There were several dead goblins outside the cave, but inside it was a blood bath. Goblins, and parts of goblins, were scattered haphazardly across the floor, and many of the earlier stacks of raided and foraged gear were ruined.

The stench of rotting flesh was almost overpowering, and while none of us were particularly squeamish, I still came close to losing my breakfast over the smell. Shiana alone seemed unaffected by the carnage.

Strangely, however, once we came to a mostly-intact body, Rick would hold his hand over the corpse, almost like a benediction. A few moments later, the corpse would dissolve into speckles of light and vanish.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, truly confused.

“Looting.” he said in reply, seemingly similarly confused. “We aren’t getting bounties for the ears, because we didn’t kill them, so they don’t drop, but we still get a few coppers each and some junk, and the bodies go away when you loot them.”

I checked one of the corpses. It’s chest had been ripped open as if from a claw, and I checked quickly through it’s clothes without finding anything. Then I carefully used my little knife to remove it’s left ear, and then let Rik loot it. I showed him the ear, and he shrugged a little helplessly, then he looted it, receiving something called ‘poor cloth gloves’ and three coppers. The gloves were sized for a human, and the goblin hadn’t even been wearing gloves! I suspected foul play.

“Here’s the ear. We will let the commander know that we didn’t kill them, but I am sure he will still appreciate knowing that they are out of his hair.”

We went through the bodies this way, me collecting ears and any incidental stuff they had in their pockets, and him looting the bodies to fetch some copper and pieces of shoddy cloth armor. The armor could actually come in handy, though, as bandages or patches if needed. We didn’t collect anything special.

There were a few more things we could have collected from the camp that I would have if I had been alone, but aside from two more rabbit skins I added to the first two I had gotten, there was little that wasn’t trashed, filthy, or covered with goblin bits.

The back of the camp did, indeed, have a large break in the wall that led deeper underground. Rik pulled several glowing stones out of his bag, and handed them to Shiana and Mae, who nodded. “I have the worst underground sight of all of us,” he stated, “So I am going to keep a lightstone visible. You two can stay near me cause even with the secondary light you can see a lot better than I can, and keep your stones covered unless you need to move away. Cassie, you and Bran can take the front. You are our main tank and can detect shifting stonework, and Bran can look for traps and is light enough that he won’t likely set pressure plates off if he doesn’t find them first.”

While being a kobold mine detector didn’t appeal to me, he did have a point. If trouble popped up I could dive behind Cassie’s armor-clad form, and I weighed a fraction of what the rest did. The problem is that diving behind a girl for safety really stuck a pin in my manhood, but I would survive it, while trying to badass it against a bunch of living dead three times my size I might NOT survive.

The two of us crept along, Cassie with a surprisingly large shield that matched her armor’s construction that I had not noticed before while I kept [observe] active. Mnemosyne had dropped my eye illusion, and I was able to see a good distance ahead. Cassie and I could have easily fit into the uneven dry cave side by side, but I was keeping low and slightly ahead in case there was something I could spot.

I held out a hand to stop Cassie when we were about a quarter of a mile down the tunnel, which was an uneven rock and still felt like two rocks had fallen against each other, forming the crack along which we traveled. My Darkvision was slightly longer range than hers was, and I had spotted uncharacteristic bundles of crap scattered all over the floor.

The implications of undead attacking the goblins had not escaped me. They had been outside at the entrance, while we were here, deep inside the tunnel they had attacked from. Whatever they used to sense, or whatever directed them, could tell if there were creatures in the tunnel. We, no matter how sneaky we thought we were being, were nearly 100% already detected, and the only question is whether only the controlling intelligence or whatever knew we were there, or if the creatures themselves were laying low.

I didn’t know if it was trying to ambush us, or constrained by the timing, maybe it could only come out at night. That seemed unlikely, though, because the goblins were active at night, and cowardly… If they got attacked and were losing, they would have run like hell and would have either been farther from the cave before they were slaughtered or a lot more would have escaped. I had counted nearly twenty bodies in various states of disassembly, which was pretty close to the entire group I had seen before.

Nearly twenty because sometimes it was hard to put together enough of the parts to figure out how many creatures it was exactly, but Rik might know because his looting seemed to affect all the parts of a creature at the same time, regardless of its scattering.

I whispered to Cassie, “80 feet. Bundles on the floor. Hiding?” to which she replied, “Scout?”

I was not terrifically fast, but I suspected I was faster than most of the rest of the team unless Rik kicked into overdrive. The narrow part of the tunnel we were in would limit enemies to one, or perhaps two, at a time if they were human-sized, and while I could easily enough get around Cassie hopefully undead couldn’t. A single front seemed ideal, although it might keep Rik out of the melee unless something got past Cassie.

“Bottleneck?” I asked her, and she nodded, taking a few steps forward and setting her feet broadly, diagonal to her shield so she could take a hit from almost any direction in her front arc and not get moved around. This was going to be an ambush, not a sneak attack, so silence was no longer imperative. I unwound my sling from around my wrist and loaded it with one of my pebbles, and then tried to use my fingers to whistle to the rest of the party.

I thought I wasn’t succeeding because of my new mouth shape, but when I pursed my gums and blew, a loud, shrieking whistle, far louder and more penetrating than any I had let out before, echoed down the hall past us. Cassie rolled her eyes and gave me a glare, and I shrugged helplessly. Yep. My fault. I had no idea that one of my many (snicker) newfound strengths was the ability to whistle like a castrati locomotive.

The bundles hadn’t moved, but when I trotted forward to within 50 feet, the bundles started to rise, rapidly assembling into skeletons mostly naked but occasionally dressed in pale, dilapidated rags. They seemed mostly cleaned of flesh, like the ones in that seventh voyage movie, and I started backpedaling while, as one, a dozen skulls set with green candleflames in their eye sockets swiveled directly to me.

I was hoping to have some breathing space, but one of them hefted a ragged javelin I had not even seen and hurled it the fifty feet towards me, while the rest started running at me fast like Brendan Fraser meets Imhotep’s soldiers fast. Dropping into my zone for a second, I adjusted my course slightly to account for the spear and then dropped back out to start running like a madman back towards Cassie.

“Train!” I shouted, remembering the phrase from a game called Evercrack I had briefly played that was quickly rising in popularity when I swan dived through the magical anus. There was this place called Black Buttocks or something, where newbies would infamously drag huge followings of angry kobolds that were much bigger and cooler-looking than me to the exit as a ‘bad pull’. A bad pull was exactly what I had just accomplished, but the skeletons seemed to be linked together somehow so I was not sure if there would have been a way to get a GOOD pull.

I dived to one side of Cassie, around her heater shield, and noticed she seemed to be faintly glowing, and there was a wide grin under her helmet. Of COURSE, she was an action junkie. I noticed that Shiana and Rik were almost directly behind her, and while Shiana was ready with her bow aimed over Cassie’s head, Rik looked frustrated, his giant sword held in front of him low to the ground. It was too big to swing in the narrow tunnel, and the squared chisel tip, while cool looking, probably would do little if he stabbed with it to the skeletons unless he got a lucky hit on a vertebra or something.

Mae was slightly behind the two of them, looking curiously ghostly. I realized I still had [observe] active and draining my mana, but it had been active the whole time we had been searching and my little mana bottle still said 99%. I guess the drain was less than my energy regeneration, and I left it turned on for the time being. The javelin completely missed me and scooted into the rocks in front of Cassie’s shield, and I mentally blessed my zone for like the fortieth time.

There was no way I was going to get my sling working in the tight tunnel with my team around me, so I dropped it to the ground and braced low and to Cassie’s left side, slightly behind her. The chain of skeletons, forced into fighting only two at a time because of the narrow tunnel, crashed into Cassie like a freight train into a pile of sandbags.

Unfortunately for the aggressive piles of bones, however, it was like a freight train made of balsa wood. Cassie slightly raised her shield as two of them hit at the same time, and was surprised by their lack of weight as they both flew directly into the ceiling, and over her head, legs shattering from the blow of her shield as bloodstained skeletons broke on impact.

Of course, the human body is mostly water, and these skeletons barely weighed thirty pounds each, if that. Cassie was a strong little thing and had clearly been expecting to get impacted by a couple of creatures of a weight appropriate to their size. Maybe the skeletons had been dangerous to a bunch of barely-armed goblins, and their speed certainly made their bony fingers wickedly dangerous, but against a heavily-armored and shielded figure like Cassie, they were almost anticlimactic. Bony finger jabbed, caught, or rolled off of her armor and shield, apparently repelled by whatever was making her glow, and with a laugh of glee, she smashed her hammer through two of her bony victims at the same time.

I would like to say that the battle was an epic clash of light and dark, but Cassie was MADE for this fight. I managed to knock the leg off of one of them with my tail as she wreaked havoc, but the girl was a wrecking ball and the horde was a 20’s era tenement.

With a final sweep of her weapon, bones shattered against the wall of the tunnel. Whatever held them together clearly couldn’t work when they were smashed, and I was very glad that no skeletal hands were wiggling to try and get into the action after they were turned back into the piles of bones they were originally disguised as.

I noticed, amid the wreckage, that a lot of the bones still had small pieces and splashes of goblin still stuck to them, and to my [observe] three of the skulls had strange glows. Rik looked a bit disappointed as he surveyed the fight he couldn’t seem to get a piece of, as his assistance had been relegated to a single kick when a low-flying skeleton had gotten knocked over Cassie’s shield, and I started picking my way among the detritus of possibly once-human forms.

The ghostly green flames in their eyes had gone out, but I retrieved the three skulls and heard something rattling around in them. Each contained an odd-looking translucent gem made of some kind of green glass that glowed faintly and was about the size of a ketchup packet. I turned to ask about them. And noticed that they were all glowing faintly, an expression that could best be described as rapture on their faces.

Whatever it was, took only a second, but they came down from it afterward as Rik hollered “Ding!”. Apparently, it was some function of their band, and of the team, only Mae seemed unaffected.

She gave me a frank and appraising look, but she was still transparent and hidden by her invisibility. I suppose she still hadn't realized that my [observe] ability allowed me to pierce that illusion, just like the one that concealed her extra tails. I was not about to disabuse her of that notion, not after she pulled a knife on me.

Not disabusing her of the notion, I noticed that Mnemosyne had sent me a new message.

Through assisting with the destruction of 12 skeletons, you have gained quintessence. Animation essence has collected around your core and should be dealt with soon. You are currently at 112% of your quintessence minimum for an evolution or cultivation action.

“Man,” Rik said, “I can see why some people constantly make alts and get them power leveled, leveling up is intense. It’s not as good as sex, but doesn’t miss it by much.”

Cassie shook her head, “I don’t know about that, but I am just glad to get to 3. It unlocked my Benevolent Aurora, which isn’t as good as my divine touch, but it affects everyone around me and hurts the undead at the same time. Considering where we are, that could seriously come in handy.”

Rik nodded and looked at Shiana. “She gained her first empowered arrow, which adds minor magic damage to her shots. If there are spectral undead here, it should allow her to damage them. I gained something called rallying shout which is a short-term buff, which is cool, but I expected more of an attack power.” He looked a little disappointed.

“Hey Rik, what do you have as a class description?” I asked him curiously. At his nod, I asked, “What exactly does it say?”

He sort of zoned out for a moment, and then said, “Warmasters are every woman’s desire and every man’s envy. They are leaders who collect the powerful and use them to accomplish great feats by leading them and assisting with their mighty two-handed weapons. Every party member gives you a minor boost to your leadership abilities, and every soulbound companion provides a bonus ability based on their rarity, affection, and social status. Do you want to know my bonuses?”

At my nod, he continued, “My level bonuses emphasize charisma, durability, and strength, and then it goes on to list my current companion bonuses. Mae gives me a Charisma bonus, mental resistance, and an impressive aura that improves attitudes when I activate it. Cassie isn’t soulbound, but I get a leadership bonus from her being in my party, You provide a haste ability, frost damage bonus, and agility and crafting bonuses, and Shiana gives a Charisma bonus and...oh.”

I raised an eye ridge, leaning one hand against a stone wall. “Oh?” I asked him curiously.

“Night eye. I am not used to having activation abilities like that. Most melee classes get passive abilities and then activation feats, but usually, only the ones like paladins and arcane knights gain activation abilities that draw mana. Night eye draws way less mana than my passive mana regen, I should have been activating it the whole time, especially during watch.”

Rik concentrated for a moment, and then his eyes glowed blue for a moment before the glow faded. “Oh wow, it was darker than a bishop’s soul in here before, but now I can see everything, just from a lightstone. That rocks.” He looked a little less depressed.

An interesting figure of speech. I set it aside and asked, “What does the leadership ability do?”

“Everyone in my party and all pet… ahh… soulbound companions or followers that can perceive me gain a 12% resistance to fear, instant death, and mind-affecting or confusion effects. They also gain a morale bonus in large-scale combat, which is part of late-game stuff like guild wars and raids.”

I nodded, “So, you are kind of used to playing an in-your-face tank, but now you are playing a pet class?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I play with pain sensors at full for the experience bonus, but umm… tanking at full pain REALLY hurts. I tried it for a while, but at low levels and with newbie armor, I just couldn’t stand it anymore. Cassie is kind of lucky, she is a paladin and they resist pain and stuff right from the beginning, but my moms sometimes watch me play in spectator mode, and would bitch me out if I worshipped some kind of god, even in a.. world like this."

He suddenly blushed, “I mean, they watch me when I am not doing adult interactions. Spectators need permission to watch those, but I am NOT letting Mama Lee watch me with girls. It’s NOT cool, and I don’t need her advice.”

To be fair, He was right, that was really not cool, not even remotely cool. But he was wrong about not needing advice. He was awkward as hell, and probably could use a LOT of advice, but I wouldn’t want someone watching me bang some young lady and whispering tips in my ear the whole time. “I agree with you completely. A Man deserves a little privacy in his intimate dealings.”

I added, “So basically, you are all about making a team much more badass, keeping them going, putting them together, and only then are you supposed to wade into the fight as a support damage dealer instead of the main enemy distraction?”

He slowly nodded, looking thoughtful.

“I get it dude, being a leader is tough. You don’t get the rush and glory that wading into the fight yourself brings, but in the end, you are directly responsible in many ways for your team’s success. I was a leader for a while, sometimes it sucks to watch someone else working to improve at something you mastered long before, but in the end, both the victory and the responsibility for failure, lie on your shoulders. You may not get into the thick of the action that often, but just remember that your team is kicking ass because you are there and doing the hard work to set it up. Their victories are your victories, just like their failures are your own.”

He nodded and grinned, “Thanks. That makes me feel a lot better. I forgot that I was playing a pet class and all of their kills are actually mine!”

Okay, that was not exactly what I was getting at, but it was better than having an angsty teenager moping around at my back, and I watched as he started looting each of the skeletons.