The third level

Ares ran towards Jason as he heard the monster screech loudly again.

"Sky cant use that form for long he will run out of mana shortly." Jason said as Ares found his way to his side.

The monster clearly had no intelligence as despite being dragged away it madly attempted to continue attacking Ares. It appeared to have targeted him and only him.

Ares tried to gain some sort of composure despite the pulsing pain afflicting his ribs.

"We need to either kill this thing or get the hell out of here." Ares muttered.

Jason nodded.

"I don't have much mana left. Alone I cant cast anything strong enough to kill that thing; Sky is also going to run out soon. You better have a decent spell capable of stopping this thing." Jason said looking back at Ares.

Ares ran through his list of spells and settled on Slash. Whilst he hadn't really practiced it he remembered glancing at it enough to try it. He hoped that somehow the Saints Token may assist him in a successful cast; if not he realised that it would likely end his quest.

There was another grunting sound Infront of him as Ares saw that Skys rock armour was beginning to disintegrate. His body was exposed through the crumbling rocks now falling from his figure.

"Run" Sky said weakly as he lost grip of the monsters tail, it instantly darted towards Ares again. Unfortunately as Sky let go the monster flicked its tail hitting Sky sending his body flying into a wall. He crumbled into a heap.

"Crap" Ares thought as he saw the monster once more approach at a deadly speed.

Almost instinctively he thought about the spell slash. It was not dissimilar to the push spell only with a feeling of sharpness; he recanted it in his head charging it as best as he could. This time when the terrifying skull presented itself Infront of him Ares cast slash as he brought his gauntlet down on its forehead.

The huge monster did not slow as the spell impacted with its bony skull. It struck Ares once more sending him flying into the distance. Whilst the impact wasn't as bad as the first; his already painful injuries become distinctly worse. His face went pale as he fought his bodies response to scream out loud in pain.

Ares tried to get to his feet to prepare for a second attack but as he did, he noticed that the monster was now writhing in a heap on the floor. Its tail was whipping around dangerously. Through the flurry, Ares could see a deep groove of slash marks on the head of the skull. He inwardly celebrated that he had caused any injuries at all to it; it was just a shame it wasn't fatal he thought to himself.

Luckily for him Jason who was close by had too seen the glaring weakness of the monster and upon seeing it writhing had moved into action. His mana had recovered enough for him to cast rock spear a few times and he aimed three spells to penetrate its head and kill it. The first two spells shattered harmlessly on the skull of the monster however the final rock spear hit its mark. The rock imbedded itself deeply in the skull of the monster and its movements instantly ended as it fell in a silent heap.

Ares let out a breath of relief as he lay there. He was once more thanking his lucky stars that he hadn't left the two behind; he would likely already be a cold corpse without their help. Jason didn't move to check Ares and after downing the monster he disappeared in the direction Sky had been thrown.

As luck would have it Sky wasn't hit far, his rock armour had also cushioned the worst of the impact. Despite a few bruises and being exhausted from the overuse of Mana he was relatively free of harm.

In a role reversal from earlier Jason was this time supporting Sky as they hobbled over to where Ares was now.

Ares was feeling the pain of the attack and had barely survived.

"We need to get out of here." He said to the other two. Despite the fight being relatively short Ares again felt a feeling of impending doom. One of the many corridors leading off from this room in particular filled him with fear.

He briefly consulted his mental map and then quickly ushered the group towards the second staircase in a flurry. He hadn't properly examined the map before setting towards the cabinet and now he could see it said something particularly concerning. Test room 24. The mental map had a very brief explanation which told him that there were 23 higher test rooms in which whatever inhabited them were increasingly stronger then this room.

Given the threat he felt from the corridor a quick check clarified that that direction was in that of room 23. He didn't want to fight any more monsters today and after reaching the cabinet hiding the secret stairs, he immediately pulled a secret lever. Luckily the cabinet whilst hard to locate was thick and had large bolts from the inside.

Sky was deathly pale and was supported by Jason. Upon seeing Ares locate the stairs with no issue, he knew something was wrong. Ares too knew he would not be able to cover this up with falsehoods and partial truths.

"I will explain when we get away from here, but we must hurry." He said as he glanced backwards into the empty corridor. The feeling of tension was beginning to make him feel suffocated.

"Hurry now." He said even more concerned. Sky and Jason too had noticed something in Ares' tone, and they sped into the staircase, glancing in the same direction as Ares.

As Ares was about to shut the cabinet and block out the room he took a last glance at the entrance to the corridor.

Something almost burst out of him as he saw a creature straight from nightmares. It was human in shape only far more elongated and grey in colour It had no eyes, no mouth or face. Despite having no way to see him Ares felt completely exposed.

A spike of pain from his Saints Token sobered him up and as he pulled the entrance to the staircase shut and used the bolts to secure himself. As he began to feel safe he heard a quiet voice in his head.

"Come play with me." It said in a gentle tone.

Nothing scared him more then this voice and he turned into the staircase and ran down to the third level, not daring to look back.