“We clear?” Lance said, looking around at the group. One hurried conversation later, the entire group huddled over in one corner as they caught their breath and chewed down on more food and a rest stop hit later, they were within a few blocks of the next dungeon exit.

Once they had cleared the street, there had been a quick exodus of a few other groups who had decided that this was the time to get out and away. Truth be told, Lance was not certain if this was the best option for them since dungeons seemed to be popping up everywhere, the monster variants surging out into incursions without fail.

He doubted they were doing things as nice as leaving the suburbs alone.

“Yeah, I’m right,” Matt idly waved. “If I’m there with you. Keeley’s on left, Yanesh on center and you’re free ranging. Otherwise, if I’m not around or busy, Yanesh bumps to right and you’re center. If you’re clear in your space, call out shots with preference for adds at back to be dealt with. Simple enough, right?”

Lance nodded. “Try to stagger shots if possible. We don’t want to double-up unless it’s called for.”

“And we do that by making literal calls,” Keeley said. “Though, I still think my Entangling Roots should be utilized first before attacks.”

“Your call, and if your side is clear enough you can spare, crowd control is great.” Lance waggled his bow from side-to-side. “Look, we’re not going to figure this all out properly and we’re upgrading fast. You two in particular. Anything too elaborate, it’ll be tossed aside again within hours. So let’s just try to get through the next few hours with minimal fuss, eh?”

The group paused for a second before chiming in their assent.

“So we ready to go?” Sarah said, slowly rotating her neck. “Not much daylight left and I’m not sure how long – or if – the pedestrian lights are going to run.”

“Ugh. Can you imagine? If the monsters hit the power plant?” Keeley said.

“Don’t even need to do that, just a transformer or switch,” Yanesh clarified.

“Great… exactly the kind of thing we need to know when we’re about to assault a dimensional breach filled with slavering monsters. Next, you’re going to tell me about all the different ways Batman could beat the Hulk.”

“Well…” Matt started.

“I love you dear, but if you start…” Keeley held a finger up.

“Are you going to threaten him with violence?” Sarah said, a sudden frown crossing her face. “Because, you know, that’s domestic abuse.”

“No, something worse.” Keeley dropped her voice. “I’ll make him come shopping with me when all this is done.”

“Oooh…”

“Girls.” At the pair of glares, Lance corrected himself. “Ladies. Scary fucking warrior women. Can we go kill something?”

“That’s what I said!” Sarah pointed out, then stalked out, Keeley hurrying along to join her.

“So, what were you thinking? Outdoor stores for heavy weight jeans and shirts? Maybe some more sport bras and tights? Because, I got to admit; lace and underwire isn’t exactly the most comfortable,” Keeley was saying to Sarah as Matt hurried pass the two, taking his place as their scout.

Lance rubbed his face, downed the last of his energy drink and stretched. Best get going. Waving to a small group led by an older gentleman carrying what looked to be a fire axe that had exited the building, he hurried after his team.

Time to get to work.

***

“Damn. No wonder no one closed it,” Lance muttered, as he stepped pass the corpse of the monster by his side. He stared up at the tall office building that he knew had an incursion within. Somewhere in there, about two thirds of the way up the twenty plus story building was the incursion. Obviously, it had formed in such a way that there was an exit, if the group of gnolls that had poured out of its broken doors were any indication; but it was still not what they had expected.

“Not exactly the middle of a nice, open square, is it?” Yanesh said. “Lucky our first was like that.”

“Yeah, but this is even worse, you know,” Neil said, as the group waited for Matt to check out the insides. With night falling, the darkness and shadows of the darkened lobby, bereft of light was worrying. Only emergency lights illuminated within, barely enough to allow them to see properly.

“How so?” Sarah said, a little nervously.

Lance could understand it. He was a little worried too. Bow and arrows like spears were great when you had a lot of room to maneuever, a good distance fire down. In the closed corridors of an office building, climbing up multiple steps? That was less than ideal.

Hell, shooting up at anything that chose to charge down was going to suck. After all, what went up had to come down. They’d have to change tactics again, maybe reduce reliance on their bow and arrows for everyone but him.

Shit.

How was Matt going to handle it? He was a good archer, but more Olympic than instinct. Give him a nice stable platform and targets and he could hit the bullseye all day long. Heading up at an angle, and he was less flexible.

“Yanesh, switch to magic, will you?” Lance said, speaking his words out loud. “Also, maybe see if your magic is affected by gravity. I don’t want a Fire Bolt falling on our heads.”

“Where?” Yanesh said, looking confusedly around.

“I don’t know. Out there!” Lance waved his hand back into the middle of the street. “Just do it, will you? You too Keeley.”

The woman nodded, while Sarah spoke up again. “How is it worse!”

“If these incursion aren’t easy to find and don’t necessarily open in you know, plazas and the like… then there’ll be monsters coming out from weird places. Like closets. Bathrooms. The thirthieth floor. Or the air…” Neil said.

“Fixes that problem, if they fall…” Sarah said.

“Unless they can fly,” Neil pointed out. “But how about underground? Or in caves? Underwater?” He shuddered. “How about an arena?”

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

“Enough,” Lance commanded, watching as Yanesh and Keeley hurried back, Matt appearing moments later at the entrance and waving them in. “We’ll do what we have to.”

Once the group closed with Matt, he spoke swiftly. “Emergency lighting is on. Nothing else. Elevators are dead, but I think there might a few people in there. Heard something but…”

“But?”

“Probably safer for them to stay trapped for now. The gnolls have spread out through the building. Had to kill a couple before coming back,” Matt said. At Lance’s frown, he gave a slight grin. “It’s cool. Got them before with a single shot. Wanna know how?”

“No.” Lance’s cold tone made the man wipe the smirk off his face, growing serious.

“Sorry. You’re right. I spotted an emergency exit map. There’s two stairs we can access from here, from the right and left. I think most of the monsters are coming from the right.”

“Then we go left,” Keeley said, immediately. Neil nodded along.

“Not so fast. Coins,” Yanesh said. “We need more of them.”

“We can get double inside the dungeon,” Sarah pointed out.

“I’m more worried about getting pincered,” Lance said, musingly. “They’re gnolls. Good ears. If they hear us fighting or coming, they might catch us on both sides.”

“And it’s dark up those stairs. Just emergency lighting. No space to maneuver. Hard to shoot…” Matt said, listing out the problems. “I can’t even scout out too far ahead.”

“Yeah. We need to fix that light problem.” Lance fell silent, then nodded as if thinking to himself and looking at Keeley.

“What?”

“You’ve got only a few Shop purchases, right?”

“Yanesh explained it to me. I only get a limited number of upgrades, right?” At Matt’s and the other nods, she glared at Lance. “I’m not wasting a slot on a utility spell like ‘Light’.”

“We need to see though,” Neil said.

“Buy yourselves sight upgrades!”

“We don’t have many slots left!” He protested.

“How do you know? Have any of you figured out how many you can have?” She spat. “And why am I forced to sacrifice? Because I’m a girl?”

Before things could break out further, Lance cleared his throat. “I figure maybe you can find a variable Light spell. Maybe one that has the potential for upgrades. If you can make magical lights that brighten in intensity and that can move with you, you could use it to fight with. Blind, maybe even burn. You know lasers are light, right?”

“I’m not dumb.”

Matt touched Keeley’s arm, before she could speak further. “Just look? Please. I’m going to look for sight upgrades too. If I’m going to be a Scout, I need to be able to see in the dark anyway. But the others don’t need to and this is more efficient. And if you can’t find anything good, then we’ll talk again.”

“We should get moving fast though,” Lance said, gesturing at the doorway. “We’re literally the plug to the monsters right now, but we can’t just hang out here forever.”

For a second Keeley wavered before she sighed. “Fine. But if I get stuck with bad powers that can’t kill to get coins, I swear we’re going to set up a party sharing system.”

She waited for a second, while the others nodded and acknowledged her point. Even Yanesh looked happy at her mention of a party sharing system for coins which made Lance sigh inside. They had a point, in a group with dedicated roles like theirs; certain people – him and Sarah specifically – were going to benefit the most. And yet, without a good tank or healer, it’d just be dangerous.

So…

Maybe he should be looking for that. Or something, while they spoke. Even if sucked out his own utility spot – a proper party was going to keep him alive longer.

Not as though he was a sociopath intent on running through dungeons alone.

Mostly.