Seeing the eight-legged giant arachnid jump toward me-its humongous, venomous fangs already opening, ready to pump its toxin straight into my virtual body-I genuinely thought it was over.

  I didn't even want to look into those too-many eyes.

  So instead, I gnced at Austin.

  He just sat there, just as defeated.

  He didn't look angry. He didn't look panicked either. But his face was twisted in a way that couldn't mean anything except one thing:

  Disappointment.

  He relied on me-and I betrayed his trust by being stupid.

  I was a hundred percent sure I was about to get sent back to the spawn, or worse... kicked out of the game entirely.

  But nothing like that happened.

  Because right before the spider could reach me, my vision lit up in purple-blue light.

  A portal ripped open out of nowhere-clean, sharp, unreal.

  It sliced the spider clean in half like it wasn't even a boss, its upper body flipping sideways as the head rolled across the sand and stopped near my foot.

  Its fangs were still dripping poison.

  "...What the hell?"

  A slender, brown-haired figure stepped through the portal, dressed in a pearl-and-silver ritual outfit that looked way too fancy for this sand-filled cave.

  Her voice came out cheeky-almost offended.

  "Can someone expin why, while I'm going crash-out trying to learn that stupid dance, your mana bar almost drops to zero?" She pointed at me like I was the criminal here. "And who is this QSyerDW, by the way?"

  And the moment I saw her, all my worries just... vanished.

  Like someone rinsed my brain clean.

  Lavapup had arrived.

  "Pup-oh thank God..." I breathed, the stupidest smile spreading across my face. I must've looked like an idiot.

  I didn't even think. I rushed forward and hugged her, full-on, like my body moved before my brain could stop it.

  She immediately shoved me off.

  Hard.

  "I came here because it looked like you were about to do something stupid," she said, like that expined everything.

  Then she turned toward the swarm of bug-things crawling in from the dark.

  She paused for one second-just long enough to take in the scene.

  "Wow..."

  She shrugged, one hand on her hip.

  "Ain't I usually the one that gets us in trouble?"

  I couldn't see her face from the angle, but I knew the smug smile on her lips. Of course she'd throw my own words back at me the moment she had the chance.

  And I couldn't even argue, because she was right.

  "Yeah, yeah," I muttered, stepping back up beside her. "I'm human too, alright? I make mistakes."

  "Well, I'm here too!" Austin suddenly shouted, forcing himself up and pnting his staff next to us like he was part of the squad now.

  Pup tilted her head, finally looking at him properly.

  "Oh yeah... who is he again?"

  Austin straightened like he was about to introduce himself to royalty.

  "Great pleasure to meet you, ma'am. Name's QSyerDW-short for Quest Syer Done Wrong-" he said, completely serious, "but you can call me Austin. I'm the best friend of our elf right here."

  He bowed slightly and even did the thing where you pretend to take off a hat.

  A hat he didn't even have.

  Pup stared at him for half a second.

  Then, without even looking away from him, she casually smashed a Fourwing that tried to lunge at her-crunch-like she was swatting a fly.

  "Oh. Alright," she said, like that was normal. "Good to meet you too. I'm Lavapup, but you can call me Pup."

  She rolled her shoulders like she was warming up.

  I inhaled-sharp, tired, annoyed, and relieved at the same time-and looked at both of them.

  "Alright, my friends," I said, cutting through the mini coffee-date vibe before it got worse, "since introductions are over-can we please focus on the problem at hand again?"

  I pointed toward the crawling wall of legs and chitin closing in.

  "Because I'm out of mana."

  I compined throwing the next spell causing my nausea to worsen even more.

  Pup opened her mouth, wanting to say something—but before she could, I threw up, emptying my guts completely. The mango juice from earlier spttered across the sandy floor... mixed with blood.

  "Oh shit... this is not good..."

  Pup voiced her concern and instantly got to work. She took a deep breath, and the tips of her brown hair ignited.

  "Soulfire!"

  She shouted, letting the fmes consume her—lighting up the entire cave even more than my Lumen spell ever could.

  I looked at her with a weak smile, blood and juice dripping from my chin. My vision was blurry, and I watched my health bar slowly decline.

  Then she turned her head toward us—well... not us. Past me, straight at the dwarf behind me.

  "Make sure he doesn't die..."

  Her voice sounded way too gentle for someone like her, while the fmes around her grew brighter.

  "Don't make me ugh," I huffed, coughing up more blood. My vision was already tinting red from low HP. "I won't ever die!"

  Pup smirked, turning away again.

  She drew in another deep breath. The fmes climbed higher, turning almost pure white—only the very tips painted in faint orange. They weren't flickering anymore.

  They were flowing.

  Like fire had decided to become water.

  Way more controlled than fire should ever be.

  "Of course you won't..." she sighed. "Flow state!"

  The moment the words left her lips, she burst forward.

  And instead of her usual pure brutality... her movements had rhythm. Precision.

  A grace I'd never thought I'd use to describe Lavapup.

  "Woah, look at her go!"

  I ughed—then immediately regretted it, spilling even more blood.

  Behind me, Austin was practically force-feeding me health potions, doing everything he could to keep my HP stable until my mana started regenerating.

  "You should stop talking," he muttered, shoving another potion into my hand. "Health potions ain't cheap—and you know that. You bought them after all."

  But the potions helped little—they only managed to slow the health drain a bit. After all, I had gone into negative mana, and now I was paying the debt back with my own life force.

  Luckily, Lavapup was strong enough to give the swarm a proper beating... but even she wasn't able to wipe every st one of them.

  I had to get back on my feet and help.

  Except my mana bar was still filled red, only slowly ticking down, while my life continued to bleed away.

  "Pup!" I shouted over to her. "Please just hold on a little longer!"

  She didn't even look back.

  Kicking through three spiders at once, sending them bursting into a puddle of viscera.

  "Are you kidding?" she called, breathless and grinning. "I'm having the time of my life!"