Civilization

Club in hand, Gobi rushes forward smashing and bashing zombies left and right, while I support him with my quick thrusts, piercing through the rotting flesh. Howard stabilizes us, shielding any attacks from the right. Now, that there was light in the tunnel I could see the horrific tidal wave of zombies. Not to mention the ever-pungent rotting flesh that permeates into your nose every second that passes.

Dried blood and pieces of flesh splatter across the cave walls before turning into purple smoke. Gobi's laugh echoes in the cave filling my ears but despite his aggressive actions, I noticed that he was fighting differently than before. It was similar to Kingston's style of fighting which relies on instinct. With the boosted stats, Gobi reverted back to his goblin nature. Aggressively fighting, aiming at weak points like the ankles or the neck, and dodging based on feeling.

Eventually, Gobi breaks through the tsunami of zombies reaching the corner where we had stopped before, and like before, there was a moment of silence.

"Robin, fire the arrows now. Solar prepare the spell and Lynn make sure you are ready as well. Howard, bring up the shield and Gobi… Stay still." - Ian

"Ready the arrows…." - Robin

"Sorry, for the aggression my lord…" - Gobi

"Don't worry about it, Gobi. it was refreshing just running at the enemy instead of thinking of ways to fight them." - Ian

"Just try not to do it too much. You gave us a scare a couple of times when you used Tornado Spin into the horde of zombies." - Howard

"I'll make a note of it." - Gobi

"FIRE!" - Robin

3 trails of fire fly down the cave embedding themselves between rocks. The archer goblin's night vision helped in the process of firing the arrows as they were able to see the best location to slip an arrow into the rocks. The arrows become small beacons of light illuminating the dark cave.

"1 close on the ground, 1 close on the ceiling and 1 far on the ceiling. They are almost in range for their attack. I suggest attacking now." - Gobi

"Right, Lynn protect me in case anything goes wrong." - Solar

"Don't worry, it will be fine. We figured out the chant, all there is left to do is to use it. There should be no problem whatsoever.' - Lynn

"Then, we should get ready as well. Howard step to the front and Gobi go to the back and be our eyes." - Ian

"Got it, my lord." - Gobi

"I'll be sure to defend against the attack this time." - Howard

Seconds after we got into position, the torches get taken out one by one. The monsters were approaching and they knew the significance of the torches to us. However, they didn't know we could just keep shooting them.

"Robin, continue firing arrows into the darkness. Always have 3 burning. Archer goblin's aim for the monsters that are approaching us." - Ian

"You heard him. Fire at will guys!" - Robin

With a steady stream of flaming arrows flying at the monsters, we were able to see them approach us. However, instead of backing off, they became agitated by our attacks and the closest monster lashes its tongue out, slamming into Howard's shield. It booms in the cave like thunder striking the ground, ringing in my ears. Howard slips back a few steps but holds his ground as much as he can, knocking the tongue to the left side using his whole body.

However, it left him in a vulnerable state, with his front exposed Howard awkwardly tries to bring his shield back to the front, as a tongue zips out of the darkness. Just in time, Gobi comes in front of Howard blocking the attack, but the force behind the attack was too strong knocking him backward into Howard.

The monsters knew some strategy which makes it harder and were able to take opportunities from each other's attacks but so could we. I activate Enhanced Agility and focus on the closest monster. An arrow had landed near it which revealed its position nicely to me. Activating Charge, I dash towards the monster pointing my trident at the exposed brains.

Unfortunately for me, its agility was nothing to laugh at, it nimbly dodges backward enveloping itself in the darkness while a pink tongue aims for my face. I activate Quickstep, dodging to the left, and pressing my back against the wall. I quickly swing my trident upward hitting the pink tongue with the butt of my trident. The attack was awkward and had little weight behind the strike doing nothing to the monster. Instead, I hear a low growl as another attack came from above me.

The first monster which had dodged my charge came back to attack me, lunging at me with its mouth wide open, displaying a row of sharp needle-like teeth. The top two spider legs shoot upward meeting the monster in the air and penetrating into its two large hands. I would have liked to have stabbed its brain with my spider legs, but it used its hands to block my attack.

I grit my teeth as I force the monster upward, retracting my spider legs and rolling forward away from the pink tongue. Howard had recovered and helped pull me back to safety with Gobi hitting another tongue attack away. Glancing at Solar's glowing body, I assume she was ready to use the new skill which I looked at on her stats.

Name: Ǝɿiɒloƨ (Solar)

Race: Elf

Health Points (HP): 40/40

Mana Points (MP): 35/35

Strength: 12

Vitality: 20

Intelligence: 70

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 22

Luck: 10

Skill: Shield of the Sun, Haste of the Sun, Touch of the Sun, Ball of Light, Illuminating Beam Blessing of the Sun (Passive)

Illuminating Beam (Active) 20 MP - After gathering mana for 30 seconds, the user needs to chant the elven spell correctly before ejecting a beam of light in a direction lasting for 2 - 10 seconds. ( 100 to 400 + 50% Intelligence ) Cooldown 5 minutes

Solar's body glows brighter until it condenses into her right hand as she holds it out pointing at the monster which Robin reveals with a flaming arrow.

"ƨɘimɘnɘ γm noqυ Ɉʜϱil bɘʜƨ bnɒ

mɒɘd ɒ oɈni llɒd ƨiʜɈ nɿυɈ

ʜɈϱnɘɿɈƨ ɘm ɘviϱ nυƨ ɘʜɈ γɒm

Illuminating Beam!" - Solar

Shooting out of her hand was a ray of light as bright as the sun itself, blinding me. Covering my eyes, I peek through the cracks to see the whole cave as clear as day as the ray of light burns a hole into the fleeing monster. The light burns the monster until it bursts into a cloud of purple smoke and as Solar was directing the beam of light towards the next monster it fades away until the cave goes back to its natural dark state.

"That was… AMAZING! I knew we were able to condense it into a beam but never did I know that it would last for that long nor do that much damage." - Lynn

With a beaming smile on Lynn's face, she hugs the panting Solar from behind. The attack took a lot out of Solar, as she breathes heavily unable to reply to Lynn's comment. However, that new attack was indeed fascinating. While Lynn had explained to me that the fundamentals of elven magic stemmed from the chant and the power is drawn from whichever god the elf believed in, I didn't think a spell-like that would be created.

This then begs the question, what are the limits of elven magic and what can Solar create?

"Lynn, do you think Solar will be able to create even more devastating magic?" - Ian

"There is the possibility, however, that requires more research. This time we were only able to create it by forcing lots of Balls of Light into a tunnel which eventually turned into a beam. The only problem is the amount of mana it consumes is a lot and as you can see Solar is already very fatigued from using one attack. It can't work on all the monsters but at least this way we were able to eliminate 1 of the 3 monsters." - Lynn

"Right, and with everyone's help we should be able to defeat the other 2." - Ian

"Especially since they look extremely worried now. They are displaying sighs of hesitation and fear after seeing their comrade die. I didn't know these monsters felt so much emotion." - Gobi

"Confident in killing them?" - Ian

"You know we are confident. After this, we still need to fight whatever is down at the bottom of the cave. There might be a whole cavern full of zombies and these monsters just waiting for us to come closer. There might even be a stronger monster commanding the zombies, who knows…" - Howard

"Right, we shouldn't get complacent with just one monster killed. We need to be ready for whatever comes at us. Robin, light the way for us. It's time to kill these monsters and move forward." - Ian

"Alright, I was waiting for you to say that. Leave the simple stuff to me and push forward!" - Robin