Thankfully, the dungeon was a single path dungeon that railroaded the team in a single direction. While there were the occasional off-route caverns, they dead-ended soon after they began, leaving the team to clear the few monsters that were within the group out. More interestingly and worryingy for Lance and the team was the way that monsters still appeared even after they had left the area cleared, forcing them to watch their backs. The only good news was that the formation of monsters behind them was much slower it seemed, with the glowing lights and colours an obvious clue if a monster was about to appear.

With their new Shop acquired powers and equipment, the team was finding clearing the dungeon much simpler. This increased the speed they were able to push ahead, with Yanesh even gaining the ability to form and launch Fire Bolts. Luckily for all involved, the magical fire had a tendency to burn itself out and not spread far from impact, almost as though the energy required to create the magical fire made it difficult for the fire to spread naturally.

What felt like a good few kilometers into the dungeon and a few dozen battles, included a few pitched fights, Lance held a hand up. Not that the rest of the team had continued moving, what with the heavy tromp of hob-nailed shoes ringing off the cavern walls.

“Something’s big coming up…” Neil muttered.

“Shit. I knew we were missing something,” Sarah said.

“Huh? What?” Neil said.

“Rangers! Or scouts. Or you know, your average rogue.” Yanesh supplied. “Standard party dynamics. I’m a mage healer right now, though it’d be good to have a single individual for each role. Then the mage could do both DPS and crowd control. Healer can focus just on healing. Though, you know, the way cooldowns work without Mana use it might not matter as much…”

The man continued to yammer on nervously, but Lance had tuned him out. The need for a scout would be good, though he wondered if he was the one who was meant to do that. He was DPS right now, but maybe using game mechanics as the source of all their tactics might not be the best option.

Either way, Yanesh’s yammering, the way Neil kept bouncing his mace off his own armoured thigh, the way Sarah shifted from foot to foot, his own nervous scanning. It was just a method of distraction from the coming threat.

Their first sight was a creature that was nearly the size of a normal human, but broader. Stringy green muscles on big shoulders, pustulent flesh and shark-like teeth. When it opened its mouth wider, the double row of teeth sent shudders all through the group.

“Ummm… let’s kill that thing before it reaches us, eh?” Neil said, nervously.

“What do you think it is?” Sarah asked, softly.

“Mid-boss?” Yanesh offered.

Rather than answer, Lance nocked and loosed, willing the arrow to split much later. However to his surprise, the monster moved the moment he saw Neil draw, running from side-to-side as it sought to evade the arrows. Yanesh was opening fire too, the pair of archers attempting to hit the fast moving creature.

“It’s fast!” Yanesh said. “I’m switching to Fire Bolt.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Lance snarled. Fine. Time to switch up target practice. Just like in archery tag, which meant half-drawns, anticipate evasive movement. He waited a second, getting a feel of its movements and then half-drew and loosed.

The arrow he fired split, moments before the Fire Bolt appeared from the team seconds later. The magical projectile impacted first, the auto-guidance systems in the spell and the speed it was propelled at burning a hole through the monster’s chest. The other arrows missed, all but the main one which buried itself in the monster’s arm.

Then, it was too late as the creature shimmered and dashed across the remaining twenty feet in a flash, as it triggered another skill. Sarah braced her spear, catching the monster in the side as it crossed the distance in front of her, tearing a gap in its torso but it was Neil the monster was aimed at. With a resounding crash, it bowled over the accountant, shield and armour and all and landed on top of the other man.

One arm kept Neil pressed to the ground, shield on top of torso. The other rose up, ready to tear into the man beneath him. As it swung down, an arrow hammered into the arm, pushing it away. Another arrow hit the monster in the stomach a moment later, opening a wound in its stomach.

Sarah, spinning around, pushed a spear right into the creature’s body, bracing the spear against her chest as she pushed the weapon all the way in till it hit the boarstop. Then, she pushed the whole monster over, its struggles already weakening.

Neil, staggering to his feet started swinging his mace, bouncing it off legs and torso, bones and head till it fell over, unable to move any further.

The group stared at the barely twitching monster, breathing hard. Then grinned at one another.

“Now, that wasn’t that hard, was it?” Lance said, laughing.

That was when the sound of even more loud, hob-nailed footsteps reached them. The group looked at one another, eyes widening. And then Lance shouted.

“Monsters. Back in line people.” A beat. “NOW!”