There was a commotion in the Lithauri camp. From their vantage point atop a tiny, high outcrop of rock, the Crashing Hawks saw the monsterfolk stir like agitated ants in a nest.

“Wonder what’s gotten them all bothered. Lucas, do you see anything?”

Brent looked at the team’s sole archer, Lucas Stelmer. He was currently laying on his stomach, an uncomfortable position on the bumpy and jagged ground, and peering through a circle of glass. The glass was enchanted to reveal mana by looking through it, and Lucas was using his [Farsight] to scan the monsterfolk camp for their target.

“There’s heavy ambient mana here, cap. Makes it hard to see clearly through this blasted thing. I’m picking up a lot of people and a few mages, but there’s something…”

His voice trailed off and Brent prompted him again, “Something what? Something wrong?”

Lucas made a negative sound. “Not really, but uh, the mages have really weird signatures. It’s all off.”

Brent sighed. He shifted to a new position, wincing at a knob of rock dug into his arm. The team had to squeeze to all fit in this tiny space, leaving them to endure being pressed in by stone on all sides. It was too bad that they didn’t have a more powerful [Dampening] spell; their mage could only cast one ranging a few meters. It wasn’t very ideal, but they were all adventurers. Make do or die.

Although Brent really wanted to make do with this Lithauri camp for as short of a time as possible. He hissed at Lucas, “Lords, man, just find Anthony. The lizards are doing some mana ritual thing with the mages.”

The archer was quiet for a few seconds. “I think I’ve got our guy. There’s a building with all the mages inside. But there’s— ”

Brent poked his leg. “Shhh. What’s this building?”

Lucas set down his glass circle and gave him a withering look. “Captain, I was about to say that there’s some kind of undead rampaging around down there. There’s only one, but it’s at least tier four by the looks of it.”

Brent sucked in a breath. He grabbed for the enchanted glass and wiggled over to look down over the camp. While he didn’t have [Farsight] like Lucas or any abilities for vision, his eyes were just fine for getting a general view. The glass showed the camp through a smudy haze of light, distant silver and gold splotches being monsterfolk and humans. He didn’t see the telltale darker grey aura of an undead, though.

“Lucas, where’s that undead? I don’t see anything.”

The archer snatched the glass back. “The miasma’s being partly hidden by all the mana in the air. Sorry to say that without a vision ability, you’ll never get a clear glance, Cap. The undead is near our target, though. The big building that looks like a cone. You can’t miss it; there’s runes all over the thing.”

There indeed was a large conical structure in the camp. Brent squinted at it. It wasn’t too far away, but there were a large amount of monsterfolk in the way. They might be a problem.

“Okay. We’re headed down for that building. Daniel, keep that dampening field active until we bump into some lizards. Then we’re making a break for the mages. If anything gets in our way, kill it. Especially if it’s that undead. I’ll decide the procedure if we get bogged. We’re starting stealthed and leaving through the tunnel we marked earlier.”

A fairly ugly plan, as far as things went. But Brent wasn't someone who could give rousing speeches before battle. Daniel and Aaron, the other two members of the team, nodded at the words and got ready to move. Brent stood up and loosened his sword in its scabbard.

“Let’s go, Hawks.”

— -

The team clambered down the narrow crevice, one of many sunk into the stone surrounding the massive cave of the monsterfolk camp. Aaron, a [Rogue], crept ahead. The others followed in a tight group. They moved slowly, relying on the [Dampening] spell to avoid whatever low-level detection magic the Lithauri had. As silver-rank adventurers, they were cautious of a smart, prepared, and more numerous enemy. Yes, they were facing monsterfolk, who rarely got classes and suffered from slow leveling, but the Lithauri weren’t a joke. Anything that lived in the Crags needed to be taken seriously.

Brent was all too happy to take the slow route, as long as it got him to the right place. He didn’t want to be known as a captain who always went in wands blazing and got swamped. Speed was useful, and even necessary in some situations, but that would be later. Once they got the monsterfolk all nice and pissed off.

“Lucas, let me know when we’re past the camp screens,” Brent whispered from behind the archer. “I don’t want to keep this snail’s pace all the way to the buildings. Anthony might be in a time-sensitive situation.”

Lucas gave the hand signal for OK and kept walking forward at an agonizingly slow speed. He had an arrow on his bowstring and was peering intently into the shadowy tunnel ahead, looking ahead for… things. Brent blinked a few times and sighed when he couldn’t make out anything in the darkness. He could barely see the rough ground three feet ahead of him as it was. The [Warrior] wanted something to light up the tunnel, like a nice burning stick, but that would contradict with the stealthy part of his plan. Daniel’s [Dampening] wasn’t strong enough to conceal much from magical senses, so they needed to advance in darkness or risk triggering the light-sensing rune traps scattered all over the tunnels around the camp.

It didn’t make the journey very fun. But, make do or die. The adage was drilled into you by the time you became a licensed bronze-rank adventurer.

Brent focused on Lucas’s light breathing as they journeyed through the tunnel. A few minutes in and Aaron came back, seeming to appear out of a shadow thanks to his abilities and dark clothing. He whispered, “The camp proper is just ahead. There’re some lizards out and about, but we can pass by 'em for the first half-dozen buildings if we go slow. After that, we’ll have to give up being quiet; there’s too many to ignore. At that point, it’s only a bit of running before we’ll reach our target.”

Lucas nodded and turned around to address Brent. The adventurer captain rolled his eyes and gestured with his hand, “I heard him, forget what I said earlier. Let’s go.”

The archer nodded. They started walking at a faster pace, eager to make contact after an hour of traveling through the dank, twisting passageways of the Crags.

Brent found himself following a shallow turn which suddenly opened into the monsterfolk camp. He couldn’t help but stare at the neatly ordered buildings and the massive, concentric rings of runes running around the cavern, wondering how the monsterfolk—who were supposed to be a bunch of primitive, squatting beast-people—managed to set this all up. If he didn’t know better, this looked unsettlingly like a tiny civilization tucked away into the depths of the underground.

But it wasn’t. These were all violent, human-eating lizard people. And this was their camp. Brent blinked a few times and focused back on what was happening.

The team could rely on [Dampening] to magically muffle their presence and make it hard to discern their figures from the shadows and dark stone buildings of the camp, but that would change once there were too many monsterfolk to fool.

It was working great right now, though. Brent was able to watch a trio of lizard-like monsterfolk amble past, just a stone’s throw away. They were obviously sentries, judging by their light armor and the way they lazily scanned the buildings and walls of the cavern. Their attention fortunately wasn’t drawn to the adventurers in their midst, although Brent saw that their gaze wandered right over the humans. It was as much thanks to Daniel’s efforts as their own perception; the Lithauri wouldn’t expect a retaliation from Drastum so soon after a raid, and the last thing the sentries were expecting was a group of humans slinking around their camp.

The three monsterfolk soon moved on and the Hawks moved further into the camp. They came across two more Lithauri patrols, all unaware of their presence, and eventually hit a gate. It was part of a stretch of fortifications separating the inner part of the camp from the outer regions, and was going to be the first major obstacle in their way.

Aaron returned from scouting ahead and shook his head, indicating that there wasn’t an easy way through. Brent thought for a second and whispered, “We’ll need to break through the gate. It’ll be over with stealth, but we’re just about at the point that we’d get noticed. I’ll cut through the bars with the tool I brought. Aaron, you find a way over and wrap up any lizards who decide to do something about it. Lucas, watch our backs. Daniel, turn off [Dampening] and get ready for when the gates fall. Keep our path clear.”

The three gave affirmatives. Aaron unwound a segmented chain whip, his weapon of choice, before saluting and dashing away. The remaining adventurers approached the gate, using the last few moments of [Dampening] to avoid being called out by the sentries manning the wall. There weren’t any monsterfolk at the base of the gate, and Brent was able to go right up to the iron bars without an alarm being raised.

He pulled out a magic item, a strange metal circle-thing aptly named a ‘cutter’, and activated it. The metal circle turned out to be a blade and it began rotating with a buzzing sound through a series of runes. Brent pressed the spinning blade to the metal bars of the gate and watched it rapidly eat into the iron, creating a shower of sparks. The [Warrior] grinned at the fast rate the cutter was taking; the man in the armoury had made a great recommendation. He would have to thank Linnik. And see where he could buy one of these.

Their antics weren't going unnoticed, though. As Brent cut his way through a section of the bars, Lucas and Daniel had to hold off Lithauri who were very interested in the loud noise and the humans who were breaking through their gate. Already, several sentries were laying on the ground, downed by arrows and acid.

Lucas was busily shooting at monsterfolk coming in between buildings while Daniel flung corrosive orbs at sentries who crawled down from the wall. Apparently, some of the Lithauri could do that—climb vertical surfaces. The few monsterfolk who tried to drop down on the three adventurers from above received a burst of acid to the face from Daniel. The [Alchemist] and [Mage] was saving most of his mana for dealing with the inevitable horde of angry monsterfolk who would accost the adventurers on the other side of the gate, but helped Lucas with thinning the resistance before they got through.

After half a minute of steady cutting, a rectangle of bars detached from the gate and fell to the ground with a loud clang. Brent turned off the cutter and jammed it into his bag of holding, drawing his one-handed arming sword. No greatsword—at this point, speed was key, and he had a buckler for protection instead of heavy armor.

“Gate’s open! Let’s go!”

Brent shouted at Lucas and Daniel. He ran through the hole in the gate and cast his gaze around for Aaron. The [Rogue] was dancing around a small force of Lithauri who had arrived to see what the commotion was about, using his movement abilities to stay out of reach while harassing them with snaps of his weapon.

He was serving to mostly distract the monsterfolk until Brent and the others got through, a job he did very well. The Lithauri were running around, trying to pin down the elusive human in their midst and barely even noticing the adventurers who suddenly came through the gate.

Which was perfect for Brent and the others to slip by. Only a few monsterfolk were fast enough to try and stop them, and they were rapidly cut down by the silver-rank adventurers. With [Enhanced Strength], Brent was able to simply smash aside the Lithauri with blows of his sword while Lucas and Daniel followed behind, downing monsterfolk ahead with arrow and spell. The three quickly moved past the gate area and deeper into the camp.

— -

Aaron watched his teammates move by and knew that he was done at the gate. A guard got a bit too close with a pike, and he was forced to do an awkward dodge back. He whipped the bladed head of his whip in an arc and caught the lizard-man on the arm, ripping a chunk of scales off and knocking the pike to the side. Amid pained hissing, the [Rogue] took a few quick steps back to avoid getting flanked by a pair of sentries and considered the fastest way to cut the fight and run.

The monsterfolk started closing in again and Aaron spotted a few with bows. Damn. He couldn’t count on dodging arrows at this distance. He saw a tiny gap in between two angry guards and decided to take it, moving over with [Flash Step] and hitting the monsterfolk on the left with a straight strike. The guard recoiled from the blow and Aaron ducked through the opening, taking a blade to the back of his shoulder. His woven armor managed to keep his skin from getting cut but the impact put him off balance. He stumbled slightly and managed to not fall, transitioning his momentum into sprinting. The archers sent a few arrows after him, but the rest of the monsterfolk could only watch as the dark-clothed human rapidly outpaced them in pursuit of his teammates.

— -

Meanwhile, Brent had encountered some problems. The undead rampaging through just a bit earlier had caused a large amount of Lithauri—armed and armoured—to gather in hunting groups around the camp, and they caused no small amount of difficulty to the adventurers trying to make their way through. Already they had gotten into several encounters, having to deal with increasingly large numbers of tribe members.

At first, it was only groups of three or four. Brent could handle those by himself fairly well. But as the Lithauri congregated into groups of six or more, led by the massive Vorcen, the adventurers were having trouble beating them back quickly. Even if the fights were winnable, each second spent not sprinting towards Anthony was a second they were losing on the mission.

Brent cursed as an axe slammed into his shield, rocking him back. They couldn’t afford to get into any more drawn out fights; more monsterfolk were arriving at the second and there wouldn’t be much time until the adventurers were overwhelmed. The only reason they’d survived so long was a combination of teamwork and their levels—the monsterfolk had notoriously few, even if they were naturally stronger than humans.

But eventually the tables would turn. The camp was stirring to the surprise attack and Brent wasn’t sure how much more time they had before the Lithauri elites started coming in force. The Vorcen and shaman casters were the equivalent of at least level fifteen [Warriors] and [Mages], and there were a lot of them. Thinking on this, Brent made a decision and shouted out to his teammates.

“Lucas, Daniel, glue storm! We need it now!”

It was slightly too early to use this particular move, but Brent gambled that it was now or never. They needed something to break through the groups of monsterfolk gathering in their way and get to Anthony as fast as possible. He knocked his attacker away with the edge of his shield and backed up near Daniel, who started casting.

The mage unleashed a torrent of blue liquid from the tip of his staff, raining it on as many Lithauri as he could reach. Brent and Lucas were spared from the downpour—the adventurers were all behind Daniel—and they watched the monsterfolk get drenched. Once all the Lithauri nearby were all covered with the stuff, Lucas fired a blue-shafted sonic arrow. It didn’t look particularly magical, but as it flew through the air, it emitted a barely perceivable keen.

The sound caused the liquid to gum up, expanding and hardening to form a tough material. The monsterfolk unlucky enough to get a dose across the face thrashed around on the ground after their eyes and mouths were glued shut, suffocating to death even as their limbs were frozen stiff. The rest could barely move in the restrictive covering, falling down and struggling to get free.

Brent tried to ignore the Lithauri who were dying on the ground. He, Lucas, and Daniel moved past the disabled monsterfolk and continued approaching their target. Half a minute of running and they’d be at the conical building. The glue storm had taken care of many of the monsterfolk gathering ahead of them, coating the ground with viscous foamy sludge that Daniel dispelled.

As they approached the conical structure, Aaron ran up from behind. He was panting and his armor was ripped. Brent noticed that he was missing a few throwing knives, plus a healing potion.

“Nice to see you’ve caught up. We’re just about to enter.”

Aaron shot him a glare and took up a position around the entrance with the rest. Brent heard Daniel casting several protection spells and waited until the mage was done. He accepted a potion of [Stoneskin] and downed it in one, feeling his skin start to harden and turn more dense. Before any of them could hesitate—or wonder why any guards were suspiciously missing—he bashed down the doors and charged in.

The sight that awaited them inside was bizarre. An obelisk stood in the center of the room, surrounded by—coffins?—laying half-sunken into the ground. Intricate lines of runes were carved everywhere and a bunch of monsterfolk mages were standing at intervals around the room, throwing spells at an undead—the undead that was causing chaos in the camp earlier—ripping into an unfortunate shaman. Half of the mages snapped around and started flinging magic at the adventurers when they crashed in, and Brent had no time to take everything in before he found himself under attack.

He rushed at the closest Lithauri, slamming a shield into the surprised lizard-man’s neck and stabbing into his side. The mage collapsed and he moved on to the next one. Brent knocked aside her staff before she could finish whatever she was casting and punched her in the head. The monsterfolk dropped like a stone and Brent hit her again to make sure she wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

Amid the loud sounds of multiple fights breaking out, Brent took a quick look around. Aaron was flickering around attacks left and right, Lucas was shooting magical arrows at the monsterfolk on the other side of the room, and Daniel was exchanging spellfire with three Lithauri mages at once. Oh, and the undead had killed another shaman and was about to take a [Fireball] to the chest.

So they were all fine. Brent grinned as [Concussion Beams] and [Mana Bolts] failed to break through his magically strengthened skin. He brought his sword down in a brutal strike at a monsterfolk and watched the mage crumple under the blow. Moved onto another. They all needed to go down before Anthony could be extracted safely.

Under the onslaught of the silver-rankers, the Lithauri fell back like leaves before a gale. On an open battlefield, prepared, they might have stood a chance against the Hawks. But they were in the middle of a ritual and trapped inside a closed room, split between an undead and the adventurers. Fodder.

After seven of them had fallen, the rest of the monsterfolk mages threw down their weapons and surrendered. Daniel maneuvered them all into a circle of holding while Aaron went outside to stem the arrival of more Lithauri. Brent and Lucas warily approached the undead, which had been flung across the room and was laying still.

It looked like a revenant, or maybe a very plain draugr. It was distinctly undead, by the way it felt. A faint aura of miasma seemed to constantly be floating around it. Without that, it could have passed for a human, although one with abnormally pale skin.

Brent had seen it taking multiple direct hits from spells without stopping, so he knew it was fairly resilient. Higher-tier undead tended to be pretty hard to kill. Actually, higher-tier anything were pretty hard to kill.

The revenant/draugr was covered in scorch marks and scored with black wounds, evidence of its fight with the monsterfolk. Nothing looked like it was enough to put it down, and there wasn’t as much blood as there should have been. By Brent’s guessing, the monsterfolk hadn’t been able to kill it. Which wasn’t surprising—it had to be at least tier four to single-handedly run around in the middle of the Lithauri camp. But it didn’t look like it was about to jump up and start trying to kill them, either—it was probably in statis or whatever undead did when they shut down—so he motioned to Lucas to leave it alone. He’d rather focus on extracting the target instead of starting a difficult fight.

Brent turned around and approached the obelisk, intent on throwing open the coffins. They stubbornly refused to budge, and unable to see any clear mechanism, Brent used an iron bar to lever them open. The first ones on the side of the door all seemed to contain the same sight; emaciated humans covered in blood. A few of them moved weakly when the light of the room shone through the openings, and Brent hurried to help them up. He got crusted blood all over his gambeson, but damned was he going to leave a bunch of people in that state in the hands of the monsterfolk.

After four coffins, three of which had living humans—the second one seemed to just be a tortured corpse—Brent came across Anthony. While he was only recently introduced into this Lithauri ritual, the necromancer was bleeding from all over his body and looked to be a sorry mess. He was still conscious, though, which was good, even if he was a bit out of it. Brent shook him lightly.

“Anthony? We’re here to get you out.”

Their target looked at him dazedly—Brent winced when he realized that Anthony had been bleeding from his eyes—and suddenly clutched at the adventurer.

“I’m not dead?”

Brent awkwardly patted him on the back. “No, you’re not. I’m part of an adventuring team dispatched from Drastum. If you’re feeling all right, we’ll need to move out right away. Monsterfolk’ll be here at any moment.”

Anthony blinked a few more times and let go of the [Warrior]. He looked at his hands, which had blood crusted on the nails, and then around the room.

“The revenant. It’s here.”

Confused, Brent furrowed his brows. “What? You mean that undead?”

Anthony spotted the pale body at the same time that Aaron entered the room from the door. The [Rogue] was out of breath and immediately called out to Brent.

“Captain! Monsterfolk elite approaching, at least a dozen. Vorcen, with three times their number of normal Lithauri starting to encircle. We need to leave, now.”

Brent gave a sharp nod.

“All right. Daniel! Leave the lizard mages in the circle, keep it going until we leave. Levitate the guys in the coffins behind us, we’re taking them along. Lucas, you help Aaron give us a clear path. Anything goes; dump everything into helping us get out.”

He turned to Anthony. “Sorry to bring this all on you so quick, but we’re leaving. Let’s move.”

The necromancer mumbled something and turned to the undead in the room.

“That’s my revenant. My revenant.”

Brent wanted to slap some sense into him for dawdling. He watched Lucas and Aaron leave through the door while Daniel was busy with the human prisoners.

“Oh, damn it, bring the thing along. Keep it on leash.”

Anthony gave a weak smile and walked over to the undead. Brent ran over to help Daniel get the rest of the people out of the coffins around the obelisk. All of the alive mages—none of who looked capable of standing up by themselves, let alone running out of a monsterfolk camp—were hastily levitated into a big, clumsy bundle. Anthony had done something to the revenant and they were both standing by the door, looking rather ragged. Brent saw that everyone was ready to go and cast one final look around at the room.

“All right. Daniel, don’t overdo yourself with the mana potions. Just try to keep the guys floating. Anthony, you, uh, just stay behind us. And don’t let me see that bloody undead try to attack us.”

He jabbed his finger at the revenant for emphasis, briefly looking into its black, midnight eyes. Anthony nodded and Brent went through the door.

The scene ‘outside’ was fairly nightmarish. Howling and hissing lizard-people were approaching from all sides, looking murderous. Brent spotted a group of massive Lithauri Vorcen advancing at them while other monsterfolk gathered in between buildings. Lucas was ducking behind a massive stone pillar while Aaron was nowhere to be seen, the only evidence of his presence being large clouds of dark smoke spreading in between buildings.

Open seeing them, Lucas hurriedly waved them over. He did a double take at the revenant but kept his voice even.

“You guys took your time.”

Brent accepted the comment without complaint.

“Sorry. Had to get all the people out. Daniel’s occupied, do you have anything big to cut us a hole?”

Lucas held out two arrows. One had a strange, bulbous tip and the other one had runes covering an oversized arrowhead.

“A water elemental summon and a quaker. I’m thinking that we do the summon first.”

Brent nodded and looked up at the sound of several arrows clattering to the ground nearby. Monsterfolk archers were within range and had started coordinated barrages on the humans. Daniel had [Lesser Field of Slowing] up, although he wasn’t in any condition to keep it up long. Brent glanced at the motley assortment of people behind him.

“Throw the elemental straight. I’ll lead us out.”

Lucas answered by taking the bulbous-tipped arrow and stepping around to the pillar's side. He drew and aimed for a single moment before releasing, turning back quickly before a lucky monsterfolk arrow nailed him.

Upon hearing a loud splash, Brent motioned with his sword and moved forward. He saw that a large blob of water had coalesced into existence on top of a building in front of him and was flowing down to ground level. The air felt dry and the [Warrior] saw several unlucky monsterfolk husks on the ground, drained of all moisture. The water elemental continued growing until it was nearly eight feet tall.

It started smacking aside nearby monsterfolk with whiplike tendrils of liquid, bulldozing through the camp on a straight path to a cavern wall. Too bad it didn’t completely clear the path, but the Lithauri that were left behind were much easier to handle than the swarms that had occupied the space earlier. Brent fell into a rhythm of shoving and slashing at the monsterfolk who tried to stop them, battering their weapons away and leaving them on the side of the path for the others to pass over or finish off.

They made fast progress that way, the elemental partially making up for Daniel not being in action, but it all came to a stop when they reached the gate.

Fuck. Brent saw that the Lithauri hadn’t been idle while the adventurers had gotten the prisoners. A stone barricade had been set up in front of the bars and a large number of monsterfolk were standing guard. It was good that Lucas still had an ace in the hole, that quaker arrow.

The archer didn’t need prompting. He slowed down and nocked the spell shot, aiming directly at the gate. Time seemed to slow when he released the arrow, and Brent’s eyes were drawn to the glowing streak of light it made through the air. It sank into the stone of the barricade with a thunk.

The [Warrior] waited for something to happen. He took a moment to check behind him and see that everyone was still grouped up. Daniel wasn’t looking so good; he was ashen-faced and visibly trembling from the effort of levitating the freed mages. Aaron was in the very back, using up the last of his darkmist powder. Anthony seemed to be fine with the revenant.

Brent couldn’t help but notice that the Vorcen were drawing near. The massive Lithauri were coming at them in a dead run, and would be upon them in moments. No time to think. That quaker arrow better work.

He turned his head back when a rumbling sounded through the cavern. Vibrations under his feet turned into intense shaking and he crouched to not lose balance, watching the monsterfolk near the gate practically fling themselves to the ground. A narrow rift opened up in the ground with a thunderous groaning sound, swallowing a part of the gate and causing most of it to collapse.

Oh, right.

Quaker. Tier four spell. Probably not smart to use underground. But the magic arrow had gotten the job done, anyhow. The gate was pretty much gone.

And so was the water elemental. The vibrations had caused it to lose shape and spill into the fissure, disappearing forever in the underground abyss. Brent grimaced at its loss, but shouted, “Keep moving!”

Everyone picked up the pace, following the adventurer captain as he stepped over the crumbled assortment of stone blocks and monsterfolk bodies. A few Lithauri were still alive under the broken rubble and Brent swiftly put the ones he could reach out of their misery with stabs of his sword. Suddenly, he heard bellowing and turned around, seeing the Vorcen following them over the remnants of the gate.

“Shit.”

They’d never make it out of the camp without being run down. Brent turned around and gestured for the rest of his group to keep going. Lucas and Daniel turned like they were going to follow him, but he furiously waved them away.

“Dammit, go! I’ll delay them.”

Lucas stubbornly refused to listen to him and drew a dagger. Brent stopped and looked him in the eyes.

“This isn’t some heroic shit I’m getting into, Stelmer. If you don’t have any more arrows, leave. Trust me.”

The archer reluctantly turned back, following Aaron, who tugged on his hand and ran.

Brent eyed the Vorcen, who had stopped a distance away. They knew his strength. Levels. But he was only a single human. A single adventurer. Trespassing. Brent saw something pass in between them, and as one, they came forward.

He loosened his grip on his sword, avoiding the instinct to clutch it too tightly. These kinds of fights were what [Warriors] were born for.

“[Valefury]. [Unyielding Body].”

He roared and met the Vorcen head-on.

— -

Anthony looked back where the adventurer captain was taking on the monsterfolk. From the glimpses he took in between bouts of sprinting for his life, he saw that the massive lizard-people were striking at the figure in their midst, somehow never able to bring him down. As he watched, one of them received a wound in the torso and raised a warhammer, bellowing loud enough to assault their ears even from here. He turned his head back forwards, not wanting to see what would happen.

Daniel was recuperating while on the run, accepting Anthony’s offer of having the [Necromancer] take a turn levitating the rescued mages. The revenant seemed to be content to follow behind.

After Brent did his last stand thing, it had just been a mad dash to a rigged tunnel that the adventuring team had prepared. Anthony followed the adventurers into a darkened passage, sensing runes near the mouth activate and collapse the entrance in a cloud of dust. He thought of the adventurer captain and opened his mouth.

Daniel answered his question before he could even say anything.

“Everyone, wait up. We need to stay still for the [Teleport] marker to work.”

The mage knelt down and quickly placed a circle of engraved objects on the rocky ground. He closed his eyes, and after a few seconds, the rods began to glow.

There was a faint pop, and suddenly Brent appeared in the tunnel. Sword in hand, bleeding from a half dozen wounds and with a cracked shield strapped to his broken left arm, he coughed.

“Fuck, that always gets me. Good timing, Daniel. Didn’t know if I could take another hit to the side.”

He looked around, seeing the floating bundle of unconscious mages, Anthony with a dumbstruck expression on his face, and Daniel kneeling near his feet.

“I think it’s about time to get out of this place.”