“That’s it,” Shardi called across the room. “Mark gave us access!”
Glandalf switched to the right layer and started typing.
“Okay. I’ve isolated all of them. Adjusting…” He stopped. “Nope. Still not quite there.”
Brogrom tapped at his own tablet.
“No, it’s there. It just needs…” He leaned closer. “The third anchor is still locked beneath the primary root. Okay. Try it now.”
Two taps.
Glandalf nodded.
“Okay. Just like…this.”
Nothing.
“Still not it.”
Glandalf looked through the glass at the space beyond them.
The void had been hollowed out and surrounded with ward stones to contain anything sent inside. Portals ripped open throughout it. Sometimes a large group of owlbears came through and immediately began trying to escape. Other times, one of the Shafted arrived holding onto an owlbear, released them inside, and quickly portaled back out.
It was amazing what Shardi and her team had built.
Who would have thought lead and Draggin scales could be abused in such a specific way?
But the logic was clean.
The code didn’t lie.
The only part they hadn’t figured out was how to make the containment work on something much bigger than the people passing through the portals.
A commotion rose outside as several owlbears flooded down the path and collided with the Shafted guarding the room.
Tripod was already on them.
Within seconds, he was using his sneak attacks to bag-tag owlbears into the portal and drop them inside the containment field. Gerald wasted no time thumping skulls and throwing owlbears left and right.
“Look!” Brogrom tapped frantically. “The third nested layer beneath the portal root.”
The fight outside intensified.
Gerald kept launching owlbears across the room, but the Shafted were starting to get overwhelmed.
Glandalf traced the pattern through the portal lattice.
He saw it.
“I got it!” He looked toward Shardi. “Make sure we’re ready!”
Shardi tapped several buttons.
A second containment field illuminated farther inside the void. It was exponentially larger than the first, built to hold the portals themselves instead of the people passing through them.
Its glowing walls shone with vibrant magic for several seconds.
Then they stabilized.
Glandalf reached for the final command.
An owlbear crashed through the glass separating the portal team from the fighters.
Before it could lunge, Gerald grabbed it around the waist and hurled it backward over his shoulder into the fight.
Two more forced their way through behind it.
“Grease!”
Glandalf pointed at the floor and ran deeper into the room.
Hopefully that worked.
Hopefully he wouldn’t need to do more.
The first owlbear stepped onto the grease, slipped, and collapsed into the second.
Brogrom kept tapping furiously.
He hadn’t moved.
When the closest owlbear tried to stand, Brogrom planted one massive foot against its head and pushed. It slid backward into its friend and knocked them both down again.
Two more filed into the room.
The first slipped.
The second used the fallen bodies as a path and launched itself directly at Shardi.
She kept typing as if she didn’t care.
Then she raised one hand.
“Singe!”
A quick burst of dry, hot fire engulfed the owlbear. Its feathers burned away almost instantly, leaving it rolling across the floor and rubbing at its scorched flesh.
More owlbears poured through the broken glass, trampling over the ones already down.
Brogrom finally left his seat and joined Glandalf against the back wall. He squared up as the group advanced.
Then they heard a sound from behind them.
“Weee!”
Tripod slid into the room across the grease-slicked floor. He passed beneath the owlbears’ legs, bag-tagging them one after another and dropping them into the containment portal.
Gerald slammed through the opening behind him.
He grabbed the remaining owlbears and started yanking them backward, lobbing each one into the portal until the room was clear.
Gerald stopped and looked down at Tripod, who was still lying in the grease with a devilish smile across his face.
“Do it.”
Glandalf wasted no time.
He hit the command.
The world lurched.
A deep groan moved through the void and staggered everyone in the room.
Inside the larger containment field, the glow intensified.
The first massive blue disc appeared.
“That’s it!” Shardi cheered. “That’s the first!”
The portal vanished.
Then it reappeared inside the same containment field, unable to escape.
A second portal appeared beside it.
Then a third.
A fourth.
One after another, all nine remaining portals were pulled into the void and trapped inside the larger field.
“Go!” Brogrom shouted.
Glandalf tucked the tablet away and snapped his fingers.
He teleported back to the patio.
The scene waiting for him was insane.
High-flying rainbow berserkers tore through the remaining owlbears. A Draggin loomed over the parking lot.
And some enormous wooden thing was about to crash through the gate.
Sara stood beside Mark, furiously checking her clipboard and the battlefield.
She looked up as Glandalf appeared.
“Did you get it done?”
“Yeah,” Glandalf said. “It’s go time.”
The franticness washed out of her.
Sara took a deep breath.
“Time to teach Craig you don’t bring a bus at closing time.”