“Everyone hold up, let me check out what’s going on,” Marie told us.

“Wait, unless you’re detecting a trap nearby, I’ll go. I’ll take one of the Grulnok’s with me just in case,” I volunteered. Marie looked like she was going to argue for a moment, but then waved me forward.

I figured she was still dealing with losing a friend on the day that I had escaped the cultists. She wanted to keep anyone else in Refuge from meeting that same fate. Despite wanting to protect us, she had the wrong class for it. Marie was smart enough to let logic override her concerns, as both me with my summons were good picks to check out whatever was going on.

Creeping down the passageway, I wasn’t happy with the amount of noise that me and Grulnok were making, but I figured the sounds of battle were covering us well enough. The narrow passageway we were on emptied into a huge cavern. To my right, the cavern was well lit with both the usual torches, and a several large lanterns that revealed the large smelting operation the kobolds had going. The other side of the cavern disappeared into darkness, and I didn’t know if that side of the cavern continued for a hundred feet or a hundred miles.

The fight playing out in front of us was similar to the one we’d just dealt with. There was one difference with this fight, the kobolds were winning. A line of kobold miners held off the trickle of camel spiders that were rushing out of the dark cavern. Behind the kobold miners were three of the larger kobold leaders who were barking orders at their underlings.

With shouted orders and a few hits from the flats of their blades, the leaders moved the defensive line back about five or six steps. In front of where they had been previously defending was a mound of bodies, mostly of the spiders, but more than a few kobold bodies were mixed in. The leaders were fighting smart, if they hadn’t moved back, the camel spiders could just run over the top of the bodies and leap onto the kobolds with little risk.

A few of the kobolds proved to be a bit too slow in their retreat, and the spiders took advantage of their delay, leaping onto and swarming the hapless victims. Despite that small victory, the number of attacking spiders was dropping rapidly, and the kobolds should have this wrapped up shortly. Taking a closer look at the three kobold leaders, I didn’t think any of them were the dungeon boss, so the battle wouldn’t end here once we eliminated the trio.

I couldn’t see any exits around the section of cavern that was lit by the kobold mining operation. Wherever the boss was, or at least access to the next level, must have been hidden in the dark side of the cavern. Grulnok caught my attention and pointed to the ground about twenty feet in front of us.

The brightly lit kobold defenders battling the spiders across the cavern had grabbed my attention, and I had missed the signs of battle right in front of me. A small group of five kobolds had been torn apart not far from the passageway exit. Surrounding them was a half dozen of the camel spider corpses. The spiders must have overrun this group in their initial attack, then continued to swarm their way through the passageway and up to the next level where we ended up killing them.

With the sounds of battle dying down, I moved back into the passageway to inform the others. A high-pitched squeal right above my head had me scrambling back. There, on the ceiling, was a camel spider that had been about to jump onto my head. Melvin, who had been following me by sliding across the ceiling, had seen the threat and was well on the way to engulfing and digesting the foiled ambusher.

“Thanks Melvin, you saved me from a nasty bite,” I said, sending feelings of gratitude to the cube through our link. Melvin sent back smug satisfaction at having done his part to defend our team.

“Is everything okay?” Marie said as I rejoined the group, looking back at where Melvin was finishing his meal in the dark.

“Yeah, a spider tried to drop onto me from above, but Melvin took him out,” I said.

“Gross, but cool,” Elliot said, and Quinn agreed.

“What’s happening out there, it’s gone quiet?” Marie asked. I explained what I’d seen and that the kobolds on this level of the dungeon seemed to be victorious. The only problem was that there were at least of score of the kobold miners left, and three of the bigger leader kobolds.

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“I’ll just fireball them again, that’s easy enough,” Elliot said with a confidence the rest of us didn’t share.

“Last time, the leaders survived a fireball that was juiced up with all your mana. I also don’t think that they’re going to do us the favor of bunching up into a tight formation again. Maybe you’ll catch a good chunk of them, which will make our job easier, but I think we’re going to have more of a fight on our hands here,” I replied.

“What do you suggest, Rico? You’re the one with the most experience fighting with a group of people,” Marie said, gesturing toward my minions.

“We go in, similar to our previous formation, with my team up front, Quinn right behind, and the rest of us supporting them with ranged spells and abilities. Elliot can start the fight with a fireball that doesn’t drain all his mana,” I said.

It was the best I could come up with without a lot of time to plan. For all I knew, one of the kobolds was already heading toward the passageway we were in. These weren’t normal dungeon mobs and at least one of the kobold leaders would eventually want to check on the fate of their comrades on the upper level.

“What about Melvin? Can he go in and soften them up?” Quinn asked.

“I can ask him, it’s risky, the kobolds are smart enough to try and use fire on him, which is about the only way I think they can hurt him,” I said, sending a request to Melvin. He sent back an image of him on the roof of the cavern getting ready to drop on a kobold leader.

“He’ll help, but his attack will be better if we coordinate it with ours. In the confusion they may not realize how to deal with him. If he attacks on his own, I’m sure they’ll find some way to shove him in the smelter,” I offered.

“It sounds like we have a plan, does anyone need to regenerate mana still?” Marie asked. I was back to almost full and wanted to fire off an Empower Minion, but figured it was safer to hold my mana for emergency healing.

“I’m good, almost full,” I replied.

“I’m about 80%, enough for a regular sized fireball and a couple small fire blasts,” Elliot said.

“Good, don’t forget about your mana tabs if you need them. I’d like to save them for the boss fight, but if it looks like we’re losing and you’re out of mana, don’t hesitate to take one,” Marie advised. Elliot’s class was a bit of a glass cannon, and until he reached the higher tiers, his spells would burn through all his mana in no time.

“Let’s go, keep it as quiet as you can until we’re in position,” I said, monitoring Melvin’s progress as he climbed to the roof of the main cavern, which was a good fifty feet above us. My minions were the first out of the passageway, and they formed a defensive line as the rest of us emerged and got ready.

“I’ll need to get about thirty or forty yards closer, they’re just out of range of my fireball,” Elliot said. The kobolds were going about the business of cleaning up the fallen. With their smelter doing double duty as a crematorium for the bodies of their kin, the kobolds used the smaller cookfires to begin roasting several of the spider corpses. No matter which side won, the victors were planning to use the fallen as food.

From the darkness of the cavern, the sounds of rocks clacking across the stone floor of the cavern could be heard. Our group went still, and Marie motioned for all of us to drop as the noise caught the kobold’s attention. One of the leaders started barking orders and the kobolds stopped their cleanup tasks to gather their weapons and prepare for battle.

“I’m counting twenty-three of the kobold miners,” Quinn whispered. While we had been getting ready, he had been trying to get an accurate count of our foes.

“Well, I’m more worried about what’s making that noise,” Elliot said as the sounds of rocks being knocked around grew louder. At least we’d lucked out a little bit, and whatever was coming was on the opposite side of the cavern and not right behind us.

One of the kobold leaders hissed out some orders, sending a pair of diminutive miners to check out the noise. You could tell pair they selected didn’t want to go, but all three leaders gestured with their shortswords, threatening them with death if they refused. The sure death was preferable to whatever was in the dark, so they reluctantly jogged forward, each carrying a torch.

A loud sound that was somewhere between a cricket rubbing its legs together and a snake hiss filled the cavern. In the distant torchlight of the kobold scouts, I saw what looked like a giant camel spider leg slam into one. The blow caused the kobold to be cut in half at the waist.

The other kobold dropped his torch and ran, screaming for help. I only caught a glimpse of the new attacker as it sprinted past the dim torch the kobold left on the ground. It was another camel spider, but one that was the size of a semi-truck. Catching up to the kobold, the spider’s head snapped forward, impaling its prey on a set of fangs that were at least a yard long.

“Rico, I think we should hold off on our attack for a bit,” Marie said, stunned at the monstrosity that was just now walking into the lighted half of the cavern.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the dungeon boss, and it’ll probably be in our best interest to let it fight the kobolds before we try to take it on,” I replied.

We remained there, crouched down in the dark near the passageway. I had no faith in the kobolds taking down that monster, and I would have seriously considered running away if killing it wasn’t our only way out of here.