As they moved down the tunnel as a group, it was decided to let the other rogue take the lead this time to help him build up his skills, Shaun was fine with this as he had already made it a decent way down the tunnel earlier and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to raise his skill further just by scouting ahead. Instead he spent the time thinking about how he would incorporate Gabe into his battle strategy the next time they had an opportunity to set out alone. Depending on the situation he concluded that his first attacks from stealth were too effective to not take advantage of if they could, this would mean that even with two of them he would still stay ahead and check for monsters before bringing Gabe into the fight, they could then plan an attack where Shaun had first hit on a monster and then Gabe’s arrows would enter the fight. This would ensure maximum damage right from the start, weakening their prey for an easier finish. If multiple monsters were present they would split up targets with Shaun going for the strongest and Gabe taking care of the others, either as a distraction or hopefully by getting strong enough to put down their enemies with his archery skills.

While everyone was concentrating on moving through the tunnel he moved up alongside Gabe and slowed him down a little to put some distance between them and the rest of the group. He talked through his plan on how they would approach a fight with Gabe agreeing that it made the most sense, the only thing they needed to figure out was a way for Gabe to do damage if a monster got close to him, he needed another weapon, even if it was to just for use in an emergency. Thinking over his last battle Shaun decided to hand over one of the fangs he had from the spider once they were alone, it wasn’t the best weapon but it would do if he got into a desperate situation.

As they continued forward, the other rogue came back and informed the group he had found something, judging from the amount of time they had been walking Shaun knew they were coming up on where he had fought the salamanders. When the Rogue reported that he found blood on the ground he gave Gabe a look and smiled, indicating that it was where he had battled earlier, they all moved forward as a group until they reached the still wet blood.

“Everyone that was on look out duty last night for this tunnel did you hear anything or see any indication on what happened here?” Michael had taken charge of the group before setting out, he seemed to have gotten over yesterday’s breakdown pretty quickly. With everyone who was on watch all saying the same thing, they had not seen or heard a thing, even Shaun and Gabe, who did so convincingly, “Okay then we know there is something in this tunnel that is a threat, it could be monsters attacking other monsters or there could be other people around. We need to be very careful moving forward from here, the rogue with the highest level in stealth will be in the lead scouting ahead,” this was obviously Shaun but he decided to say a lower level to the rest of the group to not bring any suspicion on him as having a level 10 skill, it would be a give away that he hadn’t just been sitting and watching during his shift last night. “the rest of us will follow behind, weapons drawn ready to fight if needed, agreed?”.

Happy that he could now explore further in the tunnel, he happily agreed to head out ahead of the others, if he came across a monster he would come back and tell the others he decided, wanting to make sure that he came across as being nothing but a team player, although if he found anything useful along the way that he could easily put into his inventory he would have to rethink his approach. Was it a little selfish? Sure. But whether they liked it or not, if it came down to a life or death situation he was pretty confident it would turn into every man, or woman, for themselves.

Just as he was setting forward he did act like he had just found a small room off to the side, he knew it was there already and that it was empty but showing the others that he was the right choice and clearly more observant than the other rogue would have its advantages down the line. Once they had had a look into the room where the three salamanders were and finding nothing they all decided to move on.

The tunnel didn’t change much as Shaun moved ahead, very much the same as every other tunnel he had been down so far, finally after what felt like forever, but really had only been about 30 minutes, he found signs of more salamanders, it was easy enough to figure out what causing the noise now that he had seen them before, the hissing and the way their tails would make the swishing noise along the ground when they moved was a give away. Moving further forward he found a group of the monster, there was five of them this time, six if you included the one that was already dead on the ground, the two largest salamanders looked like they were having some sort of disagreement, there was three on one side facing the two on the other, must be some sort of territorial fight, or maybe they ate the only other thing they could find in these tunnels, each other, he thought. With a quick Identify he found that the two largest who were having the disagreement were level 3, only a little larger than the ones he fought yesterday, two others level 2 and the last one in the group of three was only level 1.

Having gotten the information he needed he turned around and went back to inform the others, once he finished telling them what he had found up ahead it was decided that with their higher number and the fact that they were prepared for what was ahead, that they would fight, they needed the food so it wasn’t like they had much of a choice.

Once Michael finished processing what Shaun had reported he told everyone the plan. “Here is what we should do, we stay quiet and try to sneak up on them, once we are all in position every one that has one will use their ranged attacks, that’s Gabe and the mages. After that all the warriors will move in, there are three of us which should be enough for us to form a line at the front leaving enough space between us for everyone else to attack from behind.” Getting nods from everyone he continued, “Our two rogues should stay back, if you see an opening you can take it, but you are the most vulnerable to….”

“No,” Shaun interrupted, “I can go ahead, my stealth skill is high enough that I should be able to sneak past the monster and get behind all of them, once you attack from the front they will be distracted and I can then surprise attack from behind.”

“That’s ridiculous, what if you are seen? They could all turn on you and attack at once, there is no way you can take five monsters all on your own, you would be dead before anyone else could even get to you. No. we go with my plan to…”

“I wasn’t asking Michael. Your right, worst case is I’m caught and I die, that won't impact your plan at all though, they will still be distracted and you can attack as you wanted. But if my plan works then we will have a much better chance of killing these things quickly and with less chance of someone getting hurt.” He didn’t know what had come over him, but the idea of playing it safe on the back line just didn’t sit right with him anymore. He had taken down three salamanders all on his own, not that they knew that, and he was stronger now then he was during that fight. He believed in himself and his skills. He was doing this whether Michael liked it or not.

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He didn’t like it, in fact he was furious, Shaun knew that Michael hated being told no and losing control of a situation, he had witnessed that yesterday, and doing so twice now in 2 days was clearly driving a wedge firmly between the two of them. “If that’s what you want to do I can’t stop you Shaun, but if something goes wrong I won't risk anyone here to save you, it's your life, throw it away if you want to.” And with that it was decided, he would go ahead and try to sneak behind all five of the salamander’s while the rest got into position.

He turned around, away from the group, but not before catching a thumbs up from Gabe, at least he believes I can do it, moving forward he dropped into stealth and moved along the wall until the salamander’s were in sight. Committing to his plan he slowly moved closer to the five monsters in front of him, not much had changed with them which was good, all their attention was on each other which was perfect. Once he reached the first salamander he stopped for a second and surveyed them close up, they all looked the same as the ones from earlier, same weak spots and around the same sizing. Continuing past the first monster, he knew what he was doing was risky, he was now right between the two sides and if he was caught now he would be in for the fight of his life, but he wasn’t caught, so he continued on until he was finally on the other side. Assessing the salamander closest to him he was slightly behind it but close enough that it would be easy enough to attack without much movement, it was the level 1 and just on the other side of it was one of the level 2.

Coming up with a plan, he decided to go with a high risk high reward approach. The level 3 monsters were further away from him, as well as the second level 2, these would be the ones that would be closest to the rest of his group when they chose to attack so posed the lowest threat to him. It was the two closest to him that he would need to deal with first, the level 1 would need to be killed quickly so he could move on to the bigger threat. Now all he had to do was wait for the first ranged attacks from the group to come and then it would be time.

He didn’t have to wait long, about 30 seconds later he saw the bright flashes from the Mana Bolts and an arrow fly into the level 3 monsters, it hadn’t done much except get their attention. All of the gathered salamander’s quickly turned their attention to the new threat, the ones that were attacked from behind turning around swiftly to see what had attacked. Getting ready, Shaun was ready to join the fight but wanted to wait for the moment that the warriors had engaged with the closest monsters to them, figuring that this would reduce the risk of drawing attention from those furthest away. Seconds after the attack from the mages and Gabe he saw the warriors running forward with a battle cry, why they were yelling, he had no idea, seemed foolish to announce yourself when running into a battle.

As soon as the warriors were engaged with the salamanders Shaun made his move. With a leap over the Level 1 monster, as soon as he was above it he threw down his dagger right at its head. When he landed he went into a roll and drew his other dagger as he did so, the increased Dexterity and Perception greatly increasing his aim as well as the way he could control his body. As he got up from the roll he then launched himself at the level 2 salamander who was just turning its head to look at what was happening. Dagger in hand he swiped at its face then quickly back tracked to get some distance, he hadn’t killed it, but he could see a deep gash along the left side of its head and although it was hurt it was also angry. He quickly sent out his detection skill and found the level 1 dead on the ground without even having to take his focus off of the monster now paying full attention to him. Just as he was getting ready for another strike an arrow flew out and hit the monster in the shoulder, its attention immediately moving towards the direction of where the arrow came from, thank you Gabe, he thought before immediately taking advantage of the situation. Without any hesitation he flipped the grip of his dagger and flew forward and stabbed down into its head and again not wanting to stay in range in case the salamander chose to attack him, he pulled the dagger out and moved back. This wasn’t needed though as the monster fell to the ground, instantly dying from having a dagger piercing through its head.

Two down three to go. With a look over the remaining monsters and the warriors engaged with them using their swords, he noted that none of the monsters were paying him any attention. Moving back to the level 1 he had killed he noticed an arrow sticking out of its head, he would have to thank Gabe for that later as well, he removed the dagger from its head, noticing that he hadn’t quite hit the mark with his throw to instantly kill it. Turning his attention back to the battle he noticed that each Warrior was engaged with one of the salamander’s, Michael and Trevor were fighting the level 3 and Eric fighting the level 2. They all seemed to be doing okay, not great though. The salamanders seemed more angry than hurt, with none of the Warriors looking too injured, Eric was slightly limping, looking like he had either been scratched or bitten on his leg, but the other two seemed to be fine. Having made his decision Shaun decided to help out Eric first, although he would have preferred to take out one of the level 3, Gabe had told him earlier that Eric was a good guy and he was struggling the most at the moment. Having already had some success with throwing his dagger he decided to attempt this again, with a breath he lined up his shot and threw with all of his strength, it hit the salamander in its back and sunk in straight to the hilt, not a kill shot but it was damn effective. The salamander whirled around to face him but before it could even make a noise Eric drove his sword straight down into its body, it struggled for all of a second before dying.

Having done his good deed for the day he turned his attention to Michael and Trevor, if he helped Trevor and stole his kill it would cause mayhem but would also be rather satisfying, getting to say that he needed help to take care of his monster, on the other hand taking care of Michael’s salamander would drive home the point of never underestimating his skills like he had earlier. With a smile he made his decision. Sneaking up behind the level 3 salamander he drew his dagger and decided to re-enact his first battle with a salamander from when he was on guard duty. He jumped onto it back, straddling it like he was about to go on a ride and then with both hands gripping his dagger and punched down right into its neck till the dagger was driven in as far as it would go. The monster stilled beneath him and fell to the ground, expecting this Shaun had already moved his legs into position to stand with the dead salamander now between his legs. Withdrawing his dagger from the body he looked up right into Michael’s eyes, he was pissed.

“I had it covered, why did you interfere? The monster was mine to kill and you just…..”

“Looks like Trevor could use some help don’t you think?” Shaun interrupted him with a smile. Michael looked over at Trevor, now the only one of the Warriors still fighting a monster, “Why don’t you go help him Michael, he looks like he could use some assistance?” Was it wrong for him to have taken Michaels kill and then direct him to do exactly the same to Trevor? Sure, but when opportunity presents itself what are you supposed to do but take advantage of it.

Rather than lecture Shaun on how wrong it was he just nodded with a smile and went over to help Trevor, with the two of them fighting it from different sides the battle ended quickly. The mages had long since run out of mana and Gabe looked to be content just to watch the events unfold. Once the fight ended Shaun looked at Trevor, an expression mirroring the one that Michael had given him earlier. What a great battle Shaun thought.