POV Luana Nightshield

The first floor had been a breeze. Aron provided them with a lot more control and defense. It was not his power but his ability to let them cast without interruption or fear of injury that allowed them to unfold their “wings” and perform on another level compared to the past. Yes, they had to face more enemies, but his skills offset that easily.

She felt his presence, especially during the fight against the first boss. His shields slowed and kept it in the designated kill-zone. He transformed it from a dangerous enemy into a slow walking target.

Looking at it from this point she should have been happy, but his lucky shot at the end also secured him the kill which she had planned to get. Combine this with the none existent core, and she felt not as good as she could have. On the bright side, the bracelet helped her out, but these sorts of items were up for sale everywhere. The core had been much more important.

Still, Aron had been an enrichment for the team. He would never amount to much as his actual power was too little, but as a niche specialist in shield-magic he would be a welcome asset in any party. He behaved more mature as well, always observing the surroundings for possible opponents or traps. Aron kept the actions of his teammates in mind and added his own supportively. In doing so, he pushed the entire team to a new level.

His specialized tool set proved valuable beyond her initial estimation. She planned to keep their interactions civilized and beneficial. Who knew maybe he would improve even more? And even if not, it didn’t hurt to have a shield-mage as acquaintance.

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POV Aron Brightcloud

Arriving at the second floor, we had left the dirty swamp behind. The open plains of a far-reaching tundra awaited us. My group-mates had arrived on this floor on the day Anna had died. They hadn’t explored it thoroughly yet, so the only thing I knew was what they had encountered so far. Namely bears and fox families who lived comfortably in the wide open nature.

With more than enough space for themselves, they had enjoyed a peaceful existence. Not used to the skill level of our group, we quickly reduced them to experience energy, improving our cores and in my case, body as well.

A rock in the distance signalized the border of my teammates knowledge. We had reached the end of the chartered territory.

As we got closer, I could make out a cave entrance on the left side of the rock-formation. Recalling the easy progress we had made until now, my instincts told me this would change soon.

“Erik, Aron, sent in your summons first to act as vanguard, we will follow behind them. Jane, summon your mage-light. it will be dark inside.”

Bones readily moved forward, always ready to test himself against new opponents. Jane’s fiery orb illuminated the uneven outline of the entrance. Finished with our preparation, we stepped into the dark tunnel.

The first thing that alerted us to the inhabitants of this tunnel were the shoddy carved hieroglyphs on the corridor walls. Scanning them, I recognized the patterns.

Goblins… the lowest dregs of any form of life. Stinky, greedy, evil, with no remorse. They were a disgusting lot.

Surprised by the intensity of my emotions, I focused on myself. Had I developed an aversion against goblins?

Unbidden memories rose from my psyche’s dept, I clenched my fist. The same hieroglyphs had burned themselves into my mind when I had starred down on my murdered friend’s body. At that time I hadn’t even noticed them, but now they were more than enough to let me relive the darkest hours of my life.

With a start, I realized that I did. The goblins connected with too many of my bad memories. I shook my head in self-disgust. How could I let myself be influenced by this?! No, I needed to get rid of the negative emotions!

“Aron, is everything okay?” Jane’s voice rang out close to me. She must have stepped closer while I had been distracted. I berated myself a second time. How could I lose my concentration this much for her to even pick up on it? I was better than this. Shaking my head, I gave her a thankful smile.

“Yes, thanks Jane. Sorry, the hieroglyphs had reminded me of a bad memory. Everything is fine.”

Her searching eyes roamed over my face anew, trying to decrypt my genuine state of mind. Back in control, I easily weathered her intense star.

‘Big Brother! There is something in the darkness ahead of us!’ Bones’s message cut in on our interplay.

Instantly, I forced my shields into existence.

Hopefully the- Arrows, axes and swords crashed into my erected barriers, forcing me nearly to my knees. The onslaught nearly destroyed them. Mana burned through my body, I upheld the energy that ensured our survival. Everything fell away as I concentrated fully on weathering the storm. My mana saturation level rose. Soon it reached the limit. A deep pain spread through my body as I burned part of myself.

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“Prepare for engagement! Ready your spells!” Luana’s frantic voice cut through the sound of the enemy’s attacks and the stupor of my mates. They quickly caught themselves and prepared their own magic.

We had talked about this scenario in our training-sessions, now I would find out if they had understood and taken the lesson to heart. My hands were full. I paid rapt attention to my body’s state. I still endured it. Although painful, my newly gained self-recovery would soon repair the damage.

I- half a tree (!?) crashed into my barrier, forcing me nearly to my knees a second time. The pain spiked as additional roots in my body were saturated. My mana level climbed even further. What the heck were these goblins doing?! Where had they found a tree down here?! Fucking green shits!

As soon as the mental curse popped up in my head I realized that my thought processes had been compromised. Enough was enough. I could not allow this emotional imbalance to further twist my inner state.

My battle-mind took over. Emotions gave way to calculated response and my breath slowed down. I was in utter control.

Apathetic, I observed my body’s state. Vessel integrity at 90%, slowly falling. Still at an acceptable level. Initiating cleanse of imbalanced emotions. Evaluating incoming data. Situation not life threatening, cleanse complete.

The pseudo identity shut partially down, giving my more articulate self control back to take care of the now “controlled” body and battle. I would have to set time aside to take care of my emotions, but at the moment I had a fight to win.

On three, I lowered the shield for a second and let the flurry of magic spells through that my group had prepared. As soon as they were through, my shield popped back in place, protecting us from the incoming avalanche of “weapons” that flew through the darkness in our direction.

The light of our released ordinance showed us a glimpse of the situation as it surmounted the distance. With a resounding explosion, the spells collided with the wall, bodies or both of them. Goblin parts and rocks flew through the air, impacting my shield.

As quick and ferocious as the attack had come, it ended. I felt my body regenerate automatically as my mana sank back to acceptable levels.

“Advance!” In response to our group-leader’s order we moved down the tunnel, shields raised, spells at the ready.

Dead goblins greeted us, strewn throughout the passage. Some lay against the side walls, others were half hidden in crevices built into the tunnel. They were still bleeding out, not yet dead, but incapacitated at the very least.

“Have we gotten all of them?” Erik’s hopeful voice carried through the tunnel.

Distant foot-soles hitting on ground answered his question. That was a solid no in my book.

Luana shook her head as well, “Prepare for engagement! Bones and Factor close the front! Aron, take care of the shielding. Only defend the top, we need to save mana! Our summons will protect us from their melee fighters. Give us a count to zero to tell us when you will lower the shield. Avra and Shor, support the vanguard.”

Our group-leader’s orders gave us a clear plan of action which we executed immediately.

I observed my surroundings. Different to my normal fighting style, I was more of a spectator here. My only responsibility was to take care of our defense while others planned and orchestrated the attack.

Luana’s orders had been in line with my own thoughts, so I had no problems. I would follow for now and see where her commandeering skills led us.

The second round of attacks began. This time a horde of melee fighters crashed into our frontline. I felt Bones’s delight as he let himself go. Four arms ripped into multiple goblins simultaneously.

Thanks to our connection, I observed everything as if I stood directly in front of them. The goblins were miserably equipped. They carried half broken swords, inferior wooden shields, and no armor to speak of.

My little brother’s improved bones showed their worth. The goblins unsharpened weapons unable to hurt him. They rebounded from his frame in droves as my little brother focused on ending the enemy as quick as he could. Bones’s metal-like toes drilled into the ground and anchored him against the incoming wave of goblins.

Where Factor at first had appeared to be the better vanguard, it became clear quickly who endured longer. The earth golem’s “softer” skin had already started to give. Bones used his second pair of arms for attacks from above, in doing so he mostly mitigated his smaller stature.

I absentmindedly counted down, lowering the shields to let the prepared spells through before I raised them again. Our group soon fell into a rhythm. The potentially dangerous situation transformed into a boring cascade of steps that repeated themselves over and over until we had killed everyone. During the entire time, my body regenerated as the pressure on my shields had lessened.

Against the end I appreciated my affinities more and more. They improved my shield-magic immensely. My shield-rune simplified the cast process and made them sturdier. The manipulation rune gave another overall push to structure as well as form-time, and the endurance rune improved their sturdiness to an absurd degree. These three runes working in tandem allowed me to conjure true monsters of shields without long cast time or horrendous mana cost.

The only rune I hadn’t accessed in this fight was the far-reach rune. As we were in a tunnel, I had no need of spreading my shields over wide areas. The best part of it was that the runes were not apparent by simply looking at my shields. They appeared to be simple shields, only when trying to break them my opponent and friends would realize the tremendous challenge they were up against.

Still, I missed my light core dearly. Had I wanted to cast and maintain the same amount of attack spells, I would have run out of mana a long time ago. With my other core, this would have been no problem.

“We will do a break to recover. Aron, you will take care of the watch for now.”

I nodded, my mana was still okay and unlike my mates, I didn’t feel mentally exhausted after such a relaxed fight. Luana must have realized my mental fortitude and pushed the guard duty on me. No problems there, guarding after a fight was nothing new to me.

‘Big brother, this was great! I feel like I have made another step forward!’

Bones’s exited voice resounded in my head. I grinned, the little battle-maniac for sure loved to fight. On the plus side, he also forwarded a sizeable chunk of experience every time he killed someone. Before I hadn’t noticed, but now I felt the additional amount clearly. The dungeon counted my defensive efforts and converted it into experience energy. Together with the energy of my brother, the gain was rather substantial. It didn’t close the gap completely, but it made it smaller.

I wondered why I hadn’t gotten experience from my little brother prior to this dive. Had it something to do with his satiety level?

Although that made little sense. He hadn’t eaten before the dive. Still, I for sure didn’t oppose getting additional energy.