“Are you sure you’re okay boss?” Spooky asked as we stepped out of the rest area.

 

“I’ve been better,” I growled, rubbing my side. Thanks to my biotic upgrades the wound had quickly closed, preventing me from bleeding out, but that didn’t mean I was in great shape. Without a biotic booster it would take awhile for my body to knit itself back together, and deal with all the internal trauma. On top of that, I didn’t have access to a hemo restore, which meant I was still feeling the blood loss.

 

I probably could have accelerated the process using one of the emergency Nano-Regenerators that Deadbeat carried around to help civilians, but because she’d been eliminated early we’d lost access to her kit. Not ideal.

 

I might have passed out, or even died, if it wasn’t for the complementary snacks provided in the rest area. I devoured both the basket of fruit and plate full of pastries as soon as we got inside, wolfing down the calories as fast as I could to help fuel my recovery.

 

Even though I could survive wounds that would be fatal to most other people, and heal significantly faster, I couldn’t completely recover in the scant few minutes we had before the next floor started.

 

On top of that I’d completely ruined my helmet. The cracked visor made it practically impossible for me to see, and had compromised the integrity, meaning it was useless against environmental effects. If I had time I probably could have removed the shattered visor, and continued using the helmet normally. In its current state it was a liability, the spiderwebbed visor blocked too much of my vision, so I just hung it on my belt for now.

 

“I probably would have fought a lot more conservatively if I had known that we’d start the next floor with three less teammates, and a knife wound,” I grumbled, staring at the stage ahead of me.

 

It appeared to be a large cylindrical wizard tower, with a long spiral staircase on the far side. Normally I would have just called it a tower, but when the walls were covered in bookcases, there were magic balls on pedestals, and hatracks holding wizard hats… Even I wasn’t that thick.

 

“What’s the plan?” Spooky asked, once we’d finished taking in the scenery.

 

“We take no chances,” I immediately replied, taking off my rifle and throwing it to him. “I’m going to need another couple minutes to recover, so you shoot anything that looks like it might try to harass us.”

“You don’t want to try and conserve the ammo?” the bear asked, checking my magazine.

 

“Fuck the ammo. We’re on the back foot here, and if we don’t pull out all the stops we risk getting eliminated before we even finish this floor,” I growled. “Don’t hesitate.”

 

Spooky nodded seriously, sheathed his sword, and raised my rifle instead.

 

“Bob…”

“Yessim?” The big bear asked, excitement on his face.

 

“No more holding back,” I said.

 

“Yessssssssssss!” Bob yelled, chucking his axe away before raising his arms in celebration. “Punching time!”

 

“Yeah yeah,” I muttered. “Just lead the way.”

 

I kept a hand on my gut as I slowly followed the big bear up the stairs. I could feel the flesh inside my abdomen writhing as the wound slowly knit itself back together. Everytime I stretched the wrong way a jolt of pain shot through my side, I’d either need to try to avoid fighting until I was completely recovered, or risk ripping the wound open again. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

 

As we climbed the stairs several books flew off the shelves and started flapping around the room like birds. After a couple of laps the flock of books took a hard turn, and flew right for us.

 

“Spooky…” I muttered.

 

“On it,” the bear replied under his breath.

 

The first book exploded, spewing pages everywhere. Instead of being deterred the flock surged forward, trying to close the distance. Most exploded along the way, Spooky was an excellent shot, but a couple survived long enough to switch to phase two.

 

The two books that had survived until the end rolled onto their spines, and flipped their pages like they were looking for something. When they stopped, magic started collecting over the pages.

 

Spooky sniped one mid charge sequence, causing it to explode in a burst of colored light, but the other managed to finish what it was doing. The magic flared, leaping off the book and condensing into a ball of fire that streaked directly towards me.

 

Before I could jump out of the way Bob stepped between me and the book. He swung his massive hands, intercepting the ball while Spooky finished the book off.

 

“Did you just punch a fireball?” I asked.

 

“You know it! I still got it!” Bob declared proudly before continuing up the stairs. I just shook my head in disbelief.

 

The next floor of the tower was less crowded than the ground floor. There were still bookshelves covering the walls, but all the magic paraphernalia was gone. In their place were two massive creatures made of floating purple crystals, and magic.

 

Purple lightning constantly arc’d between the different pieces, almost like they were holding the things together.

 

The first raised an arm towards the approaching bear, almost like it was pointing at him. A second later its entire arm exploded into a storm of crystal shards. The razor sharp shards embedded themselves in Bob’s head and torso, but the bear continued forward unfazed.

 

Before the creature could recover its parts Bob strode up and delivered a devastating blow to its knee. The force of the impact didn’t just shatter the crystal, it turned it to powder.

 

The golem teetered for a moment before toppling, when it crashed to the ground the chest cracked open, revealing a floating crystal orb.

 

“That looks important,” Bob declared, winding up for another punch.

 

“I don’t think that’s…” I started to shout as Bob delivered his blow.

 

The thing exploded, throwing crystals in all directions. The detonation was so severe that the shrapnel blew out the side of its partner, shattering both its left arm and leg.

 

Spooky and I were far enough away to avoid the worst of the damage, but I still had to shield my eyes from the rain of slivers that were thrown by the blast. The tiny shards cut up my hands, and face, but only caused superficial damage.

 

I dropped my hands just in time to see Bob, the facade on his right side completely ripped away, step up to the second creature and punch at the orb in its chest.

 

A second catastrophic explosion occurred, scattering another wave of crystals all across the area.

 

“Why did you do that?” I asked Bob, once the debris had settled. “You saw what happened the last time.”

 

“Yeah, well, it worked last time!” the bear replied happily. “So I figured, why fix what’s not broken?”

 

I glanced around the room. The bookshelves were completely ruined and there was crystal embedded in every possible surface. I wasn’t even sure if we would be able to cross the floor safely, since the crystal monsters had blown massive holes in the floor where they had been standing.

 

“You broke absolutely everything else,” I grumbled.

 

“I’m good at my job!” Bob replied happily.

 

“That wasn’t meant as a compliment,” I sighed. “You’re going to have to take the lead across the room. If something collapses it’ll be under your weight, and you're probably the only one that’d survive the fall.”

“Okie dokie,” the giant bear replied, picking a particularly large piece of crystal out of his facade. He turned and only managed to take two steps forward before the floor shattered sending him tumbling to the floor below. The sound of breaking wood and shattering glass echoed up through the hole.”I’m Okay.”

I reached up and rubbed my head, trying to alleviate the headache I felt coming on. “This is going to be a long floor.”