Pushing it down, Norbert strived forward as he crossed the barrier, the sounds of scarping of the tunnels on either side of him as they echoed up, surrounding him in sound.

  “Do you have a map or an idea of where we must go?” Norbert asked, turning around and seeing Grandriel several steps behind, head down in a little diary that Norbert couldn’t see. Stopping and letting the Under-elf come to him, Norbert finally looked down at it as he could see the notes of a map, with pointers and markers over it, strings and extra pieces added onto the side acting as bookmarks and markers for specific parts throughout the book.

  Feeling the wind on his face with the force that Grandriel slammed the book shut, Norbert felt his nose bristle from the force it had been subjected to. Norbert smirked under his helmet at the Under-elf as his guide stared up at him, into the helmet's slits, trying to read Norbert.

  Norbert continued to chuckle, leaning over and grabbing the Under-Elf in his hands, lifting them and placing them down to face the battlefield of destruction on the outskirts of the city he had just left.

  “So, which of those holes is the one I must go into?” Norbert asked, his finger lazily drifting around as he pointed to several black holes that led towards him; he did not know what. As he continued to stare, the sounds of whittling came from one of them.

  Directing his eyes over there, he changed his vision to look at the magic as something started to poke its head out. Changing back to normal, Norbert saw an albino white creature poke its head out. Only eyes and frills of spikes could be seen as it slowly entangled itself from the inky blackness of the hole it found itself in.

  Grandriel shook from his grasp as Norbert continued to stay there, his feet glued to the spot as he continued to look. The creature came up to three times his height as it finally showed its body off to him.

  Throat becoming dry, swallowing and licking his lips, trying to find anything to quench the sudden nerves. As the creature stepped over the boundary, fire engulfed it, so hot that Norbert could feel his mask start to warm up slightly, his eyes drying out and watering from the heat.

  A cry filled the empty field; Norbert watched. After several seconds, the cry stopped, the creature crashing to the ground as a wave of ash made its way from the creature. Standing there, feeling it wash over him, the nerves in his body finally abating at the death of the creature.

  Feeling a presence next to him, Norbert turned around and saw Grandriel now standing by his side, notebook open once more, as he began writing down the information he gleamed necessary from the encounter.

  “How many of those things are down there?”

  After several moments of pen scratching on paper, the Under-Elf looked up at him, “Ohh, the Torbrask, they are everywhere.” Grandriel nodded like it was the most obvious reaction to seeing a creature nearly three times his height turning to a crisp.

  “And are they the most dangerous thing down there?” Norbert asked, pointing towards the area the Torbrask came from.

  Only a smile answered Norbert’s question, and the Under-Elf quickly walked towards its charred remains. “Quickly now, the light would have frightened the others off for a moment.”

  Norbert caught up to the Under-Elf, stopping as they looked at the charred remains. Norbert stepped forward and kicked what remained of the Torbrask—watching as it crumpled into nothingness.

  Holding his breath so as not to breathe in more of the ash, Norbert changed his vision to darkness as he looked towards the hole the creature came out of. “So, the entire under city needs to be cleared?”

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  “Undercity, I like the ring to it. Much better than the no-go zone.” Grandriel nodded his head as he scribbled something else in the ledger. Norbert tapping his

  “Man, I do miss Obsius and Count von Count”, Norbert whispered to himself as the Under-Elf once more lost himself in the book he continued writing in—no longer waiting for them to get their head out of it, Norbert walked down, standing at the edge of the hole as he looked down and came face to face with another Torbrask.

  The creature moved before him, its jaw opening as it started moving forward. Energy came to life within him; previously sluggish from any lack of danger, it quickly came to the rescue. Condensing it in his fist, not having any time to draw his sword, he punched the creature's teeth, releasing the energy he stored within his arm while doing so.

  Watching as it blasted inwards, hot liquid splashed over his body, the sharp teeth broken and splintering, causing shrapnel to imbed itself in the creature's mouth. It cried in pain as it backed up, raising its head as high as it could, out of the way of the tiny creature that inflicted pain on it.

  Norbert, drawing his sword as he leapt towards the creature's throat, rock breaking underneath his feet from the leap, swept his sword around, the blade catching into the creature, pulling himself around the neck. Making it over halfway as he stopped, he lost momentum, unable to cut cleanly through the creature's stubby neck.

  Breathing on top of the creature the two of them stood still. Finally, regaining his breath as the creature underneath him rumbled once more. The air rushed into his eyes as they crashed towards the floor. The head of the Torbrask wriggling around, snapping and trying to get at him. He jumped off, giving it a kick on the head as he watched it slowly slide down the hole it had come from. Picking up speed as it slid down, its head spinning around to face the front as he looked at its tail, laying completely still on the ground, kicking up rubble as it thundered out of view.

  Hiking several steps up to the lip, the face of Grandriel staring back at him. “No help?” Norbert asked the Under-Elf as they finally had stopped scribbling in their book.

  He felt the eyes on him for a moment, the grin on his face at the small victory he received from that reaction. Norbert looked at him, whipping his sword on his leg before sheathing it, the sound of the metal silently echoing around them.

  “Anything else needed here?” Norbert asked the Under-Elf

  “You killed it so easily.” Grandriel finally responded to him.

  “Yes, that was what I intended to do: make a path and get out from under this mountain!” Norbert thrust his fist into the air, satisfaction filling himself up as his voice echoed back at him, bleeding his joy into it.

  “I honestly thought it would eat you; we all did.”

  Norbert turned back, reaching up and grasping his helmet. The two pieces came off and rested in his hands as he continued to stare at the Under-Elf, raising a single eyebrow and waiting for a further explanation.

  The Under-Elf is quiet for a moment. Norbert sees him carefully picking the words out: “An infestation like that doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve been slowly pushed back till here.” Grandriel stomped his foot onto the ground, a section of ash falling off from the battlefield and down into the hole the monster fell into.

  He continued, “And how could one man change what we couldn’t.”

  “But you have a barrier set up.” Norbert counted, showing his hand at the destruction of the field and what he had just witnessed there.

  “And do you know how much it takes to keep active? And that’s beside the point. The barrier is a defensive measure; it takes much more than just one of us to defeat a Torbrask.” Grandriel added matter-of-factly.

  “But you have weapons and tools to use, and they don’t seem impervious to magic,” Norbert added, moving his eyes as he looked down the hole. A gust of wind billowed up at him, causing his hair to whip around in the wind.

  “Well, that’s the slight problem we can get rid of.”

  As Norbert stood there, the entire mountain seemingly rumbling in response to the Under-Elf’s words were the sounds of scraping coming up from the tunnel. Clasping his helmet back on him, the two pieces of metal coming over his face, the energy inside of him rattling around, prepared for whatever was to come.

  “More show up in its place. Overwhelming any force that we muster that tries to take them down.” Grandriel stopped, the shaking finally stopping, and a quick scamper happened from behind Norbert. He turned around, took his eyes off the tunnel, and saw the Under-Elf sprinting away, heading back to the city.

  Something hit Norbert in the back, his body flying to the top of the tunnel, clipping off the lip at the entrance and spinning uncontrollably into the air. Their hands splayed out, the world spinning underneath him, the ground quickly meeting up with him, dust and grime filling his lungs as the wind knocked him out.

  A blast of heat came up from behind him, and Norbert turned around, his mouth open as wide as it could in the helmet, as the fires continued coming up all around him.