We worked our way around the edge of the valley. When we discovered this place my Shadow Predator levelled. I had been expecting it to. I also had a lot of Skill gains. Apparently Sleight of Hand also assisted Small Blades. Stealth finally hit Master level and Shadows Embrace hit Journeyman level. They gave me free points in Physical and Spiritual Agility respectively.

As we were getting near another passage Harold stuffed up. We would be angry with him but he paid for it with his life. This passage was up on the side of a wall and we had to climb to it. This was no hindrance for the goblins, they crawl everywhere easily. Harold was struggling up and missed a hold. I am not sure how, because Wiremu was making them easy for us with his Affinity Skill. Anyway, he did and he rolled all the way to the bottom of the wall landing next to a group of five goblins with several obviously broken bones. They attacked him straight away and although Wiremu’s darts got three of them a yell was let loose and goblins started converging on us.

We ran. Regardless of whether this was a good passage or not, it was the only one for us. I noticed Wiremu trapped and spiked the entrance to slow them down, and I gave them a blast of Intimidating Aura before I went out of sight. The passage was difficult. It was narrow and twisty, including up and down. Down was the worst. Narrow was good except when it was too narrow for us to manoeuvre. We kept running / crawling / climbing as fast as we could. I was at the rear periodically sending a blast of Intimidating Aura to keep them back, especially where we had to climb. I was trying to pace myself as this was going to be a continuous running battle over multiple days. Wiremu was in the lead. I was at the rear. There were several times when the Sergeant and I were knife fighting to keep them back. Gunner was apparently Wiremu’s backup.

The worst time was when we broke out into a wider cavern early on the second day of the run / fight. This was worse because here they could swarm us. Wiremu trapped and spiked the exit and we clambered to the bottom of the wall and ran for the nearest tunnel. We made it with the help of a massive Aura blast from me.

There were two other smaller caverns that day as well. On the second Gunner fell and rolled to the bottom. He didn’t break anything fortunately, as that would have been a death sentence, but he did sprain his ankle. Wiremu and I had to hold them off while his Sergeant cursed his clumsiness and fed him a potion. Wiremu was fighting with a shield and knife. I think his wooden frame and short spears were left behind somewhere. The shield was very effective. I caught glimpses of Tāoke at work as well, but my attention was elsewhere. We fought a retreat to the next tunnel. About 10m into the tunnel Wiremu created a bigger shield and held them off alone to give us all a few minutes break and to sort Gunner out. The Sergeant was grateful, maybe there was a bit of thaw there in his attitude. Then we were off again.

We had passed several branches in the tunnels and I think Wiremu just chose the one that looked most likely to lead us out. I would trust Wiremu’s senses over anybody else's. I don’t think the Sergeant had the same trust, but he didn’t have any choice but to follow. Personally, I think it was only thanks to Wiremu’s senses that we hadn’t ended up in a dead end yet. I meant that in both ways, with the tunnel and us being dead.

Late on the third day we hit another problem. We were all exhausted by this time. Three days of running, fighting and no sleep. Food was running out, but at least there was plenty of water. My base Physical Strength had gone up a point from the constant physical exertion.

The problem was Wiremu came up behind a bunch of goblins who were fighting something else further up the passage. We couldn’t stop so Wiremu and Gunner just started carving through them. The Sergeant and I had our own problems and were trading rear guard between us and a blast of Aura. I didn’t have time to check, but if this didn’t get my Aura to Journeyman level I was going to ... to … I don’t know what. I am tired.

The passage widened out. The goblins had surrounded and were attacking a shadowy thing. Their claws were hurting it, I guess goblins being monsters had some Spiritual aspect to them. The thing was also using them to heal somehow and every now and then a goblin would drop dead for no obvious reason. With my Spatial Awareness I could sense something, but it was more like a void or absence. I could tell when it sensed me as it suddenly focussed its attention on me. It may not have been precisely on me, it might have been more on my Darksteel knife.

Wiremu was trying to avoid the creature in the centre but the tunnel wasn’t that wide. When I neared it the creature reached out and touched the blade and was absorbed into it? Because I was touching the blade it also affected me and I stumbled. My attention and Affinity wanted to focus on the blade, but I was in the middle of a fight. My armour took several claw swipes, some of them drawing blood and I went to my knees. Then Wiremu was there getting the goblins off me and helping me into the tunnel, yelling at the Guard to protect us.

The Sergeant was at the end where the tunnel widened and Gunner was at the other end. I heard the Sergeant tell Wiremu that we needed to keep moving and to leave me as I had been possessed by the thing. I have never seen Wiremu so furious with someone. The Sergeant was told in no uncertain terms that we protected them when Gunner went down and they would do the same.

The sergeant was too busy to argue properly and yelled, “Two minutes!”

Wiremu squatted down to face me and said, “I will look after out here, you focus on what is happening inside.”

I did. I focussed everything on the knife and the thing in it. I Identified it and it came back with

Shadow Elemental

Potential to bond: 73%

Then as I was watching the potential to bond went to 72%. What the Troll shit? I had been keeping up with the mental exercises Wiremu had shown me so long ago. I also realised I had recently dumped a whole lot of points into my Mental Strength. Bonding was Mental Strength and Agility according to Wiremu. When I had thought about a bond I had imagined a house cat or small rat or mouse that could scout and that I could cuddle. Not that I would ever admit that to anybody.

This cold, alien presence was not what I ever imagined. Life is about choices and grabbing opportunities, according to Trevor. Let's see if we can grab this opportunity. Wiremu said try to make a mental connection and that it was like pushing through mud to get there. When I try to link it is like there was nothing there. He had added spare points to help. I have two spare from Shadow Predator levelling. Wait. It is a Shadow elemental. I need to do this through my Shadow Affinity. I tried to connect my Shadows to it. It seemed very slippery, something was there and I tried to grab it but it slipped away. I checked Identify. 69%. I slammed my two spare points into Mental Agility and that made it not quite so slippery. Failed again. 68%. Wiremu said nothing about the percentage changing. Again. YES! It was there suddenly and I understood. It was quite severely injured and therefore weaker to the bond. As it was healing itself it was becoming stronger and my chances were reduced. It was not that it did not want to bond, but wants and desires were not part of its make up. I would strive to improve, bond or no bond.

It was now on my Status.

Shadow Elemental

Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry.

The way it lived and healed was by syphoning energy from entities it touched with its shadows. It was incorporal so could manifest almost any size, as well as reside in Spiritually enhanced materials. The way it hunted was by binding things with its Shadows and syphoning off the energy until it died. It could be any entity, animal, mineral, monster or other elementals. I now had a new skill, Elemental Bond 1, and we could transfer energy through it. She could empower me, but she currently needed healing. I didn’t have much energy at the moment. I made sure she understood not to syphon from our team, including Tāoke, but goblins were fair game.

Yes, I designated it to be a her. This was a personal preference for me. She didn’t care or even understand.

My Shadow Predator had levelled again and my Shadow Manipulation had jumped to Journeyman level. Probably because she also had the skill. I was very curious about the skill Mimicry and she needed a name, but right now we had to move.

I looked up at Wiremu and gave him a smile.

“Are you good?” He asked.

“Absolutely,” I replied.

“Let's go,” he said and took the lead again.

The Sergeant was giving me worried looks, but didn’t protest when I took over the rear guard from him. The first thing I discovered was She could Syphon Energy through my Shadows as well as hers. I trailed Engulfing Shadows lightly behind us and She continually syphoned energy and healed up as well as raising my energy levels.

It turns out the energy boost might have been my excitement rather than from Nyx. Cool name! I like it. Nyx does give me energy, but it is Spiritual not Physical or Mental. The Physical and Mental exhaustion is setting in for all of us. With Nyx I can keep my Aura and Shadows up longer. When she is resident in the knife she gets a boost when I cut a goblin. She doesn’t have to stay in the knife.