Chapter 21

Susan

Hours later they arrived at cave 8.

“Welcome to training cave eight. What is your question?”

“Where is cave nine?”

Elora marked Rome’s map and the back wall slid open. The orb lights only went several feet back, then ended and most of the cave was in darkness. “I think that’s a hint to buy glow orbs for the future caves.”

“That’s needed for the others, but we have analyze two.”

On Brun’s suggestion they cast the spell and saw everything in monochromatic detail. As they walked in they saw it was a cave full of bears. The bears weren’t big but they had amazingly high health at 650/650. Brun called out the stats of the level seventeen bear and cast Poison 2. A green light flew from his outstretched finger and hit it, then two more flew out from that one hitting two more bears. The spell cut their max health in half and slowly ate away their health from an additional mild venom.

Rome followed with the same spell, and the six closest bears quickly became low threat nuisances. Still, it took Torger two thrusts to kill each one, and Rome and Brun had to support him, Brun casting damage spells and Rome healing Torger from the occasional claw that connected. Torger hated not having armor. There was no boss and they looked at their score.

Well done hunters. Your score is 128. Total points available to spend: 253

Training cave 8 difficulty: 13.9

Squad strength: 43.2

Time: 22 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

“We defeated that cave easily enough. We should be good for nine, do you want a full suit of iron armor or a few mithril pieces?” Rome didn’t care which way Torger went, since Torger would take the most damage from now on.

“I need bracers and gauntlets, good ones. The bears hit my hands and arms while swinging the sword. Can we afford both?”

Rome spent 94 points for mithril gauntlets and bracers, then another 126 for a full set of iron armor. “Someone in their squad is going to have play possum while the others kill the bears. Also, our squad strength went up more than five points.”

Gary asked Elora “How is squad strength determined?”

“It is the total levels of everyone in the squad divided by ten, then the strength of weapons, armor and spells are added in. The exact formula is unknown to me. Have a good fight.”

Before they walked in Gary double checked with Susan. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

She looked scared but nodded.

Gary reminded everyone “Small bears the size of large dogs. They will attack in a group of nine, then another group of nine, then a group of ten. And we won’t have light beyond the first fifteen feet.”

“It sounds like they attack once we enter the agro zone of each group. Susan is acting as our tank, dressed in full armor. Susan you’ll have to pull groups and keep damaging them to keep agro on yourself.”

Joe said “Tyler, no one has any idea what you just said. Susan, just run in a few feet ahead of us and turtle up. Lay on the ground while they are trying to swat through your armor.”

Tyler groaned, having failed again to explain how it works in games. The others just didn’t get it, but hopefully everything would work out.

Susan was loaded down with the weight of sixty pounds of iron armor, so she waddled in. As soon as the first bears ran at her, she collapsed to the ground and put her arms over her head. She closed her eyes and was batted around like a cat playing with yarn. She heard shouts and the sounds of metal axes sinking into bears, and her bruises piled up. After what seemed like an hour being used as a human pinball, the sounds of battle died away and Gary told her to get up. She crawled to her hands and knees, then felt many of the bruises fade as Gary cast Cure 1 on her. She stood up on shaky legs and finally opened her eyes. Nine dead bears were strewn around the cave floor, and everyone was breathing hard, and they all had cuts on their arms and legs, but none of the bleeding was serious.

Gary said “These caves are getting too tough for us. I hate to imagine the next one. Rest up everyone. Susan, we’ll help you out of that armor and someone else can be the bears’ piñata.”

As they rested Tyler thought aloud “I wonder if we would be rated d rank adventurers yet? The veterans would probably be a ranked.”

Everyone ignored him, not wanting a detailed explanation of whatever it was he was talking about. After four minutes, Gary cast another Cure 1 on Susan, but didn’t want to wait another four minutes for the mana to recharge. He wanted to ask the others if they thought they should buy armor or mana after this dungeon, but as a trained leader he believed he had to be confident and have the answers. In his mind a leader asking for advice from his subordinates was a sign of weakness. He couldn’t understand why Rome always had conversations with his group, instead of telling them what they were going to do. But that was their business.

They tentatively left the light, and stayed just at the edge of where they could see. “Run ten steps forward, then turn around and run back,” was Tyler’s advice to Susan. Gary didn’t like him giving orders to another, but he would give her the same instructions anyway.

She waddled forward, then turned around as soon as the first bear charged her. In her hurry, she tripped and fell and all she could do was ball up like last time. “Dammit she’s in the deep shadows. Charge!”

Everyone followed Gary’s command immediately. Susan was only eight steps away, but by the time they got to her five bears were crushing her and trying to pry open her armor, and four more were rushing in. All four men picked a bear and swung their axes into a skull. All four injured bears turned their attention to their attackers, and the men had to swing wildly in the dim light, barely seeing their foes. After five strikes each, there were four more dead bears. They ran forward again to see the remaining five bears had pried away the round shield from Susan’s arm, and had pried off the helmet. They tyter sized armor was comically large on her, and it gave room for the bears to peel it off her.

Gary saw she wasn’t moving. He yelled “Nikko, drag her back to the entrance!”

Nikko wanted to fight, and was about to argue but thought this wasn’t the best time for it. He walked up to her and waited for Tyler, Joe, and Gary to drive back the bears, each taking massive wounds to the arms to give him room. Nikko dropped his axe and grabbed Susan under the armpits. It took all his strength to drag her but he persisted until he was at the entrance wall. He knew it wouldn’t open until the cave was cleared, but Susan still wasn’t moving. “HELP! Can you guys hear me out there! Rome can you get in here? We need help!”

The wall didn’t slide back letting him drag her outside. Nikko looked at her more closely. Claw marks sank deep into her head and face, and the armor was dented everywhere and some dents had small piercings. Nikko took off her boots, then greaves, then bracers before Gary and the others arrived.

“Cure One!” A gold light shot out of Gary’s blood covered hand. The light hit Susan, but she didn’t budge.

An hour later Gary said “Cure one.” The light shot out of his finger into his own chest. The last of his scratches disappeared, and everyone in the squad had returned to full health.

“I’ll do it” volunteered Joe.

“No, it has to be me.” Gary removed the pauldrons from the corpse. Next he removed the chainmail skirt, and finally the chest plate. As he was un-strapping it he muttered “I never lost a guard. Thousands of cell extractions and fights, near a hundred guards injured, but never one died under my watch.”

The others didn’t know what to say and remained quiet. Gary pulled off the chest plate and began putting it on himself. Nikko giggled at seeing Susan in her bra and panties, even though she was covered in blood. Joe said “What’s this?”

He reached toward her breasts and Nikko laughed louder. Joe pulled out a folded piece of paper stuck in her bra.

If you are reading this, I am probably dead. I am writing this shortly after finding out I won’t be going back to Earth. My place is not in the wilderness, fighting for my life. I have given up on life, but suicide would bring shame to my family. Protecting my friends with my life is very honorable. If you do get back to Earth somehow, please contact my children and tell them I died with great honor. Please retell my deeds in a positive light as you recount our time together.

Joe read it aloud, and then handed it to Gary. He placed it in the iron boot next to his own dead letter, for all the others to see.

Without a word he walked toward the back of the cave, and the others walked to the edge of the light. Gary had five more strength points than Susan. He couldn’t run in the armor that was way too big for him, but he could walk rather than waddle like she had. Once the last group of bears charged him, he turned and walked back. He wouldn’t make the same mistake she had and trip. The first bear swatted him in the back of the legs, but the armor held. He staggered but didn’t fall. Gritting his teeth, Gary slowly walked back to the light, getting hit and staggering multiple times. By the time he got there the greaves were ruined and he was bleeding profusely from the backs of his legs.

Gary turned around and swung his axe in a rage. His anger had risen and risen until it reached a boiling point. The axe went clean through a bears’ paw. Gary took a few more steps back and was in a tight area of the cave.

Joe had remembered a story Brun told of them piling up razorlings in a cave to create a choke point, fighting just one or two at a time instead of all of them at the same time. It worked also on the bears. Gary stood there swinging away while the others called him to retreat, but he didn’t. Finally Joe and Tyler rushed forward and dragged Gary back, and Nikko filled the gap attacking the bear trying to squeeze between the piles of dead bears.

Gary yelled “Get off me! Let me fight! I have to do this!”

“No!” Joe yelled back. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. Cure yourself. We can’t do it or we would.”

Gary struggled but couldn’t get them off him. Finally he relented. After a minute, Tyler switched places with an exhausted Nikko. Nikko looked at Gary. “We need you. We need your experience and leadership to survive.”

A few seconds later Gary cast Cure 1 on himself.

Ten minutes later Gary was carrying Susan in his arms out the entrance of the cave when Tyler said “Hold up. We need to buy upgrades.”

“We’ll do it next time.” Gary kept walking.

Tyler persisted “Then just take a few seconds to look at the kiosk screen. The symbols are different this time.”

Gary looked over, and the words were different. He walked over and read it.

One of your squad members has died. Do you want to retry cave 8?

Yes No Details

Gary handed Susan’s body to Joe, then he pressed details and read the next screen.

When a squad member dies without a respawn, the squad may defeat the cave again and both scores will be added to the total points available. Do you want to retry cave 8? Yes No

Gary pressed yes, then sighed. He reluctantly asked “Tyler, what is a game strategy for the four of us defeating this cave?”

Tyler smiled broadly. “We have a level one healer, no ranged support, one tank with damaged armor and two dd’s. Only a total noob would put this party together to face superior numbers and mobs. Still, the choke point is a must…”

Nikko had on the armor and kept his back to the side of the cave. He crept along until the bears charged. Five came at him, and the other four bears attacked the other three people. Nikko took the attacks, but kept moving to the back of the cave. Once he had gone another fifteen feet, he lay down on his back, shield strapped to his left arm and axe in his right. He swung with the axe at a bear’s foot, then kicked another one and kicked another, then swung his axe again while the bears pounded on the shield.

He got bruised in the armor, but tried his best to keep them mad at him. After a few minutes, he felt some bruises heal instantly. He had to wait another four minutes until he would receive another cure spell, so he focused exclusively on keeping the shield between himself and the sharp claws. He even dropped the axe, which had only done minor damage to the five bears.

Gary stood near Nikko fighting the bears as best he could, but was pleased to see the massive damage Tyler and Joe were making on the other side of the group. Their attacks from behind the bears caused blood to fly out everywhere, and soon four of the five remaining bears were paralyzed in their back legs. The battle didn’t last long after that.

“Those are called crits,” smiled Tyler. “When you damage a mob from behind, you take off extra health. Good job Gary for keeping them facing you with their backs turned to us.”

Gary nodded but thought the bears were exceptionally stupid beasts. He cast Cure 1’s while they piled the bodies to create a choke point. He couldn’t get over how all the bears had disappeared from their first time through the cave. Where did they go? They were there until his squad left then re-entered, but that was only a couple of minutes. It didn’t matter, as he knew the choke point would make all the difference. Without putting on the armor, he ran to “pull” the next group then ran back behind the barricade.

The plan worked way better than he thought it would, and as they were walking back to the cave entrance he said “Tyler, you just got promoted. You’re now our chief strategist. As such, what should we purchase with our points?”

Tyler asked Gary to read the screen to them.

Well done hunters. Your score from round 1 was 51.

Training cave 8 difficulty: 13.9

Squad strength: 16.1

Time: 1 hour, 13 minutes

Your score from round 2 was 76.

Training cave 8 difficulty 13.9

Squad strength 13.9

Time: 55 minutes

Because someone in your party died, your squad gets 2 respawns. All points are spent.

Select the 2 members who get a respawn:

Gary Nikko Tyler Joe

Gary selected himself and Joe. Himself because from now on he would be the “tank” as Tyler put it, and Joe because he couldn’t face Rome if Joe died.

Chapter 22

Darkness

Gary carried Susan’s body outside. The veterans were shocked to see her limp and lifeless. After stories were exchanged, they buried her. Gary pulled Rome to the side and told him if he died, he had her letter in his boot.

Over a campfire, Nikko tried to heat and hammer out the dented iron armor as best he could while Brun tried to sharpen their very dull axes on a flat wet stone. Joe cooked leftover lagik meat (the panther/ boar animal) while Gary, Tyler, Rome and Torger discussed strategy.

“Cave nine is due west at the edge of the forest and tundra. We’ve got to hurry before our seventeen days is up.”

Torger had a point. They were close to hitting the twelve days mark, and had seven more caves to defeat. “We might have to skip a couple, but we can’t leave Gary’s squad and they can’t skip one,” added Rome.

“We were nearly wiped out in caves seven and eight. We’re not prepared for cave nine, no matter what it is.” Gary looked to Tyler for advice.

“It’s probably going to be dark. We may be fighting blind, and the kiosks haven’t let us make purchases before a fight. We don’t know if glowing orbs can be transferred, but you guys are going to have to buy several and see if they can be used by us. Not only that, I’m confused by the kiosk messages. It first said if we conquer the cave again, we would get combined scores. But when we did that, it instead gave us two respawns.”

“How many points did you have total?” asked Rome. “A respawn costs sixty-five points.”

“I spent them all last time, and this time we gained a hundred twenty-seven.”

“That answers it,” said Torger. “Kind of. We should ask Elora next time.”

Tyler gave a firm “No. She gave us a partial answer on how squad strength is determined, but now we have to ask her how scores are determined. We have nothing to compare our scores against, but we have to be getting below average scores. The tyters would rarely make it to the end if our scores were their average. I’ve done some math and a squad of five would need to get nearly three hundred points per cave for full battle mesh armor with Takinu and laser attachment, and that doesn’t include a weapon or dimensional pouch you said each one had. We have to get our scores much higher.”

“Ok, that makes sense,” started Torger, “but remember Shug’s squad was the most elite squad they had. The squad that defeated the trolls had a mix of steel and mithril, but even at that they would have had to get two hundred points per cave.”

“Unless it stacks.”

Everyone looked at Rome. He continued “this planet is training zone eighteen. Maybe they go through multiple training zones before going to Nuva, or one of the many other battle planets.”

“Another question for Elora. Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, we need more speed. We’ve got to get from cave to cave much quicker before time runs out. I don’t want to find out what ‘eject’ means.” Gary looked for their nods before continuing. “How much are we slowing you guys down? Answer honestly.”

Rome told him the truth. “You and Brun have a stamina of fifty-five, while Torger and I have a stamina of ninety. Everyone else is below fifty. Bringing everyone to seventy-five would double our travel speed to almost eight miles per hour, and that’s without us constantly casting haste one on everyone. If we weren’t afraid of being low on mana when getting attacked the three of us could constantly cast haste two.”

Gary nodded. “Consider it done.”

Tyler cried out “No, we need other things. Weapons, armor, mana, orb lights, more health. We need everything. We can’t spend all our next points on one thing.”

Rome slapped his forehead. “Dimensional pouch. Lugging all that iron armor around is slowing us down. I can’t spend my points on your stamina, but I can buy a dimensional pouch instead of Torger and I always carrying the armor.”

It took almost a full day to get to cave 9. By the time they got there everyone agreed buying stamina would be key. After the standard greeting, Elora marked Rome’s map where cave 10 was. As they entered Torger said “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, but why didn’t we ask about the point system and use that for this cave? They could have asked where cave ten was.”

“Their squad member died. Elora may not ask the standard question. We can’t spend time searching randomly for another cave.”

Torger accepted Rome’s answer and saw that indeed there were no orb lights. All three cast Analyze 2 so they could see. Huge bats filled the ceiling. There were easily over a hundred and fifty. Brun selected one and called out the stats.

Vampire bat Level 20

Health 125 (550) Strength 4 (10) Stamina 35 Mana 0

“I don’t know what the parenthesis mean,” said Brun.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

As soon as Rome spoke five bats flew at them. Torger cut one in half with his sword and Brun and Rome cast Fire 1 and Ice 1 respectively. As soon as the bats were close, they transformed into humans, bit the necks of the three men, then turned back into bats and flew away. The bites didn’t cause a lot of damage, just five health points each, but getting attacked by twenty or thirty at once would mean death in seconds.

“If I turn into a vampire, kill me. I hope it goes away with a respawn,” said Torger as he took off the iron chainmail skirt and draped it over the iron helmet. He was glad he had the mithril bracers and gauntlets, then was sad he hadn’t loaned them to Susan. He was sure the iron would be enough against the bears. He pushed away the thought and as he started walking away Brun told him to wait.

“The numbers in the parenthesis must be the bat in human form. Your sword wouldn’t have killed a monster with five hundred fifty health in one swing. They’ll be a whole lot stronger and tougher as humans, so kill as many bats as you can.”

“I wish we had potions here,” grumbled Rome. “We would be a lot more useful in this battle.”

“To be fair, when we got here the kiosk at the entrance portal did say they recommend squads with five to ten tyters. If there were five more of me this wouldn’t be so bad.” Torger turned and walked forward a few steps.

At first three, then ten, then all of the bats flew blindly around the cave. Torger swung his sword through the air as quick as he could slicing off wings. The injured bats fell to the floor, then became human and were bleeding out of arm stumps. They did not turn into bats again, but ran at Torger.

Rome and Brun cast multiple Shield 1’s between Torger and the vampires. It seemed they had little intelligence even in human form and beat on the shields until they shattered or until they vampire died from Lightning 1 repercussions from the shields and blood loss. Some ran at Brun and Rome who had to stop protecting Torger and cast their own Shield 2 bubbles around themselves. Then Rome strengthened the shields with extra health points and added Fire 1 and Ice 1. Every time a vampire in human form hit the shield, it lost 24 health, but soon there were eleven vampires banging on Rome’s shield and fourteen banging on Brun’s.

Rome was out of mana, and Brun spent the last of his casting Shield 1’s around Torger. He called “Torger, come back! You’re on your own to cure yourself.”

Torger sliced another bat in half and cut the wings off two more as he waited for the protective shields to fail. When the last one shattered, he ran back to the others and called out “Earth wall.” He poured more and more mana into it until it was six feet tall and he was out of mana. The dirt wall was a half circle that connected to the cave walls on each end, completely blocking out the vampires in human form, but the bats could still fly over the top of it.

The one armed vampires struggled to climb the wall, usually dragging down the one in front of them.

“You’ve gotta teach me that spell,” said Brun.

“The problem,” Torger swung at a bat, “Is it lasts” he killed another one “only five minutes.” He killed another. “We’ve gotta think” another wingless bat “of what to do next.” He decapitated an injured vampire.

“How many are left?” asked Rome. “Most of the ones attacking our shields are near dead.”

“I’ve killed” another bat fell to the floor “more than half.” Another wingless bat turned human. “And most of- the others are- wounded,” he finished as he killed the remaining vampires who were too stupid to look behind them and see Torger. Instead, one at a time their heads rolled as they finally stopped banging on Rome’s and Brun’s shields.

More bats were flying overhead, but Torger said “I need a breather.” He didn’t kill more bats but instead only defended himself against the ones who turned human and tried to bite him. None of them succeeded because they always tried to bite his neck and the chain mail skirt over his helm stopped them. He decided to try to just let them fail in their attempts to bite him, but they grabbed his arms to pull him close to themselves, and since there were three trying to bite his neck, he got pulled in three different directions at once.

Torger used all of his twenty strength points to push them away then stabbed each one through the heart, on Rome’s suggestion. It didn’t add extra damage to them like the fabled wooden stake.

Just as he finished the last one, the dirt wall disappeared. Torger dropped his head and slouched his shoulders; he was too tired to keep going. “I’m at four stamina. Sorry guys.”

Rome called “Get back here.” He dismissed his bubble shield and ran and took the sword out of Torger’s hands. Torger knew Rome’s skill was 13 with two handed swords, not like Torger’s 64, but he had no choice.

Rome didn’t have time to take the neck protection and stabbed three human vampires before he was surrounded by twenty plus one armed fiends. But they were all moving very slowly, and even the few remaining bats had clung to the ceiling again.

Brun called out “They had very low stamina to begin with, and the humans are still bleeding out. They have to be close to dead. Don’t waste a lot of energy on big swings Rome.”

He took the advice and found that light thrusts to the neck or chest was enough to kill most of them. In a few minutes all the human forms were dead, but the bats clinging to the ceiling started stirring again.

Torger’s stamina had risen to nine, so he retook his sword and ran into the center of the cylindrical cave. The thirteen remaining bats flew at him, but he had enough mana to cast Shield 1 above his head. Nine of the bats flew into it before it shattered and they all turned to humans. To conserve energy, Torger walked backwards, swiping at their hands. Brun had regained enough mana to cast Shield 1 between Torger and the human vampires, but they just walked around it. Torger kept slicing their hands as he walked backwards, all of them draining what little stamina they had left.

Brun came up next and took the sword. His skill in two handed swords was only 9, but it was enough to finish off the exhausted, slow moving vampires and vampire bats.

Well done hunters. Your score is 156. Total points available to spend: 189

Training cave 9 difficulty: 18.1

Squad strength: 44.6

Time: 48 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

“Wow a hundred fifty-six.” Brun was happy with that result.

“Yeah but the difficulty went from thirteen nine to eighteen one. That’s a huge jump. Cave eight was the end of the first half, since Elora said there are sixteen standard caves. Now what to buy?” Rome asked the question more to himself than the others.

After a couple minutes the kiosk read:

Iron mail skirt x 3 = 54

10 orb lights = 20

35 stamina (Brun) = 35

Customize gem x 1 = 75

Remaining points = 25

Rome placed the tyter sized iron chest plate on the table and selected the customize gem.

What would you like to do with this armor?

“I want to resize it,” he spoke to the prompt.

You may resize or repair up to five iron pieces of armor for 1 customize gem. Do you wish to proceed?

“No, wait.” He placed the helmet, pauldrons, boots and greaves on the table with the chest plate. “Continue.”

A program came up the same as he used for changing Torger’s sword so the pommel would better fit his hands. Rome quickly found that changing the sizes of five pieces at once quickly used up the 75 customize points. When they were all spent the armor would have fit well on a man who is 6’8” and weighs 290 pounds. Torger tried them on and had a little more movement than before, but it was still far from good. On the plus side downsizing armor had the bonus of repairing it.

Outside they briefed Gary. Rome started. “Vampire bats that turn into vampire humans. Not like the movies, you don’t turn into a vampire if bitten, so no worries there. They are much weaker in bat form and in either form try to bite your neck, so we bought you all iron chainmail skirts. Brun figured out they have exceptionally low stamina. We don’t know what the orb lights do, you’ll have to figure that out on your own. Now here’s the strategy we came up with for you…”

Elora asked for their question and Gary asked “How do we gain more points from each cave?”

She paused and looked like she glitched as processors were working too hard. After several seconds she answered “Starting now, at the conclusion of each cave you may tap the part of the screen that says ‘Your score is blank.’ It will show a partial breakdown of how the score was calculated. Have a good fight.”

Elora disappeared and the back wall slid open. Gary looked into absolute darkness. “No choice but to put our trust in their strategy. Stay brave men, and stick to the plan.”

They walked in a few steps, the door closed behind them and then Gary threw five of the ten golf ball looking orbs into different parts of the cave.

Each ball burst into a soft white light and stuck to wherever it hit a wall, except one he threw at the ceiling stuck to a bat. Immediately every bat in the cave took flight going in every direction, and they could easily track the one flying around glowing white. Five orb lights was nowhere near enough to make the cave bright, but they could see decently.

Any bat that came near them turned into a human and tried to bite their necks, but were blocked by the iron chain mail over their heads that draped past their shoulders. Joe had a hard time resisting the urge to swing his axe, but stuck to the plan and let his body remain limp. Various vampires tried to pull them close to bite them, and the men just allowed themselves to get pulled in whatever direction was needed, not attacking and conserving energy. Many of the vampires hissed at the lights, and all avoided getting near them. The bat had died with an orb still stuck to it and lay still in the far back of the cave.

After five minutes all five orb lights went out, throwing them into complete darkness once again. “Stay the course, keep limp, keep holding on to your mail,” commanded Gary. “This is going to go on for another twenty or thirty minutes. You must stay calm.”

All four men had an axe in their left hand and a grasp of the chain mail in their right, with their hands held tight to the center of their chests.

After twenty minutes of trying to do nothing, they could feel the vampires slowing down. “Just another three minutes.”

Nikko had made a game of getting pulled back and forth by the vampires and was laughing. The others were unsure if the mentally unstable man was aware of the danger they were in, but to his credit Nikko always followed Gary’s commands.

When Gary heard several vampires wheezing for breath, he threw another orb light at the closest one. The sudden light, while very dim, hurt their eyes. The vampire screamed in pain and the others backed away from him. Many returned to bats and flew to cling to the ceiling.

All four men started hacking at the remaining vampires with their axes. The vampires were a little stronger, but too tired to put up much of a fight. It took six or seven axe blows to kill each one in human form, but soon more than twenty were dead, all the others clung to the ceiling as bats. Gary threw another orb light and hit a bat. As it flew around in pain, the bats it came close to left their perch and fled from the light. Any that flew near the men met an axe head. The men and axes were too weak to kill a bat with one blow like Torger could do with the steel sword, but when they fell from the sky and became human they were seriously wounded, often with skulls cracked open. They easily succumbed to the axes.

Gary had three orb lights left and cast one at a time, intentionally hitting a bat to make it fly around keeping all the others exhausted. Just before the last light went out, they marked where the wounded vampires were and had to kill them in complete darkness, taking a few bites but nothing serious.

Well done hunters. Your score is 168. Total points available to spend: 168

Training cave 9 difficulty: 18.1

Squad strength: 16.7

Time: 52 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary tapped where it said “Your score.”

18.1/16.7=1.08

100-52 (Minutes)=48

1.08x48=51

Damage dealt with primary weapon 2432

2432/20=121

Damage taken 41

41/10=4

121-4=117

51+117=168

“No wonder Elora couldn’t answer the question. That’s confusing as hell,” Gary complained.

“We can’t read the screen, remember?” prompted Tyler.

“I can’t put that into words. I’ll write it out for you. You can geek all over it Tyler.”