“Can you collapse the other tunnels?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low.

  Balt’s knuckles whitened around his staff as he pointed toward the passage where the noise was rising. “Not before they’re on us.”

  “Then I’ll buy you the time, I said. My plan only works if we bottleneck them here, one tunnel, one front. Otherwise, they’ll tear us apart from behind.”

  The sound was growing, iron plates grinding, claws raking stone, a chorus of grunts and roars echoing down the dark passage. They were close.

  We locked eyes. No speeches, no more hesitation. Just a single nod. We bumped fists, the gesture quick and hard, a promise sealed in the dim light.

  Then I turned, Ember in hand. My pulse hammered in my ears, drowning out everything but the scrape of my boots on stone as I ran. Shadows writhed at the tunnel’s mouth, as I sprinted downward.

  Time to farm some XP.

  Regalia flaring to life around me in a cascade of light, illuminating the dark tunnel. Plates locked into place with a hiss of power, each step driving me faster, harder. Limit Break was now on cooldown, but the armor’s enchantments surged through my muscles, every stride eating up tons of ground as I sprinted. This passage was tighter than the last—fifteen feet high, twenty across, the walls rushed past in a blur as I picked up speed.

  Then I saw movement in front of me. Unclear jagged shapes spilling out across the rock. I continued my advance not slowing down in the least. I was so close now I could now see the gleam of my armor shine in their reptilian eyes. The scrape of claws on stone no longer a distant sound but a chorus, a promise of violence rushing to meet me head-on. And I didn’t care nor did I slow.

  They saw me coming and roared their challenge; their Spears snapped into place, angled forward, their formation locking tight, it looked like a poor echo of a Spartan phalanx.

  I raised my left hand. Mana surged, coalescing into a sphere of crackling light that painted the stone walls in ghostly blue. Shadows twisted and stretched across the tunnel as the orb swelled in my hand, humming with power.

  I hurled it. We were less than twenty feet from one another now. The Mana Ball streaked down the passage. It struck the center of their shield wall and detonated in a thunderclap of light and force. The tunnel shook, dust raining from the ceiling as the shockwave tore through their ranks. Roar's and the cracking of bones echoed back at me, swallowed by the sound of the blast.

  A System Notification hit me.

  That had been a long time coming. With my boosted Stats, my thoughts raced like lightning. I had skimmed the notification and summoned the new sphere in the span of a single stride.

  It flared into existence at my side; a perfect orb wreathed in gentle blue fire. The flames licked and curled like living silk, soft yet searing, a cousin to Ember but steadier, hungrier.

  I willed it into motion, and the sphere orbited me, leaving a faint trail of azure light in its wake. The glow painted the tunnel walls in shifting shades of ghostly blue, shadows bending and twisting as if the world itself was holding its breath.

  My pulse quickened. I couldn’t wait to see what this new power could do.

  The kobold front line was broken, their ranks in disarray, when I vanished into a Flash Step. The world blurred the last ten feet, and I pushed the limits of my speed forward.

  I reappeared in their midst; momentum coiled like a spring as a sonic boom erupted behind me. Ember surged forward with me, my right hand driving it forward in a perfect thrust. "Flash Step Thrust!"

  The first few kobolds never had a chance. Ember struck, and the creatures detonated in a spray of blood and shattered bone, bursting like crimson balloons. The shockwave of my strike rippled outward, a concussive blast that hurled the kobolds back and off their feet, slamming them into their comrades in the rear and turning their formation into chaos.

  For a heartbeat, the tunnel was lit with the afterglow of Ember’s power, blue fire dancing across stone, smoke curling up off of the bodies in the wake of destruction I had just unleashed. The increased light revealed ranks and ranks of monsters in front me to get through.

  I stood defiant at the center of the storm I had created, blade raised, the enemy reeling. But this battle was just getting started. The kobolds began to recover and surged forward over the bodies of their fallen brethren, and I slashed out, cutting them to pieces. Overwhelming the monsters’ defenses with sheer power of my swing as I continued my advance forward.

  They came at me fearless three to four at a time and I quickly lost count of how many I had cut down when a System Message hit me.

  I assigned the free stat point into Spirit, bringing it to 36. System power surged through me—mana flooding back, Limit Break’s cooldown snapping to zero. Energy thrummed in my veins anew as I advanced, each step steadier, stronger more confident that I could break them all.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Then as I sliced another Kobold in half, I heard a distant rumble. A deep, grinding quake rolled beneath my boots, followed by the thunder of stone collapsing in the distance.

  Hell yeah. Balt must have bought down another tunnel.

  The thought barely formed before I heard a sound like a 50-caliber going off down the tunnel, the air in front of me split with a shriek. My instinct screamed for me to protect myself. I crossed my arms to shield my chest, but it turned out I didn’t need to.

  The Sphere orbiting me moved, intercepting the incoming unseen strike. Sparks erupted as a massive bone arrow slammed into the sphere stalling it out only a foot from my face, the impact rattling the tunnel like a war drum. Shards of light and splinters of bone skittered across the stone floor. The Sphere dimmed, a little smaller now, but still humming with power as it held its ground in front of me then went back to circling me.

  I broke into a zigzag sprint, refusing to be a stationary target now that I had felt the power of that strike. I was under no illusion if that would have landed, I would have been hard pressed to survive with no head.

  The kobolds went into a new phase and shifted tactics, no longer a disjointed mob, but a coordinated press, like someone was now in control of their movements. Spears thrust in unison, armored shields angled to funnel me into kill zones. A few even crawled low, clawed hands snatching at my ankles, desperate to pin me in place. For that unseen sniper to kill me.

  Each time my instinct screamed in the back of my mind, I Flash Stepped, and I reappeared in a different location, coming out of the ether just in time to see as another bone arrow ripped through the space I’d abandoned. Where the arrows landed it made explosions in the tunnel causing huge craters.

  Where I had stood a heartbeat before. I could never see what creature was targeting me, but between my sphere and my instincts, I was avoiding it just fine for now, so I re-focused and continued to cut down the remaining monsters that I could actually see.

  As I descended down, the tunnel began to level out; I glimpsed the yawning mouth of a cavern ahead. To my surprise, when I looked around, only a handful of kobolds remained between me and the open ground ahead, but I still had not pinned down that snipper.

  I unleashed a Limit Slash. Fire and fury erupted as Ember carved through them, several monster bodies blasted backward in a storm of sapphire light and blood. A moment of relief at killing the last of the kobolds faded quickly, as their corpses tumbled into the cavern, the real danger revealed itself.

  Bone arrows filled with dark mana rained down, shredding the kobolds mid?air. The projectiles pierced them again and again before detonating, exploding their bodies into fragments so fine that the bodies never touched the ground.

  I froze, breath catching in my chest. Then instinct screamed at me again and I staggered back into the tunnel just as the air filled with a mechanical rhythm, thunk?thunk?thunk, like a machine gun firing. Arrows hissed past, a storm of death filling the cavern’s threshold.

  I Flash Stepped, retreating deeper into the tunnel, out of the unseen assailant's line of sight.

  A sharp crack echoed from up the tunnel. I spun just in time to see Balt’s body hurled through the darkness, tumbling end over end, blood trailing in the air like ribbons.

  I lunged forward, catching him before his momentum could carry him into the deadly cavern below. His body was moving so fast the impact of catching him drove me back a step, his robes were torn and slick with blood.

  “Balt!” My voice cracked. “What happened?!”

  I helped get him up and he staggered upright, leaning on his staff as if it were the only thing keeping him upright. His chest heaved, each breath ragged, his eyes wide and wild as they darted through the shadows.

  “I was collapsing the last tunnel,” he rasped, spittle and blood flecking his lips, “when the biggest Ardent I’ve ever seen barreled into me.” His grip tightened on the staff, knuckles white. “I was able to bring the tunnel down and pushed it back with a force wave—but it pushed its way through the falling stone before I could seal it in. I’ve been fighting it ever since.”

  His voice broke, raw with fury and exhaustion. “It followed me down here; it will be on us any second. It kept unleashing some kind of charged claw strike attack at me… I activated my shield over and over again, but the force of the impact threw me backwards,” he coughed, nearly doubling over, “and kept throwing me.”

  My gut twisted. Balt wasn’t just battered, he was shaken. The man, who had always been ready to throw down at a moment’s notice, and in his own way was unbreakable, was trembling before me. I tightened my grip on Ember, forcing down the surge of rage clawing at my chest.

  Balt glanced back toward the cavern below, edging that way, but I caught his arm and shook my head. “Not this way. You don’t know what’s waiting in there.”

  I activated my anchor, pressing a health potion into his hand. He downed it in one gulp, color slowly returning to his face. His breathing steadied, and he gave me a weary nod of thanks.

  I opened my mouth to reply, then froze.

  A sound scraped through the tunnel. Stone grinding against stone, followed by a low, guttural laughter that slithered along the walls. The kind of sound that made the hair on my arms rise.

  I stepped in front of Balt, Ember raised, as the creature emerged from the shadows. An Ardent, this one even more twisted, monstrous and wrong than its predecessors. Its hulking frame filled the tunnel. It walked on all fours like a lion, shoulders so wide they were brushing the sides of the tunnel. Its head nearly scraped the ceiling, jagged horns gouging fresh scars into the rock above. Its limbs were the size of tree trunks, each clawed hand bigger than my torso.

  Its hide was a patchwork of obsidian plates and raw pulsing flesh, veins glowing faintly with dark mana. It appeared to smile at me, its teeth were shards of bone, slick with dark mana, and its eyes burned with cruel intelligence that was the signature of Ardents. This wasn’t just another Ardent. This was something else entirely. I raised my blade into guard, waiting to see what the creature would do.

  I exhaled sharply. Perfect. With an Elite in front of me and a deathtrap waiting in the dark below. I shifted my stance, ready to start the fight, when the Ardent spoke.

  Its voice was a cavernous growl, dripping with malice. “You think you’ve accomplished something here? All you’ve done is stumble into the master’s trap.”

  It laughed, a jagged, grating sound that echoed off the stone. “You thought these tunnels were the only way out, didn’t you?” The laughter deepened, cruel and mocking.

  Then its claws pulsed with dark energy. With a roar, it slammed one massive par into the wall. The tunnel behind it lit up in a violent flash as stone cracked and began to collapse, sealing the passage in falling rock.

  Dust billowed out hitting me in the face. The last way out was now gone.

  The dust was still settling from the collapsed tunnel when the Ardent’s voice rolled out from the dust cloud, deep and venomous. “Do you see now, little warrior? I’ve finished your work for you.”

  It spread its massive jaws, showing its teeth, and turned its head back to the now collapsed tunnel as if presenting the sealed passage like a trophy. “You wanted these tunnels closed, didn't you? Well, I’ve completed your goal for you.”

  Then its eyes narrowed, burning with malice. “And now… you are the ones trapped. My brother waits below, and I stand before you. There is nowhere left to run.”

  It leaned forward, teeth bared in a predator’s smile. “It’s time for you and your mage to die for all the trouble you’ve caused us.”

  I put Ember on my shoulder and stepped forward. “Yeah, yeah,” I said with my own grin. “I’ve killed a few of you already, and every one of you thinks you’re hot shit.”

  I activated Limit Break, letting my Aura flare into Ember. “Show me what you’ve got. Try not to die too quickly like the last two did after that little speech, it’d be embarrassing for you.”