As soon as the "one" left Syrna's mouth, Rydr clenched his jaw and bore down on his right leg with all his strength. Rydr felt the ground cave underneath him and feared that he miscalculated his plan. He needn't have worried.

Rydr rocketed forward almost parallel to the ground, a trail of debris following in his wake where he shattered the ground in a small crater with his kickoff.

Guile seemed to leap forward at Rydr; he flew towards him so quickly. With a paltry ten feet between Rydr and Guile, it took less time to reach his foe than he had to blink. In an amazing display of skill, Guile reacted to Rydr's charge, where others saw a blur crossing the distance.

Guile brought his shield up and was surrounded by a flare of silver light that settled on his metal armor, making it gleam like mirrors. The pallid man's face peered at the flying giant, eyes wide in fear, over the edge of his guard.

The over-sized kite shield he wielded covered most of Guile's front. Rydr cursed, his thoughts flying faster than his body, and shifted his stance mid-flight.

Unlike the bent forward batter's pose that he used originally, Rydr contorted his body, so his sideways swing turned into a curving, underarm golf swing. At the last instant, before he crashed into Guile's greasy face, Rydr extended his left leg and caught himself.

Unlike his other, harsh stops that he made while fighting the wolves, Rydr turned his leg into a rolling fulcrum for his energy.

The energy of Rydr's charge smoothly transitioned into an attacking force. Rydr's swing brought the warhammer's head underneath the lip of Guile's shield, sweeping it up and out of the way with such power that the heavily armored player was knocked airborne.

After he dumped his forward momentum into Guile's body, Rydr used his swing to pivot on his left leg, spinning like a wobbly top.

In a flash, Rydr spun in a circle, arresting the last of his forward motion, and brought his weapon to bear on the helpless bully. Mirroring his original stance, Rydr crushed Guile's left knee's side like he was swinging for the fences.

Guile saw spots as he flew into the air, unable to process the train that just ran him over. Before he could recover, his world blurred into disorienting color and pain when Rydr struck him in the air and spun the man like a prize wheel.

Every time he connected with his enemy, Rydr felt the roll of power through his body. It traveled from his core, through his muscles, and down into the haft of the weapon in his hand, making his limbs vibrate with uncontrollable force. The feeling made Rydr's heart pound in his chest, and his eyes light up and glow with a bloody, red light.

Even his anger couldn't suppress the excitement this fight made him feel. Rydr felt like nothing in the world could stifle just how cool he felt right now.

A savage joy surfaced in Rydr's heart that demanded he fights more, strike harder and prove that he was more powerful against a strong opponent.

With a roar, Rydr stomped on the ground and forced his body in the opposite direction. His muscles like taught cables Rydr crushed the ground under his left leg as he battled against inertia.

From the corner of his eye, he watched Guile's head swing through the air to take the place his legs occupied an instant before. Rydr wouldn't be able to bring the weapon around in time.

Desperate, Rydr choked up on the hammer and pulled towards his body. He brought the haft close to his body and twisted from full extension, slamming his left shoulder into the handle just under the hammerhead. Say hello to Newton's first and second laws, asshole!

The last image Guile clearly saw was Rydr's eyes glowing with blood-lust through the fan of the giant's metal-gray hair before life blasted out of his body. The head of Urginok's war-hammer met Guile's temple, like two canon-shells meeting head-on.

*-105*

*-95*

*CRIT -236*

Rydr stood in a shower of light as three damage numbers floated over the spot Guile died - too slow to keep up with Rydr's flurry of attacks. Guile's health bar flared over his head and vanished in the same moment.

Rydr watched his experience bar jump by 25% on his HUD while his yellow Stamina bar flashed and decreased at a steady rate. The chime of notifications rang out in his skull, but Rydr silenced them with a thought.

Guile's breastplate made a metallic clatter as it fell to the rocks in front of Rydr. Stunned silence swept through the rocky pit as the Shining Star member's jeering abruptly stopped.

Instead of their repugnant leader hosing another noob by switching out his gear last second, like they had witnessed a dozen times already that day, they found themselves in front of a bloodthirsty giant spoiling for a fight.

Said giant, who dealt more damage with his last attack than their boss had health, towered over them like an angry god of the forge with his hammer.

Even with their reputations, the guild players took an involuntary step backward when Rydr spun slowly to look at all of them, challenging anyone to step forward.

Syrna, despite standing closer than anyone else, was barely able to process a blur passed in front of her before the fight was over. The fight, if she could, in fact, call it that, took less time than her count down—significantly less time. The wind from Rydr's passage continued to ruffle her long, blonde hair after the light show from Guile's death faded.

To Syrna's right, where Rydr seemingly teleported, her angry friend literally steamed in the afternoon light, gleaming as his sweat evaporated from the heat of his skin.

Rydr slowly reached down and picked up the dropped breastplate, his baleful expression cowing the corrupt guild. Armor and weapon in hand, Rydr looked around one last time before he walked back to Urginok. He wordlessly passed both items to Urginok.

Urginok shook his head, smiling helplessly, and said, "There wasn't enough luck in the world to survive that."

Rydr shrugged, internally examining himself and how he felt about killing another diver. Urginok shouldered his hammer and made it as if to hand the breastplate to Rydr.

Rydr held up his hand, stopping his friend. "Are you sure?" Urginok asked. Rydr nodded. To him, it made more sense for the tank to have armor than him.

"If you die, we all die. This whole quest is about me learning how to make my own armor. Take it." As he spoke to Urginok, Rydr suddenly felt dizzy and weak, swaying on his feet like his limbs were made of wet noodles.

"Hey!" Urginok stepped forward to steady Rydr, startled at his sudden weakness.

Rydr saw his Stamina bar flash red in the corner of his vision, warning him that he had depleted the resource. A moment later, he saw a chunk of yellow reappear, ticking up at about three points per second.

With a pool of 100, Rydr figured it took 8 seconds for his Stamina pool to refill completely.

At the same time as his Stamina bar ran out, Rydr stopped steaming. The silence, so nearby his head, was overwhelming to Rydr. He didn't realize until then how loud the sizzling of his sweat was. Much as he wanted to check his notifications, certain the Stamina drain had something to do with them, Rydr needed to get out of there.

All three of them needed to get into the mine. Before these ass-hats realize they still outnumber us 5 to 1.

"Get into the mine," Rydr whispered to Urginok, who still held him up. With a step, Rydr pulled away from Urginok and turned to Syrna. With a few moments and a third of the Stamina in his pool restored, Rydr was able to stand and move on his own.

Rydr tried to communicate with his eyes as he walked to the lithe archer, staring intently at her. Syrna frowned in response, her brow furrowed as she puzzled out what Rydr was trying to tell her. With a glance around the pit, her eyes widened as she saw what Rydr was trying to communicate.

They were surrounded by what might as well be a thousand players. It didn't make a difference because they couldn't defeat the group of twenty around them, even with all of their abilities. Syrna looked back at Rydr, her face set in determination.

Rydr stopped himself from sighing in relief and subtly nodded towards the mine entrance, some twenty meters to her back. He sensed Urginok falling in with him as they all but power walked to Syrna, their expressions uniformly tense.

Once the two boys reached her, Syrna started to walk beside Rydr.

"You plan to just walk in?" She whispered to him, her lips pursed as she spoke out of the side of her mouth. Outwardly she continued to walk calmly to the mine, through the ranks of hostile guild players.

Rydr whispered back, "That was the deal. I won, but I don't trust them." His skin tingled with the intensity of the players' stares, making the hair on his arms stand up.

"Damn straight. They're afraid of you right now, but safety in numbers and all that." Urginok added his two cents from where he walked behind them, his chest nearly pressed against their backs; he stood so close to them. It was almost comical, the way they moved as a unit like a group of baby birds.

Rydr shortened his steps to avoid separating the group, matching his teammates. The amount of pressure he felt, surrounded and effectively helpless, made his limbs shudder with cold adrenaline. He was suddenly aware of the intense thumping of his own heart. The sound nearly overwhelmed his senses in the few seconds that their group was able to walk undisturbed.

When he heard the clatter of falling gravel behind them, Rydr's heart froze in his chest.

Time's up! Rydr thought.

With only eight feet to the mine's scar-like entrance, the Shining Star guild members wised up and started to go after the trio, readying their weapons.

With no time to think, Rydr seized both of his teammates, whirling around to grab Urginok with a half-crouch and twist; he wrapped his right arm around Syrna as he stood up and faced forward, holding both of them around their waists.

In a decidedly uncharacteristic moment, neither of his mouthy teammates objected to his rough treatment. Rydr's heart raced as he faced the mine and leaped forward, performing a standing long jump rather than running to the mine's entrance.

At odds with a human's physical limits, Rydr sailed through the air, deep cracks forming around his footprints that remained in the hard rock. His sneakers' ruined remains were embedded into those footprints, torn off his feet were a few ragged strips of material.

In the same instant, a quartet of arrows flew through the space Rydr's team occupied just a split-second before.

Rydr felt Syrna shoot, not one but two arrows from an impossible position under his right arm, accompanied by cries of pain.

Urginok, on the other hand, faced the same direction as Rydr. He saw what was coming. As they passed into the mine's entrance, the ground dropped away completely into darkness.

"Ah, shiiiiiii..." Rydr and Urginok's twin cries echoed out of the hole the team plummeted into.

The Shining Star guild team was left staring at the footprints left behind in the rock and at the hole they vanished into.

One of the warriors lifted his foot, stomped on the ground as hard as possible, and succeeded in hurting his heel. Several others looked from the warrior's foot to the footprints in the stone and shuddered, secretly happy that the angry giant was gone.

*****

Rydr and his team freewheeled through total darkness, crashing against the sides of the shaft as they fell. Disoriented and desperate, Rydr tried to discover which way was up and orient himself towards the ground.

He didn't need to wait long. Before Rydr was ready, the bottom of the shaft slammed into the soles of his feet.

In a herculean effort, Rydr arrested their fall. His body bent forward to keep from falling on his rear; Rydr clenched his jaw so hard he tasted blood as he flexed his entire body to absorb the impact, veins bulging through his skin as his eyes bulged out of a purple face.

The effort felt rather like Rydr replaced all of his joints with sandpaper grinders designed to cut through his muscles. Every limb was on fire and trying to burst apart while the weight of the world slammed into his shoulders.

Subconsciously Rydr reached out with all of his physical and mental might at that moment, activating [Third Eye] and [Peerless Physique]. The ambient mana of the tunnel, shimmering with life and energy, stunned him.

The sight distracted him from the physical effort of the moment, and he noticed something strange. Everything he saw was dyed in a black and purple haze as if tainted.

The moment of distraction almost cost him the effort and his team's lives. He started to fall, Syrna and Urginok still under his arms.

"NO!" Rydr screamed, his shout echoing through the tunnels, and stopped trying to catch himself. Instead, he stood up.

Rydr's cry turned into a roar of pain as he extended his legs, effectively kicking off the rocks. His feet shattered the ground, and they flew forward through the air, Rydr's bent over squat altered their trajectory.

An instant later, Rydr's back slammed into the jagged, rocky ceiling of the tunnel and knocked the breath from his lungs. Dazed and winded, Rydr let go of his teammates, and the three of them fell painfully to the hard ground.

Another series of notifications announced themselves in Rydr's mind, his vision flashing red to let him know he was almost dead. Facedown on the floor, he groaned in pain and heard the answering moans of Syrna and Urginok.

Overwhelmed, Rydr pushed them all away and shut his eyes, waiting for his world to return to normal. He ignored everything around him for a few minutes. Rydr experienced much of the game's pain system since he started, but, even dulled, he still felt like a herd of water buffalo had run over him.

Rydr distantly sensed his team moving around him, but he didn't move even after [Peerless Physique] timed out. Eventually, he felt a handshake on his shoulder.

With a groan, Rydr rolled over and opened his eyes. Urginok was bent over in front of him, offering his hand to the supine giant.

"You okay, man?" Urginok asked, his expression in shadow. Rydr looked to his left and found Syrna holding a bright torch. Ah, that's why I'm not blind.

"A little worse for wear, actually." Rydr reached up and took Urginok's proffered hand. The tank heaved Rydr to his feet and stepped away. "How are you guys doing?" he spoke loudly enough for Syrna to hear his question.

Syrna remained silent, looking like she was studying the tunnel's wall. Rydr went to call out to her again, but Urginok waved his hand. Confused, Rydr frowned at Urginok.

"She's been like that for a while now," the brown-haired man shook his head, "She was acting normal at first, but at soon as she walked over near that wall, she hasn't moved except to shuffle around a little."

The slow drawl in Urginok's voice still threw Rydr for a loop, but he was getting used to it. Rydr looked at Syrna with concern, afraid that something was wrong. He started to go over to the archer, but he was once again held up by Urginok waving at him.

"What?" He asked the shorter man, frustrated and worried about their friend.

"She's been over there for a while. Make sure you're ready before we move on. It's been safe so far." Urginok explained the nothing that had gone on during Rydr's convalescence.

Amused by the animated man, Rydr sat down on a leaning stalagmite to take stock.

Rydr noted that the floor sloped quite a bit with one last look around, with a strong groove running in its center. The tunnel led down to his left and around a hard right curve, and to his right side, the tunnel sloped up to a steep end near Syrna. After he confirmed his surroundings, he focused on his task.

With trepidation and excitement fluttering around in his belly, Rydr opened his notifications.

Skill Unlocked! Berserker’s Rage

An eternal volcano of fury sleeps within you, waiting to be tapped for its savage power. When this ability is used, it forces the user’s body into a state of hyper-metabolic function, increasing the user’s body temperature to unhuman levels to produce inhuman power!

· +20% Total Strength, Dexterity and Constitution

· Channeled: 10 Stamina per second while active

· Cool-Down: Double the Duration

· Level 1 (Beginner)

Skill Created! Break Flurry

Designed for overwhelming aggression, you have succeeded in Creating a Unique Skill! By attacking from ever-changing angles with precision and unrivaled force you break through your enemy’s defenses in a whirlwind of attacks.

· +25% Damage Per Hit

· Consumes 8 Stamina Per Hit

· Max Combo: 3

· Cool-Down: 20 Seconds

· Level 1 (Beginner)

· * One-time creation Bonus: +5 Dexterity*

*+10 Intimidation*

Elite Feat! Springform!

Congratulations! Like the leggy mountain goat, or possibly a cat, you have fallen from a great height and lived to tell the tale! By using the counterforce of your own jump to negate the impact you have created a movement technique.

· +10 Strength

· +5 Constitution

· Created [Springform]

Slightly numb with excitement from the first two skills, the feat Rydr gained for surviving the fall through the mine shaft left him nonplussed.

The upgrades to his stats were always welcome, but [Springform] seemed like a situational skill to him. It might be good for exploration, but he checked it out just in case there would be a surprise.

Passive Skill Created! Springform!

Unlike the semi-fluid feline, your answer to falling involves brute force. By canceling out the force of the fall with your own jump you have created a Unique Movement Skill!

· Negates Falls Below Terminal Velocity

· +50% Jump Distance

· Level 1 (Beginner)

· *One-time creation Bonus: +5 Unassigned Points*

*Paragon Triggered*

I mean...it's kinda cool, but it's also kinda useless in a tunnel system. Rydr's back still ached from his collision with the ceiling earlier. If they were in a mountainous setting, then the new passive would have been perfect.

Sadly goblins live underground. Besides, if we went to the mountains, it would have been trolls or something similar. So not ready for that.

Rydr shuddered as he thought about getting thrown off a mountain by irate snowmen.

"Get up!" Urginok suddenly shouted, breaking Rydr out of his reverie.

Rydr lept to his feet and flew five feet more than he expected, wobbling unsteadily when he landed in a skidding stop just in front of a stalagmite.

Half-annoyed with his new passive showing its presence, Rydr whirled around to face the direction Urginok shouted from.

Urginok was farther down the tunnel when Rydr turned to face him, putting Syrna to his back where she still studied the wall. Urginok was silhouetted against torchlight that was coming from around the bend in the tunnel.

That light grew brighter, closer, with every second that passed.

Rydr's heart froze in his chest before it suddenly restarted, thumping wildly and forcing adrenaline through his blood. "Right. Uh...run the other way?"

Rydr shouldn't have wasted his time trying to say anything. Urginok ran past him in a dead sprint, his new breastplate clanking loudly. The tank's hazel eyes were wide, his face set in a scowl as he booked it past his giant friend.

As Urginok passed Rydr, the smaller man slapped him on the arm and said, "Burn rubber, dude!" Then he was past his giant friend and ran to Syrna.

Rydr did a double-take, caught between the speeding tank and the light at the end of the tunnel. Alarmed and frightened, Rydr took a deep breath and spun to follow Urginok. The rhythmic slap of his bare feet, audible over the sound of blood pounding through his ears, almost made Rydr stop to confirm that his shoes were gone.

The giant abruptly remembered that there was no pausing in a game like this and did a half-skip and duck, bucking like a donkey, that he was delighted no one else saw. Then Rydr skidded to a stop before his bulk slammed into Urginok and Syrna, where they crouched against the wall.

The tank spoke quietly but urgently to a shaking Syrna. Urginok pleaded, "Can you hear me? Goblins are coming, and we need to go! Snap out of it!" He reached out and shook Syrna's shoulder.

Syrna roughly threw his hand off and yelled, "Go!" Then she went back to studying the wall, her long hair pooling on the ground under her. Her torch lay on the ground and cast a haunting light over the crags of the wall.

Urginok was stunned, his face momentarily blank, before he reached out and grabbed her shoulder again, shouting, "Come on! We have to go! Goblins! Death! Coming!"

With every word, he tried to pull her away from the wall, but she fought back and, having a higher strength score, overpowered him easily. She tossed Urginok away like he was an aggressive 14-year-old.

While Urginok threw himself forward to convince her again, Rydr looked at the wall where Syrna faced, shielding his eyes against the light of Syrna's torch.

On the dark, mossy wall of the tunnel, underneath all the grime and muck, was a layer of runic writing that looked intentionally scratched out.

Rydr watched as Syrna stared at the writing feverishly, muttering under her breath and rubbing moss off the wall as she studied the ancient writing.

Rydr sucked in sharply as he connected the dots. Her coworkers find her focus alienating...writing on the wall...a linguist savant? He knew that his guess was circumstantial, but it was the best he could do under threat of imminent death. Rydr decided to wing it before he convinced himself it was stupid.

Rydr crouched on Syrna's right side, ahead of where she was reading, and said, "I swear to you that we will come back. We will get stronger and return when Nok and I can massacre the goblins while you read. You'll have all the time in the world." He stared at her eyes, his face set in determination.

When she didn't respond and continued to read, his heart clenched.

"Time's up!" Urginok said. He faced the way they came, apparently deciding to keep watch while Rydr tried to convince the obsessed archer.

Rydr sat up and saw a group of goblins at the end of the visible curve.

They were awful, jagged creatures that bristled with cutting edges. Then the giant looked past the armor. Under the lead goblin's helmet, staring balefully at them was a pair of yellow, goat-like eyes. A green, angular face covered in scales and set with metal piercings dominated a wiry body, roughly the size of a grotesquely muscular nine-year-old.

At the back of the goblin pack stood two figures, each the size of an adult, covered head to toe in a darker, sleeker-looking plate mail.

They towered over the other goblins and exuded menace like Rydr was in front of a fanatical serial killer from the old movies he loved.

Rydr's limbs trembled as the shock hit him. Wolves had been one thing, even the big one, but real monsters were in front of him. His heart tried to leap from his chest; it clamored so hard. He was acutely aware of each chamber pumping deliberately like his body was trying to make a point.

Rydr was alive, and his instincts screamed at him to remain so.

Fight or run? Rydr asked himself.

The thunder of adrenaline screamed at him to step forward, face his enemy, fight and win! He almost did, but the giant stopped and looked at his new friends. They would die if he were reckless here. He would die if he were reckless here.

Rydr took a deep breath, closed his eyes to the charging monsters, and promised himself.

Someday soon, I will never run away again.

In a rush, Rydr crouched next to Syrna, ignoring the goblins' rabid cries as they rushed up the tunnel. His throat spasming, he begged her, "Please...don't make me leave my friend to die." His eyes misted over, but he didn't wipe them away as he kept going.

"I haven't had a friend before today, and while you may disagree, you're basically my first friend. Please trust me. We will come back." Rydr blinked, tears falling down his face as he cried openly in front of people he hoped he could trust. The torchlight glistened wetly in his red eyes and made them look like fresh blood.

Syrna leaned forward, curling in on herself a little, and sighed, "Of course we're friends, you dork." Then she sucked in a breath and straightened up. She stood away from the wall and pointed to their right, at a rough section that looked like melted wax all in rows.

"Strike that wall," Syrna demanded. Rydr stepped away and reared back, not hesitating in the slightest.

Syrna shouted, "Stop! With your pickax! Use your pickax, you idiot!"

Rydr panicked and kicked himself for his stupidity. With a thought, he summoned the mining tool from his inventory. The weapon materialized in his hand with a small flash of light.

Rydr seized it with both hands and once again reared back, like a home-run batter.

Behind Rydr, Syrna pulled Urginok to the side of the wall to the giant's left side, pressing them tightly to its rocky surface.

Then Rydr's Hail-Mary swing met the wall, and it crumbled like a wall of wet tofu, blasting apart the pooled stone. The giant stepped back and swung again and again as he dismantled the stone wall in front of him.

Rydr noticed a sudden change to a red stone, and the wall's crumbling started to accelerate.

Two sets of hands grabbed Rydr's waistband at the small of his back and heaved him back as the wall exploded out. Rydr's left shoulder crunched painfully as the suddenly released ball of red rock rolled into the groove in the tunnel's floor.

The enormous, rusty red ball eclipsed the light from the goblin's torches as it started to pick up speed as it rolled down the tunnel.

Rydr and his team were safely and tightly wedged into the only divot in the tunnel's surface.

The growls of the goblins and their large companions turned into cries of fear as the huge ball raced towards them. The cries came to an abrupt end as the ball started to roll around the curve, riding up on the wall of the tunnel, and crushed the goblin pack into a shower of incandescent light.

Rydr's HUD flashed, and a golden light flared beside him. Before he could turn and look, Syrna pulled both of the boys into the hole the enormous ball made in the tunnel wall, plunging them into darkness.