“Another group coming up from the right cavern.” Laela calls rushing back to our group.

“Into positions. We’ll form a chokehold by the cave entrance.” Graem shouts.

Gorm hoists his hammer off his shoulder and taps the hilt against his hand a couple of times while moving to the front of our formation. Jaed moves to the left of Gorm and I to the right; our spears held poised and ready. Laela makes her way to the back of our diamond shaped formation while watching our backs in case of an ambush. Finally, Graem takes his place in the centre of our group, holding his locket high like a lantern.

The scampering of goblin feet echoes through the caves. It sounds like a big crowd this time. My grip tightens on my spear.

The first goblin bursts out from the darkness of the cave and flings itself at Gorm. Before Gorm even has a chance to move Jaed and I thrust forward. Our spears piercing straight through the goblins airborne body, and forming a cross centred through its ribcage.

Critical Hit: Dealt 30 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 3 experience points for assisting in the defeat of a goblin.

I yank the spear out, just as another goblin leaps over the corpse of its forerunner flying into our midst. This one is Gorm’s, his hammer slams into its chest knocking it back a good six feet. Shakily, the goblin edges to its feet before spitting out blood; around it more goblins approach, though now more carefully.

Three goblins leap forward. As practiced, I stab towards the rightmost one. I barely miss it. It enters my guard.

The goblin bares its teeth. It’s going to try and bite me.

“Hold on!” Graem calls out over the din of grunting goblins.

With a twist I kick it back.

Dealt 10 Health Points: Bludgeoning damage.

Another goblin lunges from behind it. “Mana Bolt!”

Dealt 15 Health Points: Magical corrosive damage.

Skin seared, it falls back slamming into a goblin behind it.

“A little longer!” Graem calls.

Jade reverses her grip on her spear and with a rapid sweep flings the goblin approaching her back towards the horde behind it. Its frail attempts at standing are lost as the cluster of goblins approaching us overtake and hide its form. And behind these new goblins still more appear rushing headlong towards us from the darkness.

“Crushing Blow!” Gorm shouts while launching a vicious uppercut. The struck goblin flies up through the air before crashing down in a heap atop the goblin mass. Two goblins are struck by the body and disappear from sight. I turn back to goblins edging closer to me. There movements janky and slow. Each looking for a hint of an opening.

“Grasping Vines!” Graem finally shouts, from behind us.

Thorny vines erupt from the ground in the chokepoint beneath the tight mass of goblins. Unlike when they are caught by Gorm’s rope there is barely even a struggle as their limbs are wound, constricted, and completely immobilised by the serpent like vines.

“Now, Reed!” Graem urges.

“Die!” I yell, while thrusting my spear into a nearby wounded goblin.

Berserk activated: 60 seconds remaining. Critical Hit: Dealt 60 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

I rip the spear out and thrust it into the next goblin.

Critical Hit: Dealt 62 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

I can sense the scrutinizing gazes of my companions as they watch and wait. My spear pierces through a third goblin.

Critical Hit: Dealt 60 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 4 experience points for assisting in the defeat of a goblin.

“Hurry this up Reed. I hear more goblins coming.” Laela gently urges.

“Good.” Gorm laughs. “More to crush!”

Critical Hit: Dealt 55 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

The fourth goblin slumps into the vines, blood seeping out of its eyes. Gruesome work.

“How much exp now, Reed?” Graem asks.

‘Experience.’

127/800.

“One-hundred and twenty-seven,” I call moving on to the fifth goblin, this one hanging upside down.

Critical Hit: Dealt 57 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

“Make that one-hundred and thirty-two.”

“They’re really getting close.” Laela calls with a hint of desperation tinging her voice.

“Fine.” Graem sighs. “Laela, help Reed finish them off. We need to get back into formation before they arrive.”

“Sure thing.” Laela moves towards a nearby goblin and pushes its head back before quickly slicing her dagger across its throat. Its body convulses momentarily before stilling. She moves rapidly to the next.

I walk towards the final goblin. It looks at me, eyes filled with hatred and fear. I grit my teeth. No mercy for the bastards that crawl beneath.

Critical Hit: Dealt 62 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

My spear rips out of the goblin’s throat and I twist around to my companions.

Laela is watching me stiffly, but her body is turned towards the cavern behind us. In her hand she now holds a clean cloth which she is harshly scrubbing her dagger clean with. Jaed stands diligently alert behind Graem, close enough to touch him. Perhaps with a skill like Lesser Healing that’s the point? Graem for his part looks on into the cavern towards Gorm. Gorm is already languidly trudging forwards into the cavern. Swallowed by the darkness only the shadowy frame of his large back and hammer are visible from the dim light of his locket.

Of course, the locket light only travels a few metres, and from beyond the light’s radius come the sounds of scampering, grunting, and growling.

“Laela.” I call out. “You were joking about the monsters seeing me while I can’t see them right?”

She twists towards me a wry smile on her face, before shaking her head. “Unfortunately not, rookie.” Then she turns back to Gorm, and gripping my spear a little tighter I do too.

“Mana Bolt!” Graem yells firing it into the darkness. Its glow lighting up the path through which it travels. It zips across to the other side of the cavern and I catch glimpse of a shadowy writhing forms of a goblin creeping through the darkness, then another, and another, and another. At least a dozen little goblins hurrying forwards. Finally, a few enter the light of his locket and charge towards Gorm. Some nearly tripping over themselves to be the first to their very big target.

“Crushing Blow!” Gorm yells as the closest goblin arrives before his massive frame. His hammer swings forward slamming into the goblin’s chest, devastating its ribcage and sending the rest of its dislocated body hurtling towards the second closest goblin. As they collide, the second closest goblin crumples beneath the weight of its kin. The rest continue forward undeterred.

“Laela, Jaed! Protect Gorm’s left side.” Graem shouts before raising his arms towards the goblins charging toward the numerous other goblins moving towards Gorm from the right.

I walk up to Graem and raise my arm beside his.

“Triple Bolt!” He shouts.

“Mana Bolt!” I shout a moment after.

Our four bolts fly directly into the right wing of Gorm, obliterating a goblin attempting to sneak up behind him. No blue screens, guess my bolt was overkill.

“Reed, move up!” Graem orders.

“Got it.” I start running towards the three goblins on Gorm’s right when I’m hit by a wave of lethargy.

Berserk ability exhausted.

Damn it! Already? Whatever, I can hold out fine until the rest of my party

“Graem, bad news.”

“What is it Laela?”

The goblin before me lunges at me. I strike and miss. Its sharp claws scrape my hands.

-4 Health Points: Slashing damage.

Laela points back to the tunnel we just came from. “There’s another group of goblins coming from the tunnel behind us!”

“How many?”

“I don’t know. It sounds like a lot.”

“Then we’ll need to finish this quickly and get out of here. Reed, Laela, Gorm, Berserk!”

“Berserk!” Gorm roars before charging forward into the throng of goblins. Bodies fly left and right wherever he moves like a bowling ball knocking aside pins.

“Berserk!” Laela shouts, flashing into the chaotic messes strewn behind Gorm and finishing off the stragglers.

Another goblin is before me. “Mana Bolt!”

Critical Hit: Dealt 37 Health Points: Magical corrosive damage.

It falls backwards clutching its still sizzling face.

“Reed, Berserk!” Graem cries again.

“It’s on cooldown!”

“What!?” Graem yells. “What do you mean it’s on cooldown?”

“I mean it’s on cooldown. I just used it.”

“Used it? Why would you use it!?” Graem turns to me his face furious.

“To help level it.”

Graem stares at me slackjawed and unmoving as the burnt goblin rights itself and again rushes towards me. Finally, Graem snaps out of it. “Damn it, Reed! When I said people use their abilities as often as possible, I meant outside of danger. In the dungeon you are meant to save it for emergencies.”

My spear swings wide and the goblin’s claw rakes my forearm.

-6 Health Points: Slashing damage.

“How was I supposed to bloody know?” I yell while doing my best to dodge this damned goblin. “Nobody told me I was supposed to save my abilities in the dungeon for emergencies. You keep dropping fragments of apparently critical information seemingly at random.”

Graem glares at me before sighing. “We’ll talk about this later!” he growls then turns to face a goblin approaching him.

“Fine.” I growl back.

Then suddenly, I feel a heavy weight on my back followed by an intense stabbing pain on my shoulders.

-9 Health Points: Piercing damage.

It’s a goblin, perched upon my back and grunting wildly as its claws rip deep into my skin. These damned monsters never deal much damage, but damn do they fucking hurt!

I pull my arms back and spin around wildly trying to wrest it off my back. Its claws are dug in too deep and its skin is too slippery. I can’t get it off, but at least I keep it from biting me.

“Mana Bolt!” I yell, firing point blank from the hand gripping its neck. I feel it fling off me, its claws tearing through my flesh as it does so.

Critical Hit: Dealt 33 Health Points: Magical corrosive damage. -3 Health Points: Slashing damage. Awarded 5 experience points for the defeat of a goblin.

It lies still on the ground. Serves the damned demon right.

-6 Health Points: Slashing damage.

Claws rake through my leg, and it stings like hell. Seriously, just as a I feel a semblance of respite? I twist around to the goblin who just tore a chunk out of my leg. The goblin swipes at me again. I barely dodge. It’s too damn hard to fight these demons without Berserk!

“Jaed! Reed needs healing!” Graem yells before firing a Mana Bolt down at a goblin trapped under his boot.

“Mhm!” Jaed squeaks. She arrives beside me just as the goblin leaps. Her spear twists like a serpent then tears through its chest. Its limp body flails forward across the spear length. She tilts her spear down and it slides to the ground with a thud.

Come to think of it, Jaed doesn’t even have the Berserk ability and there’s no way her strength is double mine. How is she so capable of fighting on even ground with these hellspawn?

“Where are you hurt?” Jaed asks hurriedly.

“Shoulders.” My voice comes out as a groan.

Another goblin rushes at us. I try to lift my spear, but just end up screaming in pain.

“Damn it!” Gritting my teeth, I curl my elbow up until my palm faces the goblin. “Ice Bolt!”

The bolt flies wide and lands on the ground coating the stone in a patch of ice. The goblin continues towards us indifferently.

Jaed stabs forward as it attacks, cleanly piercing the goblin and forcing it to the ground. It flails weakly against her, she ignores it and twists her body to me. Then, while still firmly gripping the spear in her right arm, she lays her left hand upon my shoulder. “Lesser Healing.”

+12 Health Points: Lesser Healing. +12 Health Points: Lesser Healing. +12 Health Points: Lesser Healing.

The pain finally dissipates. “Thanks.”

Jaed nods.

I step forward and thrust my spear into the squirming goblin held captive under Jaed’s spear, finishing it off.

Dealt 14 Health Points: Piercing damage. Awarded 2 experience points for assisting in the defeat of a goblin.

At least I can do that without the benefits of Berserk.

I take a quick look around, aside from my companions nothing else is standing. The cavern is quiet, but I can hear the faint grunting and growling of goblins echoing through the tunnels. Looks like we got them all.

“Should we go Graem?” Laela calls out.

He responds with a sudden scream.

There, splayed out flat in the middle of the cavern Graem lies; not a live goblin in sight.

“Graem! You alright? What happened?” Laela calls unwilling to turn away from the tunnel and approaching goblins.

Graem stands up shakily while clutching his head. It bleeds profusely.

“What happened!?” He bellows. “Reed, your damned ice spell nearly knocked me unconscious. Watch where you aim your damned spells!”

“Huh? Wait, don’t tell me you tripped on the ice patch from my spell.”

“Don’t tell you!? Why else would I have tripped in an empty battlefield!” Graem barks out.

“Shit! Sorry! It wasn’t on purpose!”

“Sorry!? Reed, use your damn head! Or better yet your eyes instead of blindly firing at your allies!” Graem shouts at me.

“I didn’t blindly fire!” I shout back. “I was aiming at a goblin!”

“You were aiming at the goblin and missed and ended up firing into the group? What if you had hit someone!? What if I had tripped when the battle wasn’t over? You could have gotten me killed!” Graem shouts vehemently. “You should have made sure your attacks were facing away from us.”

“How am I supposed to know all this stuff!? You never even told me not to aim at the group! For fucks sake! You never explain anything, no one ever explains anything. There’s all this stuff I’m just expected to know.”

“It’s common sense!” Graem explodes.

“It isn’t to me!” I yell back.

“Enough!” Laela shrieks at the top of her lungs. “Did you forget there’s still goblins coming!? We’re in the dungeon, not haggling in the marketplace. You have things to say, then say them outside.”

We quiet down and turn to Laela’s glare. As though on cue, the growling and grunting gives way to a steady echo of footsteps. It won’t be long till they arrive.

“Fine.” Graem growls. “Let’s get out of here.”

I sit outside on the grass with Jaed and Gorm. Jaed seems distressed while Gorm on the other hand, seems utterly unconcerned. Me, I only feel angry.

Laela and Graem stand a distance away from us arguing with each other.

“Damn it! Shouldn’t you of everyone agree with me! I’m just trying to ensure everyone’s safety.” Graem yells before punching a tree. Then his head swings in our direction and begins walking over.

Graem sits before me, avoiding my eyes, and winces. “Fine. You’re right Reed. This is partly my fault. I haven’t bothered to teach you anything other than how to stab tied up goblins. It’s no wonder you are making mistakes.”

My heart burns. No wonder I’m making mistakes? Fuck you! I really want to punch your stupid, smug face. My fists clench, then unclench. It won’t help. It’s an olive branch. A shit one, but still an olive branch.

“Fine. Then how do you plan on fixing this?”

Graem blinks. “Fixing what?”

I practically spit out the words. “Fixing the fact that I’m supposed to know all these rules on how to be an adventurer and I clearly don’t. Until I learn them, I’m going to keep making mistakes and I’m going to keep putting all our lives in danger!”

Graem looks at me. Really looks at me. With a thoughtfulness I don’t think I’ve ever seen before on his face. As he does so, I feel my raging heart soften. He’s just as confused by this as I am.

“We’re going to have to train.” Graem’s eyebrows furrow. “Not just you, all of us. Our teamwork wasn’t where it needed to be before you got here and now we are even more dissonant. We need to get used to the way we each fight as individuals and then we need to turn away from that. Evolve from an erratic mess of solo fights in the same area, into a highly effective adventuring team.”

“Finally, willing to steal my ideas on training and teamwork I’ve been saying all along.” Laela winks.

It lightens the mood a little until Graem exhales sharply from his nose, and whispers to the ground, “hardly what you’ve been saying all along.” Then he raises his head back to our group and continues, “as I was saying, we need to learn to cover for each other’s weaknesses and rely on each other’s strengths. When we go down into the dungeon, we’re not going to be focusing on hunting efficiency anymore. We’re going to be focusing on fighting effectively as a team and keeping each other alive. Of course, that does mean we’re going to level slower.”

“So long as we fight!” Gorm bellows. “We will become strong.” He turns towards me, his eyes blazing with confidence, and gives me single meaningful nod.

Graem turns back to me warily. “And Reed… I’m sorry about before. I overreacted. It was unfair of me to expect you to know any of this stuff when you came to us not even knowing how Classes work.”

“Yeah, it was.” At least you finally apologised.

Graem bristles. He blinks hard and then nods a few times. There is a few seconds of silence, until he finally speaks again. “Can I-” Graem cuts himself off. “I mean. Can we still count on you, Reed?”

My cheeks puff out as I exhale. It’s not too late to spit in his face and leave. Say a big fuck you to this whole adventuring business. I bite my lower lip hard. “Yeah, I already said so, didn’t I? We’re going to be the best damn adventurers the world has ever seen!”