Too Weak

Dakota stood on the other side of the Rift. He had never seen this.

Cameras and most electronics did not work inside a Rift. If any images came back they looked as if there was too much light in the picture and it was ruined.

He heard the tunnels in Rifts were vast. Their entire Raid team fit in the entrance of this one. With their arms out they could still not touch each other.

The tunnel was mostly flat where he could see.

The walls and ceiling and even the ground all had a faint glow. It was not exactly well lit. But there was a constant dull light.

Possibly two hundred feet wide as far as he could see.

Dakota knew the tunnels would bend about and get more complicated further in.

Three more Quests prompted.

Slay the Boss.

Slay enemies.

Survive the Rift.

All three offered Ability points as rewards. The first two also offered items. Dakota felt even more excited. Just how fast could he grow even more powerful in this place.

He knew Lesser Rifts, Rifts of grade E and D could stay open for weeks after being activated.

A tell-tale flame would seem to burn the Rift pillar. The Rift would become aflame before it burst.

He wondered what the Rift must look like outside right now. What that little fire must look like. Was it like a candle burning down? Or more like a fire rising from the ground?

The others seemed to have been scouting about and looking around.

At Booker's command our party moved out. Isaac and a few others were out in front. Sometimes going further than the party could see them. Returning with all clear signs.

After the first half hour of moving into the tunnels it was heard. A clamor ahead. Isaac returned and informed the Raid team that this was a Goblin Rift.

Booker reminded everyone that humanoid Riftbeasts were often the most dangerous after insects. They are clever. They usually use traps. Worst of all, it was not uncommon for them to keep the Ascended alive for a while to play with.

Pathetic traps started to be detected. Obvious pitfalls. Stones ready to fall from the ceiling. Spike traps around corners.

A few Goblins were even caught and killed by Isaac and his group.

Booker told everyone all that it was common for humanoid Riftbeasts to speak a language. But they could be understood by B rank and above. The Rift rune language could be read by anyone C rank and above.

Their words and shapes changed meaning every Rift. She told her team not to waist their time trying to translate anything.

Dakota's first real live sight of a goblin was pathetic. He did not feel like puking. He just felt the same as when he saw dead mice in glue traps back when he was a custodian.

It was unpleasant to see.

These goblins had a yellow green skin. Their arms were too long and their legs too short. Their hips were wide. This kept their legs apart. No doubt making it difficult to run.

Their heads were too large for their body. Their noses and ears were several times longer than a humans.

Their eyes were red and small. Booker told everyone they could see in the dark perfectly and had sharp ears. They were afraid of fire but apparently loved to use it in their games for people they capture.

"We know we aren't near their camps because we haven't started seeing torches or fire pits." She explained.

The mouth was the horror of these creatures. Split wide. As if their whole head could open for a meal and full of several dozen tiny sharp teeth.

Each corpse Dakota passed had a kind of grin that reminded him that it was normal for people to die in Rifts. Especially among the low ranks like himself.

He was a Demon Lord. He would not allow himself to die here. From weak Goblins. It was his beginning.

These things stood from 3 to 4 feet tall from the increasing number of corpses he saw. A couple had Daggers made with sharpened stones from the tunnel. One even had a spear with a similar stone head.

The Rift would close only when there were no beings alive within. Supposedly it was the ambient mana that kept the Rifts open. The fewer living creatures within and the weaker they were, the longer before the Rift opens to the world.

For whatever reason. When there were no living creatures with at least an E rank mana level then the Rifts would burst within a couple of hours.

The next half hour saw goblins popping up in ones and twos every other minute.

Booker said that that was pretty normal. They all saw Isaacs excellent abilities first hand then. It was exceptional to say the least.

He moved so quickly that it was difficult to see what he did exactly. He seemed to be using a dagger. It was clearly well made and since he had not taken any of the rented weapons Dakota assumed it must be something he owned personally.

Dakota had even managed to get his hands on little crystal shards with his rented hammer. Walking away with 20% of the profit from these crystals was normal enough for a Guild Affiliate.

Each little shard was worth about $4,000.

Dakota could not help but be pleased with his decision to join this Raid already.

Well worth hitting a few goblins in the head while they fled from Isaac and his group.

This was when everything stopped. After an hour of easy money.

Booker halted the team's advance. The scale of the tunnels had not changed. A wall was up ahead. A wall of stacked stones and a single entryway wide enough for one person at a time. Crude torches lined this stacked stone wall.

"This is where they plan to trap us. They wanna let some of us get through that way" Booker pointed at the narrow pass.

"Very likely a large group will be ready to swoop in after splitting us up and then they will have trapped the rest. Keeping them from retreating."

Booker called Isaac over to her. "Time to let loose a little" Booker smirked.

She waved her hands and kind of blue glow settle on Isaac. He flexed his fingers and his arms.

"I could blast beasties apart with blasts of force. But really, it's so much easier for me to throw a buff on a few guys" Booker explained as she cast the blue glow on a few more people.

It was clear from what these lucky few were saying that they felt stronger and faster. A couple younger guys were wishing they felt this way all the time.

Booker placed a few blue glows on the weaker members and even Sarge.

"It's a shield. A barrier between you and harm. It'll absorb most weaker attacks without a problem. But it gets weaker with each hit so be careful and don't get cocky or carried away in the moment." She continued to explain as she went to Dakota and all the magi and healer types and laying a blue glow on them.

Despite what she said. This spellcasting clearly took a lot out of her. She was sweating and almost panting by the end.

She waved her hand to move forward and at a signal Isaac jumped up a few feet and slammed the bottom of his dagger against the crude wall on the right side of the thin passage.

Saying he had the strength to crush a boulder must have been true.

The crude wall must have been designed to fall away. But the stones that Isaac hit launched themselves back and shattered.

Spraying the group of goblins hiding behind the wall with dangerous and sharp shards.

A second and third strike from the pommel of Isaac's dagger saw the job done and a large part of the wall fall back.

"Skriiiiiiieeee!"

The cries and screeches of a couple dozen goblins being squished under the heavy stones was savage. The sound got everybody's blood pumping.

Knowing that these goblins must have intended to push those same walls down on the Raid party as they began an ambush made everybody act.

Only a dozen or so goblins emerged from the wall. All of them injured or coughing from the dust that came up. All of them quickly cut down by Isaac and his team.

Booker's leadership and direction ensured nobody was crushed when the wall left of the narrow passage burst open with over forty goblins.

The battle was on then.

Booker let out a glowing red and blue ball of pure force. It split into several pieces and struck 4 different goblins dead. Each had been rocked as if by a very great impact. One had been pushed against the far wall so hard his head cracked loud enough to echo.

The Raid party charged.

Different talents tore through the goblins. A few weak gouts of flame erupted from one of the young men who had been boasting earlier. Thin streams from either hand took a few more goblins.

One of the older men who rented a spear had pierced through two goblins and struck a third in the foot.

Dakota managed to fend off one of the charging goblins with a crude stone axe.

He struck it hard with his hammer in the knee and then got it under it's jaw and watched as it coughed blood and fell back.

Dakota struck it in the face as it fell back. Before it hit the ground most of it's lanky ugly body seemed to shiver and a small shard was produced in the center of it's chest.

A second goblin came up from the side and would have hit Dakota in the head with his primitive stone club.

The club had stopped a breath away from his cheek at the blue glow Booker had given him.

Dakota used this saving grace to raise his hammer and strike the goblin on his ugly head.

It seemed stunned and so Dakota struck again. Then again. And again.

He did not stop beating it for several long seconds. Very aware that he may have just lost his life had he not been protected by Booker's magic.

Standing up, he realized what was happening around him.

His eyes went wide as he saw two large creatures with a couple dozen more goblins charging from behind the Raid party where they came from.

The two large brutes were heavy. Large bellies and large muscular arms. Looking so much like over sized goblins.

Bald heads and short, flat and stubby noses. It seemed apart from their large size which was one and a half the size of a human. Maybe 13 or 14 feet by Dakota's quick guess. The primary difference between these lumbering monsters were the two large tusks coming from their mouths.

"Trolls!" Screamed Sarge.

"Stay together everyone!" Booker yelled. "Focus fire attacks on the trolls! Charge back! we cannot let them surround us!"

Booker let out a small fire in her hand and threw it at one of the monsters.

It exploded just as it touched the creatures darker yellow flesh. S2urrounding all but it's legs in fire. It even caught a few of the nearby goblins.

Booker was sweating and breathing hard as everyone watched one of the trolls sizzle and pop before it's blackened corpse fell back and crushed another goblin.

The other troll charged forward.

The Raid party managed to push to the other side of the Troll and his goblins. If they chose. They could all run away to the Rift and find safety.

It was a melee though. Too many people were still trapped by too many goblins. If the Raid party chose to retreat. Some would have to be left behind.

Even so, a few of the Raiders fell. The troll had it's arm on fire. But it bent down so fast and bit the head off the young man who had been throwing streams of fire from his palms. The blue glow only served to let the poor man's last moments be dragged out.

The Trolls wide mouth spat out the man's mashed head at another person.

It grabbed one of the rented spears from the ground and impaled the blinded man.

Lifting him up in the spear and swinging it wide and fast so that he flew off and slammed against a tunnel wall.

The few dozen remaining goblins and the second troll might have been overcome by the Raid party. But a loud chanting was heard. It vibrated the ground and the rough and ugly language of the Rift was heard echoing from the small passage the party thought was a trap.

A large creature could be seen on the other side. A mask of skulls and a head dress of bony fingers showed a Shaman sending a few more dozen goblins forward.

The small creatures making their way through the narrow opening with relative ease.

Looking around it was clear what the outcome would be if the Raid party stayed.

There were just too many. They needed to fall back and regroup.

Sarge had been sending his refreshing green glow to others the entire time. Healing the cuts the cracks and even the stabs.

A single bolt of magic energy. A true bolt of power shot around all the goblins through the narrow passage and struck Sarge in the back. It shot straight through him and burnt Bookers leg so she could not run.

Dakota was in the thick of it. Depending on the blue glow of Booker's ward for his life as three goblins were attacking him.

He would no sooner strike one down as another would come to fight him.

He had heard the Shaman. He had seen the wave of reinforcements. He had seen the bolt and knew what happened to Booker and Sarge.

A few of the other began to retreat. Staying only to help anyone near them.

Booker seemed to be calling out and Isaac was there. Helping her up, holding her up, and rushing in to grab this person or that person.

They seemed to be gathering what remained of the party.

Dakota fought harder. He heard the chime in his ear over and again. He saw in the corner of his eyes the [Level Up] and [Quest Completed] windows popping up. He ignored them. Moving his arm as fast as he could just to survive.

Dakota could see the blue glow around his hands was dull and getting more dull as time passed.

Fear drove him then.

When he could not hear Booker anymore he desperately fought for a chance to steal a glimpse.

"...Leave them!" Booker's voice echoed over the clamor from a distance. "Anyone still near the wall is dead or will be soon!"

Fear and anger drove him then. Desperation to get out drove him.

His eyes wide he felt it. He looked over and he saw the large claw-like fingers piercing his shoulders.

He thought he would die right there as he felt several cuts on his belly and back.

The troll's fingers pulled and tossed him toward the narrow passage.

He saw clearly as his vision blurred. He saw very clearly. The Raid party was moving away.

Goblins were still pouring from the narrow passage way. He thought that there must be over a hundred of them swarming all around him.

As his vision came and went Dakota felt the little hands pulling him. Dragging him through the narrow passage.

He saw the terrific mask of the Shaman loom over him. Heard the crooked broken words of the creature.

Then he knew nothing.