I know what fear is. I know what love is. Even as I no longer feel it. The all consuming essence, filling my being as I stride into battle once again.

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Matt felt his hands shaking as adrenaline jolted through his body. This is not real, this is not real he kept repeating to himself as he looked around the slope for a place where he could stand. A place to stand and fight a bear, of all things. Those teeth and claws look like they can do some real damage. The three humans and the animal were slowly walking up the hillside, their expressions as vacant as the opponents that preceded them. Only the slight whisper of the wind and the sounds of metal on metal broke through the quiet, as they got ready for another battle.

Vic was standing off to one side, idly twirling his dagger as he crouched down. Good, Matt thought. Don’t trigger Hide too early. Thor was already out of essence, and Pete and Mia couldn’t have much left. Fortunately Vic should still have plenty left. Thor had pulled out a hatchet in one hand, and held a dagger in the other, keeping his eyes trained on the archer as he clenched his jaw. We shouldn’t have used Thor’s skill in the first fight. What can he even do against an archer?

He could see Mia out of the corner of his eye. She was observing the scene, arms relaxed by her sides, ready to intervene or assist if any of them should need it. Pete had moved up in front and was squaring his shoulders, drawing lazy circles in the air with his sword, anticipating the man in full armour who was slowly approaching.

Matt’s heart was beating faster, and with an effort of will he pushed down the rising panic. Breathe. Be right here, right now. This is the only moment that matters. Think later. Fuck, that bear is huge. Easily twice his size, if not more.

Their enemies were closer now, and from the corner of his eye Matt could see Thor and Pete taking off to engage their opponents. Matt gulped and stepped tentatively towards the bear, slowly, with Vic tracking on his right. While there was still some distance to the bear, Matt jabbed the butt of his spear in the ground, lowering his body down behind the sharp metal, keeping the head of the spear pointing straight towards the approaching menace. Breathe, he told himself as the bear raised up on two legs with a roar that shook him to the core, before it thumped back to the ground and ran towards him.

He gripped the spear firmly, never letting the point veer away from the animal rushing towards him. And then with surprising suddenness, it was there, ten strides away, five strides, a mountain of fur and teeth rolling towards him like an avalanche. Just as the animal lept, Vic appeared out of thin air right below it to swipe out at the beast with his dagger. He missed, but the attack made the bear twist in the air in surprise, giving Matt the opening he needed to catch the leaping bear on his spear before rolling to one side a split second after the animal crashed down where he had been standing. The enormous bear roared in anger as it spun back to face Matt, the spear still stuck deep in its shoulder.

Faster than anything that size had any right to move, it came charging again.

Matt got back to his feet just as the animal barrelled towards him. Vic’s voice whispered urgently from behind, “Lead it to the left!”

The animal came charging, and a moment before it was upon him, Matt feigned a roll to the left, before twisting and throwing himself in the opposite direction. It worked, and the bear missed him by a hair’s width, running straight into Vic’s outstretched dagger, appearing from nowhere.

The bear roared as Vic pulled the blade out to stab again, only to miss as the bear spun to strike out with a paw as large as Vic’s head. Vic dodged and triggered his skill, disappearing from view and confusing the beast. The confusion lasted only moments, but gave Matt valuable time to re-find his balance, unclasp his hatchet, and throw it hard towards the beast. The missile missed the bear by a mile.

Fuck. Matt backed away, nearly stumbling twice, as the bear rose on two legs and roared at him from a height of at least twelve feet. “Fuck!” Swiping at him with its massively oversized paw, Matt barely had time to register the movement as he threw himself backwards. The tip of the bear's claws caught him as he fell back, tearing three long grooves out of his upper arm. His arm suddenly numb and burning with an icy pain, Matt screamed as the animal bounded after him to finish its attack.

Matt lost the next moments to adrenaline and confusion and the next thing his brain registered was Vic appearing behind the bear and the beast falling forward, blood spraying from the back of a hind leg. Roaring louder now, the bear twisted around, dragging the injured leg, swiping out at Vic.

Watching Vic dodging the beast, Matt bit down against the pain in his arm. He was struggling to draw breath through the intense agony, and nearly struck out at Mia, who was bending down to hold her hand on his injured arm. “Easy. Hold still.” She closed her eyes for a moment as the threads enveloped his arm. He could see muscles and flesh merging somewhere in the pool of blood that was welling up, and felt the strange sensation of his skin re-knitting. A moment later, the threads dissipated. “Not yet,” she said when he started to pull away. Holding him firm, she sent another wave of healing into him to close the wound.

Pete was exchanging blows with the metal man, who looked to be getting the better of him. Pete tried to wipe away the blood streaming down from his head and into his eyes, keeping his weight on his left leg and almost falling over as his opponent pressed him backwards. The metal man was pressing his attack, and it was all Pete could do to block the strikes on his large sword.

Vic was still keeping the bear occupied, but tiring quickly. Matt pushed Mia back behind him as she finished healing him, and he got to his feet, trying to think through a clouded mind. His spear was still stuck in the bear’s shoulder, and the hatchet was on the ground behind the ongoing fight. Vic noticed him standing up and shouted for Matt to get the beast’s attention before disappearing into thin air. Right. Because further angering that beast when I have no weapons seems like such a fucking great idea.

Matt shouted, “Run!” to Mia behind him just as the bear turned, snarling loudly towards him and waving its head from side to side. From the corner of his eye, he saw the archer standing over Thor, who was on the ground, desperately blocking his enemy’s sword strikes with his much shorter dagger.

Oh shit. I forgot about her, Matt thought when he noticed the last opponent approaching them at a slow walk. We are so fucked. Something had angered the woman, and her face was far from expressionless as she approached him with steady steps. One more thing to try. If this doesn’t work…

Trying to block out Thor, and Pete, and the strange woman from his thoughts, Matt looked at the bear, who was still standing on all four legs, watching him and snarling. Vic wanted me to keep it occupied? Well. I don’t need a weapon for that.

Not sure whether to laugh or to piss his pants with fear, Matt stood up as tall as he could and waved at the beast. “Come here, you big, furry fucker.”

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In that same moment, the woman must have realised something wasn’t right. Matt noticed her running towards them as the bear roared at him and leapt into action. The ground shook as the beast charged towards him, dragging one leg, which was still bleeding hard. His whole body shook as terror gripped his heart, but Matt ran as fast as he was able towards where he recalled Vic’s voice. With a yell, he threw himself to the ground as he sensed something behind, just as Vic appeared, slicing out at the animal’s neck. An enormous rumble followed as the beast slammed down next to him, and he blindly threw a punch towards where he thought the beast was. His fist hit hard fur, and he swung his hand back to punch it again and again.

“You can stop now,” Vic said, breathing hard as he held a hand down to Matt. “It is dead.”

Breathing fast and shallow, Matt turned to see a large gash in the bear’s throat where Vic’s dagger had struck. Blood was pouring out of the wound, and Matt saw the emptiness in the beast’s eyes.

A moment later, there was a scream as the woman ran towards them, equal measures of anger and anguish written across her face. Extending her hand towards Vic, a sudden white light arced from her fingertips to hit him in the face. Electric light flashed across his face and down his chest as Vic froze up and staggered before falling to the ground. Oh fuck. Magic, Matt thought as he pulled his spear out of the bear by his feet, and fell into the defensive guard stance. Just what this fight was lacking.

Carefully observing the woman, Matt’s feet traced the ground as he slowly retreated, avoiding grass that was wet with blood. She had hit Vic at about six feet. Is that the maximum distance? Not taking any chances, he circled her slowly at what he believed was a safe distance, slowly pulling her away from Vic. He knew Mia couldn’t be far away; she just needed some space to work. He was wondering how to deal with the woman just as Pete came running. Matt was about to shout for him to be careful when Pete leaped through the air towards the woman, coming down with a Cleave that slashed the woman in half from her shoulder to her hips.

“Fuck!” Matt yelled in shock as Pete landed next to him, then a moment later, “That was… impressive.”

Pete grinned at him, then his eyes went wide at something behind Matt. Pete took off at a run and Matt turned to see what was happening. Thor was on the ground, his face bloodied and crushed, trying and failing to keep his arms raised to stop a barrage of incoming strikes. Something hard welled up inside Matt as he saw the archer’s sword coming down at Thor’s upraised arms. Pete was running towards them to help, but was too far away. Thor blocked the incoming strike with his palm, pushing the sword to one side. For a moment, Matt thought the crazy man had managed to parry a sword strike with only his hand, but as Thor raised his hand back up…

Matt struggled to keep the bile down at the sight. Thor’s hand was missing several fingers, and fell heavily back to the ground as the archer followed up the sword strike with a pommel strike to Thor’s temple. Just as the man raised his sword again to stab down into Thor’s chest, Pete was on him, throwing himself forward the last strides. With a loud thump, he tackled the man off Thor, and before the archer could gather himself, Pete pulled a dagger from his belt and punched it down through the man’s eye and into his brain.

Mia was already running towards Thor, and Matt followed right behind. The reedy man was covered in blood, and Mia shouted something at Matt, who couldn’t hear anything. He just stood there, frozen and numb, not able to take his eyes off his friend’s ruined face and hand.

“Water!” Suddenly her shouting jolted him from his trance. “Pour all the water you have over him. I need to see where the wounds are!”

He poured all the water he had over Thor’s face, arms, and torso as Mia bent down to work. Deep gashes were revealed all over the thin man, cutting through skin and muscle. Mia worked quietly and with determination, starting at Thor’s head and working her way down to the chest, at some point bringing the man back to consciousness. The wounds were healing and getting better, but Matt noticed they did not close all the way.

He had a horrible suspicion, which was soon confirmed, as Mia lifted her hand off Thor. His hands were still terribly injured, and there were shallow cuts everywhere else that were seeping blood. Mia is out of essence. Even if we got back out right now… There is almost no Growth essence in the cave. She needs to get back outside to regenerate.

Calmly, her face an expression of concentration, Mia dug into her bags and brought out bandages when her magical healing stopped. Systematically she worked on Thor, who was whimpering with pain as she pressed the cloth into his wounds.

“What… what happened?” Thor asked, his voice thick around his wounded mouth.

“You survived,” she said, her voice terse as she kept working. After a brief pause, she continued in a softer voice, “I am sorry. I don’t have more essence. You will live, but–”

“I understand,” he said. “And the others?”

Thor’s face was still a mess of blood and bruises, his eyelids shut and covered in crusted blood, and Matt realised he couldn’t see them.

“We are doing well,” Matt answered. “Small wounds all around, but nothing that won’t heal. Pete has a nasty gash to his head, but it bleeds worse than it is. I am uninjured, and Vic just needs to rest.”

Pete was wiping his sword down with a piece of cloth. “Who were these people? Why did they just attack us?”

Vic’s eyes were bloodshot, and he was obviously still in pain. “Who fucking cares,” he muttered. “We won, didn’t we?”

“If you can call this winning,” Mia said, now checking over the last bandages.

Matt was looking down the slope of the hill, the peace and quiet making him nervous. “Was that the last group?”

“I think so,” Pete said, looking into the distance. “It looks like there are only a few seconds left.”

“What happens when–” Vic started, when there was a sudden flash of light surrounding them.

“What was that?” Pete spun around, his sword held at the ready.

“That,” Matt said and pointed.

There, sitting on the grass in front of them, was a chest? Small, no bigger than a foot long and a hand deep, intricate silver slats decorated the wooden chest. Vic bent down to inspect it, pressing the sides of the chest and peering at the latch mechanism before gently twisting it. Matt heard a click, and then Vic raised the lid.

“Oh wow,” Vic whispered. “Guys. Like… Come, look. Look at this!”

Inside, resting on a small purple pad, were four crystals, larger than the ones from the boglin dungeon. Four, Matt thought as he looked at them: One dark green, one dark grey, one steely blue and one mixing a dark red with a light blue.

Vic had picked up the grey crystal and was holding it up to inspect it, his eyes focused on something behind the crystal as he studied it..

Slowly, he read out, “Class Assignment Core. Absorb to select your Class.”

Taking a step back, Matt watched Pete and Mia approach and pick up their crystals. Matt picked up the red and blue one, carrying it over and putting it in Thor’s good hand.

Vic was about to bring his crystal back up to his eyes when Mia intervened with a hand on his arm. “Not yet. Let’s get out of here first and get Thor healed up. How do we exit this place?”

“There,” Matt pointed. In the centre of the hill, a pillar had appeared, glowing with the gentle swirl of blue symbols.

“Just a moment.” Pete gestured for him to wait and walked back out to the battlefield.

Pete walked back to the fallen man with the full metal armour and was bending down over his fallen foe, unfastening and gathering up the armour. Vic walked over to the archer and was collecting the bow and arrows, and Mia was inspecting the woman. With a grimace, she pulled the bloodied silver robe off the corpse. Survival is about training and equipment.

Matt wondered if he should look for something, but the place gave him a foul taste. He just wanted to get out of there.

“Here, let’s go.” Matt got to his feet and reached back to help Thor stand up. The other man kept a stoic silence, but Matt could read the pain in his expression as they slowly made their way over to the pillar.

“Let’s go,” Mia said and reached her hand out. The world dissolved into patterns weaved from thin, blue threads.