Walking through the portal they appeared on the edge of an open-topped mine with the sun positioned directly overhead. Its heat intensely beat down on them. It seemed that it was the middle of summer wherever they had appeared. The stone that made up the quarry was a plain gray with darker veins of gray and black running through the stone. Down below them they saw the silhouettes of people working at the bottom of the quarry. In front of them was a ramp that spiraled around the edge of the quarry all the way to the bottom.
“There are people down there. Do you think we should go down there?” Daniel questioned.
“Maybe, but we also don't know what kind of creatures we will be facing yet. I think we should start to slowly make our way down there, and keep an eye out for possible ambushes.”
“Okay, I'll take the lead,” Daniel agreed, “We should play it slow until we know what we are working with. You stay behind me and Kota will act as rear guard.” Daniel gestured for Kota to stay back, and he quickly took up position in the back. Since the sun was directly overhead there were no shadows for Kota to hide in, but he tried his best, and stayed as close to the outside wall of the quarry as he could. “Let's go.”
They slowly made their way down the ramp and descended into the quarry with Daniel in the front, Steve in the middle, and Kota watching their backs. Daniel kept his eyes forward looking for threats while Steve watched for any ambushes; not that Daniel knew how or where they could possibly be ambushed from.
When they had made it about half way down into the quarry Daniel could more easily see the workers harvesting blocks of stone from the ground. Then a group of the workers started to gather around some object they had just uncovered. One of the miners raised his pick and slammed it down onto something Daniel couldn't see which was when everything changed.
Monster made out of the stone the workers were harvesting began pulling themselves out of the ground all around the workers. They panicked as the humanoid monsters began to raise arms made of stone and attack them. That was when Daniel received a new notification.
Dungeon Quest Protect The Miners: The quarry workers of ash falls gorge have uncovered an ancient source of Earth mana. Defenders have been spawned from this stone's power and have risen up to protect it.
Objective: Defend the miners from the continuous waves of monsters that will appear.
Reward: completion of this dungeon floor, experience, coins, and items based on completion of the dungeon.
Bonus Reward: bonus coins and experience for each miner who lives until the end of all of the encounters.
Daniel read the new quest that appeared in his vision then dismissed it and looked towards Steve, and together they began to sprint down the rest of the way to the bottom of the quarry with Kota hot on their heels. Reaching the bottom took another minute, and by then many of the miners that were closest to where the creatures had appeared laid motionless on the ground.
A few of the miners who had been farther away from the initial appearance of the monsters had managed to make a defensive line and were using their picks to keep the rock monsters back. Most of the others were just running around in panic and avoiding the creature's onslaught. “Steve, you work on getting the miners over here to defend the ramp. They can retreat up the ramp and out of the quarry if something appears that they can't handle. I’ll help the stragglers who are being attacked. Kota, you stay here and maybe run interference, but I don't know if you can kill any of these things.”
As Daniel sprinted off he could already hear Steve shouting at some of the miners who were running around. Most did not listen at first, but as soon as Steve began to shoot spells. It took Steve several casts, but he was able to destroy one of the rock monsters. Several of the miners who had been running around avoiding the monsters started to run towards Steve for the protection that his spells offered.
Daniel stopped focusing on what Steve was doing; he had his own job to do. He headed straight for the group that was making a stand against several of the monsters. They had gained a few more members from the time Daniel had looked away from them. They seem to be doing a surprisingly good job at fending for themselves.
As Daniel ran close to the monsters that were attacking them he shot an ‘Identify’ at one of them. When he did he felt his ‘Identification’ skill go up in level, and when the screen popped up that told him about the monsters he was facing some new information was also provided.
Race: Elemental
Lesser Rock Elemental Tier 2
Core Refinements: 0
Details: Elementals are creatures of mana given shape by the very element they resemble. Elementals at lower tiers are unintelligent, and follow only rudimentary instincts unless being controlled by another force.
Lesser Rock Elementals are some of the most common types of elementals that are formed. This is due to the natural abundance of earth mana that is present on any planetary object of a sufficient size that it can generate its own mana.
Highest Attribute: Constitution
The creature made out of rock was an elemental which made sense. The quest had said these things were made of mana, and like the description of the elemental said these creatures were mana given physical form. The only thing that gave Daniel some concern was the tier of the creature. Around twenty of the creatures had appeared, and if they were all the same tier that would mean they were as strong as the hobgoblin mini boss Daniel had faced in the solo dungeon. The quest had said they would need to fight waves of these elementals. If they got stronger every wave that could be a problem. The prompt when they had entered the team dungeon had said this instance would scale to their level, and Daniel was a higher level than both Kota and Steve.
Daniel made a beeline for the miners. He had to attack a couple of the elementals that got in his way. They were tough opponents, and took several strikes with ‘Ice Fang’ to bring down even when his strikes were empowered with ‘Heavy Blow’ and ‘Quickened Blow.’ After the third time he had to stop and fight one of the elementals he accidentally discovered that the elementals seemed to have a weak spot on their bodies. In the center of their chest there was a faint light that leaked out of their body in that area. Making a direct strike on this spot would not always take the elemental out in a single swing, but it was much more effective than trying to turn their bodies into gravel.
Daniel after several detours from his goal where he had been forced to engage several of the elementals was finally about to reach the miners. Of course that was when one of the four-foot-tall elementals the miners were fending off landed a lucky blow on one of the miners' heads. The injured miner instantly crumpled to the ground unconscious. With the miner out of the fight the elemental was able to force its way into the workers defensive line and caused disarray.
Daniel cursed at the sight and activated several skills in quick succession. So far he had held off using his charge skill, but now that seemed like a foolish idea. If he had used it earlier he could have avoided some of the fights with the elementals and gotten to the miners sooner. Daniel had no more time to regret his decisions and stopped holding back. He activated ‘Heavy Charge’ and closed the remaining distance to the elemental that had broken the miners defensive line. He then activated ‘Heavy Blow’ which had only recently come off cooldown. He brought his empowered hammer down on the humanoid-like elemental's head. The force of his blow caused the elemental’s head to shatter into fragments of rock.
Daniel's attack however did not stop the elemental. The elemental had started to turn towards its attacker as soon as Daniel had stuck, but Daniel had been ready for this. As soon as it started to turn Daniel was moving. When it had turned halfway towards Daniel he had brought his hammer around in a horizontal swing directly into its weak spot. The stone caved in unnaturally and the loose boulders that made up the elemental body collapsed and turned back into ordinary stone. The fight was not over. More elementals were still attacking the miners, and a couple of the closest elementals to Daniel had turned towards him when he killed the first elemental.
All of Daniel's active skills were now on cooldown, so he would have to take these elementals out with only his ‘Ice Fang.’ The only good thing that had come out of this situation was that with these elementals focusing on him there were less elementals attacking the miners. As the elementals approached him he saw two of the miners behind the elementals approach and pull away the miner who had been hit in the head by the elemental that Daniel had killed. All Daniel had to do now was take care of these two elementals, and then he could get these miners to safety.
Daniel rushed in low and struck the slightly larger elements where its knee would be if its body was made of flesh and bone. The blow did still accomplish his goal however. The creature's leg shattered and it began to fall to the ground under its own weight. The other elemental had not been idle however, and while Daniel had been incapacitating one of the elementals it took the opportunity to take a swing at Daniel's back. The blow landed, and Daniel felt like he had been just struck by, well, a boulder.
The impact had hurt, but it didn't feel like any serious damage had been to him. Daniel rose from his crouched position and landed an underhand strike into the elemental side. The blow caused the creature to stagger back, and Daniel used this opportunity to activate ‘Quickened Blow’ and land a devastating attack into the elemental core which killed the creature.
Once it was dead Daniel turned to the other elemental whose leg he had shattered and in one quick blow he also put an end to it as well. Daniel felt the healing energy from ‘Death Blows’ and his ‘Troll Regeneration’ flow into his shoulder and start to heal his injury. ‘Death Blows’ was a skill Daniel had not used often. He hardly took any injuries while in the solo dungeon. However just because he had not used it often didn't mean that it wasn't a good skill. Receiving healing energy for defeating enemies was strong so far he just hadn't been hurt often, and when he was ‘Troll Regeneration’ patched him up.
Daniel had defeated three elementals, and the miners had been able to take down the two remaining elementals by ganging up on it. Daniel approached the hurt miner and knelt down next to him. The miner was still alive, but Daniel still regretted that he hadn't done more. If he had been faster Daniel could have used ‘Death’s Embrace’ on the man to transfer some of the damage to himself. Daniel however did not have any more time for what ifs and Daniel quickly removed a health potion from his waist. He removed the stopper from the top vial with his teeth and without knowing what to really do just poured it down the man's throat. His breathing quickly stabilized which relieved Daniel as he stood once more “Come on we have to go.” Daniel pointed at two of the miners who had been watching, “You and you carry him, we have to get you guys to a safer location. I'll clear the path, just stay close behind me.”
Daniel began to curse to himself again as he made his way back to Steve in a circuitous route as he killed other elementals that got in his way or that were attacking other miners. He gathered more miners on the way. From the ten including the man who was unconscious he had started with, he now had a total of fifteen miners when he made it back to where Steve had set up a defensive line at the base of the ramp they had come down to get to the bottom of the quarry.
By the time Daniel made it back to Steve most of the elementals had been defeated. There were only a few stragglers who were laboriously trying to chase after Daniel and the group of miners he was leading. After the surprise factor of the elementals had worn off they did seem as dangerous as they first appeared. They were quite slow moving and easy to run away from now that they lacked the numbers to surround you.
As Daniel looked around he saw the unmoving bodies of dead miners that hadn't made it to either Daniel or Steve. Steve with his long range spells took out two of the remaining three elementals. Surprisingly Kota, who Daniel hadn't noticed leapt out of the last elemental with his new claws of the ice bear extended. Even more surprising to Daniel Kota's, claws easily cut through the stone body of the elemental. Daniel knew that the items he had received from completing the solo dungeon had been of a high quality and rarity, but this blew his expectations out of the water. Metal so sharp that it was able to effortlessly cut through stone was something Daniel had never before seen in his life. To further add to his surprise Kota had a couple of miners that he had saved following behind him, and they quickly joined with the rest of their group. When Kota approached Daniel knelt down and gave his friend and a companion a good scratch behind the ear, and spoke in his higher pitched puppy voice. “Who’s a good dog? You are. Look at the handsome boy who saved some miners, and killed an elemental.”
Steve Coughed and gave Daniel a slightly annoyed look. “More of those monsters should be arriving any second. We need to be ready.”
As if Steve's words summoned them the ground began to shake and vibrate in a seemingly angry way. Daniel didn't know how the ground could shake angrily, but that was the impression that he got. There was the sound of grinding rock, and more elementals pulled themselves out of the stone around whatever the miners had uncovered. Daniel however wouldn't be able to ask them because all of the miners who had been around the original spot where the elementals had appeared had died.
Around forty elementals had been summoned. Around thirty of them were the same 4-foot tall ones Daniel had just fought, but there were ten that were noticeably taller than the others. Daniel Quickly used ‘Identify’ on one of the taller elementals, and confirmed his suspicions.
Race: Elemental
Lesser Rock Elemental Tier 2
Core Refinements: 1
Details: Elementals are creatures of mana given shape by the very element they resemble. Elementals at lower tiers are unintelligent, and follow only rudimentary instincts unless being controlled by another force.
Lesser Rock Elementals are some of the most common types of elementals that are formed. This is due to the natural abundance of earth mana that is present on any planetary object of a sufficient size that it can generate its own mana.
Highest Attribute: Constitution
The 5-foot tall elementals had an additional core refinement which meant they would be stronger, and more durable than the smaller elementals. There was a silver lining however. The large elementals seemed to be even slower meaning they had time before the elementals would arrive. They only had a minute or two to prepare and they would need to make the most of it.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"Retreat up the ramp about twenty feet. We don't want the elementals to be able to surround us! With your picks you should be able to hold off any who come for you Steve, get behind them, and cast your spells! Kota you continue to run interference, but don't fight any of them unless they are completely separated from the group!" Just like that people began moving. Many of the miners seemed scared and Daniel was afraid that a few of them would flee up the ramp instead of staying to fight. Hopefully with Steve in the back none would have the nerve to flee past him.
Daniel decided to take a more proactive stance. He wanted to try and take out a few of the elementals before they arrived, so as the miners and Steve fell back to make a better defensive line Daniel charged towards the approaching mass of elementals with Kota following behind.
Enough time had passed for all of Daniel's active skills to come off cooldown, but Daniel decided that it was probably a good idea not to use his ‘Heavy Charge’ skill into a creature made of literal stone. Daniel also didn't want to get surrounded, so he targeted the elementals on the edge of the hoard. Daniel picked his target, and then when he got close enough he swung with all his might into the elementals side. His first blow staggered the monster and his instant follow up thanks to ‘Quickened Blow’ knocked the elemental to the ground. Once on the ground Kota came up and used his claws to cut into the elemental core which turned the creature back into an ordinary pile of rocks. Mana left the elemental’s body and flowed into Kota.
With the elemental defeated they retreated. Once they had a bit of breathing room Daniel looked at Kota. It was only then that he noticed just how much blue light was leaking out of Kota’s body. The same thing had happened after they had killed the hobgoblin mini boss. It had taken some time for Kota to absorb the mana from the boss, and a little while later he had gone through his second evolution. If the same thing was happening here then Kota had already absorbed enough mana to evolve again once he finished processing the mana. Daniel thought this was pretty fast considering just evolved less than 12 hours ago. Honestly though Daniel didn't know what was considered fast or slow for a beast's development.
Daniel dismissed the thoughts going through his head. With his newly upgraded mind his thoughts came faster, and it seemed almost like he had a greater control over his mind. He and Kota had only killed a single elemental and they were closing in on the miners. Daniel got back to work, and with Kota’s help they managed to take down another three elementals before the first group arrived at the miners defensive line. He didn't know how many Steve had managed to take out, but he spotted several of Steve's spells landing in the hoard of elementals.
When Daniel noticed that the elementals had arrived he disengaged from the elemental he was fighting, and left Kota to finish it off. He started to run back towards the miners. Once he was in range he activated ‘Heavy Charge’ which he had been saving for this exact moment. Daniel’s body turned into a blur of speed, and moments later he had arrived back at where the miners were making their stand. Daniel had made sure to line up his charge in such a way that he wouldn't accidentally clip one of the elementals during the charge. Daniel used his momentum trick. Once his charge brought him to a halt Daniel used this to bring ‘Ice Fang’ down onto one of the elementals, and caused it to instantly crumble into loose stones. Once the elemental was down Daniel took position in front of the line of the miners.
The rest of the battle turned into a slog. Daniel used his body as a literal wall to keep as many of the elementals as possible from reaching the miners. The walkway they were fighting on wasn't that large, so only two or three could get past him at a time. Daniel's body took quite the beating. He was unable to dodge many of the elemental’s blows and his armor did little to mitigate the blunt force damage the elemental’s fists. His body was bruised, battered and beaten, but for the first time he really saw the real power of his ‘Troll Regeneration’ feat and ‘Death Blows’ skill working in combination. This was one of the first times since he got access to the system that an opponent was actually able to hurt him, but for every hit he was forced to take Daniel did just as much if not more damage to his opponents. He used ‘Heavy Blow’ and ‘Quickened Blow’ every time they came off cooldown.
The miner thankfully did not run away. They managed to take down their own fair share of elementals, but they had quickly been exhausted and wounded from the continuous assault forcing them to switch out the front lines in an effort to continue fighting. One of the miner’s only saving graces had been Steve's spells. It turned out that the miners themselves were also quite low-level, only around level 7. That was equal to Daniel and Steve, but they only had tier one classes and they as hero’s had started at tier 5. Because of their lower level it took many of them miners working together to take down a single elemental because of their exorbitantly high constitution. However with Steve spells damaging and weakening the elementals they managed to hold their own pretty well.
They had worked out a strategy where Steve would use a wind spell to cripple an elemental by cutting off an arm or leg. From there the miners would be able to whale on it with little resistance before it would once again become a pile of inert rocks, and then the process would start over again.
Daniel traded blow for blow with the Elementals. Each hit he took would be healed by Troll Regeneration,’ and each of his blows would cripple or severely injure a target. The fight went on for so long that he was able to take down five different elementals with 'Heavy blow' and ‘Quicken Blow’ using it every time it came off cooldown. Whenever Daniel killed an elemental he wouldn’t take the healing energy from ‘Death Blows’ for himself unless he truly needed it. Instead he funneled all of the healing energy into the miners to try and keep them in the fight for as long as possible by mitigating any damage they accumulated.
While in the middle of the fight he wasn't able to see who he was funneling the healing into, but instead he had a vague sense of all valid targets within an area around him and a sense of their physical condition. He prioritized the miners that had injuries that would keep them from fighting at full effectiveness, but ones with broken bones he passed on for now since he didn't know how well the healing would work for such injuries. If the bones were not set properly and he healed them he may just cause more problems than he would fix, so he held off healing any such injuries for the time being.
At some point, the tides had turned in their favor and the overwhelming number of foes from before had finally become manageable. After a few more minutes of fighting there were only a few elemental remains which were quickly taken care of. Once the last elemental was Down Daniel took a deep breath and felt some of the tension in his body ease away. Daniel didn't get to rest long however. A few seconds after the last elemental was slain the ground began to rumble ominously, and a countdown of when the next wave would spawn appeared in his vision. They only had ten minutes before the next wave, and they needed a plan on how they were going to survive.
Daniel turned to the miners and began to shout out his orders. “Okay guys! We need to make a more permanent defensive line before the next wave of elementals spawns. Gather up the stones from the elementals and pile them up in front of the ramp. We are going to make a makeshift wall to fight behind. With how much stronger this last wave was we won't be able to hold out like we just did again if they continue to get stronger. Prioritize The larger ones we won't have much time until the next wave starts." The miners just stood there looking at him for a moment not moving. "Well are you going to keep looking at me with those blank stairs or are we going to seize fate by the balls and live through this together!” That seemed to shock the miners out of their melancholy.
One of the miners raised his hand and Daniel nodded to him. “Sir Adventurer. I was the foreman of the men, and I know that some of us have skills we can use to make more permanent walls, and at least a couple of us our second profession is that of a mason, so we can fuse blocks of stone together." The man spoke with a bit of a Scottish accent which Daniel would have been more interested in if the situation had been different.
“I won't pretend to know your abilities or skills. “Then please foreman,” Daniel pointed to the man who had spoken, “organize these men the best you can to make a stone wall here that you can fight behind.” The man nodded to Daniel and began to call out names of other men. The miners began to reorganize themselves and were able to quickly get to work.
Of the around thirty miners they had managed to save, about ten of them had some injury that was slowing them down, and three were basically completely out of the fight having sustained more severe injuries. Surprisingly none of the miners had died from this wave. The one who had been hit in the head that Daniel had saved was still out cold. One had a broken leg, and the last had taken a solid blow to the chest that had broken quite a few ribs. That man's breathing was ragged, and Daniel was concerned that some of his ribs may have punctured a lung. “Steve! Do you know if health potion sets broken bones?
“To some extent they will, but if the bone is shattered into multiple pieces that will take a real healer to fix.”
“Good to know. You should give one of your potions to these two men.” Daniel pointed to the man with the fractured ribs and the man with the broken leg. “I already gave one to the unconscious man, and I don't think we should use another on him. At least not until he wakes up.”
Steve nodded and began to administer his potions to the two men. “There are several others with a broken arm. Give some of your potions to them as well. It will let them work more efficiently.”
Daniel looked at the timer that was continuously ticking down. They only had eight minutes left until the next wave. Daniel approached one of the men with a broken arm and wordlessly handed him one of his two remaining health potions. The man took it with a nod of thanks and downed it in one go. The man’s face grimaced in pain then he cried out in pain as his arm which had been at an awkward angle was magically reoriented, and put in the proper position. Everything else that happened wasn't visible on the surface; after a second Daniel poked his arm and the man winced. It seems his arm wasn't entirely healed, but at least the bone was properly set so it could begin to heal naturally. That was one of Daniel's concerns with ‘Death Blows;’ he didn't know enough about how the skill worked. He would need to experiment with the skill later to find out what kind of limitation it had. Daniel clapped the man on the shoulder “Do what you can to help the other for now. Once the fighting starts up again I may be able to finish healing that arm of yours with a skill of mine.” Daniel patted the man on the shoulder before walking away.
Daniel gave his last healing potion to a man who was hobbling around on a broken ankle. He then went to help the miners collect stones that were being used to construct their wall. Daniel prioritized moving as many of the larger stones since with his high strength he was able to carry them by himself. The miners needed two or three people to move one of the stones that Daniel could move on his own.
Only a handful of the miners were in charge of the actual building of the wall itself. The miners who were collecting the stones would take them to the first group. They turned the round stones given to them into uniform blocks. Those blocks would then be brought over to the second group which consisted of only three men. They would fuse the shaped blocks together into a single piece. This gave the wall they were building appear to be made of one solid piece of stone. Daniel wondered how they were fusing the blocks of stone together. His idle thought triggered something, and then out of nowhere the voices began to whisper into his mind.
They continued for several long seconds, and when they suddenly stopped just as suddenly as they had appeared. When the voices vanished Daniel possessed knowledge that he hadn’t before. The skill the workers were using to fuse the stone together was called ‘Seamless Construction,’ and it came from the Mason profession. The only restriction to using the skill was that the blocks of stone had to be uniform in shape otherwise the skill would not activate.
The skill the miners were using to shape the rough blocks of stone into uniform bricks came from a tier 2 specialization of the miner profession. It made sense for miners working in a quarry to be able to shape stone with ease.
The knowledge voices had given to him had been helpful this time, but Daniel was still worried about anything that involved his feat. Daniel didn't have time to worry about this development though; he needed to help the miners as much as possible before the next wave arrived. They only had a few minutes left until the time elapsed, and the wall was only about half way done. It stood three feet tall and was a foot thick. Based on their progress they wouldn't finish the entire wall, by the time the wave spawned. They would hopefully have a few extra minutes to work once the wave spawned. It would take a couple of minutes for the wave to reach them once the elemental’s were spawned.
When there was only two minutes left on the time before it elapsed a notification entered Daniel’s vision. It was one that he had been expecting, but he was still surprised when it appeared.
Companion Evolution Progress: 0% -> 100%
Congratulations, your companion: Kota has reached their third evolutionary threshold. Please choose what mutation your companion will gain. Choices are based on the accumulated absorbed mana.
Time remaining before spontaneous mutation: 9 minutes and 59 seconds
The list of possible mutations that Kota had access to had grown, and all of the new options had a definite stone or earth theme to them, but Daniel decided to ignore those options. He didn't have much time to choose, so he went to the options that he had seen before. He also wanted to continue to pick skills for Kota that complemented his other shadow based mutations. After a quick read through Daniel made his choice which he thought complemented well with Kota’s new claw weapons.
Tier 1 Beast Mutation:
Ethereal Shadow Claws: Your prey won't even know you cut them.
Prerequisite Mutation: Shadow Sense
Effect (Active): When activated four claws made of shadow will appear on one of the users paws. These claws are incorporeal, and bypasses the skin to strike at the flesh beneath. This effect ignores 25% of a creature's natural armor. While the target creature is in shadow ‘Ethereal Shadow Claws’ ignores 50% of a creature's natural armor. After a successful blow or ten seconds have passed the claws will dissipate. Mana Usage: Moderate. 5-minute cooldown.
Stats: +5 Agility
Daniel had not known before that some mutations had prerequisites, but that didn't matter now. This would be a powerful new skill for Kota, and it would also work well against the elemental stone bodies. Kota’s ‘Ice Born Bear Claws’ were able to cut through their stone bodies, but having another tool that could was a boon, so Daniel made the choice. He focused back on the present and mentally prepared himself for the next wave.
The last minute on the timer elapsed, and the ground once again started to rumble as more elementals even taller than before pulled themselves out of the ground. “Continue to work! We have a bit more time before the elementals will reach us!” They continued to work at a frantic pace. When the elementals reached the halfway mark Daniel called for the miners to retreat behind the wall. Steve had already begun to lob his spells at the approaching elementals as soon as they had spawned, but so far he was having limited success.
The wall was mostly complete. There was still an incomplete gap in the center. That was where Daniel decided that he was going to make his stand. Like before he would use his body as a wall to keep the elementals from getting through.
Daniel looked around, but couldn't find his companions. He could, however, roughly feel where Kota was. It was only a vague sense, but he knew that Kota was out there somewhere. He just hoped that he would be okay. It was then that the elementals reached the bottom of the ramp and began to approach the wall where he was standing. Daniel no longer had any time to worry about Kota, and could only focus on the threats in front of him.
Thankfully the elementals did not immediately push the wall over. With their large size and weight, they probably could have, but they weren't smart enough to work in a coordinated fashion to break through the obstacle.
Daniel quickly used ‘Heavy Blow’ and ‘Quickened Blow’ on the first two elementals who approached him. They were clean blows that landed on their core in the middle of their chest which killed both of the elementals in a single strike. Daniel then directed the healing energy to the man with the broken arm. He hoped it would be enough to fully heal the man's arm, but Daniel didn't know. The injury sense ‘Death Blows’ gave him wasn't precise enough to tell what his healing had done.
Daniel then ran out of time to think the elementals were on him, and all of his focus was on trying to stay alive. The elemental’s blows hit hard, and they could also get hit hard in return. However, they were slow, clumsy, and dumb. In such large numbers they would get in each other's way. Daniel used these opportunities to rain blow after blow onto the elementals. With his limited mobility he wasn't really able to deal any lethal damage on any single elementals. He was also only able to use overhand and underhand blows because of the limited space he was working within the breach. Daniel once again wished he had a shield.
The fight went on for a long time, but while Daniel was in the heat of battle he was unable to tell how much time had passed. His body was beaten, and for every two blows he took or blocked he was only able to return a single one. Then eventually the
the last elemental fell before Daniel’s hammer, and a new timer appeared in his vision. This time it was only five minutes long. Daniel breathing was labored, but every second that passed his bruised body healed and his breath evened out. While he was recovering Steve had directed the miners to finish constructing the wall.
Daniel used the entire five minutes allotted to rest and recover, but when the timer elapsed the wave started very differently than the last. The ground shook even more violently, and when the elementals appeared there were significantly less of them instead of more like the previous waves.
Only five elementals spawned scattered around the quarry. As soon as they appeared they each in unison reached into the stone floor of the quarry and removed a large chunk of stone. Then as one they hurled the boulders at their wall in a wave. Each of the boulders thrown impacted the wall and destroyed large sections of it. Daniel also saw one of the boulders hit one of the miners in the chest. The man was thrown backwards, his chest caved in. He was dead on impact, and there was nothing Daniel could do about it. Daniel quickly made an executive decision. “UP THE RAMP NOW! MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND!” Daniel screamed out as the elementals launched another wave of projectiles that flew through the air towards Daniel and the fleeing miners.