Trapped In A Hole (4)

"Hop on." I grab Shinobu by the hand and urge her to jump on my back.

"But–"

"Just get on my back!" I raise my voice to prevent her from arguing with me any further. She begrudgingly obliges. Considering how much weight I lug around during our training with Jezabel, she's hardly enough to even slow me down.

"You too, Sam." Travis inelegantly picks up the earth mage under his arm and carries her like a piece of luggage. The pistons that have grown from my hips pump tirelessly up the gentle slope back to the surface. I check my status and see that my stamina is recovering almost as fast as I'm using it.

[Rule number one: cardio.]

Just as we arrive on the second floor, Jim stops.

"We're surrounded." His voice is grave. My heart jumps up into my throat at this revelation. I look to the front and see thirty or forty Goblins forming a wall.

"I hate it when you're right," Yuki grumbles to my left.

"How do you think I feel?" I shout incredulously. Predicting things like this always makes it seem like I brought it to fruition. I know it's completely ridiculous, but I feel partly at fault for our current predicament.

"We're switching up the formation!" Travis shouts over the increasingly loud noise growing around us. "Yuki, come up to the front with Josh and whittle down the goblins. Nick and I will hold off whatever is coming at us from behind! Sakura and Jim, I need you to move closer to the center to protect the mages!"

We wordlessly get into position. I can feel the fear dripping off the people around me. No matter how experienced Ironhead is, there's no guarantee that we'll make out out of here alive.

"Shield!" Sakura gives Yuki and Josh an extra layer of protection just in time to intercept the hail of arrows raining down upon them.

"Accelerate!" Several large boulders rise from the ground and block the twenty-foot wide tunnel behind us. Hopefully, this should slow down the monster hunting us while we deal with the Goblins.

"Liquefaction!" Josh stomps down with one foot, and a wave of earth rolls out in front of him. The Goblins shift and stagger, giving Yuki the chance to make her move.

"Adrenal Flood!" Yuki's veins bulge in her one arm. She bolts forward like a hammer preparing to slam against an anvil. Just as she's about to make contact with the line of shields, she drops another spell.

"Skeletal Reinforcement!"

And another.

"Muscular Enhancement!" Her eyes glow white from the numerous spells interacting inside of her. "Hydraulic Puuuunch!"

The massive amount of air that she's displacing with her movements causes noticeable vibrations all around me. Her fist collides with one of the Goblins at the center of the formation and absolute pandemonium breaks out from within their ranks.

'Bang, BANG! Bang, BANG!'

Each blow is followed up by an even more devastating impact as her skill activates against their small bodies. Well-armored Goblins go flying left and right as she runs around like a bull in a china shop.

"Slash!" Josh arrives at the front several moments after her and cuts apart multiple monsters with each swing. The Goblins' flanks are then peppered by our archers to keep them from moving smoothly to help the center.

[If they're giving it their all, then I might as well do the same.]

I dump the three hundred fifty or so points I've saved up over the last couple of weeks into my status. About two hundred points are allocated to endurance, one hundred to agility and fifty to strength. I also pull out one strengthening potion and one agility potion. While waiting for the beast, I pop the corks. I take deep breaths to calm down the explosive energy swirling around my body when I suddenly feel a light tap on my shoulder.

"I've got your back," Shinobu assures me. She's shaking slightly from fear, but I can feel her resolve.

"Thanks."

"They have reinforcements!" Jim shouts. I look back and see twenty more goblins running up to bolster their ranks. With Yuki and Josh going all out, I'm not sure they can last long enough to kill the additional monsters.

'Tsk.'

I click my tongue in annoyance.

[It feels like the whole dungeon is conspiring to kill us.]

With the sudden change in our situation, we need to make a decision and fast.

"Travis, head up front to help Yuki and Josh. I'll hold the rear with Shinobu."

"You're out of your goddamn mind!" he howls. "There's no way I'm leaving you here to fight that thing solo!"

"That's fine. We can always just stand around and watch Yuki die," I reply coldly. Even from far away, I can see numerous wounds accumulating on her body. The white garb she wears is slowly being dyed red. Travis turns, and I can see his fist clenched in frustration. A crack appears in the wall of his mind. Sensing his indecision, I give him a little push. "Besides, I won't be fighting it alone. I'll have Shinobu with me."

I grab her shoulder and flash a bright smile as reassurance. Her eyes sparkle at my words. She's no longer a deadweight on our team. Then her brow furrows, and she gives me a nod in confirmation.

Travis looks back and forth between Yuki and me. Sweat beads up on his forehead.

"Shinobu, give him the Elixir." Her lips press together into a straight line. Begrudgingly, Shinobu hands over the magic potion, knowing that now's not the time to argue about money. "Here, I think Yuki could use this."

His last string of hesitation snaps, and he sprints over to the army of Goblins.

"Frozone!" Travis gathers a ball of mana in his hand and throws it in the middle of a group of Goblins. A red magic circle flashes across the ground, which precedes a wave of ice that freezes everything within a several-meter radius. "HAAAA!"

His axe swings down upon the incapacitated foes creating a sparkling mist of ice.

"Yuki!" he cries. The red berserker pauses her onslaught momentarily to look at her leader. "Catch this."

Travis hands her the Elixir. His axe slices through the air, deterring the wavering monsters from approaching. The white light in Yuki's eyes fades as she gazes at the bottle of hope. Without wasting any time, she snatches the Elixir from his hand and runs back towards the archers so she can safely imbibe it. Her hand trembles. Using her teeth, she pops off the top of the small glass bottle and chugs the contents.

"AAHHHHHH!" A guttural scream rips apart Yuki's throat. She grabs the nub where her arm used to be as pain ripples through her body. The flesh at the end of her severed arm begins to boil. Bone, nerves and blood vessels burst out to begin forming her new arm. Muscle grows over the bones and is then steadily covered in new skin. The gruesome process doesn't last more than a minute. Her new arm has a reddish hue from the sensitive new skin.

Yuki opens and closes her hand. As the pain fades, shock moves in to take its place.

"Ha... Haha!" A smile stretching from one ear to the other spreads across her face. "It's back! I got my arm back!"

She jumps up and whirls around to face the newly reinforced army of Goblins.

"And now's the perfect time to take it for a test drive." The ground grunts and groans from the force of her acceleration. A whirlwind fills the air with dust as the blood-red banshee flies into battle. Completely rejuvenated by the healing effects of the Elixir, Yuki is at her peak.