ROOOAAAAAAR!!!!!

Stones fell from the cavern walls as they trembled from the roaring behemoth. The sound was so overwhelming that the group actually took a bit of damage from it as their internal organs were crushed under the pressure waves. Freya responded with a chilling roar of her own.

The creature was up on its feet now, staring down the group near the entrance. It… was… PISSED.

It scraped its front paws on the cavern floor like a bull readying a charge, and that’s exactly what it was doing. With a speed not expected for a creature of its size, it barreled forward toward Calvin, who was directly in the path of danger.

Calvin wasn’t unprepared for this though, as he jumped to the side at the last moment, slamming his spear into the charging bear’s paw. The deep wound caused the bear to stumbled forward hard into the cavern wall. Calvin was shifting position now, flanking behind the bear and working to draw its attention from the group.

Seth took up a position in the center of the room and slapped down a snare. This had been working well for them. Start the fight, position the monster, set a snare, lure it in. Easy-peasy.

As the bear stumbled up and renewed its assault on Calvin, Freya swooped in behind the creature and tore into its rear legs with a nanite-infused bite. Quick as lightning the bear swiped backward to swat Freya away. She nimbly dodged the swipe and swooped back in for a swipe of her own.

It was Marshall’s turn, he let loose a Double Tap at the furious bear, drawing its attention to him. The poor creature couldn’t catch a break, it was being assaulted from all sides with practiced precision.

The group had truly come into their own over the last several days. They were coordinated and functioning like a well-oiled machine.

The towering bear let out an enraged snarl towards Marshall, its amber eyes glinting with pure hatred. It dug the claws of its front paw into the stone and tore out a large boulder, flinging it with blinding speed at Marshall. Ian was there with a well-timed Rift Gate. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking, Marshall would likely be a new art project dripping from the cavern walls. The bear followed through with a blistering charge, right into the rune.

Inertia truly was a magical force. The front paws of the bear entered the snare, arresting its charge immediately. Its ass end, however, continued forward, compressing the bear like a spring. This monstrosity was certainly going to need a chiropractor after that.

The entire team took advantage of the brief snare. Sasha moved in, laying into the bear’s belly and legs with her swords, hacking for all she was worth. She was cleaving hunks of flesh from the terrifying creature like she was mining for flesh. After all, she was mining in a sense. For experience.

The rune winked out and everyone retreated back to strategic positions. The bear stood for a moment and let loose a horrifying cry. This one was not a cry of rage, however. It sounded like a cry for help.

The creature began to slowly retreat, putting itself into a defensive posture as the group riddled it with pulse rounds, magic, and Amy’s haunted daggers.

Something caused the battle to pause momentarily. It began as a low rumble and the echoing of distant roars. It grew louder and louder as the confused group quickly surveyed the area for additional danger.

“Oh shit. Guys!” Liam cried out and turned to face the tunnel they arrived from.

Just then it clicked.

Reinforcements.

“Sasha, Liam, Ian! Guard that entrance! Freya go help!” Calvin shouted, understanding the danger they had just found themselves in.

They were fighting mama bear, and she’d just called her brood home.

Seth had left two sentry drones back at base, and kept another one on hand. He promptly sent it to reinforce the group in the tunnel. There was one significant advantage the group had right now. The tunnel wouldn’t allow the bears to rush in all at once. If they could hold that position and keep them from flooding the cave, this situation could be managed. Fortunately, they hadn’t seen any water bears over level 6 wandering around out there.

Marshall positioned himself to be able to provide support to the tunnel guardians while still being able to assist against the big furry asshole in the room.

Calvin and Amy put it in high gear. The bear was seriously wounded and had taken an incredible beating in the opening salvo. They would need to keep the pressure on and finish this fast.

Amy rapidly depleted her mana tossing spectral copies of her sonic edge into the creature.

BAM

BAM

BAM

The delayed explosions from her skill coupled with the sonic pulse of the daggers was a devastating barrage. She’d swooped past the bear to sneak in a few toxin-infused jabs to further damage and weaken it.

Calvin was like a dervish. His spear whistled through the air as he jabbed furiously for vital areas.

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Neck.

Head.

Belly.

He kept his feet moving, keeping a small Resonant Charge building for each strike.

The bear tossed a clumsy swipe toward him, clearly losing its strength. Calvin jammed his spear into the ground and a barrier sprung out of the weapon, turning into a full-sized scutum made of pure nanite badassery. He intercepted the swipe effortlessly, continuing to weave spear strikes into the bear’s vital areas.

Behind them, the fight was a brutal melee. Sasha and Freya held the front line, keeping the bears jammed up two wide in the tunnel, a pile of corpses already threatening to impede their movement.

The bears were not deterred as they just forced their bodies through the remains of their fallen brethren.

Ian sent a Storm Surge screaming into the tunnel, utterly evaporating nearly half a dozen bears into a charred, greasy mist. The creatures were like a never-ending tsunami of fur and teeth, when one fell, another took its place. Slowly driving the exhausted Sasha further back as she approached the cavern. Before long, the tide would sweep its way into the tunnel.

“Amy! Can you finish this?” Calvin called

“I got it. Go!” she responded in the space between her dagger missiles.

Calvin was on the move, building up an immense charge as he sprinted toward the entrance.

“Get down!” he screamed.

Sasha turned to see a crazed lightning god barreling towards her and she dove against the wall.

Calvin leaped into the lead group of bears, releasing all of his pent-up charge followed by Chain Reaction, utterly obliterating the trampling ranks of bears. He and Freya moved perfectly in sync, slashing, biting, thrusting, and tearing apart bears in a frenzy of blood and fur.

To Sasha and Liam, it looked as if the god of death had descended on the tunnel. In reality, Calvin was just much higher level than these bears and had a distinct advantage in range and damage. Seeing the situation handled, the others diverted their attention to helping Amy finish off the den mother.

The duo kept up their onslaught, inflicting carnage at every step until the dark shade of the cavern walls gave way to fresh air and the bright sunlit sky. There were only a few more stragglers out here which they quickly finished off.

They quickly sprinted back towards the cavern. Just as they entered, they were greeted with a welcome system message.

EXPERIENCE REWARDED BASED ON CONTRIBUTION

Marshall looked back at Calvin as he entered the cavern and quickly scrunched up his nose. “Mate… that’s fuckin’ gross.”

Calvin looked down at himself and understood Marshall’s concern. He was drenched from head to toe in gore and ripped hunks of fur. Freya looked much the same, but she was having a blast. She promptly rolled onto her back, kicking her cute little legs up into the air. A few treats sprang up out of the ether as she rewarded herself for being such a good dog.

“How are you two?” Calvin asked over to Liam and Sasha

The duo was utterly exhausted. They’d drained their stamina to the absolute bottom of the barrel and then some. Sasha had been riddled with minor wounds that Marshall promptly took care of.

They looked up at him in awe.

“Calvin…” Liam started and then paused.

Calvin waited for him to finish but the pause became too damn awkward.

“Yes?”

“You guys… are unbelievable. Like… holy shit man.”

“It probably looks better than it really was. This big brute here was the real challenge, and we’ve had some time to hone in our tactics fighting together. A single large monster is easier for us to overwhelm. The other bears were seriously below our level. I bet you got some really great experience though, right?”

“Hell yeah we did. I picked up four levels.” Liam said in astonishment

“Five for me. Seriously everyone, thank you all for giving us a chance.” Sasha said.

“Don’t sweat it. I’d like to think that if you hadn’t been given the raw end of it, you’d do the same for others. I hope this gives you confidence in standing up to Knox and people like him.” Calvin said before turning around to the group. “Anything good in here?”

Seth was already at work dismantling the defeated creature. “I think so actually. Some of these teeth and claws have infused properties. I think they’ll count as special materials. I’ll have to play around with them. We should take the whole thing back.”

It was a grisly task, but the group went to work breaking down the carcass into manageable pieces and storing them away.

Marshall promptly put on his treasure-finding hat and went to work scouring the cave. He was surprised to learn something very important about this room. It… was just a smelly old cavern with no treasure to be found. With great disappointment, he sulked back to the group.

“You ok Marshall?” Asked Amy. “Did the system forget your birthday again?”

“What’s a guy gotta do to find some gold coins or something around here?” he said. Wait, are gold coins even a thing here? They damned well better be.

It was about time to head back to where they launched Scout and pick it up before heading home. They soon broke free of the tunnel and began their march back. They were very happy to leave this stinky little hellhole behind.

They’d arrived back at the launch point and patiently waited for Scout to return from its heroic mission.

The team discussed the gains of the last battle and they were fantastic for a quick scouting mission into the jungle. Calvin, Marshall, and Ian all hit 15 and chatted excitedly about what new skills might await them. Breaking through was a little bit of a slog, the experience required now was getting pretty high and the monsters they were fighting just weren’t cutting it. They would need to scout further out for more challenges. One problem at a time though.

Liam reached level 10, which was a huge leap in power for him. With him and Sasha finally able to gain experience and focus on working together as a team, they were quickly gaining the power they so desperately needed out here.

BOOM!

An explosion over the pond rocked the group from their musings of future power. Marshall’s dreams of getting laser eyes evaporated in an instant as they looked out towards the source of the ruckus.

BOOM BOOM!

Over the pond, a heroic little Scout buzzed dutifully at high speed towards the group. Several intense balls of fire erupted from the opposite shore, streaming up to intercept the little craft. Knox’s group had detected the infiltrator and were employing their finest anti-air to stop it.

The group collectively held their breath in anticipation as they watched the harrowing journey across the water.

“C’mon little guy.” Seth whispered to himself.

A fireball erupted just a few feet from Scout, damaging one of the wings. Scout’s flight path became erratic as it tumbled from the sky. Seth sprinted over as the drone was speeding toward the ground at a destructive velocity. He stood right in the falling craft’s path.

“Uh, Seth.” Marshall said with concern. “You’re not planning to catch that are you?”

Seth gave Marshall a small wink, which did absolutely nothing to alleviate the group’s worry.

As the drone came crashing toward Seth’s position, he raised his hand up in the air as if to do exactly what Marshall was worried about, a small beam of energy leaped out from a device on his wrist. It was the kinetic manipulator. The beam struck the drone and enveloped it in a golden field of nanites, arresting its fall just a few feet above Seth as he slowly guided it into his pouch.

“Alright, mission complete. Let’s get the hell out of here before those asshats arrive.” Seth said.

The group wasted no time and beat feet back to their encampment.