“So um, what’s the play here boss? We could always let them play bait.” Grim suggests, his legs locking him to a standstill.

Behind him, Cyrus hears Peluna hitting the demon with her staff at the suggestion. “There’s not a chance we can just leave them there to die! If we don’t try and save them I won’t be healing any of you again.” Peluna growls stubbornly, it almost sounds like she’s pouting.

For all this skeleton’s size and strength, its speed is still equally impressive and is gaining on its intended targets quickly. That doesn’t leave much time for deliberation on weather on not they should engage the target. However, Peluna’s threat on cutting off healing basically seals the deal.

Not that her answer was the only reason or anything. If they intended on wiping out the army and incursion leader, then the power players needed to go down. It would be insane if something like this showed up while they were already in a tough fight. Better to try and kill it now while it was alone and they had the advantage.

“We’re going to need to kill it eventually, might as well be now. Grim, you’re on agro while Farah and I will attack it directly. I don’t recommend trying to take a hit from that thing.”

“Oh boy, and here I was thinking of standing still and letting that skeleton club me. Thanks for the suggestion boss.” Grim sarcastically snaps back. Despite the remark, he’s still smiling as if he’s excited for a challenge.

Just like before with the group of skeletons, Grim charges full speed ahead with Cyrus following just a few feet behind him. Just before the Evolved warrior catches up to the two limping adventurers, he and Grim pass them in order to draw its attention away. First objective accomplished.

The second one doesn’t come nearly as easy, in one hand of the warrior is a massive club three times the size of an actual person and the other hand has a shield. Seeing Grim, the Skeleton slams its club down towards the demon’s head, intent on crushing it in one go. The speed was incredible for an enemy of its size, coming hurtling down like a lightning strike at the ground. Wearing heavy armor, Grim has no time to react.

Peluna reacts for the save and a golden bubble wraps around him just before impact. This had to be her [Embrace] skill, allowing 5 seconds of absolute protection so long as the caster has enough magic to absorb the attacks given during that time. The club glances off the barrier and slams into the ground, causing the skeleton to stumble forward in what would have been shock if it were alive.

Cyrus sees this as a chance to react; with the club on the ground its entire side is open for an attack. He leaps forward, putting all his strength into his foot to propel himself forward and at its side. His rapier cleaves through several ribs, shattering them to small pieces as they crumble apart. Unfortunately, this larger skeleton isn’t going to go down with just one hit like the others.

The shield swings around like an offensive weapon and fills his vision. Cyrus crosses his arms to protect his face and takes the fill momentum blow of the incoming shield, sending him hurtling backwards several feat. When the shield moved, Farah took that opportunity to appear in the fight and slash the now exposed leg of the skeleton. Her small daggers easily slip between the cracks of armor presented whenever the beast moves.

Normally it’s an effective attack, but her eyes widen as the knife shatters in her hand upon impact with the bone. Without aura or a stronger material, her dagger was completely ineffective against the durability of the skeleton’s bone. That doesn’t mean her attack went unnoticed as the club swung around to hit her next.

Farah, in comparison to Grim is three times as fast. Even with the club swinging around and doing a full sweep of the ground, she summersaults backwards and does a half flip over the swinging club. Even after the club misses she continues to retreat to a safe distance.

“That bone shattered one of my daggers! I’m useless against this thing!” Farah complains aloud, pulling out a throwing knife to replace the broken dagger.

Cyrus grit his teeth in frustration. That effectively meant that he was the only one that could do any real damage to this thing. Their group was in desperate need of better weapons but money was an actual problem. Good materials were remarkably expensive and a quest like this would make them rich enough to buy those materials. It was counterproductive but they didn’t have the luxury to make slow money gains over a long period of time.

“Shit, we’ll buy or get you a better one later. Go after the incoming skeletons with Peluna while Grim and I handle this big guy ourselves!” Cyrus shouts at his teammates.

They both call out their affirmations and run to take on the incoming skeletons behind the evolved warrior. The two demons they jumped in to save had been healed by Peluna once they made it far back enough and ran to help the two women with the horde. Leaving Cyrus and Grim with the big guy.

Cyrus targeted the Evolved warrior as his [Prey], badly wanting the increased Strength against the monster. At the same time, he also realized that he was weak against monsters like skeletons without flesh and blood. His passive ability [Life Burn] gave him more Strength the more his enemies bled. While it wasn’t needed, every bit of power he could get was useful in a fight.

This wasn’t to say that Grim was powerless; the tank activated his own skill [Ambition]. This skill allowed him to take the brunt of massively powerful hits at a decreased damage at the sacrifice of much of his speed. He figured that if he wouldn’t be able to dodge most of the attacks, then he might as well pull them away from Cyrus to get him an opening. The skeleton clearly took this as a challenge and brought its focus back to the demon, this time charging forward with its shield.

Grim met the shield head on, letting out a loud “Oomph” as he let the shield slam into his body. The tank dug his feet into the ground and drove the rushing skeleton to a halt despite the size difference and stopped its advance. Cyrus ran forward while the skeleton was distracted with its halted position and launched towards the gap that Farah made in the armored leg with her knife. Covered in aura, his rapier sliced straight through the bone and disintegrated the pieces on impact. The entire right side of the skeleton fell to the ground, still alive and kicking but not partially disabled.

Skeletons didn’t feel pain, so the monster made no hesitation to continue attacking despite the loss of its leg. The club slammed into the ground where Cyrus once stood and kept following his every movement, leaving no room for him to get close and hit again. With the skeleton so low to the ground, the rest of the rib cage was within reach and the Evolved warrior must’ve realized that weakness. With his far superior speed, Cyrus was having no problems dodging the club, but it was too big for him to get closer before it would strike him.

On the bright side, Grim seemed to figure that out on his own as he spun around the shield from where he had been holding it in place and launched his own body at the other arm. While he wasn’t fast, Grim sure was strong because he latched himself onto the skeleton’s arm and held it down on the ground, taking each hit as it thrashed the tanks body.

With the club pinned down, Cyrus had all the time in the world as he jumped straight at the stationary ribcage and sliced through every bone in his way. Even if it died, he didn’t stop to check until the skull came crashing down after the spine shattered. He probably could’ve just checked his notifications from the System, but it felt better just to make sure this thing died properly.

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Grim was lying on his back on the ground, panting heavily. His armor wasn’t destroyed but there were plenty of noticeable dents after he took so many heavy attacks. He was still in pretty good shape due to his skill for absorbing damage as well. Just ahead, Farah, Peluna, and the others had just wrapped up taking care of the small horde of skeletons that came with the Evolved warrior. If this wasn’t a sea of bones before, they were well on the route to making it a mountain. They were as abundant as leaves were on the ground.

Whatever this place one was, weather is was a thriving metropolis or a peaceful town; there were no remnants of what it once was.

“You good down there Grim?” Peluna laughs as she begins healing the worn out demon.

Grim merely lifts his thumb up in return, groaning at the obvious strain his body was in. “While I can absorb so much damage while that skill is active, the after effects are terrible. The stress on my body that should have happened comes back all at once.”

“As the resident healer, I’m prescribing you to take it easy for the next few hours then. We can just make Farah and Cyrus do most of the work instead.”

“I love the way you think.”

Farah and Cyrus make eye contact and she just rolls her eyes at their comments. “So in other words, nothing changes from the usual.”

Before they can continue the playful banter, the group is approached by the two demons they saved just before. They both look much better than before and the hurt one is no longer limping, but the damage is still done. It was as if they had been down here for days and their armor is scrapped beyond repair from all the damage it’s taken.

“Thank you, for saving us. We would have bit the dust if you hadn’t come to our aid. To pay you back, maybe we can tell you what we know about the incursion?” The demon suggested to Cyrus.

“That’d be helpful, what do you have?”

“We came down here with the rest of our party to wipe out the incursion leader. The main base looks to be only a few more miles in the direction you saw us running from. The giant skeleton had been guarding it, but we didn’t stand a chance.”

“Where did the rest of you party go?”

Wrong question, the demon didn’t need to answer based on his crestfallen expression and wince. Cyrus held up his hand to stop any answer and shook his head. Even with all this extra Charisma, he still lacked the tact to pick up on social ques during a conversation. Something he lacked long before he had the System.

It was strange, the way he felt that Charisma was affecting his communication skills. There was a whisper in his head whenever he brought up topic points that refined the words he wanted to say into something more eloquent. It was like a mental push in order to help phrase or decide on what to say. That didn’t mean he felt confident talking on his own quite yet. That’s what he had his companions for.

“Were you able to get a look at the boss?” Grim asked instead, eager to change the subject.

The two demons only shook their heads. “No we didn’t, but we did see that they had a hostage. It was a dwarf [Runesmith].”

“A [Runesmith]? Are you sure?” Farah asked with a sudden eagerness. There was a spark in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Probably because this had some relation to her ability to kill things.

Cyrus however, wasn’t quite sure how this mattered all that much. But the sound of the class made it seem pretty important, on top of the fact that everyone else was excited by the mere sound of it. That said, Cyrus needed to catch up with everyone.

“That sounds great and all, but would anyone care to fill me in on why this is important?” Cyrus asked the group. The two demons just seemed appalled that he would even ask such a question, the rest of his own companions didn’t even look surprised anymore.

Farah rubbed her eyes with a groan and slapped Cyrus on the back. Admittedly, he didn’t want to say how much it hurt. “Leave it to you not to know what a Runesmith is. They’re an epic class branch of a blacksmith, capable of not only repairing weapons and armor, but embedding powerful runes to give unique traits to a weapon.”

That did sound pretty great, Cyrus wondered what valuable runes the dwarf would be able to inlay on all their weapons. Even then, what traits or bonuses could runes even give to a weapon? Damn he needed to get himself a book one of these days. Or at least spend like a day or two in the library and just pull in some random information.

“That sounds great and all, but why are a bunch of skeletons keeping him alive? Why not just kill him?” Grim asked the group.

Farah shook her head again, as if the answer should be obvious. “We’ve already established that the incursion leader is intelligent. They’re likely using the dwarf to lay down some powerful runes for them, or at least trying to. Even if he’s a low level runesmith, there can still be some battle changing effects.”

So in other words, this dwarf could increase the skeleton’s chances of kicking their asses, if he had been cooperative. “So basically, this not only is a kill mission, but now a hostage rescue as well?” Cyrus asked with a groan. “There better be something that comes out of this, like him making us some runes.”

As it turns out, one of his companions wasn’t too happy about that comment. “Don’t you mean that we should rescue this dwarf because it’s the right thing to do? Party leader.” Peluna asked gravely from behind, that same anger from a couple nights before emanating off her.

That was enough to wake him up, answer clearly or be killed. At least that’s what the voice in his head was telling him. ”A-Ah of course! It’s most definitely our job to help people. We would be monsters if we didn’t after all.” He replied with an unsure laugh, chewing his lip in anticipation if she was still going to kill him.

Thankfully, that time didn’t come and they went back to the topic at hand. “Regardless, we’ll have to kill the incursion leader anyways. So we might as well pick up this dwarf along the way.” Grim agreed, finally rising from the spot on the ground he had been resting.

Farah let out a cough that was clearly fake but also a suggestion. “Or we could just kidnap him for ourselves…”

Peluna’s gaze was sharp on the assassin the moment the words left her mouth. “Out of the question.”

“Awe, you’re never any fun.”

“Well, if we kidnap anyone this would be the best guy.” Grim mused from the spot he was stretching.

The two demons they rescued only looked on in a mix between scared and interested faces. They probably couldn’t tell that they were joking, well, maybe Farah wasn’t but that’s besides the point. In the end, they both went on their way after repeatedly thanking their group for the rescue.

Peluna sputtered and choke on her breath, having not expected Grim to back the assassin up. “You better not be serious; we can’t kidnap someone!”

A smirk crept up the side of Cyrus’ mouth, it was entertaining to see her get so flustered. “Seems like you’re outnumbered, besides, out party could use a dedicated smith to repair our equipment. Especially Grim’s since he can’t keep his armor together for more than one fight.”

“Awe that’s not fair boss! I only get this dents when fighting for you!” Grim replied mockingly, drifting over to Cyrus with a fake heart broken expression. It was one of those “I only fight for you” looks.

Grim sauntered all the way over until he was literally face to face with him. They locked eyes and it was clear from his look that Grim was enjoying teasing him. Even though Cyrus knew he was being mocked, he found it harder and harder to keep a straight face in front of his companion.

He burst out laughing, he hadn’t expected the tank to walk over like a big teddy bear but the comparison was just too funny. His three friends must have been shocked, they all stared at him like he had grown a second head the moment they heard him laugh. After recovering, they also started laugh and giggling, the whole bit had been ridiculous.

Cyrus hadn’t really laughed until now, this moment felt like some part of himself just untangled itself. It was comforting and terrifying at the same time, like he was becoming too used to this world. For now, he wouldn’t think too hard on it, it would be a shame to ruin the moment after all.

“You guys seem like a nice party, it’s easy to see how close all of you are.” One of the demons commented. Just like that, the laughter stopped. The demon seemed confused, but the cave felt heavy.

Cyrus was no longer laughing, not even smiling. For whatever reason, hearing someone talk about how close their party was had made him upset. The rest of his party seemed to pick up on the mood change and chose not to comment, not even Farah gave a witty remark.

After they recovered, the two demons they rescued decided to head back for the surface. Before they walked away, it wasn’t hard to see how distraught they were over the experience. Both of them were over level 50, and their party had been wiped out. Leaving just two survivors out of what had been 6. That had to be terrible, and traumatizing. For once, Cyrus felt like he could really relate to what someone else was going through.

To lose all the people around you, know you’ll probably never see them again. Accept the hard truth of what the world has done to you. Sometimes, it was better to just give up. Except that wasn’t true, giving up was simply easier. Moving on was harder. The truth for Cyrus? He didn’t move on, no, he COULDN’T move on. Not until he knew there was absolutely no way for him to get home beyond a shred of doubt. Until every avenue was explored or he was lying dead at the bottom of some dark sewer, he would never move on.

And no one could tell him otherwise.

Not even the eyes that stared at him from behind.