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"Any news on my sister?" Aleda asked as she watched the gate to the interior of the town.

"No, Guild Master." The dwarf smith said. "Not that we could get word from outside. The humans are holding, but barely. The horde outside has decreased in size by a bit, but so has the human population." Aleda grunted.

"No surprise, Lorkas." She said quietly. "They are tenacious, but I hope they live to learn the lesson they were taught." She said quietly.

"To my surprise, so do I." He said. "I see some of the guards, and how defeated they appear, only to firm up their backbones and continue to fight. They can be admirable when they want to be." He turned slightly. "Should we offer to let their women and children inside?" He asked.

"Only if there is a large breach. They can beat back a few dozen goblins, and even an orc or two. If a gate falls, ring the bell to have them retreat inside our walls." She sighed. "I feel like this will be over for them soon, but I don't know why."

"Yeah. I can feel it too. Something is happening, but I don't know what."

* * *

"Eighth floor down." Baris said, and sat down. "No signals, so that means the ninth floor will have the bigger bastards, the orcs." He growled.

"I think fifty advanced goblins, and fifty advanced kobolds is a fairly sizable force, Baris. Bastard got me good too." Her face contorted, and watched him scan her.

"Damn, they did too. Wound Cleanse. Hm, I don't think that is enough. There is poison on the tips." He closed his eyes. "This may take a few manna crystals."

"Wound Cleanse evolves into Cure, so why wait?" He put his hand out. "Scan. Cure!" He watched her face begin to smooth out, and scanned her again. "I need to do it again. The poison is weakened, but not completely removed. That blade must have gone deep."

"You have no idea where it went." She said with a low growl. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Thanks. That is something I should learn. What does it do?" She asked.

"Cure is something that evolves from wound cleanse, which evolves from the life magic Full Body Cleanse. It destroys what should not be there, and flushes it out of the body. Wound cleanse pulls the stuff out, while Cure destroys it and pulls the debris that remains out with the same liquids Full Body Cleanse uses." He smiled.

"Manna generated water. The most effective healing item ever." She watched him drain about four hundred points from a few manna crystals.

"That's quite a few silver you used to help me." She said quietly. He smirked.

"Silver is for the greedy. Friendship is for those who have earned it. Now, let me see. I only know the regenerate that allows me to heal. Can it work for you?" He held out his palm. "Regenerate. Yosh, looks like it can work for you as well."

"Such a strange human you are, Baris." She said and sighed as she leaned back and allowed her body to heal. "Not afraid to try, or fail. A lot I have met would only challenge beasts they could kill themselves, or if they had an overwhelming advantage. You just run into battle when you've decided to do so. Even if you might be crushed by superior numbers."

"I don't know if that is a good thing, or something foolish, but there is no sense in running from something like this, Alea. Where would we go? To places where even stronger beasts exist? Nope. Have to fight, or they will keep on going." He grinned.

"Let me know when you're ready. I'll chew on a piece of jerky while your wounds fully heal. After I've checked the surroundings." He walked away, scanned ahead, and went behind to the door.

"You took a chance." He whispered.

"You knew?"

"I see enemies, and friends. You're grey to me, but to Alea, you're green." He left a piece of leather on the floor with a few pieces of jerky, and walked back to make sure Alea could heal without concern. She knew what it was for.

"I can only protect her when she needs it. However, she needs to fight more than she needs my protection right now." The elf took the meat and chewed on it gratefully. It's been several hours since she's had anything to eat, and water is not enough for an elf.

"However, she is so going to get it when I make my report." The elf grinned. Stallions could punish their family quite severely, although it could also be quite a lot of fun for those involved.

* * *

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah. What are we up against?" She finished her blade maintenance, and stood up with strength in her legs again. That blade had penetrated deep into her lower abdomen, and for a stallion, that is where they kept their genitals to avoid damage. When Baris removed the poison, she was able to heal, and it dulled a lot of the pain.

"Orcs. Advanced. Armored with bone, and armed with bone clubs or axes. There is a shaman as well. Big room. No cover aside from the short hall. Twenty, plus the shaman. Tough fight in close quarters, but the worst is going to be that shaman. He'll use poisoned darts, and trap magic." Baris thought for a moment.

"Aggro again?" She asked.

"Yes." He spoke a little louder. "I'll draw the orcs up the stairs. You hide, and slide down behind them. Locate the shaman. He may move, or may stay where he can see everything. If he stays in place, do not engage, and hit the orcs from behind." She nodded.

"I understand. I don't want to get hit with poison while you're stuck fighting those piggies. My magic doesn't have the range, and I don't have a bow." He growled.

"And I don't have a spear. If I did, he would be skewered from a distance. However, a stone will work just as well as a spear." She chuckled.

"Also a good wake up alarm." She hid in an alcove that he hammered into the stone stone of the wall, and waited. Baris went down the stairs, then ran passed her. He turned, and waited.

Alea watched as the twenty armored orcs ran passed her, but before she could move, she saw something that stole her senses for a few seconds.

Bang bang bang!

Baris seemed to grow stronger as he fought, or he had held back his strength. Each swing of the hammer collapsed an orc into a broken body, which flew away from the impact.

The body would take out a few as it was smashed, which allowed him to take another swing. It went down to eighteen in only a short few seconds. He moved backwards impossibly fast, just out of reach, and cast snow. This only irritated the orcs, which made them stupid. He smashed the next two, and ran to the side.

Four, six, eight and ten orcs were carved out of the total.

Fuck, I'm losing XP! She growled. An orc sensed her hostility, but was soon distracted by a large hammer to the head.

"Go!" Baris yelled. Another hammer swing took out another orc. Eight left. These eight were still elites of the dungeon, and started to spread out so they could surround him. Baris didn't wait for that to happen. He saw that in movies, and knew it was stupid to wait for them to act.

Smash. Seven left. Baris ran forward, bowled one over, which sent it flying. Orcs were around a thousand pounds of fat and muscle, as well as being strong, they were also unreasonably agile. The way this orc flew showed how strong Baris was.

He didn't show it often, but his twenty eight points in strength was not like other species. His strength activated when the status plate entered his body, which started at one. That meant that currently, his strength was on par with a giant, and he's spent the last few weeks learning how to control it.

Now that his life, and the lives of many others, were in danger, he decided to cut loose. Seven turned into six as he squashed the head of the next in line. Before they could come up with another tactic, the hammer sealed their fates.  After swinging for the fences, there was only one left.

"Squeal!" The last orc squealed as Baris smashed its arms and legs apart. He pulled on the back of its neck, took it down the stairs, and looked into the room with the shaman.

Alea was doing alright, but she couldn't get close enough to deal a killing blow to the shaman. Baris hefted the body and threw it.

"NOW! RUSH IN!" Alea obeyed his voice. The shaman got his darts ready, took a deep breath and blew. The darts impacted the body of the orc that flew towards the shaman. Alea followed right in line with the body that blew the shaman backwards.

She stabbed it through the face and decapitated it while the crippled orc turned to dust.

"Fuck. Took you long enough." She said, and took a deep breath. "Cure. It wasn't a low blow this time, but that poison packs a punch." She said angrily.

"Cast it again. The apprentice leveled cure spell isn't strong enough to take the poison out completely with one go." He walked around and collected the only two manna crystals in the area. "Wait here. I'll get the rest."

He walked up the stairs and found a small sack filled with nineteen crystals in it. He left a few more pieces of jerky, and smiled.

"The bottom floor will be quick. When you hear us coming, get to the first floor. We'll be right behind you." he heard a short chuckle.

"At top speed, no doubt."