There were no guards at the cave entrance which was highly bizarre. Even the Rakk have guards in their nests. I mentioned this to Asmodeus. His response… “We cannot afford to let fear of the unknown prevent us from carrying out our duty to remove this terrible scourge from the world.” Which was a fair point.

  Agaroth bounded over and said “Aye, alright. Calm down there, mister high and mighty. Twink, show ‘em what you can do.” Everybody looked at each other confused. Kiyui stepped forwards and very politely asked “Could everybody stand in a circle and hold hands please?” Phoenix said “If you start giving a motivational speech then I am leaving.” Chloe grabbed her hand saying “Oh shut up and give the lad a chance.”

  Phoenix shrugged and went along with it. She then gestured to me to take her left hand. Her hand felt so very frail. It was easy, given Phoenix’s sarcastic and dismissive attitude, to forget that she had any difficulties at all. Most people would have given up adventuring with a hand that didn’t work. She just straps a shield to her wrist and carries on. She is truly remarkable.

  We all held hands in the circle. Kiyui closed his eyes and said the words “Connected voice.” His voice was so delicate. It was even softer than Tilda’s. Most spellcasters sound so intense when casting a spell. He sounded like he was singing a lullaby to a baby.

  As he said the words, what felt like a gust of wind travelled around the circle and then all fell silent. Kiyui opened his eyes and looked at Agaroth saying “it is done.” Agaroth said “Crackin’… watch this.” He proceeded to jog off down the hill. He travelled a good distance… almost to the limits of my bow’s reach before he turned around. When he did, he said “You cunts notice anythin’?”

  He didn’t shout it; he didn’t even say it loudly. In fact, he spoke quieter than normal. But we could hear him as if he was stood right next to us. As Agaroth was walking back Kiyui explained that his spell links all of us so that we can hear each other’s voices clearly no matter our distance. As long as we did not travel more than five hundred metres away from Kiyui our voices would travel to each other even through solid rock.

  Agaroth said “I told ya he’d be useful.” It was hard to argue with that. Being able to clearly communicate in battle situations is an incredible asset to have. Even Phoenix turned around and said that she had never come across anybody with such a spell and asked him where he had learned it. Kiyui said “I didn’t learn it from anywhere. It’s just something I’ve always been able to do.” Which was odd. Learning spells takes time. Creating them is practically unheard of. Agaroth was right. This boy was certainly going to be useful. I got the distinct feeling that there was a hell of a lot more to him than simply being a prostitute.

  Asmodeus and Chloe put their helmets on and Tilda lit two torches. She handed one to Chloe. Chloe had left her great sword strapped to her back as it was impractical to use such a large weapon in a confined cave. This left her with a spare hand to hold a torch. Kiyui said the words “guiding light” and a small white ball appeared to float next to him. Asmodeus was quick to say “Light that does not require a hand to hold it. We can certainly make use of that.” He then looked at me. “After you.”

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  I was the trap expert so me going first made sense. I could also see very well in the dark, so I was able to go ahead of the torch light. Which was very useful in a cave such as this. The goblins will see any torch light from quite far away. It can’t be helped as humans need light to see. So having somebody who can go slightly ahead of the torches reduces risk, albeit slightly. I never told the party that I could see beyond the torchlight, but it was certainly helpful.

  We walked for what felt like forever through a long narrow passageway. There were no traps, no guards, nothing. I could still smell the blood. Agaroth began to question whether I had tracked them back to the wrong cave. He didn’t phrase it quite so politely though. Tilda defended me however, she said “His tracking has never been wrong before, if he says they are in here, then they are in here.” Which was very sweet of her. I was getting concerned however. No guards or traps this far into the nest… something about this wasn’t right.

  The passageway opened up into a very large open cavern. It was so large that even I couldn’t see to the other end. Agaroth asked me “You pickin’ up any enemies in here?” “Not yet.” I replied. So, he turned to Kiyui “Twink, light this place up would ya?”

  Kiyui gestured upwards and the light that had been hovering next to him flew up to the highest point at the centre of the room. He gently whispered “Illuminate” and the little ball of light started shining steadily brighter until the entire cavern became visible. Kiyui then added “Don’t look directly at it, it does get quite bright.” This boy was turning out to be more and more useful. I could tell that Phoenix was becoming quite intrigued by his spells. She turned to him and said “Impressive.”

  The cavern was absolutely huge. It had six other tunnels leading out of it, not including the one we had just entered from. It had another tunnel that simply went straight down into the floor and there was a large ledge about twenty feet up that ran along one side of the cavern.

  I could feel rumbling in the floor. After a few seconds the sound of clattering metal could be heard coming from one of the tunnels. I turned to the others and said “They’re coming. Phoenix, lift me up to that ledge, please.” Phoenix said “levitate” and I was up on the ledge in no time. I then continued “They’re coming from the third tunnel from the left. I can’t tell their number but they definitely outnumber us.”

  Asmodeus took over at this point “Chloe and I shall hold the centre and halt their advance. Agaroth take the right. Tilda, the left to prevent flanking. Phoenix & Dwynfel, pick off anything that gets past!” Kiyui was stood at the back, clutching his quarterstaff, unsure what to do with himself.

  Asmodeus then remembered our latest addition and went on “Kiyui, your skills are as of yet unknown to me. Stand by the entrance. Protect yourself. If you can assist from range then do so, if not, then simply defend yourself if anything gets close to you.” Feiffer jumped down from around his neck, Kiyui then bowed his head and said “Understood.” Agaroth said “Ya don’t have to fuckin’ bow every time you address him, he’s not a fuckin’ king.”

  Chloe chimed in and said “He won’t come with us again if you keep being an arsehole!” “Ack, he’s fine. He loves it here. Right, twink?” replied Agaroth. Kiyui once again said “I am honoured to assist you on this quest.” Honestly, that boy is far too sweet to be in this situation. “Here they come!” Asmodeus warned… and the fight began.