[POV: Toru Makabe - The Pyromancer] [Location: West Tunnel - The "Murder Hole" Cracks]
"I think she's dead."
"She's not dead, Toru. She's snoring."
"That's a death rattle, Hinata. I saw it in a movie once. When the soul leaves the body, it makes a sound like a vacuum cleaner choking on a sock. That is definitely a death rattle."
"It's a deviated septum, you idiot. Shine the light away from her face."
Toru Makabe sighed, shifting his left hand. A small, sputtering flame danced on his thumb like a cheap lighter, casting long, jittery shadows against the damp rock walls.
They were squeezed into a fissure in the cavern wall—a crack barely three feet wide that smelled like wet limestone and ancient mildew. It was tight, it was cold, and it was terrifyingly quiet.
Behind them, the West Tunnel stretched into an endless abyss of darkness. Somewhere back there, Reiji was fighting a Warlord. Somewhere back there, Ren was probably doing something heroic.
And here? Here, Toru was babysitting a sleeping dragon and a guy who turned invisible when he sneezed.
"Hinata," Toru whispered, leaning back against the rough stone. "Be real with me. We're screwed, right?"
Hinata Moriyama was crouching near the entrance of the fissure, his daggers drawn. The Assassin looked pale. His UI was probably flashing red warnings, just like Toru's.
[MANA: 12/80] [STATUS: FATIGUED, MILD PANIC]
"We're not screwed," Hinata lied. He was a terrible liar. His voice cracked. "Reiji bought us time. We just have to... wait for Mei to wake up, and then we loop back."
"Loop back?" Toru scoffed. "Into the teeth of twenty demon dogs? Reiji is probably..." Toru swallowed the lump in his throat. He didn't want to say it. "Reiji is probably paste by now, man."
"Don't say that!" Hinata hissed, turning around. "Reiji is a Tank. Tanks don't die. They just... endure."
"He had a fractured arm, Hinata! The Warlord hit him like a freight train!" Toru ran a hand through his hair, messing up his already chaotic spikes. "Fuck. We shouldn't have run. We should have stayed."
"It was an order," Hinata muttered, looking at the floor. "He ordered us to survive."
"Yeah, well, surviving feels a lot like being a coward," Toru spat.
Suddenly, the unconscious girl at their feet stirred.
Mei Tachibana groaned. Her eyelids fluttered, and she let out a low, pained sound.
"She's waking up!" Toru whispered frantically. "Quick, look cool."
"What?" Hinata blinked.
"Look cool! Don't let her see us panicking!" Toru quickly extinguished the flame on his thumb, plunging them into semi-darkness, and struck a pose, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "Hey, Mei. Good morning, sunshine."
Mei opened her eyes. She blinked, trying to focus in the gloom. She saw two shadowy figures looming over her.
Her survival instincts kicked in faster than her brain.
"KYAAAAAA!"
Mei didn't scream for help. She screamed a war cry. She lashed out, her fist connecting solidly with the nearest object.
THWACK.
"OW! MY BALLS!" Toru shrieked, collapsing instantly into the fetal position.
"Perverts!" Mei scrambled backward, pressing herself against the rock wall, covering her chest with her arms. "Get away from me! I have a spear and I know how to use it! If you touched me, I swear to god I'll castrate you!"
"You already did!" Toru wheezed from the floor, clutching his crotch. "Jesus Christ, Mei! It's us! Toru and Hinata!"
Mei blinked. She squinted at the writhing pyromancer and the terrified assassin.
"Toru?" Mei lowered her guard slightly. Then her face turned bright red. "Why were you standing over me in the dark?! Were you looking down my shirt?!"
"It was pitch black!" Hinata defended, hands raised in surrender. "We couldn't see anything! We were guarding you!"
"Guarding me?" Mei scoffed. She tried to stand up, but her head spun. She winced, grabbing her temple. "Ugh. My head feels like it got stepped on by a giant."
"You got backhanded by a Gnoll Warlord," Hinata reminded her gently. "You flew like twenty feet. It was actually kind of impressive that you didn't break your neck."
Mei froze. The memories came flooding back.
The Ambush. The Warlord. Vance running away. Reiji stepping forward.
"Reiji!" Mei grabbed Hinata by the collar, shaking him. "Where is he?! Where is Reiji?!"
Hinata looked away. Toru stopped rolling on the floor and sat up, his face grim.
"He stayed behind," Toru said quietly. "He drew the aggro so we could run."
Mei let go of Hinata. She slumped back against the wall, sliding down until she hit the dirt. Her eyes went wide. "He... no. No, he's the Paladin. He's supposed to be with the party."
She looked around the cramped fissure. "We have to go back. We have to help him."
"We can't," Hinata said. "The tunnel is blocked by the pack. If we go back now, we die. And if we die, Reiji's sacrifice means nothing."
"So we just sit here?!" Mei shouted, her voice echoing dangerously loud in the small space. "Like rats hiding in a hole?!"
"Shh!" Hinata tackled her, clamping a hand over her mouth. "Shut up! Do you want to ring the dinner bell?"
Mei bit his hand.
"Gah!" Hinata yanked his hand back. "You rabid woman!"
"Don't shush me!" Mei hissed, though she lowered her voice. She looked down at her hands. They were empty. "Where is my spear?"
"Uh..." Toru pointed to the corner.
Lying in the dirt were the upper part of the spear shaft. The metal tip was dull and chipped. The wood was splintered down the middle.
Mei stared at the broken weapon. Her lips trembled. It wasn't a legendary weapon—it was just standard-issue Guild gear—but it was hers. It was her identity. Without it, she wasn't a Lancer. She was just a girl with a bad temper.
"It's broken," Mei whispered. Tears pricked her eyes, but she angrily wiped them away. She grabbed the half with the spearhead. It was now basically a short sword with a really long handle.
"It's a dagger now," Mei decided, gripping the wood until her knuckles turned white. "A long dagger."
She stood up, using the wall for support.
"Okay," Mei said, taking a deep breath. "We can't go back. We can't stay here. So we go forward."
"Forward?" Toru looked at the dark void of the tunnel deeper into the dungeon. "Mei, we don't know where that goes. It smells like death down there."
"Then we find a loop," Mei said stubbornly. "Dungeons aren't straight lines. There has to be a connecting tunnel that circles back to the entrance. We flank the pack, we grab Reiji, and we get the hell out of here."
"That is a lot of optimism for someone with a broken stick," Toru muttered.
"Do you have a better plan, Sparky?" Mei glared at him.
Toru opened his mouth, closed it, and sighed. "No. Flanking sounds better than dying in a crack."
"Good." Mei looked at the darkness. "Now. Who has a torch? I can't see shit."
"Allow me," Toru grinned. This was his moment.
He rolled up his sleeve. He flexed his bicep (which was average at best).
"Behold," Toru deepened his voice. "[Ignite]."
WHOOSH.
His entire forearm engulfed in flames. Not just a little candle flick—a roaring sleeve of orange fire.
"Whoa!" Hinata jumped back. "Too much! Too much!"
"It's majestic!" Toru laughed, holding his arm up like the Statue of Liberty. "I am the beacon! I am the light in the darkness! Fear not, citizens!"
"You're going to burn your eyebrows off," Mei deadpanned, though she stepped closer to the warmth. "And turn down the brightness. You're a walking target."
"Critics," Toru grumbled, dimming the fire until it was a steady, warm glow. "Everyone's a critic."
"Lead the way, Torch-boy," Mei commanded. "Hinata, watch our six. If you see a shadow move, stab it."
"Aye aye," Hinata nervously spun his daggers.
They moved out of the fissure and back into the main tunnel.
The West Tunnel was different from the spider caves. It wasn't rocky and crystal-lined. It was earthy. Roots from the mountain above pushed through the ceiling like hanging vines. The floor was soft dirt, littered with bones and debris.
Toru walked in front, holding his arm high. The fire cast long, dancing shadows that looked like monsters reaching for them.
"So," Toru whispered, trying to break the oppressive silence. "If we die down here... do you think they'll name a holiday after us? 'Stupid Teenager Day'?"
"If we die," Mei said from behind him, gripping her broken spear, "I'm going to haunt you, Toru. I'm going to be a poltergeist and hide all your left socks."
"That's evil," Toru shuddered. "Pure evil."
"Shh," Hinata hissed from the back. "Did you hear that?"
They froze.
From the darkness ahead, a sound drifted toward them.
Yip. Yip. Hahaha.
It sounded like laughter. High-pitched, frantic, maniacal laughter.
"Hyenas," Mei whispered, the color draining from her face. "Patrol."
"How many?" Toru asked, dimming his arm to a faint ember.
"I hear... four sets of paws," Hinata's ears twitched. His [Assassin] class gave him heightened hearing. "Moving fast. Coming our way."
"Hide?" Toru suggested, looking for another crack in the wall.
"No cover," Mei scanned the smooth dirt walls. "We have to run."
"Run where?!" Toru hissed. "Deeper?"
"Yes, deeper!" Mei shoved him. "Go! Before they smell us!"
They sprinted.
Toru flared his arm back up to illuminate the path, casting wild shadows as they ran. The ground was uneven, filled with tripping hazards—roots, rocks, old armor pieces.
AWOOOO!
The howl was close. Too close.
"They saw the light!" Hinata screamed. "Run faster!"
"I'm running!" Toru yelled, his lungs burning. "Why are they so fast?!"
They scrambled down a steep incline, sliding on loose gravel. Mei nearly twisted her ankle but kept going, fueled by pure adrenaline and rage.
The laughter behind them got louder. The scrabbling of claws on rock echoed closer.
"There!" Hinata pointed. "A fork in the road! Go left!"
"Why left?!" Toru yelled.
"Because right smells like poop!" Hinata yelled back.
"Solid logic!" Toru veered left.
They burst into a narrower tunnel, sprinting until their chests felt like they were going to explode. The tunnel twisted and turned, winding deeper into the earth.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the howling faded. The laughter grew distant, then stopped.
They collapsed against a wall, gasping for air.
"Did we..." Toru wheezed, hands on his knees. "Did we lose them?"
"Think so," Hinata checked his mini-map. "We... we went deep, guys. We're way off the known map."
Mei slid down the wall, clutching her broken spear. "At least we're alive."
Toru straightened up, reigniting his arm to get a look at their surroundings.
"Where the hell are we?" Toru muttered.
The light of his fire revealed a cavern unlike the others.
The floor here wasn't dirt. It was paved. Rough, uneven cobblestones, clearly laid by intelligent hands, but ancient and broken.
And there were decorations.
Along the walls, mounted on rusted iron spikes, were skulls.
Not monster skulls. Human skulls. Elf skulls.
"Oh god," Hinata gagged, covering his mouth.
"Look at the floor," Mei whispered, pointing with her broken spear tip.
Scattered across the cobblestones were bones. But unlike the hyena leftovers, these bones were... clean. They were organized.
Ribcages stacked in piles. Femurs tied together with sinew to make crude fences.
And gear.
Rusted swords. Dented helmets. Adventurer backpacks ripped open and emptied.
Toru stepped closer to a pile of debris. He picked up a helmet. It was an Iron Hounds helmet.
"This isn't a feeding ground," Toru realized, a cold chill running down his spine despite the fire on his arm. "Hyenas don't stack bones. Hyenas don't keep trophies."
"No," a voice hissed from the darkness. "They don't."
It wasn't Hinata. And it wasn't Mei.
The three students froze.
Slowly, Toru turned his head. He raised his burning arm higher.
The light pushed back the shadows, revealing the far end of the room.
Sitting on crude thrones made of piled rocks and bones were five figures.
They were small—maybe four feet tall—but they were built like bundles of wire and hate. Their skin was a sickly, mottled green. Their ears were long and jagged.
But it was their eyes that stopped Toru's heart.
They weren't the feral, animalistic eyes of the Hyenas. They were sharp. Calculating. Cruel.
Goblins.
But not the level 1 fodder from the video games back on Earth.
These goblins wore armor. Mismatched pieces of leather and chainmail scavenged from dead adventurers. One wore a oversized helmet that covered his eyes. Another wore a necklace of human fingers.
The one in the center—slightly larger than the rest—held a shortbow. The arrow was already nocked, aimed directly at Toru's throat.
"Goblins," Mei breathed, her grip on the spear tightening. "The intel... Riku said they were the apex here."
"Why?" Toru whispered, shaking. "They're tiny."
"Because," Hinata stepped back, his daggers trembling. "Look at the shadows."
Toru looked.
Behind the five goblins on the thrones, movement rippled in the dark. Ten more pairs of eyes opened. Then twenty.
They weren't just facing a patrol. They had walked straight into the Barracks.
The Goblin in the center grinned. It had sharpened teeth, yellow and rotting. It spoke in a broken, raspy version of Common, mimicking the words it had heard from dying adventurers.
"Light..." the Goblin hissed, pointing at Toru's arm. "Bring... meat."
Toru swallowed hard. "Uh... Mei?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we found the loop."
"Yeah."
"Any bright ideas?"
"Just one," Mei said, raising her broken spear. "Don't let them take you alive."
The Goblin leader screeched.
KREEEEEEEE!
Five goblins leaped from the thrones, weapons drawn. Rusty daggers, jagged scimitars, and weighted nets.
"FIREBALL!" Toru screamed, panic overriding his aim.
He threw the fire from his arm. It wasn't a spell; it was a desperate toss. The ball of flame exploded against the center goblin's shield—a pot lid—sending sparks everywhere.
"SCATTER!" Hinata yelled.
They broke formation.
A goblin with a dagger lunged at Mei. She didn't have the reach of a spear anymore, so she didn't try to stab. She swung the shaft like a baseball bat.
CRACK.
She caught the goblin in the ear. It shrieked, tumbling away, but another one was already jumping onto her back, clawing at her hair.
"Get off me, you little shit!" Mei screamed, thrashing wildly.
"Back off!" Hinata materialized from stealth, slashing a goblin's hamstring before vanishing again.
"There's too many!" Toru yelled, blasting a cone of flame to keep three of them at bay. "My mana is dropping! I can't keep this up!"
The Goblin Leader, singed but alive, stood up. It raised its bow again. It didn't aim at Toru this time. It aimed at the ceiling.
It fired.
The arrow didn't hit anyone. It hit a hanging rusted bell that the students hadn't noticed.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
The sound rang through the tunnels. An alarm.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Toru stared at the bell. "They have an alarm system?!"
From the deep tunnels behind the thrones, a roar answered the bell. A heavy, thudding sound. Footsteps. Big ones.
"That's not a goblin," Mei panted, throwing the goblin off her back and stomping on its head. "That sounds like a..."
"Hob," Hinata finished, appearing beside her, his face grey. "Hobgoblin."
Toru looked at his friends. They were trapped. Tired. Outnumbered. And something big was coming to dinner.
"Ren," Toru whispered, staring at the horde of green skin advancing on them. "If you're gonna come save us... now would be a really, really good time."
The Goblin Leader laughed again. It raised a jagged scimitar and pointed at the three students.
"Kill," it ordered.
The swarm charged.