The first goblin prowled forward. Thin nostrils flared like he was sniffing out the strongest opponent, and then his red eyes landed on Inara.

  She sucked in a breath. They had already killed so many, but there was no telling how many more remained. It was entirely possible that she faced her death. A slow, painful death of a thousand cuts.

  But something turned the goblin’s head. Rather than rush towards Inara, the goblin slinked closer to Virgil.

  Virgil? If anything, he was the weakest of the party. And yet, the goblin cocked its head as though listening to something Inara couldn’t hear.

  The monster snarled and rushed at the scholar. Inara feared it would shred the thin man to pieces—

  —only for the shadow of a goblin to emerge from Virgil’s side and slash back, so vigorously that the goblin (the real one) recoiled.

  The shadow was weaker than the goblin, so the monster was able to knock it aside and dig its claws into Virgil’s unprotected skin. Rather than picking up any of the armor in the Warden’s closet, Virgil had insisted on reclaiming his thin cotton robes; they fit him perfectly, but they did next to nothing against an attack.

  The next goblin moved more quickly, following in the footsteps of the first.

  A second shadow-goblin emerged from Virgil’s side and both shadows attacked. They didn’t hit hard enough to do more than distract the enemy, and the goblin still got a nasty strike in against Virgil’s leg, but this was only the beginning. His shadow army was growing.

  The fifth goblin tipped the scale. The counterattacks of five shadow goblins were enough to kill the creature.

  Defeated level 6 Goblin! EXP +100

  The death of the goblin sent the horde into a frenzy. They leaned into the only strategy they knew, which was to swarm the greatest threat, which in this case didn’t mean the highest-level adventurer.

  It meant Virgil.

  Only, with every additional attacker, Virgil gained another shadow. Until his shadow guard was so numerous that the goblins could not even approach before they were cut down.

  Defeated level 6 Goblin (x24)! EXP +2400

  Your turn!

  All that remained were the first four goblins, weakened but not killed by Virgil’s shadow army.

  James was tempted to throw a fireball. If Virgil got caught in the splash damage, would that be so bad? The man was fucking terrifying, and if Inara was right that he was a dungeon construct destined to turn on them, the sooner they got him out of the way, the better.

  The Hero wrestled his fear and shoved it back where it belonged. What really scared him was the horde of goblins, and the fact that without Virgil, the entire party would have wiped. What possible defense was there when he couldn’t even move on an enemy turn?

  Virgil had saved their lives, and James needed to understand how.

  James rushed into battle. As Virgil’s party member he was able to step through the shadow-goblins as if they weren’t there. With a big sweep of his axe, he made short work of the remaining goblins.

  The weapon sang as it drank their blood.

  Defeated level 6 Goblin (x4)! EXP +400

  Infernal Affinity +4

  James shuddered. His infernal affinity was now double that of his fire, and he could feel it growing within himself like a ball of tar. He hated it, but at the same it made him feel more powerful. Like he could tap into that affinity.

  And what was that old saying? Know your enemy?

  The haze of combat lifted, and all of Virgil’s shadow-goblins disappeared with it.

  Desiree came running. “What was that?! How cool! I want to learn!”

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  Inara followed more slowly after her, silent but with her head cocked to show that she, too, was curious.

  Virgil winced, embarrassed by the sudden attention. “It’s just one of the skills from my college days,” he said. “It’s called Counter Theory, and it’s mostly used in debates. When I’m preparing my work, I can use it to head off the other person’s arguments, or during a debate I can use it to quickly come up with something I didn’t think to look up ahead of time. It’s not very useful on its own since it only has about twenty percent of the power of what instigates it, but it was usually enough to get me thinking, and I could fill in the blanks on my own.”

  James blinked. That sounded so mundane compared to the absolute carnage the scholar had just unleashed.

  “I want to learn it! Teach me! Why don’t I have it on my skill list?” Desiree was furiously scrolling through her list of available skills, not seeing it or anything like it.

  Virgil cracked a smile. “Sure. You just have to spend four years in a library first, learning and preparing reports and dissertations.”

  Desiree froze, a look of pure horror splashed across her face. “Never mind, it’s not worth it.”

  Inara pursed her lips. “If you’ve only ever used it in a scholarly context,” she asked, “what inspired you to change the usage here? Surely you’ve never done this before?”

  Virgil froze like a rabbit on an open road.

  Even James winced at Inara’s outward suspicion. He got it, he really did, but the bottom line was that Virgil had just saved them with that maneuver.

  “I had a feeling it would work,” Virgil said, his voice small and uncertain.

  Inara stared at him a moment longer. She could tell he was holding back, but it wouldn’t do any good to press him. Not here.

  She nodded. “Good work,” she said. “Let’s keep moving.”

  “I want to go cautiously,” James said, stepping forward. “We can use a mix of my fireballs and Virgil’s hellflame to clear the grass. That way the goblins don’t have anywhere to hide.”

  “It’ll take time to do it that way,” Inara said. She gestured at the library, which was not exactly close. “We have a long ways to go, and you’ll have to meditate between spells.”

  “That’s fine,” James said. “You need time to heal up anyway.” In a lower voice, he added, “And my second quest requires a full clear of the dungeon, remember? We need to make sure we don’t miss any goblins.”

  At last, she nodded. She had forgotten about his quest, and she knew all too well how important quest completion was to a Hero’s success. The quest rewards were greater than anything else a person could find in Grimora, and if he missed out on those, there was a good chance he would fail against the Demon King.

  James explained his plan to the rest of the party, and they got to work. It was slow going. James would cast a fireball, then meditate while he waited for the ring of grass to ignite and then die down. He kept Virgil in reserve for when he ran out, but that actually never became necessary. Which was good, because James was honestly a little nervous about what it would mean to be surrounded by a ring of hellflame. Would his infernal affinity resonate with it and help him somehow? Or would it feel too similar to hell itself?

  He shuddered. He did not want to find out if he didn’t have to.

  And he didn’t have to. What he didn’t account for in his initial plan was that his fireball ignited a ring of grass that was five feet deep and encircled their entire clearing. That meant that with every fireball, the ring expanded, the circumference of their circle increased, and they burned through that much more grass.

  But faster didn’t mean quickly, so Desiree was braiding strands of tall grass together while she waited.

  Defeated level 6 Goblin! EXP +100

  Every now and then, a trickle of experience flowed through the party.

  While he meditated, James considered his status.

  Name: James

  Race: Human

  Class: Hero

  Level: 17

  HP: 200/200

  MP: 600/600

  EXP: 200/22,500

  Stat Points Available: 30

  STR: 30

  AGI: 30

  INT: 61

  WIS: 60

  CON: 30

  Skill Points Available: 4

  Skills: Meditation 1, Mana Bolt 2, Vital Pulse 1

  Fire Affinity: 6

  Infernal Affinity: 13

  The goblins hadn’t given much EXP on their own, but after so many of them, he’d leveled up a few times. He almost dropped all his stat points into INT and WIS, as he’d been doing, but he paused. James had been using the axe a lot lately, and that was more of a strength weapon. Agility, too, since that helped him aim the heavy thing. Not to mention, using a melee weapon put him in closer range to get hit, so an addition to his constitution wouldn’t go amiss.

  With a sigh, he allocated his points: ten to strength, ten to agility, and ten to constitution.

  Immediately, he felt stronger, faster, and healthier. James let out a huff that was half surprise and half amusement, and he tossed the axe softly into the air, letting the handle spin in his hand.

  Emboldened, he tossed it higher, trying to spin it and catch it by the handle again before it dropped.

  It didn’t work. James nearly caught the axe by the blade, noticed in time and stepped back, swearing.

  The axe landed in the dirt like a twisted form of Excalibur.

  Ok. He wasn’t that strong yet. As he yanked the weapon back out of the ground, an uncomfortable thought occurred to him. What would happen if he did nick himself by mistake? The axe drank the blood of its enemies and wouldn’t rest once it had had a taste. Could it turn on him?

  James gazed at the swirling script carved into the black wooden handle. The axe increased his infernal affinity with every kill, and as his affinity grew, he felt like he gained greater understanding of the axe. It very well could turn on him, so he’d just have to not cut himself on its blade. Easy, right?

  He shook his head and switched gears. His mana was high enough to continue his work.

  “Fireball!” Another ring of grass cleared, inching them closer to the library.

  James sighed. This was going to be a long day.