There was no recovering from that, and they all knew it—none more so than the healer, who screamed at the top of her lungs. The rest of them went pale with fear.

  Despite all this, it didn’t see Karl, however. The warrior stabbed it right through the chest. And then he yelled. Rraan was the first to get back to his senses. His axe cut deep into the monk's leg.

  Ulivia threw her magic again.

  The undead monk blocked the fighters, then whirled his staff. He absorbed the magic, and when the undead planted his staff down, he released a wave that threw the two adventurers back.

  The undead looked down at its body, then used one of its skills. Its flesh glowed faintly, then hardened. It used [Impenetrable Body], and their blades clanged uselessly against its skin.

  All the while, Ulivia and the last remaining mage gathered power together, and when they were ready, the magic around them felt thick.

  “Step back!” she yelled and didn’t wait to see if they listened.

  She screamed as she let go of the [Chain Lightning] and watched as it hit the greater undead.

  The monk roared, and the sound echoed through the chamber like thunder. It spun its staff in a wide arc, and the warriors who were close scattered again.

  All of them but one of the leonin warriors were caught under the blow, and he went spinning, his body lifeless.

  Rraan stepped back. He was scared. He could hear his heart beating fast, and he realised they might not survive this after all.

  He focused and felt that the monk's magic was reduced, but it felt wrong. No... not just wrong, off as well, like it had used another powerful skill. His eyes went wide as the undead warrior used his other skill, [Timeless Body].

  Its wounds reversed and vanished instantly, and they all stared in horror.

  “We... we can’t win. That... that’s a high gold rank skill,” Ulivia said, her body stumbling as she took a step back.

  “No. We fight,” Rraan said, then he activated his [Rage] ability.

  His mane stood on end, and he felt his strength double. This was his level fifteen skill, and it would only last for a minute. It was the skill he had used to gain his silver rank status and his trump card.

  He moved, and the undead didn’t bother blocking him. It had its [Impenetrable Skin] skill active, and the axe would just bounce off. But at the last moment, before his axe landed, Rraan used [Cleave].

  Sparks flew, and the monk reeled. He had created a weakness, and if all their attacks weren't costing it, then the lionin had just made a weak point for all of them to attack its impregnable defence.

  “Aim for its arm!” Karl yelled, and lightning struck its shoulder.

  The undead’s arm cracked, but Rraan pressed on even harder. It tried to swing its staff around, but Karl grabbed it, holding it in place.

  With a roar, Rraan leapt into the air, and his axe came down a second time. He cleaved through rotting skin, then flesh, and through bone.

  The undead monk’s arm dropped to the ground, and it tilted its head as though in surprise, then howled in rage.

  Its staff glowed, and by the time Karl remembered to let go, it was too late. It thrust forward. The blow struck his arm, bending his shoulder plate, and sent him into the wall, where he fell unconscious.

  The greater undead’s staff came around. Rraan was the one caught this time. He flew back into a wall and was buried by falling debris.

  Ulivia tried, but she was too slow. The swing hit her fellow mage, killing her instantly, and it caught her too, sending her rolling and coughing her bloody guts out.

  It grabbed the dead rogue and threw the corpse at the archer, then moved so fast that the undead seemed to appear in front of the healer.

  It cocked its head to the side, its undead, empty eyes gleaming, then its magical staff came down on the quivering healer.

  Suddenly, a blade flashed from the side, and its casual blow was pushed aside.

  Damian crashed into the fight, his sword slamming against the magical staff, and sparks flew. He felt his bones rattle and his joints grind against the force as he hopped back.

  “See? Told you we’d make it,” Darrow said.

  Darrow dove from the shadows, and his daggers sliced into the undead’s side. Or tried to.

  Damian’s bag was on the ground, and the brothers moved together.

  Karl blinked. Rraan tried to lift himself out of the debris, then stopped. He watched. The adventurers just watched. They watched the two porters as they fought.

  Damian parried another crushing blow, and his bones rattled again. If he was going to keep blocking and waiting for his body to adjust, then he wasn't going to be able to attack.

  He didn't have to worry about that, however. Darrow moved, stabbing and looking for any weak points until he found some.

  The two moved as one, their intuition perfect. They dodged only to attack, avoided the staff instinctively, and they did all this without saying a word.

  The monk staggered under their rhythm, and for the first time, the greater undead faltered.

  Rraan blinked, his jaw wide open. If he knew these two could fight that well, then… then. He brushed the thought away. There was no need. He had to be the one to kill that greater undead.

  The revenant monk swung its staff down. Damian blocked, and his knees buckled. He was beginning to understand why the [Lesser Strength] skill he had gotten was the envy of so many adventurers, if it was all he needed to keep up with a dungeon boss.

  Darrow leapt onto its back, then he stabbed down into its already broken and mangled shoulder, and the undead shrieked, then spun.

  Darrow was thrown off its back and crashed to the ground, coughing as he tried to get up. He watched the staff swing toward him and scrambled to get away. However, he was too slow.

  Damian’s heart lurched. He dove forward and slammed the shield he had looted between Darrow, himself and the undead monk.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The blow shattered the ancient shield, and Damian was thrown back, bleeding from the arm where the shield had splintered.

  He looked at his bleeding arm, then at Darrow. His brother was alive—and that was what mattered.

  “Idiot!” Darrow shouted, his voice shaky but relieved, and Damian just grinned weakly.

  “Couldn’t let you die first,” he said.

  “Scared Cassandra will give you an earful?”

  “Very much so,” Damian said, then clenched his jaw. They rose together and attacked.

  The monk’s head tilted to the side, then it let out an unnatural roar and charged them again.

  Rraan was the first to intercept, hacking wildly and giving the other adventurers time to rally as he struck its legs.

  Karl rose from the ground, his body stitching itself back together thanks to the healer, who was breathing heavily and wearing thin.

  “I can’t heal you guys anymore,” the healer breathed exhaustively.

  Damian took the opportunity and pressed forward while Darrow circled behind.

  Their eyes met in that moment, and their class came alive. Darrow knew what Damian was planning, and the reverse was the same. They had a silent plan.

  The monk raised his staff high, looking for a target, and Damian was there. He shouted, drawing its attention.

  The undead looked down, and its staff crashed toward him.

  He parried with everything he had, and Darrow came from behind—his daggers plunged into its exposed throat, another weak point he had found.

  The monk meant to scream but gurgled, reeling along with that Damian slammed his fist into its chest. The creature staggered back, clutching at its throat.

  Taking the opportunity, Uliva cast her spell, and Magic hit the creature, splitting across its torso, and the undead staggered back.

  Rraan roared, then he charged, and his axe cleaved off its other arm.

  With the last of her magic gone, Ulivia felt at her end.

  All mages had reserves of magic they could tap into. In fact, any magic class did and the higher your level, the more magic you had to throw around.

  Ulivia channeled the last dregs of her magic into the lightning spell, and with her weakening will, she let go.

  The lightning bolt struck the undead in its exposed wound, and it convulsed, then shook, then smoked as flames erupted from within its body.

  The creature let out one last roar as it turned to face her. It didn't see them, and again, Damian and Darrow surprised it. They stabbed together.

  The sword and dagger pierced its heart this time. The monk stopped in place. It looked down at Damian in confusion. It shook unnaturally, and then ash burst outward in a wave from its body.

  They didn’t see what happened as they all shielded their eyes.

  When the ash cleared, the monk's body had shattered into dust, and its staff clattered to the ground. A silence fell over the chamber.

  Damian panted, his blade shaking, while Darrow wiped blood from his face.

  The leonin stared at them both. The adventurers had not expected that—they had thought they were going to die, but they had been saved.

  For once, there were no mocking words. Rraan, however, looked displeased. He had a look that Damian couldn’t quite place.

  Ulivia collapsed, exhausted, and the rest of them breathed.

  The adventurers stared at the shattered remains. They watched as Darrow walked up to the magical staff and picked it up.

  “Are you injured?” Darrow asked and threw the staff toward him.

  “We didn’t die, and I’m not injured,” Damian said, snatching the staff out of the air.

  They didn’t want to lose it, and Karl ran and grabbed the backpack Damian had thrown to the ground. Then the portal hummed, the world shifted, and they appeared where the portal had been.

  ~~~

  The streets of Calvessan bustled with activity as the guards tried their best to keep away the many onlookers and children from wherever the dungeon portal was located.

  [Guild Mistress] Magda stood with a frown on her face as the enchanters and scribes fidgeted around the array. There had been an anomaly, and the portal had let out more magic than usual.

  Then, seconds ago, the magic had stopped increasing suddenly. She wondered if they had done it. If they hadn’t, then this second anomaly was just the dungeon stabilising before a dungeon break.

  The runes in the circle glowed on the ground, and Magda stiffened.

  “There is something happening. Prepare yourselves,” she said and lifted herself.

  The guards of Principal City, in their heavy coats, pulled out their weapons and surrounded the array. The citizens scrambled back, eager to see what would come out of the portal and yet not sure if they wanted to keep pushing closer.

  The portal glowed a bit brighter, and the adventurers stumbled out. Damian and Darrow followed behind them.

  Darrow quickly raised his hands as the spears and swords were pointed at him.

  “Damian, what’s going on?” he asked.

  Damian just coughed as he brushed away the ash that still clung to their clothes. It seemed to take the guards a moment to realise that they were adventurers, and they lowered their weapons.

  Some of the adventurers were limping, others were bleeding, and Karl was holding Damian’s bag tightly in his arms. That was the one backpack that had made it out of the dungeon, and it contained all the loot the brothers had collected.

  On the other hand, Damian held the magical staff, and its surface still hummed faintly.

  The crowd, who had been on edge and ready to run in case a monster came out of the dungeon, turned and cheered. They cheered and cheered—and at first, that’s all they did. But then they realised the injuries and the few adventurers who had come back. It was bad.

  The cheers faltered as the word spread about the number of survivors.

  “Half of them are gone,” a whisper rippled through the crowd.

  “Healers!” the Guild Mistress yelled.

  A group of healers rushed forward with glowing hands, and the mages lowered the barrier to let them heal the adventurers.

  The archer lionin who had survived let blood drip into the circle on the stones below her.

  “What happened?” A scribe rushed forward and started scribbling notes frantically.

  “Why did the dungeon surge?” another scribe asked.

  “We don’t know. It just happened,” Karl said, his hands still shaking, his eyes never leaving the two twins.

  Rraan stepped forward, and when he reached Damian, his hand went for the staff.

  Damian’s grip tightened, and he turned and looked up.

  “That’s not yours. It belongs to me by right,” Rraan snarled in his raspy voice, drawing the attention of those around them.

  “I think it belongs to me and Darrow—we saved your lives, remember?” Damian said.

  Their eyes locked, and Rraan tried to pull, but the staff didn’t budge. He had almost forgotten how unnatural the porter’s strength was. This had to be one of his skills.

  “By right,” Rraan growled.

  This time, it was more of a warning, and Damian refused to let go. The crowd stirred nervously around them as the Guild Mistress turned and marched toward them.

  “We killed it together,” Damian said, seemingly not sensing the danger.

  “Enough,” the Guild Mistress said as she arrived.

  Her robes swayed in the busy street, and compared to the two young men, she looked composed. They looked like they had just gone through a grinder and were now picking a fight.

  Her presence caused both of them to go silent, and Lord Graldo appeared beside her. So this was the man who had gotten them into this mess.

  Lord Graldo’s jewelled cane tapped on the tile, and Damian watched a frown grow on the man’s face as soon as he saw him and what he was doing.

  “What is this? Boy, you are assaulting a lord,” he said before the Guild Mistress could speak.

  “And I didn’t know nobles could be so brash.”

  “This staff belongs to me. We agreed when we bought the dungeon rights.” Rraan said

  “I thought you would be more grateful after we saved your life.”

  “Nonsense,” Lord Graldo interrupted, waving his hand at the comment.

  “Is this not true, Lord Rraan? You should be more grateful,” Damian said.

  The lionin lordling just growled, and this time it was much heavier.

  “I said that’s enough.” Guild Mistress Magda tapped her cane on the ground.

  “We offered to clear the dungeon and bought the rights to it. From what I’m hearing, this young man saved your life.”

  “I was with him as well,” Darrow said and was promptly ignored.

  “If this is false, then we can get a truth stone, and we can easily resolve this matter.”

  The large lionin glared down at the much smaller dwarf, but she didn’t budge.

  Darrow was ready for anything at this point. In particular, he wasn’t getting involved because all his attention was taken by Lord Graldo’s bodyguard.

  The man was definitely an assassin. He wore thin, black, hard leather patches. Darrow felt a chill run down his spine—the man moved too silently, and his eyes were those of a predator.

  Magda wasn’t a Guild Mistress of the Adventurers’ Union for nothing. She had learned how to deal with the egos of some of the most dangerous people, and if that wasn’t enough, she had the levels to match. One too many adventurers had found that out the hard way.

  She met the lionin’s eyes without flinching, and after a second, he looked away.

  “What do you propose, then?” he asked.

  “The staff will be put up for auction, and the coin will be split between the two of you.”

  “I think that’s fair,” Damian said, and Rraan huffed.

  She gestured, and a pair of guild scribes came forward and took the staff, marking it down before placing it in a case.

  But Darrow’s attention was elsewhere. The man met his gaze knowingly, and a chill of sweat ran down his neck. Darrow realised he was looking at an assassin, and his [Minor Spy’s Intuition] confirmed it.

  More of the loot was taken, marked down, and stored. It would be sold along with the staff at the auction, and the crystals were going to be sold to the Dwarven Smithing Guilds.