Erramir gathered up Val and Carson led the way. The passage turned left, and a few steps further on emptied into a larger chamber. Erramir spotted blockbot over on the right beside an alcove opening. It was the second alcove in a long row. Carson was already halfway to the bot. “Hold on.” He warned and lifted Val on his hip to run.

“Woah!”

The howling was closing fast.

“Where the fuck’s the elevator!?” Carson cried, looking frantically back toward the tunnel opening as a missile of flaming rock formed in front of his right hand; the ice sword discarded on the ground at his feet.

“It’s Coming!” Val got out through the jarring of bouncing . “Block.. bot.. called.. it.”

“Well, It better hurry the fuck up.” Carson launched his projectile, and another began to form immediately. “Cause the fire will only slow them down a little.”

Erramir released Val and turned back, Carson sent another spear and he saw what the mage was doing as it went into the passage and slammed into the wall above the first. Both stuck out a couple feet and danced with flames. He was building a chokepoint. Another spear lanced into the wall below the first two and then Virg flashed past Erramir’s shoulder.

The staff began to spin to the side of the tunnel as Carson added another lance to his partial barricade. Behind them Erramir could hear the sound of rushing air.

Diviner was in his hands again, blade shimmering with ghostly golden energy. The baying of an undefinably large pack echoed down the passage, and its tight confines amplified the noise like a speaker cabinet.

“Here we goooo.” Erramir said softly.

The animals met the partial flame barrier and the howling of pain started. The lead wave tried to stop before or dodge around the elemental fire, but they tripped each other, and the push of following horde slammed them forward into the spikes. In a split second they began to burn and die, piling into the corner. More and more animals lost their footing in the chaos causing the scrum to grow rapidly. Carson launched flaming spears into the churning mass.

The wall spikes were torn free and tumbled into the middle of the heap, burning more of the horrible creatures. Beast after beast fell into the melee, each of Carson’s flaming lances pinning two or three in place and burning a dozen more.

Then the few managed to keep their feet through the corner, using the pile of dead and dying like a banked corner to maintain speed.

Virgin wood met them in the doorway, slamming into skulls and backs, pounding the creatures into the ground and flinging them wide into the walls. Val grunted, “Heavy bastards.”

More flaming spears skewered the dazed ones and Erramir stepped forward to cut down the first animal to get through, others followed, and he began to work Diviner in broad figure eight timing his steps forward and back catch them in ones and twos.

A whine and thump sounded from behind him. “Elevator?!” He hollered, having to jab-step right to catch a pair that had moved to go around him. Another one went left and got by, he lurched back and got two more but three more streamed by on the right.

“Yes!” Val yelled and he turned and quickly cut left. Carson had managed pull a partially formed stalagmite from the near wall like a massive flaming fang. It would force the animals to circle around and take burning damage if they strayed too close.

His forest green figure now stood beside blockbot at the back of a metal cage that rested within the elevator shaft recess. Unable to see the cavern entrance any longer, he was busily weaving something. Val was in the gap between the stalagmite tip and the far outside corner of the alcove, partially braced against the wall, grimacing in pain as her staff spun, knocking senseless the few monsters that had passed him.

Erramir heard the scratching nails of more beasts closing behind. He reversed his grip and spun, whipping Diviner around in an under-handed swing that cleaved through different parts of three.

As he spun, his gaze passed over a wall of the beasts, stacked two and three high as they ran over each other in a surge like a literal wave that poured out of the passage.

“Oh fuck.” He rounded the flaming rock tip, punted the last one Val hadn’t incapacitated into the far corner, grabbed her around the waist, and bolted into the cage.

“Go! Go! Go!”

The cage bars began to slide upward, a foot every couple seconds. “Come on! Faster!” Erramir said in a near panic. But the bars didn’t speed up. He didn’t remember the Daedrium metal moving this slow in the past, but he’d never been fleeing for his life from a never-ending pack of insane, four-legged dogs with tusks before either.

He released Val and set himself to defend the opening.

“There, that should help,” Carson said.

The ceiling began to rail golf ball sized flaming stones. The entire chamber filled with screams and howls of pain. A beast tried to leap over the ascending bars and Erramir punched it in the head. Black scaled knuckles drove through soft facial tissues and found bone beneath. The was a crunch. The thing tumbled back, slumping to the ground in a heap.

“Damn. Nice punch.” Carson mumbled.

The bars reached his shoulders and partially burned heads slammed into them. The liquid metal bowed inward, searing their faces then rebuffed them. Still they came on, clawing, snarling, and snapping to get through, but only their tusks could reach past the silvery wet metal.

The elevator cage finally connected to the roof plate. The bars solidified and large rune scripts glowed brightly in the corners of the floor and ceiling. An instant later Erramir, Val, and Carson were all smashed to their knees as the cage rocketed upward like a cannon shot.

Carson lunged past Erramir and snatched a trio of tusks that were teetering on the edge of the cage. Just beyond the bars stone blurred by so fast it looked homogenous.

Carson rolled onto his back and triumphantly raised the tusks with one hand while his other clutched a pile of others. “We got Loot.” His voice wavered slightly, but its tone curled from an exhausted grin.

Erramir snorted and Val chuckled, slightly manically.

“Hell yeah bro. Hellll yeah.” Erramir said, extending his fist.

Hurling upward, howls chasing them and wind screaming around them, the trio of friends shared a round of punch-drunk smiles.