My brothers and sisters, the times ahead will be tough. A trial we have not seen in ages. But I have faith in us. In our wisdom, our strength, and our leadership. The Storm is at our back and the Herald flies with us. We will bring our people a brighter future. – Letter from the Voice Cirrus

When Elijah had revealed his choices from ranking up his spells, he had expected at least a little bit of pushback. Complaints that he hadn’t followed every carefully laid plan he had spent hours creating with Niels, Theo, and Seba. That he had decided to follow a random whim, a gut instinct more than anything, while actually doing the fusion. It had felt right though, and he was more than happy with the results.

Thankfully, the various members of Hidden Opportunity agreed that, regardless of if he had followed the plan or not, he had ended up with much better Intermediate spells than they had expected. That on its own would have been enough to keep them from complaining, but his new aura power had had almost all of them too excited to even think about Elijah going off script.

So excited that they had wasted no time in putting together a small expedition for Elijah to try it out.

Less than an hour later the entire team found themselves out in the forest, doing their best to sneak around amongst the now leafless trees while looking for a suitable enemy. They had only recently moved from fall to winter and the trees still unnerved Elijah, given that each one was strangely pale and…crooked. Each branch was almost like an unnatural chain of finger bones, grasping out for them. He also swore he saw them moving in the corner of his eye, even without a breeze.

A lot of the weaker monsters were entirely absent this far in, being forced out by the stronger species. Except the rats. The rats were everywhere. He had yet to go a day without seeing a swarm of the ravenous things, and was continuously grateful that between the crown and his aura the things were practically repelled by his presence.

Today’s prey, which they had been hunting for a while now, was a squat, cat like ghoul heavily armored in bone. It had caught their attention when they found it killing one of the Ghoul Deer and dragging off the corpse after scattering the things entire herd. The monster had some kind of yowl that seemed to cut through the anger and bloodthirst that had been all they had seen in the creatures so far, replacing it with panic. Hoping this thing might be a clue to making it further in the dungeon, Niels had decided to kill two birds with one stone and target this thing for testing Elijah’s new spells.

Even without accounting for the yowl, the thing looked tough. Despite barely coming up to Elijah’s thigh, it was almost as wide as it was tall and built like a small tank. The bone plating added obvious weight that showed in every step, but it still maintained that grace so ubiquitous with felines. The creature lacked the oversized jaws Elijah had grown used to seeing in the Forest’s monsters, but made up for it with a pair of large spikes on each armored shoulder that reached out past their heads. The front claws were every bit as oversized and wicked as he was used to seeing, built to cause as much damage as possible without any regard for the creature’s comfort or general use. All of that with enough strength to easily carry a truly massive ghoul deer through the forest for several miles before eventually hauling it up a tree.

That was when Elijah finally made his move. Just as the large cat took its first bite, he activated his new aura spell while charging the tree as fast as his reinforced body could manage. Around him in a maybe ten foot radius circle, a red fog began boiling off the ground from strange runes that appeared at regular intervals at the edge of his aura’s range. Immediately, the creature let out an annoyed screech that rattled Elijah’s bones, but he also saw it stumble a little bit as it hopped to its feet.

The spell was called Hemoreign Aura, and the effects were everything his allies had promised. The initial effects of the aura were almost as dangerous as the stacked version of his old Blood Roil Aura. In addition to all of his blood roil aura spells, Elijah had also included his Bleed spell. As a side effect of Bleed being added to the spell, enemy wounds wound no longer naturally heal at all as long as a target stayed within range of his aura and even the tiniest scratch would absolutely gush blood. Something made obvious as the monster’s own claws cut into paws and soaked the matted fur in red.

As the red mist began to rise, he looked to each member of Hidden Opportunities and twisted a part of the spell that sat deep inside his chest. With each twist, one of his allies seemed to release a slight tightness to their face and replace it with a grin. Then they started to advance as well, just a little faster than they ever had before.

Along with everything else, Elijah had added the ally designation spell into the mix, with immediately obvious benefits. Where before he needed at least a second or two and some concentration to exclude somebody from his aura’s effects, it was now as easy as flipping a switch for whether a target should be helped or hindered by his powers. It still wasn’t automatic, he needed to continue practicing with his combat style to make the change reflexive, but it was a lot faster when dealing with multiple allies being in his range.

And more importantly he could do more than simply keep them from experiencing negative side effects. Now, thanks to including Blood Rush into the fusion, he could simultaneously weaken opponents and strengthen allies within its range. When he used the little twist, his mana shifted from attacking the person’s body to actively assisting them. According to Theo, the dual nature of his spell was fairly rare, but Elijah could only think how perfect it was for what he wanted to be. A powerful support for his allies and bane for his enemies, someone who’s mere presence could turn the tides of a fight.

Niels had been particularly happy to see Elijah’s new spells. The team was built around Niels hitting things as hard as possible while the rest of the team worked to back him up. Whether through empowering him like with Theo’s potions or weakening the opponent like with Seba’s poisons, Hidden Opportunity’s goal in any fight was to hunker down and endure enemy attention while Niels cut through them. Elijah’s new aura accomplished all three at once and Niels was of the opinion it did a good job of rounding out the team.

Letting out a cry, knowing he could count on everyone else to do their job, Niels sent his ki spiraling through a new series of channels in his body. As he charged toward the large cat as it glared balefully down at him, he felt a sensation like every hair on his body standing on end as a wave of blood emerged from within him.

#

As his team charged from below, Niels flung himself at the monster with a massive leap, twisting the air into a burst under his feet to propel himself forward. Below him, preparing for the beast to leap down, Elijah activated his newly upgraded armor. It was an art now, shown by the way the spell seemed to emerge from beneath Elijah’s skin rather than forming around him. Blood mages always had that to some degree, but in Niels long experience most blood magic spells tended to draw blood from one point before congealing into whatever shape the spell wanted. Arts, by comparison, seemed to emerge from the skin fully formed and ready to activate.

Elijah’s new armor was a lot less aggressive looking than his old armor spell. Thick, jewel like plates of crimson formed across his body but lacked the spikes that had previously bedecked the armor. A side effect of using Blood Chrysalis for the base of this spell rather than Blood Drinker Armor no doubt. On either side of his body, bobbing between his shoulder and his elbow, an orb of darker blood swirled.

According to what he’d learned earlier, those would be his new Bloodwells. A carry over from combining Vampiric Strike and Sacrifice into the armor. According to the other man, he could use those to help fuel his spells as they drank in any blood on the battlefield not used by his armor. Even now, streamers of red mist hissed off of one and into the ground below. No doubt empowering his aura.

As the monster stared predatorily down on the other man, Niels could see unnatural, overgrown muscles bunching as it prepared to launch upon his ally. Elijah braced himself, observing the monster closely while making large, threatening gestures to keep the things attention on him. The thing screamed at him, seeming to have eyes for nothing else.

That was the queue to begin his attack.

Letting the winds release him, he began plummeting downward. Quickly he began accelerating, but that still wasn’t enough. He pulled on his magic to support him, pushing against his back with a powerful tail wind to end up hurtling through the air with speed few other things he had encountered could compete with.

Faster than he usually dared to go. So fast, he actually had some difficulty drawing his blades as he competed with the air pressure pushing against his arms. So fast, it was easy to lose himself in the focus required to control his fall, losing track of the world around him.

Despite that, he saw when things went wrong.

Something in the monster’s stance shifted, and in a sudden flash of insight he knew the beast was going to dodge. He couldn’t stop. At the speed he was going, he would never be able to change direction or slow down enough to make a difference. He had committed, and now he was going to pay the price.

He could tell in the way the monster’s muscles tensed. It would fling itself to the side, and then as he passed the monster and smashed into the ground it would leap upon him. A good plan, but the monster was too weak to capitalize on his mistake. The next several minutes were certainly going to be deeply unpleasant as long, wicked claws tore apart his body, but in the end he’d kill the thing as revenge.

At least that was what he thought, then Elijah’s weapon glowed with a red light as it left his hand. The creature, now focused on the threat represented by Niels rapidly approaching form, didn’t see the attack. The first indication it was even in danger was when the blade bit deep into the things stomach.

Elijah’s attacks weren’t powerful by any means, but he’d aimed well and slammed the blade of the weapon through a weak spot in the armor. Niels was almost as impressed with the accuracy of the throw as he was with the other man’s judgement, and the timing. The hit was perfectly timed to distract the beast right before Niels smashed into the tree it was hiding in, breaking the things concentration and leaving it even more open than it normally would have been.

With a shout of triumph, he felt both blades shudder with a crunch as they bit into an armored shoulder. Shattering and crushing through bone plates, the weapons seemed to grind in his hand for a moment before practically gliding through the comparatively soft flesh below. There was a wet thunk as the blades bit even deeper, surprising Niels when they stopped on the beast’s thick bones.

Whatever it was, this thing was incredibly dense. Even the Ghoul Bears hadn’t been this tough. No matter, he’d just need to push a little harder. He summoned his mana to coat the blade with wind. Scouring Blade was one of his stronger Intermediate spells, starting off as only a highspeed wind, but rapidly consuming any debris in the area to build a spinning maelstrom of cutting power on the edge of his weapon. With the shattered bone that filled the things wound, it would be like putting the stabbed shoulder into a blender.

Simultaneous to his spell cast, he felt something. Foreign mana in his body, breaking down and reinforcing his Ki. Feeling the magic out, he realized it had been there for some time. What he felt was the power of the mana increasing. The mana flowed in greater and greater quantities and he looked down to see Elijah’s armor shrinking, consuming itself to enhance the effects of Elijah’s Aura and reinforce Niels blow. The strength he felt as every muscle in his body was reinforced with his own Ki, Theo’s potions, and Elijah’s mana… The result was intoxicating as each buff fed off its fellows and produced a pleasant burn of energy throughout his body.

So caught up in the feeling of bliss, he barely even felt it as a small jerk of his blade blew the monster’s shoulder to bits and removed its right foreleg. The creature was wily though, using his distraction to leap from the tree and attempt to retreat into the forest. It was so strange to see one of the Forest’s monsters retreat, that the unexpected action managed to pull Niels attention away from his internal musings. With a slight frown, he charged after the thing.

With the whistling of the wind in his ears, he repeated his earlier charge. Again, the creature attempted to trick him into over committing. This time though, he had the rapidly fading vestiges of Elijah’s mana giving him just a bit more speed. And the beast was clearly still under the influence of Elijah’s spell as well, swaying slightly as it attempted to stare him down. Combined, the effects were telling. Just enough to smash into the creature before it could fully dodge, ripping a chunk from its side and slamming it into the ground. Before it could recover, he swung his blade a second time and took its head from its body as it let out a final scream of rage.

The creature’s last scream was different, and sent a slight shiver up his spine. The same tingle he got when an unseen threat tried to sneak up behind him and stab him in a dark alley. Or when monsters hid in the underbrush, just barely out of sight. Pushing the notifications for his kill out of mind, he sent out a pulse of mana to check the surrounding airflow. Simultaneously, he enhanced his hearing with Ki and a wind spell to check for unseen threats. As far as he could tell though, there was nothing. Just a few ghoul rats, everything else driven off by his and Elijah’s crowns.

Shaking off the feeling of being stalked, he turned to the others as the caught up, “Stranger and stranger. The beast obviously wasn’t scared or in pain, none of these monsters have shown the capacity for such things without magical intervention. Yet it ran away.”

“Did it know it couldn’t win and decide to run away?” Rory asked.

“Could be. That would imply these…” Checking the notification for killing the monster, he found the monster’s name before continuing, “Ghoul Lynx are much smarter than anything we’ve run into before. Even Elijah’s story with the rats took multiple kills and a noticeable thinning of the swarm before the beasts would back off. Nothing else has had the foresight to attempt to run when it was bested.”

“That last yowl the thing let out too,” Theo jumped in. “That sounded different from any of the other sounds it made. It sounded to me like the thing was crying for help.”

“Maybe. Lynx are solo hunters, but we should leave just to be safe.”

As the party took off for another section of the woods, hoping to put as much space between the Ghoul Lynx’s body and themselves as possible, Niels thought back on his experience with Elijah’s magic.

Niels still did not personally understand what drove the other man to make the decisions he did. Perfectly happy to sit in the front and take hits, with no chance to win glory and destroy monsters. It simply didn’t mesh with how the world worked. Being dependent on another being to that degree... It was asking for problems. There was a difference between making sure your abilities meshed with the team and giving up autonomy for the power of the team.

But he couldn’t argue the effectiveness it had shown. Any of the others in Hidden Opportunities would wipe Elijah out in a one-on-one fight. None of them though, save Niels himself, could contribute to the same degree as Elijah when working together. He embodied everything Niels wanted in his team members. Determined, capable, and above all, loyal to the group.

Before, Elijah had been a useful ally in a dangerous dungeon. Somebody who had what they needed and was willing to trade for it. Worth investing in to a degree, but not something to spend a major amount of resources on, Now he was more.

Now Niels wanted Elijah.

#

“Your choice was…unconventional, but it certainly seems to have turned out well. I’ve talked to Niels, and he seemed to be impressed by the boost in power it granted at the end of the fight.”

Watching Theo and he slowly stirred a large pot of bubbling pink liquid, Elijah took his time before responding, “I can’t keep something like that last burst up for long, I burned almost a third of the blood making up my armor. And even then, I didn’t have the mana to keep it up for even another minute. I think the buff stacks the same way the debuff does, but a lot slower. The fight was too fast for me to know for sure though.”

Despite spending over two hours continuing to hunt through the forest after killing the ghoul lynx, they hadn’t been able to find another opponent powerful enough to really test Elijah’s new spells. His skill set was built around endurance, slowly building advantages until his opponents simply couldn’t keep up anymore. Even then, the majority of the monsters were too weak to display the real limits of his ability. They’d need to find a field boss or other powerful creature if they wanted to really see what his blood magic could do.

In Elijah’s mind, the lack of real threats was actually quite concerning. They knew more powerful monsters should be in the area, but an entire afternoon of hunting and they hadn’t been able to find a single one. There were only so many explanations for something like that, and most weren’t good for their team.

While his mind wandered, Theo started talking again, “No matter. It was still an impressive boost, especially since the magic seemed to reinforce existing enhancements rather than simply adding its own efforts.”

Looking up with a smile, he gave Elijah a searching look, “I’m actually a little jealous of that honestly. I went through a lot of trouble to make sure my own potions do the same thing, allowing me to take as much advantage as possible of Niels’ advanced skills with Ki. Meanwhile, your spell just comes with that particular benefit. Still, it makes us each even more valuable to the team.”

Elijah smiled back, “I had no idea, but I’m glad it does. Being able to make such a tangible contribution makes me feel like a real part of Hidden Opportunity. Like any good team, we can individually do more together than we could ever hope to achieve apart.”

That seemed to make the alchemist go quiet for a while. Elijah thought he almost seemed guilty, but Elijah didn’t know why. He didn’t hold it against them that they hadn’t thought of him as a real team member. It was only common sense to put any new member through a period of testing. Still, it was obvious something had changed after that last fight.

“Well, going back to your combined spells. Your aura is really something special. For multiple reasons. I’ve already told you about how your mana manages to invade other peoples’ bodies is…terrifying. Terrifying, and incredible. But the fact your spell has opposing effects too… That’s rare.

“Most attempts to create opposing effects will only weaken the resulting spell. You either need to have a total and perfect understanding of all the individual parts of the component spells to prevent them from interfering with each other, or you have to be very lucky. I can’t name the number of dual fire and ice mages who try to combine a flame temperature manipulation spell with an ice temperature manipulation spell only to end up with something that can’t go too far toward either extreme because they didn’t account for the base spells’ limiters. Or even worse, The two halves actively interfere because one releases heat while the other directly removes energy from mass.”

Elijah looked a bit sheepish at that, “I don’t know what to tell you. I had to mess with the interface for a while, but eventually one configuration just felt right. Besides, from what I could tell, the spells had a lot of similarities.”

“Well, this is just a theory on my part but Blood Magic might be uniquely suited for this. From what you’ve described, Blood Rush and Blood Roil worked almost exactly the same way, but in opposing directions. One smoothed blood flow, enhanced the richness of the blood, and reinforced native ki. The other actively blocked veins, stripped blood of valuable resources, and sabotaged your opponent’s ki flow. There’s no real variability either. The same amount of ki will do the same amount of work in the same way every time. There are only two real settings: help or hinder.”

“You make the spell sound a lot simpler than it is… I mean, I can increase or decrease the effects and it definitely has less of an effect on bigger targets. Then there are all the subroutines for changing the size or flaring the effects for a moment…”

“Does it? Or does the difference in blood volume meant the same effect is achieved, but because it is a lesser percentage of the blood it is less noticeable to the opponent. Maybe that is how the ‘stacking’ on your spell works, it is simply sabotaging a larger and larger percentage of the blood over time. It will take experimentation to be sure.”

Elijah sat and thought about it for a while, “I suppose you could be right. And if it really is just a set volume of blood be affected at any given time, you are right that it would be a lot simpler than something like a heat spell. I imagine that would be affected by the laws of heat transfer, so each degree of temperature would require escalating costs. Not to mention the square-cube law.”

“Hmm, I’ll have to pick your mind on all that at a later time. For now, though, I want to run some experiments. It is so rare to find a Blood Mage not falling into the assault style. Most practitioners of your magic are dangerously volatile in their aggressiveness. I certainly can’t think of a single case study in any of my books involving a support Blood Mage. An oversight I am looking forward to correcting. It should be absolutely fascinating.”

Something in the way he said that last bit had alarm bells going off in Elijah’s head. He very much did not like the look in the other man’s eyes.

While mentally and physically exhausting, occasionally painful, and sometime degrading, the following hours had paid dividends. A lot of questions they had started with were still up in the air, but Theo had managed to confirm two things.

The first was a fairly conclusive test involving some very invasive observation of an only partially willing Rory. The young man had been voluntold to participate by Niels, and he was rather unhappy with the situation. With the data he had gathered, on Rory and Himself, Theo had somehow been able to confirm that Elijah’s spell did involve transformation of a specific volume of blood that increased or decreased with the amount of mana provided. He was also able to confirm the effects lingered even after the mana was expended, suggesting that Elijah’s aura effects would continue to stack until he hit the limit of how much blood he could affect before the initially transformed blood ceased to be influenced by his spell.

The second thing they had confirmed was that Elijah’s new aura inhibited healing, both magical and mundane, to a fairly substantial degree. As far as Theo could tell, as long as an opponent was within the aura of his spell they would never naturally heal of an injury and magical healing was inhibited to a degree that had frankly shocked the alchemist. The trade off was that this particular effect of his aura was only effective while targets stayed within range. Unlike his buff and debuff effects, it would not grow stronger over time and it would not maintain itself for a short while when a target left his range.

“Niels will probably want to assign you some training to help mitigate that. Something to help you deal with fast, highly mobile opponents who can easily duck in and out of your aura. Not only will that effectively nullify your ability to prevent healing, it would also drastically decrease your ability to stack your debuff. Not sure what he will have in mind, but I’m sure he can help you out somehow.”

And with that, Elijah had been summarily dismissed so Theo could “compile his notes and outline future experiments”.

#

In the days after killing the first Ghoul Lynx, their experience in the Forest of the Final Sleep began to change. First it was small things, such as the continued absence of powerful monsters. Then even the weaker monsters began to disappear.

Soon after that, Elijah woke to find Niels pacing around the edge of the camp, just outside where the light of the fire would have reached. Right outside that boundary, a set of paw prints had paced a circle around the wall of ice Rory had erected as their outer defense. Large gashes had been scratched into the wall at regular intervals, and the younger man was clearly shaken. He had been on watch, and apparently right before his shift ended and the first meager light of the few hours they called a day appeared something had begun posturing around the camp.

When he’d woken Niels, the beast had run off but the markings left behind made if fairly clear another of the Ghoul Lynx had found them. At least one more, given that Rory swore he saw at least two of the things skulking around outside the camp. Niels had sent Seba to scout the forest, but the man had found no other signs of the monsters.

From there they had begun to see the things almost constantly. At least whenever Niels left their immediate vicinity. The monsters seemed wary of the wind mage, and to a lesser degree Elijah. Without fail, if Niels flew off one would make its presence known as a squat figure in the underbrush or a pair of gleaming eyes high in a tree. They almost always appeared on the far side of their group from Elijah, and they tended to back off if he approached.

Still, it was unnerving. The things practically seemed to melt out of the shadows in the forest and just appear. Close enough to attack, but never actually pouncing.

At first, the remaining members of Hidden Opportunities had attempted to chase the monsters off whenever they showed up. This had turned out to be a mistake. Where the first three times they had simply lost track of the monster while it fled into the woods, the fourth time it had led them right into a herd of ghoul deer. The ensuing fight had resulted in a broken, bleeding arm for Rory when a particularly large buck attempted to gore him and multiple deep gashes, scrapes, and bites for the rest of them.

Thankfully Niels had shown up toward the end of the fight, and they had been able to retreat to safety without any further threat from the ghouls. It was probably what had saved them, since Elijah doubted the Ghoul Lynx had simply run off while they were fighting. He suspected the monster had been lying in wait to ambush them after all the deer were dead.

That hadn’t been the last trap the Ghoul Lynx had attempted to catch them in. A short time later they finally confirmed the presence of more than one of the things. They had been eating dinner when one of the monsters had appeared in a tree south of their camp, watching them and chuffing. The thing had aggressively paced back and forth on the branch, screaming and yowling at them all. Needless to say, they had all been rather distracted when a second barreled into the clearing from the east and attempted to gore Theo. Thankfully, Rory had reacted in time and put up a wall of ice between the threat and the alchemist.

After that, the two monsters had backed off. Since then, their numbers had only seemed to increase. At this point, they had noted at least seven distinct individuals stalking them. The entire thing had absolutely incensed Niels, who they avoided like the plague. Not a whisker of the felines could be found as long as the wind mage was within easy flying distance of their group and they always seemed to be able to fade into the forest before he had a chance to return.

Theo had theorized that their whiskers gave them highly advanced mana senses, and that, combined with the crown, gave them a near perfect idea of where Niels was at any given time. Apparently during the things’ ambushes, he had been experimenting with different types of bombs. One type had the side effect of disrupting nearby mana, and he’d noticed the beasts tended to twitch their whisker wildly whenever he used one.

The eventual breaking point had been when two of the monsters jumped Rory as he went to relieve himself. He had lived, thankfully, but lost two of his fingers to one of the cats. Niels had chewed him out for wandering off into the forest alone, but the sullen young man had been too enraged by his missing fingers to listen to reason.

After that, it had been practically impossible to keep the younger man under control. The barest sign of one of the Ghoul Lynx in the vicinity, and he would be chomping at the bit to run the monster down. Looking at him, Elijah knew Rory was doing it to prove himself. Some young, dumb part of his mind telling him the Ghoul Lynx had made him look bad in front of Niels and the only way he could repair the problem was proving himself by single handedly killing the things.

And that mentality was going to get at least himself, and probably other members of Hidden Opportunity, killed.

Thankfully, Niels was no fool. He hadn’t simply been running around without them this entire time, trying and failing to eliminate this threat to his team. In fact, he’d been a lot more clinical about the entire thing than Elijah had even begun to suspect. He’d been scouting the area. Carefully directing where their team went each day to slowly learn more and more about their aggressors.

By using data collected by Theo on time between attacks and number of attackers, along with the rare appearances of other monsters, he had determined what he believed to be the normal hunting grounds of the Ghoul Lynx. After that, he had begun making his way deeper into their domain, looking for anything different that explained the monster’s presence in this particular location.

What he’d found was a cave. A cave that contained something that the crown reacted to. He claimed it felt almost the same as when Elijah had first approached their group. With that in mind, he was sure this was some kind of field boss. And a field boss meant treasure, perhaps even something that would get the Lynx to leave the rest of the party alone.

More importantly, it gave the team a goal. Something they all needed as hour after hour the Lynx wore them down. Something to give Rory a chance to prove himself and end his self-destructive impulse to simply throw himself against anything that moved. They needed a win and this was the perfect opportunity.

#

Over the following days, they continued to collect information on the cave. Niels spent long hours away from the camp, observing their target while the rest of the party dealt with the stressful attention of their adversaries. Theo concocted a number of potions to give him rare and enhanced sensory abilities unique to a range of animals and monsters. Once, Niels had even flown off with Seba to let him scout the area too.

Seba and Theo, meanwhile, began testing and preparing counter measures for the Ghoul Lynx. Taking on a field boss in this part of the dungeon would be dangerous enough, there was no way they would be able to manage with the Lynx stalking them as well. With that in mind, they started testing ways to distract or temporarily drive off the cunning cats.

Over time they slowly mapped out the cave’s surroundings. Strategized and planned to deal with every scenario. They still didn’t know what was in the cave, but Niels had been able to determine it was strong. Stronger than the bears and probably a danger for even him to deal with alone. The wind mage still gave himself good odds of winning against the monster, but nobody liked the idea of testing those odds.

Instead, they decided their best bet was to split resources and not commit to any fighting.

The entire party couldn’t leave the camp, not without bringing the Ghoul Lynx with them, so at least a few members of the party would need to stay at the camp and keep the creature’s attention. That left too few members free for Niels to fight the Field Boss, but he could still attempt to sneak past the creature. Whatever it was, it seemed to have no interest in leaving its cave. Hopefully that meant it either wasn’t very active or maintained a small territory, giving a fleeing Niels a better chance of breaking away.

Of course, Niels being the most powerful didn’t mean he was the sneakiest of the group. He’d need to take Seba along to deal with any potential traps the dungeon had left in the cave. As far as anyone could tell, this particular dungeon was not particularly fond of traps. Seba had, however, noted a number of simple alarm traps as they made their way deeper into the dungeon. Usually near a monster lair or placed to alert the native monsters of adventurers attempting to sneak past. This field boss’s cave was no exception, and the skilled rogue had noted no less than a dozen of the things in the area surrounding their target.

Seba would need to disarm the traps and ensure Niels went as long as possible without being discovered. After that, their leader could hopefully blitz or sneak past the boss, collect the loot, and make an escape. Seba had volunteered to attempt the sneaking portion, but had admitted that he wasn’t much more likely than Niels to manage going undetected by a field boss’s senses. If the boss sensed an intruder, Niels had a far better chance of surviving, let alone succeeding, than Seba.

Of course, that left the rest in the rather unenviable position of having to defend against the Ghoul Lynx not only down a member, but without a consistent way to hurt the things. They were too fast for Theo to easily catch them with his bombs, while Rory almost entirely lacked offensive spells and Elijah had only very weak, melee range options.

The three would have to fight a defensive battle, rationing Theo’s potions and bombs for key moments. A long, exhausting fight that would like drive the Ghoul Lynx to greater and greater heights of rage and bloodlust. There was no guarantee they would be able to hold out against the monsters, so that meant they needed an exit strategy.

They wouldn’t be able to count on Niels, not while he was potentially escaping, or worst-case fighting, the Field Boss. They’d have to rely on Seba making it back. Unfortunately, Seba alone probably wouldn’t be enough to actually turn around a fight with these creatures. At least that was both his and Niels assessment. Not if the things really decided to commit, which Niels judged would probably happen.

Thankfully, Theo had been able to provide an alternative solution. With some very dangerous experimentation, the man had been able to create a lure potion specific to the Ghoul Lynx. He wouldn’t tell anyone what was in it, saying they wouldn’t thank him for the information, but whatever it was the monsters had an extremely difficult time resisting the scent. They’d even been able to kill two more of the damned things when the scent had convinced them to attack while Niels was still present.

That, unfortunately, hadn’t worked a second time.

Just as important as Theo’s bait potion, was a potion of running endurance he knew the recipe for. The boost would only last ten minutes, but with a little work they were able gather the ingredients to brew a full dozen of the brown and orange elixirs. With the aid of these potions, Seba was just barely able to outpace the cats while running through the woods. The serpent man had always been faster than the things in a short fight, but they put his endurance to shame and without these potions he never would have been able to maintain the speed required to escape them.

The plan was simple: After helping Niels, Seba would need to take an endurance potion and run back to the campsite. Once there, he would use the bait jar to lead the Ghoul Lynx on a merry chase through the forest before dumping the contents of the jar on some other monsters he came across. That would hopefully keep the things distracted long enough for Niels to escape the cave, rejoin the party, and prepare a secure camp site in case anything came looking for them after the operation was over.

#

“Where the fuck is Seba!” Rory’s panicked shout came over the pulsing growls of the Lynx around them.

The demonic cat things sounded almost like a chainsaw in idle, with the occasional increase in volume and violence that Elijah would have associated with revving the chainsaw’s engine. The worst part though, was that they synchronized the revving sound between each other so it was almost like a wave. The result was a bone shaking, terror inducing hum of basal fury that regularly swept over their small group.

“I don’t know!” Theo shouted back with uncharacteristic nerves, “He should be here by now! He estimated the run back would only take twenty-five minutes.”

Using his shield to smash one of the Lynx in the nose and knock it off the small tower of ice Seba had constructed, Elijah gathered his thoughts. According to the system’s stopwatch, which he had been absolutely flabbergasted to learn was a thing, it had only been thirty-two minutes since Niels and Seba left.

“Calm down you two,” He called out. “It’s not like he would have started running as soon as the two landed. He needed to check for and disarm any traps first. Remember?”

“DIE YOU FUCKS! FUCK!” Rory screamed while dropping a chunk of the tower one of the cats was gripping. Flicking his ears with obvious nerves, he turned back to the rest of them. “Right…Right. How long do you think that will take?”

Sighing while he took advantage of the small moment of respite as the cats regrouped, Elijah responded, “Seba wasn’t a hundred percent sure. He said give him at least fifteen minutes, but it could take up to thirty. Any longer than that and he was going to call things off.”

“Fuck…We’re only halfway there. We’re so fucked!”

For a supposed adventurer who had been through multiple other dungeons, Rory had not been coping well with the nerves. Rapidly swinging between rage and terror while fighting the beasts. It was something he’d have to bring up with Niels, as the man’s current mental fortitude was a clear risk to the rest of the team.

But that was for another time. The monsters were spreading out, clearly ready to test their defenses once again.

#

The creatures had become more and more persistent with each attempt. Willing to force their way through stiffer resistance and accepting blows for a better chance of making it over the wall. They’d left deep gouges in every one of the beasts, broken multiple limbs, and taken an eye from two of the Lynx. They hadn’t gotten away without injury though.

Theo had been jumped, suffering a severe mauling to his chest before Elijah could get to him. His heavy leather lab coat had mitigated the worst of the damage, but it looked vaguely like something had tried to use his chest as a tic-tac-to board. Another had managed to scratch a long claw across his chin, cutting the man’s goatee in half. He was down to his last three bombs after one of the felines had stolen his bandolier, and his potions were almost as low.

Rory hadn’t lost any more fingers, but the man had a dead look in his eyes and fought with a mechanical efficiency. He’d been screaming bloody murder when one of the creatures had managed to leap on his back, repeatedly screaming into his ear as it attempted to crush his neck. Elijah had managed to knock the beast off, but it had rattled something in the younger adventurer’s mind. He had never even acknowledged the blood dripping down his back afterward.

Elijah himself was fairly well off, given his greater personal defense than the other two. He had a number of claw marks on his arms, but between his healing enchantment, Ki, meditation, and scarification he could have those injuries closed in minutes after the fight was over. Mostly he was just tired. He was pushing through it for now, but he didn’t know how much longer he could fight. Everything was starting to get blurry and he was beginning to miss the small warning signs that had kept himself and his allies alive so far.

That’s when they heard something new, the crunching, cracking sound of something approaching rapidly through the forest. A strange, hissing sound that sounded too large for any reptile Elijah had personally encountered before. Something flicking between treetops.

Seba flung himself to the top of the tower, and Elijah realized the hissing had been coming from him as the sound increased in volume. “Sorry I’m late. There were more traps than I expected. You all look like you’ve been having fun. Come on Theo, thought for sure you’d keep better care of the newbies…”

Smashing another of the cats with a right hook that sent the yowling beast flying from the ledge, he continued. “Ain’t nothing to worry about anymore. I’m here now, and I’ll bet the boss is on his way. You all get some rest, I’ll take our friends for a run,”

With that, the grinning snake man fell backwards from the tower like a scuba diver disembarking, rapidly dropping past the attacking Ghoul Lynx. He cracked open a jar while somehow flipping himself mid air and landing on his feet. Instantly the attention of all the monsters was on him.

The rogue threw a number of small knives at the horde, letting out an almost sibilant laugh while looping around the clearing and easily gaining all their attention. With a shriek, the beasts disengaged from the tower and began to lope toward their team mate. In response, he began jogging into the woods. Within moments, the clearing where Rory had built his tower was empty.

“Hope he’ll be ok,” Elijah let out with a grunt as he collapsed to the ground.

Theo grinned before joining him on the floor of the tower, “If there’s two things that idiot is good at, it is being a nuisance and escaping the consequences of his actions.”

#

Seba had been right, it wasn’t even another fifteen minutes before Niels showed up in the clearing as well. Their leader had shown up with a bag over his shoulder, a wide grin, and a rip running vertically along his jacket. It was obvious he had succeeded in their heist, claiming the boss’s horde without actually killing the thing.

It was just as Elijah allowed himself to begin celebrating, imagining fleeing this part of the dungeon with riches in hand, that they heard. A loud, agonized scream from the forest that cut off too soon.