Distantly, Dnoeth heard the second Klevit ball explode somewhere down the other tunnel. Then right behind it, the pounding of Demon feet. The monster still hit the tunnel wall, but it was different. There was no angry warble, no break in its rhythmically pounding approach.

The burning trail in his vision faded some. But it made no difference. In the pitch black, where he could only see at all because of Dark Vision, even the fading line blocked most everything.

“Come on, come on, come on!” He frantically urged his sight. “Come on! Fuuuck! Clear already!”

“On three, you need to jump!” Roxanna’s voice called from the end of the passage.

“What?! Why?!”

“One!”

“Roxy! What the hell!”

“Two!”

Dnoeth shut down his questioning mind. He was half blind, running for his life from a foe he couldn’t hope to fight. And, their only ranged damage dealer was out of the fight for at least several minutes. If Roxy said he needed to jump, he was damn sure gonna jump.

“Three!”

Dnoeth planted and jumped for all he was worth. If he had to critique himself blind, he’d get tens across the board. Of course, this wasn’t a runway or an ice rink, so… yeah. It was an impressive jump. I really need to look into that camera thing.

Roxanna’s form flashed to his left. “Ohh, Shit!” she cursed.

He braced for an impact, thinking as he did, whoever said, ‘Look before you leap’, was never in this spot.

He landed and stumbled, nearly falling down as astoundingly, he did not slam into Roxanna. Damn, she’s quick.

“Go left and stop!” She shouted. “But be ready to run if this doesn’t work!” Dnoeth followed her instructions without questioning. He skidded on loose pebbles, went left, and leaned heavy against the cavern wall–then squeezed his eyes shut. The bright trail left by the burning stone persisted, if decidedly fainter.

“Come on already. Go–the eff–away!”

There was a thunderous crack of stone giving way, which was followed immediately by a chittering howl.

Dnoeth’s eyes sprang open and he looked back down the passage, still having to tilt his chin up to see anything clearly. What he saw was just confusing.

Roxanna was on one knee with her swords jammed into the ground and the Demon was nowhere to be seen.

On his left, a small hill of smooth stone, which hadn’t been there before, suddenly fractured along a hundred jagged lines. Sections liquified and started disappearing, almost as if being sucked downward.

Dnoeth jerked his head back to Roxy and almost choked as he realized what she’d done. He had no idea how, and he didn’t care.

Then he was on his feet, Glaivis forming and bounding back toward her. Unless that pit trap was thirty feet deep, Roxy was well within the range of its tongue.

Roxanna poured her energy into encasing the Demon in stone. Behind her, the rock cracked as she forced it back into the pit trap. The Demon was twenty feet down, the maximum she was able hollow out with the enhanced range and power lent by the decidedly not sword hilt weapons.

Her veins were burning with the effort, and distantly Roxy knew she was pushing against a game mechanic she didn’t understand. The fire burned hotter and she ignored it, gritted her teeth, and pushed harder. The Demon was howling and screaming now, and she could sense she had it. The thing’s lower half was completely entombed.

The pain ratcheted up and she closed her eyes to push past the blackness that was beginning to creep in from the edges. Distantly, she sensed Dnoeth beside her. Then he was dancing all around her. Left to right and back. She ignored him and pushed harder still. She almost had the thing.

A furious screech broke through her mental block and then there was only silence. But Roxanna didn’t trust it. There was still a huge amount of stone left and she piled it on.

Don’t stop, can’t stop, echoed in her mind. She pushed more and more stone into the pit until finally, surprisingly the chiming from the Daedrium grips told her she was pulling from the original cavern floor. Her head rocked to one side and she numbly wondered why.

The Daedrium rang gently and Roxy knew she had to stop. She released the skill and her whole body began to shake. “Arrrghh…”

Pain flared across her limbs, her chest and abdomen had no strength, her lungs burned like she’d almost drowned, and Roxanna collapsed. She felt arms catch her and she drifted on the edge of consciousness as she was lifted and carried back into the cavern. “Hilts.” She managed in a ragged whisper that she wasn’t sure was even audible.

“I got em. They’re right here.” A familiar voice responded, and she relaxed, letting herself drift along in a blissful state of numbness.

Dnoeth stepped back from the hole as the black tongue retreated. He chanced a peek down only to be caught with a full facial of death stench as the Demon’s vile, split and barbed jaws quivered and sprayed a final terrible howl of rage. Then the stone flowed around it, six red eyes disappeared and finally the horn was encased. With a tentative sigh he glanced back at Roxanna only to find her still going full-tilt.

“Roxy. You’ve got him.” He said, but she obviously couldn’t hear him. The final ten feet of the pit filled in fast and still she didn’t stop. As the tunnel opening began to shrink, Dnoeth got worried. Roxanna was beet red, shaking, and she didn’t seem to be breathing.

“Roxy! Enough, you’re blocking the tunnel!” Still she didn’t stop and the hill of stone was gone now. A small depression began to form and Dnoeth worried she couldn’t stop. In a near panic he drew back a hand and slapped her, hard. Her head bent sideways and stayed there almost like she was made of wax. Then the rumbling stopped. Her grip on the buried swords relaxed and she began to sag. Dnoeth nimbly slipped behind and caught her.

With a sigh of relief he saw her chest rise and fall with breath. Tentatively, Dnoeth pulled on one of the swords and was surprised as nothing but the six inch spike of Daedrium came out easily. Not knowing what to think of that, he grabbed the other and lifted Roxanna to carry her back into the cavern and away from the buried Demon. When she muttered about her hilts, he reassured her and made for the third tunnel. He wasn’t sure exactly why, but he didn’t trust that the Demon was dead.

Just as he was about to set her down, the pounding the running feet followed closely by Ramal’s voice came from the first tunnel. “Where’s the Baltaris? What happened to Roxy? Why’s her health bar look like that!? What the fuck Dnoeth? Report!”

The questions rolled out rapid fire and Dnoeth was shocked by the Commanding tone and demand leveled at him. Fortunately, via the party link, he could sense that it was from concern for their safety and not out actual anger. Then with a start he saw that Roxy’s health bar, instead of being red was almost completely grey. She hadn’t taken any damage, but something was definitely wrong.

“She buried the Demon in the stone over there and collapsed. I don’t know how she did it, but it took everything she had.” Still holding Roxanna, he motioned toward the middle tunnel with his chin.

Ramal looked at the tunnel and his eyes went wide as he jogged to nearly sealed off opening. “Fuck, why didn’t you stop her? This seems like a bit of overkill.”

“I tried. But she was gone. I even slapped her. Hard. But that didn’t even work. I think she only stopped because she ran out juice to keep going, or maybe because she ran out of rock. Either way, it was completely insane. She moved the stone like I move Daedrium.”

Ramal looked back at him with disbelief and a chortle. “Seriously badass.” Then he turned back to the tunnel and looked down. A moment later his posture stiffened and he cursed quietly.

“What?” Dnoeth asked, already knowing that his suspicion was confirmed.

“It’s not dead. Taking slow damage right now and down to 78% health, but something else is going on down there.” He looked back at Dnoeth. “Come over here and use your essential sight, I’m pretty sure this fight is far from over.”

Grim faced and with a pit forming in his stomach, Dnoeth activated his ability and moved toward Ramal. He only had to go a couple steps before a swirling cauldron of essential energy, beneath them and centered on the Demon’s dark mass, came into clear view. “God dammit! You’re right, it’s sucking in power from the earth. How the hell do we kill this thing!”

Ramal sucked in a breath. “Not with earth. It’s a corrupted earthbound Baltaris. Whatever the hell that is. But being earthbound, smart money says it’s gonna bust out of there and we don’t want to be here when it does.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“Not sure why, but when you cut off that horn I could suddenly read it’s info. Damn good call that was, by the way. We’d all be dead for sure if you hadn’t. That one swing cut 8 levels off it’s effective strength. How’d you know to do that?”

Dnoeth found he wasn’t entirely shocked by the revelation. He’d felt the thing’s power shrink, so he nodded in understanding as Ramal spoke. “I just got a feeling about those horns, and I saw the opening. You said we should, hurt the fucker, if we got a clean shot. I did. So, I did.”

Ramal’s smile was wide as the day was long. “Good on ya, Dnoeth. Fuck yeah. I wish I had more team-mates like you. Hell yeah, we may still have a shot at this.” He motioned to Roxanna. “You figure she’s out for the count?”

Dnoeth couldn’t suppress a smile at the praise. He even felt dampness creep in around the corners of his eyes, but forced that back with a sniff and by looking down toward the buried beast he now knew was a Baltaris. He started at the sight and took an involuntary step back. “We gotta get out of here. Now!”

Ramal’s response was instantaneous. He ran toward the crater while ordering, “Third tunnel. Go.” Clearly in command again.

Dnoeth saw his intention and jogged to the crack between tunnel and boulder as he chided himself for forgetting about the severed horn. He had no idea if it would help, but it was definitely powerful, and loot was loot.

The crack was too narrow for him to pass though carrying Roxanna in front, so with a heave he slung her body over his shoulder and just barely managed to squeeze through. Looking down to try and keep from unnecessarily scraping her against the jagged rock he saw something interesting. The base of the stone looked to have been joined with the cavern floor. She did this to buy time if the pit trap didn’t work. He realized.

Ramal was right behind him, horn in hand. Turning sideways and extending the nearly four-foot curl of grey bone through the opening first, he managed to squeeze though.

Dnoeth could only shake his head in disbelief. Ramal was built like a damn brick shithouse. No, screw that, a brick roadside diner. “Why the hell. Are you specked for ranged damage?”

Ramal’s answer was curt. “I like shooting shit, I wanted to fly, and I wanted the option to crack some skulls if I needed to. This is what I got. I think it’s awesome.”

Dnoeth stared, brow furrowed for a bare second. Then he laughed. Together, they turned and started to run. “You’re wacky Ramal.” Looking sidelong and up, Dnoeth saw a smile crease his scruffy face and couldn’t help but smile himself. It felt good to be in the company of someone so obviously capable, but who didn’t flaunt it, and who embraced the oddness of their unique personality.

Again, they were running for their lives, this time down a team member for what was almost certainly the rest of the fight, and Dnoeth was having one hell of a good time. “Is living on the edge of death, supposed to be this much fun?”

Ramal shot him a sidelong look this time and he laughed. “Supposed to? No idea. But who cares, this is awesome and we’ve got a shot at beating the odds. Now how the hell are we gonna kill this thing?”

Before Dnoeth could respond, the tunnel rocked with an ear-splitting explosion. He stumbled into Ramal, nearly tripping in the process, but found his feet with a hand braced on the mountainous man. Then an all too familiar chittering howl echoed through the tunnel and Ramal pulled ahead. “Follow me. There’s another cavern, maybe we’ll get lucky an it’ll have a tank.”

Dnoeth couldn’t help but laugh, again. God, this is a great game. As he thought it, something felt just slightly off about his internal dialog. Unable to pin down the fleeting feeling, he dismissed it and ran on, smiling and silently hoping Ramal’s tank crack would also prove prophetic.