[Elite Dungeon Entered: The Sewers]
"Stay on high alert, everyone," Hunter said, showing a rare moment of leadership.
"Of course. Forever and always," Jake replied, not taking the remark seriously as he summoned a floating light over his head.
The dungeon was already lit, somehow, but extra light couldn't hurt.
The ground was squishy and a disgusting wet brown. If not for Sheral's spell, I didn't even want to think about what this would feel like, trudging through such filth and scum.
Once inside the dungeon, we only had one path forward; the other side of the tunnel was blocked off by metal bars, leaving us no choice in direction.
Directly ahead was a ninety degree left turn.
Hunter took the opportunity to halt the group with a hand signal, creeping up to the edge and peaking at what was beyond.
"There are several humanoid rats in there," he said quietly. "Most of them have daggers, but at least one has a wand."
"Good. I'll just run in and take hits, then," Jake said.
Sheral glared at him.
"Maybe," I said, "but my main concern here is poison."
"I'll watch for it. I can detect and cure it," Sheral replied immediately.
"Alright, I'll targ,"
Before I could even finish, a dagger flew past us and buried itself in Sheral's leg.
There was an ever noticeable moment of reaction, one that Hunter snapped out of first.
Immediately he commanded Deadman, the direwolf, to attack the Ratman.
"Diamond!" I shouted just a moment later.
The extra points in Willpower kept me sharper than I expected. Everyone moved at once.
Sheral stayed where she was, yanking the dagger free and already starting to mend the wound.
Jake took point. Hunter and I moved behind him, one on each flank.
It was the best formation we had for protecting our healer.
Deadman had finally gotten close enough to pounce on the ratman tearing into it with deadly force.
The monster was every bit as strong as it had been when we fought.
[Level 28 Ratman Backstabber (Elite)]
By the time we had fully settled into formation, two more ratmen had joined the fight and sent a volley of daggers at us.
I braced for impact, only for a golden barrier to stop all six in midair.
"They're poisoned!" Sheral yelled, pain still clear in her voice.
Without wasting another second, I started forming twenty Magic Missiles.
That was the most I could make at once, and if my concentration broke it would be a massive waste of mana. Right now, I was relying entirely on Jake to make sure that did not happen.
"Saw 7!" Hunter shouted, firing an arrow into the skull of the ratman trapped in Deadman's jaws.
A moment later, I launched ten missiles at the ratman on the right. The rat slammed it into the sewer wall as I formed another ten.
With that amount of force where I hit was irrelevant,
[Killed 1x Level 28 Ratman Backstabber (Elite): 81 XP]
[Mana: 579/795]
I did not get any experience from Hunter's kill, and the XP did not split evenly between all four of us either.
Not exactly surprising given Deadman's strength.
Still, realizing Hunter was so far ahead that the system barely considered us comparable was a little irritating. He had to be at least level 27 already. It felt like a slap in the face to all the work I had put in.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
The remaining four ratmen were already charging at us.
Jake held the line like a bunker, blocking tens of daggers from stabbing us all, at least until Sheral called out.
"Alright, I'm back!"
Jake took that as his cue to charge the backstabbers head-on.
Each of them threw daggers as he rushed in, shield on one arm, oversized hammer in the other. No matter where the daggers went, golden energy wrapped around him and turned every strike away from anything vital.
A second later Jake slammed one ratman into the sewer wall with his shield. The space he opened was immediately filled by one of Hunter's arrows, aimed straight at the head of Deadman's next target.
In the midst of all this, my focus was on the caster in the back.
Through all the chaos we had locked eyes, both of us ignoring the rest of the fight.
It felt like a battle of nerves more than anything else, and I wasn't going to let him have the first move.
I decided to send my whole volley at him, spread wide and thin, then immediately cast a single Missile Binding; a spell I could form almost instantly now.
But the volley was only a distraction, helping cover my true attack; a Missile Binding cast from behind the caster.
Seeing the swarm of arcane bullets flying at him, the ratman raised an arm and pulled up a wall of sewer filth to block them. The missiles faded on contact with the filth, but it was only a second later that the first part of my binding struck that same arm and quickly chained it to the ground.
By then, Hunter was already on his third kill, with Falk even helping Jake pin down another ratman for a righteous hammer to land cleanly on its skull.
[Killed 1x Level 28 Ratman Backstabber (Elite): 162 XP]
[Killed 1x Level 28 Ratman Backstabber (Elite): 162 XP]
To finish the fight, I spread five Magic Missiles across the leyline and sent them all at the ratman mage from different angles, an arc of death closing in on him at once.
[Killed 1x Level 28 Ratman Sewer Mage (Elite): 162 XP]
[You have leveled up]
[Mana: 554/840]
Jake took the opening and moved farther ahead, checking the passage we were about to enter.
"It's clear," he said, then turned to Sheral. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Hurt like a bitch, but it doesn't anymore," she said, still visibly annoyed about getting stabbed.
"Well, that went better than expected, all things considered," I said.
"What are you talking about? That was a disaster," Jake shot back.
"Yeah," I said, "but the fact that it was a disaster and we still came out mostly fine proves we can do this."
I looked to Hunter and Sheral for support.
Hunter gave a quiet nod, though Jake missed it.
"He's right," Sheral said. "If we get our heads in the game, we can do this. What's your mana looking like, Tero?"
"Five hundred fifty-four. Still over half."
"Okay, good. I'm still over three-quarters."
She pulled tea from her inventory and drank it quickly. I did the same a second later.
"I'm at a little under half," Jake said, watching us drink. "If we keep going, we need to play it cool."
"Do you need some?" I asked.
"If you can spare it."
I nodded and handed him some tea, then gave both him and Sheral a mana potion too.
"What's this?" Sheral asked.
"Mana potion. Drink it if you get desperate."
Both of them nodded and tucked the potions away.
"Alright," I said. "It's on you to guide us, Jake. The tank usually takes points, remember."
I had already gone over basic role theory with them. In this world it was more complicated than a pure game, and reducing everyone to healer, tank, and DPS would have been stupid, but the general ideas still held.
"Right..."
Jake finished his tea and started forward.
A few steps later, both Hunter and I shouted at the same time.
"Wait!"
Jake froze.
"Hm? What?"
"Just stop," Hunter said, moving ahead slowly and pointing toward a thin wire stretched across the ground.
It was a tripwire.
Jake backed up.
"I'll shoot it," Hunter said, retreating a few steps himself.
The rest of us followed suit.
Hunter loosed an arrow.
The instant it clipped the wire, a cascade of stone came crashing from the ceiling above, enough to have crushed us flat.
"Okay," Hunter said, "move slowly from now on."
I only nodded.
Jake started forward again, this time with a lot more caution.