Underground Passageway of Gorz

Marching on through the underbelly of Gorz was our party currently being guided by the Goblin Vasha, a member of a Goblin horde that had been causing trouble for the workers of the Underground Passageway, however...

"This is the same spot again," Blake muttered after coming to an intersection with an 'x' slashed into one of the walls.

"Huh? That's weird I thought we were going the right way this time..." Vasha hummed or tried since her voice may it come out as a growl. "...welp, back to it then!" She picked a random path and started walking off. "Wah!" She only got one step in until there was a tug on the rope around her. "Hey, weren't you in a hurry to kill off my clan?" She looked up at Blake, pulling her back.

"I thought you knew your way around here, Potato, what gives?" Blake asked, eyeing Vasha closely to make sure the knot on her wasn't being undone while they were on the move.

"Well, if I had a map, maybe? But that got wrecked when you all hit my group," Vasha answered, bobbing her head from side to side.

"Hey! That was because of your dump as dirt lackeys jabbing it full of holes like they were poking a dead pig with a stick!." Rena flew into Vasha's face with her hands on her hips. "Speaking of which? If you had those idiots hanging on to a map, then it must not have been the real thing!"

"They were what!? GAAAH! Fucking shits of brains!" Vasha threw her head back and looked at the ceiling in frustration. "Even after all that talk about how they would be careful with it!" She groaned then tried to smash her head against a wall. "Ugh!" But Blake pulled her back.

"Hey, now, you're not getting any sweet release just yet, that's my job," Blake informed the Goblin reeling her in again and this time kept her there. "Anyone have ideas on getting a map?"

"I am good at tracking things with my ears, but that doesn't really help us here," Lu answered, with Rena shrugging as she went to Lu's shoulder.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm! Once again, it is time for me to shine a light on our problems," Nathan stepped forward becoming the center of attention as he liked it. "Take a gander at this, friends!" He held out his Advanced Mana Control spellbook which currently had a transparent map of mana floating above it.

"You had a map this hold time!? Why didn't you tell us?!" Blake yelled at Nathan. This hold time they could have known where the hell they were and might have found the rest of Vasha's group by now.

"Hey! Still on a leash here!" Vasha spat out when Blake threw the arm, holding her to the side, and she went with it.

"That is because this is not a map per se it's a spell that logs the path in which its caster has taken and only that," Nathan corrected Blake as he pointed at parts of the map that weren't filled in. "I was planning on using it to work our way out of here, but right now it may be useful to us,"

"How so, mage?" Blake asked, calming down a bit after hearing Nathan out, but couldn't get how an unfinished map was going to help them.

"Simple, smith, while we were being 'led' and I say that with a bit of doubt after I took a closer look here." Nathan waved a hand over a portion of the map that was still completely blank. "We have passed by this area several times, and each time our little friend here has drawn us away from it, seems like a bit of pattern to me."

"Potato?" Blake slowly looked down at Vasha as she was rubbing her toes over each other, seemingly acting as if she did nothing.

"Huh? What is it?" She looked up at the party with a shocked look in her eyes while the others stared daggers at her. "It's your fault for trusting me, yeah?"

"..." Blake breathed in deeply at that, knowing full well that this was an outcome for trying to get her to lead them around. "...Take us here, and maybe I wouldn't stab you in the head," Blake ordered, poking at Vasha's forehead with Risabeel a few times.

"That so? Why not off me right here? You've got a map to show you the way, right?" Vasha asked, motioning over to Nathan's magic map.

"As much as I'd love to do right now, you might be useful for any traps your buddies have." Blake pulled Vasha off her feet and shook her up and down a few times. "I wonder how many I can toss you at before you bite the dust." He smirked at the little Goblin before dropping her back down. "Get to it, Potato."

"Righty-ho, chief!" Vasha faked a cheery reply and shot Blake a toothy grin before dropping her face back to a full-on scowl. "Huh?" Then Nathan's magic map and spellbook happened in front of her.

"Keep it clean," Nathan warned, spinning a ball of mana around his fingertip.

"Sure..." Vasha promised right before spitting on the ground, and the book floated a few inches away from her. "Come on, Mr. mage? I can't read it if you put it that far away." She whined, trying to keep up with the book as it moved away from her and thus the group was back to moving, this time hopefully with better luck.

Sometime later

"It should be right around here, friends." Vasha looked up from Nathan's map as the party was about to turn into a narrow path with a sign above that said it went to some of the emergency bunkers. "Home, sweet home..."

"Well, we have found their base, but what now?" Nathan questioned, bringing his spellbook to his side and tried to sense if this was the right spot, and sure enough, he picked up on few sources of mana with one appearing larger than the others. "...is there a spellcaster among your kind?"

"Don't know, never asked," Vasha answered in a low tone as she eyed the path as if looking for something. "So? You going in, or are you afraid of those traps you were talking about?" She turned to Blake while pulling on the rope to get him moving again.

"Blake, if we know where they are then it'd be best to head back up to get more people just in case right?" Lu pointed out trying to pick up anything up with his ears, but it seemed like they would have to go in first. "It's never a good idea to follow your hunt to its home."

"Hmm? I don't think so; it's the same problem we had before trying to find this place. If we head back, they'll move to somewhere else once they find out that Potato's group aren't coming..." Blake tugged at Vasha as he spoke. "...and right now we have a chance to take them by surprise." He added, earning nods of agreement from Lu and Nathan, causing the party to walk down the path with Vasha at the head followed by Blake then Lu and finally, Nathan keeping up the rear.

After going down the path, they came to a large, round room with four pathways leading out of it; one to the right and left, one in front of them and the one they used to get here. Each of the three other paths had signs above them that read in order from right to left; B1, B2, and B3.

"Come on! It's this one!" Vasha started walking over to the path labeled B2. "Ugh! Stop that! I am not a dog!" But got pulled off her feet by Blake and landed right on her backside.

"Lu, Nathan," Blake looked at the two then pointed at the B1 and B3 paths.

"..." Lu closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the soft echoes from each path. "There's something in all three of them." He moved over to B1, giving it look over. "And this one's a little quiet..."

"Too quiet..." Rena flew into the path, rubbing her chin and only saw blackness around herself. "And way too dark." She came out after failing to see anything in there.

"And all 3 have a bit of mana coming out of them, so there's likely something or someone there but..." Nathan walked over to B3. "...this one has the highest quality amongst them...but most of it seems to be in this room, and it's not coming from us." He scanned the room for anything that could be used as a hiding spot, but all there were a few cracked open crates.

"What? In here?" Blake did the same, whipping his head from right to left and like Nathan, he found nothing. "Not to the right or the left then look u-HEY! Get the fuck back here!" He was about to point his eyes upward when he felt a pull on Vasha's rope pulling him forward a little.

"What!? I'm just showing you to my friends like you wanted!" Vasha yelled, trying to reach B2 as fast as she could. "AAAHH!" She screamed after getting swiped off her feet a quick pull from Blake before she got any further. "GRRR! BAGGAGA!"

"What's going on!?" Nathan wheeled at Vasha's screaming. "NGH! AAAAHHH!" The moment he did, he was suddenly pulled into B3 by some invisible force followed by the path getting sealed shut by a stone wall coming up from the floor.

"Nathan!" Lu readied an arrow on his bow when a glint of a sliver from B1. "Huh?" Which came from a dagger flying at him. "WOAH!" He jumped to the right, dodging the surprise attack. "What!?" He noticed a thin chain attached to the dagger as it went by. "A chain?" His eyes followed the chain back into the darkness and saw another glint of silver while in the middle of dodging the first strike. "Dammit!" Forcing him to hold up his bow to block it. "Tch!" Took the hit to his shoulder but this time it was an iron claw instead of a dagger that dug into him. "Blake! It's a tra-!" Lu got pulled into B1 before he could get out anymore.

"LUUUU! Get Back here!" Rena took off right after him before the path got sealed off.

"Nathan! Lu!" Blake whipped his head at the now blocked off paths where his friends once were then swung his gaze back on Vasha grinning up at him from the floor. "Well fucking done! We couldn't trust you, and now I get my two gold!" He brought Risabeel up and down to slash that smirk off this Goblin's face.

"Sir Blake above us!" Risabeel cried as small figures came falling around Blake and Vasha from the ceiling.

"Bang! Bang!" They were a group of 10 Goblins holding on to small black balls with lit fuses on all of them.

"BOM-!" The moment Blake opened his mouth to speak the bombs went off surrounding him with an echoing blast that shook the room.

With Nathan

"Arhg! Ngh! AAHHH! Ugh!" Nathan groaned as he was smacked and dragged against the walls and floor. "Ahhh!" With his suffering only coming to an end after a good 10 ten seconds. "Uggghh! By the Goddess that was painfu-AH!" He about to pick himself up when the end of wooden staff slammed near his head.

"Hehehe!" Giggling to herself was a 5 foot tall, red-skinned female Hobgoblin with an almost human face if it wasn't for her sharp fangs, a flat pig nose, and cat-like blue eyes. She wore simple green robes and held a wooden staff with a deer skull on top of it, matching the necklace of bones she had around her neck. "~Oooh~ goody, goody! I caught myself a little mage boy! I wonder what I'm gonna get out of eating you!" She pointed a scaly finger at Nathan while licking her thick, blackened lips.

"Eat me?" Nathan blinked a few times before crawling backward and back to his feet with his Advanced Mana Control spellbook at the ready. "Hmm, hmm, hmm! If you think such a method would bring you power than you're better off trying to mate with me!" Orbs of mana began forming around him giving a bit of light to the room, allowing him to see a stockpile of crates scattered around the room.

"Hmm? I never thought of that? Maybe I'll try it with ~you~" The Hobgoblin witch threw out her arms creating a green cloud of foul-smelling air that quickly started to fill the bunker and licked her lips again but this time for a far more nefarious and vile reason.

"Did I just make things worse for myself?" Nathan asked himself as he was staring down the Hobgoblin witch. "And poison magic to add on top of it." Nathan threw up a mana barrier to block out the cloud of gas.

With Lu and Rena

"LU! You okay down there!?" Rena hovered over Lu after he was left laying on the floor when he got pulled off his feet and forced into B1.

"I'm fi-AHH!" The moment Lu tried to answer Rena the iron claw on his shoulder pulled in him forward, almost going face first into the stone flood under him if he didn't catch himself.

"Let's get that thing off you! Rena Kick!" Rena kicked the claw off Lu and let it returned to whoever was pulling on it. "Dirty tricks only get you that far, sucker!" She yelled into the path as the claw, dagger, and chains attached to them disappeared into the dark. "Alright, let's get back to Bla-oh?" When the Fairy turned around, she found their one way out closed off by a thick stone door. "Wait? Hold on? I have a plant for this! Just give me a few minutes..."

"I don't think we have time for that..." Lu readied an arrow on his bow looking into the pathway while picking up the sound of a chain being spun around in the air. "Come on; we have to deal with the one in here before we get out safely.

"But what about Blake and Nathan?" Rena glanced at the door before flying over to Lu's sides.

"They're fine without us. If anything they're worried about us more than themselves," Lu told her and kept his eyes and ears trained forward.

"HEY! Are you forgetting whose your boss around here!?" Rena flew into Lu's face at that remark, making him take a step back. "I can have all the plants in the world dancing to MY beat! Those two ain't got nothing on me!" She boasted, flying backward ahead of Lu and didn't care about her voice echoing inside the small tunnel.

"Well, that might get me some good word with the chief if I bring back your wings, haha!" A male voice chuckled out from behind Rena.

"EEEP!" The Fairy quickly dive-bombed into Lu's quiver tossing up green dust while Lu fired at the sound of the voice hearing a denying 'ping' afterward.

"Oh? Somone's got good ears." The voice hissed as the sound of the spinning chain got louder putting Lu even more on guard than he was already.

"Huh, light?" Stilling moving deeper in Lu saw some light coming from a doorway leading into a torch-lit bunker like the one Nathan was fighting in currently. "Tch!" Once he stepped inside, he was met with his attempted captor.

"Well, look at ~you~!" Standing at around 6 feet was a pale green-skinned Hobgoblin wearing a brown rogue's garb complete with a black bandana covering his mouth, leaving his pair large piss yellow eyes and jet black hair swiped back into a short pony-tail. In his left hand was a dagger attached to a chain which went to his right currently spinning the iron claw around. "Been a while since I got to do it with an Elf and a cute one at that, hahaha!"

"Too bad you aren't getting another chance after this." Lu glared at the Hobgoblin rogue.

"Yeah and he's a guy! And he's MINE! So fuck off!" Rena poked her head out to yelled then popped back down. "We'll get you good with this one! hehe!"

"Pfft! Man or woman? Your kind feels the same on the inside as long as you play NICE!" The Hobgoblin leashed out first, sending his claw right at Lu's head.

Back with Blake

At the spot where Blake and Vasha once were was a smoldering cloud of smoke with red-hot blast marks and the burnt bodies of the Goblin suicide bombers surrounding it. "RAAGH!" Rolling out of it and onto his back was Blake, coughing up smoke and lightly burnt by the surprise attack. "...everyone okay?"

"I am well, Sir Blake," Risabeel answered, still held tightly in Blake's right hand.

"You should have seen that coming, Scaleless, I'm covered in soot now!" Saffire berated Blake for his carelessness even tighten the armor on him for punishment.

"OW! OW! OW! I get it! I get it! Don't trust the potato!" Blake winced when he felt his ribs were getting caved in and sat up, clutching his sides with his free hand. "Huh?" But something was between his arm and his body. "Oh, right? You." Looking down, he found Vasha squished to his chest.

"Ngh! Le-le-let me go, Pl-pl-please?" She begged, having a tough time breathing with Blake holding on to her like a giant teddy bear.

"What? No, thank you?" Blake joked as he threw her away but quickly grabbed the rope before she could run off.

"I wouldn't call trying to choke me out as a good thing!" Vasha snapped back at him keeling down still rattled after almost getting blown to bits. "Did you fall for me or something?" She asked if it was for Blake protecting her like that she'd like her a fellow Goblins on the ground.

"Reflex, you're about as big as my little sister," Blake muttered, looking at the paths Lu and Nathan got pulled into and found them still sealed off. "That means things haven't settled in there yet, so they're fine for now...which leaves me with..." He looked at B2 left open, welcoming him to enter it. "...come on, Potato, you're taking me to your boss."

"Wouldn't it better to help your buddies first?" Vasha swung her head at the paths where Blake's two friends once were. "No, telling what's happing to them right now, hehe!"

"And give the rest of your buddies a chance to run off or come up behind me?" Blake asked back at her stopping her light laugh short then tugged on the rope to put her in front of him. "And if their all in there waiting for a survivor you get to be my fat little shield."

"I am starting to wonder who's worse, you or my chief." Vasha had no say in anything and started walking down B2.

"I haven't killed you yet for all your fuck-ups that's something, right?" Blake pointed out as the path got sealed off like all the others once he and Vasha went passed the entrance. "Thought as much..."

To be continued