The Systems Challenge

Kim waited a few minutes before motioning for Elmo to start their phase of the plan. His job was to first use some of his magic to damage some of the goblins and hopefully cause them to freak out with not knowing what was happening. Then she would move down the hallway and begin attacking them while Elmo would remain back near Elin, in case some of the goblins decided to head down that hallway for any reason.

Then once the girls were safe and Elin would move forward towards the fight, Elmo could approach as well and see if some of his magic would be useful there.

Although, of course, if he felt the need, he could make a few adjustments to the plan based on circumstances that they wouldn't know until they occurred. Such as if Kim found herself getting overwhelmed by goblins, he could move forward and try to help her out directly, but Kim doubted it would come to that. She certainly didn't need to be saved by a man, no matter the circumstance.

Of course, she let Elmo know that if he felt he had to save her, then he would also be accepting that she wasn't going to take it very kindly and he would need to answer for it when they were done and that what would happen to him would not be very pleasant at all. At least for him. For her, it would probably be rather fun.

Although, she had to admit that she would need to have Elin not be present for that. She doubted Elin would take it very kindly.

When it felt like Jonas had been gone long enough, she told Elmo, "Okay, kid, do your thing."

Elmo looked at her with an annoyed look. Not that she cared. "Scorch," Elmo said, looking towards the goblins.

At first it didn't seem to do anything, but then one of the larger goblins started screaming in pain, clutching it's right forearm.

Kim smirked as she moved around the corner, her longbow ready with an arrow nocked and pulled back, ready to shoot. While what Elmo had done wasn't anything that took it out, whatever that spell did certainly made it easier to eliminate the larger goblin. Though, her biggest annoyance was that she'd have to do it herself.

Although, she couldn't be sure that she'd be able to eliminate the larger goblin with an arrow, even in pain as it is, she focused on the smaller goblins. Even if they were merely an annoyance, she wouldn't be able to do much about them if they had too many for her to deal with. So, she shot her first arrow.

It struck a goblin in the back as it moved out of the way of the larger goblin flailing around in clear pain. The goblin fell down a moment after it was hit. Then before any of the goblins could register what had happened, she shot another arrow. This second arrow shot straight into a goblin's arm. While it was more of a flesh wound than the first shot she had made, it still made the goblin drop the weapon it had drawn to face the treat it couldn't see.

Then as Kim nocked the third arrow, she could see the goblins look towards her. She expected this to occur eventually, she was only sorry that it happened earlier rather than later.

As she felt the arrow fly, she saw the goblins begin to approach where she was. Even the larger goblin was moving towards her, while it let its right arm hand hang uselessly at its side, clearly not having any plans to use that arm right then.

Her arrow hit a goblin in the throat, causing it to fall right where it was hit. The other goblins were approaching more cautiously, but still steadily.

As she nocked the last arrow she'd pulled from her quiver, she could see she didn't have much time to shoot, so she merely aimed at the closest target and let the bowstring go.

The arrow flew straight at the goblin, however, either due to air currents or maybe the physiology of the goblin that Kim hadn't been aware about, it struck the goblin's head and left a gash, but otherwise was deflected where it hit the ceiling somewhere back in the room and was out of sight.

Kim couldn't help but be irritated at the results of that last arrow, but didn't complain. It wouldn't help anyway and she had more pressing problems in front of her.

So, she tossed the bow to the ground around the corner, out of sight of the goblins and drew her bastard sword. She couldn't help but be glad at how high the ceilings were in this place, it would make it easier to swing the sword against the bugbears when it came time for that. Especially since she could see at least two more bugbears entering her sight from further inside the room.

She couldn't help but be glad they weren't charging her like she had expected they would. They were approaching her cautiously, like they were planning on trying something with her.

Shaking the thought off, she swung her sword as she took a step towards the first goblin that was with in reach, the one who had the gash from the arrow on its head, he blade slicing clean through its skull, taking two thirds of its head off with that one swing.

Then while the goblin wasn't able to attack Kim at that point, it still took it a minute before it could fall to the ground. I merely shivered and twitched a little while standing in place, its one remaining eye wide in surprise and confusion.

Kim paid it no mind as she turned her attention on the other goblins. As she attacked them, she unconsciously fell into the steps and rhythm of a dance she never knew she actually knew. In a way, she could also hear music playing, even though it didn't have a source.

Her swings with the bastard sword flowed with the dance, flowing like a river through its riverbed. Occasionally she stabbed with the sword, just when the blade was slightly out of reach of a goblin. She wasn't even aware of how much goblin blood sprayed around her as she cut down one goblin after another or even how many goblins there had been as she danced and how little got on her, until there was just her and one of the bugbears. The other two having been taken out through a cut to their jugular vein.

Even as she saw that the bugbear was the last opponent in front of her, she couldn't help but be intrigued at how it was able to counter or doged each of her strikes the same way she was able to do that to the bugbear.

Even as she danced her dance of death, she was vaguely aware of Elmo casting spells, although, it didn't seem like it had as much effect as the first spell he'd used had.

Eventually, Kim realized that she had used her Combat Dance and she had a feeling this bugbear had that skill too. Which meant that she had started her dance before the bugbear, and so the bugbear had the advantage, seeing as she had started hers later and she doubted she'd be able to keep dodging and parrying the bugbear's strikes once her dance ended.

Which meant that she probably would need to do something that would help give her the advantage, although she couldn't say what that might be right then.

She couldn't check her stats the way she would if this was an actual video game, but at the same time, she felt like she should know the answer to this, even if it didn't seem like it.

In her mind she eventually started to hear the music slow down and she knew it was reaching the end. Which meant she was out of time. She wanted to desperately keep from having to dance in a different way after her combat dance ended, but at the same time, she couldn't think of what to do about it.

Then as the music in her mind reached the finale, she resigned herself to at least getting severely injured, since she couldn't think of she'd be able to get out of that much when suddenly the bugbear looked like something unseen had stopped it moving forward. Even the bugbear looked confused at the phenomena that was holding it back.

Kim, however, wasn't one to complain. She lunged forward, stabbing with her sword, feeling it slide through the armor the bugbear wore and pierce its beating heart, not caring if whatever was holding it suddenly stopped and it skewered her as well.

She could imagine that if this hadn't happened that she'd have been killed as well, so as she watched the life drain out of the eyes of the bugbear, she could only feel relief at the moment.

"Congratulations on the team made up of Kim O'Hare, Jonas McCain, Elin Davies and Elmo Garcia for completing the special challenge! They saved Heather Goldblum and Sonya Harris and finished off the last of the goblins currenly in the dungeon. Each has been marked as having completed a challenge. As such, each will be awarded a bonus level to their systems," the announcer suddenly boomed out. "And just in time for us to end our coverage for the day! So far the only death has been Charles McCoy."

Kim felt herself sink to her knees, her exhaustion catching up with her as she felt the danger to herself had passed. Although, before she lost consciousness, she was vaguely aware of two people standing in front of her. Each with a hand on the other's shoulder. One with red hair the other a blond.

Kim only had time to register that much information before darkness overtook her and she lost awareness of her surroundings.