Even while running toward the fighting, Nate showed restraint and moved with caution, keeping his shield at the ready. Whatever was going on, it was quite far away. While the party hurried forward, Luke seized the opportunity to exchange a few words with Hannah, since they hadn't spoken since what happened in the dungeon.

  "How are you managing after the pink dungeon?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the uneven ground.

  "It's been rough, not going to lie," she replied. "Considered staying away from this one."

  "But you decided to come."

  She nodded, and long shadows danced in her hair, making her haircut appear to writhe. "Yeah."

  "Why?"

  "Because fuck them, that's why."

  They were getting closer now. The indistinct shouting was turning to words, and all sorts of spells were going off. Another couple of minutes and they'd arrive at the battle.

  "Fuck who?" he asked.

  "Whoever or whatever is behind all this," she said, gesturing to the cave, then her shadows. "And Relian! If I'm going to become strong enough to beat all of them senseless, I can't just sit at home and cry from nightmares of that Relian creep fusing our flesh together."

  A cold chill went down Luke’s back at the thought. "Sound reasoning."

  "There!" Nate shouted, pointing with his sword.

  They came around a bend where a rock protrusion forced them to duck as they rushed forward. A considerable group of dwarves pressed forward from an adjoining tunnel, rushing out with the same eerie silence as before. Two parties of Integrated stood against them, but they were hard pressed, with several already injured.

  Liza: "Engaging dwarves. Unknown number."

  Nymh: "Roger that. Be careful and fall back if necessary."

  "Mateo, Penny, push the dwarves back!"

  Freeze, freaks, time to slide!

  Ice storm’s here, enjoy the ride.

  Snow day’s booked, no place to hide!

  This time, rather than lightning, ice surged from Penny as she side-stepped to the right to make sure other Integrated weren’t between her and the monsters. Sharp ice shards the size of rocks pelted the dwarves, embedding themselves in their flesh or killing outright when they struck throats, eyes, or even unguarded midsections.

  Mateo hurled his spear through the air, using his entire body in the thrust to give the weapon impressive speed. Rather than crash into a single dwarf and kill it, the spear disappeared when it hit its target, and over a hundred copies of it rained down from the cave ceiling. Red-glowing dwarven eyes looked up to see death rain down upon them from above.

  Once the skill ended, Mateo’s spear materialized back in Mateo’s hand, and he hurled it again. This time, it struck right above the side-tunnel entrance, resulting in a cave-in that buried a number of advancing dwarves and blocked off the entrance, ensuring no new enemies would appear.

  Shadows snaked out from Hannah, ran along the floor, and jumped from shadow to shadow until they reached the front of the remaining dwarves. They wrapped themselves around several and squeezed the life out of them.

  "Luke! See to the wounded! Nate, hold them off!" Liza shouted as she cast wards of protection on the still fighting Integrated in the other parties.

  Two were down on the ground, unconscious or worse, and one stood at the back, clutching his limp arm. Blood dribbled from the tips of his fingers to the cave floor at an alarming rate, but the prone ones had to be the priority. Both were alive.

  Integrated Judy. Conjurer. Level 6.

  Integrated Lee. Torturer. Level 5.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Torturer? That was ominous. He didn’t have time to ponder what might make someone pick a class with that name, not with the two injured needing his attention. Judy clung on to life, but a few more breaths would see her gone, dead from the deep axe wound in the middle of her chest. Lee wasn’t much better. Blood pooled around his left thigh even now, a pierced artery, or worse.

  In a flash, he considered who to heal first, thinking the one he didn’t pick wouldn’t make it, then he got his shit together and focused, remembering all the tools at his disposal. Behind him, someone else cried out in pain, a terrible wail. These two, and the other one with the almost severed arm, would not be the only patients before this fight was through.

  The Healer’s Moment bought enough time. Luke regrew the chunk of missing leg from Lee using Weaver’s Renewal and patched up the sliced-through artery. With several seconds to spare, he stitched Judy together and gave her a small helping of his mana, since she was running almost dry.

  Certain they would both make it out fine, Luke got to his feet and turned just in time to see a dwarf pushing through and charging him. Shadows rose from the ground and enveloped the bastard within a second. Even as Luke rushed toward another fallen Integrated, he saw the shadows withdraw again. The dwarf was gone, as if consumed by the undulating darkness.

  Another dwarf approached, but then Nate was there, standing between Luke and the dwarves, like an unmovable wall. A barrier sprang up around his shield, and the monsters couldn’t even get near him. Mateo’s spear made short work of the nearest dwarves, and most of the remaining ones were being dealt with, falling one after another.

  Integrated Ali. Architect. Level 6.

  A terrible neck wound meant Ali wouldn’t survive more than a second or two. Luke brought already blood-covered hands to the wound and used Weaver’s Mercy to postpone death. After that, it was just a matter of stitching Ali together even as he choked on his own blood, unable to draw breath, eyes wide with horror.

  The wound was a clean cut through almost a third of Ali’s neck. Deadly in most circumstances, but survivable now that Luke was by his side. Arteries first. No time for pain relief. Muscle. Skin. Done! No, wait. Ali’s lungs overflowed with blood. Luke dealt with that, then rose.

  One patient remained.

  "I’m a healer," Luke said as he reached the short, black-haired man.

  Integrated Robert. Explorer. Level 5.

  Robert turned a pale, expressionless face to Luke. Some life returned to it when he registered the words.

  "Healer?"

  The gash was deep, and the patient had lost a lot of blood, but after a quick patching up, Robert would be fine. This time, Luke took the time to deal with the nerve bundles leading into the arm first, removing the sensation of pain.

  "There," Luke said, panting a little. "All better."

  The fight was dying down with the last couple of dwarves about to fall, and Luke had kept most of his mana stores through that fight, healing without brute forcing the wounds closed with healing mana. He was improving.

  Once all dwarves were dead, a few more people needed help with cuts and other minor injuries. Obliging to help allowed more training with managing pain, and more training was almost always a good thing. Seeing gratefulness in their faces was also a great deal nicer than the usual disgruntled gratitude at best, or outright scorn at worst. This new method meant people might want him in their party for more reasons than that no other healers were available.

  Liza: "Dwarves dealt with. No Integrated casualties."

  Kirk: "Good job! We haven't seen anything yet."

  Nymh: "Yes. Excellent."

  "You OK?" Nate asked, walking up to where Luke was resting.

  "Sure, yeah. Just a little out of breath. Thanks for the save."

  "Where to now, Liza?" Hannah asked as the two of them joined in.

  Liza nodded to the wide path heading at a slight decline straight ahead. "Not much in the way of options. We continue." She looked out at the group. Mateo and Penny were heading over too. "Well done, everyone."

  "We work well together!" Mateo said. His face was covered in sweat and blood streaked across it, not his own.

  Just as Luke's party was about to head out, Lee sauntered up to the group, with the whole group they'd just rescued arrayed behind him. "Thanks for the healing."

  "Don't mention it," Luke said.

  Lee pursed his lips and nodded, then turned to look to the people standing on either side of him. "Real nifty having a healer around, ain't that right, fellas?"

  "We are blessed to have Luke with us!" Mateo said, with a pleasant and inviting smile.

  Penny looked apprehensive. "You should be careful down here without a healer."

  "That's the thing, see?" Lee began, a grin spreading across his face. "We've been talking, and we'd like to offer Luke here a spot in one of our parties."

  "No thanks," Luke said.

  Lee and his cronies took a small step forward, straightening their backs. "See, the asking of it was more of a courtesy."

  "Now, my friends, I'm sure you're not attempting to convey a threat?" Mateo said, taking a step forward to meet them. Even with twelve people arrayed before him, they appeared small, even weak, in front of the Lancer and his spear.

  Hannah, Penny, Nate, and even Liza stepped forward and squared off as well, but Luke spoke from behind their backs in a voice of utter calm. "We just saved all of you. You saw what my friends are capable of. Run along now and hope you don't need our help again."

  Lee shook his head, grinning. "I don't-"

  Robert, who'd remained behind the others, grabbed Lee's arm. "Don't."

  Several others lost their calm and took a step back, turning toward the continuing tunnel.

  "No," Luke said. "Not that way. You're done here today. Go back."

  "You don't talk to us that way," Lee said, several thin chains appearing around both his arms, but most of his compatriots shuffled away from him, leaving the Torturer by himself. "Seriously?" he asked, incredulous. "Chickenshits!"

  "You heard him, get the hell out of here," Nate said, raising his voice.

  Shadows writhed at Hannah's feet, reaching for Nate along the cave floor.

  Lee cried out in what sounded like frustration, his chains unraveling from his arms to loop over Mateo and the others, heading straight for Luke with frightening speed.