***
I wrapped three tendrils of my aura around the two still near me as well as myself, and finished casting ‘Skin of the Plains Beast’. Unfortunately, the girl was too far away for me to reach her quickly and the ten remaining ‘Thorns of Misfortune’ were still rushed towards us. I silently cast and our skin thickened as if hundreds of steel coins had formed underneath it. As the spell finished, black and yellow patterns began appearing. They formed outlines around the plate edges making a strange animal like patterns on our skin.
After I managed to get the spell off, I noticed the tumbleweed monsters had gotten closer to us. I wasn’t sure how well my spell would hold against their thorns, so I still yelled, “Dodge!” only to hear “No shit” from Bret. He was the guy with the sword, and I wondered again why I bothered to risk my life for these snarky teenagers.

I shook my head as I moved to dodge but before any of us could get out of the way pale green hands reached out and grabbed onto our legs once more. Their attack didn’t do much to us, but it did delay us from getting out of the way. That delay was enough. They moved as if a hurricane wind was pushing them forward, even though there wasn’t any wind here and I knew we wouldn’t be able to get out of the way of these monsters.

With a crack, the five closes ‘Thorns of Misfortune’ were encased in blocks of ice. The dungeon notification

*Activate Ice Eruption Trap, (Yes/No)*

had appeared too quickly for me to do anything and I could only count my blessings that it was set off a couple of feet or I would be dead.

*Five Thorns of Misfortune killed; 80XP earned*

*Five Thorns of Misfortune killed; 40DP earned*

Again the dungeon earned DP for killing its minion while I got XP. But more importantly, for the first time, I could feel emotions coming from the notification. Even when I was in the undead dungeon and it seemed to panic, I didn’t feel anything from the messages. But now, I got the impression that it was gloating.

It must be crazy if it was happy that it made ice sculptures out of its minions. I took advantage of the sudden ice blockade that formed that briefly blocked the others. Even if it was happy, I didn’t let the mistake go and sent my remaining aura tendrils snaking toward the captured girl. But before any of them touched her, I heard a crack, and a darkness began oozing out around her waist. It gushed out between the brambles and flowed like black blood to the ground, then elongated, and the girl and thorn monsters, that had wrapped her up, vanished from my sight.

Without her to save I switched up the spell I was going to cast and put ‘Golden Armor’ on the two remaining party members and myself. The expected golden armor didn’t form but instead a golden glow formed beneath the black and yellow tattoos that had formed when I cast ‘Skin of the Plains Beast’. The light produced made them appear to float above our skin. I just wasn’t sure if the spells layered or combined to make something new.

The other two weren't idle either. Nathan, the teen with the over sized staff, got bigger. He started growing at a visible rate until he was over seven feet tall. His cheap leather armor broke apart at the "seems" which were just held together with crudely made buckles. I caught glimpses at his forming muscles as his armor broke apart but when his pants also started to stretch and make popping noises, I quickly found something else to look at. Bret, his companion, didn't change but a drop of water was slowly forming in front of shield. It expanded and formed a protective disk. It hovered in front of him and covered enough of him that anything that came in that direction would have to hit it first. They both looked impressive, but from the looks on their faces (I wasn't looking any lower), they were struggling to produce such effects. I knew they were already tired and were pushing themselves so their abilities probably wouldn't be able to last very long.

The remaining five ‘Thorns of Misfortunes’ were forced to slow down and as they skirted their fallen, I had time to cast another quick spell. I wanted to summon a monster, like the frost basilisk, but lacked the time. I looked through my spells and realized that I never got around to finishing any of the attack spells I started working on in school. I mean how nice would a 'Holy Fire' spell be against a plant monster? I finally decided to move the remaining four tendrils, that weren't wrapped around us, into the path of the oncoming monsters and as they rolled over it, cast "Smite". My ability to do damage was too limited and I made a mental note to start creating spells to fix it in my downtime. 

I saw bits of branches break away as my spell went off but that didn't stop them. It just made them smaller. They split up and charged into us. One came at Bret and me, while two charged at the now seven-foot-tall Nathan. I moved and lost sight of the other two as mine sped pass me.

I shifted and saw Bret's had hit the water shield he had created, slowing it down. He took a charge like stance and a look of concentration crossed his face. At first nothing happened, other than the monster pushing itself ever closer to him. But then he moved. One second, he was in front of the monster and the next he was behind it. He moved so quickly that all I saw was a flash of light. A message flashed before my eyes and I saw it split down the middle. Its cut branches fell to the ground.

*Thorns of Misfortune killed; 16XP earned*

Mine reversed forcing me to dodge and saw Nathan bringing his staff down on the leading thorn monster. The ground shook from the impact and that one stopped moving.

*Thorns of Misfortune killed; 16XP earned*

The other hit Nathan's outstretched arm and wrapped around it. He was too big, and it was too small to cover him like they had the girl. All it could manage was twisting around his hand and lower arm. Its thorns were pointing in all directions making it look like a macabre bracer. I looked harder at his arm to see if my protection held but felt the one I was dodging hit my leg while I was trying to see. It wasn't that I didn't know it was coming. I just mistimed my dodge by a fraction of an inch and the tip of one of its branches brushed against my leg. But that was enough! It held like glue, and hooked onto me. The moment of it did it pulled my leg hard, forcing me off-balance. My leg shifted and I was fell to the ground as it started twinning around me.