The next few traps their group encountered were similarly simple. Each contained enough energy for Cale to sense them. The next they ran into had a pressure-sensitive floor that slammed the walls together when people walked past; Cale created an earth bridge over it. After that, they triggered a large boulder to roll after them; Cale shifted the wall to create an alcove for everyone to stand in. By the time they reached the giant pit of spikes, Mara refused to let Cale do any more magic; she created a floor of ice that they slid across to get to the other side.

Every once in a while, Aharon grabbed his head from some "pressure" that faded after a few moments.

I hate this, Boomer grumbled. The more traps you see, the more I'm sure that place is going to explode.

Josh watched Cale's back as they scaled a staircase Aharon directed them to take. His shield weighed heavy, reminding him why he should be in front, but Cale had refused.

Perhaps he would let Josh walk beside him, but not ahead when he was still so new to this life.

I don't think it will, Josh said. And that somehow makes it all scarier.

Boomer sighed, and Josh sensed him pacing back and forth in the forest. Unlike usual, he was near Jodas, with Ezraim not too far away. Both of the older dragons lay on the ground. Jodas had grumbled that Boomer was wasting his energy on nothing multiple times.

Josh's dragon continued his track around the forest regardless.

The staircase curved as they continued upward. As the path straightened out, an opening appeared at the top. Cale slowed his ascent, forcing the others to as well.

"Mara, let me and Josh go ahead by five steps."

"Got it," she said.

Josh and Cale crept forward. After five steps, Aharon and Mara's footsteps pattered behind them.

The opening led to a strange rectangular room. Each wall had an opening with stairs leading up. The room itself was tiered with three levels leading to a large open space. Dragon heads lit the room. After every few dragon heads was a floor-to-ceiling alcove occupied by small dragon statues atop podiums.

Cale took a few steps into the room, eyes scanning the area, and waved for the others to come up. "I don't sense anything, but still look for any trap triggers."

Josh nodded and glanced around, but nothing in particular screamed "trap." He stared at the dragon statues and frowned. "I don't like those," he told Cale, pointing. Maybe it was the video games where everything in a room mattered, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

After a second of debate, Cale held his hand out toward the others. "We are going to look at something, so don't come in yet—"

Too late. Aharon took a step into the room and instantly dropped to his knees. He grasped his head with an ear-piercing scream.

Everything happened at once. The walls trembled as earth slid down to cover the doors. The dragon statues' mouths groaned open, and torrents of water spilled from their gaping maws. Rusty smelling red water streamed from the ceiling as it pulled open. When the hole grew large enough, gem frogs fell through until the bottom tier of the room filled with them and a pool's worth of water.

Mara dove into the room, sending water flying. She rolled to a stop between Josh and Cale.

"I'll work on breaking down a door. You two keep those things busy," Cale barked. He glanced between the three doors, turned to Aharon, and cursed. "I know you're hurting, kid, but I need you to tell me which way."

Aharon squinted at them. He opened his mouth. Closed it. A whimper escaped his lips.

"Come on. You got this," Josh encouraged as he raised his weapons. The gem frogs were shaking off the disorientation of suddenly dropping from at least ten feet. The water from the dragon statues continued to fill the center, turning red the longer it was around the frogs. His shoes were already soaked from the stream traveling down the room's steps.

Aharon curled in on himself. His bottom lip trembled, and tears traveled down his pale cheeks. "I'm sorry. It's coming."

"What is?" Mara asked.

Josh's blood ran cold. He thought back to the traps. They were so simple that it would only take someone with magic a couple of minutes to get around them. Even this one wasn't too hard. Kill the frogs, break a door, get going.

That all changed if they were no longer the only thing in the hallway, and thinking back, Aharon's headache always started around the traps.

Josh muttered words that would get him grounded for weeks. Cale, however, managed to use ones more colorful. He must have realized, too.

"Why are you—" Mara started, but she cut off.

A freezing breeze blew from every direction, chilling the room by a few degrees. Even the gem frogs paused to look around for the source. It appeared moments later. The wind turned grey, spiraling like a brewing storm in the center of the room. It took shape and grew darker and darker until it matched a blackness only the night sky could achieve.

The reaper shrieked its terrifying return.

"I'm sorry," Aharon whispered. "I realized what it was too late. I—" He dropped his hands to his lap, but tears still trickled down his face.

Cale didn't bother responding. He jumped over Aharon's huddled form. Brown energy erupted on his shoulder, solidifying into earth. He slammed into the barrier blocking the doorway they'd come through, but it didn't even crack. Instead, the earth on Cale's shoulder broke off.

"Looks like we have to fight." Mara aimed her bow and fired. The arrow buried itself into one of the gem frogs' eyes. It collapsed on the spot. That left twelve more.

Sneering, Cale punched the wall before turning back around. A small patch of red remained where he hit. He produced a ball of light in the now-bleeding hand.

"Attack the frogs," he barked.

Josh didn't have to wonder what Cale would do. Cale sprinted away from them and blasted the reaper with a beam of light.

"Caleb!" Mara shouted.

He ignored her, continuing to run around the room while attacking the reaper. She pressed her lips into a thin line, brows pulled together, and turned to the frogs. She huffed out a word in another language as she created a new ice arrow.

"We can get rid of them quickly," Josh said. He drew upon the image of him dashing ahead of everyone else, clearing their path like a streak of light. His lightning crackled along his sword. "Get them from up here, I'll get them down there."

He waited for her barest of nods before hopping down the steps, sending the water flying. A couple of gem frogs had already started to ascend.

His blood pounded in his ears, yet the rush couldn't drown out Ioana's voice. He was back on the training field, staring at her or Zaina or whoever she had him train with, his teacher's voice snapping out corrections and commands.

Those instructions mixed with the adrenaline that flowed through his veins. He planted his foot with a splash and drove his blade forward. It pierced the closest gem frog.

The monster wailed. As it stumbled back from the sword, static traveled from the wound and enveloped its body. The frog fell back, dust-like particles drifting from its body before it even hit the water.

Josh spun to the gem frog beside him just in time to see an arrow whizz past his face. A frog off to his right shrieked. The one in front of him swiped with its claws. Channeling lightning into his shield, he raised it between them.

The frog's claws scraped against the metal of his shield for only a moment before the creature recoiled. Lightning zapped along its skin. It was so focused on the lightning that it didn't try to dodge Josh's overhead slash.

He paused long enough to see the body fall before turning toward the larger crowd of gem frogs. The water had risen to his mid-thigh despite being a level higher from the bottom. Out of the ten frogs left, three sloshed through the water to crawl toward Cale, who was too busy diving under a whip-like strike from the reaper to notice them.

Arrows sliced through the air and embedded themselves into the gem frogs, but without a clear view of a vital area, Mara could only irritate the frogs long enough to keep them at bay, not kill them.

Meaning it may be Josh's job.

He glanced at the red, murky water. The gem frogs congregated in it, watching Josh. No, not him. His sword and shield. They really didn't like lightning.

He shifted his grip on his sword and adjusted his stance. Their fangs and claws appeared so much sharper when Cale's life wasn't on the line.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Frog caught in your throat? Gonna croak on me before even trying?"

You can't be serious. They don't even understand your stupid puns, Boomer said.

Maybe they didn't, but they could hear tone, and they must have understood that at least because their lips pulled back into snarls.

Josh smirked, willing the confidence he displayed to still the unease thrumming beneath his fighting instincts. "Come get me, you weak mob monsters."

Most of them surged toward the step, and Josh stepped forward to meet them. He stopped at the very edge and stabbed downward. Either the frog's bones or stone-skin crunched, loud enough to overpower the crackling of electricity transferring to its body, but Josh twisted to the next frog before he could see which.

He took it out with little issue. The next one he faced stepped forward with a hand raised to attack. Before it could swing, an arrow pierced its hand. The force sent it fumbling back, and Josh took that moment to stab it through the chest.

Focusing once more on his lightning, he willed it to surge until it pulsed around the blade. A small smile played on his lips as the energy did exactly what he wanted. It jumped from his sword, bouncing between the frogs. They didn't die. Instead, they croaked and scrambled back.

These gem frogs didn't stand a chance—

"Josh, watch out!"

Josh glanced in Cale's direction, but all he saw was black. He had a split second to realize the reaper was whipping its body at him before it connected and sent him flying back.

Water swallowed him, and his back slammed against the second layer steps. He shot up, sputtering and brandishing his shield in the direction he thought the reaper would be.

Its angry, hair-raising shriek broke past the sound of Josh's heaving breath. Cale blasted the reaper with light, but a part of the frogs had broken away to chase him, another part to attack Mara, and the last group rushed toward Josh.

Refocusing his energy, Josh summoned lightning along his sword and shield. He shield-bashed the closest frog and slashed at the other. The first fell back into the water; the second one let out an anguished croak before its body started to disintegrate.

Boomer's soul pressed against Josh's awareness. A silent offering. Josh accepted, and Boomer's essence seeped into him.

With his focus sharpened, Josh glanced at the remaining foes. Six gem frogs remained. Three had charged him, reduced to two after he killed one of them, and two each had gone for the others. Mara dispatched of hers with ease, but with Cale's attention split, his two were on him.

An ice arrow buried itself in a frog's leg, and Cale took that time to cut across its face.

Josh turned back to his own frogs. The one he hit into the water had returned to its feet, and the other stood back, waiting for it to get its balance. They wouldn't attack without others to help. Mob creatures, just as he'd accused.

When they were both ready, they charged.

Block with his shield. Snake his sword around into the first frog's chest. Spin out of the way of the second's attack, and stab its exposed side. When they weren't an entire army, and especially when they weren't in underwater combat, the gem frogs were painfully weak.

But they did their job as a distraction. Josh almost missed the wisp of darkness above him. He threw his shield over his head just in time to block the reaper's downward swing.

The force sent him to his knees, and water engulfed him. When the pressure lifted from his shield, he dropped until his stomach touched the first level's floor, then rocketed off the wall leading to the second level. He swam until he reached the opposite side of the room.

Mara and Aharon calling his name was the first thing he heard when he popped out of the water.

The second was Cale's command to duck.

Josh dropped back into the water. The reaper's hand passed over where he had been, then a beam of light lit up the water. The grungy liquid stung Josh's eyes, but he watched the reaper's shadow move across the room. Once it was far enough, he scrambled up the nearby steps.

The water was high enough that even when he reached the second level of the room, it reached his thighs. And it would keep rising, with them trapped in there with a reaper dedicated to their death.

Though right now, it felt like it really hungered for Josh's death.

"Can you not, like, force the doors to open? They're earth," he said as he took a spot next to Cale.

Grunting, Cale shot another light blast at the reaper. "Think I haven't tried? My magic somehow doesn't affect the walls here. Now, attack that thing."

As if hearing the command as well, Mara sent a blast at the same time as Josh and Cale. Faint blue still tinged her light.

Its lithe form slimmed as it snaked around in the air, dodging the attacks.

Josh hadn't realized it before, not in the deepness of the desert's night, but the reaper had eyes. A strange violet, dull yet glowing, as if something had encased a blazing fire in a dirty container that held back everything.

It would have been easy to miss the way those odd eyes moved between each of the ones who attacked it. They lingered a second longer on Mara and Aharon. A sick knot twisted in Josh's stomach.

"No!" he shouted at it as he blasted again.

The reaper slipped around his attack and flew at Mara and Aharon. Mara stood her ground in front of Aharon, light channeled into her hand. She aimed the beam at the reaper. The light caught the reaper's shoulder. It hissed but pressed on.

Mara attempted to attack once more. The reaper jerked to the side, and the blast whizzed past its head. It reached toward Mara. Instead of batting her away to get to Aharon like Josh expected, it grabbed her and darted higher into the sky. Its hand expanded as it rose, growing large enough to pin Mara's arms to her side.

She screamed and kicked helplessly. What light she shot out missed and crashed into the walls or floor.

"Mara!" Josh called. He knew it was pointless, but he didn't know what else to do. If he shot his light at the reaper, it could move and put her at risk.

Water splashed as Cale dropped to his knees. "Josh, prepare yourself."

He opened his mouth to ask what that meant, but clamped it shut and nodded. Yammering would be slower. He would trust Cale, just like Cale trusted him to understand without explanation.

"Draznik terrath," Cale murmured.

Goosebumps rose on Josh's skin. The energy usage radiated off Cale, and his skin paled, almost like the magic drained his very color.

The earth shuddered, then the rest of the room started to sink. No, it wasn't sinking. The outer areas were lowering while the inner parts rose. Cale may not have been able to break the room open, but he could rearrange it.

Aharon cried out. Josh spared him a quick glance. The young boy stumbled. While Josh and Cale's section remained stable, his area sunk.

"Get over here!" Josh called to him.

Once he saw Aharon start the trek over, sometimes having to swim, Josh turned back to the middle. A pyramid of steps rose before him. The reaper held Mara still, its other hand raised to the air. The darkness writhed and spun around itself.

A spike took the place of the reaper's hand, prepped to skewer Mara.

Fun Fact: Just because sometimes I think it shows when Josh is fighting, I really like Spider-Man esque characters xD I don't know.  The ones that goad people into fighting with stupid quips just hit the spot, you know?  I also really loved Danny Phantom for this.

Well, things were too simple, so I had to change that up :D Now the room is flooding, the reaper has returned, and Mara is in danger!  Isn't everyone having a grand ol' time?  Well, maybe not the trio, but details.  

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D It's in my bio if you'd like to join!