The members of Squadron 154 walked through the corridor cautiously, keeping a keen eye on their surroundings. Iris kept her Angelica’s radar on at all times, and the group kept silent which made it easier to hear any sign of movement.

After a while of walking, however, a strange sound came from up front. It wasn’t the familiar noise of the Phantoms scraping their feet on the ground, or their low-pitched humming that only Finn could hear. No… this was some sort of mechanical sound that signaled a moving machine somewhere nearby.

“… Do you guys hear that?” Octane asked, coming to a stop.

Finn nodded. “It seems to be not much further ahead.”

“There aren’t any other ways to go, so… we have to check it out,” Iris said, then tapped on her earpiece. “Fanatic, can you map out the area for us?”

“Yeah, I’m on it…” His voice came back through on the other side, trailing off. A few seconds later, he continued.

“Alright, from what your sensors are sending to my computer, there are a series of traps up ahead — swinging sharp pendulums, rolling logs with spikes on them, and parkour. I don’t think you guys should have any trouble getting through, but I’m not sure if there are any hidden ones I can’t see, so be careful.”

“Copy,” Iris said briskly, ending the conversation. Since the others all heard Fanatic via their own earpieces as well, there was no point repeating anything. Instead, the four just kept on going, with Iris still riding on top of Finn’s shoulder.

It didn’t take long for them to come across the traps Fanatic had been talking about. The other side could be seen roughly 500 meters away, but to get there, the group had to parkour their way across.

Of course, Iris, Finn, and Reaper could fly, so it was slightly easier for them, but they still had to deal with the swinging pendulums and logs. The parkour just wasn’t that challenging, that’s all.

“Okay, Ace, I’ll lead the way,” Iris said, as she could see. “You can… um, w-wrap your arms around me like this…”

Hovering in the air using her wings, she carefully took Finn’s hands and wrapped them around her own body so that he was practically hugging her from behind. Gulping slightly, Iris did her best to calm down and not get flustered at his warm embrace.

“O-Okay, we’re good. Don’t let go of me and let me pull you along.”

“… Got it,” Finn replied briskly, tightening his grip around Iris’s waist and pressing his body against hers. The sniper on her back was somewhat in the way, but that didn’t matter.

“…!” Iris’s eyes widened and she blushed deeply at this, but she quickly shook her head and regained her composure. “U-Um… that’s a bit too tight… I can’t use my wings…”

“Sorry.”

Finn loosened up a bit as Iris laughed softly at his clunky movements. Deep down, however, she was somewhat disappointed he wasn’t pressed against her so tightly anymore. But that being said, there was a mission to complete. Shaking those irrelevant thoughts away, Iris concentrated on the challenge before them.

“Alright… here we go.”

Gently, they took off into the air. The first obstacle was a simple but heavy swinging pendulum from side to side, just like the one in the obstacle course earlier today. Unfortunately, because the corridor was so narrow, this meant the timing had to be near perfect if the two wanted to make it through unscathed.

In other words, this was both a lot harder and a lot more deadly compared to the training one from this afternoon.

Luckily, on the other side were five separate pillars they could stand on, letting them take a break if need be. The only thing though was… why five separate blocks and not just a row?

Iris flew up as close to the swinging pendulum as possible without getting hit. As it swung by, she could feel the wind blow past her face. Finn could hear the sound of it too, which meant it probably was possible for him to make it through this by himself, but it would be quite risky.

Iris concentrated intently, watching close for the perfect moment when the pendulum just barely swings past them.

‘Okay, and… now!’

She suddenly pushed forward, taking Finn by surprise. Luckily, his reaction speeds were quick enough that he was able to follow-up with his own wings in time just as the pendulum swung back, allowing the two to make it past the obstacle successfully and land on the center pillar of the five.

“Whew… that was a bit too close for my liki- woah!”

Iris gasped as the platform beneath them suddenly sank without any warning, falling into the dark abyss below.

Fortunately, Finn was once again able to react in time and hurriedly flapped his wings to go up, lifting Iris with him.

Iris came back to her senses and regained control using her own wings, stabilizing the two of them in the air.

“Wow… they nearly had us there…”

“… Deceptive,” Finn muttered.

“But are all five of these traps, or…?” Iris narrowed her eyes and led Finn to a different pillar and stood on top of it for several seconds.

And just like the last, this one too tumbled down into the abyss below.

Of course, this time, the two were more than prepared and wasn’t even surprised.

“I think all of them do that,” Octane hollered. “Just go on to the next one!”

“Hm…” But Iris still wasn’t convinced. If whoever set this up wanted it to be a trap, they might as well made it a full platform that tumbled down whenever someone stepped on it. Why split it into five separate ones?

There’s got to be a trick somewhere that they had yet to find. A trick that will reveal the method to beat this Dungeon.

Iris led Finn to the pillar on the very far right, which fell as well. Then, they tried the one on the far left, and surprise, surprise, it crashed into the void in a similar manner as its predecessors.

That left only one pillar.

“This has to be the one…” Iris murmured under her breath, lightly placing her feet on it, one after the other. Finn did the same right behind her, and together, the two of them waited.

“…”

Nothing happened.

Even after several seconds of pure silence, the pillar beneath their feet didn’t fall down into the abyss like the previous ones.

“This one… it’s the right one,” Iris gasped. “But the question now, is-“

“Huh… so they aren’t all traps after all?” Octane rubbed his chin in wonder.

“-How were we supposed to be able to tell which one was the right one?”