Glowing lights hung over the group as they ascended the narrow staircase. Lance rotated his head from side to side as they crept upwards, Matt still leading the way but only by a single flight of stairs. Behind him, Neil had taken point with Sarah having been relegated to backline duty. The entirety of the staircase was illuminated in harsh yellow lights as the emergency lights illuminated the surroundings, shadows shifting as they ascended and the glowing lights that Keeley had purchased moved up the central stairwell.

“You couldn’t have chosen something a little less creepy?” Yanesh complained as he shrunk from a shadow.

Faerie Lights had been Keeley’s reluctant purchase. Unlike electric lights, these glowed and moved like flames, flickering and casting longer shadows that writhed and twisted in strange ways. Partly illusion magic, partly light magic, the strange shadows in the corner of their vision was part and parcel of the Upgrade.

“You couldn’t buy your own?” She taunted. “Anyway, I think these are cute.” As though reacting to her emotions, the Faerie Lights shifted colour again, burning green and yellow and flickered, as though laughing. “And they upgrade too, which is perfect.”

“Upgrade into what?” Yanesh complained.

“Shhhh!” Matt, treading upwards hissed at them.

“Sorry!” Wincing as the noise echoed down the stairs, the Pakistani clamped his mouth shut. No one truly blamed him though, since her new additions were creepy. It was barely better, being able to spot the gnolls as they appeared.

Speaking of which….

Lance leaned outwards as the noise of a door opening above echoed through the room. He hung over the edge, his body angled as he drew his arrow back. His Splitting Arrow since having additional arrows raining down after missing was better than having a single Explosive Arrow sending shards of metal careening everywhere.

Like the first two times these monsters had chosen to enter the stairwell along with them, one of them chose to poke its head over the balcony. Releasing the arrow, Lance pulled back immediately rather than risk being accidentally impaled if his arrows missed.

“I spotted three,” Lance said.

“Footsteps for… five?” Matt said even as he pressed himself to the side while Neil pushed pass to take position at the forefront.

Before anyone else could reply, more noises from below had the group looking down. It was Keeley who spotted them first, her fingers twisting as she called for Entangling Roots to grip her target. The magical roots erupted from the ground to grip the monster.

“We’re being flanked….” Sarah sing-songed as she set herself at the corner of the staircase so she had more space to wield her spear.

“Keep calm people. Yanesh, healing both sides. Keeley – crowd control with Sarah. Matt, help Neil take them out. Fast. I’ll switch hit.”

“Pitch hit.” Matt idly corrected as he waited for sign of a monster. “Switch hit means something else. Sexual, I’m pretty sure.”

“Does not,” Lance muttered.

“Keeley…?” Matt called out.

An arrow fell to the ground, one of the missed split arrows, indicating time. Both archers leaned out at the same time, searching for gnolls, one high and one low.

Only for the two to jerk backwards, Lance being a touch slower since he was looking down. Too slow, as the falling gnoll who had chosen to jump down the gap managed to grab him by his shoulder and half-yank him over.

Breath was driven out of Lance’s chest, even as his ribs creaked with protest at being jammed against the bannister. Only a foot – hooked into the space beforehand to offset his precarious position – kept him from being pulled over.

“Aaaargh!” Lance cried out, thrashing around. Skin and muscle ripped as claws tore along his arm and the tenuous grip the monster had gave way.

Seconds later, a shard of stone ripped into the monster’s face, lodging along one side. It forced the monster to open its grip and sent it tumbling down, Yanesh not even stopping to gloat over his kill as he cast a Healing spell on Lance.

Falling backwards and away from the side, the archer groaned as the sweet rush of healing energy stripped the agony in his ribs, leg and arm away. In the meantime, the clash of his party and monsters rose around them, echoing through the narrow stairwell and filling it with the sounds of meaty strikes, monstrous howls and shouted curses.

“I’m good.” Lance pushed himself upwards, still feeling Yanesh’s Boon of Companions washing over him. It was a weird Upgrade that was powerful so long as everyone was healthy, but got gradually worse as more and more people were injured.

Right now though, with only himself down, the accelerated healing it provided him helped get him back on his feet. For a second, Lance tried to pull back on his bow and hissed, giving up on the option. He was not going to be able to pull his hundred and fifty pound bow with one shoulder still pretty shredded.

Instead, he triggered Conjure Object, creating a javelin. Leaning forwards, he threw the weapon downwards, targeting the slew of monsters trying to get pass the blockage of bodies and spear Sarah and Keeley had managed to create. It didn’t help that one of the bodies, writhing and caught in the Entangling Roots was on fire.

His own javelin punched into the side of one of the gnolls, angering it rather than killing. Snatching out an explosive arrow, he tossed it down the way, wincing as it missed but at least serving to add to the distractions. With his arm injured, he assumed the larger number of gnolls – nearly twelve from what he could tell – crawling up from below was more important.

Not as though he could hit anything up there.

“You guys good?” Lance called, flicking a gaze upwards as he threw another exploding arrow down the staircase.

“Fine…” Neil huffed, head down. His Bloody Thorns were playing in full, tearing at the monsters above him and trying to get pass him. One of the monsters was clutching at an eye, the invisible attack having lucked out and blinded it.

Behind Neil, Matt kept sending arrows into the group, his Barbed Arrows tearing giant wounds through the monsters. He drew and fired without pause, though the moving, twisting group meant he had a hard time getting a fatal hit.

Spilled blood stank up the room, flooding down around steps to drip downwards. Turning away, Lance was just in time to see a pair of gnolls attempt to jump upwards. The first caught an Ice Bolt to its face, the magical block of ice freezing over and making the monster flinch and miss its grip. The second gnoll managed to make it over to the first side, bouncing away from under Sarah’s feet to throw itself higher to aim for Keeley.

Reacting on instinct, Matt grabbed a splitting arrow and ducked in close, preying the Reinforced Arrow upgrade worked as he plunged the weapon into the monster’s side. A second later, the arrow’s own replication feature triggered, forming arrows within the wound itself and widening the entire thing, even as the monster bore the two down.

“Off! Get it off me…” Keeley cried out, pushing and shoving at the monster. She managed to kick Matt in the shoulder in her desperate attempts, making him groan out loud even as managed to pull himself to his feet and kick the monster aside. Keeping his legs extended, he pushed the monster against the stairwell bannister long enough for the woman to extract herself.

“Stupid, evil, disgusting…” Screaming, Keeley pointed a finger at the monsters below and sent another Fire Bolt into their midst.

“Sarah, monster falling down… back off a bit?” Lance cried out, as he let the corpse drop away. The woman nimbly hopped around the slumped corpse, moving upwards and chivvying Keeley and Matt upwards as they narrowed the distance between the front and back lines.

“We could use some help down here…” Sarah said, panting. Multiple wounds scored her arms and across her lower leg, where the monsters had managed to scratch her. In the close quarters, she had trouble switching grips and striking properly, so she had been forced to brute strength her defence more than once.

“One… second!” Matt released one last arrow and turned around, even as Yanesh hit Sarah with a healing spell. He started firing downwards too, while Lance resumed tossing arrows at the monsters below.

With the entire ranged group now focused on those below and Entangling Roots off cooldown, the backline stabilized once more. Another jumping monster never even managed to grab hold of the appropriate location since a Conjured Spear by Lance was enough to pierce and shove it into the middle of the stairwell to tumble to its death.

As the fight ended, the group were left panting and exhausted, staring at one another.

“That was too close…” Sarah muttered.

“Agreed,” Neil said, taking his helmet off to wipe at his sweat.

“Up!” Lance commanded, flexing his shoulder. The healing aura had helped it enough that he could move, which was good enough for now. “Rest in one of the open floors. Not here.”

The group groaned, but followed his command, Matt heading up the stairs and shoving open the first exit door they came across. Better to rest where they had the ability to see the problems coming at them than inside the stairwell and be pinned again.