4 Stuck in a Labyrinth (4)

Inside the Dungeon.

Wayne was currently getting his hand healed by Emily; he had injured himself in the previous attacks.

Emily who was healing him spoke up "You should be more cautious, this was only the fourth wave. There are three more waves and a boss before we can get out of this dungeon. Being a little careful could help, you know."

Wayne spoke with sadness "Yes, I know, but what could I possibly do? I was not granted with special strength but only some boost in comparison to ordinary humans. This is already the best I could do and still hope not to get injured."

Sean who was standing nearby heard Emily and Wayne speak and commented "As Porters, you should be more aware of what you can do and what you cannot? If you know you cannot, then just don't do it and let the others who can do it. This would also lessen the hassle that you caused us."

Emily frowned at Sean's rude remark.

But Wayne, he was different. He knew that Sean was rude, but also knew that Sean had it easy all his life, and he did not understand the plight of the Weak.

He knew about the plight of the Weak. He understood it like no one else. Weak people are weak physically or intellectually but never by their Determination.

If ever an occasion arises where all hunters are turned to normal humans instead, then the truly strong ones would not be the ones who were strong as Hunters but the ones who struggled every day to live the life of the Weak.

The Weak understand the strength of unity and also the concept that Strong are the ones with more resources while the Weak manage their whole lives with the least of the resources.

Wayne knew these but did not speak out. Instead, it was Emily who spoke out.

"Sean, I know that you are strong but you did not have to speak so rudely just because Wayne is weak" Emily told Sean with anger in her voice.

"But, you cannot deny the truth, Emily. Weak people should not try to complete tasks which they are not able to do, they just need to leave it to the strong. This is a universal fact." Sean replied adamantly.

Gary, who had just heard the trio, spoke up "Sean and Emily, we are still halfway through the dungeon. You guys do not need to fight just because of minor matters."

He next ordered the whole team "Guys, the last wave which had nine goblins was proof that each wave increases itself in power. Instead of talking and wasting your energy, how about everyone sits down for some time and rest."

"The next wave should be harder than the last for sure." He finished while sitting down to rest.

Everyone listened to him and sat down for some rest.

Wayne had also healed his injury by now and sat down for a rest. He had closed his eyes when he heard some gossip by the other Porters.

"Hey, don't you find that Sean is as strong as the raid leader, even though he is C-Rank." One guy spoke up.

"I think so too, though he had much better equipment than normal, still this does not add up. He is supposed to be weaker than the leader but for some reason, he is quite similar in strength." A young woman replied to the previous guy.

"Hah, what do you know? The better equipment helps in bringing more strength out of someone. Sean is wearing the best equipment of us all, why won't he be good enough as the leader." Another guy chimed in.

"You might be right, his equipment is really much better. I guess his family is very rich. Hah, why is it that he is younger than me? If he was my age I could have tried to hit on him." The young woman added enviously.

The other guy harrumphed and said "You wish, do you think he would even look at you. There might be many good looking women falling heads over heels for him. And he would look for the average you leaving the good looking ones."

The woman gritted her teeth and replied to him "You, what do you know. Some guys like more genuine beauty than those who have a lot of makeup to look good. He might still be interested in me."

But even though she had said this, she also knew in her heart that what she said was not the truth. Men were dogs not because they were intolerant to the women who were not beautiful, but because they would fall heads over heels for the truly beautiful ones.

Wayne who hearing the gossip laughed out softly, no one heard his laughter. But he could not control it after listening.

He always found happiness from his surroundings because of the many gossips and conversations he gets to hear from the people around. This not just gets his mood alright but also motivates him to go on with his struggle.

He rested a while more while listening to the others speaking a lot about different topics, after which everyone was ordered by Gary to get ready with the dungeon raid.

Gary spoke out to everyone.

"Guys, we have been good with the formation till now, but I think there is a change necessary."

"We have eighteen Hunters with us including the Porters. Out of them, five are Porters of E-Rank and F-Rank."

"We have eight warriors including me. The other seven consist of D-Rank and E-Rank warriors."

"We also have two mages both of D-Rank and two Rangers one of C-Rank and the other of E-Rank, while we only have one healer."

"Now that we are nearly halfway done with the dungeon, we need to be more careful. So I will be assigning positions with slight changes after observing everyone's performances till now."

Everyone nodded instantly. They knew things would get difficult from here on and the Porters were getting nervous. They knew that from this point forward they need to fight more often, there is no other alternative.

Even Wayne was feeling nervous about the positioning. He had been standing behind Emily till now at the last line of the formation and this was considered one of the safe positions.

Gary started assigning the new positions "I and two of the D-Rank Warriors will be in the front acting as the Tanks. The other warriors will be in the next line ready to replace us if replacements are required."

"The third line will be slightly farther apart from the second line. The two mages will be in this line with two of the Porters. The porters doing this will be the only two E-Rank ones."

"There will be a fourth line where Emily will be in the middle with the Rangers keeping her safe while attacking from a distance."

"The last line will be consisting of the F-Rank Porters and I wish that they can help by defending any attacks which come from behind or from the side towards Emily."

"This formation will be more offensive but the defense can be adjusted if the Mages and Rangers help with defending when things go wrong." Gary finished.

*The formation would look something like this:

W W W

W W W W W

P M M P

R H R

P P P

*

The other porters felt this formation was not too good. This could be felt from their faces which looked paler than usual.

The formation was offensive but there was very little scope for defense. This was a very risky formation for Porters who were mostly weak.

But as Gary had already ordered, there was little anyone could do to change it.

When everyone had arranged themselves in formation they started off towards the next entrance.

The instant everyone reached the next opening they were all stunned. In front of them was a small team of nine goblins headed by a larger goblin. This goblin was most probably a goblin chief.

Gary, who was at the front, ordered the team "Everyone, the goblins in front of us have a chief leading them. This will be troublesome, whatever happens, do not break formation until ordered."

Sean and Emily who were in front of Wayne had a nervous look in their faces.

Sean frowned and instructed "Everyone we are at the back of the formation but do not be lax about this battle. The goblin chief is an intelligent life form of the dungeon and can order his team to follow simple tactics."

"He would surely aim for Emily as the team's only healer. You Porters need to stay vigilant and provide timely support if she was attacked." He finished.

Wayne frowned, while the two other Porters were pale. This was noticed by Emily and she smiled at Wayne and spoke: "Wayne, do not worry, you guys need to take action only if there is a breakthrough in the front line."

Wayne calmed down after Emily's words and smiled back.

The goblins had started to move towards the team cautiously. Gary saw it and ordered "Everyone move in formation. Warriors defend and attack simultaneously, Mages attack them when they are at five meters distant and rangers support them too."

"Porters your main job is to safeguard Emily, do not let any goblin approach her from the sides or back." he finished.

Everyone was tensed, the battle started when the nine goblins were just about five meters from the Hunters team. The Mages Will and Elena took action as per orders and the rangers supported them.

"Squeak Squik" A sound came out from the goblin chief's mouth.

The instant the attacks hit the goblins was the moment every one of these goblins scattered under their chiefs order.

Gary frowned when he saw the situation and shouted "The goblin chief is using the strategy of spreading out. He and two of his henchmen are attacking us the front line."

"The warriors in the second line divide yourself into two groups."

"One shift left and the other shift right and handle at least one of the goblins each that have spread out. After taking care of them one group helps the Mages, while the other will help us."

"Mages handle the one each after this take the help of the warriors and take care of another goblin."

"Rangers take care of another after this support us."

"Porters you have to take care of the leftovers and help as per situation while defending Emily." Gary finished his orders just as the Goblin chief had just reached and he jumped while carrying his broad sword to parry it.

Everyone was busy the same instant. The battle was in chaos, everyone was busy with their own orders.

Mages were shooting attacks, whereas Sean was using both his guns to attack two goblins at the same time.

Suddenly the other ranger shouted out "One goblin incoming from the right. Porters, please help otherwise it will reach near the formation."

Wayne instantly strengthened his grip of the sword. He focused on the goblin and by the time it reached nearby, the ranger had already weakened it.

Wayne and the other porters found that it was a good opportunity and three of them broke out to attack it.

Wayne ran and shouted "Kill" before flinging his sword with every ounce of his energy inside his body along with the others while the ranger still supported them.

The goblin was also attacking them its mace and every fling by it was followed by the porters moving back while dodging and the ranger attacking it in the head with his gun.

Though he was engaged with the goblin, he did not lose his vision of the battle.

His senses were fully active and he could easily hear Elena the Mage asking someone "The Chief Goblin is too strong, would Gary be alright without our instant support?"

The answer came from Will the other Mages voice "Elena, we have to first finish of the henchmen before we can help Gary. You should know that until these small fries do not die, we will not survive the ordeal. Gary is right; we need to finish them off before supporting them."

"He should have the confidence of stalling for the time if he ordered us as such." Will finished.

Wayne had been distracted for a moment and could not dodge the goblins next attack in time.

"Crash"

Wayne was thrown off by the strength of the goblin and crashed far off. The attack had struck his left side of the waist and it was bruised with blood flowing out of it.

He had been able to decrease the strength of the attack only by parrying the attack timely.

But still, the attack was enough to knock him out for some time. He had fainted due to the pain.

*****

Wayne woke up with a start; he found that his body felt a cool sensation.

The first thing he saw was Emily healing him, while Sean was looking at him with red eyes.

The other hunters were resting near the side; he understood that the battle must have ended.

He moved his head to check out, but the site next threw him off. A body of one of the F-Rank Porters was just kept at one side.

He understood that someone has died. The porter was one of them who joined Wayne in the attack of the separated Goblin.

He looked towards Emily with a sad and questioning look. She replied in a sad voice "Just after you had been struck, the other Porters were distraught with fear and the goblin struck him at that moment."

"The attack fell on his head and by the time the others could push the goblin away from him, he had died." Emily finished while some tears could be seen in her eyes.

*****

Outside the Dungeon.

The security personnel of the Hunters Association had received news that S-Rank Hunters were on their way. They had been anticipating them and the moment a team of 12 Hunters arrived they could see that the Aura of this team was exceptional.

Two young Hunters with exceptional temperament, one man and another woman came to the security zone and then together with their team moved near the entrance of the dungeon.

"Maya, we will be entering with the core members first, we are not aware of the team limit so we cannot take chances with low rankers first." The young man with the most astounding aura said to the beautiful woman next to him.

Maya Nandi, the woman replied "John, why do we have to save them. This is a matter of the Hunters Association, not us?"

John Dsouza, the team's leader replied in a calm manner "This was a mission given by the Boss. There is someone stuck inside who the boss is interested in."

"What?" Maya shouted with a shocked expression.

"Shut up! We do not want anyone to know. This was assigned by the boss so we will complete the job and then inform him. That's all there is to it." John said with an irritated look.

A bulky middle aged guy came near them and spoke up "Boss, the security is cleared should we get going?"

John replied "Okay."

He turned to face his team who had bored looks and said angrily "He what the fuck are you guys doing? Fall in line immediately."

One of his team members spoke out in a bored manner "Boss, why are you so angry we can easily handle this. When has our guild messed up?"

But John became angry instead "What the fuck do you know? This dungeon is not the same. There is an eighteen-member low ranked Hunters team inside, and we are not sure how many of us will be able to enter. Do you think you can handle even an A-Rank dungeon alone or what?"

John next said to everyone "I will be entering first followed by Maya and Sam. You all will next follow them. If the gate closes and some of you are unable to enter, do not try to enter after this. I will take care of what happens inside but you fuckers have to wait here. Got it?"

Everyone replied, "Yes, John."

John then waved his hands ordered "Okay everyone follow me." while entering the dungeon.

Maya followed and the middle-aged man entered soon after. But just as they had entered, the dungeon gate started to dim down from its former glow. Every one of the other members was flabbergasted.

Only three of them could enter and they had to wait now.

"Fuck!" the others shouted out loudly with irritated voices.