“Hard left! Hit the wall! Hurry!” Aubrey shouted as a goblin ran into her spear. The circle staggered unevenly towards the nearest wall as goblins started heedlessly throwing themselves at their formation. The weight of an impaled goblin drug Aubrey’s spear to the ground. She released it, and tapped her crystal to pull out a new one just in time to catch another.

The formation finally collided with a wall, and the group reformed into a semi-circle of denser spears. The goblins, now inexplicably reckless, tried to pull down, jump over, or charge through the group’s spears. The line became chaos as goblins started to find their way through the spear wall, hacking at the sides of the players. One player fell, then another.

Mia darted in and out, chopping or slicing any goblin that got past the spear wall, plugging breaches, kicking the bodies of her fallen allies out into the goblins so the other players could fill in the gaps. Kyle watched as Mason grabbed a goblin that had made it through and broke its back over his knee. Lumen fired arrow after arrow; Kyle noticed Lumen was aiming for ones with armor or weapons that stood out from the rest. Even Dvorak had inserted himself into a gap where a spearman had fallen, his axe in both hands, duelling a goblin more-or-less successfully while blubbering incoherently.

Kyle decided he should participate too, and threw his ball of fire into the face of a goblin that was climbing over one player’s spear. The goblin screeched, clutching its face.

Then the fire went out, plunging them all into darkness.

“TORCHES!” Aubrey screamed. He could hear panic in her voice.

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” Kyle opened his menu to cast another flame spell, his menus appearing as a dim glow visible only to him. When the fire appeared in his hands, he saw the line in disarray, goblins coming in from all sides. Still holding his first flame, he went into his skill menus again, hoping maybe he could put a flame in both hands. Luckily, it worked, and he threw it left-handed into the mass of goblins more or less aimlessly, counting on hitting something based on density alone.

Mia dropped her axe and grabbed another blade from a fallen goblin, dodging and whirling with twin blades. As another goblin fell to a player’s spear, she darted through the gap he left.

“Hey uglies! Come and get me!”

Many of the goblins turned and watched Mia. Then, they started pulling away from the group to chase her.

“Easy prey. She’s got no spears to protect her” Aubrey said, shaking her head. “That girl’s dead meat without allies. But I think we can handle the ones that didn’t chase her.”

It was probably true, Kyle thought, pulling out another ball of flame. There were only about a dozen goblins left. Even then, the line was all but gone, and the fight had devolved into a melee. Mason seemed to forgo all weapons in favor of hand-to-hand combat, catching goblins’ arms as they swung weapons towards him and throwing them to the ground before stomping on their necks. Aubrey’s makeshift militia were faring less well; their spears, when out of formation, were awkward and ill suited to fighting multiple opponents. Kyle threw another ball of fire at a goblin that was charging a spearman from behind, and it fell back, trying to put out the flames on its chest. Kyle glanced at Lumen, who had stood up on a rock to get a better vantage. He was firing his arrows far off into the distance, grinning.

Kyle felt a sharp pain in his side, and cried out. He pulled away and turned, seeing a goblin that had approached him in the chaos. It swung again as Kyle pulled away. Kyle wanted to open his menu to pull out more fire, but didn’t; his survival instincts wouldn’t let him navigate an interface when something was actively attacking him.

At that moment, Dvorak leapt onto the goblin, bringing his axe into the goblin’s head, felling it. He looked at Kyle and gave him a panicked grin. Pink lines were visible under his thin fur.

“Murder bunny, right? Heh heh…” Dvorak chuckled humorlessly, then turned back to the larger fight. “Can’t talk, gotta go. For… for Crystopia!” he shouting, throwing himself at another goblin.

Kyle turned back to watch the fight as well, wishing he could be more useful. He briefly wondered if he should also pull out an axe, but was nervous about fighting in melee. If he accidentally dropped the fire again, the group was sunk. He conjured another ball of flame, unsure where to place it. He saw a goblin moving around to flank Aubrey, and drew back his hand to throw the fire, but the goblin was thrown back by the impact of one of Lumen’s arrows. Aubrey rammed her spear into the gut of the other goblin and turned to look back at Lumen.

“Aubrey? Tank please? I’m busy here.” Lumen said while looking into the distance. He fired another arrow off into the darkness.

Aubrey shot Lumen a scowl, then rushed to the aid of another spearman.

Soon, the remaining players outnumbered the remaining goblins, and eventually the final goblin was surrounded and slain. Lumen advanced towards the darkness, still occasionally firing his arrows at shadowy shapes on the other side of the cavern. Kyle started to follow him. “No, no, stay behind me,” he said. “It’s easier for me to see when the light’s behind me instead of being in my face.”

“Okay, fine,” Kyle said more petulantly than he meant to. “Tell me if you need anything.” Kyle held his light high and turned to face the wounded survivors instead. Mason was huffing, hands on his knees. Pink lines covered his arms.

Kyle realized he had fought the whole battle with his party overlay off. How much health did Mason have left? He tapped his crystal and opened his options menu again to turn on the overlay.

Mia was still over half health. Lumen’s HP was full; despite his complaining, the group had indeed managed to cover for him. Mason was below a third health; he was probably in a lot of pain. Kyle wasn’t surprised to see his own health above three-fourths; he had only gotten hit once and had ranked resilience. And Dvorak…

…Dvorak’s bar was missing.