***(A few hours prior to when Gray entered the portal)

"An underground village?" whispered Tesse as she and her group walked through the portal.

"Shhh, look," whispered the red-haired girl as she pointed to the goblins that stood guard outside the village.

"The portal, i-it's gone," shouted Lance in fear as he began to show signs of panic. He scraped at the walls with his fingernails as if the portal were hiding behind it, and began breathing heavily as if out of breath.

"What the hell Lance? Are you trying to get us killed?" asked the red-haired girl as she and her group retreated behind a nearby boulder, pulling Lance along with them as they did.

"He's claustrophobic" replied the blonde-haired boy with a look of disappointment on his face.

"Claustrophobic? What the hell are we supposed to do when the only person in our group with an offensive ability is acting like bitch?", whispered the red-haired girl as her face turned red in anger.

"How was he supposed to know that we would be fighting in a confined space? It's not like people just randomly tell other people their phobias you know," replied the blonde-haired boy, trying to defend his colleague.

"I knew this was a bad idea from the start. We shouldn't have joined forces with you guys. I'm sorry Tesse, I didn't know that these guys would be so useless. Sorry for dragging y-"

"G-guys. I think we should run," said Tesse as a goblin the size of a professional wrestler approached the group's hiding spot.

"Fuck, Lance snap out of it. We need you!" shouted the blonde-haired boy, as a group of goblins began running towards their group.

"T-the walls, t-their closing in, c-can't you see that the ceiling is about to fall!" shouted Lance hysterically, his eyes had a faraway look as if he were in a daze.

"Fuck him. Trent you're going to have to be the damage dealer from now on. Activate your ability and I'll empower you, Tesse will heal you if you get injured." ordered the red-haired girl as the goblins neared their location.

"O-okay!" replied Trent, as his eyes began glowing a blue color.

The red-haired girl raised her palms and a yellow light flowed from her body surrounding Trent.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Take care of Lance," said Trent before running towards the incoming goblins at an astounding speed.

With a single punch, he completely shattered the ribs of a nearby goblin, causing it to die on the spot.

Trent continued his onslaught, using his superior speed to out-maneuver the horde of goblins, killing one of them with every punch he threw out.

He rushed at the giant goblin and kicked it at the side of the knee, completely dislocating its knee joint and causing it to buckle over.

"T-this is easy!" shouted Trent as a look of euphoria covered his once terrified expression. He began gaining momentum, now punching his fists through the goblins' chest cavities as he killed them. Spilling blood all over his clothes.

"He looks like a maniac," whispered Tesse from behind the boulder where the rest of the group was hiding.

"Better a maniac help us than being killed by the likes of them," replied the red-haired girl nonchalantly as she cleaned her nails.

"Still, your ability is pretty good. Enhancing one's strength is as good a skill as any offensive skill," replied Tesse as she watched the onslaught.

"I suppose your right. Though it would've gone better if this sword-wielding bastard kept his act together,"

"R-Rey, how long does your buff work for?"

"I never tested the cooldown time before. Why do you ask?"

"Because Trent isn't killing them as easily as he was before. Actually, his being pushed back," replied Tesse, fear, and worry audible in her voice.

"What are y-" Rey was shocked to see Trent struggling to overpower a single goblin.

"What the hell! It's just one goblin! Stop playing around and hurry up before more of them get there!" shouted Rey.

"I-I can't! I feel weak, are you sure your buff doesn't have side effects!?"

"Side effects? What is he talking about?"

"Rey, don't tell me you haven't tested all the conditions of your ability yet," replied Tesse, scared at what Rey's answer would be.

"Of course I didn't. My ability has a four-hour cooldown. Why would I waste that by playing around with it?"

"Trent come back here so I heal you! We have to leave now! We can't continue this fight!" shouted Tesse.

Trent kicked the goblin he was fighting against away and picked up one of the daggers that the dead goblins had dropped, using it to stab the downed goblin before it got the chance to stand up.

As Trent was running back to his group, his speed returned back to normal. Relieving him of any advantage he may have had against the goblins.

"Fuck, my legs hurt," complained Trent as he made it back to the rest of the group.

'Their abilities have really troublesome side effects. But who am I to talk, so does mine.' thought Tesse as she held out her palms.

"Tesse are you sure you want to do this?" asked Rey with a worryied look on her face.

"Y-Yes. It's no use if I'm the healthy one anyway. I can't deal any damage, we need Trent to be in top shape in order to finish this dungeon."

A white light erupted from Tesse's hands, surrounding Trent causing him to shine with an intense magnificence.

"I-I feel perfect!" exclaimed Trent as he clenched his fists and did a few stretches.

"I-I'm happy to help," replied Tesse, with a sickened look on her face. Her face burned red with fatigue, and she was struggling to stand upright properly.

"Anyway, let's go enter one of those tunnels for safety. I'll carry Lance,".

The other goblin's within the village were confused to find that their scouts had been dealt with so quickly.

A few goblins carried the giant goblin through one of the tunnels, while the rest split up to look for the intruders