Mark told Elise to stay back with his skeleton mage and hide. As long as he played it safe, he alone would be enough.

One undead orc laid down next to them. The goblin warrior carrying Lifedrinker began creeping into the cavern, while Mark went up to the twin-headed lizard with his orc mage and two skeleton warriors. The undead monster's eyes burned with soul fire as it saw him approach.

"Unlucky," Mark mumbled to himself. He would have to sacrifice his two skeleton warriors to open up a path for his mage to attack. While this was normally efficient, it would reduce his personal power if another group chose to attack. Still, he believed this was good enough to stage an ambush with the others.

Magic Missiles rippled through the air and drove into the lizard's exposed sides. But the monster simply ignored the damage, responding with a gout of flame. Mark dodged, yet the attack still singed his cloak. Meanwhile, the monster's body remained relatively unharmed.

It was fast, too. Its lunge was near impossible to dodge and Mark had to sacrifice one of his skeleton warriors to block it. As the flaming mouth crunched down on bone, he ordered an all-out attack, targeting the venomous skull first.

His orc mage slammed the blunt side of its bladestaff into the head. Flames poured from the weapon and wrapped around the lizard's skull. But the fire in the other lizard's skull had burnt through his skeleton much quicker than he expected. Mark had to immediately sacrifice another skeleton into its maw, but even he knew there was no chance to finish the venom skull off in time.

So he joined his orc in melee. His mace came up and smashed the head towards his orc mage, who swept it back towards him. While he geared up for another swing, the monster ran forward. He had to dodge.

His orc mage hung onto the creature, continuously carving it apart. Its bladestaff knocked the fire head back when it came to bite down and then smacked the venom head again. Twin heads punched towards the orc again and again, but always came short.

Mark picked himself off from the floor and threw his mace at the monster. An old tactic, but it worked. The blow distracted the monster momentarily for another staff swing to crack the head open. A series of Magic Missiles flashed into the wound, disabling the venomous head from moving, though its soul flames were still active.

His orc mage gave up defending and rushed in for the kill. Flames poured down on its body, but it emerged unscathed. Mystical light flickered as staff blows hammered down onto the last head.

A huge dent appeared. The soul flames on the venomous head faded out. But the other head was still active, and its eyes flickered with fury. This undead monster, instead of charging again, actually turned around. Did it want to escape?

His orc mage's arms clamped down onto a leg. Strength surged in its muscles as it roared, refusing to let go. Mark picked up his mace and slammed it down onto its other legs.

Bone crunched with each of his blows. Seven good hits were enough to shatter another leg. It tried to respond, turning its head back around to breathe fire, but Mark ran to the other side of the monster. He raised his weapon to swing again, but then heard footsteps approaching rapidly.

"Go!" an unfamiliar voice shouted. "Stop him!" Mark immediately rolled to the side, dodging the explosion behind him. A group of people emerged from the opposite side of the cavern.

"Necromancer," one person standing at the side muttered while the undead lizard remained locked down. Her voice echoed through the cavern. She wore a pointed hat on her head and carried a brown staff with vines growing all over it. "Who are you with?"

"Nobody," Mark shouted. "I'm new here." His eyes roamed over each member of the group and found them wanting. Only one of them was Level 25.

Her class was actually Nature Mage. But he couldn't focus on them any longer. The undead lizard was beginning to rise again. Mark moved to land another attack, and in response, arrows sank into the dirt next to him.

His hands shot into the air and formed a signal. A shout rang out from behind him. It came from the warrior, charging in to interrupt his battle. Mark ignored him and crushed the other leg into pieces with help from his orc mage. Though its movement would be weakened after he reanimated it as a minion, this was necessary to finish it off.

Then they swung around to different sides of its body and began to smash it up. When the warrior drew closer, Samara's arrow pierced into his body, eliciting a scream.

As soon as it became clear that Mark was not actually alone, the warrior stopped in his tracks. Beads of sweat ran down his face. With little support from his teammates, fear for his life swelled inside him.

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"Sorry," he said. "We thought we saw someone else. We'll be out of your hair right now." His eyes were looking behind Mark, where the looming figure of a second orc had suddenly appeared. Meanwhile, bones broke, and furious roars filled the air.

"Surrender," Mark ordered. The warrior immediately threw down his sword and put his hands up. Mark looked up at the man's teammates, who were also trembling. "You too."

"Run!" the archer shouted. He dropped his bow and fled, but Samara's arrow was too fast. It entered and exited his body without a sound. The man crumpled to the floor.

A wooden shield emerged in front of the Nature Mage in an attempt to shield against more arrows. But Elise's fire arrows burnt through it with ease. Not wanting to die, the woman put her hands up as well and knelt down.

Mark allowed his orc mage to finish its fight before he commanded it to subdue the warrior. Then he moved to check the undead lizard's condition. He would need some time to reanimate it, so he decided to deal with these people first.

"Come here!" Samara shouted at the surrendering woman. "We promise not to hurt you."

The Nature Mage stood up, her whole body trembling as she moved in their direction, an arrow still trained on her neck. She almost tripped, but caught herself just in time. Once she came close enough, Mark's other undead orc pressed a knee against her back.

Seeing this, Samara dropped down from her perch and walked up to them. "We should just leave them here," she said.

"Yeah. We're not equipped for prisoners." Mark agreed. He could control them if he had access to a set of skeleton warriors, but they lacked those for now. And the twin-headed lizard was too powerful a minion to simply leave behind.

"Wait," the warrior shouted. "You're new to the area right? We can give you information!"

Elise nodded. "Leaving them here would be a death sentence," she said. "I don't want to kill people who've surrendered." She looked at the two of them and asked, "Are you willing to submit?"

The warrior nodded his head desperately. But the woman began to cry instead, almost falling to the floor. She pointed a finger at the fallen body of the archer. "Please save him," she sniffled.

Elise's expression softened. "Sure," she said. "But you have to follow our orders from now on, okay?" Samara didn't seem to agree with the decision, but she looked towards Mark for him to confirm.

"Go ahead, Elise." Mark did need information from people local to the area. The map clearly had its flaws and he was wary of other groups running around. If they were willing to cause no problems, he was fine taking them along temporarily, depending on what they said.

Elise ran to the tunnel where the archer had fallen. Meanwhile, Samara watched the Nature Mage intently. "No sudden moves," she warned. "Why do you want to save him anyway? Didn't he abandon you?"

The woman looked back up. "He's family," she said.

Mark repaired the undead two-headed lizard and cast Raise Dead on it. Necromantic energies flowed out of his hands and he found his magic draining at a rapid rate. But he kept it under control, and with a small amount of mana remaining, the undead monster stood back up. Both heads opened their mouths in a soundless howl as his prisoners looked on in silent fear.

"There we go," Mark said. He turned back to see Elise returning, dragging along the injured archer. The man constantly cried out in pain whenever she had to tug him forward. He looked quite unwilling.

"Thank you so much," the woman said, blinking away tears. "Call me Leah. Andrew, you've got to calm down," she scolded the archer. "It was just a misunderstanding."

"A necromancer?" cried out Andrew. "How can you tell they're not one of them?" Mark furrowed his brows. What were they talking about?

"They haven't killed us yet," Leah responded. "Besides, most necromancers move alone most of the time. And they'd never travel with a light mage."

Mark simply stared at the situation and wondered if he could trust them. The woman looked friendly enough, but betrayal was too easy to accomplish. And Andrew didn't look too enthused at traveling with them.

"What information do you have?" he asked. He needed a reliable guide to explore these tunnels at a faster rate. If they couldn't satisfy him, he could still leave them behind.

First, Leah gave them her staff, disarming herself. Then she asked where specifically they wanted to go.

Mark looked at his two teammates who shook their heads at him. They would not be taking out the map. "Somewhere with undead," he said. His memory of the map might not be the best, but he knew enough to discern if they were taking him to a good place or not. This was a decent test to probe the extent of their knowledge.

Leah nodded and made a small smile, as if confirming a theory of hers. "We can take you there," she said. "But first, would you like to see the market?"

"Market?" Elise asked in surprise. She seemed hesitant about something. Mark raised his brows as well. A few guesses about the current situation immediately appeared in his mind, arousing his curiosity.

"Yes. We have a place where we gather. There's a lot of people down here," Leah said. She began walking. "Follow me, but please leave your undead behind once we get there. The people there really don't like them."

Samara readily agreed. Elise followed after them as well, but there was doubt in her movements. Mark noticed how quiet she had become after the market was revealed. The existence of society in these mines seemed to affect her more than the others.

It was a risk he wanted to explore. After all, in addition to his powerful minions on the surface, his goblin warrior remained lurking in the shadows. There was little Leah could do to threaten him.