Tom burst from cover. All his senses strained to absorb everything. He had to know about his enemies. Lightning Feet crackled under him as he turned to face his opponents. The grit that the rockfall had spread provided the friction to execute a sharp turn to face the primary enemy. He remained absolutely aware of his surroundings, but he focused straight ahead to assess the effectiveness of their gambit.
The sound of the mini cave-in was louder than the crunch under his feet, but not all the goblins had reacted to the threat by facing it. The boss, thankfully, was not looking at him, but two others had already spotted him and they were both specialists.
One of them, a shaman, moved its lips and Tom knew it was shouting a warning as it had not bothered moving its hands, which all the others did when casting their spells. The boss would find out about his presence in a moment.
The second was a spear gob. It lowered its head and charged him even as the shaman began to cast a spell.
Their reaction speeds were too fast. They had not modelled for this. They had assumed the minor monsters would be too slow to threaten him. But something was off. Tom’s battle awareness was going haywire. Not the shaman he could tank one of their casts.
Tom’s eyes widened.
A spear gob!
Not one of those, he screamed in his head, lamenting his luck. Any of the others noticing him first would have been preferable.
His mind catalogued the upgrades they had access to and there were several dangerous abilities. Skills that would let it cross the separating distance before the rock cave could kill it. Worse for him was that the boss had specialised in movement abilities, so what was the chance that an associated specialist would lack them? Tom put it at zero percent.
Damn you Everlyn, he internally cursed even while acknowledging that he was being a hypocrite. This had been as much his idea as hers.
The spear gob lowered its weapon to point toward him. White light covered the shaft and then ran along the monster’s skin before being concentrated around its feet.
Tom instantly knew what was coming, but he had to reach his spot. They had to kill the boss during the first engagement. If they failed, they could attempt a fighting retreat, but he didn’t think it was likely that all four of them could extract themselves.
The white energy’s intensity peaked.
The spear gob accelerated like it was shot from a rocket as its lunge ability took hold. It blurred as it closed with him.
Time slowed alarmingly.
If Tom stopped to block, then he wouldn’t reach the required spot. Black dodge screamed a warning at him. A whole host of defensive options presented. Every one of them would slow him down and halt his momentum. He ignored them. It wasn’t the first time he had felt forced to accept imminent pain and injury to establish a strategic advantage.
His spear appeared in his hand.
He swung hard to block the monster’s weapon.
It was like striking a concrete wall and the instant the futility of the attempt was apparent he teleported to the side. His magic stretching beyond its normal range to move him a full eight centimetres.
It wasn’t sufficient.
The centre of his chest to the gap between his torso and his arm was sixteen or seventeen centimetres. Only eight centimetres? The teleport was not even close to generating sufficient distance to protect him.
The spear tip hit him to the left of his heart. His own weapon spun because of the failed block to point in front of him. Courtesy of his skill it was perfectly lined up with his enemy.
The spear gob tried to act, but it was too late.
Everything happened at once. They both collided with speed. It’s weapon sinking into him, impaling him and then no more than an instant later his own weapon returning the favour. It didn’t have a teleport and Tom did not miss the heart.
The consequences played out. His speed versus the goblin’s Skill, his weight against the goblins. It had dropped its own weapon to try to stop Tom’s one. One hand hadn’t made it the other was pinned against its chest. He shuddered and was brought to a halt.
The calculation of the collision. Kept playing out. It was not Newtonian physics. Not with the goblin using a lunge Skill. The physics got hazy. Basic laws were broken down and superseded by the influences of magic. The creature, its small body, was violently expelled almost tearing the spear from Tom’s hand. Only his extensive training and high skill levels allowed him to keep his grip.
The broken and dying goblin got launched backward on a collision course with a hob.
He forgot about it as he focused on the critical threats. The shaman had unfortunately not chosen a powerful spell that would take time to cast and had instead chosen one with a faster release. His mind saw the colour of the ball of energy being created and felt out its nature. It was a decay bolt he realised, and relief rushed through him. That was something he could survive without blocking.
The chief had turned to face him and between Tom’s sprint and his willingness to ignore the spear gob’s lunge he had ended up on the right spot or at least close enough.
He waved at the roof as he triggered his spell. Yes, the front area was falling, but it hadn’t changed anything. The plan he had rehearsed dozen of times in Everlyn’s system room was still valid. Tom’s mind severed a three-inch column of rock. Then he widened several cracks. Set off an explosion four metres above his head and then tugged down in the middle.
There was a rumble, and he felt additional fractures spread out. The first rock fell and then tonnes of stone slipped down. Friction slowed the process slightly, but that minor force was unable to come close to stopping the fundamental force of gravity. The entire roof from here to the backwall was coming down.
With a spear still impaled through his lung, Tom stumbled backwards.
He coughed and could taste the copper in his mouth. Healing Tranquillity had him plunging inside himself. In a daze, he shut down the lung. Any attempt to force it to function would cause to much bleeding. He sealed it off by creating instant scar tissue, so it remained inflated. It cost more mana now, but long term it was by the far best choice, because inflating a collapsed lung took significant magic.
Tom’s attention snapped out of his internal surgery.
No time had passed.
The chieftain was looking at him. Its gaze boring into his soul. Eyes glowed with the insane hatred that all monsters ignited within them when they saw a sapient.
Then the boss was charging at him.
The plan, Tom thought dumbly, the plan had to work, but for an immortal moment he was transfixed by the promise of his death that the chief was broadcasting.
He had delivered everything that was required, and Everlyn had insisted that it was enough. That there precautions would prevail.
The rocks were falling down, Tom could see the first ones dropping through the air.
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The collapse had started.
But the boss.
It was charging him and Tom couldn’t retreat if doing so would let it escape its death. At the minimum, he had to be here and ready to stop it. No matter what else happened it had to die in the rockfall.
Earth spikes suddenly jutted out of the ground in front of Tom’s feet. They were long and sturdy and reached up to chest height. A barrier that even a boss with the power of the creature that had marked him for death would have to slow for.
The goblin chief reacted.
It didn’t slow or anything so convenient instead it deviated to go around the spikes. Tom’s mind tracked the various moving parts.
The stones were falling too slowly.
He felt like screaming. Maybe if he moved and positioned himself perfectly, he could slow it for long enough for it to be crushed.
A gale force wind slammed into the boss. Tom could see the intensity in the way its clothes flattened to its chest and saliva was ripped from its mouth. But wind against a solid body. It did not stop the momentum fully, but it slowed it and he felt like singing out in praise.
Its impossible speed must have been halved.
Hope flared inside him.
That single large rock. The singular, momentous stone had started to fall. It was two metres wide, four high and seven long and gravity was accelerating it downwards. Battle trance calculated the angles. Instinctively, Tom knew it was coming fast enough. The terrible power of the boss, that promise of death no longer held any sway over him.
The rock was suddenly at his eye level and dropping further. With his Earth Sense, he could tell the rest of the roof was also falling even if he couldn’t visually confirm it.
The noise was apocalyptical. It sounded like the world was being crushed in a giant’s hand.
It kept crashing down. The gap between the barrier and the floor lessening. There was a flash of magic and the shaman’s bolt slammed into him. Knocking him off balance. The decay energy penetrating into his body and its vapours attacking his eyes.
He blinked and lost sight of the boss.
Had it got through?
The sheet of rock crashed down and fine dust was expelled around him, a hail of stone and a puff of air that made him stumble.
The boss!
His instincts screamed at him.
He had missed the moment. Images of it throwing itself down and rolling through the gap filled him. He had seen that sort of thing done in the movies and if had a skill like that lunge ability, then its escape would be even easier.
The sick feeling of the decay energy soaked into him, but that was one magic type that he didn’t have to worry about. He did not have to focus on that, but he did need to check… confirm the boss hadn’t…
If it got through, they were dead…
Unless it was injured or stunned, then he had to kill it fast.
His thoughts rushed.
A vertical wall greeted him as he blinked away tears. It was just as they had modelled. Earth sense was useless because of all the freshly dislodged moving rock. Time dilation hadn’t kicked in and Tom examined the area the boss might have slid out from. He expected to see the chieftain. There were swirls of movement, that made his heart beat faster, but it was only the dust.
The cave floor was visible all the way to the wall… the dust was not as extreme as he feared… the boss hadn’t made it because if it had gotten through it would be visible. He had been concerned about nothing. But…
Crack
An arrow sped to the left, jerking him out of his moment of paralysis.
He remembered the rest of the plan. There was a group of goblins in the far corner. They weren’t detectable from the entrance or the route they had taken, but with him in the open they would have seen him and would react like any other monster. They would be coming to kill him.
Tom turned with the spear still through his chest significantly restricting his movement. Despite having checked that the boss had not got through, he didn’t want to turn his back. What happened if it had some sort of camouflage ability.
The stupid thoughts ran through his head. If it did… what could he do?
The plan was to trigger the rock fall and then all of them would burn down this last group. His own weapons vanished and Tom put two hands firmly on the end of the shaft in front of him. The spear had gone almost two-thirds of the way through and the closest hand landed on wood wet with his own blood.
Healing Tranquillity worked with him to peel the layers of tissue gripping the shaft within his body away from it. Freeing it up. Then he pulled and even without the leverage he could slide the shaft. Hand over hand, he extracted it.
When it was done, he dropped the weapon, and it fell silently his ears slightly damaged from the noise of the collapse.
Tom turned to face the threat. Defeat them and they would be done.
The others were active and were already fighting the goblins as per the plan. A wave of air blades was in flight. Nothing was happening within the earth, but that was expected Keikain, according to their plan should have used all his mana. With a hole in his chest and a single functioning lung, Tom moved forward to intercept any goblins attacking the mages and Everlyn. He could easily imagine a spear gob and what it could do with a well-timed lunge.
It would be devastating.
Crack
Another arrow flew past and Tom realised that there was no spear gob for him to block. All the enemies were down and probably dead except for the shaman. His lightning elemental was crackling all around it, causing a nuisance and stressing its shield.
He assessed his physical state. The damage to his health was significant, but it was stable and he had mana to patch any further damage. A rock appeared in his hands, a normal stone. He launched it and it struck the shield and was reduced to dust.
The force of the collision did its job, and the shield disintegrated.
Crack
The monster stumbled backwards an arrow in its chest and half its neck torn open courtesy of a Toni air blade that had arrived at just the right moment.
Earth sense was telling him that there were no more enemies, but he didn’t fully trust it. The noise of the rockfall was too loud and could easily hide a signal that would usually be perfectly obvious. He looked around, struggling to breathe, but it was important to confirm the boss’s status.
There was nothing there.
No goblin that had escaped the falling rock. No glaring eyes promising his death. He sagged, repositioned and collapsed so he leant back on the newly formed wall. It was completely stable.
Everlyn ran over to him and he felt her healing magic hit him.
There’s a noise that signified the lair had been cleared.
He lacked the strength to celebrate, but he smiled in relief.
The plan… it had worked. Their collective efforts had trapped the boss, and it was dead behind him under tonnes of solid rock.
“What happened? How?” She was pumping undirected healing into him.
“It’s just a scratch.” He told her as he touched the hole in his chest. Ten minutes, He thought to himself, it was only a ten-minute wound. “Barely worth worrying about.”
Clare and Michael were sprinting toward him. Concerned looks on their faces.
Tom raised a hand and pointed at them. “Why?”
“Because I called them.” She said, sounding affronted.
“I said I’ll be fine.”
“Tom,” she said in exasperation. “You have a hole right through your chest. Let us fix you.” She looked away from him and raised her voice. “Everyone select your lair clear options so we can get going.”
He obeyed the order. Stepping into his system room and accepting the same choice as previously.
When he was done, he glanced around in confusion. None of the bodies had disappeared.
“Who hasn’t selected anything.” Everlyn asked immediately.
“I didn’t.” Keikain volunteered. “We need to retreat to the entrance before we do. The goblin bodies will disappear when we select it and we don’t know how stable all this is. Rocks could move and it might all come down.”
Tom instinctively wanted to tell him that he was being ridiculous, but Earth Sense warned him that the number of flaws and weaknesses in the ceiling above him had increased. The place was unstable. “Agreed,” he said tiredly, and pushed himself to his feet.
Michael hurried to support him. “Tom, you really shouldn’t be doing that.”
“Shouldn’t be talking either, but like that’s stopping me.”
Clare snorted in amusement.
“Leave him alone.” Keikain told them. “We’ve all fled fights with larger injuries than that.”
“We were higher rank when we did that.” Michael disputed the earth mage while helping Tom stumble out of the cave.
He definitely understood where the healer was coming from. This was harder than he expected.
“You’ve lost both blood and oxygen exchange capacity.” Michael told him. “It’s why you’re feeling woozy. We’ll get your lungs working again and finish patching you up afterwards.”
They reached the entrance.
“I’m activating now.” Keikain declared.
There was a slight rumble behind them, but no major collapses.
The portal appeared, and without hesitation Toni advanced forward and plunged her hand into it.
She squealed in excitement and she pulled out a distinctive trait stone.
Trait: Adaptive Breathing - Tier 4
This trait allows the individuals, lungs or gills or equivalent organ to adapt to hostile environments. Examples of adaptation include the ability to filter out toxins or to build resistance to impurities like carbon monoxide.
Low-level exposure is required to train and full adaptation can take up to three weeks.
The look of joy on her face faded almost immediately as she finished reading the description.
“It’s really good in the right circumstances.” Michael said instantly. “Like really really good
“But not something any of us can actually use.” Toni pouted.
“No, it isn’t.” Thor agreed as he approached her, holding out his hand for the stone to be passed to him. “But another human can. It should sell at a fair price for its tier and it’s a trait stone, so we’ll receive that premium as well. If there is terrain nearby that you can’t explore because of environmental conditions, but you suspect has riches. This is perfect. It doesn’t matter what is stopping you this can deal with it. Too much death magic in the air. Your lungs can acclimatise or if the atmosphere is mainly carbon monoxide. Same thing. The potential is almost endless.”
“Providing you can survive the acclimation period.” Michael said thoughtfully. “But if you have healers available, it’s amazing what stops being lethal.”
Playfully, the healer stuck a finger into Tom’s chest.
“Piss off.” Tom slapped the hand away.
Michael smirked.
Everlyn nodded. “The loot was good. While we are healing Tom. We should all upgrade skills. Move it everyone. I want to start clearing the next lair as soon as possible.”