Nar nodded and then, with a glance at Viy, he crept forward, followed by the purple-blue armored spearwoman, and headed towards the now eerily silent cave entrance.

"We'll get them back," he whispered to the ring tosser as he took his place.

"Just stay alive, man," Tuk said, giving him a pointed look. "The rings don't matter."

Nar nodded and flattened his back against the cave, and Viy creeped past the cave entrance to position herself on the other side, where Mul and Gad waited to leap into the cave.

"You sure about this?" Rel whispered from Nar's side.

"We need to get in there," Nar replied with a shrug.

Rel nodded. "I'll cover you. Be careful."

"I will," Nar said.

Then, he closed his eyes, and reached out with his senses, fully. The dungeon came alive around him, even in its deep blue and purple inky darkness, the branches swaying in the slow, cold air, and the trees creaking softly, following the whims of the breeze, though not submitting to it. But he heard no animals or insects, all was quiet around them… Except for the soft breaths he heard coming from within the cave.

They're not even nervous, Nar thought. Definitely strong, then.

He took a deep breath, and cycled his aura faster and deeper, throughout his whole body.

[Speed], [Instinct] and [NPC]. And [Sword Aura] to break through the tanks guard, Nar thought. We can do this.

And as he reached deeper inside, pulling even more aura from his abundant core, he suddenly remembered the words of the priestess.

"...when things get rough, and you need to dig deep, it's something else that you hold onto, isn't it?" she had asked him. No. Accused him.

Nar scoffed.

Does it matter? Like I told Viy, I'm not guilty of anything…

But he shook his head to prevent his thoughts from straying into the blasphemy he almost thought. All Mighty and All Knowing or not, it didn't bode well to blaspheme against the gods in his situation… Instead, he focused on his core, as aura cycled through his fingers, and his sword greedily drank from it, absorbing it into its crudely carved pathways.

Something I haven't really thought about, Nar realized. Another thing for later… For now, I hope you really are Hungry. Things don't look great for us, and I could use a hand…

And it might have been his imagination, but his aura seemed to sink in faster into the weapon…

"Nar?" Viy asked him.

Nar opened his eyes and nodded at her.

He bent his knees, and inhaled deeply, then he exploded into the cave.

Ice projectiles and arrows flew at him, but he was just a blur in the air, his [Speed] and battle cycling making him near impossible to hit, and in one single heartbeat, his [Awareness], [Perception], [NPC] and sense attributes reached out around him, and by his third step into the cave, he had the layout of the battle.

He had entered into a roundish and vaguely L-shaped cave, coming in through the short arm of the L. Six shield-bearing goblins stood before him, having formed a shield wall a few feet away from the entrance of the cave.

Behind them, there was a complement of spear wielding goblins, thankfully wearing furs and not the misshapen, metal armor that the shieldbearers displayed, however, their blue spear tips had the blue glint of icy aether to them, and a misty air surrounded their jagged sharpness.

And beyond them, and even hiding past the long arm of the L, there was an array of archers, with two goblins wielding the now familiar ice blue daggers amongst them.

That's where those ice shots are coming from… But where are their wargs? And that robed goblin?

Unfortunately however, his time was up, and he was about to crash head first into the shield wall. The goblins holding the shields were surprisingly tall and buff, and the metal shields, though barely reaching his chest, proved a barrier he couldn't ignore.

However, in his accelerated state, he realized that the shield goblins had barely even begun reacting to his entrance. So they're a bit slower than me, uh? In that case… [Sword Aura]. 150 points.

This was not the time to be conservative. They needed to breach into that cave and take control of that overwhelmingly disadvantageous fight, and clenching his jaw, Nar slashed horizontally, aiming for the two goblins on the left side of the shield formation.

At the last second, icy blue began to coat the shield of the one on the furthest left, crystallizing into ice as it spread towards the center of the shield, but whatever that was meant to achieve, it was too late. Nar's sword collided into the two shields with an ear rattling bang, and the two monsters went flying, screeching through the air, and he didn't stay to see the result of his actions. He needed to press forward, past the shields, past the spears, and into the archers and casters, to disrupt their formation as quickly as possible, and provide the opening that Viy needed.

His [Instinct] screamed and arrows flew at him, followed by two more ice projectiles, and Nar pivoted on the ball of his right foot, and lowered himself almost horizontal to dodge the icy attacks. His sword flashed in the low light of the cave, catching on the orange light of the torches on the walls, and the fire where even now, discarded, dark meat still cooked, quickly burning, and he intercepted the two arrows that would've hit him.

Before he could fully right himself, however, another volley was already whistling towards him.

Now those are fast! Nar thought, eyeing the archers.

Meanwhile, the spear goblins were moving to surround him, ready to skewer him against the wall of the cave.

Oh, no you don't! [Aura Quickening]!

The spear wielding monsters slowed down, but for the arrows and ice projectiles, their speed barely changed.

What in the Pile is up with those things? He briefly wondered.

Nar dodged and parried, but even with his [Aura Quickening], an explosion of ice against the cave wall reached out to sear the side of his face. With a silent groan, he pushed past the closest spear tip, and finally wadded into the midst of the archers. The white-blue monsters looked upon him with horror, their [Sight] and attributes definitely fast enough to catch his movements. Now, however, it was too late to run, and Nar's sword was indeed hungry.

The monsters screamed as he cut through them, but the two ice knife wielding goblins managed to retreat into the long arm of the L, and that's where Nar finally found the wargs.

They're protecting the robed goblin? He thought, even as his sword splattered dark blue blood across the cave wall. That can't be good.

Sure, that probably meant that the white and beige fur-robbed goblin was more than likely defenseless, however, so was Cen, and she was the greatest threat in the party. And in that moment, as he debated whether to chase the ice knife casters or continue to spread chaos where he was, he stepped in front of the passage that led deeper into the cave, to where the final boss awaited them… Something more than just cold reached out with icy fingers and tightened around his throat. At the same time, an icy grip clutched closed around his core, and his aura faltered.

The dark mouth of that tunnel grew before his eyes, the shadows reaching out for him, whispering, and entangling his movements, and Nar's eyes went wide, as a presence sought to smash into his mind.

He instinctively pulled harder on his aura, and the icy darkness burst apart leaving him stumbling past the gaping dark entrance.

What the…

Something really was in the back of that cave, and that Something that was seriously bad news, but spears reached for him, forcing him to backpedal and focus on the fight once more.

In that moment of slowness, Nar now found himself surrounded again. He had cut down three of the archers, but the last one had managed to escape him, and there was nothing he could do about it for the moment. Dizzyingly fast icy spears lashed at his chest and legs, and he was forced to turn all of his focus on keeping them from his flesh.

Why are these guys so fast all of a sudden? Nar wondered. And what was that chill he couldn't seem to fully shake, gripping his limbs, and dragging its claws down his spine?

But purple suddenly burst into the cave, and Nar looked up in time to catch Viy rushing into the fight. She was a blur of dark purple and blue, her spear drawing solid lines of the same color around her, and she smashed against the tank line with the force of a Pileslide.

That's got to be a skill, Nar thought, as one of the shield-bearing goblins slammed his mace against one such line, seeking to hit their new enemy, and was instead repelled back. And why is she so much faster too?

Viy cut, slashed and stabbed her way into the cave, her wild, unpredictable moves widening the hole that Nar had opened, and then finally, she broke apart the already shaken formation.

The spear line too, faltered as they were submerged in her AOE of darkness, and one of the spear goblins clasped his head with a strangled cry.

The guilt! Nar realized, and he wasted no time in stabbing forward, straight through the goblin's throat.

"What happened?" Viy shouted, twirling her spear in a wide circle around her. "You got debuffed!"

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"I got what?"

With a quick glance at his status, Nar saw that she was right.

[Gaze of the Frozen Abyss]?

The meaning of the debuff instantly flooded into his mind.

 

Gaze of the Frozen Abyss (Elemental/???): ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Reduces… effectiveness… all… attrib… (exce… ura]). Lasts… caster is slain, or… battle… ds.

 

Nar shook away the sudden knowledge, if he could even call it that, and furiously focused back on the spear tips still aiming to kill him.

What in the Pile was all that? There was nothing there!

The most he got was that all his attributes, except [Aura], were reduced, but no idea by how much! Though given how much faster everyone else suddenly seemed to be, it had to be a heavy enough of a shackle upon him, and it would last until he killed however had debuffed him. Or he died…

"Was that the robed guy?" Viy asked him.

"I-I think it was the boss!" Nar shouted. "Stay away from that passage!"

"What?"

"Stay away from that tunnel!" Nar shouted again. "I felt it when I passed in front of it!"

"Crystal! Okay!"

It was the only thing that made sense to him.

But how did I get hit? My [Instinct] didn't even warn me! And what about my [Ego]?

It was at 54 points for Crystal's sake! Was the boss that much stronger than him that his [Ego] meant nothing to it? Or had that skill just barely managed to scrape by his defenses?

"Viy! Turn it off!" Gad bellowed into the cave, pulling Nar back into the now. "We're coming in!"

The purple-blue darkness retreated back into Viy, and it was with relief that Nar watched as Gad stormed into the cave, her shield held high and glowing in front of her. One of the shield wielding goblins tried to stop her charge, but Gad shrugged it off as though he wasn't even there, and kept stomping towards the boss's tunnel

"Stop!" Nar shouted at her. "The boss can debuff you from inside!"

Gad altered her course with an [Agility] than Nar would've found surprising back in their Climbing days, and pivoted into the spear goblins instead. Her towering shadow over them seemed to be enough to make them switch to facing her instead of Nar, and he eyed the tank in surprise, as she had seemingly overridden the effects of his [Aura Infused Strikes].

"Was that a taunt?" Nar couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know," Gad replied, blocking the spears with her shield. "It was something... But go! Go get those casters!"

"On it!" Nar shouted.

Is her affinity working already? Nar wondered.

At a glance, Nar saw the rest of the party rushing into the cave, and his heart leaped with joy when red arrows started flying and flaming fists punched at shields. And a little smile crossed his lips when he caught sight of Jul helping Tuk locate his missing rings.

We'll be okay! He realized, and he faced forward, aiming for the casters, the wargs and the robbed goblin, and he sensed Viy joining him, when he spotted something that made his blood run cold in his veins.

The two shield goblins he had blown past with his initial charge were now blocking his path to the casters, and behind them, with his hands glowing a faded, yellow light, the robed goblin was bent over one of the archer's that Nar was sure he had left for dead. And there was only one thing that the robbed goblin could be doing…

"A healer!" Nar shouted. "They have a healer!"

*********

"A healer! They have a healer!"

Nar's warning echoed above the chaos of the fighting, and Tuk looked up from Jul's outstretched hand, one of his missing rings gleaming in her palm, and searched for Nar in the chaos that had taken the cave.

"What?" he mumbled.

"A healer?" Jul said, straightening her torso, but remaining on her knees.

"Shit!" Rel said, firing off another arrow. "Hurry up, Jul!"

"Yes!" Jul shouted, pushing the ring into Tuk's hands. "Where's the next one? Quick!"

"What? Forget about them!" Tuk said. "You need to go help them!"

"I'm not going to make a difference in this!" Jul shouted. "We need you!"

"But…"

"She's right!" Rel grunted, notching another arrow onto her bow. "We need your rings now, Tuk! This is a mess. We need your crowd control!"

Tuk searched for Kur, but somehow, their party leader had become embroiled in the fighting, and he and Cen were backed against one of the walls, facing off against one of the spear goblins, and behind it, a shield goblin was covering the spear goblin from Rel's arrows.

Where's Mul? Tuk thought, panic rising within him. He needs to…

"Hurry!" Jul shouted, seeing the same thing. "Tell me where the next one is and start tossing, Tuk!"

Tuk clenched his fists. He had recovered three rings, that would have to be enough. He needed to be enough… He needed to be strong and brave since he wanted to be a delver, and this sort of desperate situation might just be at the core of it.

"O-Over there!" Tuk shouted, pointing towards the wall. "Somewhere there!"

"I'll find it!" Jul promised.

I'm tying up Jul, and making myself useless, Tuk thought, clenching his jaw. Why do I need all nine of them? In the Climb, I made do with just one!

Tuk took a deep breath, and spun his rings. Before him, there was utter madness.

Besides Kur and Cen blocked off against one side, Mul was now surrounded and trapped by shields, maces raining down and beating over his crossed arms, trying to catch him off guard. Gad was doing what she could against the remaining four spear goblins, but there was a shimmering, white-blue gash on her right arm that cut straight through her aura armor. And before he could move, Nar and Viy came running back into view from the hidden side of the cave, chased by a swirling storm of razor-sharp ice.

I'm the multi-target DPS! Tuk told himself, cycling his aura into his rings and calling upon his [Sight] and [Accuracy]. And I have the second best [Accuracy] in the whole party. So let's get this done, Tuk!

He flung his rings forward, and though the shield goblin tried to deny him his first victim, it only managed to block two of the rings with its shield. The third, Tuk had tossed a fraction of a second after the first two, and it effortlessly glided around the goblin's white shield, and brained the spear monster attacking Kur and Cen.

That's one! Tuk thought.

"Crystal, man…" Rel breathed. "How did you do that?"

Because I'm awesome! Tuk thought, as he retrieved his rings. And don't you forget it, me.

Kur pounced on the shield goblin from behind, taking it by surprise, and the two of them tumbled into a desperate brawl on the floor, snarling and spitting at each other, weapons and shield abandoned as they resorted to a more primal style of fighting.

Can't help him now, Tuk thought. But I know who can!

Tuk tossed his rings once more. One of the tank goblins heard them coming, and dodged down and out of the way, but the other two never even realized what was happening until they too, went down in sprays of dark blue blood and bluish brain matter.

It was a good thing that none of them wore helmets. He had no idea if their gear was made of the dreaded strengthened mix of aether and metal, and was glad not to have to find out. And in the sudden distraction of two of the shield bearers going down, Mul ignited his fists to push back the remaining two goblins and ran for Kur, leaving them stunned still behind him.

That shithead's going to take care of that, Tuk thought with a predatory smirk on his lips, reaching his fingers forward to receive his returning rings.

"I got it!" Jul shouted. "Here's another one!"

"Nice!" Tuk said, beaming at her. "Okay, the next one's over there!"

And I… I got this!

And the now four rings in his fingers went flying again, searching for more foes to eliminate.

*********

Nar jumped out of range of the blast of ice roaring from the two combined ice knives which formed a veritable wall of razor sharp slivers of glimmering blue ice.

"How are they even doing that?" Viy asked, rolling to her feet.

"No idea!" Nar shouted.

And in all honesty, he didn't even know that skills could be combined like that.

If those are even skills to begin with, Nar thought. They couldn't check the daggers, but who knew? With everything else going on, maybe the dungeon had spawned rare weapons too!

"Kur!"

Nar spun at the sound of Cen's scream, and his heart nearly seized in his chest when he spotted Kur fighting off against one of the ice spear wielding goblins, and Cen hiding behind his back. Although the party leader was keeping the goblin at bay for the moment, with his unsteady buckler, Nar knew it wouldn't last. It couldn't. Kur wasn't trained in combat at all, nor had the attributes for it, and these goblins were not pushovers.

However, between Nar and the two of them stood Gad, holding off the remainder of the spear goblins, and Mul, surrounded by shields and a blur of maces.

Somehow, the brawler didn't seem to be in danger, but his punches weren't doing much against the blue, ice coated shields either, and he was spending more time protecting himself than attacking. The lengos didn't seem likely to break free at any point and go help Kur, and despite Rel's arrows, the spearman was being protected by yet another shield goblin. And with the two more standing in front of the casters, that brought the count of those shield goblins to a grand total of seven.

We haven't even killed any of the tanks! Nar realized. And that damned healer is going to punish us for anything we don't finish off!

His [Instinct] warned him about another blast of stormy ice, and he retreated further away from the casters and the healer.

I need to abandon this and get to Kur, he decided. And maybe I can help Mul on the way too!

But before he could open his mouth to warn Viy of his new plans, rings of light crossed through the cave, and the spearman fighting Kur went down in a spray of cold, blue blood.

Tuk! But there's still the shield goblin…

And just as predicted, Kur rushed the shield goblin from behind, and the two of them went down in a snarling tussle of punches and kicks, weapons almost forgotten in their hands. Tuk's rings went flying again, and this time, two of the four shield goblins blocking Mul went down, the other two managing to just about get out of the way and keep their lives.

The brawler pushed back the still standing shield goblins and rushed to Kur's aid. Within moments, he had kicked the goblin off of Kur and was now landing flaming fists against his unprotected face.

Tuk you fucking genius! Nar thought.

Within a few seconds, the ring tosser had single handedly flipped the tide of battle, and Nar doubted the healer could do anything for the dead goblins. And with the spear goblin and the archers he had killed, and the one tank Mul was just about to finish off, that left only twelve of the monsters alive.

The healer, two casters, two shield goblins and the last archer are all over here. Plus the wargs, Nar thought. And over there, four spear goblins with Gad, and the other two shield… Nope. One shield goblin! Rel just killed one of them!

A sudden screech echoed from deeper in the cave, and the remaining goblins stopped fighting.

Is it coming? Nar thought, staring back at the gaping darkness.

However, instead of a new enemy surging from the dark, the remaining goblins suddenly fled into the passage instead.

"Stop them!" Kur shouted. "They're joining up with the boss!"

His [Instinct] and a loud snarling warned him of the incoming danger, and he jumped out of the way of the speeding warg. On its back, a caster and the healer held on for dear life, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone into the darkness. But Nar didn't have any time to stop and ponder about what that meant for their final fight. The two shield goblins rushed towards him, intended on running past him, and Nar had no intentions on letting them go.

With a quick jump, he leaped onto one of them, pushing it backwards, and lunging forward, he pierced through the exposed, unarmored left calf of the other fleeing goblin.

Viy swept the wounded goblin off his feet with the haft of her spear, and finished it with a stab through the mouth as it came careening across the frost coated ground, just as a second white shadow blurred past them.

"No, you don't!" Viy snarled.

She drew back her spear behind her back, and launched it at the fleeing warg. Between the wall, the spear goblins and Gad, there wasn't much space to maneuver, and the spear hit its target, sending the warg and its rider down in a tumble of limbs, and cries of pain and yelps, and they smashed against the opposite cave wall.

Nar ran forward, ignoring the last shield goblin for the two much bigger threats of the warg and caster duo, and Gad thought the same, as she allowed the spear goblins to flee down the tunnel, and towered towards the two fallen enemies instead.

Nar saw she was headed for the caster, her shield held up high to block his quick ice shots, so he pivoted towards the warg. With a burst of aura, Nar jumped forward and skewered the beast through its chest before it could get through its daze. The warg whimpered under him, and Nar pulled his blade back and quickly stabbed it again, while at his side, Gad brought down her mace on the caster's head twice, and ended it.

A quick glance told him that between Tuk and Rel, they had managed to shoot down the last shield goblin remaining, and but for the desperate gasping and shouting of the fleeing goblins in the dark tunnel, the cave fell into silence, glowing with blue aether ice now, instead of the roaring fire which had been put out by a stray blast of ice.

It was almost an anti-climactic end to their fight, considering how quickly it had suddenly been resolved.

However, Nar knew that the fight was far from over. If anything, it was yet to truly begin…

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