"Oh quit sulking," I said to Ska, "you did much better this time."

I of course was referring to our test slash duel the previous day. I still managed to beat Ska, pretty easily. He had the speed, but not the reach or magic to contend with me. I decided to fix one of those issues overnight. I added runes to his leather straps that would reduce the magical damage he took. Unlike my previous armor, these runes manifested in a field around him. Wouldn't be much point in only having the protection cover the straps.

It wasn't as strong as my armor, only reducing the effect of magic by thirty percent but it was better than nothing.

We were preparing for the raid. I had already spoken to the Marshall that morning. He confirmed that they were ready to go when we were. I just needed to do some last-minute repairs to my armor vest. I patched the holes with some leather scrap I had around. It would work for now. I Inspected the armor.

Rune Crafted Metal-Reinforced Leather Vest

Quality: Average

Armor: 22

Slashing resistance: 45%

Stabbing resistance: 45%

Magic resistance 20%

This metal-reinforced leather vest was crafted by an intermediate crafter with common materials. It has been enhanced with runic enchantments.

Unlike my previous armor, this was a simple leather vest with large metal plates covering the chest and upper torso. It was the best piece of armor I could afford at the time and even with my runic enhancements, it wasn't all that good. But it was certainly better than nothing. I also finally got some armored pants, a helmet, and bracers. Like my vest, they were basic things, not even worth the time to carve runes into but I did anyway. The added effect was barely noticeable. I think I gained three armor and another five percent magic resistance.

I grunted at that, even Ska's leather straps were of higher quality.

I put everything into my ring and tested putting it on and taking it off a few times, using the ring's power. It was still weird to me that I could do this. I moved and stretched, making sure everything was adjusted properly. The ring could only put items on in the condition that they were entered into the ring. After everything was checked it went back into the ring. No reason to be uncomfortable unless I had to be.

"You two ready to go?"

"Yeah," Martin replied, slinging a satchel over his shoulder. He hadn't bothered replacing his storage ring yet.

"I am ready for a fight," Ska growled.

"Alright, let's head over to meet the Marshall and his friends."

We walked over to where Marshall told us to meet them. This made me miss Bella, and I hoped the dwarves had let her out of her cage. If they killed or harmed her I was going to be pissed. I took a deep breath and pushed those feelings aside so I could concentrate on today. This mission was going to be dangerous enough without any distractions.

"Paul, Martin, Ska, you made it. Good timing, I was just about to lay out our plan."

"Marshall," I said, nodding to the other officers.

"Here's what we know. The group has a camp in a small valley to the north. There is only one way in, a tight trail with traps and barricades. There will be no surprising these folks." the Marshall added.

"Wait, how did your man get in and out?" Martin asked.

"He wasn't our man, we captured one of the gang members and our truthseeker was able to lift the information from his mind."

Martin nodded, motioning for the man to continue.

"There is also a cave in the valley, believed to be a dungeon but the man we caught wasn't privy to that information."

"That could explain the leaders' high levels," I stated.

The Marshall nodded, "that was our take as well."

"May I make a recommendation?" I asked.

"Sure," the Marshall replied.

"I have a flight skill, so I could fly over the valley. Also, Ska could probably make his way over as well."

The Marshall rubbed his chin. "That could work, you two will be on your own until we can break through the valley entrance though."

"Ska and I can handle it for a few minutes."

I had to put my hand on Ska's shoulder to settle the excited grimalkin. His tail was flicking back and forth quickly, giving away his excitement.

After some more details on the layout of the camp and everyone checking their gear, the Marshall spoke up. "Everyone ready?"

There was a round of confirmations as the group headed out.

***

I watched from within the trees, high up on the valley wall. It had taken two uses of my wings to get up here. Ska sat quietly beside me as we waited.

My eyes scanned the men below, trying to pick out the highest leveled individuals. Those would be our targets. At the moment, locating them was turning out to be a challenge. Nobody stood out from the distance. I checked the watch that I had found in one of the houses we looted along the way. It read 1:47, not that that was accurate. but it gave me an estimate on how long before the attack at the mouth of the valley would begin.

"A little over ten minutes," I whispered to Ska.

He nodded quietly, moving into position.

He would have no trouble scaling the rocky terrain. The inner walls of the valley were not as steep as the outer wall and he managed to make that look easy.

There was a flurry of activity below as men grabbed weapons and started running. Looks like the Marshall and his men had been spotted. 'Shit, we knew that was a possibility but it still sucked.'

Stolen story; please report.

What I didn't expect was for three men to bolt into the dungeon. Those had to be our targets. I nodded to Ska and he was off in a flash, running down the hill on all fours.

Not to be outdone, I spread my wings and flew after him. I covered about forty percent of the distance from the top of the valley to the dungeon entrance in the time it took my wings to expire.

Ska was still ahead of me by quite the distance so I used Blink Step to catch up with the grimalkin.

We both slowed as we reached the cave entrance. The rest of the enemy had not seen our approach, too busy fending off the others. We could hear the sounds of pitched battle in the distance but I tuned it out.

My staff was out and crackling with lightning. I couldn't afford to Imbue any other element into the sub-par material.

The mouth of the cave was empty as we stepped inside. A message popped up alerting us that it was a dungeon. Not that we already didn't know that. The fact that it was only level twelve surprised me though. 'These guys must have been farming this thing for months.'

I didn't like the fact that the enemy knew every inch of the dungeon and we had no idea what was inside. Even the name wasn't helpful.

You have entered Califran's Divide: Level 12 dungeon. Recommended team size: 3 people of level 14 or higher, Good Luck

The fact that the inside looked man-made, spoke of traps. We could wait for the rest of the backup, but I was bored, and now I was angry.

"Keep an eye out for traps," I said quietly.

Ska nodded, sniffing the air. "They split up," he growled.

Of course, they did, I groaned internally. The room had three tunnels leading off of it. The dark marble, soaking up the flickering torchlight.

Ska pointed to one tunnel. "Two went that way. The last went down there."

"We can't let them get behind us. You go after the solo feller."

He growled in approval, sprinting off. I only had time to suck in my breath as two blades swept down from the ceiling in the doorway he entered. A diving corkscrew allowed him to escape the trap with only a few lost hairs. 'Reckless idiot.'

I didn't want to see Ska die, I had grown fond of the grimalkin. That being said, I wasn't going to control him either. He should be relatively safe with all my buffs on, as well as Second Chance.

I turned toward the other path, tossing a pebble through the doorway. A set of nasty-looking spikes shot out from the wall. As they retracted to reset I walked through the opening, tossing stones ahead of me as I went.

The tunnel turned into a massive open room, with grand arches and a ceiling that was well over a hundred feet up. There were plenty of places to hide within this room. The fact that I saw no monsters told me that either the dungeon had not reset yet, or the two cleared out the room before I arrived.

As I looked around I kept catching and tossing the stone in my hand. My perception was high enough to pick out the pressure plates on the floor but I had no idea what they would activate.

I tossed one of the pebbles I was juggling, activating one of the plates thirty or so feet away. There was an audible click, followed by a torrent of fire from two of the pillars near the trap.

As the fire ended, I heard a soft scraping of a boot against stone. 'Gotcha,' I thought.

I quickly and silently hid behind another pillar.

A few minutes later two men walked out. "Fucking trap vaporized him," one of the men said.

"No, there should be something left," the other replied. I heard the sound of a sword coming free.

I rolled my eyes, these guys weren't the brightest.

"He's hiding, seems like he's afraid of us," the second man said.

"Told you we should have jumped him. Why don't you come out and play?" the first one, and arguable the dimmer of the two said.

I already had an idea for how to even the odds in this fight but first I needed to know what I was dealing with.

I stepped out from behind the column. "Howdy, fellas, don't suppose I can convince you to come quietly?"

The dark arrow that left a burning line across my cheek, seemed to indicate that was a no. I could feel a creeping sensation coming from the cut, but a quick Cleanse got rid of the effect. I used Identify before the archer loaded another arrow.

Bartleby | Dread Archer | Level 15

Thomas Kinkaid | Fire Dancer | Level 15

I had to pause for a second. My Identify shouldn't be showing me last names unless I had met the person before. I examined the man's face more closely, my eyes going wide as I pointed my staff at him. "You!" I hissed.

The name I had forgotten but the face. I wouldn't soon forget the face of one of Sharla's goons.

The man seemed to come to the same realization as I did. He rushed at me, but not before Shroud plunged the entire room into foggy darkness. I had to deflect another arrow from the archer before I activated my tattoo.

The fog became transparent, letting me see the two men. The Archer seemed to have some ability to pierce my spell as he fired another arrow my way. I dodged it, but instead of closing on him, I tossed an entire handful of pebbles at him.

The man was oblivious to the pebbles as he knocked another arrow. One bounced off his armor, causing him to look down. He didn't have time to dodge as twelve jets of fire spewed out from the columns. Two had been aimed near enough to him to set his clothing on fire. The man screamed as he tried to put out the flames, only making it worse when he triggered another trap. But I had other things to worry about.

The fire dancer redirected one of the flames, right at me. I was forced to dodge behind a pillar. My arm was scorched badly despite my Elemental Defence being on. I choked down a scream and cast Rejuvenate, noticing the fire had taken a sizable chunk out of my health.

So either he could see through the magical fog as well, or just knew where to aim. I ran behind another pillar, hearing something whistle past my head. The sound of metal rebounding off stone gave me my answer and got me moving again. This time I was forced to activate Area of Denial as the traps behind me spewed fire. I needed this man alive but he wasn't going to make it easy. I needed to know if he was down here because of the Black Dragons.

Three more throwing daggers came at me and I knocked them aside, not wanting the man to know my shield was up. I recalled he had seen me fight in the slave arena and was hoping he had forgotten some of my moves.

I saw the Fire Dancer pull out a lighter and got a bad feeling, as soon as the spark lit, the man began flowing into an intricate series of moves. The fire growing with each passing motion. I activated Blink Step, not caring if I activated traps, I needed to subdue him quickly. The entire room became bright as more and more traps activated. In hindsight, that had been a mistake on my part.

I saw the man smile as he pulled those flames towards him as well.

What came next would have made a dragon proud. The billowing mass of flame shot out from the tip of the man's sword and flowed toward me like a deadly tide. I still wasn't within range as the head of the wave slammed into my barrier.

The heat caused the stones below me to melt as I was pushed back by the pressure of the attack. I had hoped the man had forgotten about my skill but seems he had a good memory. Unfortunately, I had never got to see the man fight.

I used Disruption to stem the flow of the attack, long enough for me to activate my wings. With a leap, I took to the air. The fire curved back around, following me like a living thing. I watched the man flick his sword in my direction, the fire obeying his will. I needed to end this fight before my shield died.

I decided to take away his advantage, activating Eye of the Storm. Rain and lightning pelted down, smothering the fire and I finally managed to hit the man. He jumped back, nursing the arm that had been struck by my lightning. I rushed down, flapping the wings as fast as possible. The man frantically tried lighting his now drenched lighter. When that didn't work he scanned around for a pressure plate.

He was only a few feet away from one but I got there before he could act, slamming my staff into his hastily blocking sword. Too bad swords are metal and metal conducts electricity.

The man screamed as the shock tore through his body. Contrary to popular belief, electricity doesn't make you immediately drop something. Nope, it locks your muscles up good and tight. The man tried to drop his sword as I pressed my staff into it. I kept my staff in contact with his sword, following him to the ground.

After about twenty seconds the man went limp. He was unconscious but not dead. I checked on the other man but he was a blackened stump. I cursed, realizing I didn't get the kill notice for him.

I took the Fire Dancer's weapons and lighter, dragging him back out of the room. I needed answers and I wasn't about to do it in the room he had the most advantage in. The only safe room was the entrance cavern so I had to drag him there.

To be honest, the fight left me a bit disappointed. I expected more from one of Sharla's hand-picked minions. Sure they were both strong fighters but even with a room that gave one of them all the advantage, they weren't able to capitalize on it. True I had almost ten levels worth of ability points on them, not to mention all of the extra skills I had collected. But if they had worked together properly, they could have kept me from closing until my shield wore off.