Lucas forgot all about the sticks and little, jagged pieces of wood poking uncomfortably into his front as he lay prone atop the goblins' poor attempt at giving one of their buildings a roof. It was not the most comfortable spot to roost, but it provided two things he was looking for: [Stealth] and an unobstructed view into the clearing packed with monsters. That was where his attention rested, and he watched as the hunched goblin exited what had to be the Dungeon's entrance with hulking nilbogs trailing behind it.

Each one was carrying a body.

From this far away, it was difficult to tell if the body they were carrying was living or not, but what he could tell was that each one was human and at the very least, they weren't bloody corpses. But there were also much fewer bodies than the number of guards that set out to eliminate the goblins.

Lucas couldn't help it. Despite the fact that he should be plotting an extraction now that some of their people were out in the open, he could only try to look for Eugene amongst their number. He was frozen with a horrible mix of hope and dread, even as the lead goblin brought its procession up to the very foot of the stone altar.

I sharp, barely muffled gasp from Belinda at his side drew Lucas's attention to the last of the nilbogs to exit the Dungeon, and the body it carried. Still it was too far away for him to tell anything, and the angle the nilbog held the guard's body at was all wrong, so Lucas couldn't get a look at their face.

He had to wait the eternity it took for the monster to join its fellows in the center of the clearing and turn until, just for a moment, Lucas got that good look and let out a gasp of his own. And it was Eugene--without a doubt, that was his face and his light hair soiled and concealed by a thick layer of dirt. His armor had been entirely stripped and his shield and spear were nowhere to be seen, but he didn't even look to be in that bad condition. Just entirely unconscious, like all the others.

We've got to get them out...but how?

With an effort of will, Lucas turned his gaze away from Eugene and started looking around for anything they could use. Their people were in the very center of the monsters' camp, surrounded by dozens upon dozens of enemies and right in the center of attention. Sneaking them out had become an impossibility--perhaps, if there were still others in the Dungeon or a different part of the camp, [Stealth] could remain an option, but Eugene would have to be extracted by force. For that to have any reasonable chance at working, they needed something to give them an advantage.

Lucas cast his eyes around and looked for anything that could provide that advantage, silently cursing to himself that he didn't have a [Nightvision] Skill. His Limited Sensory Enhancement increased his sphere of awareness to an incredible degree, but it did not have the same sort of range as his regular eyesight. Right now, he was entirely limited by the flickering light given off by the goblins' myriad fires.

He hadn't once seen any of the goblins preparing food during his and Belinda's stalk through the camp, so poisoning some sort of communal spit or well was right out. There was a chance that the monsters didn't even need food like animals or people, so any time he spent on searching for one of those things could be wasted.

The greatest weapons his side had were probably his mom and Belinda, but if they encountered any of the corruption, the two women would be subdued just like the guards had been. That meant a straight fight was out as well. Without the corruption, he had no doubt that the powerful [Healer] and [Cook] could handle all this, but at the same time if the corruption weren't present, they wouldn't be having this problem anyway.

Lucas was so fixated on searching for an advantage, that he nearly missed it when the host of nilbogs carrying his people started moving again. He'd paid enough attention to know that the hunched-over goblin had seemingly given a speech to the gathered masses, but it was all in the unintelligible screeching of its kind, so he hadn't spared it much thought beyond that. Now, the goblin led its procession once again--but this time up to the top of the altar. More goblins from the gathered crowd started to follow as well, in roughly an equal number as the nilbogs.

Shit. Whatever they're doing, we just lost out time to plan. We gotta move.

He turned to look at Belinda, and he didn't bother to whisper as he told her, "We need a distraction. Something big and explosive, to distract the monsters so that one of us can get in there and get them out."

Belinda tore her gaze away from the direction of her brother and looked at him, confused for a moment. Her eyes flickered back toward the altar before she seemed to steel herself and focussed fully on Lucas. "I need to be the one to get them--"

Lucas opened his mouth to object, but she quickly spoke over him. "--not because of Eugene, but because I'm the only one whose Skills would make it possible to get all of the guards away. You could only carry one person at a time, but my telekinesis could grab everyone."

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"But what about the corruption?" Lucas pointedly asked. "How would you get past that? I'm the only one of us that could possibly get through all those monsters and get back out just fine."

"Then you both go," a voice interrupted them behind, and Lucas might have jumped if he were not lying prone already, as two other people ascended the back of the wooden building to join them. Lucas's mother looked between them determination in her eyes as she continued. "Harry and I can pull the monsters' attention long enough for you two to get in and out."

Harry nodded once in agreement, his demeanor equally filled with determination as he heft his spear.

Lucas didn't like it. That would leave his mother to face the monsters, and the corrupted all on her own, and it scared him. Before he could even think of objecting, however, she waved her hand at him and spoke once more. "There's no time for arguing. We'll stay back and won't directly engaged any of the monsters--it'll be easy enough to draw their attention with a few blasts of lightning and buildings set on fire--there is no reason they even have to see us."

She looked him directly in the eyes and held his gaze with a fierce intensity. "But if we're doing this, you two need to move now."

Faced with the truth in her words, Lucas could only swallow his fear and nod to her. He started getting up and moving to the edge of the roof with Belinda in tow, but before he could drop down, his mother spoke once more. "And Lu, 'Linda--be safe. If...if it looks like you might be captured, then just get out. Whatever it takes."

Lucas sensed Belinda's body tense at her words, and their implication did not escape him either. But when he looked over his shoulder at his mom and Harry, he chose not to directly acknowledge it. "You two better be safe as well. Keep an eye out, and don't try to fight any of the monsters at close range."

With that, the two of them dropped off the side of the building and immediately fell into a crouch. Then a notification immediately popped up and almost startled Lucas out of [Stealth].

[*ding [Stealth] has reached level 50!]

When did it get that high?

A hand latched onto Lucas's arm, and he dismissed the distraction as Belinda hissed at him.

"Come on!"

Lucas followed after her as they began a strange hybrid between a sprint and a stalk through the paths bordering the clearing. Belinda led him around to the opposite side of the altar from where the nilbogs had started ascending, moving so fast that he had to lean slightly on [Accelerant Frame] to keep up. For the sake of preserving mana however, he limited how much he put into the Skill to roughly the rate of his regeneration.

When they got all the way around the monument, though, they did not find the area completely devoid of goblins. The gathering of monsters had mostly been concentrated on the other side for the hunched one's speech, but some stragglers still remained over here, spread out in the open space at the altar's foot. He and Belinda would not be able to get across without being seen.

Their progress completely halted and Belinda practically vibrated with impatience at his side, alternately staring daggers at the goblins, the altar, and off to the side where they had left the other two. They crouched there, in the shadow of one, small building for a minute or two until Belinda shook her head and took a step forward, unwilling to wait any longer.

And a flash of light flitted across the sky, briefly illuminating the night to some semblance of day, follow closely behind by a cacophonous peal of thunder. Their heads--and Lucas knew, likely all heads--turned in the direction the bolt had landed as a chaotic clamor of screeches arose.

Ok, there is NO WAY that was a [Healer]'s Skill!

He didn't have any longer to consider the display his mom had put on, however, as Belinda mastered her shock quickly and darted across the open space, right past several goblins. Though they had been just as startled as the rest by the blast of lightning, the monsters weren't so out of their minds that she went unnoticed. As one, they screeched and started to chase after her.

Then another blast of lightning resounded and the monsters all threw themselves to their feet. As the thunder rolled out, Lucas chained [Quick Step] to cross the distance, stabbing three times with [Single Sting] on the way, and chased after Belinda.

[*ding You have slain [Goblin - level 43]!]

[*ding You have slain [Goblin - level 19]!]

[*ding You have slain [Goblin - level 31]!]

He dismissed the notifications with barely a glance and started climbing the stair-like structure of the altar one step at a time. Lucas looked up and saw Belinda, already nearly at the top, before he decided to change his angle of approach. He placed a foot on the edge of the next step, then jumped and activated both [Accelerant Frame] and [Quick Step] in close sequence.

The effect was incomparable to when he used his movement Skill to leap into the boughs of a tree. Lucas shot into the air, following the same angle as the altar's steps, and closing half the distance to his partner in one go. He touched down lightly , then did it again.

Belinda glanced back a moment before he reached her, and he saw her eyes widen slightly in surprise before he flew right past her. With a third, final leap and activation of [Quick Step], Lucas shot above the flat top of the altar and watched a handful of monstrous heads turn, following his trajectory. Thanks to [Hyper Processing], Lucas witnessed the exact moment the hunched goblin in the front realized what he was and started to screech. Now that he'd been noticed, he threw out an [Identify] in the monster's direction just before he landed.

He only realized his mistake when a shock of pain traveled through his body, from his head to his toes, accompanied by an unstable tremble in his mana currents.

[Corrupted Goblin]

[*ding [Identify] has reached level 45-46!]

Lucas barely managed a stable landing as the creature finished its cry and lowered its head. Then, before he could move, it pointed its staff in his direction and shot out a roiling, twisting mass of corruption that he could only perceive through his mana senses. [Vigilance] blared the loudest warning he'd ever received from it as Lucas desperately tried to leap out of the way.