The ‘Not Kobolds’ just stood there, mouths literally agape.

The shocking sight of the large stampede of monsters heading towards them no doubt delaying their actions, but not for long as the warriors who had previously been part of the circle surrounding the chieftess and her prisoners, began pushing forward, trying to force their way through the still dazed crowds of civilians but failing as even their larger bulks were no match for the panicked throng to force that was in full retreat from the oncoming horde.

Goodie watched as the beasts of the underground dove into the unprepared mass of kobold like creatures without breaking their galloping stride, the unprotected non-combatants, mostly women and children if Goodie’s guess about their genders had been correct, taking the full brunt of the charge as they were either crushed beneath their pounding feet or sent flying. The unnatural silence of the mutated rabbits, moles and other abominations a stark contrast to the loud shrieks of the poor kobolds whose bodies were being broken beneath the unceasing tide.

Goodie could not stand to watch as the poor, lizard-like people were crushed, women and children squealing as their bodies burst under the greater weight of the monsters running over them.

Seeing the futility of trying to stop them, the kobolds scattered in all directions, warriors and civilians alike committing to their own stampede as they sought to flee from the unstoppable horde.

As they did so, various groups of beasts started to break off from the main body in pursuit the scattering kobolds, causing the seemingly indomitable horde to splinter apart.

No longer heading in a straight line as they ran after their prey, the momentum of the pursuing beasts waned, and with their now reduced numbers, so too, did their advantage begin to dwindle.

Now dealing with small groups of the creatures rather than the insurmountable wave that had originally laid into them, the fleeing kobolds began to fight back, those that were isolated still fell, even with the greatly reduced numbers, but some of the warriors began to quickly form groups of their own to counter their attackers. The mutated monsters, both exhausted and delirious from the after effects of the intense adrenaline rush that had been carrying them forward, began to fall under the stone blades of the kobold’s primitive weaponry.

Their turn in fortune was due in no small part to Her Majesty’s efforts in incapacitating the creatures, with her attacks mostly focusing on the larger and stronger of the hideous abominations to help the disadvantaged warriors fighting for their lives.

A smarter person would have just let them all die, but he could not. Not out of the kindness of his heart, deep down inside of him, was not the milk of human kindness, just a nasty piece of shit.

No, it was due to guilt.

He had sent Her majesty to attract a small group of Burrows’ monsters so that he could get a shot at the tribe’s chieftess, but she had barely made it out of the cavern before they beast had started rushing in. The creatures were already there, already charging for the kill, but a, admittedly short, lifetime of self-doubt had him blaming himself, had him convinced that if he had just shut the hell up and minded his own business, everything would have been fine.

Consciously, He knew that was not the case, but years of being blamed for things he did not do, things he had no control over, had left him with a guilt complex larger than the mall of America and he could not help feeling that the beasts of the Burrows would have stayed away if he had not decided to be decisive.

And the knowledge that, if he could kill chieftess and turn her into another summonable, he would owe these people a debt, just nagged at him. It was a stupid way to think, but with never having a way to contribute anything to anyone in his life, he had always felt like a parasite. An inferiority complex had him always seeking to pay back any kindness, any favour, no matter how small or unintentional it may have been. It was not because he was trying to be good, it was just about not having freedom, of not having the power or control over his own life. Knowing that he owed someone something, that someone had some type of hold over him, was a constant thorn in his side, something that would leave him feeling like a leech and would deprive him of any sense of peace as long as that debt remained unpaid. And being who he was, those debts never got paid.

It was a stupid way of thinking, he knew. But he did not know how to change it.

Yes, he could just opt to not pay, and if he had any form of self-confidence or sense of self-worth, he could probably live with doing so, but still, there would be a debt. And even if the other party was not aware of it, he would be. And he just could not live with it.

It was such a stupid way of thinking.

In fact, it was so stupid that if he did manage to come out of this whole affair with a shadow demon that could not only heal him but also do everything that the kobolds could do, walk, talk, and clearly craft items, he would owe an immense debt to not only the poor people currently being massacred to his left, but he would even feel obligated to pay back the arseholes who had bought him down here in the first place.

Truly, truly stupid.

If he could get her, that is.

He turned his attention back to the battle.

His long-time companion had already begun doing her thing; Now that rampaging beasts were slowed, separated, and vulnerable, they were easy prey for Her Majesty’s bite, and once they had fallen unconscious, he would then take over, where he would proceed in covering their mouths and noses with his shadow tar, leaving the poor creatures with little choice but to suffocate where they lay.

While her efforts were both necessary and desired, the speed at which she could and was operating, zipping back and forth with [SHADOW RUN] and jumping in and out of the shadow space that it had created for her, was far too fast for Goodie to deal with, the sensory information being transferred between them leaving his already spinning head dizzy. It was not necessary for him to keep their connection fully active, but with the lack of light and his current immobility, the only way for him to see anything was through her eyes and he needed to keep an out for that kobold leader whom had gone missing during the ensuing frenzy that followed the stampede.

The cheiftess would need to be dead for him to have a chance of creating a new shadow demon, so it was not out of concern for her safety, nor was it a concern about losing her as she was unlikely to escape the slaughter with the number of creatures that had flooded the cavern, but it was going to be hell trying to find her in the mess that was sure to follow after the battle’s end.

Goodie could only drawback his senses as the battle raged on, the information he was getting through the link serving only heighten his already growing headache.

Dealing with the beasts was slow going, but the tide was turning, each felled creature another flesh borne brick in a growing wall that the nimbler kobolds where using to both defend themselves as well as hamper the zealous mutants who, even now, were giving little thought to climbing over their fallen comrades, even if they could see a kobold or two hiding behind them. Hell, the dumb beasts just became even more aggressive, most likely spurred on by whatever control the Burrows had over them.

As the alphas amongst the beasts fell, however, those that followed them began to split up even further, their attacks against the kobolds becoming hesitant, more defensive in nature. Goodie did not know if animals suffered from morale, but if they did, theirs was flagging. He knew that they would not retreat though. Whatever intelligence controlled the burrows would not let them. but that did not mean that they would commit themselves to a suicide run like they had before. At least the smarter ones would not. And an enemy that would not fight was an enemy easily killed.

Still, it would not be enough, even a casual glance at the battlefield told Goodie all he needed to know.

The kobolds were already dead.

They had lost too many in the initial attack. Even if a few survived, they would not be enough to reform the tribe, probably would not even be enough to just survive.

While he did not really care about that, he was mentally kicking himself over the deaths of the children. That high-pitched shrieks that they made as they were crushed was something that would haunt him for a long time to come.

But he could do nothing about any of that…as usual.

Goodie lent back, metaphorically speaking, even the slightest movement would send a shocking pain coursing through his system, so he endeavoured to remain as still as possible at all times. He let everything wash away as he waited. The battle, the screams of both kobold and beast, the connection between him and Her majesty, the freezing chill of the cavern, everything.

He just let the world wash away…

Until an immense blast rocked the cavern; Somewhere to the north! He did not know where it had come from or what had caused it, one of the magic users would have been his best guess, but it had been louder than loud within the enclosed space, it and the following echoes that bounced around the cavern leaving his ears ringing.

Without asking, Her Majesty began searching for the kobold’s leader. The chieftess did not need to be alive for him to use his powers, it would have even been easier if she was not, his guilt easing a little if he did not have to kill her himself, but he was not sure if his powers would work if she had been blown to bits.

Where the hell was she?

There! Running away from the battlefield, two kobold warriors were escorting kobold leader.

Well…one warrior now.

The second warrior whirled round as the first fell to an overly wide rabbit, the rotund beast raising on its hind paws before using its immense weight to bring itself down with a tremendous force.

A sickening sound echoed out as the fallen warrior’s skull cracked like an egg. Yolk and all.

Goodie realises that he was going to have a lot of new and less than happy memories from this little outing that that morons upstairs had forced him on.

The second warrior turned to the chieftess, screamed something, then tossed his weapon at her. The mace-like piece of carved bone flew through the air towards the kobold he had been searching for. The female reaching for it, only to dodge aside a second later as she realised what missing her catch would have entailed. The weapon smashed into the ground a moment later with a heavy crack of its own.

As the chieftess grabbed the mace and returned to her flight for safety, the other warrior flung himself at the oncoming beast, the two locking into a vicious hug as each tried to destroy the other.

The warrior pulled another bone weapon from gods knows where, a small dagger, and began to thrust it into the beast over and over, expending all his energies into gutting the creature. Eventually, as the beast looked to have succumbed to its wounds, the warrior’s legs gave out, sending both tumbling to the floor. The kobold would have been fine after that, but he had unfortunately landed on one of the smaller pointy rocks that dotted the cavern floor, a sight that had Goodie sincerely empathising with the poor thing.

Probably saved Goodie the heartache of having to kill the guy himself.

But he had no time to linger on that, he had a chieftess to catch.

His quarry was fleeing the scene with all haste.

A fair speed, but far from a match for [SHADOW RUN].

As she gained ground on the female kobold, Her Majesty took the initiative and exited whatever pocket dimension that her skill took her to and shot towards the red-scaled chieftess with her mouth wide open, fangs dripping with venom, her motion driving her towards the kobold’s right leg.

That was the thing about her bite, the thing that always had him refrain from just unleashing her on everyone that crossed him. It would knock anyone that had been affected by her venom out or at least have them acting under a heavy stupor, but if that someone was immune to poison or was wearing armour or even worse, if they were multiple someones, she, and by relation he, would have been shit out of luck, neither of them having the ability to face an enemy head on.

Which was why Goodie grimaced as Her Majesty bounced of the kobold’s thigh, the deceptively thin scales covering it more than enough to ward off the sharp, twin-points of her attack. He was given further reason to flinch as his companion was bounced again as she came in contact with the kobold’s rising heel, which sent Her majesty flying off into the distance.

Such was her focus on getting away, that the chieftess never even noticed Her Majesty’s failed assassination attempt.

The shadow serpent tried several more times before landing a lucky shot on the vulnerable pit behind the chieftess’ knee, an exposed patch of scaleless skin that offered no resistance as Her Majesty’s fangs sank deep into the kobold’s body.

The chieftess lashed out as her upper body swung round, her crude, bone mace hitting nothing but air as Her Majesty dove back into the void of her [SHADOW RUN] ability. Not that she needed to, the kobold had swung high, obviously expecting one of the beasts that had originally assaulted them. Even if she had aimed low, it was doubtful she would have spotted Her Majesty in the absolute darkness of the cavern even if the speedy serpent had had chosen to stay there.

A moment later, the kobold chieftess dropped like brick.

As Goodie tried to ignore the fresh spike of guilt working its way up from his gut, he covered his victim’s face with his shadow tar.

What followed was a sight that he was slowly becoming far too used too; The kobold began to twitch and jerk, one of her eyes half-opening as her body began to convulse from lack of oxygen, her movements becoming more and more erratic with every passing second. A horrid show that went on for far too long, the unfortunate kobold leader finally succumbing a few, excruciating minutes later.

Finally, he had her…

Sort of…

He could not really get to her right now, indisposed as he was, but he had her.

And with only a fuck-tonne of guilt for him to deal with because of it.

So, all in all, a resounding success.

Now all he had to do was free himself and attempt to summon her as one of his own. He did not have to rush things as the body would take a while to rot, especially in the low temperature of the cavern. Her Majesty had been dead for decades before he had summoned her, so the kobold chieftess would be fine for a day or two.

Well…no, there were also bugs within the burrows, a minor concern as they were few in both species and numbers from what he had seen, but they were attracted to dead bodies and he was unsure what effect, if any, their presence would have upon his summoning skill. He’d be all for it if his shadow demon would come with another special ability liker Her majesty’s drunken effect, but without foreknowledge, he was not going to risk it. Especially with summoning slots being limited and him really needing that healing ability of the chieftess right about now.

Goodie’s head was swimming, the pain coursing through his body intense but slight numbed by the deathly chill of the cavern.

He considered spending another of his one-use minor heal rewards, but decided not to after he saw how few of them that he had left.

A moment later he reconsidered his hesitation after his dizziness momentarily turned into full vertigo, activating his ability and watching the minor heal counter lower by one. A wave of relief washed over him, easing not only his pain and dizziness, but also removing the nausea that had been clinging to the back of his throat for the past…day?

With so many bodies about, it was unlikely that the bugs would head straight to the chieftess, so…there was that at least.

Goodie lent back as he focused his energies on reinforcing the black blob beneath him. The giant construct had grown a bit wobbly and a bit more oozy since he had turned his attention to the battle and needed to be propped up in sections. Still, it was just an inch or too off and he was sure that by tomorrow, he would be able to start using it to push himself off of his rocky pincushion.

He just needed to be patient. Surely, as long as he…no, no more waiting!

He had chosen to be decisive!

He had nothing to do with the horde that had invaded the caverns, he told himself. They were already on their way here and more might soon follow. Just waiting for things

He was being decisive!

He needed to get free! Now!

The pain that had dampened but moments ago began to flare up again as Goodie tensed.

He let his body relax in an attempt to avoid it.

The energy of his brief foray into determination dissipated like butter under a blowtorch.

Get to her, how the hell would he even do that? He could not even free himself from his free acupuncture session atop these fucking stalagthingies.

As he waited for an idea to come to him, he could sense Her Majesty slithering about, keeping an eye out for any possible survivors or new arrivals. He doubted that there would be any, but he was grateful for her vigilance all the same.

Goodie concentrated on her for a while to distract himself, but that grew stale as the kobolds and the beasts had indeed been slaughtered to the last. A few may have run off, but in either case, the cavern was sans life. The exception being himself and Her Majesty, of course, though he was unsure whether shadow demons were technically alive or not. He did not even know if Her Majesty had internal organs or not.

Bu then again, he reminded himself, the cavern would be completely void of life if he just kept waiting around like he was.

But how was he going to free himself ‘now’?

Goodie thought…

And thought…

And thought…

He looked to his side. After moment he tuned his head back. Another moment later he looked again, before again turning back.

“fuck”.

He thought of a way to get free.

“Fuck,” he really did not want to do it that way.

But it would free him and it was not as if he had any better ideas. he briefly considered the idea that maybe he should just wait.

“nooo,” he sighed. He was being decisive now.

“fuck”.

He began spreading his shadow stuff to the left and right of his spiky bed, using the substance to create two paper thin balloons. Then from within each, he created his gas-type shadow stuff, causing them both to inflate with a speed he had not anticipated, the two of them springing up in a way that startled him.

Neither of the paper-thin balloons would last long, but he did not need them too.

Goodie then began to breathe in and out, each sharp breath growing faster than last as he tried to psych himself up for the pain that was about to experience, his heart beginning to pound like a drum as his body, sensing what was to come, sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins. He used his powers to create a semi-solid bit in his mouth, which he promptly and appropriately bit into as he prepared himself for what came next.

He focused on the giant, jelly-like bed of shadow-stuff beneath him, something he had spent an untold amount of time, energy, and effort in both creating and maintaining and used his power to form a cavity within it, which he then flooded with shadow gas. The rapidly expanding volume forced the top of the bed up wards, straight into his back, the impact was not overly violent, but it was still enough to excite his wounds, sending another all too familiar current of pain coursing through him. The bed had only been separated from his body by an inch or so, and had it stopped there, it would have brought him immense relief to no longer have to rely solely on his stalgies to support the weight of his body.

But it did not stop.

Forcing all of his reserves of energy into expanding it, the bed turned balloon carried on rising, onwards and upwards, an inferno of pain caressed his body as it did so. Goodie screamed as his teeth dug into the bit. Not a manly roar, but a high-pitched squeal that hurt his ears almost as much as his brilliant plan was now hurting his body.

The shadow bubble beneath him expanding, his body rose, the parts of it impaled no longer held firm as the stone spikes grew thinner with each rise in height. It should have been a relief, but with the stalags no longer keeping him in place, he and the bubble began to wobble, the spikes bumping into the sides of his wounded flesh, causing him to scream into his bit as hot tears ran down his face. But as the stone lost its hold of him, so too did his rate of ascension increase, the bubble exploding in size as it was no longer met with any resistance.

Goodie let out a screech as his body was flung loose from his rocky throne of thorns, the force pushing at him from behind sanding him nearly a metre into the air.

He had tried to set the whole thing up in a way that would have had him land on the left side, the side closest to the battle field, the side closest to his new healer, the expanding to a size far larger than the area of the stone spikes that he had been impaled upon so as to help him avoid being impaled again on a different set of stalags. That plan had gone out the window when the first spike of pain had shot through him.

Fortunately, Goodie did land upon the left side, and he even landed on the smaller bubble cushion that he had set up beforehand. Slightly on the outer side of it, which sent him bouncing to the side after he unceremoniously crashed upon it. The landing after that had resulted in some minor abrasions, but otherwise, his plan had succeeded.

That was not to say that there was no problem, however. The problem was, that he did not know what the problem was, aside from the fact that his back, along with entire lower body, felt as if it was fire, a mind-numbing pain that far exceeded what he had suffered while impaled. Something was wrong with his back. A small part of his spine just above his waist feeling as if it was at the very heart of the sun, itself.

Goodie screamed into his slightly chewed bit and sobbed and then screamed again as he wondered why it hurt so much. If his back was broken, why was he feeling anything? He should have been numb from the waist down, right? It was what tv had told him. But he felt everything, a sea of pain scorching every nerve in his abused body.

He just lay there, his body paralysed from the sensations running through it. Doing nothing but screaming and crying into his bit, the lump of shadow stuff twisting and warping as he tried to bite through it.

He sensed Her Majesty was screaming something on the edge of his awareness; no longer blocked by stone, blood was leaking out of the many holes along his body, though far less than what he would have imagined as much of the blood had become clotted, some of the flesh sealing over as his minor heals did their thing, but still enough that he would die he left them untreated.

With heavy strain, he brought up his [MENU] screen and activated another minor heal; the spell washed over him, but such was the extent of whatever had gone wrong with his back that its effects went unfelt under the agony that had taken control of his body.

He repeated his action.

And then did it again.

And then again.

Finally, the pain abated a little.

He would have used the spell again, but he had only two uses left.

He had two left.

Two left and he still was not properly healed.

Goodie lay there for the longest time, letting the cool of the cavern floor sooth the fire in his flesh.

But, for the life of him, he just could not work up the energy to even think about how he was going to get to that chieftess.

A light flared up in the distance, its sudden appearance causing Goodie to eyes to shoot open…and then forced him to shut them again as the sudden burst of illumination dispelling the dark of the cavern temporarily blinded him.

He chewed himself out for stupidly looking directly at the source of light, even children knew not to do that. Especially after spending so long in the dark. After doing so, he returned his attention to the source of it.

There was a survivor.

Her Majesty had already gone to them, coiled off to the side, she was looking at another female, another magic user.

The two of them observed her for a moment.

Goodie did not want to hurt her, especially after he had already murdered her leader.

The kobold just stood there, staring off into the dark, her eyes scanning for…something. For a moment he feared that she saw him when her eyes passed over his direction, but he doubted she could see him even if she possessed some sort of night vision, which she most likely did not, given her need for a mage light.

He scowled when he saw her use a spell to heal herself moments later.

Another way for him to live. Another reason for him to be an arsehole.

After doing so, the kobold female began walking forward.

She was heading towards him, slowly. Not directly for him, her movements staggering from side to side, her vacant eyes looking at nothing in particular. He recognised that look, he had seen it in the mirror every morning back on earth. The kobold was lost and alone. Her heart full of despair.

Whether it was his empathy for her or the mountain of guilt that he felt over the slaughter of the kobold’s tribe, he did not want to kill her. Going so far as to swear that if he could, he would help her get out of this hell hole and out of the Burrows if he could.

But before that, he had to get the chieftess. Momentarily pausing as he caught his breath to considered if that should be her name if he could turn the deceased kobold’s leader. ‘Chieftess’? Her Majesty and Chieftess. Or would leader be better?

He would probably leave it as whatever the [SYSTEM] came up with, it was what he had done with Her Majesty. Yes, it was lazy of him, but in his defence, ‘Her Majesty’ was kind’a cool. If you did not say it with a bit of snark, that is.

But he could leave that for after he got her.

He attempted to drag himself forward, but gave up after he had exhausted himself after achieving a distance no more than what he would have covered with a normal stride, his upper body simply lacking the strength to deal with his…mass.

It was why he relied on a spear instead of a ranged weapon, which would have been the wiser choice. All but the smallest of bows were beyond his ability to use, even of the compound variety. And crossbows, even those equipped with a hand crank were tricky for him, the weapons proving unwieldy in his shaky grasp.

The idea behind choosing the spear was that he could just plant the back of it into the ground or against the inner side of his foot, using his arms to aim it.

Thinking of what else he could possibly do, his inevitable answer was to rely, as he always did, on his shadow powers.

He was once again resorting to the power of bubbles, creating a small balloon beneath him, which he then slowly expanded a little to lift him up above the ground.

He just lay upon it for a second, limbs splayed over the sides. After feeling like a complete idiot, he lowered it again.

He had no idea why he thought that would have done anything.

He returned to thinking things through, again.

This time he created a rectangular shaped balloon beneath himself, which he internally divided into three sealed-off, square-shaped sections.

He then inflated each of them, the shadow gas causing his body to rise quickly, if a bit wobbly.

Once fully expanded, he began releasing the gas from the middle and front squares. The front faster than the middle, causing his body to droop at a forward angle. With the smoothness of the shadow stuff, he began to slide forward. Slowly.

He perfected his technique by covering the surface he was resting on with weakest form of his shadow tar, which, to be honest, was his normal shadow tar. A runny, mucus-like substance that helped him slide along the slide.

His plan had worked. Sort of.

His lower body still being unresponsive, his legs went everywhere, eventually pulling him over the side of his bubble slide, a loud ‘thump’ echoing out as he landed.

He froze when he did, screaming a little into the bit that was still in his mouth.

He looked through Her Majesty’s eyes to see if the kobold had notices.

She had. Of course she had, the cavern that they were in was as silent as a tomb, the sound of his fall still bouncing from wall to earthen wall.

He freaked when he saw her changer her course a little, her new path heading straight for him. She was a long way off, and with he staggering from side to side, she was like to diverge and miss him completely, but still, why was she heading towards him? Did she think he was another kobold?

Whatever?

He asked Her Majesty to bight the female, but she refused. Which was kind of a first.

Asking why and then translating the answer, she told showed him memories of what happened when she tried to bit the kobold chieftess’ scaled hide.

He of course reminded her of the weak spot behind the kobold’s knee, though he should not have had to, even damaged, Her Majesty’s attributes were far better than his. She should have easily been able to recall such a memory.

She then showed him the rear of the kobold as she walked forward. The female was wearing a thick leather skirt that came down below the knees.

Goodie stifled a few choice words as soon as he realised that there was no direct access to said weak spot.

Her Majesty could have tried crawling underneath the skirt, but she and he were both sure that, as vacant-eyed as the kobold seemed to be, even she would have noticed something slithering up her thigh.

Goodie was not worried about any physical attack, Her Majesty being far too fast to be caught by a swipe from the far slower kobold, but the female was a magic user. A genuine one, with genuine spells. Unlike the mock magic that the [SYSTEM] let him use. Who knew what she could do?

There was nothing either he or his companion could think of that would solve their dilemma.

Sure, he could have just covered her head in shadow stuff and hoped the she was too out of it to realise she only needed to bend over so that that his stuff only fell on the back of her head, but he did not want to kill her, not the last of her tribe. If it came down to him or her, he would, but he would first wait and see if it did.

As for now, however, he had a leader to summon. No, chieftess sounded better.

This time, he tried creating a sort of surf board container to keep his body from splaying all over the place. Then he started again. It worked. It ‘was’ working.

On his little surf trey, Goodie’s body slid along the shadow slide, towards the fallen tribal leader.

It was slow going and the energy drain was taxing, but he was getting there. He would still occasionally fall when he raised a bubble too quickly or too slowly, but he was moving forward, towards his Chieftess. Or Leader.

The process not as fun as it sounded as the searing sensation in his back made every movement a new adventure in agony. But he was getting there.

Until he suffered a massive wipe-out when his link with Her majesty flared within his mind, flooding a slew of sights, sounds and smells. The fall and the pain from it forced him to use one of the last two of his minor heal abilities.

He was about to snap at her, but Her Majesty was going nuts, the sensory information coming through their link unintelligible. Pushing aside all but the view from her eyes, Goodie saw the lone surviving kobold driving her clawed hands into the body of the chieftess over and over again, bits of viscera flinging into the air as she did so.

The crazy bitch was ripping his chieftess apart!

Her Majesty launched herself at the berserk kobold, which only resulted in her getting slapped aside the berserker’s enraged movements, the sensation of which, she gladly shared with him. Much like her attempts earlier with the chieftess, the kobold’s scales and flailing limbs were too much of an effective defence against the small serpent’s attempts to incapacitate her.

The weak point behind the kobolds knees where still blocked off by the kobold’s leather skirt as she half-knelt over the chieftess’ abused corpse; The armpit or the pit in front of the elbow might have been an alternative if they were not moving around like crazy.

The neck or ankle, maybe?

It was hard to tell with being able to see things for himself, Her Majesty eyes were good, far better than his own, but how she saw things needing a bit of translating into human standards, but they looked to be just as covered by scales as the rest of her body.

He tried dumping some shadow stuff on her, but his remaining mana was to low and her head was facing downward; In her frenzied state, the kobold did not even notice the splotch of gunk that fell on top of her.

Her majesty tried everything to get her to stop, even going for the ankles; Almost giving up, she eventually manages to sink half a fang into the underside of the kobolds foot.

Either it had not been deep enough or the kobold was resistant to the effects of Her Majesty’s bite because her relentless assault continued, and continued…and continued.

After what seemed like forever, whatever fury that was driving the kobold ever onward, her clawed hands still digging into the body beneath her, seemed to flicker out. The raging kobold pulled away, walking back a few steps before collapsing to the ground as she gasped for air.

Was she finally unconscious?

Goodie observed her for a moment. If she was not, he would pose little threat to her in his current state and would not be able to stop her if she attacked him.

The kobold was not moving…at all. Even with Her majesty’s sharp eyes, he could not tell if she was breathing or not.

Fuckit, he was being decisive today. And it was not as if he had much of a choice, he would die anyway if he did not get someone to heal him.

In his eagerness to reach them, Goodie tried crawling over to the two kobolds, or at least he tried to, still not having the strength to pull himself across the cavern’s earthen floor.

A moment or two after inevitably failing to succeed in his efforts, he returned to bubble sliding.

It took him forever to reach them, but eventually, he did.

The first thing he did was try to gather all of the chieftess’ missing bits which were scatter all around him. He thought about using his shadow stuff to create some sort of sticky tentacle to latch onto them, but he tossed that notion aside.

His shadow stuff could posses the strength to pull and hold things briefly if it had enough mass, it was how he managed to slow his descent on his way down here after all, but the trickle of energy he would not be enough top create and maintain something suitable for his needs. So, given little choice in the matter, he began the arduous task of collecting them by hand.

Against her usual nature, Her Majesty helped him without being asked to, pushing the bits of innards towards him with her head. She had been doing that a lot, recently, helping him without being asked too. It scared him a little.

Once they had collected as much of her remains as they could, he tried to put everything back as close to normal as he could get. But he had little knowledge of anatomy and even less of non-human anatomy. Also, the sight, smell, and sound of it all was doing a number on him.

The kobolds may have not been human, but they were humanoid, and the sight of their torn bodies did not sit well with Goodie, nor with his stomach.

He then set out to do what he had originally intended and tried to summon her.

With Her Majesty, he had just filled the jar she had been stored in, drowning her in her shadow stuff, and thus had not seen the actual effects of creating a shadow demon. As his magical essence began coursing through every part of the kobold’s physical being, infusing itself into her very existence, his semi-translucent shadow stuff began leaking out of every hole in the former chieftain’s corpse, and after suffering through that berserk thrashing, she had many.

Goodie tried to hold her guts in as her body began to expand with the increasing volume of shadow stuff flooding into her, certain parts of her nearly doubling in size as it did. Then, without reason or warning, the body collapsed in on itself, and then…nothing

Goodie waited…

Nothing.

“Fmgmh,” he screamed, the bit still in his mouth muffling his words. God fucking dammit! He was so close. So close.

As he lay in the dirt lamenting his misfortune, Her Majesty communicated something to him, but he was in no mood to receive it.

“Igno!” he screamed. A second later, he spat the bit out and took a deep breath. He then turned his head towards Her Majesty despite not being able to see her in the absolute dark of the cavern.

“I know…I just…,” he did not know what to else say. He desperately needed that healing spell. The other kobold might have had a similar ability, but it had looked far weaker than what the chieftess had exhibited. And…and she too would probably fail to be summoned.

Her majesty tried contacting him again and again he refused to accept, but after she refused to cease her attempts at nagging him into activity, he relented and once again began bubble sliding to his new destination.

As he looked at the unmarred kobold beneath him, he sincerely hoped it would work this time. More than anything else in the world, he needed his summoning to work.

He also hoped that, if it did work, the shadow demon would not turn out to be some form of berserker variant. The last thing he needed was a healer going full-on psycho on him.

Attempting the same with her as he had with the chieftess, the kobold he had murdered for nothing, he knew that he had screwed up the moment he started filling her with his essence, the kobold that he had thought dead was still clinging to her last breath, the last bit of her life still unspent.

The [SYSTEM] did not use actual mana, instead relying upon the energy of the spirit to help it express itself and its abilities in a game like fashion. And as Goodie’s spiritual essence was introduced into the still living kobold beneath him, their souls clashed.

One of the many reasons he had picked [SHAMAN OF SHADOWS] over one of the more powerful summoning classes was that its powers could work on dead thing. Summoners who operated by making pacts with living things had to battle with their souls in order to take possession of them. The few summoners that had been willing to talk with him always had a faraway look in their eyes when they described the horrifying damage that they had suffered even from the easiest of confrontations. And what they had told him of what had happened when a summoner lost such a battle, had left him with nightmares for weeks after.

He tried to pull back, but his power was already flooding into her, some force pushing…or pulling him towards a meeting between the very essence of their beings.

As whatever the stuff was that was his soul raced towards the soul of the kobold female, he had expected some confrontation, some indescribable pain to fill him, but there was nothing. Just a sense of…surrender.

Towards the very end, he felt something change, but it had been far too late for the kobold to have done anything, his power taking full hold of her.

Goodie thought he felt his heart stop.

It had worked; he had felt it work.

He nearly burst into tears, nearly burst into laughter.

He was going to live.

He could see nothing as he summoned his new ally, but Her Majesty saw wisps of shadow stuff flying out from his hand. A small trickle that built up into a steady stream as it flowed into the steadily forming shape of a kobold shadow demon.

The shadow demon was exactly that…a shadow.

It…it was a shadow.

The shadow demons always started out with zero attributes…it was why they were always seen as weak…he had completely forgotten about that.

He did not cry. Nor did scream. Nor did he break down into a fit of insane laughter.

He just lay there, still in pain, but also numb.

Despite the chill running through him, the cold floor felt good against his hot head. The dirt clinging to his face and what was probably the early stages of hypothermia less so, but he was not in any position to be picky.

He turned his head to look at his long-time companion. He could not see her in the dark, but he knew that Her Majesty had coiled herself up while she waited, his long-time companion watching him with cold reptilian eyes.

For a while, the two of them just stared at each other in silence. A silence that was almost absolute, but for his sharp, jagged breaths, the beating of his heart and somewhere in the dark, a slow steady drip of something liquid.

Goodie’s first instinct was to say water, but he was aware that the unseen carnage that lay beyond his sight offered so many other options.

He lay there, his face buried on his arm, smearing a wet warmth along it.

He had done his best.

The thought kept running across his mind. He did not know why, it just did.

He had done his best. But it was not good enough.

It never was.

There had never been a point to him doing anything, trying anything.

It was just one colossal waste of time.

“Fine,” he said, he was a loser.

Everyone had kept saying it.

None of that cyber-bully crap, either, they had said it to his face.

He had refused to believe that it may have been true. Hoped that it was not.

“Fucking hope!”

That little glimmer of light in the dark; what the hell use was it? He rarely ever saw it, but every time he did, he always fell for it. He kept telling himself that it would always end badly, and it did, but something in him in him just refused to believe it, something that kept thinking that this time…this time would be different.

Eventually he relented and let Her Majesty’s thoughts mingle with his own.

Her thoughts were inhuman. Simple. Not stupid, just lacking in complexity and straight to the point. It took a moment for him to translate it into something that he could understand. Despite its clarity, thought patterns did not really convert to English too well, the mundane language that having the words, or even sentences to describe all the information that could be packed into a single thought.

She was trying to remind him of his [SACRIFICE] ability, reminding him of the times that it had rewarded him with attributes for his summoned creatures.

Specifically, the reward that gave an attribute to a random summoned creature.

“You just want it for yourself,” he snapped back.

She did not respond. She did not have to; they linked spiritually and could sense each other’s motivation.

He knew what she wanted, and she knew that he knew what she wanted, and he knew that she knew…and on and on to infinity.

His companion was still angry from having lost most of her attributes when she had been damaged by that massive lightning shield ability of those morons upstairs, her longing to return to her full power being one of the reasons why he had been ignoring most of what she said to him, the thought constantly on her mind.

He just snorted, the air from his nostrils sending a cloud of dirt into the air. His mouth had fortunately been closed, but his eyes had not been, thankfully his tears caught most of the debris, allowing him to wipe it away with his forearm.

He looked at her again through two red eyes, still not able to see her through the inky black of the cavern. The two of them combined should have had more than enough experience to sacrifice, the murder of the Burrows’ monsters from both before and during the arrival and slaughter of the kobolds had left them with more than enough for each of them to reach level one a few times. Obviously, more XP for her than him on account of him being too chicken shit to actually risk his life in a fight.

But he just did not have the energy to do anything anymore.

He was tired, broken, physically and mentally.

So, he just lay there in the dirt for the longest time.

He may have fallen asleep at some point; it was hard to tell whether or not his eyes were open in the absolute dark.

It could not have been for long as he was sure he would have frozen to death before too long, his nose already flowing with snot, but it was the only way he could explain how he could work up the effort to use [SACRIFICE] ability.

The least, and probably the last, he could do was try to make Her Majesty a bit happy. She had done everything for him. She had not had much choice in the matter, but still, she was his only real friend.

He willed his [MENU] to appear, using the last of his healing abilities to neutralise the pain and the cold still wracking his body. He then selected to level up out of habit before choosing to sacrifice it so that he could see what was available.

As his moved his eyes almost immediately to the sacrifice option, they shot back as his mind registered a single, unimaginable word; unimaginable.

>>>>

[UNIMAGINABLE SURVIVOR]

Abandoned by your comrades, left for dead;

Wounded, crippled, and dying;

No ability to heal yourself, no ability to save yourself;

Surrounded by enemies far greater in both number and strength;

Yet still, you live.

Regenerate 13% of endurance attribute in HP every 100 seconds. Regenerate 13% of endurance attribute in Stamina every 100 seconds. Increase body’s natural defence by 13% of endurance attribute. Increase HP by 13% of endurance attribute Increase Stamina by 13% of endurance attribute Natural resistance cap increased by 13% of endurance attribute 13% increase in resistance gain 13% Decrease to body’s needs 13% Increase to digestion 13% increased awareness 13% Increase to total speed Adaptive senses Footsteps generate no noise

>>>>

Regeneraton! It was all he saw in the description; He did not think, he just selected it.

Unimaginable was the highest grade possible, but he would have picked it even if it was not, the possibility of his continued existence too much of an enticement for him to care about any possible consequences of his choice.

Suddenly, the darkness around him vanished. Why, he did not know, but he clamped his eyes shut, fully expecting to once again be blinded.

After an eternal second, he let one of his eyes open into a half-squint.

Nothing?

Nothing but the cavern which he could see in…not quite perfect detail. Something to do with [UNIMAGINABLE SURVIVOR], obviously, but he did not care about that, he had something far more important to be concerned about.

As he stared at his [MENU] he burst into another fit of tears.

He did not even have to wait, but his health stat began increasing 0.039 every second.

For the first time in what he could remember of his life, he was truly, unquestionably happy.

As he continued dripping hot tears on the ground, snot leaking from his nose, Her Majesty kept niggling at the edges of his mind, demanding his attention and asking for him to tell her what was going on. Mostly it was about the attention, but sometimes she was curious about him.

“I’m going to live,” he whispered. “I’m going to live.”

Hi sniffed before once again saying it.

“I’m going to live.”

He continued to cry as he marvelled at how he was going to live.

He was going to live.

He was…

He…

He just wasted a summoning slot.