I fly though the air and land on the wall that is now empty of adventurers. Skull goblins are scrambling over the wall, their claws leaving deep marks in the stone as they launch themselves forward in pursuit of the fleeing adventurers. They have definitely gotten faster.
I too take another mighty leap and land on the ground behind the wall, darting into the half-scorched camp. I see a couple of stragglers. These adventurers must be amongst the slowest but damn they really are slow. I quickly catch up to them and stab the slowest one in the back with my daggers.
He goes down, clearly still alive, but I don't care. The ones that are running are my prey!
I reach another one and down him with two diagonal slashes. The next one tries to dodge my stab by sidestepping. I let the forward momentum of the stab carry me past him and turn my body to vertically slash at his knee with my other dagger.
His knee gets an ugly cut that will probably result in him being unable to walk for quite a while. I halt for a moment to slash his throat before I continue to dash through the abandoned camp.
I find stragglers here and there but the majority of adventurers seems to still be ahead of me. I sprint on with barely any exhaustion weighing me down despite the copious amount of physical exertion I put my body through.
After a few more kills, the end of the camp and the gate to the thirteenth floor come into view. The adventurers are rushing toward the gate like headless chickens while a few of the faster skull goblins are hot on their heels.
We chase and soon cross the gate. As we charge into the thirteenth floor, a scorching heat wave assaults us. I feel sand below my boots and the overwhelming force of my step pushes away that sand, causing me to face plant.
I get back up and spit out the sand that got into my mouth. A desert? You've got to be kidding me! This is the worst environment to chase someone down.
On the plus side, the adventurers are also slowing down. Never mind, they seem to have reached some kind of road and are speeding up again.
I open the dungeon map and see that about a hundred meters away from the gate a road leads to the other side of the colosseum. I also spot numerous red dots approaching us in groups of three to four. At the speed they are going while moving on sand they must be accustomed to this environment.
Still, I chase after the leading skull goblins in hot pursuit of the fleeing adventurers. Due to the dungeon map I see that most of the skull goblins don't seem to be following me. Whatever…
I reach the road after struggling to cross the sandy stretch before it. Once on solid ground that seems to be heavily compacted sand, I can make use of my speed again and catch up to my prey.
Since I wasted some time falling over and looking at the dungeon map, I was a the back of the pursuing group of skull goblins. After reaching the road, my superior stats allowed me to move to the middle of the group.
Now, I am in the perfect position to see the front most skull goblins get shot by arrows. In the distance, dozens of figures clad in white cloth from head to toe are approaching quickly.
Arrows keep raining down on us but once we know of them, we can dodge. Dodging of course doesn't prevent us being hit, the archers are far too good, but keeps the arrows from hitting our vital spots.
However, due to the arrows, we are slowed down and the adventurers gain distance between us. The white robed figures converge and block the road before us, thereby allowing the adventurers to get away. As I lose sight of the fleeing adventurers, I feel the strength leave my body and exhaustion sets in. Figures that the increase in strength we all received was temporary, a mere buff. But a damn good one.
But damn, that felt like I was high on something.
Good to hear. Being drunk on power makes me stupid. I shouldn't have followed them through the gate, should I have?
Which leaves me faced with these enemies who are hiding their bodies. They are elves. My assessment skill can discern their race as well as class through all that white cloth without problem. Desert hunters, certainly not a good matchup for us, seeing as we are in a desert.
Looks like it's time for another brute force spell. With a wall of skull goblins blocking the arrows with their bodies I can afford to go all out. I begin internally drawing the symbol for my sand ball spell but change it to suit my current needs. I pour everything I have into the spell and yell out its name at the top of my lungs.
"Sandstorm!"
Truthfully speaking, I know this spell is way out of my league. However, what's to stop me from trying? Will I die if I fail? Yes. Will I die I succeed? Also yes. Will I die if I don't cast the spell? Likely yes, I doubt I can escape back through the gate in time.
Since all paths lead to death, I might as well do whatever I want. Or in other words, sandstorm!