[Chapter 155. Against a Monster]

The four women stood in the pulsing gloom of the chamber, their faces illuminated in brief flashes as the golden veins in the walls brightened. The sterile air carried only the distant hum of Searanox's cargo drones as they dismantled the golem's remains.

Sarah grabbed Lana's arm, her grip tight. "Come on," she whispered, pulling her aside. Lana stumbled after her a few meters away from the others.

Vanessa watched them go, her arms crossed. Carmen lowered herself to the polished floor, her movements stiff as she settled into a cross-legged position.

"Training," Carmen murmured, her eyes fixed on the two figures now facing each other across the chamber.

Lana raised her shield, its iridescent glow filling the space between them. Sarah vanished in a blur of motion, reappearing directly behind Lana with her dagger raised. The shield shifted, blocking the heavy strike with a soft thud that rippled across its surface.

Before Lana could recover, Sarah flickered to her front, then back again. Each strike was intercepted by the shield, the impacts growing more forceful as Sarah found her rhythm. Lana's breathing grew ragged, her arms straining as she met each blow.

"Too slow," Sarah taunted, her voice echoing slightly in the chamber.

Lana's eyes narrowed. She swung her shield just before Sarah's next strike connected, pushing with all her strength. A shockwave erupted, sending Sarah stumbling back several meters. Sarah caught her balance with a laugh, drawing her second dagger. The grin on her face widened.

From then on, it became a whirlwind of attacks. Sarah moved with impossible speed, her daggers flashing in the golden light. Lana blocked most of the blows, but some slipped through, leaving thin cuts on her arms and shoulders. Her grunts of pain punctuated the rhythmic impacts of shield against blade.

Vanessa stared at the combat, her expression unreadable. After a moment, she opened her spellbook, the pages flipping by themselves. A complex matrix of light formed behind her. She raised her hand, and a bolt of arcane energy shot forth, striking the partially dismantled golem. The dark armor absorbed the energy without effect, leaving only a faint scorch mark.

"Useless," she muttered, snapping the book shut with an audible click.

Carmen rose to her feet as Lana cried out, a dagger having found a gap in her defense. Pale light enveloped Carmen's hands as she approached, the healing magic mending the wound with swift efficiency. She glanced at Sarah, who sported a cut on her from one of Lana's desperate counters. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a tendril of healing energy toward the skirmisher, who barely acknowledged it.

The chamber's golden light continued its rhythmic pulse, marking time that didn't pass outside their bubble of existence. The sounds of combat, healing, and Searanox's steady breathing formed a strange symphony in the timeless void.

Searanox stirred several times during their training session. The metallic clang of shield against blade and occasional grunts of pain roused him briefly, but each time he simply closed his eyes again, his breathing returning to its steady rhythm. He was conserving energy while they expended theirs.

Hours compressed within the timeless chamber. When Searanox finally opened his eyes, the golden veins in the walls pulsed exactly as they had when he'd fallen asleep. He stretched, limbs extending with controlled deliberation before rising from his chair. His gaze fell first upon the neatly organized piles of golem remains. Several armor plates bore scorch marks—damage patterns that didn't match his drones signatures. He immediately recognized the signature of Vanessa's Starfall Matrix. Her attacks were ineffective against the golem's plating, barely scratching the surface.

His cargo drones hovered silently nearby, their tasks completed. As he turned toward the four women, they sat close together in what appeared to be a deep conversation. Their hushed tones died when they felt his gaze settle upon them. Sarah stopped mid-sentence, while Lana instinctively reached for her shield before relaxing her hand.

"Would you like to spar against something other than yourselves?" Searanox asked, his voice flat and calm in the sterile silence.

The question caught them off guard. Vanessa closed her spellbook with a soft snap and stood first. "Yes." Her response was immediate, her green eyes meeting his without flinching.

The others rose too, retrieving their weapons from where they'd been scattered across the polished floor. Lana hefted her shield, Sarah gripped her daggers, and Carmen brushed dust from her tunic. They watched him, waiting.

Searanox raised one hand. Two drones materialized beside him—one a simple metallic sphere with a blue lens, the other an oval construct with overlapping shield plates. A wooden shield materialized with a dull thud, dropping to the floor before he kicked it across the stone toward Lana.

"You will use this one. I don't intend on damaging your good shield."

Lana stared at the simple wooden shield for a moment too long before bending to retrieve it, her fingers tracing its rough surface. It reminded her of her original equipment from before Searanox had provided them with proper gear.

Without warning, a crimson beam shot from behind the newly summoned barrier, striking Carmen's thigh. Her cry of pain echoed through the chamber as she collapsed, hands already glowing with healing magic as she clutched the smoking wound.

Another beam followed instantly, but this time Lana intercepted it with the wooden shield, the impact sending a shudder through her arms. The shield held, blackening where the energy had struck.

"You can't just attack Carmen!" Vanessa screamed, her voice sharp with outrage. "She's only a healer!" Her eyes darted to Carmen, who was already closing the wound, her face pale but determined.

"And why is that? Should I announce the target first?" he asked, his voice dripping with mockery. "Do you believe that anyone who attacked your group would wait for you to be ready? Do you think they'd announce themselves?"

Before Vanessa could form a response, another crimson beam shot through the barrier, striking Sarah's exposed thigh as she lunged forward with a gasp of pain. Her momentum carried her into a clumsy roll across the polished floor.

"Stay in formation!" Lana growled, her voice strained as she shifted her position, the wooden shield feeling clumsy and inadequate in her grip. "Cover the angles."

"This is your target." Searanox gestured to the blue-eyed drone, which swiveled slightly, its crimson beam now aimed at Vanessa's feet.

Vanessa's face twisted with conflicting emotions—outrage warring with fear, and beneath it all, a dawning, horrified understanding. Her spellbook was open, but her hands trembled slightly, disrupting the forming matrix. "This is insane," she muttered, her eyes darting between the unmoving Searanox and the now-regular crimson beams lancing through the barrier. "We can't fight what we can't predict."

"Exactly," Searanox said, his voice devoid of sympathy. He leaned back against the pile of scavenged golem plates, crossing his arms. "Learn."

Carmen, having stanched the bleeding in her leg with a wince, moved behind Lana's shield, her staff held ready. "He's testing our coordination under random, unpredictable pressure," she said, her clinical tone a fragile shield against the fear in her eyes. "Like a real fight."

Sarah pushed herself up from the floor, a dark stain spreading on her leather pants. She spat a curse, her usual playful swagger replaced by a raw, bitter fury. "Random? He's aiming at us," she snarled, her grip tightening on her daggers.

The crimson beam lanced out again, this time aimed squarely at Lana's shield. The wood splintered, the impact staggering her back a step.

Vanessa's fingers trembled as the arcane matrix wavered in the air before her, the intricate pattern of light flickering like a dying flame. She raised her hands, forcing concentration despite the fear that clutched at her throat. A bolt of arcane energy shot forth, striking the drone's barrier with a dull thud that left no visible damage. Another followed with the same result.

"Concentrate fire," Vanessa commanded, her voice strained but steady. "All of us."

The crimson beam lanced out again, this time striking the floor just inches from Vanessa's feet. The polished stone blackened where the energy had struck, the scorched mark a stark warning against the golden backdrop of the chamber.

"Move!" Lana yelled, but it was too late. A third crimson beam struck Vanessa's shoulder, spinning her around with a cry of pain. The arcane matrix sputtered and died as she stumbled forward, her spellbook falling from her grasp.

Before Vanessa could hit the ground, Sarah vanished from Lana's side in a blur of motion, reappearing behind the unshielded drone with a guttural scream. Both daggers plunged into the drone's central housing, the impact sending vibrations through the air that made their teeth ache.

The drone's blue eye flickered violently, as sparks erupted from its seams. With a final, dying shriek of metal, it crashed to the floor, inert.

A heavy silence descended, broken only by Vanessa's pained gasps as she clutched her shoulder. All four stared at the dancing blue sparks from the destroyed drone, then at Searanox.

He pushed himself off the pile of plates in a slow, deliberate motion, the sound of his boots striking the floor echoing in the sudden stillness. "One down," he said, his gaze fixed on the remaining shield drone. Two more basic air drones appeared beside him, and with them came four additional defensive drones, their shields overlapping to create a formidable wall of protection around the new attackers.

Two crimson beams erupted from the shield drones. Lana intercepted one with her wooden shield, the impact splintering more of the already damaged wood. The second beam struck Sarah's leg as she lunged forward, her momentum turning the hit into a stumbling slide across the polished floor. A pained grunt escaped her lips before she vanished, appearing beside Carmen, soft white light washing over her wounded thigh.

Before the next assault, Lana's shield flared up, its surface protected by a translucent shimmer that doubled its size. Searanox's face contorted in discomfort as both drones focused their crimson beams solely on Lana.

"That is an interesting feeling," he said, his gaze locked on Lana as if experiencing something unexpected.

"We can't break through all those shields," Vanessa stated, her spellbook already open, arcane energy beginning to coalesce in the air around her hands. "We need to draw them out or find a weak point."

"Or we could just wait," Carmen countered, her staff glowing softly as she healed another welt on Lana's arm. "Lana can hold. She's a tank."

Searanox's laughter was a short, sharp sound in the golden-veined chamber. "Wait? Wait for what? I can keep these drones up indefinitely."

The crimson beams intensified, their combined force cracking the surface of Lana's wooden shield. Lana grunted, her feet skidding backward on the polished floor as the barrier began to fail. "I can't hold forever," she ground out.

Another set of arcane bolts made contact with the defensive drone's barrier, dissolving against it in a violent flicker that left no visible damage.