So, perhaps the low intelligence score affected me more than I thought. Then again, I had always loved the idea of blowing things up. When I was a kid, I remember the time a bunch of us boys in the orphanage snuck out on July 5th.

I might not have always been a perfect rules follower, but there was nothing saying that we couldn’t buy fireworks. Only that we couldn’t have them in the dorm rooms. So the 5 of us bought as many of the leftover fireworks as we could.

It was great taping about 10 rolls of black cat firecrackers and a dozen or so M80 and dropping that mess into an old Folgers can. We set the whole thing off with a sparkler fuse and ended up getting the cops called on us for the bits of shrapnel that went into the cars close by.

We ran, they chased, we threw fireworks behind us, they tased us. It was that night that I developed my fear of dogs. The foster boys I ran with were good kids. None of those who were caught ratted the rest of us out. So only two went down.

I wasn’t the one that tossed the smoke bombs into the k-9 unit’s car, but it was a great story never to tell anyone. A few weeks later, that dog came to the school, and I hid the whole time. It looked at me once, and I thought I was going to get eaten.

So, I was about ten feet from the edge of the cliff when I started to charge up the river stone. I knew that I could throw them about 40 feet which meant that I should be able to get them into goblins.

Now, if I had been the one running this operation, I would have moved everyone back after the arrows. But then again, if I was the one running the attack, the goblins would already have been up the walls. The tallest wall was only a 10-foot climb, so some simple ladders or branches even and they could be up.

However, the goblins hadn’t moved their fire, and I could lob a fist-sized rock about 40 feet, so that means with a 20-foot drop, I was good. Or so I hoped.

As the rock started to sizzle, I got the feeling again that it was time to get away from it. I was pushing too much mana into it too fast. So I threw the rock as hard as I could.

I watched it sail through the air. If it hadn’t been sparking blue arcs everywhere, there wouldn’t have been any way for me to track it. About two seconds after I threw the stone, I heard the satisfying pop of the rock breaking. It was as loud as an M-80 in a mailbox.

The screams and yelling afterward were great. It was even better when my second rock went into the air. I heard the yells before it hit.

Now, what was sad, however, was the lack of wounded screams after the second one. Which led me to believe that they moved out of the way. So it was time to wait and let my terror cool.

My hope was that I would kill one or more of the casters while doing this. I didn’t think I would be able to win this way, but if I could take out their smart ones, then I might be able to figure out a real way to win this.

I was just biding my time. I would stop once Lannah was going to sleep as there was no need for me to keep her awake through my shift.

I had done three rounds of two stones by the time Lannah came up behind me. I was acting like every boy who was playing with fireworks. I was grinning and almost giddy. There was just something fun about explosions, even if they were kind of small.

I saw Lannah coming up as I threw my last stone. “What under the heavens are you doing?” She asked me.

“Popping rocks into their camp.” I answered right as the overcharged stone went off.

The screaming of angry goblins was like music to my ears as I turned to Lannah. I grinned a little. “I am just throwing over-imbued mana stones over the edge and into their camp. It takes me about twenty seconds to charge one up before it is ready to explode and then I throw it. The rock explodes out with enough force to injure or at least anger them.”

“So you aren’t even aiming just throwing them over and hoping for the best?”

“Yup, so far I have at least angered them some.”

“Is that a good thing. We need to survive until my dad gets us rescued. If you made them too mad they might attack sooner.”

“Not sure that they will attack any sooner, but we aren’t going to find out. Either they attack or they don’t. They want us and so they are coming for us. I just wanted to mess with them some from back here.”

“Okay, well dad said that he has hired a retrieval company who will track us here using the spell I use to talk with him. He told me that I need to reach out to him everyday for an hour because that is how long they can track.”

“That works, I am going to stop messing with them now so that you can get to bed. I will wake you when your shift comes.”

Lannah went to leave when she stopped and slowly reached out and placed her hand on my arm. “Arn, has there been any sign of Blink? I know she is your bonded and you are worried for her. I am too.”

I sighed, “Yeah, I still can’t feel her. I have checked her status a few times and seen her health go up and down. I know she is fighting something. I just don’t know what or where.”

“I am sure she will be fine, she is a terrifying little girl that seems to fight well above her level.”

“That she is and does.” I smiled a bit.

Lannah gave me a look that seemed to linger just a bit. She bit her bottom lip and then turned towards camp. “I guess I will head to bed down.”

I watched her for a few steps before I turned back to watch where the goblins should be. I was worried about Blink and worried about this attack. The longer the goblins were here, the more likely it was that we would lose.

If I thought I could climb at night, I would climb out right now and try to get a better angle of attack, but even I wasn’t sure I could make that climb. I needed something that would let me attack with enough power and stay safe.

Even with Lannah’s mana, I was outpowered. Yeah, I could use one fire strike after another, but I would still get overwhelmed. Blink normally had my back, and she was gone right now. That really worried me. She had never gone off this long before.

My watch was easy; nothing happened. When I woke Lannah up, I cooked off a few more mana stones for the goblins. I figured they had enough sleep for a while.

That night I dreamed again.

I was visiting my old cave. It was something that I would do every year. I would go and pray to Chaos from where our gates used to be. I would if I could bring a goblin or orc with me to kill for her. I would pray that Lorrie had rejoined with the world and that she was resting. I would pray for the power to kill the enemies of my goddess.

Each year I would feel a tug somewhere. I wasn’t sure where the tug would take me, but it was how I knew that Chaos was watching and guiding me. She would talk with the Grand Shaman, but for me, her Ash, I only got tugged along.

I had with me 5 Embers as I felt tugged into my old cave. It was the first time I had been brought this way. Many times in the past, she would guide me far off to strike down the horde. Sometimes she would take me someplace to gather an item. My sword was one of them.

It was a sword like I had never seen before. It had a blade that was twenty inches long and slightly curved forward and then back. The front of the sword had the sharpest edge I had ever felt from tip to hilt. The back of the curve had an edge that ran down only about 6 inches. The hilt of my sword curved around in front of my hand, giving me protection to bash a face. The pommel ended with a spike of metal.

If the quality and shape of the sword that Chaos had sent me hadn’t been enough, the power that rolled off it would have told me something as well. When I used it to attack, it would glow in power. The damage would be whatever hurt my target the most. It could be fire against the Frost trolls or ice when I fought the tribe of flame goblins.

What I could tell that my dream self couldn’t was that right in the middle of the guard was a core. I couldn’t tell what type of core, only that it had one. Which meant that weapon cores had been around as long ago as these dreams were from. It could be that I was dreaming about something happening now, but I didn’t think that was the case.

We headed into the cave. There used to be life here, joy, and families. Now, there was a darkness of sorrow. It might just have been my sorrow, but I thought I saw the Embers react as well. There was also a feeling of dread.

I stopped and looked at those who were with me. My closest brothers all who had grown powerful as we hunted those who would harm us. All who wanted to save others and end the pain they were in. All who wanted to burn the world with me.

“My mistress calls me to enter. I feel her desire for a fight. I don’t know what is in there but something has taken this place and turned it. There should be no dread here. This was my cave and while there is sorrow there shouldn’t be dread.”

Kubaba stepped forward, “We stand with you and we will not leave you to this alone.”

“Good, I had no doubts that any would stay behind. This was my home, let’s find what Chaos would have us see.”

Pura, our front-line warrior, dropped his pack and brought his large round shield around. He was wearing armor much like my old friend Aegis had. Large bronze circles went from the ground up to just under his armpits. More large circles went up down his arms from his shoulders. He could move, but dodging was not something he tended to do.

Pura stepped in front with a smile. “Let’s see what our goddess has in store for us today.”

We formed a party and moved into the cave, and cast our buffs. As Pura stepped over the threshold, I felt the bond of the party break. He wasn’t with us anymore, even though he was just a few feet away.

“Pura, back here!” I yelled out.

“Returning,” he said as he took a few steps back.

As he crossed the threshold, I felt the party join back with him. “Did the buffs drop when you stepped into the cave?” I asked.

“No, Battle Priest, they remained though you felt miles away. Your presence was gone. I also got a message from Order.”

Kubaba couldn’t hold back the question we all had, “What was message.”

Pura gulped, “You have entered into a dungeon only 5 may enter. Power and treasure await those who are strong enough. Death to those who are weak.”