Jacob shouted, his voice cracking with anxiety and adrenaline as his eyes widened dramatically behind his thick glasses. His entire lanky body trembled like a leaf in a strong wind, but his Aspect was clearly firing on all cylinders, his enhanced perception processing the chaotic battlefield in extreme slow motion and feeding him a constant stream of tactical data.

Right on cue, with timing so perfect it was almost comedic, three more goblins exploded from the leftmost tunnel opening just seconds later, their bulging yellow eyes practically glowing with bestial rage as they swung their improvised weapons in wild, frenzied arcs that had no technique but plenty of murderous intent.

Skylar, looking almost supremely bored with the entire proceedings as if this was all beneath her considerable talents, exhaled a soft puff of indigo smoke that hung suspended in the moisture-heavy air for just a moment before impossibly, illogically reshaping itself into... Raphael.

A perfect illusory duplicate of our muscle-bound teammate materialized directly between the approaching goblin trio and our vulnerable group, roaring with the same reckless abandon and charging with the same aggressive posture as the genuine article.

The goblins fell for the deception completely and without question, piling onto the fake Raphael with savage, gleeful abandon, swinging their clubs with wild enthusiasm through what their primitive brains perceived as solid, vulnerable flesh.

Meanwhile, the real Skylar—now completely invisible and undetectable within the swirling cover of her own conjured smoke—emerged silently from the shadows directly behind the distracted monsters like a ghost made solid.

Her twin trench knives caught the dim bioluminescent light filtering through the cave for just a single instant, gleaming like fangs, before she struck. Two lightning-fast slashes, so quick my eyes almost couldn't track the motion, and two goblins immediately dropped to the ground like puppets with severed strings, their throats cleanly slit from ear to ear.

The last remaining goblin in that group finally sensed that something was deeply, fundamentally wrong with this picture. It spun around frantically, its bulbous yellow eyes widening in absolute horror and incomprehension just in time to see Skylar's gleaming blade arcing unstoppably toward its completely exposed neck.

I hadn't moved a single muscle from my position. Neither had Soomin, who remained frozen near the chamber entrance. From the first ear-splitting screech to the last dissolving corpse fading into pixels, the entire brutal skirmish had lasted less than ten seconds by my internal count.

Raphael stood triumphantly amidst the slowly dissolving goblin corpses, his chest puffed out with pride and satisfaction, fists still crackling faintly with residual kinetic energy. "See? Told you idiots it would be easy. Brute force and overwhelming power. That's all you need. We'll be done with this pathetic excuse for a challenge in ten minutes, tops."

He turned and strode confidently toward the next branching tunnel with the unshakeable confidence and swagger of someone who'd never once in his entire life faced real, lasting consequences for his actions.

"Wait a second." Juan's voice, lazy and drawling but carrying an undercurrent of something sharper, stopped Raphael in his tracks. "We need an actual strategy here. Rushing in blindly like a rabid dog is—"

"Strategy is for weaklings who can't hit hard enough to matter," Raphael cut him off dismissively, not even bothering to turn around. "You all saw what just happened. They're absolutely nothing. Trash mobs. This is going to be a cakewalk."

We followed him deeper into the increasingly complex cave system, the tunnels growing progressively narrower and more claustrophobic, the air becoming thicker and harder to breathe with each step we took into the earth's bowels.

The path split and rejoined multiple times in a dizzying pattern, forming what was clearly a deliberately designed maze meant to confuse and disorient intruders.

Jacob's Aspect proved genuinely useful here for the first time, his enhanced perception and pattern recognition allowing him to rapidly map our route in real-time on his datapad, creating a growing three-dimensional schematic that kept us from getting hopelessly lost in the labyrinth.

Forty minutes into our exploration of this underground warren, we entered a small chamber that was lit by patches of softly glowing bioluminescent fungi growing in clusters on the walls and ceiling. The eerie blue-green glow cast strange, dancing shadows on the damp stone surfaces, making everything look alien and otherworldly. And there, huddled pathetically in the far corner of the chamber like a wounded animal seeking shelter, was a single small goblin.

Unlike all the others we'd encountered and slaughtered, this particular specimen appeared genuinely injured. One of its spindly legs was bent at an obviously unnatural angle, the limb twisted in a way that made my own knee ache in sympathetic pain, and viscous green ichor was seeping slowly from the mangled wound.

It clutched something protectively to its narrow chest—a crudely carved wooden doll, the kind a child might make. When its yellow eyes registered our presence, it let out a pitiful, heart-wrenching whimper, a sound of pure fear and pain that echoed unnervingly in the small enclosed space.

"It's a monster. Just another simulation. Waste it and let's keep moving," Raphael stated flatly, already stepping forward with his fist beginning to crackle with deadly energy.

"W-we can't just kill it!" Jacob's face contorted with visible horror and moral anguish, his voice rising almost to a shout. "Look at it! It's not attacking! It's just... it's crying! It's hurt and scared!"

Juan let out another deep sigh, running one hand through his perpetually messy dark hair in a gesture of profound weariness. "It's technically a monster."

Skylar watched the trembling goblin with narrowed, calculating eyes, her expression unreadable but her hand hovering near the handles of her knives, ready to draw at a moment's notice. "There's something fundamentally off about this entire scenario," she murmured, more to herself than to any of us.

I opened my mouth, about to voice my own suspicions about this conveniently placed "wounded" creature, when the goblin's entire demeanor changed in an instant. Its pathetic whimpering stopped abruptly, cut off like someone had flipped a switch.

Its yellow eyes snapped fully open, the pupils contracting to pinpoints as they fixed directly and deliberately on Jacob with laser focus and unmistakable malicious intent. A slow, predatory grin spread across its grotesque face, gradually revealing multiple rows of needle-sharp teeth that gleamed wetly in the bioluminescent light.

The crude wooden doll clutched in its gnarled hand suddenly clicked, and I watched in slow motion as a hidden spring mechanism popped smoothly out from its base, revealing the innocent toy to actually be the disguised handle of a detonator.

The goblin let out a high, chilling giggle that bounced and echoed off the chamber walls, the sound raising every hair on the back of my neck.

"It's a trap!"

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Riki here.

Tried for a more immersive writing style these three chapters so please let me know what you think!

I'm always looking to improve and would appreciate the feedback.

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