Avoiding the xylomids had been relatively simple; according to Nala they were torpid, only attacking after direct contact. The challenge, then, had been one of positioning, getting Amanda and the others into place so that Sly would have a clear shot at the behemoth, so that the xylomids would surround her from the sides but not the front, so that Mist could move in to attack from the rear—it was a fiddly process and took longer than Nala had expected, long enough that the generous time limit they'd been given began to feel tight.

Still, eventually everything was in place. Amanda stood alone, clusters of xylomids to her left and right, Mist off to the side a little, Sly up above, Praetorian skulking behind a rock, secretly delighted that his only part in the plan was 'don't get killed'. Nala had been the most active of anyone during the arrangements, attracting the behemoth's attention before hiding and stealthing, making her way back to her party to oversee their positioning before distracting the behemoth once more—it had been a constant balancing act, difficult and risky, but the reward would be worth it. Now she stood apart, away from the others, surveying positions.

"Amanda." Nala's low voice carried easily through the still cavern. "Slot the gem."

More than a little unhappily, more than a little reluctantly, Amanda did as Nala had requested. The effect was immediate; every one of the xylomids around her jerked into movement, thin vapours and strands of toxic slime sputtering from their wide mouths as they hissed and shambled forward. The behemoth perked up its head, let out a deep growl as it stalked towards Amanda—who only had time to get a glimpse of the great beast's long teeth and burning red eyes before she was engulfed in clouds of thick yellow-green horribleness.

"Why do all your plans involve me standing in noxious gas?"

"Stay where you are," Nala called—she was moving around the outside of the cavern now, towards where Mist stood wide-eyed and staring. "Don't move."

"Should I also keep having a really terrible time or is that optional?"

"Brave heart, Amanda!" Praetorian called, from behind his rock. "Have courage!"

From the pestilent clouds came a rattling growl—although this was cut off as the behemoth closed upon Amanda, its roar echoing in the cavern as it struck.

"Amanda!" Mist cried. She went to step forward but Nala's hand on her arm stopped her. They could still see the back half of the behemoth through the gas, could see it raising its massive claws to strike and strike and strike again, could hear its terrifying roar—but Amanda was hidden, and the effects of the behemoth's attacks upon her were unseen.

"Sly, attack," Nala called. "Mist, you too."

"B-but Amanda—"

"I'm surprisingly okay," came Amanda's voice. "It—ouch—it's just really, really awful."

Mist stared at the behemoth and the gas cloud, then stumbled a little as Nala urged her into position. Sly was already loosing arrows at the behemoth, two were sticking from its flank, another had shattered against its horn. They didn't seem to be having much effect. Mist swallowed and gripped her spear tight, then with a shrill cry she lunged forward. The sharp head sliced against the behemoth's leg, opening a small cut that the beast didn't seem to notice.

"Keep attacking," Nala said. "Amanda only takes full damage from criticals. You have time."

"Why aren't you attacking?" Mist asked, as she struck again.

"Close attacks might cancel the GoadStone's effect. Too risky. I can backstab when it's close to critical. Not until then."

The behemoth roared and reared up, above the yellow-green clouds, then struck down with both claws at once.

"Ah!"

"Amanda!"

"I'm okay, just ... lost an arm..."

Mist was close to tears as she struck the behemoth again.

"Nala, she's really getting hurt—"

"That was a critical hit. Amanda can take two. Maybe three. Keep attacking."

Above, Sly nocked another arrow, drew back the string of his bow, then let it loose. It thrummed through the air and stuck in the behemoth's side, joining a dozen others.

"Not particularly effective," Praetorian commented, after a furtive glance out from behind his rock. "Still, 'the death of a thousand cuts' and all that."

"If I got closer I could use my PointBlank skill," Sly said. "It's not a great damage boost, but..."

"Does Nala know you possess such an ability?"

"I dunno, I never said about it, but she knows, like, everything else—"

"It would seem to be worth a try—Amanda only has so many limbs to lose, after all."

Sly grimaced at that, as he loosed another arrow—this one shattered against the behemoth's leg with seemingly no effect.

"Yeah, nah, this just isn't working," he muttered, already moving down the passage, towards the cavern proper.

Below, within the noxious cloud, Amanda grunted as the behemoth's claws ripped into her—the sensation wasn't overly painful, more of a brief but intense pressure followed by dull discomfort. Still, it wasn't nice. Her left arm hung loose at her side, not completely severed but in all ways useless. The sight of the partially detached limb made Amanda uncomfortable, so she looked up as the behemoth's assault continued, staring through the horrible vapours and at the cavern ceiling above, at the glowing crystals that seemed almost to grow from the rock, at the copper-coloured sky visible through the crack.

"There," she heard Nala say, followed by the behemoth growling—different to before, longer and lower.

Outside of the gas cloud Mist struck again, adding to the collection of scratches in the behemoth's left rear leg. At her side, Nala nodded.

"Slowed, and Confused," she said. "Maybe Poisoned."

Mist said nothing, just attacked again, and again, and again...

"Okay," Sly muttered, now almost directly below his previous position. He had a clear line of sight between two of the xylomids, and the arrow he'd just sent into the behemoth had sunk noticeably deeper—it was even bleeding from the wound. He notched another arrow and once more drew back the string, feeling the dark life in his cursed bow writhe...

"Ugh," Amanda mumbled. She felt like she should say more, do more, but it was getting hard to concentrate. The cavern ceiling was rising higher and higher, the yellow-green of the surrounding gas growing closer and thicker by the second ... and yet maybe that was good, maybe that was comfortable, maybe there was no pain at all, maybe there was nothing...

Mist gasped and almost dropped her spear in surprise—her last attack had cut deep, and she'd felt a physical surge of power as her spear sliced through the behemoth's flesh.

"Critical hit," Nala said. "Good. Keep attacking."

As if in response the behemoth reared up, letting out an explosive roar that seemed neither Slowed nor Confused, then lunged back into the gas cloud. The others heard Amanda's weak cry, but couldn't see anything until her body burst from the gas cloud. She tumbled through the air like a thrown doll before smashing against a cavern wall and crumpling to the ground, her left arm lying some distance away, her right leg wrenched at a sickening angle. Two nearby xylomids had noticed her and were moving to attack, but those that had previously surrounded her seemed to have lost interest. Not so the behemoth, which emerged from the gas cloud with a menacing growl, flicking its head this way and that, searching for its prey.

Nala stared.

Then she called out, "Keep attacking! Don't stop!"

"But—"

"Not you." Nala had Mist's armoured wrist in hand and tugged her along, making for where Amanda lay—the behemoth hadn't yet found her, and the xylomids were sluggish. There was a pained growl as an arrow thudded into the behemoth's side, and Nala spoke as she walked:

"It's close to critical. After we capture it we'll all teleport—"

Nala stopped, frozen in place—the behemoth had turned towards her and Mist. It was looking straight at them.

"Nala—"

"Don't talk."

The behemoth was walking towards them now, pausing every few steps to stop and raise its head, to sniff the air and to listen.

"Status effect," Nala murmured. "Blind. Follow me."

She turned to move in another direction—but found her route blocked by a cluster of roaming xylomids. She frowned. They hadn't been there before. There was no reason for them to move. They shouldn't be there.

"Nala?"

With an irritated grimace Nala turned again, heading back towards another wall, another side passage, away from the cavern—

"Nala, the others—"

Nala waved Mist into silence. The xylomids approaching were active; she couldn't use her stealth while they could see her. Without stealth, she couldn't get near enough the behemoth to backstab—if it was affected by Blind then she'd get a bonus to damage, and backstabbing from stealth added a multiplier. It might be enough, even without Sly's arrows—which had stopped, because the crowd of xylomids blocked his view; he couldn't see the behemoth so he couldn't attack.

Get out of sight, Nala thought. Stealth. Move in to backstab. Capture the behemoth; teleport out. That's the key. Capture a monster and everything—

Nala stopped.

Nala stared.

The behemoth was surrounded by a runic circle, spirals of sparkling stars rising, and it raised its head and roared before vanishing into the light.

"Did ... did we get it?" Mist asked, her eyes wide. "Did ... we got it! Nala, we got it!"

Nala was frowning down at her CaptureRing.

It wasn't glowing.

Not even a little.

She looked up at the sound of high, triumphant laughter—above, in a high passage looking down on the cavern, stood a collection of painfully familiar people.

"Hey, thanks for softening it up!" Raid Fearson called down, even as the glow of teleportation rose around him. "Last hit gets the prize, that's a rule, huh? By the way, you might wanna move. Behemoth's got that thing, yeah? Critical condition AllyRoar? Gonna be a whoooole bunch more down there soon! See you guys back at the academy, if there's anything left of ya!"

With that, and a final laugh, Raid and his party vanished, leaving Nala to stare up at where they'd been, at the fading afterglow of teleportation.

From a nearby passage there came a deep rumbling growl, joined by others, distant but approaching—

Mist gasped as Nala pulled her into running, clanking along behind and splashing through shallow pools as Nala pushed towards the other side of the cavern—to where Amanda had fallen. Two xylomids were breathing their horrible fumes over her; Nala placed Mist a distance away, backstabbed each xylomid in turn, then darted back as they turned on her. Amanda was lying still, lifeless eyes staring at nothing, her left arm missing, her right leg barely attached. Her dress had been torn to shreds, bloodless wounds and pale blue flesh exposed through the tears. When Mist hurried over to drag her away, Amanda barely reacted beyond a long, weak moan.

"It's okay," Mist babbled, as she pulled her friend towards a side passage, looking around for Nala—but she couldn't see her. "I'll just get you through here and then ... and then..."

Mist trailed off, her mouth still moving but no sound coming out, her wide eyes fixed on the other side of the cavern, where a new behemoth was stalking out of a side passage—

With a small whimper Mist scrabbled for Amanda's arm, for the iron bracelet around her wrist, for the lumpy green gem slotted into it, trembling fingers gripping and pulling and twisting until she got it unslotted. There were three behemoths in the cavern now, their deep, searching growls making Mist shiver from head to toe. Amanda was growling too—or trying to talk, maybe.

"Ssh, ssh, it's okay, it's okay." Mist glanced at a couple of xylomids as she passed, but they didn't seem to even notice her. "We're almost at the passage, we're almost out, then ... then we'll ... we're almost at the passage, anyway..."

But after getting to the passage, and dragging Amanda behind a cluster of thick stalagmites, and looking out worriedly in a vain attempt to see where Amanda's arm might have fallen, or where Sly or Nala were, and after wandering up the passage and calling 'Praetorian! Praetorian?' with no response, and after going back down to Amanda and crouching beside her and being miserable for a bit, Mist had to admit that she had no idea what to do. The behemoths were still in the cavern, but they weren't straying far from the passages they'd entered from. The xylomids in the cavern weren't doing much either, now that the GoadStone was unslotted.

Mist leant out from around the stalagmites to look around the cavern again. She couldn't see Amanda's arm. She couldn't see Nala. She couldn't see Sly or Praetorian. She couldn't see anything, except glowing crystals and rock pools and xylomids and behemoths. With a shuddering, helpless sigh she retreated back behind the stalagmites, took Amanda's unresisting hand in her own, squeezed it tight, then whispered:

"Well now what?"

But no, Mist thought. No, I can't just think like that. Maybe we can get back up to the surface, maybe we can capture something else, Nala will make a plan, if those xylomids didn't get her—

"You unslotted the GoadStone. Good."

Mist didn't jump at Nala's sudden soft voice, for which she was quietly proud. She was less proud of what she did next, which was to fall on the dwarf sobbing and snotting and blithering like an idiot. Nala tolerated this for a short time, then pushed Mist away and handed her a cloth to wipe her face with, and she said:

"I couldn't find Amanda's arm. Maybe a xylomid ate it."

At that Amanda let out a rough groan, shifting where she lay to fix her dull eyes on Nala. She groaned again, perhaps trying to speak, but in her current state she was impossible to understand. Mist took Amanda's hand again.

"We'll do something," she said, between tearful sniffs. "Maybe Praetorian will know—"

At the mention of the necromancer Amanda let out a particularly violent moan, managing to clumsily wrench her head from side to side to accentuate her displeasure. Mist managed a small smile and patted the dead girl's hand.

"She can't walk." Nala's voice was low, and even flatter than usual. "If we leave her here she might be found by a wandering monster and further damaged. However, if we don't capture a monster then we fail this test. That is our priority."

"But ... but can we even do that?"

"Maybe a land lizard, if we can find one on its own. If I backstab, then you distract it with your attack, and if I can backstab again..."

Nala trailed off, frowning. It took Mist a moment to realise why; Nala's gaze was on her CaptureRing.

"Why is it glowing?" Mist asked, staring at the ring. "Should it be doing that?"

Amanda let out a soft moan, and when Mist looked at her she saw that the zombie girl was pointing—or doing her best to indicate a direction, in any case. There was something there, up the passage, hiding behind a pile of rocks and dead crystals. Something small, and bulbous, and a pleasant shade of blue—

"It's a slime!" Mist cried, before putting her hand over her mouth. She pushed herself up and walked towards it—in response the slime shrank back, quivering. Nala's eyes were still on the CaptureRing; the closer Mist walked to the slime, the brighter it glowed.

"Why?" Nala murmured, as Mist leaned around the pile of rocks and smiled at the slime.

"Hello there!" she said. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you—"

"Yes you will."

Mist stared back at Nala. "W-what?"

"We can capture it. Any monster will count as a success." Nala fixed her gaze on the slime, which shrank away but did not run. "Blue slime. Weak. It doesn't belong here."

Mist had reached out to the slime as Nala had talked, was now running her hand over its goopy surface—but she jerked back as it made a slightly disturbing burbling noise.

"Time is running low," Nala said. "We need to pass this test—"

"Wait," Mist said. "Just wait, I think ... are you trying to talk?"

The blue slime quivered gently, then rippled as it replied:

"Talk."

Nala frowned.

"Blue slimes can't talk," she stated. "They aren't intelligent."

"Sorry," the blue slime burbled, shrinking into itself. It quivered, then continued: "I followed you? You. Shining feather."

"M-me?" Mist said, pointing at herself—despite its oversized, awkward appearance her armour was quite shiny and did have a feather motif. "My name's, um ... I'm Mist."

"Mist," the blue slime repeated. How it was talking wasn't apparent, it didn't have a mouth or any kind of face. Just smooth blue goo. "Mist who shines."

"Oh. Um ... thank you? Do you have a name?"

The blue slime quivered again. Mist glanced at Nala—she had lowered her head, hiding her face beneath her hood, but she appeared to be studying the slime.

"Nala," Mist said, some measure of resolve in her voice. "Could we ... if we could ... I mean, if it's possible, do you think—"

"If we can succeed then we should succeed."

Mist thought about this, then nodded firmly to herself and smiled at the slime.

"Do you want to come with us? Can we, um, 'capture' you? Would that be okay?"

The slime blobbed up and down a bit.

"Yes," it said. "Please, yes."

And Nala's CaptureRing shone bright...