Thorn falls into her rearguard position, further from Bys than she'd like to be, and stays there on the way to the dungeon.

Ken tries to flirt at Abyssia a bit, but relents defensively after she says with deadly seriousness, "I will break your fingers if you push me."

The first floor of the dungeon serves no real obstacle. They head straight for the boss. Pausing before the boss room, Abyssia says, "Let's talk strategy. We had coordination problems in our last party of four."

"I think the general approach of Ken and Bys holding the pig's attention while I plug away at it with guns and Dalton uses his magic seems sensible. I'm not sure what more advanced techniques are possible, I'm still inexperienced here."

"When we actually start fighting, things devolve into chaos fast." Ken says. "I honestly think it's a matter of practice and knowing each other, to stay in your spots and correctly control the battlefield- I think our two backliners should try to stay relatively close together. Grey girl and I then try to zone the enemy, closing off the possible paths from it to our backline. That does mean we can't just dodge when it charges, so a charging enemy like this is pretty tricky, actually..."

"Sounds good to me so long as it doesn't mean someone gets trampled..."

"It means our backline has to be aware of when it's setting up to charge, and our frontline has to warn them. That's the way to stop any trampling from occurring today."

Thorn nods. "It'd be great if we could do a dry run just to practice, but I'm concerned about taunting the dungeon."

"I think we're probably fine practicing with invisible enemies for a few minutes? We're taking it seriously, the frost boar is still a legitimate threat, and we're planning to go deeper, it'll be fine."

"Alright, then let's drill it."

They drill it. Ken and Dalton are professional enough when they're being serious. Abyssia mirrors his movements and vice versa fairly well.

Dalton is clearly not as fit or good at dodging as Thorn is, though.

"I am going to hope it doesn't attack me much, and try to make the biggest shots I can when I'm actually lined up for it."

"I'll cover for you as best I can if it looks like you're going to be run down, I can dodge faster than you and lead it around."

"Okay. We've got this. Let's do it."

Their fight against the giant boar is... Not really all that much easier than before. But Abyssia coordinates with Ken, even while Dalton stays back with Thorn. Pistol bullets and a shotgun slug and a lance of curving blue-white energy all arc into the boss while Ken blocks a tusk strike with his big kite shield, and Abyssia digs her harpoon into a joint again.

There's a couple of close calls and Ken probably has some bruises, but-

Her shotgun misfired. Instead of propelling the slug out the front, it shattered open the locking mechanism at the back. A shard of shrapnel plinks off her armor's collar even as several more dig upwards across her face.

She drops it with a swear, ignores the bleeding, glances around - and runs forward to keep herself between the boar and Dalton.

Brave girl. She stays in position: if they're going to get through this it'll be through cooperation. And Bys has her harpoon still. She's got to trust her.

The boss goes down. The loot this time is a giant slab of meat, again.

"FUCK!" Ken shouts, nearly throwing his sword. "Fucking guns always fucking explode, you could've killed us! This is why I like Dalton, unreliable fire support's worse than none at all!"

Abyssia... Holds very still, and doesn't put her harpoon away.

Thorn sighs. "Give me the gun please, Bys?"

She turns to Ken. "If you don't want to continue down with us I'm fine with that, but I'm not paying two silver out of our share for a partial run. One silver, half the pay for half the distance. Fair?"

She goes over, picks it up, and checks it to make sure it's definitely unloaded. Her face is serious and sober even as a droplet of blood drips down her nose. She doesn't say a word as she hands over the weapon, still facing Ken.

Dalton walks over to the foreguard and starts talking in quiet, urgent tones.

Thorn checks it over and does a Make Whole on it. She looks at Bys. "You okay?"

"Scared." She murmurs. "-Reminds me of someone."

"Oh," she says. 

"Remember I've got your back."

She gives a sharp nod. "Yeah. And I can punch him if- But still."

Dalton turns back to the other pair.

"Ken is going to apologize. Because he overreacted to a legitimate accident and eroded party trust." Glare. "And he's going to be perfectly polite for the remainder of the run, or we can split now and you won't owe me anything. Fair?"

"Fair. I'm willing to continue, he's a good fighter even if he needs to be a bit more considerate of people who currently have shards of metal in their face." And it's good to have someone like him tanking instead of Bys.

"I am very sorry," he says fairly convincingly. "I just lost someone to- No, fuck. That's just an excuse. I lost my damn temper." He hangs his head. "I'm an asshole, I know it. So I'll facetank for you, Fischer girl."

"My name is Abyssia."