On the bright side of things, it appeared I wasn’t currently dead, which I tended to take as a win. At least I didn’t think I was dead. It was kind of hard to tell, because on the dark side of things was… well, everything really. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t see shit.

As it so happened, however, I had a fix for that now: I summoned up my armor and channeled light mana into it, the glow succeeding at cutting into the darkness. Able to see once more, I looked about, relief flooding me as I saw that everyone was unharmed. At the same time, an even deeper dread sunk into my bones.

The bland dirt walls that had surrounded me moments ago were gone. Instead, I found myself in a wide, circular cavern, the walls of which appeared to be jagged, lustrous obsidian.

“Um. Did we… get sucked into the dungeon? Is this the dungeon?” I was kind of hoping the answer to that question was no, but I was getting the sense that I’d be disappointed on that front.

Before anyone could answer me, a thick bolt of darkness appeared from nowhere, slamming into my chest. The impact lifted me off my feet, and I crashed into the ground.

Unknown enemy hits you with Dark Bolt for 30 damage. (Base, 45 damage. 15 damage resisted from Light Armor and Resist Magic)

Momentarily stunned, it took me a second to scramble to my feet. My first thought was to cast my new Illumination spell, but thankfully, the others had not been idle upon seeing me get hit. Hartha immediately cast a healing spell on me even as a giant ball of light formed in Cal’s hands. It flew into the air, our surroundings now much clearer.

There, scattered about the edges of the cavern, were scores of shapeless dark forms.

“Huh,” Jason decided. “They don’t look really friendly.”

As if to prove the man’s point, a number of the dark wisps released bolts of their own, sending a full barrage hurtling towards us.

Hurtling towards me, I belatedly realized. With my armor shining as brightly as it was, I was practically a beacon for their ire.

With the attacks coming from all directions, I had no hope of dodging them all, and had I been alone, I likely would have died right there. Thankfully, I was not alone.

An invisible force suddenly yanked me to the side, and I was surprised to see Cal, Hartha, and Jason receiving a similar treatment. The only one of us who was spared the abrupt tugging was Rock, and a moment later, it was clear why.

Strategy Meeting

At the start of a battle, pull up to four other people into a strategy meeting lasting up to thirty seconds. Those in the meeting will be protected from most forms of external harm for the duration of the skill, but may not take any offensive action during this time frame.

The invisible force deposited each of us about a pace away from Rock, and a protective dome instantly wrapped up around us. Before it was even fully up, Rock started barking out commands.

“We have thirty seconds. Protagonist. Count the enemy. Give us any information you can. Talk fast.”

Under normal circumstances, I might have bristled at Rock automatically assuming leadership and ordering me around. These were, however, not normal circumstances. I was happy to have him take lead and follow along like a grunt if it meant not being reduced to a paste under the wave of dark bolts.

With my recently enhanced mental processing speed coupled with my high Perception, it only took a split second to pick out and count the wisps. A solid twenty of them surrounded us at various distances, and as I honed in on one, I was greeted with some notably unfortunate information.

Shade: Level 15, 100/100hp

Well, shit.

Brecker, the Ice Mage I’d fought in the arena, had only been a level 13. If each of these things were a full two levels above him, I wasn’t loving our odds. True, their healths were pretty low given their level, but with their wispy appearance, I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to easily damage them with anything physical, making any one of them a pain to take down.

Against twenty, things were looking bleak.

I relayed the info to the group as quickly as I could even as a chorus of dark bolts slammed against the protective dome. Hartha, the only one of the group with a normal response to the news, grimaced. Meanwhile, Jason gave a cheery thumbs up, Cal a stoic nod, and Rock a grunt which could have meant anything. Rock’s grunt shifted directly into further plans.

“I am capable of drawing their attention and taking hits if properly healed, but with this many of them, I would die almost instantly. Are any of you able to draw some of the attacks away from me? Speak fast.”

Briefly, I considered volunteering: With my light armor, I could draw the shades’ attention, and my class skills meant I was resisting a lot of their damage.

I abandoned the thought as soon as it came. Resistances or not, my Constitution wasn’t high enough. I’d die outright from a concentrated wave of attacks.

“I’ll do it.” Of all people, it was Cal who jumped in. I didn’t take her to be much of the “tank” type, but she rapidly explained. “I can’t take many hits, but I’m probably the only one who can consistently dodge them, and I can draw their attention with light magic.”

I was about to jump in and protest. Fast as she was, I highly doubted she could dodge attacks coming from all around her. She seemed to anticipate the concern, however, and immediately elaborated.

“I can’t handle them from all directions though, and even if I did, that wouldn’t do anything: They’d just miss me and hit the rest of you. We need a barrier. I have a Brilliant Aegis spell. Hartha, can you put an Earth Wall next to it, right? If we put them both to our rear, that’ll force the shades to swing around and attack us all from the same direction.”

Hartha assented, and we all hurriedly ironed out the final details as the timer ticked down. Hartha would handle the bulk of the healing, with me helping out if necessary. Jason and I would handle the offense. It would be nearly impossible to get in melee range of the shades, so his rocks and my light arrows would have to be enough. None of us were feeling great about the plan, to be sure, but it was far better than what we had half a minute prior.

With the final moments of protection offered by the meeting, Hartha began casting Earth Wall while Cal cast her recently acquired Brilliant Aegis. Cal’s cast finished first, an ornate golden shield wall appearing to our rear. Moments later, the ground shot up into a thick wall of compacted dirt. Though less showy, it covered a broader area, the two spells blocking off a good 100 degrees behind us.

“Fight well!” Rock bellowed out as the protective dome of the strategy meeting fell. As soon as it did, the five of us broke, darting away from one another while still staying close enough that the two spell walls still covered our rear. No longer wanting to be the center of attention, I’d already dismissed my light armor, replacing it with its less assuming water variant.

For our tanks’ parts, Rock roared violently, somehow gaining the attention of most of the shades. How exactly that worked, I wasn’t sure, as I didn’t think our enemies had ears, per se. Still, it was fitting: His skill at enraging people when he opened his mouth was something I could personally vouch for.

Instead of making any form of noise, Cal started glowing fiercely. While not a blinding level of brightness, it still seemed to have the intended effect: The shades hissed at the unexpected light, and those nearest to her turned their attention to the glowing priest-rogue hybrid.

The first barrage of bolts flew towards her, and for a moment, I worried that even with her Dexterity, there wouldn’t be enough holes between the attacks for her to dodge them all. Thankfully, she proved me wrong, weaving through the air with a sinuous grace that would have been the envy of any professional athlete back on Earth.

I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and mentally slapped myself for wasting time. I instantly summoned up my light bow and aimed at the nearest enemy, firing three shots as rapidly as I could.

The first went slightly wide, but the second two struck true, tearing through whatever the incorporeal creature was made of. It hissed in pain and momentarily stopped its assault before turning to me, evidently marking me as the more immediate threat.

I examined it again, eyeing its health.

Shade: Level 15, 54/100hp

Despite the situation, I grinned, happy to see that the arrows had taken a noticeable chunk of health off the shade. At that rate, each one would take 5 arrows to down. True, that meant this battle would require me to successfully hit the enemies a whopping 100 times — well beyond my limit without ample time to recharge my mana — but everything would start to get much, much easier once I managed to kill a few of them and reduce the pressure on Cal and Rock. It would be rough, but we could potentially win this!

It was right about then, as I was enjoying my moment of optimism, that I saw it.

The shade I’d hit backed off and reached towards the wall, a piece of its previously formless body lengthening into a thin arm. As it did so, a small section of the obsidian suddenly began bubbling, and an inky cloud seeped out from it before flowing towards the wispy outstretched limb.

When the two met, the cloud was sucked into the shade, and it seemed to visibly darken.

With a sinking suspicion at what I would find, I pulled up the wisp’s info once more.

Shade: Level 15, 100/100hp

Well, fuck.

At the very least, it suddenly made much more sense why they were all clinging to the wall instead of swarming us. Whatever sort of obsidian the wall was made of was somehow capable of healing them. And healing them fast too.

My heart sped up at the thought that this might be an unwinnable fight for us. What were we supposed to do against that?

Maybe if I could fire five arrows into one of them before it had a chance to heal? Or I could team up with Jason to take one down?

I looked over to the gator-like man, only to see that the rocks he was throwing were sailing harmlessly through his targets, their physical nature not damaging the immaterial shades.

Well, that plan was out then. Cal probably had something that could deal damage, but she was fully occupied, and I doubted anyone would be able to take her place. Rock was holding up okay with Hartha’s healing so far, but it appeared to be a fairly precarious balance. There was no way he’d be able to tank the full room.

I froze, mind racing to think of a way out of this and fully coming up blank. Snapping myself out of it, I shouted out to the rest of the group, hoping someone else would know what to do. “They’re healing! We need a new plan!”

A chorus of curses sounded back, but no one offered up anything, leaving me standing there, feeling useless.

After what felt like an eternity but could have only been 10 seconds at most, Hartha at last replied. “I… I might have something. But I’ll need a full minute. Tess, take over healing.”

She elaborated no further, sprinting away towards the spell walls before sitting down and closing her eyes, a look of intense concentration crossing her face. Jason followed her, evidently intent on giving her some sort of cover.

While more than slightly taken aback, I did as told, rushing to within healing range of Rock and resummoning my light armor in an attempt to draw a few of the shades’ attacks and lighten everyone’s loads.

Bolts slammed into Rock, one after another, and my Minor Healing got the largest workout it had ever gotten as I struggled to keep pace with the damage. Recalling I had another source of healing, I shouted out. “Don’t freak out! I’m about to start shooting at you, but they’re healing arrows!”

I saw Rock’s eyes widen for a split second, seemingly alarmed at the prospect of me shooting him, but he was too focused to even eke out a reply. A moment later, I summoned up my life bow and shot him, and to his credit, he didn’t even flinch as the arrow found its mark.

For a solid half a minute, we continued just like that, giving me hope that we’d hold out without incident until Hartha was ready.

Unfortunately, things refused to turn out that nicely.

I watched in alarm as Cal finally missed a step, a dark bolt slamming into her shoulder and sending her reeling. Had it just been a single bolt, it wouldn’t have been an issue; however, having lost her footing, she wasn’t able to avoid the remainder of the attacks, and two more landed in rapid succession.

With one hitting her in the chest, she was solidly knocked back, hitting the ground with a thud.