We had only taken a few steps when the first wave approached us. They were what seemed to be the staple of this dungeon, skeleton warriors. We breezed through this first wave with ease and within a few minutes the last of them had fallen. The short fight barely slowed us down as we headed further into the chamber.

None of us were expecting things to stay that easy for long and soon enough our suspicions were proven correct. Before they had reached the light from our torches Altria loosed an arrow, there was a thwack sound from some ways off in the distance. She had hit something. She fell back to Lillia to explain the situation.

“Lizard men, six of them.” She explained.

“Serin, Theo, get upfront with Siofra, Altria you’re with me.” Instructed Lillia.

Serin and I both hurried to the front with Siofra, we got there just in time to see the Lizard men approach. They stood at least a head hight above me. These were unlike the beastkin races I had met here. They only resembled men in the way they stood on two feet. Other than that, they were entirely lizard like. Covered in scales, clawed hands, and a forked tongue. They very much reminded me of a bipedal Komodo dragon.

“Watch yourself Theo. You should be able to manage these, but they aren’t stupid, and their bite is poisonous!” Serin cautioned as they approached.

The lizard men broke into a run as they neared our group. A well placed arrow dropped one of their group, cutting their number down to five. The shot was a direct hit to the eye of the closest lizard man. Their group would have been cut to four, but Altria’s second shot glanced off the thick scales of the next creature.

As they met our group, Lillia hit the lizard men with daze. Their movements were slowed a little, but it didn’t have quite the effect I had expected. They seemed to have some resistance to the stasis attack. There wasn’t time to think it over as the fight had begun. Siofra and Serin had both drawn two of the Lizard men off from the group, leaving me with one to deal with alone.

The lizard man charged me without a sign of hesitation. I brought down my blade as quickly as I could, but it was intercepted by its clawed hands. The claws were strong enough to resist my blade and the lizard immediately countered. Violently swinging its tail at me as I pushed my sword against its hands. I was almost caught by the speed, luckily, I hadn’t overcommitted my attack and was able to step back just in time to avoid it.

The lizard man pushed forward immediately as I stepped back, leaving me parrying strikes from its claws and constantly keeping my distance from the powerful tail that kept swinging at me after each attack. I was put on the back foot, there was no way I was going to be able to injure it with a swinging attack. It was far too fast with its hand. What I need was to stab it, but I knew that doing so would leave me open. The last thing I wanted was to be grabbed by those claws and bitten after Serin’s warning.

I parried the creatures claws once more and jumped backwards anticipating the tail swipe that was to come. Its tail swung into thin air. In one quick movement I activated the mana wind blade and cut into its arm from a distance. I then charged at the creature and stepped into its blind spot just like Beth had taught me back at the dojo. I was almost surprised at how my body easily followed the movements she had drilled into me in such a small space of time. From this position I thrusted my sword under its injured arm and deep into its armpit, pulling the blade back in one go, before stepping back.

Blood poured from the wound, but I kept up my guard until the lizard man fell. It was just as I hoped, the blow had been fatal. The tada noise rang in my ears signifying the points gained and then a message reading “Level nine reached, five points awarded.” After all that fighting, I had finally gained another level. It really was taking more experience points each time.

Now I was certain it was dead I turned back to the others just in time to see them fell their last adversaries. Siofra’s axe came down hard on the lizard man’s hand as it tried to block her attack cleanly cutting through one of its hands. She used the momentum from the swing to spin around, her second blow coming a fraction of a second later. This time the battle axe slammed into its neck just above the shoulder and cut halfway through. The monster hit the ground with a thud, dead. There was no way that wasn’t fatal.

Serin had been wearing her second opponent down. Each time it moved to swing its clawed hand at her she stabbed it with lightning speed through the opening. The final strike came after it swung its tail. Her rapier dashed forward finding a gap in its defence and into its open mouth, the blade protruding from the rear of its head. She retracted the weapon before the creature even realised it had been hit. That was the end of the last enemy.

“Is anyone injured?” Lillia called up from behind seeing the fight was over.

“Nothing here.” Replied Serin.

“All good here.” Answered Siofra.

“No injuries here.” I confirmed.

“Good, then we continue.” Lillia instructed.

The party quickly reformed our usual formation and continued further into the chamber. As we walked, we were on constant guard, expecting the next attack to come at any moment, but as we walked further and further none came. The chamber was quiet and eventually it begun to narrow into a tunnel. We had reached the second safe zone.

“Should that have been that easy?” I asked Siofra when we realised, we had passed though the chamber.

“No.”

“What’s going on?

“I have no idea, but we should be glad that we didn’t have much of a fight this time. We can rest for the night here.”

“Just how safe are we here?” Asked Lillia.

“Nothing spawns in these sections, that much I’m sure of. I wouldn’t want to take it for granted that nothing can enter here though.” Explained Siofra.

“In that case we’ll have to keep our guard up. We’ll have to set a watch all night.”

“That would be wise.” Agreed Siofra.

We headed a short way into the tunnel before stopping. Everyone was glad to take their bags off and rest for the evening. It had been a long day. There was no camp to set up, so our first order of business was dinner. We all gathered around one of the glow stone lanterns and sat down to eat. There was nothing to fuel a fire in here, so it was cold rations, but no one was complaining about that. After the back to back fights we were just glad to stop.

While I ate, I brought up my skill tree. I was now level nine and it had been a while since I had upgraded anything. That was my first order of business. Because I had levelled a few times since I had last spent any points it only cost me two points for each upgrade.

I had twenty points to spare. First, I upgraded the standard attacks I’d gained which left me with sixteen points to spare. I decided to spend the rest on my custom skills. “Special heal” range increased to 6 meters cost reduced 2 points per second. “Appraisal” difficulty” increased by 20 percent. “Disarm” range increased 2 meters. “Disorient” effect increased 10 percent, plus 10 percent resistance negation. “Purification” resistance negation increased 20 percent. That was ten points spent.

I was interrupted before I could check what other skills I could gain. Everyone had finished eating and it was now time for us to draw lots to decide the order of the night watch. Altria drew the first shift, then it was Siofra next, then Lilla, then Serin and I would have the final watch. At least with an extra member in our party we would each have a shorter shift.

 After the order was set, we prepared for bed. A glow stone lantern was left a short way from the group at either end, so even those of us without good night vision would have some warning before an enemy approached. Altria took up watch at the end of the group that led to the next chamber. We had decided that if something were to approach it was more likely from that end.

After that it was time for bed. I unrolled my bed in between Serin and Lillia, Siofra took the space at the far end next to Lillia.

“Ehhh.” I yawned as I climbed into the bed roll.

“Tired?” Asked Serin.

“Yeah, knackered.” I replied.

“Well, it has been a long day. I think we’ll all sleep well if there are no interruptions tonight.”

“Yeah, I expect so.”

“By the way, where did you learn that move? That isn’t a standard skill.” Serin asked as she shuffled down into her bed.

“Which one?”

“When you stepped into the lizard man’s blind spot.”

“Oh that, it isn’t something I came up with, it was something that Beth taught me.”

“Hmm… That explains it, but I’m surprised you managed to pull it off so easily. It isn’t an easy move.”

“It surprised me too, I don’t know what happened, my body just seemed to know what to do.”

“You did well to manage it.”

"Thanks."

After we finished had talking, everyone quietened down to sleep for the night.