The tunnel became a throat, narrow and suffocating, the walls slick with a viscous dampness that seemed to pulse in the faint, greenish light.
Every scuff of our foot echoed like a betrayal, and the cold seeped through my jacket, biting deep.
Those distant growls were no longer echoes; they were a chorus, a guttural promise of violence waiting just ahead.
Tobias raised a clenched fist. We froze. His expression was carved from stone, his knuckles white on the hilt of his claymore.
"We're close," he breathed, the words barely stirring the foul air. "Everyone stay sharp."
My eyes darted to Evelyn. Her staff's crystal pulsed with a soft, steady light, a tiny beacon in the oppressive gloom.
Marcus was a coiled spring ahead of us, crouched low, his daggers looking like fangs in the half-light.
Lily stood poised, an arrow already resting on her bowstring, her entire body still as a statue.
The tension was a wire stretched to breaking.
We rounded a final, tight bend, and the tunnel spat us out into a wider chamber.
This was no scout's outpost. This was a nest.
The cavern was larger, the ceiling lost in shadows. The air reeked of rot and stale smoke.
Crude torches jammed into the walls cast a flickering, frantic light over a scene of organized chaos.
A dozen goblins, maybe more, shuffled and snarled.
They were bigger here, their weapons less crude, rusted swords, jagged spears. And in the center of it all stood a brute.
It was a head taller than the others, its body encased in a haphazard shell of scavenged metal and leather.
It held a massive, notched axe casually in one hand, its beady eyes scanning its minions with a chilling intelligence.
"Leader," Tobias muttered, the word heavy with implication.
"What's the plan?" Marcus asked, his voice a low, eager thrum.
"Standard formation," Tobias replied, his eyes never leaving the hulking chieftain.
"Lily, pick off as many as you can from a distance. Marcus, take the left flank, cause chaos. Evelyn, stay back. Your only job is to keep us standing. Allen," his gaze flicked to me, "cover Evelyn. Use your lightning to break their charges, stun them, create openings. Don't waste it."
"And you?" Lily asked, though she already knew.
Tobias's lips curled into a thin, hard smile.
"I'll take the leader."
No one argued. There was a grim finality to the statement.
"On my mark," Tobias said, his voice impossibly steady.
The moment stretched, thick and silent. Then his arm chopped down.
"Now!"
Lily's first arrow was a whisper of death, taking a spearman through the throat.
The goblin's choked cry was the starter's pistol. Chaos erupted.
Marcus vanished, then reappeared amidst the left flank like a phantom.
His daggers were a silver blur, and two goblins fell before they even knew he was there.
Tobias let out a roar and charged, a force of nature aimed directly at the chieftain.
The clash of the axe and claymore was a deafening clang of metal that shook the very air.
The rest of the horde, screeching in fury, surged toward Evelyn and me.
"Allen!" Evelyn shouted, her voice cutting through the din.
I reacted. My hand came up, and lightning crackled around my fist, not a contained spark this time, but a wild, snapping energy.
I didn't aim for one. I aimed for the mass.
A thick bolt of blue-white energy lanced out, striking the front runners.
The 'CRACK' was thunderous. The goblins in front simply vanished, erased from the chest up.
The ones behind them stumbled, momentarily blinded and stunned.
Evelyn didn't hesitate. A warm, golden light erupted from her staff, washing over Marcus, who had taken a deep gash on his arm from a lucky spear thrust.
The wound knitted itself closed before my eyes.
"Thanks!" Marcus yelled, flashing a fierce grin before diving back into the melee.
On the other side of the chamber, Tobias and the chieftain were a storm of their own.
The goblin was shockingly fast, its axe a whirlwind of deadly strikes.
But Tobias was an unmovable cliff, each parry and counter-strike measured and brutal.
Then three goblins broke from the disoriented pack, their eyes fixed on Evelyn.
"Allen!" she cried.
I stepped in front of her slowly, my plain dagger feeling suddenly very small.
The first goblin lunged, a rusted sword thrusting for my heart.
My instinct kicked in. A sidestep, a pivot, my dagger slicing across its exposed side.
The blade bit deep into gristle and bone. The creature gurgled and fell.
Easy. Too easy.
The second was on me, a club whistling toward my skull.
I dropped into a crouch, feeling the wind of the swing ruffle my hair.
As I came up, I drove my dagger upward into its ribs.
It wasn't a clean kill, but the goblin staggered back, screeching.
The third made a beeline for Evelyn. She stood her ground, her staff flashing with a blinding white light.
The goblin shrieked, clawing at its eyes. I didn't even need lightning.
A single, precise bolt, thin as a needle, shot from my fingertip and punched a hole through its temple. It dropped like a stone.
"Thanks, Allen," Evelyn said, her voice remarkably calm.
I just nodded, the adrenaline a cold fire in my veins.
This was… interesting.
It was a dance, and my body knew the steps.
I glanced around the chamber. Lily's arrows were relentless, each one finding a home in green flesh.
Marcus was a dervish, a whirlwind of controlled violence.
And with a final, earth-shaking bellow, Tobias brought his claymore down in a devastating arc, shearing through the chieftain's makeshift armor and burying the blade deep in its chest.
The leader fell with a final, wet gasp.
Silence. Thick and sudden. Broken only by our ragged breathing and the sputter of torches.
"Is that all of them?" Marcus asked, wiping gore from his face.
"For now," Tobias replied, his chest heaving. He yanked his blade free with a grunt. "Good work, everyone. Loot what's useful. Quickly."
He turned to me, his assessing gaze sweeping over me.
"Allen. Not bad for your first real fight."
"Thanks," I said, my voice flat.
First real fight as a hunter, but not my first fight.
Evelyn gave me a small, genuine smile.
"You did well."
The warmth of the compliment was a fleeting thing.
I didn't let it touch me. I couldn't.
Compliments were distractions, hooks that could drag you into complacency.
I hadn't even begun to try. I'd been holding back, careful, measuring each spark of lightning, each movement.
Showing my full power here, in this low-level den, would be like using a cannon to kill a fly.
It would raise questions I wasn't ready to answer.
"Let's move," Tobias commanded, his voice pulling me back. "This was just the first chamber. The real challenge is still ahead."
We gathered the magic crystals dropped from the goblins, and what few valuables the goblins had, their weapons, and amour, after that, we pressed on.