Severance wasn't sure if the skill's stun would catch Maun again since it hadn't been very long since the last time he'd employed it, but at the very least, it would keep Batin out of his hair for a short while. Either way, he wasn't going to hang around and see.

One.

He ran into the corridor. It was full of marble dragons, spaced out in packs of three and four. The sight of them filled his belly with dread, but he had no plans to fight them.

Two.

He plunged into their midst. And then he heard it: a low, rolling laugh from somewhere behind him. His blood ran cold. There was no time to worry about it because marble dragons came at him, all whipping tails and snapping teeth.

Three.

Severance danced out of their reach, twisting his body sideways to slip between them. Then he pivoted on one toe, narrowly avoiding a brutal toothy lunge, before spinning down into a crouch while a long tail swiped overhead.

Four.

He pushed off with one hand and sprung up on the other side of the first pack.

"Vast," he yelled, and charged towards the next group.

He could only hope that the enraged marble dragons would slow the others down. And that the others would actually stop to fight them, because otherwise he'd be chased by a stampede of death all the way to the Boss room, where he'd very quickly become a smear of meat paste.

"Nice trick." The voice came from right behind him, and Severance was so startled he stumbled. He all but fell into a pile of marble dragons.

A dark shape flitted past, emitting a low chuckle. Maun easily drew ahead, slipping through the dragons without so much as a ripple of disturbance. That left Severance to deal with them.

Or maybe not.

He narrowly avoided two chomping attacks, before a silver blur plowed into them. A savage, snarling growl echoed through the corridor and suddenly Severance was forgotten. He took the opportunity to run after Maun, even though his heart thudded anxiously in his chest. Would Vast be alright? A glance back showed Vast wrestling one dragon down by the throat, while a second dark shape glided like a wraith amongst the rest.

Batin.

Relief soared free for a moment, because Batin was there, helping, and Vast would be okay—but then it crashed because Batin was there and would no doubt overtake Severance in a matter of seconds.

Severance put on a burst of speed, forcing himself to move as fast as he ever had. He leaned forward, his boots skimming over the ground without so much as a sound.

Just ahead, the third pack of marble dragons lumbered after Maun. Not a single one of them noticed as Severance caught up to them. The corridor was narrow, leaving not much room to slip past.

Yet that wasn't the only route available. Severance looked at their angular, leather backs and just knew he could do it. Like he knew he could open his mouth and talk, he knew he could easily leap up, find his footing, and pass over the dragons.

So he did.

It was a surprisingly easy thing to take a flying leap and land lightly on an uneven, moving target. From there, he kept his forward momentum, hopping from one dragon back to the next, then pushing off a tossing head.

He landed softly on the ground on the other side of the pack. Ha! Take that!

"Vast," he shouted again, then scrambled after Maun. He needed the vastlhidan to run interference for him. If Vast could trip up Maun somehow, that would give him the chance to get ahead.

He risked a quick glance back. Vast was galloping towards him at full speed. The vastlhidan's powerful hind legs propelled him several feet in one bound, while his front claws dug little gouges in the stone every time they touched down.

But Batin was nowhere to be seen. A trail of dead marble dragons lay behind them, evidence of the clansman's passage, but there was no sign of the man. The only living creatures he saw were Vast and the three dragons he'd leaped over.

He faced forward. Maun had just plowed through the last pack of marble dragons. And right on his heels-

Severance sucked in a sharp breath. Batin! How did that man get past him? He's seen nothing!

Panting, Vast pulled up beside him, head tilting towards him as if to ask, you okay there? Severance gritted his teeth.

He caught up to the last group of frenzied marble dragons. There were more behind him, but that didn't matter right now. He had to catch up. With his newfound speed, he should at least be able to keep up with the two clansmen on even ground with no obstacles. Or so he hoped.

The nearest dragon saw him coming and tried to slap him with its tail. He shunted sideways, barely avoiding it. It whipped past, close enough for the wind of its passing to brush against his arm. Yikes. The others took notice of him and stopped their chase, turning to face their new target.

Going over them might not be the best option now, but as he dodged another vicious snap of the teeth, he saw that these dragons weren't in the best of shape. Many had small, but deep wounds scoring their hides, and one had blood streaming from a punctured eye. Severance didn't know when that had happened, or even how, because hadn't Maun and Batin just rushed through without attacking?

"Pivot Cut!" He spun around the closest dragon and dealt it a deep cut along its flank. "Vast, here!"

He stood in their midst now, but had no intention of lingering for long. He turned to face the next one, just as it charged. "Pivot Cut!"

On its rear side now, he slashed into its butt. The sharp spokes of his fans easily parted its tough hide, scoring deep wounds amongst an already battered, wounded mess. "Skyfall!"

Meanwhile, Vast jumped onto the first marble dragon's back. His claws punched through flesh and provided a hold while the dragon bucked and thrashed beneath him. He reached down, got his jaws around the back of the dragon's neck, and chomped down. It didn't last long after that.

Vast leapt off and went for the last one, while Severance gripped his war fans and ran after Maun and Batin. The two clansmen had just left the corridor and entered the next room. Panting, Severance skidded around the shallow corner and burst through the narrow doorway.

This room had the two deadly panther-like Prowlers. They didn't have much defenses, but a single attack from them could nearly kill a man. Maun and Batin had engaged them, one each. Severance almost smiled—perfect!—but he had to focus on getting by them. The fight took place very conveniently before the entryway to the next corridor.

They did that on purpose, Severance scowled. He glanced back, and saw three marble dragons hot on his tail. He did a quick check on his skills, giving Suppress a sort of nudge. There was no indication of resistance, which meant it was off cooldown and ready to use.

He slowed down a bit, letting the dragons draw closer. "Earth Dance."

As he neared his teammates, he noticed that Batin had blood seeping down the side of his face, and his one eye didn't seem to be fully open, like it was stuck in a squint or maybe swollen shut. Severance briefly wondered what happened; he'd noticed Batin's health drop a bit in the party list, but hadn't thought it to be much more than a minor injury.

"Suppress!" The second he was in range, with the marble dragons right behind him, he released the skill. This time, it was accompanied by a harmless blast of warm wind. It stunned all creatures and staggered Maun and Batin. To Severance's disappointment, they were able to shrug it off without much effort.

"Pivot Cut." Severance spun around a Prowler and slashed at its side. "Skyfall!"

In rapid succession, he dealt five different cuts in various angles, with the last one slicing deep into its innards. Each attack generated a fresh breeze which rushed to Batin and curled around him in pastel green wisps, restoring small portions of his health.

At the same time, Maun and Batin set upon the last Prowler. It didn't take them long to kill it since it was frozen in place. However, three marble dragons were there now, and within a second or two, they'd recover from their stunned state.

Severance turned and ran, heading for the corridor. He'd brought the remaining creatures to his generous teammates; let them deal with it.

The next corridor was filled with more marble dragons, but this time he had some experience and knew how to get through them without losing too much speed. Before the first batch could even react to his presence, he'd slipped between them and was off towards the next.

Alerted by the alarmed sounds of the others, the second batch had paused to look and noticed him. That didn't make much of a difference. "Flutterstep!"

The skill took over and the world became a dizzying blur of motion. When it ended, he was well on the other side of the dragons and moving at a dead sprint. The transition had been so smooth despite the jarring motion of the skill, and it was the easiest thing in the world to keep on running.

Whoa. He'd definitely try that again, as soon as the skill came off cooldown. He grinned wide, even as his breath came in uneven pants and his hands ached from clenching his fans so tightly.

More marble dragons came at him, and this time, he decided to go over them. Just because he could. And then, just because he knew he could, in the same way he knew he could hop on one foot, he threw himself off the last dragon into an aerial flip.

The landing was a little sloppy, but he didn't care. This was fun! If he had the breath, he would have giggled like a loon. He kept going, and tried out different ways of going through the dragons. With such a narrow corridor, it worked well to take a running leap at one of the walls, and kick off it into a high forward leap. It took him two tries to perfect that, and he would have gone for a third, but then found he'd run out of dragons.

He'd also run out of the corridor and found himself entering a large dark room. A single bridge provided a way across a deeply crevassed ground, though overhead lay a tightly spinning swarm of bats.

Seeing them, Severance instinctively slowed. Usually, the bats were asleep and it was easy to just pass peacefully beneath them. But once awake, they could be quite nasty-

"What's wrong?"

"Ah!" Severance started so badly that he nearly fell over.

Both Batin and Maun stood a short distance behind him. They looked rather relaxed, considering the dark blood splattering their faces. There were no signs of any marble dragons coming up behind them, either. Just a silent dark corridor littered with motionless shapes on the ground.

Severance stared, heart beating against his ribcage. If they had been so close behind him all this time, why on earth hadn't they passed him by? He was under no illusion that he was actually fast enough to keep ahead of them.

Vast came out of the corridor, head high and tail animatedly swishing back and forth. He trotted over to Severance, every bit as blood splattered as the clansmen. He sat, panting happily as he looked up at Severance.

"Did you guys kill everything?"

"Not everything, no." Maun looked down at Vast. "Your furball did quite a fair share of it as well."

"Right." Severance looked up at the cave's ceiling, where bats swarmed amongst the stalactites. Truly a most pleasant sight. Not. "Well, whatever. Any reason you're just following along behind me, then?"

Maun coughed lightly into a fist. "Following? Sev, this is a race. You're so fast we had trouble keeping up."

Severance gave Maun a narrow-eyed stare. Was he supposed to believe that? "Uh huh."

"Tell him, Batin." Maun gestured.

Batin regarded them quietly, then glanced back down the corridor.

"Oh," he said.

Suddenly concerned as to what would prompt that kind of response from Batin of all people, Severance turned to get a good look into the corridor. He saw nothing.

He turned back. "There's nothing—hey!"

His two teammates ran across the bridge, leaving him behind in the dust. Severance growled. The jerks! The oldest trick in the book and he'd fallen for it.

"Vast," he hissed. "Get them!"

With a happy little snort, Vast bounded after them. Severance followed, and the two of them flew across the room and over the bridge and past the bats.

This time, when they entered the final corridor of marble dragons, the last stretch before the boss, Severance found that no matter what he tried, he couldn't gain on the two Veiled men. It was all he could do just to keep them in sight. They somehow managed to stay a step ahead of Vast as well, slipping past dragons with an uncanny ease.

It confirmed that before, they really had just been letting him stay in the lead. The question was why?

When he finally caught up with them outside the Golem Boss's room, he was gritting his teeth in irritation. He didn't get a chance to act on it though, since the entire corridor of marble dragons that had been following him descended upon them.

He threw himself into the fight recklessly, tossing out Skyfalls as soon as they came off cooldown. With so many dragons crammed into the small space, there was no lack of targets. Nor did he have to worry about getting overwhelmed. The dragons constantly got into each other's way, meaning he only had to worry about three or four at a time. And it was surprisingly easy to evade their attacks, since they were slow and easy to predict.

Maun and Batin flanked him, taking most of the pressure off him, and Vast was nothing short of a lean, mean, killing machine. His front claws and teeth weren't just for show. Between the four of them, the marble dragons lasted only minutes.

When it came to an end, Severance found himself standing in a pile of bodies, feeling completely drained. He could barely catch his breath. Blood soaked his hands and fans like a coat of sticky red paint. He slowly lowered his gaze to his weapons, sobering as he realized what he'd just done.

He'd fought shoulder to shoulder with Maun and Batin, and together, they'd just taken down a dozen marble dragons. The three of them—and Vast—with no tank, and hardly any healing. A quick check of the party list confirmed that all of them had taken next to no damage.

That was nothing short of insane. Either the dragons had gotten a lot weaker, or they had gotten a lot stronger. Or maybe it was just all Vast. That beast wasn't even fully grown and he could slaughter like well, like a beast.

"Well," Maun said lightly into the ensuing silence. "Looks like you lost the race."