Time Elapsed: 2:22:08

Severance opened his eyes and found himself staring at the rough gray wall of the Ironback mines. The only source of light here was from the radiant light given off by the dungeon entrance, which swirled beside him in a dull purple-gray light.

"Sev! Are you okay?"

That was Snow, rushing over even though he was barely able to walk, never mind stand upright. Snow had been slammed into the wall by a big erfreschik, which had smashed nearly every bone in his body.

"I'm fine," Severance said. He'd had a similar death, but unlike his teammate, he was calmly sitting against the wall right where he'd Revived. "Just need a minute."

"Are you sure?"

Snow flopped down before him, his limbs moving oddly. He'd completely heal up in a couple of minutes, but Severance no longer had that luxury. He'd heal like an Elionan, which was slow and would take a matter of weeks rather than minutes. Unless he healed himself, that is.

A quiet thought brought one of his war fans into his hands. They'd vanished into his Inventory when he died, a safety feature that he was immensely grateful for. He curled his fingers around it and winced as he settled into the long familiar process of recovery.

"Mend."

Bones shifted under his skin, a disturbing sensation that had him gritting his teeth. A cold sweat broke out upon his skin.

Watching him, Snow gave a sympathetic wince. "I don't know how you can do that."

Severance sucked in air through his teeth. He managed a crooked smile, even though he knew the others couldn't see it through the black mask he had pulled up over his nose.

"I've had some training, which helps."

"What kind of training?" Snow asked, a little hesitant as if he wasn't sure that he wanted to know the answer.

Severance shrugged. He had a feeling the cryomancer would be absolutely horrified if he went into detail. Near the opposite wall, Jack Coyote had his arms folded, and was quietly staring straight ahead. It looked like he was deep in thought, but Severance knew the tank was listening in. That was another reason he didn't dare talk about it much. Jack already didn't like Batin. If he learned just what the Veiled man had done, Jack would undoubtedly try to kill him the next time they met.

"Just some techniques on how to deal with it," he settled for. "It helps me stay focused. But I've always had pretty good pain tolerance, too."

It was something he developed very quickly as a kid. Who knew such an ability would come in so handy in Eliona? Even Dhin had been impressed at the kind of beatings Severance could take.

"Yeah." Snow grimaced. "No kidding."

"Radiant Dome." Severance filled the narrow mining tunnel with the Dome, letting it cover all of them. Then he cast a second Mend on himself, followed by a third.

In the awkward silence that followed, Kiah came and crouched before him. She watched him, her expression solemn.

"I'm not one to discourage other people's choices, but... why do you do this?"

Her question made him smile a little. Really, he was surprised she took so long to ask it of him. He pulled in his now healed legs, sitting cross-legged against the wall.

"Because people will die if I don't."

Jack growled softly. "Severance..."

"What do you mean?" Kiah's brow creased, genuine confusion on her face.

Aware that he was treading on dangerous ground, Severance just shrugged. "Don't worry about it. We should figure out how we're going to handle room 5. There's three of the big ones coming through at once."
That earned him a long, intent look from Kiah. Her slightly narrowed eyes told him that she knew he was deflecting. But she didn't call him out on it. Not yet.
Instead, she sat back on her heels. "Alright. These big worms. Killing one is easy, but three? Three is difficult."

"We need to narrow it down to one at a time," Jack said curtly.

The frost in his gaze promised another scolding afterwards, and Severance just sighed. Really. Their teammates weren't stupid. Eventually, they were going to figure things out.

Severance rubbed gloved fingertips against a small patch of stone forming on his pants. It wasn't bad enough to need to change his clothing yet. "Or, you know, fight all three at once. We just need more firepower."

"You have some bombs hiding in your Inventory?" Snow asked dubiously.

Severance snorted. "We don't need bombs. We have combo skills, remember?"

To that, the cryomancer scoffed. And for good reason: the room they fought in was very small. A powerful combo skill might get rid of the worms, but it'd also take out everyone in the area.

"That would kill us even faster," Snow said.

"Yes, but Jack has the invulnerability skill," Kiah pointed out. "If he used that, and his buffs, he'd survive."

"What good would that do?" Snow asked. "He can't finish the dungeon alone."

"No, but—"

"I still have a stored Revive skill," Severance cut in.

Everyone paused and looked at him. In the silence that followed, a thousand things went unsaid. He simply stared back at them, already resolved to do what he had to.

Jack was probably the only one who really knew why. Even then, the tank's expression remained grim, a muscle twitching alongside his jaw. As for Snow and Kiah, they looked dismayed. They couldn't quite understand. Severance doubted any of them did.

They knew it was tough, but none of them could fathom what it was like. Not unless they experienced it for themselves. He hoped they never would.

Surprisingly, it was Valentin who stepped forward. His expression was impassive as ever, but he met Severance's eyes and gave a short nod. That was all Severance needed.

"All right," he said, and stood up. "Let's give this a try."

***

Dying from being frozen wasn't so bad. It was preferable then having to slit one's own throat, which was exactly what happened once they made it to room six. The entire room was mess of holes and big tunnels, and everything came at them. The wombats and the erfreschiks – little ones, bigger ones, and then even one of the giant ones came sliding through one of the tunnels left by an earlier one. There was so much acid spit that despite Severance's attempts to avoid it, he got it all over his shirt.

After that, the team was overwhelmed and Jack shouted for them to abort. Severance didn't hesitate. He slashed open his own throat, ignoring the horrified look Snow gave him.

And then he woke up outside the dungeon in a pool of his own blood. Gurgling, he slapped a hand over his neck, blood spilling through his fingers, and pulled out a fan.

Radiant Dome. The shimmering bubble fell over him and Valentin, who'd just appeared in the mining tunnel next to him. The knightglaive was in pitiable condition as well, since he'd taken the brunt of the big erfreschik's attack.

Mend. Wind swirled in the narrow corridor, and the gash across Severance's throat sealed shut. The ticking regeneration from the Dome continued to heal him while he waited for Mend's cooldown to end. And then he cast it again.

By now, everyone else had come out of the dungeon. They weren't in any better condition, but they were already healing on their own, thanks to the perks of being an Outsider.

"Well, that didn't go so well." That was Kiah's voice, calm despite the chaos they just escaped from. "We—Severance! What are you doing?"

Severance was in the middle of tugging off his shirt. It was covered in worm spit and slowly turning to stone. He wanted it off before it soaked through. Pulling it over his head, he dropped the stiff mass of material onto the ground. Then he hissed in annoyance and used his boot to help wiggle out of his gloves. They had all but turned to stone at this point.

He immediately stood up and looked himself over. None of the spit had gotten to his skin thankfully. It seemed to turn to stone too quickly for it to soak through, which was a very good thing in his case.

"Uh, Sev?" Snow said, hesitantly. "Any reason you're giving us a strip show?"

Severance froze, his ears turning red. "I'm not... ugh. One sec. Oh, great. It's on my pants, too."

He quickly stepped out of those, while Kiah coughed and politely turned the other way. Severance was hardly paying attention to her though. He was making sure none of the spit had made it any further than the densely-woven clothing that Maun and Kamau had procured for him.

To his relief, everything else was intact. It was just his hand affected. Again. He pulled out another set of clothing and quickly dressed. "Sorry. I just needed to change before the worm spit ate through my clothes."

"It's just some worm slobber," Snow pointed out. "It's not that big of a deal."

Severance made a face. "It's just gross, okay?"

He said nothing about it would turn into an advanced case of the Afflicted disease or how there was really only one way to get rid of it. For him, at least.

"Baby."

Snow tossed the insult over playfully, though it made Severance tense. It was the same kind of insult his sister liked to throw around. Not that it mattered much anymore. Carly and the rest of his family were out of his life forever now, as far as he was concerned.

He pulled off the face mask and head covering, deciding to change those as well. It might have seemed a little extreme to cover up so completely, but it had already paid off several times over.

Kiah stretched from side to side. She didn't have as much damage to her attire, due to the defensive nature of her sword summons. "We still have another hour, boys. Should we go again?"

"Not yet," Jack said. Like Severance, he was in the process of swapping out his armor. "Let's figure out a strategy for the sixth room first."

"Then-" Severance began to speak, but stopped when a low rumble echoed through the mining tunnel. His eyes widened slightly. "Vast!"

Before anyone could react, he sprinted down the tunnel, heading for the mine entrance. He'd left Vast outside, knowing the beast would occupy himself by hunting whatever poor animal he could fine. But Vast only ever rumbled like that when he sensed danger.

Severance burst out of the mine and skidded to a stop. Bright sunlight blinded him. He held a hand up to his eyes, squinting to scan the area.

No sign of Vast, despite the low growling vibrations filling the air. Even the few Elionan mine workers had paused in their work, sending uneasy glances around. But Severance didn't see anything strange.

Then he lifted his gaze upwards, to the higher ridge of the mountains surrounding the mine. He scanned all around, before he froze. There.

A lone figure stood on the pile of rubble at the entrance to the mine. It wasn't one of the mine workers. Not by a long shot. This person wore quality gear. Light armor, from the looks of it, and Severance caught the shine of sunlight off a breastplate. It was the only metal piece the person wore.

The person lifted a hand and waved at Severance. A perfectly friendly greeting. But Severance got a bad feeling in his stomach. One that was compounded when a sliver blur bounded up the rubble. It was Vast, and as the he reached the top of the pile, a few dozen feet away from the armored stranger, the stranger spun to face the beast.

A great longbow appeared in his grasp in an instant, an arrow notched and already drawn back. A Wanderer, Severance realized in an instant. And in the next, he knew that Vast was in mortal danger. There was no way a Wanderer would miss at such close range.

Severance thrust out a hand, eyes narrowing. "Saving Grace!"

The arrow released.

Vast vanished-

-And reappeared in front of Severance. The arrow pierced harmlessly into the rubble and stuck there, its shaft vibrating.

Heart racing, Severance grabbed onto a fistful of silver fur. Warily, he stared at the Wanderer.

Who was this guy?

Heavy footsteps crunched behind him, and Jack and the others joined him. They were just in time to see the Wander give another friendly wave, before the player slid down the other side of the rubble and vanished.

"Who was that?" Jack asked curtly.

Vast lowered his head, his teeth bared. His tail flicked side to side, lashing against Severance's legs. And still, he rumbled softly.

That was all Severance needed to know.

"Trouble," he said.