-George R. R. Martin

“Right… then let’s do this!”

John sent Kim an invite, which she reacted to with only moderate surprise. Not sure of what exactly Moira had shared about his abilities, John opted to explain quickly the basis of his powers. Kim seemed even more cautious than Moira had been the first time, but she accepted all the same.

John opened up his Dungeon Barrier menu and selected a few different options. A part of him wanted to continue his war on Treants and hopefully build up his resources after he consumed most of his wood to begin construction of his house. But John’s concerns were more immediate, so he opted for a more valuable foe. Gnolls.

John set the level to 10, not daring any higher, since that was already far more powerful than the Harpies that had nearly ended Seras’ life and risked his own. He was just getting ready to set the Barrier in motion when Etriyya’s hand stopped his, her face rather serious despite her casual demeanor only moments ago.

“We are engaged in an active war - is now really the time to be placing yourselves at such risk? The healers are busy enough with those wounded in the Cabal's initial incursion; we shouldn't be placing them under further strain until we know-"

"There will be no strain," Kim said simply, narrowing her eyes at the Knight. "I cannot speak for this Newman, but I am more than capable of looking after myself. The Moon clan has survived for generations; it will not be undone by slavers gone mad with ambition. Furthermore, your Order has no jurisdiction over my actions. I will act as I please."

Etriyya's eyes narrowed. "You came to aid us, did you not? You even assisted this creation of Newman's, despite your obvious distaste for it."

"I came because my Clan has vowed to aid the Order. I assisted this woman because I was told it is a servant of John Newman. I will fight because I loathe the Cabal and their lust for power and willingness to do anything to obtain it, but that is as far as my allegiance goes, particularly for those who house necromancers and dark magic practitioners… but only when it suits their plans."

"I can heal myself," John pointed out. "HP anyway, and my body doesn't seem to get damaged beyond that. And if Kim's really that strong and fast, we won't be gone for long. It'll be like training here - except I may not even have to use mana."

"You… very well," Etriyya sighed. "Turn your phone on high. If you are called and do not answer, it will not be taken well."

"…Does your phone work in a Barrier?" John asked, absently pawing at the smartphone bulging ever so slightly out of the side of his jeans.

"They haven't even- John Newman, you haven't even been properly equipped, you cannot-"

"My phone is functional and prepared; we properly gear ourselves," Kim said, leaving the implication unspoken. "John, prepare your Barrier, and I promise we will have you back in time for whatever guard duty Moira has in mind for you."

"Oh, I see how it is, insult and run? Can't stand and fight like a proper Knight? And you, John, I teach you a spell and you leave a lady high and dry?"

"Sorry, Etriyya! If we're gonna be in a war, I'll need this. Tell Moira to call Kim if she needs me!"

The world shifted before John's eyes, and Etriyya faded away from his view along with the scenery. In the place of what had once been, John found himself facing the abyss. Not the Abyss, really, but an abyss - a massive fissure stretched out before him, at least a hundred feet across and the better part of a quarter-mile deep. John stepped back out of reflex, whereas Kim stepped forward, glancing into the depths of the hole.

"It appears that our foes are down that way. Short, hairy, and with skin the color of ash. Some kind of malformed humanoids."

"What kinda foes are we fightin' this time?" Seras asked, leaning around John to gaze at the open tear in the earth. Kim glanced back at Seras, and John could almost feel the disgust rolling off her. John approached the edge cautiously, glancing down to find that there was actually a series of paths carved into the cliff's side, winding back and forth. At various points there were caves, and John could see at least a half-dozen short, stubby men with skin the color of a storm cloud marching around, as well as tracks for what appeared to be minecarts.

"Dwarves, or Dark Iron Dwarves, I guess. Are those- well, I guess none of this is actually a thing, but they've got a mine set up beneath us, I'm guessing, or an underground city. Probably paths somewhere around here, we just have to find it."

"Were I to make a guess," Kim said, glaring off to John's right, "I would say it is near the armed guards approaching us."

John turned, already raising his weapon, but Kim showed no signs of urgency despite the roughly four-foot blocks of metal and muscle charging toward her with axes raised. If anything, for just a moment before she turned too far and John lost sight of her face, she seemed calmer. As if the annoyance she felt at John and the clear hate of Seras she had faded away, and all that was left was a certainty.

John stayed back, uncertain of what was about to happen. Kim made no move to draw her blade, despite the ever-decreasing amount of time she had to do so. Her hand wasn't even on the hilt; instead both of them were hanging at her sides, rigidly extended although her arms remained relaxed.

"M-master, should we help?"

"Probably," John said, raising his blade. Even with what he had recovered while sparring with Etriyya, he was still so tapped on mana between that single White Lightning and his creation of the Dungeon Barrier they were all in. Between Seras and himself, he hoped that they could at least take one of the dwarves for long enough to let Kim finish the other one off, if they couldn't handle it themselves.

As the two dwarves reached swinging range, John and Seras were only a few feet behind, but John never saw the movement as their axes came down - only the result. They swung at thin air, very nearly taking a piece out of each other when their target failed to slow or halt their blows with her flesh. The dwarves, despite being obviously more built for power than speed, were already at or above John's level of movement. Seeing them so completely outclassed was beyond intimidating.

Before John could draw the breath to make a shocked gasping sound, Kim was there again. This time behind the dwarf on John's left, her hands lashing out in rapid and precise blows. John would have assumed that being behind someone in hand-to-hand combat left only the head as a clear spot to hit and that such blows were best delivered with a fist. He was both pleased and horrified to find out how wrong he'd been on both counts.

Kim's open palm struck first at roughly where a human's kidney would've been, on the dwarf's right side at his lower back. Dwarven anatomy must have been similar enough, because a gust of wind escaped the short man as he hunched to his right side and tucked his arm in to lessen the pain. Kim followed up with a strike using the heel of her palm on his tightened shoulder, carrying through with enough **** to dislocate it. The axe fell uselessly to the ground as every tendon in the dwarf's shoulder was either torn or misplaced so badly he could not control his muscles. The blow sent him turning to the side, opening up his left.

Party Member: 43 DMG!
Party Member: 56 DMG!

There, Kim finally struck a righteous blow, a knife-hand strike that dislocated the dwarf's jaw, and an immediate follow-up after a quick recoil that connected with his neck. While the short man was struggling to replace his jaw and right arm in their proper positions, his neck began to darken, a slowly ebbing torrent of internal bleeding that didn't stop, even as the man gasped for air his body could not transport, and fell to the ground with his dark-gray skin slowly nearing closer and closer to black.

Party Member: 41 DMG!
Party Member: Slayer’s Precision: Critical Strike! - 153 DMG! [Bleed Inflicted]

+20 EXP

The other dwarf had, after all that, only just begun a strike to save - and now avenge - his friend. As the axe came down Kim adjusted her stance, raising her leg toward the falling weapon, showing off an immense amount of flexibility. In the split-second he had to see the blow, John wondered if she intended to block it somehow, but she had the accuracy to actually hook the point of her toes under the flat part of the war axe's bottom edge, driving her foot into the corner created by the metal and the handle, and then using her apparently impressive strength to flick the axe right out of the man's hand. His now empty palm glided along her thigh, leaving him completely off-balance and unprotected from the immediate follow-up. Kim brought her leg screaming back down with a guillotine kick that very well could've lived up to its name, were her aim slightly different - the dwarf's skull ended up being her target instead, and it shattered between the solid ground and Kim's foot. Blood sprayed from the man's scalp where it burst open, staining the ground and Kim's pant leg.

Party Member: Slayer’s Precision: Critical Strike! - 229 DMG! [Stun, Bleed Inflicted]

+20 EXP

Kim narrowed her eyes at the offending blood, shaking her pant leg as if she expected it to fall off. Then again, considering this was her first time in a Barrier with John, that was most likely the exact thing she was hoping for.

"Tell me, when exactly will I feel this great strength? All I feel is the stain of these creatures who are refusing to disappear."

"You're a lot higher level than me. Dunno how much experience you have. We probably have to defeat this whole thing, if you want a shot at a level."

"No matter… these creatures have very strong bodies but very little skill. We will work our way through them in less than an hour, if you can keep up."

Kim didn't wait for a response, starting toward the path that led along the side of the crevasse and down to wherever the main host of Iron Dwarves were, probably in a cliffside cavern somewhere.

"She's… kinda strong, inn' she?" Seras whispered, eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Yes," John said quietly, leaning down to one of the dwarves' bodies and inspecting the items he saw. The armor and axe were mundane, not especially worth attention. But laying just beside the dwarf, where John's mysterious "loot" seemed to form next to corpses, he found something more interesting.

Iron Ore

"Yes she is," Jon continued as he inspected the roughly hewn rock with linings of a silvery-gray through it, "and we can use that, just as she intends to use us."

“Righ’, as long as she cools it with the ‘ole… head-crushin’ thing.”