Dan relaxed his arms for a couple seconds so his sword and shield went down; he breathed slowly and opened his eyes.

Adam continued mowing down as many as he could after he positioned himself perfectly. We trained with enough awareness of his habits to know to stay the hell out of the way of his arrows. For these monsters, his arrows shot through about two to three raptors at a time. And if I saw it glowing, then a whole line of them would die.

The raptors, fast on their feet, gained on us quickly. Tina started off with a fairly big spell and raised ice spikes out the ground, which limited the raptors’ areas of entry when she lined it up with the high and low terrain of the mountains. They only had two entrances to get to us. One was directly in front of the group and Dan could cover it, and one to the side, which I covered. The ice was angled in an unscalable way.

The first raptor came through and got stabbed through the maw by Dan. The other was shot by Adam, and a few came in afterwards. Dan screamed tenaciously which brought their attention to him. He blocked and deflected perfectly with his shield; his experience wasn’t for naught.

Then, the excess came around to my side. The first one’s head got sliced in half and its mouth split in four and what little brain matter there was leaked out the skull. The strange whistling winds of Tina’s Wintry Grave graced my ears. I knew they had Dan’s side locked.

Another raptor tried to bite down on my head, but I blocked just in time with the sword version of my staff, then pulled it enough to start cutting through teeth and eventually removing the upper top of its head. I darted forth and stabbed the next one up the chest, cast Electrostrike on a couple that ran in to paralyze them, and beheaded another that came close to me. I wished not to rely on spells too much, as my role was warrior, but I couldn’t allow my entrance to be compromised further. I continued aiming for heads so that I could be as efficient as possible, but it was inevitable that some would slip by me.

“Tina, vantage point!” Adam yelled out.

Our expert mage who fell in love with the ice element and couldn’t care for the other elements, erected a pillar of ice which elevated Adam. I saw them do it before when there were too many enemies. It was to allow his arrows to go downwards, which gave Solina much more freedom in moving about how she wanted without fear of wandering into an arrow’s trajectory.

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Now that Solina had free reign, the raptors that escaped from either entrance would be put down before they could attack Sam or Tina.

We grew focused the more raptors came, and eventually the first injury came. Dan yelped when a raptor bit down on the sword forearm. He activated a skill and powered through it, raising the beast and dropping it with so much force that its mouth was disfigured and it yelped in agony. But his arm was in tatters.

Sam immediately began using ensnare spells to slow down enemy movement and cast Intermediate Heal. It fixed the injury, but it didn’t recover blood like Greater Heal. Dan tried getting up, but was too dizzy to fight normally. So Sam rushed in.

When I made weapons for all of them, Sam asked for a rather strange one. His weapon was intended to be a staff, but the top of it was fitted with a mace-like finish. It was a meant as a blunt weapon, but there were sharp protruding lines that would cause small cuts on it. He used that weapon which had to be wielded with both hands and smashed his way through the raptors. Every time he attacked, his weapon lit up a little, and when it connected, the sheer force obliterated the raptors’ heads. He, unlike other people, used both spells and skills.

I still had yet to understand the proper difference between the two, but I hadn’t time to think about it. With Dan down, I could no longer half-ass my entrance.

Sam was on fire, in a hyper-focused mode that cast heals on anyone who got injured but still protected his entrance as good as – or perhaps better – than Dan did. Perhaps it was best to say he entered a strange fervor, an insane level of concentration. He was in his zone. Not only did he beat the shit out of the enemies in front of him, he took care of those that got past by casting novice spell Sand Trap, which bound the target’s feet to the ground. His healing still came through anytime someone was bitten or mauled, and he used his entire body as a weapon as well. I saw the insane man headbutt a raptor straight to its mouth and break through fangs while crushing another’s skull in with his weapon.

Besides me, he was definitely the most well-rounded. And that sudden jump into action that showed great mental acuity, physical prowess, tactical awareness, and raw balls wasn’t something normal. Even Dan, who was the most experienced of us all, was taken by surprise, as was the rest of us.

Sam was more than strong enough to breach the entrance and go outside, which would be better for him as a position of defense, but he always made sure he was in a position to throw quick glances on us and ensure everyone was safe. That young man was a full-time knight, healer, warrior, and part-time wizard.

Finally, we stood victorious, with raptor blood all over us, and their corpses all around us. When we were done, I cast Greater Heal on everyone.

Well then, I looked at the exhausted Sam, he’s got some questions to answer.