Fire, ice, and lightning. The cavern became filled with it.

After what seemed an hour to Drizzt, Druia, and Entreri, who watched from a neutral position in the ring, the casting ceased, and the collected mages peered through the smoke to see what remained.

Even the weakest fighters present had magical protection, though some were better equipped than others. The troll that had been banished at dinner, along with two other trolls, were vaporized. Seven other lower-level creatures such as orcs and ogres had been thrown far from the gathering, and only four of the original seven stirred. Others, human and elven, lay on the ground writhing in pain or not moving at all.

The initial attack had cut the effectiveness of Styne's army in half, but the first strike advantage was over, and the mages could now only cast mass damage spells at the risk of injuring themselves. The remaining fighters were quite formidable too.

There was a barbarian, a look-a-like for Wulfgar, though he carried a mace and was dressed as a druid, likely the reason he was unaffected by the elemental attacks. Warrick and Cayne had both seemed to shrug off the magical blasts, Cayne likely offering protection to both of them. Gunthor was singed, but his magical skin had held up well. Three dwarves were now hairless but twice as enraged.

They all charged.

The dwarves, barbarian, and Gunthor went for the Tanar'ri, who greeted them warmly, killing two of the dwarves instantly. Gunthor, with the Thunder Blade swinging freely, attacked one of the demons, while the Barbarian parried a few strikes from another, dealing his own damage in turn.

Warrick hung back as Styne and Cayne, two battle mages, initiated attacks against the apprentices. Protections were brought down, and offensive spells struck home, sending the mages in retreat. Warrick jumped in after a while, cleaning up what Styne and Cayne left behind.

Deltrophan looked on from above with interest. "This is different," Yeltriz said, hovering over his shoulder. The mage cast the familiar a sarcastic look but didn't say anything. He didn't like it.

The demon fighting Gunthor was stumbling in retreat, more in shock than injury. The Tanar'ri's back came up against the cavern wall directly beneath Deltrophan's observation perch, and he could no longer backpedal. He lashed out, but Gunthor parried and returned the favor. He took off an arm. It was the first time the demon had fought against someone that might actually be stronger than he was. It was also the last time he would fight against someone that might actually be stronger than he was - or anyone at all, for that matter.

Gunthor took the creature's head and then turned to backstab the demon fighting the barbarian. The druid was sorely pressed, but as Gunthor cut deep into the back of the Tanar'ri's knee, the creature buckled, and the barbarian leaped forward, crushing bones with his mace. As the last demon finished off the remaining dwarf, he turned to face Gunthor, the druid, and half a dozen more fighters behind them.

The lesser creatures that had been hurled from the primary fight by the initial strike had all sense knocked out of them and charged to fight the first enemies that presented themselves. The trio in the ring was as good as any. "On guard," Entreri suddenly cried when he saw the orcs and ogres coming at them.

The other two fighters turned as well, Drizzt being the lucky one to take on two of the four creatures. He batted aside two axe attacks with one blade in a quick crossing parry and dropped into a crouch to lash out at an exposed knee. He ended up having to use his second weapon to parry as the exposed legs kicked at him.

His parry cut deep into an orc's leg, and Drizzt popped back up, sidestepping to put the injured orc between him and his other adversary. Even not hobbled, the pathetic creature didn't have much of a chance. It reared back with its axe, and Drizzt cut him down before the attack could even start.

The orc fell, and the much bigger ogre stepped over him. Drizzt caught his attack with both weapons and watched as a dirk slipped in under the parry and opened a gash in the ogre's chest. Drizzt turned long enough to see that Entreri's first foe was lying in a pool of blood and then turned back to the ogre to work on making another such pool.

Though plenty strong, the ogre couldn't stand up against the four blades of Drizzt and Entreri, who attacked in perfect harmony. As he fell, they both turned to find Druia. She was just pulling her bloodied pike from the ogre that had attacked her. "We need to get out of here," she said.

Entreri turned to look at the scene Druia saw and concurred. The apprentices had lost two of their numbers so far and were huddled beneath a similar spell to the one that normally protected the arena. It defended them from physical attack, but it could be cast through. The apprentices were doing plenty of that. Their hold spells were useless against the fighters whose minds were far too honed for that. Styne and Cayne were countering their damage spells. Eventually, they resorted to summoning spells. Gates began to open up all over the cavern, and the most horrid creatures started to pour out of them. The third Tanar'ri was just being finished off by a swarm of fighters as these new horrors invaded the fight.

Styne stood in the middle, trying to give orders to his fighters as the hoards swarmed around them. Deltrophan eyed him hatefully. He cast again. Another gate to the abyss opened up, and while his apprentices were summoning lower denizens, Deltrophan brought forth a balor. The creature stepped into the cavern right behind Styne, holding its vorpal greatsword tight in its muscled arms.

Styne felt the heat of his enemy one moment before his life would have ended. He drew his own broadsword for the first time, turning and parrying. Though tall, the battlemage wasn't a third as big as his opponent and should have been crushed by the blow, parry or not. Instead, Styne pushed back, sparks flying from his weapon.

The balor stumbled back, and Styne fell inside himself with a spell. A column of lightning fell on him like some beefed-up priest spell, but this strike wasn't doing damage. Quite the opposite, the strike brought a primal scream from the battlemage, and his size doubled. The lighting vanished as the balor stepped back in, but Styne was now 10 feet tall, his sword a match in size to the balor's, and lighting coursed through everything.

The balor hesitated and then died. Styne's sword spat out lighting like a weapon arcing water in a rainstorm. His first attack bashed the vorpal greatsword out of the way, and the second blasted a hole in balor's chest large enough for a horse to ride through.

Styne was on a blood lust spell, and as his eyes scanned the cavern, he saw only one target he cared about. With a great leap, Styne flew through the air and landed on the ledge next to Deltrophan. The ancient mage regarded his former student casually as his electric blade came slashing down from 10 feet up. The sword hit an invisible barrier, and the shock threw Styne across the small hollowed area, crashing into the cavern wall.

Yeltriz thought that this would be an excellent time to make himself scarce. He should have winked out of the cavern, but the fight was far too entertaining to leave. Instead, he flew high up into an empty corner of the cavern and dropped an invisibility spell on himself.

"We need to go," Druia repeated.

The other two had nodded in agreement the first time she had said it, but then they had just stood, staring in awe at the carnage around them. Cayne had taken over the army in Styne's absence, and it looked pretty even. For every fighter that fell, two or three of the summoned creatures did likewise. More and more attention was being directed toward the mages, and it wouldn't be long before their protections fell and it got real messy.

"Guys?" Druia said again. "We need to go."

"Yes," Entreri agreed. He turned to Drizzt expectantly.

The drow finally regarded the other two, pulling his eyes away from the battle that was going on around them. It took him a while to realize they were waiting on him and then even longer to remember what they had just said. "No," he said.

"What?" Druia and Entreri said in unison.

"We need to stay." He remembered why Thelania had asked him to come. His presence here was supposed to bring about the end of this tournament and bring to ruin its awful reign of evil. "We need to see this end."

"I agree it is entertaining," Entreri replied, "but we have no need to stay."

"Then we leave him," Druia said to Entreri.

"You two know how to sail a ship by yourselves?" Drizzt asked as they started to leave. "I don't know another way home. I've spent the past three years on a ship and feel confident I can get us off the island. If you want to escape, you better make sure I get out of here in one piece."

Druia and Entreri looked at each other briefly and then shrugged. "You can start with them," Drizzt said, motioning behind them. Entreri and Druia turned to see two hellcats jump up into the arena. Drizzt looked back to the ledge.

Styne picked himself up, noticing with regret that the blow had ended his blood lust spell, and he was back to his normal stature. Either way, he towered over Deltrophan and felt he still had a chance. He walked toward his former master with his sword ready, inviting Deltrophan to initiate the attack. The older mage obliged, summoning forth half a dozen Mordenkainen's swords and a couple of bows. The magically animated blades swarmed Styne, sending the battle mage into a flurry of action, swinging his broadsword in every direction at once. The bows turned their attention to the hoards below.

As the arrows came raining down, Drizzt recalled the arrow in his boot. "Do either of you have a bow?"

Entreri and Druia had dispatched the hellcats, but mephits had taken their place. As Druia knocked one of them to the ground senseless, she turned to look at the drow. "What?"

"I need a bow," he said again, holding Styne's magical arrow aloft.

Druia sighed and shrunk her pike to about half its usual size. She removed a gold chain from her neck and uncurled it. The chain was about three and a half feet long, with a small hoop at each end. She quickly looped each end of the necklace over the tips of her pike and then elongated it again.

For a second, Drizzt thought the chain would break as it snapped tight, but instead, the magical pike bowed under the pull of the chain. "Nice weapon," Drizzt admired as she held the transformed pike. He motioned for it, but Druia shook her head. Instead, she motioned for the arrow. Drizzt conceded and tossed her the shaft.

"A little help," Entreri called. Zombies had replaced the mephits. Drizzt leaped past Druia and engaged the half dozen creatures with Entreri.

"But who do I shoot?" Druia asked.

"Just hold on," Drizzt said, turning the tide of the battle with Entreri at his side.

Around the mages below, their shield of protection finally fell, and the fighters came in hard. The apprentices were powerful, but they did not spend their days practicing melee spells. Deltrophan had them spend most of their time in meditation and enlightenment, studying the life around them and discerning its power. Now the life around them was trying to take theirs away, and there was no doubt about its power.

"Master!"

The cry came from more than one mage as the group dropped stone skins over themselves and began to lash out with short-range damage spells. Deltrophan took a moment to turn from the entertaining fight with Styne to answer the call. "Must I do everything," he muttered to himself. With a spin of his wrist, he summoned an opal sphere and hurled it across the cavern. It exploded against the far wall, opening a new corridor. A brief moment passed, and then hundreds of goblins came pouring out of the opening, screaming and waving their weapons.

"Mother of . . ." Entreri muttered. "Need some more help," he called out almost casually over his shoulder.

Druia turned with her bow ready, but Drizzt stopped her. "No, not at them."

The sea of goblins was seconds from crashing over them. "If not them, then who?" Entreri asked, bracing his feet on the dirt floor of the ring.

"Deltrophan," Drizzt responded, "but it has to be just right."

Druia quickly unformed her bow, stowed the arrow, and stood beside her companions to meet the charge. Her long weapon swung ahead, causing the lead goblins to rear up briefly, but its 500 friends behind didn't get the memo and crashed ahead. A growing pile formed in front of the trio, and the three of them stepped into the small clearing it formed, like a river flowing around a rock.

The majority of the goblins were focused on the rest of the combatants anyway. Though each of the remaining fighters was easily ten times the skill of any goblin, those were about what the odds were, and the fighters had a difficult choice as to whom they were going to turn their backs on. Fortunately for them, the goblins could not tell friend from foe, and the apprentices had just as much to be worried about.

Deltrophan looked at the chaos below him and smiled. This was highly entertaining. If it got out of hand, he could call down a few meteor showers and decimate the goblin hoard so he could pick off each individual fighter, but for now, he enjoyed the action. He turned his eyes back to Styne, who had finally wised up to the fact that the animated weapons were immune to physical damage. He dropped a couple of fireballs at his feet, and soon the swords were lying in a charred pile beside him.

Styne was exhausted and looked up at his former master. "Don't cut out on me now," Deltrophan mocked.

Styne exploded into motion. Lighting shot out from his weapon as he slashed about at the stationary mage. His blade moved back and forth, his arms pumping in and out, and he rained down his fury on the immortal mage. None of the strikes came close. The barrier around Deltrophan wasn't going anywhere. It would not disappear after a certain number of hits. The power to sustain it came from within him, so Styne could no easier dispel it than he could dispel all of Deltrophan's power. The mage was invulnerable.

Down below, Drizzt, Druia, and Entreri worked in perfect harmony. The two males had never fought with the woman before, but she adjusted her style to match theirs, separating her pike into two pieces and fending off the goblins around her as the trio stood with their backs in.

Soon the flood of goblins ceased, and the herd started to thin as they spread about the cavern. Druia cleared a path and allowed Drizzt and Entreri to fill her void as she transformed her weapon into a bow again. She eyed up the target Drizzt had given her and prepared to fire. Before she let go, she watched as Styne hammered away at the impenetrable shield around the mage and then as Deltrophan tossed him like a rag doll across the alcove.

"This is supposed to do damage?" Druia asked above the constant sound of steel on steel around them.

"Styne told me it would be able to break through Deltrophan's protections," the drow replied as he dispatched two goblins.

"Well, Styne doesn't seem to be doing too good of a job of that now."

Drizzt suddenly broke away from the fight bringing a startled reaction from Entreri, "What?" The assassin was suddenly set against all five of the goblins they had been facing.

Drizzt turned to look at the ledge and Styne's inept attempt to battle the powerful mage. Behind him, a goblin lunged for a backstab, but Entreri reacted first, thrusting out with his dirk. He was too distant for a direct strike, so he flung it as he stabbed, impaling the far goblin but leaving him with one weapon against four foes. It still wasn't fair.

Entreri ducked one blow and then moved to the right as the two goblins at his left lunged in. He stabbed out beneath the far-right goblin's attack, catching him under the ribs. Entreri fed off the jolt of energy from his life stealing dagger, and his empty left hand snaked out for the missed attack of one of the goblins on the left. He locked wrists with the doomed creature and turned its short sword back on itself. The human shoved the blade back so hard under its chin that the tip of the blade poked out the back of its skull.

Entreri heaved the dead goblin around, catching the other left goblin with the protruding tip right in its temple. The first goblin, whose attack Entreri had initially ducked, was bowled over by the two dead goblins, and as Entreri pulled his dagger from his first victim, he quickly finished the fourth.

Two more goblins came in from the side, thinking to spread Entreri's attention and catch his unaware companions in the back. The assassin leaped over to his thrown weapon, pulled it free, and stabbed out on either side with his arms spread eagle. The goblins were used to sparing with each other and were unprepared for the length of Entreri's reach.

Two other goblins felt lucky, and seeing the assassin's weapons sheathed in their companions and his arms out wide, they attacked head-on. Entreri's foot came up fast, catching one under the chin, breaking its neck, and then swept his dirk in from the left, taking the other goblin's head.

"You guys plan on help . . ." Entreri started to say over his shoulder, but three more goblins came in swinging.

Drizzt didn't pay the assassin any mind, confident he could handle himself and feeling his attention needed to be elsewhere. He watched as Styne was turned away time and again. "He said this arrow will pass through Deltrophan's protections," Drizzt said, but Druia could tell he didn't believe it.

"And even if it could," Druia argued unnecessarily, "don't you think he would feel it coming and would have half a dozen spells that will keep it from ever getting near him.

"But Styne is counting on this arrow to be effective," Drizzt said, not really arguing with her but trying to figure out what to do.

"If it is keyed to work against his magic, then maybe it will be more effective against one of the apprentices." Druia turned her bow to the battle below and beside them, picking out the apprentices’ leader.

"No," Drizzt said, lightly grabbing her arm, careful not to make her fire prematurely. "It has to be directed at Deltropahan."

"But . . ." Druia started, stopping when she saw a light go on in the drow's eyes.

"We can attack him indirectly," he said. Another light went on in the elf's eyes, but this one had a reddish hue to it as he switched over to his night vision. "There," he pointed up at a corner in the cavern ceiling.

"What," Druia asked, not seeing anything.

Drizzt called forth magical fairie fire, and soon a tiny glowing outline was visible. Yeltriz had been enjoying the fight so far. From his vantage point, he could see everything. Well, almost everything. He overlooked Drizzt and Druia pointing at him. He didn't notice the arrow streaking toward him. And since he was dead a half-second later, he didn't really have time to see the arrow cleaving his skull in two. The imp had been protected by powerful magic, but like Styne had promised, the arrow passed right through.

A shockwave filled the cavern as the imp fell to the ground. It wasn't a physical disturbance but a spiritual one. Everyone in the cavern suddenly had the eerie sensation of walking through a graveyard. Deltrophan sustained the island. Everything about the island was centered around his life-giving immortality. And now death coursed through the mage's soul.

The link between mage and familiar is far more intimate than most mages would have you know. That union leaves the mages very vulnerable. A familiar's life is a portal into the soul of the mage. Just as a familiar gains incredible power through the life of a mage, a mage can lose astonishing power through the death of their familiar.

Deltrophan stumbled and clutched his chest. His face went pale, and the glow of power around him flickered. Styne was slowly pulling himself from the ground after being hurled into the cavern wall once more as he noticed the change. He glanced toward the ring and saw Druia lowering her bow and just caught a glimpse of a purple outline crashing to the ground.

"Very clever," he muttered to himself. Deltrophan was vulnerable now, but like with any wound, the powerful mage would recover. Even now, two seconds after the killing blow, Styne might be too late. The battlemage didn't wait any longer and leaped up from the ground with renewed strength. Deltrophan was just catching his breath when Styne struck.

The broadsword hit the barrier around the mage, and as lightning flashed and sparked from the collision, the magical shield shuddered and then collapsed. The jagged edge of Styne's weapon bit hard into his former master. He pulled it free and then took his turn flinging the mage into the alcove wall.

As Deltrophan landed, Styne could see no blood on his robe, and the gash was already starting to close. Deltrophan was weak, but he would not die easily. The battlemage raced over to him, impaling him on his massive sword and then spinning around and hurling him into the opposite wall. His cloak was now charred with lightning, but there was still no blood, and the hole in his chest which should have taken his heart was closing fast. Styne was going to need help.

He looked down at the fight below and smiled. The apprentices had gotten used to feeding off the life force of the island, but as that was waning now, their spells began to misfire, and the fighters and goblins around them were turning the tide. Styne spotted Cayne, the other battle mage, and summoned him to join in the fight against the mage who had banished him to quarter millennia of torture. Within seconds, the other battlemage stood over Deltrophan, taking his vengeance.

Before Styne turned to join him, he took another long look at the battle below. At least eight good fighters would survive this battle, as well as several scores of goblins. This was his army. He had rescued them from Deltrophan's banishment. They owed him allegiance. They would continue to be his army. Spying out the exits from the main cavern, he quickly closed all but one with lightning strikes and then gave mental instructions to Gunthor to guard the remaining one. "No one shall leave!"

"We have to leave," Druia said.

Finally, Drizzt agreed. "Yes, we need to go."

The goblins were about as intelligent as the stone wall they had been summoned from, but even a stone wall knew to stay clear of Drizzt and Entreri. After the pair had dispatched two dozen of the creatures, the rest of the goblins left them alone for the most part. There was still the hellspawn summoned creatures the apprentice mages had brought into the cavern, but they were thinning, and with the mages' attention elsewhere, they were not being replaced.

As volatile as the fighting around them had become, there was a far more pressing matter that spurned the trio out of the ring and onto the stone floor, running toward the exit: the cavern was collapsing. Drizzt had lived half his life underground and had learned to sense these things. He didn’t have the same connection with the stone as a svirfnebli, but the drastic change in the stability did not require that level of attention.

Monks had trained Druia always to be aware of her surroundings and feel the power of nature. She could feel that power now and could sense the crumbling stone around them. The life of Deltrophan had supported the island, and as it faded, so did the island.

Entreri had no such upbringing or training. He could not so easily sense the impending doom of the cavern. He did, however, have eyes, and as he watched cracks form in the walls and rocks fall from the ceiling, he could reason what his companions could feel.

The cavern floor was littered with bodies. Half of them were still fighting, while the other half were lying in piles preparing for what would shortly become the largest mass grave any of them had ever seen. Drizzt and Entreri led the way, hacking apart the goblins that didn't get out of their path fast enough. Drizzt ran with speed enhanced by the magical bracers he wore on his feet. Entreri moved with the agility acquired from navigating Calimport's alleys and rooftops at night. Druia moved fluidly through the mess like a bird finding the eye of the storm during a hurricane. It still seemed an eternity to all of them.

Several of the more clever goblins thought like the trio. They were creatures who lived in caves, and even though they were magically created by Deltrophan, like everything else on the island, as the mage’s power faded, they returned to their primitive nature. Drizzt was leading the way, and six goblins joined him for the last 20 feet of the sprint. Unlike Drizzt, the goblins did not stop in time to avoid the massive strike that cleaved them into pieces. Gunthor stood at the entry to the passage, his girth blocking the door.

"Looks like Styne doesn't want us to leave just yet," Entreri said, pulling up short behind the drow.

"One of us was going to have to face him anyway," Druia said, joining her companions as they all stared at the massive guardian. He looked very much like a golem now, minding only those who violated his space and then destroying those who did. "I guess this way, we have the best chance."

Beside the exit, a few pebbles slid down the wall as a crack formed and a slight tremor shook the floor. "We better make this quick," Drizzt said. The drow stepped forward, and Gunthor reacted.

Up on the ledge, things were not looking good for either side. Deltrophan was losing, but he had not yet lost. His spell repertoire was limited to quick release. He attempted a few massive summoning spells or mind magic, but the incessant attacks from his adversaries interrupted him. Still, his magic missiles and fireballs drove Styne and Cayne back enough for the mage to compose himself and recoup from the attacks.

The two battle mages briefly countered with spells of their own before realizing that they were playing into Deltrophan's strength and then resumed their physical attacks. They just weren't doing enough damage. His wounds healed too quickly, and he could still enact several protections against the blows.

The three were oblivious to what was going around them, whether the collapsing cavern or the fight going on below. They did not have time to pay attention to anything other than the fight at hand. Any extra time would allow the other to formulate too much strategy. It was all hack and slash now.

It was like bailing a sinking ship. You had to keep bailing. You couldn't stop. You might have the tools to fix the leak, but it would take too long, and in that time, the ship would submerge. The only way to stay above water was to keep bailing until a better solution presented itself.

Styne was sure he had a spell or two that could remove Deltrophan's protections, but the time necessary to prepare it would also give his opponent too much time to react. The longer they broke, the more the two of them would be returning to a level playing field. And while Styne felt he held the upper hand now, he knew that all things being equal, Deltrophan was still his superior.

Deltrophan felt likewise. He had spells he could cast to sentence his attackers to several unimaginable torments, but if he neglected his healing spells or withdrew his attention from fending off their attacks, he would be hacked to pieces.

The fight needed an interruption. It got one. A stalagmite fell. All three were aware enough to avoid the fall, but Cayne was too close to the edge and didn't have much room to dodge. The shattering limestone lacerated his face and eyes, and he dropped his weapons in pain.

Deltrophan recovered first and recognized the battle mage's vulnerable condition. Cayne's mind was still too honed after his years in the maze to be susceptible to any form of magical banishment, but Deltrophan went a different path. The jaws of a massive elemental beast rose from the rock beneath the crippled battle mage. Deltrophan did not bother bringing forth the entire creature, for he did not have the time or the need.

Cayne realized what was happening too late to react, and he never really did see what brought about his demise. But as the jaws closed around him and began to chew, slowly sinking back into the stone, Cayne's lack of awareness was the last thing on his mind, literally.

This was not only Deltrophan's first real victory of the skirmish but also his first and last defeat. He reveled at the sight of the disappearing elemental a bit too long before turning to Styne. The electrically enchanted broadsword was in mid-swing when Deltrophan saw it. He was hurled against the alcove's wall and, unlike before, was unable to call forth a spell to repel Styne before the remaining battle mage closed in on him.

Deltrophan stood, and Styne impaled him. There would be no escape from this attack, for Styne drove the jagged broadsword through his former master and into the stone wall behind him. The blow was final, but the wound was not. There was still magic protecting the impaled mage. He was immune to electricity, had a spell of clay form in effect, regenerative powers were at work, pain nullifiers cleared his mind, and as Styne gazed deep into his eyes, he found others. He went to work.

Styne had solved the riddle that was Deltrophan. He had worked hard to understand the mage's magic, and now, as he had his former master pinned against the wall, a massive shaft of steel piercing his lungs requiring Deltrophan's every conscious effort to be devoted to keeping his mind from the pain, Styne slowly peeled away the protections like an onion.

It seemed like days but was only minutes. Soon the two of them stood as if naked, stripped of their life's devotion. The magic was gone.

Now it was time for the real magic to take place.

Drizzt stepped forward, and Gunthor brought his sword down hard. Drizzt nimbly jumped back, allowing the tremendous blade to pass in front of him, and then hopped back in, his two scimitars leading. Gunthor incredibly stopped his swing and brought the hilt back in hard. Drizzt ducked and then flattened himself on the ground as Gunthor adjusted his swing to compensate for his short opponent. The drow was in no position to strike and had to roll over and away as the brute tried to stomp the life out of him.

The cavern exit was too narrow for Drizzt, Entreri, and Druia to fight side-by-side, so the elf stepped back to draw Gunthor into the open. The animated golem didn't take the bait and stayed where he was.

Druia and Entreri were poised on either side of the drow, ready to join the fray, but all three paused in confusion when Gunthor didn't pursue. "Come on, you mindless monster!" Druia cried. "Attack!"

Nothing.

Another small shower of rocks rolled down the side of the cavern wall next to the exit, reminding the trio that they didn't have time for this game of cat and mouse. "We need to move him out of there," Druia said, stating the obvious for the other two. They gave her sarcastic and frustrated looks.

Another shudder went through the cavern wall in front of them, the stress of the collapsing stone bringing cracks into the sides of the exit. With Drizzt and Entreri looking at each other, an idea came to both of them.

They each took two quick steps forward and tried to squeeze through on either side of the golem. The exit wasn't that narrow at six feet, but Gunthor wasn't narrow either. The mammoth fighter slammed his hip into one side of the opening in front of Drizzt, bringing another small shower of rocks and shutting off the gap the drow was trying to slip through. He swung the Thunder Blade hard into the rock in front of Entreri, bringing a much larger shower of stones.

Entreri stopped short and dropped down to roll under the blade. As Gunthor tried to drag the sword down through the rock, he also kicked out to close the gap. Entreri bounced off the colossal foot and rolled back as the Thunder Blade came down from above.

Gunthor shifted his weight to Entreri's side, seeing that the much smaller and elusive human would eventually be able to find a gap, but that gave Drizzt an opening. It was only open for as long as it took Gunthor to bring his weapon back across his body and slam into the other wall.

Drizzt and Entreri worked the giant back and forth like this for several seconds before Druia realized their strategy. The width of the opening, thanks to Gunthor's mighty sword, had widened to almost eight feet. The brute was now dancing back and forth, having to swing harder and faster to keep his enemies in front of him, widening the opening even more as his sword crashed into the weakening walls.

There was no extra room for the woman to join on either side, but there was a narrow 2-foot gap over the golem's head. She took a few running steps forward and leaped for the opening. Gunthor saw her at the last second and ignored his other two pests for a moment to bring his blade up vertically to block her.

Druia held her pike horizontally in front of her, bracing herself for the collision. Gunthor stopped her but didn't have time to properly throw her back because Drizzt and Entreri were slipping past him. Drizzt, with his enchanted bracers, made it past as Gunthor spread his legs wide to try and block the drow with his knee, but the golem's right hand was able to snag Entreri's trailing cape. Before Gunthor could haul the assassin in, Druia dropped to the ground, rolled through her enemy's widespread legs, and used the sharp end of her pike to cut Entreri free.

Gunthor spun around to see the three fighters racing up the corridor. The golem remembered his master's charge to let no one escape, and the chase was on.