Knowing that holding this one tunnel wouldn't amount to much in the end, Eli hurried out and found Sameno shouting orders at confused and scared-looking miners.

"They're coming!" Eli shouted, hurrying up to the others. "Is that alarm for evacuation?"

Sameno looked back over his shoulder at Eli's approach. "No. It signals a natural gas leak from the mining operations, telling goblins to enter their safe rooms."

"What? No! You have to leave. You can't stay here. The place will be overrun by lizardmen soon!"

"We don't exactly have a 'run for your lives, monsters are coming' alarm," Sameno growled, obviously frustrated.

"Then run around and shout," Eli said, standing his ground. "If you hunker down, your people will be taken back into the dungeon like Arti. They couldn't make him a lizardman yet. Given time, though, they'll probably figure it out."

"What do you think?" Eli shouted, turning around to address the crowd of onlookers. "Would you like to be mindless lizardmen?"

The foreman pressed a button near his station, and the alarm stopped sounding. Three quick bursts of the alarm followed.

"Just gave the all-clear," the foreman said.

"Where should we go?" one of the miners asked, frantically looking around at his fellow goblins like they had answers.

"We'll take you in," Eli said, without really thinking about it. "In our tower."

Hopefully, they would all fit.

"You'll take us in?" Sameno asked.

"Well, why not? There should be room for everyone. It's a huge building," Eli said, "and we're adding more buildings outside. You can help us build, but you have to go above ground. The railways are infested with lizardmen too. Find your friends and your family and go now. As you all know, the building is highly defensible!"

They shuffled around, glancing in Sameno's direction. His nose twitched and his wide ears trembled as he looked this way and that, and he sighed and waved. "Go. Run! Tell everyone!"

Just as he did, lizardmen poured out of two tunnels, immediately jumping the nearest goblins.

Eli immediately triggered Aura of Suppression, slowing the lizardmen and allowing the goblins to break free and make a run for it—except one, who had taken a sword straight through the chest. That set everyone running.

Eli grabbed Sameno. "I have to leave for a moment. I'll be back with friends. Make sure everyone leaves and head to my people. You'll be safe in the building, away from here."

Sameno's eyes were wild, but he nodded. He, too, ran as the lizardmen resumed the chase at full speed. Eli cast Warp, ending up outside the Temple of Rizarri. Amy and Sasha waited for him, and he gave them a nod before casting again to return to Infinite Innovation Solutions.

Eli: Everyone ready? We're heading out. We'll provide whatever help we can while the goblins evacuate."

Cruella: Aye, aye, Capitan.

Not all members of Ravenous Barbarians were in the foyer, but Eli was gratified to find the Warp spell's range encompassing them anyway, showing how it worked vertically as well.

The patients Eli cleansed earlier were only now slowly waking up, and Cruella took great pleasure in shaking them to speed up the process while Eli spoke to the staff.

"You have to evacuate everyone. lizardmen are coming. Do you know where our tower is?"

The doctor shook his head wildly. Eli was unsure if it was in answer to the question or because of the preposterous notion that they were under attack. It didn’t matter. One of the female goblins on staff raised her hand. "I know it."

With the staff informed and the patients waking up, the group left the building.

"Kind of claustrophobic to live in a cave," Sasha said.

Amy pointed to the large cavern opening in the distance. "Looks like they're living out there, too."

"They are," Eli confirmed.

Looking down the street, there were shouts of alarm coming from every direction, but he couldn't spot any lizardmen. Not yet.

"Sounds like word is spreading," Simon said.

"What do you want us to do?" James asked.

Eli looked around, unsure. There was no telling from which directions the lizardmen would come pouring out. It would be from many directions, he knew, but which ones? In the end, he was only certain of one direction.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Follow me," he said as he started running, cursing himself for not marking the location by the tunnels before leaving. Again and again, he was making the same mistakes. Would he never learn? They ran as one in the opposite direction from most goblins. Not all of Glimmer Bastion's citizen were fleeing, though. A few carried spears or even swords with determined looks on their faces as they searched for intruders.

Eli directed the party to the tunnel Sameno showed him through earlier, heading for the mining operations. Lizardmen were already streaming out in large numbers.

Amy sent out birds to scout the cavern, giving the group eyes in the sky.

Cruella dove headfirst into the coming lizardmen, killing several in an instant with fire extending from both her blades, making them longer and shorter as needed. She suffered plenty of small wounds, but her Executioner talent kept her health topped up without Eli having to heal her.

The group spread out to stem the flow of the lizardmen. Princess, Amy's bear, lumbered off to plug one of the tunnel exits off to the left, where lizardmen started to come out. The air was filled with the sound of goblin screams, the clash of metal against metal, and the hiss of dying lizardmen, all to the backdrop of music streaming from Amy's violin and Dana's lute as they played in tandem. The cacophony of sound again made it impossible to talk while fighting.

Eli: We'll have to use the chat.

Cruella: These guys are so weak.

Cruella: I can take these guys myself. Why don't you spread out and help in other places?

Amy: My birds are seeing lizardmen in several places. Far to our left, and nearby to the right. Even behind us, coming up a wide set of stairs.

Eli: The stairs are probably the rail station. That means they've spread far on the tracks. Maybe Cruella is right. We do need to split up to get control of this.

Cruella: I'm always right.

Eli healed a goblin rushing to escape a pair of lizardmen, then triggered Aura of Defense to give everyone a boost.

Eli: Just be careful if I'm not here healing you.

Cruella: I've picked up some defensive skills in my last couple of levels. Don't you worry yourself.

Eli wasn't so sure. The lizardmen were low level now, but he had seen higher-level ones coming up behind. No cursed ones yet, but he was certain they wouldn't be far behind.

James: Just got a message from someone called Leonardo saying they're making a push from the third to the fourth floor now.

Simon waded into a large group of lizardmen, their weapons barely scratching his armor as he mercilessly killed with each slash and thrust of his sword.

Eli: We'll meet them when we're done here. Cruella, James, Dana, why don't you stay here? Sasha and Amy head up the tunnel together with Samantha. Simon and I will handle the rail station.

Lightning surged out from Dana, hitting one lizardman, then cascading out to hit more than fifteen monsters behind the first one, killing all of them in an instant.

Samantha: Works for me.

Amy: Yes. As long as Samantha is ready to run over to Cruella, James, and Dana's group with heals if things start to go south.

Samantha: My heals are rather lackluster compared to priest boy over there, but yeah, sure.

Eli: OK. Let's go!

The group of eight broke apart into three groups as Eli specified. He and Simon were alone, heading to the large set of stairs down into the rail station. His own offensive capabilities were limited but Simon had been coming into his own in the temple of Rizari, and the huge crusader now knew his way around the sword, especially with buffs from Eli. Agility made them both quicker, Bless strengthened them, and Embrace the Dying Light made Simon’s sword glow with light, strengthening the attacks immensely.

Screaming goblins, terrified for their lives, ran up the stairs as Eli and Simon made their way over. Simon struck the first lizardman with his shield, reducing it to a pile of broken bones, before slashing with the sword in a tight arc, cutting through two lizardmen at once. Eli triggered his slowing aura, allowing goblins to flee, but there were more of them down below.

James: Cruella, don't!

Eli saw a mother carrying her little goblin child and triggered an Aura of Defense as soon as they were in range. It allowed her and several others to escape with mere scrapes. Eli shouted at them, asking if there were more goblins below as Simon took the first steps down toward the station.

Only one of the goblins would answer him, and he did so without stopping for a moment. "They're being taken... damn those lizardmen."

Amy: What's going on?

Dana: That suicidal bitch is pushing into the crowd of lizardmen.

Eli: Is she hurt?

Cruella: These puny little lizards are too low level to hurt me!

James: She seems fine for now. She's killing and regenerating health and mana quicker than they can hurt her. She's kind of frightening to watch.

Eli healed Simon, who took a blow to the side from a lizardman’s spear, topping up the sliver of health the crusader lost just as he took another hit, losing a little more.

"Careful, Simon," Eli warned.

Eli was about to cast another heal when he saw Simon's health tick up from out of nowhere as he killed the offending lizardman. A buff appeared at his health bar.

Rejuvenation: Gradually regenerate HP at an accelerated rate.

Simon killed as they descended the stairs and Eli healed goblins, juggling his auras to allow goblins to escape. When they made it down, they saw even more goblins being carried away by mindless-looking lizardmen.

"No, not just lizardmen," Eli muttered. "Damn it."

Eli: We've just spotted cursed lizardmen. They're taking goblins back, just like with Arti. We're going to have to follow along the tracks. Maybe we can follow them through the breach.

Simon was breathing hard, his stamina having dropped to about two-thirds already. Stamina was a resource Eli hadn't really had to worry about, since everything around his Priest of the Dying Light was centered around mana. And the Commander skills he'd picked so far didn’t even need that. He saw Simon drink something, adding a small amount of stamina to his bar.

Stamina potions. Must've bought them from those apothecaries working out of the office building.

"Simon?" Eli asked. "Ready to follow?"

Simon killed another three lizardmen. Eli toggled the harming healer and cast a Sigil of Light on the platform, careful not to put the two of them in the spell's area of effect. The low-level monsters didn’t stand a chance. The spell did decent enough damage, killing plenty and letting Simon rest his sword arm a little.

"I can go on," Simon panted with another swing of his sword. They jumped off the platform and onto the tracks, heading after the cursed lizardmen and kidnapped goblins.

The glowstones lighting the tunnel were few and far between, so Eli cast Light in The Dark, summoning his orb of light for the first time in quite a while. In the distance, they saw the back of the disappearing lizardmen. Simon set off running after the weakening screams of goblins, his heavy armor clinking with each long stride. Eli followed.

James: Damn it, Cruella, don't push into the tunnel!