The others could now sense it as well now. Whatever this thing is it was slowly stalking close. The party of three backed off slowly, inching in the direction of the second floor exit. They all knew it was pointless though, the entrance was far away, near halfway across the entire second floor that they had mapped so far. Yet it was all they could do.

Everyone present could sense it. This thing was eventually going to pounce, they would not make it back. “Slowly does, it”, it was all Immaret could do to try and keep the group from panicking, “just keep moving slowly. Don’t take your eyes off it.”

Of course none could actually see the monster, although by now they could certainly hear it approaching. Questions like, what was it? Was it fast, strong? What was it doing here? All these questions bounced around the groups heads and were clearly visible on their faces, no need to be spoken out loud and certainly no desire to do so.

Immaret was at the front of their ever retreating formation, his tower shield at the ready to tank the monsters first aggro. His mace still clipped to his belt, he doubted that he would have an opportunity to use it in the initial sortie, this thing just seemed too powerful, he would need all his attention on his role of tanking.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the creature emerged from the darkness, dashing madly forward.

It was big! Like a giant version of the ant monsters, almost identical in fact, only with a disproportionately smaller head and mandibles. The blades at the ends of its legs also reached higher than its smaller cousins and were tinted a greyish blue color.

It was really big. Standing on its six legs, while bent at the knees and it was still almost as tall as Immaret himself!

An ‘enhanced’! Immaret thought to himself as it drew closer. No, that doesn’t even begin to cover this thing- Immaret’s eyes widened in a mix of realisation and horror.

“It’s an elite!” Immaret had barely the chance to croak the words out, as the monster suddenly picked up speed and surged forward.

Fast!

He braced his shield and prepared for the impact, but something was wrong, the monster was off course. It was heading past him!

Panicked, Immaret managed to ram his shield to the side and into the monster's legs as it tried to move past him.

What the fuck?! It skipped the initial aggro. At any rate, Immaret had banked on gaining the needed aggro that was strangely missing from the first charge with such a heavy blow.

When the shield did finally contact the monsters legs, Immaret’s entire body was rocked by the shockwave, it felt like trying to run head first into a brick wall.

The monster glanced in Immarets direction.

Well at least he had pulled aggro, that had been a close one, the other two are not really front line fighters.

As Immaret started preparing his next defensive maneuver, all of a sudden, the monster surged forward once more, and completely ignored him.

“Clare!!!” He had barely had the chance to shout out the warning, before the monster rammed right into the girl, it’s two long bladed limbes skewering right through her torso, in what would be a fatal wound without immediate restoration potions.

It was so fast, even the experienced group could not begin to avoid its attacks. Clarissa had been impaled right where she stood, unable to react in time.

Both Immaret and Hannes began charging at the creature to rescue Clarissa, they knew they had to act immediately if she were to have any chance at all.

But then, instead of tossing Clarrisa aside and facing them, or trying to eat her while it had her in its grasp, the elite monster did something none of them could have anticipated. Using its four remaining limbs, the other two occupied by Clarrisa’s body at present, it bent down and in a sharp motion, jumped.

It propelled itself a dozen meters away from the two men. And much to their horror, as soon as it landed it did this once more and once again. The thing was barely within their light radius now, they could only see it for Clarrisa’s own light illuminating the horrible scene.

Now a safe distance from interference the intelligent monster greedily devoured Clarissa before they could even get near it. Both men were crushed, their souls shattered. Their Clarrisa was gone. Never to return. Their party was being wiped out, once again.

Hannes once more fell in behind Immaret, taking up a fighting stance. They both prepared themselves. Despite having witnessed the gruesome death of their dear friend, neither men had uttered a sound. There was no room for mourning in a dungeon. That would come later.

The monster surged forward once more, this time accepting Immaret’s challenge. He braced his tower shield, as the monster struck from the side with one of its blades.

The impact was ridiculous! It rattled Immarets entire body, the blunt force felt like it may even have fractured the bone of his shield arm. The monster's blade was somehow close to his face. That shouldn’t be the case?

It was then that Immaret noticed the blade had ripped close to halfway through the side of his tower shield. What? That shield was braced with Nubae steel! It cut right through it!

Hannes had not missed this momentary stalemate and launched himself forward. His sudden attack did not escape the monsters notice and it lashed out with one of its middle legs in Hannes’ direction. Had Hannes not activated one of his gifts, a short range teleport, he would have had a blade go right through his face.

But hannes teleported, or rather ‘shifted’ just shy of two meters and was right underneath the monster's belly. He released a flurry of blows, with his twin short swords against be monsters underside. A dazzling array of sparks flew in all directions as Hannes’ blades met its armour dozens of times.

The monster, quite displeased with this, jerked its blade hard, finally freeing it from the shield and with enough force that the fractured arm attached to the shield most certainly broke this time, as Immaret was flung through the air from the force of it.

With its final limb now free, the monster once more jumped to get away from its attacker. But as it landed, Hannes was not about to let it go so easily, he had double shifted and with a third, managed to position himself right under the monster just after it landed and resumed scraping away at its underside.

Immaret was bleeding badly and could barely move his broken and badgered body, he had been flung a dozen meters and into a cave wall, before slumping to the ground. He barely managed to turn his head back towards the fight.

“It’s got too much fucking armour!” Hannes cursed over his shoulder. The monster in response hissed angrily at the annoying attacker. Then, without warning, it spread its legs and let its body fall down straight on top of Hannes. The impact was loud and kicked up much debris. That thing was heavy and had Hannes not ‘shifted’ out of the way, he would have been crushed.

Hannes, not sure what would happen next, readied himself.

The monster then scrunched its legs up and with a sharp twisting movement, it set into motion.

Hannes had already instinctevely ‘shifted’ backwards, and not a second too soon. The monster had forced itself into a spinning motion, it spun around endlessly as it stretched its bladed limbs outward, turning itself into a couple of meters wide whirlwind of deadly blades. Not only that, but it had also given itself forward momentum.

Hannes ‘shifted’ backwards one more time as the spinning blades approached him with alarming speed, narrowly avoiding being turned into mincemeat. He tried shifting once more to get out the way, but did not make it in time, the cooldown on his shifting, being too high compared to the forward motion of the monsters rotation.

Immaret could only watch in horror as pieces of Hannes were flung in every direction upon impact. There was blood and entrails spread all over the cave now.

Immaret propped himself up, on his one ‘good’ arm as the monster wound down. It then got up and casually strolled over to him. He did not even bother reaching for his mace, there was nothing he could do against this thing in his current condition, he doubted he could have done anything even otherwise.

Resigned to his fate, Immaret idly wondered as the teeth closed in on him. Strength, speed, dexterity, armour, intelligence and party hunting tactics. What the fuck was thing this doing on the second floor?

Andaris lapped up some of the cold porridge that was cupped in his hands. Bowls and other accessories were usually not afforded to slaves ‘on the road’ and they were quite a ways off from home. The porridge itself was more like tasteless gruel, but given that they would have another day of fighting ahead of them in the morning, and that his energy reserves were already completely spent and he was starving, he lapped the porridge up rather eagerly.

As did his fellow party members. Their collars and chains were back on and secured to one another and the beams holding the barn up. The horses beyed as one amongst them took a shit onto the hay covered floor right next to them. Well, it wasn’t so bad, despite the smell, they at least had a bed of hay to sleep on this time. Quite a luxury for a slave actually.

A healing totem had been set up to slowly heal their wounds over the course of the night, not just them, but also the several other slave delving parties members that were sharing this stable. The various owners probably having pooled resources to set it up. After all, injured slaves would be difficult to deal with in a delve.

Andaris basked in the glow of the totem, feeling its warmth. It was not of course a physical warmth but something a little less touchable.

He looked up, having finished his meal, the only one he would be getting for the day and caught the eyes of Antonio. The two just stared at each other wordlessly for a while. Some of the others, finishing their own meals, joining in.

We were used to not talking much with one another, Andaris barely even knowing more than one or two names amongst them. Talking other than answering a question asked of you was usually ‘frowned upon’. But the men present here did not need words. Their eyes spoke volumes.

We were delvers. We had fought together, survived together. And we would do so again come the morrow. We would have each others backs, those of us that were left. The strong ones.

Antonio, simply smiled at him and then made ready to sleep.

Andaris could not help but do something he himself had not done in a long time, and smile back. As he lay his head down and closed his eyes, he was filled with excitement and hope for tomorrow.

He would continue chasing his dream.