The door opened and Leona went inside the room.

-Inside the room-

Leona went inside the room and shut the door behind her. She turned around and found that she was in an underground prison. There were over thirty individual cells along the right side of the room and they were all open. Inside almost every cell was a dried bloodstain, presumably where they had been dropped off after enduring a torture session. Looking away from the bloodstains, she looked along the left wall and noticed a thick rectangular table with a gleaming object sitting on the right side of it.

Leona heard more screaming as she passed by the cells on the way to the table. Leona looked inside them and knew that they were empty, but they were only empty in the physical sense. Perhaps the ghosts of those who had been imprisoned there were still lingering in the cells and she could not see them. Maybe the spirits of the prisoners had never left the prison even after they had finally died from either the experiments, torture, or neglect. All she knew was that the room felt very cold and had an oppressive feeling to it.

Leona walked over to the table and examined the object. It was a metallic key with the handle in the shape of a human skull that was screaming. Leona could not help but to notice the skull motif of the key and wonder if there was a special connection to the door it unlocked. Leona picked it up in her left hand and briskly walked to the exit, leaving the prison behind as fast as she could.

-In the main chamber-

Leona shut the door to the prison behind her and now faced the task of determining which door the skull key in her left hand opened. Since the skull was a screaming one, Leona went on the hypothesis that the key's shape was a clue to the door it would open and began searching for further clues like bloodstains on the wall or floor. Leona walked towards the left door while watching the ground and eventually reached the left door without finding much of anything. Either the Wizard Saint's hypothesis was wrong or she was at the wrong door.

Using the Glowstick for additional light, Leona put away her Silver Longsword and put the key into her right hand, then looked for the keyhole. She found it just above the doorknob and put the key inside, then turned it left. She heard the door unlock and took the key back out, then twisted the doorknob. She opened the door and was hit with a stench even more awful than the one permeating the main room.

Leona had to turn back and shut the door to keep from throwing up. Once her stomach settled down she turned back to the door and stood still while working up the courage to actually go into the room and find out what was in it. After a minute of mentally preparing to go inside Leona opened the door and went inside the room even though her nose and stomach were protesting every step of the way.

-Inside the room-

Leona's nose and stomach were still protesting when Leona stepped inside the next room, which was another prison just like the right room, but this one had a cluster of seven zombies inside of it. The undead shambled towards her with their arms raised and teeth bared and ready to sink into her flesh, but Leona had dealt with zombies many times before and knew exactly how to deal with them. She drew her Silver Longsword and dropped her Glowstick, then cast a Wind Blast spell that scattered them so that they would be easier to deal with.

Using a Wind Bullet spell to kill one of the undead with a headshot so that she would only have to deal with five zombies, Leona's Wind Bullet made contact with the head of the first zombie to stand back up and blasted it into pieces. The headless body fell down and Leona quickly closed with the next one, stabbing it through the forehead and killing it too. She quickly pulled the blade from its skull and disposed of the other four in a few stabs of the Silver Longsword.

Once the last of the zombies was dead Leona took a deep breath of noxious air and nearly gagged on it. She thought that she could hear screaming, but unlike earlier this screaming had a physical source. It was coming from behind the thirteenth door on the cell block, which was shut and barred from the outside.

"LET ME OUTTA HERE!" A female voice screamed.

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Leona looked at the cell door and blinked. She was not sure if she was rescuing a human who had been captured or was only hearing a ghost who was still trapped in the cell in which they died. Recalling that Rebecca was a mage, Leona reached out with her ability to sense magic and felt a magic signature that was at the level of an A-Rank mage. The Wizard Saint put away her Silver Longsword and walked over to the bar in front of the door, lifting it up and locking it upright. She then pulled open the cell door and heard more shouting from within the cell.

"I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE! GET ME OUTTA HERE RIGHT NOW!" The female voice shouted before the door swinging open gave her pause, but for only a moment. Leona peered inside and was greeted by a fire-infused kick that nearly hit her in the face. Leona stepped back and out came an angry violet-eyed blonde in black and white clothing who was out for blood. The Wizard Saint stepped back and avoided a flaming roundhouse kick aimed at her head and ducked under a second roundhouse kick.

"I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS, YOU STUPID NECROMANCER!" The young woman shouted. Leona recoiled at how violent the young woman was towards her rescuer. The kicks continued to come Leona's way until she finally grabbed the booted foot of the mage and held it still. Leona was rewarded with a spinning kick delivered to her right temple and she staggered back as the angry blonde continued her relentless attack.

"I DON'T NEED HANDS TO KICK YOUR ASS!" Came the shout as the angry blonde hopped to her feet and . Leona was getting tired of this. She had been sent to rescue someone and now that person was threatening to kick her ass. The Wizard Saint was clearly the target of misdirected anger, but Leona was not sure how to communicate that to the young woman. Instead of dragging it out, Leona decided to go for the simple approach and state her name and title.

"I'm not a necromancer! I'm Leona Jarnefeldt, the Wizard Saint of Courage!" Leona shouted back, her head throbbing from the kick to the left temple. The blonde paused in mid-kick and stopped her foot. She then took a step back and studied Leona, who was now a bit angry herself. Being kicked in the head did not help the Wizard Saint's disposition in the slightest. The blonde's violet eyes widened.

"Oh no. It is her." The young woman muttered, all thoughts of continuing her attack fleeing as her anger was replaced with horror. She had just threatened to beat up a Wizard Saint and had actually landed a kick on her. She realized that if Leona really wanted her dead she could kill her with almost no effort.

"It's me, the Wizard Saint of Courage. I'm very real." Leona allowed herself a snarky comment. The left side of her head was hurting too much for her to be polite. She would have to work on being polite to others despite physical pain, but kicking the Wizard Saint in the head did not endear the other mage to Leona.

"I'm so sorry! I thought you were that necromancer who had captured me!" The other blonde apologized. Leona blinked.

"I came here to investigate this well. I had heard that this was a necromancer lair that was owned by a guy named Hannibal West. I came here to put a stop to the activity, but I ended up getting captured by some weird white thing with stubby arms that could make hands come out of the ground." The young woman explained. Leona ignored the pain in her head to focus on the young woman's story. It was consistent with the story Elaine Walker had told the Wizard Saint about her younger sister. Going on that information and making a connection, Leona then decided to ask a question.

"Are you Rebecca Walker?" Leona asked.

"Yeah. Why?" The other blonde asked.

"Your older sister Elaine sent me to rescue you." Leona explained why she was here and how she knew the other blonde's name. Rebecca blinked.

"Really?" She asked Leona. Leona nodded.

"That's great, but we've really gotta stop this guy. He's talking about continuing West's experiments on life extension by draining other people's life energy. I overheard him saying that the process only works on mages, which was why he captured me instead of just killing me. Anyone who isn't a mage just dies without extending the user's life... not that he has a problem with that." Rebecca informed Leona of the threat.

"Do you think it's Hannibal West himself or someone following in his footsteps?" Leona asked Rebecca. Rebecca shrugged her shoulders as far as she could. It was then that Leona realized that Rebecca's hands were bound behind her back.

"Hang on and I'll free your hands." Leona said to Rebecca, walking over to the other blonde and drawing Ses Revanche from her right boot. She found the rope and carefully cut it, freeing Rebecca's hands. Leona then put the knife away and walked around to face Rebecca.

"Thanks, Leona. When I find that guy I'm gonna kick his ass so hard he'll be coughing boot polish for a week!" Rebecca vowed while rubbing her wrists. Leona was sure that Rebecca meant what she said literally. The violet-eyed blonde had tried her best to make good on her threat to kick Leona's ass before the Wizard Saint convinced Rebecca of her identity.

"OK." Leona said noncommittally. Now that Rebecca had been freed, the mission shifted to finding and stopping the necromancer before any more lives were lost.

"Well, it's not like you really need my help since you're a Wizard Saint and all, but I'm gonna stay and finish what I started." Rebecca said to Leona. Leona was not sure if she could guarantee Rebecca's safety, but she would not turn down a helping hand. The Wizard Saint had learned to swallow her pride and accept the help of others. Since Rebecca had some knowledge of the opposition, Leona would let her help.

"All right then. Follow me." Leona said to Rebecca. Rebecca flashed a thumbs-up and walked over to a table in the far corner to pick up her backpack, which was a black leather backpack that was almost identical to Leona's old backpack. Once the other blonde had put it on her back she stood beside Leona.

"OK Wizard Saint, lead the way!" Rebecca bade Leona.

Rebecca Walker:

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-Inside the left prison-

Leona was ready to go when she had thought of something. The only locked door in the main chamber still needed a key. Was there a key on the table in the corner Rebecca had recovered her belongings from?

"Before we go, we're gonna need a key for the center door in the next room." Leona informed Rebecca. Leona looked around the room for a key but was not seeing one just yet. Picking up her Glowstick and walking over to the table, Leona searched for a key but could not find one. Maybe it had been knocked under the table by accident.

Leona got on her hands and knees and began looking under the table for what she was after. She saw nothing on the floor or in the corner, so she stood back up and faced Rebecca, who was looking at her with the expectation that the Wizard Saint could pull wonders out of her hat on command. While Leona had indeed performed wonders like pulling improbable victories out of dire situations, this time the Wizard Saint came up with nothing. Leona could not be a winner every time.

"Sorry, Rebecca. I can't find the key. Not in here, anyway." Leona informed her companion. Rebecca shrugged her shoulders.

"Eh, there's gotta be a key around here somewhere. Only this guy won't leave it under a doormat for us to find." Rebecca opined.

"OK, we'll move on then. There's no point in standing around here all night." Leona said. With her Glowstick in hand she guided them out of the prison and back to the main chamber.

-In the main chamber-

Leona and Rebecca walked towards the center door while they tried to ignore the stench of death and decay that filled the room. That odor was slightly less intense because the room was larger, but that was not setting the bar very high. The fact that the stench here was less intense would be like saying that Fiore's bandits were less ruthless than Desierto's bandits: one option was clearly the lesser of two evils, but either way one was still going to suffer. However, Leona would count her blessings because she was not feeling the need to throw up like she had in the prison.

While they walked Rebecca created a ball of flame in her left palm that was bright enough to produce light for 25 meters around them.

"Hey Leona, do you think he hid a key under one of the skeletons?" Rebecca asked Leona while the pair walked across the room. Leona shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe. Under a skeleton's a place that most people wouldn't think to look. At this point it's worth a look." Leona replied. She would not have thought of that idea on her own, but that was her intellectual shortcoming. It was a good thing that Rebecca was here to suggest that idea or the Wizard Saint would be at a loss as to what to do.

Leona walked over to a skeleton laying to the right of the door and began to look under it while Rebecca examined the one to the left. Leona checked under the spine, the rib cage, and even under the skull and found nothing. Rebecca did the same with her skeleton and came up empty-handed. Leona looked at the skull at her feet and noticed that its mouth had been closed and something metallic was inside it.

Preparing herself for the distasteful act that was to follow, Leona pulled Ses Revanche from her right boot and gently placed its blade between its teeth, then slowly levered the mouth open to find a gleaming key. Leona put Ses Revanche off to the side and used her right hand to slowly remove the key without damaging the skull even more than she already had. Once the key was removed she gently set the skull down and turned to Rebecca, who was searching under another skeleton.

"I found it." Leona informed Rebecca and looked at the key. It was a key with a skull motif just like the first one, but unlike the key to the prison the skull's mouth was closed. Leona found the discovery of a skull key in the mouth of a skull to be darkly humorous. This necromancer certainly had a dark sense of humor.

Upon hearing Leona Rebecca abandoned her search and walked over to the Wizard Saint, taking the key and walking over to the door. She placed it into the lock with her right hand while maintaining the ball of flame that sat in her left hand. The door was unlocked and Rebecca motioned to Leona.

"C'mon, Wizard Saint. This way to the necromancer!" Rebecca bade Leona. Leona stood up, put Ses Revanche back in her right boot, and joined Rebecca at the door.

"This hallway's kinda tricky. It's got dart shooters hidden in the walls and the pressure plates are really hard to see." Rebecca warned Leona. The violet-eyed blonde then opened the door and let Leona go through first before going through herself and closing the door behind them.

-Inside the next room-

Leona and Rebecca entered the room to find that it opened up onto a 50-meter long hallway that was lit by lacrima lanterns that glowed a soft orange and was bright enough to light the way. Seeing that her flame was no longer needed, Rebecca extinguished it and Leona followed suit by putting her Glowstick into her backpack. Now that their hands were free the pair turned to the challenge of getting across the floor.

"There's pressure plates hidden in the floor, but they're not obvious. They were made to fit in with the other floor tiles, so we've gotta be careful where we step." Rebecca warned Leona. Leona thought about the problem and had a simple solution. She would just Zephyr Dash across the floor. While that would help Leona get out of the danger zone, it would leave Rebecca standing on the other side of the hallway facing the issue of navigating a floor that had numerous pressure plates.

Leona looked at the height of the ceiling and came up with another idea.

Why walk across a floor that was known to be dangerous when one could just fly over it?

"Hey Rebecca, how do you feel about flying?" Leona asked the other blonde. Rebecca looked at Leona and blinked.

"I'm cool with it. Why?" Rebecca asked the Wizard Saint. Leona pointed to the floor that loomed in front of them.

"Why walk across it when you can fly?" Leona asked. She was probably damaging her reputation as a Wizard Saint for suggesting the easy way around danger instead of walking on the floor and wading through a storm of darts because it would make her look braver. A couple of years ago she might not have even considered the idea of taking the easy way because she was so desperate to prove her worth as a Wizard Saint, but that was Leona from two years ago. Leona had let that determination to prove her worth get her into trouble once before and she was not going to let that happen again. This Leona would take the easy way that saved her a lot of needless trouble and let Rebecca decide how she felt about the Wizard Saint of Courage.

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Rebecca looked at Leona for a moment and the Wizard Saint saw what she thought was a brief look of disappointment on the violet-eyed blonde's face, but Leona could be reading too much into it. It could be that the violet-eyed blonde was surprised that Leona had the option of flight available to her, but Leona could be misreading that too. Rebecca smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

"OK, works for me! I wish you were here when I first arrived. You coulda saved me a lot of trouble in this room!" Rebecca told Leona. The Wizard Saint was not terribly concerned about losing face for proposing this idea. She was sure that she could more than make up for her loss of face by fighting the "thing" that Rebecca had told her about, the blood-covered thing that could send up hands from the ground to grab people and capture them for the dark mage who was currently in residence here. Leona raised both of her hands into the air and called forth one of her best summons.

"SKY CHAMPION RAFALE!" Leona called out. Moments later the green-clad summon appeared and faced Leona.

"What do you need?" Rafale asked Leona as Rebecca looked on in surprise. The other blonde looked like she did not expect Leona's summons to be able to talk to their mistress. If that was the case, Rebecca should meet the Harpy Sisters some time. They would talk her ear off and make her wish that the Wizard Saint's summons could not talk.

"I'd like you to carry me and Rebecca across this room. You see, the floor's rigged with pressure plates and we'd like to avoid setting them off." Leona replied. Rafale put away his energy swords, then looked at Rebecca before looking back at his mistress.

"It will be done. Would you like me to carry the young woman first?" Rafale asked Leona. Leona looked at Rebecca.

"I'll go first." Rebecca volunteered. Rafale walked over to her and grabbed the violet-eyed blonde by the waist, then lifted off straight up into the air before flying straight forward at a walking pace so that he could control both his flight and his descent. About fifteen seconds later Rafale gently deposited Rebecca on the other side of the room and came back for Leona. The Wizard Saint let Rafale grab her around the waist and felt herself be lifted into the air. The green-clad summon carried Leona across the hazardous floor and deposited Leona on the ground half a meter to the right of Rebecca, then walked to the far right of the room so that the pair could access the door.

"Thanks, Rafale." Leona thanked her summon.

"Thanks Rafale!" Rebecca seconded. The summon nodded in acknowledgment and Leona walked over to the door. Rebecca followed close behind.

"You saved us a lot of trouble by flying us across that floor, Leona. If I remember correctly, next we've got to go through a straight corridor that has a lot of zombies in it. I killed a few of them, but there were too many for me to fight alone, so I had to avoid most of them." Rebecca warned the Wizard Saint about the danger ahead. Leona appreciated the heads-up and drew her Silver Longsword. She also kept Rafale out because he was one of her most combat-capable summons and if Rebecca was right the blondes would be outnumbered.

"I'll go first." Leona said to Rebecca and opened the door to the next room. Rebecca nodded.

"Be my guest." Rebecca replied, holding the door for Leona and Rafale. The Wizard Saint and her summon walked through and Rebecca followed close behind.

-In the next room-

Leona entered the next room and saw that Rebecca's assessment about "a lot of zombies" was right. She counted somewhere in the neighborhood of forty-plus zombies clogging a corridor that was 50 meters long and just wide enough for three people to walk though while standing side-by-side. That would make the fight a bit of a challenge because Leona would need some room to swing the Silver Longsword without hitting Rebecca. Then Leona had an idea... why not send Sky Champion Rafale ahead of them to thin out the zombies and draw their attention?

"Rafale, do you think that you can draw away a few of those zombies for us?" Leona asked Rafale. Rafale nodded.

"It will be done." He replied, brandishing his energy blades and going airborne. After flying straight up for a meter, he then dropped half a meter and flew straight for the zombies, who all moaned and reached out for the flying summon. They were looking for an easy meal but got an energy blade to the face as he zoomed just overhead and out of their reach, leaving three dead zombies on the ground. A cluster of survivors broke away from the pack to chase the summon, leaving Leona and Rebecca with about thirty-plus zombies to deal with.

Leona took a few moments to get ready to deal with the zombies, but before she charged into the fray she raised her left hand and used a Wind Blast spell to knock some of them back, further breaking up the horde to make their lives a little easier. Ten of them were knocked back, leaving a ragged procession of the undead rather than a somewhat cohesive hoard. Leona rushed towards the first zombie, a former explorer wearing chainmail, and stabbed it through the skull, then kicked it to remove her sword.

Rafale swooped down on the zombies again and cut through two of his "pursuers" while Rebecca hurried to Leona's side and delivered a flaming punch to a zombie's face as Leona stabbed a zombie wearing blue robes and a golden necklace with a sapphire in the middle of a golden pendant through the skull. He looked like he was a mage before he had been killed and reanimated. The Wizard Saint was glad that there were not any zombie mages because a zombie who could use the magic they knew in life would be a much greater threat than the average zombie. Rebecca dealt with another zombie using a straight punch that caved its skull in and sent it flying into another zombie, causing it to fall to the ground.

The two blondes and the summon were holding their own against the undead menace, but it was slow going. Leona stabbed a third zombie through the skull and withdrew the sword, but taking out zombies one at a time was slow and tedious. The Wizard Saint needed a quicker solution, one that could take out a lot of zombies quickly. As she and Rebecca backed away from the horde she thought of something that she could do to keep them from being overwhelmed.

She could use her Silver Tempest spell to take out a lot of the zombies at once with a powerful tornado.

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"Get back, Rebecca. I'm about to use a very powerful crowd control spell!" Leona warned Rebecca of what she was about to do. Rebecca looked at Leona and blinked.

"Oh Hell." Rebecca muttered. She got back all right... she got so far back that she fled the room outright, going through the door to the room they had just left. Leona thought that might have been going a bit too far, but as long as she did not hit Rebecca with friendly fire the Wizard Saint could live with it. Now that she knew that Rebecca was out of harm's way she turned her full attention towards the zombies, who were closing in on Leona.

Leona cast a Wind Blast spell to buy her some room to use Silver Tempest, knocking back the closest ten enemies. She then set down her Silver Longsword and began to channel silver magic throughout her entire body. Once the spell was ready Leona raised her arms out to her sides and held her hands out with palms exposed. She then spun in place for five full revolutions, releasing a silver tornado that emanated from her position and struck twenty-five of the zombies. They were knocked down by the powerful winds and did not get back up.

Rafale was about to attack again when he saw the silver tornado and paused in the air just out of reach of the zombies he was about to attack. Thankfully the zombies were so densely packed that they were hit instead of Rafale, but it had been a very close thing. Leona was glad that Rebecca had fled the room so that she did not get hit by the Silver Tempest. After using the spell Leona was facing only eight zombies, a far more manageable number than the thirty-plus she had been facing just moments ago. They were just far enough away that Leona had time to safely pick up her sword without fear of getting bitten.

Using a Storm Impact to stagger the rest before they could get to her, Leona then picked up the Silver Longsword and began killing off the rest of the zombies as Rafale dealt with the zombies who had followed him. The surviving zombies were no match for the Wizard Saint and her summon and fell in the space of three minutes. Once all the zombies were dead Leona walked back to the door and called for Rebecca. Rebecca re-entered the room and looked at the pile of dead zombies on the floor in front of the Wizard Saint.

"I'm glad I got out of the room. That spell took care of them." Rebecca said. Leona wordlessly began stabbing every zombie on the floor through the head to make sure that they were down for the count and not just stunned by the Silver Tempest.

"Yeah, me too. It had a lot more range than I expected. That's why I warned you to get back." Leona said to the violet-eyed blonde as she slowly made her way around the floor stabbing zombies through the head. Silver Tempest was Leona's most powerful crowd control spell. It was a good thing because Wind Strike Magic did not have very many crowd control spells and out of those few only Storm Impact and Silver Tempest could hit enemies surrounding her. However, unlike Storm Impact, Silver Tempest was much more powerful and had far greater range.

"With that being said, sorry about you having to flee the room to avoid being hit." Leona apologized to her fellow blonde for having to use Silver Tempest without knowing the extent of its range. While the spell took care of a lot of the zombies, the Wizard Saint did not want to get a reputation as a reckless spellcaster who used powerful spells whether allies were in the line of fire or not. She already had enough trouble with people who were cautious around her because of her reputation as a fighter. Some people considered her the type of person who solved every problem with violence and someone who would attack anyone who displeased her for any reason. While that was untrue and Leona went out of her way to avoid unnecessary violence, some people were willing to believe the rumors without bothering to check the facts.

"It's OK, Leona. At least you gave me a heads-up before using it instead of catching me in it. It musta been something to see, though." Rebecca accepted the Wizard Saint's apology with grace. Leona was glad for that because she would need Rebecca's knowledge of the area to get them both through it alive. The Wizard Saint finished up stabbing the last of the downed zombies through the head and turned to Rebecca.

"Are you ready to move on?" Leona asked the violet-eyed blonde. Rebecca nodded.

"Yeah. The next room is kinda tricky because there's a bunch of blocks with spikes at the bottom that fall down. You'll have to see it to fully understand... no offense." Rebecca affirmed before explaining the nature of the obstacle in the next room. She then apologized for appearing to insult Leona's intelligence with her statement about having to see the obstacle to fully understand it.

"It's fine, Rebecca. I think I'd be better off seeing it myself." Leona accepted Rebecca's apology with ease. She had probably just cost herself a bit more face with that admission, but anyone who knew Leona would say that the Wizard Saint was not the smartest mage to ever walk the face of Earthland. Leona was mostly past trying to be the omniscient mage people expected Wizard Saints to be and was not afraid to admit that she did not know something. However, she was also working to get a formal education so she did not have to coast on admitting that she did not know something forever.

"OK, let's go then. Follow me." Rebecca said, walking past the dead zombies and walking to the door. Leona wiped the blood off her Silver Longsword and put it away, then followed Rebecca. Rafale gently lowered himself to the floor, then put away his energy blades and followed the blondes through the door to the next room.

-In the next room-

Rebecca entered the room and stood a meter to the left of the door, giving Leona and Rafale enough space to go through the door. Once they were through Rafale closed it and Leona looked ahead of them to see the crushing blocks with spikes on the bottom. They were in a five-meter safe area that opened up into a 100-meter long corridor with ten blocks falling from the ceiling and being hauled back up by thick iron chains attached to each corner of the block. Leona's first idea was to simply have Rafale fly them through the gaps and avoid the falling blocks entirely, but she decided to take her time and observe the blocks before she took to the sky and ended up getting crushed against the ceiling instead of the floor.

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Leona and Rebecca observed the pattern of the falling blocks and noticed that the first few were rather slow but picked up speed as one went down the hall until the tenth block descended with crushing force once every five seconds. She also noticed that there was a five-meter gap between blocks, but that did not mean that the gaps were entirely safe. They might have had traps of their own installed in them to catch intruders who were so preoccupied with the falling blocks that they did not watch their step. Speaking of the falling blocks, Leona observed them and came up with the start of a plan.

The blondes could fly over them, but as they got closer to the end of the hall the blocks rose faster and faster until trying to fly over them would be every bit as dangerous as running under them. Therefore it would be safer just to run since the two blondes could coordinate their movement instead of one of them trying to fly and keep up with the other. Once she had decided that Leona's next thought was to try and find a way to disable the falling block traps. Every trap had to have an activation lever, so if she could find it and pull it she could shut down some of the falling blocks and make their lives a lot easier.

Leona looked at the hallway they were in and noticed that the blocks were made to fill their portion of the hallway, meaning that there was no running around them. Intruders would just have to run under them and hope that they did not get crushed in the attempt. Leona then began to look for a lever, switch, or button in their immediate area.

"What are you looking for?" Rebecca asked Leona while Rafale watched the blocks go up and down, falling with a THUD before being hauled back to the ceiling by the chains.

"I'm looking for the OFF lever, switch, or button. If we turn off some or all of the blocks our lives will be much easier." Leona replied to her companion's question. Rebecca nodded.

"OK. I don't think there is one except at the end of the hallway, but I don't remember seeing one when I first came through here. Then again I was on an adrenaline rush and didn't pay much attention to my surroundings, so there might be one hidden somewhere." Rebecca opined. Leona looked around the walls and floors for any obvious irregularities that might be hiding what she needed. She did not see any in their immediate area, suggesting that either what she was looking for did not exist or was simply placed further down the corridor. There was only one way to find out.

"Looks like we're just gonna have to brave the first few falling blocks." Leona stated as the first one hit the ground with a THUD. Rebecca looked towards the Wizard Saint and nodded.

"OK, I'm ready whenever you are." Rebecca said and flashed a thumbs-up. Leona dispelled Rafale so that she only had to focus on getting herself and Rebecca through the hallway. She then looked towards Rebecca, then towards the block in front of them.

"When the block starts to lift from the floor, we run." Leona informed her partner. The two blondes watched the block fall, then heard the chains rattle as the block was slowly hoisted back towards the ceiling. When it lifted to the halfway point both blondes sprinted under it and made it to the first of the safe areas between blocks.

"OK, we cleared that one, but we have nine more to go." Rebecca gave Leona a status report. Leona nodded and the pair walked towards the second block, which was in the process of falling. Both mages covered their ears to dull the THUD, then resumed walking until they were a meter away from the second block.

Once the second block had fallen and was being lifted the pair ran under it and reached the second safe area without any difficulty. Leona looked around for any irregularities in the area but did not see any. Once she had completed her look around the pair walked towards the third block and got ready for a sprint.

Again they observed it and waited until just the right moment before sprinting again and reaching the safe area seconds before the block came crashing down.

"Well, we just sprinted under the third block and we're doing well. We've only got seven more to go before we're out of this area." Rebecca gave another status update as the blondes walked towards the fourth block. They noticed that this spiked block had some dried blood on the spikes, suggesting that this was as far as some intruders got. They looked towards the floor underneath the block and saw that there was what looked like the remains of a crushed skeleton.

"OK. We're doing well so far. It'd be nice if we could find a deactivation lever, but I'm not counting on it." Leona chimed in. She searched for irregularities on the floor or wall but to no avail. Everything looked natural, so the pair reached the area before the fourth block and paused.

Once the block was going up the pair ran under it and made it to the other side with a few seconds to spare. Now they had five meters before they would have to repeat the process. The blondes reached the fifth block and noticed a few crushed skeletons lying underneath it. That meant that the blocks were falling progressively faster and timing would become more important than before.

The blondes observed the block and noticed that it rose and fell in ten-second intervals, which was just enough time to get past it. Like they had done so many times before they waited until it had fallen and was rising up before they made their move. The blondes sprinted under the rising block and made it with seconds to spare. That was not too hard, but the obstacles would only get harder from here.

After having sprinted under five blocks in a row the blondes stopped to rest before they would study the sixth block and see if there was anything different about it other than the interval at which it fell and how many victims it had claimed. While they rested they looked towards the floor under the block and noticed that there was a slight square-sized depression in the floor that could trip the unwary and cause them to be crushed underneath the block they were trying to avoid.

"Hey, you see that depression in the floor?" Rebecca asked Leona, pointing towards the depression with her right index finger. Rebecca created the flame in her left palm and lit the area for twenty-five meters so that the Wizard Saint could see it more clearly. Leona looked towards the area under the block and saw what Rebecca was warning her about.

"I see it now, Rebecca. Since we can't leap across I guess we're just going to have to be careful when we run under the block." Leona added. She looked around them and did not see any signs of a hidden lever.

"Yeah." Rebecca said laconically. She was not looking forward to passing under the remaining four blocks. Neither was Leona.

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The two blondes carefully observed the sixth block's pattern and learned that it fell in regular eight-second intervals, meaning that if they wanted to get under it they had better move quickly. Once the block had fallen and was being hoisted up the pair began running. They ran into the depression and crossed it, but Rebecca stumbled when she was trying to get up it and nearly fell. Leona had made it to the other side, but she heard Rebecca shout and turned around. One of Rebecca's feet had caught the lip of the depression and was staggering in loping steps to try and keep her balance... she barely made it out before the block came crashing down behind her.

"Damn, that was close!" Rebecca exclaimed. Considering that the violet-eyed blonde was only half a meter away from the block when it came crashing down, Leona was inclined to agree with that statement.

"Yeah." Leona said laconically. The Wizard Saint's heart was racing because she was worried that Rebecca might get crushed in front of her, but as luck would have it the violet-eyed blonde had made it out of harm's way just in time. That was the kind of lucky escape that Leona usually had. It was nice to see someone else benefit from that kid of luck.

"I'm gonna need to take a break. I think my nerves are shot." Rebecca pleaded. Leona nodded.

"OK, Rebecca." Leona consented. They had just taken a break, but Leona was not complaining about taking another one. Rebecca was a A-Rank mage and she had a lot of guts if she had volunteered to help Leona instead of fleeing back to Hargeon Town when she was rescued, but she did not have the experience that the Wizard Saint did. She also did not go into the kind of danger that Leona confronted on a regular basis. It was understandable if the violet-eyed blonde was shaken by her near-death experience.

The pair walked into the middle of the safe zone before the seventh block and took another break. Rebecca took a seat on the ground while Leona stood up and took a deep breath. Part of her had wanted Rebecca to go back to Hargeon Town and to safety, but the other part of the Wizard Saint was glad that Rebecca was with her. Having a helping hand in a place like this was never a bad thing. The Wizard Saint might have damaged her reputation by accepting help from a mage who was much weaker than she was, but Leona had learned to not let pride get in the way of completing a job.

After about ten minutes Rebecca had recovered enough for them to resume running the obstacle course.

"I'm ready when you are, Leona." Rebecca said to her. Leona nodded.

"OK. Let's study the block in front of us before we start running." Leona suggested. The pair walked to the end of the safe zone and observed the eighth block, which fell in six-second intervals. The floor beneath the block also had ten-inch spikes that shot out along the borders, meaning that the pair would have to run in single file to avoid being stabbed through the bottom of the foot. They faced each other and nodded.

Once the block began to rise the spikes shot out of the floor and Leona took the lead. She ran under the block and looked back to see if Rebecca had stumbled again, but the other blonde was right behind her. They heard the block hit the top of the ceiling, which meant that they had to step it up.

Leona cleared the block and paused two meters into the safe zone. Rebecca was right behind her. In fact she was so close behind Leona that she ran into the Wizard Saint's back and bounced off of it, nearly falling backwards. Leona heard the block behind them crash down and panicked. Her stomach churned as she spun around to make sure that she had not just indirectly killed Rebecca by causing her to stagger backwards into the block trap they had just escaped.

"Sorry! Sorry about that!" Rebecca exclaimed. When she saw her fellow blonde standing half a meter away Leona sighed with relief.

"It's no problem. I heard the block crash and was worried that you had just died." Leona accepted the apology with ease. She was much more concerned about having accidentally killed her partner than offended that someone had bumped into her. Rebecca took a deep breath and approached Leona.

"Now we have just two more blocks to go before we're out of this hallway." Rebecca gave a status update. Leona was glad to hear that, but the last two blocks might prove to be the toughest obstacles yet. The block in front of them had numerous crushed skeletons laying underneath it and a lot of dried blood on the spikes. It was obvious that a lot of would-be heroes had met their end beneath the ninth block.

The pair studied it and learned that the block fell in six-second intervals and did not have any obvious extra features... or did it? Leona did not trust its appearance.

"Do you recall anything special about this block?" Leona asked her fellow blonde. Rebecca studied it for a few seconds and her eyes went to the floor beneath the block.

"Yeah. There are spikes hidden in the floor, but they only come out when you step on their pressure plate. They pop up in the center of the tile, so unless you're really lucky like I was, the first you'll know of them is them punching through the sole of your boots." Rebecca answered. Leona frowned. That was simple but fiendishly clever. Anyone who got impaled through the foot would not make it out in time to avoid the falling block.

"OK then. We might just have to have Rafale fly us over this one." Leona suggested. Rebecca nodded.

"I only got by this one on luck last time. I had to play a game of hopscotch from Hell to avoid getting spikes through my feet and even then it was a close thing." Rebecca commented. Leona remained silent because she knew what that was like. The Wizard Saint had gotten by on luck numerous times... two years ago she had practically lived off of her luck. The incident where she survived a run through the middle of a Crimson Sashes camp with at least one hundred of them on her heels was a prime example of the incredible luck the Wizard Saint lived by. Now she was a little bit smarter and was determined to supplement her luck with a little bit of intelligent thinking instead of charging in and hoping that everything somehow went her way.

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Raising her hands to the sky, Leona channeled magic into them and called on her faithful summon Rafale.

"SKY CHAMPION RAFALE!" Leona called out. Moments later the green-clad summon appeared before the blondes.

"What would you ask of me?" Rafale asked Leona. Leona pointed towards the ninth block with her right index finger.

"There's hidden pressure plates in the floor under that block. If we step on them, we're gonna get spikes through our feet before we get crushed by the block. I need you to fly Rebecca and me over the gap, but you won't have long to get us across because the block rises and falls in six-second intervals." Leona stated the reason he had been summoned. Rafale observed the block rise and fall and turned back to Leona.

"Understood." He said.

"I'll go first." Rebecca volunteered. Leona nodded at Rafale and he walked over to Rebecca, then put his hands around her waist and lifted off straight up before flying towards the block as it was rising. Leona held her breath as the summon flew with Rebecca under the block. She hoped that the block would hold off long enough for Rafale to ferry her companion to the other side. Leona saw Rafale and Rebecca nearly reach the other side before the block came crashing down.

Leona gasped. Her face went pale and she waited in silence to see whether Rafale and Rebecca had made it to the other side or not. The block rose and she saw Rafale and Rebecca standing on the other side alive and intact. Rebecca cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted something.

"WE'RE OK, LEONA! WE MADE IT!" Rebecca informed Leona. The Wizard Saint breathed a sigh of relief. She had not sent them to their deaths after all. Leona felt the color slowly creep back into her face as Rafale made the return trip and landed in front of Leona. Once the summon had landed the Wizard Saint nodded to him and he walked behind her and grabbed her around the waist.

"We're about to take off." Rafale informed her.

"Go for it." Leona gave the go-ahead. She felt herself lift off as the block fell and went still, then she went forward as Rafale carried her over the floor and towards the block as it fell. The block fell and was being raised back towards the ceiling when the Wizard Saint and her summon passed under it. Leona took a breath as she approached Rebecca. She felt them pass under the block just a second before it fell.

Leona touched down on the other side and faced Rebecca, who had been patiently waiting on the green-clad blonde to reach safety. Once Leona's feet touched the ground Rafale let go of her and the Wizard Saint faced her partner.

"OK, we got past that one. What about the tenth block? Is there any special trick to getting past it?" Leona asked Rebecca. The violet-eyed blonde shook her head.

"No, no spikes hidden in the floor this time. You've gotta run for it and hope that you reach the other side. It's all about speed and luck." Rebecca replied. Leona gave a small smile as she dispelled Rafale.

"I've got just the thing to get us across." Leona informed her companion. She would use Zephyr Dash to get them both across so that they did not have to cross individually.

"Unless you can cover the distance in five seconds, we'll only end up decorating the floor like those guys." Rebecca said, pointing towards the floor. Numerous crushed skeletons lay beneath the block and a whole lot of dried blood stained the floor. They served as a reminder for Leona to plan her Zephyr Dash carefully. Leona looked beyond the block for any lever she could pull to deactivate the blocks once she got to the other side to make Rebecca's passage safe. She thought she had spotted one to the right of the door to the next room, but she could not clearly see it from her current position.

"I think I see a lever on the other side. I tell you what. I'll go first and see if there's a lever. If there is, I'll pull it so that you can get across without having to worry. If there's not a lever, I'll come back and carry you across with another Zephyr Dash." Leona announced her change of plan to Rebecca. Rebecca received it with a smile and a thumbs-up.

"You've gotten us this far. I'll trust you to get the job done." Rebecca expressed her faith in Leona. The Wizard Saint gave a thumbs-up of her own, then faced the block, crouched down, and channeled magic into her legs. Once the block had reached the ceiling Leona performed the Zephyr Dash and reached the other side with no trouble at all. She turned around, cupped her hands over her mouth, and shouted to Rebecca.

"I'M ON THE OTHER SIDE! I'M OK!" Leona shouted to Rebecca. She then turned around and searched for the lever she thought that she had seen. Sure enough she spotted one on the right side of the doorway. Gripping it with both hands, she pulled it up and watched as the last block rose to the ceiling and stayed.

"COME ON ACROSS, REBECCA! I THINK I STOPPED THE BLOCKS!" Leona shouted an update to Rebecca. The violet-eyed blonde nodded and hurried across in case the lever only slowed the blocks down instead of stopping them completely. The blonde rejoined Leona and smiled.

"Man, you're a life-saver. I almost didn't make it under the block the first time, but you zipped under it like it was nothing!" Rebecca said to the Wizard Saint.

"Yeah. I've had that spell for quite awhile. It comes in handy." Leona said in understatement. Zephyr Dash was good for covering distances quickly. Whether the occasion was to go on the attack, to retreat from an unfavorable situation, or to get somewhere in a hurry, Zephyr Dash met Leona's need for speed.

"I'd say." Rebecca replied with an economy of words. She then looked towards the door they were about to go through.

"I don't really remember what's on the other side of the door, but we'll have to be careful. Who knows what kinds of traps are waiting for us on the other side." Rebecca informed Leona. The Wizard Saint would have liked a little more info on what they would be facing, but if Rebecca did not remember, she did not remember. They would just have to go in and find out what was waiting on them.

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-Inside the next room-

Leona and Rebecca entered the next room to find that it was a lengthy corridor that was wide enough to accommodate six people walking side-by-side. It was also quiet, so quiet that the silence was deafening. After being in the last corridor with the pounding blocks the silence here was hurting their ears.

"I don't remember exactly what was up with this corridor, but it has something to do with the floor. Watch your step." Rebecca advised Leona. Leona had a little more information on what to expect, so she kept her eyes on the floor as she stepped forward... and her right foot slipped out from under her, causing her to fall backwards and land on her back. A concealed pit had opened beneath her foot!

"LEONA!" Rebecca called out. Leona looked up and reached out towards Rebecca as she extended her hands towards the Wizard Saint. Rebecca's hands grabbed Leona's and she hauled the Wizard Saint out of harm's way. The pit seemed to sense that it would not be getting another victim and closed up, concealing itself in the floor once again.

"Thanks, Rebecca!" Leona exclaimed as she lay on the floor for a second or two before sitting up.

"No problem, Leona. You saved my life a few times already, so I'm just returning the favor." Rebecca casually replied. Thanks to Rebecca's timely aid Leona had gotten an idea of what to do now. That idea was to take to the sky and avoid the pits altogether. She doubted that the architect had installed any countermeasures to stop mages who planned to fly over the concealed floor pits.

Rebecca looked towards the floor and then towards Leona.

"Do you have any summons who can fly us over the floor?" Rebecca asked. She had intuitively guessed Leona's plan. Leona nodded.

"Yeah, I've got summons who can help us." Leona said. She then got to her feet and faced the door they had come through, then channeled magic into her hands before starting the chant that would bring out the Harpy Sisters.

"O FABLED HARPIES, O SISTERS THREE, LEND YOUR STRENGTH UNTO ME!" Leona chanted. Moments later the three sisters appeared in front of Leona and greeted her.

"Hey girl!" Sylvia greeted Leona.

"Like, who's that blonde chick you're with? Did you get a girlfriend since the last time you called us?" Daphne asked Leona. Rebecca blushed and Leona did too.

"Um, Daphne... I don't think Leona's on a date." Sandy said to her sister. Leona ignored the implication that she was taking Rebecca on a date and introduced the Harpy Sisters to Rebecca and vice versa.

"Rebecca, these are Sylvia, Daphne, and Sandy. Sylvia's the redhead, Daphne's the raven, and Sandy's the brunette." Leona introduced her fellow blonde to the sisters. They each waved a clawed hand at the blonde.

"Guys, this is Rebecca Walker. We need to get across this floor without walking on it because there's spike pits concealed beneath it." Leona informed the sisters.

"Girl, we've got you!" Sylvia said.

"As long as you haven't gained any more weight, that is." Daphne commented. Leona frowned. The Wizard Saint just could not catch a break from the black-haired harpy.

"Anyway, we're ready to lift off whenever you are." Sandy said to Leona. Leona nodded towards them. Sylvia grabbed Rebecca around the waist and Daphne grabbed Leona around her waist.

"Like, I think your butt has gotten bigger!" Daphne exclaimed. A blushing Leona quickly struck back.

"Just can it and carry me across the floor, please!" Leona snapped back at the raven. Daphne giggled to herself as Sylvia and Sandy looked at one another.

"OK! Lifting off now!" Daphne said. The three sisters took off and began to ferry Leona and Rebecca across the floor. Leona looked around for any signs of traps in the ceiling like dart shooters, blades, crushing blocks, or spears, but there was nothing set up to stop airborne mages. So far, so good.

They had reached the quarter distance mark and nothing had happened yet, so Leona and Rebecca were doing well. The floor obstacles were of no concern because the two blondes were flying over them. The time and energy they had saved by flying over the concealed spike pits instead of having to slowly pick their way across the floor meant that they would have plenty of energy with which to face the white blood-covered creature that Rebecca had told Leona about when the former was first rescued.

They reached the halfway point and nothing bad had happened, so the quintet kept flying along while Leona watched for any traps set up to stop airborne mages. After about five more minutes of uninterrupted travel the quintet had finally arrived at the end of the room. The Harpy Sisters set down their cargo and the two blondes faced the sisters.

"Thanks, guys." Leona thanked the Harpy Sisters for carrying them across the hazardous floor.

"Yeah, thanks." Rebecca thanked them for carrying her as well.

"It's no problem, guys." Sylvia assured the two blondes. The two blondes turned around to face the door that led into the next room.

"So, what's behind this door?" Leona asked Rebecca.

"Do you remember that white blood-covered creature I told you about? It's behind this door. I'm sure of it." Rebecca informed Leona. Leona drew her Silver Longsword in preparation for the fight.

"OK then. I'll go first." Leona said. She opened the door and Rebecca and the three harpies followed behind her.

-In the next room-

Leona entered the room and found herself standing in a large, square chamber that had the smell of dirt and decay. In contrast to the rest of the well, the floor here was dirt. Scattered around the room were bleached skulls and bleached bones. The Wizard Saint felt a faint rumble beneath her feet.

"Watch your step, Leona. The creature came out of the ground!" Rebecca warned her. Leona nodded and took eight more steps forward before the rumbling beneath her feet grew stronger and the ground began to bulge in the center of the room. Suddenly a cloud of dirt erupted from the center of the room and coated everyone in dirt, but that was only an inconvenience compared to what had emerged from the floor.

A rather large white creature with red splotches on it and a long neck with a head on the end of it stood upright and looked at the mages. Leona could see no eyes at all, but it did not need eyes to see them.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Leona asked.

"IT'S THAT CREATURE I WARNED YOU ABOUT!" Rebecca shouted. Seconds later three arms with slender white hands erupted from the ground next to Leona and two of them grabbed her ankles before she could move and gripped them tightly. The third hand grabbed her head and forcibly tilted it backwards, exposing her throat to the beast.

"HELP ME!" Leona shouted to Rebecca and the harpies. She saw the creature's eyes glow red and it shimmied towards her with a smile on its face. Leona felt her stomach turn as it approached. She could not see well enough to cut herself free of the arms, so she would need help to escape their grasp.

The Creature:

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Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Job Sign-Up Archive - Page 39, Post Number 972

"Hang on, Leona!" Rebecca called out. Leona had recovered from the initial panic of being grabbed and was now trying to free herself before that creature could shimmy over and take a bite out of her exposed throat. She was hacking ineffectually at the arm holding her head tilted back. Her sword swings were connecting with the arm, but due to being forced to stand at an awkward angle and being unable to really see the arm she was not able to put much force behind each swing. Right now she was not making a very good showing as the Wizard Saint of Courage, so she would need to do better once she had gotten free of the arms.

"Like, omigosh, that thing is SO gross!" Daphne protested as she took to the air after her sisters, who were already airborne and were fast approaching the immobilized Wizard Saint. Rebecca had hurried to Leona's rescue and was attacking the arm hold Leona's head back. Leona felt a slight rise in the temperature around her as Rebecca hit the arm with a flaming punch that caused it to release her head and retreat underground. Leona faced the creature in time to raise her left hand and point her left index finger towards it, then create a Wind Bullet and fire it into the creature's head from roughly ten meters away. Its head was hit right in the chin and its head was tilted back at a ninety-degree angle with enough force that it should have been broken, but its neck was a lot more flexible than it looked because its head soon returned to facing Leona like nothing had ever happened.

"How can it have survived that? That hit should have broken its neck!" Sandy asked what Leona and Rebecca were thinking as she and Sylvia dove on the creature's face with their talons extended and scored glancing blows on its forehead before flying up to avoid a grasping arm aimed at Sylvia. Daphne came in late and gashed the top of its head with her talons, but if the creature was in any pain it was not showing it. It shimmied towards Leona with grim determination and Leona would go to meet it as soon as her feet were free.

Leona looked down and saw the thin white hand gripping her ankle, so she began stabbing at it with her sword while being careful to avoid stabbing her leg by accident. The hand took five stabs before it released its grip on her right ankle and dove back underground, allowing her to focus on freeing her left ankle. Rebecca raced past Leona and leaped, performing a flaming jump kick with her right leg extended. It was aimed at the creature's face and connected when it was six meters away from them, the heel of her foot meeting its right eye. The creature waved its stubby arms at Rebecca and turned around, shimmying away and disappearing in an expanding cloud of dirt that covered everyone and temporarily blinded them.

"Hey! Where did it go?" Sylvia asked everyone as she cleared the dirt from her eyes. Her sisters did the same and Rebecca followed. Leona cleared her eyes and finished freeing her left ankle just as more hands erupted from the ground and reached out for her and Rebecca. The two blondes avoided the grasping hands by doing shoulder rolls under them and popped back up to feel rumbling beneath their feet. The creature was going to emerge from right under their feet!

Rebecca did four consecutive back handsprings and Leona dashed away using Zephyr Dash; they had acted just in time because the moment they took evasive action their enemy emerged in a cloud of dirt. Leona went on the attack and ran towards it while avoiding the grasping hands reaching for her, running until she was within a meter of it before slashing at its head and cutting it across the lower jaw, causing its head to flop back and for a moan to rise from its lips. Leona ran again while the Harpy Sisters attacked its head in a series of swooping attacks with their talons extended. They gouged tracks in its head and neck and avoided the hands that reached out to grab them, leaving Leona with another opening to attack its head.

The creature faced her and darted forward with speed that was surprising for its size, aiming its jaws at the left side of her neck. Leona rolled to the right to avoid the attack and Rebecca jumped in with a second flaming kick that connected with the left temple and sent its head whipping sideways towards Leona. When it righted itself to face Leona that was when she struck.

Leona leaped towards it with the Silver Longsword held above her head in a two-handed power chop. She brought down the sword in the middle of its forehead and gave it a nasty gash that drew blood and forced it to retreat about five meters before burrowing underground again while the hands withdrew into the ground until it was time for their master to reappear. Leona covered her eyes with her left hand and was spared from being hit in the face with the dirt that was kicked up by its burrowing. The quintet had hurt the beast badly, but it was not quite finished with them yet. It was definitely going to come back... it was only a matter of when it would come back.

Leona and Rebecca watched their feet for the grasping hands and listened for the telltale low rumbling that meant the creature was about to re-emerge. The Harpy Sisters kept to the sky to avoid being grabbed and to keep an eye out for the beast that refused to die no matter how many hits it took to the head. So far the quintet was winning, but they could not claim victory until the beast lay dead on the ground and the hands it controlled were gone for good.

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Leona felt the rumbling under her feet and knew what was coming, so she prepared to take it down with the use of her special adrenaline rush. Leona felt a surge of strength and then used a Zephyr Dash to evade the cloud of dirt that heralded its arrival before she could get hit in the face with it. Rebecca shielded her face with her hands while the Harpy Sisters flew above the cloud just in time. Once the creature emerged Leona knew what she had to do. She would have to get in its face and take the risks necessary to destroy it.

When the creature fixated on her to the exclusion of all else that was Leona's chance. She focused magic in her body and crouched down, then performed a Zephyr Charge that slammed directly into its lowered face, causing its head to snap back well out of sword range. A group of six hands burst out of the ground and reached for the Wizard Saint, but she was prepared. She quickly used her left hand to punch the ground and perform a Storm Impact, then held the Silver Longsword out and used its Silver Revolution technique to perform five full revolutions with the blade slicing through the arms and sending the hands toppling to the floor thanks to her adrenaline-enhanced strength. Once the current group of hands were disposed of Leona turned back to the creature, who was preparing to make an attack on the Wizard Saint's neck and left shoulder.

Leona saw it and sidestepped the attack, then quickly circled around and chopped downward on its neck using a two-handed grip. The blade cut deep into its neck and caused it to recoil, but the Wizard Saint could not let up now. If it got away they might not get a third chance to kill it. Leona withdrew the sword and backed away while the Harpy Sisters distracted it with a series of diving attacks aimed at its head while the deep gash on its neck leaked blood. While it turned to face them and bite ineffectually Leona took a moment to ponder how she was going to get up to its head to kill it.

Should she jump onto its back and climb its body to get to the head?

No. That was far too risky. This was a life-or-death situation, not a ride on a mechanical bull in a bar. If she did not complete the climb the first time she might not get a second chance.

To get a lot of height quickly and easily Leona came up with an alternate idea.

Why not get one of the Harpy Sisters to fly her up to its head?

Sylvia was her best bet. Sylvia was the most obedient of the sisters, so Leona telepathically summoned her and began to lay out the plan.

"Sylvia, I'm gonna need your help for this." Leona said to Sylvia, who had flown clear of the creature's jaws while Daphne and Sandy kept its attention fixed on them. Leona would have to be quick because she did not know when more hands might burst out of the ground and grab for her.

"What do you need?" Sylvia asked Leona.

"I need you to fly me up to the creature's head so that I can kill it." Leona replied. Sylvia paused in place for a moment as if trying to make sense of what she had just been ordered to do, then nodded.

"OK, let's do this while Daphne and Sandy keep it distracted!" Sylvia agreed to the hastily conceived plan. Leona stood in place and waited for the redhead of the winged trio to reach her while fending off another arm that burst out of the ground behind her. Rebecca came to her rescue and delivered a flaming jump kick to its elbow, buying Leona enough time to cut through the arm before it could grab her.

"Thanks." Leona thanked Rebecca for the timely assist as Sylvia landed just behind the waiting Wizard Saint.

"I'm gonna deal with the creature shortly." Leona said as Sylvia quickly grabbed the Wizard Saint by the waist and took to the air. Once airborne Sylvia flapped her wings to gain altitude and brought Leona to within a meter of its head. It snapped at the Wizard Saint and Sylvia quickly pulled her mistress back while Daphne dove on the creature and drew its attention.

Leona telepathically ordered Sylvia to take her for a second pass. Sylvia obliged, flapping to gain altitude and then descending in a diagonal dive that gave Leona just enough of an opening to slash at the beast, cutting the left side of its face and drawing blood but not scoring a lethal blow. Leona's adrenaline rush would not last much longer, but she had no choice but to try something else.

"This isn't working, Girl. We need another plan." Sylvia suggested to Leona as she flew away with her mistress to avoid retaliation from the creature. It snapped at Leona's boot and barely missed biting down on the toes of her right foot. That was certainly a close call.

"Yeah, you're right. I think I have a better idea." Leona said as she was pulled away from the angry creature.

"So, what's the new plan?" Sylvia asked.

"Set me down near Rebecca and use your Triple Tempest on its head. Once you hit it I'll finish cutting off its head." Leona replied. Sylvia shrugged her shoulders a little.

"Eh, good enough for me. I'm going to set you down now. Get ready!" Sylvia warned Leona. She quickly flew around the creatures, then aimed towards Rebecca and lowered altitude, slowly descending until the Wizard Saint's feet touched down near the violet-eyed blonde. Sylvia then zoomed off to rejoin her sisters and set Leona's new plan in motion.

"Daphne, Sandy, I'm gonna need your help for this because I literally can't do it without you. It's time to use our Triple Tempest to try and kill this thing." Sylvia advised her sisters. They flew away from the creature and soon joined their sister while the creature glared at them with empty eye sockets.

"Like, let's do this already! That creature is SO gross! The sooner it's dead the better!" Daphne agreed to the plan.

"Yeah." Sandy laconically agreed to lend her power to the combined attack. The three sisters arranged themselves in a triangular formation in midair and faced each other, flapping their wings and generating a tornado that was colored red, blue, and orange. This was the first time that Leona had ever ordered them to use the combined attack, so this would be her first time seeing it in action. She was not sure if it had enough punch to put the creature down, but if it hit the Triple Tempest would definitely hurt it.

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As Leona watched the Triple Tempest being formed she felt the surge of strength granted by her special adrenaline rush fade, so now she was back to normal strength and she could not cut through the arms in one sword stroke anymore. However, she had recently discovered another special ability, one that strengthened the power of her magic. Perhaps if she used that ability in conjunction with her Silver Blade spell, she could put an end to the creature with a Silver Blade to the neck. But first the Triple Tempest had to hit the creature in the face and knock it down to where Leona could strike at it since Silver Blade was a melee-range spell.

Leona watched the Triple Tempest form and watched it be launched towards the creature that was shimmying towards Leona with glowing red eyes that were fixated on her and her alone. It clearly wanted to make her bleed for cutting its neck and face with her Silver Longsword. She could use its tunnel vision to her advantage by making sure it stayed focused on her until it was too late. However, that plan was soon jeopardized by something that took Leona's attention off of it.

"Leona, look out!" Rebecca shouted a warning to the Wizard Saint seconds after hands erupted from the ground around them. Leona quickly prepared to perform another Silver Revolution with her sword when the hands did not wait to be cut and grabbed for Leona. Leona quickly gave up on the Silver Revolution and did a back handspring to avoid them and Rebecca joined Leona in dodging them, but every time they dodged one another pale arm sprung from the earth to try and seize them. Meanwhile the Triple Tempest hit the creature squarely in the face and stunned it, but the Wizard Saint and her partner were going to have a tough time capitalizing on the opportunity that the Harpy Sisters had just given them.

The two blondes tried to close in with the stunned creature that was struggling to get up, but the small forest of pale arms was barring the way and they did not have time to try anything cute like flying above them because by the time the Harpy Sisters safely navigated the maze of arms and picked them up the creature would have recovered and retreated underground. They needed to kill it here and now. That would be easier said than done.

"We need to kill that thing now, Leona!" Rebecca reminded her esteemed colleague as she ran past an arm that reached for her left ankle.

"Yeah, but how? Those arms are everywhere in front of it!" Leona asked as she darted past an arm reaching for her right ankle. The two blondes saw a semicircle of pale arms with slender hands waving back and forth like trees in a breeze, a sight that was somewhat disturbing. They were protecting their master and stood ready for any attempt to get by them.

"I've got just the thing. I'll clear the way for us!" Rebecca said. Her body began to glow red until it caught fire, then she dashed forward like a fireball and dashed right into the arms, setting most of them on fire and clearing the way for the Wizard Saint to press her attack on the stunned creature.

"OK, hang on!" Leona said. She put away her Silver Longsword and used a Zephyr Dash to dash through the opening created by Rebecca. Rebecca dodged a grab attempt on her left arm and hit back with a flaming jump kick aimed at it while Leona activated her Gale Force ability for a boost in spell power and closed the distance with the creature, which raised its head and glared at Leona. The Wizard Saint felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as her eyes met its eyes. It was wobbly, but it was going to make one last effort to take a bit out of its enemy and kill her before it could be killed.

Leona stood her ground and waited until the moment was just right, then dodged the head as it darted towards her for a bite and circled to its left before stepping to within inches of its neck. She quickly put the index and middle fingers of her right hand together, channeled magic into them, and raised them above her head. She brought them down in a Silver Blade spell that sliced through its neck in a powerful strike and sent its head falling to the floor while its neck sprayed blood.

"SILVER BLADE!" Leona exclaimed before a brief afterimage of the blade's trajectory appeared in the air and lingered for a few moments before disappearing.

"LIKE, SO GROSS!" Daphne exclaimed in disgust. The head hit the floor and the forest of arms that had sprouted all over the room quickly withdrew into the ground. The creature's body fell to the floor and began to convulse as it struggled to rise again. Its jaws snapped at Rebecca as the latter approached Leona.

"Man. You cut through its neck in one strike with that Silver Blade spell! Remind me to never piss you off!" Rebecca said to Leona as the latter stepped away from the decapitated creature with her hair blowing about like the wind was blowing through it.

"Yeah. It's one of my most powerful spells." Leona informed Rebecca of Silver Blade's place in Leona's repertoire. Rebecca blinked.

"Again, remind me to never piss you off." Rebecca repeated. Leona laughed a little.

"Don't worry, Rebecca. After all the help you've given me tonight it'd take a lot for you to get me angry." Leona assured her fellow blonde that she was far down the list of people Leona would employ violence against. After all the help Rebecca had given her it would take a grave offense like Rebecca trying to kill her before Leona would fight her. Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, now that that's over, let's see what's in the next room. Before we go, I can tell you that I don't know what's in there because I didn't make it that far. The creature you just killed captured me and rendered me unconscious." Rebecca explained that she did not know what was behind the door as she began to walk for the other side of the room. Leona nodded.

"OK. I'm pretty sure that whatever obstacle is in the next room is a lot less challenging than the fight we just got through." Leona said optimistically. She hoped that they had just passed the most difficult obstacle that they would face, but she would not know for certain until they had gotten through the room and the necromancer's lab. Maybe they could find and stop the necromancer before his unethical experiments into life extension could come to twisted fruition.

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Power of Apocalypse is on cooldown. Five posts remain before it can be used again.
Gale Force is still active. Two posts remain before it enters cooldown.

Leona walked away from the decapitated creature as it still tried to bite her even though its head was severed from its body. She turned to look at Rebecca, who in turn looked at her. Leona did not want to leave it alive in case it could regenerate, so she turned back to the snapping head and drew her Silver Longsword. She would put it out of its misery and end the threat it posed.

Leona wordlessly approached it with sword at the ready. It faced her with glowing red eyes and tried its best to face her before its end, but Leona would not give it the chance to make a final attack. She strode towards it and walked briskly around it, approaching from behind to deliver the final blow. The Wizard Saint turned her sword point-down in a two-handed grip, aimed for its skull, and stabbed downward with all her might. The sword punched through and blood spurted as the creature's unnatural life was finally ended.

Now that it was finally over Leona cleaned off the blade of her sword on its bloated body and put it away, then walked towards Rebecca, who had waited for Leona near the door.

"So it's finally dead? It's not coming back?" Rebecca asked her. Leona nodded.

"It's dead for real. I made sure of it." Leona said. The Harpy Sisters flew over to the blondes and landed just behind them. Leona turned to face them briefly, then turned back to Rebecca.

"I'll go first." Leona said. She grabbed the doorknob with her right hand and twisted it, opening the door. She stepped through first and held the door just long enough for Rebecca to get it, then moved into the next room.

-In the next room-

Leona, Rebecca, and the Harpy Sisters found themselves in a lengthy hallway that was lined with holding cells positioned every twenty meters, presumably for test subjects. The quintet felt a sudden chill in the air. They also felt an oppressive atmosphere that was laden with suffering. This hallway might lead to the necromancer's lab, but they would not be sure of that until they got to it.

"Like, how did it get so cold so fast?" Daphne asked everyone as she rubbed her clawed hands together.

"I don't know, Daphne. It might be a sign of ghost activity." Leona opined. She had recalled once reading that a sudden chill in the air was a sign of ghost activity. While they were underground and that went a long way towards explaining the difference in temperature, this area was a lot colder than the previous areas.

"Ghosts. Great." Rebecca snarked. She again lit a flame in the palm of her left hand and lit the hallway enough for the quintet to see their surroundings in greater detail. Judging from the bloodstains on the cell floors and the presence of skeletons in a few of them, there were a lot of ghosts in this area.

"Let's just keep moving." Leona said. She walked on and the others followed behind her while keeping an eye out for ghosts or zombies. As luck would have it they did not encounter any and made it to the end of the hallway without fighting any enemies or triggering any hidden traps. Leona reached the door at the end of the hallway and opened it, going through first.

-In the next room-

Leona entered the next room to find another large square chamber like the one near the entrance, but this one was filled with four lab tables that had blood on them, two autopsy tables with two human bodies still lying on them next to a door on the far left of the room, wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with books of what was presumably arcane lore and other information that necromancers would need, and a desk in the top right corner of the room with a human skull on it plus an open notebook. This looked to be the necromancer's lab.

"It looks like we found Hannibal West's lab." Rebecca said what Leona was thinking. The two blondes gazed around the room and looked at different things that caught their interest. Rebecca looked at the autopsy tables while Leona looked at the open notebook on the desk. The violet-eyed blonde saw what Leona did and spoke.

"I'll check out the autopsy table. You take a look at that notebook and see what it says." Rebecca said to Leona. The Wizard Saint nodded.

"Just be careful of that door next to the tables. There's no telling what could be behind it." Leona warned her partner. Rebecca gave a thumbs-up and walked towards the autopsy tables while Leona walked towards the desk. They reached their destinations at roughly the same time and began examining the objects of interest.

Leona glanced at the notebook and saw that it was an old one with yellowed pages and handwriting that was hard to decipher at certain points. In some places it was very sloppy like it was written in a hurry and used medical jargon that Leona was not familiar with. Was this Hannibal West's journal and handwriting or was she looking at the copycat's work?

"What's in that notebook?" Rebecca asked Leona from across the room. Meanwhile the Harpy Sisters stood in the middle of the room watching Rebecca and Leona go about their business.

"I'm still reading it, but it looks pretty old. It's also got a lot of medical jargon. Whoever wrote this wasn't a hobbyist. They made this their life's work." Leona answered grimly. She flipped past the indecipherable parts until she finally found a section of text that was actually legible. Leona focused on that and began to read about how this laboratory came to be.

"It's been many weeks since I set up shop here after being chased out of my previous lab on the outskirts of Capital Crocus and establishing a new one has been slow going. I saved what I could of my research notes and equipment, but the rest was lost. It was a necessary sacrifice if I was to escape to continue my work after that crowd chased me out of town for kidnapping that rich girl and using her as a test subject. Those short-sighted simpletons... they clamor for scientific progress but they're not willing to pay the cost for it! They should know that they can't have progress without sacrifice.

Anyway, I've set up a lab in the very back of this abandoned well I've discovered. It makes a good place because it's secluded and plenty of potential test subjects travel through here. The Haunted Guild about fifty meters away from here is a magnet for adventurers, who will make for a good source of test subjects. I'll start off slow and capture a few nobodies for my experiments before trying to capture a mage or two." The journal entry read before it went into another indecipherable part. The date had been so hastily scribbled that Leona could not make it out. She moved past another two to three pages of hastily scribbled paragraphs that were painful to read and continued to look for something she could read.

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Leona continued to thumb through the notebook and learned a bit more about the person's findings, namely a discovery pertaining to their life extension experiments. It was presumably written some time later than the first entry that she had managed to decipher because the entry mentioned a lot of test subjects being expended.

"It took a lot of work and a lot of test subjects, but I've finally made a breakthrough!

I tried the process on mundane people, but they didn't offer any life essence at all. They just died horribly and in a lot of pain. Mages, on the other hand, provide exactly what I need. They die horribly and in a lot of pain too, but their souls somehow extend life. I don't quite understand how that works and it'll take still more work to find out why that is, but at long last I'm getting somewhere.

I've spent a lot of time and effort crafting my lair into a dungeon to lure in adventurers, but it's slowly starting to pay off. I've created a guardian for my lair in order to capture anyone who gets past the traps I've installed in the areas before my laboratory. I feel like I'm wasting valuable test subjects by having the hall with falling blocks, but I want only the best subjects for my experiments. If they make it that far they're top-quality test subjects and should feel honored to contribute to my experiments.

Most mages are tough to capture, but I've managed to secure a few thanks to my guardian. So far I've found that female mages offer a lot more life energy than male mages..." The text read before it got bogged down in sloppy handwriting and a lot of medical and scientific jargon.

Leona looked up from the notebook to find Rebecca opening the door between the autopsy tables. The violet-eyed blonde shivered and peered inside the room. She paused for a moment, looked away, and quickly closed the door.

"It's a morgue." Rebecca commented. Leona wondered how a scientist who had to flee could get enough equipment for a morgue, but then she remembered that there were lacrimas that could do almost anything. Maybe he had had to use lacrimas as a substitute for proper refrigeration equipment or something.

"So, what did you learn about the experiments that weird scientist guy was conducting?" Rebecca asked Leona. Leona looked at her partner and spoke.

"So far I've learned that the life extension process only works with mages. Something to do with their souls. I've also learned that female mages are a lot more preferable to male mages when it come to the process because they yield more life energy. That explains why you were taken alive instead of killed when you were rendered unconscious." Leona replied with a summary of what she had managed to glean from the notebook. Rebecca frowned when she learned the reason behind why she was taken prisoner instead of killed. Leona ignored it and closed up the book. She was not sure what to do with it, but maybe the Order of Lightbringers would know what to do with it. Maybe they could decode the sloppy handwriting and give her more information... or maybe they knew Hannibal West by name and could tell her more without having to decode the notebook.

The pair of blondes looked around the area and tried to decide what to do next. They did not have the resources needed to destroy the lab, but they could not just leave it intact for the necromancer to resume his experiments. What could they do to slow him down?

"I don't know what to do, Rebecca. I'd say destroy the place, but I don't know how." Leona admitted to Rebecca. The violet-eyed blonde smiled.

"I do. If we can't destroy his lair, we burn his books. That'll hurt him almost as badly, if not even more badly than losing a building." Rebecca replied. She brought two orange flames into the palms of her hands and walked over to the bookshelves, then raised her hands and prepared to incinerate them. Just before Rebecca could ignite the books a hitherto hidden side passage opened in the wall that was diagonally left of the desk and out walked a middle-aged man in a white lab coat and brown dress pants with a white dress shirt entered the room like he was an ordinary doctor visiting patients. He had a weak magic signature that was equal to a B-rank mage.

"YOU IGNORANT WHELP! THAT'S MY LIFE'S WORK!" He bellowed in anger. He then pulled out a syringe and rushed towards Rebecca, completely oblivious to the Wizard Saint of Courage standing just behind his desk or the Harpy Sisters standing a short distance away. Rebecca sighed.

"You're nothing without your undead attack dog!" Rebecca declared. She stood her ground and waited for the man to close in, then disarmed him in one swift kick that knocked the syringe out of his hand and onto the floor, where Leona kicked it under his desk so that it was far out of reach. She kicked him a second time, hitting him in the face and knocking him flat on his backside. Leona calmly strode over to the man as he produced a scalpel from his right coat pocket.

"I'm not done with you!" He bellowed. Rebecca smiled and began to laugh. The man only got angrier.

"What's so funny?!" The man demanded to know. Rebecca pointed behind him. He got to his feet, turned around, and saw Leona standing only a foot away from him.

"LEONA JARNEFELDT?!" He asked. His hands shook and he dropped the scalpel while backing away from the Wizard Saint with a look of fear plastered on his face. Rebecca took the chance to sneak up behind him and knock him out with a single punch to the back of the head.

"Well, that was easy. Thanks, Leona!" Rebecca thanked Leona for providing the crucial distraction that allowed her to sneak up behind the man and knock him out before he could hurt either one of them or get away. Leona gave a small smile.

"It's no problem, Rebecca. Let's take him to Era to the Rune Knights." Leona said to Rebecca as the former picked up the unconscious man. Rebecca flashed a thumbs-up.

"Sure thing, Leona. Let's get outta here!" Rebecca said. Leona dispelled the Harpy Sisters and grabbed the man's notebook as evidence, then left the laboratory through the secret passage with Rebecca, the notebook, and the unconscious necromancer. They would go to Era and turn the man in along with his notebook, then alert the Rune Knights to the location of the lair so that they could handle it from there.

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