Gorbel yelled out in a loud voice that echoed down the cavern.

"I'll draw the big one off to the right, it's in the lead.

Asti and Fangrim, sorry mates, you can at least taunt and you each have shields.

It’s up to you to draw the other two to the left.

Keep them busy and let people gain some room.

We have to split the damn things up, and get away."Milo felt things slowing down.

Or rather, his thoughts sped up.

This happened now and then when he concentrated on a problem.

This is what made he and his team able to hack so easily into systems.

When plugged into their machines and using their special programs they processed things far faster than a normal human.

And right now, Milo had a problem to solve.

Split up, the miners weren't going to be able to take down the monsters, the best they could do was slow them down or split them up.

The danger was if the lurkers followed them as a group to the more populated mines.

They could try to delay two and fight one, but with just a shield, sooner or later Fangrim or Asti was going to get a broken arm or knocked down.

Gorbel on his own against the big one might have the same problem.

No matter how he looked at it, people were going to die.Whirling BonesSpectral SpineThrowing bones into the air from a pouch, the spells created a whirling haze around Milo as a long, spectra whip seemed to grow like some strange sort of tail.

Some of the miners paused.

Milo yelled out.

"Keep to the plan, but I'm with Gorbel." Between the two of them, they might be able to kill one.

But Gorbel on his own was a dead man.                        =*=The halfling was a hundred feet up the tunnel already, followed by the stumbling ranger.

The mage pauses and looked back.

"Elvarion, I'm staying.

Go keep our rogue out of trouble." The ranger didn't bother to argue, he knew that look in her eye.

"Good luck Belinda."Belinda had hated the plan to explore in the dark looking for monsters.

But she had played with her friends since they had been seven years-old and running around in EOQ2 killing bixies and womp rats in the newbie zones.

She hated their crazy ideas but sometimes things worked out and they had a great time.

This wasn't one of them.

GENESIS seemed a lot more real, and when NPCs died it just felt wrong.

Losing two of their group was bad enough but they'd limp back after a day and they might even get their gear back.

She wasn't sure about the NPC's.

They seemed so real.

There had been that time that the goblin raiders had chased them back to a village.

Lots of people had died.

That village was still half empty a week later and there had been harsh words cast at them.Rufus and Frosty were already dead and Elvarion was wounded and had lost his bow.

So they weren't gaming the rest of the weekend anyway.

She lost nothing by helping, although she'd miss her Healer's Staff and Robe of Twilight's End if she lost them.

As she moved closer to one of the groups of miners, she saw one of them begin casting spells.

They felt a lot more powerful than hers.

He must be dumping a ton of mana into them.

It looked like a defensive shield and some type of weapon.

The way the long bony whip moved back and forth made him look like he was wagging a tail.She didn't have long to ponder the strange mage, as the stone lurkers left the tunnel, the huge one that had killed Rufus in the lead.

Bone Crusher Elite Level? Stone Lurkermassive armor, massive mitigation, bone shattering attacks