As soon as Lillia spoke, I heard the sound of hooves approaching us. A momentary lapse of concentration as she answered Siofra had allowed three of the dark unicorns to break through her lines of roots and come charging in our direction. Lillia immediately tried to stop them with more roots.

"No wait. Leave them!" Yelled Siofra.

"What?" Asked Lillia looking confused.

"Just keep the rest away. We'll manage these. Right Theo?"

"Yeah." I answered.

"Good… You take the left and I'll take the right." Siofra instructed taking up a position just in front of Lillia.

I followed Siofra and took up position in front of Lillia. I was just a little further to the left to give Siofra space to move. I didn't fancy trying to take down one of these dark unicorns as it ran at me in close quarters with my blade. I decided the best bet would be to try out the wind blade strike and hit it at a distance. I hoped that if I used the same method as Siofra and went for its legs I could bring it down before it reached us, and I could finish it off on the ground. The problem would be the third creature.

"Don't worry about a second. Just concentrate on the one to the far left and I take the other two down. You can finish them off when they're on the ground." Siofra said, briefly turning to me answering my question before I could ask it.

"Right."

The beasts were probably only fifty meters out now. Siofra clutched her axe and ran toward the two on the right. The one that was to the left ignored her and continued its course heading straight for me. As soon as it stepped into my range, I unleashed the skill. An unseen blade of wind crashed into the creature's legs. It didn't instantly come crashing down, like the others had when Siofra hit them with the axe. It wobbled, one step, two steps, then one of its legs buckled and it fell under its own forward momentum.

At the same time as my target hit the floor Siofra had reached the other two. She ran straight in between the two creatures and spun with her axe. It was so quick it looked almost as if she had hit both of them at the same time. They both collapsed to the ground as I ran over to the one I had grounded. I knew I had to be quick, there was the chance it could back to its feet. There was no way it had taken as much damage from my strike as the axe blows.

I ran straight to its head and plunged my blade into its eye socket. I didn't stop, continuing to run to the two that Siofra had downed. The tada noise rang out halfway there confirming its demise. I reached the second creature and plunged the blade into the side of its face through its cheek bone, before jumping to the next. The tada noise ringing out again and again, then the confirmation note. I'd now reached level eight.

"Good work you two!" Lillia called over seeing we were done. "I think it's time for us to leave."

Our next task was getting out of here with the rest of the herd trying to make its way to us through Lillia's roots.

"She's right." Agreed Siofra.

We both joined Lillia again, but making it off the plane without fighting more of the dark unicorns was going to be easier said than done. Lillia could only produce the roots so far up ahead and to keep the herd away she needed to keep a constant eye on them. This meant we had to walk out of there at the pace that Lillia could back out. Then there was the toll that the constant mana drain was taking on Lillia.

She reached to her potion pouch and pulled out a stamina and mana potion, before quickly downing both of them. The next hour was spent painstakingly edging our way back to the hillside. Once there we finally put enough distance between us and the herd, that they stopped paying attention to us. The only problem now was that Lillia was completely exhausted. We made it as far as the top of the hill before she needed a break. She popped another stamina and mana potion, but these only went so far.

"Here hop on." I said offering her my back.

"I couldn't."

"Come on it will be fine." I said kneeling down to make it easier.

She decided to go with it in the end putting her legs over my arms and arms around my shoulders, pressing her chest against my back as I picked her up giving her the piggie back.

"I think I'll be able to manage most of the way."

"let me off before we get into town."

"I will, don't worry."

Lillia was even lighter than I remembered. She wasn't an exactly chunky girl, but she was muscular on her slim frame. I was definitely gaining strength every time I went up a level.

"Oh, look at that. Lucky princess." Laughed Siofra.

"Don't laugh!" Snorted Lillia.

"Don't worry this isn't a princess carry and you need this." I reassured her.

I'm sure I could've easily done that, but not all the way back to town. With Lillia now on my back we could make our way a lot more quickly than before and before long the town walls started to come into sight. Before the guards could make us out on the approach, I let Lillia down to walk the last of the way, avoiding her the embarrassment.

As we walked the final leg into the town, I opened my skill window, I had sixteen points I could spend now. I decided that I should spend most of the points on things that would help increase my survivability, luckily for me though the next custom skill cost had dropped to one point. I had levelled up three times since I had last gained one.

With the enough points now, the next skill was visible. It read "purification". I had to wonder how that one would work. I couldn't even think how that one would be able to backfire like the others had. I didn't think much more of it and closed the window as we made our way up to the town gates. Once back inside the city walls, we headed back to the guild house.

We stepped into the guild hall. It was pretty quiet there, just the odd adventurer here and there checking out the quest board or at the front desk. It was early afternoon, so there were a few others sat at the tables having lunch. There were two occupied tables at the far end I could see Altira and Serin were sat there seemingly having a chat with two girls on the next table along. The conversation ended when they noticed that we had returned.

"Theo, you're back earlier than I thought. Did everything go well?" Asked Serin as we joined them.

"Yeah, it went well. It wasn't easy but we all came back unharmed and I managed to level up twice."

"That's great news."

"So, these two looked after you then?" Asked Altria.

"Yes, of course, they did. We worked well as a team I think."

"You sure everything was okay? Lillia looks exhausted." Serin asked, noticing that Lillia had quietly slung herself straight into the nearest seat.

"Yeah, we had to rely on Lillia's magic a lot. There was an entire herd of dark unicorns."

"I see, sounds hard going!"

"It was a bit… How did it go with armour?" I asked noticing that both Serin and Altria were sat in their casual clothes.

"Yes, it should be fixed by this afternoon. We were lucky it's so quiet here. They had no work on, so they were happy to take our rush order." Answered Serin.

"That is lucky, we won't have to delay our quest."

"Yes, we're actually going to be a day ahead of schedule." Lillia added, perking up a little now she had sat down. "There's something else I'd like to tell you both as you weren't with us this morning."

"What is it?" Asked Altria.

"Siofra has agreed to join our party. She's going to guide us through the dungeon."

"That's great news." Serin said happily.

"Yes, it's going to be a great help." Agreed Lillia.

"Why the sudden change?" Altria asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"After thinking it over, I just decided it was the right thing to do and it's been so long since I partied with Lillia."

"Oh, I see, and this has nothing to do with Theo?"

Altria was as perceptive as ever.

"Well, I did think it would be wrong of me to let you go there unguided with a novice adventurer." Siofra answered with just a hint of excitement in her voice.