The feeling in the cave was of such high-strung panic they all triggered their traits at once.

Earth, lightning, and air magic filled the cavern.

The whole place trembled.

“You idiot,” said Patrick. “Don’t cast earthquake in here!”

But it was too late.

The cave was trembling and beginning to collapse in on itself.

Dirt and rocks were falling from the ceiling.

“We gotta get out of here,” shouted Eli.

They ran towards the exit as the rocks collapsed in on them.

Eli led the way.

But they weren’t going to make it.

The last thing Eli saw before the rocks of the cave crushed him to death was the kid, waiting at the entrance, arms crossed in satisfied triumph.

55

Max rushed back through the forest as fast as he could.

He kept an eye on the knife slashes in the trees he had left for himself to help him get back.

They said they’d killed the defense climbers at the arrival teleporter.

Please don’t be true, thought Max as he hurried back.

When he got back to the teleporter, there was a whole group of defense climbers examining the area.

Sakura was there and she turned around and caught Max’s eyes before rushing over and hugging him.

“I was so worried,” she said. “After there was a report of a double homicide on floor-2 after the Reckless Brothers had appeared, my mind raced. I’m so happy you’re okay. Did you see the Reckless Brothers?”

Max let go of Sakura’s embrace and nodded his head.

“You won’t find them,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she said.

Max didn’t even know where to begin. So he started from the very beginning: going to the library, devising a plan, getting the proper equipment, fighting the shadow monster, the ambush attack, and finally, how he played the Reckless Brothers off of each other with his new shadow blink ability so that they ended up burying themselves in the cave.

“I don’t think they survived the cave’s collapse,” he said, finally.

Sakura sighed after Max told her everything.

“That’s quite the story,” she said. “You must be exhausted. I’m going to have to pass this on to the other climbers dealing with this incident. Just wait here and then we’ll go home. We’ll pick up food on the way.”

* * *

After ranking up, Max took the next few days off. With all the craziness from the incident with the Reckless Brothers, he needed a break. Plus, he’d trained really hard to get to E-rank, so he thought he deserved a few days off. He stayed in during the November 1st monster wave, watching a film that Sakura had recommended. It was a cheesy romance film that he ended up falling asleep to.