"All right," I said in a conciliatory tone. "It's time to move on. It could be that there is more than one way out of this dungeon. Lena, how are you?"

"I'm fine," the girl answered. Her voice was still shaky but a bit calmer already. That was good.

"How did you even get rid of the tentacles?" Cyril asked, and then added, "Thanks, by the way. If it wasn't for you, I…"

He paused. Maybe it was good that I stopped and waited for them to catch up.

"Didn't you see?" I answered his question with another question. I wondered what he saw when I used Arcobaleno.

"A huge flame. The tentacles immediately crawled to the sides," he said. "Where did you get that lighter?"

I barely restrained myself from sighing in relief. It was so simple. Cyril thought that I had used an ordinary lighter.

"I inherited it from my grandfather," I lied without blinking an eye. "That was a common thing back then."

Despite the nonsense, he believed me, so I even got a couple of deception points.

"That was nice of your grandfather," Cyril stated. "I thought we were dead. I remembered all sorts of stuff..." He shuddered. "But was it worth the risk? You talked about the shadows and that light shouldn't be used under any circ.u.mstances."

What should I say? That my knees were also shaking until the very end? Or that I have a skill thanks to which the flames don't create shadows?

"Did we have a choice? Either we died for sure or risked and possibly survived. We won. Enough self-reflection. It's time to move on."

Lack of new questions confirmed that I was not alone in my opinion, so we continued on our way.

Having made a couple of steps, I felt that I had sprained my ankle really badly when I fell. It hurt to walk. G.o.d, I hope it gets better soon. It shouldn't be a fracture or a dislocation.

"Does it hurt?" Lena asked sympathetically.

"It's bearable," I muttered. "I'll walk it off, it'll be fine."

"Look, Cat," Cyril said. "I think I see light."

d.a.m.n it! If there was light, there would be shadows. Arcobaleno won't save us this time.

I looked closely at where he was pointing. Something was really shining at the end of the corridor; reddish and dim, like the emergency lights in one of the stores I used to work at. The owners were quite rich and were able to fork out for an additional generator.

"Maybe we shouldn't go there?" the girl fearfully asked. "What if there's something there?"

"Do you have any other suggestions?" I didn't want to ask her, but it was difficult to make such decisions alone. "Tell us. Cyril and I are listening."

Lena immediately drooped and stared at the floor.

"Come on," I ordered and limped toward the red glow without waiting for them.

Darkness gave way to twilight after a couple of steps. I looked back and saw that the outlines of our shadows had begun to appear. But why are they so huge? Were they waiting for us? I dove to the side at the very last moment. A second before that, the shadow under my feet gained volume and lunged at me, aiming with its claws at my throat. However, both actions were pointless. The red glow, toward which we were going, turned out to be an insurmountable obstacle for this disgusting creature; it froze as if having crashed into an invisible wall.

"Cat, are you all right? Why are you jumping?" Lena's voice was shaky again. Maybe she imagined what would've happened to had I gone crazy.

It was obvious that neither she nor Cyril saw the dark figures behind us. Strong magic defense turned out to be a bit of a problem. I couldn't just walk and not worry about anything. I'll have nightmares because of that for sure. In fact, I was pleased. I finally managed to see the description of the shadows and examine their stats. I was safe and I could finally make plans based, not on stories and conjectures, but on real facts. I increased my intelligence and activated my "inner vision".

Shadow Reflection

Level: 8

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Health: 10,000

Element: abyss

Attack power: 300

Defense: 300

Magic defense: 5

Skills: Way of Shadows, Search for Heat, Reflection

Vulnerability: order

Immunity: physical attacks

Speed: 40 feet per second (cruising); 82 feet per second (sprint)

As one smart man used to say: "that's the long and the short of it". Forty feet per second was breaking the world record, and these creatures were able to move at that speed constantly. Well, it surely was impossible to escape from them. Their attack power and defense were also impressive. The only thing I couldn't understand was why they had armor if they were immune to ordinary attacks. Probably, it was possible to strengthen or modify your damage in some way so that it would no longer be physical. Anyway, this information was useful. Now for their skills. Way of Shadows was obviously what they used to get here, and Search for Heat was how they found us. I wondered what would happen if I lowered my body temperature. The last skill, Reflection, gave me no hint and I could only make a.s.sumptions about it. It was probably an ability that allowed them to scale with their enemy's level. The three shadows, which were still trying to break through the red light, were the same level as us.

With all of that taken care of, I had to answer the alarmed girl, given that Cyril also got nervous. After that, we would move on.