With the rattling of steel, a small army of players marched their way into the charred clearing. Their heads held high, as brought with them an air of superiority and pomp. An air that was surprisingly refreshing, as one of their members had cast a chilling wind spell.

Although it benefited everyone in the area, banishing away the sweat inducing heat for a few brief moments, it also allowed their heavily armoured tanks to stride confidently at the front of the pack.

"Redfang." Saige muttered under his breath with an amused chuckle, "They can barely make qualifiers at most E-sports competitions, and when they do they always wipe in the first round. People used them as a warm up instead of treating them as any real competition, yet look at them. You’d think they have golden rods up their asses with how they are walking."

A few spurts of laughter forced themselves from the party members pursed lips, as they desperately tried to hold it in but failed. Even a few other individuals within ear shot of their group were snickering at Saige’s comments, but all of them did so quietly so as to not ruin the opportunity presenting itself or get the guilds ire turned towards them.

The leader of Redfang, a man in pure red armour with a wolf’s head styled helmet that must have cost a pretty penny, stepped forward and started to proclaim loudly. Projecting his voice across the clearing as he declared that Pit Viper’s were being too harsh on the people and that they didn’t deserve the tax and blah blah blah.

It was loud noise that no one really paid attention to, just treating the over dramatic monologue as the warm up time, rather than the epic declaration that the pompous Redfang were hoping it would be. At least their members were listening intently, with their heads held high and proud, chests puffed out like it was just as inflated as their egos.

"Okay, while they are blabbing. Everyone join the group!" Figg said with an excited smile as he turned away from the over dramatic rendition of Hamlet going on next to the dungeon entrance.

[Player PleaseJustFiggingGrow has invited you to join the party ’MONSTER HUNTING MAGIC FRIENDS, GO!’

Accept/Decline]

Belladonna scrunched her face up at that name, feeling it deal her actual mental damage just from looking at it. She was incredibly tempted to hit decline, just so that she didn’t have to have such a horrifyingly embarrassing name attached to her.

She could only imagine what would happen to her reputation if people saw her connected to that name. It was the first time she had every thought of or considered reputation, but it seemed like an incredibly opportune moment to do so.

She wasn’t the only one hesitating. Even Saige, who had only stopped saying ’Nya~’ because of Belladonna’s repeated punches, found it incredibly embarrassing. That said a lot about that name.

"Oh would you just hurry up! I was in a rush and couldn’t think of anything else! We need to get going now, otherwise we could miss the window and have to pay a big loot tax!" Figg pleaded with them, bouncing nervously where he stood, constantly glancing towards the two groups as they started to draw their weapons and prepare.

With much disgust and hesitation, they all hit accept just in time for the chaos to erupt. Figg held them back for a few more seconds, waiting for the chaos to reach the perfect moment, before finally giving the signal. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"CHEESE IT!" He shouted, breaking into a sprint and charging towards the pit, with the rest of the party following right after him, as all the other waiting players did exactly the same. Lilith scooped the short Saige and Vestra into her arms, making use of her long and strong legs to charge ahead of the pack.

They were like lemmings, pushing past and clambering over each other to be the first to throw themselves from the cliff.

The Guild leaders of Pit Vipers and Redfang tried to scream orders to the charging players, both of them barking that they were the rightful owner and that the players should desist and pay their proper dues, but no one even thought of listening to them as they threw themselves into the pit.

At the back of the pack, Belladonna scooped some hunks of meat from her bag, making a detour towards the Brownie statue and muttered her request for the parties loot protection before tossing the meat, which disappeared before it even hit the ground.

Someone tried to grab her as she ran past them, however she simply twisted her body around them like a serpent, flipping them to the ground in an arm lock. Rolling backwards, Belladonna clambered to her feet before leaping backwards, making sure to flip her attacker a double bird as she plummeted into the depths of the pit.

She fell for a few seconds, before there was a tug at her body and her environment changed in a flash. The darkness of the pit was instantly replaced by a colossal underground cave network that was lit with an eery orange glow, thanks to the dozens of lava rivers that ran through the cavern.

Belladonna flipped in the air, giving her time to blast a few spurts of flames from her feet, however that was quickly discovered to be a terrible idea.

The heat inside the cavern was ten times worse than it was on the surface. Never-mind sweating, it felt like her sweat would boil and evaporate off of her skin. That was probably because of all of the lava, as it was generally known to be hot, but at least - as some would say - it was a dry heat.

So adding even more fire to that mix was generally not going to be a good idea.

The moment the plumes of flames erupted from Belladonna’s feet, her skin immediately started to sizzle and cook. She grit her teeth, holding in the grunts of pain as she let out staggered, second long bursts of flames, turning her smooth descent into a bobbing mess that made her look like a drunken bee.

Once she was slow enough, Belladonna switched the flames for the much more comfortable, and less burning, air walking. Simply walking down platforms of solidified air, before touching down onto the ground, where her feet immediately started to sizzle and cook again from the heat of the scorching hot rocks.

She immediately yelped in pain, leaping into the air and back onto the air platforms, as she shook her feet in the air to cool them down.

"Ah, sorry about that." Figg said from beside her, a sheepish grin on his face as he rubbed the back of his head, "I probably should have warned you about that, huh?"

Belladonna shot him a hateful glare that screamed ’Oh, you think?!’ before sighing and going back to shaking her feet, while her natural healing slowly replaced the burnt flesh.

At the same moment, deep within the depths of the dungeon, a giant with deep red skin and flaming horns was sat upon a throne of brimstone. He raised his head, the flames on his horns flaring to life, as he peeled open his heavy eyes and stared at the door ahead of him.

His domain had been invaded.