In hindsight, it could have been very foolish, and very fatal to stand right next to the opening door. However, I didn't bother to worry about it at the time, as my sword flashed out, catching a very surprised young woman in the chest. She had short blue hair, brown eyes, and a rather eye catching wooden staff clutched in her hands. A young man looked over quickly, and his face quite simply, broke. "Emily!" He screamed, as his companion fell backward, kicked off my sword. He didn't see the three arrows coming. One of them went sailing past, shattering against the wall, while the other two slammed into his chest, puncturing his leather armor, and knocking him back a step. He stared dumbly at them, as I moved forward out into the hall. I didn't need to bother with him, as he most likely wouldn't be fighting anything ever again.

What I did need to bother with, was the older dungeoneer to my left. He was looking at the two dead or dying dungeoneers, and he was grinning. It was an evil, greedy, and frankly, very irritating grin.

You... Used us... To kill them...?

Whatever remained of my emotions flared, and I couldn't stop myself from letting out a roar, sprinting forward, slashing downward with my short sword, only to be blocked by a spear. My anger kept flaring, screaming for me to just kill him already.

My shield went forward, right into his gut. He took a single step back as the wind was knocked out of him. I pulled back the shortsword, and sent it forward as well, attempting to skewer the piece of filth. I'm pretty sure he tried to jump back, but what happened was he more or less fell onto his back, still holding onto his spear.

Fucking cockroach!

I switched my grip on my weapon, the blade now pointing straight down, as I brought it down to stab him in his stupid chest. Literally a second before the tip of the blade could pierce him, he rolled forward, abandoning his spear. I turned to follow him, and he was next to a now dead corpse with two arrows in its chest. He ripped a short sword from its sheath, and lunged at me.

As I positioned my shield to catch the blade, I could see the other scouts and some of the combat team rushing out into the hallway, weapons drawn.

"Murder this bastard!" I ended up using [Dark Speech] to speak, as most of my thoughts were centered around stabbing the man to death for using us.

The desperate look on the dungeoneer's face shattered the moment I spoke. I used that very moment to slam the sword in his hands back into his chest, hilt first. It left a very sizable hole in my shield, but it staggered him, right into the waiting arms of my brothers and sisters, who very happily from what I could tell, inserted their rusty knives, swords, and axes into his body. Rather violently, if I might add.

While they did that, I tried to get myself to calm down, soothing myself with his screams. It was at that moment, that I heard footsteps running away, down the hall.

I didn't bother to think about who might have made those sounds. I turned and started sprinting with everything I had.

Shit! Fucking idiot! How could I be so stupid! There just had to be more! Why didn't I think about that. Idiot!

I kept mentally cursing myself as I ran at my top speed, following the sound of the footsteps as far as I could. I didn't even stop to think about where I was going. There was nowhere else they could be going. They were running back to the damn stairs!

I was managing to close the distance at this point, since I could keep running at my top speed, while they could not.

Studded leather armor, a bow and arrows, several knives which occasionally were thrown at me, but caught by my shield, or by my crappy armor. Jet black hair, pale skin, and well muscled. A professional.

To top it all off, I wasn't at my best, with my health hovering around thirty nine. My mana had finally recovered, but only barely. The tip of my shortsword had also been significantly dulled as it hit the stone floor when I tried to stab the jackass dungeoneer. I couldn't stab, I could barely slash, and my shield was almost broken.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

This is not my day!

Finally I closed the distance, chasing the dungeoneer into a well lit, dome shaped room. I didn't stop as I slashed downwards at them, bringing my shield around to either punch them or block an attack. That was all before they ducked down, and swept my legs out from under me, sending me halfway across the room, scraping my face and shoulder against the ground.

Cool, a martial artist! You're fucking kidding me!

I stood up, only to realize that I had a bow and arrow trained on me. I let myself fall forward, using what little momentum I had to push myself off the ground and run at them as the arrow sailed over me, skittering harmlessly against the stone wall.

I managed to get within striking distance after blocking another arrow, and the same leg swept out again. Instinctively reacting, I activated [Shield] in order to not get pulled into his tempo. I found that his face was also scarred by several old wounds of varying length and size. His leg slammed against the magical barrier that appeared around me, and I used that split second to send my sword forward, forcing him to drop his bow, and cartwheel away. The damn acrobat unsheathed his daggers as I stomped on his bow, smashing the wood. His determined expression didn't change, although his eyes widened slightly.

He sprinted forward, way too fast for me to react to, and slid one of the knives across my ribs, breaking two of them. I heard alarm bells ringing in my head. I had to be low health at this point, and the fight had only barely begun! I leapt back, focusing less and less on attacking, and more on defending against the whirlwind of steel he was sending my way.

It stayed this way for roughly a minute, as he kept sending punches, kicks, slashes, and stabs my way, with me blocking, evading, and flat out diving to get out of the way. The fight was way too one sided, and I didn't think I could win, not without either tiring him out, which it didn't seem was going to happen any time soon, or getting help.

Come on plot armor, I need you now!

Sadly, nothing happened. I was still desperately holding off the dungeoneer who now seemed to have made it his personal mission to put me down for good. My shield was beginning to fall apart, as were all my options. If I could get far enough away from him, I knew I'd be able to outrun him, but if he escaped, he could just as easily go back and tell them that they missed a floor.

A stone flew in between us, the dungeoneer jumping back. As a kneejerk reaction, I looked over at where the stone had come from. There was a group of three goblins. One of them had a sling, while the other two had crude, yet slightly menacing stone knives. It was this fact that nearly got me killed.

Looking back at the dungeoneer, I saw the tip of a knife less than a foot away from me, and [Shield] was used again without a second thought, stopping the blade cold. The next thing that came my way was a leg swinging towards my head at high speeds. Ducking under it, I sent my sword forward in a desperate counter attack, and surprisingly, they leapt backwards, just before my sword could reach them.

The knife wielding goblins rushed forward, as the other one sent another rock at the dungeoneer. He stepped to the side, before leaping into the air, and slamming his heel down on the head of one of the knife goblins, putting a boot shaped indent in its skull, popping one of its eyes out as it fell to the ground, twitching.

The dungeoneer looked back at me. At this point, I was horrified at how quickly he could kill, but there wasn't much I could do at the moment, so I raised my nearly broken shield and my dulled sword. He snorted once at my false bravado, before throwing the knife in his left hand into the chest of the other knife goblin, sending it sprawling backwards to the floor. Then, he came after me again, dodging the stones flying his way with little effort.

That was when a warm feeling came over me, and I could feel my bones repairing themselves.

Rivena?

I didn't dare look away, as a new knife had been pulled from somewhere, and was currently whistling by my head.

"Tch. Fucking corpses." The dungeoneer spat as he attempted to sweep my legs out from under me again, only to be stopped by my sword getting in the way. Instead, he pulled his leg back, and kicked outward, his boot slamming against my shield, shattering what little of it remained, along with sending me stumbling backwards. Another knife flew towards me, only to be blocked as a body made of bone moved to intercept it, the knife thunking against a wooden shield.

I remembered the skeleton the shield belonging to, as I'd named him Rivax. He was one of the Sentinels.

But... That means...

I allowed myself to turn away for a moment as Rivax took my place in the fight, fighting much more defensively than I had been doing so far. Rivena, all of her Sentinels, and two of the archers stood in the hallway outside. Rivena held the wooden staff that had been in the possession of the young woman I'd killed earlier, and she was waving it around. The warm feeling never left my bones, as I turned back to face the dungeoneer.

"Cut off his escape! Two Sentinels, with me!" I barked the commands, and the Sentinels obeyed, with Rivena standing in a slightly less protective shell at this point, as three stayed with her, while three others along with an archer, moved to circle around the room, heading for the only other hall leading into the dome.

I no longer had a shield, and my Mp was all gone, but Gods was I ready for payback.