"Ready?"

Everyone gave Nico a nod.

Nico grabbed from his back glowing fruits, holding them in his hands as they pulsated yellow-green. He then threw the fruits towards the wooden gates. The fruits set off a series of explosions, sending out bright flashing lights accompanied with loud booms.

Debris flung all around, ricocheting off the large rock that the group was hiding behind. A commotion inside the goblin camp started to fester, with most goblins heading to the site of incident, alert and about with their clubs and axes.

"Let's go." Jason said, showing himself in the open. He then dashed towards the camp, passing through the broken gates and into danger's maw, his metal armor clanking as he then paused to a halt. He let out a lion's roar.

With Jason catching most of the goblins' attention, the rest of the group followed behind him, motes and magic at the ready.

The goblins rammed into Jason like a tidal wave. Jason achieved his goal, grabbing the goblin's attention while the rest dealt with them one by one from behind. Nico was the second frontliner, taking from Jason many goblins that weren't fully taunted by his roar. A goblin that happened to pass them both was stopped in its tracks by Champ.

It was now an all-out battle.

Jason swung his heavy hammer around. Nico danced around and mauled the goblins coming at him with his arm maces. Hena outputted constant heals to the two front liners, while Kai, Saira, and Kristine were picking off the goblins from the backline with sticky black blobs, explosive fireballs, and duplicating arrows.

The goblins held a frontline with melee fighters holding clubs and axes. Behind them were bow goblins, raining arrows onto the group like death rain. Most of the arrows were aimed to Jason which glanced off his bulky armor easily, while others caught Nico's body. Nico let out a wince as the arrows pierced his body, but given Nico's regeneration, he was more or less fine. The dangerous ones were those that headed straight for the group's backline, but even then the arrows were gobbled up by Saira's floating minion Zask, not letting any pass.

It was an even fight, with neither side backing off. Even with the superior numbers presented by the goblins and a huge home advantage, Nico's group was more skilled, magically blessed, and intelligent with their tactics and communications. In contrast, the goblins were like children hammering mindlessly at their enemies.

The fight was now starting to change tides, with the goblins' number starting to dwindle. With the advantage of surprise and careful preparation, Nico's group started to push through with the mana potions they had in stock. With the potions, the group could constantly pile on the magic attacks and heals- something the goblins lacked heavily.

"Don't take another sip." Hena said, casting her signature white portal above them, emitting constant healing streams towards Nico and Jason. "Potion poisoning is a real thing. Wait for the effects to leave, then take another potion."

Soon the battle became fairly one-sided, with the few goblins now fleeing with their lives. Jason set out to finish the job, however stopped in his tracks by Nico.

"We won already."

Jason nodded, promptly dropping to the ground unconscious. Nico in turn dropped to his knees, clenching at his hand as he kept inside his mouth the urge to scream.

"Fuck." Nico said, staring at his severed hand on the ground, his vision a blur. His greenwood armor was gone, leaving blood gushing out of his left arm with no regeneration to fix it.

"Nico!" Saira ran to him, wide-eyed as she realized. "Oh shit."

Kai arrived next, leaving Nico to Saira as he checked on Jason. He removed Jason's helmet to reveal black bruises and lesions all over his face.

"Oh god." Hena gasped from behind, downing another bottle of mana potion immediately. She then conjured her white mote- setting it afloat on her hand as she chanted a spell, causing two white orbs to appear above Nico and Jason. The orbs descended and dissolved into their body.

"Shit." Saira said, grasping Nico's arm as her eyes started to water. "Your hand- it's not coming back."

. . .

"Bless me with living armor."

Nico's skin crumbled to reveal greenwood armor underneath. He stared at the stump on his arm, an idea inside his head. He shapeshifted the stump into a hand. He closed and opened his fingers as if he was doubting it worked, letting out a sigh of relief.

"You scared me for a second." Saira said, entwining Nico's regenerated hand with hers.

The greenwood armor vanished, revealing a hand as good as new. Too new in fact, with the skin ashen white and unwrinkled, leaving the fingertips with no nails.

"It looks like a baby hand." Kai said.

Nico glanced around. They were sitting on wooden crates inside the goblin camp, with several debris and goblin corpses dotting the foreground. The torches were flickering in the background, illuminating the area and casting long shadows onto the stone floor with the rancid smell of death looming in the air. He let out a sigh as his gaze then landed to Hena who was lying on a cloth bed, unconscious.

"Mana poisoning." Jason said as he approached Nico and Saira.

"Will she be alright?"

"She'll be fine." Jason said with a grimace. "But here's the thing. We can't go deeper into the dungeon without her- she's the sole reason why we were able to fight like we did in the first place."

"So we're leaving." Nico concluded.

"Yeah. Any objections?"

"No, of course not." Nico took a quick glance to Hena. "But that's three days inside, you sure we're safe here?"

"Those goblins we let go, they might've relayed what happened here to the other goblin camps."

"Sorry."

"Nothing we can do about it now." Jason gave him a pat on the back. "Just make sure to take care of Hena when the goblins do come back yeah?"

"Yeah." Nico stared blankly at the ground.

. . .

Nico conjured his green mote and set it afloat on his hand. The goblin corpses around had now started to turn to ethereal mist, the smell dissipating with them.

Name: Nicholas Atkins

Race: Human

Rank: Iron

Affinity: Green (Nature)

Strength: E-

Mind: E-

Spirit: F+

Skills: Living Armor (E-), Well of Life (E-)

Well of Life (E-) [Skill]

Tier F

Passively absorb life essence from the surroundings in which will be stored inside your body. Rate of absorption will vary by environment. This essence can be spent like mana to regenerate wounds faster or strengthen attacks.

Tier E

Unused life essence will passively regenerate wounds, albeit slower than active regeneration.

"I wonder when I'm going to get my third skill." Nico said, turning to Kai beside him. "Hey, can I see your pixie screen?"

"Sure." Kai said, hovering a redwhite mote on his hand. "I just got my third skill too, it's pretty cool."

Name: Nagano Kai

Race: Human

Rank: Iron

Affinity: Red (Fire), White (Pure)

Strength: F+

Mind: E-

Spirit: E-

Skills: Fireballs (E-), Holy Boost (F+), Holy Firestorm (F-)

Fireball (E-) [Skill]

Tier F

Summon three fireballs at your command. The fireballs can be sent to explode in a designated area or seek out enemies in sight. Consumes a small amount of mana. Moderate cooldown.

Tier E

Extra four fireballs.

Holy Boost (F+) [Skill]

Boosts power and strength of conjured magic, increasing base damage. Consumes a small amount of mana.

Holy Firestorm (F-) [Skill]

Conjure a miniature fire tornado on your hand. You can send the fire tornado to a designated area in sight, burning everything in its wake before dissipating after a few seconds. The tornado won't damage allies in the area, but instead heal their injuries. Consumes a medium amount of mana. Long cooldown.

"Look at this." Kai conjured a small blazing tornado on his hand. "Pretty awesome right?"

"Yeah." Nico said.

"Oh right, how are you able to use magic? I thought they were disabled by those mushroom spores you inhaled earlier?"

"I don't know." Kai conjured his mote on his hand. "I just kept on trying to conjure magic until I was able to. Maybe it just wore off or something."