About to strike out into the darkness of the tunnel beyond, I paused momentarily to consider our options. With the explosives removed, each one safely tucked away in my inventory, and the siege engines destroyed courtesy of our earlier actions, I questioned the continued threat posed by the raiding dwarves. Were they still a threat to the people of Mammoth? The vulnerable city was leagues away, though quick use of the silvern travel node we found diminished that distance greatly. Now that we had destroyed their weapons of war, would the dwarves still attack?

Stella caught a look on my face and tilted her head in my direction. She was looking for me to share my thoughts. I obliged. “Do we need to keep going?” I said simply. My eyes panned over the ruined cavern, settling over toppled giant mushrooms, scattered debris of demolished arbalests, remnants of dwarven armor and clothing, and more than one still-smoking mushroom splinter. The thirty-plus dwarven bodies at our feet signified a significant impact on the silvern dwarves’ ability to wage their raid. “We’ve destroyed their siege engines, and stolen their explosives, so should we turn back?”

Tallos, who had started moving to Ripley and Lowki near the tunnel entrance moved back over as I questioned our course of action. Placing hands on his hips, he considered my question before adding his own thoughts. “It’s a good question. We’ve removed their greatest advantage, but if they were already planning on bringing a significant force of at least a hundred strong warriors as you estimated, would it not be reasonable to assume they would still attack?”

“We have no way of knowing,” Stella said. “At least, not yet.”

“Based on our outstanding quest, I’m semi-confident in saying there’s probably a commander of some type down that tunnel, but I have to ask, is there another way to eliminate the threat they pose?” I asked.

“The next objective is hidden,” Stella replied. “It is possible the System could change a success condition behind the scenes as we keep going. Most quests are not linear, meaning there could be dozens of ways to complete it.”

I struggled for a moment to order my thoughts. A part of me wished the quest simply stated what we needed to do, a clear and obvious path. We didn’t have that luxury and many lives were on the line. “Let’s go through what we know. We expected somewhere around a hundred dwarves arriving here, based on the number of ballistae, somewhere in the vicinity of at least six hours,” I assumed, nodding to Tallos, accounting for his earlier comment. “We’ve taken out potentially a third of their force. While that’s a lot for us, nothing is stopping the main force from pressing forward. They could even bring even more weapons of war for all we know.”

“If we head back and warn the citizens,” I continued. “We’re left with the same problem from earlier, with reinforcements called from Allerton arriving too late,” A sigh escaped my lips as my mind worked the problem. I locked eyes with Stella and then to Tallos. “We need to remove their ability to get to Mammoth. I think it’s the only way for us to confidently know the dwarves will be stopped, or at least by enough time for backup to arrive from the capital.”

“How do we do that?” Tallos asked, lowering himself to a seated position on a piece of mushroom rubble.

“The silvern travel network,” I replied easily. Pulling up my inventory window, I looked over the dozens of explosive packs at our disposal. Neatly tucked away, they could no longer bring harm to others. Though, they could offer a solution here. “We could destroy the dwarves’ ability to teleport near the city.”

Stella held a paw up to her chin, working through the same train of thought as I was laying out. “So, you’re suggesting we go back through the lava tubes and demolish the node we found? I don’t want to be pessimistic, but who is to say there isn’t another node they could use?”

“Sort of,” I replied, biting my lower lip. “The dwarves are using this cavern as a staging point. It leads me to believe they don’t live anywhere close to here. My guess is there is another node, probably down that tunnel. We’ve already seen a raiding party come from there, so it likely leads closer to where they call home.”

“So, destroy whatever node is down there?” Tallos stated, before continuing down the chain of thought. “I can see how that could work. The dwarves are probably using two nodes to travel the distance between their home and Mammoth. If we take out a node in the middle, it would be like destroying a bridge spanning a wide river. Sure, there could be another path, but they would be forced to find it. If we can accomplish this, we would likely buy enough time for the city.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “We could turn back now, but I don’t think this path is what we want to take. The city could still come under attack, regardless of what we’ve already accomplished. We need to end the threat, or at least postpone it enough for capital guards to arrive.”

“Let’s continue on, then, and hope we find whatever other node they’re using,” Stella said confidently. She turned to face the unknown darkness of the nearby passageway, narrowing her eyes as if the cave itself was an enemy. “If we find a commander, we take them out. If we find another node, we blow it up. Does that about sum up our plan?”

“I think it does,” I replied. “It’s risky, but nothing has been able to stop us before.”

“Let’s get to it,” Tallos said with a warm smile, before coughing. “While a part of me is loath to mention it, the cleric you fought could become quite the ally with our current plan of attack. You said he was pretty powerful, plus your other guy fell in our last ambush.”

“You’re right,” I said as I eyed up the defeated priest lying on his back several paces away. Walking over to his unmoving body, I began casting my most advanced spell, undeath. Arcane words twisted the air with their antithetical reverberations, calling upon the arcane to reanimate the priest. My hands flowed through the air, my fingers moving in the appropriate passes as mana poured out of me before diving into the body. The body stirred and his that should have remained sightless forever, opened once more.

“Stand,” I ordered the new minion. Complying without hesitation the once-living dwarf stood to his full height. His height was subjective, only reaching as high as my chest. “Reequip these items and follow behind our party. Your task is to keep everyone here alive through the use of your healing magic. Your primary focus will be me and Tallos. If you can aid us in any other way, like with a beneficial spell, do so.”

I returned the priest’s chain shirt and handed his mace back to him. Our undead party member hooked the mace to his belt. I turned to walk down the tunnel when soft chanting paused my steps. Words that gave the impression he was pulling on power from a higher form of being escaped the dwarf’s cool lips. His hands twisted into complicated gestures, almost looking like he was bringing two steeples together before a pulse of golden magic flared away from his body.

Vigor and strength rushed into my limbs as the energizing power of the priest’s spell flooded every limb of my body. The pulse of magic reached out to touch everyone in our party, even the dwarf himself. When a small buff icon appeared next to their name in my party menu, I quickly inspected it. My eyes widened in surprise at how impressive the spell’s beneficial effects were.

Blessing of Vitality (Buff) – While under the effects of this blessing, all party members have increased health, health regeneration, and strength. Plus 500 health, plus 50 health regenerated per minute, and plus 25 strength. Duration: 8 hours.

Stella and I looked at each other before turning our gazes to the dwarf. “Holy… shit,” I stuttered. Do you have any more buffs like this one?”

The dwarf nodded, confirming he did.

“Do they last as long as this blessing of vitality?” Stella asked before I could ask the dwarf for more buffs. It was as if she understood something I didn’t yet realize. The dwarf shook his head and I had my answer. Over the course of the next minute, with Stella’s guidance and a specific line of questions, we discovered the healer had other buffs but they were all short-lived. Most only lasted a minute, long enough for most kinds of combat, so I instructed the dwarf to weave whatever he had onto us in between any healing spell he needed to cast during a fight.

We were not surprised in the slightest when we learned the dwarf had ample mana, potentially rivaling my own absurd amount. In retrospect, I should have guessed this just looking back on my fight with the cleric where the bastard countered every spell I had tried using on him. As a result, we did not need to worry about the dwarf running out of mana unless we were in a very prolonged battle.

“It’s too bad he looks like his face passed through a dense patch of brindle thorns,” Stella added cheekily.

As prepared as we were going to be, we collapsed into a single file before departing the spacious mushroom cavern. Ripley led the party, followed by me and Stella, then Lowki and Tallos bringing up the rear. With a single look back, I admired the towering fungi that I hoped would take back control of the wondrous cavern, we stepped forward ready to take on whatever came next.

As we moved through the long meandering passage, we found it completely devoid of the previously abundant magma fissures. The normally oppressive heat was long gone, replaced with a chill air current. The humidity was quite different than before too. Abnormally high, it threatened to cause us to perspire profusely, even with our intentionally slow progress. We didn’t want to be heard by our enemy before we noticed them, after all.

Having no clue where the stifling humidity was coming from, I sound found myself thankful for its presence. Our Darkvision, struggling with the absence of light from the absent lava pools, our vision diminished by the minute. Not even the normally plentiful silvern ore was present in these tunnels, growing less and less dense with each footfall. My worry evaporated when a notable sapphire glow slowly lit up our vision.

First looking to be nothing more than small tufts of grass, an interesting plant began appearing more regularly along the rocky walls and stone ceiling as we pressed on. Tucked into the various cracks and crevices, the small shrub was made up of leaves twisting into tiny rosettes, forming a kind of funnel. I drew closer to a particularly dense section jutting from the wall and inspected it.

According to the System description, the plants were called ‘Tillandsia Abdita,” a semi-common plant in the deepest parts of the planet. Able to survive in complete darkness, the plant could draw every bit of its needed nutrients directly from the air. Thankfully for us, the most interesting aspect of the plant was that it naturally emitted a faint bioluminescence that was immediately amplified by our low-light vision. A faint blue glow appeared to us like miniature lanterns. With their growing abundance, thanks to the high humidity in the tunnel per the System description, our former lightless tunnels were now awash in dazzling light.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“There’s probably an underground lake nearby,” Tallos whispered. “Otherwise, where would this humidity be coming from?”

“Well, whatever is allowing these things to thrive down here, it has my gratitude,” I replied. Without the tiny shrubs, I had started to worry we would need to light some torches to be able to continue. Doing so would have thrown stealth right out the window which we could ill afford right now.

Small clumps of the bioluminescent plant quickly grew more numerous and before long whole sections of the cave were covered with it. The hearty plant was truly thriving down here. Our Darkvision was working so well that it was like we were walking under a cloudy morning sky.

A musty smell was also thick in the air, though it wasn’t very bothersome. I preferred the earthy smell over the stale and grittiness of barren walls. Fully covering the walls and ceiling, the expansive shrubs started appearing irregularly on the uneven floor. We made an effort to avoid stepping on them as they were rather delicate. Stella was still a little embarrassed when she touched one, causing it to break off and smack against the floor. The stuff grew easily but wasn’t able to burrow its roots through hard stone.

Our careful movements to avoid displacing the delicate plant were what allowed us to catch the slight sound of scraping boots from further up the tunnel. Had we not slowed our pace, we might have been the ones to give away our position. Luck had been on our side.

We all paused at the same instant, looking at one another. As the seconds ticked by, the unmistakable sound of armored footfalls confirmed our suspicion. We had found more dwarves. Their footfalls were growing louder with each passing second, but from the sound of it, this was not a small force.

As silently as we could, we tightened our formation to come up with a game plan. We were hardly in a defensible position, standing out in the open as we were. Since leaving the mushroom cavern, we had not come across a single offshoot or side passage as we made our way deeper meaning we had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Grumbling dwarven voices were growing louder in our ears. We probably had less than a minute, two tops, before they found us. In as low of a whisper as I could manage and still be heard, we devised a plan. “We’re going to use Ripley to mask our body heat and get part of our group closer to them. Ripley, followed by me and Lowki, will go around the corner up there and move towards the dwarves. Ripley, I want you to crouch with your shield held out in front of you. It should hopefully keep the dwarves from seeing our body heat. Remember, you’re essentially invisible to their eyes.”

“The three of us are going to get as close as we can,” I continued. “If we get spotted at any point, Ripley, I want you to rush forward and engage. Lowki, when combat starts, leap over us and their party. I need you to get behind them. The ceiling is high enough so you should have more than enough room to launch yourself over their heads. It’s risky, but if this group is anything like the last, I’m guessing they will have another spell caster with them. The casters are your job. When Ripley engages, I’m going to use my poison breath. Then, I’ll move to the side of the tunnel and pump out as many spells as I can until needing to engage with my axe.”

“Tallos, pick your shots when all hell breaks loose. Ripley, try to position yourself close to the left wall, while I will do the same on the right,” I hurried to get the final aspect of my plan out. “With how narrow the tunnel is, hopefully our positioning helps you get an angle on their fighters.”

Finally, I turned to face my dwarf minion. “Priest, I want you to buff us as much as you can when the battle first begins, then heal any damage we sustain. If no one requires healing, feel free to use any offensive spells you have.”

The gravelly voices of our enemies grew loud in our ears, we had no more time. Receiving silent nods from everyone, I crouched low behind the long-limbed Ripley. She moved forward, her heater shield held as far as she could from her body. We barely made a whisper of sound as she turned around the bend in the tunnel. No shouts or cries of alarm greeted us as we crept forward. I didn’t so much as risk a peek around Ripley’s broad frame, not wanting to give our foe’s sensitive eyes to pick anything up before we got much closer. By the sound of their chatter and occasional laughter, no one suspected or sensed our approach.

Lowki occasionally bumped his snout into my backside, trying to be as close to me as he could. I desperately wanted to know how many dwarves we were going to be facing but dared not peek. Not yet!

We inched steadily forward. With how loud their voices sounded in my ears, the dwarves must have been right upon us.

My mind worked overtime as I considered my opening salvo of spells. As soon as Ripley dashed forward, I would immediately cast my Lesser Poison Breath, hopefully catching every dwarf in its wide area of effect. Ripley was immune to poison, so wouldn’t be affected. There was some risk to Lowki from friendly fire when he bounded around to get behind their formation, but it was worth the risk. Plus, I would try to aim the cone low since the dwarfs were only three to four feet tall. It should give the agile cat more than enough room above to allow him to pass through unscathed.

Our enemies seemed to be inches away. Armor clattered steel, gruff voices echoed endlessly, and heavy boots clamored as our two groups grew close. We were close enough. With a quick jab against Ripley’s back with an index finger, I prompted her to charge.

From the sudden intake of breath, just as Ripley sprung to her full height, a lead dwarf had noticed something unusual about the tunnel in front of them. It was too late. That was my queue. Before I could see how large of a force was arrayed against us, I quickly spoke the incantation for my poison breath spell.

[Lesser Poison Breath]. You exhale a poisonous cloud that expands outwards from the caster in a cone to engulf any hostile target within 15 feet, inflicting a necrotic toxin that burns away at the lining of the target’s lungs. The spell causes 70 plus 2n damage immediately and then every 6 seconds until the spell expires, where ‘n’ equals Intelligence. Cost: 150 mana. Cast Time: 1 seconds. Cool down: 2 minutes. Duration: 48 seconds (base 30). Plus 1 foot maximum range, and plus 10 base damage per spell level.

Taking in a deep breath, the musty humid air filling my lungs, and with a flick of my wrist, I uttered the last word of power and forcefully exhaled. A dense green mist gushed out, funneling towards the back of Ripley’s body.

As my spell touched Ripley’s back, she sidestepped to the side, and I finally caught sight of our enemies as the toxic gas enveloped their front ranks. It was hard to get an accurate picture of how tightly packed the wide dwarves were and the tunnel only allowed at most three people to stand side by side. Still, I was made acutely aware the enemy force was far greater than the ten we fought earlier. Thanks to Ripley’s invisibility against heat-sensitive eyes and the necrotic effects of my spell, the front line of the dwarves was abruptly slammed to a halt.

Like I had been hoping, my poisoned breath cloud had enough range to impact every single dwarf reeling backward from the sudden assault. Not sensing anyone other than Ripley resisted the spell, each dwarf would begin taking necrotic damage over the next forty-eight seconds thanks to the increased DoT duration from my wraith class.

A gust of wind to my side signaled Lowki following through with his part of our hopefully not ill-conceived plan. His masterful jump carried him toward the right wall, where he used it as a springboard to get behind the enemy formation. I quickly lost sight of the powerful ally. A quick glance up to my party menu confirmed he was not hit by my poisonous breath. Only our enemies would have their lungs decimated by the powerful necrotic energy.

After Lowki’s passing, I sidestepped to the side so Tallos would have a clear line of sight. A sudden surge of golden magic enveloped Ripley, then myself. My priest minion had just buffed us, though I couldn’t take the time to determine what effect it had. I was already deep into another spell cast. With the strength of the enemies before us, I needed to go all out.

Combining my quick cast and dual cast skill, the enhanced effects taking a large chunk of mana with them, I chanted the mystical syllables innately tied with my chained lightning. With its recent level advancement, the homing bolt of electricity would now hit a combined six enemies. As arcane words left my lips, the only response thus far from our foes was wracking, phlegm-filled coughs.

The enemy force had been taken entirely by surprise and, with each slice of Ripley’s sword, she caused devastation. As my spell completed, I closed my eyes from the expected flash of light. The thick smell of burning ozone filled the confined space as my spell discharged. With the concussive blast of super-heated air by the passing bolt of electricity, howls of pain reverberated off the unforgiving walls.

I wasn’t sure if dwarf eyes would be pained like ours would be with the sudden appearance of intense light, but I hoped it would. As the lightning arced from warrior to warrior, even those not affected by the discharge felt pain slice through their sensitive orbs. Vulnerable dwarven eyes, unaccustomed to such brilliance were overwhelmed.

Slicing arrows whistled down the passage, more than one finding a home between the gaps of dwarven armor. As arrowheads penetrated flesh, shrill cries of pain filled the air. I began another incantation, determined to cast as many spells as possible. Considering how many dwarves were still standing, my magic would play a far greater role than I could hope to accomplish with my axe.

The sudden appearance of golden light from the rear of the dwarven ranks confirmed my suspicion they had a healer. We couldn’t allow him to bring order back to the chaos we had sown. The ear-splitting roar from Lowki, followed by a dwarven scream, hinted the great cat was doing his part. I finished my spell casting, a dual cast boil blood against one of the leading dwarves.

Our enemies were finally coming out of their initial shock at our appearance and, though they could not see the skeletal Ripley, at least three fighters were moving to surround her with raised shields. Skilled as she was, not to mention her invisibility, Ripley caused devastation with her curved sword as it bit into the flesh around the warrior’s defensive barriers. Still, their combined efforts were limiting how much raw damage she could inflict. When her blade fell one enemy, another dwarf was quick to take his place.

I did not have the same advantage as Ripley, her undead nature rendering her invisible. Likely glowing hot in their vision, three other warriors steadily advanced towards me. Two had oversized silvern weapons, an axe and greatsword, while the middle fighter bore a slender longsword.

I only had at most, a single opportunity to cast one last before I was engaged by three deadly warriors. A wicked grin found a way to my face. A dual cast fireball should even our odds, shouldn’t it?

My mana dropped significantly as a tightly wound inferno formed between my palms. The approaching warriors were not my target, they were too close. If I cast the spell upon them, I was liable to be blown off my feet as well. Standing at my full height, I had more than enough view to safely throw the burning sun toward the middle of the enemy force. Ripley would be hit, potentially Lowki as well, but seeing at least fifteen enemies, I had little choice. This was going to hurt. Hopefully them, more than us.

Unknown to anyone, the dwarves had another spell caster tucked away in the rear of the advancing raiding party. Unlike his priest friend, this dwarf was capable of commanding powerful arcane magic. He was a wizard not to be trifled with. War was his profession, and business was good.

With his priest friend being harried by a black beast with waving tentacles, he turned his gaze upon the scene to see where he could best put his deadly magic to use. Hues of golden magic from the tunnel ahead caught his attention and the dwarf caster knew what he had to do. With a wicked grin of his own, his fingers twisted through the exact same spells that I had decided on.

We completed our fireballs at the exact same moment, each of us thrusting our palms out, sending the beads of raging flame streaking away like a blazing meteor.

Our eyes widened in shock as the two spells impacted each other in the middle of the dwarven force. A deafening BOOM thundered out as the two spells detonated simultaneously.

An enormous wave of hellfire, far beyond what either spell could have managed alone, rocketed in all directions. Worse for everyone involved, the tight confines of the tunnel could not contain the raw destructive force unleashed in our midst. The tremendous energy rebounded off the stone walls, sending flames roaring down both ends of the corridor.

The shockwave of the blast sent me hurtling backward, ricocheting my body against the hard stone walls and ground like a giant thrown boulder. Blackness descended over me, and I feared I would never wake as my consciousness was torn out of me.