Matt was the first one to start loosing, whatever night vision upgrade he had purchased not seeming to have been affected by the lights hanging around them. The cries of pain that resulted from his fire indicated that the gnolls had not been expecting that, drawing a grim smile from Lance.

In the meantime, he picked out his own arrows, holding them loosely in his hand as he waited. A part of him wished he had practice the multi-arrow holding techniques so inherent to instinctual archery more, especially the method to grab multiple arrows once the initial handful was over.

Then again,, who could have expected an apocalypse of monsters?

“Do you think the States are doing better?” Lance asked idly. “I meant, they’ve got guns…”

“You do know that not every American carries a gun everywhere. Except for a few towns, most people don’t walk around armed,” Neil said.

“Sure, but still. Guns. And the police state,” Yanesh added.

“Oh gods, don’t start on that…” Matt spoke up, punctuating his words by releasing another arrow into the dark. “We don’t need to hear about that right now.”

“No, we don’t,” Sarah said, making a face and looking back to glare at Yanesh. “Some of us have friends and family who are members of the police forces, you know.”

“Maybe we should focus on the, you know, monsters?” Keeley said, speaking up as she gestured and replaced another of the lights. She had been slowly pushing her hanging lights outwards, using the Celestial Concentration upgrade of hers to provide illumination. The only issue being how slowly the cooldown’s ran.

“Banter is a good way of relieving tension,” Lance said, defending the group and his own interruption.

“How would you know?” Neil asked.

“Umm… the Economist?” Lance replied.

“I’m not sure discussions about leadership and reducing workplace stress is the same thing as having a monster try to tear your face off,” Neil replied.

“I don’t know… have you met my manager?” Matt muttered.

“Which one? The forty year old wannabe-MILF who smokes three packs a day and hasn’t seen the inside of a gym since the 70s or the former jock whose only qualification is being the son of the owner?” Keeley asked.

“How can you remember all that but not their names?” Matt said, curious as he tracked further movement in the distance with his bow. He did not release immediately, waiting for a few seconds before he did so while listening to his girlfriend.

“Because I hate names but love your stories. And you.” A quick peck on the cheek, which he protested for spoiling his aim while Yanesh made gagging noises.

“What are you? Eight?” Sarah asked Yanesh.

“Eyes up, boys.” Lance said, interrupting any further joking. Then before he could be corrected, added. “And girls.”

The monsters were here, and it was all too late for banter. Arrows were loosed, spells slung, mace and spear were plunged into all too furious flesh. And the team got on with the killing.

***

Staring at the pile of corpses and the shrunken circle of the team, Lance had to say it. “That went better.”

“You keep saying that, but I’m not sure you know what that word really means,” Matt said, raising his foot that had been chewed upon again. “I was nearly healed!”

“Maybe you should have pulled back faster,” Yanesh teased as he threw his healing spell on the man.

“I can’t even stand up!” Matt growled.

Ignoring the bickering pair of friends, Neil took his helmet off to wipe at the sweat on his face, wincing as he spread the salt across his own body. He fished in the bag of drinks they had took with them, finding a sports drink and guzzling it down before he finally spoke in answer to Lance. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.” Lance paused, then narrowed his eyes. “About what, exactly?”

Neil snorted. “That this was better.” He gestured at the corpses, some of which had begun to fade, the earliest kills decluttering the surroundings. “We might have had to fall back, but we held.”

“Exactly!” Lance nodded quickly, glancing over to Sarah who was standing over a particularly large gnoll and was cutting it open. “Why are you doing that?”

“He tried to eat me!” She replied, waving her left arm which was coated with blood, the bracer on her arm missing. “I need to open him up enough to find out where he put my bracer.”

“How did it get in his body again?” Neil said, looking a little puzzled.

“He tried to eat me!”

Shaking his head, Lance turned away as Neil ambled over to help her look for the bracer before it disappeared. If it disappeared. He almost turned around to ask them not to look for it, since that might tell them something interesting. Then, seeing the concentrated look on Sarah’s face, he chose not to.

Instead, he turned inward, pulling up his coin total. One hundred and eighty after dispersal. Good enough for… “Night vision people. Those of you don’t have it, or aren’t Keeley, buy it. After that, we leave if there ain’t more monsters charging us.”

“Do we have to?” Yanesh whined. “I’m already at six slots.”

“Well, you can have at least eight,” Lance said, wincing as he realized how many he had himself. Hopefully, with the addition of Mana Sight and maybe something else, all these Mana upgrades would consolidate just like Yanesh’s own Elemental Bolt. He knew it had to be there somewhere, he just hadn’t had the time to find it. “And it doesn’t have to be pure night vision, you know. Just something to see in the dark.”

“I got it, I got it…” Yanesh muttered, his eyes glazing over.

Slipping on the nasty looking armguard, Sarah smirked. “Valkyrie’s Return comes with enhanced eyesight. It’s not pure night vision but with a little light, I can see pretty far. I’m going to save up my points though.” Reaching behind, she patted the short spear over her shoulder. “I want a better holster.”

“Not sure you call it holsters…” Yanesh said, only to shut up when Sarah glared at him.

Neil in the meantime was muttering, before he reached out, grabbing a new helmet that fell into his hands. This one was, incongorously, a full visored thing, a sleek Romanesque thing with a glass visor. Swapping to it, Neil added. “Or you can just, you know, buy a new helmet with IR and night vision like me.”

Lance was a little busy to answer the smirking gentleman though, since he was busy testing out his new Mana Sight. Like he had hoped, it added a new layer to the Mana all around him, the way it weaved in the distance even outside of the pool of light giving him hope he could spot the gnolls. After all, even the trees had these weird little lines – meridians? – of power flowing through them, along with a much lighter outline. In the dark, it was sort of like a wireframe of power.

“Alright, we healed up enough to move?” Lance asked, looking directly at Matt. As their scout, he needed to be able to lead the way after all.

“Another blast of heals and I’m good.”

“Then that’s the plan,” Lance replied, cocking his head ot the side. The howling from the gnolls was much less now.

“Yeah, but which way?” Matt said, looking from side-to-side. “We still don’t have a clue.”

“That way.” Lance replied, pointing into the distance. He could see it, the glowing, shifting, moving firefly of energy that arced above the canopy. Whatever it was, boss monster or just powerful Mana location, it had to be good.

He hoped.