Forward I went. I was again out on the battlefield, ready to fight. In front of me, an Absol. A tall, awkward thing with a penchant for Hot Topic. Yup, that was the right fit for Lola. Didn't know her much before this, but she did have that air about her.

The group was split into three rotating subgroups: two one-on-one fights each occupying half of the field, and the leftover two people in the "medic corner" on the benches, a small pile of berries next to them. I was matched with Lola, the other fight at the moment being between Kieran and Chloe. Michael and Gab were stationed at the sidelines. Gab was coming back to her assigned spot, dragging a huge palm leaf with her.

"Are we all ready?" Micheal called. A variety of nods and agreements were given. "Okay, let's start! Three, two, one, go!"

You're next, kitty cat.

I had chosen the closest person to me without thinking about who I actually wanted to fight. No matter. I'd be just fine beating up Lola. She was definitely arrogant enough to warrant it. If we swapped partners down the line, I'd be more than happy to continue my fight with Micheal. Lion boy wasn't prepared for my brand new water attack.

I eyed the four-legged white dog thing and quickly analyzed the things she used for attacking. Those claws on her front paws were her main tactic. They looked sharp enough on their own, but when she used Scratch they lengthened a little and seemed to do more damage. Lola started to run toward me as I stood still, continuing to size her up. If I went as close as I could to her, it would be difficult for her to swing her claws fast enough to do effective damage. Her legs were long and bent awkwardly, which would render me safe once I'd be within a certain radius. Still, my melee moves also relied on there being a little distance between my opponent and I. Besides, I wanted to practice Pokémon moves, which was my whole point with this. I wondered through a final question as Lola closed the distance between us: now, how do I do this?

I stood still as stone, clenching my muscles and bracing myself. I made my face rigid and immobile. Lola got the message.

"Nope!" She made a U-turn, the sound of her claws on the granite like dropped marbles rolling on the floor. Kieran and Chloe clearly got the message as well and took off like rockets. In the corner of my eye, Micheal grabbed Gab by the scruff and jumped behind the bleachers. Nice to know Bide was feared and respected.

Of course, I wasn't really using Bide. Now that I had actual firepower, I wouldn't resort to anything dumb like that. What I was doing was closing my eyes and nudging orbs of water into existence. I opened them again as they all got flung toward the Absol, hitting her in the back of the head and bursting like water balloons. Three out of three!

"Agh! Jesus," Lola exclaimed. She shook her mane out, then turned back toward me. "Not fair!"

"Misdirection is a tactic!" I answered.

Kieran heckled me from above, which I heard very faintly. "It won't work against a boss! They're not smart enough!"

"You don't know for sure!" Chloe yelled, just as distant.

Oh. I guess Kieran was right. Bosses had been idiots before. No matter. I could defeat Lola. I had the skill for that. "Come at me again, if you dare," I beckoned teasingly. She shook her fur out again, grinned and sprinted toward me. There was no diverting this attack. I closed my eyes for a brief moment to get that Hidden Power, and—

In way less time than I knew was possible, Lola headbutted me square in the chest. My breath knocked out, I slid backward, catching myself without falling on my back. How did she do that?

"Quick Attack?" Gab yelled excitedly, back on the bleachers.

"I think so!" Lola answered, then giggled. "This is awesome!"

Great. Time for good old reliable punches. I couldn't close my eyes at a time like this! I rolled my shoulders a little to feel the damage in my thoracic cage area. It ached a little, but anyone could walk it off. When Lola focused on me again, I put up my fists. She smiled and nodded, noting I was ready to go.

When she lunged at me again, I ducked, rolled forward, and threw an uppercut to the stomach. I expected my fist to meet fur but it just kept going through the air until I'd stopped. Lola had somehow quickly stepped to the side, giving me a wink from those light blue eyes. Wait, blue? They were red before!

That blue light dissipated and her front claws glowed iron white. Must've been an evading technique. Ugh. It couldn't save her forever! I instinctively raised my arm for a block, fist clenched and the underside of my wrist facing the sky.

"Ow!"

Lola stopped, claws mid-strike. It was Kieran who'd shouted at Chloe. They both landed, looking exhausted but otherwise fine.

"Watch the wings!" Kieran scolded. "They're fragile!"

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" The Swablu apologized. "You want to call break?"

"Obviously!"

My focus returned to the still distracted Absol, claws still glowing. I quickly undid my block and threw a left jab to her sternum.

"Oof!" She reacted. Her attack dissipated and she drew her leg back down, coughing a little. "Quit playing dirty!"

"That, a boss would fall for," I informed her.

That's roughly how the afternoon went. Chloe pointed out at some point that we'd never built that lean-to someone had mentioned a while ago, so the ones on the benches were reassigned to searching for materials and berries. When I was done with my turn, we had a sizeable bark roof leaning against the brick wall, on the side with the grassy floor so it would be more comfortable to sleep. There was also some moss placed in holes in the bark so water would get absorbed, and the start of a fire pit: a circle made out of chunks of rock, all grass surrounding it having been plucked out. Whoever was next would have to get firewood.

When I walked back, I saw Lola lying on the bleachers next to Gab, looking attentively at what she was doing. It took me a moment to realize that she'd been making backpacks out of palm fronds all day. There were at least three already done. Two I could get. Gab and I could both carry the bags and put them on easily, but it would be awkward to put on for Micheal, worse for Lola, and way impractical for Kieran and Chloe. Why was Gab on her fourth backpack? More importantly, though…

"Hey!" I addressed Lola and leaned on the first bleacher. "Did you do anything for the lean-to this shift?"

"Nah, I was working with her," she replied. "Gab needed more palm leaves so I went to get some."

"It took you an hour to get leaves?"

"My services also include terrific puns to keep one working," she grinned. "I believe productivity rose up, uh…"

"467%," Gab nodded solemnly. "The puns are just that good."

I groaned. "Okay, I guess you would call that work. Why the hell did you make so many bags, though? I know you want a replacement, but that's too many for us!"

"For the others," she said, not having looked up from her handiwork the whole conversation. "If anyone's behind us, they can get supplies."

Call me selfish, but that sounded like an utter waste of time. We'd made it one level without backpacks. Surely others who actually knew what they were doing could pull more off. I had to agree the intention was nice. If we had any slack in our urgency to get home, I would've joined in myself. But the facts were this; first, we didn't know if anyone was behind us; second, the faster we went through the levels, the faster we would get home; third— wait a minute.

"Did you practice battling today? At all?" I asked the Emolga.

She finally looked me in the eye, but not for long. Eye contact wasn't her strong suit, clearly. "No," she replied quietly.

"And why didn't you?" This was not the same person who'd asked me throw her at a bird.

Lola answered for her. "She was busy."

"Yeah," Gab corroborated. "There's always tomorrow. I wanted to do this first."

"Tomorrow?! We're not doing this tomorrow!" I snapped.

"What? Why not?"

That was Micheal. Oh, great. Another obstacle. There I was, having heaved a huge chunk of wood to camp, sustained some hits from Lola that may become bruises, and I still hadn't gotten my rematch.

"We need to keep going. Practicing for one day was good, but we need to get out of here ASAP."

"Why, because you're done practicing?" Gab said under her breath. By this time, Kieran and Chloe had also landed next to us.

I shot Gab a glare so she'd know I heard that, then Micheal spoke up again. "She does have a point," he said cautiously. "Some of us discovered new moves today, and that's definitely something that can help us in the long run. We need everything we can get."

I hated that that made some sense. If this was a school test, sure! I would take free time out of my day to study! But ah, what did tests also have? Ding ding! Due dates! The point of studying was to be ready when the date would come. Our life here was not something we could wait out. It was something we needed to continuously work on to get over with. Sure, I wanted a little practice, but not a full regiment! I'd much rather stick to Hidden Power than miss out on going home to my family, thank you very much.

"Fine, then. Who's got a move to learn?" I saw them shrug. Why focus on something with no clear goal, then? "Okay, help me understand. I wanted to practice to get a Psychic attack. I sort of achieved that. What powers are you expecting to reach? What are we waiting for now?"

Micheal rolled his eyes. "This was your idea! Besides, this is experience. Training, like you said. Even if we don't learn much, we should get a little better."

"Little better won't cut it."

"Can you let me finish?" he groaned, a rare edge in his voice. "Is this about home? We all miss it! We all want to go back as soon as possible, but let's face it: we almost died multiple times." I could've heard a pin drop. "It's not "waiting". It's preparing."

I was about to argue that last point but I noticed Micheal's legs were the slightest bit shaky. Bringing up life and death so suddenly must've given him whiplash and done a number on his mood. He glared, ear flicking occasionally. I decided to pursue it sometime else for his sake.

"Fine," I retorted. "Who's up next?"

"Sun's about to set. It's time for dinner," he said curtly.

Dinner still needed some prep, as did the shelter. And so, everyone was assigned to lean-to, fire pit, and berry picking duty, because apparently we always had to go on Micheal's word. Jesus Christ, I guessed we really did pick him as the leader for some reason that still eluded me. I was punching chunks of brick off the bleachers to put around the fire pit. It doubled as good training, but I had to power through the ache occasionally rippling through my knuckles. I had to get more rocks, though. I would do my job.

The sun was setting from behind the trees, somewhere above them but not high enough for me to see. At least it didn't shine into my eyes because of that. It setting did practically nothing for the torrid temperature. I let out a sigh, evaluated my sizeable pile of rocks, and decided my work was done.

As I turned away from the bleachers to pick up the fruit of my labour, the big wall caught my eye. The sun painted the entire white of it into a bright orange. It was almost blinding, but also nice. I could notice slight discolourations when it was lit like that, just hints of a different value in the rock. Neat, I guessed they must've had some kind of marble-like veins running through them, far and few between.

That sight, coupled with exhaustion, actually calmed me down a lot. I'd be the first to admit I'd gotten steamed back there. Where we'd disagree would be whether or not it was warranted, but the fact was it did happen. I could face that. I gathered my rocks and brought them to camp, just on the other side of the wall.

Gab, Lola and Chloe were still out completing the tasks they'd chosen. I could trust Chloe to do so, and hopefully she'd rub off on the other two.

Still at camp, Kieran was hovering about, putting moss in higher places and trying to entertain Micheal with dumb jokes or observations.

"No, I swear I can eat the whole Chople berry this time! It's spicy but there's a trick to it."

Dead silence. Then:

"Kieran, I don't think you pronounce Chople like Chipotle."

If a Beedrill could turn pale, he'd have turned as white as a sheet. "Oh my God. You're right."

I announced my presence. "How's it coming along, guys?"

"Just about done!" Micheal answered, a lot more chipper than last time we'd spoken. "You?"

"I have so many rocks."

Kieran seemed happy about that. "Place them in the pit!"

"The pit!"

"The pit!" Lola's voice rang. She was a walking shenanigan magnet, summoned back to us. "You guys weren't making another religion, right?"

"Blasphemy," Gab shook her head from atop the Absol.

"Why don't you critique us when you have more than two commandments?" Kieran retorted.

Lola gasped dramatically, and I feigned a laugh. Oh boy, I was not ready for us to continue to be this stupid tonight. The only way to get Lola to shut up was to egg her on, because she'd run out of steam eventually. However, like a goddamn hydra, if you killed off one conversation, two more hideous maws would grow and snap and gnash at you at the next opportunity. My only chance to shut this pie-hole was to remind the person attached to it of the concept of food. And judging by the full bags Gab had hoisted onto Lola, it wouldn't be hard. Besides, the sky was darkening faster than I thought it would. Clouds were starting to cover it ever so slowly. We'd picked the right night to put the lean-to up. It was big too; it could cover all of us while we ate in case rain started.

And so, everyone finally relaxed and ate some chow. An ember was placed into the fire pit, and Chloe, the last one to arrive, had swooped in with such a large amount of firewood that we could keep some safe and dry under the roof. Surrounded by people who were enjoying themselves, it was hard to tell yourself not to take a break too. I felt my jaw unclench when I thought that. For once, why not? It's not as if we were going to do anything tonight other than watch shifts. Productivity was dead until tomorrow. For now, we theorized.

"What do we do for the next boss?" Chloe asked, in the middle of tearing open an Oran.

Kieran was quick to respond. "Well, duh, we go in Valérie-style."

"Perfect, that'll flatten it in no time."

"Uh, none taken," I spoke through mouthfuls of Nanab berry. "So am I just a strategy now?"

Kieran sighed. "Honestly, when has our plan ever been anything other than you throwing someone at the monster or just throwing you at it?"

"Lola and Gab did pretty well as backup that one time," I scoffed.

"What do you think happens when we finish everything?" Micheal wondered. "At this point, we don't have the notes, so we have to go from memory for clues."

"We get to go back home!" Chloe answered cheerfully. "Obviously!"

"Let me guess, and no time will have passed," Lola chuckled. "But we'll remember the magic. Ooh."

"So, what, it's like Narnia time?" Gab piped up. "We'll be back on the bus all like, ooh, the clocks haven't moved!"

"Oh my God, we'll finally see that fort," Lola said, lying down and crossing her front legs after a stretch.

A thought had crossed my mind before, but I didn't want to ruin the ensuing "what a long bus ride" and "are we there yet" jokes. The vibe was finally somewhat comfortable and I didn't want to throw a wrench in that. As the laughter grew louder though, so did the urgency. I just ended up blurting it out.

"What about the others?"

Everyone quieted down.

"The others?" Gab asked. Oh, so now we forgot about them.

At this point even Lola looked worried. I continued. "When we get back, we'll be on the bus, with other people who were sucked into this place."

"Yeah, but... Narnia time? They could come back at the same time," Chloe attempted.

"What if they don't make it? Do they disappear? Does their body just die?"

Micheal interrupted. "I'm sure they will—"

"All it takes is for Mr. Henry to not make it, and we're dead. He's driving the bus we're all on! Doomed either way."

I leaned back, staring deep into the twilit sky past the edge of the roof, as if it was going to answer my plea. We were stuck in a dungeon, facing monsters and supernatural threats, and yet the bus driver surviving was one of our biggest problems. It was completely out of my control.

I saw Micheal look up as well. Maybe his night vision could see the answer better than I could. He faced me with a smile. "If we can complete this thing, anyone can. My goodness, have you seen us? We're on our fifth level!"

Some weak chuckles were given from around the group, but the mood was mostly depleted. Never mind the fact that as far as we knew, there were… infinite dungeons. I sure didn't want to think about what that would imply. I did catch some looks exchanged by Gab and Lola. I couldn't escape the latter's eyes. She looked almost concerned for me.

Okay, there was no way Lola could be more well-adjusted than me.

"I'm sorry, Micheal," I said, in a defeated tone trying to pass for a relieved one. "I think I'm gonna take a walk."

I got up, lit a torch, and started heading off in the direction of the poison pond. I couldn't take a dip there, but I could sit close and think.

"Uh, okay," Micheal replied.

He might've been concerned, but he didn't go after me, so it didn't really matter.