Some time ago, back on the ground floor…

Marcus woke after a long slumber, he was surprised how well he could nod off in an area of such danger. It might’ve been the heat stirring within from the black rocks in his stomach, or the energetic actions he took before lying down. A dripping of water was the noise that woke him in the end.

Sitting up he looked over at Celsius, the elemental made of fire that had worked a few feet into the ceiling through his own heat. “Looks like you can hide yourself in that hole”, Marcus called out to Celsius.

Celsius flew upside down, his orange face peering at his ally. “Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross this barrier, right?” Celsius spoke with a wide grin.

Marcus stood at the reply, picking up his gear. “Seems like we won’t be taking that way out, you got a few feet up but it isn’t enough. You can return to it tonight if we haven’t met up with the team.”

Looking around, Marcus noticed that Spark had disappeared, his summoning timer having run out since Logan used his Spell Absorption tactics to keep him out. Fahrenheit still stood with his body facing the three corridors that led away from them. The left one was where they had headed previously.

Picking out some supplies from the inventory, Marcus was treated to a note he didn’t intend to retrieve. “Huh, what is this?” he thought aloud as he opened it up. A smile went across his face as he brought out the quill and ink to send a reply.

“News?” Fahrenheit asked.

“Yeah, Logan just sent a message. Give me a minute.”

“We continuing down the corridors?” Celsius asked as he flew by Marcus’s side.

“It’d be prudent to clear our surroundings, and open a path to meet with the others.”

“This place would be safer”, Fahrenheit responded.

“This is a ‘shift’ apparently, I doubt we’re expected to just wait for the others. If there are others we need to have several paths open to us.”

“There’s that timer on rewards too”, Celsius chimed in.

“The thirty-three-day thing?”

Celsius nodded.

“So, hastiness will be rewarded. Don’t worry, if there’s too many we’ll flee here.”

“Whatever”, Fahrenheit replied.

“If it’s just more goblins, like Logan wrote it may be since we’re at the bottom, we should be fine.”

“At your lead, Marcus”, Celsius announced.

Cracking a black rock in his mouth, Marcus led his merry band of emotions back down the left corridor.

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It didn’t take long to meet back up with the crossroads they had stopped at before. The corpses still laden across the floor. Marcus would have to spend some time Harvesting their ears later on. He hadn’t thought to earlier due to their wavelike approach.

Continuing onwards gave Marcus the prayer that he’d get the tracking skills that Logan held, they came in very useful for situations like this. He wished for them even more as the group exited into another chamber.

The floor shook violently before Marcus darted to the side, the floor crashing upwards with icicles to the ceiling. Four goblins shot off Frost spells, though Fahrenehit had already run to and hugged Marcus, protecting him from any harm.

Releasing his ally, Fahrenheit went into a defensive stance to the side of Marcus. The Devout darted to the closest goblin with elemental in tow and smacked his staff down hard on its head. The goblin’s body was smashed into the floor from the force of the wood, another in the background slowly melted away from a grappled fire elemental.

Running around with Fahrenheit at his side, Marcus was protected by two more shards of ice, allowing him to whack his staff across the face of another goblin, bringing him to the floor just like the other.

Celsius jumped on the last prey, the cries of searing agony filling the room as the final foe was slaughtered.

Marcus stood tall as he looked around the room for further aggression, but was thankful when he saw only vacant walls that had but one exit. Placing a hand on Celsius, Marcus used Healer’s Caress to bring his ally to full health.

“It seems this path is clear”, Fahrenheit announced.

“Shame that we were so close to the end. Though that trap worries me.”

“I should be in the front”, the hunk of ice continued.

“If they are all ice-attributed, that’d be best.”

“At least you didn’t have to use any spells here”, Celsius added.

“Indeed. It seems these enemies are weak enough to fall to one swift blow from my staff. However, I’d rather be overpowerful than just on the cusp. If we face too many it would be better I use Enhance.”

The elementals accepted the responses without many rebuttals. In the end, the party made their way back to the shift chamber.

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To greet their return there was a tall blue goblin, just under 6’ tall. Garbed in a long dark-blue and black robe, the goblin had in its right hand a tall gnarled black staff tipped with a blue gem. Marcus couldn’t tell it was a goblin at first, the creature’s hood pulled over its head as it looked at the hole in the ceiling.

“Hello? This dungeon is taken”, Marcus called out towards the back of the robed monster.

“Is it now? I was unaware it was in another’s possession”, the goblin responded with a more refined tone than its kin.

“That’s fine, you with the MT?” Marcus asked as he approached further.

“MT? No, none with that identification”, the goblin responded, gripping his staff tightly as his voice reverberated in the chamber, “Tell me, where is your above champion?”

Marcus’s body shook all over, and his mouth opened but words that were not his escaped it, “Logan is at the top of this dungeon”, Marcus quickly threw a hand over his mouth, the elementals standing at guard.

“The above is above. How quaint”, the goblin responded in a normal tone. Turning around, the goblin revealed his guise, a scarred face with one eye whitened. His voice reverberated again, “Tell me, what is his speciality?”

Marcus felt bubbling in his stomach, a froth at the throat, as if something was forcing its way out. He grasped at his mouth to not let anything escape. Spinning his staff in the other hand he began to charge at the robed goblin.

With a flick of his hand, the goblin sent out a telekinetic shockwave, surrounding Marcus’s staff and ripping it from his grasp.

Marcus stumbled forward as his main weapon was taken away, but he quickly restored his posture as he drew up a dagger to slice at the goblin.

The foe dogged left and right as he threw Marcus’s staff far away. Marcus dared not speak, lest he let secrets slip. However, with no words, he could cast no spells.

“Come, you are a caster, your words are your power”, the goblin taunted.

The elementals came into the fray with fists of ice and fire, but the goblin was able to dodge each one. Waving one hand upwards, the goblin caused Celsius to float upwards and smash into the ceiling, being held by an invisible force.

A wide swing by Fahrenheit was avoided by the goblin who flew his hand over the icy arm, causing Fahrenheit to be sent flying down a different corridor and out of sight.

Seeing an opening, Marcus kicked into a forward leap, grabbed onto the goblin's stomach and shot a shard of stone through it as he activated one of his rings. Blood splattered out the other end as the goblin coughed up similarly.

Marcus felt the pull on his inners halt as he interrupted the truth spell, calling out, “Enhance Agility, Sustained”, causing his body to glow grey quickly.

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With heightened agility, Marcus was able to continue his melee attacks a bit quicker. Cutting into the goblin once, and then twice. The goblin retaliated with another wave of his hand, sending a massive wave of energy into Marcus, pushing him backwards and cracking the wall he crashed into. Breath escaped his lungs as he was winded, blood accompanying it as the ice pierced his back.

The goblin pulled out the shard of rock, his skin tinted green from its impalement. As Marcus landed on his feet he thrust his hand into his other shoulder, “Heal Grasp”, he chanted, his body glowing yellow as it was healed.

“Why aren’t you weak!?” the goblin shouted at Marcus, his body vibrating once again.

Marcus willed off the effect without knowing as he yelled back, “Chain Guard”, causing chains to shoot from his fingertips and encapsulate the goblin.

The goblin's body began to sear against the golden constraints, Celsius falling to the floor as the previous telekinesis ended.

“Gaia Skystrike”, Marcus chanted twice, two large hunks of rock appearing behind the goblin and piercing through his back and out his chest.

The goblin would have fallen forwards if not for the chains keeping him in place, blood painted the floors a mix of red and blue.

Celsius jumped atop the foe, searing his skin and cauterising the wounds that held the stone spikes in place, his yells filling the room.

Walking up to the captured and tortured foe, Marcus asked with anger in his words, “Now you tell me. Who is your leader?”

“There is no release for me, and you lack magic to pull out my words”, the goblin replied with a bloody toothy grin.

“No matter, you can’t kill me, and you can’t kill my friend”, Marcus replied as he drew up his dagger to the goblin.

“You’re no friend, you’re a tool, just, like, me”, the goblin taunted.

Marcus sliced his dagger across the goblin's throat, blood pouring out as his life left him. However, the gurgling of the goblin was drowned out by a shrieking howl from the goblin’s shattering necklace.

The ice near the goblin cracked all over, the blue tint of the ice darkening into a red outwards and deep into the hallways.

“Fuck, I need to-” Marcus started as he dug into his pack.

“Marcus! Foes!” Fahrenheit yelled as he ran down the corridor he was thrown into.

“Below damn it all!” Marcus cursed as he put the parchment back into the inventory. “Essence of power, grant onto others. Enhance Strength, Sustained”, he started to chant, as well for Constitution, increasing his fighting capabilities for the approaching hordes.

Digging into the inventory, Marcus pulled out several vials of purple liquid and downed them one after another. Once he was done he picked the staff off of Celsius’s hands who had grabbed it in the meantime.

As Fahrenheit breached the hallway’s maw, Marcus shouted at him, “You couldn’t have kept them back there could you?”

“They were running past me”, Fahrenheit replied, his arms bloodied.

“Celsius, fly up and pelt down that hallway with everything you got”, Marcus ordered as he ran upwards.

“Got it”, Celsius replied as he did so.

Marcus waved his arm over the floor and chanted, “Mud and rock, fight back the invaders. Gaia Wall”, a large barrier of mud and stone crashing through the ice.

He needed to keep his MP for further spells, returning to the longer casting times of the past.

Running back, Marcus spotted goblins approaching from another corridor, forcing him to charge and summon up another, “Gaia Wall”, he chanted hastily, just barely blocking up the majority of the entrance.

Countless spears of ice came darting through the gaps of the earthen walls, followed by stampeding footsteps from the corridor that went to the exit of the entire dungeon.

“Behind! Fahrenheit block them!” Marcus commanded as he drew up a dagger and staff to bat at the climbing goblins.

The ice elemental charged to their rear to being bashed at by approaching ambushers, while Celsius continued to rain fire down the hallways.

Marcus swung his staff far, knocking out several goblins at once and jabbing his blade at those who got closer to him. If he had come from Earth he would have likened it to a zombie movie where the undead had taken a hell of a lot of speed.

If the crawling goblinoids weren’t bad enough, holes in the wall started to explode open, more goblins poured out of unrestricted areas. Falling to the floor they began to jump at Marcus.

Jumping back, and swiping around, Marcus did his best to not get overwhelmed by the sheer number. Had that goblin mage alerted the whole damn dungeon to his location?

Taking a bite in the shoulder, Marcus stabbed upwards and pulled down as he bisected a goblin. Another sliced into his side, his staff smashing the goblin's face into a crater. A piercing jab into his chest had Marcus stab into a goblin’s ear and out the other end.

Marcus was turning more red than brown, both his and his foes’ blood soaking his robes beyond recognition.

“How’s the back?” Marcus yelled as he continued to fend off the hordes.

“Not good”, Fahrenheit replied.

Throwing his hand forwards as he dropped his dagger, Marcus chanted, “Gaia Wall”, causing a wall to appear away from him, grappling with several goblins ahead.

Patting his hand over his knee as he ducked to pick up his dagger, Marcus used Healer’s Caress to heal himself. Bringing the blade up he impaled another goblin’s head, throwing the corpse to the side as he twirled into a parry of another’s mace.

Smashing yet another goblin to the floor, Marcus continued to backstep as he saw more and more holes open in the wall.

“Celsius get into the rear corridor”, Marcus ordered.

“Gotcha”, Celsius replied as he flew back.

Turning into a run, Marcus slid just before the entrance of the corridor that linked up with the introductory chamber. Sheathing his dagger, Marcus diagonally ran his hand, “Gaia Wall”, and spun around, doing it on the other side, “Gaia Wall”, causing a jagged set of walls to make a piercing barrier.

Several thumps hit on the other side, goblins colliding with the wall and getting caught in its whipping vines. There were still gaps at the top, around 5’ to the ceiling, but Marcus left them open to give the goblins hope of getting over the disastrous wall.

Pulling out vial after vial, Marcus downed more MP restorative potions. Patting his chest as he dropped the empty vials, Marcus healed himself further with his skill.

The bodies were piling up on the other side of the wall, allowing a few goblins to jump over, though were met quickly by Marcus’s staff.

Behind him, Fahrenheit was having difficulties with his own hordes of blue-skinned beasties. The elemental wasn’t as strong as Marcus, but was durable enough to continue bashing at the foes to bring them to the floor. Those that did grapple him were met by impalement from a Frost spell, now his MP had returned with a rest.

“This old game again, ay”, Marcus stated as he batted another goblin out of the air.

“Like yesterday?” Celsius asked, blasting down the corridor.

“Yeah”, Marcus replied, stabbing another, “got a case of repeated events.”

“When will their numbers dwindle?” Fahrenheit exclaimed as he smashed another goblin to the floor, one bashing his side with a mace.

Icicles started to pierce through the walls of earth in front of Marcus, the goblins trying to blast it apart with their own magic. Running his hands across the floor once again he remade them, earth rising up within the original walls before having them fall apart around the fresh rock and mud.

“Just think of the rewards. Without a path in front or behind we’re trapped here”, Marcus shouted back.

With each strike he landed with his staff, Marcus could feel the wood become brittle and battered, cracks appearing across its frame. He wished he had brought a spare, but all he had after that were daggers. Twirling one in his hand he continued to stab at leaping goblins.

“Marc-” Fahrenheit spluttered out as another mace crashed into his face, separating the ice and exploding his form to reveal his elemental core on the floor.

“Damnit, Celsius, cover him. Gaia Wall”, Marcus called out as he flowed his hands over the ceiling, his dagger and staff hitting the floor.

Two large walls of mud and stone came crashing from the ceiling and met Marcus’s previous walls, crushing several goblins in the rocky teeth. Celsius darted to the floor in front of Fahrenheit, turning into a melee machine as he tried to keep the goblins away from Fahrenheit’s core.

Marcus turned around and grabbed the core, “Heal Grasp”, he chanted, the core shining in yellow light as it started to pull in the surrounding ice to reform the elemental.

Staring down the exit corridor, Marcus saw a mass of corpses, but many more to be added to the pile coming his way.

“Is this the whole damn dungeon?” he cursed as he pulled out another potion.

“See it through”, Fahrenheit spoke as he smashed out with a remade arm.

“I see the holes they’re crawling out of, over there!” Celsius announced as he pointed down the hallway.

“Celsius, you got two Flaming Arcs in you?”

“Yes.”

“Use them as we charge outta here.”

“Got it!”

Kicking ahead, the trio charged down the exit corridor as the walls behind them began to crumble yet again. Celsius shot wide-reaching streams of fire in a cone in front of him, turning the goblins into cinders as they had nowhere to run in the cramped corridor.

Passing the holes in the wall, Fahrenheit smashed his limbs into them, causing several to collapse. Marcus brought up a few more Gaia Walls, crashing through several entrances and causing the nearby ice to come tumbling down.

Breaching into the introductory chamber, where the yetis were once dominating, Marcus was glad to see it free of any more encroaching forces. Halting with a slide, and drinking another potion, Marcus caused another wall of earth to erupt in the corridor behind them.

“We can’t leave, if all of these go after the others in an ambush they’ll have to deal with mine and their own foes. No telling what they would bring with them throughout the dungeon either. There are only goblins, so the alert was specialised. If they ran by frost snakes or golems, they may make a harder fight for the others”, Marcus informed as he drew up a dagger.

“At your order”, Celsius responded as he flew up to eye the gap at the top of the wall.

“Let us hope your potions hold us”, Fahrenheit said off handily.

“Pondress, cure my steps.”

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