The group moved ahead slowly. Mark scanned the room with his eyes, declared it safe, and then fell behind Tabeth, who drew two short swords from seemingly nowhere. Behind her, Mark readied two daggers, while the golden-braided Humans pulled out a bow and staff respectively. A quiver of arrows manifested on Dinara’s hip.

“Note for the future: someone needs to bring a damn torch.” Tabeth sighed and rubbed at her eyes with the back of one hand. “I feel like I can’t see a thing.”

“Rule number one about adventurers, kid: they will always complain about something. Give them something small to complain about, something they can overcome with a little ingenuity, and you’ve made a good decision.” Chesu shook his head while making a tsk-ing noise. “End of their existence on the horizon and they’re complaining about it being a little dim.”

It wasn’t long before the adventurers crept forward to where the first pack of mobs waited. The Goosalope made a cacophonous honking sound at the sight of the intruders, and the Cicadossum reared up on its back paws.

Tabeth rushed forward, sword and shield angled to intercept the Cicadossum’s approach. She casually reached out with her off-hand weapon and smacked the Goosalope with it, drawing its attention her way.

The Urkin fell into a comfortable rhythm the second combat started. She looked poised and calm, like moving her swords wasn’t a burden. Like they were extensions of her.

“Oh man, look at that thing!” Mark shouted from behind Tabeth’s shoulder. The Rogue hadn’t moved up to engage the mobs yet. “It’s like some nightmare bug!”

“Then why don’t you kill it?” Tabeth grunted from between her teeth. She moved her feet slowly, leading the Cicadossum and Goosalope as she turned to face their backs to the group. “Seriously, any time you guys want to begin…”

An arc of lightning danced from Likara’s staff to her open hand.

Immediately, Tabeth clicked her tongue at the golden-braided Human. “Remember to conserve your mana! We’ve got a whole dungeon ahead of us!”

The girl grumbled in response but dismissed the building power.

“Nothing behind you,” Lars said.

“Appreciated!”

Mark stepped up to engage in combat with the Goosalope. The mob tried to turn to attack him back, but Tabeth casually smacked it with her off-hand weapon again. It honked angrily at her, but abandoned its attempt to headbut her companion.

“So, Tabeth is the tank,” Chesu said to Gem. “Likely a Swashbuckler from the look of it. You can check if you examine her, just like you examine your mobs.”

Gem declined to look at the Urkin’s class. There was no guarantee these adventurers would survive for any amount of time, and he didn’t want to get attached to them.

It made it easier to think about being the cause of their deaths.

Gem didn’t even need to explain. Chesu could see the approaching Goosalopes even as they did their best to hide themselves among the tall grasses.

The wisp let out an unsportsmanlike cackle. “I wonder if she’ll see them.”

Gem sent the wisp an image of a gem with a raised eyebrow.

The words were like a prophecy. Tabeth was focused on her twin targets, slashing at both to keep them focused on her. She didn’t see the Goosalopes as they approached her companions.

“Ow!” Likara let out a high-pitched cry and grabbed at her backside. “What was that?”

Before anyone could look her way to see what happened, Dinara let out a strange cry. “Let go!”

Chesu leaned forward, as if trying to look closer at the chaos unfurling. A hungry look crossed his face.

One of the ambushing Goosalope had grabbed the magic-user’s rear and then silently retreated into the tall grass again. Meanwhile, the other had grabbed one of the bow-user’s arrows and was currently playing a game of strength with her to keep her from retrieving it.

The Goosalope honked around the arrow, causing the others to look its way. It raised its brown and white wings, making itself as wide as possible.

“Tank, adds!” Mark shouted.

“I can see that!” Tabeth surged forward, leaving the Cicadossum and Goosalope behind her to follow along. “Lars, stun!”

A flash of green surrounded the Goosalope just a moment before it staggered, releasing the arrow.

Dinara ripped the ammunition away from the Goosalope with a cheer as Tabeth lashed out at it with one of her swords, drawing its eyes even as it stayed momentarily immobilized. Behind the Urkin, the Cicadossum and original Goosalope caught up, and she struggled for a moment to get all three in front of her.

“Got ‘em! Burn down the birds!”

“There’s another!” This shout came from Mark as Likara cried out again, this time whirling around in a circle with her staff as if she planned on beating her attacker with it.

Tabeth growled. “Can’t you do something about it? I’m kind of busy here!”

The Human Rogue clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “With what, my charm and good looks?”

“You do not have either of those,” Lars said in a matter-of-fact tone. He lifted his book in the magic-user’s direction. “Likara. Stand still. I cannot target your attacker to Soothe it.”

But his words were lost to the golden-haired mage. Once more she whirled and turned, following phantom honks that taunted her from the tall grass, behind a tree, and directly behind her being all at once.

“Those Goosalopes are annoying,” Chesu said with a hearty laugh. “I like them.”

Gem sent the wisp an image of a frown.

“Wouldn’t be so sure. That tank is trying pretty hard to keep them in line.”

Gem made a noncommittal noise and returned his attention to the fight. Likara was actively beating down the grass with her staff, but the weapon was now glowing with lightning that arced and sparked as individual threads of energy swirled up and down the wooden stick’s length. Where the lightning touched the grass, smoke puffed in a dark ash cloud but no fire spread.

Lars continued to shout for order so that he could lend assistance, but the golden-haired mage seemed to not hear him.

Meanwhile, Mark, Dinara, and Tabeth tried to deal with the Cicadossum and two Goosalope the tank had under control. The two Goosalope charged her with their antlers, while the Cicadossum attacked with claw swipes and bites.

Tabeth did her best to keep ahead of the attacks, utilizing an ability that allowed one of her swords to teleport in and intercept a mob’s attack. Sometimes the parry seemed natural, but it was always followed by a flash of sparks around the weapon’s blade. She seemed to be using it as often as possible.

But even that wasn’t enough to cover every attack.

Three mobs was just too much.

“Heal!” she shouted with a coarse growl, and Lars’s book would glow moments before the Urkin was surrounded by the same green that had staggered the Goosalope. Instead of stunning the tank, however, it seemed to soothe her wounds. She stood up straighter and her attacks and parries came with renewed vigor.

Chesu shook his head. “They can’t possibly win this, not with their Enchanter being an idiot.”

“The lightning. Enchanters enchant weapons with an element. Her lightning would be really nasty to deal with in about five levels, if she weren’t so distractible. I doubt she’ll make it to Tin 4, rate she’s going.”

Gem agreed. The Enchanter was currently running away from her group, following the Goosalope that ducked and dodged through the crafted forest to avoid her attacks. It honked as it weaved in and out of sight.

Likara followed close behind, her rage distracting her from the distance between herself and her party.

“Enchanter AWOL,” Mark said with a disappointed click of his tongue.

“Meaning?”

“Context clues, Tabeth! AWOL. Absent Without Official Leave. Fucked off. Playing hookie. Away From Keyboard.”

The Urkin growled as she parried an attack from the Cicadossum. “Why are you Dirtworlders all like this?”

“Like what? Awesome?” The fire-headed Rogue grinned as he stabbed one of the Goosealope, finally taking it out. He whooped in victory and Gem quickly shattered the mob heart at Chesu’s instruction. The Cicadossum would respawn without issue.

“Frustrating. New target: get this fucking bug thing off me.”

Arrows rained and daggers stabbed, all while Tabeth and Lars did their best to coax Likara to abandon her target.

Gem watched the Enchanter as she mindlessly chased the Goosalope through the forest. No amount of her companion’s pleas seemed to break through her fugue state. Gem said with a mental sigh.

“Not a bad idea, kid. But I wouldn’t worry too much.”

Chesu pointed at something, and Gem gasped involuntarily when he saw it.

Them.

Before she could so much as scream for help, the Plantlings emerged from the tunnels, swarming over the Enchanter. Each leapt for a different part of her body. A Plantling for each limb, and then one plastered to her chest.

The golden-braided Enchanter’s panic was immediate and all-consuming. Screaming, she dropped her staff. Both hands battered at the Plantling on the front of her robes, but the others lent aid to their battered brethren. They clawed at her robes and flesh, drawing blood and tearing cloth.

Shouts of concern pierced the air from where the others fought.

The Plantlings echoed their shouts with shrieks of their own. They caused the Enchanter to howl with terror in response.

“Get off me!” The last word was stretched, drawn out by frustrated tears that formed in her eyes and streaked down her face.

Lightning arched across her hands, but the spell seemed somewhat dimmer. Instead of electrocuting the Plantlings it touched, little sparks danced across their skin, only making them dig in harder in response.

Next to him, Chesu was cackling. The wisp rolled through the air, his arms wrapped tightly around his sides as if this panic and confusion was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.

Gem wasn’t sure why. Sure, the adventurer was acting stupid. Panic made her throw logic out the door. But he didn’t find joy in her suffering.

But the wisp had been at this game longer, and it was likely that he’d seen atrocities he associated with all adventurers. Perhaps this level of terror was cathartic somehow.

Likara let out another howl in alarm and she broke. She ran blindly towards her companions, even as the Plantlings slashed at her flesh and screamed boldly at her.

It was because of this blind panic that she didn’t even see the Goosalope as it dragged her staff down into the hidden Plantling tunnels.