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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#98A9B1][b]Location:[/b][/color] The Dungeon -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
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It was all coming apart. Their way forward was blocked by an enormous, wounded dire bat. Their way back was blocked by ravenous gnolls. And Benkei was remembering. It was always in these situations, wasn’t it; when the tension was highest that the most calm broke down? When the pressure got too high? 

[i]You’re a tank and you don’t have any enhancement magic? That’s stupid! [/i] Public games were always like that, weren’t they. Players ready to make the first comment, to insult. 

[I][color=98A9B1]I don’t need enhancement magic with what I can do. I’m the best tank around because I don’t rely on buffing myself, but protecting my party.[/color] He’d always been proud of how he’d found a way to use a different school of magic to help build his defensive skillset. Earth sucked, people said. There weren’t many good ranged abilities, and you required your terrain to fit your needs.[/i]

[i]Dumbass. Without enhancement, your DPS as a tank will suffer. You’re slow enough using the Greatsword path. If we tried to PVP right now, I bet you wouldn’t last ten seconds.[/i] 

[i]Ten seconds later, and it was over. Benkei’s skills weren’t all focused on defense after all.[/i] 

Benkei looked out at the charging group of gnolls and his comrades engaging them. With Rael engaging the bat, he knew that meant he had to mop up the trash. Off tanks were usually in charge of picking up the adds, after all. He dashed to Graves' flank, but before he entered the fray he quickly slammed his blade into the ground. [color=98A9B1]“Earthern sprites, heed my call!”[/color] The ground began to shift around them, just like earlier when he’d conjured up a pillar of earth. 

This was different, however. 

[color=98A9B1]“Skewer my quarry!”[/color] Spikes of earth erupted from the ground in the middle line of the charging gnolls, much like the deadly spikes from the trap room they’d begun this hellish dungeon in. They erupted out of the ground at an angle, piercing the breasts of any of the gnolls too foolish to keep charging into the fray. Benkei hefted the blade from the ground, and continued his charge now, with the aim of providing backup to Graves in the front line while Alex fired away at close range. Benkei hoped that his spell pissed off enough to draw their attention to him now. 

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