Continuing onwards in this manner, the party soon found themselves in a large tunnel heading even deeper underground. By now the sunlight streaming in from above had vanished, leaving only the dimly glowing gems embedded in the wall as sources of illumination. As Gio rounded a bend in the tunnel, the sounds of clashing metal could be heard echoing along the walls, coming from up ahead.
"Are there other people here?" Ryan asked uncertainly.
"We haven"t seen any corpses, either they"ve been here for a while or it"s monsters fighting amongst each other. We"ve already seen wolves hunting demonic rabbits. Could be something like that," Jun suggested.
"Whatever it is, we came down here to fight. Not like we"re going to run away just because others got here first eh?" said Ryan, drawing his sword and pushing Gio forwards. Hoisting his shield in front of him, Gio advanced cautiously in the direction the sounds were coming from, Ryan and Jun bringing up the rear with weapons drawn.
Reaching the end of the tunnel, the trio emerged into a large cave. Enormous limestone stalact.i.tes grew from the ceiling, dripping droplets of water into pools of water, creating ripples that cast eery reflections on the walls of the cavern. At the far end of the cave, a huge group of players could be seen battling with a small group of tiny green skinned humanoids.
"They"re fighting goblins," Jun observed, peering at the group across the cave.
"How many can you see? I count seven," Ryan whispered.
"Eight. There"s a mage hiding behind that column over there," Jun pointed. Craning their heads, Ryan and Gio followed his finger, their gaze falling upon a large limestone pillar almost three meters thick. As they watched, a Flame Strike flew out from behind the pillar, striking one of the goblins.
With a cry, one of the goblins fell, leaving only two goblins standing. Uttering loud shouts the fighters fell upon them, two fighters descending upon each goblin, while the ranged members looked for an opening to shoot. As the last goblin fell, one of the fighters shouted something, unfortunately for the trio he was too far away to make out the words, but it seemed he was the leader as the rest of the group scrambled to follow his order.
"What"s the plan?" Gio whispered, looking at Jun. Jun looked pensive, "They"re using a lot of people to kill only a few monsters. Unless there is a larger group of monsters further in then this is a super inefficient way to grind. This means they"re either bad or waiting for something."
"Waiting for what though?" asked Ryan.
"Maybe us?" suggested Gio.
"Could be. I"m fairly sure I recognized the guy who shouted earlier. He was the one with the really stupid look on his face when we killed him earlier," Jun said with annoyed look.
"He only had two others in his party. Did they really grab five more people just to come kill us?" Ryan asked incredulously.
"We killed like twenty people yesterday. Maybe they teamed up?"
"d.a.m.n scrubs," Ryan muttered.
"I"m fairly sure we can kill them actually. No one that we killed yesterday stood out. I"m fairly sure they actually do need this many people just to survive down here," said Jun suddenly.
"You got a plan?" Ryan asked, staring at Jun. Jun nodded, "These tunnels are pretty narrow. Gio could easily prevent them from coming at us more than two at a time. They only have a single mage and a few archers. And I doubt that any of them are all that accurate. The three of us can easily kill them two or three at a time. Especially if they"re really the same guys from yesterday," he explained.
Ryan nodded slowly, "That could work," he replied. Turning to Gio, he looked at his friend seriously, "Are you up to it? The plan hinges on you."
Gio looked conflicted, "I can probably hold off one. Maybe two. But if they"re attacking me with arrows and spells at the same time I don"t think I can do it."
"Good enough, you shouldn"t need to hold on long. Ryan can aim for the ranged players while I help you with the fighters. You guys ready?" Jun asked, looking from face to face. Ryan and Gio nodded, seeing this Jun"s face lit up in a feral grin, "Time to gank some noobs."
Making their way through the cavern, the trio stealthily followed the group of players into another tunnel. Allowing their opponents a slight lead, they navigated the winding tunnel pa.s.sages by following the sound of voices echoing through the tunnel. Hearing the sounds of battle Jun motioned for them to speed up, quickening their pace towards the tunnel exit. Reaching the end of the tunnel, Jun peeked out. What awaited him was another enormous cavern, very similar in both shape and size to the previous one. The group they were shadowing was cl.u.s.tered up roughly thirty meters from the entrance, where the last of a group of four goblins was fighting desperately against the fighters but to no avail. With an angry cry, the goblin fell, the leader of the group motioning for the fighter who"d dealt the finishing blow to step forward to receive the drops.
"Are you sure they"re in here?" one of the archers spoke up with an annoyed tone, "We"ve been down here for over an hour. But they still haven"t emerged. How do we know that this is their spot and they weren"t just here for a little while earlier?" he asked, the tone of his voice clearly challenging their leaders decision to remain in the cavern. One of the fighters stepped forward to answer this provocation, a man wielding a longsword with a small buckler strapped to his left arm.
"They should be. This is clearly their grinding spot. They wouldn"t have defended this place so fervidly otherwise," the leader responded. He was a middle aged man in his forties, his well trimmed beard and rigid expression gave him a stern countenance, and his rigid posture showed some level of training. Hearing his answer the archer backed down, subdued.
"Why are you worried anyways. This place is pretty great for grinding. The villagers want us to kill goblins anyways. And their drops are pretty sweet," one of the warriors spoke up.
"Easy for you to say, you guys don"t have to worry about dumb meatheads getting in the way of your attacks," the mage muttered, her long gray hair and wrinkly skin denoting her age.
"What was that, b.i.t.c.h?" the warrior roared, advancing on the older woman playing as a mage.
"Enough! We are here to grind and kill those PKers if we can. You think picking on a granny makes you tough? Stop infighting or you can leave," the bearded man growled, stalking over to glower at the warrior. With a tsk sound the warrior turned back, walking over towards an archer and another fighter who began conversing with him in low whispers.
"As for you," said the bearded man, turning to the mage, "If it wasn"t for us warriors, you and the archers would be overrun by the monsters in here. You didn"t have to fight those three yesterday but they"re tough and we need to work together to succeed. We"re a team here, act like it."
Turning back to the rest of the group, the bearded man glared at the group chatting quietly, "Same goes to the rest of you! We"re a team right now, I don"t expect you all to get along, but don"t cause infighting. Got that?" Hearing a dull murmur of a.s.sent the man growled, "I said GOT THAT?" he roared. This time the answer was much louder, the groups shouts of affirmation resounding off the cavern walls. The man nodded at this, satisfied with their response, "Good. Let"s continue. Warriors in the front, ranged players in the back just like we"ve been doing."
Reforming themselves into a ragged formation, the group began to move when a whirring sound was heard.
"Gah!" The old mage cried, an arrow sticking out of her shoulder. Turning back to look, the bearded mans eyes widened, "Enemy attack! Fighters to the front! Ranged players fall back!"
As he finished his orders another arrow whizzed through the air, catching the mage as she was scurrying to the safety of the fighters. Stumbling on a rock, she missed her step, sprawling to the ground. Rushing to her aid, the bearded man attempted to cover her with his shield but he was too late.
Even as his shield covered her p.r.o.ne form, another arrow whizzed out of the darkness, finding a gap between the shield and her body, the arrow soared past the hasty defence, depleting the last of the mage"s healthbar. With a groan, the mages wand spilled out of her hands, clattering softly across the rocky ground as her body went still.