The torch flickered dishearteningly in the putrid breeze.

The midday sun was blotted out by the darkness that filled the cave. At the opening, it was hard to see, and farther in, it was almost black.

The shadows of the jutting rough-hewn rocks danced in time with the bobbing flame, sliding along the walls like monsters in a fresco.

Three girls and one boy, covered in whatever poor pieces of armor they could find. In spotty formation, they picked their way nervously through the thick darkness. Warrior went on point, holding the torch. Their Fighter was behind him. Wizard held the rear guard. And sandwiched in between the martial artist and the magician, third in line, was the young woman in priestess’s robes, clutching her sounding staff anxiously as she walked.

It was Wizard who had suggested they travel in a line. So long as there were no branching paths, they wouldn’t have to worry about an attack from behind. And if the adventurers in front held fast, those behind would be safe, able to provide support from the back ranks. That was the plan, anyway.

“I-is this really a good idea? Jumping right in?” Priestess’s murmur hardly sounded confident. If anything, she sounded considerably more concerned than she had before they’d entered the cave. “I mean, we don’t know anything about these goblins.”

“Sheesh, what a worrywart. I guess that’s just what you can expect from a priestess.” Warrior’s voice, a bit too bold in the emptiness of the cave, echoed until it disappeared. “Even kids aren’t afraid of goblins. Heck, I helped drive some out of my village once.”

“Oh, stop,” Fighter said. “Killing a few goblins is nothing special. You’re embarrassing yourself. And,” she added in a disagreeable but low voice, “you didn’t even kill them.”

“I didn’t say I did,” Warrior responded with a pout.

Fighter gave an annoyed but somehow affectionate sigh. “They might chop this loser into lunch meat, but I’ll send ’em flying. So don’t worry.”

“Loser? That hurts!” The torchlight shone on Warrior’s dejected face, but the next moment, he was gleefully hoisting his sword. “Hey, the four of us, we could handle a dragon if we had to!”

“My, aren’t we eager?” Wizard muttered, causing Fighter to giggle. The group’s echoing voices mingled in the cavern.

Priestess kept silent, as if afraid talking would attract something from the darkness.

“But I do hope to hunt a dragon someday,” Wizard said. “Don’t you?” Priestess’s wordless smile seemed to agree with Wizard and the nodding Warrior. But the darkness hid an expression as ambiguous as Guild Girl’s.

Do we really? she asked herself, but she dared not voice her doubts, even as the unease built to a storm within her.

“The four of us could…,” he’d said, but how could he so completely trust people he’d hardly known two whole days? Priestess knew these weren’t bad people, but…

“Are you sure we shouldn’t have prepared a little more?” she pressed. “We don’t even have any p-p…potions.”

“We don’t have any money, either. Or time to shop, for that matter,” Warrior answered with bravado, paying no heed to the tremble in Priestess’s voice. “I’m worried about those kidnapped girls… And anyway, if one of us gets hurt, you can just heal us, right?”

“It’s true I have the miracles of healing and light…but…”

“Then we’ll be fine!”

No one could have heard Priestess say thickly, “But I can only use them three times…”

“It’s great you’re so confident and all,” Fighter said, “but are you sure we won’t get lost?”

“It’s one long tunnel. How could we possibly get lost?”

“I don’t know about that. You get so carried away. I can’t take my eyes off you for two seconds!”

“Look who’s talking…”

Fighter and Warrior, who came from the same hometown, slipped into one of the friendly arguments they had shared since the start of the journey.

Priestess, trailing behind them, clung to her staff with both hands and repeated the name of the Earth Mother under her breath.

“Please, see us safely through this…”

She prayed so softly her words didn’t even echo, only dropping into the darkness and disappearing.

Perhaps the Earth Mother heard her prayer, or perhaps Priestess had simply been exceptionally attentive as she said the words.

“Come on, hurry up. Keep up the line,” Wizard chided her.

“Oh, right, sorry…”

It was Priestess who noticed it first.

She was just walking by Wizard, who had overtaken her while she was praying, when she heard it. A scuttling sound, like a rolling pebble.

Priestess gave a start.

“Again? What is it this time?” Wizard asked in annoyance as she once more overtook Priestess, who stood quivering in place.

Wizard had graduated at the top of her class from the academy in the Capital where she had learned her spells, and she was not very fond of priestesses. The skittish little girl in their party had made an abysmal first impression, and since entering the cave, Wizard’s estimation of her had only gotten worse.

“J-just now, I thought I heard something c-crumbling…”

“Where? In front of us?”

“N-no, behind us…”

Oh, please.

This wasn’t caution; it was cowardice. This priestess didn’t have the guts to take her life in her hands the way an adventurer needed to. Warrior and Fighter kept getting farther ahead as she stood there. Caught up in their banter, the two of them never looked back.

An ever more distant light behind them and only deepening darkness before, Wizard heaved a sigh.

“Look. We’ve been going straight as an arrow since we entered this cave, right? What could possibly be behi—” And then her cool, exasperated tone—

“Goblins!!”

—became a scream.

It wasn’t crumbling Priestess had heard, but digging.

Hideous creatures jumped out of a tunnel and flocked toward Wizard, who had the misfortune of being last in line.

Every hand held a crude weapon, every face a repulsive look. These were the child-sized cave dwellers.

Goblins.

“G-g-gggg…”

Suddenly unable to find her voice, Wizard raised the garnet-tipped staff she had received at graduation.

It was a miracle her twisted tongue was able to form the words of the spell.

“Sagitta…inflammarae…radius!” Arrow of flame, emerge!

As she pulled each piece of the spell from where it had been carved deep into her memory, the words began welling up—words with the power to mold reality itself.

A glowing, arrow-shaped Firebolt flew from the fist-sized garnet on her staff and struck a goblin in the face. There was a stomach-turning sizzle and the stench of searing flesh.

That’s one down!

The victory brought a rush of exhilaration that left an incongruous smile on her face. It filled Wizard with the confidence that what worked once would work again.

“Sagitta…inflammarae…radiaaaghhh!!”

But there were many goblins and only four party members. Before she could finish the spell, one of the little foes grabbed her arm. She didn’t even have time to respond before the goblin slammed her to the coarse stone floor.

“Argh! Uh—!”

Her glasses were thrown from her face and shattered on the ground, leaving her vision blurry. A goblin quickly plucked her staff from her hand.

“H-hey! Give that back! That’s not for the likes of y-you!”

A magical conduit such as a staff or a ring was a spell caster’s lifeline, but more than that, it was her pride.

As if in answer to Wizard’s half-mad shout, the goblin held the staff in front of her eyes and broke it with a crack.

Wizard’s face twisted in rage, her mask of detachment gone.

“Why, you—!”

She writhed on the ground, struggling against her captor with her weak arms, her ample chest bouncing. It was not a wise choice. The irritated goblin took his dagger and drove it hard into her stomach.

“Hrrrghh?!” She gave an agonized cry as the blade pierced her innards.

Of course, Wizard’s companions were not idle, not even Priestess.

“H-hey, all of you! Get away from her! Stop—!” She waved her staff about with her delicate arms, trying to chase the goblins away.

There are those clerics who are skilled in the martial arts. Some, having adventured for a long time, might even boast a good deal of physical strength.

Priestess was not one of them.

The way she was frantically swinging her staff, she wouldn’t have hit anything, anyway.

Each time her sounding staff struck a wall or the ground, it made a rattling noise. And for better or for worse, the goblins took a step back.

Perhaps they took her for a warrior priestess, or maybe they were just afraid she might hit one of them through sheer luck.

Whatever the reason, Priestess took advantage of the momentary opening to pull Wizard away from them.

“Be strong!” Priestess shouted, almost shaking Wizard. “Hang on—!”

But there was no answer. Priestess’s hand came away soaked with blood.

The rusty blade was still buried in Wizard’s abdomen, the cruel tear revealing her ravaged entrails.

Priestess felt her throat close at the awful sight, her breath coming in a strained squeak.

“Ah…Agh…”

But Wizard was alive. Twitching and convulsing, but alive.

There was still time. There had to be. Priestess bit hard on her lip.

Clasping her staff close to her chest, Priestess placed her hand on Wizard’s spilling viscera as if to push them back into place and recited the words of the miracle.

“O Earth Mother, abounding in mercy, lay your revered hand upon this child…”

Magic spells can affect the rational workings of the world, but Minor Heal is genuine divine intervention.

As the prayer took hold, Priestess’s palm began glowing with a soft light that floated over to Wizard. As the light began to bubble away, Wizard’s ruined stomach gradually stitched itself back together.

Of course, the goblins were not the kind to stand by and just let this happen.

“Damn you! You filthy goblins! How dare you do this to everyone!!”

Warrior had finally noticed what was going on behind him and came flying through to cover his companions, cutting off their would-be attackers.

He had thrown away the torch and now gripped his sword firmly in both hands. He gave a thrust, piercing a goblin’s throat.

“GUIA?!”

“Who’s next?”

He wrenched the sword from his first victim, catching a second as he turned. He sliced the goblin clean from shoulder to hip.

Through a geyser of goblin blood, Warrior gave a great shout, drunk with bloodlust.

“Well, what’s wrong?! Come and get me!”