Just like every other alcove they’d found, this one was four feet high and roughly eight feet deep, with two shelves carved into the rock that ran along both sides of the hole. Where it differed was the contents. Spears lay neatly stacked on the shelves, their tips sharp and well-oiled. Barrels of swords and axes sat between the shelves, with shields piled haphazardly between them. There were also quivers of arrows, their shafts sticking above the leather of the quivers like a forest of tiny feathered trees.

  It was an impressive collection, and after a second’s deliberation, Rayne reached forward to pluck a sword from the nearest barrel. Hefting it, he tested its weight, looking down its length to check its edge before putting it on his belt.

  “You’re taking that?” Syra asked him.

  As Rayne responded in the affirmative, Leon jumped in. “That’s stealing!” he proclaimed.

  Rayne glanced at him. “This is an illegal weapons cache. Nobles are allowed only enough armaments to supply their personal guard. This cache alone is far in excess of what Baron Wilcoup would need for that, and verges on treason. If we assume every other alcove we saw also contained similar caches…”

  Eyes going wide, Syra seemed to have done the math. “That could outfit a small army.”

  “Two platoons at most,” Leon said unhappily. As both turned to look at him, he glanced aside. “We have found six of these hidden cavities. If each contained a similar amount of weapons, then there’s enough to provide proper arms to roughly three hundred men. That’s two platoons. Hardly an army.”

  “That’s twice the size of the Torid guard,” Rayne replied, “and more than enough to be hanged for treason. If Baron Wilcoup knew about this—”

  “We have no proof of that,” Leon retorted sharply, cutting Rayne off mid-sentence. He folded his arms. “For all we know, these were hidden here by the mine foreman. It’s rare for nobles to visit each of their industries, so it would not be hard to conceal such a fact from the good baron.”

  With a snort, Rayne gestured to the cache. “There’s got to be at least a dozen gold worth of weapons here. You’re telling me that a single foreman purchased all that? Get real.” Frowning, he glanced back at the weapons. “In fact, if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that the entire reason the baron is so concerned about this attack is because of these caches. Losing so many workers is terrible, but that’s already done. Even if the monsters left immediately, he’s not going to be able to reopen the mine until he’s hired new miners and cleaned up the mess left behind. So why was he so desperate to hire us that he would pay an entire gold just to clear out some monsters?”

  “Because he values the lives of his people,” Leon posited.

  “Bullshit,” Rayne swore. “If he cared, there would have been guards. And more than just the two dead ones we saw at the entrance. No, he’s just like every other noble. These people were nothing more than cheap labor that he could use to extract wealth.”

  He shuddered, doing his best to get his anger under control. In a more measured tone, he continued, pacing back and forth in front of the weapons stockpile as he did. “At the Academy, they teach that the simplest answer is also the most likely. So with that in mind, here’s what I think. The baron was hoarding weapons. Why? I don’t know. Somehow, these monsters found out and attacked. I say that because these were well hidden, and yet somehow, every other alcove has been smashed open. I don’t know why they didn’t find this one, but they’ve got at least five other nooks worth of weapons already.”

  Leon looked like he wanted to interrupt, but Rayne turned on him and lifted one finger threateningly. “Wait.” Obediently, Leon shut his mouth, and Rayne returned to pacing.

  “Whatever we might think about their actions, it’s clear that kobolds and goblins are intelligent. I don’t believe that they would go out of their way to attack a random silver mine in the ass end of the Silvent hills. There’s nothing else of value here, which means they knew that there were weapons here. That or they were tipped off. Whatever the reason, we’re dealing with a proper organization, not just a random monster tribe.”

  “Shouldn’t there be more of them, then?” Syra asked, interjecting before Leon could get a word in. “If they’re organized, then twenty doesn’t seem like enough.”

  “This is likely the rearguard,” suggested Leon. “If there really were as many weapons as Rayne is saying, then they would need a large force to carry them off. These monsters are probably the ones who were left behind to make sure nothing else remains, and to hold the cave against intruders.”

  “Well, they’re not doing a very good job of that last part,” Syra remarked.

  “There’s no guarantee we’ve fought their main force.” Leon stared down the mineshaft, his eyes sharp as he peered into the darkness. “We must be careful in our advance.”

  In all the bluster, Leon seemed to have completely forgotten that a new sword now sat at Rayne’s hip. However, that fresh ignorance ended when Rayne reached to grab a quiver of arrows from the stockpile.

  “You’re stealing more?!” Leon demanded, his eyes nearly bulging from his skull as his attention returned in full force to the sticky-fingered commoner.

  “What?” Rayne protested. “They’re expensive!”

  For a moment, it looked as though Leon would protest, but then he shook his head and looked away, pointedly ignoring Rayne’s actions.

  Seeing this, Rayne wanted to smirk, but he thought better of it. “Come on, let’s close this up. If the baron discovers that we’ve found it, it won’t end well for us.”

  Together, the three of them closed up the cache, closing the door and hiding it away once more. Despite his desire, Rayne left the rest of the cache untouched. Two missing items out of hundreds would not draw attention. But if half the pile was missing, that would draw attention to the fact that it had been discovered, and naturally, the baron’s eyes would then turn to them.

  With the door back in position, they headed deeper into the mine in search of the monster group that had brought such ruin to this place.

  They found them at the mine’s deepest point. Five minutes from the unopened final weapons cache, the tunnel opened up into a slightly larger area, about three times the width of the original mineshaft. Even from afar, Rayne could smell the scent of blood wafting from the chamber, and Syra wrinkled her nose in an attempt to dull the overpowering fumes.

  There was no need for discussion. Before they could even think of withdrawing to come up with a strategy, a cry went up as a sentinel hidden within the shadows by the chamber entrance pointed them out. With that, battle was joined as a miniature horde of goblins and kobolds rushed the tunnel, and the adventurers prepared to meet them.

  For the first time since they had entered the place, Rayne found space to shoot, and he drew his bow and fired at the tallest monster in the oncoming wave. His arrow took it in the shoulder, but the hobgoblin simply shrugged it off, not wavering at all as it led the charge.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Leon leapt out to meet it, supported by Syra, and unwilling to hit his allies, Rayne dropped his bow and did the same. It was not his new sword that he drew but the old one, as he was more used to its weight and balance. He waded into the fray behind Syra, watching with awe as Leon’s greatsword impaled a goblin that had taken the lead spot, and then parried the hobgoblin’s axe aside. This let Syra shove a blade between its ribs, and the hobgoblin fell, leaving only regular goblins and kobolds in the passage with them.

  Rayne grunted as an axe haft slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him several steps backward. There was no time to catch his breath, however, and he coughed up blood as he lunged at the offending kobold, his sword catching its axe-arm and lopping it off at the elbow. A quick stab should have dispatched it, but another kobold stepped forward to block the blow, which allowed the injured one to retreat to the back of the formation.

  Without energy to pursue, Rayne simply maintained his own position. Outnumbered as they were, it was critical that they held this passage. If any monsters got behind them, the fight would become ten times as hard, if not impossible. And so, breathing heavily, he held the line.

  Beside him, Leon and Syra did the same. Their strikes and parries were much more impressive than his own, but neither were impregnable. Syra had several small wounds from when the grouped enemies had surged at her, her short swords lacking the reach and terror that Leon’s greatsword possessed.

  Leon himself had a long scratch on his left bicep, just past where his gauntlet ended, and a spear had grazed his right knee, which had given him a slight but noticeable limp. Still, no one shirked their responsibility, and slowly but steadily, the number of dead monsters began to pile up.

  Fear crept into the eyes of the surviving goblins and kobolds, but it was not as if they could break ranks and run. The only exit to the mine lay behind Rayne and his party, which meant that the monsters would have to go through them if they wanted to escape. This was a fight to the death.

  At the back of the monster formation, a particularly large kobold lurked, watching the carnage with slitted eyes. Every so often, it would bark out what Rayne imagined were orders, and the monsters’ formation would shift, changing the way in which they sought to overwhelm the three defenders. It was clearly the leader, and also an elite by the looks of it, similar in both coloration and appearance to that which Leon had fought back in the fortress at Maggor’s Wood.

  “The elite at the back,” Leon growled as he shifted the angle of his strike in order to cut down a goblin that had attempted to duck under his blade. “Let me have him.”

  His contrary nature flared, and Rayne wanted to say something back, but he bit back the instinctive retort. Leon truly was their best hope to defeat an elite, and had a proven track record of taking down both hobgoblins and elite kobolds. However, that did not mean he planned to let him duel it alone. If the opportunity to take it down easily arose, he would seize it.

  Is it trying to tire us out? Unsure of the opposing leader’s motivation, Rayne continued to fight, his sword arm feeling like it was made out of lead as he swung, thrust, and cut at the enemies before him.

  More monsters fell, and now the numbers were much closer. What had begun as twenty against three was now only a two-to-one advantage in the monsters’ favor, not counting the elite standing behind the others who had yet to join the fray.

  Even as Rayne calculated this, two more fell to the blade of Leon, bringing the two sides within one. Lunging forward, he took down an injured goblin, his blade stabbing right through its left eye as the two sides found themselves on even footing.

  It was here that the elite acted. It carried two swords, and as Leon hewed down yet another kobold, it charged, both blades a blur as they lashed out in a cross shape.

  Reacting immediately, Leon lifted his greatsword to parry, then kicked the kobold in the chest to force it back as he took the battle out of the cramped mineshaft and into the chamber proper. Behind him, Rayne and Syra found the remaining three monsters confronting them, but not attacking like those before them had. Instead, they had their weapons raised in a defensive stance, and one moved to block Rayne as he attempted to slip past and aid Leon in his fight while the other two mirrored Syra.

  Apparently, the kobold elite had the same thoughts as Leon himself had. This was to be a duel between the strongest on both sides.

  Undaunted, both Rayne and Syra took the initiative to attack, pressuring their opposing trio hard. Unfortunately, no matter how he pressed, his opponent refused to give way, though it also was not pressuring him much in return, content to merely defend and buy time for their leader to fight Leon.

  These three must be the elite’s lieutenants, Rayne realized as yet another attack was riposted by his foe. His opponent was a skilled fighter, and wielded their axe well as they parried his attacks. At the very least, it was a level above the other kobolds he had fought until now, and he felt a begrudging respect for the monster as he stared it down. The two fighting Syra were having more trouble, but they too were managing, though both now bore wounds from their struggles against the adventurers.

  Attempting a wild swing, Rayne was forced to duck low in order to avoid the counter of his opponent.

  Okay, so it’s not purely defending. It will still go for proper openings. He had hoped that he might be able to abandon defense in order to overwhelm his opponent with pure offense, but it seemed that was out. He would have to take this lizard down the old-fashioned way, and hope that Leon could either win or hold on long enough for one of him or Syra to reinforce.

  Behind the kobold lieutenants, Leon’s fight was on another level entirely. Both he and the elite were like blurs, their agility and strength stats causing their weapons to all but disappear, a trio of light gray flashes that resounded off each other with the ring of battered steel.

  Syra’s weapons were similarly fast, but she lacked Leon’s strength, and without the ability to batter aside defenses the way he did, the threat she posed was not sufficient to overwhelm the two kobold lieutenants that blocked her path. Even so, she still forced both her opponents to cover each other, neither able to take more than a single step forward for fear that her blades would find their throats. It was not Leon-tier, but she was still a significant threat, unlike him.

  But at least I can be trusted to hold my own now. Two months ago, seeing how much worse he was than his companions might have hurt Rayne’s ego. But now he was just content with his own growth. And it was not as if he had been playing around all this time either. He was a threat in his own way.

  Swinging his sword once more, he waited until the kobold was just about to block and then activated Flame Blade, concentrating it on the tip of the blade. Immediately, flames appeared around the upper third of the sword’s length, burning bright and hot as they sought fresh blood to quench themselves within.

  This unexpected turn of events caused the kobold to wince, its parry slightly slow as it blocked the flaming blade, and Rayne did not miss the opportunity. Driving forward, he used Strong Arm on his left arm, and slammed his fist into the stomach of the lizard.

  With a choking sound, the kobold doubled over, but even in this state, it still managed to counter, ducking low and spinning around.

  Suddenly weightless, Rayne had a brief second to wonder why he was sideways. Then, he crashed shoulder first into the unforgiving cave floor. With a loud cry, the kobold brought its axe down at him, but Rayne was already moving, rolling backwards just as he’d done countless times in Leon’s lessons, the muscle memory serving him well as the axe slammed into the stone where his neck had lain half a second earlier.

  It got me with a tail whip. As he rolled to his feet and took up a fighting stance, Rayne realized what had happened. The kobold’s spin had allowed it to use its tail, which had served as a makeshift leg to sweep him off his feet and create an opening for it to exploit. Resisting the urge to rub his side where he had fallen, he rushed at the monster before it could attempt to flank Syra.

  “Just. Die!” Syra’s shout reverberated off the walls, dislodging dirt from the ceiling as she crouched low and then sped past both her opponents at a speed too fast for them to react. Before either could turn, she was behind them, plunging both blades into the neck of the closest kobold.

  This was the catalyst that signaled the end of the fight, and as all eyes turned to the dying kobold lieutenant, Leon’s blade erupted into flames. With a heavy shout, he battered the elite’s weapons aside, one sword flying from its hands while the other attempted ineffectively to counter. Unfortunately for the reptile, its stance had been momentarily broken by the death of its lieutenant, and Leon was not an opponent against whom such lapses were allowed.

  As his flaming blade cleaved the elite from hip to shoulder, the elite gave one last shuddering breath and then collapsed.

  With that, the fight was over. Though two kobolds still lived, neither put up much of a fight upon witnessing the death of their leader. There were no last minute heroics, and with Leon’s help, the two were swiftly dispatched, bringing the terrible battle to a close at last.