The Unprecedented Wave

"Yes!"

"Wh-what's wrong, Hyung!?"

"I leveled up!"

"Oh. That...? Congratulations, Hyung!"

For a native, the level the system announced was exactly what the word meant: a measure of how strong you were. The strong stood at a higher level. Summoners were a little different. You killed monsters in the Labyrinth and a number climbed on experience, the way it would in a game, and what that climb paid out were level-up points.

A native forged himself and raised his level together with his skills. A summoner raised experience, leveled up, and spent those points to lift stats and skills—to evolve them—and haul his combat ability up after them. That was why summoners grew strong so quickly.

At the same level, a native was usually stronger.

"Putting level-up points into stats is a fool's move. Skills. Always skills."

"A man who raised a skill on the system's power, and a man who raised it by training. Which one is stronger?"

"With your talent, an ordinary skill is something you can master on your own. So..."

I had to save them.

That was why the points had to be hoarded. And this fight had driven something else home for certain.

The spirits are more useful for scouting than I thought. Especially when I send them all one way.

The wind spirit read the flow of air, and the earth spirit read the tremor in the ground. The fire spirit read contrast in the light and the warmth of an enemy, while the water spirit could pick out, to some degree, the moisture held in a living body. Each sense was faint, as befitted the lowest grade of spirit, but just now my awareness sat inside all four of them. Layered together, those senses read an enemy's presence with absurd clarity even within fifty meters, in places my eyes had no angle on at all.

Good. Very good.

Everything felt as if it were coming loose in my hands. Ever since I'd obtained the Goblin Basket, it seemed this bleak world had opened a road and turned it toward me.

"All right. Let's go again!"

"Again?"

"Yeah. What, you tired?"

"No, it's not that. Fine. Let's go!"

Drunk on the feeling of getting somewhere, we tore through Labyrinth Floor 1 like madmen. In half a day we put down hundreds of goblins and dragged my level up to 5, and we kept at it until goblins stopped giving me experience at all—kept at it even after Kirk, worn thin, tried to pull me back.

"Hyung, we've already found six exits. Can't we head back?"

"Hey. Don't you want a Special Class?"

"Huh? Well, of course I do. But what does that have to do with what we're—"

He'd been tilting his head. The look on my face brought him bolt upright again.

"Hyung, don't tell me you know something."

"Not exactly. I heard a rumor."

"A rumor?"

"Yeah. Not certain. But the odds are decent. So. Want to turn back?"

"No! Then we have to do it!"

I'd sweet-talked innocent Kirk until my fervor pulled him under, and we went on slaughtering that tribe without discrimination inside goblin territory.

At some point, we were surrounded.

Damn it.

"Run, Hyung!"

"I am running!"

Our feet hammered the stone of the dark cave, and behind us a green wave came on under a countless shrieking.

"Kyaaak! Kyak!"

"Kyaruk!"

"Chwiet!"

Where had they picked up our trail? We'd been killing so happily that, before we knew it, goblins were swarming in from nearly every direction.

"I told you! To keep it! Reasonable!"

I'd known goblins were sensitive when their own were in danger. I'd just been too drunk on success, and I'd gone too far.

"I didn't! See this! Coming either!"

I thought a few dozen at most would pile on. I never thought there'd be this many!

That we could still get words out while we ran was thanks to Jerik's hellish training. It also meant we still had stamina to spare, so the way through this mess was obvious.

Settle it somehow before the run burns us completely empty.

The problem was that every direction I looked held a hundred of them with room to spare. Hadn't Jerik hammered it in more times than I could count?

"Get surrounded and let the paralysis needles start landing, and it's over. Finish it before that."

"At your level, the number where it turns dangerous is... hmm. Past thirty, it could get bad."

The warning was still vivid. But the alternative was worse.

"They're herding us! Into one place!"

"I know!"

Let them drag us and it would only get more dangerous. That much was obvious.

Think. Think!

No matter how I turned it over, only one halfway decent idea came to mind.

The side with the fewest, then...?

"Left! Fewest over there!"

"The paralysis needles!? Do I use my skill!? The cooldown's way too long!"

"I'll handle it! Somehow!"

"What!?"

"Trust me!"

Dangerous. But it was the only way.

"Shit! Going!"

Kirk, thankfully, took me at my word and charged the left with everything he had.

Here we go!

A flash burst ahead of his rush, the same as every time before, and I stormed in after him. Up to there it was identical. The one thing that had changed was that my spirits were sweeping the whole goblin force in front of us.

Can't miss a single one. Especially not the paralysis needles.

My own eyes and four others—five different sights, no blind angle between them—and attacks I never would have seen became visible. Like this, I had no blind spot.

Side!

A crude bone knife came in from the flank. I slipped it and drove the spear home, and two goblins ran through on the point at once, a heavy weight traveling up the shaft. The problem was that two goblins were not all I had to deal with.

"Kyaaak!"

"Kyaruk!"

"Chwiet!"

One leapt its stabbed kin and swung. One rolled in from the side, slashing for my ankle. Another stabbed for my ribs from the other side, and behind me a fourth pulled out a blowpipe.

Shit.

I threw Advance-Retreat Step into a long pace backward and slid out of the rush, then thrust again, punched through one torso, and burst another. Thrust had reached Lv. 3 without a single point invested, and the power of it showed. Barely an hour ago I'd been pleased with myself, thinking I was strong where it counted—in a real fight.

Enough running from reality!

A paralysis needle had already been loosed from a fair distance in that gap. A spirit seared the eyes of the one holding the blowpipe, and the shot died with a shriek.

"Kyaaak!"

The blowpipe aimed at Kirk met the same end. Right beside me he was raising a storm of blood with his long spear.

Yeah. I can do this.

Watching the whole field, the spirits only jabbed the eyes of the ones about to fire, or plugged their blowpipes. My head went light and a headache climbed in, but I could still bear it.

"Come on!"

Kirk spun his spear and smashed two or three goblins in a single turn. Beside him I chained Advance-Retreat Step and Thrust, cutting them down one or two at a time, steady as I could.

It wasn't enough.

"More coming from behind. Punch through!"

"Graaaah!"

More goblins were pouring out of the other passages than we were killing. We slaughtered in a single direction like madmen and carved a path, and a hot sting ran up my calf. A goblin had worked a crude knife into a gap in the armor.

"Ghk!"

"Hup!"

I smashed its skull a heartbeat later and took the revenge, but only then did I feel the burning everywhere else. I'd managed to stop the paralysis needles I could see. Without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quite noticing, I'd taken a lot of shallow cuts.

Damn it. There needs to be an exit this way.

I wasn't thinking about a Perfect Clear anymore. Surviving came first. Maybe that, too, was a stray thought, because heat flared across my calf again.

Damn it!

I paid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it back at once. Both legs were buzzing numb.

Should've put on plate armor even if I had to go into debt. Goddamn it.

Kirk must have seen it. He'd been boring through the front like a maniac, and now he turned and roared.

"Hyung! Hang on!"

"Of course I will! Break the front!"

From the moment my head snapped clear, I stopped entertaining anything else. There were only the goblins in front of me, and killing them.

I forgot even the system's voice. Sunk entirely into the fight, I swung the spear without end, reading every direction through the spirits and cutting the paralysis needles off before they flew. Those varied sights let me hunt for whatever space remained, strike and withdraw on Advance-Retreat Step, and thin their numbers. Now and then a lance of light from the fire spirit burst among them and blinded their eyes, and in the moments when everything was about to come apart, that flash was the one move that kept us alive.

The greatest factor, of course, was Kirk, slaughtering goblins like a madman in front of me.

God.

Grind was the only word that fit.

Has this guy gotten even stronger?

If the skills I'd registered were Thrust and Advance-Retreat Step, then his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was something like Jerik's Secret Spear Art—Kirk Version, those two and more than those two fused into one.

"Kirk's only rated level 10 because he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hasn't obtained a class. The moment he gets one, he'll shoot straight up."

I couldn't even dream of copying the way he moved. I found what little I could use, set my feet to it, and swung. I couldn't match Kirk, but I was butchering goblins with everything I had. The system's voice went in one ear and out the other, and we fought without end until, at some moment, the goblins in front of us were simply gone.

"We're through!"

Kirk got the shout out before I did. It should have been a clean, satisfying cry, the suffocating press finally breaking. What stood directly ahead was a dead wall.

Goddamn it.

I felt the despair hit, and Kirk had already lowered his spear with a near-vacant look on his face. Behind him, seven goblins were loosing paralysis needles straight at his back. I needed a flash in their eyes more than I ever had, but I'd just used the fire spirit, and the delay was still on it.

Damn it!

No choice, then.

All of them. Now!

The wind spirit scattered the needles. The water spirit jabbed at eyes and plugged noses, and the earth spirit tripped the feet of the ones it could reach. But the instant the spirits poured out everything they had, the two goblins left behind fired again, and I couldn't stop them.

Damn it. Reach!

I barely got the spear out and batted one aside. At my skill, that alone was something close to a miracle. I watched the needle I hadn't managed to knock away fly, and only when it rang off Kirk's armor could I let the breath out.

The price of breaking my stance was steep. Goblins that had already slipped past the spirits' interference were swinging in front of me.

"Kyaaak!"

"Chwiruk!"

Crude knives punched into my side and my thigh.

"Kgh!"

My armor was rags by then. It couldn't stop those crude blades, or shed them.

"Shit!"

I couldn't even swing properly. The shaft I managed to swat with sent goblins tumbling.

"Hyung!"

Half a beat late, Kirk saw I was in trouble, charged in like a madman, and brought the spear around. Five thrusts in an instant, a step, and the shaft coming back in a smash—every attack landed true, piercing goblins and bursting them. He'd grown quite a bit in this fight too. I went to lift my spear and found it far too heavy.

"Hyung! You all right!?"

"I can— I can do it!"

I said it, and the hand on the spear shook. No. My whole body was shaking.

Goddamn it.

The focus I'd sunk into without limit collapsed through the wounds, and every part of me stabbed far worse than before. I couldn't even count the cuts. Strength wouldn't go properly into my legs or my arms.

Even so.

"Hang on, Hyung!"

I could feel, sharp and clear, how afraid he was for me. How was I supposed to just fall down?

"I can do iiiit!"

I forced the shout out and hauled my mana up. I tuned it to stop the blood running from the wounds, tightened muscle, shaved the fatigue back, and strained to brace the bones. A manipulation that fine would have been hopeless on an ordinary day. For some reason, now the mana moved smoothly, exactly as I willed.

And with it—

The system's voice rang twice in a row, and a little strength came back into my body.

Good!

It wasn't a full recovery. What mattered was that I'd gone from about to drop at any second to a state where I could still fight. My head felt a little clearer, too.

"Side!"

I caught the goblin aiming for Kirk's flank, and he whipped around.

"Hyung!?"

"Eyes front, you idiot!"

"Yes!"

The relief in that answer pulled a smile out of me before I noticed it. Honestly, Kirk had been a little awkward with me before we entered the Labyrinth. Now he felt almost like a brother.

"Let's kill them all!"

"Yes!"

Right. If there was nowhere to run, then we only had to kill every enemy that came. My spirits lifted again and sank without limit into the fight. The hopelessness was much the same as before, and yet I felt I wouldn't go down easily. The spirits' sight seemed clearer, too, somehow.

The system's voice had been going on and on, and at some point I stopped hearing it. The goblin wave that had seemed endless was just beginning to show its end when a shout I didn't recognize snapped me out of the empty, mindless fighting.

Kwaaaaaaah!

The roar was close to thunder. The instant it hit, the goblins actually began to fall back, and what came into view was dozens of muscular goblins a full head taller than any we'd seen—and, in front of them, one red-skinned goblin riding a wolf. Footfalls rolled in behind the cry like a drum.

"Hobgoblins!?"

"A Goblin Lord!?"

We'd said different words. The meaning was the same. A variant that appeared when goblins grew past a village into something the size of a small city—clearly a monster a full tier above goblins. The adventurer guidelines said it plainly enough: if a novice encountered hobgoblins on the first floor, they were to run.

After an endless goblin rush, our thinking was a little different.

"A hobgoblin's greatest ability is dominating the pack."

"Goblins under a hobgoblin's rule know no fear. They fight without end."

The wave we'd been enduring all this time was that monster's greatest ability.

No wonder they kept coming to the very end.

Put another way, now that most of the goblins were dead, the thing was just a bigger, stronger goblin.

"Looks like they were herding us toward those things from the start."

"So if we take that down, it's over?"

"Yeah."

I could see the end of this sickening fight. I couldn't help thinking it. Maybe it felt how lightly we were taking it.

"Kyaaaaaak!"

The hobgoblin roared, and the goblin warriors charged first.

We didn't hesitate.

"Let's end this!"

"Yes!"

With hope in front of us, we charged straight at them.

And—

We could finally bring the battle to an end.