"Are you sure we should leave her here?" Bellous rumbled, making his objection to leaving Sathera behind abundantly clear for the fourth time since Joxin returned to them, and they climbed the last section of stairs.

"We don't have a choice," Joxin replied before he began absentmindedly repeating the same arguments he had been covering over the last few minutes, though most of his attention was already on what would come next as he ensured the torch was out and secured on his waist. "We can't protect her while fighting. If we don't fight, we will probably die. The odds are no one will notice her."

"To leave our com—

"Enough, Bellous," Joxin said, turning to face the man. "I don't like this any more than you do, but it's necessary. More than that, she would tell us to do it."

Bellous' Jaw clenched, and his lips twitched as he struggled to control and maintain his stoic mask. Finally, he sighed, and the fight seemed to go out of him as he nodded. "It's just… after coming this far… We are so close."

"I know. However, in the end, we are legionaries. Making hard sacrifices is our job." Joxin said, then moved to the opening of the stairwell chamber. Poking his head around the corner, he checked one last time that the area was clear before he signaled the others to move forward as he slipped around the stone arch.

Instead of shooting across the chamber to the wall of the large alcove they were in like he did before, Joxin moved along the wall of the stone structure toward the front of the cubby until he reached the building's corner and stopped. A few moments later, Bellous arrived next to him and gently laid out Sathera's limp body next to the wall. As she was placed on the cold stone, she murmured something unintelligible in her sleep, and a grimace of pain appeared on her face.

Bellous tried to position her to be comfortable, but there was only so much he could do. After he crossed her hands over her stomach, he grunted in resignation and spun about to join Joxin and Jim where they lay together.

Less than a hundred yards away was the edge of the hollow, and standing in the center of it was a lone figure, his outline illuminated by the green light of nearby mushrooms. While none of the battle raging below could be seen, you would have to actively try not to hear the shouts, screams, and clanging of steel for it to go unnoticed.

Gathering what was left of his psy, which was a bit more than a third, Joxin formed two tendrils and extended them to Jim and Bellous. Joxin felt a moment of surprise as he didn't feel the corrosive nature of the twisted energy he was expecting, but then again, if Sathera destroyed the source of the energy like they thought, then why did he climb up the stairs without a tendril!? Putting aside the pointless thoughts, Joxin performed what amounted to a handshake, outlining their overall status.

Joxin learned that Jim and Bellous had even less psy than him, but that was fine. All three of them were tired, and their bodies ached, but they could swing their swords just fine. Enough to kill someone, at least.

And that was pretty much the best they could hope for, as even if they all had full psy reserves, it wasn't like any of them was a lord or knight who could call on the bedrock of the world to do their bidding. No, all they needed was enough psy to form a union, so having the psy to create some tendrils… well, things were looking up.

"Simple plan, boys," Joxin sent into the network. "We stalk up as close as possible, then attack that dark elf. I would bet my life they are the ones commanding the goblins, and their death should throw their ranks into disarray. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Whether I'm right or not, though, after we take down the elf, we move to attack the rear of the goblins and kill them all."

“…Pretty ambitious plan there," Jim commented after a moment.

"You got a better one? Maybe you wanna sneak off to a corner and hope we go unnoticed?"

"No, no, no. Not at all… Jox." Jim sent, his mind and the message sounding far too natural for him not to be up to something stupid. Not that Joxin was expecting anything else, given that Jim brought up Joxin's non-existent nickname, but it made him all the more certain. "I'm just saying that your plan has the potential to be really dangerous."

"Yes," Joxin stated.

"And that everything has to work out perfectly, or we could all be injured or killed."

"Yes."

"So could you say you are taking shortcuts while hoping for the best o—

"This situation is in no way similar to you forgetting your bracers, and you are still an idiot for it." Bellous cut Jim off, sending a mental roll of his eyes.

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"What?" Jim asked, his thoughts filled with utterly fake indignation, "How could you say that? But since you brought it up, there has to be something there, right?"

"No," Bellous declared in a commanding tone, telling everyone it was the final word on the topic.

Cutting off Joxin's whining before it could begin, Joxin said, "Jim, give it up and shut it—

"Never! I will achieve glorious victory, or I will die on this hill! "

Ignoring that, Joxin continued like he never stopped, "Jim, swing to the right, Bellous, you have the left, and I'll go down the center. Stay low and get moving."

Pushing himself up with his arms, Joxin stayed in a low crouch as he slowly moved forward. For every one of his steps, Bellous and Jim took two, but that was necessary as they needed to cover more distance if they were going to come in from the flanks.

The battle below raged on, and images of legionaries dying with every scream played through Joxins mind. It wasn't true. He knew that. Most of the screams were too sharp and high for them to be human, but not all of them. Hiding within the quilt of battle were the shouts of humans, and they weren't shouting without reason.

However, that didn't matter and was actually harmful, as it was just a distraction. As hard as it might be to accept, Joxin and the others were doing all they could. Legionaries would die by the time they could cover the distance from the building to the figure. That was a fact.

Attempting to cover the distance faster could save lives. It could also cause them to be noticed and provoke a response, making it impossible for them to achieve anything of note. The benefit versus cost just wasn't worth the risk. So, Joxin and the others slowly moved forward, the sounds of battle concealing their advance.

Step after steady step, minutes crept by until they were twenty feet from the figure. "Okay," Joxin sent, "Rush him ri—

"Did you think I didn't notice you?" Said a deep, mocking voice over the alcove. "Your minds scream into the darkness. Your casting thrums across the surroundings, singing your presence, and you think one with ears could miss it? Foolish insects, you are truly worthy of your fate."

Joxin shivered, his body freezing in place. He knew he should be running, either moving to fight or trying to escape, yet he couldn't. Joxin couldn't even twitch his finger, and with every beat of his heart, he was finding it difficult to muster up the energy to even remember why he was worried. It would be like lifting a mountain with your arms; it wasn't possible, so why even bother? Why be weighed down with inconsequential concerns? No matter how hard you try, you will fail. It's inevitable, and fighting against the inevitable is a waste of time.

The thoughts flowing through his mind felt weird at first, but now… they were making a lot of sense. Why should he try? Already, the last section of his life was an epic the likes of which few could overcome. Making it as far as he did was something to take pride in.

"Now, be good little ins— urrgh~!" His train of thought jumped into a wet gurgle, and Joxin blinked, clearing his suddenly blurry vision.

Where there was a single shadowy form, a second had appeared to the side of the first. Which was something of a surprise to take in but not the biggest one of the moment. What sent a shiver of fear down Joxin's spine was that he found himself just outside his arm's reach from the figures, which was far more alarming than another person appearing out of nowhere.

Before he could so much as move, the new figure swept its hands wide, sending the head of the dark elf flying to the side. A shriek of fear and despair filled the air a moment after the body crumpled to the ground, but Joxin paid little attention to it as the full might of his disoriented mind was focused on the silver gleam of the blade pressed against his throat.

"What do we have here, hmm?" Rasped the figure. "Traitors? Colluders with the dark elves? In that case, no one would object to your deaths."

"No!" Snapped Joxin, his mind lurching into motion, and words spilled out of his mouth, "We're not traitors! We're scouts of the 15th that ended up in these tunnels and couldn't find a way out. We have bee—

Joxin was cut off as the man doubled over, clutching his gut, "Haha~! The look on your face! Do you really think I would take the time to talk to you if I didn't already know? I was watching you sneak up, waiting for you to make him distracted. Ahh, that was a good laugh."

Then, turning on his heel, the man walked up to the dead elf, and he froze in place. Hesitantly trading looks with Jim and Bellous, though he could not speak to them mentally as their network was broken, Joxin walked forward until he was standing next to the wiry man in time to hear the man giggle in delight, "Let the blood flow!"

Joxin didn't know what the man was talking about at first, but then, at the base of the switchback, a bulge that looked like a blister rapidly formed. In a matter of seconds, it grew until the apex of the bulb was taller than the sides of the trench before it rapidly deflated.

His eye only caught a flash of movement, and then bodies were hanging in the air in a straight line up the trench. Following the path, Joxin saw a glistening spike rising into the air until it connected with the pillar fifteen feet from the base.

For a second, nothing happened, then the man next to Joxin grunted like he was lifting a heavy burden, and the spike rippled. When it stilled, a torrent of cracks like overlapping thunder sounded in the chamber, and a ten-foot-tall section of the pillar fell to the side.

Like a rope hanging from the limb of a tree suddenly cut at its top, the pillar fell apart in a cascade of blocks. Even as the stone slabs hung in the air, the earth groaned as the ceiling of the chamber sagged. It was like a beast the size of a mountain was clawing its way out of the ground beneath Joxin's feet, causing the world to quiver.

Joxin could only stand in place, his eyes wide in disbelief, as he watched the stone roof deform and flex in slow motion. From one moment to the next, Joxin felt light on his face, and his eyes stung as the world turned white. Blinded and deafened, Joxin could only think that the world was ending before him as the rumbling under his feet and cracking of stone in his ears grew in intensity until it physically hurt. And yet, the collapse only continued until he was forced to his knees as the ground shook.