Uh oh. It seems you are afraid.

  +1 has been added to all stats.

  “We need to move!” I bellowed.

  The Wood Elf Enchanter, still in goblin disguise, backed away with trembling fingers. “But, I . . . I did everything right.”

  “Now!”

  Already, the first wave of goblins poured through the doorway. Their jagged blades and murderous irises glinted with the light of the torches. They zeroed in on us single-mindedly. But then, Nana leaped into their path, drawing a staff adorned with trinkets from her inventory.

  She sighed, and her breath became a light breeze that expanded into a gust. The great burst of wind met the advancing goblins with a deafening roar. It blew them out and off their feet.

  “To me,” Nana cried and charged through the doorway.

  I pushed the Enchanter after her with enough force to urge her into motion and grabbed Div by the shoulder. “Consider this equivalent to an order from your master. Use everything at your disposal to ensure our safe escape.”

  Div narrowed her eyes. And then, with a curt nod, she stepped backward and into serpentine form. Less than a heartbeat later, she transformed again, first into a dust cloud and then into a massive two-legged, four-armed beast.

  Corded muscles rippled across her form, putting tempered iron to shame. Golden veins ran like rivers of power beneath reddened skin. A single band of hair floated in a ponytail atop her head. And, her face . . . my gosh, her face. It looked like a demonic boar, complete with a snout, sharp teeth, and a pair of tusks.

  Monster-div spared me one last silver-eyed glare, and then she roared and flicked her tail. She galloped after Nana on all six limbs. The screams of terrified goblins rose in her wake.

  I faded into [Dark Stalker] and brought up the rear. With Hagar’s goblin appearance still up, I faced no immediate danger of death. However, I still needed to protect the retreating backs of the others while avoiding being killed by strays.

  Outside Galagor’s chamber, the scene had devolved into chaos. Waves of goblins descended on Nana who spun around like a top, swinging her staff. Any silver-ranker would have been buried in the first few seconds, but Golds were cut from a much different cloth.

  Large gusts of wind, sharpened into blades, erupted from Nana’s trinkets. They interrupted her attackers and sliced them to bits. Any goblin less than silver rank instantly perished at her hands, and many Silvers lost their lives too as they tried to outmaneuver the spinning granny.

  The sounds of ringing laughter, like those of children, echoed around Nana as she swept past the goblins. The affinity of Joy revealed itself through sight and sound. But, there was nothing joyous about the way goblin limbs exploded like confetti.

  A few goblins matched Nana’s aggression with affinities of their own. The ground trembled with the clash of emotions, throwing unsuspecting goblins off their feet. Others tried to strike Nana from behind only to run into the massive monster which Div had become.

  Div steered clear of the deadly wind blades, cutting her own path through piles of goblins. Unlike Nana, who kept almost all attacks from reaching her form, Div relied on sheer resilience to power through the goblins. Her diamond-hard skin repelled most of their strikes, and those that landed did little damage to health.

  She tore the goblins apart with brutality, relying on all four arms to rip them limb from limb. When she wasn’t raising a cloud of innards, Div darted about like a beast unleashed, and—

  Goddammit, the specialist screamed for help, stuck between both powerhouses. A glancing hit had thrown off the illusion that protected her. The goblins increasingly took notice.

  I appeared from out of the shadows, and, using only [Stealth], I hacked a few of her goblin attackers to bits. No one noticed Hagar slaying his kin in the confusion which only served to embolden my actions. I slaughtered over fifteen goblins before getting any sort of response. [Sneak Attack] procced nonstop, granting double damage for every strike I inflicted.

  One Goblin Soldier finally took notice—“Captain?!”—and died at the tip of my blade.

  A second soldier spilled his organs onto my feet.

  We fought like beings possessed, but the sheer advantage of numbers wasn’t easily surmounted. Our progress soon ground to a halt. Nana could still butcher large swaths of goblins, but she had to conserve her techniques to avoid running out of mana. Her lack of real skill in melee also forced her to be bogged down by a plethora of Goblin Soldiers working together.

  Div had taken real damage now. And, I couldn’t even use [Silhouette] for fear that I would need over twenty minutes of it later down the line. The shadow monster raged with intent to join the battle, but until the last stretch arrived, I intended to keep it leashed.

  “We’re not going to make it!” Nana yelled as the ground shattered again in front of her face. She danced around attacks from Goblin Soldiers, showing remarkable agility despite being a Shaman. “Form up!”

  A commotion started at the opposite end of the cave, substantial enough to divert the attention of nearby goblins. It sounded like the arrival of reinforcements, but then a few goblins yelled out: “The Dread Goats! The Dread Goats are free!”

  True enough, loud bleats joined the clamor of the battlefield as the herd of trapped goats, numbering in the hundreds, darted from their pen. Our side had obviously released them, but for what bloody purpose? Rather than tricks, we could use actual support.

  No time to think now. The appearance of the goats hadn’t brought us the slightest breather, putting us a few seconds away from being overwhelmed. I pulled the Wood Elf specialist out of the way of a vicious strike and tussled with her attacker.

  What the heck were the others doing? For that matter, didn’t Medekeine promise to kick off the battle over ten minutes ago?

  The fleeing Dread Goats galloped around the battlefield—

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  “Now!” a familiar voice commanded.

  Blood splattered the air as the elves shook off the appearance of goats and attacked the nearest goblins. They brought missiles, spells, and weapon strikes to bear.

  A large number of goblins died in the opening seconds of the surprise attack, taken unawares by the brilliant use of Confusion. Kajal barked more orders to coordinate the elves and isolate a section of the goblin army.

  The sudden turn of events relieved the fighting in our corner of the cave. And, as if that wasn’t enough—

  You are within range of an allied [Draconic Aura]!

  Your attacks now deal 50% more damage.

  Your speed and defenses have also risen by 50%.

  You are within range of an allied [Heroic Defense]!

  Stamina has risen by 25%.

  Defense has risen by 50%.

  Oh, thank goodness.

  Paz’s happy yell resounded from the opposite end of the cave. Logain followed somewhere nearby, as evidenced by the presence of his [Heroic Defense].

  “Join up with the others!” Nana called, summoning her wind blades once again. “Close ranks!”

  Div went mental. All four of her fists turned luminous as she activated some kind of skill. Her next punch obliterated the skull of a goblin and unleashed a shockwave that sent its companions flying in an arc. She pummeled other goblins into the ground, growing more unhinged with each passing moment.

  Large tremors spawned from her position, enough to form crevices in the ground. Rocks thundered from the ceiling at the impact of her strikes. The goblins’ weapons shattered on contact with her skin . . .

  And then, I lost myself in the melee.

  The next few minutes devolved into a brutal struggle for survival as we sought to reconnect with the others. My arms moved in an endless blur of death, parrying attacks and disemboweling wave after wave of goblins. [System] messages went off in my head, announcing accomplishments.

  I leveled up a few times. Twice? Thrice? There was no time to think. Each goblin fought like a thing possessed, enough that I couldn’t find the time to wipe the sweat that blinded my eyes.

  One strong hit landed between my shoulder blades, forcing me into a roll. I resurfaced with haste and shoved my knife into a goblin’s throat. My other knife parried a strike aimed at my head, and I responded by flicking The Blackreach Dagger into the attacker’s face. It landed with a satisfying squelch in their eyeball, and I grabbed the hilt before the goblin could fall.

  The next goblin caught the dagger in its jaw, all the way to the roof of its mouth. My arms trembled with exertion, but all I could see was an endless field of green. Goblin blood painted me from head to toe, and although I managed to avoid losing [Impostor], my health meter fell by over fifty percent.

  The gig was long since up.

  “Hagar!” one goblin gurgled as he died on my blade. “Why betray us? Why?!”

  “Because,” I said and decapitated him. It was the only breath I could spare.

  “Curse you, Hagar!” Two more goblins rose to take his place.

  They stabbed me with jagged blades in the lung and kidneys . . . and then, [Decoy] fell apart, revealing that it had only been a ruse. The real me appeared behind them from out of [Stealth] and unleashed catastrophic damage on their blindspots.

  Both goblins toppled like stringless marionettes, spilling their guts.

  “We’re in luck!” Nana hollered at me, switching from the mana-intensive wind blades to controlled bursts of wind. “It seems Galagor didn’t leave any minders. We might just make it out yet.”

  Oh, come on. Don’t jinx it, Nana!

  Paz and Kajal appeared a short distance away, fighting side by side. They worked extremely well together as both were excellent fighters and fearless to boot. A veritable circle of death spawned around them, filled with goblin corpses.

  Paz’s heavy spear blurred in his hands. He somehow managed to maintain optimum reach at all times, even in this clusterfuck. Kajal’s limbs rippled with ki, striking with lethal precision. She swapped places with Paz and crushed a few goblins before they came within two feet of her. Her unique control of [Telekinesis] swept like a disturbance in the air, moving from side to side. Goblins died before they even realized it, plucked by an invisible force.

  Kajal’s warm eyes met mine from across a group of goblins. She started to speak only to be interrupted by a volley of bolts flying from beyond the melee. The missiles erupted from the entrance of the cave and struck our forces alongside a few of the goblins.

  Goblin Riders charged down the stone bridge, mounted on large Dread Tigers with chalk-painted skin. They cast silver hues upon the fabric of reality and welded a variety of weapons, including chains, crossbows, and sickles. The elves who had previously outmaneuvered the enemy now found themselves inundated by a multi-pronged attack.

  These new goblins, who had probably arrived from a nearby post, numbered about twenty strong. But, they showed signs of being the cream of the crop. The quarrels they fired sported lethal poison as confirmed by a couple of elven regulars who succumbed to their wounds. Not good.

  Kajal had adjusted our initial tactic on the fly to match the breaking of the alarm spell, but she couldn’t move fast enough to counteract the new development. The Goblin Riders were highly mobile and broke apart in pairs to seek straggling elves.

  I needed to do something to halt their momentum; no one else seemed able to respond. I released the ability I had been holding in reserve.

  Not you, Silhy—and, the shadow monster trembled in rage—[Fear Aura].

  The demonic aspect of my aura filled the cave, clutching at the hearts and minds of all enemies within range. The current conditions of the battlefield provided a fertile seedbed for Fear, birthing instantaneous results.

  All of the weaker goblins dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. The stronger ones hesitated, but the momentary lapse in concentration was enough to cost a few of them their lives. Each affected goblin lost two points in all stats. But, that wasn’t all, because even the unaffected elves shot me terrified looks.

  “Damien . . .” Nana hissed.

  The weakest goblins trembled on their knees, muttering in reverence. “Dragon Lord!”

  Hah? Not this again.

  Sadly, despite my suffocating presence, the strongest of the goblins, which included all of the new Goblin Riders, resisted [Dismay].

  I clucked my tongue as a plethora of [System] messages went off in my brain. A target’s mental state affected their susceptibility to [Fear Aura], which made sense since the newcomers were all fresh to the fight and out for blood. If I could just find a little more stimulus . . .

  One Dread Tiger and its rider leaped off the bridge and onto an elf.

  It lashed out at the poor regular, gouging past health armor and into meatspace. The elf screamed as his flesh went flying. But, an arrow exploded against the tiger’s skull with unnatural force before it could finish the kill.

  The monster toppled off the elf and reoriented itself calmly, despite being hurt and blinded.

  Tamed Dread Tigers, huh? If only I could summon some of those. And then, my neck cracked with motion . . . because far off at the other end of the cave, tens of Dread Tigers sat trapped in tiny cages, many untamed.

  “The tigers hate fire!” I yelled and pointed in the direction of the cages. Someone ought to have the affinity of Rage!

  Nana got my meaning and leveled her trinket staff. A screeching burst of wind flew over my head, causing the goblins in its path to cower. The wind burst shattered latches and threw a majority of the cages open, but without a stimulant to agitate the monsters, they wouldn’t behave as I wanted.

  “Allow me,” Tybalt said. He vaulted over the body of the wounded regular, who he had just fed a health potion, and landed on the shoulders of a sturdy goblin.

  Without caring about the goblin’s attempt to unseat him, Tybalt fired his arrow. That single arrow shattered and became twenty, all of which landed in front of the advancing Dread Tigers.

  “[Psychotic Scream],” Tybalt hissed.

  The arrows vibrated.

  Tens of Dread Tigers rushed into the battlefield, maddened by the voices screaming in their heads.