The cries of the bats flying en masse toward us created cacophonic chaos of thoughts and feelings, each overlapping in my mind, giving me images, smells, disgusting feelings on my skin, and tastes of things I would never even dream of licking.

But I put all that aside with a push of my considerable Willpower.

“Roana,” I called. “Free Aisha from the bindings.”

Aisha turned to look at me, surprised; Roana was just as confused.

“It’s still not the time; what are you-”

“Those fucking Cyclopses are Ultimate Class holders,” I said, turning toward them with the most convincing look I could. “And there is a Shadowmancer among them.”

I could feel Aisha suck in a breath and Alistar scoff.

Then the barrage of bats attacks commenced. At the same time, a massive Cyclops started moving.

The biggest among them released a mighty roar then laughed as if possessed and started coming at us.

I Track and Traced him, him, and the rest of the gang, waiting with grinning faces.

The one coming at us was a damn Dark Berserker.

We had heard tales of Berserkers; they were Classes that exploded in number on the war front but died just as quickly.

Berserkers were born on the battlefield and died on the battlefield; although we had never met one, people from the village joked about it, saying that five out of ten times, the two things happened during the same day.

I guessed that this one had lived through his battles up until now, but it would be meeting me today. It was going to be the day he died.

“Loki, kill the bats that escape. Guys, I’m going to take out as many as I can; do not die.”

"And, Ro?" I didn't even need to express myself clearly for her to understand.

"Make it." She used Command on me. "But, Loke? Let this be the last mess, if you get me killed mum's heart is gonna break."

I knew that she was only half-joking then. So I nodded.

I took in a big breath, then I threw a pebble through Alistar’s grid attacks, and I found myself in the massive grotto.

I put Spectre’s Dignity between my teeth then nocked an arrow, hoping it would be a killing blow.

If I played my first hand correctly, it might as well be.

The biggest among the Cyclops was coming at us; he looked like a damn wall of blue flesh running at us with a speed he simply shouldn’t have been able to generate.

I ran toward him as well; the other Cyclopses chortled with a heavy cracking voice. The magician grinned.

I fully imbued my mind into the arrow I was about to shoot; the Trick Shot would be as unexpected and deadly as I could make it.

But the very moment I released the arrow, a voice broke through the shrills of dying bats trouncing the very cave’s walls. Thanks to that, the Cyclops running at me dodged my arrow, and by sheer reflexes, he was able to evade even the incoming Trick Shot.

I felt my rage, but at the same time, the thrill of battle boiling from the very center of my being and reaching the very tips of my fingers and toes.

My smile widened, and although I was about to give away my trump card at the first battle, I had a way to answer the situation, I had a sure one-hit-kill move.

In the position he had taken to dodge my first arrow, the Cyclops would not be able to dodge what I was about to do.

I felt the sensation, the tunnel coming from my Trick Shot, grow smaller with each passing instant, thinner, almost imperceptible; but I pulled through it.

I dropped my bow, and at the same time, removed Spectre’s Dignity from my mouth, gripping it with my clock hand, then I jumped.

The very next moment I disappeared, I felt a shout, the same booming voice that I had felt shaking the wall of the cavern a moment before, the magician had tried to warn his companion once more, but it had not been fast enough. Not even remotely enough to prepare the Berserker to answer my next attack.

I found myself on top of the Cyclops' head, my right hand gripped his forehead, but my left hand plunged the knife hilt-deep inside the creature’s single eye.

The creature, whose brain had been punctured, immediately stumbled on his feet, dropping on the ground with his knees, a loud "thud" ensued, while the momentum of his charge dragged his face across the sharp rocks.

I rolled away, picking up my bow right before the massive body was about to reach it, then I rose up, turning toward the other Cyclopses still far in the distance.

They were baffled.

They looked at me as if something of the like had never happened before.

Long seconds passed as I pointed at them, and they looked at me, incredulous of what had just transpired.

When I uttered the next few words, the grotto was silent. The sound of the bats had ceased; Alistar and the other had taken care of them all.

“So, who wants to die next? Raise at least a hand,” I taunted.

A few more seconds went by in utter silence.

The Cyclopses had realized that their companion was indeed dead, he would not be getting up.

So another of them slowly rose from his seat, livid. Then, with a terrible roar, he started rushing at me, but he was not alone. They all got up; the last of them was the Shadowmancer; he was looking at me with the most terrible gaze I had ever felt.

It sent chills down my spine.

But I was no longer alone; Alistar, Roana, my Loki, and Aisha were coming toward me.

Alistar was covered in viscera, Aisha was emanating solar flare from her hands. Judging by the sounds I had heard before, she had been the one finishing the bats up.

“You are insane to bring us here,” she said.

I could not see her; my gaze was glued on the Shadowmancer, but my crazed Synesthesia showed me her frame through a random burst of echolocation; she shook her head in disbelief, but her legs did not shake in fear. She was indeed a delver.

I could feel many whispers, but it was definitely not the right time to read them. But from what I could feel, they were critical.

Always at the worst times.

Four of the creatures were running at us; the last one, the Shadowmancer, unlike the others, was calmly coming at us, taking his sweet time.

“The one on the right, the female one, Ro, you might even take care of her yourself; her Willpower is practically abysmal for her level.”

“How can you say it’s a she?” Roana asked before realizing it, “Oohhh, gross…”

She had likely seen them closely now; it was not a good view, not at all.

“Damn, those beasts are hung,” commented Alistar.

Although he tried to jest, I could feel how the terrible vibrations that shook the cave, generated from the creatures’ mad rush toward us, were making him stand on edge.

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“The one on the center; his Constitution is low enough for you to evaporate him, Aisha. But Star, you’ve got to cover for her, or he’s going to squash her.”

“What about the other two?” Aisha asked, her voice growing higher at the end of her question.

“Leave those to me, but be careful. The one taking his time behind them is the magician; he’s on an entirely different level.”

The two I would fight against were some evolved form of a Brawler, called a Dark Jabber, and a Rogue that likely did not use any weapon besides a huge mace; his Class was called Thunder Scout.

Entirely contradictory as far as Classes went.

These creatures likely had no real social system or society at all, given how they lived. It looked like no one had taught them that a Scout that produces loud sounds was the apotheosis of contradiction.

To spite them, he would be the next one I would kill; the fact that he was the one coming faster at us didn’t count. Or so I told myself.

I shot an arrow at the incoming monstrosity; he dodged even without the need for the Shadowmancer to intervene, then moved far away from my arrow, likely to evade my instantaneous displacement.

Big mistake.

It moved so fast that it destabilized the other two on his left, slowing them down.

The less momentum they had got, the better it was for us to come out of this victorious.

But that was not all, my arrow was still in flight, and as the Brawler running directly behind the Scout evaded it too, the arrow kept traveling toward the Shadowmancer.

I grinned at the lucky fluke. However, the Brawler quickly braked as he noticed it and started running back.

But I was already there, above the Shadowmancer, ready to plunge my knife in its eye.

Then I felt something crack; I understood it after a few instants later what had generated that sound.

It was the sound of my clock-arm, being damaged by a shadow whip that had wrapped around it.

I threw my knife up toward the ceiling then transferred.

The transfer came with an explosion of frost, dropping down crystals of ice toward the ground. The mass I had brought with me was much heavier than the Skill could usually handle because the Shadomancer was falling down from the sky with me.

For some reason, the shadow whip had disappeared, maybe some effect related to the two Skills clashing against each other; however, I had to admit I had almost pissed myself.

If that thing had gripped anything else but my clock-arm, it would have turned it into a paste; thankfully, it took much more to destroy my Harlow’s clock-arm.

Now the Shadowmancer was falling with me, but I had to be sure; I did not know the whip’s range.

Also, my knife had flown too far, I had lost sight of it, but I still had my bow; thankfully, the weird shadow whip had not damaged it.

I retrieved an arrow from my quiver and threw it at the Cyclops Brawler; then I nocked another arrow; the moment the stupid creature evaded it and, transferring, I appeared on the ground, where the first arrow had landed, just a few meters from his legs, but entirely out of the creature’s sight.

When the monster that expected to find me behind him, ready to strike him down, turned around to punch thin air, I let my arrow fly.

It came from above, easily penetrating his mouth, then exploding inside of it.

The internal explosion was death, forty points of Constitution or not.

The kill’s whispers came to me at the same moment during which the Shadowmancer I had brought with me hit the ground.

I took a long look at him, he was dangerous. Even destabilized by the fall, I did not feel comfortable battling that monster, without my knife.

I turned around toward my team.

Alistar was holding his arms up above as the Thunder Scout hit him repeatedly with a thundering sound; at least that Cyclop’s Strength was not as high as the Brawler, I had just killed.

However, Alistar could only defend against that attack, and judging by his face, it was likely that his Duress was about to or had already expired.

By Alistar's side, Aisha was breathing heavily, a massive charred corpse lay at her feet, and she was covered in soot; if she had yet to attack, it meant that her flare had some sort of cooldown, she did not feel like the person to watch somebody get killed in front of her, not even if that was one of her jailers; also, what was she to do alone against the Shadowmancer, or even worst, the outside region.

Magicians were everything but autonomous. They needed the support to shine. If I ever encountered a magician that went for his life in solitude, then I would stay the Abyss away from them; it meant true survival skills, something that most magicians indeed lacked.

Roana was instead, weirdly poking a kneeled Cyclop’s eyes with her halberd-staff. A second later, I understood that she was trying to extract her weapon, not poking the already dead creature that had died kneeling.

What a terrifying creature she was, Roana. At that moment, I hoped that the day we crossed would never come.

But why was I even thinking about something so stupid and in such a situation? She was one of my best friends. Then I understood why; it was my fear of the magicians as a whole acting up; Roana would likely become one.

I forced myself to shake free of those thoughts, then shot an arrow at the Cyclops Scout’s knee, making it fall on his knees. I would have thrown another when I discovered I was out of arrows.

“Fuck.”

At least I had stopped its barrage of hits.

The Scout, even kneeling, was ready to unleash another unexpected attack on Alistar, which had fallen with his ass on the ground; his stance had finally broken; but before the Cyclops could deliver his attack, came Loki’s time to steal the show.

The Netherlion jumped on the Cyclops’ neck from behind him, biting through its ear.

The Cyclops started shaking himself wildly to get free from my pet, so I whistled for Loki to get his attention; he released him right away.

What happened next was Roana shouting a “Stop!” to the creature, whose attack stopped in its track, nullifying the momentum. Then finally, with a high-pitched shout, a massive flare loop shot forth from Aisha’s conjoined hands.

The flare literally devastated the kneeling Cyclops, scorching the terrain beneath it, then dissolving in the grotto’s atmosphere.

I lowered my bow after that, and the only sound that could be heard in the cavern was the party’s rough breathing.

There was still something that needed to die, though, the most dangerous of them all.

But for some reason, the Shadowmancer was… he was grinning.

“What the fuck are you laughing about?” I asked as I started to pick up as many pebbles as my satchel could fit.

The Cyclops did not answer, so I spoke to my team.

“Guys, how are you?”

“Ready for another round!” Alistar said, panting.

“I want to go home…” said Aisha with barely the power to speak, “shade… filled… places… weaken me.”

“I don’t think I can be of much use against that,” Roana said, likely pointing at the Cyclops.

“Don’t worry, Ro, just tell me if you can see my knife around; I've lost it somewhere.”

She answered me after just a few seconds.

“Thirty degrees to your right, roughly two hundred meters ahead of you.”

“Thank you!” I croaked as I threw a pebble in that direction.

A few seconds later, I had my knife in hand and couldn’t help but keep my eyes on the Shadowmancer. His stance invited me to attack him.

He seemed to be off his hinges now that his family had died; he looked much more crazed than before, truly savage.

I got closer to his location, as I felt the others do the same, it would take them a while, so I tested something, throwing a pebble at him.

The pebble was swatted away.

Then I threw a couple of them.

Two different shadow tendrils manifested just to disappear after swatting the pebbles away.

The son of a Moon walker had been holding back. He was not anymore, and now I had no idea how to correctly gauge his power.

Even if I checked how many tendrils he could create, who could make sure that he was not bluffing on their amount?

No, I had to overwhelm him.

The creature was the youngest among the Cyclopses, which probably accounted for his size since his Constitution was higher than it should have been. A lot of their Attributes had been higher than what I was used to, but I guessed that it was something tied to the Cyclopses' natural Attributes; we were not born equal after all.

Still, not only was he the strongest, but he was also much more capable of reading my intentions than the others we had faced. It might have been tied to his Third Eye II Skill, but it still made him much more dangerous than the others.

So much so that it was unlikely for me to take down the monster in front of me by myself, I needed someone to steal his attention from Aisha or me to get closer enough for her flare to turn him into cinders.

But they seemed to share roughly the same range, and she would be at a great disadvantage if she were to get close enough for his fast and agile shadow tendrils to attack. He could snap her like a twig.

Almost the same could be said about me.

The tendrils likely considered his Focus as a source of power; even boosted, my Constitution was less than half the Focus Trace had shown me; I judged that considering his bonuses, breaking through my Constitution would really be child’s play for him. It was likely that he would easily break through Alistar’s defenses as well.

If those tendrils had damaged my clock-arm, it was likely they could do the same to his metal skin.

A shadow of doubt tarnished my certainties.

Could we beat him?

While the creature was leisurely coming at us, my mind was churning and dumping ideas as fast as it could.

Roana, Alistar, Aisha, Spectre's Dignity, shadow tendrils, and Shadow Burst Skill that he had yet to use; those were all things I had to consider.

“Loke,” Roana called, “how are we going to fight that thing?”

“I’m trying to figure it out. In the meanwhile, stay close to each other.”

“Aisha,” I turned to her at that point, “how many of those attacks can you still fire?”

“At enough power to kill a Cyclops? Three flares… but then I don’t think I can get to that; I’ll likely faint before being able to empty my tank. This place is sapping my strength.”

It was likely that although her Constitution Skill allowed her to store, at her saying, twelve Crystals worth of Flow, mustering enough to kill a Cyclops consumed more than one Crystal.

“Alright, then don’t shoot until I say so, but when I do, shoot all you have, okay?”

“No,” she said, “that’s not how it works; those were the highest concentration of Flow I could muster; I can’t shoot a denser attack.”

“Alright. Do you think that your fire can erase those Shadow Tendrils he keeps summoning?”

“...Yes, I believe it should, or at least it has worked with something of the likes before,” she admitted.

I nodded, “Alistar, protect Aisha; Roana, you shall direct the battle, Aisha, can you Bolster us up?”

She gave us a well-rehearsed speech about the willingness and being relentless in chasing our dreams. Then the Cyclop finally got close enough for us to act.

“Prepare yourselves!” I shouted.