Chapter 8: The Dance of Shadows

Lance rolled his shoulders, feeling the enhanced fluidity the goblin's absorbed agility provided. The choice had been instinctive-night vision would have been useful, but something about the way the skill resonated with the Seraphis combat style had called to him.

[Currently Active Skill]

Superior Agility - Level 1

- Movement Speed: +20%

- Reaction Time: +15%

- Balance: +25%

Note: Skill can be enhanced through repeated goblin kills

"Everyone ready?" Harper's voice echoed in the Warren's entrance chamber. Grain silos loomed overhead, their shadows stretching like grasping fingers in Maya's magical light. "Stay tight. Lance, you're with me up front. Your scythe gives you the reach to support my shield wall."

The first floor opened into a vast storage area. Massive wooden pillars supported the ceiling, their bases gnawed by countless rats. The team's footsteps crunched on scattered grain and smaller bones. The air hung thick with the stench of decay and molding grain.

[Area Analysis: Storage Level]

Primary Threats: Dire Rats, Shadow Voles

Approximate Enemy Count: 30-40

Environmental Hazards: Weakened Floor Sections, Disease Risk

Note: Signs of recent goblin activity detected

The rats came in waves, their tiny eyes gleaming with unnatural intelligence. Harper's shield created a wall of steel, while Lance's scythe swept in elegant arcs beside her. The black blade hummed through the air, each swing ending multiple rat lives. Blood misted in the dim light as Lance found his rhythm, the weapon becoming an extension of his will.

[Kill Confirmed: Dire Rat x3]

[F-Rank Skill Absorption Available]

Choose one:

1. Enhanced Smell (Basic)

- Detect nearby creatures

- Range: 10 meters

- Effectiveness: Low

2. Pack Coordination (Basic)

- Improved awareness of ally positions

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- Range: 5 meters

- Effectiveness: Low

Note: F-Rank skills provide minimal benefits. Multiple kills required for skill enhancement.

Maya's enhancement magic made their movements sharper, more precise. Finn prowled in wolf form, keeping the flanks clear, while Raven's arrows picked off any rats trying to swarm from above.

"You're faster than I expected," Harper commented between waves, eyeing Lance's fluid movements. "That armor suits you."

The second floor revealed the first signs of goblin presence. Crude weapons lay scattered among rat corpses, and makeshift barricades suggested recent fighting. The air felt different here-tenser, charged with the energy of competing predators.

A goblin scout burst from behind a fallen grain chute, blade aimed at Harper's exposed side. Lance's body moved like smoke, the absorbed agility making his steps whisper across the wooden floor. The scythe twirled in his hands, a deadly arc of black metal that caught the torchlight. He pivoted on his back foot, letting the weapon's momentum carry him into a fluid spin. The blade sang through the air, separating the goblin's torso from its legs in one clean sweep.

Blood misted in the air like morning dew as Lance completed his rotation, already flowing into his next stance. The Seraphis blade dance had begun.

[Skill Proficiency Increased]

Superior Agility has reached Level 2

- Movement Speed: +22%

- Reaction Time: +17%

- Balance: +27%

Note: Combat style showing increased fluidity

"Did you just move faster?" Maya asked, her healer's eyes narrowing. But there was no time to answer.

The third floor showed signs of larger conflicts. Rats and goblins fought each other in the shadows, neither side noticing the adventurers at first. Lance's team used the chaos to their advantage, carefully clearing paths through the warring monsters.

A trio of goblins charged him, crude weapons raised. He met them like a shadow given form, the scythe becoming an extension of his consciousness. The first swing took the leftmost goblin at the waist, the blade continuing its journey upward into an elegant arc that split the middle goblin from hip to shoulder. Without breaking rhythm, Lance used the scythe's momentum to vault over the third goblin, landing behind it with preternatural grace. The final cut separated its head with surgical precision.

Three bodies hit the floor in the time it took Harper to blink.

[Skill Proficiency Increased]

Superior Agility has reached Level 4

- Movement Speed: +26%

- Reaction Time: +21%

- Balance: +31%

Note: Skill resonance with Seraphis combat style detected

"By the gods," Harper whispered, watching Lance's dark armor shift like liquid shadow as he moved.

The fourth floor revealed the goblin's true purpose. They'd converted an old overseer's office into a makeshift camp. Cages lined the walls, filled with captured rats-a food source for their tribe.

"Clever bastards," Finn muttered, shifting back from wolf form. "They're not just hunting. They're farming."

The camp held more goblins than they'd expected. The battle was fierce, but Lance found himself moving with increasing grace. Each kill made his movements smoother, his reactions sharper. The scythe wove intricate patterns of death through the air, his body flowing from stance to stance like water. One goblin fell to a rising slash that continued into a spin, bisecting another. A third lost its arms to a horizontal sweep that flowed into a downward strike, cleaving a fourth from crown to sternum.

[Skill Proficiency Increased]

Superior Agility has reached Level 7

- Movement Speed: +32%

- Reaction Time: +27%

- Balance: +37%

Special Note: Skill approaching resonance threshold

As the last goblin fell, silence descended on the fourth floor. But it wasn't the silence of victory-it was the heavy quiet that precedes a storm.

Lance froze, his senses suddenly alert in a new way. The stench of rat and goblin blood mixed with something else, something that made his enhanced senses recoil. Above them, on the final floor, hundreds of tiny feet skittered across wooden beams. But the sound wasn't random anymore-it had rhythm, purpose, like countless tiny voices speaking in unison.

The Ring of Summoning pulsed with warning as they approached the stairs to the fifth floor. Maya's light spell illuminated the first few steps, but beyond that, the darkness seemed alive, waiting.

From above came a sound that made everyone's blood run cold-a deep, rumbling laugh that was neither rat nor goblin, followed by the unified squeaking of hundreds of tiny voices speaking three words in perfect unison:

"FEAST... BEGINS... NOW..."

Harper raised her shield. Finn's fur bristled as he shifted forms. Raven nocked an arrow. Maya's hands glowed with protective magic.

Lance gripped his scythe tighter, the weapon humming with anticipation of the dance to come.