Heavy pants could be heard as they rushed past the boss room. Fortunately for them it had already been cleared and the small gates which led to the next floor were already opened.

Gray's field was no longer deployed. His steps seemed heavy and his pants were the loudest out of all three. It seemed to have been taken his all just to run.

Such was most likely the result of having used the field. From behind them, the sound of heavy footsteps resounded as the horned ones drew closer. The closest ones, leading the chase, were two black haired horned ones. The top half of their horns were yellow.

And they both carried Katanas on their hands.

Slowly, they were gaining up on the three.

Despite that, they were just ahead of the gates. All they needed was a few more seconds of running, after that they'd get through. Once they got through Gray would be able to pause the air on the door, preventing the horned ones from passing through.

They were going to get away. Or so they thought.

*BOOOM!*

The sound of an explosion resounded from behind them. At that moment, Gray lowered his head whilst also tripping up Aurora and Violet, causing them to fall.

Just before they touched the ground, he caught them and two sword slashes passed right above their heads, slicing off single strands.

*CRASH!*

The two yellow ranked horned ones they had seen suddenly crashed onto the walls ahead of them. Their feets, tucked in, their katanas positioned perfectly as they were implanted into the walls just above the entrance.

Gray cursed seeing how close they had been to making it.

[Burst]

*BOOM!*

Once again, a loud sound aching to that of an explosion vibrated throughout the room. An instant later, one of the two horned ones blade was immidiately visible, reflecting against Violet's jewel-like eyes.

Simultaneously the other horned had implanted it's sword into the ground resulting in Large sharp vines emerging from the walls behind him, directing itself at the three as it launched spikes towards them.

[Vine Carnage]

[Pause] [Pause Step]

In that very same instant, Gray's halted the blade of the one ahead of Violet, seemingly vanished before that very same horned one felt a knee crash into the side of their jaw, almost breaking before he was sent flying away.

His eyes widened as they realised their katana was halted in the air, just ahead of her. A smile proceeded to widen on his face right before he crashed, once he realised the thorns tiny spikes were about to come into contact with all of them.

To his surprise however, things didn't go as planned. All the miniature thorns seemed to stop and drop to the ground as if they had hit an invisible wall after Gray had stretched his arm out towards them.

A second later, Violet's eyes glowed a bright purple, as she suddenly leapt towards Aurora whilst grabbing onto Gray. The instant she grabbed her, the three were propelled to the sides, barely avoiding the large spiky vine as it slammed against the floor.

Before the horned one could see anything more, he crashed into the wall.

*CRASH!*

As a result of her telekenisis, as she held onto them, the three flew around, spinning around, as they barely avoided the vines rampage in an attempt to attack them.

It's movement was like a whip, unpredictable, preventing them from passing through. With every second they wasted flying around to avoid it, the other horned ones grew closer.

Seeing this, Gray whispered something into their ears and they nodded.

"You're not getting past." Muttered the horned one controlling the vines as he dug his blade further into the wall. At that moment, even more vines extended out of the walls. These ones covered small gates, blocking their path.

As if realizing they could no longer proceed, they stopped in the air. The three of them tucking their legs into a platform which the horned one could not see. They were positioned diagonally, their feet and body pointed towards the small gate.

"Have you given up? But it's too late now!!" The horned one shouted, as he dug the katana even further into the wall.

The moment he did so, the vines seemed to go berserk as their edges grew sharp and pointy. At a faster speed than previously shown, they extended themselves towards the group in the air.

[Vine Execution]

A moment before the pointed edge of the vines were about to pierce all three of them, the temperature in the room dropped. The horned man's eyes widened as he noticed the edges of his vines turn to ice.

[Ice Mist]

A cold mist surrounded the three of them, allowing him to only see their eyes as it hid most of their figure.

'What!? How isn't the mist affecting them!?'

Veins were visible when muscles bulged out of Gray's leg as he tucked them further in. He wrapped his arms around the two girls tightly, before all three of them sent a killer glare at the horned one controlling the vines.

Gray's eyes glowed yellow, Violet's glowed purple and Aurora's glowed a light blue. Seeing this, the horned one felt a chill go down his spine.

*SWOOSH!*

Despite it's edge being frozen, the vine still continued on with it's task, it's aim to at least graze and poison them. To his surprise however, right before it could hit them, their figure seemed to disappear, as the mist blew away.

Using the mist as cover, Gray leapt at an angle which allowed him to take the three of them past the vine which was just about to kill them.

A wide grin grew on the horned ones' faces as they drew closer at incredibly high speeds. The vines around him, all seemed to intertwine and join together, creating a thorny shield which stood ahead of the three.

[Poisonous Vine Shield]

With their momentum and their trajectory, they were about to crash right into it, before dying to the poison.

"I've won... Haha... It's my wi-"

*KABAM!!!* *CRASSH!!!*

The man's head crashed into the wall, digging further into it as Gray's extended leg, in the form of a kick, slammed into him with all the momentum. A few seconds later, the man's entire body froze up, causing him to release his sword.

The vines all withered away and whilst his consciousness faded, only one word passed by his mind. 'What...?'

Everything went black.

--------------------- December Goals

250 - Powerstones - 14 Ch / Week

Golden Tickets:

Every 10 Golden Tickets - 1 Extra Chapter release, end of month.