He drew a dagger from his belt and threw it at the glowing sphere. It hit its target dead center, and with a resounding smash, the sphere shattered.
“Whoa, cool!” Shannon cheered.
“We should be fine now,” Rowe declared. Somehow, he had broken free from the illusion with his own power. That was an incredible feat; normally, when faced with their ultimate fantasy, people didn’t want to leave. “I was in a real bind, but I heard your voice.”
“Of course you did—I’m your partner in this dungeon!”
“Ha, guess so. We’re helping each other out.”
“Now then, how do we get through this?” Shannon asked. They’d destroyed the illusion, but the trap remained. This might have been the ideal place for Shannon to die, so she had no qualms about plunging forward...but she didn’t want to get Rowe caught up in that. What should I do?
Just then, they heard a clacking sound ring out from the darkness.
“What was—”
“Watch out, girl!” Rowe shouted, and Shannon felt something tighten around her neck, making her gag. He must have intuited something about that mechanical sound, because he’d instantly reached out from behind Shannon, grabbed the hood of her robe, and pulled with all his might to yank her behind him.
The floor in front of them disappeared. To their left and right sides, the walls rotated, and before they could react, arrows fired at them from both sides. Rowe swore and used his sword and overwhelming strength to knock them out of the air. He nearly lost his balance, but before he could fall, he seized hold of the wall with one arm to support himself.
His power was otherworldly. Rowe wasn’t just any ordinary former soldier. Focused as he was on the arrows and the hole in front of him, however, he didn’t notice the danger from above: an enormous axe. It was about to swing down right at his head.
Finally, Rowe caught sight of the axe, but no sooner had he looked up than an arrow pierced his right leg. “AAAHH!” he roared. His face contorted with pain, and sweat poured from his brow.
In that same moment, Shannon flourished her wand and cried, “War Hammer!” A hammer of light nearly three meters long appeared in front of Rowe and followed the movements Shannon made with her wand: right, left, then up. With a violent clang, the hammer smashed the enormous axe to smithereens, and the fragments of it fell down the hole to the depths of hell.
“Whew,” she gasped. “You okay, Mr. Rowe?!”
Rowe groaned, crouching and pressing his hand against his leg. “The arrowhead’s poisoned. The shape of it will make it hard to pull out.”
There was no magic that could automatically heal a person’s injury. This was because a person’s healing depended on their physical and mental fortitude; damaged tissue didn’t heal by itself. A spell that could directly heal someone would have to be called time manipulation magic, and in her thousands of years, Shannon had yet to see magic that could restore a part of the body to the condition it had been in before it was wounded. Well, with the exception of her own immortality, of course.
For now, Shannon’s only option was to improve Rowe’s ability to heal by himself. She pointed her wand at the wound. With a soft sound, the tip of her wand glowed green, and Rowe’s bleeding seemed to slow.
“I’ve got to get the poison out before it goes through your veins,” Shannon said.
“Okay,” Rowe groaned.
Shannon waved her glowing wand again. This time, a black, granular type of poison emerged from the wound. Once she had extracted it, she tossed it away, toward the wall. “Okay, the poison’s gone. Maybe not all of it, but enough so you won’t die.”
Shannon took out some clean bandages and wrapped the arrow in place to stop the bleeding. Her first aid was flawless. He would be fine for a while.
“Th-Thank you. I blundered there.” Rowe leaned against the wall. His body was covered in wounds, and he looked like death warmed over. Shannon had used magic to channel his natural stamina toward his injuries to help him heal, which must have tired him even more.
“It’s my fault for being careless,” Shannon said.
“I wasn’t mentally prepared enough.” Rowe paused for a moment. “I couldn’t let someone die in front of me, though.”
Shannon’s heart squeezed painfully. She hadn’t realized he’d been trying to protect her. This was all her fault.
“Let’s just...go home for now,” Rowe said. “My leg is busted. We’ll wait for a good opportunity and try—”
“No, I’ll go. I’ll make it all the way to the end!” Shannon declared. She stood and dusted off her backside. “I’ll bring back Leo’s stuff for sure. Leave it to me.”
“H-Hey, you can’t go alone!” Rowe protested, but then he immediately broke out in a cough.
“Look, you can’t push yourself. For now, I’ll leave the torch and food here.”
Without asking, Shannon took those items from Rowe’s bag and lit the torch, illuminating the area around Rowe. Next, she set the other items up around him. Making him more comfortable—even by just this much—would probably help him too.
“I’ll be back soon,” Shannon assured him. “I have a feeling that there isn’t much left ahead. Maybe even nothing. I’ve gotten you hurt, so I’m not gonna up and die on ya. I’ll get it done.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Rowe growled weakly. “Going alone is a death sentence.”
“Okey dokey, be good while I’m gone!”
“H-Hey, wait!”
Rowe tried to stop her, his voice echoing off the walls, but Shannon paid him no mind. She headed off farther into the dungeon alone, and soon, she disappeared into the darkness.