“The others must be fighting the boss,” Arsted said. “If we help, we’ll be able to share the reward.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Renna said, as she unsheathed her sword.

  Renna was the first to run toward the screaming, with Arsted right next to her. I was a little slower. I couldn’t help being concerned about the scream. That couldn’t be good. I understood Arsted not being concerned but Renna was being too careless for my tastes. There was a good chance this boss had killed someone or severely injured them.

  I saw Renna and Arsted stop after leaving the tunnel. I understood why once I got out. This place looked like a boss’s lair. The room was giant. The top of the walls was bright blue, glowing like the rest of the cavern. There was a crystal hanging from the ceiling.

  That wasn’t all. In the center of the room were three dead adventurers. One was missing his head; another had a giant hole carved where his heart was, and the last one was split in half. Not far from them were three more adventurers fighting a monster.

  The monster was a dark shadowy black, standing over ten feet tall, with dark red wings protruding from its back. Its hands had a claw sticking out above both its wrists. I had no idea what this thing was, but it looked terrifying.

  Of the three adventurers left fighting, two were swordsmen and the other one was a mage. It looked like the three adventurers were beating this creature back. The two swordsmen were relentless in their assault, forcing the monster to block the attacks. The mage launched a fireball right as the two swordsmen moved out of the way.

  The monster disappeared and the fireball ended up hitting a wall and disappearing. The monster reappeared behind one of the swordsmen, who barely dodged the strike toward his back.

  “I can’t believe it, that’s a Morthis,” Arsted said. There wasn’t fear in his voice, only surprise. “I would bet the three dead adventurers were unprepared for its ability to teleport.”

  Good to note, some monsters can teleport. That confirmed to me that teleportation must exist in this world. I hadn’t heard anyone mention it but if a monster could do it, then anyone should be able to. At least in theory.

  The Morthis disappeared once more and appeared behind the mage. Unlike the swordsmen, the mage didn’t dodge the entire strike. Its claw tore a deep gash into his back, eliciting a scream of pain. The Morthis raised its other arm to finish the mage off but was forced back as one of the swordsmen threw his sword at it.

  With the Morthis distracted, the mage was able to heal his injuries and rejoin the fray. Toward the back of the room, I noticed some treasure chests. That would be where the real loot was. This Morthis looked strong, and I wasn’t sure if the three fighting it could defeat it alone.

  “Arsted, can we beat this thing?” I asked.

  “Yes. If you move the moment the Morthis disappears, you should be able to escape injury,” Arsted said.

  “Then let’s help them before it’s too late,” I said.

  “Finally,” Renna said.

  Renna and Arsted ran toward the Morthis. I stayed back and created two stone bullets. If we were lucky, maybe I could kill this thing since it may not know I’m here. The stone bullets whizzed across the cave. At the last possible second, the Morthis teleported.

  Without thinking, I used air to boost my speed and jumped forward. I turned around, expecting to see the Morthis. It was not behind me. There was a scream, and I turned to see one of the adventurers with a claw deep in his stomach, then he was tossed aside like trash.

  Arsted jumped forward with incredible speed. The Morthis blocked the attack and for a few seconds, they both attacked each other with blinding speed. Arsted quickly gained the advantage and hit air as the Morthis teleported again.

  Renna barely blocked the strike that would have taken off her head. I couldn’t help letting out a breath of relief for there had been no moment to warn her of the Morthis. She had taken Arsted’s warning seriously at least.

  I ran toward the injured adventurer and healed him up. This was one of the swordsmen and he was an elf. “Thanks,” the elf said, rubbing his stomach where his wound had been. “I’ve never been so happy to see another group of adventurers before.”

  “Everyone, look out!” Arsted called out.

  I looked up to see the Morthis had teleported away from the rest of us. The Morthis raised its hands. Gleams of light began to radiate from its hands. That couldn’t be good. I created an earth wall right as dark shadowy beams shot out of its hands. There was a barrage against my wall, with parts of the wall starting to get blasted apart. Whatever this Morthis was doing, it was shooting a lot of projectiles. One eventually pierced through my wall and flew above my head.

  Then it stopped. I allowed the earth wall to crumble. I looked around to make sure nobody had been hurt. The Morthis lowered its hands and teleported. It appeared next to Arsted, who easily blocked its attack, then teleported again. Soon, it was teleporting all over the place, making it hard to track.

  “This is new,” the elf said.

  I raised both my hands into the sky and pulled down. A bunch of sharp rocks appeared and blasted toward the ground. I made sure to avoid hitting the others. As I’d hoped, this forced the Morthis to stop as he deflected any rock that would hit him. I raised my hand and shot forward a stone bullet.

  The Morthis disappeared. Arsted ran toward one of the adventurers and kicked him aside, saving his life as the Morthis came from above and struck the ground. There was a grunt of frustration from the creature, who teleported right as Arsted went for the killing blow.

  This thing was fast, how were we going to kill it? The Morthis kept reappearing in random spots and if it wasn’t for Arsted, two of the adventurers would have been dead as he somehow tracked where the monster was going to appear, at least to a degree.

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  Renna rushed at the monster when it appeared in front of her. Her moves were swift as she swung at the monster’s head and then ducked as the Morthis countered with a claw. Renna tried to cut the arm off and missed. A claw came rearing toward her stomach. She jumped and kicked the arm aside while swinging her blade at the same time. Her blade connected with the creature’s chest. Unfortunately, The cut was light, and the monster disappeared before she could try to strike again.

  There was dark black blood on Renna’s sword. The Morthis appeared away from us and rubbed its chest, then let out a blood curdling scream. My body went numb, though I was able to maintain my balance. There were more shadowy projectiles that came our way.

  Focusing my mana, I raised my hand and created a wall of fire. It was the only thing I could think of that might help with the little time I had to react. The shadowy projectiles hit the wall of fire and disappeared. “Thank god…” the words left my lips. This was shadow magic, and while I didn’t know much about it, I was glad to see fire stopped the projectiles from hitting me.

  I released the fire wall and looked to see that most of the others were still standing. There were some injuries among the other two adventurers. The elf was still by me and unhurt. He ran forward when the Morthis appeared in front of me, forcing the monster to focus on him.

  Arsted came from behind and struck one of the wings off the Morthis, who teleported as the elf went to kill the monster. I launched a wave of fireballs, hoping to catch the Morthis off guard. The monster easily swept the fireballs aside with its claws. Damn. Here I was, hoping fire would be its weakness.

  When the Morthis teleported again, I saw Arsted rush in the direction where the creature ended up appearing. Arsted was inches away from killing the beast, yet it was able to teleport away in time to avoid the strike.

  Renna let out a yell and for a moment, I thought she’d been hit. I turned to see her sword hilt deep in the monster’s leg. She let go of her sword to dodge a claw and the Morthis vanished, only to reappear behind her. I launched a couple stone bullets, one of which blasted apart one of the Morthis’s hands, eliciting another terrifying shriek.

  The Morthis teleported. Arsted hurled his sword at that moment, which impaled the Morthis’s chest. Not wanting to risk it surviving, I fired more stone bullets, with one blasting a hole in its stomach and the other on the left side of the chest. Black blood splattered onto the ground and the monster made a strange sound, then went silent as its body slammed into the ground.

  Nobody moved, except for Arsted, who simply cleaned his blade before sheathing the weapon. If Arsted hadn’t been here… I wasn’t sure we’d all be alive. He’d saved the adventurers during the fight. Somehow, he was able to track the Morthis’s teleportation.

  Renna was the first to let out a whoop of joy, with everyone else joining in. Even I joined in the celebration and yelled. How could I not? This monster had been terrifying to fight. I was lucky the elf had been next to me when it tried to kill me.

  Eventually, the shouting and joy died down, and we all gathered. “Man, if not for you guys, I don’t think we’d be alive,” the mage said.

  “You fought well. Killing a Morthis is no easy feat,” Arsted said.

  “That was a Morthis?” The elf said.

  “I hope to never run into one again…” The mage said.

  “Thanks for your assistance,” the human swordsmen said. He reached out his hand. “My name’s Alek. The elf is Vinyar and our mage is Ladros.”

  “My name is Thorian.”

  “I’m Renna.”

  “I’m Arsted.”

  “I can’t believe you two kids could stand toe to toe with that thing,” Alek said.

  “Well, we’ve been training our whole lives,” I said with a laugh. Besides, other than Arsted, Renna and I couldn’t beat that thing alone.

  “There’s more to it than that,” Ladros said. He was looking at me as he spoke. “I’ve never seen a kid use magic like you.”

  “What do you expect him to say? He’s a talented kid and that’s that,” Alek said. He turned away from us to look at his dead comrades, then at the treasure lying beyond the fallen monster. “Without you, we would have died. Would you accept splitting the treasure evenly?”

  There was a brief silence. It took me a moment to realize Renna and Arsted were waiting for me to respond. I guess I was the party leader, though that had to be weird for Arsted considering our age difference and the fact I was only ten years old.

  “If my companions don’t have a problem with it, then I’m fine with it,” I said. As I expected, Renna and Arsted didn’t object. I bet they were going to back me no matter what decision I made.

  “Then let’s see what we got,” Alek said.

  The six of us walked to the treasure. I opened a chest. It had a variety of crystals, gold, red, and yellow. From what I remembered, these crystals could be used to craft magic items, weapons and armor. I didn’t know the value of each crystal.

  Another chest had some weapons and a ring. Arsted was able to verify the ring had magical properties. What that was, we weren’t sure. When I analyzed it, all I could tell was that there was mana. If we could figure out what it did, we could sell it for more. I was about to put the ring on when Arsted stopped me.

  “It’s better to sell the ring without knowing what it does,” Arsted said.

  “Why’s that?” Renna asked before I could.

  “An unknown magical item can fetch a good price. If this ring ends up being something that isn’t useful, then it won’t sell for much.”

  “And if the ring is powerful?” I asked.

  “Then we’ll lose out on the true value. It’s a risk either way. With how focused you are on getting money, I recommend not finding out what this ring does.”

  I studied the ring. Right now, money was more important. What were the odds of it being a powerful item? If Arsted was telling me to sell it without testing it, then it sounded like strong rings were rare. The Morthis was strong but that didn’t mean the treasures were going to be rare or valuable. In the end, I pocketed the ring and went with Arsted’s advice. I was going to sell this ring regardless.

  Once we got our side of the treasure, Arsted calculated what we would make, and it was far more than I expected. It was an estimated ten gold. That was more than any single quest would give us back at the fortress. That made this trip worth it alone. Perhaps we could move on from the fortress and make our way toward South Ornea.

  We piled our treasure together. I used earth magic to create a large box and floated it off the ground. The other adventurers did something similar. Their mage, Ladros created a ball of earth to enclose all the treasure and floated it behind him.

  It made me wonder how parties moved this amount of treasure without a mage. Did they do multiple trips? That was the only way I could see how. Either way, we all had our treasures, and it was time to leave.

  Arsted took the lead and cleared out any monsters on our way out. I was thankful for that; it allowed me to focus on the treasure and not have to fight. Renna wasn’t as happy about the arrangement, for she wasn’t quick enough to see the monsters before Arsted killed them.

  Thanks to Arsted, we made good time leaving the dungeon. When we walked outside, it was dark. All of us were tired, except for Arsted. I didn’t know much about demons, but he looked as if he could keep going. It was nice to have someone strong on our side, especially for what was going to come next.

  With this money, we could hire some help. Then we were going into South Ornea. The small town called Mahl was close to the border of South Ornea. I doubted we’d find help there, yet it was close enough to at least try.

  We rested for the night, and come morning, we were ready to leave. Before we did, Alek came up to us. “Thanks again for your help. I hope we can meet again someday.”

  “Likewise,” I said. I saw Alek look hesitant as if he was going to ask us something but changed his mind. He waved as we got on our horses. From what Arsted said, we were going to be dropping our horses off at Mahl.

  We rode off, leaving the other adventurers and the dungeon behind.