The halberdier, Ser Gronnel, let out a sound like an avalanche.

  The swordsman, Ser Doriath, raised his greatsword and pointed it directly at us.

  "Let's do this!" I shouted.

  Lothras was already moving, shield raised, charging directly at Ser Gronnel. "Over here, you oversized lawn ornament! Chain Aggression!"

  The halberdier's head swiveled toward him. It took a step forward, the impact shaking the floor, and swept its weapon in a horizontal arc that would have bisected a normal player.

  Lothras slid under it, came up inside the statue's guard, and slammed his shield into its leg with a Radiant Shield Strike, using every ounce of strength he had. The impact staggered the stone guardian.

  Ser Gronnel turned fully toward the paladin, forgetting about the rest of us.

  Good.

  "Athos, with me!" I drew and fired at Ser Doriath, the arrow pinging off its stone shoulder.

  Sonet of Valor washed over us as Athos and I engaged the statue together; Kara was on point, as always.

  Ser Doriath was fast, but it was still limited by its stone statue form.

  Its greatsword came down in a vertical strike that cratered the floor where Athos had been standing a heartbeat before. He'd Quick Stepped clear, already counterattacking with Horizontal Slash.

  The blade carved a groove in the statue's arm. Sparks flew and stone chipped away.

  I circled, looking for weak points. There were cracks on the body, where the dark energy that was likely animating the statue was pulsing through.

  "The cracks!" I called out. "Focus the cracks!"

  Athos saw the same thing I did, his next attack targeting the statue's knee. Saltstone Edge carved deep, and for the first time, Ser Doriath staggered.

  -416!

  The guardian recovered with terrifying speed, sweeping its blade in a wide arc that forced both of us back.

  I used Leap Attack to vault over the swing, firing a Burning Arrow at the apex. The flames licked at the statue's face, but they weren’t very effective.

  -168!

  -11!

  -11!

  …

  “It has huge fire resistance!” I shouted.

  From across the chamber, I heard Lothras grunt as Ser Gronnel's halberd slammed into his shield. The impact drove him back several meters.

  -89!

  "Lothras!" Kara's Healing Notes shifted toward him, the harmonic energy keeping his health steady.

  "I'm fine!" he shouted back. "Focus on your target!"

  Ser Doriath pressed its attack. The greatsword came down again and again, each strike powerful enough to shatter stone and bone both.

  Athos and I danced around it, never staying in one place, never giving it a chance for a clean hit.

  I dropped a Web Trap in its path. The statue stepped into it and stumbled, silk wrapping around its ankle. Only for a second, but a second was enough.

  "DPS!" I shouted.

  Athos activated Comet. He rose up towards the ceiling of the chamber, engulfed in blue fire, then he came crashing down with the force of a star.

  -518!

  I added my own damage, Piercing Shot connecting perfectly with the statue’s weak spot.

  -369!

  The Elite’s health was dropping rapidly, and right now it was about to lose another massive chunk.

  “Three-Blade Execution!” Athos activated his ultimate skill when he used Comet.

  The first blade came crashing down.

  -627!

  Then the second.

  -632!

  And the final one.

  -686!

  The statue roared, angry in contrast to his calm carved face. Quick Step carried me clear of the next overhead strike, and I loosed a full-power Fan of Arrows into its body.

  -68!

  -68!

  -68!

  …

  Then Athos was there, Blade Rush bringing him closer to the statue's back. His blade punched through the stone between its shoulder blades, and Ser Doriath's stone skin cracked.

  Five percent.

  I drew back, charged a Piercing Shot, and aimed for the crack Athos had created.

  The arrow flew true.

  -402!

  It punched through the weakened stone and exploded out the other side, carrying with it a shower of granite fragments and necrotic energy.

  Ser Doriath crumbled before he could finish his last attack.

  The statue collapsed, stone falling away in great slabs until nothing remained but rubble and dust.

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  "One down!" Kara shouted. "Keep it up!"

  We turned toward Lothras.

  Ser Gronnel had driven the paladin into a corner, its halberd rising and falling in relentless strikes. Lothras was blocking everything, his shield held, but he couldn’t find an opening to strike back.

  "Coming in!" Athos called.

  We hit the halberdier from behind like a storm.

  My arrows found the gaps in its armor while Athos carved at its legs. The statue tried to turn, to face the new threats, but Lothras seized the opportunity to counterattack.

  "Radiant Edge!"

  The light blade carved through the statue’s shield.

  -768!

  "Smite!"

  -228!

  Another strike, this one to the hip. More stone crumbled away.

  The three of us fell into a rhythm. Lothras held its attention while Athos and I dismantled it piece by piece. Kara's buffs kept us fighting at peak efficiency, her healing ensuring no one fell below critical.

  Ser Gronnel fought back with desperate fury, its halberd sweeping in wide arcs that forced us to constantly reposition.

  But it was three against one now, and the outcome was inevitable.

  The final blow came from Lothras.

  As the statue raised its halberd for one last strike, the paladin stepped inside its guard, shield leading. He caught the weapon's haft on the shield's edge, deflecting it wide, and drove his sword up into the guardian's chest.

  "Fall," he said quietly.

  Ser Gronnel Trynd did.

  The statue toppled backward, stone limbs shattering on impact. The pale fire in its eyes flickered once, twice, then went dark.

  Silence fell over the chamber.

  For a long moment, none of us moved. We stood among the rubble, breathing hard, processing what we'd just accomplished.

  I shook my head, a grin spreading across my face despite my exhaustion. "Not bad for a four-man party."

  Athos sheathed his sword and walked toward the massive door. "Shall we see what they were guarding?"

  As if in answer, the stone door began to move.

  Ancient mechanisms groaned to life, gears turning somewhere deep within the walls. Dust cascaded from the frame as the massive slab slowly swung inward, revealing the darkness beyond.

  A notification appeared in my vision.

  You have discovered the Trynd Sanctum!

  "Well," Kara said, peering into the shadows beyond the threshold, "I suppose we should see what's waiting for us on the other side."

  “Let's check the drops first,” I pointed at the remnants. Both statues had dropped a single item.

  A powerful and versatile skill, definitely something most Conjurers and Acolytes would love to get their hands on.

  “I want this one,” Lothras was suddenly showing uncanny interest toward the rune.

  “You can’t use it,” I pointed out.

  “No kidding,” he said sarcastically. “I need it for a friend.”

  The rest of us glanced together. “So… if you get this, you will no longer have dibs on the loot from the boss, right?”

  He hesitated, looking into the darkness of the boss chamber, then back at the skill rune.

  “Sure,” he answered after a while, although he didn’t look like he was certain it was the best decision he could have made.

  “Check this out!” Athos went back for the other item that had been dropped.

  This was the first two-handed sword I saw in the game, and I was surprised to see that even Swordsmen could use them; I thought they were exclusive to Berserkers.

  “That is a strong weapon,” I stated. It was just a Rare, but the damage was serious, it gave bonus points to strength, and it even came with a weapon skill. Verdugo’d go crazy for a weapon like this.

  “You’ll keep it, Athos?” Kara asked.

  “I’m not one to fight with two-handed weapons,” Athos admitted. “Besides, I like my sword’s bonuses and Saltstone Edge too much, for now.”

  So Saltstone Edge was his weapon’s ability?

  It was a similar skill to the Emerald Bane’s Emerald Slash, so I could have guessed that, but I never really gave it much of a thought. It must have been a level 15 Epic sword as well.

  “Let’s put it in the ‘sell’ category, then,” Lothras said. “That weapon could easily be worth 15 gold coins. Together with the cutlass we’re almost at 20, netting 5 each.”

  Sounded good for all of us.

  “Now, shall we?” Kara asked. We nodded in unison.

  Lothras retrieved his torch and stepped forward, the light barely penetrating the darkness ahead.

  Whatever secrets House Trynd had buried in their deepest tomb, we were about to uncover them.