30***Run

"After you." Angus said while bowing low and gesturing to the door. I stuck out my tongue at her and walked past her to the entrance, slightly blushing at her implication, with her at my heels. This is it! My first dungeon dive!!! This is gonna be epi....

Goblin King's Possessions Have Been Rejected By Firewall

. . . . Eh?

I felt lighter all of a sudden as the stake in my hand turned to dust before my eyes!

"W-wait! What the...."

Goblins King's Rapier Has Disintegrated

Goblin King's Blood Has Disintegrated

Miasma Has Been Disabled

Seeds of Animosity Has Been Disabled

'.... Angus....' I whispered.

'Run?' She whispered back.

'Run.' I replied.

*RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR* *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud*

We tore off into the cave like madmen, the roar acting like a start gun! The thudding behind us alerted us of the stampede that would would no doubt have started behind us!

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" I shouted out as my feet hit the pavement as hard as possible! I had Body Reinforcement essence flowing through my legs like a river, my Stamina dropping fast in my panic!!!

'Crap!!! My Stamina won't last long at this rate!!! I need to calm down and analyze the situation.' I thought to myself as we bolted it across the room! Calming down didn't seem like an option I could execute, so I skipped a step and mixed Detection, Analysis, and Improvisation essence together and let it rip across the area! It was a rather big room all things considered. There was no natural light, but rocks that hang off of the ceiling 20 feet in the air! Judging from the glance of the space I got upon entry, the room was at least one football field's length across, and about 3 lengths long. Small towers of dirt and stalactites peppered the area, making visibility poor and ambushes easy to set up.... dang, Analysis Mastery is really helpful in these cases!

*SCAN!!!!*

Scout Series Has Been Unlocked

Wow!!! That was fast!!! Also, that combination almost wiped all my essence out!!! But it was worth it! I found something interesting in this cave! I'm going to need something first though

"Watch out dingus!!!!" Angus shouted at me, but I already saw them coming with that move I pulled!

I ran up one of the dirt hills as a Giant Lizard smashed through a larger dirt hill behind me and cartwheeled off of the hill to meet it! I swung my shield to the front and sent a little Body Reinforcement essence into my arm for a Bash and a lot to my shoulder then I drew my hand back. As I felt both my Stamina and Essence get drained punched the the lizard straight in the forehead with the wedge of my traditional style Stone Shield!

*SHIELD JAB!!!!!!!!* It's hp was already pretty low (probably because it smashed its way through all the obstacles to get here) so its skull immediately cracked under the pressure and I buried the shield into its head!!!

Shield Combat Series Has Been Unlocked

"YESS!!!" I yelled out as I forcefully yanked my shield out of its head! It took an eternity to get that Series!!!

I let its momentum throw me off of him, and somersaulted to correct my coarse before landing, tucking, and rolling as I hit the other side of my hill. A thud went off some feet beside me as Angus landed and rolled much like I did! The bits and pieces of falling green goop and the slightly pained expression on her space spoke volumes to what occurred.

More came out of the wood work in short order, leaving no time for her to grieve, nor for my to watch, and I activated the Shield Combat Series and ran it on Full Coil, then jumped into the air again and started churning out attacks as fast as I could!!! With the Series now in effect, I could run essence through any shields in my possession, and my Conservation for any shield type attack increases, so I can get more damage out of each attack for the same amount of essence!!! And I'll be needing it for this crazy plan!

'Angus!' I whispered to her while I did a Shield Asunder on an incoming speedy lizard, severing his head!

'What is it?!' She whispered back as she spun in the air, slicing up three flying beetles before throwing her makeshift Carapace Daggers into two more incoming Flying Beetles, then sped into the ground while two makeshift stone daggers quickly got drawn out of their sheathes and sliced the Lizard below her! I then Shield Bashed a Flying Beetle from my face and swung my shield around to land another Shield Bash in another beetle before I continued!!!

'Run to your 8 o'clock as fast as possible and prepare to use that quick-step move of yours!' I said to her, my shield glowing in the luminescence as I dropkicked a Rhino Beetle into the ground and pumped as much Explosive essence as I could muster into its body, then I kicked it to the side. The beetle exploded after a few seconds, taking down a hill and burying part of the mobs in dirt!

*TIME BOMB!!!!*

'What are you doing this time you crazy pricks**t!!!' Angus whispered back at me. She had daggers in a line on string connected to one in her hand and was running through a swarm with it! It wasn't enough to go through them once, so she was bouncing back and forth in a blur of purple and yellow as she spammed that move!!!

'Just trust me on this.' I replied, downing a Berry Shake as I ran towards the wall in said direction! A small pulse of Detection essence told me that a swarm was in hiding and behind a dirt hill in front of me!!! A small bit of Improvisation essence to the head later, I was running up said hill, pumping Explosive essence into the Carapace Shield on my back!!!

I swung it to my stomach and ran faster, then I jumped off of the hill as soon as I reached the top!

*EXPLODING SHIELD!!!!* Small explosions started firing off from my shield each time a bug hit it, propelling me upwards and outwards as I skipped across the sea of Flying Beetles in the air!!! I looked up and across to see Angus hanging from a dagger stuck in a Giant Lizard's head, a complicated look on her face! I couldn't look any longer however, as I was attacked from above by some aggroed beetles!!!

The explosions definitely threw them off, but they weren't strong enough to kill them outright, so they came back around to attack me!!!

I put the Stone Shield onto my back and ran some Body Reinforcement essence through it. Then, I ran some Explosive essence through my palms and popped them slightly to change directions. My respective Masteries and my Conservation were all at a high level, so individually, these moves wouldn't do much to my Essence, but since I'm doing them all at once, it dropped to half within seconds!!! My hp was dropping very fact as well, as the Fatigue build up from ding so many moves at once and the attacks now raining on me from the bugs on all sides and the lizards below me started to pepper me!!!

In one final last ditch attempt, I started sending Explosive essence to my legs before I stopped myself! The last time I did that, I got thrown so off target, I almost died due to fall damage! If I don't do something to control the way the explosion throws me, I'll be toast!

'.... Wait.... Something to control my explosions.... wasn't I doing that just while ago?!' At that thought, I had a breakthrough!!!

I ran all the essence I had left into my palms, closed my eyes to brace for what's to come, swung my hands behind me, and let it rip!!!

*ROCKET!!!!* I shot forward, out of the swarm and towards my destination and prepared for another shot only to see that I didn't have enough essence to clear the distance!!! The beetles were back on my trail in an instant, as if the explosion didn't even faze them, so I couldn't land and refill!

'Crap, what am I going to do now???!!!'