The bulletin hit my phone two days later. I got messages like it all the time, but most were requests for a single role, or for a higher-ranked portal than I wanted to deal with.

But this one was perfect.

Governing Council Message:

Status: Urgent

An E-Rank portal opened two hours ago in the Peoria suburb of Phoenix. The Roadrunner Guild is currently unable to dedicate a team to it and has agreed to turn it over to Governing Council jurisdiction.

The Governing Council requests six (6) E-Rank or low D-Rank delvers respond to this message with intent to enter the portal, kill the boss, and close it. The Roadrunner Guild and Governing Council will each take a five percent share of recovered equipment, including the core or financial equivalent, with the remaining ninety percent split six ways equally among delvers.

Interested delvers must respond to this message with an estimated time of arrival to Peoria, role, and rank.

All delvers in the Peoria area are on call to respond to a potential portal break until further notice.

Jessie had just gotten on the bus. I had no commitments, a new merged skill to play with, and component skills to learn and level. And we needed the money; fifteen percent of an E-Rank dungeon could go a long way toward getting us into a place with our own bedrooms. It was the perfect opportunity, and even better, the bus could get me there in forty-five minutes.

And I needed to test my skills. Fighting other delvers in a twenty percent sparring room wasn't the same as fighting a monster that wanted me dead and wouldn't stop until one of us was.

So, without any more hesitation, I signed up and got moving.

The bus creaked and roared as it plodded toward Peoria; by the time it arrived a few blocks from the cordoned-off portal, I'd gone over my gear—or lack thereof—a dozen times. I had…

A notebook with my Scripts and Bindings.

A hoodie.

A backpack with water and a few energy bars.

And that was it. My padded hoodie had been destroyed in the D-Rank dungeon, and until I could afford to replace it—or better yet, upgrade—I'd be relying on my speed, Dodge, and Parry. And, of course, on killing portal monsters fast enough that they couldn't kill me.

A glass cannon striker. Not exactly what I wanted to be, but close. Closer than being a Script-based support.

I'd get to fight. That was what I cared about the most.

After a brief stop to get checked in with the Governing Council rep—a man this time, in a suit and sunglasses—I introduced myself to the ad-hoc team that had assembled outside of the robin's-egg blue portal. A pair of tanks, a fighter, and a single mage shook my hand, and we waited for our last member. Ideally, they'd be a support.

Instead, she was a shadow mage. A familiar one—we'd sparred, and I'd won. I couldn't remember her name until she introduced herself as Ellen, with no last name. Then we headed into the portal, following the two tanks.

The moment I made it inside the damp, root-bound tunnel's dirt walls, I started using Mana.

One point for Stormsteel Core. Twenty for a speed Script that left behind gusts of wind when I sprinted with it. Another twenty on a deflection Script I added to the rapier's blade. I checked my status.

User: Kade Noelstra E-Rank Stamina: 130/130, Mana: 139/200

Skills: 1. Stormsteel Core (E-01, Unique, Merged) 2. Dodge (E-07) 3. Light Blade Mastery (E-06) 4. Parry (E-01) Open Skill Slots: 3

No one in the team looked as competent as Jeff, and I didn't want to take any chances. The tanks had scraped together armor that looked second-hand at best, and while Ellen was good, she wasn't equipped for a long fight, with only robes and a dagger. None of us were; without a healer, and with minimal equipment and incomplete builds, a group of E-Rankers was nothing if not vulnerable. The longer this lasted, the more danger we'd all be in.

Then again, this was only an E-Rank Portal. That meant monstrous beasts, not weapon-wielding, thinking enemies like the hobgoblins—or, at worst, easy-to-kill swarmers like goblins. And this was what E-Rank-only groups looked like—only the greenest of the green. And me.

"So, anyone know what they're doing?" One of the tanks asked—Javier, I think.

"I do," I said. "I've gotten through a D-Rank trap dungeon before. It was rough, though."

Everyone glanced at me at that, except Ellen and Javier. Ellen was busy fiddling with the pouch on her waist, and Javier stared off into the dark tunnel ahead of us, fidgeting and twitching slightly.

"Great. This is my first run," he said, and I winced. "Anyone else?"

No one said anything for a long time. Then Ellen—the shadow mage—coughed. "I've done a couple of E-Ranks. Not many, though, and they were with a proper team, so I was totally safe the whole time. I'm not a good candidate for shot-calling."

"Okay." I didn't want to lead. I was here to test out Stormsteel Core and my new swordplay skills, not take point or make decisions for the team. But if no one stood up, we'd just stand here. "Javier, you and Rob—" Rob was the fighter, "—take the lead. I'll follow up. I'm pretty mobile, so I can hit and run from anywhere in the formation. Then we'll put the mages in the middle, and Kenny in the back to watch our tails. If Javier starts taking a beating, you two can switch. Same with me and Rob."

"Sounds good." Javier started working his way down the tunnel, short spear at the ready.

"This one's probably a Glade archetype portal," Ellen said. "Wolves, plant life, and a forest theming if we make it to the surface."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I nodded at her thankfully, and she nodded back. She knew her typings. That was a good start.

Low-rank dungeons—D and below—were almost always tunnels, at least to start; sometimes they expanded into cave networks, or opened into sunken valleys or tall mountains. The confined space gave most teams an advantage. They could set up choke points and fight from behind their tank. But for us, that same advantage could turn on us in a heartbeat. We had too many melee delvers and not enough consistent ranged damage.

Jeff's old team wouldn't have had a problem, but our best bet was to push forward and hope for a more open battlefield where we could all get in on the fighting.

As we pushed through the root-bound tunnel, Ellen's magic turned out to be invaluable. She might've been a shadow mage, but one of her spells could banish the shadows from around her. It wasn't light—not exactly—but it gave us a bubble of sight without needing torches or magic.

Still, we hadn't gone a hundred yards when glowing orange eyes started filling the tunnel in front of us.

Javier stopped. "What do we do?" He sounded panicked.

The eyes grew closer—and narrower. Wolves as tall as my waist stalked out of the shadows and into the circle of not-light around us, their fur alternating between wiry and matted, with patches of mange. Their ribs showed where the hair had rubbed off their chests, and whole swathes of skin festered and rotted. Three of them, but more still in the shadows. I counted at least five pairs of eyes there. Maybe more.

A weight settled over me. A familiar one—my battle trance. I embraced it.

Javier gripped his shield and spear tightly next to me. "I said, what do we do?!"

The Stormsteel rapier lit up with a cracking sound, white lightning pouring down either side. I leveled it at the closest wolf. The battle trance wanted to charge, but I held off for a few seconds. "We fight. We fight, and they die," I said.

The wolf lunged toward me. I sprinted toward it, the wind Script boosting my speed. And the battle trance took me.

Claws. Two inches, and sharp as steel. Not a real threat; they'd hurt, but wolves didn't use them to attack. The jaws. Those teeth were the real danger. Dodge them, to the left. A quick thrust as we passed. Pull the blade out. The stink of lightning-cauterized flesh filled my nose. Around me, other wolves charged into battle. Javier shouted something.

I had no idea what. My senses, all of them, were locked on the wolf I'd stabbed.

The lightning blade had punched in, just like a metal sword. Surprisingly little blood gushed from the wolf's flank, even though I'd opened a deep hole in it. Smoke poured from it, though, and as the wolf spun to face me, snarling, it twitched and spasmed.

I dropped into a low guard. Stepped back one step. Planted my back foot on the stone. The wolf howled and charged. My wrist shifted. The blade shifted the other way, and rotten fangs clacked shut an inch past me. The blade cut, but not deep; a parry wasn't a slash.

My follow-up, though, left a pink-and-red burn across the monster's back. It tried to turn. Instead, it caught a blade through the neck. The wolf whined almost piteously as it tried to pull itself further up the blade to get at me, jaws opening and closing.

The sword slid out in one fluid motion, and I spun to find the next enemy. The battle trance was on me, and I needed more.

Another wolf—this one on fire. A quick roll away from its jaws. Claws scrabbled on my leg, cut through my jeans, and left jagged, shallow cuts on my thigh. I forced Stamina into them, ignoring the burning agony. My sword punched through the monster's exposed ribs. It convulsed and thrashed on the ground.

More.

"Help!" Javier yelled. I spun.

Javier had his shield up, a wolf on the end of his spear. It wasn't dead. Not yet; it scrabbled its way up his weapon, trying to bite him. I threw myself across the tunnel and cut a thin line through the mange and hair all the way to its spine. He pulled his weapon back, and the monster slumped onto the ground, bleeding and dying.

Then it was over. None of the wolves had been what I wanted. The first one had almost been a challenge, but only the second had hurt me at all. I wanted what I'd gotten against the hobgoblin. A challenge. A test. Two opponents pitting themselves against each other, skill and strength against skill and strength.

And I hadn't gotten it. Not yet.

I needed more.

Stamina: 89/130, Mana 148/200

The battle trance faded slowly. Nine wolves were dead. I'd killed—or helped kill—three. Rob had gotten one by himself. The monster's head was completely caved in from the man's mace. He'd also helped the mages with another. I couldn't tell what had killed the last four; a combination of wounds covered their bodies, ranging from burns to gaping cuts to wounds where whole sections seemed to have been ripped out in rectangular strips.

The mages' auras looked weak. We'd taxed them too much in such a small fight.

We had to do better. I had to do better.

"New plan," I said. I took a deep breath; this was the same plan that had gotten us into trouble in the D-Rank dungeon. But it was also our best bet. "Tanks, protect the mages. Rob, you and I are on killing duty. Mages, you two watch for openings where you can have a big impact, and don't go below half mana. Manage your resources."

Another pack of wolves—only six this time—hit us as the cave entrance opened up and a faint breeze poured in. This time, the tanks walled up, Javier about five feet from the other one. Together, they choked off the entire passage. Or at least, they tried to—I didn't trust Javier not to break and run, but even with his panicky nature so far, he was the better of the two.

That left Rob and me on the outside. And that was fine.

This time, I didn't hesitate. My build had Dodge and Parry for defense. It wasn't the same as a dedicated merged skill, but it'd be enough. What I needed was to push it offensively—see what I could really do.

The wind Script catapulted me toward the closest wolf, dust swirling behind me as I ran. The Stormsteel rapier crackled to life. I planted my foot. Pushed off. Leaned forward and threw myself into a lunge. The wolf was already airborne. It tried to twist away, but my sword's tip followed it.

It punched into the monster's chest, and our combined weight shoved my sword out of its back in an eruption of blood. I pulled back and spun, and the blade ripped free. The wolf hit the ground behind me. Hard.

It didn't move again.

Active Skill Learned: Vital Lunge

Sometimes, the best defense is an overwhelming offense. While the most masterful fencers might look down on the commitment of a quick opening lunge, in real battle, a decisive strike might be the difference between victory and defeat. Consumes Stamina to commit to a heavy attack.

Upgrade Effects: 1. Each Rank decreases the Stamina cost of Vital Lunge. 2. At C-Rank, can punch through defenses.

I grinned. It wasn't just the notification—though picking up one of the skills I needed for Grassi's Greater Swordplay was huge. I'd taken out the wolf in one move. Not a series of parries and cuts, or with help. Just me and my skills, in one overwhelming strike. I was finally doing what a striker should be, instead of pretending to be a support.

The Stormsteel rapier went up, and I spun toward the next wolf. There wasn't enough space to lunge, and it was already moving. That was fine, though. I had other tricks up my sleeve. A few blocked bites later, it, too, was dead, bleeding from three cuts to the chest, neck, and eyes.

The remaining four wolves died fast, too. Smashed between the two armored, shield-carrying tanks and Rob and me, they had nowhere to go, and the mages were able to sit this one out as we cut them to pieces. By the time the last one died and I stopped fueling the Stormsteel rapier, the air smelled like copper and burned meat.

Stamina: 62/130, Mana: 118/200

I kept moving, up front and leading. Even with my Stamina low, I was pretty confident we'd be able to clear this portal before I started flagging.

The tunnel opened into a moonlit glade in the middle of a forest; trees with leaves in every shade of pastel towered overhead, and thick trunks lined the edge of the grassy meadow we found ourselves in. After the almost claustrophobic battle with the orange-eyed wolves in the tunnels below, the sight of the open sky and wide, rolling meadow felt like someone had turned down the pressure.

But relaxing felt like a trap. An E-Rank portal usually didn't have too many monsters; their cores didn't have the energy to create massive numbers of anything threatening, or more than one truly dangerous threat. And we'd been blowing through the wolves pretty easily, even if most of the other delvers had no idea what to do as a team.

The boss had to be close.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.