Sir Duante stayed behind with the remaining men who didn’t go, making preparations to protect the horses now that their numbers were reduced. They made their final preparations as well to enter the cave.
“Lord Harrow, I am glad to see you are part of this group. I know we can rely on your perseverance.” Sir Harold was brandishing his sword, making sure all was well before he sheathed it. In a cave where they wouldn't know the width or depth, long weapons like spears would not be fitting to use.
“Likewise, for a man of your skills, Sir Harold.” Adrian answered. Then he grew curious. “Do you know these elf friends of ours?” He gestured with his chin toward the preparing elves.
Sir Harold chuckled. “There are plenty of elves. The ones I know are those close to the Duke of Denethor, but they do know them and are from the same kingdom.”
The Duke of Denethor was a duke of the west. Close to the border and, hence, close to elven territory.
“What do you think we'll find inside, Sir Harold?” Adrian asked as he peered into the cave.
Sir Harold made sure he had his flint before answering, his face serious. “Some answers to questions our elf friends are wondering about.”
Adrian then whispered, “Do you think it'll be good?”
Sir Harold donned his helm before he answered, “Let us all hope so.”
Soon everyone was ready. Sir Sylwen wasn’t a man of words, so they immediately plunged into the cave, torches in hand. With the sheer amount of monsters inside, the interior was judged to be large enough that they didn’t have to worry of running out of air.
The cave pathway was wide, more than five meters, and the elves led the way while Adrian and Dexton brought up the very rear of the group. The walk was slow, cautious, and alert. Time seemed to drag as they arrived at an area that sloped downward. They didn’t stop, continuing their descent.
Time was hard to keep track of when they were deep in the earth's veins. At some point, they had gone deeper, the cave proving bigger than they had initially thought. So far, they hadn't encountered a single monster. Either the beasts had all been snuffed out, or the smoke hadn’t reached this far to drive them out.
“Woah…” Adrian muttered as they suddenly came upon a large expanse. It was almost like a great hall, if not for the jagged rocks, the puddles of water scattered here and there, and the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
‘It seems we are exploring the underground after all.’ Adrian couldn’t help but comment in his mind. He looked toward the others, waiting for them to say something, but pursed his lips when no one did.
There were the elves, and then Lord Corvus and Sir Harold, who were undoubtedly raised as nobles and didn't speak casual words easily. Dexton, meanwhile, was simply following his lead.
“How far and deep are we now…?” Adrian mumbled, trying to start a conversation.
Instead of a response from his human allies, one of the elves spoke up. “We are close to something.”
The humans of the group exchanged looks and tightened their grip on their weapons. Their primary objective was to hunt that monster, and now that there were fewer of them than before, they needed to be twice as alert.
Although Adrian would have worried previously, after seeing the crystal magic of sorts Sir Sylwen had displayed earlier, he knew they had power to rely on even with reduced numbers.
They slowly headed inward. It was so silent that the sound of their boots hitting the ground was deafening. The hall large they couldn’t see the walls on either side.
Then they came to a dead end, a wall. But as their torches illuminated it, a strange stone was revealed. It was blackened, obsidian in color, and Adrian heard one of the elves practically take a sharp inhale.
Adrian didn’t know what it was, but he could feel a sudden, oppressive weight settle into the air. He became even more alert.
“What is it?” Lord Corvus asked the elves as they cautiously approached the obsidian stone, which was the size of a small man.
“Something twisted.” One of the elves responded.
It was then that their leader, Sir Sylwen, raised his hand. He was holding something, but because of the angle, Adrian couldn’t see what it was. A moment later, the sound of something hitting wet soil echoed through the cavern. Sir Harold turned his torch toward the noise.
A large, ferocious, hairless face was instantly illuminated. The monster opened its mouth, revealing a row of sharp, uneven fangs.
They had found their target.
Or more precisely, the target found them.
One person moved first. Arrows whistled through the air, disappearing into the darkness as was the monster. Tension reached its peak as everyone readied themselves.
“Plant the torch!” Adrian ordered Dexton while he grabbed his shield. Dexton was going to need both of his hands.
The monster's dark silhouette danced around them before it dived at a person on the edge of the formation. It was one of the elves, who spun to the side while swinging his blades. He managed to dodge, his weapon biting into the beast's flank, but the monster’s tail whipped around and struck his side, causing him to stumble back, nearly losing his footing.
The monster plunged into the darkness again, employing hit-and-run tactics with ease despite its large figure.
“So, this is the monster.” Lord Corvus said, brandishing a sword instead of his spear. Adrian could feel bloodlust radiating from him. It felt a little strange to see the lord without his signature black spear, but Adrian knew he was no slouch with a sword either.
The elven archers positioned themselves in the safest spot, while Dexton and Adrian raised their shields to cover the periphery, the others supporting them. Behind them was a solid wall, so they didn’t have to worry about being attacked from all sides.
The monster, however, didn’t attack again right away. Instead, its shadowy silhouette seemed to move slowly, observing them. That made the entire situation even more eerie. There was a tense beat before the monster dived at them again.
It lunged toward the flank. Everyone braced themselves to dodge, and arrows flew through the air toward the beast. Instead of following through, the monster feinted, changed course, and plunged back into the blanket of darkness.
The monster took another moment before lunging again, as if playing with their nerves, only to feint and retreat once more.
“This monster… is a predator through and through.” Sir Harold commented from behind Adrian, his tone grave.
Adrian could only wonder when the elves would use their trump card, and if there was anything else they could do to kill the monster quickly before it killed one of them.
“Grr…”
The monster's hairless face was once again caught in the torchlight. It flicked its tail, eyeing them with unnatural intelligence, as if assessing them while simultaneously trying to intimidate them.
“Quite an interesting creature. How was it born?” Lord Corvus mumbled. In the heavy quiet of the cave, everyone heard him.
“It wasn’t born.” One of the elves answered.
Adrian and the others were undoubtedly curious, but the monster reminded them that it wasn’t the time for talk. It retreated back into the shadows, going deeper. Then, they felt a tremor in the ground.
Multiple silhouettes appeared in the darkness, rushing toward them.
“They're coming from the holes!” Sir Harold exclaimed.
Suddenly, they weren’t just facing one monster, but multiple. A spider-like creature jumped at Adrian and Dexton, and both men stabbed forward in unison.
What followed was a brutal struggle against the creatures of the dark. At one point, the chaos worsened when one of the torches was snuffed out.
Just when the enemy numbers finally began to dwindle and the attacks slowed, giving them hope that they might gain some reprieve, the primary monster from before struck again.
This time, however, the elves were determined. Two of them actually charged as the beast dived toward them, their movements smooth and quick as they each attacked the monster's sides. One elf narrowly dodged a whipping tail, while the other managed to slash his blade across the creature's flank, drawing blood as the monster plowed through their group.
Dexton, being the closest, was rammed backward and knocked flat onto his back, while Adrian managed to step aside just in time to dodge. Sir Harold and Lord Corvus, who were directly in the beast's path, tried to react. Sir Harold slashed with his sword, the monster’s large jaw nearly devouring him before he promptly rolled to the side and forward.
Lord Corvus was bolder, he stabbed his sword toward the monster’s skull before instantly rolling forward, sliding right underneath the beast!
Meanwhile, arrows buried themselves into the creature's body. The monster tore through them, leaving a dropped blade clattering to the ground. But instead of plunging back into the darkness, it promptly spun around and charged at the recovering Lord Corvus.
Lord Corvus, weaponless and having just scrambled to his feet, saw nothing but the monster's gaping jaw, until a figure stepped in front of him. A moment later, the sickening crunch of a bite echoed through the cavern.
With wide eyes, Adrian saw his shield being crushed. The monster's foul breath and piercing eyes were incomparably close to him before the sheer force of the charge blew him backward. He hit into Lord Corvus on the way, making him spun to the side and fell to the ground, while Adrians figure continued and crashed hard against the cave wall. Adrian hit a rock before he fell to the ground, the impact denting his chest plate. A sharp, agonizing pain flared in his ribs as he crumpled to the ground, groaning and feeling numb across his back and chest.
“Milord!”
Adrian knew he had broken a bone, so he immediately used his gift. But as he did, a sharp, sudden agony erupted, as if a burning fire had been ignited inside his chest.
“!?”
Adrian had never felt anything like this before, the pain stopping him from thinking clearly. Still, he focused at the matter at hand. The moment his gift finished healing him, the pain receded, and he instinctively pushed himself to his feet. He could see that the struggle against the monster was far from over.
He looked down at his shield. It was bent, slightly crushed, and clearly on its last legs. Rolling his shoulders to shake off the lingering ache, he gripped it tightly and rejoined the fray.