Fight

It took them 30 minutes to clear out the remaining monsters. The only one left was the gigantic one at the center that hadn't moved since they arrived. The bad thing was that they were all getting tired, and now they had to finish off the massive creature, which was finally beginning to move. To make matters worse, since they took so long in the classroom, they only had ten minutes left before the timer ran out—and they all died. What a lovely situation.

They looked at each other and nodded, understanding what had to be done. Daniel was now putting all his strength into strengthening the illusion to stop the monster in its tracks. Daniel was increasing their stats even more than he had a minute ago, and now it was their turn to attack. Dave went first, but his attack didn't leave a scratch. Sarah followed, but the monster didn’t even flinch. Now it was Amira's turn. She rushed toward the monster, swinging her katana, but it still didn’t deal any damage. Shit just got even more serious. Their attacks weren’t working, and now both ruby and Dave were out of mana.

"Oh, we're f***** now," Amira thought. Their little advantage was gone.

---

Amira's POV

Shit, they're out of mana, and I'm running on my last bit.

[8 minutes to countdown]

The monster began attacking, destroying the nearby classrooms and sending them flying against a wall.

"Ow, that hurt like a son of a bi—"

"Language," Sara interjected.

Amira sighed.

[5 minutes to countdown]

"What can we do now? We put everything into those attacks, but they didn’t work," Dave said as panic started to set in.

"The time for panicking already passed when the monster broke into the classroom, so get your shit together! We can't die here—we still have six months left until graduation!" Amira snapped.

The wall behind them started to collapse, sending them tumbling backward as debris was thrown toward them. They scattered, dodging the monster’s relentless attacks.

[3 minutes to countdown]

"There are only three minutes left!" Ruby shouted. "If I die here, I just want to say I'm sorry for stealing your gum, Amira."

"So you were the gum thief?" Amira said, looking betrayed.

"I said I was sorry!"

"Fine, I forgive you," Amira grumbled.

[2 minutes to countdown]

"Two minutes left, huh?" Amira exhaled.

'God, if you're there, give me some of that stupid luck everyone says I have so we can survive...'

[1 minute to countdown]

Everything suddenly became quiet for Amira. The only thing she could hear was her pounding heartbeat, drowning out the chaos around her. She suddenly felt drowsy, her eyelids growing heavier by the second. Her hands began to burn with a surging heat, as if molten fire were running through her veins. She clenched her fists, feeling like they were submerged in hot coals...

[Countdown starts now]

[5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

A raging purple light engulfed her vision before everything went black...

A mysterious voice whispered: "THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING."

---

She woke up to find herself standing on top of the giant monster, her hands covered in blood, breathing heavily. She looked around to see her friends, shock written on their faces, as the monster's body began to disappear.

[CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THIS DUNGEON. YOU WILL NOW BE RANKED BASED ON YOUR PERFORMANCE.]

As the voice stopped, the blue hologram appeared in front of her again.

Name: Amira Singh

Age: 16

Rank: B/??

Power: Purple Flames

Strength: 15/100

Mana: 30/?

Stamina: 13/100

Agility: 10/100

Influence: 20/100

She felt weak, falling to her knees as her friends rushed to her with their own blue holograms in front of them.