The group slowly continued down the path. Alissa was more on edge with each minute. Maybe they should have followed Clara's advice. Nothing good happened when a labyrinth got this quiet.

It was almost a relief when the hissing chants of a lizardman group rose out of the reeds and muck ahead. It sounded like it was to the side of the road they were heading down. Alissa slowed and gathered with the other women. "Sounds like the start of a horde. Off the main path."

"Do we want to thin the numbers a bit?" Rosalina asked as she tapped her rod against her palm. "It'll accomplish both our goals. The guild pays well for horde damage even if you don't kill the leader."

"Only if we can approach and flee safely," Fili replied, looking around furtively. "That mud they slap on themselves makes fire spells weaker." Given the mage's control over steam, that didn't seem like too big a problem to Alissa, but every advantage did matter.

Clara gave the area a once over as well. "It's a straight run back to the stairs. Maybe we can bring them to us?"

Alissa nodded in agreement. Far better to fight on their own ground than wander further into the enemy's territory. "According to the map there should be a smaller clearing ahead. We can draw them in there and retreat before the leader arrives."

She drew her sword and took point again as they moved towards the next area. Her eyes flickered between every reed that swayed out of time with its neighbors, her ears straining to make sure the chants weren't coming closer. Only when she saw the open area before her was clear did she relax a little. She stepped lightly across the mud, moving towards the pathway that led to their target.

As she got far enough to see past the reeds, her eyes fell on a lizardman crawling about on all fours. Both of them froze for a split second, her black eyes looking down at its yellow ones.

Then the lizardman warriors behind it screamed out a challenge and everything went to shit.

Alissa threw back her cape and slashed at the lizardman right in front of her with her knife. The creature started thrashing in pain, tripping the two that had been following. She stabbed one of the downed warriors before stepping back.

Shouts and an explosion from behind told her there had been another group approaching. But she'd have to hope the others could handle it. There were six lizardmen in front of her, and given this wasn't the group they'd heard chanting more would be arriving soon. She needed to start killing fast.

The trio she'd downed were getting back up, and the ones behind were staring at her body. That gave her time. She'd barely started to train this technique, but she'd have to try it.

Getting her blades ready she rushed forwards and did a pirouette, blades flashing around in a Sweeping Circle. Painful jolts as the blades bounced on bone rattled her hands, but she kept her grip. Blood splashed, monsters screamed, and as her vision and balance returned she was standing above six defeated foes. And right in front of a lizardman half again as tall as the others.

The leader. Of course.

She leaped backwards as the creature swung its axe. She swore she could feel the wind from the blow slap her chest, but she'd avoided the first cut. Now she just had to beat a nine foot tall mass of muscle with gator jaws and an axe bigger than her.

Hopefully the others could handle the rest of the horde, because this was going to take all of her attention.

The giant lizardman shifted stance, putting its left foot forward and bringing the axe head to behind its head. The damn thing knew techniques as well. Alissa tensed, waiting for the creature to strike. From that stance... only a vertical cut would work. It would have to shift to strike horizontally.

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A flick of the tail gave her enough warning to easily hop to the side as it swung its axe upwards in an arc. She flicked her own sword out, scoring a cut on its arm. The creature hissed, but merely stepped back to keep its range advantage. A woman then. Score one for lizard gender equality, but that meant the fight was going to be even harder.

With a flick of her wrist she sent her dagger towards the creature's face before calling on all her skill to stab at its knee. Metal rang against metal as the lizardman spun its axe. Alissa saw her knife bounce off the head, while her sword was thrown far off mark. She recovered and shifted forwards trying a cut at its neck. Only to see her foe was swinging the shaft of its weapon up at her.

Pain erupted in her right side and the sky tumbled as she was thrown to the ground. She forced herself into a roll and got to her feet. The lizardman was advancing with a power cut and she took a knee before jumping back, swearing loudly as her ribs sent painful jolts whenever she moved. There had to be some broken bones, maybe even a punctured lung. Her merge was working overtime to keep her moving through the pain.

Alissa tried to steady herself, muttering curses to help ease the discomfort. She switched to a more defensive stance, keeping her sword ready to counterstrike when her foe next attacked. The lizard looked down at her with cold unblinking yellow eyes, waiting for its own chance.

They both waited. The pain spread and sweat started to make her grip weak. She wanted to strike when there was an opening, but with her dagger at the lizardman's feet and the wounds she'd already taken she was at a disadvantage. Her foe seemed willing to just watch and wait until she died of internal blood loss, no matter how far away that might be.

Time to change things.

She took a step back and raised her sword high. It was a stupid attack, but one that demanded a response. With a scream to numb the pain, she hacked down at the creature's arm as she stepped forwards.

The axe easily spun again hitting her blade. Her grip failed and the sword flew into the air away from the fight. But Alissa was already tumbling forwards, hand outstretched. Her hateful dagger flew up and pressed itself into her palm, and she slashed at the inside of the lizardman's legs with all her strength. Hot arterial blood sprayed over her, and then a heavy blow hit the side of her head.

Alissa blinked, stumbling backwards as she recovered. She was missing a few seconds in her memory. But the giant leader of the lizardmen was on the ground having bled out. So a win. Good.

She looked over to the rest of the battlefield to see the fight was mostly over. Clara kicked her last opponent a good three feet, leaving no one nearby standing. Meanwhile Fili was burning down a group of runners. And Rosalina had apparently done something very lethal to a shaman that caused its scales to smoke.

They'd won, somehow. Good. Alissa decided to stumble towards Rosalina. Given her merge had replaced the pain completely with a hazy pleasure she could really use some help. The dragon priestess noticed and moved to meet her. "Greater Healing."

The mixed agony and ecstasy swapped to pure pain, then back to a lingering throb within a second. Alissa felt dizzy from the rapid changes, but she didn't move, letting Rosalina concentrate and fix any hidden damage that was there.

After a few more seconds the dragon priestess stepped back. "There. You should be good. Anyone else need help? Fili, I saw you got hit by some darts."

The slime mage was plucking darts out of her cloak. "None of them drew blood. I think the poisons are all slime based anyway. I suppose you can check me." Alissa was impressed at how cool the mage was despite having been under a lot of fire.

Clara had reloaded her crossbow and was scanning the area. "You healed the cut I got. Managed to avoid anything else somehow. Think the idiots were afraid of me."

"Given you broke one of them with a kick I'd say they were right to," Alissa said. She took her own once over of the battlefield while Rosalina went to check over Fili. There were a good thirty bodies around. Far more than she expected, and a damn impressive feat. "You three got through that with only one injury?"

Clara laughed. "Well it helped that half of them would stop to look at you before remembering they were supposed to fight. And that all their ranged attackers were busy wasting their time poking holes in Fili's cloak instead of hurting me."

Rosalina finished making sure Fili hadn't been poisoned. "I got some bruises as well, but those second rate weapons couldn't get past my scales."

Seeing there wasn't any more to the horde, Alissa relaxed a little. "Well, I think we accomplished our goal. It'll be one large lunch today."

"I know a good place for the after party," Rosalina said. "And it's got a bathhouse nearby as well.

"At least, after we finish looting the bodies and gathering proof for the bounties," Clara said. Alissa looked over the bodies and realized that was gonna be a fair amount of work. She wasn't used to having this many kills.

Alissa gathered her weapons and borrowed the leader's axe to help with taking heads. "Guess we should get started."