No sooner had the echoes of the last fight faded than Perberos lifted a clenched fist.

  Josh stopped instantly.

  The sound came again. A faint, steady scrape, claws dragging across stone, multiplied by many feet. Too many.

  “Kobolds,” Perberos murmured, head tilted, eyes unfocused as he listened past the tunnel’s bend. “A lot of them. They’re not creeping. They’re running.”

  Josh felt the familiar tightening in his chest and raised his shield. “Then we don’t give them room. There.” He tapped the stone with the rim. “Narrow tunnel. They come to us.”

  Bhel rolled his shoulders and stepped in beside him, axe already loose in his grip, beard bristling with anticipation. “Aye. Let ’em choke on it.”

  Carcan retreated a few paces, staff planted, breath steady despite the sound closing fast. “I will keep you standing. Brett, restraint. Burn what you must, not what you want.”

  Brett snorted softly, fire flickering between his fingers. “I’ll behave. Mostly.”

  The scraping rose into a frenzy.

  Then the kobolds poured into view.

  They came in a tide of bodies. Twenty at least, scrambling over each other, shrieking, hissing, eyes wild with hunger and fury. Bone spears jutted forward. Rusted glaives flashed. Crude shields slammed together as they charged.

  Brett raised his new wand, fingertips glowing as he shaped the spell. A compact sphere of fire streaked forward, hissing as it cut through the stale air. It slammed into the kobolds with a thunderous explosion, sending a shockwave rattling the walls and floor. Bodies were thrown violently off their feet, limbs flailing, some tumbling end over end before hitting stone with sickening cracks. A few lay motionless, charred, their blackened skin peeling away to reveal scorched bone. Those still on their feet staggered, coughing smoke and sparks, fur and leather singed and smouldering.

  Perberos didn’t hesitate. He loosed arrow after arrow into the disoriented horde, each finding gaps between scorched plates and splintered limbs. Several monsters crumpled before they could even recover their footing. But the rest, singed and enraged, shook off the blast, fur and skin smoking, eyes wild, and surged forward again, a writhing, blackened mass, their momentum fuelled by pain and fury.

  “Brace!” Josh shouted.

  The first kobold hit his shield headfirst.

  The reinforced metal rang like a bell as the creature rebounded, neck snapping with a wet crack as it hit the wall. Another leapt, shrieking, spear angled for Josh’s face. He twisted the shield just enough to glance the blow aside, then stepped forward and cut the kobold down, blade biting deep into its shoulder and chest.

  Josh held.

  Bhel surged into the gap, axe swinging in brutal, efficient arcs. He didn’t do finesse. Bone shattered. Blood sprayed hot across his arms as he split one kobold from jaw to sternum and backhanded another hard enough to cave in its skull.

  “HAH!” he roared. “That’s it! Come closer!”

  A kobold slipped low, trying to dart past him but it never made it.

  Perberos’ arrow punched through the side of its skull, the point bursting out through one ear. He was already moving, pivoting smoothly, another arrow snapping free and sinking into a throat mid-screech. He barely watched them fall, eyes tracking the next threat, the next angle.

  Fire tore through the tunnel.

  Brett lashed out with a controlled whip of flame, the heat carving a burning arc through the rear ranks. Kobolds screamed as flesh blackened and split, fire crawling across armour scraps and into fur and skin. The tunnel walls glowed orange, shadows writhing like living things.

  The smell was awful. Burned hair. Cooked meat.

  And still, they came.

  “They’re not breaking!” Brett shouted, teeth clenched.

  Josh felt it in every bone. The relentless pressure, the ceaseless hammering of blows against his shield, each strike vibrating up his arm and shoulder, numbing him inch by inch. One jagged spear hit hard enough to jar his shoulder in a sickening crack. Another kobold lunged, claws scraping along the shield’s rim, teeth gnashing as it tried to climb over him. His muscles screamed as he fought with every ounce of strength, shoulders heaving as he pushed, legs braced and stamping against the stone, blade slashing through anything foolish enough to get close. Sweat and blood streaked his face, mixing with the dust and grime of the tunnel, and still the kobolds pressed, relentless as the walls themselves.

  Then something big shoved its way through the pack.

  A hulking kobold enforcer forced itself into view, broader than the others, arms wrapped in hammered metal plates. Its roar was deeper, commanding.

  “Big one!” Brett warned.

  It charged straight for Josh.

  The collision nearly drove him to a knee. His boots skidded on blood-slick stone, arm screaming as the shield absorbed the blow.

  “Brett!” Josh grunted.

  Light exploded past his shoulder.

  Brett thrust his wand forward, jaw set, eyes blazing as fire energy slammed into the enforcer’s chest. The flames burned through crude metal, searing flesh beneath. The kobold shrieked, staggering.

  Bhel was already moving.

  His axe came down in a two-handed strike, cleaving through collarbone and deep into the torso. The enforcer collapsed in a heap, twitching once before going still.

  For a heartbeat, the kobolds hesitated.

  Perberos seized it. “Press!”

  Josh surged forward, shield-first, bashing and cutting. Brett sent short, brutal bursts of flame into exposed backs. Bhel waded in, finishing what he’d started. Kobolds broke, turned, tried to flee, only to be cut down where they ran.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Minutes later, the tunnel was a slaughterhouse.

  Bodies lay piled against the walls, blood pooling between stones, the air thick and metallic. The last echoes faded, replaced by harsh breathing and the drip of gore.

  They stood amid it, shaking with exhaustion.

  “Anyone dead?” Brett asked, voice thin.

  “Not today,” Carcan replied, already moving, light spilling over a deep gash in Bhel’s arm as it closed.

  Josh leaned heavily on his shield, chest heaving as he exhaled slowly. “We’re getting better,” he said, eyes tracing the tunnel ahead, deeper into the Warren. “Does anyone else get the feeling the dungeon’s… changing its style? Less sneaky this time. More… direct. Mass charges, in-your-face attacks?”

  The party glanced around at the smeared floor, the darkening pools of blood, and the scattered, broken bodies. Each nodded.

  Bhel let out a low chuckle, hefting his axes. “I like it better this way. Less tiptoeing behind walls, more smashing in the open. Give me a target, I’ll take it.”

  A ripple of laughter went through the group, tense but genuine, echoing faintly off the stone walls. They adjusted their grips, readied their gear, and moved forward, the rhythm of their steps steadier, more confident than before.

  Further ahead, the tunnel opened into a chamber Josh recognised immediately.

  The resource room.

  Yesterday, they’d crept up to its edge, nerves tight, half-expecting an ambush that never came.

  Today, it was already occupied.

  A line of kobolds stood between them and the scattered veins of ore and stacked crates beyond. Not scavengers. Not panicked defenders.

  Guards.

  They wore layered scraps of leather and hide, stitched together with wire and bone. Two stood back from the line, clutching crude wands, little more than stripped branches wrapped in glimmering thread and flecked with crystal dust. Faint sparks crawled along the wood, buzzing softly.

  Josh’s grip tightened on his shield. “Casters,” he muttered. Louder, to the others, “Stay tight. Those wands aren’t for show.”

  One of the kobolds hissed sharply and the room exploded into motion.

  Blue-white energy cracked through the air, slamming into Josh’s shield with a numbing jolt that rattled his teeth. His arm went momentarily dead, fingers spasming as the enchantment in the shield pushed back, dispersing the force in a visible ripple.

  Another bolt followed, grazing the stone beside Bhel and leaving a smoking, blackened groove.

  “Since when do they get wands?” Bhel roared, diving as an oily bolt splashed where his head had been a heartbeat earlier. The stone hissed and smoked. “What happened to good, honest stabby kobolds?”

  “Adapt or die,” Carcan said sharply, staff raised as a barrier flared into place just in time to catch a follow-up blast.

  Perberos didn’t waste breath.

  His arrow snapped loose, punching clean through one wand-wielder’s eye. The kobold dropped instantly, wand clattering uselessly across the stone as the magic sputtered out.

  The second caster shrieked and raised its wand again.

  Brett felt the mana answer him more readily than before, heat gathering fast, smooth, controlled. He grinned, teeth bared. “Hey! Catch!”

  He hurled a compact sphere of white-hot flame.

  It struck the kobold square in the chest and detonated, fire blooming outward with a concussive thump. The creature was flung backward, armour igniting as it hit the ground and rolled, shrieking until the sound cut off abruptly.

  The guards broke formation.

  They charged in desperation, snarling, blades flashing.

  Josh met them head-on, shield bashing one kobold hard enough to lift it off its feet before finishing it with a brutal downward cut. Another spear scraped along his ribs, glancing off armour instead of biting deep. The shield thrummed with each impact, repulsion flaring just enough to throw attackers off balance.

  Bhel was a wrecking ball. He crushed one kobold into the floor, pivoted, and buried his axe into another’s spine, wrenching it free in a spray of blood. He laughed as he fought, wild and fearless.

  Radiant light flared as Carcan called it down in sharp bursts, searing through clustered kobolds and forcing them back, healing magic snapping across the party in the same breath as wounds tried to form.

  The fight was fast and violent.

  When the last kobold finally collapsed, the room fell into a heavy, ringing silence broken only by crackling embers and laboured breathing.

  Josh flexed his fingers, shaking life back into his shield arm. “All right,” he said grimly. “That was definitely harder than last time.”

  Perberos nudged one of the fallen wands with his boot, watching the faint glow fade. “Crude. Inefficient. But effective enough.” He looked toward the tunnels beyond. “If they’re arming guards and teaching casters…”

  Brett wiped sweat from his brow, eyes already drifting to the deeper passages. “Great. Smarter kobolds. Just what I wanted.”

  Josh lifted his shield again and stepped forward into the resource room.

  After this, two more battles followed. Not surprises anymore. An ambush they spotted before it sprang. A narrow corridor they chose instead of being driven into. Steel rang, spells flared, blood hit stone.

  Each fight still demanded effort, but the edge of desperation was gone compared to last time.

  The kobolds pressed harder than before, faster and more aggressive, throwing themselves into the fray with a feral urgency that spoke of a dungeon growing defensive. Yet for all that, the party moved with increasing certainty. Fire fell where it would not endanger allies. Arrows struck eyes and throats before blades ever reached striking distance.

  By the time the tunnel widened and the familiar antechamber came into view, their breathing was heavy but steady, adrenaline controlled instead of overwhelming.

  The chamber before the boss room. Josh rolled his shoulders, letting his shield rest lightly at his side. “Same place. Different setup.”

  And the difference hit immediately. Gone were the tight, disciplined ranks of veteran kobold guards. In their place, a living tide surged from the side tunnels, cracks in the stone, and shadowed alcoves. A dozen at first, then two dozen, then more, pouring forward like a river of claws and teeth. Armour clattered, weapons gleamed in the torchlight, and high-pitched shrieks tore through the air as the horde flooded toward them. It wasn’t strategy. It was raw, unrelenting chaos.

  Josh stepped forward into the mouth of the cavern and planted his feet. “Hold here.”

  They did.

  The first wave broke against him like water on stone. Spears glanced off his shield and were turned aside by its repulsion, attackers stumbling back just far enough to die. Bhel surged in short, brutal bursts beside him, never overextending, axes rising and falling with methodical violence.

  Brett’s fire came in measured pulses instead of wild blasts, each burst searing through clustered kobolds without draining him dry. The mana answered him cleanly now, obedient and smooth. He sent his fire long, explosions shaking the rear ranks, throwing those who wished to join the fight to the ground, and starving the mass of weight to push from behind.

  Perberos thinned the flanks of the kobolds, arrows snapping out with uncanny precision. No wasted shots. No rushed strikes. Every pull of the string ended with a body dropping.

  Carcan anchored them all. Barriers flared exactly when needed. Radiant light burned through the densest clusters, and healing followed damage so swiftly that wounds barely had time to bleed.

  The kobolds tried to swarm. Tried to overwhelm with sheer numbers. But it didn't work.

  When the last of them fell, the chamber was littered with bodies, the air thick with iron and smoke. But the party was still standing. Tired, yes but unbroken.

  Bhel rested his axes on his shoulders, breathing hard. “That,” he said, grinning, “was easier.”

  Josh nodded, wiping his blade clean. “Cleaner. We didn’t get pushed back once.”

  Brett flexed his fingers, surprised by how steady they felt. “Mana’s holding. No surges. No panic. I’ve got to admit, I do love that spell”

  Perberos scanned the bodies one last time. “No irregulars. No leaders. No enhanced mutations.”

  Carcan frowned slightly. “Which means either the dungeon is pacing itself…”

  “…or it’s saving something,” Josh finished.

  Bhel snorted. “Let it try.”

  They exchanged looks, grim, confident, and very much aware of how far they’d come since yesterday.

  Josh turned toward the boss door, shield rising into place.