“So DillyDally, what did you do to them?” I am quite curious, mostly because they’re teetering on the brink of death and still walking.

“Do you know about HIT?”

“High Intensity Training, yeah” But HIT doesn’t absolutely murder you…not like this.

“Well imagine HIT with minimum rests and a constant adrenaline spike due to their lives being in constant danger…for 6 hours straight”

…

..

.

Daaaamn, I actually feel sorry for those guys.

“Wouldn’t the accelerated heart rate kill them?” Squirrel veers into the conversation.

“No it’d make them pass out after a while…which they all did at least once” Ok, Halleluiah I’m not part of this Squad Animal.

We continue our leisurely stroll through the forest, while Squad Animal brutalizes any Living Ash within the vicinity.

Got to hand it to DillyDally though; he’s done a pretty good job in 6 hours.

Already they’re working more like a team, communicating and even pinpoint targeting the enemy as they rise.

Though a few collapse under the exhaustion, carried by the others who half-kindly slap them awake after a few minutes rest...

I mean it is truly quite impressive, but the fact that they’re not complaining is actually marvelous...just how did he make them have such a beautiful mindset?

Anyways, after our 15 minute walk, we’ve reached the cave entrance and see the fire elemental going back and forth in front of the entrance.

“Alright, so how are we going to do this?” DillyDally looks at me.

“Well with our magic we can give you the location of the core and you guys take it out, simple enough right?”

“Too simple” Rakshak butts in.

We all look at him with confused looks; the plan sounds just fine to me.

“Since the fire elemental is level 20, we have to assume that firstly it has got an extremely high attack as well some magic most likely. If we simply go in there, we’ll die”

“And so we need someone to scout their abilities? Thank you for volunteering” I give him a smile…well he has no other use to be honest, since he’s neither magical nor part of Squad Animal.

He opens his mouth in complaint but with the looks everyone’s giving him, he gives in.

Motioning for everyone to stand at a far distance, Rakshak charges towards the fire elemental

…

..

.

And he’s dead…burnt to a crisp the minute he touched it.

Well since he probably had over 100 health…that basically means we’re all screwed if we touch it.

Waiting patiently for a good 15 minutes, Rakshak bounds back over, luckily nothing has respawned yet.

“Details” I ask him.

“Being close to him cause 30 damage and touching him caused 287”

…

..

.

Oh wow…well this is a level 20 we’re dealing with. I’m not surprised by its huge damage, just kind of overwhelmed by the fact that it can kill us almost 3 times over…just by touching it.

“So…Any idea on how to kill him guys?” I turn towards everyone.

“Well we could splash it with water?” Snorh points out. Valid point, could work.

“Not enough buckets” DillyDally retorts, ah true… “And we can’t make any proper ones thanks to the system”

“I could get you magical fire resistance?” Squirrel blurts out after everyone ponders for a short while.

“Hmm even if you did I doubt it’d be bigger than a 1% increase…not enough to make a difference” I tell her, causing her to furrow her brows even deeper in thought.

“Rakshak, while we think, find out the range of this burning aura or whatever it is”

He doesn’t look too happy, but he doesn’t have anything to lose so off you go!

Turning back towards the rest “So magic is out of the question, as well as getting close. So our only option is to hit it from afar…”

“But we don’t have any ranged weapons” Jerriah states quite the valid point, Aiag I can’t wait for weapons

…

..

.

Ah we can use that!

“We do” Everyone looks at me funny. “It’s right here” I knock the tree.

“We’re not going to spend time making a bow” Gristle looks rather perplexed at that idea.

“No we’re not, we’re going to use it as a ram”

…

..

.

“Boss, that is actually quite a good idea”

Quite a good idea you say, quite? It’s a stroke of brilliance at the very least. plus i've used it before with spectacular results!

“I don’t feel this will work” DillyDally muses out loud, before ordering the Squad to punch down a nearby tree.

The tree falls and everyone grabs onto it.

“If we can pierce the core with this there won’t be a problem”

“Well there’s this problem” DillyDally grabs hold of the treetop and crushes it with his bare hand, the wood turning to ash in my eyes

…

..

.

Ah…that is a problem.

So the tree ramming is unusable since the tree is not exactly able to withstand much force on it…much less magical fire I’d guess, or any fire for that matter.

While we all sit down thinking, Rakshak returns with more information.

“The range of its burning aura is around 1 meter” Well that’s not too awful.

However that still means it’ll murder us all if we remain too close to it for too long.

“I’ve got it!” DillyDally jumps up, clapping his hands happily. “Snorh, Yinroh, Kandien, Gristle and Allie all stand up!

They all stand up, looking rather refreshed…probably from actually getting to sit down for most of 15 minutes.

“Snorh and Yinroh you are both the missiles, while Kandien you are the backup. Allie and Gristle you are the throwers”

…

..

.

Not sure I’m hearing this right: DillyDally wants to use human (well beastman) missiles?

I mean don’t think anyone thinks they’re hearing right, especially the antlered duo.

“Joat’s idea with the tree got me thinking. Since the tree is so weak that it’ll crumble…we’ll need something more durable. Your antlers won’t burn easily and even if you do die your bodies will still have enough momentum to get the core”

…

..

.

That’s actually not a terrible idea…for the theoretical part anyhow. but living missiles? that's literal suicide...

“But we have to throw them good enough to hit the core right?” Gristle doesn’t even seem to care that he’s talking about throwing his comrades literally into fire.

I stand up, scratch a hole in a tree and place an active shard in there.

“Hit this from over a metre away” I sit back down, this will be quite amusing to watch.

Both of the antlered duo seem extremely against this…well I can’t blame them.

“You will receive extra loot in the dungeon, as well as given 1 hour exemption from training”

“WE’LL DO IT” wow 1 hour exemption can’t be that great? But then again 6 hours straight HIT…ok I can see the value.

Well now that we have willing beastman javelins, they begin to throw them.

…

..

.

Yeah this might take a while.

Both throws go wide of the tree.

Try 2…is quite literally the same.

Try 3, Kandien abruptly takes Yinroh by the ankles, holding them together in both hands as he raises him over his head and chucks him towards the tree.

*Smash*

Damn, that was dead on! That was insane accuracy, just what does he do RL?

“Right, we’ve found our thrower, and all we should need is one so everyone else don’t bother”

“Actually, we could use Snorh as a Ram in case things go badly” I suggest and Dillydally nods, putting the non-beastmen of the group to that (apparently the Halfling and short human both count as Animals for purpose of this squad…in Dillydally’s mind at least).

Everyone prepares themselves and all move up, quite a bit outside the elemental’s agro range.

“Ok, we need to kill it fast, before it can do anything you got that?”

“Sir Yes Sir” Everyone half-whispers it.

Casting detect magic, I see a blue pulsating sphere in the lower right part of what I’m guessing is the torso of the elemental.

“Lower right, about a third up from the bottom” I say, Squirrel confirming a moment later.

Kandien steps up, Yinroh following behind, both stopping a small distance away, still outside the agro range.

“Rakshak” DillyDally calls out, causing the goblin to give a sour look as he agros the elemental.

It hovers over to him quite quickly ignoring Kandien and Yinroh as they simply stand there and watch the elemental getting closer to Rakshak.

Reaching him it grabs hold of him and we all see the poor goblin turn into charred bones within a second.

And before any of us know it, especially the elemental, Yinroh flies into the side with a loud sound akin to the breaking of glass.

With an airy roar, the elemental explodes, and we see Kandien burst into flames and drop a moment later.

Well damn, did not expect that.

At least the elemental is dead!

Surprisingly not that difficult…even if it does insta kill us with a touch...as well as burst into a few metres radius killing everything with fire...

Though I imagine we barely scratched the surface on it.

Walking up to the pile of ash that used to be Yinroh, I spot the core, cracked in two, lying on the ashen ground.

I need 10 of these…10 active, unbroken ones. Just how in the name of Aiag am I going to be able to do that?

Well no point worrying about that now, I can always figure that out later…even if it is of paramount importance.

I feel like I’m just going to be grinding for shards at this point.

Anyways, after a moment of silence for Kandien and Yinroh (and Rakshak I guess), we head into the cave.

It is as usual; ores littering the walls.

Apparently everyone still has a pick and they all start mining.

“How did you all get one?”

“It’s bound for the quest” Squirrel responds as she too mines.

Looking at my inventory, huh I’ve still got one too.

I mine some ore too.

Doing all the veins within the hour, we all take a short rest.

“Ok, so I want Midgrellik, Ragreud and Kookle to stay up here and mine. The rest of you, we continue down into the caves”

Everyone nods and we walk towards the sole open corridor, quickly arriving at the elevator

…

..

.

Or where the elevator should’ve been.

“Oops, forgot that we destroyed it” Kandien blurts out.

What? But then how do we get down now!?

“So how do you propose we get down?” DillyDally looks down the massive hole, which is at least a hundred foot with a smashed elevator down at the bottom.

“Well I did plan for this you know” Squirrel gives us a little smirk.

She heads over to where I remember the elevator ‘mechanic’s were and see her uncover it.

So what about it?

“As you may have not noticed, there’s an absolute ton of rope here” She points out to wow that’s a lot of rope,

coiled around the wheel.

“SO who would like to hold onto the cut end?” Gesturing towards the crudely torn off end, which dangles a little bit above their heads, she chuckles at our expressions.

“How about you do it since this is your plan?” this is not vengeance, I swear.

The colour drains off her face a little.

“Ah no, I’d rather…not…please”

Are you afraid of heights? I did notice you didn’t get close to the hole…maybe you are!

“Fine I’ll do it” I mean I’ll probably have less chance of letting go since I do have a plan! Plus I’ll get down first (which makes no difference in all honesty, but still)! Also i'm not evil enough to put someone in their phobic situation.

DillyDally gets the rest to help him push the thing and once it’s lowered down to my feet, I take a few steps back.

Sadly the rope is in the middle of the pit…

Sprinting, I leap off the edge, hands forward and clasping rope, causing it to swing with me.

Phew, that could've ended badly...

I climb up a little bit to give myself a little more rope to work with.

Wrapping my foot around the rope, I use my free foot to bring the end of the rope through the coils around my foot, under and over alternating ones, till it reaches my hand.

Then, using the rest of the rope, I triple knot the end onto the taut bit that I’m holding onto, creating a small loop for me to place my other foot into.

Right, so I feel a lot more comfortable now.

Giving them a thumbs up, they stop looking at me with intrigue and begin lowering the rope.

Thanks to the weight I’m giving, the rope does go down, ever so slowly.

Finally, the Grand cave comes into view, deathly silent and dark. Thank Aiag I have night vision.

It’s way too quiet…unnaturally so…

I have a baaaaad feeling about this.

…

..

.

Nope just a bit paranoid…

Setting my feet onto the broken elevator, I take care not to step onto the already squished goblins while making my way off.

Untying myself, I tie the rope onto a jutting piece of the platform, and give the rope a little tug in hopes they can see it.

Somehow they do as the rope stops moving and soon after I hear the sounds of heavy breathing while they climb down, Squirrel sliding down eyes closed and SirStripy talking soothingly to her.

Yes it is pretty stressful climbing down over 100 feet.

Finally everyone makes it none too worse for wear, and we head off towards the end of the cave.

We go at a walk, since I am actually the only one with dark vision, so we have to hold hands while I lead them.

Last time we were down here there were torches set up, guess not now…

We reach the end and I see the platform broken at the very end; ah memories.

“Right, everyone, get ready to slide down. Who’s up first?”

DillyDally steps forward. Though I’m pretty sure no one can see that it’s him (barring me and Rakshak, but he’s just skulking at the back).

I guide him to the edge of the platform and he jumps off, landing and crouching on the slanted wall, sliding down towards the mass of bodies and broken platform that we had left in our last visit.

One by one, everyone slides down, landing into the bodies with echoing grunts, but still alive.

Finally I go down, scrambling down uncontrollably before landing face first into the body pile. Thank Aiag (almost) no one can see.

Grouping them all up again, we begin to walk past the two beheaded bodies of what I assumed were the guard goblins.

Oooh a torch!

Picking up what looks like an unused torch from the corpse, I hand it to DillyDally.

He asks for a sword and I direct him to it (apparently we still can’t take their weapons off their corpses).

He smacks the two swords together; creating sparks which he uses to light the torch…huh, smart man.

With a source of light, everyone sighs in relief at being able to see again.

But since I’ve still got the better vision, I continue leading.

Luckily the portcullis is open so we just walk through into the Guard Cave.

It’s as empty as ever.

Nothing is ever so creepy as an expansive, empty room in the dark.

Making our way up the floors, we reach the top floor and I easily spot what I’m guessing is all of the guards, the rest of my used to be followers.

They all lie in a broken semi-circular shape around the entrance into the King’s Cave.

It seems they had tried to hold off Tarakiel here. But by the shape which looks like they’ve been flung back…it didn’t go down so well.

Checking their bodies for torches, I do successfully find 8 more and pass them around.

Everyone has a torch, but only 2 more are lit, to conserve them.

Continuing through the kill zone in the corridor, the ominous murder holes that litter the ceiling seem to be looking down at us, watching our every move.

Shivering as we go through the portcullis and open gate, we reach the square which is the same as before with a few distinct changes:

Firstly, the square is littered with corpses, like covered with them. At a gander, I’d say at least 10,000 are dead…

Secondly, there’s a large, blood red cage sitting crookedly on the palms of the fountain hands, compressed slightly and burnt black at the top.

Well that wasn’t there before.

“Ok, I want everyone to split into pairs and check out the houses. We’ll go to Tarakiel’s together in a bit. And don’t forget to bring any loot you find with you”

Everyone quickly disperses in pairs and I’m…left alone

…

..

.

Squirrel chose DillyDally over me?

Rakshak got chosen over me?

That’s just harsh people, harsh…

Ah well, time to explore the square then!

First off is this strange cage, oddly looking like a birdcage, it’s even got that little stand in the middle.

I pace around it checking out the reddened bars; apparently they’re coated in drying blood, a lot of it at that.

After a few minutes of checking it out, I squeeze through between the slick bars and see that the stand is indeed not that.

At first I had thought it was a broken stand, but seeing as though the top doesn’t look broken…I’d it’s a lever

…

..

.

Ah what the hell, I’ll go for it.

Wrenching the lever…it does nothing.

Ok, curiosity satisfied with no results!

Hopping off, I head towards one of the bodies, because I’ve got a little curious thought.

Standing by one, I let magic pour through my hand towards it

…

..

.

Nothing happens, right, might have to actually get closer.

Placing my hand onto the warm corpse, I direct my JUMP AWAY!

Blasting backwards, I stare at the corpse…which is warm…

Corpses shouldn’t be warm…no siree.

*WhooshCLANNNNNNNNNNNNG*

I swivel round, to see the cage rocket upwards and smash into the ceiling at an odd angle, before piling through the rock without pause

...

..

.

oops...

*Moan*

Turning back around, I see, yup, the zombie goblin slowly rise.

EVERYONE CASTLE NOW

Shouty capitals always do the work.

Sprinting through what seems like the entire horde of slowly standing up goblins, I reach the castle, slip through the open gates and run up to walls.

I spot everyone running from their houses frantically, but I can see them looking more curious than scared…that is until they spot the zombies as they wobble to their knees.

“JOAT” Squirrel shouts at me as she sprint in front of DillyDally, who just drop kicked one zombie in the jaw mid run.

“I SWEAR IT’S NOT MY FAULT” I mean I MIGHT have woken them up but they were already like this.

Everyone passes through the gates and after slamming them shut, we lower the bar (thank Aiag there’s a bar).

Though that might not hold, especially against an entire shuffling horde…

“How many are there?” I ask to no one in particular as I watch them all pace forward, moaning.

“Around 15,000 would be my guess” Squirrel responds from my side…well damn that’s a good eye…

“Right, so door is barred and getting reinforced and we have a massive horde of zombies at our doorstep. Any idea on how not to become zombie chow?” DillyDally marches up, peering down at the horde.

They reach the wall and begin bumping into it like the brain dead beings they are.

“Well do the same as last time? Use their bodies as weapons?” I suggest as it doesn’t seem like that terrible an idea.

“Not bad, but how do we get to them?” He points down to the zombies, which are maybe 1 person’s height away from the top…what a low wall.

“Well I suggest we check out what they are first, since I don’t see a necromancer anywhere” The minute Squirrel says that, we all turn towards the castle behind us…nah, there can’t be; there’s no logical explanation.

Anyways, I look down at the zombies and check them out:

NAME:Goblin Zombie [lvl5] (Aggressive)Health:10/10Attack:1-10Defense:0Resistances:ColdA goblin corpse reanimated by magicAttacks by clawing and biting. Bites are infectious

Ok so a weak little thing as I kind of expected…but cold resistance? and infectious bites?

Oh no.

I cast detect magic

*Ding*

You have learnt new things about your enemy

NAME:Goblin Zombie (Fire Variant) [lvl5] (Aggressive)Health:10(1)/10(1)Attack:1-10 fire damageDefense:0Resistances:ColdA goblin corpse reanimated by magical fireAttacks by clawing and biting. Bites are infectious

Well now I know why it’s got a warm body: because it’s got a fire shard in it…but why cold resistance?

“Well, good news is that it’s only got 1 hitpoint…but that’s the core’s hit point…”

Both of them look at me with sad understanding…we’re kind of screwed.

“Though it has cold resistance and it's got an infectious bite...”

All 3 of us look confused out of our minds at that…why would it have cold resistance?

Has it got something to do with the bodies being warm? Maybe that gives cold resistance…but not fire resistance?

“So you’re saying that they’re working due to magical fire right?” Squirrel pipes up.

“Yes”

“And unlike the blazes or Elementals they still have a physical body…so of course they can still burn?”

“But you’re suggesting that they’re like coal next to a fire” but of an odd thought.

“Maybe, because their core stops them from betting cold, but their physical bodies are still susceptible to fire?” she doesn’t sound too sure of it herself.

“She’s right you know” Jerriah heaves up the stairs and joins us “From what you’ve mentioned, these zombies are working off their thermo-receptors meaning that like any natural body it can be given more stimulation”

Since when did Jerriah sound so knowledgeable?

He takes our slightly stunned silence as a sign to continue “Due to this magical fire, the core temperature of the zombie’s have to be higher than normal, which means that A: the cells with start naturally degenerating and slowly turning the zombie into mush from the inside out and B: adding extra heat may spontaneously combust the zombie, forcing process A to go about at a rate like this” he snaps his fingers.

“You know a lot about zombies don’t you Jerriah?” DilylDally says what we’re all thinking.

“Well I like zombies” He looks away rather embarrassed. I'm taking that as a zombie loving fan rather than necrophiliac!

“So you’re saying that the best way to kill these ones is set them on fire?” I ask him, because this sounds like a good plan!

“Yes, because it will burn them away physically, however it’ll keep the core intact, which isn’t the best”

“Why?” I have a feeling there’s a big downside to this…

“Well seeing as though putting the cores inside the goblins made them into zombies controlled by their thermo-receptors, then if the cores are put into ash…”

“They may turn into living ash?” Squirrel finishes the sentence.

Jerriah nods.

Well not exactly a great trade off…

“But it may take time to infuse itself into the ash or it might need another stimuli such as intense heat to immediately bond with the ash, so in the least we should have some time to escape” Jerriah adds on, now thinking the way to escape it seems.

Sounds like a plan… “DillyDally” well since he is the leader of Squad Animal he should be leading them.

“Squad Animal, Attenshun!” Everyone stops dragging the huge door to the entrance of the castle (wow they pulled it out of its hinges…) and looks up to DillyDally. “Rakshak, Tikari, Snorh, Yinroh and Joat, I want you to scour the castle immediately and grab what you can. Be back within the hour. The rest of you, continue building up on the door and then man the walls with us. When the others have returned, we’re going to blow this joint”

“SIR YES SIR” Everyone runs off to do what they’re told.

“They don’t seem to be smart enough to do more than smack on the doors, and they seem to be bloody good doors…so we can last a while. You try find some good loot; make this trip worthwhile for all of us” DillyDally gives me an arm, which I take and shake it before running off inside, going straight towards the throne room.

Sprinting through, I stop in the throne room, finding 40 coppers as well as 12 sets of armour. Sweet, they’re still here!

So for some reason the items don’t just disappear in this game, realism what a bonus!

I like realism; it gives me my stuff back!

Right, onwards!

Running out the throne room, I take my time up the stairs and open the door into Tarakiel’s chambers.

PRIVATE INSTANCE:Tarakiel's Personal ChambersThis chamber doesn't seem normal

…

..

.

Why’d it give me an instanc-oh my; this place is special!

Looking around the room, firstly for my armour (kaching, found it!), I then have a peek around, trying to see why this room isn’t normal.

Well it is covered in chains, torture equipment of all sorts and even a bed, which seems to be spiked on one side (pricked my finger there)…but I don’t think that’s what the instance meant.

Spending the better part of an hour checking under the bed, through drawers and basically anywhere closed off, I find a couple of interesting things:

First of all, I find a leather-bound diary under her pillow (the non spiked one). Though with a quick peek at it, it’s definitely not a language I can read.

Then I found a pair of what I’m guessing is iron boots. Normal, except for the fact that they’ve got rows and rows of miniature spikes on the bottom…and the spikes are crusted in old blood too…hmm that doesn’t look like your casual boots, no siree.

I don’t take any of the knives that are on the table, as well as the whip…even if I know how effective they are... they're some pretty bad memories I want to forget.

So apart from traumatizing weaponry, the boots and the inunderstandable diary, this room is pretty bare (I can’t take any of the torture equipment…well not that I’d want to anyways).

Leaving the room after an hour passed,

Get here now!

Ok, oops I’m late!

Sprinting back down to the outside to see a full on siege going on

…

…

(DillyDally’s POV)

“Gristle, hold the gates, Kandien right wing, SirStripy to the left”

Dammit, the zombies are starting to climb.

Well climb is a generous word; they’re pushing against eachother so much that some are being pushed on top of the other thus making a sort of zombie ladder.

And this wall is way too low for its own good.

Kicking another zombie that crawls its way up, I bash another’s head in as it drags itself onto the wall.

Really should’ve have let 5 people go…that’s quite literally half our man power.

Damn, it’s only been 15 minutes, I’ve got to give them more time!

Half a dozen rise up close by me…dammit no more time!

Get here now!

I send the group a message, not having time to tell them individually.

Smacking another zombie to the floor I spot its head crack open, but it gets back up.

Dammit, this’ll be endless.

Furiously kicking zombies back down as they crawl up, I’m just about sustaining my part of the wall; luckily this wall can be sustained with just the 5 of us up here, barely.

“Gristle get up here” I bark and I hear him stomp up the stairs immediately, horn wrenching into a zombie that stands up on the wall.

“DillyDally” I hear someone call from below.

That’s Joat…that was fast!

…

…

(Joat’s POV)

Damn, zombies are getting aggressive.

Charging up the wall, I shoulder slam a zombie off the edge and kick another, snapping its neck, dropping it into the writhing mass below.

“Well seems they’ve learnt to climb”

“Seems they have” DillyDally kicks a zombie’s head clean off, but that doesn’t stop it trying to crawl up another step before being knocked to the ground by a second kick.

“We’ve got to set the fires!” Jerriah calls from a distance, whacking one zombie away before getting scratched by another.

Sure enough, the number of zombies climbing at one time seems to be in the dozens, but that number looks to be steadily increasing.

“5 minutes” DillyDally barks, to which everyone hunkers down.

I head over to Jerriah, barreling the zombie on his side, off the wall.

In an almost comical motion, I start doing frontal kicks repeatedly, almost hopping between them.

It’s effective; well it stalls the zombies at least.

About 2 dozen zombies clamber up and even though me and Jerriah kick and punch at them furiously, 3 stand up and try to claw us.

-10

Ow that burns!

Barreling into one, I push it off the edge, while Jerriah lifts one, smacking the other with it before launching the first into the horde.

But we wasted time doing that and already dozens more are clambering up.

“SET THEM ALIGHT” DillyDally shouts and everyone rushes over to him with their torches out and light it using his already lit torch.

Apparently they weren’t using them to burn them before, just in case it all went wrong.

Now with their torches lit, the smack zombies with them, setting them on fire as they get launched into the horde.

Akin to alchemists fire, the horde catches fire upon touch, just as Jerriah said.

Damn, they’re all roasting in front of our eyes.

But apparently that just made things worse.

They immediately quicken, rushing towards us on fire and clambering up in a mess to reach us as if set on fire (well that irony doesn't get lost on me or anyone who's watching the massive horde running towards us)...

So they’re hyper sensitized…oops.

“GET OFF THE WALLS”

Suddenly the walls are covered in flaming zombies, hundreds of them leaping up.

Jumping off the walls into the courtyard, we sprint for our lives being chased by a literally horde of flaming zombies, all screaming as they charge towards us.

"OH MY GOD IT'S LIKE LEF-"

"SHUT UP JERRIAH AND KEEP RUNNING" DillyDally over shouts him.

Though we don't have to run far as once we get to the throne room, miraculously joined by everyone else, the screams stop and we spot zombies quite literally melting in front of our eyes.

No one throws up...guess we've seen worse lately...though this is still pretty stomach churning

...

..

.

Ah nevermind, Squirrel threw up.

“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE” DillyDally shouts and we all charge after him, everyone helping Squirrel along a little bit.

Clambering back onto the walls, now slick with melted goblin zombies, we jump off into the still hot fudge-like substance and continue running.

I however, keep my hands low down, picking up shard after shard, along with the help of Rakshak who grabs at them with fervor akin to madness.

Running past the fountain and through the courtyard, I’ve gained 33 shards and we make our way out, before the thousands of living oozes(oh my) rise up…which they do, quite literally and quite morbidly in one giant mass as we make our way out.

Wow, that’s pretty terrifying. scratch that, it's HORRIFYING!

Running away, we burst straight into a crude semi-circle of zombies, almost faltering at the sudden sight, but our momentum keeps us going.

Crashing through them, luckily they’re only about 10 deep, so we break through the other side, only taking only a decent amount of damage.

But someone sets one on fire, causing the others to set on fire…so now there are thousands of on-fire zombies charging after us.

Leaping down the stairs, they come after us, some tripping, others jumping towards us maddened by the fire.

Though before we get below the rest floor, they stop moving, collapsing into a puddle.

Making our way through to the Grand cave, sure enough, there are maybe a hundred or so zombies shuffling about here.

Wiping them out, we stop moving

…

..

.

How are we going to get back up?

That’s a bloody good question. Ah!

“Guys, I think I can make it up” I take out the spiky boots from my inventory. “and once I’m up I can pass it down for the next person?

Squirrel hops onto my back.

“We can do 2 at a time it’ll be quicker Boss” I think she just enjoys getting a free ride, but I’m not complaining.

She’s cute (though not the right situation, not when there’s thousands of living ash coming towards us).

Putting the boots on my hands, I stab them into the surprisingly soft rock and begin climbing.

The climbing isn't that awful, except for the fact that Squirrel is sobbing her head off as she dangles from my shoulders...wow she's scared of heights...like seriously scared and apparently this isn't so great...

“Someone go close that damned portcullis” I hear DillyDally already shouting orders down below.

Making my way up slowly, it gets a lot easier when the slope begins, and from then on, we get to the platforms easily.

Only took maybe a few minutes.

Looking below, I send the boots sliding down for the next pair, seeing that it’s Jerriah and Yinroh.

The rest are busy moving the broken platform in front of the losing portcullis, to delay the loud sound of sludging that’s getting louder every minute.

I help Yinroh and then Jerriah up, and send them on their way to begin climbing. Squirrel doesn’t want to leave but I have her go. No point her staying here.

Kandien and Snorh are next and I swear I see something trying to squeeze through the gaps

…

..

.

Oh it’s just Rakshak, phew.

Kandien makes it to the slope and begins rushing towards me when the first of the strange oozes start squeezing through the gaps.

DillyDally has everyone plugged the gaps with goblin corpses…which works surprisingly decently, delaying the inevitable.

Kandien and Snorh are out, boots are back down. Allie and Rakshak are coming up now at a good pace.

*Creak*

Oh no, I can hear that.

The platform splits and oozing through (ironically) is what looks like one continuous mass of melted goblin.

I can tell its melted goblin by the fact that I can see bones floating in it. Eugh that’s disgusting.

Immediately, DillyDally and the rest begin pushing it back with their torches, successfully driving it back through the split in the middle, but it pushes through the sides too.

Gristle and Stripy stick their torches either side, both wielding two now (people seemed to leave one for the rest to fight with) against the ooze that tries to squish through.

I help Allie up and chuck the boots back down this time, not having time to wait.

As they smack into the ground with a clang, Gristle, rushes over to them and begins climbing, DillyDally and SirStripy dual wielding torches while retreating towards Gristle.

Suddenly the ooze darts out, taking hold of SirStripy’s torches, ripping them from his grasp and chucking them away.

Well it’s smarter than the zombies apparently.

They jump onto Gristle’s back on hand holding his shoulders while the other swinging a torch by their feet (DillyDally gave one to SirStripy).

The ooze crashes through the platform and portcullis

…

..

.

Oh my Aiag…that’s one.

The ooze is literally just one thing, hundreds of melted goblins all massed into one it seems. That’s mortifying!

It lunges up formlessly towards the trio as they climb/hold on, getting batted away by the torches’ fire.

Doesn’t seem like it hurts it, rather it just seems afraid of it…

And afraid of fire it may be, it doesn’t stop it grabbing onto Gristle’s legs out of the fire’s reach and begins pulling him down, spikes screeching against the rock.

SirStripy, without a moments delay, snatches DillyDally’s torch and drops down onto the ooze, torches burning into it and causing it to let go of Gristle.

Though it meant SirStripy landed into the ooze, melting or burning, not quite sure which maybe both, as he gets swallowed into it.

No one shouts his name as he dies; they just concentrate on climbing frantically, making a distance beyond the oozes reach as of right now.

They reach the slope and begin moving faster, while the ooze keeps moving into the room, showing that it’s a lot lot larger than I thought. Well the body of 3000 and a bit goblins did kind of make this one…well I’m hoping this is the 15,000+ goblin one but it isn’t big enough I fear.

It tries to reach Gristle and DillyDally, but thankfully they are out of reach.

I grab them both; helping them up and after reclaiming the boots, we get out of there.

Jerriah is actually at the bottom of the rope along with Yinroh, cleaning up the remnants of goblins as they try to rise. And Squirrel is standing there, not wanting to climb.

“GET CLIMBING” DillyDally shouts at them, allowing them up first and half pushing Squirrel up as she sobs uncontrollably...wow that's a fear and a half.

I get up behind Gristle and DillyDally gets up last.

Thankfully it seems the ooze can’t climb…or we hope it can’t.

All of us getting off the rope and landing on the floor, we start to pull the rope up (DillyDally remembered to untie it at the bottom).

With it dangling over the pit once more, we retreat through the corridor, no one asking where SirStripy is, probably from the dark expression on DillyDally’s face.

Guess he doesn’t like watching members of his squad die.

Meeting up with the 3 that were mining all this time, they look rather confused at our slightly ragged look.

“Let’s get out of here” He gives Squirrel a pat on the head as she shivers from the aftermath of having to climb up heights over and over again.

“Fire elementals respawned” Kookle says.

Rakshak grimaces, since he knows he’s the bait.

He heads out, with Kandien and Yinroh in tow.

We hear an airy wail and take that as the elemental’s death.

Yup it sure is.

Taking the broken core, we head out. Back to the village, where it’s safe, we hope.

Well that was a lot more stressful than it should have been…I just hope people found some good loot…

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Sorry had bit of a writers block, so voila! here it is!