After checking that everyone had the food and potions they would need, Anika got an invitation from Felix to join the group.

Felix has invited you to a group.

Accept Yes/No

After accepting the invitation, she could now see three other character portraits belonging to her team members in her view. When she focused on Felix's picture, she noticed that she could inspect his character sheet, just like her own. She was curious about what information this might reveal but didn't have time to look at anything before they all walked towards the dungeon.

The entrance to the Nightmare Caverns was a large stone archway, built into the ground right in front of them. There was no door to enter through. Instead, the entrance looked like some fuzzy tapestry. It was evident where the border was, and it reminded Anika of a film she had once seen, called Stargate, where the people would enter into a different world by walking through a portal. She let the others go first, then she took a deep breath and walked through it herself.

You have entered: Nightmare Caverns

Leaving your group will result in being transported outside this entrance immediately

It was cold in this dungeon; it smelled of stale air, and there was water trickling down the side of the walls on either side of them. It was also really quiet. The sound of the trees and the animals from the forest they had just left were completely gone. All they could hear was trickling and dripping water, and their own footsteps. Anika moved as quietly as she could, watching her step and staying fully alert to any danger they might face. The others seemed to charge ahead with little care. She supposed they had been here before and knew what to look out for.

After a few minutes of walking through the wet and narrow tunnel, it got brighter. A light was being provided by torches high on the walls. Looking past her group members, up ahead, she could see that the corridor opened into a large room. Felix put his hand up to signal that they should stop before they entered."

"You guys know what to do, but Anika, it's important that you send Beth inside as soon as I give the command. Okay? The first mobs are pretty easy, let's go."

Felix must've activated his stealth ability because he became almost invisible. She could see his faint outline, he was crouching and making his way around the edge of the room. At this point, she was getting worried. She couldn't see any targets to shoot at, and she had no idea where she should send Beth once he gave the signal.

"Anika," Felix whispered, "send Beth into the middle of the room."

Beth knew what she was supposed to do because she looked at Anika as if waiting for her master to give the go-ahead. Anika nodded to her and off she went. There was nothing for her to charge at, so she walked in at a slow pace, checking her surroundings and looking for danger. When she got into the middle of the room, there was a sudden noise coming from every corner in the room. It was like a painful groan, and it echoed throughout the chamber and into the tunnel where Anika and the others were standing.

Hamish and Lilia both cast a spell, almost simultaneously. Following this, they both glowed ever so slightly. Hamish was a translucent blue and Lilia now glowed in a purple colour. They had also both changed stance. It was clear from their body language they were about to fight. Anika took the cue and got her bow out, but with nowhere to aim she held it pointing down and waited for instructions. She could feel that Beth was nervous, trying to find out where the sound was coming from.

As the sound and the echoes faded away, it became silent. That was when Anika spotted their first targets. From each corner of the room, some sort of ghostly skeleton walked straight through the walls towards Beth. She had spotted the first two in the corners in front of her and was hesitating, not knowing which one to engage. At that moment, Felix broke his stealth and slashed with his daggers at the skeleton nearest to him. Beth joined him, and before Anika had figured out what was going on, the two of them had taken care of the first skeleton and were making their way over to the next one.

Lilia was cupping both hands together and was creating some form of magic in between her hands. After a couple of seconds, she fired a massive bolt of blue magic straight into the skeleton that was making its way towards Beth and Felix. It stopped in its tracks, as if it was frozen, then it looked around at the three of them in the entrance to the room.

"Take care of that one Anika, it's frozen and won't be able to move for a few seconds." Lilia turned her attention to the last skeleton which had not yet been engaged. She prepared another bolt of magic in between her hands.

So far, Anika hadn't taken a single shot. Part of her had been too absorbed by what Beth was doing, the other part of her just didn't know who she should focus on. She was glad to be given instructions and started firing arrows into the frozen skeleton. In all the confusion, she couldn't tell if she was doing much damage. But she had a feeling that her arrows were just going straight through the target, having minimal effect, if any.

Lilia had frozen the second skeleton by the time the first one had freed itself from her spell. Anika just kept shooting arrows into it, but she panicked when it looked straight at her, raised its long sword and moved in her direction. It was clear now that her arrows were not having any effect. It got close enough for her to see its health bar. Lilia's spell must have knocked a small chunk off, but after five or six arrows there was absolutely no change.

Beth and Felix must have finished their second target off, because the skeleton heading straight for Anika, stumbled and turned around to face them after being attacked from behind. They seemed to be working well together. The skeleton was now facing Beth and Felix, the rogue was dodging every blow from their target and stepping to the side and behind it, delivering a vicious stab several times a second. Watching Felix was quite a show. It was as if he was dancing around the target, now and then he would draw his daggers back and charge them with some sort of energy. His next attack was powered by a yellow glow that surrounded his blades. It was clear that this particular attack was causing a lot of damage.

One minute later and there was only one skeleton left to kill. The next moment, the whole thing was over before Anika got into the action.

Beth returned to Anika with a clear sign of triumph in her eyes. Felix joined them, petting Beth on the head and calling her a good girl.

"You need to use a magic shot, Anika," Lilia sighed. She was staring into space, not addressing Anika directly. "I'm checking the combat logs, Beth is doing a decent amount of damage, but you did nothing. What's the problem?"

Anika was sure she didn't have access to a magic shot. She checked her character sheet with the skills and abilities listed just to be sure, but couldn't find anything.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I have learnt a magic shot yet."

"Oh yeah, you don't get that until level 5 I think." Felix was looking straight into the air as well, checking these combat logs Lilia had mentioned.

"It's no big deal though, Beth and I took care of those skeletons no problem, didn't we?" He gave Beth another affectionate rub.

"Great." Lilia was not impressed. "I say we leave now and wait for Anika to level up. She needs to see a class trainer before we go any further. We are already treading on thin ice with a group of four players and no tank. If she can't do any damage, then we will be screwed.

Hamish looked like he had also finished checking the combat logs and joined the conversation.

"I think we did okay, nobody got hurt. I didn't have to do anything during that fight. Beth is pretty solid, so it might just take us longer than normal to work our way through the next few rooms. I'll be happy if we can take down the Skeleton Queen. Should be some good loot on her and then we can always see after that."

Felix agreed and told Lilia to chill out.