The moment those three bodies hit the ground we were closing in on the entrance to the cave, and that meant that we were moving on to the more dangerous part of our time here... so far, anyways.
Who the hell knows what might happen next, or if there were any more surprises in store for us somewhere down the line...
Anyways, the thing we were most worried about now was getting the rest of the mercenaries killed and putting ourselves into a fair fight against the two big bads, who were relatively large 'unknowns' still.
How strong were they, what gear did they have lying around, what would they attempt to do and how would they attempt to fight us?
So many questions and not any answers that could be thought of this very moment, so instead of doing some useless - and honestly relatively dangerous - thinking, we instead went into action immediately, with Dama just saying "Take 'em down and prepare yourself." before she pushed the wall forwards a few more feet.
Moving our cover away distracted the mercenaries for a brief moment, giving us the opportunity to attack first and bridge the remaining distance between us and them; darting off to the left, Dama slammed into a beefy Beastkin of some kind and put the warrior on the ground, opening up some space for herself to start working with.
Not wanting to be outdone and definitely not wanting to lose any time, I tapped into my Core and allowed the sparking mana to flow freely throughout my body, giving me some more speed as I threw myself to the right and immediately targeted two mercenaries.
One had a longbow and the other had a staff, but neither were ready for me as I rushed straight to them and stabbed my spear straight through the archer's skull, killing them instantly and showering the mage with gore.
After having thrusted my weapon forwards I just decided to spin myself to the side slightly and slam the butt of my spear into the mage's ribcage, shattering the bones and causing the mercenary to crumple to the ground with a sharp cry of agony.
I cringed a little at the sound before doing something that happened out of instinct rather than anything else; with them being right there on the ground in front of me, I raised my boot, flooded my foot with mana and then just... stomped down, ending another life in the messiest way possible.
Two more kills tallied for me, and I felt sick again as I took in what I had done, only to hear something coming towards me at extreme speeds; despite being disgusted with it, I planted my foot right where the mercenary's head had been and turned to meet the source of the noise, which was the leather clad speedster.
Another dagger had joined her arsenal, and now they were wreathed in a swirling vortex of wind that howled as she stabbed them towards me, trying to not only punch through my armor but also to damage me with the magic as the winds spiraled towards me as well.
Crescents of compressed air whistled towards me with terrifying speed, and yet my own mana was still flowing freely and bolstering my abilities even more, allowing me to begin spinning my spear in my hands as I coated it in electricity.
A crackling shield appeared in front of me, catching the blades and the wind and attempting to toss them aside while also sending sparks down the metal, which the woman had to avoid by leaping back with a snarl.
"Fucking..! I hate you damn Lightning Elementalists! Always playing so unfair... now I definitely want to use your skull as a chalice!"
Her voice was sharper and more raw as she began to dart towards me again, the emotions she had manifesting in her magic as she sent a flurry of attacks my way; as she tried to close the distance I was looking for openings to exploit, and I saw the charred flesh slowly healing as a red liquid - that wasn't blood - dribbled down her toned belly.
The wound I had inflicted was healing, but it was still currently present and likely bothering her, meaning I had some idea on how to deal with her... but my current issue was her being far too quick to pin down, and on top of that there were still two mercenaries targeting me.
One was rushing in to help, a giant wooden shield covering them while a long, thin lance poked around from the side, providing not only range but also precision as the mercenary tried to stab at me from afar.
Targeting my legs, shoulders and head forced me to become more defensive, and when the flurry of firebolts streaking towards me joined in as well I felt a little bit overwhelmed... only to have my mind turn towards a solution that sounded... 'gamey'.
Close quarters, mid range and then ranged all focusing on me meant I needed to just work down the line, and positioning would help me with this; to start I kept the spinning of my spear, using it as a shield to deflect the attacks of all three before I began to slowly shift myself.
Placing the lancer roughly between me and the mage gave me a little more breathing room, and even with the dagger wielding psycho still trying to gut me I felt that change immediately, since I could begin gathering my mana without as much risk.
Funneling it into the spear and charging up a storm in front of me, I eventually gathered enough electricity to do something rather 'cool'; I just used the metal weapon in my hands as a gathering rod before forcing the electricity away, pushing it outwards and forcing it to seek new ways to ground itself.
And... well, everyone here was wearing armor of some kind, and there were various pieces of metal on said armor, let alone the weapons they were wielding; with sufficient targets the electricity streaked through the air around me and struck at each of my opponents for varying degrees of damage.
The daggers were zapped from the scantily clad mercenary, and she snarled at me as she just endured the pain while leaping away, avoiding more of it; as for the lancer, she had her weapon ripped from her before she screamed in agony as her helmet took a large amount of voltage, which was... definitely not ideal.
Finally the mage from afar just had to deal with two bolts that targeted the staff in their hands and their cuirass, which they attempted to block with a wall of fire... only to realize that electricity and fire were more alike then they thought.
Their screams joined the lancer's, and I grimaced before pushing that aside as well, focusing on my only remaining enemy... who was currently glowering at me from afar with two sparking daggers that they were defiantly holding onto.