She intercepted the blade with her open palm, letting it pierce through her hand until her fingers closed unto its hilt.

"Beating an Eldritch in a contest of strength it's a foolish quest. The only question is which one of you will break first. If you or your blade." Korgh sneered.

Lith inwardly cursed as her black blood corroded the Gatekeeper's surface and dripped onto the mana crystals embedded in its hilt. Of all the creatures he had faced, Lith had never met one with acid for blood.

Lith tried to pull the blade away, but Korgh was too strong. At the same time, she tried to break his arm, but between his mana boosting the Skinwalker Armor and earth fusion boosting his enhanced physique, it felt to her like moving a mountain.

"What do you think I'm here for?" Morok said from behind her a split second after one of his short swords pierced her chest and another her head.

Korgh had forgotten about the other Ranger and that by not having her back against the wall anymore, Blink was a significant threat.

"By the gods!" Morok was shocked seeing that the creature wasn't dying whereas his blades were melting.

"No vitals! Go for the yellow parts!" Lith said while exploiting Korgh's indecision to let go of the Gatekeeper and struck with Solus's gauntlet at Korgh's goblin sternum. Solus had infused herself with all the elements and released a few spells she kept at the ready at the moment of the impact.

The resulting effect of the combined attack of Lith, Skinwalker, and Solus was akin to a jackhammer on the snow. The fist pierced through her chest and came out of her back, spraying red, harmless blood all over Morok.

"Copy that." He replied starting to stab at the exposed goblin parts so fast that before a wound had enough time to bleed, four more had been opened.

Korgh inwardly cursed, trying to find a way out. Hitting her goblin body couldn't kill her since she had no vitals, but the wounds were making her strength plummet.

Lith kept hammering her body with his free hand and when she tried to move him aside with both her hands to escape from Morok's onslaught, Lith grabbed the Gatekeeper's hilt.

He flooded it with all the mana he could spare, infusing it with darkness magic as he twisted and pulled the blade away. Black blood hit the spot Lith had been until a split second before, making the rocks sizzle while they melted.

Feeling her life slipping, Korgh didn't hesitate to Blinking to one of the upper levels of the mines. She kept Blinking until she reached the surface, choosing a crystal deposit as her hiding spot.

'The crystals will help me recover my strength and shield me from an Awakened's Life Vision. I can only hope no one enters the deposit before I'm able to fight back, otherwise I'm screwed!' She thought while feeding off the nearby crates.

"Where did she go?" Lith asked Solus while looking around. The crystals surrounding them were jamming his Life Vision, making it hard for him to even see Morok's energy signature.

'She might have gone anywhere. The mines are a maze and there are too many interferences.' She replied.

"That thing was a woman too? Weirdest day ever." Morok replied while using quick flicks of his wrists to clean his blades from the black blood.

"I don't think she will be back any time soon. By combining our attacks we have given her ugly ass a solid kicking. How's your weapon?"

Lith stuck his back against the wall to prevent being stabbed in the back while using Invigoration on the Gatekeeper. The massive flow of darkness magic had already destroyed any trace of the Abomination's acid, it was only a matter of assessing the damage.

"No, no, no!" Was all Lith said. The corroded metal wasn't an issue, but the damaged mana crystals were another story. Too much black blood had soaked them for too long.

The pseudo core had already spent most of its energy to regenerate the damages as fast as it could, but Lith's last darkness burst had been the final straw that broke the camel's back.

The Gatekeeper was already in critical condition. If he didn't retrieve it, it would have been destroyed, but to do it Lith had been forced to push it beyond its limits. Lith drew a Forgemaster repairing circle so fast that even the Professors watching at the process couldn't believe their own eyes.

He fought with all of his skill, using his mana as a life support system, but the Gatekeeper's pseudo core slowly faded as the corruption caused by the black blood destroyed its mana circulatory system.

"It's dead." Lith said after a while. The magic was gone and the crystals had turned dull. The piece of metal in his hands was nothing but scrap. The memories of the enemies they had vanquished together, of all the times it had saved his life flooded Lith's mind.

For a moment, he grieved the Gatekeeper like it was a lifelong friend. Then he started to worry about his immediate future.

"Sorry to hear that, man. Hope you have another to spare. Losing your main weapon before even starting a mission is the worst that could happen." Morok was honestly sad. He knew all too well how expensive good equipment was.

"Phloria! Quylla! Are you alright?" Lith blurted out as soon as the word dead escaped from his lips. In his battle frenzy, he had completely forgotten about his two real friends.

Replacing the Gatekeeper would be hard but feasible. Lith knew that sooner or later he had to upgrade his weapon.

A living being, however, couldn't be replaced. The image of Yurial appeared in his mind as Life Vision was focused to spot the only two life forces that held any significance to him in that tunnel.

"I'm okay." Quylla said, her voice was feeble from fatigue.

"I was staring at the rude Ranger, so I had all the time to drop down the moment I heard the voice. Phloria wasn't so lucky, though."

More than half of the expedition team was laying on the ground in a puddle of their own blood. The Chaos arrows couldn't pierce through the magical protections, but they could still smash bones and rupture organs.

Following her duty as a Mage Knight, Phloria had pushed those who were near to her to safety while conjuring a protective shield for herself. Unfortunately, she had never met an Abomination capable of using Chaos magic.

Her spell had been ripped to shreds and she had taken the full force of many arrows at once. If not for all the enchantments Orion had imbued her equipment with, she would have died on the spot.

"How is she?" Lith asked while placing a hand on Phloria's shoulder to check her condition with Invigoration.

"Aren't you a Healer? The Captain is already being treated. You should take care of the wounded." Said a woman in her late fifties donning the colors of the Black Griffon. She had been hit on a shoulder, but her assistant was in critical condition.