Adama’s whole world was nothing but suffocating earth as he scrambled to delay his fall. He managed to dig Hearthblade into the side of the mountain, slowing things a little, but the ivory blade dug too effectively into the rock, and the mound of dirt continued to push him downward. Adama could always dig it in sideways, but his calculating mind realized that that risked being swept away from his sword entirely. So, he did the next best thing.

  He wordlessly conjured an invisible blade and dug that in sideways. That arrested his momentum for a fraction of a second, the mudslide washing right over him, before the blade shattered from the force and he continued his fall. Then he did it again. Adama continued this suffocating fall/stop/fall/stop routine from inside the mudslide, perception of the world around him totally nonexistent. He yearned for air, but he also yearned to see how far off the ground he was. Thankfully, even with his perception blocked, he heard the distant boom of the mud finally hitting the ground. Taking a chance, he buried Hearthblade into the stone and stopped his fall completely.

  His poor blade bent a little under the pressure, but thankfully the last of the mud soon passed over Adama and he was finally able to take a deep breath. Coughing and breathing in equal measure, Adama hung from the cliffside, blinking the mud out of his eyes, and gathering his bearings. Then his danger sense screamed at him with the sound of a thousand alarm bells. Blindly, he launched himself off the cliffside, extracting his sword as he did, and as he fell again, he heard the loud boom of rock striking rock from the place he used to be. Adama still sustained superficial cuts from the shattered rock and his danger sense blared louder than ever. He hit the dirt rolling and immediately pushed himself into the air with a flying cartwheel. And good thing too, because another massive rock screamed through the air, passing just under the flying Adama.

  While in midair, the Sword Sage blinked away the last of the mud and set his eyes on his would-be attackers. They widened a little to see two Trolls staring at him with their typical hungry expressions from just across the valley. While monsters could look very similar, Adama didn’t believe in coincidences. These were almost certainly the same beasts he’d seen just that morning. Their path must have looped around and come down. Looking at it now, Adama saw that the monster’s arms were extended, at the end of a throwing motion. He watched as they pulled back and reached for more rocks.

  Adama cursed himself for leaving them alive as he landed on his feet and dodged to the left, evading another thrown boulder by inches. His mobility in the valley was constrained, even though it was a wider passage. The Trolls only had to hit him once and his life would be at risk. As a test, Adama sent a fully charged Rippling Sword against the larger of the duo and watched as its claws snapped up and shattered the magic before it could hit skin. He also watched as the other monster dug its fingers into the side of a mountain, scooping up a chunk of stone and hurtling it at him. No chance of them running out of ammo, then.

  This outing had just gotten much harder.

  …

  The three girls landed in a heap in safety, and it took a bit for them to untangle themselves and glance down to where Adama fell:

  “Mr. Tim/Tim/Adama!”

  Lilli, Emi and Naaza called out in unison as they watched Adama get attacked by the Trolls in the distance. Lilli turned to the other girls, knowing her Little Ballista didn’t have the range to help:

  “Can either of you help him from here?”

  Both girls shook their heads. They could only make out the Trolls because they were so large. They could barely make out the small dot that was Adama. Neither Naaza’s bow nor Emi’s magic could hit anything reliably from this distance, and they would be more likely to waste their resources than anything else. Worse, they might accidentally hit their friend. The trio thought rapidly about how to help Adama, but a snarl from behind alerted them to the fact that they had their own problems to worry about.

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  A half dozen Hellhounds had come up on their rear, but Naaza’s arrows put four of them in the dirt and caused the other two to flee. As the dogs ran, however, they passed by several larger figures who let out triumphant roars as they charged down the path toward the trio. The humanoids were two meters in height, twin-horned hulking brutes that sported black skin and red fur. Unlike most monsters, their eyes were a wild, unnerving yellow, and their faces were rather apelike, open mouths displaying fanged teeth as they screamed out their war cries. They reminded Lilli of Minotaurs, though she knew that these enemies were far more dangerous than the bull men. These were Barbarians.

  Barbarians could come in two flavors, lesser or greater. Lesser Barbarians were merely Level 3 in abilities, while greater Barbarians were Level 4, though it was hard to tell which version you were dealing with simply by looking at them. The girls were currently being charged by a dozen of the brutish beasts, and it really wouldn’t matter whether they were lesser or greater if the trio allowed the monsters to get close. They held nothing back.

  Naaza and Lilli began firing off explosive arrows/crossbow bolts, lighting up the mountainside without mercy. Lilli’s explosives were weaker, failing to kill the beasts but sending them into a rage of pain and confusion, slowing them down. Naaza, on the other hand, killed two enemies and wounded four more in the opening moments of the fight. It wasn’t enough. The remaining Barbarians were closing in, slowed not stopped, so Lilli swiftly unleashed her trump card.

  She washed the mountain in a baptism of fire, pulling out a crimson magic dagger and unleashing it upon the approaching enemy. The heat was so close that the girls felt their eyebrows singe, but Lilli kept pouring on the firepower. It was the best replacement she’d been able to find for her ice dagger, and it worked perfectly in this situation. Three Barbarians quickly became charred husks, the remainder stepping back from Lilli’s devastating wall of flame. Then, Emi finally finished her chant.

  “Cornerstone!”

  The massive boulder decimated the remaining Barbarian ranks. Only one of the beasts was left standing after the girls finished their combined assault. Its’ axe deflected two of the mundane arrows Naaza sent its way, but not the other three. One of them hit its magic stone, disintegrating the beast immediately, but the girls’ problems were far from over.

  Four Harpies had heard the commotion and come flying, pelting the adventurers with feathery projectiles. They dived to avoid the attacks and the Harpies swooped away, but they’d be back. Further off in the distance, the girls heard the cries of more Barbarians and the roars of an assortment of Ligerfangs and Bugbears as well. They had apparently found some sort of monster colony and had only defeated the vanguard. Lilli started calling orders to the others, preparing for the incoming monster stampede as best as she could.

  This was going to be a long afternoon.

  …

  Meanwhile, in the valley, Adama had dodged around as best he could, sustaining only a few minor cuts, but he knew he had to get in close. He bolted toward the duo, skillfully dodging anything they could throw at him. But the Trolls were more intelligent than they looked, and as he got close, they began breaking up the rocks and throwing them scattershot. With no cover to speak of, Adama defended himself as best as he could, sword ringing as he deflected as much of the rock as possible, but he still sustained some painful cuts and bruises as he got closer and closer to the pair.

  Thanks to his armor, it was nothing that would inhibit his movement, and he finally managed to get himself in striking range. In a flurry of blades and dust, the Trolls clawed at Adama in close quarters, trying to tear him apart. He countered with a chantless Endless Sword he’d been preparing, but that just deflected the incoming attacks. The magic could barely scratch the Troll’s hardened skin. It did give Adama an opening, however, which he used to dash in and create a gash on one Troll’s belly. He jumped back to avoid the monster’s counterstroke and was immediately put on the defensive again.

  The monsters’ limbs were too long and their attacks too powerful. It took everything Adama had just to stay alive under their onslaught, his bones creaking at the strain of deflecting so many heavy attacks. He managed to unleash another Endless Sword, giving himself time to put more space between him and the enemy. But then they just started attacking from a distance again, slowly moving toward him and keeping Adama on the run. He momentarily considered doing just that, running away and trying to rejoin the others. There was no shame in a tactical retreat, but he was practically trapped in this valley. He could run backward but they would follow, and turning his back in full retreat was practically asking for a boulder in the back. He’d be a sitting duck if he tried climbing back up here.

  No, the only way out of this would be through them, but their hard exteriors made a decisive blow impossible. His Endless Sword had done nothing, and a higher-powered version wouldn’t change much. Even Hearthblade had only left a relatively small scratch. As he fended of their attacks, however, Adama watched that scratch drip a steady trickle of blood.

  Then he had an idea. It was so obvious that Tim nearly kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier. Subtly, he muttered to himself:

  “When you’re alone, look for a weapon.”

  The invisible blade manifested at full power in his empty left hand, held quietly behind his back so the Troll’s didn’t see anything strange happening. Adama looked at the wounded Troll, gauging the distance between them as he dodged yet another volley of rocks.

  Then he threw his sword.