The fluorescent fungi on the ceiling shone with the same yellowish color as they did before – that had not changed. What changed was that the wall crumbled in some areas where there were holes. It was the areas with small holes. Those with large holes lit up. From these holes, humanoid figures could be seen.

  The humanoids walked slowly, and, in turn, emerged into the clearing. They were shorter in height than the average human and had faces with dog-like traits. They held scimitars in their hands, and their skin colors ranged from brown to a more grayish brown. They barked, which showed that they probably did not have the capacity for language. Their torsos were strapped with leather-based armor. I also noticed that the creatures had fur covering their bodies.

  “Kobolds,” said Benjamin. That was what these monsters were. Using an axe would have been more useful against leather-armored enemies, but we only had what we had chosen, which were swords. “These guys hate bright light. Why are they even coming out?”

  “Do they?” I inquired.

  “Yeah, that’s how the lore goes,” Benjamin replied.

  “I mean, the holes are lit up as well,” I said.

  “I see. Well, in any case, we’ve got our first enemies lined up at us,” Benjamin said.

  “You say that, but we have a horde of monsters in front of us. Probably close to twenty,” I commented.

  “Yeah. We should retreat,” said Dalton.

  So, we slowly backed away from the group of monsters in front of us, but found the dungeon exit closing with stone. As we observed, eighteen strokes appeared on the exit wall, followed by a nineteenth, larger stroke.

  I counted the number of kobolds in the clearing. There was exactly eighteen of them.

  “Eighteen kobolds and one boss,” I said.

  “Let’s put that to the test then,” said Dalton.

  The kobolds’ eyes lit up red. They scurried about, huddling together, and then came upon us. They were pretty fast, with their light equipment. Dalton was the first to meet them. He latched his left hand onto the head of one of the kobolds, and beheaded it.

  Blood came spurting out of it.

  The rest of the kobolds backed away and five of them got together and started generating some kind of substance, It was smoky and gave off a cold wind current when I came close to the five of them. Barely twenty seconds later, the five kobolds ran up to Dalton and threw the substance, which was liquid-like, and floating, at him.

  “Aw! It’s freaking cold!”

  The five kobolds then proceeded to attack Dalton. Cracks appeared on Dalton armor. In discomfort, Dalton disengaged from the kobolds.

  A wooden bolt flew across from twenty meters, to the neck of a Kobold, piercing through it. The kobold jerked backward, and then grabbed the bolt with its hands, letting go of its scimitar. I moved forward and stabbed the kobold in the arm. Seeing my action, Catherine rushed forward and flitted to a kobold. She stabbed it in the neck.

  “I see their armor is useless,” I said. ‘Two down,’ I thought

  Dalton grabbed another kobold by the head, and beheaded him. “Well, now is your time to shine, Aidan.”

  “This is just what I wanted,” I said. I grabbed a kobold by the head and beheaded him. I felt a sense of disgust in my gut. Four of the kobolds gathered and ritualistically summoned fire in the middle. I intoned, “Ice bolt!”

  A narrow and elongated ice bolt formed up above my hands and I slung it in the direction of the quartet of kobolds. I missed them by a couple of meters. Three kobolds detached from the larger crowd and ran in my direction. The quartet resumed its invocation of fire.

  Catherine flitted across the scene like a phantom, maiming and killing kobolds as if it were natural to her. ‘I wonder what her class is,” I thought. We had eleven kobolds left. Benjamin took aim and shot at the kobolds. “Aim for the fire-gathering kobolds!” I said.

  Benjamin took a look in my direction and said, “alright.”

  A shot, coming from his crossbow, pierced through part of the leather of one of the kobolds. The kobold shrugged it off. Despite this, I thought, ‘This is gonna be an easy fight.’ Taking care of Oberon, if he was indeed the boss should be easy. ‘All he does is fly.’

  I ran into the group gathering the fire, and slashed at the head of one kobold. It was not a clean cut, and I was left with the direct sensation of having failed to inflict fatal blow, but instead causing a creature to feel pain. I hardened my heart, and, somewhat sloppily, slashed at another kobold’s head. “Okay, this sensation is bad.” I tried stabbing one of the kobolds’ head, as they broke up the group, and his head swerved out of the way only the way a dog's would. The struggle became frantic, and I grew more invested in it.

  Behind me, a kobold came up and slashed its scimitar at my legs. It left a shallow cut. Dalton rushed over and cut at the right arm of the kobold. “Don’t worry. We’ll be done in a while,” he said.

  “Thanks,” I muttered. The kobolds in front of me came rushing in, and I repelled a scimitar attack reflexively. I almost missed the parry by one inch. My ears were pounding with blood. I yelled as I discharged the feeling of adrenaline and gave a wide swing at the group of kobolds in front of me. They avoided the attack and swarmed up to us like ants. I realized I needed Dalton’s defense. “Tank for me, Dalton!”

  “I’ll see if I can. I was too optimistic, it seems,” he said.

  ‘This [Ice Bolt] is pretty useless for now. That’s unfortunate,’ I thought. Catherine flitted over some dozen meters away from us while charging at each kobold and stabbing them. I could clearly see her stacking kobold heads on the sword, in my mind. “What’s her class?” I stammered between breaths.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Catherine, you mean?” Dalton said.

  “Yeah.”

  “She’s the [Progenitor of Light]. That’s all I know.”

  “Ah I see. No wonder she’s fast,” I laughed wryly.

  I saw another quartet of kobolds gathering fire. However, they could not afford to protect themselves with Benjamin and Catherine taking care of the rest of the kobolds. I tried gathering ice at my hands anew. It took a brief moment, before I took aim and fired the ice bolt.

  This time, it disrupted the group’s concentration, although it was not a perfect shot. Regarlless, I said under my breath, “perfect.”

  I should probably have said ‘great’, I thought to myself. I ran over to the kobolds, my eyes wincing from the pain on my left leg, and I sliced through a kobold’s arm. Since it had come to it, given that neither of the party feared the other, it was all hack and slash. I was still unsure about the usefulness of my ice bolt on the battlefield, but it was passable for now.

  I rushed about the kobolds like an athlete playing at kabaddi, a sports like rugby, except that in kabaddi you had no ball to pass along, and I did not know the rules of the game other than its imagery. The kobolds were nimble, and trying to kick them could have my shin cut. So, I didn’t try. I looked about the ground for stones, and grabbed one that was the size of a baseball; I threw it at one of the kobolds, who returned the favor. I realized that was a bad idea.

  I ran about, avoiding the kobolds’ throws of stones, until I thought of throwing the broken pieces of my ice bolts at them. That was a great idea. The kobolds got hit, but could not manage to hold the broken ice, since their ice resistance was too low. Having dulled their senses with pain and coldness, I closed the distance between one of the kobolds, and pierced him in the head. Blood dripped from the side of its head, and overflowed from its brain as I slid the sword out.

  I intoned, “Ice bolt.” A rod of ice formed on my left hand. I left the bolt to levitate and approached another kobold, before swinging my sword at him. The kobold avoided my attack, and it was joined by two companions, at which I threw the ice bolt. It was close-range. So, I did not miss my throw. The ice bolt struck one of the kobolds’ torso, which was unfortunate. I turned around and was about to engage them, before remembering that I had a spare sword.

  This gave me pause. I ran some distance away from the kobolds, before I found them following me. I snuck behind Dalton, and retrieved my spare sword from its sheath. “You need a shield,” Dalton stated.

  “Don’t mind me for now,” I replied. On second thought, I should have probably stuck to throwing broken ice at them.

  I got away from Dalton’s protection, latter who was out of breath after having charged a couple of kobolds, and grabbed their heads to behead. The kobolds kept their distance from him.

  “I’m out of mana!” shouted Catherine. Silence greeted her.

  “It’s called base elemental energy,” said Benjamin, after a while.

  “Right…” Catherine whispered to herself. Catherine smiled, with some shock stuck on her face.

  “Does she need help?” I asked, quietly. I looked around. We were four versus five. The odds were looking good.

  I started a brusque walk and broke into a run. As I came up to her, I said, “hey! What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m out of mana.”

  I thought of correcting her, like Benjamin had. “Don’t be a people-pleaser, for the love of it. Can you still fight?”

  “I’m not a people-pleaser,” Catherine said sternly.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said.

  “I don’t know how to fight now. Give me some time and I’ll recuperate.”

  “Okay. Don’t put yourself in harm’s way,” I said and walked back to the kobolds, who were confused as to why Catherine had stopped fighting. As I moved, I noticed Benjamin giving me a mean look. ‘We are a team, dumbass,’ I thought.

  Dalton took his own time to recover. Benjamin checked his bolts. “I have six bolts left,” he said.

  “I’ll fetch you some bolts. Just wait,” I said.

  The kobolds did not wait though. They came running in Benjamin’s direction, seeing as he had the role of the crossbowman. Dalton charged at them while they were at it. The kobolds could not get out of the way. Dalton grabbed a kobold with his left hand and beheaded the creature.

  The kobolds scattered. My legs shook as I ran between one corpse and the next, checking for a wooden bolt, as much as I scoured the ground about me. We had come a long way from the original starting point. Scavenging for all the bolts was not feasible if I wanted to retain urgency. I got back to Benjamin after gathering six bolts.They were in a good state, compared to some bolts which had overshot and hit the walls, breaking into splinters.

  I had no time to think, before I came face to face with Oberon. “Your presence disgusts me. You are not fit to be a hero,” he said.

  “What high horse are you riding?” I said rhetorically. I was puzzled as to the identity of Oberon.

  “I don’t ride horses. I’m a fairy!”

  This remark gave me cause for a chuckle. I swung my sword at Oberon, the green-winged fairy, with green eyes. Oberon had no armor on. Only a simple set of clothes that looked flimsy. After I missed a few attempts, Oberon climbed one of the boulders,

  I dropped the bolts I had gathered and followed suit, swiftly lifting my body up from the ground, to get a grip on the sloping boulder and I followed the fairy to the apex of the boulder. “You are not a hero,” Oberon said, turning around.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said. “Ice Bolt!” A bolt of ice, crystalline and shining with light, formed on my left hand. I threw it at Oberon. I had Oberon where I wanted; I had been looking for a high place. Oberon swerved out of the way. I sheathed my sword in my right arm, and intoned, ‘ice bolt’, thrusting one hand forward, before I said ‘ice bolt’ again, with the second hand. I threw one bolt after the other at Oberon.

  It became clear that it was annoying that Oberon could fly. ‘We are never gonna get him,’ I thought with dismay. Oberon zigzagged across the room, before he came almost face-to-face with me. At that moment, his face transformed into an evil grin.

  I sensed something exuding from my skin. I looked about my body to find black fumes coming from it. ‘Not again,’ I thought.

  [Caecus affinity: 0.80 (up 6%)]

  “I am not your opponent,” Oberon said with confidence. He chuckled. “This dungeon will be your demise.”

  “Try me,” I returned. The fumes thickened and wrapped my body.

  I felt my consciousness vacillating. “Hang on, Aidan!” I heard Dalton saying. I thought I saw something black come from my chest, and felt my back grow heavy. I was too far to hear anything else.

  I heard cracks and sensed tremors about my feet. I looked down to find some cracks on the boulder I was standing on. I felt like I was on top of a machine. I looked at the other boulders to see if these were also cracking; they were not.

  Whatever it was, was surely the boss. I hoped there was not more than one of them. The boulder cracked some more, as though someone were sculpting, before the boulder exploded. I hardly had time to think of getting off the boulder.

  I was airborne and collided against a gray mass of what looked like rock on my way back down. I got hit on the shoulder, and fell to the ground.

  I felt pain and opened my eyes to what looked like a stone humanoid. ‘A golem?’ I thought.

  I blacked out.