Chapter 83: Alone
“Well, we did that pretty quickly. I would assume that means we have some time for a break,” I said hopefully as we stepped back into the waiting room.
“Doubtful, our next floor is just a monster match. They can have those ready to go immediately,” Rabyn said, and to prove his claim, Floor Master appeared next to us.
“Ah, good, here and ready for the next battle. Good luck,” the spider said before ushering us right back through the door we had just left, with no chance for rest or grabbing the tiniest bite to eat. My stomach rumbled slightly; I needed to get something into it before the fifth floor, or my performance was going to suffer.
The hallway disappeared the moment the door was closed behind us, and this time, there was no wondering where the enemy was. A group of humanoids split between what looked like mutated rhinos and pigs were surrounding us. Each of them had a strange-looking large gun drawn and pointing at us, clearly ready to fire. “Hit the ground!” Elicec yelled. I threw myself down, immediately understanding his reasoning as blasts of bright red light flashed above our heads. Several of the creatures dropped to the ground around us, the victims of friendly fire.
“Is this normal?” I called out, confused about why they’d kill each other like this.
“It can be, especially when they try to use more aggressive or experimental sapient species as monsters!” Rabyn answered.
“Remembering where they had all stood before, Elody rose back to her feet as the written words, sharp as freshly cut paper, flew from the page guided by her memory to their targets,” Elody said, followed by the sound of several more bodies hitting the ground. I was reminded of how Mel had initially planned for Elody to carry us through most of this as the hall came back into view alongside the experience notification.