The Prowlers attacked.

  Half a dozen went for him and at least as many for the rest of the team.

  There was no chance to attack. All he could do was focus on dodging and blocking.

  He needed to get back to his team.

  He dodged left, took a hit to the shoulder, but in turn a small opening was created. He stepped through, now four Prowlers at his back, an unsustainable position, but only two of those that had focused on him were between him and the team.

  Again, he had to accept a painful hit, but fortunately his True Iron Armor of the Mongoose activated and pushed the Tundra Prowler back.

  That allowed him to break into a run and pass by the final two wolves on his end.

  Now, he had the choice of attacking the wolves going after the team from behind, or try to continue to make his way forward.

  Attacking would expose him in turn to the wolves behind him—he chose to leap forward, landing between two wolves that were attacking Michael.

  With a short slice to the right he managed to cut into one of the wolves. Not deep, not debilitating—but sufficient to make the wolf reflexively move to the side, creating an opening that allowed Ben to finally step back into the line with his friends.

  He turned and attacked.

  Anne, to his right, was bleeding heavily from a wound on her side. Akira was helping her out with his staff, but that signaled that he was out of juice for his magic.

  Ben had to hope that the two of them could hold, just like Jamal, who was on his own.

  He focused on the wolves in front of him, which provided relief for Michael, who was a lot less durable than Ben, Jamal, or even Anne were.

  It turned out to be hard. Very hard.

  The wolves were huge, vicious, and fast. Most of all, they were great at pack tactics.

  One went low, another high. One retreated, another moved forward.

  They refused to stand still.

  He could hold it further, but they needed relief now, so he activated [Unyielding Retribution] to take out one of the wolves.

  He leveraged the surprise with two quick steps forward, coupled with an attack at another wolf going after Michael. The cut wasn’t lethal, but it reduced the wolf’s mobility, which Michael then used to deliver the final blow.

  Ben still counted ten enemies and Anne had taken another hit.

  It looked like Jamal had abandoned his demolished shield and was now fighting with his axe only. That took not just his [Bulwark Stance] off the table but also exposed him personally to a lot more damage.

  Things were not looking good.

  Ben gritted his teeth and decided to shift his focus to offense.

  It would hurt. A lot. But they were not making enough progress and people grew tired.

  Tired meant mistakes.

  Mistakes could mean death.

  They had already gotten close enough with Michael today.

  A few wounds were a small price to pay for that.

  Anne activated [Flurry of Blows] and took out one monster.

  Hercules tried to distract enemies where he could, but he was Tier 1 and outclassed by the wolves.

  Ben dodged, but instead of moving to the side, he moved forward and delivered a blow to his attacker. It was blunted by the thick fur of the creature, but it did deal some damage.

  He stepped back into the line. Going on the offensive couldn’t mean exposing his friends.

  Instead of dodging, he accepted a wolf’s bite on his bracer. The sharp teeth pierced the armor and an unnatural coldness spread through his limb, but it exposed the wolf’s neck to Ben’s axe.

  He shook off the blood streaming from the wound.

  Jamal grunted in pain.

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  Anne’s armor had taken on the color red, dyed with her own blood.

  A lightning bolt streamed past Ben. Apparently, Akira had recovered enough Energy for one more attack.

  Anne used the slight stun for a top-down kick that likely broke the wolf’s back.

  Still, at least half a dozen enemies attacked them.

  Another leaped across the clearing from the forest.

  Ben’s hopes dropped. If the enemies were getting more reinforcements, their chances were bleak.

  The new enemy jumped over another wolf that had been attacking Michael.

  His friend went down.

  Ben abandoned his attack and leaped to Michael’s defense.

  Fortunately, the wolf that had jumped had not recovered, so with two wild hacking strikes Ben could dispatch it.

  However, another wolf had bitten deeply into Michael’s leg, frost spreading from the bite.

  The stealth specialist lay on the ground but tried to stab the attacker from above; the wolf, however, did not let go.

  Ben heard Akira cry out behind him.

  He had to focus on Michael’s tormentor for now, though.

  But just as he wanted to attack it, he got hit in the back and tumbled to the ground.

  He managed to roll to his feet, but the movement had taken him away from Michael, who was dragged back by the wolf holding his leg.

  Now he could see it clearly now. Akira had shouted because Anne was down, and Akira frantically tried to defend her with his staff, which sparkled with electric energy.

  They were going down.

  He could see it now clearly.

  It was not just the wounds, but also the cold spreading through them from every bite.

  Jamal was trying to disentangle himself from his own fight to help Akira and Anne, but he was bleeding as well.

  Ben shouted his frustration and leaped at the wolf dragging Michael.

  With all his anger, fear, and momentum, he managed to kill the wolf with one hit.

  But two others were coming at him and his friend.

  He would not give up, though. He would protect his friends. He would not yield.

  He was, after all, on the Path of the Unyielding Protector.

  Something triggered deep within—an as-yet-untapped Energy potential.

  He felt [Strength of the Protector] activate.

  He felt [Palisade of the Mind] activate.

  He felt [Unyielding Retribution] become available.

  He used it immediately. It was still available.

  He jumped to the next wolf, dodged an attack, and activated the perk again.

  Three more Tundra Prowlers remained.

  Ben ran forward, tackled one wolf going after the heavily bleeding Akira, and attacked another.

  [Unyielding Retribution] helped dispatch it quickly.

  Jamal managed to kill one more of the wolves despite being on his last legs too, probably supported by [Strength of the Protector].

  Ben turned to the last wolf.

  With the help of the perk that had replaced [Frenzy], it should not be a big problem, but as he stepped forward, he felt his perks deactivate.

  An enormous wave of tiredness rushed over Ben. All strength left him.

  He felt himself sink to one knee.

  The wolf lunged at him. A lightning bolt struck it, taking it slightly off its path, but it still bit into Ben’s shoulder.

  He did not have the strength to lift his axe, but he could still punch the beast—weakly.

  Jamal stumbled over and hacked at it.

  Akira’s staff slammed down on it.

  It didn’t let go of Ben’s shoulder, but eventually it succumbed to the damage from his teammates.

  Quiet.

  No more sounds of battle around him.

  He sagged down further, having no strength left but to lie on the ground.

  He felt Jamal take things out of his bag of holding.

  [Resilient Body], strengthened by his Constitution, started to work on his many wounds. But his strength did not come back.

  Akira knelt by his side. “Are you wounded?” he asked anxiously.

  Ben couldn’t do anything but weakly shake his head.

  Jamal looked over Akira’s shoulder. “Boss, I have handed out potions. The others should be fine.”

  Relief flooded Ben. He closed his eyes and blackness took him.

  ***

  As he woke, he felt something heavy on his chest and found himself staring into the piercing eyes of Hercules, perched squarely on him.

  He still felt incredibly weak, but a bit more coherent.

  His friends were assembled around him. Given how disheveled they still looked, he likely hadn’t been out for more than a few minutes.

  “How are you, boss?” Jamal asked.

  “Alright. Just weak. I don’t know what happened… Let me check my notifications.”

  You have activated your Path. In moments fully aligned with the Path’s purpose, it will provide a brief window in which positively Path-aligned perks will be available. It is powered by the Energy within you, and you should expect at least 24 hours of weakness following the activation.

  He sighed and conveyed this latest discovery to his team.

  He continued to lie on the ground, though he felt like he could get up now if he needed to—just not fight. Definitely not that.

  Hercules was despondent. His pride could not really accept that he had been too weak to help during the fight, but he did sort of accept that his beak and claws had not managed to pierce the wolves’ fur.

  Ben thought about it for a moment and then pulled out a Tier 2 core from his bag of holding.

  The eagle focused on it, conveying a mix of eagerness and apprehension. He was still digesting the Tier 1 core from earlier in the day and, more importantly, knew that this much more potent core would do something to him. He didn’t know what, but caution was important.

  Ben reached out to pet the bird and put the core away.

  Something to do on another day.

  After another thirty minutes of rest and snacking on some food they had brought along, they started to harvest their gains from the intense fighting.

  First, they removed the cores from the Tundra Prowlers and skinned them. If the fights over the day had made one thing very clear, it was that their gear needed to be upgraded, as it struggled to keep up with Tier 2 opponents.

  Ben’s contributions to the harvesting were limited, as he was still weak. It gave him time to think about the fight some more. It was incredible to have access to a perk like [Unyielding Retribution] that would reliably kill an enemy. At the same time, the day had also highlighted their weaknesses against large numbers of enemies and their lack of ranged options.

  At the same time, Akira was clearly a strong addition to the team and a great fit personality-wise.

  Once they were finished with the wolves, they returned to the scene of the ambush by the Ice Howlers, where they also harvested more cores and collected some of the weapons.

  They returned to the dungeon portal and stashed some of the weapons in a wolf skin. They were overloaded and would not be able to make their way back to the settlement carrying everything, especially not with Ben too weak to carry his fair share.

  There was just one thing left to do for the day before they returned to recover, restock, and rearm themselves: checking what the portal would explain about their first Tier 2 dungeon.