The last of the three bandits fell as Azalea stretched one arm over Tankbabe’s shield, hitting him with a fireball. He crashed to the ground with a groan, and he didn’t rise again. She let out a low sigh of relief and stepped back, giving Tankbabe a little more space. It had taken a bit longer than expected to defeat the bandits, but at least they hadn’t lost anyone. Even with the agility and vitality debuff that lingered on them, they’d fought well.

“It really makes a difference, having a tank in the fight,” she said, giving Tankbabe a grateful smile. “I mean, Caius is always in the enemy’s face, but he doesn’t play like a tank, not really.”

“But he’s wicked fast with that sword of his,” Tankbabe pointed out. “Can’t really complain about that.”

“True. But it forces us all to be more mobile, which is hard for me to do if I’m casting magic. But with you here, I felt completely safe, and I could focus on attacking all I wanted.”

“That only really works if we’re in a tight space like this, though,” Centrogen added. “If there’s room to either side, she can’t perfectly block everything.”

“Thanks for that,” Tankbabe said in a mock-offended tone. “But she’s right. It’s still worth it to learn how to move and fight, right? Helps in a pinch.”

Before Azalea could reply, they heard a shouting voice coming from around the next turn in the narrow path between the crates and barrels. “Come on out if you’re coming! We don’t have all day, you know!”

It was a deep, harsh growl of a voice, doubtless the boss. Along with that voice, they also heard the chuckling voices of what sounded like nearly a dozen men. Great, Azalea thought. Even worse odds than what their party had faced when Caius had been hit by that sneak attack. Well, at least there was no way for the bandits to sneak around behind them in this situation. That she was aware of.

“You two should keep an eye behind us as well,” she said, turning to Kyraa and Centrogen. “I don’t think they’ll be able to sneak up on us like they did before, but it never hurts to be sure.”

Centrogen quickly cast a backward glance at her words, but there was nobody there. Azalea scanned the top of the crates to either side and still saw nothing. Letting out a sigh, she gestured forward. “Well, we’re not getting anything done just standing here.”

They pushed forward, for some reason trying to move as quickly as they could as if to catch the enemy by surprise. Not that they had any chance of that with just one path, of course. They caught up to where the barrel had exploded, taking careful note of the wreckage that lay across the path now. The original barrel was gone, of course, but several crates and other, non-explosive barrels had toppled from the walls, and now blocked their way. Azalea squeezed past Tankbabe and released a powerful gust of wind from her hands. It sent the rubble flying into one of the walls and toppled it backward, but at least their path was clear.

“Good thinking,” Tankbabe said. “Let’s keep going.

The next turn, the one from which the bandit mage had detonated the barrel, was clear. It was also much longer than the previous stretches, and by the time they were halfway down it, they could already detect the scent of gasoline again. Cursing under her breath, Azalea squeezed past Tankbabe again, reaching the corner first and peeking her head around it.

Sure enough, there was yet another barrel lying there, with that flammable liquid leaking out of it in a steady drip. There was just enough of it that the puddle now reached to either side of the path, soaking the bottom crates to the left and right. She shook her head in exasperation as she saw the obvious trap.

“They really set the same trap twice,” she told the others. “How stupid do they think we are? We’re not going to walk into that again.”

“Well, it’s not like we have any other options,” Centrogen pointed out. “That’s the only path left open to us. We have to deal with the barrel.”

“Well, not quite,” Azalea said.

“What, are you going to detonate it yourself?”

“I could. But I have a better idea.”

She stepped around the corner this time, exposing her entire body. There was no reply from the enemies around the corner, but she knew that they were there, waiting for her to get in range. As if. She cast the wind spell again, but this time it slammed into the barrel, rolling it down the long hallway until it crashed into the wall of crates. There was a shout of surprise from the hidden enemies there, confirming her suspicion. They were freaking out about the fact that the barrel was now near them, and they were within explosion range.

One bandit appeared, desperately trying to push the barrel back away from them. But Azalea’s firebolt was already on its way by the time he touched the barrel. He saw it coming and tried to dive away, but he had no hope of getting out of range in time. The barrel went off with a powerful blast, sending wood fragments flying through the air. She stumbled slightly with the shockwave, but it did no damage to her. The same couldn’t be said for the bandits.

“Nice!” Tankbabe shouted. “That’ll teach them to leave such an obvious trap out!”

“It is fairly obvious, now that you mention it,” Centrogen said, poking her head around the corner to see the damage the barrel had caused. “Kind of embarrassing we fell for that first one.”

Azalea ignited the puddle of oil with a smaller fire spell, just to make sure the bandits couldn’t use it against them. “Well, it was the first time we’d seen a trap like that. Hell, it was the first time I’ve seen a trap in this game. We’re up against human opponents now. It makes sense that their intelligence would be higher. I don’t think we have to feel that bad about falling for the first barrel.”

For some reason, Centrogen seemed to find her comment amusing. “I can’t tell if that’s you being reasonable, or trying to console me.”

“Both,” Azalea said, after a moment of consideration. “Shall we continue?”

The barrel she’d ignited had killed three more bandits, and one lay groaning on the floor, clearly thrown by the blast. Tankbabe was quick to step forward and finish the bandit off. Best she could tell, that meant that about nine or ten bandits were still alive, not counting the boss. This was going to be a long fight, she thought. They pushed on, pausing only to loot the coins that the bandits had dropped, sharing them equally across all four members.

“Remind me to give your guildmates their coins back too,” Azalea said. “I can’t remember exactly how much Yemon I had when we entered the boss room, but it shouldn’t be hard to figure out how much 10% of their money was.”

Kyraa nodded her gratitude. “A less honest player might try to keep that for themselves. Thank you.”

Azalea waved her thanks away. She liked counting the Sisters as friends and allies, and wouldn’t want to upset them. Not that stealing from other players was in her nature, of course. But she put the thought away as Tankbabe led the way down this new corridor, picking their way carefully around the rubble of that last barrel. When they rounded the next corner, Tankbabe came to a halt. Azalea could see at once why.

The narrow path framed by crates and barrels ended abruptly mere feet away from them, opening up into a wide cave with plenty of light. They could also make out the rest of the bandits from here, grouped around a raised sort of stage made of wood. More of those explosive barrels were stacked right where the path reached the open area. At least four of them, she could count. And they were already in range of them. But so were the bandits, she thought, so the chances of them being detonated was low.

“Finally,” the burly man in furs that stood in the center of the enemy group stepped forward, his arms outstretched as if to embrace them. “Our visitors finally show their faces. Welcome to our den, adventurers. It is the grandest sight you’ll see for the rest of your lives.”

Well, that was a bit of an overstatement, Azalea thought, her eyes scanning the dingy cave. It stank of stale beer, smoke, and sweat in here. Clearly, the cave didn’t get many chances to air out, and the men who lived here didn’t put much stock in bathing. She ignored the bandit chief’s words for the time being.

“Don’t move too far forward,” she muttered in Tankbabe’s ears. “I’ll keep a vitality and endurance buff on you, and you can cover us. If you start to get overwhelmed, just tell me to back up, and I’ll make room for you.”

The elven woman nodded, hefting her shield up a little higher. Across the way, the bandit chief leered at them. “You really think you can handle us? You’re outnumbered nearly five to one!”

“We’ll manage somehow,” Tankbabe called back. “You’ll find that I won’t be knocked over so easily.”

The bandits clearly took that as a challenge and rushed in at once. In spite of their eagerness, however, they could really only approach one at a time once they reached the path. What a bunch of idiots, she thought. Then she hesitated, wondering when she’d gotten so… jaded. Had she spent so much time in this game that Caius’ personality was starting to rub off on her? She didn’t know when she’d made the switch from kind to sarcastic. Not that she could complain, of course. She knew it wouldn’t change her outside the game. Maybe having a bit of a darker mindset would come in handy here.

She shook her head to clear it as Tankbabe blocked the attack of the first bandit. She fired a mana bolt at the attacker, but her real attention was behind them, with the explosive barrels. Shooting off another spell just to give Tankbabe some breathing room, she took a step back. “Kyraa, it doesn’t really matter if we all survive or not, right? As long as we win the raid?”

Kyraa’s head poked around the corner with Centrogen as they both appeared to fire off spells of their own, then the guild leader frowned. “Win? We can’t win this.”

Then she took a moment to scan the field as Azalea had done, and a sly grin curled across her face. “Oh, that is a dastardly plan. Do you think it will work?”

“Even if it doesn’t do everything we want, it’ll still even the odds a bit,” Azalea replied. “Give Tankbabe all the vitality buffs you can. Tankbabe, get ready for a hell of an impact.”

The elven girl didn’t seem to realize what they had in mind, but she could see the grin on her guild leader’s face and seemed to be willing to go with whatever. “Alright. But do what you’re going to do fast. They’re about to start pushing me back!”

“Okay, just give me a second. This might just kill all of us, of course, but it’s our best bet. The goal is to reduce their numbers, right?”

Centrogen and Kyraa both cast vitality buffs over Tankbabe, nodding their agreement. Azalea refreshed her own vitality buff just to be safe. At once, all their debuffs from the first barrel faded, and they showed moderate vitality buffs. This might just work, she thought. Firing off another blast of air to shove the enemies back a bit, she also succeeded in knocking one of the explosive barrels flat, which smashed open as it landed. Yet again, the bandits seemed to realize what her plan was, but only too late. By the time they thought to try and avoid it, she’d already thrown the ball of fire from her hand.

C_P_Tuck