Kenneth looked down as Allen silently walked off in the direction of the red light. Camila grunted and followed after the Assassin, as did Amelia and Christopher a few seconds later.

Ty muttered something under his breath and turned to Kenneth. “Alright my man, let’s get goin’,” he said, slapping Kenneth on the shoulder. “…and uh, don’t worry about Allen, he gets like that when his skill is active.”

“O-oh,” Kenneth mumbled. It took a moment, but he eventually joined the Defender near the rear of the group.

Allen sighed to himself. He chose not to say anything in response to Ty’s comment since it was essentially correct, and he wasn’t interested in what Kenneth thought of him in the first place. He was focused on killing the monsters as efficiently as possible and getting the most amount of experience from the floor as possible. That relied on a larger difference in level and effectively exploiting the experience categories.

Thus, they had started fighting the ghouls in twos, which was manageable once the group had adjusted to the monster’s increased speed and strength. Christopher and Camila were both able to distract the monsters long enough for Allen to gouge out the majority of their HP, then they went down with just a few more hits. The other variants, like the Caster and Carrier were more trouble, so Christopher made sure to keep them away until all the ghouls were dealt with first.

Eventually, the professor guided the first pair of Shade Ghouls at them and the fighting began again. Going at a rather harsh pace, it took the group two more hours to get though the remaining twenty-two ghouls on the floor.

Each pair was dealt with in the same way. Christopher guided the ghouls to Camila and then blinded them long enough for her to get close with her claymore. Once the monsters were stunned, Allen and Camila could finish off one while Ty kept the other busy. A half-charged Strike dealt enough damage to take around eighty percent of the ghoul’s HP, that is, with Assassinate multiplying the base damage. With another few stabs and a smash from Camila’s morning star, they were all dealt with.

Allen stepped over the corpse of the last Shade Ghoul and flicked the black blood off his knife. “Black, like my soul,” he thought, though the humor fell flat even on himself. With Dead Calm fully charged he felt nothing but a numbing chill at the back of his mind. It was a ghostly and foreign feeling, but it comforted him in its presence. It was a feeling that he knew well from prolonged usage of the skill, yet it still also frightened him, deep down somewhere.

“It’s a crutch,” Allen told himself absently. The thought didn’t sway his feelings any since he didn’t have feelings at the moment. Only a cold indifference.

“Uh… um. I can help with the Crawlers, maybe,” Kenneth said.

Christopher quirked an eyebrow back at the Mage, then his expression changed to a subtle smirk when Kenneth summoned a pale orange flame over his hand.

Ty laughed heartily and gave the young man a thumbs up. “Of course! It’s not like any of us can take out swarms of the fuckers anyway. Jus’ burn ‘em man, go for it!” The defender clapped Kenneth on the shoulder again, either ignoring or not noticing him flinch away from the blows.

“Fire Mage,” Allen thought. He glanced over at Amelia and noticed the Healer’s face had contorted into a look of skepticism and distrust. “So, she saw the burn marks on the bodies too… Not that I care, but I’ll have to ask hi—."

“Did you burn the bodies?” Amelia suddenly asked, straight faced.

“Ah… well this is interesting.”

Kenneth’s mouth opened but nothing came out before Ty interrupted him.

“What?” the Defender demanded.

The tension in the cave suddenly rose, and everyone remained silent for a moment. Ty stared back at Amelia accusingly while the girl took a deep breath.

“I saw the burns on the dead bodies of his teammates. Um, they were so badly disfigured that it was hard to spot at first, but they were also severely burnt.” Amelia did not waver from her spot, yet she still seemed disinterested in the categorical answer to her question. It was as if she merely wanted any answer, rather than some confirmation that Kenneth hadn’t been the one to burn his teammates.

Camila grunted incoherently, completely removed from the discussion.

“I um…” Kenneth started, avoiding Amelia’s stare. “It was the s-smell,” he said and wrinkled his nose as tears came to the corner of his eyes again. “I just c-couldn’t bare the smell, an-and the monsters kept coming back… I had to do s-something!” The Mage was shaking slightly by the time he finished and squeezed his eyes shut.

Amelia huffed to herself and turned away.

“Yeah, that would have been my reaction too,” Allen thought.

“A’ight, I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen,” Ty began, directing his attention to Amelia and Allen. “Y’all can just leave him alone from now on, huh? Let him burn the Crawler shits so we can get the fuck out of here.” His face wrinkled into a scowl. “And stop judging everyone like they’re out to get you.”

It would have been Allen’s turn to scoff and turn away, but Dead Calm kept his expression blank and unreadable. “Just bring the Carriers here. We can do all of them at once,” he said flatly.

Christopher grunted in agreement and nobody commented further on the bodies of Kenneth’s teammates. Either way, they had already respawned, so it didn’t matter what he did with their bodies. Most corpses were burned anyway.

It took a while, but eventually the lumbering creatures approached. Their unsettling moans echoed through the cavern as they slowly stumbled into view, following after glowing balls of arcane light. The first one reached out for the light with of its mangled and gangly arms protruding from the side of its underbody. Then it shrieked as the light exploded in its face.

Name: Gloom Carrier

Lesser Undead – Monster – Level 45

“These things are kinda sad… not as sad as fire boy though.”

Allen covered his hands, his knife, and his head in a shroud of miasma, leaving an opening for his eyes. The miasma glowed dimly but not nearly enough that it obstructed his vision. Satisfied, he sprinted at the first Carrier with his knife poised.

The monster stood completely unaware as the Assassin dashed towards it. He plunged his knife through the neck of the Carrier’s first head with the full effect of Assassinate, then tore the blade out a moment later as the monster screamed at him from another face. He punched it twice before it spun away and swiped at a claw at him.

Allen blocked the attack with his vambrace, but he still felt his bone in his arm fracture below the metal.

The block threw the monster off balance, and it fell over in its disorientation. Its grotesque body landed hard on the cave floor and its egg sack broke open, spilling its vile contents out in a small wave.

Allen had already moved on to the next one, cutting through its necks before it could react. He punched it with his mana-gloved hands and ducked under a slow and predictable claw. The second Caster met the same fate, as the last one. It fell over like a sack of shit and blew open on the ground. It was, perhaps, even more nauseating than the analogy.

The Assassin darted towards the last one a second later, trusting that his teammates would deal with the spillage of the other two. The third monster slipped on the black ooze from its kin, throwing it off its fragile balance as Allen closed in from the side.

He stabbed his knife into the monster’s first head and discharged Strike with Assassinate at the same time. The two skills together dealt enough damage to completely destroy the Carrier’s neck, blowing its head off and leaving a bloody stump. The remaining head shrieked back before Allen punched it with his off hand. He ducked under a claw, then dodged a Crawler that shot at him from behind.

“Mark!” Ty shouted. He barreled into the Gloom Caster with his shield a moment later, knocking it a few meters away where it burst open like a rotten tomato.

Allen looked up. The Defender was covered in a half dozen Shade Crawlers between level fifteen and twenty. The were mostly failing to scratch him through his armor, but there were still weak spots.

Allen quickly cut the Crawlers off of Ty and turned back to the scene behind him. One of the Carriers had been smashed into the ground by Camila while the other was surrounded by a writhing mass of its spawn.

Kenneth was readying a spell in his hands, fire swirling around his forearms. When the flames reached a certain intensity, the Mage threw his hands forward and a cone of spinning fire flew into the swarms of Crawlers.

The magic only lasted for a few seconds, but that was all that had been needed to set the monsters alight like dry kindling. The Carrier howled and screeched as it was consumed by the fire. The black ooze burned like kerosene, filling the area with flames in a matter of moments.

The Gloom Carrier ran out of the fire a moment later, its deflated egg sack trailing behind it while flames covered its blackening form. Camila lunged towards it with a growl and summoned her morning star over her head. She let the weapon’s weight carry her into a graceful spin as she swung it horizontally at the Carrier’s side. The impact of the weapon crushed its leg, sending it tumbling over itself. It twitched one last time before the Berserker brought her massive morning star down on it again.

Allen turned around and lunged for the remaining Carrier. The monster was occupied with Ty, though the Defender was staying far away from the tide of Crawlers that were quickly coming to their senses around him. A few of them were already darting around, their clawed legs clattering on the stone floor. Ty swatted them out of the way or caught them on his shield, but there were far too many for him to deal with by himself.

Allen ducked under a Crawler as it flew towards his face, then he stabbed another one and flung it away to his side. Three more came at him and he dodged. He punched a fourth with his shrouded hand, then slashed at another.

Five more of them came at him next as he approached the final Carrier. Two were dodged, another swatted out of the way, but the remaining two landed on his shoulder and abdomen. Allen ignored them as they sunk their talons into his flesh; he was within reach. His knife bit into the Carrier’s neck, but with only a twenty second charge on Strike and no Assassinate bonus, he was unable to cut through. He tore the monster’s throat out instead, spraying black blood all over himself as he jumped away from it.

Ty slammed into the Carrier with his shield again, covered in monsters himself. A burst of magic from the Defender sent the Carrier hurtling into a stalagmite where it then landed in a pile of squirming Crawlers. A cone of fire surrounded it in an instant, burning and killing both the Carrier and the all Crawlers around it.

The battle was over before the fire’s had even died down, yet there were still dozens of Crawlers remaining.

“Gah fuck!” Ty shouted as he spun around, fighting against the monsters that still clung to him. He smashed them against the cave walls and tore them off his armor, but more kept coming at him.

Camila growled as she ran around the cave, stomping on any of the monsters that she could see with immense bloodlust. Kenneth, on the other hand, stayed close to Christopher and Amelia, shooting small fireballs at any of them that came near him or the other two supporters.

Allen stood up and began tearing the half dozen Crawlers off himself. He grimaced as he pulled a five-centimeter claw out of his abdomen on his way over to Amelia. Dead Calm helped him deal with the pain and the disgust, but despite the skill, he was still glad the Healer was there.