Latludious, concentrated and confident, took out his lighter and cast a spell of fire pillars. The ghastly flames engulfed the dark creatures but did no visible damage. They screamed and dashed towards the mage. He recoiled, cursed, and found no choice but to defend himself against the four dark creatures with a magical shield.

“Goddamn it!”

Latludious shouted, extending both his palms upward. He was spending an enormous amount of mana on defense, but he could feel himself approaching his limit. Faolandan ran to his aid.

“Hold on!” He shouted.

The machine gunner, all dirty and battered, stood beside him and with rage and anger, shouting at the top of his voice: “For Tina!” fired all the rounds from the disc magazine. The caliber was too small to penetrate the creature's skull bone, but it bought time. Latludious weakened his defences, accumulated some mana - taking a few seconds to recover - touched the ground, and cast a spell. Spikes of stone burst from the ceiling and floor and clashed together like the fangs of a predator and broke the monters’ bones. The fog from their bodies, as well as their magical limbs, dissipated.

“Holy shit,” Faolandan said and put his DP down. “I'm just getting in the way here.”

“Don't be absurd!” Latludious shouted and continued the battle. He lifted the small stones around him, reshaped them, and showered several more monsters with an eerie hail.

Yleen, meanwhile, was dodging grapples and direct hits. He rolled and fired in a U-turn, aiming at the monsters' heads, throwing smoke and stun grenades, and breaking the distance again. Before he knew it, he was separated from the group. The creatures forced him farther and farther away.

“I can't handle all of them!” He shouted.

When the first clip ran out, he reloaded with his right hand in a second and saw a blob of darkness with green little lights flying at him. The speed was too high. A sharp inhale. Fear made his heart stop for a moment. He lowered his head, saw the spell pierce through his abdomen, and then a thick black liquid mingled with the blood. For a moment, a flash of how the group could have passed through the dungeon passed through his mind. The Lord fired the last rounds of his second magazine sideways, feeling no strength at all, his legs buckling.

“Bugger,” he said and felt the hot blood fill his mouth and trickle thinly through the blockage of his closed lips and down to his chin.

The creature flew toward Yleen and reached for his neck. He stood on his knees, his weapon dropped, arms around his stomach, trying not to fall. The Lord removed his protective mask through the interface and looked into those dead, lifeless eyes, ready to take his own doom face to face.

“What do you think you're doing, you little prick?” Ronnie yelled.

The sniper in the heat of battle saw this dramatic picture and dodged three straight blows and blocked with his rifle barrel two hooks and one uppercut, twisted and shot the monster point-blank in the head. The skull shattered into splinters. Avoiding further confrontation, he rushed forward from a low start, shouting to Vvy, “Cover me,” and after eleven yards he stopped, crouched on one knee and took aim and exhaled and pulled the trigger on the Barrett. The bony head of the dark creature had already released its tentacles and drained Yleen, but the 12.7mm bullet prevented him from finishing what he'd started. Ronnie cursed at the sight of such terrible wounds on the Lord. He ran to his aid, but three dark creatures surrounded him.

“Bring it on, bitches!” He roared.

Vvy swung his one-handed sword and shield, distracting the monsters. He was momentarily distracted by the sound of fire and bright light and turned to see Illyseh and Latludious playfully dismembering the enemy, then suddenly froze. The creatures howled and teleported away, leaving the defender of the group standing still, disoriented and bewildered. Vvy missed a punch from behind, then a second. Swung his shield back and stunned the creature. He took the opportunity to use his only skill, ‘Amplify’ (which doubles his physical power for ten seconds), and sliced the skull in two.

Illyseh used the first spell in the combo and summoned three spheres of light that froze above his head. He put the Scar-L behind his back, concentrated the light magic in his palms, and leaped into the thick of the darkness. One blow, one corpse. The dark creatures flew two meters up and swirled above his head and shot magical clots. The healer used the second spell in the combo, “Kyrie Eleison,” and the light shield absorbed all the attacks for three seconds. Then he crouched down and cast the third spell in the combo: “Kriste Eleison” and three spheres of light zigzagged over his head and took five of the monsters to the other side at once, absorbing some of their power. The fourth spell was “Light transformation”. The shields used earlier appeared around the healer, releasing electrified black clots of lightning outward, which merged with the light spheres. “Energy Blast” directed all the resulting power with a bright beam into the healer's chest. Illyseh began counting down ten seconds in his head and soared upward and conducted a series of close-range attacks glowing ever so stronger. Once he had counted ten seconds, he used a “Riot of Energy”, which transformed all the stored power into a blue, semi-circular wave. The final spell in the combo flew forward and annihilated a dozen creatures at once. Faolandan stood behind a stone, watching this fight and marveling. His palms turned white from the force with which he gripped the hilt of his machine gun.

“I wish I'd find a hole to hide,” he said to himself.

One of the dark creatures attacked him from behind. It knocked the machine gun out of his hands with the first blow and nearly broke his jaw with the second. Faolandan fell to the ground, drew his pistol, and fired five bullets into the monster's skull. A couple of scratches. The tentacles stuck into the machine gunner's body, and he felt the life coming out of him. Illyseh noticed it. He was behind the dark creature's back in a flash, grabbed it by its limbs, and lifted it up with a jerk and threw it to the ground and used a magical cage in its conclusion. The healer squared his shoulders and twisted his back. Faolandan heard the crunch of senile bones.

Illyseh felt incredibly excited. Emotions overwhelmed him from the glorious battle. His blood was boiling. It was as if his soul was twenty or thirty years younger. He, joyful and happy, walked over to the cage and watched as the dark creature could not get through the barrier, and then touched the skull with his hand and used the paralysis spell - it did not work - then he did a quick analysis - no information either. With the next wave of his hand, he crushed the skull of his enemy. Ronnie, meanwhile, sent the last enemy back into the void with an aimed shot.

There was silence, interrupted by piercing moans and squeaky burbling sounds. Latludious intensified the orb of light, and the group saw the Lord lying on his back. His abdomen was stricken with filth that seemed to boil his internal organs. Poisonous bubbles swelled and burst.

Illyseh ran up to him and used the “Duple Sunlight”. The small spheres began to draw in the thick filth. It eased the pain, but only delayed the impending death. The healer did not stop. Vvy and Latludious watched the process with excitement. They were relieved when Illyseh completely defeated the infestation and then used the spell “Liberandum”, which regenerated damaged skin cells and restored internal organs.

“If you're going to restore my stomach, couldn't you make it a little smaller?” Yleen asked.

“I'm not a plastic surgeon,” Illyseh mumbled back in a calm voice and felt his pulse not drop below a hundred and fifty-five.

Players from the Top Secret guild withdrew, unable to stand the acrid smell of feces, and sat down nearby and decided to take a breather.

Damn, what monsters are here, Latludious wrote.

If this is just the beginning, I shudder when I think what will come next, Vvy answered.

Nothing, if we keep leaving Yleen to his fate. If we don't act like a team, we won't make it halfway through the dungeon.

They won't let us go through the dungeon from start to finish and clear all the monsters and bosses.

As long as they don't create troubles, stick to the plan.

Ronnie walked over to the monster, took out a scanning chip, and stuck it into its skull. A loading bar appeared in the HUD. At 20%, the interface went red. An error popped up.

“AI.”

“At your service”

“Why was the scan interrupted?”

“Most likely, these monsters are created with magic and are summoned, and as a consequence, when they die, their remains carry no information.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“I... am not capable to register a monster in the bestiary without a scan.”

“Why not?”

“That's how my script works.”

“Can you recreate an image from a photo or a screenshot?”

“This function is at the moment unavailable.”

“Send a complaint to the game developers and have them change it.”

“Request has been sent.”

Yleen pitched his tent and retired to a three-hour meditation to regain his strength. Illyseh approached Ronnie and thanked him for saving his comrade.

“Monsters cannot be scanned. The AI said it was a summon.”

“I got the same suspicion when I applied the Analyze spell on the creature I caught. No information at all. Blanks. It was like scanning a fireball.”

Ronnie nodded toward the obsidian pillars and said:

“So, they are the original source. Destroy it, make it easier for the rest of us to move forward.”

Illyseh took the sniper away from the others and said in a whisper:

“A subtle moment. The first time they activated when Faolandan hit them with a bone. The second time was when the bullets ricocheted off them. I think if you don't touch them, they won't cause any problems.”

“The first pillar didn't go off during the second attack. So, they have a cooldown. We don't lose anything. You can't recover bullets, but you can recover mana. Try it.”

Illyseh approached the nearest obsidian pillar. The Top Secret players looked at him and tensed. Vvy shouted:

“Hey! What are you doing?”

The healer summoned one orb and used the spell “Pierce”. The orb crashed at breakneck speed into the pillar and exploded. Nothing happened. Latludious jumped up in fright. No sounds, whispers, or anything else.

“What are you doing?” he asked, breathing heavily.

“The dark creatures are the call of these pillars. I tried to destroy them, to avoid future trouble for others. But they seem to be tougher than I thought. Latludious, won't you try it?”

“What if they activate again?”

“Don't worry about it. They're on cooldown.”

The magician looked at Vvy and said:

“Well, the hell with it.”

Latludious ran his hands in a circle and cast the “squeeze” spell. Air currents appeared around the obsidian pillar. A piercing squeak sent a gravitational wave through it. The spell was gone. Illyseh walked over to the pillar and checked it.

“There's a small crack there.”

“That's the strongest spell I have.”

“Well,” Illyseh shrugged, “Then I'll write a walkthrough guide for the forum. I'll post it later.”

When everyone had dispersed to their corners, they set up their tents and went to rest for a couple of hours. Latludious took advantage of the quiet moment to write to Nika and tell her about the monsters, and then he found out about the Nevernah case.

“Did Hebanyac do this?”

“Yes.”

The magician spat. Vvy nodded at him with a mute question, “What happened?”

Illyseh’s steward, military commander, and manager are now blocking the entrance. Not only did Hebanyac not fall into the trap, but he somehow killed a player without getting a PK debuff.

How is that possible?

I have no idea. We can't contact the dead.

Latludious looked at Illyseh’s tent and thought: What other aces do you have hidden up your sleeve?