With soundless steps, Vance crept behind his gullible target. The fake smile disappeared from his face, and a stern expression was the only substitute. He was determined to get his first kill of the day. There was a considerable amount of risk in his actions, but he knew that a delay would only give his target a chance to grow stronger. And so he tightened his grip on the spectral dagger and hardened his resolve. With his left hand, he grabbed Severus’s shoulder and pulled his body backward. Then he swung his dagger with a quick upward motion and buried it into the Necromancer’s defenseless back.

The whole attack sequence didn’t take more than a few seconds to execute. Dark-green cracks formed where the spectral dagger had pierced, and although there was no visible wound, the magical damage that the stab dealt was quite severe. The undead salamanders moved confusedly in circles, and the mother goblin, who was about to kill its son, dropped the steel dagger and fell to the ground like a broken toy. For a moment, Vance thought that he had successfully murdered Severus, but then the dark-green cracks faded away. And only a second later, Vance was teleported to the shadows. This teleportation meant only one thing: the Spectral Execution had failed.

Simultaneously with Vance’s disappearance, Severus turned around and punched the air. There was a look of distress and fear on his face, but it seemed that he hadn’t even lost half of his HP, since he chose to retaliate with a petty punch instead of fleeing for his life. When he realized that the stabber was gone, he recollected his thoughts and ordered his Armored Salamanders to surround him. The three undead monsters formed a formidable line of defense, and their tail flames burned even more brightly than before, with a light that was meant to deter any future sneak attacks.

This is insane … How is his Magic Resistance so high? Vance thought from the safety of the shadows. My attack should’ve killed him. In the worst case scenario, he should’ve lost at least 75% of his HP. But he’s not even reaching for one of his potions. He’s not even worried that I might take him by surprise again.

“Who’s there?” Severus shouted. “It’s you, Vance, isn’t it?”

His base Magic Resistance can’t be this high.

“I’m pretty sure that was no goblin attack, Vance.”

I can’t win unless I somehow undo his buffs.

“It didn’t feel like a normal dagger either,” Severus laughed. “You lied about your level, didn’t you? I don’t know how, but you even sent us fake stats.”

But if his buffs are just based on kills, they’re not gonna go away any time soon.

“I don’t know who sent you or what you’re after, but you can’t beat me.”

No, wait a second. They’re not just based on kills. I noticed a change in his Endurance all the way back when he was being chased by the salamanders. Vance recalled the old fight, picturing its vivid details in his head. I noticed a clear contradiction back then. A tail attack knocked him back, but a subsequent double tail attack didn’t even make him flinch. Something must have raised his Endurance between these two instances.

“Come out from hiding,” Severus said. “I promise I won’t kill you. I’ll just tie you up and hand you over to the city guards. Fair, right?”

The interval between the two attacks … Isn’t that the time when he raised the three salamanders? Vance changed the way he held his dagger to a reverse grip. He keeps saying that the kills give him good buffs, but that’s a bit of a lie, isn’t it? I gotta test something out.

Vance opened his bag and got out a black marble. After he put it inside his mouth, he started to approach Severus and the salamanders. At first, he was only taking short, careful steps, but then he accelerated into a full dash and jumped out of the darkness. Before any of his enemies could react, he had landed on a salamander’s armored back. He grabbed its head with his left hand, tilted it to the side to reveal the flesh of its neck, and buried his spectral dagger into the tender meat. Dark-green cracks formed, but the salamander didn’t drop dead. Instead, it started to shake and kick as if it had been an unruly horse.

“You have no plans to surrender, huh?” Severus said, before he ordered the two other salamanders to use their fire breath. “You’ll regret it.”

But Vance had already accomplished his goal. He jumped off the salamander and spit the black marble onto the ground. When it hit the pebbly earth, it shattered into tiny pieces and released a cloud of smoke that erased him from sight. A normal salamander would’ve died from such a critical hit, so the one I attacked must have had stat buffs. He ran along the wooden huts and straw beddings. And this confirms my suspicions. When he was at a safe distance from his enemies, he climbed onto a hut’s roof and lay in ambush.

Necromancers don’t get buffs because they never engage in direct combat. He waited patiently for his enemies to approach. The salamanders are the ones getting the buffs, and Severus is receiving a bonus based on their stats. This explains why his Intelligence has increased so slowly while his Magic Resistance has gotten high so fast: it’s because salamanders have higher Magic Resistance. Vance smiled. This is interesting. You’d think a Necromancer is helpless against sneak attacks, but Severus is almost immune to them. The only way I can get to him is by defeating his salamanders first.

Vance jumped from his hiding spot and landed on another salamander’s back. He targeted its weak spot and delivered three consecutive stabs. Every time the spectral dagger hit, the undead salamander uttered a disturbing groan that originated somewhere inside its stomach. After the third stab, it tried to ram him into the wall, but he jumped off its back before it was too late and landed on the ground—a few steps from where Severus and the rest of the salamanders stood.

“You really don’t know when to give up,” Severus said, ordering all his salamanders to breathe fire.

The flames swirled through the steamy air. They failed to hit their mark, but the heat that they radiated was enough to cause serious harm. Vance couldn’t distance himself in time, so he raised his cloak in front of his face as he backed away. The black fabric eventually caught fire, but it protected his skin and eyes from any burns. When the salamanders paused to fill their neck pouches with more air, he tore the burning cloak off his body and threw it away in haste. Then he made his escape into the safety of the dark, avoiding the rest of the fire-breath attacks with deft sidesteps.

“I’m sick of playing games,” Severus said.

But Vance ignored him and continued to run until he reached the entrance to the goblin nest. From there, he chose a different tunnel and hurried away into the dark. He didn’t look back, and he didn’t stop, except to place another black marble inside his mouth.

“You know you can’t do this forever,” Severus said, following in pursuit. “Your cloak won’t be the last thing to burn. Come to your senses, Vance. Prison is better than immolation.”

Vance hid in the shadow of a decrepit hut and prepared another ambush. Two salamanders passed by. Then Severus followed. And finally, there came the salamander assigned to guard Severus’s back. This last monster was the one that had received the three stabs, and it was the most severely injured. Vance couldn’t waste this chance. He pounced on it again with the determination and tenacity of a hunter. This time, he delivered five quick stabs in rapid succession. By the time Severus heard the salamander’s groans, it was already too late. The dark-green cracks covered the salamander’s body with unfading permanence. Then the monster dropped to the ground and turned into dust.

“You cowardly bastard!” Severus shouted.

This reaction means I’m on the right track.

Vance retreated into the darkness and began to run for safety. Unlike before, however, no sooner had he turned around than the remaining salamanders were in quick pursuit of him. Two tail flames flickered in the dark as eight claws stamped the ground. Every moment brought the monsters closer and closer to their quarry. Their hisses resounded through the tunnel, and their unabating fury meant that they wouldn’t relent any time soon.

Severus realized he can’t play it safe anymore. Vance was suddenly flanked by the two salamanders. This won’t be easy, but if I kill one of them, it’s my win.

Vance continued to run, preferring not to stop until he found a favorable location to start the fight. The salamanders, however, didn’t give him a chance to pick an advantageous battlefield. They were heavy creatures, but they were also faster than the average human. And using their speed, they managed to overtake Vance by a few steps. Then they swung their tails and struck his legs with two violent lashes. He couldn’t maintain his balance after the muscular tails hit his thighs, so he wobbled for a few seconds before he finally fell forward and slid into a painful halt.

The fall grazed his knees, but he got up again without delay. One of the salamanders breathed fire at him. The flames came dangerously close to his body, but he jumped sideways and rolled out of harm’s way. Then he lunged forward at his attacker and thrust his spectral dagger into the side of its body. The physical armor didn’t weaken the stab, but the high Magic Resistance mitigated the damage. In retaliation, the undead salamander tried to bite its stabber’s arm. Its merciless attack had the potential to do considerable damage, but Vance retreated a step and avoided the clattering fangs.

This nimble retreat created an opening. Vance was about to finish off the first salamander, but the second one appeared from his left and breathed a rageful fire. He ducked behind a rock to avoid the flames and remained on the ground for a few seconds, never daring to look up at the blazing fire above his head. When it finally subsided, he rose to his feet and tried to regain control of the battlefield. But at that unlucky moment, as he rushed into a hopeful offensive, the second salamander stamped forward and buried its fangs into his left arm. A horrible pang of piercing pain traveled through his forearm and up to his distressed brain. The opportunistic salamander pushed him back and rammed him against the wall. His body was pummeled by the sharp rocks, and his face grimaced in pain.

Having pinned him in place, the salamander, which had never let go of his arm, was now trying to chew his flesh off. There was no worse torment. Vance could feel the sharp fangs cutting through his skin and muscle; he could feel ligaments tearing from bones. Banish Spectre. He made his spectral dagger disappear. Then, fighting the intolerable pain, he grabbed the steel dagger that was at his waist. With a series of precise cuts, he tore through the salamander’s jaw muscles and forced its mouth open. Thanks to this quick reaction, his left arm was free again, and it remained attached to his shoulder, although he couldn’t control his wrist anymore.

Status Alert

You are bleeding severely.

HP is decreasing by 1 point per 2 seconds. MP and Stamina regeneration is halted.

HP 79/410 MP 126/770 Stamina 470/770

Shit. I have to fall back.

Feeling a great amount of frustration, Vance spit the black marble that was inside his mouth. A thick cloud of smoke surrounded him and confused the salamanders. As they searched for him, he ran away and hid behind one of the goblins’ huts. In the relative safety of this hiding spot, he opened his bag and got two healing potions out.

Status Alert You restored your HP: 259/410 Status Alert You restored your HP: 410/410

Breathing heavily, he cut the sleeve of his shirt. Times like these make me wish I had some armor. If only I didn’t need to act like a helpless beginner … The gruesome wound appeared from under the bloody fabric. I forgot how nasty monster bites can be. He retrieved an antiseptic solution from his bag and poured it over the wound.

Status Alert Your wound can no longer fester into unknown Banes.

Then he unrolled a cotton bandage and wrapped it around his forearm. After he had covered the entire area of the wound, he tied the ends of the bandage and tightened the knot with his teeth. There were better ways to deal with such an injury, but he had neither the time nor the equipment. And in the end, he received confirmation that he had done just enough to avert an untimely death.

Status Alert

Your bleeding has stopped.

Warning: If your wound opens again, you will receive severe penalties. Exercise caution.

Exercise caution, huh? Vance sighed. Easy for you to say. He peeked into the tunnel from behind the corner of the hut. No wonder Severus was so happy with his Perks … I never knew salamanders could be such a menace. And they needed to kill just five goblins to get this strong. I still can’t wrap my head around that. Vance watched the undead monsters crawl around the area in search of him. Then he saw Severus’s silhouette near one of their tail flames. I can’t attack him yet. And I can’t rush into attacking the salamanders either: I can defeat one of them, but the other will get me.

“Grechen-mi-zaal!” a voice suddenly said.

Vance turned around in alarm and found a goblin standing behind him. The small monster shocked him, because he hadn’t heard or seen it sneaking upon him. Equip Spectre. He raised his spectral dagger and was about to kill it, but then he noticed that it wasn’t an undead and that it looked strangely familiar. He strained his eyes and memory before he finally remembered. It was the child goblin whose mother Severus had murdered. With tears in its eyes, it drummed on its belly and repeated gruffly and laconically, “Grechen-mi-zaal!”

It was the first time that Vance heard a goblin utter intelligible sounds. Before then, all he had heard from goblins was their screaming and growling and snarling. But it was not only the fact that the words had syllables that intrigued Vance; he also noticed that the goblin was speaking in a hushed voice, which was meant to attract as little attention as possible. It was aware that the salamanders were searching for Vance, and this awareness implied some intelligence. Banish Spectre. Vance lowered his guard. What does it want from me? He didn’t dismiss the goblin’s speech as a curse or lament, and he tried to decipher its meaning.

“Abje! Grechen-mi-zaal!” the goblin said again, and this time, Vance noticed that its tiny finger was pointing at the tunnel’s wall. “Chen! Ow-zam-zaal!”

Vance followed the goblin’s hint and discovered a hole in the stone wall. It was a path dug by goblins, but he didn’t know where it led.

“Ow-zam-zaal!” the goblin said with another drum on its belly. Then it bent down and started crawling into the hole. “Abje!”

It wants me to follow it.

Vance hesitated a little, but then he bent down and squeezed himself into the cramped space. It was difficult to crawl with one arm, and it was even more challenging to keep his injured one out of harm’s way. But he strived forward despite all the hurdles. The journey through the hole was slow and tiring. At times, he couldn’t breathe, because of the steam that seeped out of the rocks. At other times, he felt like a sizzling steak because of his proximity to magma. There was no light to guide him and no goal in sight.

Eventually, he started to feel as though the small goblin was luring him to his doom, and he couldn’t fully understand why he had chosen to trust it so readily. Perhaps it was the hot tears. Perhaps it was the sudden display of intelligence. Regardless of what the cause may have been, it was now too late to turn back. He continued to follow the dark path that he had chosen. And in the end, he exited the hole and found himself next to the ashes that had once been the mother goblin.

I’m back where the fight started.

For the first time, Vance realized that the goblins had their own hidden network of passageways, which ran perpendicular to the tunnels. It allowed them to move from one part of their nest to the other without attracting any attention, and it seemed that this was the path that the rest of the goblin tribe had used to escape.

“Grechen-mi-zaal!” the goblin repeated.

Standing upright again, Vance wondered whether the goblin would lead him to another hidden hole. He surmised that it was trying to help him escape from Severus—the bitter tears and frantic gestures implied so at the beginning. But after a short walk past the ashes of the goblin mother, Vance realized that the child goblin wasn’t wallowing in self-pity or seeking a way out of Severus’s reach. It wanted one thing and nothing else—revenge.

“Ghoosh-ui-qaar!” the goblin said, after it stopped in the dark.

At first, Vance didn’t see anything of interest, but when he walked closer to where the goblin was standing, in the light of a tiny torch that it had lit, he found a discolored patch in the earth. The pebbly ground wasn’t the same here, and when he bent down and felt it with his hand, he discovered that a pitfall was concealed under a thin, flimsy cover of gravel and sand. One wrong scrunch, and an intruder would fall into the trap. The goblin brushed aside a small part of the sandy cover and revealed that there were wooden spikes and iron nails at the bottom of the pit.

Not bad for a bunch of goblins. Vance smiled, as his guide covered the pit again. It wants me to kill Severus using this trap. And it certainly can help. He stroked the goblin’s head to show it that it had done well. Don’t worry, little one. You’ll be eating Severus’s corpse soon.

Taking a deep breath, Vance turned around and walked back to the entrance that led into the goblin nest—the point where all the tunnels converged into one. My injury won’t get in the way. He stood near the charred gate. Severus won’t return to Cromsville. No one will.

He checked his vitals.

HP 408/410 MP 526/770 Stamina 770/770

Good. I have just enough Mana for one Spectral Execution, if the need arises. Vance tightened his bandages and grimaced a little from the pain. After I’m done here, I’ll find myself a good healer back in Cromsville.

He filled his lungs and shouted, “Severus, are you ready for the final round of our game?” There were no footsteps in response, and no tail flames appeared in the dark. He’s back to being cautious again. I can’t blame him. He doesn’t want to lose his second salamander. Vance continued, “Did I scare you already? I guess this is why you were kicked out of your old party. You chickened out on them, didn’t you? I bet you hid behind your monsters and let one of them die. You’re so full of yourself, but you’re also full of sh—”

A spiraling flame traveled through the air toward Vance. It was about to hit him directly in the chest, but he avoided it at the last moment.

“You got it all wrong, Vance.” Severus emerged from the dark. “I was kicked out because my teammates were too afraid of me.” Another spiraling flame almost burned Vance’s right arm. “When I told them about my Perks, they thought I was too strong for them. They thought I’d kill them and experiment with their bodies.” A third attack missed Vance by a few hairs. “But I swear by Amirani, it’s your rotting cadaver that I’m going to experiment with! There’s no ‘rest in peace’ when I get to you!”

Vance fled into the tunnel where the trap was waiting.

“You’re one of those sick people who kill for fun, aren’t you?” Severus said, as he and his salamanders chased after Vance. “I heard rumors about your kind. You know that killing innocent humans raises your Chaos Factor. You know that it incurs the wrath of Amirani. But you do it out of pure addiction.”

Vance passed by the ashes of the mother goblin, running as fast as he could. And the salamanders followed at his heels, biting at thin air and flailing their tails wildly.

“Or were you after my jewelry? Answer, scum! Did you think you’d make a little fortune out of selling my necklaces?”

Vance avoided the pitfall and summoned his spectral dagger.

“What makes you any different from these wretched monsters?” Severus shouted. “You’re a goblin through and through!”

Suddenly, the gravelly cover of the hidden pit collapsed under the weight of the salamanders. The undead fell into the trap, and their soft underbellies were impaled on the iron and wood. One of them turned into ashes immediately, while the other struggled for a little longer before it finally succumbed to the continuous damage. For the first time, it was clear why there were human skulls at the entrance to the goblin nest; for the first time, it didn’t seem too surprising that the goblins had managed to survive for so long.

“Hinjaoor!” the child goblin rejoiced from the roof of a nearby hut.

At that moment, Vance and Severus stood face to face for the first time, each on one side of the deadly pit, as though they were standing on the opposite banks of Styx.