“Whoops,” Imaya said, turning around nervously.

“I’ll be at the river if you need me,” Randel said as he ran away.

“Retreat!” Simon shouted, even though everyone was already sprinting after Randel.

Heading for the river was actually a good idea; the more space they had around them, the less it was likely that spiders would jump on their heads. Imaya’s muscles tensed in excitement as she realized that she would be the one covering the team from the critters coming from the ceiling.

Unless they didn’t make it to the river.

Imaya spotted the football-sized spider dropping onto Randel’s head, but it happened too fast for her to even react. The monster landed on Randel who fell to the ground, at which point Devi’lynn tossed Soul Eater forward and Randel appeared on his feet, grabbing the sleek sword’s hilt. He tossed the weapon back to Devi, who caught it in the air while lunging forward, then stabbed at the critter to impale it through its back. The rest of the team caught up with them a moment later, and they continued to escape together. Imaya had no idea why it was Devi’lynn who wielded Soul Eater, but she had no chance to ask; she saw more of the spider-critters approaching, scuttling toward them on the walls of the buildings.

They didn’t make it to the river.

Imaya screamed as a spider jumped at her from above, though it never even touched her as it met Teva’ryn’s sword instead. The Sylven warrior’s weapon almost split the monster in two, blue fluids spilling to the ground as he dislodged the blade from the monster’s body. Stuttering a thanks, Imaya moved past Teva’ryn only to find Devi’lynn at the front engaged in battle with two spiders, while Randel hid behind one of her clones. Imaya whirled back, where Tamara was busy sucking the spiders above with her Gravity Orb, Simon covering her from the critters that attacked from the ground. Pell was in the middle of casting his Protective Shell, small chunks of stone floating up from the ground to cover his body.

Flattening herself to the building next to her, Imaya hurriedly glanced down at her collar’s projection to open her Quests menu.

> Repel the swarm

> Description: You’ve alerted a horde of swellers! They are not friendly.

> Objective: Kill all the attacking swellers, or make them flee.

> Progress: [ 7 / 214 ]

> Reward: 300 credits to your Player Allowance.

Her eyes went round when she saw the numbers; she had been expecting one or two dozen of these monsters at most. How the hell would they be able to kill over 200 of these things?! Her mana was at around 60%, which meant approximately 10 minutes of Arcane Sight—more than enough for her to shoot her remaining 13 arrows. Thirteen arrows! That was good for, like, killing 6% of the attacking critters if she never missed a shot.

Imaya shook her head, focusing on the fight around her. No matter how many monsters came at them, worrying about her arrows would come later; for now, there were swellers to kill. She could see that the river lay just ahead of them, but Devi’lynn wasn’t able to push through the attacking critters. The battle behind Imaya seemed to be even more intense, since the majority of the monsters were attacking from that direction. With Tamara’s Orb and Pell’s impenetrable defense the team had managed to hold the swarm back so far, but the sooner they got to the river, the better.

Taking a deep breath, Imaya stepped out of Teva’ryn’s shadow and lifted her bow. Precision Shot! Her arrow found a sweller preparing to lunge at Devi’lynn’s clone. By the time the white streaks burst out from the dead critter’s body, Imaya was already aiming at another target. Precision Shot! She glanced at her stamina bar as it dropped further down, then reached for a new arrow. Precision Shot! The sweller above Randel took an arrow to the back, but it didn’t die from the wound. It dropped to the ground however, after which Randel didn’t hesitate to kick it away.

Imaya smiled viciously—she was making a difference! Devi’lynn did her fair share at killing the swellers too, impaling them with Soul Eater one by one. The difficult part seemed to be retrieving the weapon from the bodies, which slowed her down a bit—but by using her clones as cover, she had been able to defend herself so far.

“Imaya, help!” Randel yelled, and she averted her gaze from Devi’lynn quickly. Randel had his cloak bunched up around his right hand, punching spiders away as they leapt at him. More and more monsters crawled over the walls however, threatening to overwhelm him. Imaya took another glance at her stamina – around 30% of her max SP remained – then activated her other Skill; Rapid Fire! Her hand moved in a blur as she reached for an arrow, fired, then reached for another projectile, and fired again. She fired one more time before her stamina ran out, then lowered her bow. 7 arrows remaining. Out of the three shots, two had found their marks, dropping two critters from above Randel. The rest was taken care of by Devi’lynn, while they chased Randel this way and that.

“Thanks!” Randel wheezed when all the swellers were dead. He jogged toward the river with Devi’lynn, muttering something under his breath. Meanwhile, the chittering noises behind Imaya grew louder and the misty XP streaks got frequent to the point of being visually distracting. Imaya squinted as she looked at the other half of the team fight; Pell plastering a spider to the wall while three others hung on his stone-covered body, Teva’ryn using his phantom-arm to intercept a jumping sweller, Tamara stabbing her spear through a critter biting into Simon’s leg. Imaya still had 7 arrows left … but the others seemed to be holding out, retreating slowly … and they were too grouped together, and Imaya couldn’t fire her arrow in fear of hitting them … besides, Devi’lynn and Randel needed support too.

Imaya turned around and ran while she could.

More of the swellers were crawling in from the sides, so she ducked her head and ran faster. Devi’lynn and Randel were waiting by the river, their backs to the water. Imaya took a glance back as she arrived, spotting two of the swellers following her on the ground. This was the first time she saw them actually running, and it didn’t improve her opinion on them; the oversized headless spiders were frighteningly creepy as they scuttled after her.

“M-More are coming,” Imaya informed the others, unsure whether they could see the critters.

“I hope too,” Devi’lynn said, stepping forward. She gripped Soul Eater firmly with her bandaged hand, then created two clones in quick succession. The first of the incoming swellers launched itself off the ground, jumping surprisingly high – around chest-level – before slamming into one of the clones. Devi’lynn swiped the sword at it as the clone puffed away into smoke, cutting off all of the sweller’s legs on one side. Her next move was much smoother by comparison; when the second critter jumped, Devi’lynn shifted her stance and thrust Soul Eater forward, impaling the sweller head-on.

“That was a Weapon Skill, wasn’t it?” Imaya asked, watching Devi’lynn struggle to pull the sword out of the monster’s corpse.

“Not the time for questions, Imaya,” Randel said, teleporting Soul Eater to his hand and handing it over to Devi’lynn again.

“And what are you doing, exactly?” Imaya shot back.

“Trying not to be a badass,” Randel shamelessly said. “So far, it’s working.”

“I can see that,” Imaya said. She looked past Devi’lynn and her clones, noting the flashes of flames and luminescent arms in the distance. The other half of the team had taken cover at a stone mansion’s entrance, using the relatively tall structure as cover. Now that she had a good view on the town, Imaya saw that most of the swellers were coming from one direction. Whatever senses these spider-critters had, they obviously knew where Imaya, Randel, and Devi’lynn were; almost half of them split off and headed in their direction.

Imaya gulped. “I see 7—8—9—way too many of them coming this way. I will try to take … some of them out.”

It was now or never; the swellers were approaching the last of the stone structures, deftly climbing over them and hopping down to the ground. If all of those monsters reached Devi’lynn at once, she wouldn’t stand a chance. Imaya hadn’t regenerated more than one or two Precision Shot’s worth of stamina, but even without Skills she wasn’t helpless. She lifted her bow, then took a deep breath. Her archery instructor had always told her that her biggest weakness was getting overly excited, thus missing her shots. She breathed out slowly. The closest sweller had already reached them, but Devi’lynn jumped forward to take care of it. She took another deep breath, then fired.

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Her first shot caught a sweller just as it was about to lunge. Imaya drew another arrow, aimed, then fired again. Then again, and again. Rinse, repeat. She tried to pace herself, taking her time to aim, trusting Devi’lynn to kill anything that got close. She fired another shot, killing another monster. Amazingly, all of the shots hit their marks so far, and she hadn’t even used Precision Shot yet. Her hand reached for another arrow—and found her quiver empty.

“Not yet!” Imaya whimpered, looking around in panic. More of the swellers were closing in, running at them from downriver, from the town, even from the ceiling of the enormous cavern—

Imaya screamed as a sweller jumped at her from the side, going straight for her head. One of Devi’lynn’s clones jumped in and tackled the monster, falling into the river with it. The clone puffed into smoke, but not before it opened a shining circular portal above the water’s level. Imaya hadn’t even recovered from the shock when another sweller plopped into the river through the portal. The water carried the critters off with bubbling screeches. The other half of the portal floated in front of Devi’lynn, and though it wasn’t large enough to be effectively used as a shield – a single sweller barely fit the portal – the shimmering ring did buy her some much-needed time to cut down the monsters. Still, there would have been too many of the critters for Devi’lynn to handle, if Randel hadn’t joined the fight too.

He faced the skittering monsters coming from downriver, his face set in a way that told Imaya he was done messing around. When the first sweller jumped at him he simply snatched one of its legs in the air, swinging it around to toss it through the portal. He dodged the next sweller that jumped at him, grabbing its back as it flew past and slamming it onto the edge of the portal, splitting its body almost in two. He tossed his cloak at the third sweller before it could have jumped at him, then kicked a fourth critter out of the air before stomping on the one tangled in his cloak. Another critter was already jumping at him by that time, but he pivoted on one foot and kicked high with the other, redirecting the sweller into the river.

“I knew it,” Imaya whispered. “He is a ninja.”

> Congratulations, your level has increased!

> Level 5 reached.

Now that Randel started killing the monsters, the white streaks of experience flowing into Imaya resumed. Which did make her wonder—where had they been, so far? Imaya watched Devi’lynn bury her sword into a wounded sweller. No white streaks. With a fierce yell, the Sylven girl hacked another jumping spider apart. Still no white streaks. Blue blood splashed against her arm as she swung Soul Eater, cutting into—Soul Eater! Imaya’s eyes widened in realization as she watched the orange gem embedded into blood-coated weapon shine like a hungry star. Randel had been hogging all the XP with Soul Eater, hadn’t he?! It explained his higher level.

Enough was enough. Imaya hung her bow across her shoulder, drew her tiny dagger, and rushed to Devi’lynn’s side with a fierce yell. She intercepted a sweller that was lunging at a clone, her free hand grabbing the front of the critter’s lumpy body – touching its damp and cold skin – while her other hand thrust her dagger deep into the critter’s maw.

> Weapon Skill discovered: Power Stab

The sweller died instantly, but its pointy teeth grazed her skin nevertheless. She recoiled from the pain and let the critter fall to the ground. The spider-corpses were piling up on the cavern’s floor, the stone surface slick with their blue blood. Imaya clenched her teeth, forcing herself to look away. More spiders were coming, and she needed to be ready for them. Her only luck was that the critters didn’t stop to form a line before attacking; they came at the three of them one by one instead. Imaya eyed a pair of swellers as they headed her way—and that was when her mana ran out.

It felt as if someone had flipped the light switch, plunging the cave into darkness. Imaya’s eyes weren’t accustomed to the meager glow of their collar, and even in proper light the approaching swellers would have looked nothing more than vague splotches. Panicking, she backpedaled quickly but slipped on the bloody ground. One of the swellers slammed into her in the very next moment, its creepy legs wrapping around her torso as Imaya fell backward, hitting the ground hard.

“Power Stab!” Imaya screamed as the critter tore into her shirt. Her hand moved on its own, burying the dagger up to its hilt into the sweller’s side. She tossed the critter off her body, but when she tried to stand up something bit her boot. She kicked at it to get free, then rolled to the side to dodge another sweller jumping at her head. Power Stab! She came out of the roll swinging at the sweller that had bitten her foot, but she only cut one of its legs off. Power Stab! She spun on her knees, slamming the dagger deep into another attacking monster. Power Stab! Her Weapon Skill wasn’t working anymore, but she thrust the dagger into a sweller anyway.

Something latched onto her from behind, but she fell onto her back to flatten it under her weight. Another monster used this opportunity to jump on her, but she grabbed it just above her head. She screamed, twisting the blade inside the sweller as it tried to wiggle out of her grasp. Blood spurted down her arms, blue mixed with dark red. She left the dagger in the dying monster and punched another attacking critter in its disgusting maw. The monster tried to bite her arm but she didn’t let up, slamming the critter to the ground to daze it, then punching it with her other hand. She grabbed another sweller’s feet and slammed the monster to the ground over and over and over. When it was properly dead she rolled to her feet quickly and swung her fist at another looming shape—who caught her wrist mid-swing.

“It is done,” Devi’lynn said. “All dead.”

The Sylven girl released her wrist and pointed a bandaged, blood-soaked hand at the notification on the collar’s screen.

> Quest completed: Repel the swarm

> +300 credits

> +1 Feat

>

> Congratulations, your legend has risen!

> Legend 2 reached.

Imaya stared, barely able to comprehend what had just happened. Had she—what had she done? She lifted her hands, vaguely aware of the pain throbbing in her gashed fingers. Her hands were trembling. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she didn’t even know why. Her clothes were dirty. She would need new ones. And the smell. Oh, the smell—there were monsters lying everywhere. Heaps of headless spider-bodies.

“Good job,” Devi’lynn said, smiling at Imaya. “We fight well.”

“I—” Imaya licked her dry lips, and immediately regretted it. Her face was dirty too.

“You need help?” Devi’lynn asked, looking worried. “Or time alone? Like Randel?”

Imaya turned, following Devi’lynn’s eyes. Randel sat on his knees by the river, arms hanging limply, head tilted upwards, heaving heavy breaths. Imaya turned her Arcane Sight on with the mana she had recovered, taking a better look at him. He didn’t seem to be injured—or dirty at all, for that matter.

“I’m fine … I think,” Imaya said. “I will be fine.”

“Hello!” Pell spoke in the distance. “Imaya, Randel, Devi’lynn? Are you okay?”

“Yes!” Devi’lynn said, waving at the approaching forms. “You?”

“More or less!” Pell said, coming with the rest of the team down the street. He was supporting Tamara who seemed to be in a bad shape; she was limping badly, holding a bloody cloth to the side of her head. Behind them walked Teva’ryn, looking more upset than hurt. Simon brought up the rear; he hobbled much like Tamara, though instead of Pell’s arm he used a piece of wood as a crutch.

Imaya’s Arcane Sight fizzled out once again, making her frown. Without too much hesitation, she pressed the small + sign next to her Spirit attribute and confirmed her selection. The number went up, but it didn’t feel as satisfying as she hoped it would. Sighing, she decided to look at her Abilities menu. On the top of the page she saw that her Legend was 2, and – just as expected – she needed 3 more Feats for her next Legend. She also had two new Abilities to choose from!

> Arcane Arrow

> Shape an arrow out of raw mana. Arrow explodes upon impact. Damage increases by level.

>

> Archer’s Respite

> Expel a wave of force around you. Power increases by level. Blast radius increases by level.

Imaya smiled at the exciting set of options. Now this looked promising! Either Ability would go amazingly with the mage-archer character build she had envisioned for herself. Archer’s Respite would be a great defensive Ability against melee opponents, depending on how far the blast threw them back. And with the help of Arcane Arrow, she’d finally have a truly powerful weapon in her arsenal! Both Abilities were incredibly good—so then why was it, that deep within her heart she still felt a tiny bit disappointed?

Imaya looked down at her dirty, bloody, bleeding hands. They hurt a lot. She’d need to wash them properly or they would get infected. Charging into the fray with only a small dagger had been stupid and foolhardy, and she had paid the price for it. Where was that dagger, anyway? Imaya glanced at the bodies around her, hoping the find the sweller that had her weapon. She couldn’t see much without her Arcane Sight.

But she had fought without her Arcane Sight. She had fought, and she had survived. It had been dirty and full of struggle, but she had done it. She had felt something primal in the way she used the dagger, something freeing. She had been fighting for her life of course, which was really scary, but at the same time she hadn’t been … she hadn’t been afraid. She could still remember how it felt, the rush of adrenaline, the fire in her veins, the fury as she had stabbed sweller after sweller. So different from standing afar with her bow, fervently hoping to hit her target before it reached her. So different from the mindset that her father always tried to instill in her, a mindset of precision and control.

Imaya’s hand hovered over Arcane Arrow. It was her smartest choice; with this Ability, she wouldn’t have to worry about running out of ammunition ever again. The explosive arrows might even be able to injure the sweller-giants, which would be invaluable in this Dungeon. It was the firepower that this team had been lacking so far. Arcane Arrow was the perfect choice, Imaya decided.

She then closed her screen without selecting anything.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered. “This is your fault, Randel.”