Victor realised he couldn’t deal with Noah, so he moved targets. Chloe and Victor used their high agility to attack Thraz. Their assault was harmonious. Thraz, with his slow movement, didn’t stand a chance.

He tried to swing his axe, but Chloe’s attack emerged from behind Victor’s shoulder–lashing straight for his eyes. All he could do was cancel his attack, and block his fragile eyes.

Noah had to deal with a few incoming hounds while Victor’s attack landed, but he glanced with hope. Don’t die just yet.

Victor snapped a savage kick to his knee. The dragonborns leg caved, and a powerful knee followed, slamming into his unarmoured throat. Yet it still wasn’t enough to–

Victor jabbed something into his veins. His arms grew at a visible rate as a redness pervaded through his vision. He sent another lightning quick kick to Thraz. It was the last one as the dragonborns body fell down the hole.

The wolf man had obviously used a high grade stimulant.

A beastly rage surged up Noah’s throat as he let out a monstrous roar. Like a storm, his spear pierced the air, killing three hounds in an instant.

Noah could only see a scaly hand latching onto the floor.

Noah [Charged].

Leaping over a pit, he slammed into the floor, but Victor, and Chloe leapt away.

Krall warding them off, Noah dropped to the surface, then grabbed hold of Krall’s wrist. With a pull, his mighty body rose. Noah looked over his shoulder.

Victor was so close. He wouldn’t let this opportunity fall through his hands. Perhaps it was the last chance he would get. A red, feverish desperation mottled his vision–Noah could see it. Could feel it.

His body vanished in a puff of red smoke. He appeared in front of him. Damn that movement ability!

Gritting his teeth, Krall stepped to the side like an impenetrable guardian. But Noah was aware of Victor’s movement ability. Back in the cave, he had used it more than five times in quick succession. Krall couldn’t stop him. Noah knew that, and so with a mighty pull, he yanked Thraz up from the pit.

But he underestimated the speed of which Victor could move. If before it was fast. Now, it was impossible to detect. The humanoid wolf appeared in front of him. Blood seeped from every facial orifice he had. Noah could practically hear each and every thump of his heart, and the liquid within.

Noah didn’t know how he did it, but he overtaxed his movement skill to the limit. Victor’s eyes were hazy, but bright. He had figured something out.

His weapons, glowing in red, swiped at him. Aspects of ghosts surged around the blades as they reaped toward Noah.

Time slowed. Noah thrust his spear at the humanoid, but his attack came too late. Thraz was still landing on his feet. Victor’s attack landed. Noah snarled, only able to shift the weight of his spear to the side in an attempt to block the wrath filled attack.

The attack glanced off his spear, and struck his shoulder, and face. The hotness of his own blood streamed downard as Noah lost his footing. He slipped. Weightless, he fell down.

Krall gazed in horror. Thraz in shock. They attempted to save him, but it was too late.

His heartbeat smashed against his own rib cage. He didn’t want to die like this. He powered his Shards and skills to their maximum, squeezing any amounts of energy he could into it. Noah could see it clearly, Victor couldn't move.

Chloe was rushing to his aid.

With the Thrust Shard activated, Noah’s spear shot forward. Each millisecond that passed, it shot forward further. Reach! Noah screamed internally. His blood boiled.

Every fibre of his being was willing the spear's image to shoot further. Not like an elongated spear, but a projectile. Noah felt something well up within body. It gurgled. It was the Expanion Energy. It turned to chaos, but it was listening to him.

Images of his spear flying through the air pervaded every thought within his mind, and it finally listened.

Thrust Shard has upgraded.

| Early -> Middle

Like a bolt from a ballistae, light of pure Expansion Energy shot out from his elongated spear. It pierced the air, and tore a hole straight through Victor’s chest. Then [Beastly Pike] followed along with the spectral image of Krall's jaws. With the full wrath of Krall’s monstrous anger, it chomped the entirety of Victor’s arm off whole.

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Then the world turned black. The air battered against his body. He was forced to turn around to face it, gazing into the abyss. The fact he was still falling meant that the pit was deeper than his imagination could travel.

Think!

Mind spinning, he decided to use the upgraded Shard. Spear extending, it reached from one side of the wall, to the other. He willed it to pierce the wall, and it did. The Expansion spear of his creation ground the rock to dust, but it managed to slow his insane momentum to a controllable degree.

The only problem was that he had only just started walking on the path of Expansion. His container was weak, fragile, and rapidly emptying.

All he could do was over tax it, hoping it wouldn’t break, or something. It felt like an intense hunger that bubbled within his stomach, then the pain arrived. It was like thousands of swords cleaving into his flesh from within, attempting to slice their way out.

Noah glanced down. He still couldn’t see the bottom.

Shit! Blood seeped from his mouth. Something within him was cracking, but he ignored it. He knew it was the Expansion container within him, but there was nothing he could do. Another crack… his spear made of Expansion Energy cracked, then crumbled into flickering dust.

Free falling through the air, it wasn’t long before he smashed into something solid. It was land. Crack. Noah sharply exhaled at the feverish pain that assaulted him. Since he was falling for so long, any adrenaline that he once had had long left him.

There was a sharp pain in his right ankle. Putting weight on it only made it worse. Dislocated maybe, but it didn’t feel like it was broken. Then there were his ribs. He didn’t know how many were broken, but it was painful.

Cradling them, he stood up. Thankfully his dark vision worked down here. He gazed around at the cave he had fallen into. Deep stalactites and stalagmites formed on the ceiling and floor respectively. From how large they were, which they were enormous, he could only imagine how old this place was.

But that wasn’t his concern. He ripped his vision away from the sights, and instead focused on Krall. He couldn’t feel anything. Even from where he stood, he should still be able to connect with his companion.

Noah activated his Monster shard, but the moment he did so, he fell to the floor. Crippled over, he tightened his grasp around his midsection. It made the pain worsen around his ribs, but that was nothing compared to what he felt deeper within.

After a few minutes, the pain resided. That was awful… I need to check what the damage is. Noah sat down, and after realising he was safe for now, he sunk his vision deep within.

His brows rose as he witnessed what had happened to his container. It was fragmented, hanging on by a mere thread. He wasn’t an expert in Expansion, but he guessed if he tried to use it anymore, it truly would shatter entirely.

Maybe by Expansion cancelling was a safety feature, of sorts. Noah thought. But thanks to that, he still had a future with Expansion.

He took in a pained breath and focused on his container again. After a few minutes, he could see the energy slowly accumulate toward it. As if it was repairing the core. Noah didn’t know if he could speed up the process by breathing in the Energy, but he didn’t want to risk it.

If it was repairing on its own, he would just let it do its own thing.

Noah turned his vision from within, to high up above. “I’m alive. Fight with Thraz, make it to the end, and find the others. Don’t die.” Noah wasn’t sure if Krall could hear him. If he couldn’t, then there was nothing he could do.

He just had to forge a path forward and try to find any way up. If there was one. Noah shook his head. It wouldn’t be the first time he was in a dire situation. He just had to stay positive.

But first, he had to heal his wounds. Thankfully he had his backpack on, and from the high quality system material, it seemed to protect the bottles within. Well, He had also landed on his foot, then his face, so that helped.

Noah took out an Uncommon potion and swallowed all of it. The taste was awful as usual, but the heat that surged within his body was a good sign.

Minutes turned into hours. He was worried the dungeon would be cleared before he could recover, but the words he expected didn’t occur. Noah could only imagine how difficult it would be for the others

He flexed his ankle, it was good to go. It was the same for his ribs, the pain was mostly gone.

Noah’s shoulders flinched at a sudden screech. It was so loud that it reverberated against the cave’s walls. Something was fighting in the distance.

Grabbing hold of his spear, he jogged ahead, but he soon found himself in what could only be described as a bloody battlefield.

Bats as large as dogs littered the cave’s floor. It continued as far as Noah could see. Obviously something was intent on annihilating the monsters, or maybe it was the bats that were invading its territory.

Whatever it was, Noah crept forward. He activated [Shadowed Presence]. Without Krall, his presence was reduced even further, to the point that his smell, and even the steps he took were fading away. It would require someone, or something with a high Perception stat to detect him.

It didn’t take long until he saw the culprit. A huge skeleton wearing thick plated armour swung its heavy two-handed sword at a huge bat-wolf hybrid. The monster was fighting alongside a pure bat, but the skeleton's sword blurred, cleaving through the demon-like bat. There was no resistance. Shoulder to rearm it sliced the monster in half.

The bat-wolf hybrid emitted a frenzied roar. It was grief. Noah could feel it. It was almost tangible as the monster rekindled its effort to battle the skeleton. It was clear the undead wanted something.

Noah looked around, until he spotted a black egg marbled with golden-white. It was embedded with a mound of bat corpses, but the lustre was difficult to hide.

He looked from the egg, to the bat creature, to the skeleton. The path he was on was the only way out of here, so he had to help one, or the other.

One was capable of thought, the other was a mindless construct of death. Noah knew which one he wanted to side with.

He crouched around the egg, until he reached a large stalactite that was just at the skeletons' flank. Then he charged. Spear in hand, he activated his skills to reap the skeletons' life. Just as his attack was about to land, it gazed at him with its bright orange, flickering embers.

It was ready to defend.