With a strong rumbling sound, the platform came to a halt. They found themselves in another large hall, just like in the last one the ceiling was covered with crystals that made it seem like the sky. To their surprise, the entire floor imitated the outside. The ground was covered in grass and they were in the middle of a large clearing. The forest around them seemed normal and there was no immediate danger anywhere in sight. In the distance was a large pillar that reached all the way to the ceiling.

"Hmm . . . maybe their just going to send some wild animals our way," Lovia said.

Zane chuckled.

As if . . .

"That reminds me, how do these creatures even survive here? I mean I get the ghouls and the golem, but what about the shifters and the basilisk?" Lovia asked.

"They're all semi-immortal," Zane said.

"So the gods just give them a form of immortality and put them in a tower with no way out . . . how nice of them," Lovia said. For a short while, she just looked around the hall. "Well I guess there's no use just waiting around here, might as well explore."

The four left the platform and stepped out into the clearing. In the distance, they could hear the twittering of birds and some sort of rustling.

There's no wind so it can't be the leaves . . . some small animal? Or maybe the enemies of this floor . . .

Lovia began leading the group towards the forest, Zane walked next to her and Rex stayed behind the driver who was still pulling the cart. There was nothing unusual about the forest, but Zane couldn't shake off this weird feeling. As if someone or something was watching them. As they got further into the forest Zane began to notice scratch marks on the trees, as if something had sharped its claws on them.

"What do you think could have done that?" Lovia asked.

"Bears, wolfs, take your pick," he said.

And then they came across the first thing that seemed out of place. Sticks had been bound together to function as a stand and on top if it was a goat's skull. Strange symbols were engraved on it. Some veins had grown up the stand and covered part of it.

A totem . . .

The group came to a halt. Zane looked around, trying to find more totems. Not too far from their current location was another, and some goat skulls were hanging from a tree, their eyes lit up from the inside.

"W-Why have we stopped?" Rex carefully inquired.

"Back to the clearing, now!" Zane said.

The group began retreating quickly at Zane's command. They reached the clearing again, Zane now noticed that the glow from the crystals had become fainter.

It's getting dark . . . not good.

"What is it? Why did we run?" Rex asked.

"Goblins," Zane responded.

"Goblins?!" Lovia said, clearly shocked.

Zane noticed that she was slightly shaking.

"Bad experiences?" he asked.

She nodded slowly while sinking to the ground, digging her fingers into her arms.

"Are goblins that bad?" Rex asked.

Zane nodded.

Pesky little beasts . . . but to those who have experienced the horrors they can inflict they might as well be hell incarnate . . .

He looked up at the ceiling, it had become even darker.

They'll attack once it's dark. We could maybe wait on the floor beneath . . . assuming that it follows a time cycle . . . maybe it's triggered by going into the forest.

"Let's wait on the fifth floor," Zane said.

He helped Lovia up and walked over to the platform, holding her the entire time. Rex and the driver followed them and once they were on the platform Zane pulled the lever. Nothing happened.

Please don't do this to me.

He tried again, nothing happened. No matter how many times he pulled the lever nothing would happen.

"It's alright . . . we'll just have to face them," Lovia said.

"Are you sure?" Zane asked.

She nodded.

"We should prepare." Lovia walked over to the cart and took the fire bowl and some firewood, placed it down in the grass and used a flame crystal she had in her pocket to light it.

"They'll know we're here," Rex said.

"They already know," Lovia said, pointing at two dim yellow lights in the forest.

Watching us already . . . might be almost as good in stalking as Vin.

Zane sat down at the fireplace. Lovia seemed to have calmed down a little, so she didn't shake anymore but Zane could still see the fear in her eyes.

"Shouldn't we engage them?" Rex asked.

"No," Zane said.

Does this guy not know anything? When he talked about canyon basilisks a few days ago I assumed he knows things . . . but apparently he's just an idiot . . . I mean he even engaged one of them . . . he probably just heard their name somewhere and though it sounds cool.

"O-Okay then," Rex responded.

The group waited, observing how the number of glowing eyes in the forest steadily increased. The goblins had surrounded them already.

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Not a favourable position but a lot better than fighting them in a forest.

After a while, the only sources of light were the eyes in the forest and the fireplace in the clearing.

"I-It's time," Lovia said.

She was clearly uncomfortable. Zane removed the corks on all five vials on his back and created ten blood bullets.

Showtime.

He loaded his guns just in time. A horde of small humanoid creatures began swarming out of the forest, emerging from the darkness. They were equipped with swords, spears, shields, armour, some even had a bow and arrows. But the one Zane was most concerned about was the one staying behind, at the edge of the forest. That one had a staff with a shining crystal embedded into the tip.

Goblin sorcerer . . . this might turn into a bloody mess.

Lovia began swinging her chain, Rex drew his rapier and the driver had taken his sword from the cart.

The goblins quickly reached them, stepping into the light of the fireplace. They were about as tall as a child, their skin a pale green. They had cat-like eyes and large ears like those of the mammoths in the icy mountains in the Velva Highlands. Their bodies were thin and bony. When they opened their mouths they revealed their sharp teeth.

Zane shot two of them in the head, their dead bodies falling to the ground. The other goblins just walked over them, not even looking at their fallen comrades. And so the slaughter began, the hall was quickly filled with the growling of the goblins. The goblin horde just kept on swarming them without ever retreating, as if they were possessed by something that just told them to advance. Zane looked to the goblin sorcerer just sitting in the back, observing the battle.

Pesky little fuck . . .

Zane noticed a large cluster of goblins approaching him. He pointed both guns at them and moved the blood bullets hovering beside him next to the barrels. He shot the two bullets he had loaded and had the ones hovering around the guns follow them. The two from the gun hit first, piercing though multiple goblins the other eight bullets hit the cluster shortly after, ripping a hole in it. But the goblins still kept charging at him.

Gotta take care of the sorcerer.

"Lovia!" he yelled. "Take care of them, I'll take out the sorcerer!"

Lovia nodded at him and swung her chain blade at the goblins approaching him, cutting off their heads.

Zane charged at the sorcerer, shooting the ones approaching him on the way. He eventually got close enough to the sorcerer to see him properly. He wore a robe made out of animal hides and furs and held a staff in his hand, a purplish crystal embedded in its tip. On his back, he carried even more staffs, the tips pointing downwards. Zane aimed at him but at the moment he planned on shooting a large number of goblins stormed him from behind, burying him.

Shit.

He felt how blades began stabbing at his hard leather armour. Due to the bad condition, none of the blades managed to get through but Zane also couldn't move at all. He had also lost concentration and the blood bullets had returned to liquid form and were somewhere on the ground now.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

Zane's body began shaking as soon as a goblin removed his hood and stared him into the eyes. It licked it's thin lips and grinned at him, showing its pointy teeth. The goblin grabbed Zane by his hair and licked his face. Its tongue was rough and dry.

Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off.

Zane tried to force the other goblins, that were still stabbing at him, off of him but had no success.

What could I do? What could I do? What could I do?

At that moment the image of Ivara's lifeless body hanging above him, pierced by blood spikes, appeared before his inner eye. Tears began running down his face as the goblin slowly put its sword against Zane's throat, it was cold.

"Blood Spike!" he said, or rather something in him.

It was as if his power had been increased tenfold. Even though all he had were a few small puddles and no information on where the goblins were he felt how his blood pierced through every single one of them, bending at times to kill a goblin. Zane felt the cold disappearing from his throat and saw the goblin fall to the ground, with a hole in its head.

"Wouldn't be fun to see you die just yet," he heard something whisper. "But I demand payment . . . at a later time."

Erebus . . . why?

Zane felt the weight of the goblin corpses on his back but he could now move again. The sorcerer looked at him, in shock. Zane jumped up, the corpses falling off of him, and charged at the sorcerer. The blood spikes broke apart and turned back into bullets, that Zane shot at the sorcerer. But to his surprise the goblin took one of the staffs from his back, one with an orange-brownish crystal at the tip, and rammed it into the ground, creating a wall of earth that stopped the bullets.

And now this . . .

Zane recalled the two bullets. His body was still slightly shaking from what happened before. He took a deep breath and stopped running. The sorcerer had created an earth pillar beneath himself and now looked down at Zane.

Bastard.

The sorcerer had already grabbed a third staff, this one had a red crystal.

Fire.

Zane jumped backwards just in time to dodge a wave of fire coming from the crystal. The sorcerer was laughing like a maniac as he burned down everything before him. Some of the fire had found its way to the forest which was now on fire. Zane opened his satchel and opened up one of the blood containers.

"Blood Dragon!"

The blood in the container rushed out and formed into the snake-like head of an Amphithere. Zane waited for the flames to disappear before he began running towards the sorcerer again. He jumped on top of the earth wall and stared the sorcerer right in his cat-like eyes.

"Rush," Zane said.

The dragon head went straight towards the sorcerer who tried to attack it with fire but there was no effect on it.

"Bite!"

The sorcerer's head disappeared within the blood dragon's mouth, at first he squirmed but that quickly stopped when the blood teeth went into his neck and bit through it with a loud crunch. The headless corpse fell from the pillar. Zane jumped up on it and grabbed the staff with the purplish crystal and turned around, looking at the battle that had unfolded in the background.

Lovia was still swinging around her chain blade, beheading every goblin that came close. She had created a mountain of goblin corpses. Rex was still struggling to fight off the goblins that were approaching him and had retreated to the driver for protection.

Now watch this.

Zane lifted up the staff.

"Stop!" he said, his voice sounding otherworldly, similar to when he was channelling Aura through it but resembling his own a lot more.

All of the goblins suddenly stopped moving.

"Kill yourselves!" Zane commanded.

Every single goblin lifted its weapon. Those with swords to their throats, those with spears right at their bellies and those with bow and arrow aimed at each other. Shortly after the hall was filled with the sound of goblins killing themselves and falling to the ground. Zane grinned at the sight of the goblins slaughtering themselves.

He jumped down from the pillar and went back to the others, walking over the corpses of countless goblins. The blood dragon returned to the container, dropping the sorcerer's head and Zane also had the blood bullets return to the vials. By the time he reached the others Lovia had already sat down and was breathing heavily, her face still wet from tears. Rex sat on the cart, the driver standing next to him.

"So . . . what . . . what now?" Lovia asked as she tried to catch her breath.

Zane looked back at the still-burning forest, by now the fire had spread quite a bit.

If we stay for too long the smoke will become a problem . . . It's also not cutting us off, yet.

"We should go now before the fire is in the way," Zane said.

"Alright then," Lovia said.

She got up and the driver grabbed the cart again.

The next floor might also be our last . . . if the old stories are right.

The group began going back to the forest, it was warm and a few flames had nearly reached the way they took towards the large pillar.

I guess we only have a few minutes before the flames will reach us completely.

The four began going faster, trying to avoid the flames as best they could. By the time they could see the pillar the flames were right behind them, consuming everything in their way. Rex suddenly began screaming, the flames had reached them.

"Leave the cart!" Lovia yelled.

"N-No! We can't lea-" Rex began but the driver just grabbed him and began running to the pillar.

Lovia and Zane followed him. They reached the pillar, which was built on top of a stone platform, just in time, the flames that had chased them reached the edge of the forest shortly after them. The cart had been devoured by them just like the plants on the ground.

"What's with that fire? Was it chasing us?" Lovia asked.

Probably Abaddon's work.

"Seemed like it," Zane said.

The pillar had a door in it, inside was a large spiral staircase leading to the next floor.

"So we couldn't have taken the cart anyway," Lovia stated as she looked inside.

Probably intended that way.

And so the group began on their way to the seventh floor.