I watched the head fall to the ground, taking the situation in.

  The expression Xila made as she saw her last mage fall to the ground was to pay for. She looked both horrified and fuming, a weird combination of the two. She went to slash at Martin, whose back was turned to her, but it was too late.

  I was already there.

  Just as the blade came down, it made sparks fly as it hit my shield. She didn’t even see me coming. Smiling, I went at her, pushing her away from Martin. Around me, the sounds of goblins fighting other goblins started, their voices mixing into one big cacophony of weapons meeting other weapons.

  I tried smashing my shields into Xila, again and again and again. But she kept skirting around them, dodging the attacks. She moved as if dancing, her moves always just one step ahead of mine.

  I grinned, losing myself to the battle completely, letting my mind focus on just fighting the person in front of me. I’ve had some one-on-one battles in this body already, but never a fight this evenly matched against someone my size. It was… a completely different experience.

  Was that an opening? I blocked a slash aimed at my head, and used every muscle to punch out in a jab as a counterattack. Just as I thought I’d finally hit her in the chest, she turned sideways at the last moment, just to counterattack with a slash. I moved my arms to block, the attack scratching my forearm, biting into the muscle. We were an even match, for the most part. But she had the upper edge.

  I dodged an attack, but she kept on, bringing her other scythe in a low sweep. I jumped, using the blade to jump into the air to bring my weight upon her, but her wings buzzed and she made distance before I fell, and slashed me across my back before I fully regained control of my body.

  Realizing that she had the upper hand, she stopped focusing on dodging, and tried to press me back. Her blades carved through the air, both at once, forcing me to block at the last moment. She was deceivingly strong. Almost as much as I was.

  Before I could even react, her blade disappeared and cut me on my abdomen, a thumb length deep cut appearing and gushing blood. I didn’t even feel the pain, but I registered my HP dropping rapidly.

  Suddenly, a kukri knife swiped just where Xila stood, forcing her to dodge by stepping forward.

  [Vibrant Rage activated]

  Oohhh, yeah, that was the stuff.

  Xila’s eyes widened as she looked at me, my skin glowing with the passive skill, her hand doing another slash. She didn’t let up even though she was in a 2v1. I wouldn’t allow myself to be underestimated again.

  I knocked her weapon away, and punched her into her face again. For the second time, her jaw cracked, becoming goo as the bone shattered. She huffed from the pain, but I wasn’t finished. I punched again, at her torso this time, though she managed to pivot, the attack hitting her shoulder instead. It cracked too, the shield visibly sinking in.

  Martin tried swiping again, but Xila danced away from another attack of mine and parried his, stepping closer and punching him in the gut. The attack sent him flying into one of the goblins fighting nearby.

  She turned, meeting my eyes as I dashed toward her. Her wings stretched out from her back, and whirred, the buzzing sound loud even through the clashing steel around us.

  Her body lifted off the ground as she tried soaring, but I got to her first. I jumped and grabbed hold of one of her legs, holding on onto her sleek calf. My weight stopped her ascent, but not completely. Those wings were seriously strong, and would probably carry us both. I looked at her leg, the flesh exposed, and put my other arm behind my back as I charged my attack. I wanted to save the skill for later, but it was now or never.

  [Bullet strike]

  The bone shattered and the lower half of her leg came clean off, separating at the middle of her thigh. Only a few strands of skin hanging from the exposed muscle and bone.

  Xila watched with shock as I fell to the ground. She let out a scream from the pain, flying from one side to another, clawing at the open wound. Her guide watched, panicking. It looked so painful that I almost didn’t feel good about watching the sight. Almost.

  The wound started closing, the skin extending to cover the stub, but, despite my expectations, a new leg didn’t appear. She watched with shock as she flew around and clawed at the wound, waiting for a few more moments, but nothing started growing.

  She looked at me with pure rage visible in her face. “I’m going to skewer yo-”

  A glass ball hit her face with an oomph, exploding into a cloud of gas.

  “Good shit, Fink!” Mark shouted from somewhere behind me, but I kept my eyes forward.

  Xila coughed, looked at me once again, and scanned the battlefield, somewhat calmed. A quick glance around told me all I needed to know about the situation; without the mages and Xila, her goblins got overwhelmed.

  Sure, there were a lot of dead goblin bodies from our side, the sand underneath our feet having turned red instead of purple, but there were still a lot of them standing.The players joined the fight too, though not all of them. A few bodies littered the ground, a few stood where I left them, and a few were trying to surround the remaining enemies with the help of our unlikely allies. Martin was biting into the neck of one of the armored ones as well, no longer focusing on the player enemy. I didn’t even notice him leave my side.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Our eyes met once more as I looked back to Xila. I watched the rage in them, but underneath it all, I saw something more, something that made me shiver with pleasure. Fear. The damn speed-runner was afraid of me.

  I brought my eyes back to Xila and shouted. “What, you gonna run away now? Oh, you can’t even do that, right? Fly would be the better description!”

  Mark chuckled at that, the sound coming from behind me. Where had that guy been the whole time?

  Her eyes remained on me for a moment longer, and then she scrunched her nose and moved in the direction of the city, leaving me to stand alone, without an enemy.

  She just… went off like that? What a coward! Running away from combat was the most pathetic thing I could imagine! All this assuredness and threats from her, just so she could run away in the end? Pathetic.

  I looked for someone else to fight, but there was almost nobody left. The two remaining armored goblins were so sweaty that I thought that I’d maybe be able to smell them from where I stood if I focused enough.

  I quickly rushed over, preparing my shields to punch, but suddenly the goblins got surrounded by other players. They got slashed to ribbons before I closed the distance completely, and I could do nothing more than throw a disappointed punch.

  Fink appeared next to me, patting my shoulder. “Good fight, shrimp. Let’s get out of here.”

  It was a bit weird, receiving gratification from the dude who yelled insults at me all day, but I’d take it. “Yeah, sounds like a good idea.”

  I looked at the goblins, most of them looking at me with curiosity. Putting my hands in front of my mouth, I went to herd them forward. “Let’s go! Out! Move!” I immediately moved to put Xila’s leg into my inventory.

  They listened to the command without an issue. Even the players moved to follow, mingling into the crowd of the goblins. Martin went second to last, hugging the weird armored bunny in a tight embrace around her shoulders. Of course the weird one was the one Martin was looking for. One of them a thief, one a weird… what was it? Siege fanatic? I had no energy for thinking of stuff like that.

  Fink and Mark in tow, I followed them into the cave, but just before that, I took one last quick glance at the underground town.

  There was still some dust in the air, settling slowly. As bad as it was, I kind of had fun memories of the place. Smiling, I followed after Mark, who was already hovering away.

  We emerged from the cave a few minutes later, the path just the same boring stuff I saw a few days ago, though I could actually look a bit more closely this time, since I wasn’t quite as tired as back then. The memory of the run made me realize that I’d have to walk all that distance again too, making me groan from displeasure. I didn’t mind walking, but there was such a thing as too long! Maybe I’d pick a flying evolution after this floor too.

  We finally emerged from the tunnel, the goblins and players standing around the hole I climbed out from. The sky was getting dark already, much to my displeasure, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. We’d probably have to travel through the night, then. Amazing.

  The question at hand was who would go with us. I looked for Gummz, just to see him standing in front of the goblins, looking at me while scratching one of his pointy ears.

  “That was a good scrap, eh? Love me some good fighting, duh!” He smiled, and for once, I couldn’t find it in myself to find it completely repulsive. It was friendly now, for some reason. Maybe sharing drinks with someone made it feel like that.

  I smiled at them, looking at Gummz. “It was a good fight, yeah. What now? You really want to go and rule yourselves?”

  I looked at Fink, who was shaking his head. He already knew what I was about to say next. Good. “Or do you want to try coming to a human town with me? We could use some help kicking a dragon’s ass.”

  His eyes widened, but he gave me yet another grin. “Sure thing, duh. Kicking some dragon ass sounds lovely, duh!”

  “Duh!” said some of the goblins behind him, smiling. Fink and Mark sighed behind me in unison, but I ignored them and searched for Martin. Goblins secured, now it was time to get the players on our side. I spotted him standing nearby, turned away from me, talking to the bunny woman. What a weird combo, these two.

  The rest of the players stood nearby, looking between Martin and me. They seemed to trust Martin a bit, though. Maybe because he spent more time around them, while he was a bartender? Unbelievable. I was the one that saved them! Several times!

  Suppressing my annoyance, I tapped Martin’s shoulder. “Hey. Thank you for saving me, back there.”

  Martin raised his eyebrow as he turned to me. “When… ohh, you mean that mage? Yeah, I thought they might try to catch up. Pretty good, eh? I reckon that I don’t owe you any money now, too!”

  I rolled my eyes, though I couldn’t suppress the smirk. “Yeah, yeah, sure. What now? You wanna come with?”

  Emma suddenly appeared, smiling. “Yeah, let’s go with Shrimpie! Right? Martin?”

  But Martin scratched his chin, and took a look around, inspecting the other players. “Nah, sorry. I think most of these lads would just end up dying there. It was…really nice having some help here, though. I couldn’t have saved my friend without you.”

  Emma deflated a bit.She looked at me with a sad smile and waved. “Thank you, Shrimpie.”

  I returned the smile, but then Emma disappeared as another player walked right through her. It was Martin’s companion, of course

  The bunny stared right into my soul. “You still haven’t answered my question, shrimp.”

  Seriously gal, no energy for this crap. Ignoring her, I offered my hand to Martin again. “So, you gonna go somewhere else?”

  He smiled as our hands grasped one another. “Yeah, lad. Gonna train them, to hopefully survive the next floor. Can’t do that if I die in this one.” He stopped for a second, took a deep breath and continued. “You watch yourself, yeah? And I owe you. If you ever need help further on, try to message me. I might be able to help.”

  “Even if I need some money?”

  He laughed out loud. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? See you, Shrimpie.”

  “Yeah… see you.”

  …

  I watched the players disappear in the distance, heading further east. Who knew if I’d meet them again? The darkness completely swallowed them soon enough, and I turned west, looking at the goblins ahead. I wasn’t sure if they’d be any help, but they were stronger than the city guards by a lot. I’d take any advantage.

  “I’m going to miss that guy.” Mark remarked, still looking toward the east.

  Fink snorted. “He was a thief, from what Crudia told me. Good riddance.”

  “He saved our lives, dude.” Mark shot back, his tone final. Fink only scrunched his shoulders.

  I stepped forward, heading to the city, probably for the final time. “Let’s go. We wasted enough time already.”