Chapter 9

A little over three hours had passed and the party was standing in front of the dungeon ready to finally challenge its inhabitants, they had been informed that the dungeon contained low-level goblins, ranging from level one to three, with a few higher leveled elite goblins. Three stood holding the still somewhat unfamiliar towershield and warhammer he had been loaned by the dwarf. Grimli grunted for the groups attention, "Right, now we be enterin the dungeon ya younguns need to pay attention, I'll help only if I believe ya life be in danger, if ya get yaself hurt it be ya own damn fault! Lass, take control of ya party."

Emmi nodded and stepped forward, "We will be going with a rather standard party formation, Three will be in front and our heavy, I will take the right side slightly behind him and move in when necessary, Davis will take the left side doing the same, Talin will prioritize mages and elites, while Sumi will dish out as much damage as she can whenever she can, questions?" Everyone shook their heads and stepped through the cave's entrance, ready to face the goblins inside.

The cave was dark, only sporadically lightened by a torch, the flickering flame created shadows tricking their minds that there were things moving in the dark. Three strained his hearing, trying to connect any unfamiliar sounds to the presence of enemies, the only thing he heard was the slow drip of water dropping down from the stalactites. He raised his shield to cover most of his body on the left side raising his hammer on the other side, poised to strike. He swept his eyes down the cavern as he meticulously made his way forward.

A screech echoed through the cave, two dark green creatures raced out of the shadows, about as tall as Sumi, the things had a pot belly, pointy yellow teeth, nasty beady little eyes and a long hooked nose. Its eyes focused on Three with screech it charged him with its rusty knife, he could nearly feel the others beside him tense. Three looked at the creature and almost chuckled, he pulled back his right foot waited for the creature to come close then upon arrival he put his foot on its chest the creature clutched at his leg, sharp nails finding no purchase on his skill hardened skin, he pushed making the goblin lose its balance then when it smacked into the floor he pressed, a squelch, then a crack was heard as the goblin was squashed underfoot. He swung his hammer and with a single swing crushed the remaining goblins skull, sending its face into the back of its head.

"Holy fish in the sea," he heard Davis mutter, "That was brutal, I wanna try that."

The others were stunned by the display, Sumi didn't seem the least bit fazed. Grimli chuckled, "Well, seems I can head back and wait for ya youngins to return, don't seem to be anythin that can harm ya in here, but a job be a job so I gon be with ya till tha end!"

Three turned around and signed at Sumi, Sumi translated for everyone, "He says he got awarded the skill Stomp, for doing that."

The others muttered to themselves until Emmi called for them to move further into the cave. The other fights they got into were as simple as the first, Three held the goblins off with ease and the others dismantled their forces, Sumi and Talin had yet to do anything. They reached a larger cavern, this time there were more than a couple of goblins, two of the goblins were larger and better equipped, the tags above them showing they were a Goblin warrior level four. Another goblin was wearing a something resembling tribal clothes and a staff with feathers and was shouting at the othergoblinss, including the warriors and what the tag showed to be a level four shaman, there were six regular goblins. The shaman raised his staff to and started mumbling a spell when an arrowwhizzedd past Three and slammed into its forehead killing it on impact.

The remaining goblins roared in anger and charged the group, Three stepped forward and roared a challenge of his own, stepping forward to smash into the goblins, drawing the attention of most of the goblins and both of the warriors, an arrow of fire smashed into one of the goblins ignoring Three, smacking its face back as it clawed at its face in agony. The other goblin that ignored him went down with an arrow in his chest. Three swung his hammer in a long ark and crushed the skull of the nearest warrior goblin, Emmi stepped forward with her glowing red sword, yelling slice and decapitated the last remaining warrior. Davis almost seemed to dance between the normal gobs and slammed his axes into two goblins simultaneously. The last two goblins were made short work of, all in all, the fight took barely ten seconds.

Grimli laughed at the display, commenting on how easy the dungeon seemed for them. Three had to agree the dungeon was rather easy, he had expected his other teammates to not be very capable, it seemed they were more capable than he had expected, perhaps he owed them an apology. Each of them was skilled in wielding their weapons in a way that he was not, he simply relied on his size and his defensive skills to crush the enemy. They moved on, running into a smaller group of goblins here and there but they were taken care of with ease. The group started earning some skills, Grimli told them that the first rank of a skill was easily learned in combat, as the system simply awarded them with it if the action was deemed appropriate.

Three had learned Stomp, and Challenging Cry. Talin had earned Aim, Davis had earned Twin Fang which was a skill that allowed him to deal more damage when he hit two targets simultaneously. Emmi learned Leadership which gave a small bonus to the party under her command. Sumi, strangely enough, learned the skill Invigorating Presence. All in all the group grew steadily stronger as they headed deeper into the dungeon, they made their way to a cavern where Grimli told them the boss was holed up, he told them the boss was a goblin chieftain level five with a few subordinates and told them about its skills and mannerisms. They entered the cavern prepared for the battle, only to find something completely different.

Instead of the goblin chieftain they expected, There was a huge pale hulking creature, it had two beady eyes sitting above a jaw much larger than a humans, a barreled chest accompanied with thickly muscled long arms, it gazed at them opening its mouth revealing long fangs, It roared at them in rage for trespassing. The tag above its head revealed it to be a level eleven Ogre.

Emmi recovered from the surprise almost immediately, "Three! Lock it down, Davis and me the sides. Talin, Sumi! The eyes!" The group roared their consent as Talin and Sumi both aimed shots at the Ogres head, the eyes were hard to target because of their size, with a simple tilt of the head the ogre avoided the threat, having little effect other than pissing the thing off. Three stepped forward with his shield and used his Challenging Cry drawing the things attention, Up close the Ogre really was big, at least twelve feet, the slight distraction caused by the monsters' size caused a fist to slam into his shield, severely denting it and sending him flying a couple of meters back. He jumped back, discarding his shield as he roared in anger and charged at the beast. He dropped his hammer as his muscles rippled and grew, black veins pressing against his pale skin as he challenged the creature. The two engaged into an all-out brawl, neither doing much damage to the other because of their defensive capabilities.

Talin and Sumi kept using projectiles whenever they saw the chance, to little effect. Davis couldn't even get through the thick hide, his strength simply wasn't high enough. Emmi managed to do small amounts of damage at a time with her Slice, it cost a lot of energy and took her some time to recharge. Three got knocked back again, immediately jumping back up and locking hands with the monster, his hands dwarfed by the ogres, but surprisingly he was could nearly match the monstrous creature in raw power. "Three!" Sumi yelled, "Hold him!" Three grunted his reply. Sumi sprinted up towards Three's back, she used him as a step up and shoved her hand into the ogres mouth, the ogre roared and bit down, Sumi jumped from his back, her hand removed from her arm a small string still connecting the separated limb.

"Time to feel the flame!" Sumi roared at the creature eyes glinting, "Fire Cone!" The Ogre convulsed, it opened its mouth flames erupting from its throat. Three managed to get his head out of the way just in time, rolling away from the ogre, only a few hairs getting singed.

The ogre collapsed to its knees grasping at its own stomach and throat. "FIRE CONE!" Sumi yelled again, more fire came from the creature's mouth, it collapsed to the ground. "FIRE CONE!" Sumi yelled once more, this time the monster simply shivered once and stopped moving. The whole team stared at Sumi, Three included. "What did you DO?!" Emmi asked her, "You didn't need to sacrifice a hand in our first dungeon!"

Sumi looked at Emmi and grinned, "I didn't lose my hand, look!" She pointed to the string coming out of her arm with her other hand, she gave it a pull and it started to twist, coiling back around her arm, the ogres mouth was forced open and her hand was dragged back to her body, it dragged across the floor, followed by everyone's gaze, when at the end it hopped and reattached itself to her arm. She grinned at their looks, "Convenient isn't it, after speaking with mr dwarf boss and pointy hat shaggy beard, they convinced me that my body was special and I should be proud of it, so I figured I'd use it to my advantage!"

"Look!" she added, dropping her hand further down by the string keeping it taught until her hand almost touched the floor even though she was standing upright, she then started twirling her hand around in large circles as if she was swinging a bucket of water. "Cool isn't it! I just figured out I can detach body parts, as long as I keep it attached by string it's no problem aaaaaand for tonights special." She said returning her hand to her body, she grabbed both sides of her head and pulled it off her shoulders "Tadaaa, now don't go losing your heads over this!" she chuckled at herself. Three heard a gasp and some muttering from the others, he simply stared as Sumi stuck her head back on then removed her head from her body again. When she spoke it was even more surreal. "Pretty cool if I do say so myself!" She said laughing.

Three shook his head, this was definitely a large change from how she looked earlier. He was thankful for those that convinced her that it was nothing to be ashamed about. The group simply stared, he heard Emmi muttering things like impossible and I can't do that, can I? After giving her own head a quick tug she confirmed that yes, her head was still stuck firmly to her body, the rest was doing similar things. Three sighed and headed to the Ogre wondering what kind of loot it had dropped.